Welp you're not wrong, but also you're not really right. Firstly the Entente wasn't interested in breaking A-H up until 1916 and even then there wasn't supposed to be so many countries. And mainly, you claim that so much power was given to the local governments, but you don't mentioned Hungarization or Germanization at all. Despite A-H giving certain competencies to local governments, the fact was that it wasn't at all somehow federalizing or even giving out autonomy. The central government didn't become unimportant all of a sudden. It was the push of the local governments wanting more power over their matters from the central government that fueled the independence lust. The local governments within the Austrian part had little actual power, to the point they had to fight tooth and nail to even get a national theatre or something of that matter and the important legislation being discussed in the Austrian parliament, not the local ones. And that's not even mentioning Hungary, where most people lived a life similar to a serf up until the 1940s. Hungary actively denied autonomy to it's "subjects", especially to Romanians and Slovaks. While yes, Austria did allow language to be used in administration and school, Hungary didn't. Even at the turning point of the century Hungary actively censored local languages and hunted schools teaching in local languages. As far as the Hungarian aristocracy was conserned all in their domein were Hungarian and there was no other nationality in their realm. This is truly what pushed the Empire over the edge, including what you mention in the video.
Hungarization and Germanization was part of the script at first, but I had to cut because I would have to explain what it was, why it was important, etc. and then relate it to the A-H Empire. This was about 2 pages and broke the flow of the script completely. I had multiple paragraphs explaining how destroying local cultures and integrating them into the ruling culture had caused stability in other countries such as France and China. And yes, reading the comments now I realize I should have made it clear that there was a significant difference between the Hungarian regions and the Austrian regions.
@@HistoryScope Thank you c: As an aspiring writer I understand how certain stuff can break the flow of a script and I have no mean no offence with what I saw. I just meant to expand on the video with what I view as a very important factor of the subject at hand.
@@HistoryScope Dude, this is youtube... history on youtube.... People always get angrier at omissions rather than videos that are too long. Personally i specifically clicked on this video hoping to find out more details about the opressed lives of Romanians in Hungary. And I found none.
@@PakBallandSami I mean no offence, but may I just point out the irony, that you're complaining about me critisizing/pointing out ommitted details on a channel, which is known for doing detailed in depth videos and that's more or less why majority of the people are subbed.
It's ironic that Franz Josef, who came to the throne after the Hungarian rebellion and was unpopular with them as such, was grown to be loved in Hungary as a result of his wife
I'm told that frnz Joseph was actually interested in helping them (or at least the Serbs) had he not been killed he might've brought some positive changes. Though the empires collapse I'm sure would have happened anyway
@@lorumipsum1129 Franz Joseph was the emperor for more than half a century, I think if he had progressive ideas he would've implemented them. Perhaps you're thinking about Franz Ferdinand, and on that front the man may have wanted stability but he stated things such as Slavs being less than human, so not a great guy
@@joaquinvelazquez521 Yet, although Sophie was a Czech countess it was still a morganic marriage because the Austrian (ethnic German) elites/royals did not consider the Czech royalty to be equal with the Austrian royalty. The Austrian elite did not view the Hungarian elite as equals either -- Despite the joint empire.
All 8 of my great grandparents emigrated from the Austro-Hungarian empire to the USA around 1900, though none of them were Austrian or Hungarian. 4 were Polish, 2 were Croat, and 2 were Lemko/Ukrainian.
Yes, this is fascinating. Complex history. Just goes to show you, that you gotta look to forward, but do not forget the past. It could come and bite us on our rear end. Civilization does come and fall. Stay careful.
Another lesser known fun fact about Austria-Hungary: Austria-Hungary was the 3rd largest oil producer worldwide, after the USA & Russia in the early 20th century (especially 1909), since A-H had an oil-rich region, Galicia. The first European attempt to drill for oil was in Bóbrka, Krosno County, Western Galicia, in 1854 (which used to be part of the Austrian Empire). However, there was a decline just before WW1, and although the oil fields weren't destroyed by the Russians in 1914, oil production was stopped. Galicia was the Central Powers' only major domestic source of oil during the Great War. Today we Austrians have little to no oil at all. Imagine Austria being an oil power. 😂
But Austria (I mean today's territory) did end up with large oil reserves within the Vienna Basin and some of the biggest discoveries were made _after_ WWII. In fact, Austrian oil was by far the most significant backdrop of the Soviet occupation, with the drills working around the clock just to pump as much oil as possible Eastward prior to the establishment of a neutral Austria.
A bit ahead of Russia, Austria-Hungary was on the brink of becoming a fully developed country before 1914. AH was the fourth industrial power by machine tool production in 1914 and industrialising rapidly. While Austria was well ahead, Hungary was also industrialising, especially Budapest and the ship-building ports. Russia was also developing a prosperous private farmer class, which given its huge size would have greatly increased agricultural production and generated a surplus for domestic investment. Alexander II's serfdom reforms took a long time to have an impact. It was expensive for former serfs to pay the debt for their land but the process completed in 1907. They had only seven years as free farmers and then another three in wartime conditions before the Bolsheviks started taking over. If only the two countries had avoided war, at least economically the fortunes of their peoples would have been transformed in the next few decades. If both of them could manage their internal politics.
The equality part of the Empire showed that had it had just a bit longer to continue with their reforms, and had Franz Ferdinand not been killed, the Empire might actually be around to this day in at least one form or another. Franz Ferdinand was actually in support of greater freedoms for ethnic minorities in the Empire, and killing him crushed any chance those groups had. It's collapse ironically caused places like Yugoslavia to be even more oppressive of ethnic minorities than the Austro-Hungarian Empire was.
you dont think that was the goal of the serbian ultranationalists in the first place? They didn't want solutions within the existing paradigm, and if someone could offer them, that was explicitly a bad thing. They wanted a serbian empire that integrated bosnians and croats and forced them to "remember being serbian" as they claimed these were just serbian people in invented countries who forgot who they are
@@AbeYousef in the second half of 19th century in rural parts of southern croatia, vatican and their missionaries were still forcing orthodox serbs into catholicism. if the harvest failed and starvation was certain, orthodox peoples was offered food if they join the so-called "union chuch". same policy was the case in galicia with ortodox ukrainians (today's russins). if you join and become a so called "uniat" you're forbidden to go into old orthodox churches, pope is you main and only patriarch and new churches got built. venice republic were converting people directly into catholicism prior to AH takeover, so this "programe" was somekind of middle ground before going full catholic. AH empire was main vatican player in 19th century (spain lost its power, france was way too liberal after the revolution, germany half protestant). with such a long history of forced religous convesions (islamization by ottomans, constant vatican campaigns), people tend to not trust to anyone except those marked as "ours". reverse processes did occur, but on much smaller scale. this is where "remember being serbian" came from.
@Natan No. In Germany and Italy those same speakers wanted to be 1 country. Croats Bosnians and Macedonians showed you that they are not your countrymen. And dont want to be.
@Natan Serbian propaganda hahaha. Mate. Showed where during unificarion wars Germans commited the genocide Serbs commited for their " south slavic unification" Yes buddy.Bosnians and Macedonians have been a thing for a long while.
“Russia helped Austria in the 1848 revolution” is sort of a gross simplification. The Russians crushed the rebellion and without them the revolution would have been successful.
The Habsburgs originated in what is now Switzerland, with their early power base established by gaining control of the House of Habsburg in the 11th century. They rose to prominence in the Holy Roman Empire, began acquiring territories through strategic marriages and alliances, and expanded their influence throughout Europe.
The breakup of A-H is simply an interesting case study, though i personally found it rather depressing. Looking at the direction the country took after The Compromise you almost hope that the system somehow worked and the country was slowly growing, yet it failed. A-H provide important lessons to all multiethnic countries (mine, Indonesia, included) in both how to and how not to manage a multiethnic society.
It didn't fail because the system was so bad, it needed WW1 and all that happened there to fail. But the most ironic thing to me is, that living in austria today seems like all that never happened in a way: My neighbours are croats, the family across the street is from Bosnia, if you look at the license plates of the cars on our roads, they show exactely the regions that formed the A-H empire. Somehow the EU feels a little bit like the Austro-Hungarian empire.
@@nirfz It would have failed on its own sooner or later. Austrians were too disinterested in what is going on in Hungarian side after the Compromise that if Coats, Slovenes and Serbs received a shipment of weapons from Italy and declared themselves a kingdom within AH or simply kicked Hungarian nobility out of their lands, Austrians wouldn't do squat about it and Hungarians wouldn't be able to do anything about it because the moment they would move troops west, they would have same troubles in the east. AH simply wasn't a viable political entity.
@@lamebubblesflysohigh It's just theorethical: But the austrians were interested in keeping it together. So some form of what "suicide Rudolph" or Franz Ferdinand were aiming for with every crownland forming a federal entity would have solved some of these issues. Also italians would not have done that, as they wanted some territories that were inhabited by Slovenes and Croats, and they would not have given them to the italians in exchange.
I liked how you matched the background music to the nations being discussed at the time. Franz Liszt when discussing Hungary, Chopin when discussing Poland, etc. Nice touch
Karl I wanted to stay in Austria as Emperor or monarch on some level but was refused this. He did not abdicate exactly but simply withdrew from the affairs of state' which meant the same thing. He tried to regain the crown of Hungary twice but failed. I love all of your videos! Thanks again. This one is a favorite subject of mine as well.
