Dual Monarchy
1867-1914 		Post-War Turmoil
1918-1921






Hungary in World War I



In the days after the assassination of crown prince Franz Ferdinand, Hungary's Prime Minister Istvan Tisza was cautious regarding the prospect of a war with Serbia, fearing a Rumanian attack on Transylvania.
When the war broke out, Rumania stayed neutral and Serbia was busy defending her borders. Danger came from another direction - the Russian army made unexpected territorial gains and advanced across the Carpathian mountains into Hungarian Ruthenia (Carpatho-Ruthenia). In the winter of 1914/15 the Russians were stopped and then pushed back. In 1916, Rumania joined the Entente; Rumanian forces invaded and occupied parts of Transylvania. A Central Powers offensive began in September, and Rumania was quickly occupied.
Militarily, the Central Powers seemed to hold. But within Austria-Hungary, it was only the ethnic Germans and Hungarians who identified with their government and supported the war; within the ethnic minorities, many played it cool and waited for the war to end.
Because of the economic blockade and the lack of workforce on farms and in factories, vital consumer goods soon had to be rationed and a serious lack of food resulted in malnutrition, starvation, epidemics of infectious diseases.
When the United States entered World War I on the side of the Entente, President Wilson published his famous 14 points, directly adressing Hungary's ethnic minorities, promising them self-government. On November 3rd 1918 the Austrian government requested a truce; on November 11th, Karl I. abdicated. The Dual Monarchy was is a process of dissolution.





EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Era of Dualism, from C.A. Macartney, Hungary - A Short History, 1962
From Sarajevo to Trianon, from Istvan Lazar, Hungary - A Brief History, 1989/1993
DOCUMENTS Hungarian Statesmen, from World Statesmen (B. Cahoon)
Images from Chronik 2000 Bilddatenbank : Coronation of Karl I. as King of Hungary
REFERENCE Peter F. Sugar (ed.), A History of Hungary, Indiana Univ. Press 1990, 432 pp.
Article : Austria-Hungary, in : New International Year Book 1914 pp.76-83, 1916 pp.68-73, 1918 pp.63-69 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on March 15th 2007

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics