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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 topic offers exclusive
maps and history of the Habsburg Austrian, and later Austria-Hungarian
Empire from the conception of the modern unified German nation
in 976 until the merger of Austria and Hungary to resist Islamic
invasion after 1541, 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 unified German Holy Roman Empire with its own regional
dynasty) from the early unified German nation period, and
tracking the growth of the Habsburg monarchical power until
the defeat after World War I. The Babensburg dynasty ruled
the region of Austria (still part of Germany) until it was
replaced by the German Habsburgs. Note that following the
defeat of Napoleon and the Wiener-Kongress (Congress of Vienna),
the Austrian state once again merged with Germany as the German
Confederation not shown here. Remember that by the 19th century,
calls for power sharing resulted in the splitting of power
between Austria (Germans) and Hungarians, which changed the
face of the empire from the German-dominated Austrian Empire
(as part of the German nation) to a power-sharing union between
Austria and Hungary as the Austria-Hungarian Empire.
Click
the below map 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 fact that Catholicism was often seen as the
compulsory state religion (the religion of the Hungarians
and Austrians) further pushed the Orthodox-Slavic majority
into independence efforts. Note that many nationalists at
the time in the Germanic and Slavic worlds considered Hungarians
ethnically Slavic. Note that "Magyar" is the native
Hungarian word for the Hungarian culture. Note that Rumanians"
refers to Romanians of today, and that "Szekels"
refers to the occupants of now-Romanian, 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.
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.
Click the below map to enlarge.
Austria-Hungary in the reunified German
Empire
For most of history, there was no independent
state of "Austria". Rather it was the central authority
ruling the unified nation of Germany or the Holy Roman Empire.
When Lutheranism began to grow in the north as the dominant
religion of their German kin to the north, the Austrian Habsburgs
gradually developed into a separate entity always ruling the
increasingly-illusory Holy Roman Empire that was all but dead
due to the death of Catholicism among the German majority.
Austria's efforts against Islamic invasions, and its annexation
of Croatia, Hungary, and later Bosnia as an effort to save
the Christian Slavs from Islamic Jihad further pushed the
Austrians into an independent worldview. But with the defeat
of Napoleon in 1917 and the recreation of a unified German
nation as the German Confederation (deutscher Bund), Austria
merged with its ethnic kin as part of the new German nation.
With Prussian Lutheran aggression, this quickly collapsed
by 1866, shortly preceding the German imperial efforts of
Otto von Bismark in the independent state of Germany. Austria
retained its easterly provinces of the Hungarian realm (including
Croatia, Hungary, Bosnia, and Transylvania) until the defeat
of the Austrian Empire in 1918 after World War I, when the
Treaty of Trianon and Versailles forced the empires to collapse.
Hungary became independent at less than 1/3 of its size, as
did Austria. Austrian hasty attempts to merge with post-war
Germany based upon an ethnic union were forbidden by the Allies,
which was reversed in 1938 with the Third Reich's merger with
German Austria. After World War II, Austria would retain its
independence (again at the requirement of the Allies) until
today.
Click the below map to enlarge.
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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is the owner
and Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I am working
for a doctorate in history, with a specific emphasis on Islamic
and European histories. I am well versed in all world cultures,
ethnicities, religions, languages, politics, and historical
evolution in relation to and against each other.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The maps are scanned from
the magnificent "The Habsburg Empire" by Robert
Kann.
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