Historians disagree that the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was due to Total War
Name: Bendix Kunze
School: Buckswood School
Word Count: 2300
Historians disagree that the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was due to Total War
This essay will investigate the collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and if its cause was due to total war. I chose three key historians who clash over the primary extent for the Empire's collapse because of total war and other causes such as economic, social and political factors. Such interpretation explores the Total War and the several other contributing factors in the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
Total War is a type of warfare that involves the complete
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The event started one month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian Nationalist in Sarajevo. This action was first seen as just a small conflict between the two countries but then spread on rapidly, starting a big war between the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire allied power against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States. Germany started joining WWI declaring war on Russia on the 1st of August. Germany and France declared war on each other on the 3rd of August Germany. Germany then started a conflict with their action of planning to invade neutral Belgium which led to Britain declaring war on Germany. The effects of WWI were significant. Four major imperial dynasties collapsed including the Habsburg dynasty of Austria-Hungary, the Hohenzollerns of Germany, the Sultanate of the Ottoman Empire, and the Romanovs of Russia. The toll of World War I on human life was staggering. Records indicate that a total of 5 million soldiers lost their lives during the war with an additional 13 million civilian deaths adding to the tragedy. After WWI the map of Europe has changed like never before. The four major territories had been divided and as well they were among the collapsed Allied powers, also victorious ones such as the United States which emerged after the …show more content…
German was the language of military command and Magyar was the official language of Hungary. This highlighted the varieties and difficulties of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This encompassed multiple ethnic groups and cultures. The impressive scale of Austria-Hungary's industrial prowess is evident from its strong presence in machine manufacturing, electrical appliances, and oil refining worldwide.
Such remarkable feats back up the country's economic clout and innovation which were instrumental in advancing it to a position of notable power globally.
Austria-Hungary became the world's third-largest manufacturer and exporter of electric home appliances, electric industrial appliances, and power generation apparatus for power plants. Austrian Hungary was located at the centre of Europe, which made it an important hub for trade and commerce. They there ranked third after the United States and the German Empire. The military of the Austrian-Hungary Empire was known for being strong throughout the monarchy. But in my opinion, the military of the empire has been proven multiple times to be weak. Austria and Hungary got defeated in the Napoleonic Wars, the Italian Wars of Independence, the Austro-Prussian War and World War I, as well as many others. On the other hand, the empire existed for decades, having first the Austrian Empire and then Austrian
“As fierce as the struggle between Muslims and Christians for dominance was, when the French king found himself squeezed on both sides of his kingdom by his archrival, Charles V, the Ottomans became his natural allies” as the Ottoman outbreak on the capital of its imperial rival was hard to surpass. The Ottoman army was a powerful enemy. In describing the military efforts of the Ottomans and Habsburgs alike, despite all the modern day talk of Ottoman corruption, they continued to have an advantage over the Habsburgs due to such strong army. Habsburg, as the march on to Istabul was an unreachable dream, the relief of Vienna took the Habsburg coalition army three campaigning seasons to capture Buda. War is rightly understood as a form of cultural contact, in spite of having both sides learn and adapt in the matters of barrier strategies, the use of firepower and mounted troops was used to the Ottoman advantage.
The outbreak of World War I occurred on June 28, 1914 where the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a young serbian nationalist. This assassination caused Austria to immediately break relations with Serbia. Meanwhile Russia let the Austrians know that they were backing the Serbs, this then occurred throughout many other countries, and alliances formed starting World War I. 41 million casualties later and the Allies, consisting of the U.S, Britain, and France, were victorious leaving Germany and Austria-Hungary punished severely for this inhuman calamity. Overall the number of casualties and the punishment of Germany in World War I created political, social, and economical
In a newspaper two years before the war had even begun, the founder of an Serbian extremist group called the black hand says that the only way for Serbia to gain freedom and honor is threw war (Document 3). The newspaper states “This war must bring out the eternal freedom of Serbia.” Not only did Serbia want freedom from Austria-Hungary but hornor as well. Thinking that the war was the only way to gain the freedom and honor they wanted, Serbia looked to their only option for a band of extremists to kill the prince of Austria-Hungary. This is a extremely significant part of why World War I started because of an assassination of a leader in Austria-Hungary country.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Europe seemed to enjoy a period of peace and progress. Yet below the surface, several forces were at work that would lead Europe into the “Great War.” One of these forces was nationalism, and it had an explosive effect in the Balkans. But, nationalism was only one of the many causes of World War I. Historians and eyewitnesses have described the causes of World War I and have tried to assess the responsibility for it. Militarism, Nationalism, and Alliance were some of the main cause for WWI and Grate Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Austria- Hungary and Italy Had a Grate Part to Play in It.
