southern: Serbs burned Austrohungary. it was their right. Till the end of time, fight for freedom would be respected as noble deed
southern: Austrohungary was based on mutual fear,fear of the Czechs for Sudeten,fear of the Austrians for Germans,fear of the Croats for Serbs,fear of Ukrainians for Poles,fear of Slovaks for Czechs and fear of Hungarians for Russians. So all these fearful nations formed Austrohungary a loose entity of slavic nations under germanic control where everyone was suspicious but tolerant for the other. all in all, Austo-Hungaria was full of internal antagonisms. i would say `divide and conquer` policy was key toll of ruling Germanics
southern: Austrohungarian experiment was successful till panslavists decided to destroy it and pangermanists saw there a new opportunity. Austro-Hungarian experiment was tolerated by Slavic world because of Turkish treat. A-H was seen as leser evil
Germanics as Germanics grabbed the opportunity and imposed policy of germanization of Slavic majority. Slavs as Slavs, responded with resistance. Combined effects of these two reasons in combination with absolute incompetence of Habsburgs effectively canceled Austro-Hungaria.
southern: What puzzles me is the naivity of Hambsburgs who thought they could annex Serbia the classical way. if anyone in Serbian (and Slavic in general) history underestimated Serbs/Slavs those were Habsburgs. Thank God for that. Same way as Germanics were efficient and fast to impose Germanization on Slavs when they had opportunity, Slavs were efficient and fast to get rid of their oppresores when they sought first chance.
southern: I imagine their faces after the death of the Archiduke. yes. That was real histeria when they spot how Serbs removing bloody pedestal of Habsburg`s rule
see this >>>
Slide to War in Europe, 1911 to 1914 http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch04.htm
The hawks in Austria-Hungary had an ally in Germany's supreme army commander, von Moltke, who wrote his Austrian counterpart that a war between "Germandom" (which included German Austrians) and "Slavdom" (the Russians and Serbs) was inevitable. Von Moltke believed that "eternal peace" was a "pipe dream" and that if war were inevitable it would be best to launch it at a most opportune time.
For days people in Vienna paraded, carrying flags and portraits of Franz Joseph and singing patriotic songs. People chanted "God protect our king, our land!" And people chanted "death to Serbs" and "Serb dogs must die!" The archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Piffl, gave voice to what many saw as a holy crusade. He proclaimed that it was the voice of God that spoke through the roar of Austria-Hungary's guns. He called on his flock to go forward in happiness and in confidence to attack the enemies of God. but, Pope din`t support Austro-Hungarian hawks in their war preparations for conquest on Serbia >>>
Pope Pius X took a different approach. The ambassador from Austria asked him to bless the Habsburg armies, and the Pope refused saying he blessed peace.
|