Page - 671 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Steps towards Peace 671 tria-Hungary was in fact not in conflict with Great Britain and France, it would be easy for the Danube Monarchy in particular to conclude a peace at Germany’s expense.1529 During the negotiations that then took place within the German leadership as to what the war aims agreement might contain, the Austrian desire for a completely new regulation of the situation in the Balkans was accepted, in return for which Austria was to cede territories to Russia and Italy. However, when negotiations were held again in Berlin on 15 and 16 November, they categorically ended in complete disagreement. The German Empire was not interested in naming any specific war aims, and certainly not in concluding an agreement that was tantamount to a mutual guarantee that the ter- ritorial status quo would be maintained. Austria-Hungary wanted a long and detailed list of war aims and a mutual guarantee pledge between the Allies. Ultimately, Bulgaria and Turkey and their aims would also have to be taken into account. However, was it realistic to think that Austria-Hungary might guarantee Turkey the territorial status quo in Egypt, and in return to ask the High Porte to agree to make the retention of South Tyrol by Austria one of its own war aims ? Once this point had been reached, the German Imperial Chancellor regarded it as more prudent to encourage the American President to take a step towards peace, since then, the dilemma of the war aims could be avoided. For Austria-Hungary and for the German Empire, the death of Emperor Franz Jo- seph presented an opportunity for a new beginning. The hopes that had been placed in Berlin on an initiative by the American President were dashed, however, when Wood- row Wilson, who was re-elected on 7 November 1916, showed no inclination to take on the role of mediator and instead did quite the opposite by starting to apply pressure on the German Empire. The view was then that a step towards peace was not appropri- ate immediately following the death of Emperor Franz Joseph, since otherwise, the im- pression might be created that Emperor Karl was unwilling to continue the war. While this was indeed the case, it was not permitted to say it out loud. Finally, the decision was made to wait until Bucharest fell. In principle, everything had turned in circles. There were no specifically agreed war aims. Altogether, the Turks and Bulgarians were only given the most general informa- tion. Under its new ruler, Austria-Hungary also attempted to reach a binding agree- ment with the German Empire regarding a solidarity pact. They were all staved off by Berlin. The Habsburg Monarchy received no agreement from Germany that Berlin was willing to obligate itself to securing Austria-Hungary’s current borders, while for its part, Austria-Hungary by all means declared itself willing to give a corresponding assurance to Germany. In light of the fact that the German Empire had not forfeited territory anywhere, and that everywhere its troops had in fact penetrated deep into enemy territory, this was a very noncommittal offer, however. However, the German refusal was correctly interpreted in Vienna. Now, time was certainly running out. In