The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922

by Edmond Taylor

President Wilson’s answer to the Emperor’s peace plea was received on October 21. It was described by the new Foreign Minister, Count Burian, as “a bombshell which rent the frame of the monarchy apart.” The Fourteen Points had demanded no more than the ‘freest opportunity of autonomous development” for the minorities, a demand which had been met by the Emperor’s Manifesto. But in his latest note the American President, who, in the meantime had recognized the Czechoslovak National Council as a de facto government, stated that he was no longer at liberty to accept a mere autonomy for the Czechoslovak and Yugoslav peoples as a basis for peace. He insisted that they, and not he, “shall be the judges of what action on the part of the Austro-Hungarian Government will satisfy their aspirations.” This note, and the rapidly approaching armies of General Franchet d’Esperey precipitated the chain reaction of revolutions which now separated the monarchy into its component parts and swept away the supranational imperial authority and its bureaucracy.