Talk:Austrian Empire

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Contents 1 a little addition to first section 2 Merging 3 pseudo-equal 4 categories 5 expanding the article 6 Requested move 7 Italy 8 Infobox 9 Library of Congress 10 Title 11 loser 12 WikiProject class rating 13 Missing the area 14 Map is wrong!

[edit] a little addition to first section

just added a new paragraph because things are a little sparse on actual socio-geographic information in the article. I think its pretty much neccessary. VonZeppelin 22:47, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merging

. — OwenBlacker 12:21, Jun 16, 2004 (UTC)

The article certainly needs to be extended, but the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary were not the same. They are different with respect to the period in which they existed (Austrian Empire 1804-1867, Austria-Hungary 1867-1918), their constitution and, obviously, with respect to their official names. Gugganij 16:01, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Fair enough; thanks for correcting me.  :o) — OwenBlacker 16:55, Jun 16, 2004 (UTC)

While we're at it, Emperor of Austria could probably be merged in here... --Shallot 11:08, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Well, I am not that sure. The Austrian Empire was transformed into the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1867. Thus, the Austrian Emperors remained their title and acted as sovereign in the Austrian part of the danube monarchy (which was officially known as The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and not as Austrian Empire anymore). The expression Austrian Empire officially ceased to exist. In my point of view Emperor of Austria and Austrian Empire do overlap to a certain degree with respect to time, but by far not completely. Therefore, I am against merging. Gugganij 13:43, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

We can explain that reasonably trivial difference in a single article, though. --Shallot 23:05, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I am removeing the merge notice from this talk page. Merge notices usually go on an article. --Banana04131 04:36, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

---

Initially it was the Austrian Empire but with apparent success that Austrian Empire later became something much larger and thus its name changed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In fact (as Gordon Brook-Shepherd documents in his Book "The Austrians"), at one point the Austrian Emperor was received as "The Emperor of Europe" by the British royal court. Hopefully these two distinct naming conventions can be harmoniously merged to grant the reader a good perspective on the Historical significance, and development of Central Europe over those centuries which perhaps has an even more significant impact today.
Austrosearch 06:23, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I don't think the name Austrian Empire was used initially (in 1804) in an official capacity either. The Empire existed under different names from 1804 to 1918. It became a partner in the Austro Hungarian dual monarchy in 1867.Gerard von Hebel 19:05, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] pseudo-equal

What does the author exactely mean with "pseudo-equal"? Gugganij 22:59, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] categories

For Joy: I agree that this article should be in categories of all countries, which were part of Austrian Empire. I just do not have time to put all categories here. At this moment I look for articles, which are relevant for categories: Vojvodina, Serbia and Serbian history. So, Joy, please, put categories of other countries into this article and I will put only those two again, because I do not have time to put all. Also, if you see that I put these categories into some other articles, please do the same thing: put there other categories of other countries instead of deleting those. User:PANONIAN

Like I said, if you fill it up so that it's consistent, that's fine too. It merely looks weird if you just put it into Serbian categories, which are true but nevertheless fairly tangential compared to the whole lot. --Joy [shallot] 23:45, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] expanding the article

--Gerard von Hebel 20:06, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

The article needs expanding. Can I make a suggestion? Let me know what you think!

Before 1804 the Habsburg dominions, consisting of the Archduchy of Austria (in which were included the former Polish territories gained in the late 18th century, The Kingdom of Bohemia (in administrative union with Austria) and the Kingdom of Hungary were partly inside and partly outside of the Holy Roman Empire. Hungary was outside, as were those parts of Austria that had been recently ceded after the Polish divisions and the region around Venice, which Napoleon had "lent" to Austria. Austria proper and the Kingdom of Bohemia were part of the Holy Roman Empire. The Archduke of Austria, Francis I, also King and Elector of Bohemia and King of Hungary, was Holy Roman Emperor under the style Francis II.

