Austria-Hungary 1867

This map is part of a series of 24 animated maps showing the history of Europe and nations, 1815-1914.

The Austrian Empire is composed of a mosaic of Peoples; Germanic populations in the west, Slavic populations: Czechs, Slovaks, Poles in the north / Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in the south, Hungarians in the center, Romanians in the east and Italians in the extreme southwest.

Since the uprisings of the “Spring of Nations” Vienna has laid down an authoritarian policy of centralization; but, in the wake of Sadowa’s defeat by Prussia, the Empire, greatly weakened, must compromise on the question of nationalities.

The Compromise of 1867 establishes an original system of a double monarchy with a unique sovereign, Emperor in Vienna and King in Budapest. Hungary takes the name Transleithania with the annexation of Transylvania, Slovakia and a part of Croatia, while Cisleithania goes with the rest of the Empire.

Cisleithania and Transleithania are each endowed with an Assembly, but have in common foreign affairs, finances and the army.

This Compromise of 1867 does not put an end to the question of nationalities in the Empire. In Cisleithania the Czechs demand a form of autonomy based on the Hungarian model. In Transleithania the Croats oppose the policy of magyarization carried out by Budapest, while the Romanians look toward Romania, which has just gained its autonomy from the Ottoman Empire.