I’m Polish-American and I always hated about how we didn’t learn about Poland and Hungary (not Hungarian but we had vizslas when I was growing up) until WWI, as if these countries didn’t exist as we learned about Britain, France, Germany and Spain. I remember asking my 9th grade history teacher about Poland. “Oh, yeah. Poland was powerful in the 1500s.” “Um, so why didn’t we learn about them when we were learning about the 1500s?” So I had to do the learning on my own after that, eventually went in to get a bachelors degree in history. And now I’m very popular among friends and family for having to explain current events in early 2022 to them. I do speak some Hungarian and have friends in Hungary. If you know of a good video in magyar about Hungarian history, I would love to watch it to help keep up on the language
@@michiganscythian2445 Lengyel Magyar két jó barát együtt harcol s issza borát! Congrats to your history degree. The more you know about other cultures the more you know about the world. As for videos just type into utube search “Magyar történelmi videók” and you should find a number of them. Kind regards from Hungary
As an objective Hungarian I do find it pretty significant the lack of criticism against Germanization and Magyarization in the two parts of the empire. It was overall s well documented video, but the loyalty of the minority populations was largely lost with these forceful processes of German and Hungarian nationalism. The federalization should have began much more earlier and then maybe we would have another Switzerland in Central Europe
Exactly, if they created some sort of United States of Europe with each ethnically homogeneous region forming one of those states, it could have been still around. As the EU proves, nations do not have a problem with willingly giving some of their sovereignty away if it benefits them but Austrians and Hungarians in the AH made the every bad decision they could have and pushed various Slavic nations, Italians and Romanians to position when anything but AH was a better option.
I think the only main problem the Empire had was that its military kept on fighting external wars it could not win. And could not win because it did not have enough factories because the Hungarian part did not industrialize whereas the Austrian part did. Thus the problem was BOTH the loss of the size of the Army and the lack of comparable technology compared to the German Empire.
Magyarization was for all intents and purposes the most mild-mannered assimilationist practice of the 19th and 20th centuries. Given another 20 years and the population would have identified as Hungarians (it was 55% in 1914 and the rate of adoption was growing, having hit 10% per every 10 years). The French underwent much more extreme policies to unify their country, nevermind the far more extreme reprisals faced by Hungarians in the successor states of Czechoslovakia and Romania, and even Ukraine/USSR in which people's households were taken from them and they were sent to work camps for being Hungarian. Magyarization is a massively overstated myth used to justify expansionism in the Kingdom of Hungary and the "need to protect" minorities not dissimilar to the reasoning employed by Russia today. Romania wanted Transylvania because it was significantly richer and more developed than the rest of the country (it still is). Slovakia without the majority Hungarian areas is seriously so small that it could not be considered a state and it was purely agrarian with no cities in it as those were already filled with Hungarian, Germans, and Jews, nevermind the fact that they wouldn't have had the capital city (Pozsony - Bratislava) which was where the Hungarian Parliament met. Canadian residential schools were far more extreme. American segregation too. Nevermind what Brits did to the Boer, or what Belgium did in the Congo, or what Russia did to Jews at the time, or even what Italians wanted to do to Croats living in Istria and Trieste.
In Croatia, older people spoke mostly positively about Austro-Hungary. Life was relatively good at that time, a lot was being built at that time. Today, there is a lot of architecture from the time of Austro-Hungary in Croatia. Most of the objections were to the imposition of foreign languages, ie the neglect of the Croatian language. But small nations in history have almost always been under someone’s domination. But when you compare all those forces that had power and influence in this area from the Venetians, Hungarians, Turks, Italy, Yugoslavia, to today's EU, we can say that Austria-Hungary was the most successful in its time and least hated by ordinary people. We have the opinion that Austria-Hungary lost the war and failed when Russia intervened in the First World War. This is not mentioned at all in this video.
@@benshiotsu8553 Croatia is not independent, our bosses are sitting in Brussels and Washington, and the Croatian government is made up of criminals. More than half of the current government's ministers have fallen because of crime and corruption. Last Saturday, another Croatian minister, Horvat, ended up in prison. All in all, the Croatian state is hard shit!😁
@@benshiotsu8553 slovak here: OMFG pls austria, take us back! Seriously tho, none of the successor nations proved to be fit at all for independence and Vienna was able to administer this black hole into a golden age. I'd give another try.
I mean, Austria didn't exactly "decide" to go to war with Prussia in 1866. War was declared on them by Prussia. In 1864, Austria and Prussia successfully defeated Denmark in a 9 month war, and Austria was given control over Holstein (a small region in that neck area where the border of what's now Germany and Denmark is). But about a year and a half later, Prussia correctly guessed that (with some help from Risorgimento Italy) they could easily defeat Austria's military, so they claimed that a certain law Austria passed in Holstein violated the treaty ending the 1864 war; Prussia used that as justification to seize Holstein and to declare war on Austria. The war only lasted about a month.
History-Scope makes only jokes in his video. Everyone knows, that the monarchy was best for all ethnics in the monarchy with a good law and right system in comparison to other nations. The k&k empire had only problems with the lag of a real communication language, shame on latin. So education, military and justice had problems to work without massive efforts.
These types of much more theoretical historical videos are by far my favorite, and they very much remind me of Kraut's videos, especially with the distinctive art style. The fact is that you really can't cram a whole country's history into just 30 minutes, so explaining the much bigger picture first of all lets you convey that country's history without being bogged down in minor historical events, and to be honest might be even clearer that a long, in-depth look at every facet of that country, that would also probably attract less people. I feel that this sort of history is quite lacking both in educational youtube and in schools. Of course you should study the in-depth histories of countries, don't get me wrong, but especially for a wide audience that understandably wouldn't want to pick up a book or watch dozens of hours of lectures about Austrian history, I think this format is much better than just skimming over the Wikipedia article in half an hour.
The Habsburg Monarchy refers to the various states and territories ruled by the House of Habsburg, which was one of the most influential dynasties in European history.
There are a few mistakes. #1 serfs didn't give all they had to the nobility, and were far form slaves. Serfs gave about 1/10 to nobel whose land it was and about 1/9 to the church , so much less then required by today's taxes in the same area. #2 special position of Croatia within the monarchy was enjoyed because Hungarian crown that joined with Austria was a personal union of Hungary and Croatia, so each emperor had to be crowned emperor of Austria but separately king of Hungary and King of Croatia.
I was thinking the same, I hate when they aren't rigorous enough to give a proper explanation for the concepts that are presented so they just make poor analogies, I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who thought that.
Hmm then why Czechia-slovakia and hungary got independence 1918 and croatia not??? Smells like some nationalist croat play with your brain very very hard.
The Habsburgs often utilized repressive measures to maintain control over their diverse subjects, including censorship, secret police, and military interventions. This repression was particularly evident during nationalist uprisings, such as the 1848 revolutions.
Imperial Germany without Alsace-Lorraine looks weird. That's not the first time you show pre-WW1 Germany without it. Also talking about possible ethnic conflict in early Czechoslovakia between Czechs and Slovaks and not mentioning its 2nd largest ethnic group is quite strange.
i think he showed it because he was talking about the Unification of all those small german nations and alsace-lorraine wasn't really a german nation. it was annexed later on from France. (Idk why, i think because of the napoleonic wars or because of the ethnic germans living there back then)
The Habsburgs ruled various regions at different times, including modern Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, parts of Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and many others. They controlled vast territories through a combination of inheritance, conquest, and diplomacy, which made the Habsburgs one of the largest political entities in European history.
My parents are Hungarian and thus so am I even though I was born in Oradea/Nagyvárad, Romaniawity mixed ancestry. It’s interesting to learn about this!
Thanks for the background information. All of my grandparents emigrated to America from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire: Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Bohemia. In at least three of the cases, they were sent over by their families to live with relatives because their families could not afford to keep them or could not offer them any sort of prospects for a future.
@@Ralphieboy Nice, so you've seen a lot. A lot of important history in the making. Important for being able to understand the motivations and social, cultural, political and personal values of contemporary Europeans.
@@Ralphieboy I wonder how do you feel when you hear typical Americans talk about Central/Eastern Europe these days... News anchors, journalists, podcasters, even academics. Because I feel that 90% of them is pretty much absolutely missing the point... In all questions.
@@ancientbohemian Many Americans have almost no frame of reference or sense of history, so yes, most of what they talk about is superficial, misleading or complete bullshit.
Hey man, I noticed your patreon is quite humble for such quality videos. I've seen so many stupid channels with so much support and I wish creators like you who are not only informative and educational but also very entertaining.
@@TheDarthbinky I mean after the Napoleonic wars I'd agree but before then the Habsburg Monarchy was a pretty big powerhouse, wars with the Ottomans, French (sometimes both at the same time) all the while trying to manage their shitshow in the HRE.
Germany's involvement in wars, such as the World Wars, can be attributed to a complex interplay of historical, political, and economic factors rather than an inherent tendency toward violence. For example, World War I was influenced by alliances, nationalism, and imperialism, while World War II was marked by the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, which propagated extreme nationalist and racist ideologies.
What you got wrong was the reason for the wars in 1859 and 1866. They weren't territorial expansion, but territorial integrity, as Austria felt itself threatened by outside forces
Interesting video. Just as a sidenote at 17:34, Istria is not a region of Romania. Istria is a croatian region. Interestingly though there is a istro-romanian dialect that is spoken in the peninsula.
29:08 That is objectively untrue. It was not peaceful anywhere. Hungary waged war against Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia when they invaded. And even the annexation of Burgenland wasn't that peaceful, since many locals took up arms against the Austrian soldiers.
@پیاده نظام خان No. Hungary had certain territories for hundreds of years at that point, which were occupied by neighbouring states, that's what Hungary tried to get back.
@@liltinglullaby3282 well that is a problem if you claim half of Czechoslovakia. From your point of view you are defending and they are invading, from their point of view they are defending and you are invading. Borders could have been sorted peacefully, you give us that village with more Slovaks in it, we give you that village with more Hungarians with it and where it doesn't make geographical sense, we swap people and whoever gets more land will compensate those who got less in cash.... but Hungarians though they could take it all without any barter, gambled and lost.
@@lamebubblesflysohigh That's incorrect. Czechoslovakia was a country that was created by taking territory from Austria and Hungary. They had no external territory that could've been invaded by Hungary.
Agree, "United States of Danube" would have been great, instead greedy people in all of the Austro-Hungarian empire paid the price when Russia rolled right in very easily after WWII...and formed USSR - remember that! Also the narrator did not mention too much about the many various Religious groups.
