Austria with no WW1

I enjoy my CP victory TL's. But I find that Austria-Hungary seems to follow several paths again and again. Generally it either modernizes and becomes a leading European state or it falls into civil war very quickly. This does make me wonder how AH would develop without WW1.

Lets say that WW1 is delayed until the late 30s. How would Austria develop? Would Franz Ferdinand's reforms make a difference or is it simply doomed to collapse?
 
Well I hate inevitability and certainly don't think anyting is doomed to collapse

The history of the Habsburgs since 1815 has been one of loss and retrenchment, and I don't see that they would simply see it all fall apart in peacetime

Hungary is the real problem, but it can be dealt with - not easily, but FF must have assumed it could and Karl likewise.

I've run outa energy, sorry
Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I read one pre WW1 statesman said that AH would bound to collapse and that couldn't happen without causing or involving a major war. I can't remember who it was, but struck me as an important indication of the thoughts of contemporary movers and shakers.
 
I believe my old history teacher Joachim Remak wrote an article on Austria-Hungary years ago and basically argued that the Dual Monarchy was getting along just fine during the years leading up to the Great War. The system of governance was clunky, but for the most part it ran well. I think we have come, in the aftermath of the Great War, too fixated on the concept of a national homeland or each ethnic group gets its own country.

We consider the AH to be a failing nation since it collapsed and disappeared from the map, but for the most part it was external forces and movements that destroyed and dismembered it. The central pillars had started to crumble under the influence of the war, but what nation doesn't buckle to some degree? The nation didn't start to unravel until the Habsburg armies started collapsing in the field.
 
The problem as I see it is that the empire needed both political and military reforms if it was to survive. The Czech, croats, slovenians and slovkians need to feel that they were members of the empire not just second class citizens.
The military needed to be better trained and equipped. The General staff was illprepared to wage war and its military had the problem of too many different languages. To deal with this would also require the empire to improve the school system and requiring everyone to learn at least 2 language-their native one and German.
 
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