Why did Austria / Austria-Hungary decline?

[@Alssadar]

Everyone's all about Bissonette, but there's been a guy spinning three plates continuously for 4 years now.

[@CallieMasters5000]

Kelly Moneymaker is the real power behind the throne.

[@prakharchaudhary9797]

​@@CallieMasters5000nope it's charles the first

[@hecksters423]

Fs to "Calling Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard" for he's not in the end of the special thanks

[@adishkulkarni]

Sky Chappelle the real O.G

[@gravitykat714]

Gustav Swann tho

[@mr_potato_the_third]

Austria went from a small unimportant realm, to a Great Power across Europe, back to a small unimportant state.

[@projektkobra2247]

Kinda like Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Greece, Macedonia, and Italy. And soon probably England. Japan too!...Nothing wrong with a quaint tourist economy..just saying!

[@ThePanEthiopian]

North macedonia was created by Serbia so Bulgaria couldn't have it.

[@chrisl9934]

It was pretty important during the cold war as a neutral state right along the iron curtain.

[@elementallynx493]

​@@projektkobra2247Britain has definitely lost a lot of power, and is in a bad state right now, but it isn't unimportant. Italy is about the same as always, the political position there has been bad since the start.

[@Dac_DT_MKD]

@@ThePanEthiopian No. As a Macedonian I highly disagree.

[@GanyuSimpingDegenerate]

It's really depressing how Austria went from one of the great powers of Europe to getting confused with a barren desert penal colony

[@fr0ntend]

Going from great power to irrelevant any %

[@The_whales]

The Ottoman Empire: first time?

[@writerconsidered]

I really had to think about that before I got it.

[@AuroraBoost]

Imagine how portugal and spain felt

[@EEEEEEEE]

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@JustAGuyWhoLikesStuff.]

1:56: "And Hapsburg Foreign Policy was atrocious." Excellent. Just excellent.

[@galatheumbreon6862]

ikr lol it was kinda true in a way

[@seanjones3127]

I disagree with the crimean war as an example though, that was a lose-lose-lose situation @@galatheumbreon6862

[@Wolfeson28]

Kind of ironic, considering how they got their empire in the first place.

[@2MinuteHockey]

It's because the Germanic world truly hates the Slavic world, WWII was a continuation of that policy because Jewish and Slavic was synonymous at that time.

[@xbirdshorts5075]

Not helping russia in the crimean war might have been the worst geopolitical move committed outside of france in 19th century and that's a fierce competition. If only franz joseph knew he would be screwing up the entire first half of 20th century of the entire world and destroying russia, austria, turkey and germany (twice)

[@todd203]

It all fell apart when James Bissonette stepped down as Emperor. 😔

[@Didyouknowthatiexist]

Restore emperor James of the house of bissonette.

[@barsukascool]

Well yeah, that’s how every country ends…😢

[@Omarmualim-p7u]

Fr...

[@no.6660]

These comments are getting really annoying

[@TransKidsMafia]

My teenager is suing me for transitioning them when they were a toddler. Help.

[@Zeruel3]

3:23 Franz Ferdinands last words were "Sophie! Sophie! Don't die! Stay alive for our children!" He didn't know his wife was already dead by that point

[@ell3655]

Was it really?

[@zavaraninoveuhorky]

@@ell3655Yes it was...

[@fireironthesecond2909]

Simp

[@Zeruel3]

@@ell3655 Yes, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie Chotek had what was basically a Cinderella style romance and had to fight an incredibly hard battle to be together. Because she wasn't seen as equal by the Hapsburg court for marriage they were treated really badly, which resulted in them and their kids staying away from it. One of the main ways the Kaiser became close friends with Franz Ferdinand was by being nice to his wife

[@ell3655]

@@Zeruel3 that’s really sweet actually. I’m not too familiar with preWW1 era, so was Franz Ferdinand an alright guy, or did they have the assassination coming?

[@RedDot-vz5iw]

One has to keep in mind though, that while nationalism was popular and nationalistic movements within the empire were growing, most people prior to ww1 didn´t want independent states because they reckognized the benefits that the united empire provided. For example, while the people in the city of Triest on the Adria coast were italians and identified as such, they also knew that Triest was the only great Adria port of the empire. If Triest were to become an italian city, it would just be one Adria port of many, and quickly loose its economic importance (which is exactly what happened after ww1). Or take for example the bohemian industrialists. Bohemia was the industrial center of the empire. But most of the rich people who consumed all those industrial goods lived in the austrian part, in citys like Vienna or Graz, and many of the raw materials and ressources came from other parts of the empire as well, a hard border with all of those territories would´ve seriously worsened the situation for bohemian industrialists. Next example: Galicia: The region of galicia was THE provider of oil for the austrian empire, thanks to galicia austria was the second largest oil producer in the world for a short time in the early 20th century. But without austrian and bohemian industrialists as guaranteed buyers, galician oil just wasn´t competitive, and poland, the new owner of galicia, just didn´t have enough industry that could buy all the oil, therefore galicia began to decline. Hungarian grain, emerging car manufacturing, etc. The examples of economic advantages that the united empire provided, were numerous, and most people knew that. And because of this, many people within the empire might have been nationalists, but they also were rationalists and this meant that most people might have been in favour of more autonomy, but they weren´t in favour of abolishing the empire completely

[@toastyanon8902]

Very interesting! It reminds me of what someone once said about the ethnic tensions in Iraq - each ethnic group was happy to have an Iraq (or Austria), but they wanted to be the ones in charge of Iraq (or have more sway in Austria)

[@elijahmikaelson5319]

Where can i read informations like that?

