Who Killed Austria-Hungary? | The Life & Times of Franz Joseph

It was a dark and stormy night, like any other in the big city. I was on my lunch break when the mutton-chopped Methusalah came through my door in a hurry. He said “I like my historians like I like my eggs. Hard-boiled.” “Then you’ve come to the right place.” He said “There’s about to be a murder, the people need to know the truth!” I said “Well that’s a cute bit, but what am I, a low-budget YouTube film critic from 10 years ago? I can’t commit a whole episode to-” but he was already gone.

Two years later, Austria-Hungary turns up on the curb. Open and shut case, the cops say. A suicide. Too many nations under one empire, army was preoccupied with losing a war and he erupted from the inside. Something didn’t seem right. Austria-Hungary was hardly the only ethnically diverse country in the world, and a 600-year-old monarchy doesn’t splatter itself on the pavement for any old war. And look at the remains… Czechoslovakia. The kingdom of Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes? If it was only nationalism killed the beast, then why were so many of the successor states just as multinational? Then I remembered the old man. And I knew I had to get to the bottom of this.

Music (in order of appearnace):
Fesliyan Studios - Closed Curtain
Kevin Macleod - Hidden Past
Fesliyan Studios - Sleek Panther
Kevin Macleod - Intractable
Fesliyan Studios - Fallen Petals
Kevin Macleod - Still Pickin
Kevin Macleod - Night on the Docks (Sax)

[sirrliv]

Fair dues to Franz Joseph, he was also the emperor who dragged Austria-Hungary kicking and screaming into the 19th Century, promoting industry, overseeing the construction of railways that many in Europe thought were flat out impossible, and reshaping Vienna from an ancient walled city into the modern metropolis we know today. In Austria at least he's still a rightly beloved figure with paintings and busts of him in almost every public building.

[warlordofbritannia]

Subject: Austro-Hungarian Empire
Age: technically 51, but more like 500
Cause of Death: Apparent suicide via excess of nationalism, complications from modern war--foul play??
Potential suspects: Entente--found a 14 Points Manifesto at their home from associate America discussing the "dismemberment" of Austria-Hungary
Russia--other long-standing rival; alibi: "We're busy killing ourselves right now"
Serbia--have wanted Austria-Hungary dead for years

CASE CLOSED: FOUL PLAY RULED OUT; SUBJECT DIED OF EXTREME OLD AGE, COMPLICATED BY WAR WOUNDS

[shawnconway]

Calling the fall of the AustroHungarian empire a suicide is like saying you died of suicide after having a heart attack from eating nothing but burgers. It's collapse is roughly like suddenly having a heart attack after a long time of living very poorly.

[saiyanscars]

The son of Franz Josef who committed suicide, Crowns Prince Rudolf, is a fascinating (and incredibly tragic) character in his own right and not nearly enough people even know he existed. So if you think you're up for the task, Jack, I'd love to see you take a stab at a life and times for him in the future. Also there are a lot of disagreements and conspiracy theories around the circumstances of his death, so that's a fun little bonus.

[gavinsmith]

Not so fun fact: Franz Ferdinand's two sons ended up in a Nazi concentration camp during WW2, they survived but both died in the 50s.
Much more fun facts: His daughter though lived until the 70s and still, as far as I can tell, has living children.

[sebastianbosik]

You forgot how the Hungarians slowly backpeddled on all the national concessions and etempted to erase the national identities of their subjects, which really made all the non-hungarians pretty mad and wanting to leave.

[staytunedL]

If it hasn't been said yet it needs to be: the production value on this episode is through the roof. Well done man

[andreaswidham]

One reason for the breakup of Austria-Hungary, that I don't see brought up often in popular circles, is how dysfunctional it's goverment was. I don't know enough to give more then a general view but put simply:

Can anyone see the problem with a state that is composed of two pieces with equal say in goverment, who also don't like or trust each other?
Virtually all attempts by the government to do "anything" got stuck when the Hungarians and Austrians couldn't agree. Which happened often. You know how it took a month for them to do anything after the Assassination in Sarajevo? This was why. The whole nationalism and rights to minorities? The Austrians where giving greater rights, autonomy and participation in politics to the Slavs in their half of the country. The Hungarians? Magyarization all the way. This is a bit of an issue.

One of the proposals to fix the dysfunction and break the deadlock, from one Franz Ferdinand, was to uplift the South Slavs in the Empire to make a Triple Monarchy. And since the Slavs where treated better by the Austrians, and much worse by the Hungarians, this would give Franz two votes against one 'when' he became Emperor. Needless to say the Hungarians didn't like Franz Ferdinand and the feeling was very much mutual. Ironic that it was a Slav who shot him rather then an Hungarian.

[marcoarnaud]

Loved the smooth animation in the beginning and the overall polishes

Great job, Jack

[SeoulMan]

Didn't seem so long ago that you made a video with a gag about slapping the face of this emperor. Great times, and more where that came from. Keep up the great work, Jack!

[samrevlej]

3:09 Actually, up until the French Revolution, regional identities were still quite important in France. Not everyobdy spoke French, most people spoke their own regional language (Breton, Basque, Occitan) in everyday life. It really was during the 19th and early 20th century that France became more culturally homogenous. So you could say France was also a very diverse place in 1815.

[PillowWillow]

🎶🎵 *My country 'tis of thee, *
*Austria-Hungary*
*Obey your king!* 🎶🎵

[somefancycashews]

It's actually worth noting that the economic divides in the empire, namely the industrialization of the Austrian/Bohemian areas while Hungary remained primarily agricultural, was actually beneficial to keeping it together. The industrialized sectors of the empire provided for the agricultural, and the agricultural sectors provided for the industrial, creating a symbiotic and tightly knit internal economy, that together, served to create a single well-functioning economy on the world stage.

The real economic collapse happened when A-H fell apart (especially for Hungary) as these intertwined parts were suddenly cut from each other and hindered by international borders, customs, etc.

[alehaim]

An excellent video explaining the intricacies of the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Even with everything I know about it, it still baffles me with its complexity.

[herzog]

This video is great. In a humorous way, it is explained quite well how the end of AH came about. What bothers me about the majority of YouTube videos dealing with this topic is that they do not explain anything, but merely list historical events. This video explains the context and thoughts of the people who lived at that time.

[BehemothsMargarita]

Not bad, not bad at all. Thanks for taking care of this topic! One thing you could have added to the personal tragedies of old FJ was his son dying in a scandalous murder-suicide with his mistress. Family-wise the guy really couldn't catch a break.

[SamAronow]

"What am I, a low-budget YouTube filmmaker from ten years ago?"

Clearly Jack is not a fan of _Night of the Coconut._

[Zeruel]

The Austrian Empire only survived 1868 by elevating the Hungarian part to an equal footing with the Austrian one. Franz Ferdinand wanted to do the same for the other parts of the empire(especially the south slavs) and create a federalized state to limit nationalist tensions. If he'd lived to be able to try it it could have helped keep the empire together longer

[proverbialking]

I appreciate that you continued using the hard boiled detective drawl throughout the video. Keep up racking up the good work Jack.

[HerbGamer]

I really enjoyed 12:10 with the "SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS!". I've been playing through my first full game of Skyrim the last few days and it made me laugh to see a Skyrim reference.