The Austro-Hungarian Empire, officially known as the "Kingdom and Royal Territory represented by the Imperial Parliament and the Crown of St. Stephen of Hungary", was a dual empire (two different kingdoms with a common monarch and army, and were one subject in foreign relations, but the two countries were independent in internal affairs, each with its own constitution, parliament and government). In 1867, in order to prevent Hungary's independence, the Austrian Empire signed the "Austria-Hungary Compromise Plan" with the Hungarian government, formally forming the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Hungary gained a high degree of autonomy, but the Austrian monarch remained king of Hungary until the dissolution of 1918.
Before 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was one of the five traditional european powers and one of the world's great powers at that time. At that time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had an area of about 680,000 square kilometers, ranking second in Europe, second only to Russia; the number of people, ranking third in Europe, second only to Russia and Germany; the number of troops, ranking fourth in Europe, second only to Russia, Germany and France; the military industry, ranking fourth in the world, only in Germany, Britain and the United States, of which the heavy artillery weapons produced by the Skoda Arsenal ranked first in the world.
It was such a powerful European power that it eventually fell into the fate of disintegration in 1918, and all this stemmed from the global war, the First World War in 1914.
The First World War, to put it bluntly, was a war between emerging powers such as Germany and Austria-Hungary and old powers such as Britain and France for control of the world and colonies. At that time, when Germany and Austria-Hungary arose, the world had long been divided up by the old powers such as Britain and France, and Britain was the most powerful colonial empire in the world at that time, with vast colonies all over the world, and the land occupied was rich; the area and richness of the French colonies were second only to Britain. In comparison, although Germany, as a rising star, also occupied some colonies, it could not be compared with Britain and France in terms of quantity or quality, and even inferior to the small European country of Belgium.
It should be known that since the unification of Germany in 1870, its strength has grown rapidly, ranking first in Europe and second in the world, and in a very short period of time, it has become a European power only in Britain and France. However, as a European power, Germany does not have a vast colonial market and raw material production areas, while Britain and France, which have some sunset strength, have a very broad colonial market and raw material production areas, which makes Germany very unhappy.
As a result, the new powers such as Germany and Austria should realize that the colonies of the world should be redistributed, and the old powers such as Britain and France should no longer occupy colonies that are inconsistent with their strength. As a result, conflicts between the old and new powers inevitably broke out.
Of course, the new powers such as Germany and Austria-Hungary were not stupid, and Although Britain and France declined, they were generally on par with them, and even in some respects such as the navy was stronger than them, so they did not really want to directly use force to directly rob the colonies they occupied from their hands, but set their sights on the areas that had not yet fallen into the colonies of the old European powers.
At that time, Germany and Austria set their sights on the declining Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire, the only Islamic state to challenge European countries in the 15th and 19th centuries, at its peak spanned three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, encompassing most of the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East and North Africa, reaching the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf in the east, Austria and Slovenia in the north, and present-day Sudan and Yemen in the south. In the 19th century, while Germany was booming, the Ottoman Empire was in decline, and Germany and Austria set their sights on it.
However, for the Ottoman Empire, the old powers such as Britain and France also had ideas, because the geostrategic position of the Ottoman Empire was really too important, especially in the Balkan Peninsula, where Russia wanted to occupy the passage to the south of the Mediterranean; the Austrian Empire wanted to occupy this road that opened the way to southward expansion; and Britain and Law wanted to occupy this lifeline that protected communication to the Indian Ocean and the Far East. Therefore, As for the idea that Germany and Austria wanted to take the Ottoman for themselves, Britain, France and Russia naturally did not agree.
In this way, the Ottoman Empire became the first battleground in the conflict between the new and established powers, where the two factions came to head-to-head.
At first, Germany and Austria and Britain and France were relatively calm, and the two factions were still mainly negotiating, hoping to jointly occupy the Ottoman Empire through cooperative relations. However, it was clear that Britain and France would not allow Germany the opportunity to grow in strength, so in the end Germany and Austria and Britain and France completely turned their faces, and the two factions were monopolizing the Ottomans, which was painstaking. First, the British preemptively allied themselves with Arab tribes on the ottoman fringes and armed them to secure their superiority in the Persian Gulf strip. Germany, on the other hand, sent military and industrial advisers directly into the Ottomans, hoping to gain direct control of the Ottoman Empire.
With German support, austria-Hungary also infiltrated its own forces into the already coveted Balkans. At that time, Austria-Hungary's move caused strong dissatisfaction from the Serbian state located in the landlocked Balkans, as the iron rod of Tsarist Russia in the Balkans, with the support of Tsarist Russia, Serbia had long had the intention of expansion and had always wanted to dominate the Balkan region. As a result, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's strong entry into the Balkans made Serbia a thorn in the face, and its domestic careerists, under the influence of Tsarist Russia, had always wanted to drive it out of the Balkans by force.
Finally, on June 28, 1914, the trigger of World War I, the Sosarajevo Incident, broke out, and the Serbian nationalist Gabrijo Princip shot and killed Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, who were visiting Sarajevo, on the streets of Sarajevo.
Originally, this incident could be resolved by diplomacy, but under the strong intervention of Germany, Britain, France, Russia and other powers, it eventually turned into war, after all, the new and old powers had long looked at each other unfavorably, and they all wanted to teach each other a lesson and let the other side give up the idea of confrontation with themselves, but there was always a lack of a reason, and the Sarajevo incident that occurred at this time just became a reason.
On July 28, 1914, austria-Hungary declared a preventive war against Serbia, on August 1, Germany, which was in the same alliance as Austria-Hungary, officially declared war on France and Russia, and on the 3rd, Britain, which did not want to be involved, was forced to declare war on Austria and Germany because of the alliance treaty signed with France and Russia. With the major powers of the Allies and the Allies involved, as they were the most colonized countries in the world at that time, a war that spread across the globe inevitably occurred.
The First World War lasted for more than four years, lasted four years, more than 30 countries, 1.5 billion people involved in the war, 30 million casualties, causing very serious economic and demographic losses. The battle ended with the surrender of Germany and Austria and the comprehensive victory of the Entente powers led by Britain, France and Russia.
Just as the First World War was coming to an end, due to the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's economy, people's livelihood and other aspects were stagnant, and the Canadian war became more and more unfavorable to Austria-Hungary, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire began to split.
On October 28, 1918, the Czech Republic and Slovakia took the lead in declaring independence, and the two countries formed the Czechoslovak Republic. It was founded on October 31, 1918, and Hungary declared its independence after the Czech Republic and Slovakia to form the Hungarian Democratic Republic. In December 1918, Serbia and Montenegro, which had previously been occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, together with Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Vojvodina under the jurisdiction of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, jointly formed the Kingdom of Serbo-Croat-Slovene, the predecessor of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, transylvania was incorporated into Romania and Galicia into Poland.
To this day, the countries born on the territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire include more than ten countries, including Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Montenegro, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Slovenia, the Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Poland, Romania, and Italy have also acquired part of the territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.