The first year of the war

The war began in 1914 with German expectation of a quick victory in the west at least. In fact, the stabilization of the front in France after the Battle of the Marne revealed that the struggle would be a long one. The powers which had partitioned Poland now turned to the question of enlisting Polish support in the conflict which was to extend until 1918. None of the powers had clearly defined aims for Poland at the beginning of the war. The clearest objectives were those of Austria–Hungary, where there was widespread support for the incorporation of the Kingdom of Poland into the Habsburg empire and its union with Galicia as a third constituent portion of the monarchy. The Austrians, however, hesitated to make this aim public. The attempt of the Pole, Leon Biliński, the Austro-Hungarian minister of finance, to persuade the emperor Franz Joseph to issue a declaration in favour of the ‘Austro-Polish solution’ was unsuccessful. Nevertheless, on 12 August Berchtold, the Austrian Foreign minister, received a general promise from Germany that an Austro-Polish settlement would be looked upon with favour, a promise repeated, though in vague terms, at a conference between Austrian and German representatives at Poznań in January 1915. The Germans were on this occasion more interested in the division of the spoils in the Dabrowa basin which had fallen into the hands of the Central Powers (Germany and Austria–Hungary). The Hungarians objected to the concept. The plan put forward by the Austrian prime minister, Karl Sturgkh, in 1915 proposed only that the new Polish territories within the monarchy should enjoy the same autonomy as Galicia.