History of Austria-Hungary during World War I

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World War I began when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia in July 1914, following the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip. Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers, along with the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Austro-Hungarian forces fought the Allies in Serbia, on the Eastern Front, in Italy, and in Romania. With heavy aid and support from its allies, the empire managed to occupy Serbia in 1915 and force Romania out of the war in 1917. On the other fronts, it suffered severe casualties, culminating in the collapse of the Italian front, which led the Austrians to accept the Armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918.

Contents

Prelude

Sarajevo assassination

This picture of the arrest of a suspect in Sarajevo is usually associated with the capture of Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander. Gavrilo Princip captured in Sarajevo 1914.jpg
This picture of the arrest of a suspect in Sarajevo is usually associated with the capture of Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited Sarajevo, the capital of the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina (which had been annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908). A group of six assassins (Cvjetko Popović, Gavrilo Princip, Muhamed Mehmedbašić, Nedeljko Čabrinović, Trifko Grabež, Vaso Čubrilović) from the nationalist group Mlada Bosna, supplied by the Black Hand, had gathered on the street where the Archduke's motorcade would pass. Čabrinović threw a grenade at the car, but missed. It injured some people nearby, and Franz Ferdinand's convoy could carry on. The other assassins failed to act as the cars drove past them quickly. About an hour later, when Franz Ferdinand was returning from a visit at the Sarajevo Hospital, the convoy took a wrong turn into a street where Gavrilo Princip by coincidence stood. With a pistol, Princip shot and killed Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. The reaction among the Austrian people was mild, almost indifferent. As historian Z. A. B. Zeman later wrote, "the event almost failed to make any impression whatsoever. On Sunday and Monday [June 28 and 29], the crowds in Vienna listened to music and drank wine, as if nothing had happened." [3]

Escalation of violence in Bosnia

Crowds on the streets in the aftermath of the Anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo, 29 June 1914 1914-06-29 - Aftermath of attacks against Serbs in Sarajevo.png
Crowds on the streets in the aftermath of the Anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo, 29 June 1914

The assassination excessively intensified the existing traditional religion-based ethnic hostilities in Bosnia. However, in Sarajevo itself, Austrian authorities encouraged [4] [5] violence against the Serb residents, which resulted in the Anti-Serb riots of Sarajevo, in which Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims killed two and damaged numerous Serb-owned buildings. Writer Ivo Andrić referred to the violence as the "Sarajevo frenzy of hate." [6] Violent actions against ethnic Serbs were organized not only in Sarajevo but also in many other larger Austro-Hungarian cities in modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. [7] Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned and extradited approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison. 460 Serbs were sentenced to death and a predominantly Muslim [8] [9] special militia known as the Schutzkorps was established and carried out the persecution of Serbs. [10]

Decision for war

While the empire's military spending had not even doubled since the 1878 Congress of Berlin, Germany's spending had risen five-fold, and the British, Russian, and French expenditures threefold. The empire had lost ethnic Italian areas to Piedmont, and many Austro-Hungarians perceived as imminent the threat of losing to Serbia the southern territories inhabited by South Slavs. Serbia had recently gained considerable territory in the Second Balkan War of 1913, causing much distress in government circles in Vienna and Budapest. Former ambassador and foreign minister Count Alois Aehrenthal had assumed that any future war would be in the Balkan region.

Hungarian prime minister and political scientist István Tisza opposed the expansion of the monarchy in the Balkans (see Bosnian crisis in 1908) because "the Dual Monarchy already had too many Slavs", which would further threaten the integrity of the Dual Monarchy. [11] In March 1914, Tisza wrote a memorandum to Emperor Franz Joseph with a strongly apocalyptic, predictive and embittered tone. He used the hitherto unknown word "Weltkrieg" (meaning World War). "It is my firm conviction that Germany's two neighbors [Russia and France] are carefully proceeding with military preparations, but will not start the war so long as they have not attained a grouping of the Balkan states against us that confronts the monarchy with an attack from three sides and pins down the majority of our forces on our eastern and southern front." [12]

MAVAG armoured train in 1914 MAV armoured train.jpg
MÁVAG armoured train in 1914

On the day of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Tisza immediately traveled to Vienna where he met Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Leopold Berchtold and Army Commander Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf. They proposed to solve the dispute with arms, attacking Serbia. Tisza proposed to give the government of Serbia time to take a stand as to whether it was involved in the organisation of the murder and proposed a peaceful resolution, arguing that the international situation would settle soon. Returning to Budapest, he wrote to Emperor Franz Joseph saying he would not take any responsibility for the armed conflict because there was no proof that Serbia had plotted the assassination. Tisza opposed a war with Serbia, stating (correctly, as it turned out) that any war with the Serbs was bound to trigger a war with Russia and hence a general European war. [13] He did not trust in the Italian alliance, due to the political aftermath of the Second Italian War of Independence. He thought that even a successful Austro-Hungarian war would be disastrous for the integrity of Kingdom of Hungary, where Hungary would be the next victim of Austrian politics. After a successful war against Serbia, Tisza foresaw a possible Austrian military attack against the Kingdom of Hungary, where the Austrians want to break up the territory of Hungary. [14]

Some members of the government, such as Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, had wanted to confront the resurgent Serbian nation for some years in a preventive war, but the Emperor, 84 years old and an enemy of all adventures, disapproved.

