Chapter 183 The Impact of the Sarajevo Incident (Part 1)
The news of Archduke Ferdinand's assassination spread rapidly in Austria that day.
The first among the government officials to get the news was the Austro-Hungarian Chief of General Staff Konrad, who left Sarajevo a few hours before Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. He took the 10:30 arrival train from Sarajevo to Croatia.
, went there to supervise military exercises.
Shortly in the afternoon, when the train passed through Zagreb station, Baron Lehmen, a cavalry general, walked into Conrad's box and told him the terrible news. Conrad's train arrived at the last station, Karl
By the time of the visit, an official telegram had been delivered, officially announcing that the Habsburg heir and his wife had been assassinated, and that the assassins were Bosnian Serbs.
Conrad made the correct judgment that this was not an isolated action by a madman, but an organized crime. He believed that, in effect, the murder of Archduke Ferdinand was Serbia's declaration of war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
This act of war, he believed, could only be responded to with war. He immediately sent a telegram to Franz Joseph I, who was vacationing at his villa in Bad Ischl in the Alps, asking him whether he should interrupt the Croatian military exercise plan.
Return to Vienna. The emperor replied, yes. The next night, Conrad drove straight to Vienna overnight.
Conrad's character determined that he could treat the news of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand with a calm and militant attitude, because he had the same stubbornness as Archduke Ferdinand. The Chief of Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army was simply born to be a soldier.
The assassinated Archduke Ferdinand helped him ascend to the position of Chief of General Staff twice (1906 and 1912), and this was when the emperor did not like him. It can be said that Ferdinand single-handedly helped him secure the army.
First person opportunity.
One more thing, the reason why the emperor did not like him was because in November 1911, the bellicose Conrad proposed attacking Italy, which was a formal ally of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time and was fighting the Ottomans. This suggestion made Conrad
Ladd was in a bad situation.
However, it was Serbia that made him most hostile. During the outbreak of the Bosnia and Herzegovina crisis, he constantly asked his colleagues to "completely solve the Serbian problem." Thanks to the support of Germany, Vienna was able to withstand Russian opposition and win Europe's response to the Austro-Hungarian Empire's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Black identity.
Without being able to stop it, Serbia made breakthroughs from other places. In the First Balkan War, it gained a large amount of Ottoman territory. In the Second Balkan War, it also defeated Bulgaria because of Romania's participation. And in the Second Balkan War, it also defeated Bulgaria.
With the support of Russia, some new territories in Bulgaria were acquired, which increased the territory's population by nearly half and greatly increased Serbia's prestige.
On the other hand, the reputation of Austria-Hungary also plummeted because of its failure to intervene in the Balkan War. It is not surprising that the Serbs in Bosnia not only believed in national unity, but also believed in political terrorism.
When Conrad saw that Serbia was not only capable of defeating the Ottomans, but also deterring Austria from intervening (for fear of Russian intervention), he began to fear that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no time to solve the long-standing Slavic minority problem.
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At the first Austro-Hungarian cabinet meeting after the assassination, many senior officials reviewed the report sent from Sarajevo. In the end, everyone agreed that the multiple assassinations on Epikoy Street seemed to have been carried out by Bosnian Serbs.
.These people are all related to the mafia in Serbia, but there is definite evidence that "the root of the conspiracy is Belgrade." This is what Foreign Minister Bertold told the German Ambassador Chershiki.
The words came up again and again in the coming weeks.
The Foreign Secretary said this because the Austro-Hungarian Charge d'Affaires in Belgrade observed that it was sent to him. He found out that after receiving the news of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand there, the Serbian nationalists who were celebrating the festival were so excited that they almost went crazy. Some people
Because I was so excited, I fainted in the arms of others. And some people said, "We have been waiting for this moment for too long."
After this cabinet meeting, everyone's opinions were almost unanimous. Prime Minister Count Steiger supported the war, War Minister Klobatin and Finance Minister Bilinski also supported the war. In addition, the Foreign Minister and Chief of General Staff seemed to support the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
High-level officials have decided to go to war. However, one high-level official clearly opposes declaring war, and that is Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza.
Tisza was a formidable figure in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was harsh and indifferent. Although he did not speak much, his words were very important. Of course, it was not only the position of prime minister that gave him such power, but more importantly,
His family has a huge influence in Hungary, not to mention Hungary's status in the dual empire of Austria-Hungary. His father, Tisa Kalman, served as Prime Minister of Hungary for 15 years (1875-1890), and even though he did not hold the position
After assuming the post of Prime Minister, the Hungarian government also had to ask for his opinions on many laws.
In fact, Tisza did not have any favorable impression of Serbia. He hoped that Austria-Hungary would not get too involved in the affairs of the southern Balkans. If Austria-Hungary expands there, it will only weaken Hungary's special status in the end, because it will introduce more
The large number of Slavic minorities would eventually transform the Austro-Hungarian Empire from a binary structure (Austrians and Magyars) to a triadic structure.
The attitude of Emperor Franz Joseph I was very interesting. He did not care which policy the government adopted, but insisted on a principle. No matter what countermeasures the government adopted against Serbia, it must have Tisza's consent and strive to obtain
Hungary’s full support.
When Foreign Minister Bertold approached Tisza and asked for his support, the Hungarian Prime Minister told the Foreign Minister that he opposed the war because Russia, which was behind Serbia, would send troops to intervene. Without the support of its ally Germany, it was unreasonable to declare war on Serbia.
Unacceptable thing. For this reason, Tisza prepared a "peace plan" for the foreign minister to hand over to Germany.
In this "peace plan", the center is to bring Romania, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire into the Triple Alliance, thereby preventing Russia's ambitions in the Balkans. On the surface, this is Tisza using diplomatic means to play with the Balkans.
Politics is actually about strengthening relations with Germany, allowing it to become more deeply involved in Austro-Hungarian affairs in the Balkans, and turning the Balkans into a common cause for Austria-Hungary and Germany.
In the face of the assassination in Sarajevo, the politicians of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were unable to formulate their own countermeasures without the consent of Germany. This reflected the strategic incompetence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The reason why Austria-Hungary was unable to make countermeasures was
The reason is also the internal political structure of the empire. The high-ranking Hungarians have the ability to veto a policy on behalf of half of the empire. However, Austria-Hungary consists of 15 ethnic groups, and it is almost impossible to separate domestic policy from international policy.
Tisza's pacifist stance was also inseparable from his desire to maintain the status of the Magyars. Conrad and Berthold hoped to crush Serbia in order to weaken the national independence wave within the empire. But the two wanted to
To achieve this goal, we must first suppress the Magyars represented by Tisza. In this strange situation, Germany not only became the arbiter of Austria-Hungary's foreign policy, but also became the solution to the dilemma of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's system.
By.
Now Austria-Hungary is waiting for Germany's attitude.
PS Go to bed early today and get up to continue coding and updating.
