The Habsburg family is the most famous, most extensive and longest-ruling royal family in European history. The family rose from the Middle Ages to the 16th century and was the dominant figure in the central European order. From the 13th to the 20th century, the Habsburgs ruled the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Spain, the Austrian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This series of dynasties dominated by the Habsburg family was collectively known as the "Habsburg Empire" by later generations, and left a strong mark on the modern history of Europe.
In a sense, the Habsburgs grew and grew by war. In the 15th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman Turkish Empire invaded Central Europe. In the face of the Turk invasion, the Habsburgs repeatedly organized allied forces in Christendo to contain the Turkish army under the city of Vienna, and their reputation was greatly shocked. During the Thirty Years' War, in the face of the Protestant Alliance, the Habsburgs were left and right, and repeatedly used clever tricks, thus preserving territory and vested interests. In the subsequent major wars such as the War of succession, the Seven Years' War, and the Napoleonic Wars, the Habsburgs also relied on strategy and games to survive tenaciously.
Since the joint establishment of the dual system of government by Austria and Hungary in 1867, the "Austro-Hungarian Empire" derived from the Austrian Empire has become the base camp for the Habsburg dynasty to rule. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, austria-Hungary was one of the five major european powers, ranking second in europe in terms of land area; its population ranked third in Europe; its industrial output ranked fourth in the world; and its military size also ranked among the top five in Europe. At that time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a comprehensive national strength on paper data. The Habsburg regime, the ruling group of the Empire, also survived until the beginning of the 20th century, becoming one of the rare "longevity" dynasties in the history of the world.
However, such a battle-hardened royal regime has fallen apart in just four years. In 1914, World War I broke out. During the war, the Austro-Hungarian army, despite its millions of troops and sophisticated weapons, was lackluster on the battlefield. In 1916, under the Russian "Brusilov Offensive", the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered 1 million casualties, 40,000 were captured, and the entire defense line almost collapsed. In 1918, after four years of war attrition, the Austro-Hungarian Empire finally collapsed. With the collapse of the empire, the historic Habsburg dynasty also withdrew from the political arena.
The author believes that the reason for the demise of the Habsburg Empire was that its system gradually declined. The system of the Habsburgs was, in essence, still the feudal aristocracy of the medieval era. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was quite developed in capitalism, its feudal remnants were equally strong: in the center, Austria and Hungary were independent and contained each other; at the local level, various nominal kingdoms and principalities occupied one side. In general, by the 20th century, the Austro-Hungarian system was quite outdated and very divisive. Thus, during the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed under the influence of the following three problems.
The first problem is that the people's sense of national identity has decreased and the system has collapsed
Someone said: "The so-called Austro-Hungarian Empire is nothing more than a helpless concession of the ancient Habsburgs to modern nationalism." "That's not a bad description at all. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a country with many ethnic groups and a lack of dominant ethnic groups, and the state system still followed the medieval model. In the 19th century, many of the ruled peoples in the Empire had already launched a national liberation movement against the rule of the Habsburgs. In order to alleviate internal contradictions, the Habsburgs could only constantly take compromise measures to barely maintain the unity of the country by granting autonomy to all peoples.
By the time of World War I, however, the policy of compromise and concession had failed. First of all, the protracted war, while depleting the national strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, also plunged the people of all ethnic groups in its territory into poverty. The people of all ethnic groups lacked food and clothing, and naturally rose up against the rule of the Habsburgs. Secondly, the principle of "national self-determination" put forward by Anglo-American countries has greatly encouraged the independence movements of various nationalities. Therefore, at the end of World War I, from September to October 1918, the Polish, Czech, and Romanian areas in the Austro-Hungarian Empire successively declared their independence from the empire. In such a situation, the Austro-Hungarian Empire tended to disintegrate.
The second problem is that the centrifugal tendency within the army is serious, and the combat effectiveness has declined
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a large ethnic group, which meant that its military composition was also quite complex. On the whole, the Austro-Hungarian army, in addition to officers and soldiers from Germanic and Magyar (Hungarian), also had fighters from Czech, Polish, Croat, Ukrainian, Romanian and other ethnic minorities. Soldiers of various nationalities do not speak each other's languages, which means that it is quite difficult to command the entire army. At the same time, due to the spread of the idea of national independence, the soldiers of the minorities (especially poles and Czechs) in the Austro-Hungarian army often fought against the central authorities, rebelling against the water and mutinying at every turn, which greatly disturbed the central government.
During World War I, the "old multi-ethnic complex of armed forces" of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was apparently unable to cope with the fierce industrial wars. As the battle burned out, most of the Germanic officers and soldiers who were the pillars of the army were killed, and the Empire had to recruit more ethnic soldiers. However, ethnic minority soldiers were generally demoralized, unwilling to fight, and even defected to the enemy: the troops of Czech soldiers, after being captured by the Russians, instead formed the "Czech Legion" and turned their guns to attack the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result, the later the war, the weaker the combat effectiveness of the Austro-Hungarian army became, and the process of collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire also accelerated.
The third problem is that the political power is poorly organized and the country collapses
Our history textbooks mention: "During the First World War, Tsarist Russia was the weakest link in the chain of imperialism. In fact, compared with Russia, the ruling power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also quite fragile. Austria-Hungary exercised dual rule: Austria and Hungary were independent, and it was difficult for Austria to intervene in the affairs of the Hungarian region; Hungary also had difficulty in intervening in the problems of the Austrian region. At the same time, in the frontier areas of the empire, the various kingdoms and principalities actually had considerable autonomy. In peacetime, this system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire barely functioned normally, and the country was able to maintain unity for the time being.
However, by the time of the First World War, due to the spread of national liberation ideas, the internal affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had serious problems. Many kingdoms, principalities and local grass-roots political powers, composed of various ethnic minorities, are seeking independence in every possible way. The old administrative system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not twist the whole country into a rope in the era of war. The huge attrition of the war also made the weak Austro-Hungarian government lose sight of the other. Thus, by the end of the First World War, the organizational capacity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been completely weakened, and independent forces in various places had risen. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was justified.
In general, institutions are to the state what foundations are to houses. If the foundation is aging, then no matter how beautiful and magnificent the house is built, it will inevitably collapse. In the same way, if the system is backward, then no matter how large the territory of the country and the number of troops, it will not be able to avoid the fate of falling apart.
Reference: The End of the Empire: Austro-Hungarian (1848-1918 AD)