UDC 930.85(4–12) ISSN 0350–7653 eISSN 2406–0801 SERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIES BALCANICA XLVII ANNUAL OF THE INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIES Editor-in-Chief DUŠAN T. BATAKOVIĆ Director of the Institute for Balkan Studies SASA Editorial Board JEAN-PAUL BLED (Paris), LJUBOMIR MAKSIMOVIĆ, ZORAN MILUTINOVIĆ (London), DANICA POPOVIĆ, DRAGAN BAKIĆ, SPYRIDON SFETAS (Thessaloniki), GABRIELLA SCHUBERT (Jena), NIKOLA TASIĆ, SVETLANA M. TOLSTAJA (Moscow) BELGRADE 2016 Reviews 375 that he opposed. In the last forty years, there those which the author brands as an “ab- have been multiple perspectives on the First struse Habsburg nostalgia” (p. 247). World War, ranging from anti-war films to Marvin Benjamin Fried, Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans during World War I. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, xviii + 294 p. Jonathan E. Gumz, The Resurrection and Collapse of Empire in Habsburg Serbia, 1914–1918. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009, xii + 275 p. Reviewed by Dušan Fundić* This review considers two books that deal no means more moderate than Germany’s; with the period of the First World War in but rather, that it simply focused on differ- the Balkans, one from the perspective of ent parts of the continent. For the Habs- Austria-Hungary’s diplomatic service, the burg ruling elite, the fronts against Russia other from the perspective of its occupation and Italy were something of a distraction, troops. The book by Marvin Benjamin Fried although they were not completely uninter- devoted to Austro-Hungarian wartime di- ested. One of their concerns was, for exam- plomacy and decision-making process offers ple, the Polish question, but, in Fried’s view, as its major conclusion that the Balkans held such aims were of secondary importance. a superior place in the Monarchy’s foreign Unlike its German ally, the Habsburg policy over, for example, the Russian and Foreign Ministry retained control over the Italian fronts. The book by Jonathan Gumz country’s foreign policy. Fried shows that the explores the mindset of the Austro-Hun- Emperor and Apostolic King Franz Joseph garian army, its code of conduct, and its im- played a rather insignificant role in decision pact on the occupation policy in Habsburg- making, which also goes for domestic public governed Serbia 1915–1918, and seeks to opinion, since it had no influence on policy identify the driving motives of the occupiers. shaping. Fried organized his book in six chap- The chronologically organized chapters ters preceded by an introduction and end- cover the following time spans: July–De- ing with a conclusion. All chapters with the cember 1914, January–September 1915, exception of the first, “War Aims and De- October 1915 – June 1916, June 1916 – May cision-Making in Austria-Hungary”, follow 1917, and May 1917 – November 1918. a chronological pattern. He aims to demon- Each of them presents a period in which strate that the Double Monarchy had vital Austro-Hungarian foreign policy faced dif- political, economic and military interests in ferent challenges and was forced to take new the Balkans, which resulted in its aggressive solutions in consideration. The author’s ac- and expansionist policies. The book is pri- count is thick with detail, based on various, marily an analysis of the development and primarily archival, sources for documenting changes of Austro-Hungarian war aims and the consistency in Austro-Hungarian war the changing definition of acceptable peace aims. conditions in the Balkans during the First World War. Fried calls attention to the fact that Austria-Hungary’s war aims were by * Institute for Balkan Studies SASA 376 Balcanica XLVII (2016) Between July and December 1914 the Montenegro and Albania. Burian, on the Empire, just like the other powers, was self- other hand, was more in favour of the crea- confident and acted on the assumption that tion of small but viable states which would the war would be short and victorious, and be able to check Serbian and Bulgarian in- that its main result would be to teach the fluence in the future, and assigned Albania Serbs a harsh lesson. As far as the shaping the most important role in such a geopoliti- of foreign policy and war aims is concerned, cal vision. Fried concludes that Burian pur- Fried underlines the impact of Hungarian sued a Balkan-centric policy. pressure embodied in Prime Minister Istvan Under the new Emperor, Karl I, the new Tisza, which lasted until May 1917. In the Foreign Minister, Count Ottokar Czernin, Adriatic region, the notion of negative war found himself in a difficult situation in the aims prevailed, the chief goal being to pre- period of June 1916 to May 1917. Faced vent the Italians from assuming control over with the impossibility to pursue Burian’s both sides of the sea. Also, Berchtold and aims, Czernin sought to find an acceptable Tisza shared the view that it was necessary peace option. After the dismissal of Conrad to defeat