Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze
Unsern Kaiser, unser Land!
Mächtig durch des Glaubens Stütze,
Führt er uns mit weiser Hand!
十一. ハプスブルク帝国の終わり
11. End of the Habsburg Empire
Thank you to @Magyarország for suggestions in the creation of this chapter.
The de-facto end of the Habsburg Empire as it stood in the test of the aftermath of the Congress of Vienna is often attributed to the course of events in the Great War. While the Dual Monarchy enjoyed early victories, largely attributed to their superior manpower and tactics to that of the Kingdom of Serbia, the entrance of the Kingdom of Italy into the war on the side of the Entente in 1915, and the failure of the K.u.K. armies to land victories against Russia through the summer and spring of 1914 and 1915, largely weakened her morale.
By 1917, Austria-Hungary's role in the war was largely 'second fiddle' to that of Germany. Germany had largely subverted the pre-existing agreements of partition with regards to Poland and Ukraine. After the death of Franz Joseph in November 1916, Germany's interest in retaining the Austrians as an ally hit rock bottom--to Berlin, the chance of influence was not worth Vienna's friendship, particularly as Vienna was a teetering mass of ethnicities ready to implode at a moment's notice.
The war with Italy concluded in March 1917 with the complete defeat of the Habsburg Empire. The provisional peace terms, signed between Italy and Austria-Hungary, placed most of the war-guilt on Austria, with Italy extracting the South Tyrol and Istria regions as territorial concessions. While the imperial elite in Austria are outraged at the betrayal of the war effort by the cowardly civilian government, the majority of Austria's soldiers and workers are relieved that peace has finally come, and that Austria may now start rebuilding her interior; particularly as Serbia remains under the foothold of Vienna.
Almost immediately after the war, as soldiers of the Honvéd return home from war, political strife ignites in the Transleithania crown-land. Many Magyars feel that their political interests are not represented to their fullest in the central government, which largely favors the domestic Cisleithania crownland (Austria). These protests soon grow as the scope expands from 'extended sufferage', to universal sufferage, and the extension of labour and political rights across the Empire. Ethnic protests soon double up, as many minorities began to complain of similar discriminatory policies in Vienna. By the end of the summer of 1917, Austria-Hungary is boiling with rife discontent.
The Hungarian government and political parties are reluctant to implement reforms which will weaken their power. However, mounting pressure from the demonstrators and reformists within the Imperial Hungarian Diet, lead to the spectre of reforms taking shape. However, the piecemeal offerings of the imperial government to the people are not taken well--the nationalists complain about empowering minorities with Hungary, the leftists complain about it being a bourgeois 'attempt to mislead', and the soldiers complain about the need for immediate enfranchisement of all men, especially ones whom died for the Crown.
Within Austria, Karl puts into motion his own measures of reform--namely where Bohemia-Moravia is concerned. By Imperial edict, he merges the crownlands of Bohemia, Moravia and the small piece of Silesia under Austrian control, into one large crownland. While it is not the 'third' monarchy within the Empire, it is a largely autonomous part of the Austrian crownlands.
German nationalists immediately began to cry out against this decision, calling for the reunification of the Sudetenland with the rest of German Austria. The Czechs are placated, and back Karl's reforms to the hilt. Karl then looks south to the Slavs of Carinthia, Croatia, Dalmatia and Bosnia-- he begins to resolve to look into creating a consolidated South Slavic state within the Empire capable of satiating the nationalistic desires of the Slavs.
However, Hungary's leaders and protesters are vehemently opposed to Hungary losing control of Croatia, and are especially opposed to losing Slavic lands to Serbia or any other South Slav state. In early 1918, things accelerate as Hungarian nationalists join into the fray, fearing that increasing reform from Vienna, and left-wing sentiment at home, will ultimately lead to the dismantling of the Hungarian crown-lands into a rump state. The Honved, and ultimately, the Austrians too, are called into quell riots in cities such as Pressburg, which have not only Hungarians rioting, but natives as well.
