Første Verdenskrig 1914-1918 (Kan 2024)
Østrig-Ungarns sammenbrud
Dobbeltheden i Habsburg-monarkiet var understreget helt fra krigens begyndelse. Mens det østrigske parlament, eller Reichsrat, var blevet suspenderet i marts 1914 og ikke blev genoptaget i tre år, fortsatte det ungarske parlament i Budapest sine sessioner, og den ungarske regering beviste sig konstant mindre tilbøjelig til at diktere fra militæret end den østrigske havde. Slaviske minoriteter viste imidlertid et lille tegn på anti-Habsburg-følelse inden Russlands martsrevolution i 1917. I maj 1917 blev Reichsrat imidlertid genoptaget, og lige før åbningssessionen sendte den tjekkiske intelligentsia et manifest til sine deputerede, hvori han opfordrede til " et demokratisk Europa
af autonome stater. ” Bolsjevikrevolutionen i november 1917 og de Wilsonianske fredsopgørelser fra januar 1918 og fremover opmuntrede til socialisme på den ene side og nationalisme på den anden side, eller alternativt en kombination af begge tendenser blandt alle folk i Habsburg-monarkiet.
Tidligt i september 1918 foreslog den østrig-ungarske regering i en cirkulær note til de andre magter, at der skulle afholdes en konference på neutralt territorium for en generel fred. Dette forslag blev bremset af De Forenede Stater med den begrundelse, at den amerikanske holdning allerede var blevet udtalt af de Wilsonianske udtalelser (de fjorten punkter osv.). Men da Østrig-Ungarn efter Bulgariens sammenbrud den 4. oktober appellerede til en våbenhvile baseret på disse meget udtalelser, var svaret den 18. oktober, at den amerikanske regering nu var forpligtet over for tjekkoslovakkerne og til jugoslaverne, som måske ikke ville være tilfreds med den ”autonomi”, der hidtil er stillet. Kejseren Charles havde faktisk givet autonomi til befolkningerne i det østrigske imperium (adskilt fra det ungarske rige) den 16. oktober,men denne indrømmelse blev ignoreret internationalt og tjente kun til at lette processen med forstyrrelse inden for monarkiet: Tjekkoslovakker i Prag og syd-slaver i Zagreb havde allerede oprettet organer, der var klar til at tage magten.
The last scenes of Austria-Hungary’s dissolution were performed very rapidly. On October 24 (when the Italians launched their very timely offensive), a Hungarian National Council prescribing peace and severance from Austria was set up in Budapest. On October 27 a note accepting the U.S. note of October 18 was sent from Vienna to Washington—to remain unacknowledged. On October 28 the Czechoslovak committee in Prague passed a “law” for an independent state, while a similar Polish committee was formed in Kraków for the incorporation of Galicia and Austrian Silesia into a unified Poland. On October 29, while the Austrian high command was asking the Italians for an armistice, the Croats in Zagreb declared Slavonia, Croatia, and Dalmatia to be independent, pending the formation of a national state of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. On October 30 the German members of the Reichsrat in Vienna proclaimed an independent state of German Austria.
The solicited armistice between the Allies and Austria-Hungary was signed at the Villa Giusti, near Padua, on Nov. 3, 1918, to become effective on November 4. Under its provisions, Austria-Hungary’s forces were required to evacuate not only all territory occupied since August 1914 but also South Tirol, Tarvisio, the Isonzo Valley, Gorizia, Trieste, Istria, western Carniola, and Dalmatia. All German forces should be expelled from Austria-Hungary within 15 days or interned, and the Allies were to have free use of Austria-Hungary’s internal communications and to take possession of most of its warships.
Count Mihály Károlyi, chairman of the Budapest National Council, had been appointed prime minister of Hungary by his king, the Austrian emperor Charles, on October 31 but had promptly started to dissociate his country from Austria—partly in the vain hope of obtaining a separate Hungarian armistice. Charles, the last Habsburg to rule in Austria-Hungary, renounced the right to participate in Austrian affairs of government on November 11, in Hungarian affairs on November 13.
The final offensive on the Western Front
It was eventually agreed among the Allied commanders that Pershing’s American troops should advance across the difficult terrain of the Argonne Forest, so that the combined Allied offensive would consist of converging attacks against the whole German position west of a line drawn from Ypres to Verdun. Thus, the Americans from the front northwest of Verdun and the French from eastern Champagne, the former on the west bank of the Meuse, the latter west of the Argonne Forest, were to launch attacks on September 26, with Mézières as their objective, in order to threaten not only the Germans’ supply line along the Mézières–Sedan–Montmédy railway and the natural line of retreat across Lorraine but also the hinge of the Antwerp–Meuse defensive line that the Germans were now preparing. The British were to attack the Hindenburg Line between Cambrai and Saint-Quentin on September 27 and to try to reach the key rail junction of Maubeuge, so as to threaten the Germans’ line of retreat through the Liège gap. The Belgians, with Allied support, were to begin a drive from Ypres toward Ghent on September 28.
The Americans took Vauquois and Montfaucon in the first two days of their offensive but were soon slowed down, and on October 14, when their attack was suspended, they had only reached Grandpré, less than halfway to Mézières. The French advance meanwhile was halted on the Aisne. The British, though they had broken through the German defenses by October 5 and thenceforward had open country in front of them, could not pursue the Germans fast enough to endanger their withdrawal. Nevertheless, the piercing of the Hindenburg Line unnerved the German supreme command. The Belgians were in possession of all the heights around Ypres by September 30.
