Page - 494 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

494 War Aims and Central Europe ured-out territorial possessions would in any case have been untenable. The Empire, the entire Danube Monarchy, should experience an expansion of its power and size. This had become the only acceptable war aim for the Chief of the General Staff and his entourage. Any gain in Poland, which had been considered repeatedly, above all at the Ballhausplatz, and varied in countless Austro-Polish solutions, seemed to the Army High Command in Cieszyn considerably less important than the acquisition of territories in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary should become a power that stretched far to the south and the south-east. The occupation of Serbia, Montenegro and the bulk of Albania, however, posed a plethora of problems, since following the mutual slaughter of 1914 Serbia and Monte- negro had barely made themselves noticed until October 1915 and had allowed them- selves to be kept in check by a few observation and support troops. Now, however, more soldiers were required for occupation and control than had been needed at that time for observation. Albania had furthermore to be occupied, too. Austria-Hungary was aware of the roughly 130,000 allied soldiers in Greece, who were admittedly held more or less in check by Turks and Bulgarians, but still constituted a threat. The main problem was supply. The defeat of Serbia had served to open up the land route to Turkey. This consisted above all of the railway and road connections through the Morava River Val- ley. Now, however, the troops in Serbia, Montenegro and Albania who were away from the main routes and above all without a railway connection had to be supplied. It was precisely in the land of the legendary hero Skanderbeg that there were practically no durable road connections at all. They had to be painstakingly built. And, as it turned out, even a provisional maintenance was only possible if the most essential facilities were es- tablished. Therefore, following the preliminary completion of operations in the Balkan Peninsula, it had indeed to be asked whether the military success had even been worth achieving in view of the problems that followed. The answer to this question could only be that the sacrifices and toil would have been worthwhile if Austria-Hungary emerged from the war victorious, since then these lands could be territorially reduced in size and brought into a position of direct dependency. Then, the Danube Monarchy would become the heir to the Ottoman Empire after a type of short-term interregnum. In the case of any other outcome, however, only the efforts and losses could be counted. For the time being, Austria-Hungary had to content itself with occupying a consid- erable part of the Balkans, installing a military and, in some cases, also a civil admin- istration and conducting itself like a classical occupying power. In the case of Albania, this could by all means also be to the benefit of the occupied country, since railways were built and streets improved, and since for the first time a functioning postal sys- tem and above all, a school system were established. Whilst keeping this aspect of the occupation in mind, these factors cannot be viewed entirely detached from the fact of the occupation itself. Perhaps it is necessary here to also weigh up the positive and neg-