"Vienna and the greater Austro-Hungarian empire erupted into palpable excitement in the summer of 1914" This was really only true in German-speaking circles wh

"Vienna and the greater Austro-Hungarian empire erupted into palpable excitement in the summer of 1914" This was really only true in German-speaking circles which were trying to ape the German Empire with its saber-rattling Kaiser. In places like Prague or Laibach, it was the local German-Austrians who staged the excited parades, not the Czechs nor Slovenes. Most other nationalities were apprehensive about going to war, especially on such a weak pretext. The Hungarians had to be pressed into agreement (they had veto power in the Dual Monarchy), because they knew that the Hungarian part of the monarchy was ill prepared for war. (In fact, so was the Austrian part, but the deficiencies in Hungary, such as very bad railway infrastructure, were even worse.) They also did not want to add more minorities into the mix in case of a successful conquest, given that they were already outnumbered by non-Hungarians in their kingdom anyway. Slavic nations disliked or outright hated the very idea of waging war against the Serbs and Russians, but didn't have veto powers and were forced into participation anyway. This contributed greatly to the latter disintegration of the empire. The first military of future Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak legion, was mostly composed of POWs and defectors willing to fight against Austria-Hungary, even though they faced execution when caught.