The Austro-Hungarian Empire
Overview
Austro-Hungary
In the late 19th century, the Conservative emperor, Francis Joseph struggled to hold together his ancient Hapsburg dominions in the face of demands by the many ethnic groups within the empire for more Liberal government and for autonomy. The threat of the break-up of this empire resulted in an enduring alliance with neighboring Germany and was a factor in the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
Learing Objectives
- Analyze politics and society in Austria-Hungary in the late 19th century.
- Analyze and identify the role of the MAIN (Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism) causes of World War I.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Dual Monarchy: created by the union of Austria and Hungary in 1867 as equal states (Ausgleich); the Hapsburg emperor, Francis Joseph, was the emperor of Germany and king of Hungary
League of the Three Emperors: an alliance between the three empires of Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Russia that was renewed every three years between 1873 and 1886
Treaty of San Stephano: peace treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empires in 1877 that ended the Russo-Turkish War and won Bulgaria its independence from the Ottoman Empire
Congress of Berlin: international conference called by the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1878 to address concerns about the stability of the Ottoman Empire after the Russo-Turkish War
Bosnia-Herzegovina: a region in the Balkans in southeastern Europe inhabited by Orthodox Serbs, Roman Catholic Croats, and Muslim Bosnians; the former Ottoman province awarded to Austro-Hungary by The Congress of Berlin in 1878
Kulturkampf: a “cultural struggle” between German Protestants and Roman Catholics in the 1870s, primarily concerned with Roman Catholic Church’s control of public education in some German regions
Balancing Austria and Hungary
In 1866, the defeat of Austria at the hands of Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War led to a crisis in the Hapsburg Austrian Empire; this was due to the Austrian government fearing another outbreak of rebellion in Hungary, as happened in 1848, due to Austria’s weakened state. To deter such a rebellion, the Emperor Francis Joseph in 1867 issued a new Liberal constitution that created what became known as the Dual Monarchy and the Ausgleich (Balancing). Under this constitution Francis Joseph was both emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. Germans and Hungarians with property could each elect representatives to a legislature of their own, which could draft laws and impose taxes for the areas controlled respectively by Austria and Hungary. However, Francis Joseph alone controlled the military and foreign affairs for this new Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this empire, millions of inhabitants who were neither German nor Hungarian were denied the vote and the right to participate in government.
Ethnic Tensions
In this new Austro-Hungarian Empire, ethnic Germans and Hungarians with property could vote and elect representatives to sit in the German and Austrian legislatures due to the Ausgleich in 1867, but Slavic ethnic groups were all denied the right to vote; this included Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Poles, Slovenes, and Ruthenians (Ukrainians), as well as ethnic Romanians, Italians, and Bosnians. Moreover, all government business and public education was conducted in either German or Hungarian. Croats and Poles alone were allowed to conduct their public affairs at the local level in their native languages.
This empire was also divided religiously. The Austrian Germans and Hungarians were predominantly Roman Catholic, but the empire's inhabitants included Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
The leaders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were desperate to keep this fragile empire together and maintain the superior status of the Austrians and Hungarians. Additionally, in the closing decades of the 19th century, Austro-Hungary hoped to strengthen its position in Europe by forging a strong alliance with the newly formed German Empire to west, with whom Austro-Hungary shared a common ethnic heritage.
Foreign Affairs
In his efforts to isolate France diplomatically and to deter a future war, the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck sought to forge alliances with Austro-Hungary and Russia. Bismarck hoped that this league would restore the traditional alliance between the Austrian Hapsburg and Russian Romanov Dynasties that had been damaged by the Crimean War of 1853. In that conflict, Hapsburg Austria had failed to support its traditional ally during Russia’s war against the Ottoman Empire, France, and Great Britain out of fear that Russia’s encouragement of Slavic Orthodox Christians to rebel against Ottoman rule could inspire a rebellion of Slavic peoples under Hapsburg rule. In 1873, Bismarck successfully negotiated the League of the Three Emperors, which linked Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Russia in a military alliance. These three states all shared common values and concerns. All three emperors of these states were staunch Conservatives. Moreover, all three states had previously partitioned Poland in the late 18th century and were all concerned with suppressing Polish nationalism. However, this proved no easy task with the various tensions that had been brewing in the region.