When Napoleon, First Consul of the French Republic, a country that had already annexed the Rhineland and the Austrian Netherlands, and instigated a territorial reform of the Empire's constituent states, declared himself Emperor of the French and King of Italy in 1804, Emperor Francis II foresaw the end of the ancient and by now dysfunctional Holy Roman Empire. In order to secure the Imperial status for him and his dynasty he merged his lands of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary into a new state, that was initially called The Emperordom of Austria (Kaiserthum Österreich), rather then Empire of Austria (Kaiserreich Österreich), taking into account that the Holy Roman Empire was still in existence, and that large parts of the new "Kaiserthum" were still part of its territory. Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire thus became also Emperor Francis I of Austria, and scholars of state law were confronted with the bizarre reality of two overlapping Empires, sharing large parts of their territories as well as their Emperor. The Emperor retained the titular styles King of Hungary and Bohemia, but they were not pertaining to sovereign or suzerain states anymore. The new state that emerged was a multiethnic state "Vielvölkerstaat" in which the dominant Germans were outnumbered by other peoples, notably Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croatians, Roumanians, Italians, Serbs, Ruthenians and Ukrainians, thus compromising the German character of the state. The curious spectacle of the Siamese Twin Empires ended two years later, when several Princes of Holy Roman Empire states, seceded from the Empire at the instigation of Napoleon, and founded the Confederation of the Rhine. The Emperor Francis II / I abdicated as Holy Roman Emperor and dissolved the Old Empire, emerging of course as the Emperor Francis I of Austria.

After the fall of Napoleon, at the Congress of Vienna, a loose German Confederation was founded, in which Austria proper and Bohemia were included, but the former Hungarian and Polish territories were not. Austria regained also much of the former Habsburg possessions in Northern Italy, and the former Republic of Venice. These territories were not included in the German confederation, and were merged into an autonomous Lombardovenetian Kingdom, that was part of the Empire of Austria. Francis of course became its King. In 1835 Francis I died, and he was succeeded by his weak and sickly son Ferdinand I.

In the revolution year of 1848 the Empire almost disintegrated. A short lived German Empire was proclaimed with Francis' brother Archduke John, as Regent of the Realm "Reichsverweser".. The problem for the German nationalists was that Austria included vast non-German territories. This lead to the following dilemma. Including Austria in a German state, would cause huge problems with the national minorities, making the formation of a German national state very difficult. Carving up Austria was no option for the Habsburgs at that point. In the end a “small German” solution was proposed, leaving Austria, with its vast non-German territories outside of the proposed new German Empire. Also in that year the Hungarians rose and founded a short lived Republic. The Russians helped to suppress the Hungarian rising, and the revolution generally failed. Ferdinand I abdicated and was replaced by a grandson of Francis, Emperor Francis-Joseph I (1848-1916) After the Crimean war, in which France (now under Emperor Napoleon III) and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont had sided with Britain against Russia, it was payback time towards Sardinia-Piedmont, a state that aspired for Italian unification. Napoleon III and Sardinia-Piedmont fought Austria and Sardinia gained Lombardy from Austria. Other Italian states ruled by Habsburg and Bourbon secondogenitures also fell and in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed.

After the German-Danish war of 1863 concerning the Schlesvig-Holstein question, Austria was left in charge of Holstein, while its rival Prussia occupied Schlesvig. Conflict over the future of these territories soon arose amidst the underlying conflict between the two countries over ascendancy in Germany. The Austro-Prussian war that ensued in 1866 ended in defeat for Austria and many of its traditional allies in Central and Northern Germany. Prussia annexed Schlesvig-Holstein and most of Austria's allies in Germany. The German Confederation was abolished, and Italy used the opportunity to annex Venice. The weakened Empire was now forced to seek a compromise with its most troublesome national minority, the Hungarians.

So in 1867 the Kingdom of Hungary was re-erected in a personal and political union with the Empire of Austria, in which the Empire (now reduced in size) and the Kingdom were equal partners. I must stress that the Empire of Austria continued to exist, albeit reduced in territory. It did not go up into a “new” Empire of Austria-Hungary. There never was such a thing. A re-erected Kingdom of Hungary was carved out of former Austrian territory, and formed the before mentioned union with it, in which the Emperor of Austria was always the same person as the King of Hungary. This construction was generally referred to as the Dual Monarchy. I will however henceforth refer to it as Austria-Hungary. This solution emancipated the Hungarians, but did nothing about the aspirations of the many Slav peoples within both Realms that were now looking towards Russia that supported the Pan-Slav movement that sought the national liberation of Slav peoples in Austria-Hungary and the Balkans.

