Overview of the position of Hungary during World War I
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.
In 1914, Austria-Hungary was one of the great powers of Europe, with an area of 676,443km2 and a population of 52 million, of which Hungary had 325,400km2 with population of 21 million.
By 1913, the combined length of the railway tracks of the Austrian Empire and Kingdom of Hungary reached 43,280 kilometres (26,890 miles). In Western Europe only Germany had more extended railway network (63,378 km, 39,381 mi); the Austro-Hungarian Empire was followed by France (40,770 km, 25,330 mi), the United Kingdom (32,623 km, 20,271 mi), Italy (18,873 km, 11,727 mi) and Spain (15,088 km, 9,375 mi).[1] By 1910, the total length of the rail networks of Hungarian Kingdom reached 22,869 kilometres (14,210 miles), the Hungarian network linked more than 1,490 settlements. Nearly half (52%) of the empire's railways were built in Hungary, thus the railroad density there became higher than that of Cisleithania. This ranked Hungarian railways the 6th most dense in the world (ahead of Germany and France).[2]
The Austro-Hungarian Empire conscripted 7.8 million soldiers during the WW1.[3] Although the Kingdom of Hungary comprised only 42% of the population of Austria-Hungary,[4] 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.
Austria-Hungary was more urbanized (25%)[5] than its main direct opponents in the First World War, like the Russian Empire (13.4%),[6] Serbia (13.2%)[7] and Romania (18.8%).[8] Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also had a more industrialized economy[9] and higher GDP per capita[10] than the Kingdom of Italy, which was economically the most developed opponent of the Empire by far.
In 1914, the Austro-Hungarian army was facing its greatest challenge so far in history. After mobilisation, the armed forces were grouped into six armies, totaling 3.2 million soldiers. Between 1914 and 1918, 9 million served in the army (7.8 million in the fighting forces).
In comparison to the other armies of Western Europe, Hungary's experienced veteran armed forces, technical equipment, and military expenditures were underdeveloped. The artillery was insufficient, but it was heavily developed later in the war. The correct supply of ammunition was not solved even by the end of the war. The armed forces lacked an adequate air force: it had only 42 military and 40 sport aeroplanes before the war. Unifying the multi-ethnic units was also a serious problem for the military's leaders.
Hungarian participation
The military forces of Austria-Hungary remained largely unified over the course of the war, in spite of their multi-ethnic nature and some expectations to the contrary. While German support was undoubtedly critical to the success of various offensives (such as the Gorlice–Tarnów offensive and the Battle of Caporetto), the multi-ethnic armies of Austria-Hungary proved fully capable in a defensive role in all the theaters of the war in which they were engaged.
The predominantly ethnic German commanders of the army generally favoured troops of German extraction, but ethnic Hungarian troops were also seen as being reliable and were widely used on the front lines, especially on the Russian front and Italian front. For the most part, troops from other ethnic groups within the empire were less likely to be placed in strategically critical positions and therefore had lower casualties.
Over the course of World War I there was never a documented offensive by purely ethnic Hungarian troops, but such troops did contribute positively to the outcome of various battles, as follows:
On 3–15 December 1914 during the Battle of Limanowa, the "Russian steamroller" was held back, especially by the hussars. Lieutenant-general Josef Roth attacked the Russian 3rd army, and on the right wing, the 10th Budapest and 11th Debrecen cavalrydivisions engaged in a man-to-man fight and were decisive. On December 11, colonel Ottmár Muhr died in a heroic defense leading the Sopron 9th cavalryregiment. Lieutenant-general Artur Arz, together with lieutenant-general Imre Hadfy, leading the 39th Kassa division, destroyed the 15th Russian division in Livno.
During the Siege of Przemysl, which defense was commanded by general Hermann Kusmanek, the main defence line, consisting of Hungarian troops, guarded the fortress for five months from November 1915. The defenders were commanded by Árpád Tamásy, leading the 23rd Szeged division. After the depletion of ammunition and food reserves, Przemysl capitulated, leaving 120,000 prisoners of war.
On the Isonzo front, Hungarian forces participated in all twelve battles. On the Doberdo plateau and near Karst, the most serious battles were fought by Hungarians, who composed one third of the total armed forces. In particular, the 20th Nagyvárad and 17th Budapest common regiments distinguished themselves. On 15 June 1918, near the river Piave, the 6th army commanded by Archduke József Ágost took over most part of mount Montello and held it until the end of the war. Decisive fights were carried out by the 31st Budapest common regiment and the 11th Debrecen division.
The troops raised in the Kingdom of Hungary spent little time defending the actual territory of Hungary, with the exceptions of the Brusilov Offensive in June 1916, and a few months later, when the Romanian army invaded Transylvania, both of which were repelled. A small number of troops from Austria-Hungary also fought in more distant theaters of war that are beyond the borders of Austria-Hungary, including the Gallipoli campaign, and in the Sinai Peninsula and Palestine.