The foreign ministry of Austro-Hungarian Empire sent ambassador László Szőgyény to Potsdam, where he inquired about the standpoint of the German Emperor on 5 July. Szőgyény described what happened in a secret report to Vienna later that day:

I presented His Majesty [Wilhelm] with [Franz Joseph's] letter and the attached memorandum. The Kaiser read both papers quite carefully in my presence. First, His Majesty assured me that he had expected us to take firm action against Serbia, but he had to concede that, as a result of the conflicts facing [Franz Joseph], he needed to take into account a serious complication in Europe, which is why he did not wish to give any definite answer prior to consultations with the chancellor....

When, after our déjeuner, I once again emphasized the gravity of the situation, His Majesty authorized me to report to [Franz Joseph] that in this case, too, we could count on Germany's full support. As mentioned, he first had to consult with the Chancellor, but he did not have the slightest doubt that Herr von Bethmann Hollweg would fully agree with him, particularly with regard to action on our part against Serbia. In his [Wilhelm's] opinion, though, there was no need to wait patiently before taking action.

The Kaiser said that Russia's stance would always be a hostile one, but he had been prepared for this for many years, and even if war broke out between Austria–Hungary and Russia, we could rest assured that Germany would take our side, in line with its customary loyalty. According to the Kaiser, as things stood now, Russia was not at all ready for war. It would certainly have to think hard before making a call to arms. [15]

But now the leaders of Austria–Hungary, especially General Count Leopold von Berchtold, backed by its ally Germany, decided to confront Serbia militarily before it could incite a revolt; using the assassination as an excuse, they presented a list of ten demands called the July Ultimatum, [16] expecting Serbia would never accept. When Serbia accepted nine of the ten demands but only partially accepted the remaining one, Austria–Hungary declared war. Franz Joseph I finally followed the urgent counsel of his top advisers.

Over the course of July and August 1914, these events caused the start of World War I, as Russia mobilized in support of Serbia, setting off a series of counter-mobilizations. In support of his German ally, on Thursday, 6 August 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war on Russia. Italy initially remained neutral, although it had an alliance with Austria–Hungary. In 1915, it switched to the side of the Entente powers, hoping to gain territory from its former ally. [17]

Wartime foreign policy

Franz Josef I and Wilhelm II with military commanders during World War I Die verbundeten Monarchen mit ihren Feldherren im 1. Weltkrieg.jpg
Franz Josef I and Wilhelm II
with military commanders during World War I

The Austro-Hungarian Empire played a relatively passive diplomatic role in the war, as it was increasingly dominated and controlled by Germany. [18] [19] The only goal was to punish Serbia and try to stop the ethnic breakup of the Empire, and it completely failed. Starting in late 1916 the new Emperor Karl removed the pro-German officials and opened peace overtures to the Allies, whereby the entire war could be ended by compromise, or perhaps Austria would make a separate peace from Germany. [20] The main effort was vetoed by Italy, which had been promised large slices of Austria for joining the Allies in 1915. Austria was only willing to turn over the Trentino region but nothing more. [21] Karl was seen as a defeatist, which weakened his standing at home and with both the Allies and Germany. [22]

Organisation of Austro-Hungarian army

The Austro-Hungarian Empire conscripted 7.8 million soldiers during WWI. [23]

At the outbreak of war, the Austro-Hungarian army had 48 infantry divisions (including seven Landweher and eight Honved) and eleven cavalry divisions (of which two were Honved).

The Austro-Hungarian infantry division numbered between 12,000 and 18,000 men, while the cavalry divisions averaged 5,000 fewer soldiers. Each division had a brigade of artillery (with 54 guns, but few divisions had that many guns) and two brigades of infantry or cavalry; with two regiments of infantry or cavalry per brigade. Each regiment of infantry had 4 battalions of 1,100 men at full strength, although, in practice, many regiments deployed with just three battalions. Each cavalry regiment had to divisions (a battalion-sized unit) of about 700 each.

In 1914, the Austro-Hungarian division had less artillery than most other European divisions, save the Italian. The German division had as many as 72 pieces, the Russian sixty. [24]

General von Hötzendorf was the Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff. Franz Joseph I, who was much too old to command the army, appointed Archduke Friedrich von Österreich-Teschen as Supreme Army Commander (Armeeoberkommandant), but asked him to give Von Hötzendorf freedom to take any decisions. Von Hötzendorf remained in effective command of the military forces until Emperor Karl I took the supreme command himself in late 1916 and dismissed Conrad von Hötzendorf in 1917.

Home front

The heavily rural Empire did have a small industrial base, but its major contribution was manpower and food. [25] [26] Nevertheless, Austria–Hungary was more urbanized (25%) [27] than its actual opponents in the First World War, like the Russian Empire (13.4%), [28] Serbia (13.2%) [29] or Romania (18.8%). [30] Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had also more industrialized economy [31] and higher GDP per capita [32] than the Kingdom of Italy, which was economically the far most developed actual opponent of the Empire.