[@RedDot-vz5iw]

@@elijahmikaelson5319 Well, I`m german and I study history at university, so I read about it in a bunch of german history books and my profs taught me about it, but that´s probably not very helpfull for you. Funnily enough, a good place to start any research is Wikipedia, so if you just want to get a basic overview, maybe read a few wikipedia articles about Austria-Hungary, it´s regions and their economic development. If you want to dive a bit deeper, any book about the economic history of the austrian empire or even eastern europe should give you a good overview. David F. Goods "The economic rise of the Habsburg empire" is probably still one of the best books about the topic, and it´s only roughly 220 pages. If you really want to dive into it, you´d need to read literature about the individual regions, or literature comparing different regions but that´s really advanced stuff, if you want to dive that deep, you might as well enroll at university. Alison Franks "Oil empire. Visions of prosperity in austrian galicia" is the only english text that I read though, the other books and texts about regional economic development were all in german. Hope that helps.

[@stevensamuels4041]

I heard it was actuall, just The Cekš who wanted intependence , every ethnic Group was just fine like it was, the croats and romanians just wanted a higher voice.

[@RedDot-vz5iw]

@@toastyanon8902 That´s an interesting comparison. I think you´ll find such sentiments in most multi-ethnic or multi-religious states, they usually work, as long as they provide some benefits for most inhabitants, but once bigger and bigger problems start to occur, loyality to the state or the current group leading the state decreases, which leads to an exacerbation of problems. In some cases, this can be fixed, and Austria-Hungary was, contrary to what many believe, not doomed from the start. It remains to be seen wether Iraq can fix it´s many problems. It certainly has the potential to do so.

[@Wilderness-Will]

All eight of my immigrant ancestors came to the U.S. from the collapsing Austro-Hungarian Empire between the years of 1891-1922. The bureaucratic indifference with which the Habsburgs treated "Galicia" (modern day southern Poland & Western Ukraine) led to a series of famines in the mid-to-late 19th century called the "Galician Misery" that was arguably worse in scale and scope than the Irish Potato Famine. There's an extraordinarily limited amount of English-language information about the slow decay of the Habsburg Empire, and I think it's a topic of extraordinary relevance and importance. Thank you for adding a little more to what's out there.

[@AdaKizi248]

My maternal grandparents (Ukrainians) were from Galicia and got out of Austria-Hungary just before the First World War, for which I am thankful.

[@Wilderness-Will]

@@AdaKizi248 My paternal great-Grandfather in particular came from a village west of Rzeszów. He came to the U.S. in December of 1913. We're pretty sure he planned to stick around for a year or two, make some money in the factories of Chicago, and bring it home. Seven months after he arrived, his temporary home became a permanent one.

[@TheAustrianAnimations87]

@@Wilderness-Will Galicia was the worst place back then to live in the Austrian Empire. Rich in oil, yet very poor.

[@wiedstruck4474]

Oh wow that is fascinating. I always love reading these family backstories in comment sections

[@sion8]

*+*

[@dylangtech]

Fun fact: "Concert Europe" refers to the Vienna Concert Hall. That's how much the Habsburgs represented the traditional order.

[@angelb.823]

Honestly, the fact that the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire outlived Yugoslavia in long-year comparison, despite the ethnic tensions and divisions in the country, is an achievement on its own. Give them credit for that.

[@EEEEEEEE]

E‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

[@Passonator11]

no thanks to the Hungarians...

[@kostam.1113]

It's not a fair comparison since Yugoslavia lived in an age of nationalism from it's creation to its end While Austria only experienced full age of nationalism in its last years and obviously didn't survive that

[@dayros2023]

Being more stable than an union or balkan countries is not an achievement

[@haziqhaziq5550]

agreed.Even yugoslavia only able to remain intact due to the communist dictatorship.

[@simplyhistory3998]

The one good thing about the Austro-Hungarian Empire is that the British didn't get involved.

[@Seft2_]

They did post collapse

[@erdood3235]

What?

[@chrisl9934]

@@erdood3235 He meant the British were not involved in the post-war state of the empire, deciding the fates of each entity, which they liked to do when The British Empire was still a great power.

[@swhip897]

​@@Seft2_seems they stuck their nose in everywhere.

[@asnekboi7232]

@@swhip897 you don’t conquer a quarter of the world by keeping your yourself

[@jamesbissonette8002]

Always happy to see another upload!

[@franciscoacevedo3036]

Hungary's role is pretty similar to the role of the south and overall conservative states in the USA the ôlįgårch college blatantly benefits them the Senate is 50 50 despite being 40M less Americans on the "red" states and endless gerrymandering just so 🤍 conservatives can keep getting their fix of whitesterity package pīls is beyond toxic for the country

[@joshuayllanes6448]

Without you, all is lost

[@Steeyuv]

@@joshuayllanes6448well, not quite all of it, but the quality of the jokes would definitely suffer.

