Marvin Benjamin Fried London School of Economics
[email protected] https://doi.org/10.18485/ai_godine_ww1.2019.ch1 94(439.2)"1914/1918" “A LIFE AND DEATH QUESTION”: AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN WAR AIMS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR1 Introduction While a good deal of research has been done on the war aims of Germany and a number of other Great Powers, the aims of Austria-Hungary have been comparatively neglected. This chapter seeks to reappraise Austro-Hungarian war aims and to argue that they were far from incoherent, inconsistent, or insignificant. Rather, both civilian and military leaders in Vienna and Budapest pursued aggressive and expansionist policies aimed at securing and increasing the territorial, eco- nomic, and military power of the Dual Monarchy. A detailed analysis of the Monarchy’s most important war aims, as dis- cussed internally and in conjunction with its most important ally, Germany, will demonstrate three points: first, that these war aims were more offensive, expansionist, and annexation- ist in the Balkans and in Poland than previously thought; sec- ond, that the Foreign Ministry remained in overall control 1 Marvin Benjamin Fried: "A Life and Death Question": Austro- Hungarian War Aims in the First World War. In : Holger Afflerbach (Ed.), The Purpose of the First World War. War Aims and Military Strategies. Schriften des Historischen Kollegs, Band 91, Berlin/ Boston 2015, S. 117-140. 8 Marvin Benjamin Fried of the formulation of war aims, in opposition to the army’s wishes and contrary to the German example; and third, that Austria-Hungary’s at times almost delusional insistence on its principal war aims was of considerable historical impor- tance as a factor prolonging the war.