The United States of Greater Austria (german: Vereinigte Staaten von Groß-Österreich) was an unrealized proposal made in 1906 to
federalize Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...
to help resolve widespread ethnic and nationalist tensions. It was conceived by a group of scholars surrounding
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.
...
, notably by the ethnic
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
** Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
lawyer and politician
Aurel Popovici.
Nationality conflict
The first program for the federalisation of the Habsburg Empire was developed by the Hungarian nobleman
Wesselényi Miklós. In his work titled ''Szózat a magyar és a szláv nemzetiség ügyében'', published in Hungarian in 1843 and in German in 1844, he proposed not only social reforms but reforms of the state structure of the Empire and its nationality policy. He aimed to replace the centralized empire with a federation of five states: a German state, a state of Bohemia and Moravia, Galicia as a Polish state, and the state of historical Hungary
Another idea came from Hungarian revolutionary
Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (, hu, udvardi és kossuthfalvi Kossuth Lajos, sk, Ľudovít Košút, anglicised as Louis Kossuth; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, polit ...
: "True liberty is impossible without federalism". Kossuth proposed to transform the Habsburg Empire into a "Danubian State", a federal republic with autonomous regions.
The
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (german: Ausgleich, hu, Kiegyezés) established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereignty and status of the Kingdom of Hungary ...
established the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...
. The Compromise partially re-established
the sovereignty of the
Kingdom of Hungary, separate from and no longer subject to the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
. However, the favoritism shown to the Magyars, the second largest ethnic group in the dual monarchy after the Germans, caused discontent on the part of other ethnic groups like the
Slovaks
The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovak.
In Slovakia, 4.4 mi ...
and
Romanians.
[Cornwall, Mark. ''Last Years of Austria-Hungary: A Multi-National Experiment in Early Twentieth-Century Europe'', 2nd ed. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002.]
As the twentieth century started to unfold, the greatest problem facing the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...
was that it consisted of about a dozen distinctly different ethnic groups, of which only two, the
Germans and
Hungarians (who together accounted for about 44% of the total population), wielded any power or control. The other ethnic groups, which were not involved in the state affairs, included
Slavic (
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...
,
Croats
The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, ...
,
Czechs
The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...
,
Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Cen ...
,
Ruthenians,
Serbs,
Slovaks
The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovak.
In Slovakia, 4.4 mi ...
,
Slovenes
The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Slovenci ), are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia, and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovene as their n ...
and
Ukrainians) and
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
peoples (
Italians,
Romanians). Among them, only Croats had limited autonomy in the
Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia
The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia ( hr, Kraljevina Hrvatska i Slavonija; hu, Horvát-Szlavónország or ; de-AT, Königreich Kroatien und Slawonien) was a nominally autonomous kingdom and constitutionally defined separate political nation with ...
. In the
Kingdom of Hungary, several ethnic minorities faced increased pressures of
Magyarization
Magyarization ( , also ''Hungarization'', ''Hungarianization''; hu, magyarosítás), after "Magyar"—the Hungarian autonym—was an assimilation or acculturation process by which non-Hungarian nationals living in Austro-Hungarian Transleithani ...
.
The idea of the Dual Monarchy system of 1867 had been to transform the previous
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
into a constitutional union, one German-dominated and one Hungarian-dominated part, having also common institutions. However, after various demonstrations, uprisings and acts of
terrorism, it became readily apparent that the notion of two ethnic groups dominating the other ten could not survive ''in perpetuum''.
Franz Ferdinand had planned to redraw the map of Austria-Hungary radically, creating a number of ethnically and linguistically dominated semi-autonomous "states" which would all be part of a larger federation renamed the United States of Greater Austria. Under this plan, language and cultural identification was encouraged, and the disproportionate balance of power would be corrected. The idea was set to encounter heavy opposition from the Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy, since a direct result of the reform would have been a significant territorial loss for Hungary.
However, the Archduke was
assassinated
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
at
Sarajevo in 1914, triggering the outbreak of the
First World War. After the war, Austria-Hungary was
dismantled
Dismantled (born Gary Zon) is an electronic music artist from the United States.
History
Dismantled is the product of an experiment that began in late 2000 by Gary Zon, who was attempting to create something similar to Front Line Assembly's s ...
and several new
nation-states
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than " country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, m ...
were created, and various Austro-Hungarian territories were ceded to neighbouring countries at the
Paris Peace Conference (''see
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and
Treaty of Trianon'').
