Seite - 14 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

14 On the Eve simply their apparent strength and a desire to expand their territory, or merely their aspirations to attain greater power. Germany sought to increase its dominance and in- fluence, or at least not to lose it. It has been postulated that Germany ‘fled towards war’.4 For France, prestige and a not insignificant desire for revenge have been cited, while recently, it has again been claimed that for Russia, the attempt to find a way through to Constantinople by the indirect means of victory in war was a key issue.5 Ultimately, Italy hoped by joining the coalition of the British, French and Russians that it could expand the regions inhabited by Italians, thus fulfilling its national ambitions. However, like Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, elegantly described as a ‘stagnating major power’6, saw an opportunity to maintain the prevailing European order. This stemmed not from inner conviction, but from a position of evident weakness. While war may not have been a specific aim, it was this weakness, more than anything else, that led to war being regarded as a potential means of resolving problems. The failure by the Habsburg Monarchy to pursue its state goals more resolutely has been explained by its peculiar structural features, the complex dualistic division of the multiracial empire into an Austrian and a Hungarian half, the particular problems that were primarily triggered by nationality issues, by the alliances that had been formed, and finally by the individuals who held positions of power. However, these are just some aspects of the generally unreflected opinion that the Monarchy was doomed. It may have been destroyed by its ‘absolutism’, which the Austrian Social Democrat Viktor Adler regarded as being ‘mitigated only by sloppiness’. Long before 1914, commenta- tors remarked that state visitors to the Danube Monarchy were travelling there to take one more look at Austria ‘before it falls apart’.7 However, one further aspect must be taken into account in any attempt to explain the flight to war by the Habsburg Monarchy. The ‘Fin de siècle’, the mood that was be- ing increasingly expressed, not least in the arts, was probably less one of gloom than an impatient crossing of a threshold into a new era. This sense of defiance not only reached its limits in the arts, however, but was equally reflected in the economy and above all in politics. The peoples living in the Empire were dominated by centrifugal forces. It was a later version of Biedermeier and the Vormärz except that it was kept under control by the forces of convention rather than the state. Ultimately, certain forces had been kept in check over several decades until finally, a single event triggered a chain reaction. The view was increasingly voiced that the upcoming problems could only be solved by means of war. Naturally, this opinion was not only held by Austria-Hungary, nor was it an expression of intensified warmongering. Countries such as Great Britain, France and Russia, as well as Italy, the Ottoman Empire and the countries in the Balkan region had time and again used war as a means of settling conflicts. However, the Habsburg Monarchy appeared to be so preoccupied with its own affairs that it refrained from participating in the socialisation of violence, and was neither willing nor in a position