In 1815 the Sultan had granted the Ottoman province of Serbia self-government and autonomy after the Serbs had revolted against Ottoman rule. Under this 1815 agreement, the local Serb nobles or voivodes elected a prince (Knez) to govern the province as the vassal of the Sultan. In 1876, the prince of Serbia, Milan Obrenovich declared war on the Sultan for the following reason. The Ottoman Empire in 1876 had engaged its new and improved military in brutally crushing uprisings in Bulgaria and Bosnia by Orthodox Christian Bulgarians and Serbs, who were also inspired by nationalism to seek independence from Ottoman rule. It was in response to these revolts and the massacres by Ottoman troops that the Ottoman province of Serbia declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire and went to war against the Sultan. In this conflict, the superior Ottoman army quickly defeated Serb forces. The brutal suppression of these revolts in Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Serbia and the slaughter of Slavic, Orthodox Christians by Ottoman forces angered Russia, whose Tsar was also a Slav and the head of the Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire. In 1877 Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 had enabled the Russian state to draft and train millions of former serfs into an immense army. Russian forces quickly defeated the outmanned Ottoman armies, and the Ottoman capital, Istanbul, was in peril of falling.
Unfortunately for Bismarck, the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 strained relations between Russia and Austro-Hungary, because Austro-Hungary once again feared that Russian support for Slavic nations in the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire might stir up revolts by Slavic peoples in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1878 the Ottoman Empire sued for peace, and the Russian government dictated the terms of the Treaty of San Stephano. Under the terms of this treaty, Romania and Serbia became independent nations instead of Ottoman vassal states, and Bulgaria became an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire, but under Russian occupation. The Russian victory over the Ottoman Empire resulted in an international crisis. Austro-Hungary feared that this Russian victory and independence for Slavic nations in the Balkans would inspire revolts by the Slavic populations within its own empire. Bismarck was worried that Germany would have to choose to support either Russia or Austro-Hungary in a conflict between these two empires, and the one not chosen consequently would ally with Germany's enemy, France. In 1878 Bismarck invited the European states to send delegates to Berlin, the capital of Germany, to resolve the problems that had arisen due to the Russo-Turkish War.
In 1878 delegates from European nations convened at the Congress of Berlin, under the leadership of Bismarck, and negotiated an end to the current crisis. Under agreements reached at this congress, the Ottoman Empire ceded the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean to the United Kingdom, so that the United Kingdom could station a fleet on the island and, therefore, secure the routes that linked the United Kingdom to the Indian Ocean and India. To strengthen the Ottoman Empire after this devastating defeat and maintain regional stability, the congress shrank the size of the Bulgarian nation created by the Treaty of San Stephano. The congress returned to the Ottoman Empire, the southern section of Bulgaria, known as Eastern Rumelia. The Congress also installed a German prince, Alexander of Battenberg, as the new constitutional monarch of Bulgaria; he was related to both the British and Russian royal families. To balance the influence of Russia in the Balkans through their influence over Bulgaria, the congress permitted Austro-Hungary to occupy and administer the Ottoman province of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Balkans, as a protectorate. The Congress of Berlin was effective in meeting the concerns of the European powers and Bismarck in particular. In 1879 the League of the Three Emperors was renewed for another three years, and France remained diplomatically isolated and without allies.
In 1882, Bismarck convinced Italy to join Germany and Austro-Hungary in a Triple Alliance, which was directed against France. After the Russo-Turkish War, Bismarck decided to expand Germany's system of alliances to keep France in check, as he was now unsure about keeping both Austro-Hungary and Russia as German allies due to their hostility for one another. In 1879, Bismarck successfully negotiated an alliance between Germany and Austro-Hungary alone, known as the Dual Alliance. Since the German Austrians shared a common culture and Roman Catholic faith with Germans in southern Germany, the maintenance of this alliance was key to promoting unity within the German Empire, especially with the ongoing Kulturkampf within Germany. The German alliance with Austro-Hungary, therefore, took precedence over any alliance with Russia.
As relations between Austro-Hungary and Russia further deteriorated in the 1880s, ultimately Germany had no choice but to side with Austro-Hungary over Russia, thereby opening a military alliance between France and Russia and an end to France's diplomatic isolation. By 1885, the Bulgarian government of Alexander of Battenberg had dismissed its Russian advisers and embarked on an independent course. In that year also, Bulgarian nationalists in Eastern Rumelia revolted against the Ottoman government, and in response, the Bulgarian government sent troops to the region and annexed it. This expansion of Bulgaria worried both Serbia and Greece, who feared that Bulgarian nationalists were seeking to recreate the Medieval Bulgarian Empire of the 9th century, which had dominated the Balkans. In 1885, the new king of Serbia, Milan Obrenovich, consequently, pushed Serbia into a war with Bulgaria to hold in check possible Bulgarian territorial expansion. Austro-Hungary, however, feared that a protracted war in the Balkans involving Serbia might inspire ethnic Serbs in Austro-Hungary to revolt in the hope of uniting with their fellow Serbs in Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian government, therefore, pressured both Serbia and Bulgaria to end the war through negotiations.
