A
SHORT HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE:
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French
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English
From
the Thirty Years’ War to Prince Eugene of Savoy
The European history of the 17th century was characterized
by two main conflicts, namely by the clashes between Protestants
and Catholics, which affected almost all European countries
during the Thirty Years’ War (1618 - 1648), on the one
hand and by the continuing struggle against the Ottomans,
who tried to extend their territory from the Balkans towards
the west during the second half of the century, on the other.
In the west of the continent, France, ruled by King Louis
XIII and King Louis XIV, tried to gain supremacy in Europe
and to reduce the power of the Habsburgs in Spain as well
as in Germany. As a consequence - apart from the wars between
France and Spain - France started to conquer territories along
the Rhine and formed an alliance with the Ottomans. England
and the Netherlands, the new economic powers, also took part
in these events. During the fight for freedom of the Dutch
against the Spanish a new art of fencing had developed as
a consequence of a military reform of the Orange, which, mainly
based on expert training, permitted troops greater manoeuvrability
and stability. Until the beginning of the 17th century the
imperial armies varied in equipment and were only hired for
the duration of a campaign. Now they formed a permanently
paid standing army. Due to the lack of money of the Emperor
the army was partly financed by so-called war-contractors
like generalissimo Albrecht Duke of Mecklenburg, better known
as Wallenstein. The peace treaties of Osnabrück and Münster
ended the Thirty Years’ War in 1648.Compared to other
Central European armies the Ottoman army was organized completely
different and equipped with strange weapons like bows and
arrows; it had been pushing forward to the west since the
60ies of the 17th century and was defeated on August 1, 1664
at Mogersdorf near St. Gotthard, situated on the river Raab.
But it was not until 20 years later that the advancement of
the Ottomans entered a crucial phase, as the Turkish army,
lead by Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha, marched up in front of
the gates of Vienna in July of 1683. The threat of the imperial
capital and royal residence threatened the whole of Central
Europe. And it was not until September 12, 1683 that Vienna
was relieved by a united army of imperial and Polish troops.
This was the turning point as well as the beginning of the
repulsion of the Turkish army. As a result of the decisive
battle at Zenta, situated on the river Theiß, (1697)
and the peace treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 a large part of
Hungary and all of Transylvania could be regained. These successes
were mainly due to the military genius and diplomatic skills
of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663 - 1736), who therewith laid
the foundation of Austria’s big-power status during
the first third of the 18th century.
The
18th Century (until 1790)
The 18th century was a time of continuing power struggles
in Central Europe, which were interrupted only by the French
Revolution. The main concern was the struggle for dominance
of France, England, Austria, Russia and Prussia. The extinction
of the Casa de Austria in Spain in 1700 (death of Charles
II) caused a huge power vacuum in Central Europe as well as
overseas. During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714)
Austria and France struggled to gain supremacy over the regions
and provinces temporarily without a sovereign. In spite of
the glorious victories by the imperial troops which were led
by Prince Eugene of Savoy this struggle was finally resolved
by England’s partisanship. After first supporting the
Habsburgs, England feared a Habsburg hegemony and enforced
a splitting up of the Spanish heritage between the two belligerent
rival powers. Emperor Charles VI obtained the southern part
of the Netherlands and all former Spanish properties in Italy,
while Philip of Anjou became King of Spain and sovereign over
the Spanish overseas territories. The events on the Balkans
were, however, no less fundamental and of serious consequences.
Prince Eugene’s victories at Peterwardein and Belgrade
during the war against the Turks from 1716 to 1718 secured
the biggest extension for the Habsburg Monarchy as well as
its rise to the status of a major power in Europe. The War
of the Polish Succession then followed between 1733 and 1738.Emperor
Charles VI lost almost all of his possessions gained in 1718
during another war against the Turks from 1737 to 1739, which
was fought in alliance with the rising power Russia. By means
of the Pragmatic Sanction the Emperor tried to protect the
right of inheritance of his daughter Maria Theresia against
the claims of other European powers, but it was all in vain.
