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110-579: After the defeat of the multi-ethnic Austria-Hungary and the ruling Habsburg dynasty in World War I , new states arose in its former territory. Among these there was an internationally unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs , which was created in the final days of the war according to the 1917 Corfu Declaration , and merged with the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on December 1, 1918. Determination of borders between

220-772: A defensive alliance with Germany in October 1879 and in May 1882. In October 1882 Italy joined this partnership in the Triple Alliance largely because of Italy's imperial rivalries with France. Tensions between Russia and Austria–Hungary remained high, so Bismarck replaced the League of the Three Emperors with the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia to keep the Habsburgs from recklessly starting

330-519: A common holding of Cisleithania and Transleithania under the control of the Imperial & Royal finance ministry rather than attaching it to either territorial government. The annexation in 1908 led some in Vienna to contemplate combining Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croatia to form a third Slavic component of the monarchy. The deaths of Franz Joseph's brother, Maximilian (1867), and his only son, Rudolf , made

440-570: A greater than expected loss of men in the invasion of Serbia. Furthermore, it became evident that the Austrian high command had had no plans for possible continental war and that the army and navy were also ill-equipped to handle such a conflict. In the last two years of the war the Austro-Hungarian armed forces lost all ability to act independently of Germany. As of 7 September 1916, the German emperor

550-416: A high casualty rate, and by the army's composition of multiple ethnicities with different languages and customs. By 1918, the economic situation had deteriorated and governmental failure on the homefront ended popular support for the war. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed with dramatic speed in the autumn of 1918. Leftist and pacifist political movements organized strikes in factories, and uprisings in

660-586: A large South Slav state in the 1917 Corfu Declaration signed by members of the Yugoslav Committee . The Croatians had begun disregarding orders from Budapest earlier in October. Lansing's response was, in effect, the death certificate of Austria–Hungary. During the Italian battles, the Czechoslovaks and Southern Slavs declared their independence. With defeat in the war imminent after the Italian offensive in

770-664: A predominantly Muslim special militia known as the Schutzkorps was established and carried out the persecution of Serbs. Some members of the government, such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Count Leopold Berchtold and Army Commander Count Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf , had wanted to confront the resurgent Serbian nation for some years in a preventive war, but the Emperor and Hungarian prime minister István Tisza were opposed. The foreign ministry of Austro-Hungarian Empire sent ambassador László Szőgyény to Potsdam , where he inquired about

880-422: A process of Germanization started by the end of the 1840s, creating several German-speaking areas within what had previously been a compact Slovene territory. Since the late 1950s, most of southern Carinthia has had a German-speaking majority, with the local Slovene minority living in a scattered pattern throughout the area. On the other hand, other areas with historically important Slovene communities, such as

990-464: A share in the management of their own affairs by means of a local representative assembly. In performance of this promise a constitution was promulgated in 1910. The principal players in the Bosnian Crisis of 1908-09 were the foreign ministers of Austria and Russia, Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal and Alexander Izvolsky . Both were motivated by political ambition; the first would emerge successful, and

1100-662: A small north-western portion of the former kingdom's territory. Eventually, following the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, all former territories of the Hungarian kingdom were ceded from the Ottomans to the Habsburgs. In the revolutions of 1848 , the Kingdom of Hungary called for greater self-government and later even independence from the Austrian Empire . The ensuing Hungarian Revolution of 1848

1210-575: A total force of 450,000 men. However, in the autumn of 1915, the Serbian Army was defeated by the Central Powers, which led to the occupation of Serbia. Near the end of 1915, in a massive rescue operation involving more than 1,000 trips made by Italian, French and British steamers, 260,000 Serb surviving soldiers were transported to Brindisi and Corfu , where they waited for the chance of the victory of Allied Powers to reclaim their country. Corfu hosted

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1320-610: A war over Pan-Slavism. The Sandžak-Raška / Novibazar region was under Austro-Hungarian occupation between 1878 and 1909, when it was returned to the Ottoman Empire, before being ultimately divided between kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia . On the heels of the Great Balkan Crisis, Austro-Hungarian forces occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 1878 and the monarchy eventually annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 1908 as

1430-514: Is now the Italian comune of Tarvisio , but used to belong to the Duchy of Carinthia until 1919. The city of Trieste , whose municipal territory has been regarded by Slovenes to be an integral part of the Slovene lands, has always had a Romance -speaking majority (first Friulian , then Venetian and Italian ). A similar case is that of the town of Gorizia , which served as a major religious center of

1540-559: The Austrian Empire was first advanced during the Spring of Nations . "Slovenia" became a de facto distinctive administrative and political entity for the first time in 1918, with the unilateral declaration of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs . Although Slovenia did not exist as an autonomous administrative unit between 1921 and 1941, the Drava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

1650-642: The Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy , was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consisted of two sovereign states with a single monarch who was titled both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary . Austria-Hungary constituted the last phase in the constitutional evolution of

