Why did the Austro Hungarian Empire, once strong, collapse after World War I and split into seven?

In 1282 A.D., a man namedThe Habsburg dynasty arose on Austrian soilIn just a few hundred years, it became the most powerful country in Europe, and it was once the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Habsburgs).

At its peak, byThe Austro-Hungarian Empire, led by the Habsburgs, had a vast area of 670,000 hectares；Its sphere of influence is spread to Milan, Belgium and other regions. The empire was economically developed and populous, and it was a European power in the absolute sense of the word.

However,With the defeat of World War I, the glory of Austria-Hungary completely collapsed overnight。This territory, which has long ranked second in Europe, and the top power, which has long ranked third in Europe in terms of population, has been divided into seven, and the state itself has been crushed into powder by the wheels of history......

For a country, defeat in the war is not irretrievable: Germany was defeated in both world wars, but their regime has survived to this day and is developing quite well. Why, then, did Austria-Hungary cease to exist after its defeat?

once the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire has long played the role of a great power in European history, butTheir "strength" is not entirely dependent on their own development, but is obtained by using power to annex and control other countries.

The Habsburgs, as we mentioned earlier, were a very prominent aristocracy in Europe, with members of their families spread across Europe and almost all of them rose to the top of the political hierarchy. King Charles V of Spain, King Lajos II of Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I ......All have a close relationship with the Habsburgs

Lajos II).

In 1273, Rudolf I of the House of Habsburg became King of Germany. SubsequentlyRudolph gradually shifted his sphere of influence to Austria and other regions, so that Austria's military level was improved by leaps and bounds, in the blink of an eye, it annexed Tyrol, Styria and other small European principalities at that time, and the territorial area was directly tripled.

This was the predecessor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the following centuries of developmentAustria continued to annex small principalities in order to expand its territory and the country's economy.

expansion of Austria).

However, Austria's development model laid many hidden dangers for the future of the empire.

First of all, there are great differences in the ethnic composition, culture and education of the various small principalities in EuropeAustria used force to occupy them, but it was not able to completely capture the hearts of these small principalities.

Second, Austria's own strength did not give them the rights they deserved. Although they had defeated the combined forces of France and Spain in the early 18th century, the more powerful Britain of the time did not allow Austria to have Spanish succession. This also directly led to the fact that Austria was not able to complete the unification of Spain, which affected Austria's subsequent development opportunities to a certain extent.

Over time,The problems within Austria are also becoming more and more acute。The most serious of these problems was the one between the Austrian and Hungarian national regimes.

Hungary was dissatisfied with Austrian rule).

Back in the 14th centuryHungary was divided into three by the expanding Austria and fell into the rule of power。The Hungarian people enjoy a low status of human rights in Austria, are discriminated against by the indigenous peoples, and the contradictions between the two peoples are fierce and almost irreconcilable.

Year 1848,The Hungarians finally rose up and spoke out against Austrian tyranny. This move of the Hungarians directly led to the birth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the true sense of ......

Hungarian National Revolution).

At the beginning of the 19th century, Austria encountered some difficulties in the process of development: not only did they lose a large number of territories belonging to Italy in the Italian War of Independence, but they were also completely expelled from the German Confederation due to the Austro-Prussian War, and their national power fell into a historical low.

Year 1848,The Hungarian people, oppressed by Austria, seized this opportunity and launched an independent revolution。It was hoped that Hungary would be saved from the brutal rule of Austria and exist as an independent state.

Hungarian National Revolution of 1848).

But the emaciated camel was no bigger than the horse, and although Austria's national power had declined, Hungary was no match for it at all. So the revolution was quickly suppressed by AustriaHungary continued to be ruled by Austria.

However, the revolution was a wake-up call for the Austrian ruling class. Austria itself is a regime built up by power and hegemony, and there are many nationalities within the country, and there are contradictions between the aristocratic ruling classes of different nationalities.

