The musings and meandering thoughts of a crotchety old man as he observes life in the world and in a small, rural town in South East Nebraska. My Pledge-Nulla dies sine linea-Not a day with out a line.
03 November 2019
Was Austria-Hungary Doomed?
The Mad Monarchist looks at the question, 'Was the fall of the Empire inevitable'?
It
frequently happens in history that the odd remark, even addressing a
situation truthfully, can be repeated so often over the years that it is
blown out of all proportion to historic reality. To some extent this
has been the case with the Dual-Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Because it
was not the most powerful nation in Europe and because her military was
not the most efficient or cohesive, Austria-Hungary is often portrayed
as a decaying, weak, decrepit power that was doomed to fall, war or no
war. Yet, if one takes an objective look at Austro-Hungarian society,
the economy and even the military and their war record, a rather
different picture reveals itself. Austria-Hungary had its problems
certainly and probably more than her share due to the rise of
nationalist sentiment in the multi-national Hapsburg lands but had it
not been for the war there is at least some evidence that
Austria-Hungary could have survived and that the Hapsburg Empire was
not, in fact, a doomed ghost of a bygone era.
First, one area in
which Austria-Hungary was positively thriving was in the artistic and
scientific segment of her society. This was the country of architects
like Frederick Schmidt, Theophil Hansen and Karl Hasenauer. Inside their
magnificent buildings one could find great composers of the period like
Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, Brahms, Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss.
For the less grand there was pieces known as light operas by Johann
Strauss, Karl Millocker and Franz Lehar. There were poets like Hugo von
Hofmannsthal, painters like Hans Makart, Gustav Klimt,
Franz von Stuck and Kolo Moser. There were writers like Adalbert
Stifter, Franz Kafka and Arthur Schnitzler. The medical department of
the University of Vienna was renowned as probably the best in the world
and produced such famous names in medicine as Theodor Billroth in
antiseptic surgery, Theodor Meynert in brain surgery and Sigmund Freud
in psychiatry. In other fields of study Vienna gave the world the
philosopher Ernst Mach, the economist Carl Menger, the war historian
Heinrich Friedjung, the legal experts Rudolf von Ihering and Joseph
Unger, and the anthropologist Rudolf Poech. Does this sound like the
product of a doomed and decaying society? For some, their theories are
still hotly debated, for the artistic types their work is subject to
individual taste, but no one can deny the wealth of talent represented
in these products of late Imperial Austria. This certainly does not look
like a society on the verge of collapse considering it had one of the
greatest concentrations of artistic and scientific talent then in the
world.
Secondly, there is the economic arena. While it is true
that Austria-Hungary labored behind countries like Germany, France and
Britain in the area of modernization and industrialization, significant
economic progress was being made right up to the start of the First
World War and the people of Austria-Hungary were nowhere close to being
among the most impoverished or over-burdened in Europe to say nothing of
the wider world. Industry was growing, railroad networks were expanding
and between 1870 and 1913 per capita GNP in Austria-Hungary actually
grew at a slightly higher rate than in Britain, France or Germany. The
Austrian Empire was more developed than other areas but the Kingdom of
Hungary, before World War I, was a major source of food exports to the
rest of Europe and had a thriving agricultural industry. As the
Twentieth Century dawned the Austro-Hungarian economy was growing by
leaps and bounds. The rapid expansion of railways, particularly after
the government sold much of these to private investors, greatly
increased trade and economic opportunities across the empire. Still, as
stated, Austria-Hungary was by no means the economic powerhouse of
Europe but nor was it poor or backward and the economy was growing
faster than in most other countries.
Finally
we come to the way most powers at the time judged their national
strength and that was, of course, the military. It is true that
Austria-Hungary did not have the best military in the world or the best
military in Europe. They were hampered by the basic fact that Austria
had never been a militaristic country. If you wanted a country that
lived by the sword you went to Prussia. Austria was always more famous
for its music, art, grand buildings and glamorous society than it was
for its military and battlefield successes. Additionally, the
Austro-Hungarian military was hampered by the fact that most of the
officers spoke German but relatively few of the soldiers understood the
language. The dizzying array of languages and ethnic differences made
the sort of rigid unit cohesion present in other armies virtually
impossible in the Imperial-Royal military. However, all of that being
said, the Austro-Hungarian armed forces were nothing to sneer at. They
were a formidable fighting force, among the largest in the world with
some excellent units and some brilliant commanders. They also had a
record that included a number of often over-looked victories as well as
their much talked about defeats.
