The front page of the Petit Journal of July 12, 1914 reconstructs the assassination of the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, François-Ferdinand of Austria, in Sarajevo, which will precipitate the First World War • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS It all started on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a young Serbian nationalist. Vienna is immediately convinced that the responsibility of Serbia is engaged. This crisis is part of the heavy dispute between the two countries since the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908. The two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 further aggravated it, Serbia having emerged from it enlarged. Austro-Hungarian officials are now determined not to pass anything to him. Everything will depend on the choice of François-Joseph. The latter has until now pursued a policy of peace, vetoing warmongering projects in military circles. The infernal mechanics of generalized war This time, the deal is different, because, through the person of the crown prince, it is the dynasty that has been targeted. But, before making his decision, he wanted to consult his German ally. Berlin's answer suffers no ambiguity. Wilhelm II and Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg give Franz Joseph a "blank check". After this green light, Austria-Hungary prepares for war. On July 23, an ultimatum is given to Serbia. Belgrade's response being deemed insufficient, war was declared on July 25. The question then arises:will the conflict remain localized? Viennese ruling circles are convinced of this. The previous year, Austria-Hungary had already sent an ultimatum to Serbia without Russia reacting. But the issue is not the same. In 1913, it was a question of blocking the road from the Adriatic to Serbia. This time it is the survival of Serbia as an independent state that is at stake. Saint Petersburg, which recognizes a right to protect Serbia, cannot accept such a scenario. For its part, France supports its ally, aware that its alliance with Russia might not survive a refusal. The infernal machinery is set in motion which leads to generalized war. From the third Balkan war, we moved on to a European war. The 1 st August, Germany declares war on Russia, two days later on France. Two antagonistic blocks face each other:on one side Germany and Austria-Hungary, on the other Russia and France, soon reinforced by England. In the orbit of Berlin The national struggles within the dual monarchy had caused Bismarck's prediction to be forgotten:"Let the Emperor Franz Joseph mount the saddle and you will see that all the peoples of his empire will follow him." In fact, the old emperor has the satisfaction of seeing that his people are answering his call. Like the other belligerents, the peoples of Austria-Hungary reacted to the war with a surge of sacred union. At the call of Francis-Joseph To my peoples , they respond with the manifestation of a dynastic patriotism which, in the face of danger, covers up the tensions of recent years. The beginnings of the war are catastrophic. On the various fronts, the Austro-Hungarian army suffered heavy setbacks, in the south against Serbia, in the east, in Galicia, against Russia. In its first battles, the army loses a third of its manpower while the officer corps is decimated. Austria-Hungary only owed the situation, or even reversed it, to the intervention of German troops. It took a coalition of German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces, under the command of German General von Mackensen, to defeat valiant Serbia in November 1915. The reinforcement of German armies made it possible to take the advantage on the Russian front in the spring-summer of 1915, a campaign at the end of which the Russians were practically driven out of Poland. But these interventions have a price. They have the consequence of placing the dual monarchy more and more in dependence on Berlin. Opening new fronts There is another lesson to be learned from the first months of the war. Like the military leaders of the other belligerents, the Austro-Hungarian General Staff had bet on a short war, which would be over before the end of the year. The choice of an offensive strategy would create the conditions for a quick victory. However, not only has this objective not been achieved, but it now seems obvious that the war will take hold over time. With disturbing consequences. Austria-Hungary must face the opening of new fronts. In May 1915, after the signing of the Treaty of London, Italy, although theoretically allied with the Central Powers, joined the camp of the Entente. A series of terrible battles will oppose the Austro-Hungarian soldiers to the Italians in the Isonzo massif. In August 1916, it was Romania's turn to open a new front in Transylvania. The monarchy has only a curtain of troops to oppose it. The situation is saved only by the intervention of German divisions which inflict a heavy defeat on the Romanian army and occupy Bucharest. Another crucial question:will the sacred union survive the prolongation of the conflict? The entry into the war of Italy, a traditional hereditary enemy, gave rise to a new manifestation, particularly among the Tyroleans, the Slovenes and the Croats. But several factors work in the opposite direction. As the conflict progresses, the feelings of the populations are more and more influenced by the food crisis which severely hits Austria, even more than Hungary. It is first of all the consequence of the blockade imposed on Austria-Hungary, as on Germany, by the powers of the Entente. To which is added that Austria, after the loss of Galicia, produces much less wheat than Hungary and that the latter is reluctant to export it. From 1915, rationing measures were taken on several basic necessities. Despite the government's efforts, the crisis continues to worsen and the minima are regularly revised downwards. The rear isn't the only one affected. The soldiers at the front also suffer seriously from this shortage. The beginning of military setbacks The prolongation of the war also begins to have an impact on the loyalty of the Slav populations to the monarchy. The first desertions were recorded in 1915 in Czech regiments. On the other hand, politicians took the road to exile to lead the fight for independence from abroad. In May 1915, the Croats Supilo and Trumbic created a Yugoslav committee; the following year, Masaryk founded the Czechoslovak National Council. These movements, however, still have little impact on the inside. In May 1917, the Czech elected members of the Reichsrat reaffirmed their loyalty to the monarchy, while Korosec, on behalf of the South Slavic deputies, called for a union of the southern Slavs of the monarchy under the scepter of the Habsburgs. 