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The Treaty of Wartholz was signed on 4 October 1919 between the victorious Central Powers on the one hand and by the Kingdom of Serbia on the other. It was, together with the Treaty of Salonika (14 October), the Treaty of Versailles (6 November) and the final agreement of the Caucasus Conference (30 November) one of the various peace treaties signed in the autumn of 1919, in the direct aftermath of the Armistice of Chantilly. Other treaties, namely the Jerusalem Accord, the Treaty of Trieste and the Tsingtao Accord, followed throughout 1920 & 1921.
The treaty affirmed the territorial changes made during the Weltkrieg and established Serbia’s future relationship with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, and Germany: Serbia was forced to renounce all claims on territories held by the Austro-Hungarians and Bulgarians, officially ceded Vardar Macedonia and the lands east of the Morava to its neighbors, had to accept the reduction of its army to a maximum of 35,000 men and was obliged to allow tariff-less transit through the Morava River as well as sign a treaty of free trade and commerce with Vienna. In return, the former Kingdom of Montenegro was integrated into into Serbia and its native Petrović-Njegoš dynasty was exiled and forced to abandon all of their claims of the Montenegrin throne.
Prelude[]
Since late 1915, the Kingdom of Serbia was entirely occupied by Central Powers forces, and in January 1916, Montenegro followed suit. While Montenegro and Western Serbia were reorganized into Austro-Hungarian occupation zones, Eastern Serbia and Vardar Macedonia fell under Bulgarian occupation. While in the Bulgarian zone, Bulgarisation efforts were launched and war crimes, pillaging, famine, epidemics were a common sight, the Austrians were unsure what their vision on the future of Serbia would be. Three views on that topic arose at the beginning of the war:
- The Imperial and Royal Armed Forces, most notably Chief of the General Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, pursued imperialist ambitions – they viewed Serbia as a threat to Imperial integrity and believed that it needed to be occupied for years after the war, or even permanently. At the minimum, Austria-Hungary needed to take control of the Morava-Vardar valley and the Mačva and eliminate any potential influence which Serbia held over its co-nationals in the Empire.
- The Hungarians, led by Prime Minister István Tisza, vehemently refused the annexation of any Slavic-speaking territories into the Austro-Hungarian Empire and instead envisioned only the annexation of a small northwestern part of Serbia, the Šabac-Belgrade bridgehead over the Danube, into the Kingdom of Hungary.
- The Foreign Ministry in Vienna subscribed to a freer handed approach to Serbia and maintained that its fate should not be prejudged, owing to the ever-changing circumstances of the war, and did not dismiss the possibility of a rump independent Serbia tied to the Empire via economic and trade agreements. This view was supported by the German high command, which also wanted to see Serbia remain nominally independent after the war in an effort to guarantee peace and stability on the Balkans.
The German Empire however, whom Austria-Hungary was becoming increasingly reliant upon during the war, envisioned a stabilized Balkan system which would be able to pressure Romania and block Allied plans in Southeastern Europe, and therefore were in favor of a separate peace with Serbia and the reorganisation of Serbia, Montenegro and Albania into a united "New Serbian" state which would have its place as a German and Austrian-aligned middle power in the future Concert of Europe. The plan was however opposed by the Austro-Hungarian political leadership at the time; foreign minister Stephan Burián spoke out firmly against "half-measures that would harm the Monarchy’s prestige”.
Beginning in mid-1916, after the ousting of the pro-annexationist military governor Johann von Salis-Seewis, the powers of the civilian authority over the Austrian occupation zone increased, a trend that continued after the ascension of Emperor Karl I to the throne from late 1916 onwards: Field marshal Hötzendorf was dismissed from his position as Chief of the General Staff, weakening the influence of the military on civilian affairs, and István Tisza was removed from his position as Prime Minister of Hungary and replaced with the reformist Móric Esterházy, also defanging Hungary's ability to lobby on Serbian policy. Soon, cooperation efforts with local Serbian representatives began, mostly via the so-called "Belgrade Committee" under Vojislav Veljković, former Finance Minister of Serbia and the leader of the Belgrade municipality for the duration of the war – as early as 1915, he had reached out to the Austrian occupation authorities to attempt a dialogue between them and the remaining Serbian political leaders.
The legitimate Serbian government however, which was exiled since the Great Retreat of 1915/16 on the Allied-occupied Greek island of Corfu, was not willing to enter into separate peace talks with the Central Powers, especially King Peter was opposed to such an idea. But by late 1918, the Weltkrieg had turned in favor of the Central Powers; the French and British had been put under severe pressure at the Western Front and were not in any position anymore to stage large-scale offensives in Macedonia. The Serbian government in exile's hope of triumphantly returning to Belgrade one day began to look more and more of futile. At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbia was turning untenable as well, as three years of economic exploitation, mass suffering and constant conflict were taking a toll. Therefore, both sides felt increasing pressure to sign a separate peace - via the Belgrade Committee, the Foreign Ministry of the Empire entered negotiations with the Serbian government in exile during summer.
