Everyone seems to be in agreement that the Austro-Hungarian compromise was a bad deal for long term stability of the country. It gave too much to the Hungarians and nothing to anyone else. What would in your opinion be a good way to structure the Austrian Empire?
The 2 most common proposals tend to be:
1. United States of Greater Austria
That being fully federalizing the empire along ethnic lines.
2. Federlazing the empire along traditional crownland of Bohemia, Galicia, Austria, Croatia and Hungary instead of ethnic borders
In my opinion the first one is an extremely dumb idea for several reasons
You have to remember that Austria and Hungary were pretty much separate countries, with nothing tying them together except a common monarch and a common foreign policy and the millitary. They had completely separate and independent laws and parliaments. In essence they were more different from each other than present day EU countries.
Dividing the Austrian empire into 5 regions like this would effectively make it no longer be a single state and only increase the centrifugal forces pulling the country in separate directions.
My proposal for reform would be division of the country into Galicia, Hungary, Croatia and Austria Proper(with Bohemia). But these regions would have to be much more integrated than Austria-Hungary was and have a common parliament and other state institutions in Vienna, but also large local autonomies.
The issue of dealing with minorities and languages would be left up to the regional parliaments and wouldn't be allowed to be discussed in the federal parliament which would only deal with general issues of the empire as a whole.
Languages of the empire would be:
Croatia - Croatian
Galicia - Polish and Ukranian
Hungary - Hungarian(with minorities possibly getting language rights in the latter half of the 20th century)
Austria Proper - German (Czech eventually getting regional language rights in areas where it's the majority in the first half of the 20th century)
Federal level - German (taught in the empire as a whole as a compulsory second language)
Anyway sorry for the long post, would like to hear your thoughts on this, what you think of my proposal and what would be the best solution in your opinion.
The 2 most common proposals tend to be:
1. United States of Greater Austria
That being fully federalizing the empire along ethnic lines.
2. Federlazing the empire along traditional crownland of Bohemia, Galicia, Austria, Croatia and Hungary instead of ethnic borders
In my opinion the first one is an extremely dumb idea for several reasons
- It would give legitimacy to the idea of ethno-nationalism and further fuel ethnic conflict
- It would piss of Hungarians so much that they'd never willingly agree to participate in this, what remains of Hungary would have to be effectively under permanent occupation
- Germans wouldn't be quite happy about losing their privileges in Bohemia
- Czechs would be pissed for not getting all of Bohemia
- Nationalities like the Serb and the Romanians would still betray the empire and join their country if ever given the chance anyway
- So all in all you're creating 10 000 new problems while solving almost none of them
You have to remember that Austria and Hungary were pretty much separate countries, with nothing tying them together except a common monarch and a common foreign policy and the millitary. They had completely separate and independent laws and parliaments. In essence they were more different from each other than present day EU countries.
Dividing the Austrian empire into 5 regions like this would effectively make it no longer be a single state and only increase the centrifugal forces pulling the country in separate directions.
My proposal for reform would be division of the country into Galicia, Hungary, Croatia and Austria Proper(with Bohemia). But these regions would have to be much more integrated than Austria-Hungary was and have a common parliament and other state institutions in Vienna, but also large local autonomies.
The issue of dealing with minorities and languages would be left up to the regional parliaments and wouldn't be allowed to be discussed in the federal parliament which would only deal with general issues of the empire as a whole.
Languages of the empire would be:
Croatia - Croatian
Galicia - Polish and Ukranian
Hungary - Hungarian(with minorities possibly getting language rights in the latter half of the 20th century)
Austria Proper - German (Czech eventually getting regional language rights in areas where it's the majority in the first half of the 20th century)
Federal level - German (taught in the empire as a whole as a compulsory second language)
Anyway sorry for the long post, would like to hear your thoughts on this, what you think of my proposal and what would be the best solution in your opinion.