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The Powder
Keg 27
hands of the Montenegrins.36 The Ambassadors’ Conference then made it absolutely
clear that the major powers would not accept the behaviour of the Montenegrins. Re-
ports on events in the western Balkans, not least descriptions by the Red Cross of acts
of mass violence, only served to confirm the opinion that ‘the Balkans’ were populated
by an uncivilised people. The Ballhausplatz (Austro-Hungarian Imperial Chancellery)
threatened to respond with violence. A plan of operation was developed known as ‘war
scenario M’ (Montenegro), which until then had not been finalised. German support
came promptly and unconditionally. Finally, the Joint Council of Ministers of Aus-
tria-Hungary decided on 2 May 1913 to begin mobilisation measures along the Mon-
tenegrin border. This proved a successful deterrent : On the same day, King Nikola I of
Montenegro announced the unconditional evacuation of Scutari.
Yet the situation in the Balkans refused to quietdown. Romania, which had gained
nothing from the Balkan War, demanded that Bulgaria hand over Silistria on the Black
Sea, as well as providing numerous other territories and benefits, which it described as
‘reparations’. Serbia, in dispute with Bulgaria over the division of Macedonia, which
had been taken from the Turks, also presented a front against Bulgaria. It was antici-
pated that Austria-Hungary would support Romania, which was allied to the German
Empire, Italy and the Danube Monarchy. Germany was already prepared to provide
such support purely out of dynastic interest, since King Carol I of Romania was a
prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and was related to the German Emperor.
However, at the Ballhausplatz in Vienna, further attempts were made at manoeu-
vring, while at the same time taking a stand against the increasingly powerful Russian
influence in the Balkans. The Danube Monarchy could have no particular interest in
ultimately helping Serbia by intervening against Bulgaria. The treatment of Romania
was also a sensitive issue, since there were around three million Romanians living in
Transylvania who were more or less openly supported by Bucharest. The view was even
voiced in Hungary that the Romanians in Transylvania had no cause for complaint,
since their situation had markedly improved since the signing of the military conven-
tion with Romania.37 However, this did not impress Romania in the slightest, and above
all failed to convince the country to ally itself unconditionally with Austria-Hungary
and Germany. Romania therefore remained a loose cannon, adding several particularly
colourful facets to the kaleidoscopic political landscape of the Balkans.
The failure of Vienna to provide any real support to Bucharest generated a massive
degree of resentment against Austria in Romania. When the Second Balkan War broke
out in July 1913, demonstrators in Romania were just as hostile to Vienna as they were
to Sofia, with calls of ‘Long live Serbia !’.38
The situation was just the same as it had been during the Crimean War of 1854/1855.
Austria had sat on the fence and ultimately received no thanks from any quarter for
its attempts to stay out of the dispute. However Bulgaria, which on the one hand had
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