1760-672: The Austro-Prussian War of 1866 led to the dissolution of the German Confederation (of which the Habsburg emperor was the hereditary president) and the exclusion of Austria from German affairs. These twin defeats gave the Hungarians the opportunity to remove the shackles of absolutist rule. Realizing the need to compromise with Hungary in order to retain its great power status, the central government in Vienna began negotiations with

1870-601: The Bolshevik Revolution and Russians ended their involvement in the war , Germans and Austrians were able to move on the Western and Southern fronts much manpower from the erstwhile Eastern fighting. On 24 October 1917, Austrians (now enjoying decisive German support) attacked at Caporetto using new infiltration tactics; although they advanced more than 100 km (62.14 mi) in the direction of Venice and gained considerable supplies, they were halted and could not cross

1980-522: The Central Powers in World War I , which began with an Austro-Hungarian war declaration on the Kingdom of Serbia on 28 July 1914. It was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. The Kingdom of Hungary and the First Austrian Republic were treated as its successors de jure , whereas the independence of

2090-568: The Croatian cities of Rijeka and Zagreb , as well as the Slovene villages in the Somogy county of Hungary (the Somogy Slovenes ), were never regarded to be part of the Slovene lands. The same goes for the Slovene communities in south-west Friuli (in the villages of Gradisca, Gradiscutta, Gorizzo, Goricizza, Lestizza , and Belgrado in the lower Tagliamento area) which extinguished themselves by

2200-719: The First Czechoslovak Republic , the Second Polish Republic , and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , respectively, and most of the territorial demands of the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Italy were also recognized by the victorious powers in 1920. The realm's official name was in German : Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie and in Hungarian : Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia (English: Austro-Hungarian Monarchy ), though in international relations Austria–Hungary

2310-654: The Habsburg monarchy : it was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and was dissolved shortly after Hungary terminated the union with Austria on 31 October 1918. One of Europe's major powers at the time, Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe and the third-most populous (after Russia and the German Empire ), while being among

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2420-681: The Illyrian provinces , the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary (in Cisleithania ). They encompassed Carniola , southern part of Carinthia , southern part of Styria , Istria , Gorizia and Gradisca , Trieste , and Prekmurje . Their territory more or less corresponds to modern Slovenia and the adjacent territories in Italy , Austria , Hungary , and Croatia , where autochthonous Slovene minorities live. The areas surrounding present-day Slovenia were never homogeneously ethnically Slovene . Like

2530-640: The Isonzo river, hoping to seize Ljubljana, and to eventually threaten Vienna. However, the Royal Italian Army were halted on the river, where four battles took place over five months (23 June – 2 December 1915). The fight was extremely bloody and exhausting for both the contenders. On 15 May 1916, the Austrian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf launched the Strafexpedition (" punitive expedition "):

2640-719: The Meža Valley ( German : Mießtal ) with the town of Dravograd ( Unterdrauburg ) and the Jezersko ( Seeland ) municipal area—should be incorporated into the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, while the fate of wider southeastern Carinthia area down to the Klagenfurt basin was to be determined by a plebiscite. Wanting to resolve the conflict peacefully, the Allied victors in World War I divided southeastern Carinthia into two zones, "A" in

2750-515: The Piave river. Italy, although suffering massive casualties, recovered from the blow, and a coalition government under Vittorio Emanuele Orlando was formed. Italy also enjoyed support by the Entente powers: by 1918, large amounts of war materials and a few auxiliary American, British, and French divisions arrived in the Italian battle zone. Cadorna was replaced by General Armando Diaz ; under his command,

2860-542: The Slovaks , the Slovenes preserve the self-designation of the early Slavs as their ethnonym. The term Slovenia ("Slovenija") was not in use prior to the early 19th century, when it was coined for political purposes by the Slovene romantic nationalists , most probably by some pupils of the linguist Jernej Kopitar . It started to be used only from the 1840s on, when the quest for a politically autonomous United Slovenia within

2970-505: The Treaty of San Stefano tried to create a large pro-Russian Bulgaria. This treaty sparked an international uproar that almost resulted in a general European war. Austria–Hungary and Britain feared that a large Bulgaria would become a Russian satellite that would enable the tsar to dominate the Balkans. British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli moved warships into position against Russia to halt

3080-410: The market town of Lavamünd . The handover of the territories took place on October 1, 1922. This was the final demarcation between Austria and Yugoslavia (and its current legal successor Slovenia), still effective as of today. 46°37′57″N 14°37′07″E  /  46.6325°N 14.6187°E  / 46.6325; 14.6187 Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary , also referred to as

3190-476: The war with Russia . Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 ending the World War I, in spite of the previous initial total dependence of the kingdom on its sponsors, it ultimately served against their intentions as the cornerstone proto state of the nascent Second Polish Republic , the latter composed also of territories never intended by the Central Powers to be ceded to Poland. The Battle of Zborov (1917)

3300-506: The " German question " in favor of a Lesser German Solution . Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust , who was the foreign minister from 1866 to 1871, hated the Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck , who had repeatedly outmaneuvered him. Beust looked to France for avenging Austria's defeat and attempted to negotiate with Emperor Napoleon III of France and Italy for an anti-Prussian alliance, but no terms could be reached. The decisive victory of

3410-572: The " Slovene lands ", referring to the early medieval Slavic principality of Carantania , which had perished in the ninth century. A common state with other South Slavic peoples seemed the most acceptable compromise toward fulfillment of nationalist strivings. The Treaty of Saint-Germain with the Republic of Austria, signed on 10 September 1919, should have determined the Austrian-Yugoslav border. It ascertained that some small parts of Carinthia—i.e.