between Britain and Germany over the seas (History.state.gov, 2017). The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne, convinced that Serbia was responsible for the assassination and thus the Austro-Hungarian government declared war on Serbia (Tortora and Marcketti, 2015). Germany declared war on Russia after Russia refused to stop mobilizing in defence of Serbia and then declared war on France, and consequently Britain had to enter the war as it was an ally of France and Russia (Tortora and Marcketti, 2015). This world war influenced literature and art, it changed cultures and while it brought economic depression to some it brought prosperity to others (Study.com, 2017). Equally, the Elizabethan
Millions of soldiers had died or were wounded, and once mighty empires were now reduced to rubble. One underlying cause leading to World War I was that leaders in Europe believed creating power balances would prevent large wars. Leaders believed by balancing power no one country could overthrow the rest. The chancellor of Prussia, which was between France and Russia tried to create an alliance with either France or Russia. The chancellor tried this so that if war broke out, he would not have to fight both counties.
Austria-Hungry then declared war on Serbia and all the other nations were forced to enter the war.
It pitted the central powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire against the Allied Forces of Great Britain, The United States, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan. World War I is known for the extensive system of trenches from which both sides fought. Lethal new technologies were unleashed and for the first time a major war was fought not only on land and on sea, but below sea and in the skies as well. The war had many causes. One of the
World War I Was one of the bloodiest wars ever. World War I was a war fought in Europe between Germany, Russia, France, Great Britain, and the United States and many others. World War I was ultimately started with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The indirect causes were more significant to the outbreak of WWI than any direct cause. There are several causes that forced Europe into the “Great War” such as militarism,alliance systems, imperialism,and militarism.
Austria-Hungary’s Cause of World War I The trigger of one gun being pulled caused the death of 17 million people. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife of Austria-Hungary were shot and killed by 19-year-old Serbian Nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, during a motorcade after an unsuccessful attempt at bombing Ferdinand. Because of the Triple Entente of France, Britain, and Russia and the Triple Alliance of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy, this event started a chain reaction.
Next is an excerpt from Raymond Aron, a French philosopher, sociologist, journalist, and political scientist who published The Century of Total War in 1954 (Document
Most of Europe started to imperialize and it started to become a race. Each country has over 1 million colonies, based on Document F. In Document B the countries are all blaming each other for “breaking the peace”, with Austria and Slovenia pointing their fingers at each other. With each country racing to colonize other countries it became such a big competition, that countries started to fight over the colonies. Each country wanted more and more land, as it contributed to the amount of power they had. The assassination of Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Francis Ferdinand was known to cause the war because there was already an ongoing feud between the Austrians and the Slavic people.
Serbian nationalism was the most significant contributing factor in the Balkans to the outbreak of the First World War. Nationalist Serbs wanted the unity of Serbdom and to create a Greater Serbia that included the provinces Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered the First World War and was prompted by the nationalism of the Serbs against Hapsburg control. If this trigger did not take place it would have been another event. But it is not surprising that it occurred in the Balkans; a volatile region, as Bismarck had predicted decades before; “ If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thin in the Balkans”.
WWI (1914-1918) was a disastrous conflict between two sides - the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. It resulted in the victory of the Allies. There were plenty of Central Powers weaknesses, the Schlieffen plan, weak allies of Germany and their hard economic situation at the end of the WWI. However, it was not only due to these weaknesses, Allied Powers had a few strengths, that made them won. The most important of these are : greater army, control of the sea and support of the USA since 1917, while Germany was already running out of supplies and soldiers.
The First World War ended on November 11th, 1918 when the German government signed an armistice treaty with the Allied powers, leaving 9 million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded. This has lead World War I to be commonly known as the “war to end all wars”. There several key reasons as to why the Central Powers lost the war. Generally, it was a mixture of the Central Powers weakness and the Allied power’s strength. However, more specifically, the Central Powers had weak and unreliable Allies such as Austro - Hungary and the Ottoman Empire which both collapsed, leaving Germany isolated.