The Habsburg Army and the Nationality Problem in the Nineteenth Century, 1815–1914 1

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. Throughout the period from 1815 to 1914 the nationality problem was constantly present in the army. Like all other national institutions, the Habsburg army was to a large degree the product of its historical experience. The evolution of the Habsburg empire, its pluralistic composition, and its unique state concept were all mirrored in its army. A predominantly aristocratic officer corps and a politically inert rank and file of long service troops were to exclude the nationality problem from the army and enable it to hold the line against subversion. In the spring of 1918 the Austro–Hungarian army was holding its front lines, though in the hinterland disintegration was progressing rapidly. The Hungarian quarrel revived the aspirations of the Czechs and strengthened their determination to gain their own Staatsrecht.