Das Ende Österreich-Ungarns im Ersten Weltkrieg. Akteure, Öffentlichkeiten, Kontingenzen

Cattaruzza, Marina (2019). Das Ende Österreich-Ungarns im Ersten Weltkrieg. Akteure, Öffentlichkeiten, Kontingenzen. Historische Zeitschrift, 308(1), pp. 81-107. De Gruyter Oldenbourg 10.1515/hzhz-2019-0003

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This article aims to analyse the process of dissolution of the Habsburg Empire during the First World War. When the war broke out, only a few non-governmental actors favoured the destruction of this multinational empire. They were: a) a small cadre of British and French intellectuals and journalists, and b) the nationalist Czech and Southern Slav committees, made up of a small number of émigrés living mostly in Great Britain and France. Both groups propagated the principle of „self-determination“ for the „oppressed nationalities“ of the Habsburg Empire and the establishment of „Czechoslovakia“ and „Yugoslavia“ as autonomous states. In 1917, the Entente powers found themselves in a difficult military situation, due principally to two factors: a) the outbreak of the Russian revolution and the coming into power of the Bolsheviks, who immediately signed an armistice with the central powers and exited the war; b) the catastrophic defeat of the Italian army in Caporetto against joint Austrian and German forces. The new military scenario induced the British war cabinet to actively promote a separate peace with Austria on the basis of the restoration of the pre-war situation. In this uncertain circumstances, a network of Italian politicians and journalists relaunched the slogan of „self-determination for the oppressed nationalities“, utilizing it as a non-conventional weapon adopted to overcome their country’s military weakness. The programme of self-determination was solemnly proclaimed in Rome in April 1918, in the presence of the Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, delegates of the Entente powers, the United States, and, of course, self-declared representatives of the „oppressed nationalities“. This congress signed the death sentence of the Habsburg monarchy: from then on, the Entente powers and the USA progressively backed the formation of the new „national” states“ of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Ironically enough, the principle of self-determination was not a decisive factor for the outcome of the war. The victory of the Entente was determined much more by the failure of the German offensive on the Western front and – even more crucially – by the American intervention on the side of the French and British troops. Consequently, we may consider the dissolution of the Habsburg monarchy a side effect of a failed propaganda campaign aimed at regaining the upper hand over the enemy.

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