Austria's Involvement In World War I

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, marking the beginning of World War I. This declaration came one month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife by a Serbian nationalist. Austria-Hungary, with German encouragement, took this step to crush the Serbian threat to its multi-ethnic empire. This act of aggression stirred up old tensions and anxieties across Europe, drawing in supporters and allies on both sides.

Austria-Hungary invades Serbia

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by a Serbian-backed terrorist in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This assassination was the catalyst for a series of political, diplomatic, and military decisions that led to World War I.

Austria-Hungary, with encouragement and support from Germany, invaded Serbia in July 1914. The Austro-Hungarian forces, under the command of Austrian General Oskar Potiorek, launched a series of military expeditions against the Kingdom of Serbia, euphemistically dubbed the "punitive expedition". However, despite their superior numbers, the Austro-Hungarian forces were unable to defeat the Serbian army and their Montenegrin allies. The Serbian victory at the Battle of Cer is considered the first Allied victory of World War I and is known as one of the great upsets of modern military history.

Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia was motivated by a desire to crush the Serbian threat and quash support for Serbian nationalism. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand provided the perfect excuse, as Austria-Hungary believed that Serbia was involved in the organisation of the murder. On July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding full satisfaction and putting the blame for the assassination on the Serbian government. Serbia agreed to all the demands except for two, which entailed constitutional changes and the involvement of Austro-Hungarian officials in the inquiry. Austria-Hungary rejected Serbia's reply, and on July 28, 1914, declared war on Serbia.

The invasion of Serbia in 1914 was a disaster for the Austro-Hungarian Army, as they lost a significant number of troops and failed to capture any territory. However, with heavy aid and support from its allies, the Central Powers, which included the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian forces were able to occupy Serbia in 1915. The defeat of Serbia gave the Central Powers temporary control over the Balkans, allowing them to establish a land route from Berlin to Constantinople and re-supply the Ottoman Empire.

The Central Powers

The name "Central Powers" refers to the central European location of its original members, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Ottoman Empire joined the alliance in November 1914, and Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers in October 1915, declaring war on Serbia.

The origins of World War I can be traced back to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in June 1914. This event provoked Austria-Hungary to deliver an ultimatum to Serbia, which ultimately led to the outbreak of the war. The Central Powers consisted of the following members:

• German Empire: Germany had plans for an economic association called Mitteleuropa, which would include Austria-Hungary and other members. Germany provided significant financial aid and weapons shipments to the Ottoman Empire.
• Austria-Hungary: Internally divided into two states, Austria (Cisleithania) and Hungary (Transleithania), each with its own government, joined through the Habsburg throne. Austria-Hungary suffered heavy casualties during the war and was dependent on German assistance.
• Ottoman Empire: The Ottoman Empire joined the alliance due to strong economic connections with Germany through the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway project. They entered the war by launching a naval raid on Russian ports.
• Bulgaria: Bulgaria was the last country to join the Central Powers, declaring war on Serbia in October 1915. They had claims on the region of Vardar Macedonia, which was held by Serbia at the time.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The events of the assassination

Princip was part of a group of six Bosnian assassins, five of whom were Bosnian Serbs and members of a student revolutionary group that later became known as Young Bosnia. The political objective of the assassination was to free Bosnia and Herzegovina of Austria-Hungarian rule and establish a common South Slav ("Yugoslav") state.

On the morning of 28 June 1914, Princip and five other assassins were positioned along the motorcade route. Franz Ferdinand and his party proceeded by train from Ilidža Spa to Sarajevo, where they were met by Governor Oskar Potiorek. The motorcade's first stop was a brief inspection of a military barracks. At 10:10 am, Franz Ferdinand's car approached and one of the assassins, Nedeljko Čabrinović, threw a bomb at the car. The bomb bounced off and exploded under the next car, wounding a number of people but leaving Franz Ferdinand and Sophie unharmed. Čabrinović swallowed a cyanide pill and jumped into the river but survived. The procession sped away towards the Town Hall.

