Page - 20 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
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20 On the Eve
Habsburg Monarchy ? Would the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne perhaps never
have travelled to Sarajevo… ? As it was, events took a different turn.
Soon, further agreements were reached with the Ottoman Empire, since Aus-
tria-Hungary wished to pay adequate compensation for the annexed territories. The
Sanjak of Novi Pazar and its approximately 350,000 inhabitants was also returned to
Turkey, and besides this, the Ottoman Empire had nothing to gain overall from fall-
ing out with the Habsburg Monarchy on a permanent basis. However, the disputes
continued between Austria and Russia, and particularly between Austria and Serbia,
which regarded the constitutional changes in the Balkans as a threat and above all as an
obstacle to its own expansion. In the end, Aehrenthal saw reason to publish extracts of
the agreements made with Russia in order to make it clear, beyond the current dispute,
that Russia had already agreed to an annexation in 1876 and 1877, and that the agree-
ment with Izvolsky was far more concrete than the Russian had subsequently wished
to accept.
This step, whether or not it was justified, was regarded in St. Petersburg as an embar-
rassment and a humiliation. However, that was not all. Following partial mobilisation
by Serbia and a highly aggressive verbal reaction in Belgrade two days after the Aus-
trian declaration of annexation, Aehrenthal demanded an official statement from Ser-
bia declaring its willingness to return to normal, friendly relations with its neighbour
Austria-Hungary. Serbia responded with a demand for compensation for the accession
of the countries by the Habsburg Monarchy. This was in reality difficult to justify, and
was also not supported by the Russians. Indeed, St. Petersburg went even so far as to in-
form Austria that the Danube Monarchy would only have to deal with an intervention
by Russia if it were to decide on a ‘promenade militaire’ to Belgrade.
Finally, Great Britain made an attempt at mediation, which was accepted by Aus-
tria-Hungary after a period of endless deliberation and following the intervention of
the German Empire. Serbia issued a declaration stating that it undertook to return to
cordial relations with Austria-Hungary. Even if no real meaning was attached to this
statement, and if, as is likely, Austria-Hungary was unaware of the fact that in Ser-
bia, another secret organisation, the Narodna Odbrana (National Defence) had been
formed with the goal of unifying all Serbs, including those living in Austria-Hungary,
to create a southern Slav kingdom and moreover to avenge the alleged dishonour that
Serbia had suffered, on the surface at least the differences between the two states were
smoothed over.
Within the Habsburg Monarchy itself, life slowly returned to normal. However, the
annexation had without doubt provoked highly intense reactions. Particularly in the
Bohemian crown lands, no secret was made of the fact that there was far greater sym-
pathy for the Serbs than for the ambitions of the Emperor to become ‘empire builder’.
And right on the anniversary of his accession to the throne, on 2 December 1908,
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Title
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Subtitle
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Author
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2014
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Size
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 1192
- Categories
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Table of contents
- 1 On the Eve 11
- 2 Two Million Men for the War 49
- 3 Bloody Sundays 81
- 4 Unleashing the War 117
- 5 ‘Thank God, this is the Great War!’ 157
- 6 Adjusting to a Longer War 197
- 7 The End of the Euphoria 239
- 8 The First Winter of the War 283
- 9 Under Surveillance 317
- 10 ‘The King of Italy has declared war on Me’ 355
- 11 The Third Front 383
- 12 Factory War and Domestic Front, 1915 413
- 13 Summer Battle and ‘Autumn Swine’ 441
- 14 War Aims and Central Europe 469
- 15 South Tyrol : The End of an Illusion (I) 497
- 16 Lutsk :The End of an Illusion (II) 521
- 17 How is a War Financed ? 555
- 18 The Nameless 583
- 19 The Death of the Old Emperor 607
- 20 Emperor Karl 641
- 21 The Writing on the Wall 657
- 22 The Consequences of the Russian February Revolution 691
- 23 Summer 1917 713
- 24 Kerensky Offensive and Peace Efforts 743
- 25 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein 769
- 26 Camps 803
- 27 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk 845
- 28 The Inner Front 869
- 29 The June Battle in Veneto 895
- 30 An Empire Resigns 927
- 31 The Twilight Empire 955
- 32 The War becomes History 983
- Epilogue 1011
- Afterword 1013
- Acknowledgements and Dedication 1019
- Notes 1023
- Selected Printed Sources and Literature 1115
- Index of People and Places 1155