The
driving force behind the Imperial-Royal Army was Field Marshal Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf. He, like the empire he served, has suffered from a
great deal of bad press in recent histories (regarding his ability and
not his personality and opinions -in that regard he was certainly among
the most vociferous and aggressive). Yet, it must be kept in mind that
at the time of the outbreak of war the Field Marshal was widely
respected, around the world, and considered by contemporaries to be the
most brilliant strategic mind in Central Europe. He should also be given
credit for his efforts to modernize the army and keep up to date with
technological innovations which was always a struggle since Vienna was
constantly cutting the military budget in preference for other things.
The campaigns in the east that the Germans are given so much credit for
winning were all based on the original strategies put down by
Conrad von Hötzendorf. The disabilities of the army may have tainted the results
but few would deny that grand strategy of Conrad von Hötzendorf was the work of a
military genius and were ultimately successful. And, despite the
disabilities of the army it was a formidable force and upon mobilization
was able to field over three million well armed men with some of the
biggest and best artillery in Europe, guns of such superior quality that
they were imported by the Germans to level the Belgian fortresses that
gave them so much trouble.
When it came to actually fighting
there is no doubt that the initial campaign against Serbia was a
disaster for Austria-Hungary and much is often made of this, however, it
happened because of some crucial and unavoidable reasons. First, the
Austrian-Hungarians had to weaken their forces for the drive on Serbia
because of the need to concentrate the bulk of their forces to meet the
Russian threat to the east. Second, the Serbs had the advantage of
fighting a defensive war on their own ground -and that is a very rugged
part of the world and perhaps most importantly the Serbs were simply
extremely tenacious, tough and determined fighters, much more so than
anyone at the time gave them credit for. However, working alone or in
conjunction with the Germans, the Austro-Hungarian forces won numerous
victories against the Russians, Romanians,
finally did conquer the Serbs and when Italy joined the war the forces
of Austria-Hungary performed magnificently. To the very end of the
conflict they held off superior Italian forces, made daring
counter-attacks and even forced the French and British to divert troops
to help the Italians to keep them in the war. It is also true, though
not widely known, that Austria-Hungary sent small forces to aid Germany
on the western front and even to the Middle East to support the
faltering Ottoman Turks toward the end of the war.
On
the naval front, Austria-Hungary was far from helpless as well. Simply
their presence prevented Allied forces operating with impunity due to
their fear of an all-out battle with the formidable Austrian fleet.
Large surface ships were mostly confined to the Adriatic because of this
stand-off but the Imperial-Royal Navy did launch a number of damaging
raids against the Allied blockading squadrons. Likewise, on the undersea
front, for her small size the Austrian u-boat fleet proved extremely
effective. In fact, the Austrian u-boats actually had a higher ratio of
hits versus torpedoes fired than even the legendary German submarine
force did. Another interesting fact is that the top scoring Austrian sub
captain was none other than Georg Ritter von Trapp of “The Sound of
Music” fame. Similarly, the Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops, despite
working under severe hardships, proved themselves extremely capable with
about 20 flying “aces” which included such pilots as Julius Arigi with
32 confirmed victories and Godwin Brumowski with 35 confirmed victories.
Considering
all of this, it seems quite clear to me that, despite some considerable
problems, Austria-Hungary was not an empire destined to collapse in any
event. This is not something that should be seen as an inevitable event
that would have happened with or without the war. Austria-Hungary had a
vibrant social, scientific and artistic life, a growing economy and a
respectable military. Of course no one can say for sure what would have
happened but I think it is clear that it is at least very possible that
without the war Austria-Hungary could have survived, it could have
instituted the changes favored by many for “trialism” or a “United
States of Greater Austria” and could have carried on very well. All the
proper ingredients were there and in the person of either Archduke Franz
Ferdinand or Emperor Charles I significant political changes would have
been made. Austria-Hungary was not doomed, its collapse was not
inevitable and people should not think that it was.
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Comments are subject to deletion if they are not germane. I have no problem with a bit of colourful language, but blasphemy or depraved profanity will not be allowed. Attacks on the Catholic Faith will not be tolerated. Comments will be deleted that are republican (Yanks! Note the lower case 'r'!), attacks on the legitimacy of Pope Leo XIV as the Vicar of Christ, the legitimacy of the House of Windsor or of the claims of the Elder Line of the House of France, or attacks on the legitimacy of any of the currently ruling Houses of Europe.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are subject to deletion if they are not germane. I have no problem with a bit of colourful language, but blasphemy or depraved profanity will not be allowed. Attacks on the Catholic Faith will not be tolerated. Comments will be deleted that are republican (Yanks! Note the lower case 'r'!), attacks on the legitimacy of Pope Leo XIV as the Vicar of Christ, the legitimacy of the House of Windsor or of the claims of the Elder Line of the House of France, or attacks on the legitimacy of any of the currently ruling Houses of Europe.