Introduction
Title Page || 1: Early History of Austria
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, or the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
(Ger. Österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie or Österreichisch-ungarisches Reich),
is the official name of a country situated in central Europe, bounded E. by Russia and
Rumania, S. by Rumania, Servia, Turkey and Montenegro, W. by the Adriatic Sea, Italy,
Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the German empire, and N. by the German empire and Russia.
It occupies about the sixteenth part of the total area of Europe, with an area (1905) of
239,977 sq. m. The monarchy consists of two independent states: the kingdoms and lands
represented in the council of the empire (Reichsrat), unofficially called Austria
or Cisleithania, because its territories lie west of the river Leitha; and the "
lands of St Stephen's Crown," unofficially called Hungary or Transleithania, i.e.
across the Leitha. It received its actual name by the diploma of the emperor Francis
Joseph I. of the 14th of November 1868, replacing the name of the Austrian Empire under
which the dominions under his sceptre were formerly known. The Austro-Hungarian monarchy
is very often called unofficially the Dual Monarchy. It had in 1910 a population of
49,454,385 inhabitants, comprising therefore within its borders about one-eighth of the
total population of Europe. By the Berlin Treaty of 1878 the principalities of Bosnia and
Herzegovina with an area of 19,702 sq. m., and a population (1895) of 1,591,036
inhabitants, owning Turkey as suzerain, were placed under the administration of
Austria-Hungary, and their annexation in 1908 was recognized by the Powers in 1909, so
that they became part of the dominions of the monarchy.