The politics of Charles I. Attempt to make peace
The death of Franz Joseph was undoubtedly one of the psychological prerequisites leading to the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was not an outstanding ruler, but became a symbol of stability for three generations of his subjects. In addition, the character of Franz Joseph - his restraint, iron self-discipline, constant politeness and friendliness, the very respectable old age, supported by state propaganda - all this contributed to the high authority of the monarchy. The death of Franz Joseph was perceived as a change in historical eras, the end of an incredibly long period of history. After all, almost no one remembered the predecessor of Franz Joseph, it was too long ago, and almost no one knew the successor.
Karl was very unlucky. He inherited an empire that was embroiled in a destructive war and torn apart by internal contradictions. Unfortunately, like his Russian brother and adversary Nicholas II, Charles I did not have the qualities that were necessary to solve the titanic task of saving the state. It should be noted that he had a lot in common with the Russian emperor. Karl was a great family man. His marriage was harmonious. Charles and the young empress Cita, who came from the Parma branch of the Bourbons (her father was the last Duke of Parma), loved each other. And marriage for love was a rarity for the highest aristocracy. Both families had many children: the Romanovs had five children, the Habsburgs - eight. Tsita was the main support of her husband, she had a good education. Therefore, evil tongues said that the emperor was "under the thumb." Both couples were deeply religious.
The difference was that Charles had practically no time to transform the empire, while Nicholas II ruled for more than 20 years. However, Karl made an attempt to save the Habsburg empire and, unlike Nicholas, fought for his cause to the end. From the very beginning of his reign, Charles tried to solve two main tasks: to stop the war and to carry out internal modernization. In a manifesto on the occasion of his accession to the throne, the Austrian emperor promised "to return to my peoples the blessed peace, without which they suffer so grievously." However, the desire to achieve his goal as soon as possible and the lack of the necessary experience played a cruel joke with Karl: many of his steps turned out to be poorly thought out, hasty and erroneous.
On December 30, 1916, Karl and Zita were crowned King and Queen of Hungary in Budapest. On the one hand, Charles (as the Hungarian king - Charles IV) strengthened the unity of the dualistic state. On the other hand, having deprived himself of maneuver, tied himself hand and foot, Karl was now unable to proceed with the federalization of the monarchy. Count Anton von Polzer-Khoditz at the end of November prepared a memorandum in which he proposed to Karl to postpone the coronation in Budapest and to come to an agreement with all the national communities of Hungary. This position was supported by all former associates of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who wanted to carry out a series of reforms in Hungary. However, Karl did not follow their recommendations, succumbing to pressure from the Hungarian elite, primarily Count Tisza. The foundations of the Kingdom of Hungary remained intact.
Tsita and Karl together with their son Otto on the day of their coronation as monarchs of Hungary in 1916.
Karl took over the duties of the supreme commander in chief."Hawk" Konrad von Hötzendorf was relieved of his post as Chief of the General Staff and sent to the Italian front. He was succeeded by General Arz von Straussenburg. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was headed by Ottokar Czernin von und zu Hudenitz, a representative of the circle of Franz Ferdinand. The role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs increased dramatically during this period. Chernin was a controversial personality. He was an ambitious, gifted, but somewhat unbalanced person. Chernin's views were a strange mixture of supranational loyalism, conservatism and deep pessimism about the future of Austria-Hungary. Austrian politician J. Redlich called Chernin "a man of the seventeenth century who does not understand the time in which he lives."
Chernin himself went down in history full of bitterness with a phrase about the fate of the empire: “We were doomed to perish and had to die. But we could choose the type of death - and we chose the most painful one”. The young emperor chose Chernin because of his commitment to the idea of peace. "A victorious peace is very unlikely," noted Chernin, "a compromise with the Entente is needed, there is nothing to count on conquests."