[@Maxfromohio2155]

The man the myth the legend james bisonette

[@Mightfox]

There's a lot more that can be added to this. -A fundamental issue was its military spending had structural problems. If you look at "Tactics and Procurement in the Habsburg Military 1866-1918" by John Dredger, you see that the Austrian military constantly gave out shitloads of promotions for financial/corrupt/political/nepotic reasons, and ended up with an enormous officer class(and not enough NCOs!) that cost a shitton of money, partially because they received generous pensions. This resulted in wasteful military spending because of so much money going to this bloated officer class, shitty leaders who would push more bad financial military decisions(like making lots of forts and giving them outdated guns). This also lead to a cycle of losing wars->having loans because of wars->more incentive to keep military spending high because of losing wars->budget is crunched. So I would like to push back on the idea of "oh, Austria didnt spend enough on the military because of the Hungarians and so on" prior to a specific period. They spent comparative amounts to other countries up until 1889- the problem was their military spending was largely wasted on their officer class and stupid spending projects like forts and trying to catch up on the battleship race from scratch. Spending more in the 1800s would not have made them capable of winning wars, it wouldve just wasted money! They needed military reform. I dont know what the officer promotion situation looked like after 1890, nor the origin of it- the Napoleonic era Austrian military did not have this issue(it had different ones), so the origin was after that. - Austria used to maintain its position by being diplomatically flexible- whenever threatened by a power, it would team up with others who were scared by that power in order to avoid a threat. The ossified alliance system of WW1 prevented them from being able to use this. - Pieter Judson has some interesting comments on how nationalism was exacerbated by various political structures in Austria, but i havent finished reading his book so I cant elaborate. But I think theres a lot to be said about the nature of the situation regarding nationalism. - The Austria-Hungary compromise sure was crippling. If you look at the Austrian half, they had universal male suffrage 10 years before Britain did! But the Hungarian half was way behind that, and was also vastly more agricultural than modern countries at the time like USA/Germany/etc, keeping them behind economically. It didnt satisfy the Hungarians either-the compromise only satisfied the Hungarian nobility, so its not like it placated Hungarian nationalism, it felt like a betrayal to those who believed in the Hungarian cause of 1848. - Regarding the Crimean war, I'd recommend watching "The Perils of Neutrality: Austria and the Crimean War" by Old Britainnia

[@hdaNhun]

Hungary not being industrialized was one of the reasons for the revolution as well. We weren't allowed to modernize because Austria wanted a breadbasket that's easy to control, not an economically viable competitor that can stand on its own.

[@Mightfox]

@@hdaNhun Why didn't Hungary industrialize after the dual monarchy was implemented? Was it because the hungarian government was controlled by a small population of hungarian aristocrats who were interested in a more controllable agrarian country?

[@AEIOU05]

I‘ve actually read different accounts, with Austria having a problem with attracting young men to be career officers and most officers retiring at the rank of major.

[@Mightfox]

@@AEIOU05 Which years? That sounds like that mayve been the case around the Napoleonic era, or perhaps right before WW1, but not for ~1840-~1880.

[@AEIOU05]

@@Mightfox around the turn of the century, I’ve read that due to a relatively low pay and slow promotions, the officer corps had difficulties to compete with the civilian job market (still does to this day). Can’t remember the source, it was some Christian Orthner book most likely

[@Shroud83]

Austrian here... my country was never good at being a military powerhouse. Austria was always best when they tried the diplomatic route and avoid fighting. "Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube." - "May others wage war, you happy Austria marry." This means that Austria always tried to settle disputes by marrying their line to other powerful lines in order to form alliances and stable relations. But whenever we were "forced" to fight it seldom went well.

[@adamwarlock1]

True. And this left them with a lot of territories that had all been acquired under different conditions and expected different treatment. And whenever they tried to make things more uniform (Joseph II in general, Franz-Joseph changing the status of Bosnia, many others) things would fall apart because it went against the spirit of how they'd been stuck together in the first place.

[@TheAustrianAnimations87]

"My country was never good at being a military powerhouse." Really? Austria is the country which crushed the Ottoman Empire at its peak under Eugene of Savoy (look up for him). Austria survived the Austrian War of Succession against several opponents (Prussia, Spain, France, Bavaria, etc.) with minimal help. Austria was quite unlucky to fight against great generals like Frederick the Great and Napoleon, yet still managed to beat them in several battles like Kolin, Hochkirch, Bassano (1796) and Aspern-Essling. Napoleon even had respect for his Austrian foes after Wagram. As for the post-Napoleonic Wars Austria won the 1st Italian War of Independence against the Italians, helped Prussia to beat Denmark and once again defeated the Italians at Custoza and Lissa in 1866. "Austria was always best when they tried the diplomatic route and avoid fighting." Well, you're not wrong about this part. The Congress of Vienna for example is when Austria tried its diplomatic route.

[@ernestbrown9660]

@@TheAustrianAnimations87 The Austrian-born artist Alexander King explained it well when he pointed out that whenever Austria did win a war, it, like the United States, then had to prop its enemies back up again in the interest of its own long-term goals and the European balance of power. The average Austrian became pretty cynical about military victories.

[@markobucevic8991]

@@TheAustrianAnimations87 Austria never crushed ottoman empire, defeated yeah, but nothing like a complete destruction of their army, and for example, many important defeats of the ottoman empire was done by croatian people defending key points/forts despite being out numbered around 10-100 to one croatian soldier. Not to forget the pope lending a hand here or there, the polish and their hussars coming at the last moment and so on. Dont forget the austrian knights were defeated by swiss peasants armed with just halberds.

[@roland969]

hungarian here: yes we have some complicated history, but a UAS sounsd cool.

[@justtheilluminativ282]

Good video ideas: - Why did Venezuela decline? - Why did Haiti fail? - Why did the First Mexican Empire collapse? - Why isn’t Central America united? - Why did Afghanistan fail? - Why does San Marino exist? - Why did the Mali Empire decline?

