We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
SLOVENSKA POLITIKA OD SARAJEVSKEGA ATENTATA DO VSTOPA ITALIJE V VOJNO.
- Authors
RAHTEN, Andrej
- Abstract
On the eve of the First World War, the multinational Habsburg state, of which the Slovenes were also part, faced complex challenges that proved insurmountable for the gerontocracy of Franz Joseph. The strongest Slovene political force were the Slovene Catholic Patriots, united since 1909 in the Pan-Slovene People's Party. They belonged to the most fervent supporters of the Habsburg heir-to-the-throne Franz Ferdinand, with whom they shared the same critical view of the Austro-Hungarian dualistic system. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo plunged his Slovene (and Croatian) advocates into mourning. This was the death of a Habsburg who seriously contemplated the constitutional reform of the Monarchy and a solution to the Southern Slav question. The Imperial throne remained occupied by the aged Franz Joseph, who tenaciously clung to the obsolete dualistic system. Ivan Šusteršič, the leader of the Pan- Slovene People's Party, had no doubts about the assassins' intent: he put the blame for the Sarajevo assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife on the representatives of "libertine freemasonry" and "Greater Serbian imperialism". Sagacious Slovene politicians, of course, immediately linked the heir's apparent death to the threat of war. After the war broke out, Šusteršič was supported also by Janez Evangelist Krek, the second most powerful politician in the Party. They both still hoped that the Habsburg Monarchy would somehow be able to come up with a solution to the Southern Slav problem. Failing this, Austria-Hungary would be torn away from the sea and "die as a superpower". In Krek's opinion, peace was not possible "until the Slovenes and Croats have been accorded their common independent homeland". Krek believed that the fulfilment of the demands of the Austro-Hungarian Slavs could bring most Balkan nations under the wing of the two-headed eagle. However, Krek gradually became one of Šusteršič's harshest critics. One of the main reasons for his changing attitudes were persecutions against the Slovene patriots, led by the Austrian Army circles at the beginning of the War. Undoubtedly, those injustices, concentrated mainly in Carinthia and Styria, changed the loyalist atmosphere in the lines of the Slovene political leaders. Some of them even took the pro-Serbian position and were practically already sympathising with the Entente.
- Publication
Acta Histriae, 2017, Vol 25, Issue 4, p977
- ISSN
1318-0185
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.19233/AH.2017.45