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| Austro-Hungarian Empire |
| 1867 - 1918 |
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Area: 676,615 km² - 261,243 sq mi (1910)
Population: 51,390,223 (1910)
Density: 76 /km² (196.7 /sq mi)
Capital: Vienna
Languages: German, Hungarian, Czech
Currency: Gulden Krone (from 1892)
Emperor: 1848–1916 Franz Josef I
1916–1918 Karl I |
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| The Austro-Hungarian Empire, also known as
Austria-Hungary, Dual Monarchy or k.u.k. Monarchy or Dual State, was a
dual-monarchic union state in Central Europe from 1867 to 1918, dissolved at
the end of World War I. The dual monarchy was the successor to the Austrian
Empire (1804–1867) on the same territory, originating in the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 between the ruling Habsburg dynasty and
the Hungarians. As a multi-national empire and great power in an era of
national awakening, it found its political life dominated by disputes among
the eleven principal national groups. Its economic and social life was
marked by a rapid economic growth through the age of industrialization and
social modernization through many liberal and democratic reforms. |
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Royal anthem: „Gott erhalte unsern Kaiser und beschütze unser
Land!“
Postcard, 1910. |
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The Habsburg dynasty ruled as Emperors of Austria over the western and
northern half of the country and as Kings of Hungary over the Kingdom of
Hungary which enjoyed some degree of self-government and representation in
joint affairs (principally foreign relations and defence).
The federation bore the full name internationally of "The Kingdoms and Lands
Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Crown of St.
Stephen". The capital of the state was Vienna. The Austro-Hungarian Empire
was geographically the second largest country in Europe after the Russian
Empire, and the third most populous (after both Russia and the German
Empire). Today, the territory it covered has a population of about 73
million. |
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| Provinces / Lands of
the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: |
| Population (in thousands) 1914 |
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km2 |
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Population |
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Capital |
Austria below the
Enns (Lower Austria) |
19.825 |
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3.635,0 |
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Vienna |
Austria above the
Enns (Upper Austria) |
11.982 |
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864,0 |
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Linz |
| Styria |
22.425 |
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1.467,8 |
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Graz |
| Carinthia |
10.326 |
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406,2 |
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Klagenfurt |
| Salzburg |
7.153 |
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221,3 |
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Salzburg |
| Tirol |
26.683 |
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979,7 |
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Innsbruck |
| Vorarlberg |
2.602 |
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150,8 |
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Bregenz |
| Krain |
9.954 |
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530,2 |
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Laibach (Ljubljana) |
Adriatic Coastal Lands
(Trieste, Goricia-Gradisca, Istria) |
7.969 |
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938,0 |
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Triest (Trieste) |
| Dalmatia |
12.831 |
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667,6 |
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Zara (Zadar) |
| Bohemia |
51.947 |
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6.860,0 |
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Prague |
| Moravia |
22.222 |
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2.666,6 |
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Brünn (Brno) |
| Austria-Silesia |
5.147 |
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776,0 |
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Troppau (Opava) |
| Galicia |
78.497 |
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8.211,8 |
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Lemberg (Lwìw) |
| Bukovina |
10.441 |
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818,3 |
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Czernowitz (Chernovtsy) |
| Austria |
300.004 |
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29.193,3 |
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Vienna |
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| Hungary |
282.870 |
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18.810,9 |
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Budapest |
| Fiume |
20 |
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48,8 |
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Fiume (Rijeka) |
| Croatia-Slavonia |
42.521 |
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2.669,9 |
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Agram (Zagreb) |
| Hungary |
325.411 |
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21.480,8 |
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Budapest |
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Bosnia and
Herzegovina |
51.200 |
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2.075,8 |
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Sarajevo |
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Austro-Hungary
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676.615
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52.749,9
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Vienna
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| Creation of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire |
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| The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of February 1867
which inaugurated the Empire's dualist structure in place of the
former unitary Austrian Empire (1804–67) originated at a time when
Austria had declined in strength and in power — both in the Italian
Peninsula (as a result of the Austro–Sardinian War of 1859) and in
greater Germany (culminating in the Austro–Prussian War of 1866).
