Page - 737 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Military Administration in the Occupied Territories 737 In Albania, too, the Austrian military administration attempted to create things that would last, made geological investigations in order to trace mineral resources, modern- ised the salt works to obtain sea salt, waged what appeared to be an almost hopeless battle against the epidemics and, above all, against malaria, founded schools and intro- duced general mandatory school education.1696 The upper section of Albanian society sent their children to the new schools and, later, in many cases, to the University of Vi- enna. In July 1916, a uniform tax system was introduced, although attempts very soon failed to raise the taxes independently. For this reason, in keeping with ancient tradition, the collection of tithes was leased.1697 At first, the local potentates and notables waited to see what would happen ; al- though some sided with the Austro-Hungarians, the relationship cooled with increas- ing speed when they realised that the system that had been commonplace until then of enrichment, personal power gains and dubious business schemes would no longer be able to function in the same way as before. The use of ‘political disposition funds’ paid to the likes of the Mirditë leader Prênk Bibë Doda, Irfan Bey, Ahmet Zogu Bey and others did little to change the situation, and the interment of Albanians even less so.1698 If the term had already existed at that time, then Albania would have been classifiable as a developing country at a very low level. The situation in Romania was entirely different. There, Austrian participation in the administration was restricted to the nomination of a General Commissioner for economic affairs, whose task was to cooperate with the economic staff sent by Germany. The military administration in the country, which was neither entirely conquered nor entirely occupied, was conducted exclusively by the German Empire. The Supreme Commander in Romania, Field Marshal von Mackensen, was assigned General Tülf von Tschepe as Military Governor.1699 However, Turks and Bulgarians were also in- volved in the occupation of Romania. A contribution of 250 million lei was imposed on the occupied zone, which covered around 80 per cent of the state territory, which was intended to cover the costs of the military administration. The economic staff, in which Austria-Hungary and Germany were represented in equal measure, was not only supposed to ensure in its 18 departments that the Romanian economy was returned to normal, but also to exploit all possible resources for the benefit of food provision and the war economy in the German Empire and Austria-Hungary. There were the spoils of war, in other words everything that was found in the national arsenals and in the Romanian war industry, as well as grain, wood and mineral oil. The distribution of these spoils was organised by a ‘War Spoils Commission’ of the Central Powers.1700 All other raw products, goods and materials were declared sequestered and then purchased at fixed prices. In this way, Austria-Hungary obtained 54,000 wagons of grain, pulses and maize, as opposed to the 40,000 wagons that were sent to the German Empire, and several thousand distributed to Bulgaria and Turkey. This was of course a great deal,