Why was Austria-Hungary a Second Power in World War One?

With the outbreak of World War One both sides marshalled their forces and sent them

to the front lines. Austria-Hungary was one of them. However, the Austro-Hungarians

struggled to keep up, despite its massive army size and being more industrialized than its

hostile neighbours. The truth is, Austria Hungary was at a disadvantage from the start.

The first reason was the number of fronts they had to keep track of. Fighting a two

front war is never easy, and a three front war was what the Austro-Hungarians had to deal

with. Russia alone was a daunting threat, with their near endless manpower and an infinite

amount of land to conquer, and with Italy, Romania, and Serbia assaulting the Austro-

Hungarian line at all times it made it difficult for the dual-monarchy to defend and attack on

three different fronts at the same time.

Next comes the Allies’ immense numbers advantage. Even before the U.S joined the

war, the Germans and Austrians had to topple some of the largest empires in history, the

British and Russian Empires, along with the French Empire, which was a trial in of itself.

Only the German fleet was a match for the Royal Navy the British had, and combined with

the French and Russian fleets it became an unstoppable naval blockade that couldn’t be

broken by the Central Powers. The Central Powers and especially Austria-Hungary could

more or less only get equipment, food and supplies by land, which meant food was rationed,

both for civilians and soldiers, and there was only enough equipment to supply them and send

them to fight. Britain and France could import food, import weapons, and with the U.S

supplying the Allies even before entering the war meant the Allied forces were well fed and

well equipped. Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria joined on Germany’s side, but the manpower

the Allies could field blew the Central Powers out of the water. This might sound like their

biggest problem, but you’d be surprised to find out it’s not.

 The Empire’s ethnic composition was their biggest enemy, both in and out of the

war. Sitting upon a pile of ethnicities is an accident waiting to happen. There were Austrians

in the west, Hungarians in the middle, Bosnians, Serbs, Croatians and Slovenes in the South,

Romanians and Ukrainians in the east, Czechs and Slovaks in the north and Polish in the

north east. The amount of ethnic tension was high enough for the empire to simply collapse,

not to mention the costs of the Great War. Coordinating in such a fractured army was a

nightmare, as German and Polish or Czech and Romanian are very different languages,

despite living in the same country. To top it all off, the many ethnic groups didn’t have any

reason to fight; the French had a burning desire to avenge the Franco-Prussian war, the

Russians were giving their lives to defend themselves from German aggression, and the

Serbians fought because their country relied on it. Why would the southern Slavs fight

against each other? Or why would the Czech’s fight for their occupiers? The threat of

collapse was constantly hanging above the Austro-Hungarian Empire at all times, and the war

would be the final nail in the coffin for them.

When the treaty of Versailles hit the empire, it fractured into multiple pieces, while

Germany was hit with huge debts, losing its colonies, giving up land, demilitarising

Rhineland, the severe reduction of armed forces to just 100,000 men, and fielding lower

weapon-tech than her neighbours. Compared to Germany, the dual-monarchy got off in a

better state, as the Allies viewed the monarchy as no severe threat. Despite the Allies’ view

of Austria-Hungary, as a weak and fragile nation, the dual monarchy was a capable opponent,

taking Serbia in year, capitulating the Romanians, and holding out against both Russia and

Italy. They sent forces to help their allies, such as the Western Front Germany was fighting,

and the British incursion into Ottoman lands. In the end, Austria-Hungary was a prisoner of

geography, being surrounded by enemies, fighting against an overwhelming number of

countries, and being split among ethnic lines.