AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 



508 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 



Empire 

 Austria 

 The German! 

 federation 



AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE AS IT EXISTED TO 1918 



From the Congress of Vienna (1815) to the Cession of Lombardy (1859) and of Venetia (1866). 



1. Kingdom of Wurtemburg 6. Austria 11. Hungary 



:igdom of Bavaria 7. Lombardy 12. Galicia, or Austrian Poland 



3. Kingdom of Saxony 8. Venetia 13. Transylvania 



4. Bohemia 9. Croatia 

 ;,. Prussia 10. Slavonia 



of Prussia's victory in 1866, felt obliged to 

 make concessions; and with one demanding 

 all that it dared, the other conceding only 

 what it must, a carefully-balanced plan was 

 worked out to give neither the upper hand. 

 At the same time the interests of the other 

 races, an actual majority in the empire, were 

 ignored. Naturally, since such feelings lay 

 back of it, the arrangement was never quite 

 satisfactory to either side. The high-spirited 

 Magyars, the Czechs of Bohemia, and the 

 <jf both North and South displayed in- 

 creasing desire for independence. The parlia- 

 of both Austria and Hungary were 

 probably the most turbulent in the world, and 

 niggles of the members were not always 

 confined to words. 



gn Affairs. Exclusion from Germany 

 turned Austria's attention in another direc- 

 tion, and after 1866 the Balkan question was 

 Austria's chief problem. At this time Turkey 

 still bordered Au.-tria on the Adriatic, and Ser- 

 bia, Bulgaria and Ru mania were vassals of the 

 Sultan. Austria wished to assume the role of 

 protector of the Balkan Slav peoples against 

 Turkish oppression, but Russia, a nation of 

 Slavs, had the same desire. Austria's dream 



was to extend its empire southward to the 

 Mediterranean, since the establishment of the 

 kingdom of Italy had made its ports on the 

 north of the Adriatic of little value in war 

 time. Russia's aim had long been the same. 

 This rivalry, after nearly setting Europe on fire 

 several times, became one of the chief causes 

 of the War of the Nations. 



When Russia freed the Balkan nations and 

 added to its own territory in its war of 1877, 

 the other powers granted Austria the admin- 

 istration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which 

 were still, however, considered Turkish prov- 

 inces. In 1908, after the Turkish revolution, 

 Austria annexed them. This angered Serbia 

 and Montenegro, who threatened war. At the 

 close of the Balkan War of 1912-13 Austria led 

 the other powers in preventing Serbia from 

 obtaining Saloniki or a port on the Adriatic, 

 and in setting up the independent state of 

 Albania out of territory conquered by Monte- 

 negro, Serbia and Greece. See ALBANIA. 



On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Francis 

 Ferdinand, the emperor's nephew and heir to 

 his throne, was assassinated at Serajevo, the 

 capital of Bosnia, by a Serbian student. Aus- 

 tria declared the plot a part of the agitation 



