Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Habsburg Colony (1878-1918)

Austria-Hungary (Hungarian: Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia), also known as Imperial and Royal Hungary Monarchy, was a historical state in Central and Southeastern Europe that existed from 1867 to 1918.

The Habsburg Empire refers to the territories and countries that were ruled by the rulers of the House of Habsburg or Habsburg-Lorraine in personal union from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century - but for a long time did not form a unified state in the strict sense. It was not until 1804 that the Austrian Empire was founded as such, from which Austria-Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy evolved in 1867.

The Habsburg Empire included a large number of smaller and larger lands and territories, most of which were grouped together. In addition to the Archduchy of Austria and its neighboring lands (including the duchies of Carinthia, Carniola, Salzburg and others), these included above all the so-called “Lands of the Bohemian Crown” and the “Lands of the Hungarian Crown”. As part of the expansionist policy of the 19th century, further territories and parts of the country were added, also in the Balkans (including Bosnia and Herzegovina). Due to the numerous border shifts, territorial reorganizations and temporary territorial gains and losses, the Habsburg Empire was practically constantly subject to border and territorial changes.

From the late 18th century, most of the constituent states of the Habsburg Empire formed the so-called crown lands, which later received their own provincial orders. With the transformation of the empire into a dual Austro-Hungarian state (dual monarchy), the Kingdom of Hungary and the other lands of the Hungarian crown also ceased to be crown lands. Subsequently, they were also referred to as Transleithania in official parlance, all others (excluding Bosnia and Herzegovina) as Cisleithania.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a federal state in south-eastern Europe. The country is inhabited by around 3 million people (2022: 3.23 million) and is divided into the political sub-regions of Republika Srpska, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Brčko district. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital is Sarajevo. The country is part of the Balkan Peninsula and borders the Adriatic Sea. The Bosnians are the largest population group alongside the Serbs and Croats.

Geographically, the country is comprised of the historical regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose eventful political history is closely linked to the various historical neighboring states and their location in the Balkans. As early as the 15th century, southern Herzegovina and large parts of Bosnia belonged to the Ottoman Empire, which bordered the Christian Habsburg Empire to the north. At the end of the 19th century, both regions initially came under Austro-Hungarian financial administration, followed by the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908, which led to a political crisis. In 1914, regional freedom movements such as „Mlada Bosna“ („Young Bosnia“) were involved in the assassination of heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand (1863–1914), which ultimately led to the outbreak of the First World War (1914–1918) and the collapse of Austria-Hungary.

From 1918, Bosnia and Herzegovina belonged to the newly established “Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes” (1918–1929), which was known as the “Kingdom of Yugoslavia” from 1929, but fell as a result of German conquest in the Second World War in 1941. From 1945, the socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of the re-established, now communist Yugoslavia. In the context of the increasingly belligerent disintegration of the country during the Yugoslav Wars (1991–2001), Bosnia-Herzegovina was only able to gain its 1992 declared independence as a result of the three-year Bosnian War (1992–1995).

The Kingdom of Hungary (Magyar Királyság) existed in changing borders since the year 1000. Already in the early modern period it fell to the Habsburg Monarchy, in which it later became the most important of the so-called Lands of the Hungarian Crown (also Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen or, after 1867, also called the Hungarian half of the Empire). Unlike other Habsburg territories - such as the lands of the Bohemian Crown or the Archduchy of Austria itself - the Kingdom of Hungary never belonged to the Holy Roman Empire.

Budapest (population 2023: 1,686,222) is the capital and largest city in Hungary. It is located in the center of the country, on the Danube. Budapest was formed from the merger of the cities of Buda on the left bank and Pest on the right bank of the Danube. Pest was already the capital of Hungary from the beginning of the 11th century and from the 13th century often alternated in this function with Buda. When the both cities were merged as Pest-Buda during the revolution in Hungary in 1848, they already formed a single entity. After the restoration of the monarchy (from 1526 as part of the Habsburg Monarchy), however, this merger was abolished in 1849 and re-established 1873. In this context the Hungarians replaced the Germans as the majority in the city. After the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918, Budapest remained the capital of a now independent Hungary. After Hungary's entry into the Second World War on the side of the German Reich in 1941, most of the city's Jews were ghettoized in 1944 and later deported to concentration camps or murdered. The 1956 popular uprising against Soviet tutelage in Hungary began in Budapest. In connection with the uprising and its suppression, the capital lost around 70,000 people. Today, Budapest is not only the country's largest economic and cultural center, but also one of the most important in East Central Europe.