AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE

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IsoT RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/17/2004 5:31:17 AM

No they weren't BUT the frequently won the uniform beauty contest in 19th century. The newer "won" anything they "married". and no they didn't do good in any war they fought.

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fall out RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/17/2004 6:37:56 AM

no, but their husband did (Germany), although, in WW1 for example, they were up against it when Russia's forces were overwhelming them, plus Italy backstabbing the central powers. it's pretty hard to fight someone as big or bigger than you when your a mixture of conquered nations, races, etc. ive got some info on all the ww1 powers, but i cant find it atm, so when i do ill post it to you ;))

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Roman RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/17/2004 7:21:00 AM

The Austro-Hungarian Empire lasted for quite a long time and you did not specify a time period in which you are interested, but from your post I am surmising that you are curious about the time around WWI. It is clear that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had numerous problems at this time - most problems stemming from its diversity. The Austro-Hungarian Empire consisted of the following nationalities: Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs (& Moravians & Silesians), Slovaks, Poles, Rusyns, Slovenians, Croatians, Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Romanians. The Austrians were the dominant nationality in terms of political power. Hungarians were the second most politically dominant nationality. The rest of the nationalities, which made up the majority of the population, were oppressed by the above Austrians and the Hungarians and wished nothing more than to split away from the empire. The Austro-Hungarian empire was also very unevenly developed. Some parts, such as Bohemia or Silesia, were as developed as Germany, but others, such as Slovakia, remained rural and populated mostly by peasants. On top of this, due to Italy's betrayal and its geographical position Austria-Hungary was surrounded by enemies on three sides and had to fight a three-front war on the Eastern front, the Balkan front and the Italian front. The performance of the Austro-Hungarian army during the Great War was mixed. The Austro-Hungarian armed forces have succesfully conquered Serbia, Montenegro and Romania, but these were not major powers in WWI. Against the Russians, the Austro-Hungarian army did not do well. Many of the component nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian empire and therefore its armed forces were Slavs and had no desire at all to fight the Russians and actually quite often deserted and joined the Russians instead. I know for a fact that Czech and Slovak units which deserted and joined the Russians formed the 'Czechoslovak Legions' to fight on the Russian side for their liberty from the Austro-Hungarian empire. Some such legions also fought on the Western front, but I believe these were mostly made up of expatriots. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was backstabbed by their supposed ally - Italy - in 1915, but the Austro-Hungarian armed forces actually did very well into Italy and Italy's offensive was not only repelled, but the Austro-Hungarian army was actually able to invade Italy and the situation got so desperate for the Italians that French and British divisions had to be diverted from the Western front in order to save them from complete collapse. It worked and the Austro-Hungarians were stopped by a combined British-French-Italian force in a massive battle on the river Piava in which one of my distant relatives (a lietenant in the Austro-Hungarian army - a pity he did not defect to fight the Austro-Hungarian oppressors) perished. Still I do think that if it was just a one on one Austro-Hungarian Empire against Italy, as you asked in your question, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would indeed win.

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densoflex RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/18/2004 11:48:58 AM

Good post Roman, but we are focusing on the very last period of an empire which lasted for centuries! How did it behave militarily? Well, as one would expect it had its ups and down and indeed, the Bourbon-Hapsburg rivalry was one of the greatest in Europe and lasted for almost 400 years. WW1 wasn't so bad, at least on the Italian front. The Austrian kept a defensive posture, well entrenched in the mountains. Everytime the Italians managed to dislodge them they fell back into another position and everything had to be started again... Finally the German allies got fed up with the lack of offensive spirit of the Austrians, sent a few division and almost singlehandedly rolled back the Italians back to the Piave where they managed to re-establish a front line with the help of French and Brits. Had it been one Vs one, i.e. A-H Vs Italy, I'm also under the impression that the Austrian would have won, at least providing the Austrian were wise enough to carry out a limited war against limited objectives. The Italian army with little military tradition nor experience, little support from the public opinion, would have been no match for the Austrians.

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jastayme3 RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/18/2004 6:25:36 PM

The Hapsburg empire seemed to be in general just slightly below average. They usually just survived but once in a while they could do spectacular things. In WWI they were a continuation of this. They usually lost but managed to sort of keep it up.

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fall out RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/18/2004 6:44:07 PM

remind me again exactly who were the bourbon's and hapsburg empire? Austria v Germanic was it or...?

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densoflex RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/19/2004 3:12:06 AM

The Bourbon were the dynasty of French kings which started with Henry IV around year 1600 and ended in 1848. The Hapsburg were the Austrian emperor dynasty who ruled Eastern Europe until 1918 and Spain until 1700. Both families clashed relentlessly for centuries.

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Okoshka RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/19/2004 7:34:23 AM

Austro-Hungarian Empire existed only after 1867. Previously it was the Habsburg Empire. In 1867 Franz-Josef of Habsburg kaiser of Austria and king of Hungary compromised with the Hungarian nation. It meant a limited autonomy for Hungary and the Hungarians.(Only) Nor before neither after we had no influence on foreign policy, financial and military issues. The Austrian Habsburg empire always was one of the strongest economies in Europe. A very strong political power, but never was a really strong military power. Perhaps because they always had to take care of the many different nationalities. They always were very good to divide and rule them. It made possibile to keep them under control but prevented to set up a really unified empire. In the meaning of economy, and law it was a unified empire but as many nationalities as many different interests, hopes,ambitions. An empire without a widely supported common spirit. The Habsburgs always preferred diplomacy instead of wars. Their habit was to solve the problems with marriages rather than with fights. What kind of problems with the nationalities? For example: Hungarian soldiers were sent to the Habsburg occupied Polish territories to keep the Poles under control. But those Hungarians were in better connection with the opressed locals then with their hated Austrian officers.(The Poles are the best friends of the Hungarians.) So the Hungarian companies were watched by Austrian companies. In te unification of Italy Hungarian volunteers fought with Garibaldi, he was and is well known and liked person in Hungary. In Noples and Sicilly you can find the graves and memory tables of the Hungarian soldiers. In ww1 Hungarian soldiers were sent to the Italian front. They weren't very happy to fight against the Italians.

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scholar RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/19/2004 5:28:15 PM

That wonderful Czech book "Good Soldier Svejk" does a good job of capturing the craziness of the late AH Empire as well as the lack of enthusiasm that Czech soldiers felt for it. On the other hand, if you read Joseph Roth's Radetzkymarch link and his other works you see that, while being useless as a modern fighting force, the AH Empire had many virtues and was in some ways preferable to all the supernationalisms that replaced it. The movie "Sunshine" captures a similar point of view.

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french stratege RE:AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE 10/19/2004 5:36:42 PM

For the French it is clear, we beated them all the time and the last time was in the 19th century with Solferino and WW1.

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