Austria-Hungary

No one can rightly enjoy a visit to a country unless he knows something of its history and its heroes; otherwise much that is seen remains meaningless. It is a common saying among oculists that we see with the brain and not with the eye, and the saying is fulfilled when we pass by, as without meaning, this or that magnificent statue embodying in concrete marble or bronze an epoch of vital action in the history of a nation.

But besides what we miss from want of that observation whose roots are embedded in knowledge, there are other things duly noted, and but half comprehended, with a vagueness that is irritating. Especially is this the case in a country of such an amalgamate nature as Austria-Hungary, where at every turn something unexpected challenges query. How comes it, for instance, that having left behind a Parliament House in Vienna we find another in Budapest though both own allegiance to the same sovereign? Why should Hungarians be so much exasperated if their country is spoken of as part of an empire when they acknowledge an Emperor as their ruler?

To gain some grip of these matters a short historical introduction is undoubtedly necessary. I do not think, however, that history should always begin at the beginning, though many people have a passion for delving into the past and groping after the roots of a subject, which often prove, when unearthed, to be exceedingly dry. The same tendency may be observed in writers of biography, who are rarely content to begin with the man or woman whose life they are undertaking, or even with their parents, but frequently go back through many centuries, dwelling at dreary length upon tedious details which occupy half the book before the pith and core of the matter is reached.

Hence in this very cursory sketch of the Dual Monarchy only so much as is essential to give colour and life to the whole book in all its aspects shall be dealt with.

At the present time Austria and Hungary are governed by Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The two countries are united for the purposes of Defence, Foreign Affairs, and Finance, including the Post Office, but have separate Houses of Parliament, an Upper and a Lower, in each capital, namely Vienna and Budapest. The respective Houses of Parliament are for common purposes represented by two Delegations, each composed of sixty members, and convened by the Emperor once a year alternately at Vienna and Budapest. These members, of which twenty are chosen from each Upper House and forty from each Lower one, are only appointed for one year.

As a composite State, Austria-Hungary plays a forceful part in the concert of the great European nations and wields authority which neither half could achieve alone. The very first necessity of power among modern nations is preparedness for war, and in spite of the curiously differing races and nationalities represented in the Austro-Hungarian army with its two and a half millions of soldiers, the army owns solidarity and force enough to make itself respected.

Hungary is the inner part of this composite country, the core, so to speak, and she lies in the arms of Austria somewhat after the fashion that the “old” moon may be seen lying in the arms of the “new” one; for the provinces included in the Empire ring her round on the north and west in what is more or less a semicircle.

In some particulars we may draw a parallel between the Dual Monarchy and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, for in both cases the union was effected by the fact of the countries concerned having the same reigning house. The differences, however, are manifold. It was by inheritance that the Scottish Stuarts came to the English throne on the dying out of the elder branches; it was by election the Austrian Hapsburgs were chosen for the Hungarian monarchy. Again there has been between Austria and Hungary no Act of Union, though the Pragmatic Sanction of 1723 formed a more “personal” union than before. It is the tie of the Royal House alone which unites them, and it is expediency only which dictates the amalgamation of the military power and finance in the two countries. Even here there are sore jealousies. It is obviously necessary that the same words of command should be used for the whole army, or disaster would result on the field of battle. These words are given in German, a foreign language to the rawly-joined Hungarian recruit, and Hungarian national pride is sorely wounded thereby. The dilemma is a difficult one, and this question remains ever an open wound. The Hungarians have besought the King that their own language might supersede German, but though he has proved kindly to his Hungarian subjects in many other ways, he remains adamant on this.

The greatest difference, however, between the Dual Monarchy and the United Kingdom is the difference brought into high relief by the above point, namely the racial and linguistic diversity between Austria and Hungary. The inhabitants of the two countries are not men of one blood and one tongue as the English and Scots are, but are separated by lines of deep cleavage. And this main cleavage is repeated in numerous smaller fractures, so that the kingdom is split and cracked in many directions. Fiercely as the Hungarians demand full play for their own nationality, yet they would stamp it out in the lesser races within their borders, who just as eagerly demand their own rights. Never was any country so split up and divided, and the difficulty is increased by the fact that the political boundaries are not coterminous with the national ones, but in many cases the frontiers run through the middle of the same race, so that half of it lies within and half without the territory owning Francis Joseph as sovereign! Insurrections outside the borders naturally set aflame the sympathies of those of similar blood within, and disturbances are chronic. It is natural enough therefore that, even setting aside her own desire to snatch an outlet to the sea as the result of the resettling occasioned by the Balkan War, Austria-Hungary should be aroused and shaken to the core by the fighting between races to whom many of her own subjects are blood-brothers.

