@@brokenbridge6316 Thanks! I'll be taking a quick break from the WW1 videos to make something a little shorter before probably finishing with the Romanovs
@@JackRackam---Really. Maybe you'll add something in about Rasputin and how he predicted what happened to the Romanov Monarchy should he be killed by a member of the Romanov Family.
But which Gavrilo Princip did it? Was it smug,"I probably did it", movie-star jaw, movie-star facial hair Gavrilo? or was it,"I just want to die.", sunken, discoloured eylids depressed Gavrilo? Legit worth looking into
Fair dues to Franz Joseph, he was also the emperor who dragged Austria-Hungary kicking and screaming into the 19th Century, promoting industry, overseeing the construction of railways that many in Europe thought were flat out impossible, and reshaping Vienna from an ancient walled city into the modern metropolis we know today. In Austria at least he's still a rightly beloved figure with paintings and busts of him in almost every public building.
The son of Franz Josef who committed suicide, Crowns Prince Rudolf, is a fascinating (and incredibly tragic) character in his own right and not nearly enough people even know he existed. So if you think you're up for the task, Jack, I'd love to see you take a stab at a life and times for him in the future. Also there are a lot of disagreements and conspiracy theories around the circumstances of his death, so that's a fun little bonus.
Franz Josef's wife the Empress Sisi would also be a good subject, raised in a bohemian family before getting forced into an incredibly unhappy marriage and suffering from body issues and depression. She ended up becoming one of the lynchpins behind the formation of Austria-Hungary before losing her son and being murdered by an insane anarchist for no reason
Subject: Austro-Hungarian Empire Age: technically 51, but more like 500 Cause of Death: Apparent suicide via excess of nationalism, complications from modern war--foul play?? Potential suspects: Entente--found a 14 Points Manifesto at their home from associate America discussing the "dismemberment" of Austria-Hungary Russia--other long-standing rival; alibi: "We're busy killing ourselves right now" Serbia--have wanted Austria-Hungary dead for years CASE CLOSED: FOUL PLAY RULED OUT; SUBJECT DIED OF EXTREME OLD AGE, COMPLICATED BY WAR WOUNDS
One reason for the breakup of Austria-Hungary, that I don't see brought up often in popular circles, is how dysfunctional it's goverment was. I don't know enough to give more then a general view but put simply: Can anyone see the problem with a state that is composed of two pieces with equal say in goverment, who also don't like or trust each other? Virtually all attempts by the government to do "anything" got stuck when the Hungarians and Austrians couldn't agree. Which happened often. You know how it took a month for them to do anything after the Assassination in Sarajevo? This was why. The whole nationalism and rights to minorities? The Austrians where giving greater rights, autonomy and participation in politics to the Slavs in their half of the country. The Hungarians? Magyarization all the way. This is a bit of an issue. One of the proposals to fix the dysfunction and break the deadlock, from one Franz Ferdinand, was to uplift the South Slavs in the Empire to make a Triple Monarchy. And since the Slavs where treated better by the Austrians, and much worse by the Hungarians, this would give Franz two votes against one 'when' he became Emperor. Needless to say the Hungarians didn't like Franz Ferdinand and the feeling was very much mutual. Ironic that it was a Slav who shot him rather then an Hungarian.
The problem in the Dual Monarchy was the Hungarians. Simple as. Franz Josef should've just let them go and federalized Austria with the Czechoslovaks and Croats. Many Croats wouldve prefered to be under the Catholic Habsburgs than the Orthodox Belgradians. Every time Austria wanted to go on a new venture or cozy up to the western powers (specifically France) they were always vetoed by the Hungarians.
It was a Bosnian Serb who killed him since Franz Ferdinands plan to up lift the southern slavs would have killed the Serbian dreams of a Greater Serbia Ironically post ww1 the Serbs got their Greater Serbia in the form of Yugoslavia...and like Austria-Hungary it was a dysfunctional mess until it finally fell apart in the 1990s
Calling the fall of the AustroHungarian empire a suicide is like saying you died of suicide after having a heart attack from eating nothing but burgers. It's collapse is roughly like suddenly having a heart attack after a long time of living very poorly.