States proposed by Aurel Popovici
According to Popovici's plans, the following 15 territories were to become states of the federation after the reform. The majority ethnic group within each territory is also listed.
*''Deutsch-Österreich'':
German-Austria (present-day
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...
with the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional It ...
province of
South Tyrol, the
Bohemian Forest
The Bohemian Forest, known in Czech as Šumava () and in German as Böhmerwald, is a low mountain range in Central Europe. Geographically, the mountains extend from Plzeň Region and South Bohemia in the Czech Republic to Austria and Bavaria ...
and
South Moravia regions—the southern part of the later ''
Sudetenland
The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the b ...
''—in the present-day
Czech Republic, as well as the
Burgenland
Burgenland (; hu, Őrvidék; hr, Gradišće; Austro-Bavarian: ''Burgnland;'' Slovene: ''Gradiščanska'') is the easternmost and least populous state of Austria. It consists of two statutory cities and seven rural districts, with a total of ...
region in western Hungary including Sopron/
Ödenburg
Sopron (; german: Ödenburg, ; sl, Šopron) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő.
History
Ancient times-13th century
When the area that is today Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire, a ...
, Mosonmagyaróvár/
Wieselburg
Wieselburg (Central Bavarian: ''Wieslbuag'') is a town in Lower Austria, Austria, located near the River Erlauf. Its name roughly translates to castle where two rivers meet, as there are two rivers that run together to create the Erlauf. Its popu ...
and
Pressburg
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...
), ethnic German
*''Deutsch-Böhmen'':
German Bohemia
The Province of German Bohemia (german: Provinz Deutschböhmen ; cs, Německé Čechy) was a province in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, established for a short period of time after the First World War, as part of the Republic of German-Austria. ...
(''Sudetenland'' territory in northwestern Bohemia, present-day Czech Republic), ethnic German
*''Deutsch-Mähren'':
German Moravia (northeastern ''Sudetenland'' in Moravia and
Austrian Silesia
Austrian Silesia, (historically also ''Oesterreichisch-Schlesien, Oesterreichisch Schlesien, österreichisch Schlesien''); cs, Rakouské Slezsko; pl, Śląsk Austriacki officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, (historically ''Herzogth ...
, present-day Czech Republic, later named Province of the Sudetenland), ethnic German
*''Böhmen'':
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohe ...
proper (southern and central part of Bohemia and Moravia in the present-day Czech Republic), ethnic Czech
*''Slowakenland'': roughly present-day
Slovakia, ethnic Slovak
*''West-Galizien'': West
Galicia (the western part of the
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...
in present-day
Poland), ethnic Polish
*''Ost-Galizien'': East Galicia (the eastern part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and the adjacent
Bukovina
Bukovinagerman: Bukowina or ; hu, Bukovina; pl, Bukowina; ro, Bucovina; uk, Буковина, ; see also other languages. is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe (or both).Klaus Peter Berge ...
lands, in present-day
Ukraine and Poland), ethnic
Rusyn
Rusyn may refer to:
* Rusyn people, an East Slavic people
** Pannonian Rusyn people, a branch of Rusyn people
** Lemkos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people
** Boykos, a branch of Rusyn (or Ukrainian) people
* Rusyn language, an East Slavic l ...
and
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
*''Ungarn'':
Hungary (present-day Hungary with parts of southern
Slovakia,
Transcarpathia - today
Ukraine, and the northern
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capita ...
region in present-day
Serbia), ethnic
Magyar
*''Seklerland'':
Székely Land (part of present-day
Romania), ethnic Magyar
*''Siebenbürgen'':
Transylvania, most of the
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of ...
and
Bukovina
Bukovinagerman: Bukowina or ; hu, Bukovina; pl, Bukowina; ro, Bucovina; uk, Буковина, ; see also other languages. is a historical region, variously described as part of either Central or Eastern Europe (or both).Klaus Peter Berge ...
(part of present-day Romania, Serbia and Ukraine), mainly ethnic Romanian, with Magyar and German minorities
*''Trient'':
Trentino (part of present-day Italy), ethnic Italian
*''Triest'':
Trieste and
Gorizia (parts of present-day Italy), western
Istria (part of present-day Croatia and Slovenia), mainly ethnic Italian, with Slovenian and Croatian minorities
*''Krain'':
Carniola
Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region st ...