During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) Maria
Theresia had to defend her heritage against almost all neighboring
sovereigns.Her main opponent was King Frederick II of Prussia,
to whom - as the only loss of territory - she had to cede
Silesia in the end. As a result Prussia also gained the status
of a major power in Europe. A new conflict (the so-called
Seven Years’ War from 1756 to 1763) between Austria
-initially supported by Russia and France - on the one hand
and Prussia on the other flared up soon; in the end Frederick
II retained his hold on Silesia. This war culminated in a
total reverse of the previous system of European alliances,
and on top of it had global political consequences, too: during
the War of the Spanish Succession England had already replaced
France in the trade with America, and later on it captured
all former French colonies in India and North America. England
thus managed to gain the status of a world power. The end
of this century saw Austria’s last war against the Turks
from 1788 to 1791, in which Emperor Joseph II - in alliance
with Russia - proved to be victorious and in 1789 field marshal
Laudon succeeded in recapturing Belgrade.
Austria and Europe 1789-1866
From the French Wars until 1848
Towards the end of his reign, Joseph II waged another
war against the Turks that again ended with capture of Belgrade
(1789). This victory was more important to Austria than the
French Revolution that took place at the same time. In Paris,
on 14 July 1789, an angry crowd stormed the Bastille, the
state penitentiary, a symbol of the much hated rule of King
Louis XVI. In April 1792, France declared war upon Austria.
The Habsburg Monarchy formed the so-called First Coalition
with Prussia and England.. The ensuing war lasted until 1797
and ended with the defeat of the allies; for Austria it meant
the loss of its dominions in the west of Europe and of Lombardy.
It gained Venetia, however. In this war, Napoleon Bonaparte
had increasingly distinguished himself as a French general.
Austria relied on the military talent of Archduke Charles,
the brother of Emperor Francis II., who had achieved a number
of victories, including Würzburg in 1796.In 1799, the
Secon Coalition War broke out. It was conducted primarily
by Austrians and Russians against France. The Peace of Lunéville
concluded this war. France under Napoleon, who had crowned
himself Emperor of the French in 1804, very clearly aimed
at dominating Europe. As a consequence, Austria and Russia
once again declared war on France in 1805. It ended with the
battle of Austerlitz (Southern Bohemia) and the Peace of Pressburg
(Bratislava). Austria had to cede the Tyrol to Bavaria which
was allied with France. In 1806, Francis II. (1768-1853) laid
down the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. He then ruled as
Francis I. of Austria. In 1809, the Habsburg monarchy attempted
an independent initiative. In spite of the long-lasting conflict
with France and its allies, Austria’s willingness to
make sacrifices seemed undiminished. National enthusiasm steadily
increased. Among other things, the establishment of the Landwehr,
a kind of territorial reserve, was testimony to this. In the
campaign, which lasted from April until July, Archduke Charles
won the Battle of Aspern (21./22. May, 1809), but lost the
Battle of Deutsch-Wagram (5./6. July, 1809), which decided
the war. In the Peace of Schönbrunn, Austria again had
to accept heavy territorial losses. Nevertheless, the Habsburg
Monarchy joined a coalition of Russians, Prussians, Swedes,
and the British. Napoleon’s fate was decided in the
Battle of Leipzig between 16 October and 19 October, 1813.
At the end of March 1814, the allies arrived in Paris, and
Napoleon abdicated. The Congress of Vienna, which took place
between November 1814 and June 1815, served the purpose of
reorganizing Europe. Napoleon’s attempt at restoration,
which ended with his defeat in the Battle of Waterloo and
the exile of the French Emperor, was all but an entr’acte.
On 20 November 1815, the Second Peace Treaty of Paris was
signed. Only a few years after the Congress of Vienna, however,
many European countries were troubled by revolutionary movements
caused by major social and national problems. On 13 March,
1848, revolution finally broke out in the Austrian Empire
as well. In Prague, the revolutionary movement was violently
crushed. In Vienna, the rebels succeeded in forcing the Imperial
and Royal troops stationed in the city to leave. It was not
until October that the Imperial city was recaptured by Prince
Alfred Windischgrätz and Feldmarschall-Leutnant Count
Joseph Jellacic, using enormous military means. In Hungary
and Italy, though, the situation remained extremely tense.
