As one of his Fourteen Points, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson demanded for the empire's nationalities to have the "freest opportunity to autonomous development."

On 14 October 1918, Foreign Minister Baron István Burián von Rajecz[2] asked for an armistice based on the Fourteen Points.

In an apparent attempt to demonstrate his good faith, Emperor Charles I issued a proclamation two days later that would have significantly altered the structure of the Austrian half of the monarchy.

Imperial Austria was to be transformed into a federal union composed of four parts: German, Czech, South Slav and Ukrainian (Galicia would be allowed to secede).

[5] On the same day, US Secretary of State Robert Lansing replied that the Allies were now committed to the causes of the Czechs, Slovaks, and South Slavs.