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‘Sacro egoismo’ 367
The official Austria, however, referred Italy to Albania in all of its claims. There, it was
argued, Italy could offset its interests. This was too little for Italy, however. It repeatedly
demanded the cession of Trentino, and this touched upon basic questions of the Dual
Monarchy’s existence. It had after all gone to war to retain and defend its territorial
holdings, and any cession of territories, whether it were Trentino, Transylvania or East
Galicia, must appear to be exactly contrary to these aims. The Departmental Councillor
in the Foreign Ministry in Vienna, Baron Franz von Matscheko, expressed this stance
as follows on 21 December 1914 : ‘By ceding Trentino to Italy, we would ourselves
call into question the basic principle on which the existence of Austria-Hungary is
based. The Monarchy’s right to exist lies in the fact that the peace of Europe would be
subjected to incessant convulsions, if in that territory where the great European races,
Germanic peoples, Romance, northern and southern Slavs, adjoin one another in re-
ciprocal permeation, a strong great power did not exist, which – having emerged and
been put together over the course of the centuries – encompasses parts of all adjoining
peoples and with them the isolated block of the Magyars. For the benefit of this Eu-
ropean necessity, all neighbouring states must forego the complete realisation of their
national ideals, just as the individual tribes in the Monarchy are necessarily subjected
to constraints at a national level.’857 This was perhaps an acceptable interpretation of
the imperial idea and cast the famous words of František Palacký from April 1848 into
an updated postulation. However, it evidently completely bypassed nationalist realities.
Matscheko continued that the cession of Trentino would tempt the Monarchy’s
other neighbours to make territorial claims. For the state existence of Italy, however,
Trentino was just as dispensable as Ticino, Nice, Savoy or Tunis. Italy had to decide
whether it wanted to subordinate its sentimental aspirations to Trentino to the exist-
ence of Austria-Hungary.
Ultimately, however, it was pointless to discuss territorial concessions with Italy,
since Emperor Franz Joseph had categorically ruled out any cession, no matter who
may come. Franz Joseph was not prepared to make any concessions. He was indeed very
tempted to change his mind, but he remained a realist to the extent that he responded
to the next proposal to offer Italy Gibraltar by saying that he had also already heard the
idea but that the island was not his to offer.858
The Evidenzbüro (military intelligence service) of the Imperial and Royal General
Staff came to the conclusion at the end of 1914 that Italy would present its demands
in January in the form of an ultimatum, and request South Tyrol, Istria and Rijeka, in-
cluding the Austrian Littoral, Dalmatia as far as Split (Spalato), as well as the cession
of the fleet against financial compensation.859
The question of the cession of Trentino ultimately led to the resignation of Foreign
Minister Count Berchtold. It is not entirely clear whether he resigned because he ulti-
mately regarded territorial losses as unavoidable or because he was particularly uncom-
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