Other factors in the constitutional changes included continued
Hungarian dissatisfaction with rule from Vienna and increasing
national consciousness on the part of other nationalities of the
Austrian Empire. Hungarian dissatisfaction grew partially from
Austria's suppression, with Russian support, of the Hungarian
liberal revolution of 1848–49. However, dissatisfaction with
Austrian rule had grown for many years within Hungary, and had many
other causes. |
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| Infanterieregiment Hoch- und Deutschmeister Nr.4 |
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In an effort to shore up support for the monarchy, Emperor Franz
Joseph began negotiations for a compromise with the Hungarian
nobility to ensure their support. In particular, Magyar leaders
demanded and received the Emperor's coronation as King of Hungary,
and the establishment of a separate parliament at Budapest with the
powers to enact laws for the lands of the Hungarian crown (the lands
of St. Stephen), which would preserve the political dominance of the
Hungarian nobility.
Governmental structure
Three distinct elements ruled The Austro-Hungarian Empire: |
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| 1. the Hungarian government |
| 2. the "Austrian" or Cisleithanian government |
| 3. a unified administration under the monarch |
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Hungary and Austria maintained separate parliaments, each with its
own prime minister. Linking/co-ordinating the two fell to a
government under a monarch, wielding power absolute in theory but
limited in practice. The monarch’s common government had
responsibility for the army, for the navy, for foreign policy, and
for the customs union.
Within Cisleithania and Hungary certain regions, such as Galicia and
Croatia enjoyed special status with their own unique governmental
structures.
A common Ministerial Council ruled the common government: it
comprised the three ministers for the joint responsibilities (joint
finance, military, and foreign policy), the two prime ministers,
some Archdukes and the monarch. Two delegations of representatives,
one each from the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments, met separately
and voted on the expenditures of the Common Ministerial Council,
giving the two governments influence in the common administration.
However, the ministers ultimately answered only to the monarch, and
he had the final decision on matters of foreign and military policy.
Overlapping responsibilities between the joint ministries and the
ministries of the two halves caused friction and inefficiencies. The
armed forces suffered particularly from overlap. Although the
unified government determined overall military direction, the
Austrian and Hungarian governments each remained in charge of "the
quota of recruits, legislation concerning compulsory military
service, transfer and provision of the armed forces, and regulation
of the civic, non-military affairs of members of the armed forces".
Needless to say, each government could have a strong influence over
common governmental responsibilities. Each half of the Dual Monarchy
proved quite prepared to disrupt common operations to advance its
own interests. |
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Image: Traditional dress (Tracht) of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire
© Christian Brandstätter Verlag |
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| Relations over the half-century after 1867 between the two halves of
the Empire (in fact the Cisleithan part contained about 57% of the
combined realm's population and a rather larger share of its
economic resources) featured repeated disputes over shared external
tariff arrangements and over the financial contribution of each
government to the common treasury. Under the terms of the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, an agreement, renegotiated
every ten years, determined these matters. Each build-up to the
renewal of the agreement saw political turmoil. The disputes between
the halves of the empire culminated in the mid-1900s in a prolonged
constitutional crisis — triggered by disagreement over the language
of command in Hungarian army units, and deepened by the advent to
power in Budapest (April 1906) of a Hungarian nationalist coalition.
Provisional renewals of the common arrangements occurred in October
1907 and in November 1917 on the basis of the status quo. |
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| Economy |
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| The Austro-Hungarian economy changed dramatically
during the existence of the Dual Monarchy. Technological change
accelerated industrialization and urbanization. The capitalist way
of production spread throughout the Empire during its fifty-year
existence replacing medieval institutions. Economic growth centred
around Vienna, the Austrian lands (areas of modern Austria), the
Alpine lands, and the Bohemian lands. In the later years of the
nineteenth century rapid economic growth spread to the central
Hungarian plain and to the Carpathian lands. As a result of this
pattern wide disparities of development existed within the Empire.