Serbia and diminish its influence in February 1917 and Tizsa in May 1917, in the region. Czernin obtained almost complete control The next chapter of the book covering but was unable to pursue his new goals be- the period from the beginning of 1915 until cause he could not get Germany’s consent to September the same year is dominated by consider peace. After the victory against Ro- the portrait of Istvan Burian, new Minister mania, his efforts only became more futile. of Foreign Affairs. Fried portrays him as an The last chapter is a quite short overview of independent statesman with a mind of his the last months of the Monarchy. The old own, not merely as Tisza’s exponent in the war aims in the Balkans were overshadowed Ministry as he is usually depicted. Burian by the need to secure food supplies for the was fully committed to the realization of population and the army, and an honourable war aims in the Balkans but military defeats way to peace. Because of the complete lack in Galicia and Serbia crippled his attempts. of resources for waging war between May Meanwhile, Austria-Hungary came under 1917 and November 1918, Austria-Hun- intense pressure from its German ally to re- gary could not resist German political and define its aims in order to attract Bulgaria military control. and Romania into the war on the side of the The book written by Marvin Benja- Central Powers. min Fried is based on an extensive body of In the period from October 1915 to sources and literature. Apart from Austrian June 1916 the Danube Monarchy finally primary sources, Fried was able to read and achieved victory in Serbia, although not use documents in Hungarian, which lends alone but with the help of its German and additional credibility to his interpretations Bulgarian allies. The Bulgarian government of Tisza’s and Burian’s roles in Austro-Hun- almost immediately increased their territo- garian policies. The author advances an im- rial demands, which caused new complica- portant thesis by treating Austria-Hungary tions to Austria-Hungary and its ambition as a great power which was an independent to establish domination in the Balkans. Fol- actor with ambitious aims and not merely a lowing the Bulgarian pressure and internal “weight” that Germany dragged behind it. divisions that sprang from Tisza’s intention Jonathan E. Gumz organized his book to establish Hungarian control over Serbia, into five chapters focused on the invasion of Burian had to endure the conflict with Chief Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian occupation of the General Staff Conrad who had been policy, including the organization and im- insisting on the idea of the annexation of plementation of the legal system in occupied Reviews 377 Serbia, the military view of the occupied harsh and brutal response of the Austro- country as a food source for the war effort, Hungarian troops. In this way, Gumz de- and guerrilla warfare. nies that anti-Serbian sentiment harboured One of the author’s chief goals was to by Austrian elites was a driving force behind examine the nature of violence committed the committed crimes. According to Gumz, by Austro-Hungarian troops. Gumz finds the crimes were intended as a punishment that “much of the Serb historiography is for the Serbs who acted against the rules of on the mark” when exploring “executions, war as imagined by the Habsburg officers. atrocities against civilians, military law, and It seems that the author here succumbs to the banishment and internment of the Serb the apparently still lingering influence of national consciousness or at minimum Serb the fear of the Serbian “irregulars” that was independence”. On the other hand, he re- widespread in the Austro-Hungarian army, interprets the motives for the occupation. and to the point that one may almost be led Rather than seeing it as the “intentional war to believe that it was them who defeated the of annihilation”,1 Gumz idealizes the Habs- invaders, not the regular Serbian troops. burg Army and suggests that it was guided In the second chapter, “Eradicating Na- by traditional, conservative values. Their tional Politics in Occupied Serbia”, Gumz mission, in his view, was to reshape Serbia examines the mentality of elites in the Aus- into a province of an idealized bureaucratic tro-Hungarian army. The proclaimed goal empire, essentially supranational and free of to reshape Serbia, which was possible only politics and the notion of democracy. The by force, was set in motion after the occu- Serbian population was to be transformed pation. But was this really the policy of the from a people of “king killers” into civilized “Army of 1848 in 1914” as Gumz defines it? subjects.2 In line with this logic, Gumz The University of Belgrade was closed, the concludes that the complete devastation of use of Cyrillic was officially banned and it Serbia was prevented by the adherence to was replaced by the Latin alphabet.3 conservative international values for which As Guenther Kronnenbiter has re- the Empire went to war.