On April 12, 1917, the Austrian emperor Karl turned to Kaiser Wilhelm II with a memorandum letter, where he noted that “every day the dark despair of the population is growing stronger … If the monarchies of the Central Powers are unable to conclude peace in the coming months, the peoples will heads … We are at war with a new enemy, even more dangerous than the Entente - with the international revolution, whose strongest ally is hunger. " That is, Karl quite rightly noted the main danger for Germany and Austria-Hungary - the threat of an internal explosion, a social revolution. Peace had to be made to save the two empires. Karl offered to end the war, "even at the cost of heavy sacrifices." The February revolution in Russia and the fall of the Russian monarchy made a huge impression on the Austrian emperor. Germany and Austria-Hungary followed the same disastrous path as the Russian Empire.
However, Berlin did not hear this appeal from Vienna. Moreover, in February 1917, Germany, without notifying the Austrian ally, began an all-out submarine war. As a result, the United States received an excellent excuse to enter the war on the side of the Entente. Realizing that the Germans still believed in victory, Charles I began to independently search for a path to peace. The situation at the front did not give the Entente hopes for a quick victory, which strengthened the possibility of peace negotiations. The Eastern Front, despite the assurances of the Russian Provisional Government to continue the "war to a victorious end," no longer posed a serious threat to the Central Powers. Almost all of Romania and the Balkans were occupied by the troops of the Central Powers. On the Western Front, the positional struggle continued, bleeding France and England. American troops were just beginning to stay in Europe and doubted their combat effectiveness (the Americans had no experience of a war of this magnitude). Chernin supported Karl.
Charles chose his brother-in-law, brother Cittus, Prince Sictus de Bourbon-Parma, as an intermediary for establishing ties with the Entente. Together with his younger brother Xavier, Siktus served as an officer in the Belgian army. This is how the "Siktus scam" began. Siktus maintained contacts with French Foreign Minister J. Cambon. Paris put forward the following conditions: the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France, without concessions to Germany in the colonies; the world cannot be separate, France will fulfill its obligations in relation to the allies. However, a new message from Siktus, sent after a meeting with French President Poincaré, hinted at the possibility of a separate agreement. The main goal of France was the military defeat of Germany, "cut off from Austria."
To condemn the new opportunities, Charles summoned Sictus and Xavier to Austria. They arrived on March 21st. In Laxenberg near Vienna, a series of meetings of the brothers with the imperial couple and Chernin took place. Chernin himself was skeptical about the idea of a separate peace. He hoped for world peace. Chernin believed that peace could not be concluded without Germany; refusal of an alliance with Berlin would lead to tragic consequences. The Austrian Foreign Minister understood that Germany could simply occupy Austria-Hungary in the event of her betrayal. Moreover, such a peace could lead to civil war. Most Austrian Germans and Hungarians could perceive the separate peace as a betrayal, and the Slavs supported it. Thus, a separate peace led to the destruction of Austria-Hungary, as well as the defeat of the war.
Negotiations in Laxenberg culminated in the transfer of Charles's letter to Sixtus, in which he promised to use all his influence to fulfill the French demands regarding Alsace and Lorraine. Simultaneously, Karl promised to restore the sovereignty of Serbia. As a result, Karl made a diplomatic mistake - he handed the enemies irrefutable, documentary evidence that the Austrian house was ready to sacrifice Alsace and Lorraine - one of the main priorities of the allied Germany. In the spring of 1918, this letter will be made public, which will undermine the political authority of Vienna, both in the eyes of the Entente and Germany.
On April 3, 1917, at a meeting with the German emperor, Charles proposed to William II to abandon Alsace and Lorraine. In exchange, Austria-Hungary was ready to transfer Galicia to Germany and agree to the transformation of the Polish kingdom into a German satellite. However, the German leadership did not support these initiatives. Thus, Vienna's attempt to bring Berlin to the negotiating table failed.