I still find it impressive that the Empire lasted as long as it did, the Habsburgs had, in some manner, been continually ruling from the HRE to the Victorian Era in largely the same loose feudal system. I guess it says something that one of the longest-lasting political dynasties in European history was (generally) more concerned with maintaining the peace and focusing on political matters than starting wars and taking territory.
@@tomlxyz They were expansionist but I think the broad strokes of their attempted conquests were usually more diplomatic and gradual, focused more on long term stability and not ruffling too many feathers up until their ties with Russia broke down at least. If nothing else, I don't think they ever started wars without at least a very strong belief that they would win, though this is probably something of a generalisation.
3:09 Actually, up until the French Revolution, regional identities were still quite important in France. Not everyobdy spoke French, most people spoke their own regional language (Breton, Basque, Occitan) in everyday life. It really was during the 19th and early 20th century that France became more culturally homogenous. So you could say France was also a very diverse place in 1815.
That have to be relativized and compared to the rest of europe. Appart from Britanny Corsica and some German territories, France was pretty much homogeneous when compared to things like Spain, Austria-Hungary, German Empire, Russia, etc.. Yes, there was regional languages, but that was the norm at that time and definitely not the same as being from a different ethnicity. There was for example not clear limitation on where oil languages stop and oc languages began. Like every others place in pre national school system Europe, languages evolved regions from regions until there is a lot of differences between a guy a from Marseille and a guy from Lille.
@@mrsupremegascon I am pretty sure the Basques are a different ethnicity, being they are both linguistically and biologically distinct from the rest of Europe.
@@johnkilmartin5101 Occitan, Arpitan and italian dialects in the mainland were also a thing. And catalan. And even Normandy had quite a distinct identity, a french dialect with alot of viking and a little bit of english influence. So yeah, France was definetelly muntiethnical, almost at the same level as A-H. Although France was MOSTLY made up of romance languages; with dutch-german dialects, breton and basque as the exceptions. So due to intelligiblity France had a much easier time assimilation its ethnicities before they managed to woke up in the spring nationalist awakening in the 19th and 20th centuries. Spain was in a very similar situation, with basque being the only non romance language (and probably some very small arab or berber speaking groups, idk). The british isles were also very divided, but dialects there started moving closer together already in the protestant reformation; which also forced english upon Ireland. I can't think of any large country which didn't consist of many nationalities; the swedish empire had both baltic, finnic, north germanic, west germanic and slavic inhabitans. The russian empire still stands as very multi-ethnic. Turkey would alsmost be as diverse as the ottoman empire (except the arabs and jews etc in the middle east), but they forced out millions or killed of greeks and armenians. Switzerland still works very well as a multi ethnic makeup. I do think that Austria-Hungary could have survived into the 21st century, but it would have reorganized (which it would have in 1917 had not Franz Ferdinand been assasinated), kinda similar to Belgium, as the Danube confederacy.
@@mrsupremegascon See the multiethnic France: In the era of the Great French revolution, only 25% of the population of Kingdom of France could speak the French language as mothertongue. But even in 1870, France was still similar-degree multi-ethnic state as Hungary, only 50% of the population of France spoke the French language as mothertongue. The other half of the population spoke Occitan, Breton, Provençal, Catalan, Corsican, Alsatian, West Flemish, Lorraine Franconian, Gallo, Picard or Ch’timi and Arpitan etc... Many minority languages were closer to Spanish languages or Italian language than French) French governments banned minority language schools, minority language newspapers minority theaters. They banned the usage of minority languages in offices , public administration, and judiciary procedures. The ratio of french mothertongue increased from 50% to 91% during the 1870-1910 period!!!
It's actually worth noting that the economic divides in the empire, namely the industrialization of the Austrian/Bohemian areas while Hungary remained primarily agricultural, was actually beneficial to keeping it together. The industrialized sectors of the empire provided for the agricultural, and the agricultural sectors provided for the industrial, creating a symbiotic and tightly knit internal economy, that together, served to create a single well-functioning economy on the world stage. The real economic collapse happened when A-H fell apart (especially for Hungary) as these intertwined parts were suddenly cut from each other and hindered by international borders, customs, etc.