I am Croat, in primary school in 7th grade (2001) we had 3/4 of history classes filled with this thematic. Interesting one. Especially Khuen Hedervary and Hungarization process! Hungarians were big deal back in that age and Austria was simply dying slowly, while Hungary tried to feed on breadcrumbs. At least this was what we where learned in Croatia back then. Interesting topic that deserves more focus. Well done for this! Keep up the good work. All the best
From the book published by Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War , Macmillan Education, New York, 1991: (pages 24 - 26)
For us Slovaks fall of A-H Empire was a blessing. In the years 1874-1892, Slovak children without parents were resettled in "purely Hungarian districts". Only in the years 1887 and 1888, the (Hornouhorský) Hungarian Educational Association - FEMKE resettled approximately 500 Slovak orphans. The Hungarian (Magyar !!!) authorities constantly put pressure on all non-Hungarians to Hungarianize their names. The ease with which this could be done gave rise to the nickname Crown Hungarians.
Source: Gabor Vermes, "The October Revolution in Hungary: from Karolyi to Kun", in Ivan Volgyes (editor), "Hungary in Revolution. 1918-19. Nine Essays", Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1971, page 47. "The basic problem in Hungary was that less than half of the population were ethnically Hungarian. After the Ausgleich the Hungarians made at least one attempt to solve the cultural problem involved in the situation with the nationality law of 1868. The intent of this law was to arrange for a compromise between the non-Magyar nationalities and the Hungarians. The fact was, however, that the nationalities demanded more than cultural nationalism. They were in the process of establishing ties with their co-nationals - the Rumanians, Serbians, Czechs - living outside the monarchy or in the Austrian half, and were working for political independence. Moreover, the nationality law was seldom observed in Hungary; the rights of the nationalities were violated continuously by the Hungarian government. Their schools were closed and confiscated; their protests were suppressed by the police; their leaders were jailed for long periods of time. Hungarian propagandists spoke of a country of thirty million Hungarians, and of the sacred right of Hungary to “ Magyarize ” its nationalities." Source: Joseph Held, "The Heritage of the Past: Hungary before World War I", in Ivan Volgyes (editor), "HUNGARY IN REVOLUTION. 1918-19. Nine Essays", University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1971, pages 6-7. Source: Geoffrey Wawro, "A Mad Catastrophe. The Outbreak Of World War I And The Collapse Of The Habsburg Empire", Basic Books, New York, 2014, page 63. Source: A. J. P. Taylor, "The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918 : A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary", Hamish Hamilton, London, 1948, page 186. Source: Myra A. Waterbury, "Between State and Nation Diaspora Politics and Kin-state Nationalism in Hungary", Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2010, page 29-30.
Thank for these historical proofs for what the nationalities in the hungarian kingdom had to endure for centuries. In Transylvania the Magyars forcibly magyarized a vast part if the population, especially those Hungary comes today to claim they are Magyars and so Hungarians pretend separation and autonomy in Transylvania just because Budapest says so. Such an imperialist nation still that does not know their own real past, such proud people, maybe too proud considering that magyars no longer exist. They disappeared from history..
It's important to approach discussions about cultural temperament and historical influences with care and sensitivity. East European and Balkan cultures have been shaped by a complex interplay of historical events, including wars, governance, migration, and the influence of various empires, including the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, as well as Nazi Germany during World War II. The suggestion that German rule specifically contributed to a choleric temperament in the Balkans simplifies a much more nuanced historical reality. While external governance can affect societal behaviors and norms, temperament is influenced by a multitude of factors, including geography, social structures, economic conditions, and historical experiences. Additionally, comparing the temperament of cultures can be problematic and may lead to stereotypes. Chinese culture, for example, is also diverse and complex, rooted in thousands of years of history with its own distinct experiences, philosophies, and social structures. Instead of making broad generalizations based on historical governance or cultural comparisons, it's crucial to engage with cultures on their own terms, recognizing the individual and collective experiences that shape their identities. Each culture has its own unique strengths, expressions, and forms of social interaction that contribute to its character.
Excellent video. Thank you. I have been fascinated with the Austrian/A-H Empire for many years. I still think a federation would have been a better idea.
Thank you for this clarification. My great grandparents immigrated from the austro Hungarian empire. There is so much info to go through when researching their lives.
This was incredible work Avery. I would love to hear someone try and refute your arguments, because imo they are rock solid. I learned a good deal here.
It is a very detailed video, BUT in many questions/details you are on a wrong footing IMO. Those are too neumerous to list - but the 2 main issues I would highlight - when the Empire was reformed into the A-H Empire - the Austrians basically dumped off nationalistic/ethnic questions to regional level - for example the hungarian part had to deal with its ethnicities in their own bracket (so simply the Austrians kept playing off the ethnicities against each other, partially without responsibility), another major issue was, that although there many mixed areas, most of the ethnicities was living in large blocks, so it was relatively easy to make those parts independent (ofc the largest group, the Hungarians in the center suffered the most, suffering from it till today), 3rd major issue - most nationalities (save the slovask and czechs) have their own independent countries already, so the deam of a nation state was prevalent. Comparing the A-H E. is other multi-ethnic states like the USA is actually pretty bad - you could never say that for example Georgia is all black, New Mexico is all mexican, etc. ...all-in-all a nice effort, but not really a successful one, IMO ... Greetings from Hungary! (1 last thought, IMO the Empire would have fallen eventually any way, but without WW1 there probably woudnt have been a WW2, which devastated the region, put most part under communist control, the effects are still felt today ... and all those live lost in vain)
You have a very hungarian point of view. The AH Empire completely fails because of the the internal factors, one of which, btw, is the narrow minded ruling class of Hungary, which after gaining autonomy from Austria refused to give the very same rights to the minorities within their kingdom and on the contrary wanted to impose their language on the other nationalities.
@@froglifes6829 - I do not have that view. I wrote that the Austrians dumped off ethnic questions to regional/provincial level AND right, in the Kingdom of Hungary the mostly hungarian elite failed to address it. And we payed the price, but ultimately the whole region payed a price in the 20th century, partially even today ... as I said no WW1 = probably no WW2, no Soviet Union, no communism, etc. and probably lot less victims in the end ...
@@froglifes6829 You say that as if Hungary had no right to rule its own land. Multi ethnic countries throughout history and to this day still do the kinds of forced integration that Hungary tried.
@@victory7999 However this was in comparison to the devolution to local autonomy the Austrians were practicing. It's not like the Austrians didn't do the same thing, but the irony here is that Hungary did the same integration as Austria when Hungary was a product of the devolution.
@@csabakis4214 You fail to mention that Hungary mishandled the ethnic minority management too. Rather than promote a form of national conciliation and dialogue, giving freedom of administration, education and rights to all nations, Hungary opted for assimilation policies. While at the beginning, the liberal government of Hungary wanted a Hungarian political union composed of people of various ethnic origins, this quickly shifted to a one-nation state. And that is when Hungary failed. Blaming Austria for taking advantage of ethnic dissensions within Hungary, most of which was created by Hungarian politicians is stupid. You played a big part in the downfall of your country.
Well, we're really splitting hairs with the identification of "Austro-Hungarian Empire" being a recently conceived terminology, considering that the Hungarian Kingdom and Hungarians had been part of the "Austrian Empire" for quite some time.
28:05 I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the music starting up. The soundtrack to Mel Brooks' Twelve Chairs is so criminally underrated and underappreciated.
Ppl stating certain (correct) facts not mentioned in this video are ignoring the time constraints and the amount of simplification needed in videos like this. All in all this is a decent explanation of how the old Osterreich broke apart. And yes, before anyone starts typing, I know 'Osterreich' is the name of present day Austria.
No, Croatia was not the only one that had a Parliament in the Ausro-Hungarian Empire. The Principality of Transylvania, which reunited with Romania on December 1st 1919, surface +102,000 sq km, had its own Parliament in Cluj/Klausenburg. The Principality's Assembly was called Transylvanian Diet. Thank you for this great video, an enlightening lesson of history.
@@sebastianmartinescu1987 Transylvania had a diet in the Austrian Empire, not the Austro-Hungarian one. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was formed in 1867 with the Austrian-Hungarian settlement act that included the union of Transylvania and Hungary, thus disbanding the Transylvanian Diet. Plus Transylvania was united with Romania, not reunited as it had never been part of a Romanian state before that. Calling Dacia a Romanian state is pretty far-fetched and Michael the Brave's brief rule was only a personal union, not a real one (same as Croatia and Hungary, Croatia formally was never part of Hungary).
I descend from Danube-Swabians from the Banat, now Romania. I was hoping for a bit on the German directive to transplant Germans throughout the region and what happened to these people after WWI and their disappearance after WWII. my family left for the U.S. in 1903 but always identified as German. my Great grandmother who was born in Biled, said she never heard from family again after 1945.
Also both Hungarians and Germans from transylvania and Banat were deported out after ww1 closer to the southern Hungarian border, and large communities still live there. (Most people tried to emigrate or go to the west.) This happened to my great grandparents and they also wanted to emigrate to the USA but they decided to stay in Hungary because my great grandma was pregnant with twins(they had flee their house and on the road she gave birth.). So in the aftermath they lived in area full of swabische and mixed villages. and I grow up in the same region and can see how their cultures influenced eachother in a peaceful way. /traditions, words, food, religion, architecture./
From the book of John R. Schindler, Fall of the Double Eagle - The Battle for Galicia and the Demise of Austria-Hungary , University of Nebraska Press, 2015: (pages 25-26)
After the introduction I thought, finally, somebody tells the story in a bit more depth! But, while I appreciate the effort that went into the creation of this video, it ended up being superficial and factually wrong on several points (which have already been pointed out in the comments.) For example at the end, we were made to feel as if the empire just peacefully fell apart, along ethnic or old historic lines. Really?! How can you tell the story of the breakup without talking about the Treaty of Trianon? Also, it would've put things into context a bit better with some explanation about how the union of the two leading powers within the union came about and why there were so many ethnic groups and why they were mixed up so much. Of course, people from the region may have their differing views on the details but overall, it was a disappointing effort and I'm afraid that people who only learnt the story from here, they will think they now know what happened but they really don't. Many main points are more or less correct but too many details are simply wrong. Sorry! :-(
It makes me giggle every time I read or hear "Austrian Empire" or "Austro-Hungarian Empire". Poor old glory-wannabes in eastern Europe. Spain, France, the UK and Russia had empires: territories that span over millions of km and several continents. Then you have these self proclaimed donuts, who's landlocked "empire" without colonies wasn't bigger than today's Ukraine. But eh.. they called it empire and they still cry over it.