Meanwhile, as the war dragged on, economic conditions on the homefront deteriorated rapidly. The Empire depended on agriculture, and agriculture depended on the heavy labor of millions of men who were now in the Army. Food production fell, the transportation system became overcrowded, and industrial production could not successfully handle the overwhelming need for munitions. Germany provided a great deal of help, but it was not enough. Furthermore, the political instability of the multiple ethnic groups of Empire now ripped apart any hope for national consensus in support of the war. Increasingly there was a demand for breaking up the Empire and setting up autonomous national states based on historic language-based cultures. The new Emperor Karl sought peace terms from the Allies, but his initiatives were vetoed by Italy. [33] [ page needed ]

On the home front, food grew scarcer and scarcer, as did heating fuel. Hungary, with its heavy agricultural base, was somewhat better fed. The Army conquered productive agricultural areas in Romania and elsewhere, but refused to allow food shipments to civilians back home. Morale fell every year, and the diverse nationalities gave up on the Empire and looked for ways to establish their own nation states. [34]

Inflation soared, from an index of 129 in 1914 to 1589 in 1918, wiping out the cash savings of the middle-class. In terms of war damage to the economy, the war used up about 20 percent of the GDP. The dead soldiers amounted to about four percent of the 1914 labor force, and the wounded ones to another six percent. Compared to all the major countries in the war, the death and casualty rate was toward the high-end regarding the present-day territory of Austria. [25]

By summer 1918, "Green Cadres" of army deserters formed armed bands in the hills of Croatia-Slavonia and civil authority disintegrated. By late October violence and massive looting erupted and there were efforts to form peasant republics. However, the Croatian political leadership was focused on creating a new state (Yugoslavia) and worked with the advancing Serbian army to impose control and end the uprisings. [35]

Theaters of operations

Austro-Hungarian Alpine troops navigate Carpathian mountain passes during a battle against Russian forces 1915 Austro-Hungarian Alpine troops navigate Carpathian mountain passes during a battle against Russian forces 1915.jpg
Austro-Hungarian Alpine troops navigate Carpathian mountain passes during a battle against Russian forces 1915

Serbian front 1914–1916

At the start of the war, the army was divided into two: the smaller part attacked Serbia while the larger part fought against the formidable Imperial Russian Army. The invasion of Serbia in 1914 was a disaster: by the end of the year, the Austro-Hungarian Army had taken no territory, but had lost 227,000 out of a total force of 450,000 men. However, in the autumn of 1915, the Serbian Army was defeated by the Central Powers, which led to the occupation of Serbia. Near the end of 1915, in a massive rescue operation involving more than 1,000 trips made by Italian, French and British steamers, 260,000 Serb surviving soldiers were transported to Brindisi and Corfu, where they waited for the chance of the victory of Allied Powers to reclaim their country. Corfu hosted the Serbian government in exile after the collapse of Serbia and served as a supply base to the Greek front. In April 1916 a large number of Serbian troops were transported in British and French naval vessels from Corfu to mainland Greece. The contingent numbering over 120,000 relieved a much smaller army at the Macedonian front and fought alongside British and French troops. [36]

Russian front 1914–1917

Siege of Przemysl in 1915 Szturm Twierdzy Przemysl A. Ritter von Meissl.jpg
Siege of Przemyśl in 1915

On the Eastern front, the war started out equally poorly. The government accepted the Polish proposal of establishing the Supreme National Committee as the Polish central authority within the Empire, responsible for the formation of the Polish Legions, an auxiliary military formation within the Austro-Hungarian army. The Austro-Hungarian Army was defeated at the Battle of Lemberg and the great fortress city of Przemyśl was besieged and fell in March 1915. The Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive started as a minor German offensive to relieve the pressure of the Russian numerical superiority on the Austro-Hungarians, but the cooperation of the Central Powers resulted in huge Russian losses and the total collapse of the Russian lines and their 100 km (62 mi) long retreat into Russia. The Russian Third Army perished. In summer 1915, the Austro-Hungarian Army, under a unified command with the Germans, participated in the successful Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive. From June 1916, the Russians focused their attacks on the Austro-Hungarian army in the Brusilov Offensive, recognizing the numerical inferiority of the Austro-Hungarian army. By the end of September 1916, Austria–Hungary mobilized and concentrated new divisions, and the successful Russian advance was halted and slowly repelled; but the Austrian armies took heavy losses (about 1 million men) and never recovered. Nevertheless, the huge losses in men and material inflicted on the Russians during the offensive contributed greatly to the revolutions of 1917, and it caused an economic crash in the Russian Empire.

The Act of 5 November 1916 was proclaimed then to the Poles jointly by the Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. This act promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland out of territory of Congress Poland, envisioned by its authors as a puppet state controlled by the Central Powers, with the nominal authority vested in the Regency Council. The origin of that document was the dire need to draft new recruits from German-occupied Poland for the war with Russia. Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 ending the World War I, in spite of the previous initial total dependence of the kingdom on its sponsors, it ultimately served against their intentions as the cornerstone proto state of the nascent Second Polish Republic, the latter composed also of territories never intended by the Central Powers to be ceded to Poland.

The Battle of Zborov (1917) was the first significant action of the Czechoslovak Legions, who fought for the independence of Czechoslovakia against the Austro-Hungarian army.

Italian front 1915–1918

Italian troops in Trento on 3 November 1918, after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. Italy's victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front and secured the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Trento 3 novembre 1918.jpg
Italian troops in Trento on 3 November 1918, after the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. Italy's victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front and secured the dissolution of Austria–Hungary.

In May 1915, Italy attacked Austria–Hungary. Italy was the only military opponent of Austria–Hungary which had a similar degree of industrialization and economic level; moreover, her army was numerous (≈1,000,000 men were immediately fielded), but suffered from poor leadership, training and organization. Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna marched his army towards the Isonzo river, hoping to seize Ljubljana, and to eventually threaten Vienna. However, the Royal Italian Army were halted on the river, where four battles took place over five months (23 June – 2 December 1915). The fight was extremely bloody and exhausting for both the contenders. [38]

On 15 May 1916, the Austrian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf launched the Strafexpedition ("punitive expedition"): the Austrians broke through the opposing front and occupied the Asiago plateau. The Italians managed to resist and in a counteroffensive seized Gorizia on 9 August. Nonetheless, they had to stop on the Carso, a few kilometres away from the border. At this point, several months of indecisive trench warfare ensued (analogous to the Western front). As the Russian Empire collapsed as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution and Russians ended their involvement in the war, Germans and Austrians were able to move on the Western and Southern fronts much manpower from the erstwhile Eastern fighting.

