Oblivious to World War I until my family moved to Paris,
France, I recall my 6th grade teacher, “Ms. G”, giving us the 101
treatment: on June 28, 1914, the
Archduke Franz Ferdinand (upper right) was assassinated in Sarajevo, which was
then (1980) in Yugoslavia. AFF was the
heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, a country which ceased to exist in
1918. It only came into
existence in 1867, shortly after the Austrians’ defeat by the Prussians in
their short war.
Austria. Well known as the homeland of Adolf Hitler (Linz
and Vienna) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Graz), plus the Von Trapps and Mozart (Salzburg). It was an
archduchy as part of the Holy Roman Empire ("The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. Discuss.").
Remarkably, the HRE only collapsed in 1806, during Napoleon's dominance over Europe. Austrians speak German, which is odd: why don’t we say that Germans speak Austrian? Germany's political strength relative to Austria is fairly recent. Germany barely existed as an aggregate of
various kingdoms and principalities within the Holy Roman Empire, and from 1814-1871
as the German Confederation, only unifying as the German Empire under Prussian
leadership in 1871, whereas Austria asserted more political and military strength during this time.
Hungary. Hungarians speak Hungarian, a language with
little relation to any others besides Finnish and Turkish. Are
the Hungarians the Huns? The Magyars
were a separate group from the Huns, but both groups originated from Central
Asia, and Attila’s hordes could have contained many Magyars among them. The Hungarians themselves claim to descend
from the Huns, and Buda (half of Budapest) could be a variation on the name of
Attila’s brother Bleda. As the Roman
Empire fell apart, i.e. the Western Roman Empire (the Eastern half survived as
the Byzantine Empire until 1453), Central Europe was a mess of tribes and
nations with no definite national boundaries.
Dual-Monarchy:
1867-1918. The politics behind this
merger confuses me. The leader was
the Austrian emperor and the Hungarian king.
The Habsburg dynasty goes back to the eleventh century, although
the Habsburgs of 1867 were a new house, Habsburg-Lorraine, originating from
Joseph II, the son of Maria Theresa, the last of the original Habsburg
lineage.
World War I. This was the only major war in which A-H had
any role. Allies with the Kaiser, the Austrians fought against
the Russians to the northeast and the Italians to the south, a slugfest of
competing incompetence by both sides.
With the exception of the brief victory of Russia’s Brusilov offensive
in 1916, neither the Austrians or Russians did much of value, and the Germans
wound up with most of the victories.
Rommel served in the mountains of Italy, where he racked up some
impressive victories and earned his Pour Le Merite (Blue Max).
In the aftermath of the war, the dual monarchy split apart and all remaining royal dynasties lost power, with Austria and Hungary becoming separate countries from then on. Other
parts of A-H were parceled out. Italy
received the Tyrol, its northeastern corner; The Czechs and Slovaks gained their independence (Czechoslovakia); Galicia, the northeastern sector, became the southern part of Poland and the southwestern part of the Ukraine; Transylvania, to the southeast, was given to Romania; and Bosnia-Herzogovina combined
with Serbia to become Yugoslavia.
World War II. Just before WWII, the Nazis waltzed into
Austria and annexed it, so from 1938-45 Germany and Austria were united as a
single country. The Austrian army was
absorbed into the Wehrmacht. Hungary
was led by Admiral Horthy, until his removal in October 1944, and allied with Nazi Germany during this time. After
the war, Hungary became a Soviet
satellite, while Austria became neutral, outside both the NATO and Warsaw Pact
blocs.
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