If these contradictions are left unchecked, it is very likely that the Austrian regime will one day be completely overthrown by the other nations that have risen up.

Confused Austrian national composition).

In order to solve this hidden danger,The Austrian ruling class approached the Hungarian aristocracy in the hope of negotiating to raise the status of the Hungarians in Austria, to calm their emotions and avoid another large-scale revolution in Hungary.

At that time, the Hungarians were the second largest ethnic group in Austria, and they also deeply shocked the Austrians during the revolution. So when the Austrians bowed their heads,The Hungarian aristocracy seized the opportunity and put forward the demand for the construction of a "dualistic empire".

The so-called dualistic empire is, in factUnder the rule of the same monarch, the governance model of two states was derived。The two countries already have a high degree of autonomy between themExcept for foreign affairs such as the military, tariffs, and foreign affairs, they basically do not interfere with each other.

Binary Austro-Hungarian Empire).

Such a request was of course excessive, but they had no choice at the time. At this time, Austria no longer had Germans to rely on, and the Austrian population in the empire did not even account for 1 4, and if the unity of the empire could not be maintained from the foreign diplomatic model, then Austria would probably cease to exist.

In this way, Austria and Hungary joined forces in 1867 to form the Austro-Hungarian EmpireHungary was only nominally under the rule of King Joseph I of Austria.

At this point, the national question within the Austro-Hungarian Empire was finally solved to a certain extent, and the country's development was finally back on track, under the promotion of a series of events such as the Industrial RevolutionThe Austro-Constitutional Empire soon grew into an extremely powerful state.

Mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire).

It's just a pity that Austria-Hungary did not remember the lessons of history, but fell twice in the same place. This directly led to the complete disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the war, divided into seven.

The Austrians can be called the epitome of "forget the pain when you have a scar".

They have historically made mistakes that overextended led to poor management, howeverAfter the conflict with Hungary was resolved, their first priority was expansion.

Austro-Hungarian soldiers).

In 1872, Joseph I, the ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, came to Berlin to meet with Tsar Alexander II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm I of GermanyThe Triple Agreement "Jointly Resolved Disputes in Southeastern Europe" was known as the Three Emperors Alliance.

In fact, this was just another forcible division of the small European countries by the three powers: the Hesse region and the Turkish region were very chaotic at that time, but this was after all a matter for other countries, and what did it have to do with such a powerful country as Austria-Hungary and the Tsar**?

The reason why the three powers want to sign such an agreement is actually to use the cause of a certain conflictUnder the banner of "dispute resolution", it expands its territory.

The Ugly Three Emperors Alliance).

However,The Three Emperors Alliance is a superficial brother, and each of them has a back handfor fear that other countries will get better opportunities for development.

For example: On April 24, 1877, war was declared on the Ottoman Empire. It stands to reason that Austria-Hungary should settle disputes and maintain stability in Europe; But the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not moveLet ** and the Ottoman Empire fight inextricably.

It turned out that the ** people had promised Austria-Hungary to divide up the lands they had plundered in the war long before they made their move. What is the value of an agreement that can be reversed because of interests?

In 1878, the Berlin Conference was officially convened. Austria-Hungary became a huge beneficiary of the conferenceThey easily gained control of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire began a new round of expansion.

Berlin Conference) and in the Triple Pact signed in 1881,Austria-Hungary even openly mentioned in the Additional Agreement the words "to maintain the right of annexation to Bosnia and Herzegovina"., completely without taking these two regions into account.

Under such ugly profits, the national power of Austria-Hungary skyrocketed, becoming the second largest country in Europe by land area, after the Tsar**. MoreoverThe level of machine building and munitions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also among the best in the world at that time, and it was not inferior to England and Germany at all.

At this time, the strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was extraordinary, and a new European power was born. But perhaps no one could have imagined at the time that the years of expansion had planted too many time bombs for Austria-Hungary, and that when this bomb exploded, it would destroy all the ...... the country

Mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire).