1920 Carinthian plebiscite - Misplaced Pages Continue

3520-492: The 19th century, the territories regarded as part of the Slovene lands were: The Žumberak and the area around Čabar , which today belong to Croatia , were long part of the Duchy of Carniola , and thus generally regarded as part of the Slovene lands, especially prior to the emergence of Romantic nationalism in the 19th century, when the exact ethnic border between Slovenes and Croats had not yet been specified. Not all of

3630-630: The Allies and Germany . The Austro-Hungarian Empire conscripted 7.8 million soldiers during WWI. General von Hötzendorf was the Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff. Franz Joseph I, who was much too old to command the army, appointed Archduke Friedrich von Österreich-Teschen as Supreme Army Commander (Armeeoberkommandant), but asked him to give Von Hötzendorf freedom to take any decisions. Von Hötzendorf remained in effective command of

3740-637: The Allies, but his initiatives were vetoed by Italy. The heavily rural Empire did have a small industrial base, but its major contribution was manpower and food. Nevertheless, Austria–Hungary was more urbanized (25%) than its actual opponents in the First World War, like the Russian Empire (13.4%), Serbia (13.2%) or Romania (18.8%). Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had also more industrialized economy and higher GDP per capita than

3850-451: The Allies, whereby the entire war could be ended by compromise, or perhaps Austria would make a separate peace from Germany. The main effort was vetoed by Italy, which had been promised large slices of Austria for joining the Allies in 1915. Austria was only willing to turn over the Trentino region but nothing more. Karl was seen as a defeatist, which weakened his standing at home and with both

3960-555: The Austrian side. In the following decades both sides would continue to interpret and instrumentalize the plebiscite's circumstances in their own way. The outcome of the plebiscite held on 10 October, was 22,025 votes (59.1% of the total cast) in favor of adhesion to Austria and 15,279 (40.9%) in favor of annexation by the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Assuming that the whole German-speaking minority had voted for Austria, half of all Carinthian Slovenes had also decided to remain with

4070-598: The Austrians broke through the opposing front and occupied the Asiago plateau . The Italians managed to resist and in a counteroffensive seized Gorizia on 9 August. Nonetheless, they had to stop on the Carso , a few kilometres away from the border. At this point, several months of indecisive trench warfare ensued (analogous to the Western front ). As the Russian Empire collapsed as a result of

4180-650: The Austro-Hungarian Army, under a unified command with the Germans, participated in the successful Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive. From June 1916, the Russians focused their attacks on the Austro-Hungarian army in the Brusilov Offensive , recognizing the numerical inferiority of the Austro-Hungarian army. By the end of September 1916, Austria–Hungary mobilized and concentrated new divisions, and the successful Russian advance

4290-456: The Balkan rebels and so pressured the tsar's government to declare war on the Ottoman Empire in 1877 in the name of protecting Orthodox Christians. Unable to mediate between the Ottoman Empire and Russia over the control of Serbia, Austria–Hungary declared neutrality when the conflict between the two powers escalated into a war . With help from Romania and Greece, Russia defeated the Ottomans and with

4400-678: The Battle of Vittorio Veneto on 24 October, Czech politicians peacefully took over command in Prague on 28 October (later declared the birth of Czechoslovakia) and followed up in other major cities in the next few days. On 30 October, the Slovaks did the same. On 29 October, the Slavs in both portions of what remained of Austria–Hungary proclaimed the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and declared that their ultimate intention

4510-516: The Bulgarians, who turned instead to Russia and Serbia. Although Austria had no intention to embark on additional expansion to the south, Aehrenthal encouraged speculation to that effect, expecting that it would paralyze the Balkan states. Instead, it incited them to feverish activity to create a defensive block to stop Austria. A series of grave miscalculations at the highest level thus significantly strengthened Austria's enemies. In 1914, Slavic militants in Bosnia rejected Austria's plan to fully absorb

1920 Carinthian plebiscite - Misplaced Pages Continue

4620-415: The Central Powers formed by the Austro-Hungarian, German, Bulgarian, and Ottoman armies, had defeated the Romanian and Russian armies of the Entente Powers, and occupied the southern part of Romania (including Oltenia , Muntenia and Dobruja ). Within three months of the war, the Central Powers came near Bucharest, the Romanian capital city. On 6 December, the Central Powers captured Bucharest , and part of

4730-402: The Congress of Berlin in 1878 Gyula Andrássy (Minister of Foreign Affairs) managed to force Russia to retreat from further demands in the Balkans. As a result, Greater Bulgaria was broken up and Serbian independence was guaranteed. In that year, with Britain's support, Austria–Hungary stationed troops in Bosnia to prevent the Russians from expanding into nearby Serbia. In another measure to keep