It also did not reinforce the German character and outlook of the remainder of the Empire, as Prussia’s retreat from Polish territory and her gains in Western Germany had done for that country. Large parts of the remaining Empire were still inhabited by Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians and Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Forces that strove for German unification now looked towards Prussia, and with it favoured a “small-German” solution, leaving Austria outside of a future German state, as had already been the case in 1848. A North German Confederation was formed under Prussian leadership. After the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, this Confederation was joined by Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg and those parts of Hesse-Rhine, that were previously outside of the Confederation, to form the German Realm, of which the King of Prussia became German Emperor, thus formalizing the small-German solution and leaving Austria outside of the new German nation.

Austria-Hungary now gave up its interests in Germany and looked towards the Balkans and the derelict Ottoman Empire and its newly formed tributary states, for a new sphere of influence, invoking the rivalry of the Russians who supported the rising Pan-Slav movement. When a crisis over Turkey threatened in 1878, Germany’s Chancellor Bismarck invited the powers to a Congress in Berlin. The result was the formal independence of the Ottoman vassal states of Roumania, Serbia and Montenegro, and the Austrian occupation of the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Austria-Hungary now joined Germany and Italy in a tri-partite alliance that was mainly directed at the Franco-Russian alliance. In 1908 Austria formally annexed most parts of Bosnia (leaving the Sanjak of Novibazar to the Ottomans) and Herzegovina. It remained aloof during the two Balkan wars of 1911 and 1912. Austria-Hungary had however earned the wrath of Serbia that had schemes on Bosnia-Herzegovina, with its large Serbian population, and of their Russian ally.

When Archduke Francis-Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian and Hungarian thrones, a great-nephew of the Emperor, visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo with his morganatic wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg in 1914, both of them were killed by Serbian nationalists. Austria-Hungary accused the Serb government of involvement in the murders. It soon made demands upon Serbia that a sovereign state could not accept. It demanded that Serbia would allow Austro-Hungarian policing of the murders on Serbian territory. Serbia refused, and Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, invoking the systems of alliances in Europe to go to war with one another. Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, in assistance of its Serbian ally. Germany mobilized in assistance of Austria-Hungary, thus provoking a war with Russia. France came to the help of Russia, and when the Germans invaded Belgium, Britain joined the war. The Central powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria) lost World War I. And the Emperor Charles I, a great-great nephew of the Emperor Francis-Joseph I, who had succeeded him after his death in 1916, abdicated in 1918. A Republic was declared in an Austria greatly reduced in size, making and end to the Empire of Austria.

Concerning The term Emperordom or "Kaiserthum" was soon replaced by Empire or "Kaiserreich".: As far as I know "Kaiserthum" (or "Kaisertum" in current German) was never replaced by "Kaiserreich" (Empire). Gugganij 21:20, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Gugganij, you are right. I have deleted the sentence. I have found references to "Kaiserthum" as it was spelled then from the 1890's even. --Gerard von Hebel 05:39, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

The Kingdom of Hungary was not incorporated into the Empire till 1849. Before the revolution of 1848 Hungary was a separate kingdom with her own constitution, public administration etc. Bye, Laszlo

The Empire was defined by its initial (pre 1848) constitution as the "Im Reichsrat vertretene Königreicher und Länder" or Kingdoms and Countries represented in the Realms Council. That included Hungary, even if it had an autonomous status. The Constitution of 1848 however did not mention Hungary. This was probably done to make the participation of Austria in a new German Realm easier (this was the year of the Revolutions and the Frankfurt German Parliament). Also there was a Hungarian uprising going on. The 1849 constitution mentioned Hungary again, this time as part of the "Kaiserthum Österreich".Gerard von Hebel 20:53, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Italy

The status of Venice before 1815, and the Austrian possessions south of Lombardy, require more (some) discussion. I do not know enough to do this, and have other things to research, but put it on the list for expansion. Septentrionalis 15:03, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox

Shouldn't there be an infobox for the Austrian Empire? There's one for Austria-Hungary. I'm only asking for someone else to do it because I don't know how to make infoboxes. -Alex The Gonz 21:55, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I'll have one up soon - 52 Pickup 16:30, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

No need, pickup. All that is necessary now is for a map and the flags to be added, and other minor info. The main things for an infobox are there (I think). The Gonz 03:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Library of Congress

Public domain information from the Library of Congress Country Studies:[1]

AUSTRIA IN THE AGE OF METTERNICH International Developments, 1815-48

Clemens von Metternich was initially successful in maintaining a European consensus favorable to Austrian interests. He used the example of liberal revolutions in Spain and Naples and revolutionary activity in Germany to demonstrate the universal menace posed by liberalism and thus won Austria the support of Prussia and Russia. Britain also supported Austria because the two countries had common interests favoring a strong Austrian presence in Germany, limited French influence in Italy, and the maintenance of the Ottoman Empire to prevent Russian advances in the Balkans.

