Austria-Hungary
, the
Habsburg
empire
from the
constitutional
Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867
between
Austria
and
Hungary
until the empire’s collapse in 1918.
A brief treatment of the history of Austria-Hungary follows. For full treatment, see
Austria: Austria-Hungary, 1867?1918
.
More From Britannica
Austria: Austria-Hungary, 1867?1918
The empire of Austria, as an official
designation
of the territories ruled by the Habsburg monarchy, dates to 1804, when
Francis II
, the last of the Holy Roman emperors, proclaimed himself emperor of Austria as Francis I. Two years later the
Holy Roman Empire
came to an end. After the fall of
Napoleon
(1814?15), Austria became once more the leader of the German states, but the
Austro-Prussian War
of 1866 resulted in the expulsion of Austria from the
German Confederation
and caused Emperor
Franz Joseph
to reorient his policy toward the east and to consolidate his
heterogeneous
empire. Even before the war, the necessity of coming to terms with the rebellious Hungarians had been recognized. The outcome of negotiations was the
Ausgleich
concluded on February 8, 1867.
The agreement was a compromise between the emperor and Hungary, not between Hungary and the rest of the empire. Indeed, the peoples of the empire were not consulted, despite Franz Joseph’s earlier promise not to make further constitutional changes without the advice of the imperial parliament, the Reichsrat. Hungary received full internal
autonomy
, together with a responsible ministry, and, in return, agreed that the empire should still be a single great state for purposes of war and foreign affairs. Franz Joseph thus surrendered his domestic
prerogatives
in Hungary, including his protection of the non-Magyar peoples, in exchange for the maintenance of dynastic
prestige
abroad. The “common monarchy” consisted of the emperor and his court, the minister for foreign affairs, and the minister of war. There was no common
prime minister
(other than Franz Joseph himself) and no common cabinet. The common affairs were to be considered at the delegations, composed of representatives from the two parliaments. There was to be a
customs union
and a sharing of accounts, which was to be revised every 10 years. This decennial revision gave the Hungarians recurring opportunity to levy blackmail on the rest of the empire.
The Ausgleich came into force when passed as a
constitutional law
by the
Hungarian
parliament in March 1867. The Reichsrat was only permitted to confirm the Ausgleich without
amending
it. In return for this, the German liberals, who composed its majority, received certain concessions: the rights of the individual were secured, and a genuinely impartial judiciary was created; freedom of belief and of education were guaranteed. The ministers, however, were still responsible to the emperor, not to a majority of the Reichsrat.
The official name of the state shaped by the Ausgleich was Austria-Hungary. The kingdom of Hungary had a name, a king, and a history of its own. The rest of the empire was a casual agglomeration without even a clear description. Technically, it was known as “the kingdoms and lands represented in the Reichsrat” or, more shortly, as “the other Imperial half.” The mistaken practice soon grew of describing this nameless unit as “Austria” or “Austria proper” or “the lesser Austria”?names all strictly incorrect until the title “empire of Austria” was restricted to “the other Imperial half” in 1915. These confusions had a simple cause: the empire of Austria with its various fragments was the dynastic possession of the house of Habsburg, not a state with any common
consciousness
or purpose.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.
Subscribe Now