From the point of view of the level of national hard power, Austria-Hungary is definitely among the best in the world；But if we focus on the interior of the country, we can see the essential differences between Austria-Hungary and other imperialist powers.

First of all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not able to solve the problem of ethnic differences in the process of developmentFar from narrowing the gap between Austria and Hungary, the dualist empire's approach to governance deepened the gap between the two peoples。The region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which Austria-Hungary had won in 1878, was in fact ruled by Austria, and the Hungarians had nothing to show for it.

Secondly, successive years of annexation directly led to national chaos within the Austro-Hungarian EmpireThere is also a huge gap in religious beliefs, and the languages spoken by different ethnic groups are completely different, are citizens of the same country, but cannot communicate normally. Such a model was an obvious hidden danger for Austria-Hungary.

The superficially powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire).

At this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was like a muscular hunk with a serious illness, although he looked extremely strong on the outside, his own physical functions and internal operations had irreconcilable problems.

In 1908,The Austro-Hungarian Empire formally annexed the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an act that directly caused the common discontent of ** and SerbiaSerbia has always regarded Bosnia and Herzegovina as an important part of the Yugoslav state, and the annexation of Austria-Hungary crossed the red line of Serbia.

Austria-Hungary forcibly occupied the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina).

However, at this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not realize the problem, and instead of finding a way to make up for the contradictions between itself and other countries in time, it continued to assert its rule and make countless enemies in the shadows.

In 1914,Archduke Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, and his wife on an inspection tour in Sarajevo, Herzegovina。Just as the two of them swaggered through the market, a dark shadow flashed next to their car.

The man who came was Gavrijo, a Serbian nationalist who hated Austria-Hungary from the bottom of his heart. Faced with the sinners who had seized Bosnia and Herzegovina in front of him, Gavri loaded his anger into bullets and shot Archduke Ferdinand directly.

Sarajevo incident).

Ferdinand, as crown prince, was shot by nationalists from other countries on the territory of his own country. This fact was difficult for Austria-Hungary to accept, and war was declared against Serbia, and World War I broke out.

Before the war, Austria-Hungary was very confident that they could quickly win the war with their strong military skills.

However, the involvement of the European powers made the situation of the war confusing, and the war that had originally been directed against Serbia was quickly expanded in scale. Britain, France, Russia, and Italy declared war on Austria-HungaryAlthough Austria-Hungary also had the support of countries such as Germany and Bulgaria, it was difficult to gain a strategic advantage with two fists and four hands.

World War I pattern) was lengthened with the duration of the warThe shortcomings of the lack of stamina of Austria-Hungary were soon exposedAs a result of its long-standing contempt for agriculture, the Austro-Hungarian Empire soon fell into a famine with insufficient food after the war. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time, wheat was sold even more expensive than steel.

Moreover, the long-term accumulation of *** within the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also concentrated in the warHungary outright refused to supply grain to AustriaThe Serbian and Slovenian nations rose up in the later stages of the war and directly started a revolution in the country.

In this way, Austria-Hungary was completely defeated on the frontal battlefield and was not able to deal with the rebellion within its own country. In 1918, Austria-Hungary surrendered to the Entente, and the defeat on the battlefield once again stimulated the internal struggle within Austria-Hungary

Austro-Hungarian surrender).

Czechoslovakia and Hungary became independent, Transylvania joined Romania, Slavia became Yugoslavia, and part of the land was annexed to Italy and Poland.

In just a few years, Austria-Hungary went from being a powerful state dominating Europe to being right only in history textbooks. The reason behind this is the national problem caused by the greedy annexation of the ruling class.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided into seven).

It is precisely because of this that Germany, which was also a defeated country, was able to maintain the continuation of its regime, while Austria-Hungary could only swallow the bitter fruit of **.

Which country is Austria-Hungary now and why did the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolve ?China Business Network, 2023-04-11

Gao Xiaochuan. "Governance of Nation and Ethnic Relations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. "World Nation 4 (2014): 10