[@barsukascool]

Ok

[@deleted-something]

He did some of them, also watch why did the Central American union stop existing

[@paulcowlishaw]

Why did Cezchoslovakia disband

[@deleted-something]

Oh yea and France killed Haiti since day 1

[@johanrodriguez3275]

Yeah those are some really good ideas, there could also be one video about the Central African Empire, cause that state seems like the most random one ever lol

[@LitD]

Fun fact: The "return Europe to a state before the French revolution" wasn't implemented due to several reasons but a rather significant one for Prussia, Austria and Russia was Poland (or the PLC to be exact) would exist in it's post 1st partition borders. As none of them wanted that it was decided that rather than pre-Revolution Europe would be "pre-Napoleon" and even then not entirely.

[@dexterity___]

It was impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. Unnatural social conditions literally force the people to lash out. The conservatives are their own worst enemy they create their opponents whenever they go.

[@volbound1700]

Actually Poland was broken up slightly before the French Revolution. It was close though in timing.

[@stafer3]

@@volbound1700 Poland was carved 3 times. 1772, 1793, 1795. French revolution happened in 1789. So only the first lost of territory would be before the limit.

[@jpvansplunder]

Just got home after a rough day, open KZbin, History Matters uploaded... Hell yeah.

[@dr69_420]

I hope you feel better soon. And get some deserved rest

[@hriscubogdan2292]

Heads up man. It won't be tough forever. You can do this.

[@aaronmarks9366]

Hoping you'll have a great day tomorrow

[@EmperorNapoleon1815]

Look what they did to my boy. Much respect to Austria-Hungary. Their foreign policy was indeed atrocious in the mid nineteenth century, but for centuries they dominated the continent because of the political savvy of the Habsburg Dynasty. Massively impactful family, monarchy, and empire. Also, the Austro-Hungarian army is a joy to play in the tabletop miniatures game Blood and Valor. I highly recommend it👍🏻

[@dodgyduck9841]

I appreciate the separate flags of Austria and Hungary. Just shows how detailed and well-researched these videos are.

[@MaceY._.]

"Well-researched", but forgot to mention that Hungary was the one, who vetoed waging war against Serbia and Russia. The kaiser gave a sh1t and his empire and our country collapsed

[@dragonitzgame]

​@@MaceY._. They didn't vetoed, they agreed with the only condition that no Serbian land would be annex after the war.

[@MaceY._.]

@@dragonitzgame eventually yes, but the Hungarian prime minister, Istvan Tisza was the only one in the political elite who opposed the war declaration on Serbia

[@galatheumbreon6862]

the Empire of Austria always fascinated me as well as its slow decline, so I'm very happy you did this short video. Also Franz Joseph's neutral, depressed face towards Hungarian sabotage at 2:38 made me chuckle

[@MrGhostsoap]

As someone who has been studying history for the last five years, I greatly appreciate the channel and the accuracy of the ever changing European borders throughout 1800-1950

[@westrim]

Lack of backing from the ancient and wealthy Bissonnette line.

[@barsukascool]

Ha. Ha. Ha.

[@TransKidsMafia]

Please be kind to trans kids My newborn is trans

[@jira6423]

Rage bait

[@jamesbissonette8002]

Nah

[@johnroscoe2406]

wtf happened in these comments lolz

[@MomMom4Cubs]

I've been curious about this for a long time. Thanx for educating me in such an amusing manner!

[@Maxime_K-G]

Thanks James, you and the team working at H.M. are awesome! Great animations Kelly!!

[@krisztiancsolto8859]

There seems to be a mistake on the map showing Austria-Hungary in the video, the Hungarian part doesn’t include Burgenland, the thin German populated strip in the eastern side of today’s Austria. It only became part of Autria after WW1.

[@oliverschlesinger6744]

the video doesn't include a burgenländer-joke either. they are old but gold

[@MaxwellTornado]

German-speaking Hungarian populated*

[@matthiasbehrendt6112]

​@@MaxwellTornadoIf they speak German they are Germans/Austrians. If they speak Hungarian they are Hungarians.

[@CoolestCyphon]

Austro-Hungarian empire had one of the best looking flags of all time in my opinion (and I’m not talking about the official one, I’m talking about what people mistakenly believe is the official one)

[@The_whales]

It also made sense, and seeing Austria Hungary with the same Austrian empire flag would be as strange as the USSR but it keeps the Russian empire flag( if you count the pure tricolor one)

[@michaldworakowski187]

It became so engraved that ,even with the recent "push" to overcorrect, it became astyle of it's own. There is even a Pride flag based of it.

[@Googoogagamf]

@@michaldworakowski187”there’s even a pride flag based on it” 💀

[@jdogmpd7369]

well austria-hungary technically doesnt have a flag so im still using the cool one

[@RandomGuy-xq5ku]

It's a naval flag

[@shylerz6332]

You’ve been really pumping out videos lately, so happy to see more of your content 😍🥰

[@ninonysoft6865]

Oh damn. I posted in r/AskHistorians the same question and it's nice to see it getting noticed here.

[@zzhlavy]

Also important thing is that Austria greatly alienated relatively loyal Bohemia as the most industrialised part of the Empire and the part that bore the highest cost of the Austrian-Prussian war, when Czechs demanded the same treatment as Hungarians got, which Germans and Vienna promptly refused, thus rapidly accelerating Czech nationalism.