Military leaders
Austro-Hungarian mountain corps in Tyrol
Some military leaders who have received the Commander's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, the most renowned medal:
Out of over 2.2 million men mobilized in Austria-Hungary, more than one million died during the course of the war. In Hungarian areas, this meant a death rate of twenty-eight per thousand persons – a level of loss exceeded within Austria-Hungary only by German Austrians.[11] In comparison to the total army, Hungary's loss ratio was more than any other nation of Austria-Hungary. There could be two possible causes: Hungary was more an agricultural country, where it is easier to mobilize forces, rather than from more industrialized territories (i.e. Bohemia), and secondly, the Hungarian soldiers were considered to be more trustworthy and disciplined than soldiers from other ethnic groups.[12]
The war aims of Hungary
In contrast to the cases of Germany, France or Italy, the question of World War I aims of Hungary remains almost unexplored. However, as the Kingdom of Hungary was the most politically stable part of the Habsburg Monarchy, it strongly impacted the Dual Monarchy's war plans. The main concerns of the government in Budapest were directed by fears for the territorial integrity of Hungary. In July 1914, its Prime Minister, István Tisza, convinced the Monarchy's Crown Council not to demand new territories from Serbia. In parallel, the Hungarian opposition secretly informed the Entente that an independent Hungary could be proclaimed, ready to sign a separate peace treaty if her frontiers were guaranteed. An opposition leader, Mihály Károlyi, entered into contacts with Italians, British and French. In the autumn of 1915, with the Austro-Hungarian army's successes, the secessionist moods in Budapest cooled down. Hungarian politicians turned towards the annexation of Northern Serbia, and possibly Montenegro. When Austria envisaged the amalgamation of Poland, Tisza insisted in Vienna to include Bosnia-Hercegovina (and probably Dalmatia) in Hungary. However, when Romania declared war on the Habsburg Monarchy in August 1916, the Tisza government anticipated annexations of Romanian lands, whereas the Hungarian radical opposition in the parliament (independentists, led by Mihály Károlyi), reinforced the separatist propaganda. In March 1917, Tisza proposed to the Crown Council of the Monarchy to divide Romania between Hungary and Russia, leaving a small Romanian buffer State. Yet, according to the Bucharest Peace Treaty (7 May 1918), Romania only ceded the Carpathian mountain passes to Hungary. The next "success" of Hungarian territorial expansionism was the Habsburg approval of the attachment of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia to the Kingdom in October 1918. Expecting the collapse of the Central Powers, Károlyi was allowed by the Emperor-King to form a government in Budapest. This government declared the independence of Hungary on 31 October 1918. However, it did not stop the Entente and its allies from raising territorial claims against Hungary. They finally gave three quarters of pre-war Hungary to surrounding countries by the Peace Treaty of Trianon (4 June 1920).[13]
Aftermath
On 11 November 1918, World War I ended for Austria-Hungary, though at the time of the collapse, all forces were standing outside the borders of 1914. With the collapse of the army, Austria-Hungary also collapsed. The political leaders of the ethnic groups of the Kingdom of Hungary called for independent nation-states.
When Oszkár Jászi became the new Minister for National Minorities of Hungary, he immediately offered democratic referendums for minorities about the disputed borders; however, the political leaders of those minorities refused the very idea of such referendums at the Paris peace conference.[14]
By the Treaty of Trianon, signed on 4 June 1920, Hungary lost about two-thirds of her territory and more than half of its population. This was a larger loss of territory than any other country at that time (excluding colonies). Around 8 million Hungarians remained in post-Trianon Hungary, while more than 3 million Hungarians were stranded outside the newly-established borders. Newly established countries such as Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were established, and some already existing countries extended their territories (Italy and Romania). The southern part of Hungary was given to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Croatia was also incorporated into it after more than 800-year personal union with Hungary. 102,813 square kilometers—the whole of Eastern Hungary and Transylvania—were awarded by the Entente to Romania, more than the remaining area of Hungary itself (93,030km2). The northern part of Hungary was annexed by the newly created Czechoslovakia. Austria also received territories from Western Hungary.
After World War I, despite the "self-determination of peoples" idea of the Allied Powers, only one plebiscite was permitted (later known as the Sopron plebiscite) to settle disputed borders on the former territory of the Kingdom of Hungary,[15] settling a smaller territorial dispute between the First Austrian Republic and the Kingdom of Hungary. During the Sopron plebiscite in late 1921, the polling stations were supervised by British, French, and Italian army officers of the Allied Powers.[16]
Hungary was crippled after losing its status as a Great Power. The newly created or greatly enlarged states formed the Little Entente after the war, encircling Hungary in order to make border revision impossible. The Army was reduced to a mere 30,000 troops; Hungary was forbidden to have an air force, tanks, and any sophisticated weapons. The borders were set in such a way that all natural defense lines were crossed, making the remaining territory vulnerable to invasion.
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Dual Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. Austria-Hungary was a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states with a single monarch who was titled both emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Austria-Hungary constituted the last phase in the constitutional evolution of the Habsburg monarchy: it was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and was dissolved shortly after Hungary terminated the union with Austria on 31 October 1918.