3:41 Im pretty sure the colors for prussian allies and prussian annexed territory should be swapped. As for example Hanover was on Austria's side and was subsequently annexed by prussia, while Oldenburg or Mecklenburg remained (partially) sovereign until the Nazis came around
Great video, as always, but there are just one or two things that I kinda questioning firstly, Germanization and Hungarization which absent in your video. But, pinned comment already mention that so I let it pass second, about the autonomy of ethnic groups. what I get is kinda contradictive, in the "rise of empire" part you say the autonomy given to Hungary was a success and bring more stability to AH, but in the last part autonomy is one of main causes for the collapse of AH. I think because this is different from "autonomy" in modern terms which is more synonymous to state autonomy in the USA and Scots autonomy under UK rather than AH autonomy. The autonomy given to Hungary was complete autonomy, as they can have their own military, diplomatic relation, a parliament that was independent of that of the Austrian half, and law that was completely independent without national restriction. While in state terms (also including Scotland for the UK) they can have their own parliament, constitution, language, etc like AH BUT they cannot have their own military (only gendarmerie class), their own diplomatic relation, their parliament is subject to national (not by one constituent state) parliament (like new york HR and S is subordinate to HR and S of USA), and national (or federal) law which restricts and above state law. in modern parliament and political sense, A and H in AH is more like two country glue together without any cohesion and completely independent of each other, and because the legislation must pass the two parliaments, this will ensure the passage of bill WILL always never got pass. third, about the parliaments themselves. AH (especially the Hungarian half) parliaments are described in Encyclopedia Britannica as "the most illiberal in the world" (which said a lot as there were more illiberal states that barely have constitution like Russian and Ottoman at that time). the parliament didn't have any representation for, not just the serf population, but also the working class. the middle class (which drives the country economy) only gets 6%-ish of the parliaments reps. This is also one of the reasons why AH got a constitution in the first place because bankers and the middle class refuse to finance any war unless they got a constitution and reps in parliament. this is bad because the parliament is functionally dependent on nobility and aristocracy which is too conservative and refuses to change anything, which angers the middle class, which stops the economy, which angers the working class, which stops the nation completely. This is why famine happens in late WWI and made AH susceptible to nationalism and separatism. forth, about the entente conspiracy. while yes it is one of the causes, I don't think it is one of the "main" causes of AH collapse. because it is an outside factor and only played as the WWI got too late-stage. Like the pinned comment had said, it's after the late stage of the war they considered it. and that's all, I'm sorry if my comment is too long and/or my english is broken. and I said it again, this is a great video. and also, bonus question. for some reason (you got hit by truck-kun maybe? idk) tomorrow you wake up as Emperor Franz Joseph before the creation of Austro Hungarian Empire, what would you do to save (or destroy?) your empire and ultimately yourself? I am really curious about what others might do in this kind of situation. (and because this is the staple to "isekai" genre in Japanese manga)
Maybe i didn't understand your comment correct, but Hungaries autonomy did not include their own military or their own diplomatic relations. 3 things that were not split but only done together for the whole empire were the army, the foreign ministry and the finance ministry. What the hungarians got in the army were their own dress uniforms, for their troop bodies that carried traditional hungarian names.
@@nirfz Well, it is quite complicated. if you see the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of1867, you can see contradicting points like common foreign minister but also "international commercial treaties and agreements were conducted by Austria and Hungary as an independent nation". This compromise is the foundation of dual monarchy and of AH itself, so we can take a look at it. for the military, "Royal Hungarian Hovend was restored and Imperial-Royal Landwehr was created ... which were respectively placed under the direct control of Austrian and Hungarian Defense Minister only" this is different from the national guard of state in USA because Hovend and Landwehr were established standing army that only subordinate to Hungary or Austria without central command and "The common army and common minister of defense has no right to command Hovend and Landwehr". for the common army as you said, they have different uniform, battalion, names, and if the Hungarian proposal was successful, language and command. Fortunately, the proposal was shut down, but you can see the extent of AH autonomy in it, as A and H have different views on how the army should function. for diplomatic relations, as I said before, although they had a common foreign minister, diplomatic regarding trade and commerce is independent. The parliament also had a lot of sway in diplomatic relations, as they can even reject emperor proposals like the Hungarian parliament rejection to support emperor Franz's proposal to ally with France during the Franco-Prussian war. If only this proposal pass, the german empire maybe wasn't formed, or at very least, been postponed for years. for finance, the compromise also points out "they (A and H) were fiscally sovereign and independent entities" and that's it. sorry if I'm pointing something wrong and/or my English is not good enough. I am using a Wikipedia list of the compromise, so you can check it out if you want to see it more.
@@fr.majoris7925 I haven't found anything about the diplomatic stuff that was supposed to be not handled by the common ministery. (But that doesn't automatically mean you are wrong) The thing with the Hoved on the other hand is a bit more complicated i think than the english wiki page states. Yes, it was not part of the army, and under it's own minister of defense. And it was not under the common ministry of war. But the Honved and the Landwehr were smaller bodies than the army, and only consisted of infantery and cavallry. And yet their supreme commander during peace time was Franz Joseph. As the supreme commander of all armed forces. And in wartime this command was given to a high ranking experienced officer. So they were only "not part of the common armed forces for land warfare" during peacetime.
From the study of Gabor Vermes, "Hungarian politics and society on the eve of the revolution, published in the volume edited by Peter Pastor, Revolutions and interventions in Hungary and its neighboring states, 1918-1919 , Columbia University Press, New York, 1988: (page 108)
Two thing about the start, even if de iure Austrian Empire declared war both on Piedmont-Sardinia and Prussia, de facto they provoked both wars intentionally, not Austria
Welp you're not wrong, but also you're not really right.
Firstly the Entente wasn't interested in breaking A-H up until 1916 and even then there wasn't supposed to be so many countries.
And mainly, you claim that so much power was given to the local governments, but you don't mentioned Hungarization or Germanization at all. Despite A-H giving certain competencies to local governments, the fact was that it wasn't at all somehow federalizing or even giving out autonomy. The central government didn't become unimportant all of a sudden. It was the push of the local governments wanting more power over their matters from the central government that fueled the independence lust. The local governments within the Austrian part had little actual power, to the point they had to fight tooth and nail to even get a national theatre or something of that matter and the important legislation being discussed in the Austrian parliament, not the local ones.
And that's not even mentioning Hungary, where most people lived a life similar to a serf up until the 1940s. Hungary actively denied autonomy to it's "subjects", especially to Romanians and Slovaks. While yes, Austria did allow language to be used in administration and school, Hungary didn't. Even at the turning point of the century Hungary actively censored local languages and hunted schools teaching in local languages. As far as the Hungarian aristocracy was conserned all in their domein were Hungarian and there was no other nationality in their realm. This is truly what pushed the Empire over the edge, including what you mention in the video.
Hungarization and Germanization was part of the script at first, but I had to cut because I would have to explain what it was, why it was important, etc. and then relate it to the A-H Empire. This was about 2 pages and broke the flow of the script completely.
I had multiple paragraphs explaining how destroying local cultures and integrating them into the ruling culture had caused stability in other countries such as France and China.
And yes, reading the comments now I realize I should have made it clear that there was a significant difference between the Hungarian regions and the Austrian regions.
I'm also pinning your comment because it gives the most accurate critique of this video, I think.
@@HistoryScope Thank you c:
As an aspiring writer I understand how certain stuff can break the flow of a script and I have no mean no offence with what I saw. I just meant to expand on the video with what I view as a very important factor of the subject at hand.
@@HistoryScope Dude, this is youtube... history on youtube.... People always get angrier at omissions rather than videos that are too long. Personally i specifically clicked on this video hoping to find out more details about the opressed lives of Romanians in Hungary. And I found none.
@@PakBallandSami I mean no offence, but may I just point out the irony, that you're complaining about me critisizing/pointing out ommitted details on a channel, which is known for doing detailed in depth videos and that's more or less why majority of the people are subbed.
It's ironic that Franz Josef, who came to the throne after the Hungarian rebellion and was unpopular with them as such, was grown to be loved in Hungary as a result of his wife
I'm told that frnz Joseph was actually interested in helping them (or at least the Serbs) had he not been killed he might've brought some positive changes. Though the empires collapse I'm sure would have happened anyway
@@lorumipsum1129 Franz Joseph was the emperor for more than half a century, I think if he had progressive ideas he would've implemented them.
Perhaps you're thinking about Franz Ferdinand, and on that front the man may have wanted stability but he stated things such as Slavs being less than human, so not a great guy
@@ElSayyidCampeador yeah, Franz Ferdinand is what I meant
@@ElSayyidCampeador Which is why he married a czech countess.
@@joaquinvelazquez521
Yet, although Sophie was a Czech countess
it was still a morganic marriage because the
Austrian (ethnic German) elites/royals did
not consider the Czech royalty to be equal
with the Austrian royalty. The Austrian elite
did not view the Hungarian elite as equals
either -- Despite the joint empire.
All 8 of my great grandparents emigrated from the Austro-Hungarian empire to the USA around 1900, though none of them were Austrian or Hungarian. 4 were Polish, 2 were Croat, and 2 were Lemko/Ukrainian.
Similar here, on one side of my family they can from Slovakia and Galicia.
the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been involved in the Balkans, particularly during the decline of the Ottoman Empire
Interesting
A topic I haven't thought about for over a year, yeah its worth the half hour
Agreed.
Yes, this is fascinating. Complex history. Just goes to show you, that you gotta look to forward, but do not forget the past. It could come and bite us on our rear end. Civilization does come and fall. Stay careful.
Another lesser known fun fact about Austria-Hungary: Austria-Hungary was the 3rd largest oil producer worldwide, after the USA & Russia in the early 20th century (especially 1909), since A-H had an oil-rich region, Galicia. The first European attempt to drill for oil was in Bóbrka, Krosno County, Western Galicia, in 1854 (which used to be part of the Austrian Empire). However, there was a decline just before WW1, and although the oil fields weren't destroyed by the Russians in 1914, oil production was stopped. Galicia was the Central Powers' only major domestic source of oil during the Great War. Today we Austrians have little to no oil at all. Imagine Austria being an oil power. 😂
my dream
Schell
But Austria (I mean today's territory) did end up with large oil reserves within the Vienna Basin and some of the biggest discoveries were made _after_ WWII. In fact, Austrian oil was by far the most significant backdrop of the Soviet occupation, with the drills working around the clock just to pump as much oil as possible Eastward prior to the establishment of a neutral Austria.
