Austro-Hungarian Empire

(Today: Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, part of Serbia, part of Romania, Trieste, part of Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic)

Apart from having a common ruler in the Habsburg emperor, a position held by Franz Joseph (ruled 1848 – 1916), common affairs of Austria and Hungary were foreign affairs, the military, and finances. Looking to the French as a role model, the Hungarian elite wanted to create a national state from the lands of the crown of Saint Stephen, with only one “political nation” – the Hungarian nation. However, unlike France, Hungary was not a sovereign state, potential “political Hungarians” had languages vastly different from Hungarian, and nationalist movements of their own were well under way in all of them (Croats, Slovaks, Romanians, Serbs, Rusyns). In fact, Hungarian nationalism was the main drive for them.

The Habsburgs, unlike monarchs who acknowledged a certain national identification, did not impose Austrian nationalism. They did not want the Empire to have one large nation that could maybe topple the emperor, like in France. Even when one gets the impression that they encouraged the policy of Germanization, their steps were guided by wishes for a singular universal Empire. Since they couldn’t stop the creation of national movements in the second half of the 19^th century, Vienna allowed cultural nationalism, i.e. the building of national identity through literature, poetry, visual arts, education, writing of national history, sports societies (Sokol), etc.