4840-409: The Emperor's formal coronation as King of Hungary on 8 June had to have taken place in order for the laws to be enacted within the lands of the Holy Crown of Hungary . On 28 July, Franz Joseph, in his new capacity as King of Hungary, approved and promulgated the new laws, which officially gave birth to the Dual Monarchy. The Austro-Prussian War was ended by the Peace of Prague (1866) which settled

4950-402: The Emperor's nephew, Franz Ferdinand , heir to the throne. The Archduke was rumoured to have been an advocate for this trialism as a means to limit the power of the Hungarian aristocracy. A proclamation issued on the occasion of its annexation to the Habsburg monarchy in October 1908 promised these lands constitutional institutions, which should secure to their inhabitants full civil rights and

5060-412: The Emperors Wilhelm II of Germany and Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. This act promised the creation of the Kingdom of Poland out of territory of Congress Poland , envisioned by its authors as a puppet state controlled by the Central Powers , with the nominal authority vested in the Regency Council . The origin of that document was the dire need to draft new recruits from German-occupied Poland for

5170-424: The Entente authorities. The question was whether the considerable Slovene-speaking majority in the state's southeastern region, adjoining the Karawanks range, would carry the vote for union with Austria or whether that majority wished to join a newly created South Slavic state. This was to a large extent a consequence of rising romantic nationalism under the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy and the idea of an autonomy of

5280-428: The Hungarian political leaders, led by Ferenc Deák . The Hungarians maintained that the April Laws were still valid, but conceded that under the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 , foreign affairs and defence were "common" to Austria and Hungary. On 20 March 1867, the newly re-established Hungarian parliament at Pest started to negotiate the new laws to be accepted on 30 March. However, Hungarian leaders received word that

5390-493: The Italians retook the initiative and won the decisive Battle of the Piave river (15–23 June 1918), in which some 60,000 Austrian and 43,000 Italian soldiers were killed. The final battle at Vittorio Veneto was lost by 31 October 1918 and the armistice was signed at Villa Giusti on 3 November. On 27 August 1916, Romania declared war against Austria–Hungary. The Romanian Army crossed the borders of Eastern Hungary (Transylvania), and despite initial successes, by November 1916,

5500-435: The Kingdom of Hungary comprised only 42% of the population of Austria–Hungary, the thin majority – more than 3.8 million soldiers – of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces were conscripted from the Kingdom of Hungary during the First World War. Roughly 600,000 soldiers were killed in action, and 700,000 soldiers were wounded in the war. Austria–Hungary held on for years, as the Hungarian half provided sufficient supplies for

5610-402: The Kingdom of Italy, which was economically the far most developed actual opponent of the Empire. On the home front, food grew scarcer and scarcer, as did heating fuel. Hungary, with its heavy agricultural base, was somewhat better fed. The Army conquered productive agricultural areas in Romania and elsewhere, but refused to allow food shipments to civilians back home. Morale fell every year, and

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5720-409: The Klagenfurt Basin and appealed to feelings of Carinthian unity and brotherhood between the Slovene- and German-speaking peoples of Carinthia. Conducted in the Slovene Carinthian dialect , Austrian propaganda promised that the Slovene language and national identity would be treated as equal to the German in Austria, officially confirmed by the Carinthia Landtag assembly two weeks before the plebiscite

5830-417: The Ottomans. The Congress of Berlin in 1878 let Austria occupy (but not annex) the province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a predominantly Slavic area. Austria occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina as a way of gaining power in the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania became fully independent. Nonetheless, the Balkans remained a site of political unrest with teeming ambition for independence and great power rivalries. At

5940-466: The Prusso-German armies in the Franco-Prussian war and the subsequent founding of the German Empire ended all hope of re-establishing Austrian influence in Germany, and Beust retired. After being forced out of Germany and Italy, the Dual Monarchy turned to the Balkans, which were in tumult as nationalistic movements were gaining strength and demanding independence. Both Russia and Austria–Hungary saw an opportunity to expand in this region. Russia took on

6050-399: The Republic. While a majority in the remote Alpine villages on the slopes of the Karawanks range voted for Yugoslavia, the inhabitants of the densely settled Klagenfurt Basin were motivated by their evolved social and cultural, not least economic ties to the central Carinthian region. After the Austrian option had gained a majority of votes in predominantly Slovene Zone A, the second stage of

6160-501: The Russians out of the Balkans, Austria–Hungary formed an alliance, the Mediterranean Entente, with Britain and Italy in 1887 and concluded mutual defence pacts with Germany in 1879 and Romania in 1883 against a possible Russian attack. Following the Congress of Berlin the European powers attempted to guarantee stability through a complex series of alliances and treaties. Anxious about Balkan instability and Russian aggression, and to counter French interests in Europe, Austria–Hungary forged