The Siktus scam also ended in failure. In the spring of 1917, the government of A. Ribot came to power in France, which was wary of the initiatives of Vienna and offered to fulfill the demands of Rome. And according to the London Treaty of 1915, Italy was promised Tyrol, Trieste, Istria and Dalmatia. In May, Karl hinted that he was ready to cede Tyrol. However, this was not enough. On June 5, Ribot said that "peace can only be the fruit of victory." There was no one else to talk to and nothing about.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria-Hungary Ottokar Czernin von und zu Hudenitz
The idea of the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
The First World War was total, intensive military propaganda set one goal - complete and final victory. For the Entente, Germany and Austria-Hungary were absolute evil, the embodiment of everything that was hated by the republicans and liberals. Prussian militarism, Habsburg aristocracy, reactionaryism and reliance on Catholicism were planned to be uprooted. The Financial International, which stood behind the United States, France and England, wanted to destroy the powers of medieval theocratic monarchism and absolutism. The Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian empires stood in the way of the capitalist and "democratic" New World Order, where big capital was supposed to rule - the "golden elite".
The ideological character of the war became especially noticeable after the two events of 1917. The first was the fall of the Russian Empire, the house of the Romanovs. The Entente acquired political homogeneity, becoming an alliance of democratic republics and liberal constitutional monarchies. The second event is the entry into the war of the United States. American President Woodrow Wilson and his advisers have been actively fulfilling the wishes of the American financial aces. And the main "crowbar" for the destruction of the old monarchies was to play the cheating principle of "self-determination of nations." When nations formally became independent and free, they established democracy, and in fact, they were clients, satellites of great powers, financial capitals of the world. The one who pays calls the tune.
On January 10, 1917, in the declaration of the Entente powers on the goals of the bloc, the liberation of Italians, South Slavs, Romanians, Czechs and Slovaks was indicated as one of them. However, there was no talk of liquidating the Habsburg monarchy yet. They talked about broad autonomy for "unprivileged" peoples. On December 5, 1917, speaking in Congress, President Wilson announced his desire to liberate the peoples of Europe from German hegemony. About the Danube monarchy, the American president said: “We are not interested in the destruction of Austria. How she disposes of herself is not our problem. " In the famous "14 Points" by Woodrow Wilson, point 10 concerned Austria. The peoples of Austria-Hungary were asked to provide "the widest possible opportunities for autonomous development." On January 5, 1918, British Prime Minister Lloyd George, in a statement on Britain's military objectives, noted that "we are not fighting for the destruction of Austria-Hungary."
However, the French were in a different mood. It was not for nothing that Paris, from the beginning of the war, supported the Czech and Croatian-Serbian political emigration. In France, legions were formed from prisoners and deserters - Czechs and Slovaks, in 1917-1918. they took part in hostilities on the Western Front and in Italy. In Paris, they wanted to create a "republicanize Europe", and this was impossible without the destruction of the Habsburg monarchy.
In general, the question of the partition of Austria-Hungary was not announced. The turning point came when the "Sixtus scam" surfaced. On April 2, 1918, Austrian Foreign Minister Czernin spoke to members of the Vienna City Council and, in some impulse, admitted that peace negotiations were indeed conducted with France. But the initiative, according to Chernin, came from Paris, and the negotiations were interrupted allegedly due to Vienna's refusal to agree to the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine to France. Outraged by the obvious lie, French Prime Minister J. Clemenceau responded by saying that Chernin was lying, then published the text of Karl's letter. A hail of reproaches for infidelity and betrayal fell upon the Vienna court, for the fact that the Habsburgs had violated the "sacred commandment" of "Teutonic fidelity" and brotherhood in arms. Although Germany itself did the same and conducted backstage negotiations without the participation of Austria.
Thus, Chernin rudely set up Karl. Count Chernin's career ended there, he resigned. Austria was struck by a severe political crisis. In court circles, they even started talking about the possible resignation of the emperor. Military circles and the Austro-Hungarian "hawks" committed to an alliance with Germany were furious. The Empress and the Parma house to which she belonged were attacked. They were considered the source of evil.
