"Serbia wins WWI" Topic

I just finished reading Sleepwalkers, about how Europe got into WWI. There's a map of Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire that made it clear to me that Serbia won WWI. I do not mean that they tipped the balance, but they got pretty much everything they wanted in the peace settlement. It may have been at a very high cost and they ended up losing all of it when Yugoslavia fell apart, but they made out like bandits after WWI.

Consider that the war was started by an attack that was planned by Serbian intelligence, which ran a terrorist organization. The Allies ignored this inconvenient fact and instead focused on how well the plucky Serbian army fought. The British even changed the English spelling from Servia to Serbia because their allies should not sound like servile types.

What did Serbia acquire from the Habsburgs? Bosnia-Herzogovina, Croatia and Slovenia, for starts. Kosovo and Macedonia had been acquired during the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. Here's a map of Yugoslavia. link

The Serbs got pretty much everything they wanted from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Not bad, considering they started the mess. Princip (the assassin) is still regarded as a hero. His footsteps in Sarajevo where the shots were fired used to be filled with gold. During the last war some unkind soul pried up the gold.

Italy didn't do too badly, either, nor did Greece, despite the fact that the latter couldn't seem to make up its mind which side (if either) to be on.

You know, Vince, you may be right.
Let's not consider the minor fact that Serbia was knocked out very quickly. Like Jon Snow, it doesn't matter how dead you are but who you know.

It took Bulgaria hitting them from behind, after they stopped two Austrian offensives. But yeah, having your country overrun by a vengeful enemy is a rather high price to pay for getting your expansionist dreams come true.

Italy had to cough up most of her Adriatic gains when she picked the wrong side in the next war.

Well I think the British were the big winner. They gain a larger Empire and all that Mideast oil for 30+ years.

Was anyone really a winner with the cost. Terrain bought at a steep price. Both during the war and the economic setback so many countries faced after the war.

The First World War was the beginning of Britain's decline. It may have looked good on the map, but we were left with massive debts which took most of the rest of the Century to pay off!

Most Serbs I have talked to consider WW1 a great and good war. The historiography in Serbia also tends to celebrate the war. The view of World War I as a massive pointless loss is pretty much a Western/Russian one. In Greece there was an attempt by one author to cast the war as pointless but this view only came after the 1922 catastrophe. The Greek participation in WWI was/is still considered as a smart move at least until 1922.

Poles also celebrate the war, as the fair price for their independence.

And yes Serbia was the big winner of the war. History though has a way of punishing the big winners sometimes.

Italy felt cheated in that it did not get as much as it wanted. Romanians also got a lot of what they wanted, but the price was steep for the gains.

Montenegro got screwed. Then again King Nichoals was so duplicitous and mercenary in the July Crisis that he kinda deserved losing his crown.

But the point remains. For many people and many countries the war was and is still seen as a great and celebratory event.

If Greece had won in 1922 I bet you WWI would be remembered as the smartest war ever fought by the Greek state.

Czech initially celebrated the war as well, but they soured once it turned out that Mittleuropa was a crap deal compared to a possible Triadic or Quadradic (Austria-Hungary-Czech-Croat) Hapsburg Empire/Commonwealth.

Croats also quickly soured, though they were always divided between the idea of a South Slav state and of Traidic-Quadratic Hapsburg monarchy.

Thanks for the tip on sleepwalkers, KTravlos. It was a great read.

I am glad you like it. Another good book is Clive Pointing's Thriteen Days. Focused on the July Crisis, it has the virtue of expanding the narrative to many of the minor powers and their role in it.

At the moment I'm reading a peace to end all peace. Do you know this book?

Yes I have heard of it. My advisor's review of it was less then stellar so I decided to focus on the ones who got a better review (only so much time in life).

I agree.

I've always thought Rumania won. Check her territorial gains!!!