@@yarpen26 Didn't the Soviets take Austrian oil before leaving Austria in 1955 as I've heard?
A bit ahead of Russia, Austria-Hungary was on the brink of becoming a fully developed country before 1914. AH was the fourth industrial power by machine tool production in 1914 and industrialising rapidly. While Austria was well ahead, Hungary was also industrialising, especially Budapest and the ship-building ports.
Russia was also developing a prosperous private farmer class, which given its huge size would have greatly increased agricultural production and generated a surplus for domestic investment. Alexander II's serfdom reforms took a long time to have an impact. It was expensive for former serfs to pay the debt for their land but the process completed in 1907. They had only seven years as free farmers and then another three in wartime conditions before the Bolsheviks started taking over.
If only the two countries had avoided war, at least economically the fortunes of their peoples would have been transformed in the next few decades. If both of them could manage their internal politics.
19:00
"Russian revolution of 1817"
I didn't remember communism being the ideology of Russia for 174 years
This video voiceover has so many mistakes
@@Joso997 well there is still the infamous missing Balkans incident on one map of an earlier video
I love the self awareness to pin this comment
@@alehaim The Balkans doesn't exist lol
turkey also doesnt exist on the map during the serfdom explanation
The equality part of the Empire showed that had it had just a bit longer to continue with their reforms, and had Franz Ferdinand not been killed, the Empire might actually be around to this day in at least one form or another. Franz Ferdinand was actually in support of greater freedoms for ethnic minorities in the Empire, and killing him crushed any chance those groups had. It's collapse ironically caused places like Yugoslavia to be even more oppressive of ethnic minorities than the Austro-Hungarian Empire was.
you dont think that was the goal of the serbian ultranationalists in the first place? They didn't want solutions within the existing paradigm, and if someone could offer them, that was explicitly a bad thing. They wanted a serbian empire that integrated bosnians and croats and forced them to "remember being serbian" as they claimed these were just serbian people in invented countries who forgot who they are
There's no war if there's no will. I see the killing of Franz Ferdinand more like an excuse to start a war.
@@AbeYousef in the second half of 19th century in rural parts of southern croatia, vatican and their missionaries were still forcing orthodox serbs into catholicism. if the harvest failed and starvation was certain, orthodox peoples was offered food if they join the so-called "union chuch". same policy was the case in galicia with ortodox ukrainians (today's russins). if you join and become a so called "uniat" you're forbidden to go into old orthodox churches, pope is you main and only patriarch and new churches got built. venice republic were converting people directly into catholicism prior to AH takeover, so this "programe" was somekind of middle ground before going full catholic. AH empire was main vatican player in 19th century (spain lost its power, france was way too liberal after the revolution, germany half protestant). with such a long history of forced religous convesions (islamization by ottomans, constant vatican campaigns), people tend to not trust to anyone except those marked as "ours". reverse processes did occur, but on much smaller scale. this is where "remember being serbian" came from.
@Natan No. In Germany and Italy those same speakers wanted to be 1 country. Croats Bosnians and Macedonians showed you that they are not your countrymen. And dont want to be.
@Natan Serbian propaganda hahaha. Mate. Showed where during unificarion wars Germans commited the genocide Serbs commited for their " south slavic unification"
Yes buddy.Bosnians and Macedonians have been a thing for a long while.
“Russia helped Austria in the 1848 revolution” is sort of a gross simplification. The Russians crushed the rebellion and without them the revolution would have been successful.
It's a recurring theme
The Habsburgs originated in what is now Switzerland, with their early power base established by gaining control of the House of Habsburg in the 11th century.
They rose to prominence in the Holy Roman Empire, began acquiring territories through strategic marriages and alliances, and expanded their influence throughout Europe.
The breakup of A-H is simply an interesting case study, though i personally found it rather depressing. Looking at the direction the country took after The Compromise you almost hope that the system somehow worked and the country was slowly growing, yet it failed. A-H provide important lessons to all multiethnic countries (mine, Indonesia, included) in both how to and how not to manage a multiethnic society.
It didn't fail because the system was so bad, it needed WW1 and all that happened there to fail.
But the most ironic thing to me is, that living in austria today seems like all that never happened in a way: My neighbours are croats, the family across the street is from Bosnia, if you look at the license plates of the cars on our roads, they show exactely the regions that formed the A-H empire. Somehow the EU feels a little bit like the Austro-Hungarian empire.
@@nirfz and when the us russia and china all go to war next the eu might get split the same way
@@ryans5073 depends, if they go to war against the EU, then maybe. But i have less concern that all 3 would go against the EU.
@@nirfz It would have failed on its own sooner or later. Austrians were too disinterested in what is going on in Hungarian side after the Compromise that if Coats, Slovenes and Serbs received a shipment of weapons from Italy and declared themselves a kingdom within AH or simply kicked Hungarian nobility out of their lands, Austrians wouldn't do squat about it and Hungarians wouldn't be able to do anything about it because the moment they would move troops west, they would have same troubles in the east. AH simply wasn't a viable political entity.
@@lamebubblesflysohigh It's just theorethical: But the austrians were interested in keeping it together. So some form of what "suicide Rudolph" or Franz Ferdinand were aiming for with every crownland forming a federal entity would have solved some of these issues.
Also italians would not have done that, as they wanted some territories that were inhabited by Slovenes and Croats, and they would not have given them to the italians in exchange.
I liked how you matched the background music to the nations being discussed at the time. Franz Liszt when discussing Hungary, Chopin when discussing Poland, etc.
Nice touch
didnt notice this yet. thanks.🍻
The Habsburgs gained control of parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the late 19th century, particularly after the Congress of Berlin in 1878
Karl I wanted to stay in Austria as Emperor or monarch on some level but was refused this. He did not abdicate exactly but simply withdrew from the affairs of state' which meant the same thing. He tried to regain the crown of Hungary twice but failed. I love all of your videos! Thanks again. This one is a favorite subject of mine as well.
That moldavian bussy got me questioning my loyalty to the emperor
what
Oh no... not the bussy! Anything but bussy!!!
@@dj-no Boipussy
😳
all peoples did badly with this Masonic peace .... all nations ....100 years have passed ..
As a Hungarian it's interesting to hear how people from other countries learned this. There were some things that we didn't learn the same.
I’m Polish-American and I always hated about how we didn’t learn about Poland and Hungary (not Hungarian but we had vizslas when I was growing up) until WWI, as if these countries didn’t exist as we learned about Britain, France, Germany and Spain. I remember asking my 9th grade history teacher about Poland. “Oh, yeah. Poland was powerful in the 1500s.” “Um, so why didn’t we learn about them when we were learning about the 1500s?” So I had to do the learning on my own after that, eventually went in to get a bachelors degree in history. And now I’m very popular among friends and family for having to explain current events in early 2022 to them.
I do speak some Hungarian and have friends in Hungary. If you know of a good video in magyar about Hungarian history, I would love to watch it to help keep up on the language
@@michiganscythian2445 Lengyel Magyar két jó barát együtt harcol s issza borát! Congrats to your history degree. The more you know about other cultures the more you know about the world. As for videos just type into utube search “Magyar történelmi videók” and you should find a number of them. Kind regards from Hungary
🇭🇺🤝🇵🇱
Glad you covered the Austro-Hungarian Empire because its always treated as a footnote in history.
As an objective Hungarian I do find it pretty significant the lack of criticism against Germanization and Magyarization in the two parts of the empire. It was overall s well documented video, but the loyalty of the minority populations was largely lost with these forceful processes of German and Hungarian nationalism. The federalization should have began much more earlier and then maybe we would have another Switzerland in Central Europe
Exactly, if they created some sort of United States of Europe with each ethnically homogeneous region forming one of those states, it could have been still around. As the EU proves, nations do not have a problem with willingly giving some of their sovereignty away if it benefits them but Austrians and Hungarians in the AH made the every bad decision they could have and pushed various Slavic nations, Italians and Romanians to position when anything but AH was a better option.
You are right.
I think the only main problem the Empire had was that its military kept on fighting external wars it could not win. And could not win because it did not have enough factories because the Hungarian part did not industrialize whereas the Austrian part did. Thus the problem was BOTH the loss of the size of the Army and the lack of comparable technology compared to the German Empire.
Magyarization was for all intents and purposes the most mild-mannered assimilationist practice of the 19th and 20th centuries. Given another 20 years and the population would have identified as Hungarians (it was 55% in 1914 and the rate of adoption was growing, having hit 10% per every 10 years). The French underwent much more extreme policies to unify their country, nevermind the far more extreme reprisals faced by Hungarians in the successor states of Czechoslovakia and Romania, and even Ukraine/USSR in which people's households were taken from them and they were sent to work camps for being Hungarian.
Magyarization is a massively overstated myth used to justify expansionism in the Kingdom of Hungary and the "need to protect" minorities not dissimilar to the reasoning employed by Russia today. Romania wanted Transylvania because it was significantly richer and more developed than the rest of the country (it still is). Slovakia without the majority Hungarian areas is seriously so small that it could not be considered a state and it was purely agrarian with no cities in it as those were already filled with Hungarian, Germans, and Jews, nevermind the fact that they wouldn't have had the capital city (Pozsony - Bratislava) which was where the Hungarian Parliament met.
Canadian residential schools were far more extreme. American segregation too. Nevermind what Brits did to the Boer, or what Belgium did in the Congo, or what Russia did to Jews at the time, or even what Italians wanted to do to Croats living in Istria and Trieste.
@Gábor Banciu na ki almodozik itt:DDDD
This is gonna be a treat, or multiple treats forming an incoherent, whole treat.
