Eleven nations, one emperor, and the most beautiful capital in Europe — until Sarajevo. Austria-Hungary was the old world's most improbable great power: a dynastic empire in the age of nationalism, held together by bureaucracy, an army, and the waltz. It produced the twentieth century's most dazzling culture — and its most catastrophic war.
Vienna ★ Budapest Prague Kraków Sarajevo Greatest extent — stylized map 1867 The Ausgleich 1900 Vienna, the zenith 28 June 1914 Sarajevo 1918 Dissolution Rise · zenith · fall The rise The empire was born of defeat. In 1866 Prussia crushed Austria at Königgrätz and expelled it from German affairs; the Habsburgs, needing a new basis for power, struck the Ausgleich — the Compromise — of 1867 with Hungary. The result was a dual monarchy: one emperor-king, Franz Joseph, ruling two states with a shared army, foreign policy, and finances, but separate parliaments in Vienna and Budapest.
