Austro-Hungarian Empire

The Austro-Hungarian Empire (German: Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie, Hungarian: Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia) or Austria-Hungary was a constitutional dual monarchy that existed from 1867 to 1918. The empire constituted the final phase of the Habsburg monarchy, which dominated Central Europe and the northern Balkans from the end of the Middle Ages until its collapse at the end of World War I. At the time of its greatest extent, in the mid-19th century, it spanned about a thousand miles (1600 km) from Pavia in Northern Italy to Ternopil in Western Ukraine.

The empire was ruled by the House of Habsburg, arguably Europe's mightiest dynasty. All countries within the Austro-Hungarian realm are republics today, very few people with memories from the empire are alive, and very few heirs to the Habsburg family are left; still, many palaces and artefacts have survived to this day.

During the late 19th century, the empire was often seen as horrendously "backward" and in an era of rising nationalism it was dubbed "prison of nations". However, the "Austrian" half of the empire in particular granted remarkable linguistic and cultural rights for minorities and in the 21st century, the attempt at peaceful multi-ethnic coexistence – however flawed it was – is often retrospectively seen as something lost in the catastrophic World War I, rather than a "backwardness" to be replaced by ethnically cleansed nation states.