Austro-Hungarian Empire Quotes
The report was from Heinrich von Tschirschky, the German ambassador to Austria-Hungary. He recommended that Germany persuade Austria-Hungary to not attack Serbia, not realizing the German leaders had already planned a war with Russia and saw the issues between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia was a good excuse to implement their war plans (see {642092}).
German ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had declared war on Serbia. See {642085}. The Russian Czar was under great pressure because a large Roman Catholic Empire was warring against a small Orthodox co-religionist of Russia and Russians of all classes wanted Russia to defend Serbia. The Czar was making a good faith effort to stave off the war. What he did not realize was that Germany had actually planned for war against Russia and France and was using the alliance with Austria as an excuse.
The Romanovs were the family of the Russian Czars while the Hapsburgs were the family names of the Emperors of Austria. The Austrian Army Chief of Staff hated the Russians and was constantly urging war against Czarist Russia. The archduke, the heir to the Austrian throne, was constantly arguing against attacking Russia. When Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, it triggered WWI. He was no longer able to have a voice against war, and Austria and Russia were soon at war. At the end of WWI, the Austrian Empire—an ally of Germany was broken up and the Russian Revolution ended the Romanov dynasty. The Archduke was absolutely right.
Statement when he refused the Austro Hungarian offer to reclaim his lands, wealth, and titles if he would cease his revolutionary efforts. Instead he went into exile in Poland, France and finally Turkey causing the authorities countless anxieties and becoming a legend among the Hungarian people who revere him to this day. His house in exile is still almost a historical shrine.
He wrote this in English, in an American prestigious journal to reach an elite American audience.
. We cannot suffer a foreign government to allow plots to our polity to be hatched on its territory!
The assassins and plotters who murdered the Archduke of Austria in Sarajevo were 5 Serbs and a Bosnian. They planned their operation in Serbia. This was the excuse that Austria was giving for going to war with Serbia who had an alliance with Russia.
This quotation is important for two reasons. First, it shows that there was a very hostile environment in Europe well before the assassination of the Archduke of Austria that “triggered” WWI. Second, that the Germans were racist before Hitler ever came on the scene. The Emperor demagogued the issue and took it to new extremes, but the evil was there. To the Germans, the Slavs and Russians were a lesser form of humanity than the Germans. The Austrians were threatening to attack Serbia and Russia. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, ruled many ethnic Slavs, Russians and Muslims—the lower forms of humanity—and long before Hitler, Wilhelm and other leading Germans thought that the Germanic Peoples should rule that part of the world as the lesser “races” were not fit to rule.
President Woodrow Wilson advocated the concept of self-determination for the newly freed countries of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. His Secretary of State disagreed sharply.
Slovenia was an unenthusiastic part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and whose young males were required to serve as soldiers in the Empire’s armies. See {641812} for more on Conrad’s part in the war.
He had been urged to retreat
The existing treaties of many of the different European countries like the NATO Treaty obliged them to assist their allies if they were involved in war. Once Austria attacked Serbia, Russia had to assist Serbia against Austria. Germany then joined with Austria and that triggered the treaty whereby France had to support Russia. And when Germany overran Belgium to attack France, England was obligated to come to Belgium’s defense. The only country that had planned for and wanted war was Germany who used her obligation to Austria as the excuse to implement her war plans (see {642092}). The entire Western World was at war when all but one nation wanted to avoid war. The communications and diplomacy of the time could not keep up with events and one of the worst wars in history ensued.
This quotation is a good illustration of a practice that existed in the age of Empire where two or more large powers would agree among themselves as to which one of them had the right to seize a smaller power, not part of the compact.
