Editing Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1867–1918)

{{Infobox country|name=Austro-Hungarian Monarchy|native_name=Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie (German)<br/>Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia (Hungarian)|image_flag=Austria-Hungary flag.png|image_coat=Austro-Hungary COA.svg|capital=[[Vienna]] (Austria)<br/>[[Budapest]] (Hungary)|largest_city=[[Vienna]]|mode_of_production=[[Capitalism]]|government_type=Federal parliamentary constitutional [[monarchy]]|life_span=1867–1918|flag_caption=Civil ensign|motto=Indivisibiliter ac inseparabiliter|englishmotto=Indivisibly and inseparably|national_anthem=Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser|image_map=Austro-Hungary map.svg|map_width=260|map_caption=Austro-Hungary in 1914|official_languages=German<br>Hungarian<br>Serbo-Croatian|area_km2=621,538|p1=[[Austrian Empire (1804–1867){{!}}Austrian Empire]]|s1=[[Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938){{!}}Czechoslovak Republic]]|flag_p1=Habsburg_Monarchy_flag.svg.png|flag_s1=Czech_flag.png|flag_s2=Old_Hungarian_flag.png|flag_s3=Kingdom_of_Italy_flag.png|s2=[[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946){{!}}Kingdom of Hungary]]|s3=[[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946){{!}}Kingdom of Italy]]|flag_s4=Flag_of_Romania.png|s4=[[Kingdom of Romania (1881–1947){{!}}Kingdom of Romania]]|flag_s5=Flag_of_the_Kingdom_of_Yugoslavia.png|s5=[[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1918–1929){{!}}Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes]]|flag_s6=Flag_of_Austria.svg|s6=[[Republic of Austria (1919–1934){{!}}Republic of Austria]]|flag_s7=Five-coloured_flag.png|s7=[[Republic of China]]|flag_s8=Flag_of_the_Second_Polish_Republic.png|s8=[[Republic of Poland (1918–1939){{!}}Republic of Poland]]|flag_s9=Flag_of_Ukraine.svg|s9=[[West Ukrainian People's Republic (1918–1919){{!}}West Ukrainian People's Republic]]}}

'''Austria-Hungary''', officially the '''Austro-Hungarian Monarchy''', often referred to as the '''Austro-Hungarian Empire''' or the '''Dual Monarchy''', was a [[Europe|European]] state that occupied several [[Central European]] nations. It was established in 1867 as [[Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867|a compromise]] between the declining [[Habsburg monarchy]] that was trying to preserve its power and Hungarians who sought greater autonomy. The ruler of the empire ruled as both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.<ref name=":022222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=Imperialism and War|page=182-184|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Foundation ===
Following its military defeat in the [[Austro-Prussian War]] in 1866 the [[Empire of Austria (1804–1867)|Austrian Empire]] was forced to negotiate with the Hungarian [[aristocracy]]. This resulted in a settlement in 1867 which turned the Austrian Empire into the Dual Monarchy, allowing the Austrian and Hungarian ruling classes to work together in order to oppress the rest of the empire's nationalities.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=M. A. Poltavskii|year=1979|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|title-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Austria|chapter=Austria|section=The Hapsburg monarchy in the last third of the 19th century}}</ref>

=== Imperialist power ===
Although weaker than the other European empires Austria-Hungary was still a great power and used its power to oppress weaker nations even with its internal instability. Austria was increasingly forced under the influence of the [[German Empire (1871–1918)|German Empire]], concluding the Austro-German alliance in 1879 and shortly after the Triple alliance with Germany and [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Italy]] was concluded in 1882.<ref name=":0" />

By the start of the 20th century Austria-Hungary was conclusively in the [[Monopoly capitalism|monopoly capitalist]] stage with several [[Monopoly|monopolistic]] companies being active across the Dual Monarchy and the [[Balkans]]. Austro-Hungarian capitalism unlike other imperialists empires was different in that it retained some [[Feudalism|feudal]] elements, was less industrially developed and was reliant on German [[capital]].<ref name=":1">{{Citation|author=M. A. Poltavskii|year=1979|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|title-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Austria|chapter=Austria|section=1900–18}}</ref>