1916 was a dark year for Austria-Hungary. Military setbacks follow one another. The offensive launched to bring Italy to its knees fails. After the recovery of 1915, 1916 was a dark year for Austria-Hungary. Military setbacks follow one another. The offensive launched to bring Italy to its knees fails. It must be stopped to release troops for the eastern front, where General Brusilov's Russian army launched a vast offensive on June 4 under the blows of which the Austro-Hungarian system threatens to collapse. On several points of the front the enemy advance was facilitated by the desertion of Czech regiments. It takes the intervention of German troops again for the Russian offensive to be stopped. This again highlighted the dependence of Austria-Hungary on its German ally. This time the lesson is learned. A single command for the eastern front is created under the leadership of Marshal Hindenburg. The end of the year sees a major event, which risks marking a caesura in the history of the monarchy:the death of the old Emperor François-Joseph, on November 21. He had not appeared in public since the start of the war. But, even invisible, it remained the unifying pole of the peoples of the dual monarchy. Therefore, the big question is whether his young successor, his great-nephew Charles, will have the necessary authority to face the multiple challenges facing Austria-Hungary. Cities are starving Charles may be politically inexperienced, but he has come to the lucid conclusion that this war has already been too long for the monarchy, whose fragile body he predicts will not withstand any prolongation of the conflict. For Austria-Hungary, the rapid return of peace is a vital necessity. To this end, Charles takes a bold and risky initiative. In March 1917, he came into contact with Raymond Poincaré, the President of the French Republic, through his brother-in-law Prince Sixte de Bourbon-Parme, in the form of a letter in which he set out his plan for a peace of compromise. The strong point is its support for "just French claims relating to Alsace-Lorraine". Charles hits a wall when he tries to convince William II to reconsider his position on Alsace-Lorraine. However, this initiative ended in failure. It comes up against the veto of Italy, none of whose claims officially recognized by the allies of the Entente in the Treaty of London have been taken into account by the Austrian monarch. Secondly, Charles comes up against a wall when he tries to convince William II to reconsider his position on Alsace-Lorraine. But the Kaiser and the military leaders, closed to any idea of a compromise peace, remained convinced that they could impose on the enemy the diktat of a victorious peace. The war is therefore continuing in conditions that are constantly deteriorating, even if the situation seems to be easing on the external fronts. With German help, a resounding victory was won in October-November 1917 over Italy at Caporetto. Consumed by the pruritus of the revolution, Russia signed, on March 3, 1918, peace in Brest-Litovsk. But these successes actually mask an increasingly worrying reality. The food crisis is taking on catastrophic proportions. We have now passed in the cities of the monarchy at the stage of famine. Riots break out there. Weakened organisms are breeding grounds for the spread of epidemics. We will see it soon with the proliferation of the Spanish flu. In January 1918, hunger was in the background of a series of major strikes, especially in Vienna. In the political field, the time is no longer for moderation and unity. Among the Austro-Germans as well as among the Slavs, the nationalists gained the upper hand. In October 1917, at the congress of the Social Democratic Party, which until then had supported the monarchy in the name of internationalism, the supporters of the independence of the peoples won the majority. In January 1918, 150 Czech deputies of the Reichsrat and Bohemian diets published a manifesto for the release of the Czech people from any obligation to the dynasty. The disintegration of the dual monarchy The decisive turning point came in April-May 1918. Until then, the Entente allies had refrained from including the destruction of Austria-Hungary in their war aims. In response to a provocation by Count Czernin, the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Clemenceau published in April 1918 the letter in which the Emperor Charles claimed to support the French claim to Alsace-Lorraine. After this initiative, Charles was faced with the dilemma:relaunch the process for a separate peace or confirm his allegiance to the alliance with Germany. Lacking political support for the first option, he has no choice but to go to Canossa. In May, he reiterated to William II his loyalty to the alliance. The capitals of the Entente conclude from this choice that it ruins any hope of detaching the dual monarchy from the German Reich. Consequently, they recognize one after the other the Czechoslovak, Polish and Yugoslav national councils. In other words, they draw a line under Austria-Hungary. It now appears that only a German victory would allow Austria-Hungary to survive. However, Ludendorff's