Karl was forced to make excuses to Berlin, to lie that it was a fake. In May, under pressure from Berlin, Karl signed an agreement on an even closer military and economic alliance of the Central Powers. The Habsburg state finally became a satellite of the more powerful German Empire. If we imagine an alternative reality, where Germany won the First World War, then Austria-Hungary would become a second-rate power, almost an economic colony of Germany. The victory of the Entente also did not bode well for Austria-Hungary. The Sixtus scandal buried the possibility of a political agreement between the Habsburgs and the Entente.
In April 1918, the "Congress of the oppressed peoples" was held in Rome. Representatives of various national communities of Austria-Hungary gathered in Rome. Most often, these politicians did not have any weight at home, but they did not hesitate to speak on behalf of their peoples, which, in fact, no one asked. In reality, many Slavic politicians would still be satisfied with broad autonomy within Austria-Hungary.
On June 3, 1918, the Entente announced that it considers the creation of an independent Poland, with the inclusion of Galicia, as one of the conditions for creating a just world. In Paris, the Polish National Council has already been created, headed by Roman Dmowski, who, after the revolution in Russia, changed the pro-Russian position to the pro-Western one. The activities of the supporters of independence were actively sponsored by the Polish community in the United States. In France, a Polish volunteer army was formed under the command of General J. Haller. Yu. Pilsudski, realizing where the wind was blowing, broke off relations with the Germans and gradually acquired the fame of the national hero of the Polish people.
On July 30, 1918, the French government recognized the right of Czechs and Slovaks to self-determination. The Czechoslovak National Council was called the supreme body that represents the interests of the people and is the nucleus of the future government of Czechoslovakia. On August 9, the Czechoslovak National Council was recognized as the future Czechoslovak government by England, on September 3 - by the United States. The artificiality of the Czechoslovak statehood did not bother anyone. Although Czechs and Slovaks, apart from linguistic proximity, had little in common. For many centuries, both peoples had different histories, were at different levels of political, cultural and economic development. This did not bother the Entente, like many other similar artificial structures, the main thing was to destroy the Habsburg empire.
Liberalization
The most important component of the policy of Charles I was the liberalization of domestic politics. It is worth noting that under the conditions of war, this was not the best decision. First, the Austrian authorities went too far with the search for "internal enemies", repression and restrictions, then began liberalization. This only aggravated the internal situation in the country. Charles I, guided by the best intentions, himself rocked the already not very stable boat of the Habsburg Empire.
On May 30, 1917, the Reichsrat, the Parliament of Austria, which had not met for more than three years, was convened. The idea of the "Easter Declaration", which strengthened the position of the Austrian Germans in Cisleitania, was rejected. Karl decided that the strengthening of the Austrian Germans would not forgive the position of the monarchy, but vice versa. In addition, in May 1917, Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza, who was the personification of Hungarian conservatism, was dismissed.
The convocation of parliament was Karl's big mistake. The convocation of the Reichsrat was perceived by many politicians as a sign of the weakness of the imperial power. The leaders of the national movements received a platform from which they could exert pressure on the authorities. The Reichsrat quickly turned into an opposition center, in fact, an anti-state body. As the parliamentary sessions continued, the position of the Czech and Yugoslavian deputies (they formed a single faction) became more and more radical. The Czech Union demanded the transformation of the Habsburg state into a "federation of free and equal states" and the creation of a Czech state, including the Slovaks. Budapest was outraged, since the annexation of the Slovak lands to the Czech ones meant a violation of the territorial integrity of the Hungarian kingdom. At the same time, the Slovak politicians themselves were waiting for someone to take, not giving preference to either an alliance with the Czechs, or autonomy within Hungary. The orientation towards an alliance with the Czechs won only in May 1918.
The amnesty announced on July 2, 1917, thanks to which political prisoners sentenced to death, mainly Czechs (more than 700 people), were released from peace in Austria-Hungary. Austrian and Bohemian Germans resented the imperial forgiveness of the "traitors", which further exacerbated the national divisions in Austria.