Austria-Hungary's expansion was focussed on the Balkans which put it into conflict with the [[Russian Empire (1721–1917)|Russian Empire]] and [[Kingdom of Serbia|Serbia]]. In 1878 it occupied [[Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina|Bosnia]] from the ailing [[Ottoman Empire (1299–1922)|Ottoman Empire]] and annexed it in 1908 causing the [[Bosnian Crisis]].<ref name=":1" /> Austria-Hungary was also active in preserving European interests in [[Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|China]], albeit to a limited extent, and provided some troops for the imperialists suppression of the 1901 [[Boxer Rebellion]]. From this conflict Austria-Hungary gained a small territorial concession in the city of [[Tianjin]] which it occupied from 1901 until its 1917 annexation by the Entente in during the [[First World War]].<ref>{{Citation|author=Michael Falser, Georg Lehner|year=2022|title=Habsburgs going global. The Austro-Hungarian Concession in Tientsin/Tianjin in China (1901-1917)|title-url=https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58050|pdf=https://library.oapen.org/viewer/web/viewer.html?file=/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/58050/PUB_916-Z_Falser_Habsburgs_going_global.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|publisher=Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften|isbn=978-3-7001-8927-5}}</ref>

=== First World War ===
On 28 June 1914 [[Gavrilo Princip]] assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke [[Franz Ferdinand]], during a visit to [[Sarajevo]], Bosnia. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination as the assassin happened to be a [[Bosnian Serbs|Bosnian Serb]], taking the opportunity to attack Serbia it had been waiting for. On 23 July the Dual Monarchy sent an absurdly harsh ultimatum to Serbia and unsatisfied with the Serbian response, attacked Serbia on 28 July. This set off a chains of events in which all the great powers declared war on each other, setting fire to the tension between the European empires that had brewing for decades and beginning the First World War.<ref name=":022223">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=Imperialism and War|page=182-184|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

Fighting on the side of the Central Powers alongside Germany, Austria-Hungary performed poorly in the war losing battles from the outset. In August and September 1914, the Russians routed the Austrian army in the battle of Galicia with a further breakthrough by the Russian army in June-August 1916 leading to further defeats. From 1916 onwards the Dual Monarchy only grew more exhausted with a failing economy and civil unrest rising rapidly, particularly among the oppressed minorities.<ref name=":1" />

In January 1918 the workers declared a general strike and they were soon joined by several other groups across the disintegrating empire. In October-November 1918 the movements culminated in several successful bourgeois revolutions with the bourgeois states of [[Republic of Austria (1919–1934)|Austria]], [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]] and [[Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)|Czechoslovakia]] being created in the empire's ruins and portions of the collapsed empire's lands being included in [[Kingdom of Romania (1881–1947)|Romania]], [[Republic of Poland (1918–1939)|Poland]] and [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941)|Yugoslavia]].<ref name=":1" /> The victorious Entente powers would later confirm the new borders in the 1919 [[Treaty of St Germain]] with some of their own changes to further their own imperialist ambitions and stabilise the new bourgeois states to prevent the proletariat from succeeding in a revolution.<ref>{{Citation|author=I. S. Kremer|year=1979|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|title-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Austria|chapter=Austria|section=Austria from 1918 to 1938}}</ref>

== Politics ==
[[File:Cisleithania, Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, Bosnia and Herzegovina.svg.png|thumb|Cisleithania (pink), Transleithania (green), Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina (blue)]]
Austria-Hungary was comprised of two parts: [[Cisleithania]], the Austrian section, and [[Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen (1867–1918)|Transleithania]], the Hungarian section. The two entities governed somewhat independently but shared the three common ministries of finance, foreign affairs, and military-naval.<ref>{{Citation|author=M. A. Poltavskii|year=1979|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|title-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Austria|chapter=Austria|section=The Hapsburg monarchy in the last third of the 19th century}}</ref>

== Demographics ==
Austria-Hungary contained 12 million [[Republic of Austria|Austrians]], 10 million [[Hungary|Hungarians]], 6.6 million [[Czech Republic|Czechs]], 5 million [[Republic of Poland|Poles]], 4 million [[Ukraine|Ukrainians]], 3.2 million [[Republic of Croatia|Croats]], 2.9 million [[Romania|Romanians]], 2 million [[Slovak Republic|Slovaks]], 1.3 million [[Republic of Slovenia|Slovenes]], and 700,000 [[Italian Republic|Italians]].<ref name=":02222">{{Citation|author=Neil Faulkner|year=2013|title=A Marxist History of the World: From Neanderthals to Neoliberals|chapter=Imperialism and War|page=183|pdf=https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipfs/bafykbzacedljwr5izotdclz23o3c5p4di4t3ero3ncbfytip55slhiz4otuls?filename=Neil%20Faulkner%20-%20A%20Marxist%20History%20of%20the%20World_%20From%20Neanderthals%20to%20Neoliberals-Pluto%20Press%20%282013%29.pdf|publisher=Pluto Press|isbn=9781849648639|lg=https://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=91CA6C708BFE15444FE27899217FBA8E}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:History of Austria]]
[[Category:History of Hungary]]
[[Category:Medieval history]]