AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY - A PRISON OF NATIONS OR SOMETHING BETTER

Austrian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy are woven into the political and legal identity of many Central European nations including the Croats. A century ago a number of central European countries were a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and after the First World War they became separate states. In the next century, those countries entered the composition of various other countries or existed independently. They belonged to different political affiliations and had different economic development. I will now try, almost a century since the collapse of the monarchy, to present some of my visions and thoughts whether the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was indeed so bad and whether the state and the people that came out of the Monarchy progressed and achieved their national and economic interests. In the schools of the former Yugoslavia (including Croatia) it was taught that the monarchy was the "prison of peoples". Some of the best Croatian writers built their work on the merciless criticism of the monarchy; hence, I would like to try to bring some of my views on this matter. And thus show that the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was maybe not such a bad state and that if there was more understanding by the Hungarian and German politicians and bolder moves by the Emperor Charles, with major reforms, it could have provided a better future for its peoples.