The conceptual boundaries in the late nineteenth century between "colonial" empires and the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman empires was not clear cut. The Ottomans had their colonizing ventures in Yemen and what is now Libya, the Russians in Central Asia; Austria-Hungary took over the Ottoman province of Bosnia and treated it as something of a colony. These empires had their historic ways of dealing with local elites and adapted across their domains in flexible ways that complicated colonial-type relationships.
Cooper, Frederick: Epilogue. Beyond Empire?, in: Fibiger Bang et al (eds.): The Oxford World History of Empire. Volume 2: The Imperial Experience. Oxford, 2021. p. 1256.
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 (also known as the Habsburg Monarchy or Danube Monarchy) 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 did not form a unified state in the strict sense for a long time. It was not until 1804 that the Austrian Empire was founded as such, from which Austria-Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy emerged in 1867.
The Habsburg Empire included a large number of smaller and larger countries and territories, most of which were summarized in several larger groups. In addition to the Archduchy of Austria and its subsidiary 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”. In addition, there were numerous other territories and parts of the country, not least in the Balkans (including Bosnia and Herzegovina) due to the expansionist policies of the 19th century. In view of 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 Austrian crown lands. Subsequently, they were also referred to as Transleithania in official parlance, all others (excluding Bosnia and Herzegovina) as Cisleithania.
Another reason for the lack of relevant research is that it is difficult to apply theories and perspectives related to colonialism to the former Danube Monarchy. On the one hand, the current theories were basically formulated through investigations of the colonial past of transatlantic and not East-European countries. On the other hand, the terminology of international diplomacy and law was far from being as uniform prior to 1914 as it has been suggested by international historiography. The Habsburg Empire, for instance, had its own imperial terminology and its own concepts, among other things, in connection with empire building and colonization.
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).
According to the above, one has reason to suppose that if Austria-Hungary was indeed a colonizing empire, then the evidence for this statement might also be proven by investigating the history of the Hungarian sub-empire. This paper scrutinizes the debates in the Hungarian House of Representatives in which the terms colony (gyarmat) and colonialization (gyarmatosítás) were used.
Between 1878 and 1914, the term colony or colonization was used in a total of 522 interpellations or speeches in the Hungarian House of Representatives. More than two-thirds of the interpellations were presented by politicians of the opposition parties, basically members of the Party of Independence and ’48th, which rejected the system of dualism.
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 is the capital of Hungary and the largest city in the country with about 1.7 million inhabitants. It is located in central Hungary on the Danube River. Budapest was created in 1873 by the merger of the cities of Buda and Pest.
Coming to the third point, it is important to state that, based on the parliamentary debates on colonialism, the claim of international historiography that the political and economic elites of the Hungarian sub-empire impeded or hindered the colonialization efforts of the joint Ministry of Foreign Affairs, can be clearly refuted.7 The social elite groups of the Hungarian sub-empire were, under three conditions, ready to support the imperialist and colonial policy of the joint empire. (1) The target area of this policy should not be Africa or Asia, but the Balkan Peninsula. (2) The foundations of the dualist system should not have to be renegotiated because of this policy, i.e. colonization should not become another joint issue, and should not receive a fourth joint ministry. (3) Finally, the term colonialism should never be used to refer to these ambitions.