(roughly present-day
Slovenia with the
Slovene-speaking territory of southern
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carin ...
), ethnic Slovene
*''Kroatien'':
Croatia (present-day
Croatia,
Srijem
Syrmia ( sh, Srem/Срем or sh, Srijem/Сријем, label=none) is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia and Croatia. Most of the region is flat, with the ex ...
in present-day Serbia and
Boka Kotorska
The Bay of Kotor ( Montenegrin and Serbian: , Italian: ), also known as the Boka, is a winding bay of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Montenegro and the region of Montenegro concentrated around the bay. It is also the southernmost part of the h ...
in present-day
Montenegro), ethnic Croatian and Serb
*''Woiwodina'':
Vojvodina
Vojvodina ( sr-Cyrl, Војводина}), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capita ...
(part of present-day
Serbia and
Croatia), mainly Serb and Croatian, with Magyar, Romanian, German and Slovak minorities.
In addition, a number of mostly German-speaking enclaves in eastern
Transylvania, the Banat and other parts of Hungary, southern Slovenia, large cities (such as
Prague,
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...
,
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukra ...
, and others) and elsewhere were to have autonomy within the respective territory.
See also
*
Trialism in Austria-Hungary, an alternative reform movement to turn the dual Austria-Hungary into a triple Austro-Hungarian-Croatian state
*
National personal autonomy
The Austromarxist principle of national personal autonomy ("personal principle"), developed by Otto Bauer in his 1907 book ''Die Nationalitätenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie'' (The Nationalities Question and Social Democracy) was seen by him a wa ...
, an alternative reform suggested by Austrian Marxists
*
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (french: Traité de Saint-Germain-en-Laye) was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the Republic of German-Austria on the other. Like the Treaty of Tri ...
*
Treaty of Trianon
*
Austro-Slavism
Austro-Slavism or Austrian Slavism was a political concept and program aimed to solve problems of Slavic peoples in the Austrian Empire. It was most influential among Czech liberals around the middle of the 19th century. First proposed by Kar ...
*
Lajos Kossuth
Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (, hu, udvardi és kossuthfalvi Kossuth Lajos, sk, Ľudovít Košút, anglicised as Louis Kossuth; 19 September 1802 – 20 March 1894) was a Hungarian nobleman, lawyer, journalist, polit ...
*
Count Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart
*
Count Kasimir Felix Badeni
Count Kasimir Felix Badeni (German: ''Kasimir Felix Graf von Badeni'', Polish: ''Kazimierz Feliks hrabia Badeni''; 14 October 1846 – 9 July 1909), a member of the Polish noble House of Badeni, was an Austrian statesman, who served as Minister- ...
*
Aurel Popovici
*
Oszkár Jászi
*
Milan Hodža
Milan Hodža (1 February 1878 – 27 June 1944) was a Slovak politician and journalist, serving from 1935 to 1938 as the prime minister of Czechoslovakia. As a proponent of regional integration, he was known for his attempts to establish a demo ...
*
Karl Renner
*
Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi
Richard Nikolaus Eijiro, Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi (16 November 1894 – 27 July 1972) was an Austrian-Japanese politician, philosopher and Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi. A pioneer of European integration, he served as the founding president of ...
*
Wolfgang Schüssel
Wolfgang Schüssel (; born 7 June 1945) is an Austrian People's Party politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007. While being recognised as a rare example of an active reformer in conte ...
*
Koruna Česká (party)
Czech Crown (Monarchist Party of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) ( cs, Koruna Česká (monarchistická strana Čech, Moravy a Slezska), KČ) is a Czech monarchist political party that strives for the restoration of Czech monarchy with the House ...
*
Black-Yellow Alliance
The Black-Yellow Alliance (german: Schwarz-Gelbe Allianz, SGA) is a monarchist movement in Austria founded on 6 August 2004. Their aim is the restoration of monarchy in Austria as well as a Central European monarchic union of the states which h ...
*
Democratic Peasants' Party (Bukovina)
*
Ethnic federalism
References
*
*
*
*
{{Reflist
External links
Map of proposed partition Federalism in Austria-Hungary
History of Austria-Hungary
Proposed countries
Constitutional history of Austria
1906 in Austria-Hungary
1906 in politics