On 24 October 1917, Austrians (now enjoying decisive German support) attacked at Caporetto using new infiltration tactics; although they advanced more than 100 km (62.14 mi) in the direction of Venice and gained considerable supplies, they were halted and could not cross the Piave river. Italy, although suffering massive casualties, recovered from the blow, and a coalition government under Vittorio Emanuele Orlando was formed. Italy also enjoyed support by the Entente powers: by 1918, large amounts of war materials and a few auxiliary American, British, and French divisions arrived in the Italian battle zone. [39] Cadorna was replaced by General Armando Diaz; under his command, the Italians retook the initiative and won the decisive Battle of the Piave river (15–23 June 1918), in which some 60,000 Austrian and 43,000 Italian soldiers were killed. The final battle was at Vittorio Veneto; after 4 days of stiff resistance, Italian troops crossed the Piave River, and after losing 90,000 men the defeated Austrian troops retreated in disarray pursued by the Italians. The Italians captured 448,000 Austrian-Hungarian soldiers (about one-third of the imperial-royal army), 24 of whom were generals, [40] 5,600 cannons and mortars, and 4,000 machine guns. [41] The armistice was signed at Villa Giusti on 3 November, in spite of Austria–Hungary already having disintegrated on 31 October 1918.

Romanian front 1916–1917

On 27 August 1916, Romania declared war against Austria–Hungary. The Romanian Army crossed the borders of Eastern Hungary (Transylvania).

After a short Romanian initial success, the campaign turned into a military disaster for Romania. [42] [43] After three months of war, two thirds of the territory of the Kingdom of Romania were occupied by the Central Powers. Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, was captured by the Central Powers on 6 December 1916. German General August von Mackensen was appointed as the "military governor" of the occupied territories of Romania. [44] [45] A part of the Romanian population moved to the unoccupied Romanian territory, in Moldavia, together with the Romanian government, royal court and public authorities, which relocated to Iași. [46] Following Russia's ceasefire agreements, the Romanian army was forced to sign the Armistice of Focșani on 9 December 1917. [47]

On 7 May 1918, Romania sued for peace. Romanian Prime Minister Alexandru Marghiloman signed the Treaty of Bucharest (1918) with the Central Powers, but the treaty was never signed by King Ferdinand I of Romania.

Whereas the German army realized it needed close cooperation from the homefront, Habsburg officers saw themselves as entirely separate from the civilian world, and superior to it. When they occupied productive areas, such as southern Romania, [48] they seized food stocks and other supplies for their own purposes and blocked any shipments intended for civilians back in Austria-Hungary. The result was that the officers lived well, as the civilians began to starve. Vienna even transferred training units to Serbia and Poland for the sole purpose of feeding them. In all, the Army obtained about 15 percent of its cereal needs from occupied territories. [49]

Role of Hungary

War memorial in Pauleni-Ciuc, Romania Csikpalfalva2.JPG
War memorial in Păuleni-Ciuc, Romania

Although the Kingdom of Hungary comprised only 42% of the population of Austria–Hungary, [50] the thin majority – more than 3.8 million soldiers – of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces were conscripted from the Kingdom of Hungary during the First World War. Roughly 600,000 soldiers were killed in action, and 700,000 soldiers were wounded in the war. [51]

Austria–Hungary held on for years, as the Hungarian half provided sufficient supplies for the military to continue to wage war. [52] This was shown in a transition of power after which the Hungarian prime minister, Count István Tisza, and foreign minister, Count István Burián, had decisive influence over the internal and external affairs of the monarchy. [52] By late 1916, food supply from Hungary became intermittent and the government sought an armistice with the Entente powers. However, this failed as Britain and France no longer had any regard for the integrity of the monarchy because of Austro-Hungarian support for Germany. [52]

Analysis of defeat

The setbacks that the Austrian army suffered in 1914 and 1915 can be attributed to a large extent by the incompetence of the Austrian high command. [52] After attacking Serbia, its forces soon had to be withdrawn to protect its eastern frontier against Russia's invasion, while German units were engaged in fighting on the Western Front. This resulted in a greater than expected loss of men in the invasion of Serbia. [52] Furthermore, it became evident that the Austrian high command had no plans for possible continental war and that the army and navy were also ill-equipped to handle such a conflict. [52]

In the last two years of the war, the Austro-Hungarian armed forces lost all ability to act independently of Germany. As of 7 September 1916, the German emperor was given full control of all the armed forces of the Central Powers and Austria-Hungary effectively became a satellite of Germany. [53] For the first half of the war, the Austrians viewed the German army favorably; however by 1916, the general belief in the German Empire was that it, in its alliance with Austria–Hungary, was "shackled to a corpse". The operational capability of the Austro-Hungarian army was seriously affected by supply shortages, low morale and a high casualty rate, and by the army's composition of multiple ethnicities with different languages and customs.

The last two successes for the Austrians, the Romanian Offensive and the Caporetto Offensive, were German-assisted operations. As the Dual Monarchy became more politically unstable, it became more and more dependent on German assistance. The majority of its people, other than Hungarians and German Austrians, became increasingly restless.