6270-407: The Serbian government in exile after the collapse of Serbia and served as a supply base to the Greek front. In April 1916 a large number of Serbian troops were transported in British and French naval vessels from Corfu to mainland Greece. The contingent numbering over 120,000 relieved a much smaller army at the Macedonian front and fought alongside British and French troops. On the Eastern front ,

6380-401: The Slovene lands for centuries, but was inhabited by a mixed Italian-Slovene-Friulian-German population. The towns of Koper , Izola and Piran , surrounded by an ethnically Slovene population, were inhabited almost exclusively by Venetian-speaking Italians until the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus in the late 1940s and 1950s, as were large areas of the comune of Muggia . In southern Carinthia,

6490-417: The Slovenian National Assembly on October 17, 1918. These claims were rejected by the Carinthian provisional Landtag assembly on 25 October 1918, declaring the state's accession to German-Austria. From November 5, Yugoslav forces moved into the settlement area of the Carinthian Slovenes from the Karawanks mountain range down to the Drava River and beyond. The Landtag assembly fled from Klagenfurt to

6600-405: The Yugoslav government agreed to honor the outcome of the plebiscite and withdraw its troops from the zone. The residents of Libeliče ( German : Leifling ), the easternmost village of Zone A, were pro-Yugoslav and helped organize pro-Yugoslav rallies throughout Zone A prior to the plebiscite. On the day of the plebiscite, a large majority of the village voted for Yugoslavia; however, along with

6710-430: The advance of Russian influence in the eastern Mediterranean so close to Britain's route through the Suez Canal . The Treaty of San Stefano was seen in Austria as much too favourable for Russia and its Orthodox-Slavic goals. The Congress of Berlin rolled back the Russian victory by partitioning the large Bulgarian state that Russia had carved out of Ottoman territory and denying any part of Bulgaria full independence from

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6820-555: The area; they assassinated the Austrian heir and precipitated World War I. The 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo , excessively intensified the existing traditional religion-based ethnic hostilities in Bosnia. However, in Sarajevo itself, Austrian authorities encouraged violence against the Serb residents, which resulted in the Anti-Serb riots of Sarajevo , in which Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims killed two and damaged numerous Serb-owned buildings. Writer Ivo Andrić referred to

6930-405: The army had become commonplace. As the war went on, the ethnic unity declined; the Allies encouraged breakaway demands from minorities and the Empire faced disintegration. With apparent Allied victory approaching, nationalist movements seized ethnic resentment to erode social unity. The military breakdown of the Italian front marked the start of the rebellion for the numerous ethnicities who made up

7040-506: The border between Austria and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The border remained unchanged after World War II , even as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia gave way to Tito 's Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia , though at the end of the war Yugoslav Partisans again briefly occupied the area, including the capital city of Klagenfurt. Since the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the border has separated Austria and Slovenia . The Yugoslav government in Belgrade initially declared victory in

7150-437: The diverse nationalities gave up on the Empire and looked for ways to establish their own nation states. Inflation soared, from an index of 129 in 1914 to 1589 in 1918, wiping out the cash savings of the middle-class. In terms of war damage to the economy, the war used up about 20 percent of the GDP. The dead soldiers amounted to about four percent of the 1914 labor force, and the wounded ones to another six percent. Compared all

7260-457: The empire into a federal union to give ethnic groups decentralization and representation. However, on 18 October, United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing replied that autonomy for the nationalities – the tenth of the Fourteen Points – was no longer enough. In fact, a Czechoslovak provisional government had joined the Allies on 14 October. The South Slavs in both halves of the monarchy had already declared in favor of uniting with Serbia in

7370-416: The former Austrian Empire , and Transleithania (Kingdom of Hungary) . Following the 1867 reforms, the Austrian and Hungarian states were co-equal in power. The two countries conducted unified diplomatic and defence policies. For these purposes, "common" ministries of foreign affairs and defence were maintained under the monarch's direct authority, as was a third finance ministry responsible only for financing

7480-432: The integrity of the monarchy because of Austro-Hungarian support for Germany. The setbacks that the Austrian army suffered in 1914 and 1915 can be attributed to a large extent by the incompetence of the Austrian high command. After attacking Serbia, its forces soon had to be withdrawn to protect its eastern frontier against Russia's invasion, while German units were engaged in fighting on the Western Front. This resulted in

7590-494: The latter would be broken by the crisis. Along the way, they would drag Europe to the brink of war in 1909. They would also divide Europe into the two armed camps that would go to war in July 1914. Aehrenthal had started with the assumption that the Slavic minorities could never come together, and the Balkan League would never cause any damage to Austria. He turned down an Ottoman proposal for an alliance that would include Austria, Turkey, and Romania. However, his policies alienated

7700-418: The major countries in the war, the death and casualty rate was toward the high-end regarding the present-day territory of Austria. By summer 1918, " Green Cadres " of army deserters formed armed bands in the hills of Croatia-Slavonia and civil authority disintegrated. By late October violence and massive looting erupted and there were efforts to form peasant republics. However, the Croatian political leadership