[@AEIOU05]

Austria was actually in the process of dealing with the Czech problems, which was partially resolved in Moravia. Modern historians are increasingly coming to the conclusion that the empire wasn’t doomed to fail, like many historians in the past claimed, and that most problems would be resolved, if ww1 didn’t happen or was won. Politically motivated and biased research between 1918 and 1991 greatly impacted the overwhelmingly negative academic assessment of Austria-Hungary, which is only now being debunked, due to both the collapse of communism and the end of both Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia

[@onurbschrednei4569]

@@AEIOU05 OTOH, don't the dissolution of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia show that multiethnic countries in the region just don't work? I just can't see how a country with so many different languages and peoples, where the leading "nation" wasn't even close to a majority, would've survived to the modern day. The only successful countries in Europe I can think of are Belgium and Switzerland, but both are much, much smaller with fewer languages.

[@AEIOU05]

@@onurbschrednei4569 you misunderstood what I said , I meant that the state run education of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia was biased in their research and portrayal of the Habsburg Empire and that with those countries no longer existing a change of thought is starting to take place.

[@freebozkurt9277]

Because it was seen back then you are trying to ride on the back of the Hungarians. Hungarians fought hard for centuries for independence whereas the Czechs did nothing but when finally Hungary got back its sovereignity the Czechs complained.

[@JakeBassCZ]

@@freebozkurt9277 The other point of view is that Hungarians were a bunch of rebellious ingrates. It should be noted that Hungary was reconquered from the Ottomans for the money and blood extracted from the lands of Bohemian crown. From their own point of view, Czechs saw themselves as loyal subjects who were not appreciated by the leadership in Vienna, which obviously lead to a lot of resentment towards German-speaking elite and Hungarians, who promptly started oppressing Slovaks, Rusyns and Croats (and Romanians, for whom Czechs didn't care that much, though).

[@johanrodriguez3275]

Hey another video, always happy when you upload :)

[@UrFavoriteArsonist]

I can’t wait for the History Matters video in 10 years about the cult of James Bisonette.

[@toumbangkelvin8122]

I have been waiting for an upload ❤❤😅😅😅❤

[@masonm600]

I've always wanted to know more about Franz Ferdinand's US of Greater Austria proposal. If it could have prevented or stalled WWI.

[@adrianayala5476]

It wouldn't have lasted with all the nationalistic forces in play with such a state. Would have a similar fate to Yugoslavia at some point.

[@bbartky]

@@adrianayala5476Yea, you’re probably right. Bummer. It’s one of my favorite “what if’s”. I like to imagine that it would have evolved into a multi-ethnic, constitutional monarchy that would have been a model for Central and Eastern Europe.

[@beepbop6542]

The Hungarians almost stopped WW1. The Hungarians didn't want expansion in the Balkans because it would cause instability and make the Austrian half more powerful, so they forced the Austrians to promise not to annex any land from Serbia. Meanwhile, the primary reason for Russian intervention was that they didn't want Serbia to lose any land, and they might have withdrawn if that was promised. Unfortunately, there was no proper communication of the promise between Austrian and Russian diplomats, and war broke out.

[@tinkywinky8558]

@@adrianayala5476 No it wouldn't have. It was doing pretty well until the Serb hands got involved.

[@85Zeroangel]

Funny you made this video now, I'm just visiting Vienna this week. Beautiful city.

[@johnroscoe2406]

Slow down you crazy child You're so romantic for a juvenile You know there's so much to do And only so many hours in the day Heeeey-ay You know that when the truth is told You can get what you want Or you can just get old You're gonna burn out before You even get halfway through Woo-oo When will you realize Vienna waits for you?

[@onanthebarbarian9883]

1:06 LOL...love the tire iron.

[@Sebasstiano]

Austria never really recovered economically from the Napoleonic Wars. Between 1815-1848, around 30% of the entire state revenue, year on year was spent on paying interest on the tremendous debt racked up betwen 1813-1815, and only in a single year during that period (1829) did the state budget record a (small) surplus. For comparison, the army’s entire budget during the 1840s was around 40% of yearly state revenue. This is while at peace with chronic supply shortages and dire wages for both officers and soliders. State deficit of course, had to be met with more loans which only added to the debt burden. You can imagine what would happen to the Austrian budget if the government had to actually finance a mobilised army on campaign.

[@Carl-p3e7z]

2:47 Your map is incorrect. You use the post WWI border between Austria and Hungary which was different back then. The question of how Hungary managed to lose territory to Austria after WWI is an interesting topic in itself.

[@johnroscoe2406]

Happy to see a video longer than ~3 minutes again.

[@nrobnas]

Love the HRE's gravestone! "You were silly and confusing"

[@SmudgeThomas]

More Austria-Hungary please! We don't talk about it nearly enough when it is key to basically the last 2 centuries events

[@adamkaufman724]

Love your work.

[@franciscoacevedo3036]

Hungary's open toxic behavior reminds me of the southern USA and overall conservative states in the Usa

[@MrThhg]

@Tovalokodonc keep coping and seethe Transylvania is staying Romanian.

[@chestty455]

The timing of this video is crazy for me. Was just thinking of re-watching 'The Empress' and I was playing Dictators: No Peace roleplaying as a resurgence of the Austria-Hungarian Empire.

[@will_from_pa]

Tbf the Hungarians were also the ones who recognized that joining WW1 was a terrible idea and then were promptly punished the most for it

[@ДАРТАНЬЯН-з2щ]

They were punished not for WW1 but for opressing its ethnic minorities, threating them like cattle and trying to madyarise them by force.

[@almabatekert_villanykorte3387]

Shush you're not supposed to remember that

[@ДАРТАНЬЯН-з2щ]

They were punished not for this but for opressing their ethnic minorities very badly and threating them like cattle.