This video is great. In a humorous way, it is explained quite well how the end of AH came about. What bothers me about the majority of RU-vid videos dealing with this topic is that they do not explain anything, but merely list historical events. This video explains the context and thoughts of the people who lived at that time.
An excellent video explaining the intricacies of the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Even with everything I know about it, it still baffles me with its complexity.
@Graf von Losinj - I Post Info Honestly i felt it Empire it doomed from the start with all this nationalist ideal of their own independence country. Even the Austrian themselves in the was felt they are more German and should be with Germany rather than being a separate with them... Man.... it survived for a years it some what miracle.
Not bad, not bad at all. Thanks for taking care of this topic! One thing you could have added to the personal tragedies of old FJ was his son dying in a scandalous murder-suicide with his mistress. Family-wise the guy really couldn't catch a break.
The Austrian Empire only survived 1868 by elevating the Hungarian part to an equal footing with the Austrian one. Franz Ferdinand wanted to do the same for the other parts of the empire(especially the south slavs) and create a federalized state to limit nationalist tensions. If he'd lived to be able to try it it could have helped keep the empire together longer
I will say that the focus on people sorta obscures that you could do an entire video on 1848, when there are revolutions in nearly every major nation in Europe, and almost all of them collapse.
Not us in the UK though (except possibly Ireland but I always think of them separately as they were forced into a situation whereas the other 3 joined willingly if begrudgingly), we kept it together-until now where Scottish nationalism is the highest it's been since we recorded that sort of thing and it seems like a very real possibility that the union is going to split lol we like to be awkward on this island at the edge of Europe compared to the mainland haha
I really enjoyed 12:10 with the "SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS!". I've been playing through my first full game of Skyrim the last few days and it made me laugh to see a Skyrim reference.
13:03 No, the nations of SHS saw themselves as entering into a common state, with other slavic peoples, just as a stepping stone to greater independence. That state was rife with strife for greater autonomy of Slovenes and croats, than federelisation, than independence
11:25 “I’ll call you a taxi, Mr. Hapsburg.” Is that like, a real quote?? Because if so that is an amazingly poetic way to showcase the now utter political irrelevance of a dynasty that were once the biggest movers and shakers in Europe
Thank you for explaining how Austro-Hungary came to be! Literally every history class on this time period that I've attended in school skipped past it to get to WW1.
You have taken a situation I have never understood and turned it into something prettier that still makes no sense. We both have lost time we will never get back again and it’s doubtful we are any better for it. Bravo and good night 🌙
I just have re-read the "Good soldier Švejk" and it points out, how bad of a hand Franz-Ferdinand was dealt. His wife was killed, his oldest son and hair went off the grid and dissapeared, his nephew and his wife were gunned down... and above all, flies shat on his portrait in "Chalice" canteen.
Honestly would Have preffered an actual the life And times of Franz Joseph not an overal look ať the history of Austria Hungary. His actual life Is way more interesting
Imagine if Austria Hungary was able to to survive to this very day. It would be interesting seeing a multicultural federal republic in Europe The United States of Austria-Hungary
1848-49 wasn't even the first times we tried to kick out the Habsburgs from Hungary, we also had a war trying to kick them out in 1703-1711 (sadly it didn't end well either). Franz Joseph had the generals of the revolution and the first Hungarian prime minister executed (something we still get a bit mad about on its anniversary every year).
ive watched alot of your videos, i enjoy your videos very much but this one.... my favorite and i thought the bismark altering the news paper video was my favorite,.... i will say i would love to see the movie..... who killed the Spanish empire.... ;)
Nationalism is more about internal politics. Globalism had to do with interconnected ties with other nations. Thus WW1 was a Globalist affair. So wouldn't the breakup be a bit of both?
Please for the love of God continue this narration style at least as a mini-series! Also you forgot the large role his wife played in both the creation of Austria-Hungary and later politics.
It's quite impressive how the Austro-Hungarian Military Commamd botched the Great War. British Field Marshal Douglas Haig is a common target of ridicule but Austrian Field Marshal Conrad von Hotzendorf is a great example of how unprepared some of the pre-war general staffs were for the war they were in.
