21/10/1918 As Wilson recognises the Czechoslovaks, Austria’s Germans seek their own nation #1918Live

Centrifugal forces are tearing Austria-Hungary apart. The southern Slavs have declared a new state of Yugoslavia while the Poles of Galicia are seeking to join the independent Poland recently proclaimed in Warsaw. The Hungarians are restive too, as are the Czechs and Slovaks. Unrest is affecting the army as well as the home front, with many divisions on the Italian front today refusing to obey orders.

President Wilson of the United States has already signalled that autonomy may not be enough for the peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: if they want independence, they can have it. Now he goes a step further, joining Britain and France in recognising the Paris-based Czechoslovak National Council as the legitimate government of Czechoslovakia.

Emperor Karl must feel that the one group within the Empire whose loyalty he can rely on is the German-speaking Austrians. But now they too join the march towards the…