7810-450: The military forces until Emperor Karl I took the supreme command himself in late 1916 and dismissed Conrad von Hötzendorf in 1917. Meanwhile, economic conditions on the homefront deteriorated rapidly. The Empire depended on agriculture, and agriculture depended on the heavy labor of millions of men who were now in the Army. Food production fell, the transportation system became overcrowded, and industrial production could not successfully handle

7920-460: The military to continue to wage war. This was shown in a transition of power after which the Hungarian prime minister, Count István Tisza, and foreign minister, Count István Burián , had decisive influence over the internal and external affairs of the monarchy. By late 1916, food supply from Hungary became intermittent and the government sought an armistice with the Entente powers. However, this failed as Britain and France no longer had any regard for

8030-434: The multiethnic Empire, as they refused to keep on fighting for a cause that now appeared senseless. The Emperor had lost much of his power to rule, as his realm disintegrated. On 14 October 1918, Foreign Minister Baron István Burián von Rajecz asked for an armistice based on President Woodrow Wilson 's Fourteen Points and two days later Emperor Karl I issued a proclamation ("Imperial Manifesto of 16 October 1918") altering

8140-418: The new countries was complex and difficult, and not always peaceful: While the northwestern border with the Kingdom of Italy along the " Julian March " was already determined by the 1915 Treaty of London , the demarcation line between Yugoslavia and the rump state of German-Austria was a difficult and highly disputed matter. The principle of self-determination , championed by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ,

8250-441: The northwestern town of Spittal an der Drau and on 11 November officially demanded self-determination, which in this case amounted to demanding a plebiscite for a region with a mixed population. With the occupation of southeastern Carinthia by Yugoslav troops, the confrontation evolved into armed clashes. The provisional Carinthian government under Governor Arthur Lemisch  [ de ] decided to take up arms to preserve

8360-482: The overwhelming need for munitions. Germany provided a great deal of help, but it was not enough. Furthermore, the political instability of the multiple ethnic groups of Empire now ripped apart any hope for national consensus in support of the war. Increasingly there was a demand for breaking up the Empire and setting up autonomous national states based on historic language-based cultures. The new Emperor sought peace terms from

8470-480: The plebiscite. After it became clear that the residents had voted in favor of Austria, Yugoslavia moved troops into the zone and occupied several towns; the military commanders stated that they did not recognize the authority of the plebiscite commission. At the same time, it was reported that there were riots, looting of shops, and beatings of ethnic Germans in nearby Maribor , which had a large German population but had been awarded to Yugoslavia in 1919. In late October,

8580-523: The political instability of the young Austrian republic and its then unenviable position in the international community for advantage. Despite the six-months term determined by the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the referendum was not held in Zone A until October 10, 1920. In addition to changing the date of the plebiscite, other terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain allegedly were ignored or changed: an Austrian representative

8690-630: The population moved to the unoccupied Romanian territory, in Moldavia , together with the Romanian government, royal court and public authorities, which relocated to Iași . In 1917, after several defensive victories (managing to stop the German-Austro-Hungarian advance), with Russia's withdrawal from the war following the October Revolution, Romania was forced to drop out of the war. Although

8800-404: The population; while the number of ethnic Slovenes was probably higher. German speakers were concentrated in the town of Völkermarkt and certain smaller localities, especially around Bleiburg ( Slovene : Pliberk ) and Ferlach ( Borovlje ). Before the plebiscite, both sides waged intensive propaganda campaigns. Austrian propaganda emphasized the economic benefits of maintaining the unity of

8910-594: The possibility of a plebiscite. Yugoslav representatives urged for a border on the Drava; American delegates however spoke in favor of preserving the unity of the Klagenfurt Basin and convinced the British and French delegations. Until May 7, all occupied Carinthian territories were vacated. When Yugoslav forces under General Rudolf Maister made an attempt to re-enter the region on 28 May 1919, they were forced to withdraw by

9020-701: The rebellion managed to establish contact with high-ranking politicians in Ljubljana and later also in Belgrade. Finally, the governments of Austria and Yugoslavia managed to agree on a territorial exchange: Austria ceded to Yugoslavia the territory of Libeliče and received in compensation an equally sized area on the left bank of the Drava , consisting of the predominantly German-speaking settlements of Rabenstein ( Slovene : Rabštajn pri Labotu ) and Lorenzenberg ( Slovene : Šentlovrenc ), which are today cadastral communities within

9130-438: The referendum in northern Zone B, populated chiefly by German speakers, was not carried out. Another Yugoslav foray was fiercely rejected by the Entente powers. The Carinthian Plebiscite region was placed under Austrian administration on 18 November 1920 and declared part of the sovereign Austrian Republic on November 22. Up to today, October 10 is a public holiday in the State of Carinthia . The plebiscite ultimately determined

9240-416: The rest of Zone A it was placed under Austrian administration. The people of the village were unwilling to accept the outcome. On a daily basis, the barbed wire on the border was cut and boundary stones were removed. Regular rallies in the village and its surroundings encouraged increasingly more people to join the rebellion, deliberately ignoring any Austrian law passed after the plebiscite. The coordinators of