Russia was incensed by the decrease of their influence in the Balkans and the increase in Austro-Hungary's standing. From the perspective of Russian nationalists, the Slavic Orthodox Christians in the Balkans were the natural allies of "Mother" Russia. In 1886, Russian agents kidnapped Alexander of Battenberg, transported him to Russia, and tortured him until he agreed to abdicate the throne. The Russian government hoped that this action would result in the creation of a new, pro-Russian government in Bulgaria. Almost all European governments, however, including Germany and Austro-Hungary, denounced the Russian state for taking this action. France, however, alone publicly supported Russia. France was by this point desperate to win an ally for a possible war against Germany. Within France, an influential national organization, the League of Patriots lobbied the French government to wage war of revenge on Germany and recover Alsace-Lorraine.
In response to France's support for Russia in this crisis, Bismarck warned the German Reichstag—the German national legislature—that Germany might soon face war against both France and Russia. Historians, however, assert that Bismarck was exaggerating the threat of war at this point since he was trying to convince the German Reichstag to approve a massive ten-year spending plan for the German military. Once the German legislature approved Bismarck's military spending plan, Bismarck began downplaying the possibility of war. Bismarck always wanted to make sure that his fellow Prussian aristocrats—the Junkers—were placed in the German military as high-ranking officers, possessing power and influence. When the whole affair had blown over, the Russians were not even able to secure a pro-Russian government in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian legislature in 1887 offered the throne to another German prince, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who was native to Austro-Hungary.
In 1887, Bismarck negotiated the Re-insurance Treaty between Russia and Germany, which established a non-aggression pact between the two empires for three years; however, his reign over the matters would soon end. After the events of 1886, Bismarck knew that he could not renew the League of the Three Emperors due to the growing antagonism between Russia and Austria-Hungary. And he still wanted to avoid an alliance between France and Russia. In 1888 however, Bismarck's plan was derailed by the deaths of his friend, the German emperor William I, as well as that of William's son, Frederick III. This resulted in the accession of William II (r. 1888 – 1918) —William I’s grandson—as the new Kaiser (emperor). William II embraced popular racial theories in Germany at that time that maintained that Germans were a racially superior nation. William II didn't understand why Bismarck feared an alliance between racially inferior Frenchmen and Russians. When the Re-insurance treaty was up for renewal in 1890, William II dismissed Bismarck as Chancellor and refused to renew the non-aggression pact with Russia.
When the Re-insurance treaty between Russia and Germany lapsed in 1890, France and Russia quickly reached an agreement to become allies in 1891. The stage was, thereby, set for the outbreak of World War I with the alliance between Germany and Austro-Hungary in central Europe—the “Central Powers” —and the opposing alliance between France and the Russian Empire, whose states flanked these Central Powers to the west and east.
Russia’s ongoing support for their fellow Slavs in Serbia fueled fears in Austro-Hungary that Russia and Serbia together could stir up rebellion by Slavs within Austro-Hungary and destabilize this fragile empire. On June 28, 1914, Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austro-Hungary, and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated by a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, while visiting the Bosnian city of Sarajevo on a goodwill tour. This assassination would begin a chain of events that would result in the outbreak of World War I a month later. Gavrilo Princip was a member of a secret, nationalist organization, the Black Hand. that was committed to liberating the Serbs and other Slavic peoples from Austro-Hungarian rule. The government of Austro-Hungary correctly assumed that Serbia was secretly supporting the activities of the Black Hand. Consequently, the Austro-Hungarian government desired to wage war against Serbia to put a stop to its hopes for territorial expansion. Austro-Hungarian statesmen knew, however, that war against Serbia could also lead to war with Russia, a fellow Slavic and Orthodox Christian state. Austro-Hungary therefore received personal assurances from William II of Germany that Germany would stand with its ally, Austro-Hungary, if Russia declared war on Austro-Hungary.
On July 23, The Austro-Hungarian government issued an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding that Serbia publicly condemn all efforts to instigate a rebellion among Bosnian Serbs and arrest and punish those involved in these efforts within Serbia. When Serbia refused to comply with this ultimatum, Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. After this declaration of war, Russia immediately began mobilizing its massive army. Germany then quickly on August 2 declared war on France and Russia. The fragility of the Austro-Hungary and the anxieties of its governments thus helped spark a world war.
Attributions
Title Image
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Congress_of_Berlin,_13_July_1878,_by_Anton_von_Werner.jpg
Anton von Werner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons