Kurt Bednar - Transatlantic Relations and the Great War: Austria-Hungary and the United States

Jonathan Singerton1 investigated the earliest period of informal relations. His conclusion (A Story of Benign Neglect, quoting Rudolf Agstner2) covers relations between Philadelphia/Washington and Vienna probably in the best way (not only for the period of his study but also until 19173). Over the years, relations passed phases best described as wavelike, with the crest seeing the erosion of Habsburg neutrality, in combination with the development of postwar commerce, even the first Habsburg representative in the United States; the trough was marked by the trifling personage of Thomas Jefferson and, in due course, Habsburg disillusionment caused by and, at the same time, causing general imbecility, confusion, and misery.4

The author described what compelled an absolutist monarchy and democratic republic towards a diplomatic relationship which rested upon the primacy of commercial advantage one proven by the revolutionary procurement of arms from the Austrian Netherlands and the prospective ventures of mercantile groups in Trieste.5 On the one hand, petitions from businessmen like Christoph Beller in Trieste (August 1776) started a flood of mercantile calls for action in order to benefit from the newly open North American ports.6 On the other hand, merchants lacked autonomy in the high-diplomatic level7 where personalities in the political field called the shots and showed the way to take. As Singerton pointed out, with the American representation in Europe switching from Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Jefferson, a significant deterioration of perceptions occurred. This concurred with a little war8 provoked by the Holy Roman Emperor himself. Joseph II sought to enforce the final dismantling of the Barrier system which had closed the river Scheldt off from Austrian commerce. The diplomatic fallout caused by the Emperors decision to sail on two separate occasions two warships into Dutch waters preventing a full-blown war between the small republic and the larger imperial power changed Jeffersons image of Joseph into one of a despot and warmonger.9

Official documents, along with comments by Hans Schlitter of the University of Vienna, uncovered and supplemented by the Belgian Hubert van Houtte in 1911,10 of course, spoke a different language. Thus, it took a quarter century for Americans to respond to Viennese publications containing interesting information particularly upon the subject of concluding a treaty of commerce11 between Emperor Joseph II and the American Republic.12 Relying upon Schlitters work,13 van Houtte revealed the true course of negotiations, added by material stored in Brussels which was in competition with Trieste to organize the Empires U.S. trade.14 Altogether, the sources (used by the author) dealt with an impressive variety of issues like emigration of Europeans to America,15 bankruptcies there, fashions of American women, sale of European gin in America, use of carpets there, consumption of European linens, as well as the issue of paper money in America.