In general the western areas became more developed than the east. By
the early 20th century most of the Empire had started to experience
rapid economic growth. The GNP per capita grew roughly 1.45% per
year from 1870 to 1913. That level of growth compared very
favourably to that of other European nations such as Britain
(1.00%), France (1.06%), and Germany (1.51%). However, the
Empire's economy as a whole still lagged considerably behind the
economies of other powers, as it had only begun sustained
modernization much later. Britain had a GNP per-capita almost three
times larger than the Habsburg Empire, while Germany's stood almost
twice as high as the Austro-Hungarian Empire's. Nonetheless, these
large discrepancies hide different levels of development within the
Empire. |
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Image: The Weltausstellung 1873
Wien was the large World exposition which was
held in 1873 in the
Austrian-Hungarian capital of Vienna. A lot of special buildings
were
erected for this exposition, including the Rotunde (rotunda), a large
circular
building in the great park of Prater. |
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Rail transport expanded rapidly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its
predecessor state, the Habsburg Empire, had built a substantial core
of railways in the west originating from Vienna by 1841. At that
point the government realized the military possibilities of rail and
began to invest heavily in their construction. Pozsony (Bratislava),
Budapest, Prague, Kraków, Graz, Laibach (Ljubljana), and Venice
became linked to the main network. By 1854 the Empire had almost
2000 kilometres of track, about 60 to 70% of it in state hands. At
that point the government began to sell off large portions of track
to private investors to recoup some of its investments and because
of the financial strains of the 1848 Revolution and of the Crimean
War.
From 1854 to 1879 private interests conducted almost all rail
construction. What would become Cisleithania gained 7,952 track
kilometres, and Hungary built 5,839 track kilometres. During this
time many new areas joined the railway system and the existing rail
networks gained connections and interconnections. This period marked
the beginning of widespread rail transportation in Austria-Hungary,
and also the integration of transportation systems in the area.
Railways allowed the Empire to integrate its economy far more than
previously possible, when transportation depended on rivers. |
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Image: The Ringstraße is a
circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of
Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights. It is typical of the
historical style
called Ringstraßenstil (Ringstraße Style) of the 1860s to 1890s. -
(Image 1888) |
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| After 1879 the Austro-Hungarian government slowly began to
re-nationalize the rail network, largely because of the sluggish
pace of development during the worldwide depression of the 1870s.
The years between 1879 and 1900 saw more than 25,000 km of railways
built in Cisleithania and Hungary. Most of this constituted "filling
in" of the existing network, although some areas, primarily in the
far east, gained rail connections for the first time during this
period. The railroad reduced transportation costs throughout the
Empire, opening new markets for products from other lands of the
Dual Monarchy. |
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| Foreign policy |
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The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, in
creating a semi-independent Hungary, entailed the rise of an
assertive Magyar identity within the Empire. The Slav minorities
found themselves at the mercy of Magyar nationalism, far less
liberal in many ways than the policy previously followed by Vienna.
After the agreement of 1867 the Imperial foreign minister was
obliged to take account of the views on the minister-president of
Hungary; besides Germanisation the Hungarians were most concerned
about the threat of Pan Slavism. Here Russia was perceived as the
immediate threat, with Serbia as its "Trojan Horse" in the Balkans.
No individual represented this view more clearly than Count Gyula
Andrássy Jr., first minister-president of Hungary and then himself
the Imperial foreign minister.
Set against this general background it is also important to remember
that, by the late 1860s, Austrian ambitions in both Italy and
Germany had been choked off by the rise of new national powers. Only
the Balkans were left as a field for potential expansion. The whole
Empire was thus drawn into a new style of diplomatic brinkmanship,
first conceived of by Andrássy, centering on the province of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, a predominantly Slav area still under the
control of the Ottoman Empire. It was a dangerous game to play in a
dangerous place. A road was thus mapped out, with a terminus at
Sarajevo in the year 1914. |
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| Emperor Franz Joseph and
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 1908. |
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| The Great War |
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| The deaths of Franz Joseph's brother, Maximilian
(1867), and only son, Rudolf, made the Emperor's nephew, Franz
Ferdinand, heir to the crown. On June 28, 1914, he visited the
Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, where Bosnian Serb militants of the
nationalist group Mlada Bosna, supplied by the Serbian militant
group Black Hand, ambushed Franz Ferdinand's convoy and assassinated
him. |
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Image: The picture shows the car in
which archduke Franz Ferdinand
and his wife were assasinated in Sarajevo in the year 1914.
