The German Question, Part Seventy-Seven

"Kaiser Wilhelm & World War I" Part Two/G "The Germans At War"
"An Ally Stumbles"

Kaiser Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary died in November 1916, age 86. He was succeeded by his grand nephew, Karl (Charles), who ruled as Karl I. The war had strained his empire's resources and his subjects' patience. Karl and his immediate advisers feared that the multi-ethnic conglomeration of Austria-Hungary might disintegrate if the war continued. By March of 1918, Austria-Hungary entered into secret peace negotiations with France (through Karl's brother-in-law, Prince Sixtus). France's main objective had been regaining Alsace-Lorraine, and Karl and his foreign minister, Ottokar Czernin, agreed in principle, even putting it in a letter to his brother-in-law, who then showed the letter to the French government. Meanwhile, Karl and Czernin also tried to persuade the German leadership to try to work for a negotiated peace settlement. Czernin made the mistake of publicly criticizing France's Premier Georges Clemenceau as an obstacle to peace, and Clemenceau promptly released the gist of the Austro-Hungarian letter to the press. The Germans were furious and there were even fears in Austria-Hungary that Germany might send troops into the aging empire. To stabilize the situation, Karl and his government denied as much as possible, promised new loyalty to their allies, and Czernin resigned.

WORD HISTORY:
Might-(noun)-This word, meaning "power," traces back to the Indo European root "magh/megh," which had the notion of "be able to do, have the power to do." This gave Old Germanic "makhtuz/makhtiz," with the same basic meaning. This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "maeht," then "miht," and finally "might" (remember, the "gh" was pronounced). Dutch, German, Low German and West Frisian all have "macht," although the German word is spelled with a capital "M," Danish and Norwegian have "magd," Swedish has "makt," Icelandic has "máttur." All have the same general meaning of "power." The German word was "maht" before the modern spelling, as compared to Old English "maeht" and "miht." Likely the "h" was highly aspirated in all forms, thus then becoming "gh" and "ch."