[@bobhepburn2307]

I love the little hand held signs that succinctly convey messages

[@oliverjack5454]

Writting an essay on nationalism during the 1848 revs as this video was uploaded, scarily perfect timing.

[@WideJaxamilious]

My favourite channel

[@ArthurCSchaperMR]

Please do a video on the following subjects: 1. Why did the Revolution of 1848 fail in Spain and the German states? 2. Why do people drive on different sides of the road in different countries?

[@rowangirdler7428]

Franz Ferdinand has a bit of a fictional counter-part in Rhaegar Targaryen from Game of Thrones, in that he was a visionary heir to a troubled state ruling over various groups who was killed before he could enact any of his potential reforms.

[@galCheri]

funny thing about the assassination Franz Ferdinand’s last words to his wife was “Don’t die, live for our children” before promptly dying and an hour later after he died, his wife died

[@cattysplat]

He got to die thinking a beautiful lie, she got to die knowing the crushing truth.

[@ThePikminCaptain]

That’s sad, not funny

[@drmilktruck]

Franz Ferdinand "was too busy being shot." Love these videos. Great work.

[@b-1battledroid674]

The Austrian Empire's borders were so pretty...

[@deleted-something]

Amazing work as always!

[@bbenjoe]

I have an autograph from Otto von Habsburg (1912-2009) the last heir to the thrones of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I think he would've been a great monarch.

[@muhammadhabibieamiro3639]

Another amazing video

[@bartidavid-andras2337]

00:47 Hungarians and Germans (Saxons) of Transylvania kinda forgotten

[@RabbitYT576]

​@DavidRusu1919 ofc the romania flag...

[@oliversherman2414]

Great video 👍🏻

[@scientificnameofpigs]

0:23 is it just me or the the British colonise water with Dutch strategy

[@Gameplayergod]

Hi love this channel❤

[@kevincronk7981]

It also doesn't help that Hungary didn't want to join ww1 at all, but bore more of the brunt than Austria, which didn't exactly encourage loyalty. Also congrats on getting to trending.

[@geoffreystill1038]

How and why did wigs become fashionable is a video I hope to see, you explain even minute details amazing!

[@bauschaum2158]

Honestly, Austria-Hungary's chance of survival if WW1 hadn't happened were greater than most might think.

[@howtoappearincompletely9739]

I'd be very interested to hear the reasons for that.

[@bauschaum2158]

@@howtoappearincompletely9739 A few points one could make for this are: 1.: AH did not have nearly as many or as violent revolts as other multiethnic empires did during their last years (The Ottoman Empire or Tsarist Russia for example) 2.: AH did actually expierience economic growth before WW1 (and was modernizing the industry and economy fairly quickly,) as opposed to the Ottomans or even the Soviet Union and Eastern Germany (idk about the economic situations in the rest of the Warsaw Pact) just before the fall of the Warsaw Pact 3.: The nationalist/seperatist movements of the different ethnic groups were not necessarily mainstream before the outbreak of war and there were voices both outside and within these movements who preffered staying in AH instead of forming a small independent Nation State which would then probably fall under strong german or russian influence instead. 4.: Notions like the United States of greater Austria would have at least been tried by Franz Ferdinand or any similarly minded austrian politicians. (Although I'm pretty sure the archduke was the most influencial and powerful of these indiviuduals, so his death would make AH's chances less optimal.) Point being, and I think this is also more or less stated in the video: without Nationalism the war would have not been nearly as devastating, but nationalism alone would not have torn the empire apart, and it was willing to reform, it only needed more time, weather these reforms would've been succesfull is another question (especially with the Hungarian opposition) but history shows that normally, the larger amount of people are fine with living under foriegn rule as long as there is at least an illusion of stability and order.

[@volbound1700]

@@bauschaum2158 agree. The Hapsburgs also had a lot of legitimacy with the public in the Empire as well. The Hapsburgs only became unpopular when things got bad during WW1.

[@bauschaum2158]

@@volbound1700 exactly

[@xerxen100]

@@bauschaum2158 Naturally Hungarians opposed, since these short period of time, they can became from a medieval age country to became a modern and rich country. The GDP skyrocketed since the Habsburg dont get away all the money from them.

[@rikycori653]

I wanted to ask you if you could make subtitles available in some videos because they aren't available in some? Please.

[@Sermentian1867]

Question for a future video: How did places like the Middle East, China, and India react to the fall of the western Roman Empire? Did they also have “dark ages”?

[@galacticguardian2783]

The world was not as well connected back then as it is now. I'm sure most of these places had zero reaction to this.

[@budwyzer77]

People in Italy barely noticed the Western Roman Empire's "fall" in 476. They just went back to having one Emperor rule them from Constantinople.

[@Whynotmini]

China just thought “nice, soon it will be west china”

[@chrisl9934]

Those places know of the existence of the Western Roman Empire but it is too far away back then for them to be concerned.

[@zainmudassir2964]

India has history of warring smaller kingdoms with some eras with sometimes most of the area in unity under empires like Maurya, Delhi Sultanate, Mughals etc.

[@diney7085]

1:58 they didn't just ignore Russia, Austira actively made a deal behind closed doors that they could take Bosnia in exchange for helping Russia. When Austria then proceeded to occupy Bosnia, Russia held their tongue for the sake of the alliance. Austria then proceeded to do nothing to help Russia. This event is the biggest factor as to why Russia was so defensive about Serbia during the July crisis.

