Austria's Conquest: World War I Expansion Explored

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was a military and diplomatic alliance, consisting of two sovereign states with a single monarch who was titled both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The Empire was dissolved shortly after Hungary terminated the union with Austria in 1918.

The Empire was one of Europe's major powers, and geographically the second-largest country in Europe and the third-most populous (after Russia and the German Empire), while being among the ten most populous countries worldwide. The Empire built up the fourth-largest machine-building industry in the world.

The Empire's demise was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, which set in motion events that led to a global war. The Empire was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918.

The Serbian campaign, 1914

The Serbian campaign of 1914 was the first of two military expeditions launched by the Central Powers against the Kingdom of Serbia during World War I. The campaign began after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Bosnian-Serb nationalist. The campaign, dubbed a "punitive expedition" by the Austro-Hungarian leadership, was under the command of Austrian General Oskar Potiorek.

The first invasion of Serbia was launched with numerical inferiority, and the able Serbian commander, Radomir Putnik, brought the invasion to an early end by his victories on the Cer Mountain and at Šabac. In early September, Putnik's subsequent northward offensive on the Sava River had to be broken off when the Austrians began a second offensive against the Serbs' western front on the Drina River. After some weeks of deadlock, the Austrians began a third offensive, which had some success in the Battle of the Kolubara, and forced the Serbs to evacuate Belgrade on November 30. By December 15, a Serbian counterattack had retaken Belgrade and forced the Austrians to retreat.

The Serbian campaign of 1914 ended on 14 December with a victory for Serbia. The Austro-Hungarians suffered heavy casualties with over 224,000 dead, wounded or prisoner and were unable to achieve their objectives. The victory also brought heavy losses to the Serbian army with 170,000 casualties, a much higher percentage for the small kingdom, making further offensive operations impossible.

The war at sea, 1914–15

The war at sea during 1914-15 was characterised by the British blockade of Germany, which aimed to prevent all supplies reaching the country from the outside world. The two routes by which supplies could reach German ports were through the English Channel and the Strait of Dover, and around the north of Scotland. A minefield laid in the Strait of Dover with a narrow free lane made it fairly easy to intercept and search ships using the Channel. To the north of Scotland, however, there was an area of more than 200,000 square miles to be patrolled, and the task was assigned to a squadron of armed merchant cruisers. During the early months of the war, only absolute contraband such as guns and ammunition was restricted, but the list was gradually extended to include almost all material that might be of use to the enemy.

The Germans similarly sought to attack Britain's economy with a campaign against its supply lines of merchant shipping. In 1915, however, with their surface commerce raiders eliminated from the conflict, they were forced to rely entirely on the submarine.

The Germans began their submarine campaign against commerce by sinking a British merchant steamship without warning on October 20, 1914. A number of other sinkings followed, and the Germans soon became convinced that the submarine would be able to bring the British to an early peace. On January 30, 1915, Germany carried the campaign a stage further by torpedoing three British steamers without warning. They next announced, on February 4, that from February 18 they would treat the waters around the British Isles as a war zone in which all Allied merchant ships were to be destroyed, and in which no ship, whether enemy or not, would be immune.

Yet, whereas the Allied blockade was preventing almost all trade for Germany from reaching that nation's ports, the German submarine campaign yielded less satisfactory results. During the first week of the campaign, seven Allied or Allied-bound ships were sunk out of 11 attacked, but 1,370 others sailed without being harassed by the German submarines. In the whole of March 1915, during which 6,000 sailings were recorded, only 21 ships were sunk, and in April only 23 ships from a similar number. Apart from its lack of positive success, the U-boat arm was continuously harried by Britain's extensive anti-submarine measures, which included nets, specially armed merchant ships, hydrophones for locating the noise of a submarine's engines, and depth bombs for destroying it underwater.

For the Germans, a worse result than any of the British countermeasures imposed on them was the long-term growth of hostility on the part of the neutral countries. Certainly, the neutrals were far from happy with the British blockade, but the German declaration of the war zone and subsequent events turned them progressively away from their attitude of sympathy for Germany. The hardening of their outlook began in February 1915, when the Norwegian steamship Belridge, carrying oil from New Orleans to Amsterdam, was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel. The Germans continued to sink neutral ships occasionally, and undecided countries soon began to adopt a hostile outlook toward this activity when the safety of their own shipping was threatened.

Much more serious was an action that confirmed the inability of the German command to perceive that a minor tactical success could constitute a strategic blunder of the most extreme magnitude. This was the sinking by a German submarine on May 7, 1915, of the British liner Lusitania, which was on its way from New York to Liverpool. Though the ship was in fact carrying 173 tons of ammunition, it had nearly 2,000 civilian passengers, and the 1,198 people who were drowned included 128 US citizens. The loss of the liner and so many of its passengers, including the Americans, aroused a wave of indignation in the US, and it was fully expected that a declaration of war might follow. But the US government clung to its policy of neutrality and contented itself with sending several notes of protest to Germany. Despite this, the Germans persisted in their intention and, on August 17, sank the Arabic, which also had US and other neutral passengers. Following a new US protest, the Germans undertook to ensure the safety of passengers before sinking liners henceforth; but only after the torpedoing of yet another liner, the Hesperia, did Germany, on September 18, decide to suspend its submarine campaign in the English Channel and west of the British Isles, for fear of provoking the United States further. The German civilian statesmen had temporarily prevailed over the naval high command, which advocated "unrestricted" submarine warfare.

