United States of Greater Austria (Central Victory)

The United States of Greater Austria (German: Vereinigte Staaten von Groß-Österreich) was the successor state to the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy created in the aftermath of the First World War. Greater Austria was the result of comprimises between the central governments in Vienna and Budapest and the various nationalities of the old empire between October 1918 and March 1920. The empire came to an end with the Soviet Offensive that ended with the capture of Vienna in 1941. Under the Soviet occupation the empire was divided up into various puppet communist regimes loyal to Moscow. Finally after World War II in Europe ended the empire was formally partitioned into states loyal to Germany or attatched to states that were part of the Axis.

Backround
Originally a proposal, conceived by a group of scholars surrounding the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This specific proposal was conceived by Aurel Popovici in 1906. As the twentieth century started to unfold, the greatest problem facing the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary was that it consisted of about a dozen distinctly different ethnic groups, of which only two, the Germans and Hungarians (who together accounted for about 44% of the total population), wielded any power or control. The other ethnic groups, which were not involved in the state affairs, were consisted of Italians, Romanians and a group of Slavic peoples (Croatians, Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Ukrainians). Among them, only Croats had limited autonomy in the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia. The idea of the Dual Monarchy system of 1867 had been to split the previous Austrian Empire into two realms, one German-dominated, the other Hungarian-dominated. However, after various demonstrations, uprisings and acts of terrorism, it became readily apparent that the notion of two ethnic groups dominating the other ten could not survive in perpetuum.

Franz Ferdinand had planned to redraw the map of Austria-Hungary radically, creating a number of ethnically and linguistically dominated semi-autonomous "states" which would all be part of a larger confederation renamed the United States of Greater Austria. Under this plan, language and cultural identification was encouraged, and the disproportionate balance of power would be corrected. The idea was set to encounter heavy opposition from the Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy, since a direct result of the reform would have been a significant territorial loss for Hungary.

However, the Archduke was assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914, triggering the outbreak of the First World War. Near the end of the war Austria-Hungary was on the verge of complete collapse. Franz Ferdinand's cousin Emperor Karl I issued a manifesto federalizing the Austrian half of the empire in October 1918, averting the immediate collapse of Austria. After battling with the Hungarian half as predicted it was finally done on the Hungarian side in January 1920. The first session of the new parliament met and agreed upon a new constitution that formally created Greater Austria realized Franz Ferdinand's dream six years after his death.

Government and politics 1920–1938
After 1920, Austria's national government was dominated by the Christian Social Party which retained close ties to the Roman Catholic Church. The party's first Chancellor, Ignaz Seipel, attempted to forge a political alliance between wealthy industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church. Despite the nation having a steady political party in power, the politics of the empire were fractious and violent, with both left-wing and right-wing political paramilitary forces clashing with each other in German Austria and repression in Hungary. In 1927, left-wing supporters engaged in a massive protest over the acquittal of right-wing paramilitaries who were found guilty of killing a man and a child. The huge protest was known as the July Revolt of 1927. The July Revolt was put down through violence by police which killed a number of protestors. The violence in German Austria continued to escalate until the early 1930s when Engelbert Dollfuss became Chancellor.

Austrofascism
Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss of the Christian Social Party took power in Greater Austria in 1932, and moved the party and Austria towards dictatorship, reversal of the federalization and fascism. In 1933, Dollfuss took advantage of an error in a bill in parliament, and his cabinet voted to dissolve the Imperial Council and declared that parliament ceased to function.

The government was in competition with the rebirthing elements of local nationalism, which wanted Greater Austria to dissolve. Dollfuss's Austrofascism tied Austria's roots with Roman Catholicism to the government, as a means to show religious Emperor Karl that this was the will of God. Violence escalated into near civil war between nationalists, socialists, and austrofascists.

On May 1, 1934, Dollfuss created a one-party state, to be led by the Fatherland Front, with the proclamation of the authoritarian "May Constitution". Federalism and the controlling powers of the Imperial Council was curtailed, while elections for the Imperial Council was abolished, its members instead nominated by four non-elective, corporatist-styled councils; the State Council (Staatsrat), Imperial Culture Council (Reichskulturrat), Imperial Economic Council (Reichswirtschaftsrat) and the States' Council (Länderrat), supposedly providing their best opinions on respective areas. In practice all legislation and appointment was exercised from above by the Chancellor's and Emperor's decree. The state took complete control of employer–employee relations, known as Ständestaat, and began to crack down on pro-independence and pro–German sympathizers. The nationalist government in Germany responded by assassinating Engelbert Dollfuss on July 25, 1934.

This assassination infuriated Austria's neighbor, Fascist Italy under dictator Benito Mussolini. Fascist Italy had good relations with Greater Austria under Dollfuss and Mussolini suspected German involvement and promised the Austrofascist regime military support if Germany were to invade, as the Germans had claims on Tyrol which Italy wanted to annex. Italy's support helped save Austria from potential annexation in 1934.

The successor to Dollfuss, Kurt Schuschnigg, maintained the ban on nationalist activities, but also banned Austria's national paramilitary force, the Heimwehr, in 1936.

End of the Dual Alliance
In 1938 Adolf Hitler, desiring close relations with Italy, told Mussolini to make a number of unacceptable demands to the Austrian government. Emperor Karl insisted on a meeting that included the British and French prime ministers to discuss the Tyrol crisis. Mussolini demanded the immediate annexation of the Italian areas lost under the Treaty of Lichtenberg along with Tyrol. Two more meetings followed, in the second of which, the infamous "Munich Agreement" was signed, forcing the Austrian government to accept the annexation, but having no part in the negotiations. Karl sent a message to Wilhelm II, stating that this was "the last straw" and that Austria withdrew from its alliance with Germany. The kaiser was so furious at Karls message that he ordered Hitler to begin secret alliances with the various Austrian states, particularly Hungary.