In Croatia, older people spoke mostly positively about Austro-Hungary. Life was relatively good at that time, a lot was being built at that time. Today, there is a lot of architecture from the time of Austro-Hungary in Croatia. Most of the objections were to the imposition of foreign languages, ie the neglect of the Croatian language.
But small nations in history have almost always been under someone’s domination. But when you compare all those forces that had power and influence in this area from the Venetians, Hungarians, Turks, Italy, Yugoslavia, to today's EU, we can say that Austria-Hungary was the most successful in its time and least hated by ordinary people.
We have the opinion that Austria-Hungary lost the war and failed when Russia intervened in the First World War. This is not mentioned at all in this video.
If you are a Croat, would you rather live in a newly reborn democratized empire or an independent Croatia?
@@benshiotsu8553 Croatia is not independent, our bosses are sitting in Brussels and Washington, and the Croatian government is made up of criminals. More than half of the current government's ministers have fallen because of crime and corruption. Last Saturday, another Croatian minister, Horvat, ended up in prison. All in all, the Croatian state is hard shit!😁
@@benshiotsu8553 slovak here:
OMFG pls austria, take us back!
Seriously tho, none of the successor nations proved to be fit at all for independence and Vienna was able to administer this black hole into a golden age. I'd give another try.
At 17:37 you mentioned the “Romanian Region of Istria” sir, Istria is a region in CROATIA.
I feel like Slovenes and Croats wants to be closer to us in the Germanic world and not the Slavic.
Half an hour well spent It's was one great mess, and very complicated And you did a full on job explaining the situation Well done
I mean, Austria didn't exactly "decide" to go to war with Prussia in 1866. War was declared on them by Prussia.
In 1864, Austria and Prussia successfully defeated Denmark in a 9 month war, and Austria was given control over Holstein (a small region in that neck area where the border of what's now Germany and Denmark is). But about a year and a half later, Prussia correctly guessed that (with some help from Risorgimento Italy) they could easily defeat Austria's military, so they claimed that a certain law Austria passed in Holstein violated the treaty ending the 1864 war; Prussia used that as justification to seize Holstein and to declare war on Austria. The war only lasted about a month.
History-Scope makes only jokes in his video. Everyone knows, that the monarchy was best for all ethnics in the monarchy with a good law and right system in comparison to other nations. The k&k empire had only problems with the lag of a real communication language, shame on latin. So education, military and justice had problems to work without massive efforts.
@Milan Kraguljac Ja
So many false information and false conclusions in this video. Joke.
Good point. Should have worded that very differently.
@@HistoryScope Also Austria didn't choose to go to war with France and Italy in 1859 either.
These types of much more theoretical historical videos are by far my favorite, and they very much remind me of Kraut's videos, especially with the distinctive art style. The fact is that you really can't cram a whole country's history into just 30 minutes, so explaining the much bigger picture first of all lets you convey that country's history without being bogged down in minor historical events, and to be honest might be even clearer that a long, in-depth look at every facet of that country, that would also probably attract less people. I feel that this sort of history is quite lacking both in educational youtube and in schools. Of course you should study the in-depth histories of countries, don't get me wrong, but especially for a wide audience that understandably wouldn't want to pick up a book or watch dozens of hours of lectures about Austrian history, I think this format is much better than just skimming over the Wikipedia article in half an hour.
@@PakBallandSami why do I always see you in comment sections? You and Avery the Cuban-American
all peoples did badly with this Masonic peace .... all nations ....100 years have passed ..
The Habsburg Monarchy refers to the various states and territories ruled by the House of Habsburg, which was one of the most influential dynasties in European history.
There are a few mistakes.
#1 serfs didn't give all they had to the nobility, and were far form slaves. Serfs gave about 1/10 to nobel whose land it was and about 1/9 to the church , so much less then required by today's taxes in the same area.
#2 special position of Croatia within the monarchy was enjoyed because Hungarian crown that joined with Austria was a personal union of Hungary and Croatia, so each emperor had to be crowned emperor of Austria but separately king of Hungary and King of Croatia.
also the communist revolution in russia happened in 1917 not 1817
I was thinking the same, I hate when they aren't rigorous enough to give a proper explanation for the concepts that are presented so they just make poor analogies, I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who thought that.
The narrator completely ignored Czechia, the most developed part of Austria-Hungary.
@@dalimilmatousek4074 maybe it wasn't too important to the game of thrones.
Hmm then why Czechia-slovakia and hungary got independence 1918 and croatia not???
Smells like some nationalist croat play with your brain very very hard.
As an Austrian this puts a tear in my eye.
As a Hungarian this puts tear in my eye also
The Habsburgs often utilized repressive measures to maintain control over their diverse subjects, including censorship, secret police, and military interventions. This repression was particularly evident during nationalist uprisings, such as the 1848 revolutions.
This is why I love History Scope. He explains things in incredible Depth. But at the same time keeping easy to understand. Love ya work mate!
if this is in depth analysis, i’m mickey mouse…
Imperial Germany without Alsace-Lorraine looks weird. That's not the first time you show pre-WW1 Germany without it.
Also talking about possible ethnic conflict in early Czechoslovakia between Czechs and Slovaks and not mentioning its 2nd largest ethnic group is quite strange.
Or the fact, that south Slovakia wanted to stay by Austria.
i think he showed it because he was talking about the Unification of all those small german nations and alsace-lorraine wasn't really a german nation. it was annexed later on from France. (Idk why, i think because of the napoleonic wars or because of the ethnic germans living there back then)
@@julian-0712 it was and still is a german nation. Elsass, not Lothringen.
Yes, you're right. The second largest ethnic group in interwar Czechoslovakia were the Germans, not the Slovaks.
The Habsburgs ruled various regions at different times, including modern Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, parts of Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and many others.
They controlled vast territories through a combination of inheritance, conquest, and diplomacy, which made the Habsburgs one of the largest political entities in European history.
My parents are Hungarian and thus so am I even though I was born in Oradea/Nagyvárad, Romaniawity mixed ancestry. It’s interesting to learn about this!
all peoples did badly with this Masonic peace .... all nations ....100 years have passed ..
My great grandmother was born in the empire she was from South tyroll its interesting how they still speak german
Yes I have been looking forward to this! Worth the wait, great video!
Ironic how The Austrian - Hungary and the Ottoman Empire fought each other during centuries and the only time they fougth together, both disappeared
Thanks for the background information. All of my grandparents emigrated to America from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire: Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Bohemia. In at least three of the cases, they were sent over by their families to live with relatives because their families could not afford to keep them or could not offer them any sort of prospects for a future.
Lucky you, or not? Anyway, you're always welcome in your lands of ancestry. =')
@@ancientbohemian I moved back to Europe in 1988 and have been living here ever since.
@@Ralphieboy Nice, so you've seen a lot. A lot of important history in the making. Important for being able to understand the motivations and social, cultural, political and personal values of contemporary Europeans.
@@Ralphieboy I wonder how do you feel when you hear typical Americans talk about Central/Eastern Europe these days... News anchors, journalists, podcasters, even academics. Because I feel that 90% of them is pretty much absolutely missing the point... In all questions.
@@ancientbohemian Many Americans have almost no frame of reference or sense of history, so yes, most of what they talk about is superficial, misleading or complete bullshit.
5:35 Weird how Germany is seen here with their Eastern territories, but the UK here doesn’t include Ireland.
UK is not a real nation. English Irish Scottish these are real nations...
Hey man, I noticed your patreon is quite humble for such quality videos. I've seen so many stupid channels with so much support and I wish creators like you who are not only informative and educational but also very entertaining.
Nice to see a new video, especially about a relatively forgotten piece of the 20th century! Keep up the good work man!
all peoples did badly with this Masonic peace .... all nations ....100 years have passed ..
Your comical and period appropriate background music separates this channel from other history channels😂👏
My favorite inbred empire alongside the Confederacy. Seriously though, Austria-Hungary is constantly overlooked by other European countries.
Probably because the Habsburgs were great at breeding but generally pretty lousy at warfare.
@@TheDarthbinky Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube!
My favorite inbred country is Saudi Arabia.
@@TheDarthbinky I mean after the Napoleonic wars I'd agree but before then the Habsburg Monarchy was a pretty big powerhouse, wars with the Ottomans, French (sometimes both at the same time) all the while trying to manage their shitshow in the HRE.
Germany's involvement in wars, such as the World Wars, can be attributed to a complex interplay of historical, political, and economic factors rather than an inherent tendency toward violence. For example, World War I was influenced by alliances, nationalism, and imperialism, while World War II was marked by the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime, which propagated extreme nationalist and racist ideologies.
What you got wrong was the reason for the wars in 1859 and 1866. They weren't territorial expansion, but territorial integrity, as Austria felt itself threatened by outside forces
Love the profile picture ❤
World War I was influenced by alliances, nationalism, and imperialism
So good video! Had known for so long about the AH Empire yet little did I know about it. Thanks for all the clear explanations and animations
just finished all of your videos, pretty good. looking forward for more
New video will probably be out by the end of February or beginning of March
I think the you meant the Russian Revolution was in 1917, not 1817. Great video though!
Interesting video. Just as a sidenote at 17:34, Istria is not a region of Romania. Istria is a croatian region. Interestingly though there is a istro-romanian dialect that is spoken in the peninsula.
Well done, again! Always interesting and well made!
29:08
That is objectively untrue. It was not peaceful anywhere. Hungary waged war against Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia when they invaded. And even the annexation of Burgenland wasn't that peaceful, since many locals took up arms against the Austrian soldiers.
I think he means from the central power in the empire, once the empire fell apart after ww1 every part tried to grab as much land as they could.
@پیاده نظام خان Actually, Hungary was invaded by them first, Hungary just tried to reconquer the occupied territories.
@پیاده نظام خان No. Hungary had certain territories for hundreds of years at that point, which were occupied by neighbouring states, that's what Hungary tried to get back.
@@liltinglullaby3282 well that is a problem if you claim half of Czechoslovakia. From your point of view you are defending and they are invading, from their point of view they are defending and you are invading. Borders could have been sorted peacefully, you give us that village with more Slovaks in it, we give you that village with more Hungarians with it and where it doesn't make geographical sense, we swap people and whoever gets more land will compensate those who got less in cash.... but Hungarians though they could take it all without any barter, gambled and lost.
