DEFEAT AND DISARMAMENT: A STUDY OF MILITARY AFFAIRS IN AUSTRIA, 1918-192

The defeat of Austria-Hungary in the Great War of 1914-1918 brought great change to Central Europe. The Dual Monarchy gave way to a number of small Successor States. Some of the new nation-states, especially Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, were considered allies of the victorious Western Powers. The newly formed Republic of German-Austria and newly independent Hungary were considered heirs of the Habsburg Monarchy, and treated as enemy states. The Wilsonian vision of universal disarmament coincided with more parochial French and Italian designs to reduce the war-making potential of defeated enemies.;There was little difficulty in disarming the Austro-Hungarian Army, as the Habsburg forces dissolved practically overnight in November 1918. The new Socialist-dominated republican government in Vienna suddenly realized it had no power to establish order, and created under Julius Deutsch the "Peoples' Army," or Volkswehr. The Volkswehr served well to defuse revolution and maintain order in Austria until the peace treaty, signed at Saint Germain in September 1919, called for a small professional Austrian army, composed of volunteers committed to long terms of service.;The victors in Paris had imposed a harsh peace upon Germany. Circumstances were very different in Austria, but the Western Powers nonetheless applied similar conditions to the smaller country. The new Federal Army dictated by Saint Germain was ill-suited for Austria, and soon became an object of political struggles within the new Republic between the Left and the Right.;The Allies were only partially successful in attempts to disarm Austria. The size of the Federal Army was restricted, and huge quantities of surplus imperial war equipment were confiscated. However, the civilian population of Austria not only resisted disarmament, but built up private paramilitary forces aligned with political parties. The tragic consequence was to raise every political dispute to the level of threatening civil war. Eventually civil war broke out, and led to the end of representative government in Austria. Part of the responsibility for the failure of democracy in Austria must fall upon the Western Powers and the policy and methods used to disarm Austria after the Great War.