The Austro-Hungarian-Servian War

In 1914 a brazen plot to assasinate the Arduke Franz Ferdinand on his visit to Sarajevo was foiled by the ineptitude of the plotters and the brave actions of a Sarajevo police detective who shot and killed would be assassin Gavrilo Princip on July 14.

This action prompted the a crackdown on the Black Hand terrorist within both Austro-Hungary and Servia. This led to the more normalizing of relations between the small kingdom and the large empire.

Unfortunately, even though this event did not precipitate war in Europe, other events did. In September of 1914 Italy broke out of the Central Powers and invaded Dalmatia, prompting the Austro-Italian War which which lasted until the fall of 1917 in Status Quo Antebellum and Italian recognition of the Austro-Hungarian domination of Dalmatia.

Germany was unable to participate in this war because of thee nearly simultaneous uprising in German Southwest Africa, German East Africa, and closer to home Polish uprisings in East Prussia. The uprising in Africa were put in down in an efficient and brutal manner, but the chasing of Polish seperatists into Russian territory led to war between Germany and Russia in October of 1914 and this conflict would last until the fall of 1916 with Polish independence crushed and social conflict and uprisings with Russia herself. Also Germany now found herself with large expanses of fromerly Russian Polish territory.

As pertaining to their alliance with Russia, France declared war on Germany. Because of the large numbers of troops already being used in the east, Germany took to the defensive in the west. The French made little gains during the war and sued for peace when Russia did the same.
And thus by 1917 an uneasy international peace reigned thourought Europe, and any potential global conflagaration was ultimately prevented.
But this did not prevent conflict from happening in Europe for in 1919 Servia invaded and then annexed Montenegro. Kaiser Karl I responded by setting up the Kingdom of Albania which he gave it full support.

The Balkans did not experience much peace following the turbulent decade of the teens for war was the norm. The twenties saw several wars amougst the nations of the Balkans including the devestating Austro-Rumanian War of 1921 - 1925 which led to the annexation of Rumania.

During the rest of the century Austria-Hungary remained relatively peaceful except for the Albanian War from 1947 - 1954 which was prompted by the attempted Italian annexation of Albania and resulted in the loss of Italy's colonial empire to Austria-Hungary.

Aside from minor colonial uprisings in Africa and the peaceful restablishment of the independent Kingdom of Rumania in 1985 the Austro-Hungarian Empire remained peaceful and productive and more and more unitarian following the political, economic, and military reforms of at first Kaiser Karl I and then Kaiser Otto I who was a major player in the signing of the International Powers League (IPL).

In the late 1990's the ethnic Albanians Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was a terrorist group operating as terrorists against Servia for the establishment of either an independent Kosovo or the unification of Kosovo with Albania. Following a spat of violence and death the Servian army entered Albania in order to destory KLA base camps on October 7, 2009.

Immediatly the Austro-Hungarian government issued an ultimatum to Servia demanding a withdrawal of all Servian forces from the region within 15 days.

When Servia failed to respond to these demands Austria-Hungary declared War on Servia and on October 23 the first Imperial and Royal troops crossed into Servian territory...
 
There are a few problems already.

The caus bellum for the Russo-German War seems a little farfetched. The Russians would probably crack down on their Poles to keep them in line and help the Germans defeat their rebels.

Why would Servia invade Montenegro which is a close ally?
 
Why is Karl on the throne in 1919 if Franz Ferdinand didn’t die in the assassination attempt? And the Austro-Italian War seems unlikely Italy wasn’t in a position to take on A-H alone unless the latter is in the midst of full blown civil war or some other catastrophe of a similar magnitude.
 
There are a few problems already.

The caus bellum for the Russo-German War seems a little farfetched. The Russians would probably crack down on their Poles to keep them in line and help the Germans defeat their rebels.

Why would Servia invade Montenegro which is a close ally?

I just wanted the collective steam of tensions in Europe to let loose a little without any whole scale bloodshed a la the Great War. A bunch of crisis occuring simultaneously seemed like a good way way to prevent the whole system of alliances from sending Europe into war and a Polish uprising in East Prussia seemed just the way, kinda far fetched I know and if anyone has a better idea I would be more than happy to amend it for the purposes of historical realism.
 
Why is Karl on the throne in 1919 if Franz Ferdinand didn’t die in the assassination attempt? And the Austro-Italian War seems unlikely Italy wasn’t in a position to take on A-H alone unless the latter is in the midst of full blown civil war or some other catastrophe of a similar magnitude.

I was going to post later on that Franz Ferdinand died in 1917 in a horse riding accident to do away with butterflies and I've always liked Karl better than Franz (probably something to do with the band, but I don't know:D). Also Franz Ferdinand was for more regional autonomy and I wanted Austria-Hungary to evolve into an even more centralised state, perhaps even doing away with a dual monarchy and being controlled primarily form Vienna again and I thought Karl would be a better choice for that.

As for Italy I thought that Italy's wish to become a true European power and accomplish her national ambitions towards Dalmatia. Besides there Austria-Hungary had some Polish territory and an uprising in Prussia would likely spill onto Austro-Hungarian soil.
 
24 October 2009
It was a cool fall morning and the 14th Panzergrenadier Division had just stopped about 20 miles outside the Servian capitol of Belgrade. The new Austro-Hungarian fighter-bombers, the St 120, was far superior over its Servian counterpart, and had already cleared the skies and were bombing the Servian capitol, flying back and forth from its bases in Hercegovina.

Infanterist Marko Kusić, formely of Zagreb, was leaning up against his unit's half-track while he smoked a Memphis cigarette while he cradled his semiautomatic Steyr M1970 rifle. He was wearing the standard feld grau uniform and helmet, lookings like the thousands of other Austro-Hungarian solders pouring over the Servian border to protect Albanian sovereignty.

Marko Kusić's blue eyes reflected the fatigue, but not the fear he felt. Despite this he, like his numerous comrades, felt that Servia was wrong to invade Albania and was itching to right this wrong, plus it was better than a tour of duty in the sun baked horn of Africa. He had a place in his heart for Albania, for he had visited Tirana after he graduated from Gymnasium and had dated a beautful Albanian girl, Masiela Bitri, until he was called up for his mandatory two-year army service. Marko had every desire to enter Belgrade and force the Servs to leave Albania.

He had just finished his cigarette when his Zugsführer ordered the men back into the half-track. Snugged tight next to his fellow soldiers, Marko Kusić rolled off in the direction of the Serivian capitol, heading into war and wondering if his beloved Masiela was safe during all this fighting...
 
A good POD for a war between Italy and Austria would be Albania, where there were serious differences emerging and where both saw themselves as having spheres of interest. Add to this, Montenegro, traditionally a country that looked towards Vienna (or longer-term towards Russia) but after the Italian marriage increasingly looking towards Rome.

Now, Dalmatia is obviously an Italian war AIM but its not a cassus belli, and I can't see Italy unilaterally launching an attack - after all you do have to LAND there, and the Austrian naval forces have loads of little islands to bolster their defence. Lissa may well still be lurking in Italian memories.

But if the war breaks out over Albania, then involving Montenegro on Italy's side provides a potential landward passage into Dalmatia and Hercegovina

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
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