After months of pressure by Germany, in February 1918, Karl formally cedes control of Galicia-Lodomeria to the two German client states of Ukraine and Poland. This marks the end of Austria's bid to gain anything from the Eastern Front, and the loss of face damages the Emperor's standing in Vienna further, giving more fuel to the Austrian militants whom oppose the Emperor's peaceful reform policy.
The frustrated Sudeten-Germans begin to riot as well in late February, forming the Freikorps Sudetenland with the help of their Silesian brethren, and volunteers from the collapsing German Empire, namely the Royal Saxon Volunteers, and the Silesian People's Regiment. The Austrian army moves into Bohemia to restore order, and clashes with the natives, as well as Czech nationalists whom oppose the army camping out in their realm.
In March 1918, the Emperor Karl and his wife are killed by left-wing attackers during a riot in Vienna, after a bomb went off underneath their carriage. The death of the Emperor has left power to the 6 year old Otto von Habsburg-Lorraine, thus requiring a regency. With the Empire destabilizing, no clear faction emerges to dominate the fledgling regency for the young Emperor.
With the Emperor's death, the imperial military and right-wing factions have had enough--the erosion of power has gone on for too long, and democracy has done nothing but weaken the state. With riots and revolution engulfing Hungary, Bohemia and Austria, the military acts. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, and a number of military units attempt to seize control of the government of Austria-Hungary, with help from Honved units, whom attempt to seize Budapest.
While he is successful in seizing Vienna, the attempt by the Honved to seize Budapest fails, as the communist revolutionaries whom are thrashing their way through the countryside stop the Honved from acting. Hötzendorf, oblivious to the danger of the situation, declares himself the sole regent, and suspends the diets of Bohemia-Moravia, Austria and Hungary, in an attempt to 'stop the madness'--this does not go over well.
A full on revolution erupts in Austria as the leftists feel the time is now to strike against the unpopular monarchy, which has brought ruin to Austria in a matter of four years. While Hotzendorf remains in Vienna to fight off the revolutionaries, the Emperor is escorted to Budapest by the Army.
Within days of the Emperor's arrival in Budapest, the communists take control of Vienna, and capture Hötzendorf. He is summarily executed without trial, and they use the opportunity to declare the establishment of the Austrian Soviet Republic, a temporary measure as the revolutionaries buckle in. A coalition of Czech nationalists and former K.u.K. military officers align with the technically-suspended Diet of Czechia, and declare their independence as the Provisional Government of the State of Czechs and Slovaks.
Similarly, South Slavic nationalists usurp power across the Balkans away from Vienna and Budapest, and declare their own states; the Republic of Slovenia, Republic of Croatia, and Republic of Bosnia are all proclaimed by the end of May 1918, with Serbia overthrowing their Austrian-enforced King, and proclaiming a Republic too.
Hungary, still teetering and reeling, utilizes the situation to bring about an end to Vienna's control over them, declaring the formation of the Kingdom of Hungary, with King Otto remaining on the throne as their sovereign. However, with not enough army power, and horrific exhaustion after the defeat of the Hungarian communists, Budapest has little choice but to agree to the demands of the Slovak and Serbian nationalists rampaging through the country--Slovakia gains her independence, and Serbia gains control of Vojvodina. Slovakia, while independent, is in deep talks with Prague to unite to form Czechoslovakia, but there are many whom do not want to surrender power to another ethnic group -- again. The remainder of Croatia also joins the Dalmatian rump-state that had been formed in reaction to Austria's fall to communism-- after Hungary was convinced to let them go.
The Czechoslovak League in Siberia celebrates the re-establishment of a free Czech and Slovak state, but many choose to remain in Siberia for the time being, feeling their duties are not yet complete, or deciding to build a free society there instead of returning to their homeland.
The dust settles across Austria-Hungary, as the once great Empire has shattered, and the nations that once made her up, pick up the pieces. Hungary harbors some resentment, but is too broken and fractured to care right now--maybe they will be back, someday. But that day is not today.
Hungary breaking off the Union, as much as I disagree, is easy to believe that it would happen.