Well in Croatian part in Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary is quite wrong that you said, in Hungarian Revolution Croatian Ban Josip Jelačič was helping Austrian Empire to crush the revolution in Vienna (or Beč in Croatian) and Austro-Hungary was made and Croatia got the boot and in the 1918 the state of SHS (Slovenes, Croats and Serbs) but it found out that a huge Italian army was in Istra and Dalmatia to give it to Italy in 1919 but it was having to join with Kingdom of Serbia to get Dalmatia back but istra and Rijeka got to Italy and then in 1920 the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was Born
I always felt Austria deserved more blame for WWI. Serbia tried working with them. Austria gave a list of demands no one thought Serbia would accept to avoid war, but indeed they did. That wasn’t good enough for Austria. I know Austria never would been so bold had Germany not been on side but Russia viewed Serbia as their fellow Slavs which means they could have tossed those demands. Serbian tried to avoid war more than Austria ever did. WWI and the lead up to it is much more fascinating and convoluted than WWII. WWII’s atrocities trump the memory of WWI to such an extent most people will tell you it was all bc of Franz Ferdinand getting assassinated. It’s not that simple.
@@jozsefsandor671 To be fair i don't think it would ever work. It is just that the way in which the Austria Hungary broke up led to some very bad times for Croatia, and I wonder if things could have ended differently. As for Kossuth i fear that he would nevertheless claim most of Croatia as part of Hungary (as many of his contemporaries did), but i don't know much about him personally.
Franz Joseph. Hard worker, arguably made needed reforms and changes to the Empire early on. But he was unable to change and adapt to changing times later on.
People talk about how tough Germany had it after WWI. Usually there's no mention of what happened to Austria, Hungary, Turkey and the empires they once dominated. One thing's for sure, they weren't able to attempt to conquer Europe a couple decades later.
Nationalism explains it, just not the way many in the West understand it. Since early 19th century almost all Nationalities within the Empire wanted an out. That being independence or (more realistically) autonomy. When in 1918 the empire broke apart it was not the pure work of a sudden revolution, but a longtime wareffort of nationalities within the Empire to petition The Entente to grant them independence. This being most famously Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. The 1868 law you mention is irrelevant. Hungary for example repressed these laws. Same with your "autonomies". These were mostly on paper, factually either germanized/hungarized or simply lacking de facto authority. Furthermore the new nations didn't really see themselves as multi-ethnic. Czechoslovakia was founded on the pan-slavic principle/ideology of Czechoslovakism. The belief that Czechs and Slovaks are two tribes of a single nation. As to the minorities in Sudetenland they were seen as remnants of the attempted germanization and the Hungarians in Slovakia seen as a necessary evil for Czechoslovakia to have strategic borders (Foreign Minister Edvard Beneš shot his most outrageous demand believing it to be a good tactic to negotiate good borders, he thought they would not accept this demand, but they did) While in Yugoslavia the nationalities weren't seen as too different due to, again, the pan-slavic principle. Some even believed all those nations were tribes of one Yugoslav nation. Btw Wilson was seen as one of the founding fathers in Czechoslovakia, despite him being a horrible human, he was celebrated as the foreigner who made the Republic possible I hope this clears up stuff.
Arguably Europe would have been better off if Austria hungry stayed on though a slightly demolished form loosing its polish and some of its south Slavic territories. Emperor Karl could have allied with France and a independent Poland as a counter balance to Germany. The disillusion of the empire into multiple tiny states made central Eastern Europe vulnerable to German expansion.
You know sometiems you sound like that voice actor who I can’t put my finger on. The guy who voices Timmy’s dad in fairy odd parents or someone else I think from the show
There was also the movement for trial monarchy to be established instead of the dual one with the Czechs gaining autonomy like the Hungarians-that would be a very interesting empire to see in ww1-maybe they would be better, maybe not?
so basically, going bankrupt in an endless war to the point of not being able to feed your population... yeah that can do it, bc at that point its not just the suits in parliament that are upset, but the average apolitical villager too