The Hungarian, Dr. Julius de Vargha, thus sums up the situation; he says:

However strong the specially Austrian traditions may be, the Germans (in Austria-Hungary) stand under the alluring influence of the splendour and power of the great German Empire. The Italians long to join Italy; the Slovenians, Croatians and Servians dream of the establishment of a great southern Slav Empire; the Roumanians are drawn toward the independent kingdom of Roumania. The Hungarians alone (Magyars) are possessed of no dreams of disintegration; their past, present and future binds them to their present home; and they are consequently the firmest pillar in the monarchy of the Hapsburg.

He further says that the Magyar nation stands between the Germanic and Slav worlds “like an insulator between two opposing electric currents.” This is of course a bit of special pleading, and we fancy the Austrian would hotly disclaim any leaning toward Germany; but it is interesting as showing how the matter appears to the Hungarian mind.

The Dual Monarchy is split into numerous small territories, each with its own history and its own importance. There are no less than eleven languages in this polyglot country, and over all rules the one German-speaking monarch. Part of the Tyrol, one of the best known of the European playgrounds, lies in Austria, but part is in Italy. Bosnia and Herzegovina, the latest acquisitions, do not seem, geographically speaking, to belong to Austria at all, yet they are now included in her territory. Dalmatia, with its Italian population, is another outlying district, and it is vitally important because of its sea-coast. The smaller districts of Carinthia, Carniola, and Moravia lie northward, and above them again is Bohemia, once a kingdom by itself, with a stirring history. North of Hungary is the huge and little known Galicia, not to be confounded with Galicia in the north-west corner of Spain, though the name is spelt precisely in the same way. To the east of Hungary is Transylvania, and south of it Slavonia and Croatia. Still we have only named the best-known divisions.

The whole comprises an immense area; a line drawn round it runs to over 5000 miles and encloses a territory larger than that of any other European country except Russia.

One quarter of the population is German, another quarter Magyar (or Hungarian) and Roumanian, whilst the remaining half is made up of Italians together with Slavs, namely Poles, Croatians, Czechs, Slovaks.

The Magyars, a wild and interesting gipsy race, live in the centre of Hungary, more or less, while the Slavs, of the same blood as the Servians, are ringed round to the north and south, and outside them again on the German side come the Germans.

How did such diverse elements come to be included in one empire?

As might be supposed the centre of Europe took long to settle down. In the case of a country so happily situated as Great Britain the boundaries are natural ones. As for Spain (including Portugal) any child could rule off a line across the Pyrenees and say that the territory beyond would make a compact kingdom. France again is favoured by nature, though on one side she lies open. But when you come to the middle part of Europe there is nothing to indicate where one country should end and another begin, and the friction over boundaries never dies down; as a fact, it seems pure chance that the matter for the moment remains as it is. It might just as well have been the Austrian Empire which comprised the whole of the middle of Europe as the German one, had not the “luck” of the Austrian Emperor been adverse when the moment was ripe. Indeed, it is but a short time since the map gained its present outlines, and who can say it will remain stable?

The Holy Roman Empire included the present Austria-Hungary, with all that is now Germany. It was only about the beginning of our era that the name Austria arose, meaning the Ost-land or East-land; before that time the country was a dependency of Bavaria. About the same date Hungary emerged into a recognised kingdom under St. Stephen (997–1038), who was to that nation what King Alfred was to England. He endowed the church with great liberality, and was cultured far beyond the measure of his contemporaries. He advanced civilisation and trade, and was one of those enlightened souls which are now and then born out of due time to give light and leading to their fellows. The 20th of August is consecrated to him, and on that day a great procession is formed to carry through the capital his right hand embalmed and enclosed in a golden casket. To this day the Kings of Hungary are crowned with the crown presented by the Pope to the first King of Hungary. This forms the upper part of the present diadem, which stands on a new base. Once at least in its history this glorious and ancient crown was lost in the mud! When Otto the Bavarian came to be King of Hungary in 1301 he brought with him the sacred crown, which had before been taken away by the Germans, his allies. But the crown, in the confusion of the entry, was lost, and was only found at length in the deep mud of the hill tracks through which the party had passed.