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852 Peace Feelers in the Shadow of Brest-Litovsk
mula, which was also applicable to all those already living in an imperial federation, it
had now become all too clear that the Bolsheviks were also aiming to revolutionise the
nationalities in Austria-Hungary. And this could only lead to an exacerbation of the
already precarious domestic political situation.
According to the proclamation, the peace negotiations were to be conducted in pub-
lic. The new government also wished to publicise all secret agreements that had been
concluded and approved by the Provisional Government since the February Revolution.
This could only be beneficial to the Central Powers. However, the initiation of peace
negotiations did create several problems.
First, it was necessary to take general stock of the peace efforts. For over a year, at-
tempts had been made to create contacts with the western Allies. Here, Austria-Hun-
gary had developed far more initiatives and, for its part, had far more frequently been
the target of western efforts to initiate talks than the German Empire. However, in
fact, these had more or less come to nothing. The Habsburg Monarchy had repeatedly
waited for a sign as to whether hopes for a general peace might not surface. However,
at the moment when from inner necessity and in order to guarantee the continued ex-
istence of the Monarchy, the German course had begun to be steered, the impossibility
of a separate peace, and even more so of a general one, had become increasingly evident.
It makes no sense to simply attempt to reduce all this simply to blind loyalty (Niebe-
lungentreue). The Habsburg Monarchy had no further possibility of concluding a peace
without the agreement of the German Empire. The Allied hints that Austria-Hungary
could under certain conditions even become the dominant power in German once
again were nothing less than a mirage. Finally, even Lady Walburga Paget had joined
the ranks of the initiators of peace contacts, a Saxon by birth, who sometimes directly,
and sometimes via the Spanish court, had sent messages from Britain with proposals
for mediation. However, her keen efforts probably stemmed more from a hatred of
Prussia than from an authorised mediator function. She was also unable to offer any
new recommendations and, for her part, suggested that Slav, Romanian and other parts
of the Habsburg Monarchy should be swapped for Silesia. She also envisaged a feder-
ation of the new Austria with the southern and central German states. Lady Walburga
generously also added Saxony as members of such a Habsburg-German confederation
with Silesia and Bavaria. However, the Foreign Office rigorously rejected peace at-
tempts of this nature, since in London, as well as in Vienna, the view was that such talks
should not be conducted by amateurs.2023 If contacts were to be made, then not through
unauthorised, marginal figures.
Only in November 1917, following the breakthrough by the Central Powers in the
Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, did the British show a certain willingness to compromise.
Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour authorised the British envoy in The Hague, Sir Walter
Townley, to again obtain specific information on the Austrian proposals for a negoti-
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