In the early 20th century, Austria-Hungary was a large empire that included not only German-speaking

Austrians and the nation of Hungary, but also virtually all of the Czech, Slovak, Croat,

and Slovene peoples, as well as significant numbers of Ukrainians, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, and Italians, most of whom would have preferred to have been citizens of other countries, or of their own countries.

With all this restless discontent and jumble of people held together in an awkward and unsettled empire,

Austria-Hungary came to be known by some as the Prison of Nations.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music Episode 50, The Prison of Nations

In last week's episode, we took a look at the creation and rise of the Austrian Empire.

This week, I'd like to start by looking around the empire at the beginning of the 20th century.

As you know, the compromise of 1867 has given

Hungary a sort of semi-independence, so we'll start there. If you look at a map of Hungary at this time,

you will notice at once that it is much larger than Hungary as we know it today. This Hungary

is, in fact, slightly more than half the total land area of the dual monarchy.

So, yeah, Hungary is bigger than Austria.

In land area, that is, not in population.

We have a little nomenclature problem here, because if we call this piece of the dual monarchy

Hungary, it would be tempting to call the other piece Austria.

But that isn't technically correct because Austria is a pretty specific region in the Danube Valley up in the Alps.

Some folks at the time spoke of trans-lithania and cislythania.

Remember how the Lita River is the traditional boundary between Austria and Hungary?

And by the way, I've been pronouncing it Lata, and that's not right, it should be Lita River.

But either way, it is the traditional boundary between Austria and Hungary.

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