The Serbian exiles were not easy to convince, but Crown Prince Alexander, initially hesitant, would become the leading force of the separate peace talks. He feared that, should the Serbians in Corfu refuse a peace with Austria, the Austrians would take a page from German initiatives in Eastern Europe and simply place a Habsburg on the Serbian throne. That would not only be the end of the Karađorđević dynasty in Serbia, but the end of an independent Serbia as well. If they declined, he believed Vienna would brush off the dust from their promises of giving Šabac-Belgrade to Hungary, establish greater Montenegrin & Albanians kingdoms, and leave Serbia as a tiny rump state without the Sandžak and Kosovo, forever unable to reclaim its lost territories. Alexander could not know that the plans of the Central Powers for Serbia had already long changed at that point - the annexation of Serbia into the Empire was still blocked by the Hungarians and the split-up of Serbia into a small rump state was still opposed by the Germans.
In general, the sentiments in the Austrian leadership towards Serbia had changed since 1914 and its “Punish Serbia!” phase. With annexationists like Hötzendorf and Salis out of the way, those who wanted wanted to erase the Karađorđevićs from history and tear down their statues and monuments in the Austrian occupation zone had been reduced to a minority, and those who remained adherents of such an idea couldn’t provide an alternative which the Austrian leadership could universally agree on. Austrian diplomats had been in talks with Prince Mirko of Montenegro for quite some time in an effort to put the House of Petrović-Njegoš on the Serbian throne, but Mirko had died in early 1918. and his son Michael was too young to effectively rule the country; he surely would have ended up as a puppet of Serbian far-right circles, eventually. The Germans on the other hand still had little issue with keeping the Karađorđevićs in power, as long as it meant a stable and secure Balkans which was outside the reach of the Entente – ultimately, the Austrians would begrudgingly have to agree to the solution as well.
Many other Serbian exiles, however, most importantly King Peter, still hoped that the Entente would prevail. In the end, the King chose to not grant his signature to “a treaty which will destroy Serbia’s dignity” and abdicated instead, passing the crown to his son, now Alexander II of Serbia. On 29 September 1918, he and Prime Minister Nikola Pašić signed an armistice with the Central Powers which put an end to hostilities between the two factions and restored Serbian civilian administration in the Austrian occupation zone.
Terms of the Treaty[]
After hostilities ceased in Europe in August 1919, peace negotiations between the Allies and Central Powers began, and in October 1919, the Treaty of Wartholz, signed in the Habsburg imperial villa of Wartholz, Germany originally envisioned Serbia, like Austria-Hungary, as a core member of their hypothetical Mitteleuropa bloc, but when German-Austrian relations soured after the war, these plans were dropped.
- Serbia shall cede all of Macedonia and Nis to Bulgaria.
- The Kingdom of Montenegro shall be dissolved, and its coastline ceded to Austria-Hungary, with the interior annexed by Serbia. The House of Petrovic-Njegos shall renounce all claims to the Montenegrin throne.
- The Serbian Army shall be no larger than 35,000 men. it is prohibited from using Tanks, heavy artillery, or an airforce of any kind.
- Serbia shall pay reparations to Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Albania. the country shall enter a free trade zone with Austria-Hungary.
Aftermath[]
WIP!!!!!
Almost immediately after a somber return to the ruined, bombed Belgrade, Aleksandar II dismissed Pašić, for his personal distaste for the elderly politician had grown too far, especially due to the latter's reluctance to conclude peace. To many Serbs, especially those opposed to the armistice, this solidified the image of Alexander II as an usurper autocrat, who eliminated both his father and his Prime Minister in order to sell Serbia off to the Austrians - after all, in the critical last months of 1918 and first half of 1919, Austrian troops remained in Serbia – on one hand, they established order and prevented unrest, but on the other, they painted the King and his government as Austrian collaborators.
Serbia had suffered more than any other state during the Weltkrieg. Its economy had been subjugated to the occupying powers and completely looted, its population had dwindled and its political structure had been uprooted from the ground up. The nation was in crisis. Many sympathized with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and, later on, the Syndicalist Revolution in France, and sought to repeat it back home. Inspired by the French and Italians, Serbian workers organized into the Central Workers’ Trade Union (Centralno radničko sindikalno vijeće) and the Socialist Workers’ Party (Socijalistička radnička partija), whose revolutionary rhetoric resonated across the impoverished and famished Serbian population.
Advised by the Austrian foreign ministry, Alexander II appointed the leader of the Belgrade Committee, Vojislav Veljković, as Prime Minister of Serbia. Though the liberal 1903 Constitution was restored, the country remained in emergency, and the authoritarian monarch used the chance to expand his powers further. In late 1919, he promulgated the Obznana (lit. “announcement”) in response to anti-police violence during a miners strike in Montenegro & large-scale demonstrations in Belgrade, which banned the Socialist Workers’ Party and pushed it to the opposition. Elections were delayed, a state of emergency declared, and a power base built up in preparation to keep the country under the King’s will. Additionally, Veljković formed the State Party of Serbian Democrats, or the Democratic Party (Državnotvorna stranka demokrata Srba) as the main pro-Austrian and pro-Alexander lobby in the country. It was composed of the People’s Party of Veljković, the Serbian Conservative Party of Živojin Perić, and several Independent Radicals such as Vasilije Antonić, Mihailo Popović, and Milivoje Spasojević. Suppression of voters, crackdowns on vocal opposition, and rule by decree soon became daily occurrences.