On the Austro-Hungarian Empire

The Austro-Hungarain Empire has always fascinated me.

Austria-Hungary (originally Austria) was a Central European state which existed in some form or fashion from 1156 (or so) until 1918.  It was an accretion of kingdoms and states, encompassing not only the state of what we now call "Austria" but also states in what are now Italy, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovnia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Ukraine. Encompassing a great number of nationalities, it existed at the crossroads of Eastern Western Europe, cutting through the Iron Curtain that would emerge after its demise.

It was not an ideal state in many ways.  The term "Benevolent Despotism" was  used of one of its rulers, Marie-Theresa.  The German culture was the promoted one (until the union of with Hungary which was then promoted by the Hungarian side), and other cultures were either minimized or openly suppressed.  It was not a place where I think many of us would have enjoyed living.  But it does stand as an example of a mulit-cultural empire which, in some ways, seemed to hold together for hundreds of years.

Its collapse has always interested me - after all, we live in a multi-cultural state ourselves, so there should be some sort of lessons to be learned.  The greatest lesson?  That when a state loses its perceived identity, it will inevitably fail.

The Empire held together through war and distress - even a great deal of World War I - because the citizens thought of themselves as Austro-Hungarians. It was only when they began to think of themselves as Czechs or Poles or Slovaks that the bonds of empire frayed beyond the ability to sustain themselves.  The previous association was replaced with new associations, which required the destruction of the old order.

If you feel like I am trying to draw a historical relationship to current events, you would not be altogether mistaken.  History never repeats itself, but it does create slight variations on similar themes.

We are not quite the point of valuing our definitions of ourselves as other smaller groups above that of being Americans - but we are very, very close indeed.