Austria-Hungary and the Habsburgs

THERE is, in reality, no collective title for the agglomeration of territories called Austria-Hungary. The House of Habsburg is merely the connecting link between many distinct parts, not only by virtue of conquest or annexation, but also by inheritance and by the right of long possession. It has to be clearly understood that the fact of mutual dislikes among the various peoples of Austria-Hungary does not necessarily impair their loyalty to the house which has stood for so long a period as the acknowledged representative to each of the kingly power, the keystone of the social and political system, not only of the whole realm, but of each separate part of it. To understand the growth of this Habsburg realm, it is necessary to trace its connection with the old Holy Roman Empire and the modern German one, and also to briefly recall the histories, not only of the two kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, but that of the archduchy of Austria. None of these territories were originally the appanages of the Habsburgs, but to-day they and their dependencies form together the so-distant empire over which that family rules...

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