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I want to base a timeline on the following, but since my last one turned out to be incorrect I would need some help (I do not know everything of that time). So thanks for reading.
1889
Date: 3rd of September Location: Near Bad Ischl
[blockquote]Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary (AH) was again indulging one of his passions, the hunt. Snow was thickly covering soil and threes and his boots were creaking with every step. His huntsmen had already spotted a royal stag with 10 branches and he was really looking forward to the shot. With him was as always a servant whose task was to ›secure‹ the prey. To say it bluntly it meant to compensate his majesty’s mediocre marksmanship. They were now moving more cautiously because the stag was near and sneaked up a hill. From there both of them should have a good aim. The Kaiser was going down and crawled the last few meters to reach the top. Now he could see the stag clearly; a beautiful deer with luscious brown fur and flawless antlers. He now aimed at it carefully. His servant did the same one meter to the left. Both of them shot simultaneously, so it would not be obvious who hit it. The stag’s head jerked up and a moment later it broke down and stopped moving.[/blockquote] »Great shot your majesty. I think mine is gone missing again«, the servant replied. When the servant turned his head Franz Joseph was lying there motionlessly, with his face on the ground. Blood already turned the snow red and his gun was blasted above the rifle’s butt. The explosion killed him in an instant.
The next in the line of succession would have been Franz Joseph’s younger Brother Karl Ludwig, but he had already ceded his claim after crown prince Rudolf’s suicide half a year ago. So Karl Ludwig’s son Franz Ferdinand became Kaiser. He decided to rule as Franz II.
The situation, which presented to Franz II, was not that promising.
In economical matters the industrialization has started much too late. Especially in the eastern part of AH medieval had still not ended (also in cultural and social ways). So even though the economic growth was higher than most western countries (~1,5%; GER ~1,2%, GB ~1%) AH had to rely strongly on agricultural products. Mainly grain, brown coal and wood were exported. The most important industrial export was sugar. In contrast to that AH’s industry, mainly seated in Bohemia and today’s Austria, was strongly dependant on foreign resources. Stone coal had to be imported and what was even more embarrassing for an agrarian state: Cotton, wool, tobacco and silk ranged among the most expensive imports. Also the high-tech companies were pretty much inferior to western standards and so their products were no match for their German counterparts. Good examples were gun barrels of the AH artillery. They were still made of bronze instead of steel, because nobody could produce a high grade steel with acceptable properties.
Concerning the military it was very old fashioned. Favoring fancy and manifold uniforms it was magnificent at presenting itself at parades, but its combat value was doubtable. In matters of equipment the army lacked proper artillery and machine guns. Needless to mention that AH’s army was surely inferior to those of France or Germany in this area, but the cavalry was very top notch, even for European standards. The many languages in the army were another problem. German was more or less accepted among officers, but the men in a regiment spoke up to three languages. Infantry regiment #100 for example consisted of 27 % Germans, 33 % Czech und 37 % Polish. In such a case the regimental officers had to learn all regimental languages within three years. In the case of men a lot of them could not even write or read their mother tongue. Sure that this situation did not improve the units efficiency. So the common soldier had to learn the so called Soldaten-Deutsch (Soldier-German), which consisted of 100 orders every soldier had to learn. Anything more complex was not taught and in many cases beyond them. The army also lacked proper accommodations, so in some cases a regiment (four battalions, ~500-600 men) was spread over 4 barracks. Infantry regiment #59 was a good example as its battalions were stationed in Bregenz, Innsbruck, Schwaz and Salzburg. Also the military draft was something which needed a revision. In principal every man in AH had the duty to serve 12 years in the military (3 active, 7 in reserve and 2 in the inactive Landwehr), but due to financial shortages just every fourth or fifth was drafted. Therefore in case of war most of the men had to be taught the very basics of being a soldier first or sent to the battlefield as mere militia. On the political side the army of AH was split up in three parts: Common army, Landwehr and Honved, what added even more complication to this. This was another point which impeded reforms in this area. Finally the navy was also not a paradigm of excellence. Old and few ships, low funding, mediocre infrastructures and port capabilities left AH with a fleet which was barely able to defend its own coasts.
The perhaps most delicate field the new Kaiser had to consecrate himself was the inner political affairs. In contrast to the foreign affairs, where AH could feature alliances with Italy, Germany and Romania and also a treaty about the Mediterranean with Great Britain, the inner political quarrellings were already starting to put pressure on AH’s integrity. Everywhere political parties with new more or less radical thinking popped up. Some of them demanded a separation of the monarchy and to join up with Germany, Russia (Pan-Slavism) or to found a new state. Others were shouting for more self-determination and free elections (You could only vote if you paid a certain amount of taxes, so it was basically a limited to the rich). In addition to this unfriendly political scenery further problems regarding poverty, rights and quality of life were giving radical ideas a fertile ground to blossom. This also caused many people to leave the country, mostly for the US. Among the most influential political groups were the Young Czech Party, which demanded a rather independent Czech state and equal use of language, the Social Democrats under Victor Adler and also upcoming Christian Socialistic parties and clubs which would form into the Christian Social Party under Karl Lueger. The latter was strongly anti-Semitic, but did not even try to hide this as it was easy to get votes by condemning Jews. The last and most probably biggest problem was presented by the Hungarians. Hungary was ruled by aristocrats, who strongly favored the politic of Magyarization. This meant strict favoring of the Hungarian part of the population and suppression of any kind of non Hungarian aspects when and where ever it was possible or affordable. Needless to mention, that this lead to tensions with German, Croat, Serb, Slovak, Ruthenian and Romanian minorities living there. In financial matters Hungary also got the longer end of the stick. Two thirds were always paid by Austria and the rest by Hungary, what Hungary surely enjoyed and Austria surely did not. Also the toll treaties had to be negotiated every ten years, what always gave the Austrians a headache.
Franz used the rest of the year to get insight to all of this details AH has to deal with in the coming year. So much of the state affairs rested on Eduard Taafe’s, prime minister of the Austrian part, shoulders. His Hungarian counterpart, Gyula Szupary, showed much less interest in cooperative politics. Besides that Franz was also looking for a possible Kaiserin to preserve the Habsburg dynasty.