The support from the other great powers dissipated, however, in the mid- and late-1820s. Russia became more assertive in the Balkans, and British policy increasingly reflected that nation's liberal popular opinion. But Metternich was able to regain Russian and Prussian support in the early 1830s, following another round of liberal uprisings in Europe. Even Britain returned to close cooperation with the other powers to block French interests in Egypt. Nevertheless, Metternich failed to respond effectively to Prussia's formation of a German customs union in 1834. The customs union excluded Austria and promoted the economic integration of the other German states, thus facilitating German political unification under Prussian leadership later in the century.

International Developments, 1815-48 Clemens von Metternich was initially successful in maintaining a European consensus favorable to Austrian interests. He used the example of liberal revolutions in Spain and Naples and revolutionary activity in Germany to demonstrate the universal menace posed by liberalism and thus won Austria the support of Prussia and Russia. Britain also supported Austria because the two countries had common interests favoring a strong Austrian presence in Germany, limited French influence in Italy, and the maintenance of the Ottoman Empire to prevent Russian advances in the Balkans.

The support from the other great powers dissipated, however, in the mid- and late-1820s. Russia became more assertive in the Balkans, and British policy increasingly reflected that nation's liberal popular opinion. But Metternich was able to regain Russian and Prussian support in the early 1830s, following another round of liberal uprisings in Europe. Even Britain returned to close cooperation with the other powers to block French interests in Egypt. Nevertheless, Metternich failed to respond effectively to Prussia's formation of a German customs union in 1834. The customs union excluded Austria and promoted the economic integration of the other German states, thus facilitating German political unification under Prussian leadership later in the century.

Domestic Policies Despite Metternich's high profile, it was the emperor's conservative outlook and hostility toward the values and ideas of the French Revolution that set the parameters for Austrian policy. This was especially true of domestic policy, which Franz I retained under his direct personal control until his death in 1835. The composition of the state council that Franz selected to rule in the name of his mentally incompetent son Ferdinand I ensured the continuance of his policies until revolution shook the foundations of Habsburg rule in 1848.

Franz's aim was to provide his subjects with good laws and material well-being. To accomplish the first, he issued a new penal code in 1803 and a new civil code in 1811. He expected that the second--material well-being--would evolve naturally with the reestablishment of peace, and he considered additional measures unnecessary. Political and cultural life was kept under careful scrutiny, however, to prevent the spread of nationalism and liberalism. These two movements were a common threat to Franz's conservative regime because his political opponents looked to the establishment of a unified German nation-state incorporating Austria as a means for realizing the liberal reforms impossible in the framework of the Habsburg state.

Political stagnation, however, did not prevent broader socioeconomic changes in Austria. By 1843 the population had risen to 37.5 million, an increase of 40 percent from 1792. The urban population was rising quickly, and Vienna counted nearly 400,000 inhabitants. Economically, a degree of stability was reached, and the massive wartime deficits gave way to almost balanced budgets. This was made possible by cutting state expenditures to a level near actual revenues, and not by instituting fiscal reforms to increase tax revenues. Austria's ability to protect its interests abroad or carry out domestic programs thus continued to be severely restrained by lack of revenue.

THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND NEOABSOLUTISM Revolutionary Rise and Fall

In 1848 liberal and nationalist ideologies sparked revolutions across Europe. In late February, the proclamation of the revolutionary Second Republic in France shook conservative Austria. Popular expectations of war caused a financial panic in the Habsburg Empire that worked to the advantage of the revolutionaries. By early March, events throughout the empire were accelerating faster than the government could control them. As a symbol of conservative government, Metternich was an early casualty of the revolution. His resignation and flight in mid-March only led to greater demands. By mid-April the court had sanctioned sweeping liberal reforms passed by the Hungarian diet. In May the government was forced to announce plans for a popularly elected constituent assembly for the Habsburg lands. This assembly, the first parliament in Austrian history, opened in July 1848.