© Museum of Military History |
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The Empire's military spending had not even doubled since the 1878
Congress of Berlin, while German spending had risen fivefold, and
British, Russian and French threefold. The Empire had previously
lost ethnically Italian areas to Piedmont due to nationalist
movements sweeping through Italy, and many Austro-Hungarians felt
the threat of losing the southern territories inhabited by Slavs to
Serbia as imminent. Serbia had recently gained a significant amount
of territory in the Second Balkan War of 1913, causing much distress
in government circles in Vienna and Budapest. Some members of the
government, such as Conrad von Hötzendorf had wanted to confront the
resurgent Serbian nation for some years. The leadership of
Austria-Hungary, especially Count Leopold von Berchtold, backed by
its ally Germany, decided to confront Serbia militarily before it
could incite a revolt: using the assassination as an excuse, they
presented a list of ten demands called the July Ultimatum expecting Serbia would never accept. When Serbia accepted nine of
the ten demands but only partially accepted the remaining one,
Austria-Hungary declared war.
These events brought the Empire into conflict with Serbia and over
the course of July and August 1914, caused the start of World War I,
as Russia mobilized in support of Serbia, setting off a series of
counter-mobilizations. Italy initially remained neutral, although it
had an alliance with Austria–Hungary. In 1915 it switched to the
side of the Entente powers, hoping to gain territory from Austria–Hungary. |
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Albatros B II
© Museum of Military History |
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General Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf was the Chief of the
Austro-Hungarian General Staff during the war. Under his command,
Austro-Hungarian troops were involved in much of the fighting in the
Great War.
At the start of the war, the army was divided in two, the smaller
part attacked Serbia while the larger part fought against the
massive Russian army. The 1914 invasion of Serbia was a disaster. By
the end of the year the Austrian army had taken no territory and had
lost 227,000 men (out of a total force of 450,000 men); see Serbian
Campaign (World War I).
On the Eastern front, things started out equally badly. The Austrian
army was defeated at the Battle of Lemberg and the mighty fort city
of Przemysl was besieged (it would fall in March 1915).
In May 1915, Italy joined the Allies and attacked Austria-Hungary.
The bloody but indecisive fighting on the Italian front would last
for the next three and a half years. It was only this front that the
Austrians proved effective in war, managing to hold back the
numerically superior Italian armies in the Alps.
In the summer, the Austrian army, working under a unified command
with the Germans, participated in the successful Gorlice–Tarnow
Offensive.
Later in 1915, the Austrian army, in conjunction with the German and
Bulgarian armies, conquered Serbia. |
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Austrian 380-mm howitzer, model of
1916
© Museum of Military History |
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| In 1916, the Russians focused their attacks on the
Austrian-Hungarian army in the Brusilov Offensive, recognising the
numerical inferiority of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Austrian
armies took massive losses (losing about 1 million men) and never
recovered. The huge losses of men and material inflicted on the
Russians during the offensive contributed greatly to the causes of
their communist revolution of 1917. The Austro-Hungarian war effort
became more and more subordinate to the direction of German planners,
as it did with the standard soldiers. The Austrians saw the German
army positively, but by 1916 the general belief in Germany was that
they were "shackled to a corpse." Supply shortages, low morale, and
the high casualty rate seriously affected the operational abilities
of the army, as well as the fact the army was of multiple ethnicity,
all with different race, language and customs. |
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SMS Viribus Unitis was sunk at
anchor at Pula by a mignatta carried by an
Italian human torpedo, on 1 November 1918, three days before the end of
the war. |
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| The last two successes for the Austrians: the Conquest of Romania
and the Caporetto Offensive, were German-assisted operations. Due to
the fact that the empire had become more and more dependent on
German assistance, the majority of its people, not of Hungarian or
Austrian ethnicity, became aware of the empire's destabilisation. |
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Text source in extracts: |
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| WIKIPEDIA - the free
encyclopedia |
| Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia
with more than 100 languages, where everyone can
contribute with their knowledge |
| de.wikipedia.org |
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| further Information about |
| Austro-Hungarian Empire |
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