@@lamebubblesflysohigh
That's incorrect. Czechoslovakia was a country that was created by taking territory from Austria and Hungary. They had no external territory that could've been invaded by Hungary.
Hi well thanks for including in my history
Danubian federation could have been great
It should be even now as an alternative EU.
Danube-Adria Union
Agree, "United States of Danube" would have been great, instead greedy people in all of the Austro-Hungarian empire paid the price when Russia rolled right in very easily after WWII...and formed USSR - remember that! Also the narrator did not mention too much about the many various Religious groups.
"This is just slavery with extra steps."
Eeek Barbadurkle someone's gonna get laid in college.
I'm not going back to college xD
I am Croat, in primary school in 7th grade (2001) we had 3/4 of history classes filled with this thematic. Interesting one. Especially Khuen Hedervary and Hungarization process! Hungarians were big deal back in that age and Austria was simply dying slowly, while Hungary tried to feed on breadcrumbs. At least this was what we where learned in Croatia back then. Interesting topic that deserves more focus. Well done for this! Keep up the good work. All the best
all peoples did badly with this Masonic peace .... all nations ....100 years have passed ..
this video is jaw droppingly good
The Austro-Hungarian Empire never "rose". It came out as a consequence of the defeat against Prussia in 1866.
From the book published by Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War , Macmillan Education, New York, 1991:
(pages 24 - 26)
Cool!
Austria-Hungary has always been interesting.
So learned a ton thx
Excellent job once again 👏👏
Can you please make a video about the Holy Roman empire?
For us Slovaks fall of A-H Empire was a blessing. In the years 1874-1892, Slovak children without parents were resettled in "purely Hungarian districts". Only in the years 1887 and 1888, the (Hornouhorský) Hungarian Educational Association - FEMKE resettled approximately 500 Slovak orphans. The Hungarian (Magyar !!!) authorities constantly put pressure on all non-Hungarians to Hungarianize their names. The ease with which this could be done gave rise to the nickname Crown Hungarians.
As a Hungarian, I approve this video. Thanks!
Just fascinating. The Austrian-Hungarian empire has always fascinated me but now I know much more.
"Serfdom is basically slavery with extra steps" nice Rick and Morty reference!
Source: Gabor Vermes, "The October Revolution in Hungary: from Karolyi to Kun", in Ivan Volgyes (editor), "Hungary in Revolution. 1918-19. Nine Essays", Univ. of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1971, page 47.
"The basic problem in Hungary was that less than half of the population were ethnically Hungarian. After the Ausgleich the Hungarians made at least one attempt to solve the cultural problem involved in the situation with the nationality law of 1868. The intent of this law was to arrange for a compromise between the non-Magyar nationalities and the Hungarians. The fact was, however, that the nationalities demanded more than cultural nationalism. They were in the process of establishing ties with their co-nationals - the Rumanians, Serbians, Czechs - living outside the monarchy or in the Austrian half, and were working for political independence. Moreover, the nationality law was seldom observed in Hungary; the rights of the nationalities were violated continuously by the Hungarian government. Their schools were closed and confiscated; their protests were suppressed by the police; their leaders were jailed for long periods of time. Hungarian propagandists spoke of a country of thirty million Hungarians, and of the sacred right of Hungary to “ Magyarize ” its nationalities."
Source: Joseph Held, "The Heritage of the Past: Hungary before World War I", in Ivan Volgyes (editor), "HUNGARY IN REVOLUTION. 1918-19. Nine Essays", University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1971, pages 6-7.
Source: Geoffrey Wawro, "A Mad Catastrophe. The Outbreak Of World War I And The Collapse Of The Habsburg Empire", Basic Books, New York, 2014, page 63.
Source: A. J. P. Taylor, "The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809-1918 : A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary", Hamish Hamilton, London, 1948, page 186.
Source: Myra A. Waterbury, "Between State and Nation Diaspora Politics and Kin-state Nationalism in Hungary", Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2010, page 29-30.
Best comment ever; it conterbalances the delusions of the Hungarians that still dream with their colonialist/imperialistic past.
Brilliant comment. Explains what really took place in Magyar A-H.
@@estefanunscripted6607 Thanks! All the praise goes to the historians and researchers that I quoted :)
Thank for these historical proofs for what the nationalities in the hungarian kingdom had to endure for centuries. In Transylvania the Magyars forcibly magyarized a vast part if the population, especially those Hungary comes today to claim they are Magyars and so Hungarians pretend separation and autonomy in Transylvania just because Budapest says so. Such an imperialist nation still that does not know their own real past, such proud people, maybe too proud considering that magyars no longer exist. They disappeared from history..
It's important to approach discussions about cultural temperament and historical influences with care and sensitivity. East European and Balkan cultures have been shaped by a complex interplay of historical events, including wars, governance, migration, and the influence of various empires, including the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, as well as Nazi Germany during World War II.
The suggestion that German rule specifically contributed to a choleric temperament in the Balkans simplifies a much more nuanced historical reality. While external governance can affect societal behaviors and norms, temperament is influenced by a multitude of factors, including geography, social structures, economic conditions, and historical experiences.
Additionally, comparing the temperament of cultures can be problematic and may lead to stereotypes. Chinese culture, for example, is also diverse and complex, rooted in thousands of years of history with its own distinct experiences, philosophies, and social structures.
Instead of making broad generalizations based on historical governance or cultural comparisons, it's crucial to engage with cultures on their own terms, recognizing the individual and collective experiences that shape their identities. Each culture has its own unique strengths, expressions, and forms of social interaction that contribute to its character.
Excellent video. Thank you. I have been fascinated with the Austrian/A-H Empire for many years. I still think a federation would have been a better idea.
Good choice for background music. Good job, cousin
From the book of C. A. Macartney, The Habsburg Empire, 1790 - 1918 , Faber&Faber, London, 2014:
Thank you for this clarification. My great grandparents immigrated from the austro Hungarian empire. There is so much info to go through when researching their lives.
A tragic masterpiece… set to a Waltz. Bravo!
This was incredible work Avery. I would love to hear someone try and refute your arguments, because imo they are rock solid. I learned a good deal here.
It is a very detailed video, BUT in many questions/details you are on a wrong footing IMO. Those are too neumerous to list - but the 2 main issues I would highlight - when the Empire was reformed into the A-H Empire - the Austrians basically dumped off nationalistic/ethnic questions to regional level - for example the hungarian part had to deal with its ethnicities in their own bracket (so simply the Austrians kept playing off the ethnicities against each other, partially without responsibility), another major issue was, that although there many mixed areas, most of the ethnicities was living in large blocks, so it was relatively easy to make those parts independent (ofc the largest group, the Hungarians in the center suffered the most, suffering from it till today), 3rd major issue - most nationalities (save the slovask and czechs) have their own independent countries already, so the deam of a nation state was prevalent. Comparing the A-H E. is other multi-ethnic states like the USA is actually pretty bad - you could never say that for example Georgia is all black, New Mexico is all mexican, etc. ...all-in-all a nice effort, but not really a successful one, IMO ... Greetings from Hungary! (1 last thought, IMO the Empire would have fallen eventually any way, but without WW1 there probably woudnt have been a WW2, which devastated the region, put most part under communist control, the effects are still felt today ... and all those live lost in vain)
You have a very hungarian point of view. The AH Empire completely fails because of the the internal factors, one of which, btw, is the narrow minded ruling class of Hungary, which after gaining autonomy from Austria refused to give the very same rights to the minorities within their kingdom and on the contrary wanted to impose their language on the other nationalities.
@@froglifes6829 - I do not have that view. I wrote that the Austrians dumped off ethnic questions to regional/provincial level AND right, in the Kingdom of Hungary the mostly hungarian elite failed to address it. And we payed the price, but ultimately the whole region payed a price in the 20th century, partially even today ... as I said no WW1 = probably no WW2, no Soviet Union, no communism, etc. and probably lot less victims in the end ...
@@froglifes6829 You say that as if Hungary had no right to rule its own land. Multi ethnic countries throughout history and to this day still do the kinds of forced integration that Hungary tried.
@@victory7999 However this was in comparison to the devolution to local autonomy the Austrians were practicing. It's not like the Austrians didn't do the same thing, but the irony here is that Hungary did the same integration as Austria when Hungary was a product of the devolution.
@@csabakis4214 You fail to mention that Hungary mishandled the ethnic minority management too. Rather than promote a form of national conciliation and dialogue, giving freedom of administration, education and rights to all nations, Hungary opted for assimilation policies. While at the beginning, the liberal government of Hungary wanted a Hungarian political union composed of people of various ethnic origins, this quickly shifted to a one-nation state. And that is when Hungary failed. Blaming Austria for taking advantage of ethnic dissensions within Hungary, most of which was created by Hungarian politicians is stupid. You played a big part in the downfall of your country.
I love that when animating protests you and you team always just say “convincing message” it gets me every time
"From the book Racial Problems in Hungary, by Robert William Seton-Watson, Archibald Constable &Co., Ltd, London, 1908:
Well, we're really splitting hairs with the identification of "Austro-Hungarian Empire" being a recently conceived terminology, considering that the Hungarian Kingdom and Hungarians had been part of the "Austrian Empire" for quite some time.
13 minutes ago and only 620 views? Your channel is really underrated.
0:59 very interesting face choice
28:05 I couldn't believe my ears when I heard the music starting up. The soundtrack to Mel Brooks' Twelve Chairs is so criminally underrated and underappreciated.
Ppl stating certain (correct) facts not mentioned in this video are ignoring the time constraints and the amount of simplification needed in videos like this. All in all this is a decent explanation of how the old Osterreich broke apart. And yes, before anyone starts typing, I know 'Osterreich' is the name of present day Austria.
Great vide. This is the best video on UA-cam about this subject
Croatia was the only one to have parliament along with Hungarians and Austrians. Others had parliaments?
Maybe small regional parliaments like cities with the majority of the people live there but only control that city and villages around it .
No, Croatia was not the only one that had a Parliament in the Ausro-Hungarian Empire. The Principality of Transylvania, which reunited with Romania on December 1st 1919, surface +102,000 sq km, had its own Parliament in Cluj/Klausenburg. The Principality's Assembly was called Transylvanian Diet. Thank you for this great video, an enlightening lesson of history.