As part of the German Confederation, the German-speaking Habsburg lands were also caught up in the revolutionary events in Germany. German nationalists and liberals convened an assembly in Frankfurt in May 1848 that suspended the diet of the German Confederation and took tentative steps toward German unification. However, the close association of nationalism and liberalism in Germany belied the growing conflict between these two ideologies. Although ethnic Germans from Bohemia were participating in the Frankfurt assembly, Czech nationalists and liberals rejected Bohemian participation in the German nation being born in Frankfurt. They envisioned a reconstituted Habsburg Empire in which the Slavic nations of central and southern Europe would assume equality with the German and Hungarian components of the empire and avoid absorption by either Germany or Russia. The government gave concessions that appeared to endorse this plan, and the Czechs convened an Austro-Slavic congress in Prague in June as a counterpart to the Frankfurt assembly.

As conservative political authority gave way before the revolutionary forces, two bold military commanders began to reassert control over the situation, often ignoring or contravening timid orders from the court. General Alfred Windischgrไtz routed the revolutionaries from Prague and Vienna and reestablished order by military force. South of the Alps, General Joseph Radetzky reestablished Austrian control of Lombardy-Venetia by August.

Although only Hungary remained in the hands of the revolutionaries, the Austrian government began to reorganize in the fall of 1848. A team of ministers associated with constitutionalism was presented to the constituent assembly in November. The minister-president not only committed the government to popular liberties and constitutional institutions but also to the unity of the empire. To cap the reorganization, the mentally incompetent Ferdinand formally abdicated on December 2, 1848, and his eighteen-year-old nephew was crowned Emperor Franz Joseph I (r. 1848-1916). The young emperor faced three pressing tasks: establishing effective political authority in the empire, crushing the rebellion in Hungary, and reasserting Austrian leadership in Germany.

To accomplish the first, the government promulgated a secretly prepared constitution in March 1849, thus undercutting the constituent assembly. This constitution contained guarantees of individual liberties and equality under the law, but its greatest significance lay in provisions that established a centralized government based on unitary political, legal, and economic institutions for the entire empire.

The new constitution exacerbated the revolutionary situation in Hungary. The Hungarian diet deposed the Habsburg Dynasty and declared Hungarian independence. Although Austria could have eventually restored order on its own, the need to deal simultaneously with events in Germany prompted Emperor Franz Joseph to ask for and get Russian military assistance, thus accomplishing his second objective. The rebellion was effectively, if brutally, ended by September 1849.

Austria's decision to organize itself as a unitary state also set the terms for dealing with the German nationalists and liberals sitting in Frankfurt: Austria would enter a unified Germany with all of its territories, not merely the German and Bohemian portions. This contradicted an earlier decision of the assembly, so the assembly turned from the grossdeutsch (large German) model of a united Germany that included Austria to the kleindeutsch (small German) model that excluded Austria. The assembly offered a hereditary crown of a united Germany to the Prussian king. The conditions under which the offer was made, however, caused the Prussian king to decline in early April 1849. Combined with the withdrawal of the Austrian representatives, his rejection effectively ended the Frankfurt assembly. The German Confederation was restored, and Franz Joseph's tasks were completed. However, Austria and Prussia continued to jockey for influence and leadership in Germany.

The Failure of Neoabsolutism Initially, the new Austrian government apparently intended to implement the constitutional political structures promised in March 1849. But on December 31, 1851, Franz Joseph formally revoked the constitution, leaving in place only those provisions that established the equality of citizens before the law and the emancipation of the peasants. Popular representation was eliminated from all government institutions. In order to solidify a political base supporting neoabsolutist rule, the government also eliminated the Josephist religious regulations that had been the source of continuing conflict with the church. In 1855 the government signed a concordat with the Vatican that recognized the institutional church as an autonomous and active participant in public life. The agreement signaled a new era of cooperation between throne and altar.

