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The Habsburg Army and the Nationality Problem in the Nineteenth Century, 1815–19141

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

Gunther E. Rothenberg
Gunther E. Rothenberg
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
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Extract

Historians are generally agreed that until the very end of the Habsburg monarchy the army constituted one of the main pillars of the multinational empire.2 Even so, the view that the armed might was always a reliable instrument of the established order and that it was largely unaffected by the nationality problem cannot be accepted. On the contrary, throughout the period from 1815 to 1914 the nationality problem was constantly present in the army. On occasion, as in 1848–49, it actually divided the army against itself; at other times it corroded the loyalty of some contingents, and it often influenced political, administrative, strategic, and even tactical decisions. After 1867 the status of the Hungarian forces within the Dual Monarchy became one of the most crucial, and at the same time one of the most vexing, problems of the empire.

Type
The Centripetal Forces in the Monarchy
Information
Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , January 1967 , pp. 70 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1967

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References

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