[@brenobassocenci6571]

“Have you ever heard of the tragedy of Austria? No? I thought so… it’s not a tale the Hungarians would tell…” -Holy Emperor James Bissonette

[@johnpepper8603]

is it possible to learn, how to become a great power ? ......... not from the Austria

[@noobymooby-ty8gh]

Hungary had to ruin it all, even at the cost of their own people's suffering.

[@RabbitYT576]

​@@noobymooby-ty8gh ah sure, hungarians should just not exist and be assimilated

[@grubu4131]

Thank you!!!! Austria being the leading power on mainland Europe following Napoleon is so far pushed down under Britain, Industrial Revolution, and eventual unification of Germany; that it makes no sense to people why WWI broke out like it did. It's nice to see someone mention this for once. 🎉🎉🎉

[@stischer47]

Franz Ferdinand was working on the federation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, giving more power to various ethnic groups, which was popular amongst the citizens. However, Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip, and his cronies, supported by the Serbian Black Hand, could not allow that to happen. Hence, the assassination.

[@badmonkey244]

Oh how much I miss your longer format videos

[@connorhilchie2779]

Austria post Napoleon perfectly sums up someone unwilling to move with the times. They couldn't see that things wouldn't ever be as they were again because so much had happened because of Napoleon and the French Revolution that they kept shooting themselves in the foot over and over again until during WW1 they stopped aiming at their feet and went for the head If they had been more open to change and adapting to the new era that had come things would have been very different different the 19th and 20th centuries

[@mrroams5812]

There is nothing they could have done. Sometimes change is just bad for a particular group or nation and no amount of adaptation can change it, only mitigate it.

[@MaceY._.]

​@@mrroams5812towards the creation of United State of Austria would have been a good way to change

[@mrroams5812]

@@MaceY._. And look how that turned out.. the guy who wanted to do it DIED

[@MaceY._.]

@@mrroams5812 and brought with him the guy, who was against is...

[@gosugosu1280]

Austrian here. Not wanting to move with the times is the single most defining characteristic of Austrians. It's their main problem.

[@andortonkoly9231]

Another interesting topic is why the Hungarians opposed the military reforms. They were afraid that the new, stronger army would be used against them, and from their point of view, not without a reason. Remember, the crushing of the Revolution and War of Independence happened only 20 years before the compromise (which happened in 1867) and was followed by years of retaliation. Hungarian leaders didn't trust the Habsburgs, and for good reason. Up until the Revolution, the Hungarian elite fought for modernization and independence for decades before 1848, and the Habsburgs did everything in their power to stop these attempts. Now this may seem logical from their point of view, but imagine what Hungarian politicians could think after the compromise. They knew full well that the compromise happened only because the Habsburgs had no other choice, and only a few deceased prior a revolution was brutally suppressed, and all independence initiatives were fought against. Now imagine that the same Habsburgs, or their government would ask you to approve a huge military buildup....

[@PP266]

Blaming Hungarians for everything is silly. Saying as a Croatian, it's completely Austrian fault that everything fell apart. They could reform it, Vienna just didn't want to.

[@thieph]

As a romanian I blame hungarians, they did a good thing at sabotaging themselves

[@PP266]

@@edwardnotadolf Sometimes, but in the Nagodba of the 1868. Hungarians actually defined language as "Croatian", where Austrians called it "Serbo-Croatian", so again, Austrians were making problems, not Hungarians.

[@ComradeAda]

It's always a good day when history matters uploads ❤

[@Xristoforos41493]

A lot of things change in a century. For example, the UK was the largest empire in history 100 years ago.

[@bjhale]

Good video, as per usual. I wouldn't mind a similar one about the rise and fall of Poland.

[@anonymous-hz2un]

What rise??

[@bjhale]

@anonymous-hz2un At the beginning of the 17th century, Poland was a major power, if not *the* major power, of Central Europe. By the end of the century...not so much.

[@KARKATELCESARENVIADODESA-pv4yd]

3:37 Total Napoleon victory from the grave, Austria paid in full price its betrayal to him.

[@VivaLaEdits]

Do you worship Napoleon. The Hapsburg Dynasty has a long and extensive history of cooperation with different groups such as Italians in Modena, Reggio, ext… Napoleon just wanted to be God

[@KARKATELCESARENVIADODESA-pv4yd]

@@VivaLaEdits I worship God. Thank you very much. You think I am against Habsburgs? Spanish-Austrian dynasty is the best thing that ever happened in my opinion, but after europe's senseless rebellion against them Napoleon took on their proyect of unification, but Austria betrayed him. Russia betrayed him too. A man in the right side on history is a man in the right side of history, don't care how alien that may be to you.

[@VivaLaEdits]

@@KARKATELCESARENVIADODESA-pv4yd Napoleon coerced the Hapsburgs they had no other choice his military had defeated them too severely for them to continue to fight without risking everything. In Modena the Duke Ercole III was forced to abdicate his Duchy which had coexisted for centuries in the region they were Austrian and Napoleon raised arms against Austria.

[@VivaLaEdits]

@@KARKATELCESARENVIADODESA-pv4yd Hitler was for unification too (see how that can be misconstrued as he was doing it out of selflessness) These are selfish power hungry people don’t be deceived

[@Megor_connection101]

Then the British ended up dropping the last exiled emperor Karl on an island in the Atlantic. 😂ironic indeed.

[@DimaDima-sz4tp]

That was very informative thank you

[@VeryInteresting989]

Ottoman Empire: Never thought I'd die fighting along side a Hapsburg. Austria Hungary: How about a fellow declining empire? Ottoman Empire: Aye, I could do that.

[@saulchapnick1566]

By golly, you explained it splendidly.

