In most discussions of Austria Hungary after a central powers victory we come to the same conclusions, that there would have been a civil war between the constituent parts of the empire with either it collapsing and the German parts being annexed to the German empire or with it surviving and being a democratic country, but surely there are more unique than that.
Lets say if the central powers had won WW1 in a late victory due to no American intervention as is the classic scenario, with Germany gaining Poland and the rest of the Bresti Litovsk states and Austria just getting borderlands and reperations from Italy and a puppet in Serbia, Austria would have been left in a similar position to Italy, having fought a long war with hundereds of thousands dead but without having actually gained much territory in return.
Perhaps this could have lead to similar results as it did in Italy, with a facsist movement blaming German and internal traitors like nationalist rebels and liberals/socialists and possibly jews as antisemitism was high in post war Hungary and Austria for them not gaining all the territory that they felt they deserved for all their dead. Generals would also look to blame others for the failiures in the war, leading to an alt stab in the back myth for this movement. The likelyhood of this movement of this kind of movement gaining popularity is also increased by the presence of nationalist rebels and by the rise of the soviet Union, which was the main thing to spread right wing nationalist authoritarian governments in the OTL interwar period. There would also be the ruin that the war bought to the economy that would lead to the rise of far leftist movements at home which would lead to an inevitable response from the right like what happened in Italy and although winning its agreed here that Austria would have been in very bad shape, the coming great depression would also be a great oppurtunity for this kind of movement to rise. We also saw right authoritarian facsistish movements take over in Austria and Hungary OTL, of course this was largely due to the loss in the war but in this scenario they would still do very poorly in the war and would have most of the other factors in place.
Though there would be some differences with Italy that make it less likely, like the fact that they were not promised as much as Italy was promised and so they wouldn't feel lied to or betrayed by Germany and because of the lesser territorial aspirations of the Habsburgs. Although there were some plans for expansion after the war, such as gaining a puppet state in Poland and Ukraine, which due to their bad performance wouldn't happen. So there would be room for disapointment, the movement could also compain about more land from Italy not being taken and the old Austrian rule in Venice not coming back, we know this would have been a stupid idea but far right nationalists movements were rarely contrained by reality or logic and so not taking this back may be seen as another sign of weakness and betrayal.
Austria also would have the problem of having disporate ethnicities making a facsist movement hard to come about, so perhaps this movement could be a pro Habsburg movement that focuses on opposing all sepratists, with its members mainly being veterans from all the countries of the empire, united by their shared service, who are angry by what they percieve as seeing the empire that they fought hard for being tarnished by seperatists at home and a weak government that couldn't make their sacrifice worth it. Other supporters would be business owners who fear socialism, traditionally conservative rural people fearing socialism and left wing social movements, veterans, the upper classes, some catholics and church officials who feared socialism like in Italy, generals and Austrian nationalists. The main targets of this movement would be socialists, social democrats and seperatists as mentioned before but also ethnicities that are percieved as being hostile to the nation, like Serbs, Italians, Romanians and possibly Jews who could have been blamed for the economic problems like in Germany. There could also have been some inspiration from corporatism which gained popularity in the interwar period as an aleternative to capitalism and communism.
So with the economic decline, nationalist frustrations and rise of socialism and anti state movements, Austria Hungary was in a pretty ideal scenario for a rise in the radical right. Do you think this is a possible scenario?
Lets say if the central powers had won WW1 in a late victory due to no American intervention as is the classic scenario, with Germany gaining Poland and the rest of the Bresti Litovsk states and Austria just getting borderlands and reperations from Italy and a puppet in Serbia, Austria would have been left in a similar position to Italy, having fought a long war with hundereds of thousands dead but without having actually gained much territory in return.
Perhaps this could have lead to similar results as it did in Italy, with a facsist movement blaming German and internal traitors like nationalist rebels and liberals/socialists and possibly jews as antisemitism was high in post war Hungary and Austria for them not gaining all the territory that they felt they deserved for all their dead. Generals would also look to blame others for the failiures in the war, leading to an alt stab in the back myth for this movement. The likelyhood of this movement of this kind of movement gaining popularity is also increased by the presence of nationalist rebels and by the rise of the soviet Union, which was the main thing to spread right wing nationalist authoritarian governments in the OTL interwar period. There would also be the ruin that the war bought to the economy that would lead to the rise of far leftist movements at home which would lead to an inevitable response from the right like what happened in Italy and although winning its agreed here that Austria would have been in very bad shape, the coming great depression would also be a great oppurtunity for this kind of movement to rise. We also saw right authoritarian facsistish movements take over in Austria and Hungary OTL, of course this was largely due to the loss in the war but in this scenario they would still do very poorly in the war and would have most of the other factors in place.
Though there would be some differences with Italy that make it less likely, like the fact that they were not promised as much as Italy was promised and so they wouldn't feel lied to or betrayed by Germany and because of the lesser territorial aspirations of the Habsburgs. Although there were some plans for expansion after the war, such as gaining a puppet state in Poland and Ukraine, which due to their bad performance wouldn't happen. So there would be room for disapointment, the movement could also compain about more land from Italy not being taken and the old Austrian rule in Venice not coming back, we know this would have been a stupid idea but far right nationalists movements were rarely contrained by reality or logic and so not taking this back may be seen as another sign of weakness and betrayal.
Austria also would have the problem of having disporate ethnicities making a facsist movement hard to come about, so perhaps this movement could be a pro Habsburg movement that focuses on opposing all sepratists, with its members mainly being veterans from all the countries of the empire, united by their shared service, who are angry by what they percieve as seeing the empire that they fought hard for being tarnished by seperatists at home and a weak government that couldn't make their sacrifice worth it. Other supporters would be business owners who fear socialism, traditionally conservative rural people fearing socialism and left wing social movements, veterans, the upper classes, some catholics and church officials who feared socialism like in Italy, generals and Austrian nationalists. The main targets of this movement would be socialists, social democrats and seperatists as mentioned before but also ethnicities that are percieved as being hostile to the nation, like Serbs, Italians, Romanians and possibly Jews who could have been blamed for the economic problems like in Germany. There could also have been some inspiration from corporatism which gained popularity in the interwar period as an aleternative to capitalism and communism.
So with the economic decline, nationalist frustrations and rise of socialism and anti state movements, Austria Hungary was in a pretty ideal scenario for a rise in the radical right. Do you think this is a possible scenario?
