Preface

Soon after the overthrow of the imperial government of Austria by the Revolution in November, 1918, Professor Franzis Pribram of the University of Vienna, a historian of international reputation, was fortunate enough to obtain access to the secret papers in the state archives. He has made use of the opportunities granted to him to produce a work of lasting importance, which is now in the process of completion and publication. Henceforth writers about the political history of Europe during the last forty years will turn to his volumes for the new and valuable information that he is offering us. He has not attempted a general history of the period, and as he himself says he has not consulted other archives than the Austrian ones, so that his researches, even on his immediate subject, need to be supplemented elsewhere. But Austria took part in so much that related to the affairs of central and eastern Europe during that time that her archives are extraordinarily rich in information concerning them, and especially concerning the famous Triple Alliance which so long held the centre of the stage. She was not, it is true, the leading member of the partnership, but it was of more vital importance to her than to the other two. All her political questions, even her internal ones, were more affected by it. She was more menaced by outside enemies, for she had not only what seemed a likely foe in the ever growing Russian Empire, but also a not unlikely one, as the event has proved, in Italy, her own ally. For her part, though traditionally conservative and usually peaceful, she never renounced territorial ambitions, and as the years went on her foreign policy became more and more interwoven with the hopelessly intricate questions of her own nationalities. Under such conditions, her diplomats and her Foreign Office had, at least, to be well informed.

Professor Pribram naturally writes from the Austrian point of view, but with a dispassionateness that is extraordinary for one who has just seen his country ruined by a disastrous war which has left her but a fragment of her former self. We cannot but admire the calmness and moderation with which he writes of things so near to him and so closely connected with the present catastrophe. Even when his statements occasionally betray a not unnatural bias, there has been little temptation to comment upon or to modify them.

In the German edition, Professor Pribram's first volume contains not only all his treaty texts, but also a second part with his story of the negotiations that preceded the signatures of the five treaties of the Triple Alliance. He promises that information on his other treaties and agreements will soon follow. But as the English edition comprises translations as well as texts, thereby almost doubling the treaty matter, the negotiations that led to the treaties of the Triple Alliance have been left till the next volume. I have included, however, the introduction, which comes just before the second part, and two supplementary agreements which stand after it, instead of being put in with the others in the first part presumably because they do not belong to quite the same category. One of these is the so-called 'Reinsurance Treaty' in which Austria had no share; the other is a naval convention between Germany, Austria, and Italy, concluded only a year before the outbreak of the World War. It seems best here to publish them with the rest rather than have them wait over till another volume.

Circumstances have interrupted all communication with Professor Pribram during the time that this first part of the translation of his work has been put into print. Since receiving his material, I have had to act without consultation with him. In general, the original of his text has been followed as closely as possible in the translation. I have only felt free to alter the wording in such things as explanatory headings, footnotes, and a portion of the preface which did not apply to the book as brought out in English form. The translations of the treaty texts and other matter have been made by Mr. Denys P. Myers and Mr. J. G. D'Arcy Paul Mr. Myers more particularly doing the French, and Mr. Paul, the German though they have had the help of advice and suggestion from others. Owing to the fact that it was desirable to bring out the translation at about the same time as the original, the work has perforce been done with more haste than one could have desired.

My thanks are due, not only to the translators, but to other friends who have cooperated, and especially to Professor G. G. Wilson, my colleague, and to Mr. G. W. Robinson, for his care and patience in reading the proof.

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This second volume of the Secret Treaties of Austria-Hungary offers to the English reading public the story of the negotiations of the five successive treaties of the Triple Alliance, and corresponds in the main to the second half of Professor Pribram's first German volume. In addition it contains in the appendices three hitherto unprinted agreements between Austria and Russia, which Professor Pribram has copied from the Vienna archives, namely the convention of Schönbrunn of 1873, the pact of Reichstadt of 1876, and the treaty of Budapest of 1877. The existence of these agreements has long been known, and the texts were consulted by the Hungarian writer, Wertheimer, in his biography of Count Andrássy, but they are now made public for the first time.

It has also seemed worth while, in a volume like this devoted to the history of the treaties of the Triple Alliance, to reproduce for convenience in reference and comparison some of the chief and not commonly accessible documents of the great rival league, the Dual Alliance between France and Russia. These were first given out to the world by the French Government in a Yellow Book after the fall of the Russian Empire, one of the signatories. Likewise the recently published exchanges of notes between the French and Italian governments in 1900 and in 1902 are relevant to the subject of the Triple Alliance, especially in connection with the third treaty, the one concluded in 1902. The essential passages of this correspondence are therefore reproduced here.