In 1917, the Eastern front of the Entente Powers completely collapsed. In spite of this, the Austro-Hungarian Empire then withdrew from all defeated countries due to its dire economic condition, as well as signs of impending disintegration.

Demise, disintegration, dissolution

Demise

By 1918, the economic situation had deteriorated. The government had failed badly on the homefront. Historian Alexander Watson reports:

across central Europe ... The majority lived in a state of advanced misery by the spring of 1918, and conditions later worsened, for the summer of 1918 saw both the drop in food supplied to the levels of the 'turnip winter', and the onset of the 1918 flu pandemic that killed at least 20 million worldwide. Society was relieved, exhausted and yearned for peace. [54]

As the Imperial economy collapsed into severe hardship and even starvation, its multi-ethnic army lost its morale and was increasingly hard-pressed to hold its line. At the last Italian offensive, the Austro-Hungarian Army took to the field without any food and munition supply and fought without any political supports for a de facto non-existent empire.

The Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed with dramatic speed in the autumn of 1918. Leftist and pacifist political movements organized strikes in factories, and uprisings in the army had become commonplace. [55] These leftist or left-liberal pro-Entente maverick parties opposed the monarchy as a form of government and considered themselves internationalist rather than patriotic. Eventually, the German defeat and the minor revolutions in Vienna and Budapest gave political power to the left/liberal political parties.

Disintegration

As the war went on, the ethnic unity declined; the Allies encouraged breakaway demands from minorities and the Empire faced disintegration. [20] As it became apparent that the Allied powers would win World War I, nationalist movements, which had previously been calling for a greater degree of autonomy for various areas, started pressing for full independence. In the capital cities of Vienna and Budapest, the leftist and liberal movements and opposition parties strengthened and supported the separatism of ethnic minorities. The multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire started to disintegrate, leaving its army alone on the battlefields. The military breakdown of the Italian front marked the start of the rebellion for the numerous ethnicities who made up the multiethnic Empire, as they refused to keep on fighting for a cause that now appeared senseless. The Emperor had lost much of his power to rule, as his realm disintegrated. [55]

As one of his Fourteen Points, President Woodrow Wilson demanded that the nationalities of Austria–Hungary have the "freest opportunity to autonomous development". In response, Emperor Karl I agreed to reconvene the Imperial Parliament in 1917 and allow the creation of a confederation with each national group exercising self-governance. However, the leaders of these national groups rejected the idea; they deeply distrusted Vienna and were now determined to get independence.

The revolt of ethnic Czech units in Austria in May 1918 was brutally suppressed. It was considered a mutiny by the code of military justice. Poprava vudcu rumburske vzpoury 1918.jpg
The revolt of ethnic Czech units in Austria in May 1918 was brutally suppressed. It was considered a mutiny by the code of military justice.

On 14 October 1918, Foreign Minister Baron István Burián von Rajecz [56] asked for an armistice based on the Fourteen Points. In an apparent attempt to demonstrate good faith, Emperor Karl issued a proclamation ("Imperial Manifesto of 16 October 1918") two days later which would have significantly altered the structure of the Austrian half of the monarchy. The Polish majority regions of Lesser Poland and part of Galicia were to be granted the option of seceding from the empire to join the earlier established Polish proto-state, in order to reunite with their ethnic brethren in the Polish lands held by Russia and Germany, with the ultimate goal of resurrecting the sovereign Polish statehood. In fact, the Regency Council in Warsaw already adopted on 6 October Wilson's proposals as the basis for creating a Polish state. [57] However, the imperial government attempted to curb the Polish ambitions by inciting the Polish-Ukrainian conflict through separating and retaining the remainder of Galicia and the entire Lodomeria, designated in the secret Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Ukraine–Central Powers) for the purpose of creating a Ukrainian polity, intended in the proclamation to constitute along the rest of Cisleithania a transformed federal union composed of four parts—German, Czech, South Slav and Ukrainian. Each of these was to be governed by a national council that would negotiate the future of the empire with Vienna. Trieste was to receive a special status. No such proclamation could be issued in Hungary, where Hungarian aristocrats still believed they could subdue other nationalities and maintain the "Holy Kingdom of St. Stephen".

It was a dead letter. Four days later, on 18 October, United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing replied that the Allies were now committed to the causes of the Czechs, Slovaks and South Slavs. Therefore, Lansing said, autonomy for the nationalities – the tenth of the Fourteen Points – was no longer enough and Washington could not deal on the basis of the Fourteen Points anymore. In fact, a Czechoslovak provisional government had joined the Allies on 14 October. The South Slavs in both halves of the monarchy had already declared in favor of uniting with Serbia in a large South Slav state by way of the 1917 Corfu Declaration signed by members of the Yugoslav Committee. Indeed, the Croatians had begun disregarding orders from Budapest earlier in October. The Lansing note was, in effect, the death certificate of Austria–Hungary.

The national councils had already begun acting more or less as provisional governments of independent countries. During the Italian battles, the Czechoslovaks and Southern Slavs declared their independence. With defeat in the war imminent after the Italian offensive in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto on 24 October, Czech politicians peacefully took over command in Prague on 28 October (later declared the birthday of Czechoslovakia) and followed up in other major cities in the next few days. On 30 October, the Slovaks followed in Martin. On 29 October, the Slavs in both portions of what remained of Austria–Hungary proclaimed the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. They also declared that their ultimate intention was to unite with Serbia and Montenegro in a large South Slav state. On the same day, the Czechs and Slovaks formally proclaimed the establishment of Czechoslovakia as an independent state.