Field
Marshal Radetzky and his Time
In
1848, the outbreak of revolution once again seemed to form
the prelude to the disintegration of the Austrian Empire.
The Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont took the revolutionary events
in Lombardy and in Venetia as an opportunity to declare war
on Austria. In Hungary, revolutionary and national forces
formed and began to march towards Vienna. Only after deploying
all available military forces was it possible to put down
the revolution and conduct war on two fronts. The engagement
thereby sometimes took on the characteristics of a blitzkrieg.
Field Marshal Radetzky, the supreme commander in the area,
defeated the Sardinian-Piedmontese army in a number of skirmishes
and battles, and called a truce which was renounced by Sardinia
in 1849.Once again Radetzky achieved victories at Mortara
and Novara, which brought about peace at least for a few years.
Yet Hungary was different. Fighting there dragged on all winter
and most of the year 1849 and could only be stopped through
the cooperation of Austrian troops with a Russian contingent.
On 2 December, 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I abdicated the throne
in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph. Thus began the Francisco-Josephinian
era, which lasted for 68 years.After the victories in Italy
and Hungary, the young Emperor strove to consolidate the empire
again, and to establish a strong, centralized government.
Francis Joseph tried to continue using the Austrian army as
an instrument to maintain or restore order in Europe.In 1864,
Austria and Prussia combined to go to war against Denmark.
The conflict was about the two German-speaking principalities
of Schleswig and Holstein, both of which were under Danish
administration. The victors of this war, Austria and Prussia,
quarreled over the two territories. On 8 April, 1866, Prussia
formed a league against Austria with the Kingdom of Italy.
Under the command of Archduke Albrecht, the southern army
of the Austrians was victorious near Custoza (south of lake
Garda) on 24 June, 1866. But the war was decided in the north.The
Austrian Army under Feldzeugmeister Ludwig von Benedek suffered
a devastating defeat near Königgrätz (Hradec Králové,
east of Prague) on 3 July. The Peace Treaty of Prague pushed
the Austrian Empire out of the German Confederation for good.
It kept only its positions in the eastern part of central
Europe and in south-eastern Europe.
Emperor Franz Joseph and Sarajevo (1867-1914)
As
a result of Austria’s defeat in the war against Prussia
in 1866 the Habsburg Monarchy lost much of its influence in
shaping the policy of the German states. Thus it was of utmost
importance to create a permanent political structure for its
own provinces. The most pressing problem was the Hungarian
question. Since the revolutionary wars of 1848 and 1849, the
provinces of the Hungarian crown, namely Hungary, Slovakia,
Croatia andTransylvania, had partly lost their former liberties
and came under strict Hungarian civilian and military control.
But this should not last. In 1867, after lengthy negotiations,
the socalled „Compromise of 1867“ (Ausgleich)
could be reached in which the relationship between the provinces
of the Hungarian crown and the rest of the Empire was completely
redesigned.The Habsburg Monarchy was henceforth divided into
two parts, namely the Austrian provinces (Cisleithania) and
the provinces of the Hungarian crown (Transleithania). Each
half was supposed to have its own government and its own regional
parliaments. After 1867 there were only three areas which
were handled by both parts in common, namely foreign affairs,
finances and defense. And only for these three sectors supranational
ministers were appointed. This „Compromise of 1867“
brought the most far-reaching consequences for the army. In
those days the „k.u.k.“ (imperial and royal) army
and the „k.u.k. (imperial and royal) navy were formed.
