ARTICLES

A MAD CATASTROPHE:
The Outbreak of World War I and the
Collapse of the Habsburg Empire
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:
WAWRO, Geoffrey. New York: Basic Books, 2014, hardcover, 440 pages,
$34.50, ISBN 978-0-465-02835
Reviewed by Major Thomas K. Fitzgerald, CD, Senior Counsel with the
Ontario Office of the Crown Attorney.
The centenary of the First World War brings with it a
small library of books seeking to explain its causes,
chart its course and explain its impact on history. The
historiography of the war tends to focus on the
western front, with an emphasis on the British and
French land battles with Germany. If any regard is
paid to the war in the east, it is concentrated on the
Russian contribution and how Russia’s military
defeats contributed to its revolution.
Scant attention is paid to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire’s disastrous efforts in the first
six months of the war in Serbia and Galicia and how, in the end, they contributed to Germany’s
ultimate defeat. Author and university history professor Geoffrey Wawro admirably fills this
gap with his aptly titled book, A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War One and the
Collapse of the Habsburg Empire.
One is left to ask, after reading
A Mad Catastrophe, “Just what were
the Habsburgs thinking?” and, as a
corollary to that first question, “Why
did Berlin permit itself to be shackled
to the “old man of Europe?” There
were a number of internal problems
which divided the Empire and
prevented it from projecting a unified
modern military presence. Vienna
was a “fading great power” which was
at war with itself. Its “Common
During the fighting in 1914, Sich archers showed themselves to be welltrained
and reliable soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian military formations.
Army” had lost its last war more than fifty years ago and not learned anything from that defeat.
Its military doctrine remained unchanged in the intervening years. Its government was divided,
as a result of the “Great Compromise” of 1867, into Austrian and Hungarian factions, with the
latter group denying the country necessary military appropriations and recruitment among its
own population. German was the language of command, a language which most of its soldiers
and many of its junior officers did not understand. Its largely agrarian economy lacked a sound
industrial base to support modern industrialized war. The country had recently been racked
by a spy scandal which saw its secret plans sold to the Russians. Its heavy armament was
Source: http://ozebook.com
140 THE CANADIAN ARMY JOURNAL VOLUME 16.2 2016