Austria & Hungary & WWI

This research paper examines AustriaHungary's degree of

responsibility for the outbreak of World War I. Its thesis is

that actions taken by AustriaHungary to deal with Serbian

nationalism in the decade preceding, and in the five weeks

following, the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in

Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 set in motion a series of events

which led to World War I. However, a number of other nations,

Serbia, Germany and Russia, and, to a lesser extent, France and

Great Britain, played important roles in causing that war. The

origins of the war lay in the mistaken judgements of many key

European statesmen and in the breakdown of the balance of power

system in Europe during the decades immediately preceding 1914.

War Guilt and the Serbian Problem

The Hapsburg Empire, the Dual Monarchy of AustriaHungary,

was dissolved in 1918 as a direct result of the defeat of the

Central Powers in World War I. Under Article 231 of the

Versailles Treaty, all damages and losses suffered by the

victorious Allies were stated to be "a consequence of the war

imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies."1

In fact, the central problem which triggered the initiation

of hostilities among all the Great Powers of Europe for the first

time in more than a century was an intractable dispute between

. . .
lure of Great Power Diplomacy in JulyAugust, 1914 There is no evidence that AustriaHungary wished to start more than a localized war against Serbia. To keep Russia, which strongly supported the Serbs, out of such a war, Austria Hungary had to obtain the support of Germany. AustriaHungary correctly perceived that "if she was not passively to acquiesce in her own destruction, she had little choice but to deal sternly with Serbia;"10however, its leaders took a "recklessly calculated risk"11in thinking that Austria could settle by force accounts with Serbia without provoking a wider war. Once Germany gave AustriaHungary its unconditional backing, the Kaiser's socalled blank check, the die were cast. In Goodspeed's view, "Austria's guilt is far more direct than Germany's because of "its readiness to perservere . . . [with its war plans] even when it became apparent that this would result in a major European war."12Its Ten Demands of July 23, which British Foreign Secretary Grey called "the most formidable document which he had ever seen addressed by one state to another,"13gave Serbia little opportunity to back down gracefully. If a fait accompli was intended, A
. . .

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Approximate Word count = 1908
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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