offensives ended in failure and, on August 8, the German army began a decline that would not stop. On the home front, the phenomenon of decomposition is accelerating. To stop it, Charles published a manifesto on October 16 which authorized the nations of the Austrian half of the monarchy to form national councils from the deputies of the Reichsrat, Austria then becoming a confederation of free peoples. Taken a few months before, this decision could have stopped the process of disintegration. It now has the opposite effect. A shadow theater On October 18, the Allies declare that they cease to recognize Austria-Hungary. The next day, the Czechoslovak National Council proclaimed the independence of Czechoslovakia, while Czech elected officials announced that they would cease all relations with Vienna. On October 28, an insurrection in Prague completes the process. On October 30, the Diet of Zagreb proclaims the formation of a State of the Southern Slavs; on October 21, the elected Austro-Germans form a provisional national assembly in Vienna which will demand the entry of Austria into the Reich; finally, at the end of October, it was Hungary's turn to secede from Vienna. Emperor without an empire, king without a kingdom, Charles has no choice but to step aside. Charles reigns only over a theater of shadows. The army, the ultimate bulwark of the monarchy, did not resist a last minute Italian offensive. The Villa Giusti armistice of November 3 officially put an end to its existence. Emperor without an empire, king without a kingdom, Charles has no choice but to step aside. On November 11, in a gloomy atmosphere, he signed a text by which he withdrew from state affairs, thus putting an end to a history of nearly 650 years (the Habsburg monarchy dating back to the election of Count Rudolf of Habsburg as King of the Romans in 1273). Austria-Hungary died of exhaustion. It did not resist the disintegrating effects of too long a war. The crack lines gradually deepened until they became fracture lines. The dual monarchy ceased to exist in the last days of October 1918. The peace conferences, then the treaties only confirmed the upheavals that had occurred on the ground in recent months. Find out more The Agony of a Monarchy. Austria-Hungary, 1914-1920, by Jean-Paul Bled, Tallandier (Texto), 2017.Requiem for a deceased empire, by François Fejtö, Perrin (Tempus), 2014. Francis Joseph, Tragic Sovereign Born in 1830, François-Joseph died in 1916, in the midst of the First World War. He ascended the throne in 1848 in response to the revolution that shook the Austrian monarchy. His reign, one of the longest in history, was marked by a succession of military defeats:Magenta and Solferino against the France of Napoleon III, Sadowa against the Prussia of Bismarck. At the same time, Austria was expelled first from Italy, then from Germany. The Austria of François-Joseph experienced major political transformations. After absolutism, it passes to a constitutional regime. Relations with Hungary are disrupted. The compromise of 1867 gave birth to a dualist monarchy. François-Joseph is struck by a series of family dramas:execution of his brother Maximilien in Mexico, suicide of his son Rodolphe in Mayerling, assassination of his wife Elisabeth in Geneva, assassination of his nephew François-Ferdinand in Sarajevo. A tutelary figure, François-Joseph is the object of a cult. Federator of the peoples of the monarchy, he launched an appeal to them at the start of the war, to which they responded massively. The Empire and the Mosaic of Nationalities National pluralism is the hallmark of Austria-Hungary, which has no less than 11 nationalities. The Germans, the most numerous, represent only a quarter of the population of the dual monarchy, and around 35% of Austria alone. In Hungary, the Magyars reached 48% on the eve of the war, a percentage constantly increasing after the policy of intense Magyarization carried out by the governments of Budapest. Conversely, the Austrian peoples are not subject to any policy of Germanization. National passions were unleashed towards the end of the 19 th century with Bohemia as the main focal point. As a minority, the Germans are on the defensive and all the more aggressive, while the majority Czechs are working to expand their rights. This resulted in clashes that extended to the Reichsrat in Vienna. However, the worst is not certain. The national compromises concluded in Moravia, Bukovina and Galicia, to the satisfaction of the nationalities concerned, offer themselves as a solution for the future. The dual monarchy also constitutes an integrated economic and commercial space. On the eve of 1914, no nationality wanted to separate from the monarchy, as evidenced by the sacred union at the declaration of war. The Treaty of Trianon dismembers Hungary in 1920 Like Austria, Hungary suffered the consequences of the defeat and collapse of the dual monarchy. The governments of Vienna and Budapest are held by the victors for the successors of the defunct whole. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye for Austria responds to that of Trianon signed with Hungary on June 4, 1920. Essentially, it ratifies modifications already made on the ground in the turbulence of the end of the war. . The treaty carves up Hungary, which goes from 325,000 to 92,600 km 2 , while its population of 21 million in 1914 fell to 8 million. To the north, it cedes Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia to Czechoslovakia, to the south Croatia and Vojvodina to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and to the east, most of Transylvania to Romania. Trianon has the effect of a trauma on Hungarians, all tendencies combined, especially since this division leaves 3 million nationals outside of Hungary. Revisionism therefore very quickly became the mainspring of Hungarian policy in the interwar period. Even today, the wound remains open and feeds the discourse of the Hungarian government.
