Under the impact of Germany's military defeat in the West, Bulgaria was the first to surrender on 30 September, prompting the German high command's request for an armistice. The Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire surrendered almost a month later, but internally they had collapsed before this, the Habsburg provinces going their separate ways in the course of October.
Among the Poles the nucleus of a state already existed in the Regency Council in Warsaw, although the first move was made when a National Council was set up in Galicia early in October. The decisive moment came when the German government released Piisudski, at which point the Regency Council appointed him head of state, on 14 November, after which the various regional bodies which had just established themselves, in all three Partitions, acknowledged Piisudski's authority.
The deputies of the Bohemian crownlands' diets took action next, declaring independence of the Monarchy on 14 October and proclaiming a Czech Republic on 28 October. A Slovak National Council was then formed in neighbouring Hungary, declared independence, and promptly expressed a desire to unite with the Czechs, confirming an agreement reached between Masaryk and the Slovak American community at Pittsburgh in May 1918. A joint assembly of Czechs and Slovaks finally elected Masaryk president.
A Yugoslav state was formed out of four elements: a liberated Serbia, a Montenegro coerced into union by Serbian army units, the urgings of the Yugoslav Committee abroad and a National Council of Croats, Serbs and Slovenes formed at Zagreb on 19 October, which proclaimed the South Slav lands of the Monarchy independent and then called on Serbia to take them over. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formally proclaimed on 1 December.
Romania, having been awarded Bessarabia by the Central Powers earlier in the year, cleaned up doubly by hastily re-entering the war and starting the takeover of Transylvania and much of the Banat in November. In similar fashion Italy took advantage of the Monarchy's dissolution to overrun most of the territories it had been promised in 1915.
Under the impact of these events and of the war's disastrous ending, there were revolutions in both Vienna and Budapest, as a result of which the Emperor Charles renounced his executive powers on 11 November and went into exile. Social Democrat-led governments were formed in both Austria and Hungary, and each was proclaimed a republic in November.
World History
