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The Ballhausplatz and
the Deficit
of War 19
be forced for domestic reasons to demand the return of the provinces occupied by Aus-
tria-Hungary in 1878. This would have resulted in the loss of all investments and stra-
tegic aims. Even if this possibility remained mere speculation, it was a key element of
Aehrenthal’s political strategy. In his view, it would be advantageous for Austria-Hun-
gary to reach an understanding with Russia and to come to an agreement over their
interests.15 On 16 September 1908, Aehrenthal and Izvolsky met in the Moravian town
of Buchlovice (Buchlov) in a castle owned by Count Leopold Berchtold, Aehrenthal’s
successor as Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Russia. There were two reasons for the
remoteness of the location chosen for the occasion. On the one hand, it was possible to
confer unobserved by other state chancelleries, while on the other, the degree of mutual
sympathy between the two foreign ministers was hardly boundless, and it was felt that
the meeting should be kept as brief as possible. Alone together in a small salon, the
two men agreed within just a few hours that Austria-Hungary could annex Bosnia and
Herzegovina while returning the Sanjak to Turkey. In response, the Danube Monarchy
agreed to support Russia in its policy regarding the Turkish Straits.16 The hesitation on
the part of Tsar Nicholas II to agree to this arrangement and – far worse – the foolish
ambition and rashness of the Austrian ambassador to Paris Rudolf Count Kheven-
hüller-Metsch, who passed on news of the Buchlovice agreement before the agreed
date, led to a scandal. Naturally, there were other parties who were also interested in the
Turkish Straits issue, particularly Great Britain. London categorically refused to allow
Russia to sail its warships through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, having denied it
free passage since the Crimean War. Izvolsky then played the matter down and claimed
that his aim in Buchlovice had merely been to agree on a possible new meeting of the
major European powers similar to that of the Congress of Berlin of 1878. At this meet-
ing, Austria-Hungary would have had the opportunity to assert its claims and would
have been able to count on support from Russia. Aehrenthal, however, remembered
their discussion differently, and regarded Izvolsky’s about-turn as a bare-faced excuse.
The fact that the Russians were failing to make progress with their aspirations in the
Turkish Straits was ultimately their problem. For his part, Aehrenthal wished to resolve
the Bosnia and Sanjak issue entirely in the manner agreed in the Buchlovice meeting.
Here, he was supported by the parliaments of Austria and Hungary, as well as by Em-
peror Franz Joseph and the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. On 7 Octo-
ber 1908, the Emperor proclaimed the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which
were to become ‘normal’ provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the future.
At this point at the latest, one could take a flight into counterfactual history and ask
a series of ‘what if ’ questions. What would have happened if the Turks had demanded
the return of the two provinces and, if they were refused, had perhaps waged war against
Austria-Hungary ? Would the Austro-Serbian conflict have escalated without the Bos-
nian problem ? Would anything have changed in the Russian attitude towards the
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