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Austria Hungary was a central power and powerful monarchy that lasted from May 29th, 1867 when the Austro-Hungarian Compromise was ratified to October 31st, 1918 when the kingdom of Hungary announced disunion with Austria. Its collapse was due to nationalism, socialism, German interference, and economic collapse.
History[]
Adoption of Cross Country Tank (POD)[]
A model of Gunther Burstyn's Cross Country Tank
In 1911, the German Empire adopted Gunther Burtsyn's Motorgeschutz (Cross Country Tank) in order to combat French and British tanks. Austria also began producing them. The tanks quickly gave Austrians the upper hand when the war broke out in 1912, in the battle for the Alps, conquering Venice by the next year. This triggered the Italians joining the central powers in World War 1 in exchange for the Austrians returning Venice. Eventually, Spain and Portugal would follow suit to expand their colonial empires and crush the French and British.
Treaty of Vienna[]
Borders of Europe set by the Treaty of Vienna.
After the central powers emerged victorious with the collapse of the British Empire in 1916, a conference was held in which the Soviet Union, Japan, Russian Republic, Spain, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, and Germany all attended. It declared that the full British empire may never be reformed and British, French, Belgian, and Dutch colonies be handed over to the central powers. This didn't fully pan out as many colonies had already become independent or joined one of the commonwealths. Austria Hungary gained areas of Italy, Ukraine, Serbia, and Romania according to the treaty. However, much of the treaty never fully went through due to the independence of the colonies and collapse of Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary was also underrepresented and got no colonies.
Collapse[]
Austria-Hungary collapsed for a variety of reasons. One was the rise of socialism in its Balkan territories and Ukraine. Ukraine would gain independence as a democratic socialist republic while Yugoslavia and Romania would become Bolshevik one party states. Another was the wave of nationalism that spread over Europe. In Germany, this was dealt with by giving greater autonomy to constituent kingdoms. Austria-Hungary did nothing about this except use its police force and military to crack down on insurgents. Czechoslovak rebels had already been a powerful force during World War 1 and were basically autonomous by this point. The Kingdom of Hungary was also experiences socialist and nationalist riots. This combined with immense financial strain of the great war to bring down the great empire. Hungary's king was overthrown on October 31st, 1918, and the provisional government announced its disunion with the kingdom of Austria. With the help of forces from the Russian SFSR, Romania and Hungary became independent Stalinist states. Yugoslavia became a federal republic until a coalition invasion by Bolshevik powers which converted it into a Stalinist state. Austria came under the control of a warlord imposed by the German empire.