Friday Flag - Triple Monarchy

With Italy joining the Central Powers during the Great War the Allies sued for peace and Germany found itself dominating the continent. Serbia was officially annexed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1920.

Emperor Charles I & IV was looking for ways to keep his empire together. By 1932 the Dual Monarchy became the Triple Monarchy as Slavs were given more power as the Hungarians were. This was done both to placate the Slavic peoples of the empire and to take some power away from the Hungarians.

The updated flag added the colors of Serbia. Austria was moved to the center and only its crow appeared on the flag.

The flag stayed in use until 1964 when the empire collapsed and was broken into separate Austrian, Hungarian, and Yugoslav states.

Great War 1912 - Mobilization

The Chairman of Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, Pyotr Stolypin, having survived an assassination attempt in 1911 continued his duties. He would attempt to steer his nation away from war in November 1912 but fail.

The Balkan War was in full swing. Bulgaria was leading Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro on successful campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. Germany and Austria-Hungary were remaining relatively uninvolved in the conflict. The Kaiser was still upset over the overthrow of his friend, Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1909. Germany would follow a policy of "free fight and no favor", allowing the conflict to play itself out. Despite Serbian gains in the area, including gaining access to the Adriatic were threats to Austrian power in the region the Austro-Hungarians did not mobilize and enter the fight.

Seeing the lack of Austrian involvement as weakness, Russian Minister of War Vladimir Sukhomlinov saw an opportunity to move against the Turks and have a chance at finally seizing Constantinople. Russia could not afford to allow the city to fall into Bulgaria's hands. On 22 November 1912 Sukhomlinov prepared plans for a 'partial' mobilization of Russian forces from Warsaw through Kiev and all the way to Odessa. They could move into the Balkans and either 'aid' the Bulgarian faction and claiming Constantinople for Russia, or they could crush the Balkan armies and seize the city anyway.

The next day, 23 November, the Tsar called an emergency meeting of his most important ministers. There were to discuss Sukhomlinov's plan and other options available. Chairman Stolypin warned against the mobilization. He felt that the Austrians would see it as a direct threat and mobilize themselves. At that point war with the Turks, Austria, and even Germany would be a real possibility.

While a number of other ministers were in agreement with Stolypin's position he was growing increasingly unpopular due to continued pushes for reforms. The same unpopularity that led to the attempt on his life a year earlier kept enough ministers from siding with him to defeat the Minister of War's plan. In a narrow decision the Tsar and his ministers decided on a partial mobilization against the Ottoman Empire and possibly Bulgaria.

Russian mobilization began 24 November (7 December 1912 Gregorian Calendar). The Austrians would react. Mobilizing their military forces to deploy against the Bulgarian alliance and to reinforce border regions with Russia, in particular Przemyśl Fortress. It would not take long for war to spread.

Information on the historical figures can be found on Wikipedia or by using Google, Bing, or whatever search engines you like. I used a couple books as reference when plugging away at this timeline:

1) The Russian Origins of the First World War by Sean McMeekin
2) Blood on the Snow by Graydon A. Tunstall

Assassination in Sarajevo

On 28 June 1914, in the city of Sarajevo, a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip found himself in a position to assassinate the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. He took the chance, firing two shots at Archduke Ferdinand.

The first bullet missed the Archduke and struck Ferdinand's wife, Sophie. It was a gut shot that did severe damage to her. The heat of the first bullet speeding down the barrel of Pricncip's gun caused the slightest warping of the metal. His second shot became stuck at the end of the barrel of the weapon, sending it flying form his hand. The assassin was quickly subdued after this.

Realizing the severity of his wife's wounds Ferdinand ordered the car taken immediately to hospital. They were too late, however, Sophie died shortly after getting inside.

The worldwide outcry of the assassination hurt Serbia's standing in international affairs. The stronger calls for vengeance in the Austrian court were countered by Archduke Ferdinand himself. He claimed full right to determine what would be done since it was his wife that had been murdered. He had several heated arguments with Emperor Franz Joseph over the situation. The Emperor finally gave in to Ferdinand. Serbia was to face no violent retribution, even when their connections to the assassin was confirmed. Instead Serbia was diplomatically isolated and even lost some of its traditional support from the Russian Empire.

On 17 December 1916 Franz Joseph died of natural causes and Ferdinand ascended to the throne. With his wife dead and his son unable to inherit the throne the new Emperor was able to devote all of his energies and political capital in reforms. He worked tirelessly to strengthen other ethnic groups in the Empire to cut down on nationalistic feelings that could threaten the Empire. He also used these newly empowered groups to counter growing Hungarian influence in the court. A stronger Slavic element in the Imperial government was designed to counter both Hungary and Slavic nationalist groups outside the borders of the Empire. With improving conditions for Slavs in the Empire nations like Serbia had an increasingly difficult time causing trouble.

In 1924 he would proclaim the Triple Monarchy. The Triple Monarchy would not last long. Hungarian rebellion, an 11th Russo-Turkish war, and numerous other conflicts growing in the Balkans threatened the stability of the region. The 1920s & 1930s would be an age of chaos for south-east Europe as well as the collapsing Ottoman Empire.

*****
One of his other achievements as Emperor was the commissioning of a new dreadnaught for the Imperial Navy, the Duchess of Hohenberg, in honor of his wife.

NOTES
Of course in the original timeline both Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated. That spark eventually led to the First World War.
In this timeline the war drums beating a little less and a strong-willed man worked to keep his nation out of war. Ferdinand was strong willed. He married a lesser noble for love in defiance of the Emperor and at the cost of having his children ever reaching high titles. He is a man who would fight for what he wants.

Of course he could just of easily have decided to wipe Serbia off the face of the map after having his wife die in his arms that day. We may have ended up with nearly the same conflict we had in the OTL. It would depend on how he dealt with his conflicting duties to his nation and to avenging his wife's death.

The photo of Sophie above is another public domain image borrowed from Wikipedia.