On July 20, on the island of Corfu, representatives of the Yugoslavian Committee and the Serbian government signed a declaration on the creation of a state after the war, which will include Serbia, Montenegro and the Austro-Hungarian provinces inhabited by the southern Slavs. The head of the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" was supposed to be a king from the Serbian dynasty Karageorgievich. It should be noted that the South Slavic Committee at this time did not have the support of the majority of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes of Austria-Hungary. Most South Slavic politicians in Austria-Hungary itself at this time advocated broad autonomy within the Habsburg Federation.
However, by the end of 1917, separatist, radical tendencies had won out. A certain role in this was played by the October Revolution in Russia and the Bolshevik Decree on Peace, which called for a “peace without annexations and indemnities” and the implementation of the principle of self-determination of nations. On November 30, 1917, the Czech Union, the South Slavic Club of Deputies and the Ukrainian Parliamentary Association issued a joint statement. In it, they demanded that delegations from various national communities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire be present at the peace talks in Brest.
When the Austrian government rejected this idea, on January 6, 1918, a congress of Czech Reichsrat deputies and members of the state councils met in Prague. They adopted a declaration in which they demanded that the peoples of the Habsburg empire be granted the right to self-determination and, in particular, the proclamation of the Czechoslovak state. Prime Minister Cisleitania Seidler declared the declaration "an act of high treason". However, the authorities could no longer oppose anything but loud statements to nationalism. The train left. The imperial power did not enjoy the same authority, and the army was demoralized and could not withstand the collapse of the state.
Military disaster
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3, 1918. Russia has lost a huge territory. Austro-German troops were stationed in Little Russia until the fall of 1918. In Austria-Hungary, this world was called "bread", so they hoped for grain supplies from Little Russia-Ukraine, which was supposed to improve the critical food situation in Austria. However, these hopes were not met. The civil war and poor harvest in Little Russia led to the fact that the export of grain and flour from this region to Tsisleitania in 1918 amounted to less than 2,500 wagons. For comparison: from Romania were taken out - about 30 thousand cars, and from Hungary - more than 10 thousand.
On May 7, a separate peace was signed in Bucharest between the Central Powers and defeated Romania. Romania ceded Dobruja to Bulgaria, part of southern Transylvania and Bukovina to Hungary. As compensation, Bucharest was given Russian Bessarabia. However, already in November 1918, Romania deserted back to the Entente camp.
During the 1918 campaign, the Austro-German command hoped to win. But these hopes were in vain. The forces of the Central Powers, unlike the Entente, were running out. In March - July, the German army launched a powerful offensive on the Western Front, achieved some successes, but was unable to defeat the enemy or break through the front. Material and human resources of Germany were running out, the morale was weakened. In addition, Germany was forced to maintain a large force in the East, controlling the occupied territories, having lost large reserves that could help on the Western Front. In July-August, the second battle of the Marne took place, and the Entente troops launched a counteroffensive. Germany suffered a heavy defeat. In September, the Entente troops, in the course of a number of operations, eliminated the results of the previous German success. In October - early November, the allied forces liberated most of the territory of France captured by the Germans and part of Belgium. The German army could no longer fight.
The offensive of the Austro-Hungarian army on the Italian front failed. The Austrians attacked on June 15th. However, the Austro-Hungarian troops could only in places break into the Italian defenses on the Piava River. After several troops suffered heavy losses and demoralized Austro-Hungarian troops retreated. The Italians, despite the constant demands of the allied command, could not immediately organize a counteroffensive. The Italian army was not in the best condition to attack.
Only on October 24 did the Italian army go on the offensive. In a number of places the Austrians successfully defended themselves, repelling enemy attacks. However, the Italian front soon fell apart. Under the influence of rumors and the situation on other fronts, the Hungarians and Slavs revolted. On October 25, all Hungarian troops simply left their positions and went to Hungary under the pretext of the need to protect their country, which was threatened by the Entente troops from Serbia. And Czech, Slovak and Croatian soldiers refused to fight. Only the Austrian Germans continued to fight.