The Treaty of Trianon often referred to as the PeaceDictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon in Hungary, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It formally ended World War I between most of the Allies of World War I and the Kingdom of Hungary. French diplomats played the major role in designing the treaty, with a view to establishing a French-led coalition of the newly formed states.
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the Republic of German-Austria on the other. Like the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary and the Treaty of Versailles with the Weimar Republic, it contained the Covenant of the League of Nations and as a result was not ratified by the United States but was followed by the US–Austrian Peace Treaty of 1921.
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom around the year 1000; his family led the monarchy for 300 years. By the 12th century, the kingdom became a European power.
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. Tisza was bitterly unpopular among ethnic Hungarian voters and therefore - similarly to his father Kálmán Tisza - he drew most of his votes from ethnic minorities during the parliamentary elections.
The Eastern Front or Eastern Theater of World War I was a theater of operations that encompassed at its greatest extent the entire frontier between Russia and Romania on one side and Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and Germany on the other. It ranged from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, involved most of Eastern Europe, and stretched deep into Central Europe. The term contrasts with the Western Front, which was being fought in Belgium and France.
Count Mihály Ádám György Miklós Károlyi de Nagykároly was a Hungarian politician who served as a leader of the short-lived and unrecognized First Hungarian Republic from 1918 to 1919. He served as prime minister between 1 and 16 November 1918 and as president between 16 November 1918 and 21 March 1919.
The Austro-Hungarian Army, also known as the Imperial and Royal Army, was the principle 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.
The Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, informally Transleithania, were the Hungarian territories of Austria-Hungary, throughout the latter's entire existence, and which disintegrated following its dissolution. The name referenced the historic coronation crown of Hungary, known as the Crown of Saint Stephen of Hungary, which had a symbolic importance to the Kingdom of Hungary.
There was a period of revolutions and interventions in Hungary between 1918 and 1920. The First Hungarian Republic was founded from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by Mihály Károlyi during the Aster Revolution in 1918, at the end of World War I. In March 1919, the republic was overturned by another revolution, and the Hungarian Soviet Republic was created. Unresolved conflicts led to wars between Hungary and its neighbor states in 1919. The Hungarian Soviet Republic ceased to exist after the Romanian occupation. The 1920 Treaty of Trianon in Versailles created the Kingdom of Hungary.
The Serbian campaign was a series of military expeditions launched in 1914 and 1915 by the Central Powers against the Kingdom of Serbia during the First World War.
The Kingdom of Romania was neutral for the first two years of World War I, entering on the side of the Allied powers from 27 August 1916 until Central Power occupation led to the Treaty of Bucharest in May 1918, before reentering the war on 10 November 1918. It had the most significant oil fields in Europe, and Germany eagerly bought its petroleum, as well as food exports.
The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on 1 December [O.S. 18 November] 1918 by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day, celebrated on 1 December, is a national holiday in Romania that celebrates this event. The holiday was established after the Romanian Revolution, and celebrates the unification not only of Transylvania, but also of Bessarabia and Bukovina and parts of Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with the Romanian Kingdom. Bessarabia and Bukovina had joined with the Kingdom of Romania earlier in 1918.
Yugoslavia was a state concept among the South Slavic intelligentsia and later popular masses from the 19th to early 20th centuries that culminated in its realization after the 1918 collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I and the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. However, the kingdom was better known colloquially as Yugoslavia ; in 1929 it was formally renamed the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia".
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.
The Hungarian–Romanian War was fought between Hungary and Romania from 13 November 1918 to 3 August 1919. The conflict had a complex background, with often contradictory motivations for the parties involved.
The Aster Revolution or Chrysanthemum Revolution was a revolution in Hungary led by Count Mihály Károlyi in the aftermath of World War I which resulted in the foundation of the short-lived First Hungarian People's Republic.
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.
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.
World War I began when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia in July 1914, following the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. 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.
↑ Rothenburg, G. The Army of Francis Joseph. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1976. p 218.
↑ On the outbreak of the First World War Austria-Hungary was able to mobilize 2.25 million men. This was a fairly small number when one compares it to the 4 million mobilized by the French Army. Attempts were made to rapidly expand the size of the army and recruitment posters in 15 different languages appeared all over the Empire.
Mason, John W. The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire, 1867–1918 (Routledge, 2014).
Mócsy, István I. The Effects of World War I: The Uprooted: Hungarian Refugees and Their Impact on Hungary's Domestic Politics, 1918–1921 (Social Science Monographs—Brooklyn College Press, 1983).
Newman, John Paul, Samuel Foster, and Eric Beckett Weaver. "Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans during World War I." Journal of Genocide Research 18.4 (2016): 503–513.
Valiani, Leo, and Howell A. Lloyd. The End of Austria-Hungary (London: Secker and Warburg, 1973).
Watson, Alexander. Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I (2014).
In Hungarian
Tibor Balla (2001). "Magyarország az első világháborúban". The Illustrated History of World War I. By Wiest, Andy. London: Amber Books Ltd., reprint in Hungarian by M-érték Kiadó Kft. ISBN963-9519-28-6.
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