Neoabsolutism, with its aim of creating a unified, supranational state, however, ran counter to the prevailing European trend. The empire's peoples could not be isolated from the larger nationalist struggles of the German, Italian, and Slavic peoples. In Hungary active resistance to the Austrian government declined, but passive resistance grew. During the Crimean War (1853-56), the situation in Hungary made Austria vulnerable to economic and political pressure from Britain and France, the allies of Turkey against Russia. Thus, when Russia asked for Austria's support, Austria initially sought to mediate the conflict but then joined the western allies against Russia. By failing to repay Russia for its help in Hungary in 1849, Austria lost critical Russian support for its position in Germany and Italy.

France took advantage of the estrangement between Austria and Russia to set up a military confrontation between Austrian and Italian nationalist forces. This opened the door to French military intervention in support of the Italians in 1859. Because Franz Joseph was unwilling to make the concessions that were Prussia's price for assistance from the German Confederation and because he feared the French might stir up trouble in Hungary, Franz Joseph surrendered Lombardy in July 1859.

These failures did not bode well for the anticipated conflict with Prussia over German unification, so the emperor began to abandon absolutism and create a more viable political base. He experimented with various arrangements designed to attract the support of the military, the Roman Catholic Church, German liberals, Hungarians, Slavs, and Jews, who were assuming a strong presence in the economic and political life of the empire. Urgently needing to resolve the tensions with the Hungarians, the government opened secret negotiations with them in 1862. The outline of a dual monarchy was already taking shape by 1865, but negotiations were deadlocked on the eve of the war with Prussia. Loss of Leadership in Germany Through the early 1860s, Austria maintained hope of retaining leadership in Germany because the smaller states preferred weak Austrian leadership to Prussian domination. Nonetheless, by mid-1864 Franz Joseph realized that war was inevitable if Austrian leadership was to be preserved.

The immediate cause of the Seven Weeks' War between Austria and Prussia in 1866 was Prussia's desire to annex the Duchy of Holstein. Austria and Prussia had together fought a brief war against Denmark in 1864 to secure the predominantly German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein for Germany. Pending final decision on their future, Prussia took control of Schleswig, and Austria took control of Holstein. In April 1866, however, Prussia plotted with Italy to wage a two-front war against Austria that would enable Prussia to gain Holstein and Italy to gain Venetia. Although Austria tried to keep Italy out of the war through a last-minute offer to surrender Venetia to it, Italy joined the war with Prussia. Austria won key victories over Italy but lost the decisive Battle of K๖niggrไtz (Hradec Krแlov้ in the presentday Czech Republic) to Prussia in July 1866. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Olessi (talk • contribs) 18:56, 23 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Title

The title should be Empire of Austria if we are translating Kaisertum Österreich. "Austrian Empire" is Österreichische Kaisertum. john k 04:54, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

If the reasoning is translation, isn't Kaisertum Oesterreich equal to Emperordom of Austria? I am a bit undecided as to if this should be moved or not because to me it almost seems as if there was no exact Empire of Austria as there was an empire which was "Austrian" and which included the Archduchy of Austria. Charles 02:41, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] loser

It says that austria-hungary was one of the "losers". Is this term appropriate for an encyclopedia?

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 17:02, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Missing the area

I was looking at various historical "empires" in the area and comparing their land areas. This one is missing that information.

BenJackson (talk) 01:24, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, that's probably why the article is called Austrian Empire and not Empire of Austria. It wasn't so well defined. Charles 23:14, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Map is wrong!

The little map thingy in the infobox is blatantly wrong. Greece is portrayed as being separate from the Ottoman empire. This may or may not be correct, depending on the period it purports to represent. It would be the case in 1867, but not at all in 1804. A clarification would be useful.

Far more significantly, however, Greece appears to include Thessalonika and all of Aegean Macedonia. In fact, Greece would not reach that extent until after the Second Balkan War in 1913 (whereas this map purports to portray the situation up to, maximally, 1867).

Even if one assumes the map portrays the Austro-Hungarian monarchy that succeeded the Austrian Empire, it is muchly mistaken. For in 1913 (the earliest date Greece could be occupying the above territories), Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Albania were also independent nations. They are no where to be found on this map though. Ergo, the map is wrong. I have no intention of removing it (since it at least shows the Empire's general location, and is therefore better than nothing) but I suggest correcting it, or at least, noting the inconsistencies in a caption (or at the very least, the image summary). Druworos (talk) 16:23, 4 April 2008 (UTC)