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24 On the Eve
did not enjoy the luxury of a period of familiarisation in his new role. On 13 March
1912, about a month after his nomination, Serbia and Bulgaria agreed to the formation
of a long-discussed Balkan League, which although it was primarily directed against
the Turks was also pointed at Austria-Hungary. Serbia hoped to expand its territory in
the south-west, while Bulgaria had set its sights on Macedonia, with Tsar Ferdinand
declaring his open interest in gaining control of Adrianople and Salonica. However, as
part of the treaty, Bulgaria also undertook to dispatch troops if Austria-Hungary were
to attack Serbia.23
Everywhere, general staffs – in the Balkan states, Russia, Great Britain, France,
Italy, and not forgetting Germany and Austria-Hungary, where the sense of alarm
was just as acute
– now entered a period of intense activity. If war were to break out in
the Balkans, its containment within the region could not be guaranteed. Indeed, for a
long time, the chorus of voices claiming that a great war would inevitably occur had
been growing louder. The report written by the Russian military attaché in London in
February 1912, in which he expressed the view that a war between Austria-Hungary,
Germany and Italy on the one side and the powers of the ‘entente cordiale’ of England,
France and also Russia on the other, was ‘probably inevitable’, although its postpone-
ment would be ‘desirable’, was just one of many similar statements made at the time.24
In October 1912, matters came to a head. Greece and Montenegro joined the Balkan
League, and Bulgaria and Serbia began to mobilise.25 Russia, which since September
had been conducting mobilisation manoeuvres designed to intimidate Austria-Hun-
gary in particular, declared its support for the anti-Turkish coalition. Turkey issued
an urgent appeal to Austria-Hungary to provide assistance in its difficult situation. It
also asked the Danube Monarchy directly whether it could not re-occupy the Sanjak
of Novi Pazar. However, Vienna refused to help. In a series of conferences between 16
and 30 October 1912, it was decided that Austria-Hungary would only take military
measures if a major power or Serbia were to settle on the eastern shore of the Adriatic
or on the Ionian Sea. The opinion in Vienna was that occupation of the Sanjak by
Serbia or Montenegro would not affect Austria-Hungary’s vital interests. In order
to keep Serbia away from the Adriatic, however, it would be desirable, following a
likely defeat of Turkish troops and the clearance of the Vilayet on the western Balkan
Peninsula, to create an autonomous Albanian state.26 The aim here was also to prevent
Russia from potentially securing a base for its fleet in the Adriatic Sea with the aid
of Serbia.27
Certainly, not everyone was happy with this position, and there was notable accord
between the demands made by the top-ranking military and high officials from the
Foreign Ministry, such as Counts Forgách, Szápáry and Hoyos, who were on the side
of the War Party.28 But the first step was to wait and see whether the military action
would end as expected.
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