Dissolution

Alexander Watson argues that, "The Habsburg regime's doom was sealed when Wilson's response to the note, sent two and a half weeks earlier [by the foreign minister Baron István Burián von Rajecz on 14 October 1918 [56] ], arrived on 20 October." Wilson rejected the continuation of the dual monarchy as a negotiable possibility. [58]

On 17 October 1918, the Hungarian Parliament voted in favour of terminating the union with Austria. The most prominent opponent of continued union with Austria, Count Mihály Károlyi, seized power in the Aster Revolution on 31 October. Charles was all but forced to appoint Károlyi as his Hungarian prime minister. One of Károlyi's first acts was to repudiate the compromise agreement on 31 October, effectively terminating the personal union with Austria and thus officially dissolving the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy state.

By the end of October, there was nothing left of the Habsburg realm but its majority-German Danubian and Alpine provinces, and Karl's authority was being challenged even there by the German-Austrian state council. [59] Karl's last Austrian prime minister, Heinrich Lammasch, concluded that Karl's position was untenable. Lammasch persuaded Karl that the best course was to relinquish, at least temporarily, his right to exercise sovereign authority.

On 11 November, Karl issued a carefully worded proclamation in which he recognized the Austrian people's right to determine the form of the state and "relinquish(ed) every participation" in Austrian state affairs. [60]

On the day after he announced his withdrawal from Austria's politics, the German-Austrian National Council proclaimed the Republic of German Austria. Károlyi followed suit on 16 November, proclaiming the Hungarian Democratic Republic.

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Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his death in 1916. In the early part of his reign, his realms and territories were referred to as the Austrian Empire, but were reconstituted as the dual monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866, he was also president of the German Confederation.

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Franz Xaver Josef Conrad von Hötzendorf, sometimes anglicised as Hoetzendorf, was an Austrian general who played a central role in World War I. He served as K.u.k. Feldmarschall and Chief of the General Staff of the military of the Austro-Hungarian Army and Navy from 1906 to 1917. He was in charge during the July Crisis of 1914 that caused World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopold Berchtold</span> Austro-Hungarian politician (1863–1942)

Leopold Anton Johann Sigismund Josef Korsinus Ferdinand Graf Berchtold von und zu Ungarschitz, Frättling und Püllütz was an Austro-Hungarian politician, diplomat and statesman who served as Imperial Foreign Minister at the outbreak of World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">István Tisza</span> Hungarian politician

Count István Imre Lajos Pál Tisza de Borosjenő et Szeged ; was a politician who served as prime minister of Hungary from 1903 to 1905 and from 1913 until 1917. He was also a political scientist, international lawyer, macroeconomist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and champion duelist. The outbreak of World War One defined his second term as prime minister. He was killed by leftist revolutionaries on 31 October 1918 during the Aster Revolution, the day Hungary declared its independence, dissolving the Dual Monarchy or Austro-Hungarian Empire. Tisza was the most zealous adherent of the Dual Monarchy among the Hungarian political leaders and pleaded for consensus between liberals and conservatives. As a Member of the Imperial Council since 1887, he came to fear a political impasse in the conflict between the unyielding temper of the Emperor and the revolutionary spirit of the extremists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austro-Hungarian Army</span> Land force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918

The Austro-Hungarian Army, also known as the Imperial and Royal Army, was the principal ground force of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. It consisted of three organisations: the Common Army, the Imperial-Royal Landwehr and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottokar Czernin</span> Czech diplomat and politician (1872–1932)

Ottokar Theobald Otto Maria Graf Czernin von und zu Chudenitz was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat and politician during the time of World War I, notably serving as Foreign Minister from 1916 to 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">July Crisis</span> 1914 events leading to World War I

The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914, which led to the outbreak of World War I. The crisis began on 28 June 1914, when Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. A complex web of alliances, coupled with the miscalculations of numerous political and military leaders, resulted in an outbreak of hostilities amongst most of the major European states by early August 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hungary in World War I</span>

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Hungary was part of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Although there are no significant battles specifically connected to Hungarian regiments, the troops suffered high losses throughout the war as the Empire suffered defeat after defeat. The result was the breakup of the Empire and eventually, Hungary suffered severe territorial losses by the closing Trianon Peace Treaty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minister of War (Austria-Hungary)</span> Minister of War: Austria-Hungary

The Imperial and Royal Minister of War, until 1911: Reich Minister of War, was the head of one of the three common ministries shared by the two states which made up the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary from its creation in the Compromise of 1867 until its dissolution in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces</span> Military forces of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918)

The Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces or Imperial and Royal Armed Forces were the military forces of Austria-Hungary. It comprised two main branches: The Army (Landstreitkräfte) and the Navy (Kriegsmarine). Both of them organised their own aviation branches – the Army's Aviation Troops and the Navy's Naval Aviation. The Army in turn consisted of its own three branches: The Common Army, the Imperial-Royal Landwehr and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign Ministry of Austria-Hungary</span> Austro-Hungarian government ministry

The Imperial and Royal Foreign Ministry was the ministry responsible for the foreign relations of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the formation of the Dual Monarchy in 1867 until it was dissolved in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbia</span> 1914–1918 military occupation

The Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces occupied Serbia from late 1915 until the end of World War I. Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia on 28 July 1914 marked the beginning of the war. After three unsuccessful Austro-Hungarian offensives between August and December 1914, a combined Austro-Hungarian and German offensive breached the Serbian front from the north and west in October 1915, while Bulgaria attacked from the east. By January 1916, all of Serbia had been occupied by the Central Powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common Army</span> Part of the Austro-Hungarian land forces (1867–1914)

