AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 



501 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 



France, for example, is a nation, and its in- 

 habitants were not a distinct people known as 

 Austrians or Austro-Hungarians, as the people 

 of France are Frenchmen. 



The history of Austria-Hungary as one country 

 dates back only to 1867 (see History, below). 

 While it occupied a comparatively large area 

 among the countries of Europe, it never 

 achieved the world-importance of its neighbors. 

 It was largely shut in, and most of its people 

 were near to poverty. Very soon after its or- 

 ganization by the union of Austria and Hungary 

 and various smaller units it fell under the influ- 

 ence of its more powerful and inordinately am- 

 bitious neighbor, Prussia, at the north. Indeed, 

 in 1866, Austria had been defeated in the Seven 

 Weeks' War with Prussia, and its prestige was 

 greatly weakened, while Prussia's success made 

 it the all-powerful state of the German Empire 

 in 1871. Therefore from the beginning of Aus- 

 tria-Hungary's history the dual monarchy was 

 overshadowed in power by its northern neighbor, 

 and on the east the vast Russian Empire was 

 immensely more powerful. 



The area of the dual monarchy was 261,241 

 square miles. Only Russia was larger among 

 the countries of Europe. It was 52,416 square 

 miles larger than the German Empire of the 

 same period, and it was 54,113 square miles 

 larger than France. Compared with American 

 units, it was a little smaller than Texas, and 

 slightly larger than the province of Alberta. As 

 against Alberta's population of less than 500,000, 

 and nearly 4,000,000 in Texas, Austria-Hungary 

 had in 1910 a population of 51 ,390,223. It there- 

 fore had an average of about 195 people to the 

 square mile, or over six times the density of 

 population of the United States and ninety- 

 seven times the density of Canada's population 

 as a whole. Lower Austria averaged more 

 than 400 people to the square mile. 



The End of Austria-Hungary. The War of 

 tin Nations, which changed the map of Europe 

 and threatened the economic foundations of the 

 world, so completely destroyed the dual mon- 

 archy that no suggestion of it remains, except 

 in the names retained by two very small and 

 weak independent states which yet call them- 

 selves Austria and Hungary. As to these, 

 neither political nor racial tics now bind ti 



The war was set in motion by Austria 1 1 

 gary in midsummer of 1914, after it li id sav- 

 iy arraigned the small state of Serbia for 

 all. ition of the munlrr of the dual 



monarchy's heir to thr thmne Tin- influence 

 of Germany was behind the aged Austro-Hun- 



garian emperor, Francis Joseph, it has since 

 been proved. 



Details of the monstrous war are given in the 

 article WAR OF THE NATIONS. It is only neces- 

 sary to record here the complete defeat of the 

 German-Austrian-Turkish-Bulgarian alliance, in 

 November, 1918, at the hands of the allied and 

 associated powers, headed by Great Britain, 

 France, the United States and Italy. Emperor 

 William, the German crown prince and over 

 three hundred petty rulers and royal personages 

 in Germany fled the country or disappeared in 

 other ways from seats of power; the Bulgarian 

 king abdicated. Emperor Charles of Austria, 

 who had succeeded to the throne on the death 

 of Francis Joseph, in the midst of the war, in 

 1916, was driven from Vienna and ultimately 

 from the country, finding asylum in Switzerland. 



The dismemberment of the empire was in- 

 evitable. The Czech o-Slovaks in Bohemia, 

 Moravia and Northern Hungary, an intelligent, 

 ambitious people, formed the Czecho-Slovak 

 republic, with a wise man, . Professor Thomas 

 Masaryk, as its President. In the southern part 

 of the old dual monarchy the Jugo-Slavs racially 

 united to form Jugo-Slavia, and they reared 

 their political structure out of a part of South- 

 ern Austria, and a large portion of Southern 

 Hungary; it also included the provinces of 

 Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia and Dalmatia. Inde- 

 pendent Serbia expected to become an impor- 

 tant part of this new state. However, Italy's 

 demands clashed with the ambitions of the 

 Jugo-Slavs, and the fate of certain divisions of 

 land on the Adriatic Sea may remain for some 

 time undetermined. Galicia chose to divide 

 its territory, the eastern part joining the 

 Russian Ukraine, the western to become a part 

 of Poland. Southeastern Hungary, as it for- 

 merly existed, was to be disposed of by the 

 League of Nations; Rumania demanded Buko- 

 wina, Transylvania and the Banat as a part of 

 its enlarged domain, and this disposition of 

 these provinces may be made in due time. 



The Treaty of Peace. After the war Hungary 

 seceded from Austria, and Austria was consid- 

 ered by the allied and associated powers as the 

 country with which formal peace should be 

 signed after the conclusion of the peace pact 

 with Cermany. Accordingly, the Aii-trian 

 pe;i<-e delegation was summon, d to ] v m< ( V. r- 

 sailles) in .June. 1919. No surprises 

 store for -ing enemy delegates. The 



h lut admittedly just terms imposed on 

 Germany, known to the world for three months, 

 had prepared the officials of the former dual 



