Austro-Hungarian Empire

During his sixty-six year reign, Franz Joseph had to endure many territorial disputes. As any other superpower in Europe, there was much paranoia and a lot of rulers who would do anything to protect their back. While the allied countries sported the title of allies, they were hardly even lukewarm towards each other. One year fighting with each other, and the next year making treaties against a common foe (which was often another ally). As it was seen in the Crimean War (1853), when France and England joined Turkey against Russia. When Russia sought the support of Austria in the conflict, the help was not approved but rather given to Turkey, and Austria lost critical Russian support. So when France took advantage of the estranged relations between the two countries, and along with Italy waged war to gain Lombardy, Franz Joseph was forced to surrender the city in July 1859. No longer having a strong ally and sure that absolutism was not the way Franz Joseph I, experimented with numerous political systems, but he only was pleased when Hungary came into the equation. The outline of a dual monarchy was already taking shape by 1865, but the negotiations stalled on the eve of the war with Prussia (Seven Week War). The war was at first controlled by Austria, but the end result had them losing Venetia (Austria’s last piece of Italy) to Italy and Holstein to Prussia.

After the war with Prussia, Franz Joseph I realized that it was time to for the dissolution of the German Confederation and accepted the formation of a Prussian-dominated North German Confederation, which became the basis of the German Empire in 1871. The south German states--Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, and Hesse-Darmstadt--were accorded an "independent international existence".To stop the internal bleeding of weary Austrian citizens, Franz Joseph decided to give the unhappy Habsburg Empire two separate states, under one common ruler, thus, the name of a “dual monarchy”.  As a result of the Habsburg Empire being divided, it also meant that there would be two governments (Vienna and Budapest), which would both be under the rule of one monarch. A common ruler with almost unchallenged powers in the conduct of foreign and military affairs, a ministry of foreign affairs, a ministry of defense, and a finance ministry for diplomatic and military establishments. The Austro-Hungarian Empire finally fell apart in the beginning stages of the Twentieth century, and it paved the way to a free Austria- the Republic.

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