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18 On the Eve
permitted to station troops in the area of occupation (and to enlist soldiers for military
service in Bosnia and Herzegovina), as well as to make administrative adjustments and
expand transport routes, while in all other matters, nominal control remained with the
Sultan. However, Austria-Hungary regarded the two provinces as a type of replacement
colony, and was already highly experienced in ‘Europeanising’ areas of Eastern and
South-Eastern Europe. The structures of the Habsburg multinational empire were also
extended to the occupied area. In 1907, work was begun on building a railway line from
Vienna to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, and from there onwards to Mitrovica in the
Sanjak. On completion of the project, it would then have been possible to construct a
railway connection beyond Serbia to Salonika. The project provoked outrage in Serbia,
since Belgrade feared that Austria-Hungary intended to consolidate its rule in the
occupied territory, in which Serbia also had an interest. In this, Serbia was supported
by Russia. While construction work on the railway line did begin, the project was soon
abandoned.
The railway project was a further obstacle to an understanding between Serbia and
the Danube Monarchy, and from then on, anyone in Serbia seeking rapprochement
was accused of ingratiation. Vienna was only able to breathe more freely in 1903, when
the news of the murder of the Serbian king Alexander and his wife and the massacre
conducted by a group of officers was greeted with horror, and the press, including in
western European countries, concluded that Serbia had no place among the civilised
states of Europe. In the words of one British newspaper : ‚ The appropriate place for
such a brutal, premeditated murder of a king would be a Central Asian khanate, but
not a city in Europe ‘14. The rebels went on to form the core of the secret organisation
‘The Black Hand’.
During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/1905, there were fears in the Russian capi-
tal St. Petersburg as well as in Belgrade, that Austria-Hungary would exploit the situa-
tion and annex the occupied territory in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, in Vienna,
no serious consideration was given to this possibility. The Foreign Minister, Count
Gołuchowski, had other concerns and priorities. Matters changed when his successor,
Aehrenthal, again brought forward the subject of the Sanjak railway project, which he
regarded as an important preliminary to full annexation. He secured the agreement of
the Turks and then informed the Russian Foreign Minister, Count Alexander Izvolsky,
of Austria’s aspirations. While Russia did not demur, it was intent on pursuing its own
goals, and was keen to retrain its focus, interrupted by the war in the Far East, on rela-
tions with Europe. It did so by taking the initiative on the issue of the Turkish Straits
and pursuing the old Russian dream of control of the Bosphorous and the Dardanelles.
Soundings were taken in St. Petersburg and support was requested from Austria-Hun-
gary. At the same time, the Young Turk revolution broke out in the Ottoman Empire.
A new constitution was introduced there, and it appeared likely that the Sultan would
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Titel
- THE FIRST WORLD WAR
- Untertitel
- and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918
- Autor
- Manfried Rauchensteiner
- Verlag
- Böhlau Verlag
- Ort
- Wien
- Datum
- 2014
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-79588-9
- Abmessungen
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Seiten
- 1192
- Kategorien
- Geschichte Vor 1918
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 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