United States of Greater Austria
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The United States of Greater Austria (German: Vereinigte Staaten von Groß-Österreich) was an idea created by a group of scholars surrounding the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand that never came to pass. This specific proposal was conceived by Aurel Popovici in 1906.
As the twentieth century started to unfold the greatest problem facing the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary was that it consisted of eleven distinctly different ethnic groupings of which only two, the Germans and Hungarians (who together accounted for about 44% of the total population) wielded any power or control. The other nine groupings (Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians, Romanians, Croats, Slovaks, Serbs, Slovenians and Italians) hardly wielded any power at all. The Dual Monarchy system of Franz Ferdinand's uncle, the Emperor Franz Joseph, had been to split the ancient Austrian Empire into two nations, one Austrian-dominated, the other Hungarian-dominated. However, after various demonstrations, uprisings and acts of terrorism, it became readily apparent that the notion of two ethnic groups dominating the other nine could not realistically survive in perpetuam.
Franz Ferdinand had planned to radically redraw the map of Austria-Hungary creating a number of ethnically and linguistically dominated semi-autonomous "states" , who would all be part of a larger confederation renamed the United States of Greater Austria. Under this plan language and cultural identification was encouraged, and the disproportionate balance of power would theoretically be righted somewhat. The idea was set to encounter heavy opposition from the Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy, since a direct result of the reform would have been a significant loss of power for the Hungarian nobility.
In any event the Archduke was assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914, which led directly to the outbreak of the First World War, which Austria-Hungary lost. As a consequence, the Empire was dismembered by the victorious Entente powers, and several new states were created, as well as various Austro-Hungarian territories ceded to existing neighbouring countries.
[edit] Proposed states from Aurel Popovici
The following territories were supposed to become states after the reform (note that Deutsch in this case implied the German language, not any link to Germany per se):
- Deutsch-Österreich (German-Austria, present-day Austria and South Tyrol)
- Deutsch-Böhmen (German-Bohemia, northwestern part of present-day Czech Republic)
- Deutsch-Mähren (German-Moravia, northeastern part of present-day Czech Republic)
- Böhmen (Bohemia, southern and central part of present-day Czech Republic)
- Slowakenland (Slovakia)
- West-Galizien (West Galicia, part of present-day Poland)
- Ost-Galizien (East Galicia, part of present-day Ukraine)
- Ungarn (Hungary)
- Seklerland (Szeklerland, part of present-day Romania)
- Siebenbürgen (Transylvania, part of present-day Romania and Ukraine)
- Trento (Trentino, part of present-day Italy)
- Triest (Trieste), part of present-day Italy)
- Krain (Carniola, present-day Slovenia)
- Kroatien (Croatia)
- Woiwodina (Vojvodina, part of present-day Serbia)
In addition, a number of mostly German-speaking enclaves in eastern Transylvania and elsewhere were to have limited autonomy.
[edit] References
- (German) Kowalski, Erich (2005). Die Pläne zur Reichsreform der Militärkanzlei des Thronfolgers Franz Ferdinand im Spannungsfeld von Trialismus und Föderalismus. Vienna: Universitätsbibliothek Universität Wien.
