The End of Austria-Hungary

Fülszöveg

In the last months of 1918 the largest Empire in Europe came to an end. The ramshackle, polyglot group of nations (which none the less had survived for several centuries) known as Austria-Hungary disintegrated into its component parts. In this masterly account Italy's leading historian, Signor Valiani tells in detail how and why.
Signor Valiani tells the story from the abortive revolutions in 1848, through the long reign of the Emperor Francis Joseph, down to the abdication and flight of his son Charles. He describes the cross-currents between the various nationalities, the rivalries between Slav, Croat, Czech, Magyar and German that paradoxically helped to keep the Empire in being; he examines the relationships of the dual monarchies of Austria and Hungary, and the ideas of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand for some form of democratic liberalisation through the Empire, which were finally frustrated by his assassination at Sarajevo; and he gives a fascinating account, made possible... Tovább

Fülszöveg

In the last months of 1918 the largest Empire in Europe came to an end. The ramshackle, polyglot group of nations (which none the less had survived for several centuries) known as Austria-Hungary disintegrated into its component parts. In this masterly account Italy's leading historian, Signor Valiani tells in detail how and why.
Signor Valiani tells the story from the abortive revolutions in 1848, through the long reign of the Emperor Francis Joseph, down to the abdication and flight of his son Charles. He describes the cross-currents between the various nationalities, the rivalries between Slav, Croat, Czech, Magyar and German that paradoxically helped to keep the Empire in being; he examines the relationships of the dual monarchies of Austria and Hungary, and the ideas of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand for some form of democratic liberalisation through the Empire, which were finally frustrated by his assassination at Sarajevo; and he gives a fascinating account, made possible by research into hitherto unpublished sources, of the attempts made during the First World War by the Germans to keep their ally intact and by the Allied Powers to spread disaffection within the Empire's borders. It is a story of high intrigue, of double-cross, of promises made to be broken.
Signor Valiani has written a major historical book which is likely to remain the standard work on the subject. Vissza