The Common Army as it was officially designated by the Imperial and Royal Military Administration, was the largest part of the Austro-Hungarian land forces from 1867 to 1914, the other two elements being the Imperial-Royal Landwehr and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd. However, it was simply known as the Army (Heer) by the Emperor and in peacetime laws, and, after 1918, colloquially called the k.u.k. Armee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trialism in Austria-Hungary</span> Austria Hungary

In the history of Austria-Hungary, trialism was the political movement that aimed to reorganize the bipartite Empire into a tripartite one, creating a Croatian state equal in status to Austria and Hungary. Franz Ferdinand promoted trialism before his assassination in 1914 to prevent the Empire from being ripped apart by Slavic dissent. The Empire would be restructured three ways instead of two, with the Slavic element given representation at the highest levels equivalent to what Austria and Hungary had at the time. Serbians saw this as a threat to their dream of a new state of Yugoslavia. Hungarian leaders had a predominant voice in imperial circles and strongly rejected Trialism because it would liberate many of their minorities from Hungarian rule they considered oppressive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leaders of the Central Powers of World War I</span>

The leaders of the Central Powers of World War I were the political or military figures who commanded or supported the Central Powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dissolution of Austria-Hungary</span> Historical event in 1918

The dissolution of Austria-Hungary was a major geopolitical event that occurred as a result of the growth of internal social contradictions and the separation of different parts of Austria-Hungary. The more immediate reasons for the collapse of the state were World War I, the 1918 crop failure, general starvation and the economic crisis. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had additionally been weakened over time by a widening gap between Hungarian and Austrian interests. Furthermore, a history of chronic overcommitment rooted in the 1815 Congress of Vienna in which Metternich pledged Austria to fulfill a role that necessitated unwavering Austrian strength and resulted in overextension. Upon this weakened foundation, additional stressors during World War I catalyzed the collapse of the empire. The 1917 October Revolution and the Wilsonian peace pronouncements from January 1918 onward encouraged socialism on the one hand, and nationalism on the other, or alternatively a combination of both tendencies, among all peoples of the Habsburg monarchy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austro-Hungarian entry into World War I</span>

On 28 July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia because of the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Within days, long-standing mobilization plans went into effect to initiate invasions or guard against them and Russia, France and Britain stood arrayed against Austria and Germany in what at the time was called the "Great War", and was later named "World War I" or the "First World War". Austria thought in terms of one small limited war involving just the two countries. It did not plan a wider war such as exploded in a matter of days.

The Supreme War Command ; initially the Joint Supreme War Command was a military headquarters established on 7 September 1916 to exert command over all of the armed forces of the Central Powers in the First World War. The creation of the command had been discussed by German political figures by mid-1916 but was implemented at the request of Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, who were appointed to effective command of the Imperial German Army on 29 August. Germany's key ally Austria-Hungary was ambivalent on the matter but eventually agreed to the proposal on 3 September. The other two Central Powers, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, formally agreed at a conference on 6 September and the OKL was established the following day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoyos Mission</span> Austro-Hungarian mission before WWI

The Hoyos Mission describes Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Leopold Berchtold's dispatch of his promising 38-year-old private secretary, Alexander Hoyos, to meet with his German counterparts. This secret mission was intended to provide Austro-Hungarian policy-makers with information on the Reich's intentions shortly after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the Imperial and Royal Kronprinz, in Sarajevo. On 5 July 1914, a week after the assassination attempt that claimed the lives of the heir to the throne and his wife, the Austro-Hungarian government sought to officially secure the Reich's support for the actions it wished to take against Serbia in response to the attack. Indeed, the initiatives of the Kingdom of Serbia, victorious in the two Balkan wars, prompted Austro-Hungarian officials to adopt a firm stance in the international crisis opened by the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir.

