New Nations Born From The Collapse Of Austria-Hungary

The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 led to the formation of several new countries in central Europe. The empire was a multi-national constitutional monarchy consisting of two sovereign states, the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary, with a single monarch. The dissolution of the empire was a result of growing internal contradictions, the separation of its constituent parts, and military defeat in World War I. The immediate causes of the collapse were the 1918 crop failure, starvation, and economic crisis. The new countries that emerged from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire include the Austrian Republic, the Hungarian Democratic Republic (later the Kingdom of Hungary), Czechoslovakia, the Second Polish Republic, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and the Republic of China.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

The kingdom was ruled by the Serbian dynasty of Karadjordjevic, which had previously ruled the Kingdom of Serbia under Peter I from 1903. Peter I became the first king of the new state, which was also known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia or the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The kingdom was made up of the formerly independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, and a substantial amount of territory that was formerly part of Austria-Hungary.

The creation of the state was supported by pan-Slavists and Yugoslav nationalists. For the pan-Slavic movement, all of the South Slav (Yugoslav) people had united into a single state. The Allies also supported the creation of the kingdom, as they sought to break up the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In 1929, the kingdom's name was changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by King Alexander I. This was an attempt to combat local nationalism and encourage a wider loyalty to Yugoslav ("South Slav") patriotism.

Czechoslovakia

The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I led to the formation of the independent country of Czechoslovakia. The creation of Czechoslovakia was the culmination of the long struggle of the Czechs against their Austrian rulers and of the Slovaks against Magyarization and their Hungarian rulers.

The Czechs and Slovaks speak languages that are very similar, but at the end of the 19th century, the political and social situation of the two peoples was very different. This was due to the differing attitudes and positions of their rulers—the Austrians in Bohemia and Moravia, and the Hungarians in Slovakia. Bohemia was the most industrialised part of Austria, while Slovakia was the most industrialised part of Hungary, albeit at very different levels of development.

Around the start of the 20th century, the idea of a "Czecho-Slovak" entity began to be advocated by some Czech and Slovak leaders after contacts between Czech and Slovak intellectuals intensified in the 1890s. Despite cultural differences, the Slovaks shared similar aspirations with the Czechs for independence from the Habsburg state. In 1917, during World War I, Tomáš Masaryk, together with Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik, created the Czechoslovak National Council. Masaryk in the United States, Štefánik in France, and Beneš in France and Britain, worked tirelessly to secure Allied recognition.

On October 22, 1915, Czech and Slovak representatives in the United States signed the Cleveland Agreement, endorsing an independent Czech and Slovak federation with national autonomy for the Slovak people. This was followed by the Pittsburgh Agreement, signed on May 31, 1918, which envisioned a plan for a unified Czecho-Slovak state in which Slovakia would have its own assembly.

On October 18, 1918, the Czechoslovak National Council organised a Provisional Government and declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. The new Czechoslovak state was conceived as a representative democracy. The constitution identified the "Czechoslovak nation" as the creator and principal constituent of the Czechoslovak state and established Czech and Slovak as official languages. The concept of the Czechoslovak nation was necessary to justify the establishment of Czechoslovakia before the world, as otherwise, the statistical majority of the Czechs compared to Germans would be rather weak.

The First Czechoslovak Republic lasted from 1918 to 1938. The new republic was characterised by problems with its ethnic diversity, the separate histories of the Czech and Slovak peoples, and their greatly differing religious, cultural, and social traditions. The Germans and Hungarians of Czechoslovakia openly agitated against the territorial settlements. Nevertheless, the new republic saw the passage of a number of progressive reforms in areas such as housing, social security, and workers' rights.

The Second Czechoslovak Republic lasted from 1938 to 1939. Czechoslovakia faced problems with ethnic minorities such as Hungarians, Poles, and Sudeten Germans, who made up the largest part of the country's German minority. The rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in 1933, the German annexation of Austria in 1938, and the resulting revival of revisionism in Hungary left Czechoslovakia without effective allies. After the acquisition of Austria, Czechoslovakia became Hitler's next target. The German nationalist minority in Czechoslovakia, led by Konrad Henlein and fervently backed by Hitler, demanded a union of the predominantly German districts of the country with Germany.

The Third Czechoslovak Republic lasted from 1945 to 1948. Following Nazi Germany's surrender, some 2.9 million ethnic Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia with Allied approval, and their property and rights were declared void by the Beneš decrees. Czechoslovakia soon fell within the Soviet sphere of influence. The democratic elements, led by President Edvard Beneš, hoped the Soviet Union would allow Czechoslovakia the freedom to choose its own form of government and aspired to a Czechoslovakia that would act as a bridge between East and West.

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic lasted from 1948 to 1989. In February 1948, the Communists took power in a coup d'état, and Edvard Beneš inaugurated a new cabinet led by Klement Gottwald. Czechoslovakia was declared a "people's democracy"—a preliminary step towards socialism and, ultimately, communism. The economy was committed to comprehensive central planning and the abolition of private ownership of capital. Czechoslovakia became a satellite state of the Soviet Union and a founding member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact.