In addition to that the „k.u.“ (royal Hungarian)
Honvéd was formed in the Hungarian part of the Dual
Monarchy and the „Imperial and Royal Yeomanry“
(k.u.k. Landwehr) in the Austrian half. The period of peace
between 1867 and 1914 was interrupted only by one bigger military
event, which is known in Austria’s history as the campaign
of the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878. Bosnia
and Herzegovina, former provinces of the Ottoman Empire, were
then occupied by Austro-Hungarian troops. In 1908 these territories
were fully annexed. Apart from that the Austro-Hungarian Empire
participated only indirectly in the European power game. Austria
entered an alliance with Germany in 1879 which was extended
to Italy in 1882. Thus we speak of the „Dual Alliance“
and of the „Tripartite Alliance“. From 1908 onwards
the Austro-Hungarian Empire was more and more involved in
the conflicts in the Balkans. After several decades it became
apparent that the „Compromise of 1867“ had not
brought about a completely satisfying solution for the Habsburg
Monarchy’s problems. The demands of the altogether eleven
bigger nationalities of the Habsburg Monarchy, could obviously
only be met by means of a completely new and radical restructuring
of the Empire. Hopes that this goal might be achieved were,
above all, placed in the heir apparent to the throne, Archduke
Franz Ferdinand. Emperor Franz Joseph had, however, not assigned
significant political responsibilities to his nephew restricting
him to a merely military role which included supreme command
of the armed forces in case of war. On Sunday, June 28, 1914,
while visiting Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his
wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist.
World
War I and The End of the Habsburg Monarchy
For
Austria-Hungary Serbia was the only one to be blamed for the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in
Sarajevo, and the only consequence for this could be the subjugation
of Serbia. As a result Austria-Hungary made a number of ultimate
demands on Serbia, which induced Serbia to mobilize and Russia
to lend them political support. Thus, a limited local conflict
developed into a war against an alliance which at the end
of July 1914 saw Austria-Hungary, the German Reich and later,
at the end of October 1914, also the Ottoman Empire as the
"Central Powers" (Mittelmächte) on one side
and Serbia, Russia as well as France and Great Britain, both
allies of Russia, as "The Entente" on the other.
At first the emphasis of all military actions of Austria-Hungary
was concentrated on the Balkans and on Galicia, while the
German Reich set out to overthrow France. But Austria-Hungary
was unsuccessful in Serbia and Galicia as were the Germans
in the West. Already at the end of 1914 Austrians and Germans
had to take every effort to stem the tide of the advancing
Russian army. The danger from the East was not over until
after the Austrian offensive at TarnòwGorlice in May
of 1915, the same month in which Italy declared war on the
Habsburg Monarchy. In spite of all these set-backs for Austria-Hungary
and the German Reich, several important military victories
could be claimed. Bulgaria joined in as an ally of the Central
Powers by autumn of 1915. Serbia was defeated and the Central
Powers were able to establish a land bridge to Turkish territory.
In a first offensive, out of South Tyrol, at the beginning
of 1916, the Central Powers failed to defeat Italy. This resulted
in a series of battles of attrition along the Isonzo frontline
until the end of 1917. In the East the Russian army was forced
to withdraw in 1917 because of the Russian Revolution. This
lead at first to a ceasefire and then to the conclusion of
the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The defeat of Romania,
which in September of 1916 had also declared war on the Central
Powers, was likewise a success. Another tactical victory was
the l2th battle at the Isonzo in October and November of 1917
which was won by the Austrian and German armies. But the current
military situation obscured the view on domestic political
decay inside the German Reich and particularly the increasingly
chaotic conditions within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The
lack of food and collapsing distribution reached catastrophic
dimensions in 1917. Austria-Hungary, already having had severe
problems of balance with its 17 different nationalities during
peace time, was now threatened to fall apart. Emperor Karl
I, successor of Emperor Franz Joseph after the latter's death
in November 1916, intensively tried to reach a peace agreement,
but could not succeed. In 1918 strikes and mutinies began
to gain ground. In a last offensive, which started on June
15, 1918, Austria-Hungary again desperately tried to bring
about a military decision, but this attempt failed at the
Piave river. In autumn of 1918 the Habsburg Empire began to
dissolve and the armed forces disintegrated rapidly. On November
3rd, 1918 an armistice agreement was reached and signed by
Austria-Hungary at the Villa Giusti in Padua. At that time
the Habsburg Monarchy had already been split into various
national succession states and nations - Europe had forever
changed.
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