Arriving at the Town Hall, Franz Ferdinand showed signs of stress and interrupted a prepared speech of welcome to protest the bombing. He and Sophie then got back into the motorcade, which soon took a wrong turn, stalling the car close to where Princip was standing. Princip stepped up to the car and shot Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point-blank range. According to Albertini, "the first bullet wounded the Archduke in the jugular vein, the second inflicted an abdominal wound on the Duchess." Within minutes, both had passed away. Princip, a slender, 19-year-old Serbian army reject, later admitted to killing Franz Ferdinand but said he had not meant to hit Sophie.

The aftermath of the assassination

With tensions already running high among Europe’s powers, the assassination precipitated a rapid descent into World War I. Austria-Hungary gained German support for punitive action against Serbia and sent an ultimatum, worded in a way that made acceptance unlikely. Serbia proposed arbitration to resolve the dispute, but Austria-Hungary instead declared war on 28 July 1914, exactly a month after Franz Ferdinand’s death. By the following week, Germany, Russia, France, Belgium, Montenegro and Great Britain had all been drawn into the conflict, and other countries like the United States would enter later. Overall, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians—died in fighting that lasted until 1918.

The Austro-Hungarian army

Despite these challenges, the Austro-Hungarian Army managed to hold off multiple Italian offensives between 1915 and 1917 and played a significant role in the occupation of Serbia and the defeat of Romania. However, by 1917, the Army's battle capacity had been gravely undermined, and it was operating as a mere auxiliary of the German Army on the Eastern Front. The process of disintegration, set in motion by the stress and strain of the war, led to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Army along with the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918.

The collapse of Austria-Hungary

The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was catalysed by a multitude of factors, including the growth of internal social contradictions, the separation of different parts of Austria-Hungary, the 1918 crop failure, general starvation, the economic crisis, and the widening gap between Hungarian and Austrian interests. The Austro-Hungarian forces had also suffered heavy casualties, culminating in the collapse of the Italian front, which led the Austrians to accept the Armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918.

The Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed at dramatic speed in the autumn of 1918. The leftist and liberal political parties, which opposed the monarchy, gained power due to the German defeat and the minor revolutions in Vienna and Budapest. The leftist and pacifist political movements organised strikes in factories, and uprisings in the army became commonplace.

As the war progressed, ethnic unity declined, and the Allies encouraged breakaway demands from minorities, causing the empire to face disintegration. The Allied Powers' support for independence claims of the Habsburg nationalities further weakened the empire. The nationalist movements, which had been calling for a greater degree of autonomy for various areas, started pressing for full independence. The multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire started to disintegrate, leaving its army alone on the battlefields. The military breakdown of the Italian front marked the start of the rebellion for the numerous ethnicities who made up the multiethnic Empire, as they refused to keep fighting for a cause that now appeared senseless.

On 14 October 1918, the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, Baron István Burián von Rajecz, asked for an armistice based on the Fourteen Points. Four days later, the United States Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, replied that the Allies were committed to the causes of the Czechs, Slovaks, and South Slavs. He stated that autonomy for the nationalities was no longer enough, and Washington could not deal on the basis of the Fourteen Points anymore. The Lansing note was the death certificate of Austria-Hungary.

On 17 October 1918, the Hungarian Parliament voted to terminate the union with Austria. The most prominent opponent of the continued union, Count Mihály Károlyi, seized power in the Aster Revolution on 31 October. Karl I was forced to appoint Károlyi as his Hungarian prime minister, and one of Károlyi's first acts was to repudiate the compromise agreement, effectively terminating the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. By the end of October, Karl I's authority was being challenged by the German-Austrian state council, and his last Austrian prime minister, Heinrich Lammasch, concluded that Karl I was in an impossible situation.

On 11 November, Karl I issued a carefully worded proclamation in which he recognised the Austrian people's right to determine the form of the state. He also renounced the right to participate in Austrian affairs of state and dismissed Lammasch and his government from office. Two days later, he issued a similar proclamation for Hungary. However, he did not abdicate, remaining available if the people of either state recalled him. This was the end of Habsburg rule.

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