The final years of the Communist era were marked by a period of stagnation in the 1980s and growing anti-Communist sentiment. The anti-Communist revolution began on November 16, 1989, with a demonstration of Slovak university students for democracy, followed by a similar demonstration of Czech students in Prague on November 17. Faced with an overwhelming popular repudiation, the Communist Party all but collapsed. Its leaders, Husák and Miloš Jakeš, resigned in December 1989, and Václav Havel, a dissident playwright, was elected President of Czechoslovakia on December 29.

By 1992, Slovak calls for greater autonomy effectively blocked the daily functioning of the federal government. In July 1992, President Havel resigned, and in the latter half of 1992, Václav Klaus and Vladimír Mečiar hammered out an agreement that the two republics would go their separate ways by the end of the year. On January 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were simultaneously and peacefully established as independent states.

Austria

The Austrian Empire was geographically the second-largest country in Europe and the third most populous, after Russia and the German Empire. It was one of Europe's major powers and had the fourth-largest machine-building industry in the world. The Empire was formed in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, following wars of independence by Hungary in opposition to Habsburg rule.

The Austrian Empire included the following territories: Bohemia, Bukovina, Carinthia, Carniola, Dalmatia, Galicia, Küstenland, Lower Austria, Moravia, Salzburg, Silesia, Styria, Tyrol, Upper Austria, and Vorarlberg.

The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a major political event that occurred due to several factors, including the growth of internal social contradictions, the separation of different parts of Austria-Hungary, and the weakening of the empire over time due to a widening gap between Hungarian and Austrian interests. The immediate reasons for the collapse were World War I, the 1918 crop failure, starvation, and an economic crisis.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved into several successor states, including the Republic of Austria, which became known as German Austria and later the First Austrian Republic. The Empire's collapse led to significant territorial losses for Austria, which lost roughly 60% of its territory. Additionally, Austria had to abandon its plans for union with Germany.

The Republic of Austria faced challenges in establishing itself as a federal republic due to the diverse ethnic groups within its new borders and the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, with the support of the Allies, Austria eventually succeeded in forming a stable republic.

Hungary

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a dual monarchy formed by the Compromise of 1867, creating a King of Hungary in addition to the Austrian Emperor. The two countries conducted unified diplomatic and defence policies, with "common" ministries of foreign affairs and defence maintained under the monarch's direct authority. However, the Austrian and Hungarian states were co-equal in power and each maintained separate parliaments, with their own prime ministers.

The Hungarian Parliament voted to terminate the union with Austria on 17 October 1918. This was followed by the Aster Revolution on 31 October, in which the pro-Entente pacifist Count Mihály Károlyi seized power. Károlyi was appointed Hungarian Prime Minister by Emperor Karl I and one of his first acts was to repudiate the compromise agreement, officially dissolving the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and state. Károlyi's new government then recalled all troops conscripted from the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, dealing a major blow to the Habsburg armies on the front lines.

The Hungarian Democratic Republic was proclaimed on 16 November 1918. However, this was short-lived and was replaced by the communist Hungarian Soviet Republic. Romanian troops ousted Béla Kun and his communist government during the Hungarian-Romanian War of 1919. The Hungarian Democratic Republic was restored but was again short-lived, and the country eventually became the Kingdom of Hungary.

The Kingdom of Hungary lost roughly 72% of its pre-war territory, 64% of its population, and most of its natural resources. The new borders became major economic barriers, and the emerging country was compelled to make considerable sacrifices to transform its economy.

The Republic of China

The Austro-Hungarian concession in Tianjin was obtained after the signing of the Boxer Protocol, which concluded the conflict between China and the Alliance of Eight Nations. This conflict was the Boxer Rebellion of 1901, in which Austria-Hungary participated as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance. As a reward for its contribution, Austria-Hungary gained a concession zone in Tianjin on 27 December 1902.

The concession zone was a self-contained area with its own thermae, theatre, pawnshop, school, barracks, prison, cemetery, and hospital. It was governed by a town council composed of local high-class noblemen and headed by the Austro-Hungarian consul and the military commander. The Austro-Hungarian concession was relatively isolated during World War I, and with the outbreak of the war, China entered the conflict alongside the Triple Entente against the Central Powers, which included Austria-Hungary.

On 14 August 1917, China occupied the Austro-Hungarian concession and declared it revoked. The concession was formally handed over to the Chinese, and the Austrian consul recounted that the Chinese flag was raised on the administration building. The revocation of the concession was ratified by separate treaties with Austria and Hungary after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Austria renounced its rights to the concession on 10 September 1919 with the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and Hungary followed suit on 4 June 1920 with the Treaty of Trianon.

The former Austro-Hungarian concession was renamed the "Second Special District" and was placed under the permanent administration of the Chinese government. This marked the formation of the Republic of China from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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