[@alexknap]

To be fair, many Austrian efforts to increase taxation on Hungary for modernization were meant to centralize leadership under Viennese authority. Something which the Hungarians weren’t particularly exited about given the complicated history.

[@WG55]

"You were silly and confusing." A fitting epitaph for the Holy Roman Empire. 🧐

[@Matt-cz6ti]

When the House of Bisonette stopped providing funds and troops it was basically done

[@hairharbor5080]

No mention of Metternich and the Concert of Europe?

[@SharurFoF]

"You were silly and confusing" Perfect

[@randomneuralfirings]

The "Holy" "Roman" "Empire": a something or other whose name was three words, none of which were accurate.

[@TheCimbrianBull]

And Konrad von Hötzendorf made a cameo appearance at the end!

[@aleksandarvil5718]

3:18 Some random Hungarian soldiers (& Count Mihály Caroly) to István Tisza on October 31st, 1918 : *_“A VERY POOR CHOICE OF WORDS !!!”_*

[@TaTa8611]

Hungary improved a LOT during the dual monarchy. Visit Budapest. 90% of the sights were build back than. That was not a period of stagnation but booming development. Also I can't see why lower taxes and avoiding war is a detrimental... In fact AHM shouldn't have started WWI either. I know this is not a Chad move, and how can we prove our worth without killing our neighbours and negros, but I still thing the "happy peacetimes" were one of the most successful era for the region.

[@boobah5643]

No research, so I'm quite possibly wrong, but my suspicion is pork barrel politics. The Empire builds something in Budapest, and in exchange the Hungarians get out of the way on one point or another. Repeat as necessary for decades. Budapest does great; the rest, maybe not as great.

[@TaTa8611]

@@boobah5643 Hungary and the rest of the Empire functioned on a different budget, so they don't really built anything in Budapest. It was mainly entrepreneur immigrants (from Germany, Switzerland and Galician Jews) and nationalist aristocrats. Of course Hungary suffered from corruption, feudalism and massive poverty, but this era was still one of the most successful ever. It was also true for many major Hungarian cities like Kolozsvár/Cluj, Nagyvárad/Oradea, Debrecen...

[@Hinoema01]

1:06 I'm impressed! That guy had a tire iron well before the invention of the tire!

[@sparky6855]

It must be said that Austria absolutely did not attempt to merely restore Europe to the way it had been before the Napoleonic Wars. Historia Civilis has a few really great videos on the Congress of Vienna, which was where the post-war world was decided.

[@yallik154]

What an insane history. 😂 Good stuff, as ever.

[@Medvelelet]

Innacurate map at 2:26, Burgenland belongs to hungary before Trianon.

[@a.e.i.o.u_official]

You did a good job highlighting why Austria fell apart, but I think you could have highlighted Franz Josefs incompetence more. After the revolution he brought many things back to what it was before the revolution. He neglected military inovations, since he needed the money to bribe the nobility, but in the same time, the government failed on the diplomatic side, which was the backbone of past habsburg diplomacy. In summary: He developed a large military force while lacking behind in technology because of military innovations getting hold back, everything while they completely messed up their diplomacy. I know you can't make Franz Joseph responsible for all of that, but since he established a neo absolutist state, he held a good portion of the power for himself.

[@datfisheboi6519]

It's pretty funny that Austria essentially just got grandfathered in as a great power lmao

[@JonathanBailey]

We haven't had a good "Fun Fact: No" in a while. This made my day.

[@0_Matthiasss_0]

2:13 bruh they got slapped by Prussia into a diarchy 💀

[@untendohd1377]

Video ideas: How did the world react to the year without summer? Why is Yemen the only republic on the Arabian peninsula? Why is Bosnia & Herzegowina divided? Why did the Paraguayan War happen?

[@igormarins1227]

The Austro-Hungarian Empire will be forever in our hearts.

[@xerxen100]

To be honest, maybe its not just in your hearts :D The last opposition of its recreation is Hungary now, but the others gave them a serious pressure now.

[@TheCimbrianBull]

Home is where the heart is!

[@nibiru27]

nahh

[@igorbelopavlovic5838]

I did, in fact, enjoyed this episode :) Of course, iw enjoyed many previous ones as well.

[@Didyouknowthatiexist]

Turned austria from a great power to a small, sad state.

[@franciscoacevedo3036]

Hungary reminds me of the conservative states mainly the south where they're sabotaging the health of the nation for their own selfish reasons

[@miroslavdusin4325]

Why sad? Austria is a small but nice country. They are sometimes a little intolerant but nobody's perfect.

[@pourquoijeexiste674]

​@@miroslavdusin4325 inter war austria was a very sad state filled with economic recession and facism

[@mobinkarami]

For a second I didn't hear him saying James Bissonette at the end and I was so scared that I went back and check it again to be sure.

[@roeltz]

Me too

[@codboss7092]

I would say this idea is a little bit skewed. While yes on a global scale austria did decline in power but many areas in the kingdom of hungary experienced a "short golden age" various hungarian cities started industrializing during this time, budapest was the third city in the world to have a metro system. Meanwhile most parts of hungary were seriously underdeveloped before this (when the empire was "great"). And i would also add that parts of the austrian half also developed like Prague and vienna aswell. So overall i wouldnt say this is the full picture

[@chriswanger284]

D not lie! Budapest was the second city in the world which had underground metro system.

[@codboss7092]

@@chriswanger284 second in europe. Third in the world after new york and london

[@chriswanger284]

@@codboss7092 new York built its metro many decades later.