@@sebastianmartinescu1987 Thanks for the info.
@@kroatocentrik2669 Wauu. Croatia had parlament. What a succes...
@@sebastianmartinescu1987 Transylvania had a diet in the Austrian Empire, not the Austro-Hungarian one. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was formed in 1867 with the Austrian-Hungarian settlement act that included the union of Transylvania and Hungary, thus disbanding the Transylvanian Diet.
Plus Transylvania was united with Romania, not reunited as it had never been part of a Romanian state before that. Calling Dacia a Romanian state is pretty far-fetched and Michael the Brave's brief rule was only a personal union, not a real one (same as Croatia and Hungary, Croatia formally was never part of Hungary).
This was very interesting, thanks for this!
[1,178]
Great video
Thanks for the heart
I descend from Danube-Swabians from the Banat, now Romania. I was hoping for a bit on the German directive to transplant Germans throughout the region and what happened to these people after WWI and their disappearance after WWII. my family left for the U.S. in 1903 but always identified as German. my Great grandmother who was born in Biled, said she never heard from family again after 1945.
Also both Hungarians and Germans from transylvania and Banat were deported out after ww1 closer to the southern Hungarian border, and large communities still live there. (Most people tried to emigrate or go to the west.) This happened to my great grandparents and they also wanted to emigrate to the USA but they decided to stay in Hungary because my great grandma was pregnant with twins(they had flee their house and on the road she gave birth.). So in the aftermath they lived in area full of swabische and mixed villages. and I grow up in the same region and can see how their cultures influenced eachother in a peaceful way. /traditions, words, food, religion, architecture./
History Matters make history lessons funny.
History Scope add depth to history lessons.
Btw both are my fav.
Love from India ❤️
History Scope makes it funny too.
@@anthonygilford3097 of course
From the book of John R. Schindler, Fall of the Double Eagle - The Battle for Galicia and the Demise of Austria-Hungary , University of Nebraska Press, 2015:
(pages 25-26)
A lot of Croatia's beautiful architecture came from this period.
scrolled for 15 minutes looking for some type of history video to spark my dopamine. All of them looked lame until I found this! Thank you!
Oh heck yes, more History Scope!
Love the video! Great history!
Love the vampire cartoon for what I assume is Romania. Cheers and happy Halloween
Thank you so much for your work
I'm watching this as I'm reforming the Austro-Hungarian empire in HOI4
Excellent vid! Love learning about an interesting empire like this one
all peoples did badly with this Masonic peace .... all nations ....100 years have passed ..
After the introduction I thought, finally, somebody tells the story in a bit more depth! But, while I appreciate the effort that went into the creation of this video, it ended up being superficial and factually wrong on several points (which have already been pointed out in the comments.) For example at the end, we were made to feel as if the empire just peacefully fell apart, along ethnic or old historic lines. Really?! How can you tell the story of the breakup without talking about the Treaty of Trianon?
Also, it would've put things into context a bit better with some explanation about how the union of the two leading powers within the union came about and why there were so many ethnic groups and why they were mixed up so much.
Of course, people from the region may have their differing views on the details but overall, it was a disappointing effort and I'm afraid that people who only learnt the story from here, they will think they now know what happened but they really don't. Many main points are more or less correct but too many details are simply wrong. Sorry! :-(
This was super informative . Thank you
Man, the rise and fall of the Austria-Hungarian Empire is both magnificent and sad.
Interesting..thank your for producing. I am half-Austrian and realise I know very little history about Austria
It makes me giggle every time I read or hear "Austrian Empire" or "Austro-Hungarian Empire". Poor old glory-wannabes in eastern Europe. Spain, France, the UK and Russia had empires: territories that span over millions of km and several continents. Then you have these self proclaimed donuts, who's landlocked "empire" without colonies wasn't bigger than today's Ukraine. But eh.. they called it empire and they still cry over it.
AHHHHH the Straus and Brahms as the first two musical backgrounds. U would have earned my subscribe even though i were blind
3:41 Im pretty sure the colors for prussian allies and prussian annexed territory should be swapped.
As for example Hanover was on Austria's side and was subsequently annexed by prussia, while Oldenburg or Mecklenburg remained (partially) sovereign until the Nazis came around
small correction, in 1918 Besserabia was already a part of Romania
Great video, as always, but there are just one or two things that I kinda questioning
firstly, Germanization and Hungarization which absent in your video. But, pinned comment already mention that so I let it pass
second, about the autonomy of ethnic groups. what I get is kinda contradictive, in the "rise of empire" part you say the autonomy given to Hungary was a success and bring more stability to AH, but in the last part autonomy is one of main causes for the collapse of AH. I think because this is different from "autonomy" in modern terms which is more synonymous to state autonomy in the USA and Scots autonomy under UK rather than AH autonomy. The autonomy given to Hungary was complete autonomy, as they can have their own military, diplomatic relation, a parliament that was independent of that of the Austrian half, and law that was completely independent without national restriction. While in state terms (also including Scotland for the UK) they can have their own parliament, constitution, language, etc like AH BUT they cannot have their own military (only gendarmerie class), their own diplomatic relation, their parliament is subject to national (not by one constituent state) parliament (like new york HR and S is subordinate to HR and S of USA), and national (or federal) law which restricts and above state law. in modern parliament and political sense, A and H in AH is more like two country glue together without any cohesion and completely independent of each other, and because the legislation must pass the two parliaments, this will ensure the passage of bill WILL always never got pass.
third, about the parliaments themselves. AH (especially the Hungarian half) parliaments are described in Encyclopedia Britannica as "the most illiberal in the world" (which said a lot as there were more illiberal states that barely have constitution like Russian and Ottoman at that time). the parliament didn't have any representation for, not just the serf population, but also the working class. the middle class (which drives the country economy) only gets 6%-ish of the parliaments reps. This is also one of the reasons why AH got a constitution in the first place because bankers and the middle class refuse to finance any war unless they got a constitution and reps in parliament. this is bad because the parliament is functionally dependent on nobility and aristocracy which is too conservative and refuses to change anything, which angers the middle class, which stops the economy, which angers the working class, which stops the nation completely. This is why famine happens in late WWI and made AH susceptible to nationalism and separatism.
forth, about the entente conspiracy. while yes it is one of the causes, I don't think it is one of the "main" causes of AH collapse. because it is an outside factor and only played as the WWI got too late-stage. Like the pinned comment had said, it's after the late stage of the war they considered it.
and that's all, I'm sorry if my comment is too long and/or my english is broken. and I said it again, this is a great video.
and also, bonus question. for some reason (you got hit by truck-kun maybe? idk) tomorrow you wake up as Emperor Franz Joseph before the creation of Austro Hungarian Empire, what would you do to save (or destroy?) your empire and ultimately yourself? I am really curious about what others might do in this kind of situation. (and because this is the staple to "isekai" genre in Japanese manga)
Maybe i didn't understand your comment correct, but Hungaries autonomy did not include their own military or their own diplomatic relations.
3 things that were not split but only done together for the whole empire were the army, the foreign ministry and the finance ministry.
What the hungarians got in the army were their own dress uniforms, for their troop bodies that carried traditional hungarian names.
@@nirfz Well, it is quite complicated. if you see the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of1867, you can see contradicting points like common foreign minister but also "international commercial treaties and agreements were conducted by Austria and Hungary as an independent nation". This compromise is the foundation of dual monarchy and of AH itself, so we can take a look at it.
for the military, "Royal Hungarian Hovend was restored and Imperial-Royal Landwehr was created ... which were respectively placed under the direct control of Austrian and Hungarian Defense Minister only" this is different from the national guard of state in USA because Hovend and Landwehr were established standing army that only subordinate to Hungary or Austria without central command and "The common army and common minister of defense has no right to command Hovend and Landwehr". for the common army as you said, they have different uniform, battalion, names, and if the Hungarian proposal was successful, language and command. Fortunately, the proposal was shut down, but you can see the extent of AH autonomy in it, as A and H have different views on how the army should function.
for diplomatic relations, as I said before, although they had a common foreign minister, diplomatic regarding trade and commerce is independent. The parliament also had a lot of sway in diplomatic relations, as they can even reject emperor proposals like the Hungarian parliament rejection to support emperor Franz's proposal to ally with France during the Franco-Prussian war. If only this proposal pass, the german empire maybe wasn't formed, or at very least, been postponed for years.
for finance, the compromise also points out "they (A and H) were fiscally sovereign and independent entities"
and that's it. sorry if I'm pointing something wrong and/or my English is not good enough. I am using a Wikipedia list of the compromise, so you can check it out if you want to see it more.
@@fr.majoris7925 I haven't found anything about the diplomatic stuff that was supposed to be not handled by the common ministery. (But that doesn't automatically mean you are wrong) The thing with the Hoved on the other hand is a bit more complicated i think than the english wiki page states. Yes, it was not part of the army, and under it's own minister of defense. And it was not under the common ministry of war. But the Honved and the Landwehr were smaller bodies than the army, and only consisted of infantery and cavallry.
And yet their supreme commander during peace time was Franz Joseph. As the supreme commander of all armed forces. And in wartime this command was given to a high ranking experienced officer. So they were only "not part of the common armed forces for land warfare" during peacetime.
@@fr.majoris7925 Wikipédia - hahaha
Thank you very much for this great video. I learned a lot!
From the study of Gabor Vermes, "Hungarian politics and society on the eve of the revolution, published in the volume edited by Peter Pastor, Revolutions and interventions in Hungary and its neighboring states, 1918-1919 , Columbia University Press, New York, 1988:
(page 108)
Très intéressant reportage, merci, Danke !
Please make a video about the iranian Revolution
maybe
25:49 this plan was the best idea for me as a Slovene.
Amazing Video! It would've been interesting to see a Danube Federation, but there is the reason, no Austrian likes the French or Brits ;)
Great video again can't wait for more!
Two thing about the start, even if de iure Austrian Empire declared war both on Piedmont-Sardinia and Prussia, de facto they provoked both wars intentionally, not Austria