9350-476: The role of protector of Slavs and Orthodox Christians. Austria envisioned a multi-ethnic, religiously diverse empire under Vienna's control. Count Gyula Andrássy, a Hungarian who was Foreign Minister (1871–1879), made the centerpiece of his policy one of opposition to Russian expansion in the Balkans and blocking Serbian ambitions to dominate a new South Slav federation. He wanted Germany to ally with Austria, not Russia. Russian Pan-Slavic organizations sent aid to

9460-495: The side of the Entente powers , hoping to gain territory from its former ally. The Austro-Hungarian Empire played a relatively passive diplomatic role in the war, as it was increasingly dominated and controlled by Germany. The only goal was to punish Serbia and try to stop the ethnic breakup of the Empire, and it completely failed. Starting in late 1916 the new Emperor Karl removed the pro-German officials and opened peace overtures to

9570-459: The south and "B" in the north. A two-stage referendum was to be held to determine annexation by either Austria or the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, in the smaller Zone B only if a majority of the people in Zone A had voted for Yugoslavia. The population of Zone A was predominantly Slovene-speaking: according to the pre-war Austrian census of 1910, people in these municipalities who used Slovene as their primary language represented nearly 70% of

9680-522: The southern Carinthian border on the Karawanks range. The bitter fighting of paramilitary groups around Arnoldstein and Ferlach alarmed the Entente powers. They arbitrated a ceasefire, whereafter a nine-day U.S. Army commission under Lt.Col. Sherman Miles scouted the disputed region in January and February 1919 and made the crucial recommendation that the Karawanks frontier should be retained, thus opening

9790-580: The standpoint of the German Emperor on 5 July and received a supportive response. His Majesty authorized me to report to [Franz Joseph] that in this case, too, we could count on Germany's full support. As mentioned, he first had to consult with the Chancellor, but he did not have the slightest doubt that Herr von Bethmann Hollweg would fully agree with him, particularly with regard to action on our part against Serbia. In his [Wilhelm's] opinion, though, there

9900-479: The ten most populous countries worldwide. The Empire built up the fourth-largest machine-building industry in the world. With the exception of the territory of the Bosnian Condominium , the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary were separate sovereign countries in international law. At its core was the dual monarchy , which was a real union between Cisleithania , the northern and western parts of

10010-774: The territories referred to as the "Slovene lands" have always had a Slovene-speaking majority. Several towns, especially in Lower Styria, maintained a German-speaking majority until the late 1910s, most notably Maribor , Celje and Ptuj . The area around Kočevje in Lower Carniola , known as the Gottschee County , had a predominantly German-speaking population between the 14th century and 1941 when they were resettled in an agreement between Nazi German and Fascist Italian occupation forces. A similar German "linguistic island" within an ethnically Slovene territory existed in what

10120-525: The two "common" portfolios. A third component of the union was the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia , an autonomous region under the Hungarian crown, which negotiated the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement in 1868. After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina came under Austro-Hungarian joint military and civilian rule until it was fully annexed in 1908, provoking the Bosnian crisis . Austria-Hungary was one of

10230-441: The urgent counsel of his top advisers. Over the course of July and August 1914, these events caused the start of World War I, as Russia mobilized in support of Serbia, setting off a series of counter-mobilizations. In support of his German ally, on Thursday, 6 August 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war on Russia. Italy initially remained neutral, despite its alliance with Austria–Hungary. In 1915, it switched to

10340-533: The violence as the "Sarajevo frenzy of hate." Violent actions against ethnic Serbs were organized not only in Sarajevo but also in many other larger Austro-Hungarian cities in modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned and extradited approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison. Four hundred sixty Serbs were sentenced to death and

10450-628: The war started out equally poorly. The government accepted the Polish proposal of establishing the Supreme National Committee as the Polish central authority within the Empire, responsible for the formation of the Polish Legions , an auxiliary military formation within the Austro-Hungarian army. The Austro-Hungarian Army was defeated at the Battle of Lemberg and the great fortress city of Przemyśl

10560-750: Was The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen . From 1867 onwards, the abbreviations heading the names of official institutions in Austria–Hungary reflected their responsibility: Following a decision of Franz Joseph I in 1868, the realm bore the official name Austro-Hungarian Monarchy/Realm ( German : Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie/Reich ; Hungarian : Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia/Birodalom ) in its international relations. It

10670-482: Was accepted into the commission, and the plebiscite commission changed rules by not allowing the Yugoslav military to control the border between Zones A and B on 8 June 1920. Instead the Yugoslav army had to withdraw from Zone A in accord with the decision of the plebiscite commission on 18 September 1920. Changes may also have been made in electoral registers which allowed people from northern Zone B voting in Zone A, backing

10780-577: Was besieged and fell in March 1915. The Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive started as a minor German offensive to relieve the pressure of the Russian numerical superiority on the Austro-Hungarians, but the cooperation of the Central Powers resulted in huge Russian losses and the total collapse of the Russian lines and their 100 km (62 mi) long retreat into Russia. The Russian Third Army perished. In summer 1915,

