A Portrait of Innocence: Austria-Hungary Goes to War

On 27 July 1914 the Austrian foreign minister Berchtold requested Emperor Franz Joseph to sign the declaration of war, on the express grounds that the situation called for swift action, in order to achieve a fait accompli that would forestall any possible peace initiative on the part of the Triple Entente.

War Declared

Demonstrations of support for the war were not limited to Paris, London, and Berlin. In Vienna and Budapest, crowds also eagerly or anxiously awaited news of the developing situation and took sorrowful leave of loved ones as trains full of recruits left the train stations heading off toward the front.

The Troops Were Optimistic

Emperor Franz Joseph reportedly entered World War I with a fatalistic, "decency-over-victory" mindset, believing the conflict was a necessary, though likely doomed, defense of Habsburg honor.

Even though an Austrian ultimatum ostensibly started the war, once the fighting started, military events seemed to have a way of fading to un-importance whenever Austro-Hungarian forces were involved. Or such at least is the impression one has when viewed from the vantage point of the Western Front. But the war experience for soldiers, willing and unwilling, of the vast multi-ethnic empire of the Hapsburgs was just as dangerous, miserable, and tediously boring as that of their Western Front enemies and comrades-in-arms.

The Austrian Army's Uniforms

Departing for the Fronts

Polish Cavalrymen — The Variety of the Dual Empire's Uniforms
(and Languages) Was Amazing 

Supporting the War Effort

Early Mobilization & Action

Invading Serbia Would Be a Greater Challenge Than the Generals Anticipated

An Early Photo of the Wounded

The outcome of World War I for Austria-Hungary was the total collapse, dissolution, and dismemberment of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918.  Estimates of military deaths for the Dual Monarch and its empire vary between 1,016,000 and 1,200,000 to over 1.5 million (including missing/POWs). Estimated civilian deaths (non-flu) are 465,000. As a defeated Central Power, the empire was replaced by independent states (Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia) and lost vast territories to Italy, Romania, and Yugoslavia, ending centuries of Habsburg rule. 

Note: Tomorrow on Roads to the Great War we will take a look at Italy's early war experience, which did not go as its politicians and generals thought it would. MH

Sources:  The Tony Langley Collection; Habsburger.net