References

  1. ↑ Finestone, Jeffrey; Massie, Robert K. (1981). The last courts of Europe. Dent. p. 247. ISBN   978-0-460-04519-3.
  2. ↑ Smith, David James (2010). One Morning in Sarajevo. Hachette UK. ISBN   978-0-297-85608-5. He was photographed on the way to the station and the photograph has been reproduced many times in books and articles, claiming to depict the arrest of Gavrilo Princip. But there is no photograph of Gavro's arrest – this photograph shows the arrest of Behr.
  3. ↑ "European powers maintain focus despite killings in Sarajevo — History.com This Day in History — 6/30/1914". History.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
  4. ↑ Djordjević, Dimitrije; Richard B. Spence (1992). Scholar, patriot, mentor: historical essays in honor of Dimitrije Djordjević. East European Monographs. p. 313. ISBN   978-0-880-33217-0. Following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Catholic Croats and Muslims in Sarajevo joined forces in an anti-Serb pogrom.
  5. ↑ Reports Service: Southeast Europe series. American Universities Field Staff. 1964. p. 44. Retrieved 7 December 2013. ... the assassination was followed by officially encouraged anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo ...
  6. ↑ Gioseffi, Daniela (1993). On Prejudice: A Global Perspective . Anchor Books. p.  246. ISBN   978-0-385-46938-8 . Retrieved 2 September 2013. ... Andric describes the "Sarajevo frenzy of hate" that erupted among Muslims, Catholics, and Orthodox believers following the assassination on June 28, 1914, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo ...
  7. ↑ Mitrović, Andrej (2007). Serbia's Great War, 1914–1918. Purdue University Press. p.  19. ISBN   978-1-557-53477-4.
  8. ↑ Tomasevich 2001, p. 485, The Bosnian wartime militia (Schutzkorps), which became known for its persecution of Serbs, was overwhelmingly Muslim..
  9. ↑ Schindler, John R. (2007). Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa'ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad. Zenith Imprint. p.  29. ISBN   978-1-616-73964-5.
  10. ↑ Kröll, Herbert (28 February 2008). Austrian-Greek encounters over the centuries: history, diplomacy, politics, arts, economics. Studienverlag. p. 55. ISBN   978-3-706-54526-6. ... arrested and interned some 5.500 prominent Serbs and sentenced to death some 460 persons, a new Schutzkorps, an auxiliary militia, widened the anti-Serb repression.
  11. ↑ Jannen, William. Lions of July: Prelude to War, 1914. p. 456.
  12. ↑ Herrmann, David G. (1997). The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War. Princeton University Press. p. 211. ISBN   978-0-691-01595-8.
  13. ↑ Fritz, Fischer (1967). Germany's Aims in the First World War. New York: W.W. Norton. p. 52. ISBN   978-0-393-09798-6.
  14. ↑ "First World War.com – Who's Who – Count Istvan Tisza de Boros-Jeno". firstworldwar.com. Archived from the original on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2014.
  15. ↑ Ladislaus Count von Szögyény-Marich (Berlin) to Leopold Count von Berchtold (5 July 1914), in Ludwig Bittner, et al., eds., Österreich-Ungarns Aussenpolitik von der Bosnischen Krise 1908 bis zum Kriegsausbruch 1914 [Austria–Hungary's Foreign Policy prior to the Bosnian Crisis of 1908 up to the Outbreak of War in 1914]. 8 vols, Vienna, 1930, vol. 8, no. 10,058.
  16. ↑ "Primary Documents: Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia". 24 May 2003 [Originally published 23 July 1914]. Archived from the original on 30 October 2004. Retrieved 29 September 2019.
  17. ↑ Clark, Christopher (2013). The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914. pp. 420–430.
  18. ↑ Pribram, A. F. (1923). Austrian Foreign Policy, 1908–18. pp. 68–128.
  19. ↑ Zeman, Z.A.B. (Zbyněk Anthony Bohuslav) (1971). A Diplomatic History of the First World War. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 121–161. OL   5388162M.
  20. 1 2 Stevenson, David (1988). The First World War and International Politics. pp. 139–148. OL   21170640M.
  21. ↑ Stevenson, David (1991). "The failure of peace by negotiation in 1917" (PDF). Historical Journal. 34 (1): 65–86. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00013935. S2CID   154930518.
  22. ↑ Keleher, Edward P. (1992). "Emperor Karl and the Sixtus Affair: Politico-Nationalist Repercussions in the Reich German and Austro-German Camps, and the Disintegration of Habsburg Austria, 1916–1918". East European Quarterly. 26 (2): 163ff.
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  24. ↑ Schindler, John Richard (1995). A Hopeless Struggle: The Austro-Hungarian Army and Total War, 1914-1918. McMaster University. pp. 38–43. ISBN   978-0-612-05866-8.
  25. 1 2 Schulze, Max-Stephan (2005). "Austria–Hungary's economy in World War I" (PDF). In Broadberry, Stephen; Harrison, Mark (eds.). The Economics of World War I. Cambridge University Press. p. 95. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511497339.002. ISBN   978-0-521-85212-8. S2CID   16455027. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  26. ↑ Kann, Robert A.; et al., eds. (1977). The Habsburg Empire in World War I: Essays on the Intellectual, Military, Political and Economic Aspects of the Habsburg War Effort.
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  30. ↑ Rotar, Marius (2013). History of Modern Cremation in Romania. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 24. ISBN   978-1-4438-4542-7.
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  33. ↑ Watson 2014.
  34. ↑ Healy, Maureen (2007). Vienna and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire: Total War and Everyday Life in World War I.
  35. ↑ Banac, Ivo (1992). "'Emperor Karl Has Become a Comitadji': The Croatian Disturbances of Autumn 1918". Slavonic and East European Review. 70 (2): 284–305.
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  38. ↑ Schindler, John R. (2001). Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War.
  39. ↑ Cavallaro, Gaetano V. (2010). The Beginning of Futility: Diplomatic, Political, Military and Naval Events on the Austro-Italian Front in the First World War 1914–1917. Vol. I. Xlibris Corporation. p. 339. ISBN   978-1-4010-8426-4.
  40. ↑ Pier Paolo Cervone, Vittorio Veneto, l'ultima battaglia, Milano, Mursia, 1993.
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  50. ↑ See: 1910 census
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  56. 1 2 "Hungarian foreign ministers from 1848 to our days". Mfa.gov.hu. Archived from the original on 21 June 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  57. ↑ The Regency Kingdom has been referred to as a puppet state by Norman Davies in Europe: A history (Internet Archive, p. 910); by Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki in A Concise History of Poland (p. 218); by Piotr J. Wroblel in Chronology of Polish History and Nation and History (p. 454); and by Raymond Leslie Buell in Poland: Key to Europe (p. 68: "The Polish Kingdom... was merely a pawn [of Germany]").
  58. ↑ Watson 2014, pp. 541–542.
  59. ↑ Watson 2014, pp. 542–556.
  60. ↑ The 1918 Karl's proclamation Archived 2021-03-08 at the Wayback Machine . British Library.

Works cited

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