The loss of the German colonies

The German Empire lost its colonies during World War I. The colonies were conquered by the Allies, who then divided them amongst themselves. The German colonies were:

• Groß Friedrichsburg (in Ghana), 1683–1718
• Arguin (in Mauritania), 1685–1721
• Curlander Gambia 1651–1660, 1660–1661
• Neu-Kurland (on Tobago) 1642–1650, 1654–1659, 1660–1666
• Free City of Augsburg
• Klein-Venedig (in Venezuela), 1528–1545
• Hanauish-Indies, Planned in 1669 but later canceled in 1672
• Neu-Askania, 1828–1856
• Kionga Triangle, 1894–1916
• German South West Africa, 1884–1915
• German West Africa, 1884–1915
• Togoland, 1884–1916
• Kamerun, from 1884–1916
• Kapitaï and Koba, 1884–1885
• Mahinland, March 11, 1885 – October 24, 1885
• German East Africa, 1885–1918
• Witu Protectorate, 1885–1890
• German Somali Coast, 1885–1888
• German Congo, 1884–1885
• German Katanga, 1886
• Gwandu Protectorate, 1895–1897
• Gulmu Protectorate, 1895–1897
• German South Africa, 1884–1885
• Kiautschou Bay concession, 1898–1914
• German concession in Tientsin, 1895–1917
• German concession in Hankou, 1895–1917
• German Peking Legation, 1900–1917
• German New Guinea, 1884–1919
• Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, 1885–1914
• Bismarck Archipelago, 1885–1914
• German Solomon Islands Protectorate, 1885–1914
• Bougainville Island, 1885–1914
• Buka Island, 1885–1914
• Choiseul Island, 1885–1900
• Shortland Islands, 1885–1900
• Santa Isabel Island, 1885–1900
• Northern Mariana Islands, 1899–1914
• Caroline Islands, 1899–1914
• Palau Islands, 18991914
• German Samoa, 1900–1914
• Protectorate of the Marshall Islands, 1885–1906

The years of stalemate

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, following wars of independence by Hungary in opposition to Habsburg rule. It was dissolved shortly after Hungary terminated the union with Austria in 1918.

The First World War began when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia in July 1914, following the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip. The war was a global conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including the fall of four great imperial powers.

The war was fought between the Allied Powers (based on the Triple Entente of the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) and the Central Powers (originally the alliance of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire). Eventually, more than 70 million military personnel were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history.

The war ended on 11 November 1918, with the armistice with Germany, and an end to four years of warfare. The war led to the fall of four great imperial powers, changed the political landscape and social structure of the world, and resulted in the establishment of several independent nations in Europe and the Middle East. The results of the war also laid the foundation for the emergence of the communist state of the Soviet Union, and facilitated the development of military technology and equipment, including the tank and chemical weapons.

The final offensive on the Western Front

The Hundred Days Offensive began with the Second Battle of the Marne, a counter-offensive against the Marne salient, which was eliminated by August. This was followed by the Battle of Amiens, which began on 8 August 1918 and was led by Franco-British forces, spearheaded by Australian and Canadian troops, along with 600 tanks and 800 aircraft. The German commander, Erich Ludendorff, referred to 8 August as the "Black Day of the German Army".

The Hundred Days Offensive was a series of five major battles:

• Battle of Amiens (8–12 August 1918)
• Battle of Albert (21–23 August 1918)
• Second Battle of the Somme (21 August – 3 September 1918)
• Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin–Péronne (31 August – 3 September 1918)
• Battle of Saint-Mihiel (12–16 September 1918)

The Hundred Days Offensive was a significant turning point in the war, as it marked the first time that the Allies had a clear advantage over the Central Powers. The offensive resulted in heavy losses for the Germans, with over 100,000 German soldiers killed, wounded or missing, and over 300,000 taken as prisoners of war. The Allies, on the other hand, suffered fewer casualties, with around 75,000 killed, wounded or missing.

The Hundred Days Offensive was also notable for the use of new military technologies, such as tanks and aircraft, which played a significant role in the Allied victory. The offensive demonstrated the effectiveness of combined arms tactics, with tanks, infantry, artillery and aircraft working together to break through the German lines.

The Hundred Days Offensive was a decisive victory for the Allies and marked the end of the war on the Western Front. The German armies were in retreat, and the Allies advanced towards the Hindenburg Line, the last major line of defence for the Central Powers. The Allies launched a massive offensive against the Hindenburg Line in September 1918, attacking simultaneously along more than half of the Western Front. The offensive was a success, with American and French forces striking in the Meuse-Argonne region in the northeast, and British and Belgian forces punching through German defences near Ypres in the northwest.

The Hundred Days Offensive was a major turning point in the war and led to the collapse of the Central Powers and the end of the war. The offensive demonstrated the effectiveness of combined arms tactics and the importance of new military technologies, such as tanks and aircraft. The offensive was a decisive victory for the Allies and marked the beginning of the end of the war.

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