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

by Edmond Taylor

On October 4, the Austrian government had joined the Germans in appealing to President Wilson for an armistice, based on the Fourteen Points, and on October 6, without waiting for an answer, the Emperor Karl in a last ineffectual effort to preserve some role for the dynasty in the new scheme of things issued a manifesto reorganizing the non-Hungarian part of the monarchy into a federal state with complete self-government for the subject nationalities. The clause excepting the Hungarian territories from the reform had been forced on the Emperor by the Hungarian Prime Minister with the usual threats to cut off food supplies in case of non-compliance, and it effectively invalidated whatever effect the Manifesto might have had on the dissident nationalities and on President Wilson’s hoped-for good will.