# WWI Question: Could Hungary hsve refused to go to war in 1914? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 2, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593 "2025-10-02T13:46:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/1 "2025-10-02T13:46:16Z")
Query about the dual monarchy, Austria-Hungary. Could Hungary have refused to go to war in 1914? Or was the decision to go to war a decision of the central government that bound Hungary ? Follow-up question: was there much support for the war in Hungary? Or was it primarily supported by the Austrians ? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/2 "2025-10-02T14:01:51Z")
I’ve read where the Honved wrote home from Serbia in 1914 asking for more rope. The early revenge part of the war was greeted with enthusiasm, at least. Legally they couldn’t opt out. “KUK” stood for kaiserlich und königlich: Franz Josef was emperor of Austria and king of Hungary Another factor was Franz Ferdinand’s relative popularity in the non-Austrian parts of the Empire, especially Hungary. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/3 "2025-10-02T15:10:59Z")
Austria-Hungary didn’t have a consolidated constitution, but it did have a few statutes of constitutional importance which, collectively, are known as the “[December Constitution](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_Constitution)”. One of these statutes declared a few matters to be joint powers of the Austrian and the Hungarian parts of the empire, managed by joint ministries, whereas other policy areas were run by separate government ministries in Austria and Hungary. I couldn’t find an English version of that statute, but [here](https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Delegationsgesetz) is the German text in case you want to run a machine translation. Foreign relations and war were joint matters, so Hungary could not have gone its own way there. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/4 "2025-10-02T15:17:17Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Legally they couldn’t opt out. “KUK” stood for kaiserlich und königlich: Franz Josef was emperor of Austria and king of Hungary Official usage of this terminology was very precise: Where matters that were managed jointly for Austria and Hungary were concerned, the government used the abbreviation “k.u.k.”: _kaiserlich und königlich_, meaning imperial and royal - as you say, in Franz Joseph’s capacity as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, so applying to both parts. Where only the Austrian part was concerned, the abbreviation used was “k.k.” - _kaiserlich-königlich_, imperial-royal. The distinction lies in the missing “and” and was very significant: Here, Franz Joseph was acting in his capacity as Emperor of Austria and King of Bohemia. Bohemia belonged to the Austrian part of the dual monarchy, so this abbreviation indicates something pertaining to that part only, but the Bohemian crown was so prestigious that they still wanted to include that title. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/5 "2025-10-03T15:43:48Z")
Which postnomial did he use when declaring war? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/6 "2025-10-04T01:38:32Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > Where only the Austrian part was concerned, the abbreviation used was “k.k.” - _kaiserlich-königlich_, imperial-royal. The distinction lies in the missing “and” and was very significant Conjunctions and prepositions obviously had great significance to the Germanic royals, as shown by the political controversy over _König in Preußen_ versus _König von Preußen_. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/7 "2025-10-04T14:00:10Z")
Or, in 1871, over _Kaiser der Deutschen_ versus _Kaiser von Deutschland_ versus _Deutscher Kaiser_. The latter was ultimately chosen because it was the blandest option with the least implications. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/8 "2025-10-04T14:04:34Z")
German Wikipedia has the manuscript of the declaration, with handwritten edits by Franz Joseph, [here](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegserkl%C3%A4rung_%C3%96sterreich-Ungarns_an_Serbien). It’s in French and done on behalf of “le Gouvernement Impérial et Royal”, so that’d be the “k.u.k.” variant. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2025, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwi-question-could-hungary-hsve-refused-to-go-to-war-in-1914/1023593/9 "2025-10-04T18:32:10Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > One of these statutes declared a few matters to be joint powers of the Austrian and the Hungarian parts of the empire, managed by joint ministries, whereas other policy areas were run by separate government ministries in Austria and Hungary. The few, but important joint matters of the Austrian and Hungarian states of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy were basically as follows: -A common foreign policy -A common military / defense -A monetary and customs union -Common finances to finance the above Because of the first point, the two states acted internally as independent states, but acted as one national subject externally toward other states. There was a common foreign policy and therefore legally, the answer is “No”, Hungary could not have refused to go to war seperately from Austria. Emperor-King Franz Josef’s declaration of war was valid for the whole monarchy.