By October 28, 30 divisions had already lost their combat effectiveness and the Austrian command issued an order for a general retreat. The Austro-Hungarian army was completely demoralized and fled. About 300 thousand people surrendered. On November 3, the Italians landed troops in Trieste. Italian troops occupied almost all of the previously lost Italian territory.
In the Balkans, the Allies also launched an offensive in September. Albania, Serbia and Montenegro were liberated. An armistice with the Entente was concluded by Bulgaria. In November, the Allies invaded Austro-Hungarian territory. On November 3, 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire concluded an armistice with the Entente, on November 11 - Germany. It was a complete defeat.
End of Austria-Hungary
On October 4, 1918, in agreement with the emperor and Berlin, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Burian sent a note to the Western powers stating that Vienna was ready for negotiations on the basis of Wilson's "14 points", including the point on the self-determination of nations.
On October 5, the Croatian People's Council was established in Zagreb, which declared itself the representative body of the Yugoslavian lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On October 8 in Washington, at the suggestion of Masaryk, the Declaration of Independence of the Czechoslovak People was announced. Wilson immediately admitted that the Czechoslovakians and Austria-Hungary were at war and that the Czechoslovak Council was a government at war. The USA could no longer regard the autonomy of peoples as a sufficient condition for the conclusion of peace. This was a death sentence for the Habsburg state.
On October 10-12, Emperor Charles received delegations of Hungarians, Czechs, Austrian Germans and South Slavs. Hungarian politicians still did not want to hear anything about the federalization of the empire. Karl had to promise that the forthcoming federalization manifesto would not affect Hungary. And for the Czechs and South Slavs, the federation no longer seemed the ultimate dream - the Entente promised more. Karl no longer gave orders, but begged and begged, but it was too late. Karl had to pay not only for his mistakes, but for the mistakes of his predecessors. Austria-Hungary was doomed.
In general, one can sympathize with Karl. He was an inexperienced, kind, religious person who was in charge of the empire and felt terrible mental pain, as his whole world was crumbling. The peoples refused to obey him, and nothing could be done. The army could have stopped the disintegration, but its combat-ready core fell on the fronts, and the remaining troops were almost completely decomposed. We must pay tribute to Karl, he fought to the end, and not for power, so he was not a power-hungry person, but for the legacy of his ancestors.
On October 16, 1918, a manifesto on the federalization of Austria ("Manifesto on the Peoples") was issued. However, the time for such a step was already lost. On the other hand, this manifesto made it possible to avoid bloodshed. Many officers and officials, brought up in the spirit of loyalty to the throne, could calmly begin to serve the legitimate national councils, into whose hands power was passed. I must say that many monarchists were ready to fight for the Habsburgs. Thus, the "lion of Isonzo" Field Marshal Svetozar Boroevich de Boyna had troops that remained disciplined and loyal to the throne. He was ready to go to Vienna and occupy it. But Karl, guessing about the plans of the field marshal, did not want a military coup and blood.
On October 21, the Provisional National Assembly of German Austria was established in Vienna. It included almost all the deputies of the Reichsrat, who represented the German-speaking districts of Cisleitania. Many MPs hoped that the German districts of the collapsed empire would soon be able to join Germany, completing the process of creating a unified Germany. But this was contrary to the interests of the Entente, therefore, at the insistence of the Western powers, the Austrian Republic, declared on November 12, became an independent state. Karl announced that he was "removed from government," but stressed that this was not an abdication. Formally, Charles remained emperor and king, since refusal to participate in state affairs was not tantamount to abdicating the title and throne.
Karl "suspended" the exercise of his powers, hoping that he can return the throne. In March 1919, under pressure from the Austrian government and the Entente, the imperial family moved to Switzerland. In 1921, Charles will make two attempts to regain the throne of Hungary, but unsuccessfully. He will be sent to the island of Madeira. In March 1922, due to hypothermia, Karl will fall ill with pneumonia and will die on April 1. His wife, Tsita, will live an entire era and die in 1989.