10890-563: Was crushed by the Austrian military with Russian military assistance, and the level of autonomy that the Hungarian state had enjoyed was replaced with absolutist rule from Vienna. This further increased Hungarian resentment of the Habsburg dominion. In the 1860s, the Empire faced two severe defeats: its loss in the Second Italian War of Independence broke its dominion over a large part of Northern Italy ( Lombardy, Veneto , Modena, Reggio , Tuscany , Parma and Piacenza ) while defeat in

11000-450: Was focused on creating a new state (Yugoslavia) and worked with the advancing Serbian army to impose control and end the uprisings. At the start of the war, the army was divided into two: the smaller part attacked Serbia while the larger part fought against the formidable Imperial Russian Army . The invasion of Serbia in 1914 was a disaster: by the end of the year, the Austro-Hungarian Army had taken no territory, but had lost 227,000 out of

11110-458: Was frequently called simply "Slovenia", even in some official documents. Consequently, most Slovene scholars prefer to refer to the "Slovene lands" in English rather than "Slovenia" to describe the territory of modern Slovenia and neighbouring areas in earlier times. The use of the English term "Slovenia" is generally considered by Slovene scholars to be anachronistic due to its modern origin. In

11220-488: Was given full control of all the armed forces of the Central Powers and Austria-Hungary effectively became a satellite of Germany. The Austrians viewed the German army favorably; on the other hand, by 1916 the general belief in Germany was that Germany, in its alliance with Austria–Hungary, was "shackled to a corpse". The operational capability of the Austro-Hungarian army was seriously affected by supply shortages, low morale and

11330-447: Was halted and slowly repelled; but the Austrian armies took heavy losses (about 1 million men) and never recovered. Nevertheless, the huge losses in men and material inflicted on the Russians during the offensive contributed greatly to the revolutions of 1917 , and it caused an economic crash in the Russian Empire. The Act of 5 November 1916 was proclaimed then to the Poles jointly by

11440-420: Was held. It nevertheless also had an anti-Yugoslav tendency, picturing the conditions in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes as chaotic. Yugoslav propaganda almost exclusively used arguments emphasizing Slovene national awareness. It took an aggressive anti-German view from the beginning and turned to economic issues only in the last few weeks before the plebiscite. The campaigners were not capable of using

11550-519: Was no need to wait patiently before taking action... The leaders of Austria–Hungary therefore decided to confront Serbia militarily before it could incite a revolt; using the assassination as an excuse, they presented a list of ten demands called the July Ultimatum , expecting Serbia would never accept. When Serbia accepted nine of the ten demands but only partially accepted the remaining one, Austria–Hungary declared war. Franz Joseph I finally followed

11660-459: Was often contracted to the "Dual Monarchy" in English or simply referred to as Austria . Timeline Following Hungary's defeat against the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Mohács of 1526, the Habsburg Empire became more involved in the Kingdom of Hungary, and subsequently assumed the Hungarian throne. However, as the Ottomans expanded further into Hungary, the Habsburgs came to control only

11770-591: Was taken up by both Slovenes and German-Austrians in the Carinthian , Styrian and Carniolan lands of the defunct Habsburg empire. The rising tensions culminated in clashes of arms, as on Marburg's Bloody Sunday in Lower Styria and the continued fighting of paramilitary groups in southeastern Carinthia. In particular the "Carinthian question" had become an issue in the closing days of World War I, when events developed rapidly, beginning with territorial claims by

11880-576: Was the first significant action of the Czechoslovak Legions , who fought for the independence of Czechoslovakia against the Austro-Hungarian army. In May 1915, Italy attacked Austria–Hungary. Italy was the only military opponent of Austria–Hungary which had a similar degree of industrialization and economic level; moreover, her army was numerous (≈1,000,000 men were immediately fielded), but suffered from poor leadership, training and organization. Chief of Staff Luigi Cadorna marched his army towards

11990-575: Was to unite with Serbia and Montenegro in a large South Slav state . On the same day, the Czechs and Slovaks formally proclaimed the establishment of Czechoslovakia as an independent state. Slovene lands The Slovene lands or Slovenian lands ( Slovene : Slovenske dežele or in short Slovensko ) is the historical denomination for the territories in Central and Southern Europe where people primarily spoke Slovene . The Slovene lands were part of

12100-728: Was used (German: Österreich-Ungarn ; Hungarian: Ausztria-Magyarország ). The Austrians also used the names k. u. k. Monarchie (English: k. u. k. monarchy ) (in detail German: Kaiserliche und königliche Monarchie Österreich-Ungarn ; Hungarian: Császári és Királyi Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia ) and Danubian Monarchy (German: Donaumonarchie ; Hungarian: Dunai Monarchia ) or Dual Monarchy (German: Doppel-Monarchie ; Hungarian: Dual-Monarchia ) and The Double Eagle (German: Der Doppel-Adler ; Hungarian: Kétsas ), but none of these became widespread either in Hungary or elsewhere. The realm's full name used in internal administration

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