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Ethnic & linguistic
maps of the Austria-Hungarian Empire
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
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this Article About
the Author Bibliography/Sources
This article offers exclusive
maps and history of the Habsburg Austrian, and later Austria-Hungarian
Empire from the conception of the unified German duchy of
Austria in 976 until the merger of Austria and Hungary to
resist Islamic invasion after 1526, all until the collapse
of 1918. The maps are scanned from the masterpiece historical
monograph A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526-1918,
by Robert A. Kann.
Map of Austrian Expansion
(976-1918)
The below map shows the expansion
of the early "Austrian" state (Austria was a province
of the German Holy Roman Empire with its own regional dynasty)
into an independent power when the Habsburg family expelled
the occupying Czech (Bohemian) armies, and ultimately into
a power virtually unparalleled in all of Europe that eventually
exterted influence over every corner of the globe. Aside from
maps of political expansion, also included are maps charting
the linguistic, ethnic, and religious minorities of this massive
and diverse empire. The Habsburg family was so globally influential
that it even, by extension, controlled Spain and all of its
colonial holdings in the Americas. The Habsburg empire was
unique in that it only directly controlled a far smaller empire
than the global one over which it exerted ceremonial dominance.
This massive empire, one of many cultures and races but habitually
under intensely unequal ethnic German social stratification,
defined the cultural, architectural, religious, and political
evolution of all of the Balkans and most of Central Europe
for over 400 years. It was a reign of very uneasy alliances,
as the empire's different races consistently struggled against
the superior status of the Germans, until the Hungarians (the
second-most powerful group) were given supposedly equal status
after a massive revolution in 1848. The might of the Habsburgs
was also sent into decline by Napoleon and especially the
nation-building Prussians who were unifying Germany after
1866, when the dominance and prestige of the empire was forever
eclipsed. The whole empire came to an end after World War
I, largely because most of the empire had no interest in going
to die in history's bloodiest war for the hated German authorities.
As a result, the whole face of the world was reshaped when
the war ended, as the Slavs, Hungarians, Ukrainians, and Czechs
all seized the chance to become new ethnic-based nations.
Click
the below map of the historical evolution of the empire to
enlarge.
Austria-Hungarian Empire
Province Map
The below map shows the regional
territorial polities of the Austrian, then Austria-Hungarian
Empires at the greatest extent of the unified state (preceding
World War I)
Click the below map
to enlarge.
Austria-Hungarian Habsburg
Empire Ethnic Map
The below map charts the
historical ethnic or social groups within the empire at the
height of the personal union. The fact that the majority of
the empire's inhabitants were not German nor Hungarian, but
Slavic exacerbated pan-Slavic nationalist movements that would
later result in the merged formation of ethnically-based Yugoslavia
upon the empire's collapse. The multiethnic, multireligious
issue of the massive empire caused great conflict among the
different populations and religions that eventually led to
a gradual liberalization of the empire in the 19th century,
as the name change from "Austrian Empire" to "Austria-Hungary"
illustrates. The German authorities did not directly oppress
other races of the empire, but directly controlled an overwhemingly
disproportionate access to politics, commerce, and franchise
in the empire. The massive realm vacilated back and forth
between partial liberalization to total intolerance. The Jews,
for example, often enjoyed great wealth in Vienna despite
their greatly inferior and discriminated status, but were
free to live (on paper) at one moment and then expelled en
masse the next moment due to their disproportionate involvement
in liberal revolt or another political crisis. The fact that
Catholicism was often seen as the compulsory state religion
(the religion of the Hungarians and Austrians) further pushed
the Orthodox Slavs into independence efforts. Note that "Magyar"
is the native Hungarian word for the Hungarian culture. Note
that Rumanians" refers to Romanians of today (often called
Vlachs/Wallachs), and that "Szekels" refers to the
occupants of what is now Romania, formerly Hungarian Transylvania.
Ethnically, the term Szekel has come to refer generally to
Hungarian settlers, but may sometimes refer to German colonists
there. Note that most of eastern Bosnia is noted here very
early in history as being Serb, a conflict that made the Yugoslav
Wars quite violent in the war of succession of Republika Srpska,
the Serb-majority region of Bosnia siding with Serbia under
Milosevic.
Click the below map
to enlarge.
Religions of the Austria-Hungarian
Empire The below
map shows the regional religions in the massive empire at
the zenith of the personal union. The fact that Catholicism
was often seen as the compulsory state religion (the religion
of the Hungarians and Austrians) further pushed the Orthodox
Slavs into independence efforts. Note that Uniates is an older
term for a type of Unitarian, an all-encompassing and unorganized
Protestant movement especially in eastern Hungary and Transylvania
that flourished because the strict Catholicism of Hungary
was unable to reach Islamic-dominated Transylvania during
centuries of Muslim Ottoman rule. Note of course that Muhammadan
is an often-offensive term previously used to refer to the
Muslims of Bosnia, today comprising some 40% of the total,
a result of centuries of harsh Islamic rule and (often) forced
conversion en masse. The conflict of different peoples and
religions under strict German and Hungarian Catholic rule
fueled later dispute and discord that accelerated the collapse
of the empire after World War I, and the creation of new and
independent Slavic states (Yugoslavia for one).
Click the below map
to enlarge.
Austria-Hungary in the
reunified German Empire
For most of history, there
was no independent nation of "Austria". Rather it
was originally a peripheral part of Germany (the Holy Roman
Empire) expanded by the German emperor Karl the Great (Charlemagne)
before it evolved to become its total authority. Nearly all
of the Holy Roman Emperors were Germans from Austria. The
Austrians always retained their German cultural character.
The Habsburg state was not one of cultural mixing and syncretism,
but one of German cultural dominance. Its cultural, architectural,
and religious mores were compulsorily imposed upon its non-German
subjects. As a result, when Germany was being reunified by
the Prussian Germans, the Austrians (ethnically German) were
greatly involved in recreating the collapsed empire (the First
Reich) that was ultimately crafted by Prussia's Bismarck in
1871. After Napoleon was defeated and Europe was completely
remapped, an ephemeral attempt at recreating Germany was made
in the German Confederation, of which all the Germans were
a member (Austria and Germany proper). Competition between
the Germans over the evolving nation became typically political,
and Prussia and Austria competed for hegemony until the Austrians
were overwhemingly obliterated by Prussian militarism in 1866's
Austro-Prussian War.
After World War I, when the
Austria-Hungarian Empire collapsed, the new nation of Austria
hastily sought to merge with Germany. It was denied by the
wary Allies. As a result, Austria changed its name to the
Republic of German Austria to emphasize its German character.
Its politics soon became identical with Germany's far-right,
as pan-Germanic racialism and Austro-Fascism became dominant
all throughout Austria. Most Austrians sought to join their
brothers in Germany, but a reluctant Austrian government refused.
As a result, Hitler marched his armies into German Austria
in 1938 to cheering crowds and a frightened government. After
the war, Austria was forcibly separated from Germany by the
Allies and the Soviets. Interestingly, the Austrian state
emblem has an eagle with a broken chain on its leg to symbolize
its "liberation" from Germany despite the fact that
its population was overwhelmingly in approval of the German
annexation.
Click the below map
to enlarge.
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is a historian
and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have
a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies
(language and history), am presently working for my Masters
in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate.
I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic
identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles
of native European and immigrant minority identities. See
my staff entry for more information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The maps are scanned from
the magnificent "The Habsburg Empire" by Robert
Kann.
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