By October 24, all the Entente countries and their allies recognized the Czechoslovak National Council as the current government of the new state. On October 28, the Czechoslovak Republic (Czechoslovakia) was proclaimed in Prague. On October 30, the Slovak National Council confirmed the accession of Slovakia to the Czech Republic. In fact, Prague and Budapest fought for Slovakia for several more months. On November 14, the National Assembly met in Prague, Masaryk was elected president of Czechoslovakia.
On October 29, in Zagreb, the People's Council announced its readiness to take all power in the Yugoslav provinces. Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia and the Slovenian lands seceded from Austria-Hungary and declared neutrality. True, this did not prevent the Italian army from occupying Dalmatia and the coastal regions of Croatia. Anarchy and chaos set in in the Yugoslavian regions. Widespread anarchy, collapse, the threat of famine, and the severance of economic ties forced the Zagreb veche to seek help from Belgrade. Actually, the Croats, Bosnians and Slovenes had no way out. The Habsburg Empire collapsed. Austrian Germans and Hungarians created their own states. It was necessary either to take part in the creation of a common South Slavic state, or to become victims of the territorial conquests of Italy, Serbia and Hungary (possibly Austria).
On November 24, the People's Council appealed to Belgrade with a request for the Yugoslavian provinces of the Danube monarchy to join the Kingdom of Serbia. On December 1, 1918, the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (future Yugoslavia) was announced.
In November, the Polish state was formed. After the surrender of the Central Powers, a dual power developed in Poland. The Regency Council of the Kingdom of Poland sat in Warsaw, and the Provisional People's Government in Lublin. Jozef Pilsudski, who became the generally recognized leader of the nation, united both power groups. He became the "chief of state" - the interim head of the executive branch. Galicia also became part of Poland. However, the borders of the new state were determined only in 1919-1921, after Versailles and the war with Soviet Russia.
On October 17, 1918, the Hungarian parliament broke the union with Austria and declared the country's independence. The Hungarian National Council, headed by the liberal Count Mihai Karolyi, set out to reform the country. To preserve the territorial integrity of Hungary, Budapest announced its readiness for immediate peace talks with the Entente. Budapest withdrew Hungarian troops from the crumbling fronts to their homeland.
On October 30-31, an uprising began in Budapest. Crowds of thousands of townspeople and soldiers returning from the front demanded the transfer of power to the National Council. The victim of the rebels was the former Prime Minister of Hungary, Istvan Tisza, who was torn to pieces by soldiers in his own house. Count Karoji became prime minister. On November 3, Hungary signed an armistice with the Entente in Belgrade. However, this did not prevent Romania from seizing Transylvania. The attempts of the Karolyi government to negotiate with the Slovaks, Romanians, Croats and Serbs on the preservation of the unity of Hungary on the condition of granting its national communities broad autonomy ended in failure. Time was lost. Hungarian liberals had to pay for the mistakes of the former conservative elite, which until recently did not want to reform Hungary.
Uprising in Budapest on October 31, 1918
On November 5 in Budapest, Charles I was deposed from the throne of Hungary. On November 16, 1918, Hungary was proclaimed a republic. However, the situation in Hungary was dire. On the one hand, in Hungary itself, the struggle of various political forces continued - from conservative monarchists to communists. As a result, Miklos Horthy became the dictator of Hungary, who led the resistance to the 1919 revolution. On the other hand, it was difficult to predict what would be left of the former Hungary. In 1920, the Entente withdrew its troops from Hungary, but in the same year the Treaty of Trianon deprived the country of 2/3 of the territory where hundreds of thousands of Hungarians lived, and there was most of the economic infrastructure.
Thus, the Entente, having destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Empire, created a huge area of instability in Central Europe, where old grievances, prejudices, hostility and hatred broke loose. The destruction of the Habsburg monarchy, which was an integrating force capable of more or less successfully representing the interests of the majority of its subjects, smoothing and balancing political, social, national and religious contradictions, was a great evil. In the future, this will become one of the main prerequisites for the next world war
Map of the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1919-1920
