Marvin Benjamin Fried. Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans during World War I

The image of the Habsburg Monarchy as a relatively fragile anachronism on the international stage long informed the historical literature. Because the First World War seemed to have hastened the inevitable end of the empire, Austria-Hungary's foreign policy after 1914 has remained comparatively underexplored or been subject to misinterpretation. An aggravating circumstance concerned the prevalent German-centric take on events: the Dual Monarchy appeared as an appendage of its more powerful ally, while the Fritz Fischer thesis on German war guilt likewise made Austria-Hungary appear largely irrelevant. In consequence, its war aims have been among the least understood of those of the greater, and even some of the lesser powers. The study under consideration here offers an essential corrective based on exhaustive primary research in the monarchy's foreign and military archives now housed in Vienna, as well as in relevant manuscript collections in Hungary, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Austria-Hungary emerges from its pages as a still-vigorous great power that, despite many setbacks, tenaciously pursued a remarkably stable set of war objectives aimed at preserving or even enhancing its status

Anachronism · Ancient history · Archaeology · Economic history · Empire · Face (sociological concept · German · Monarchy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · World War II · Classics · European Political History Analysis · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies