You’d first have to revive not one but four armies: “A standing army of soldiers, a sitting army of bureaucrats, a kneeling army of priests, and a crawling army of spies.”
-Will this thread suggest (or was it itself suggested by) another thread “Should we revive the Ottoman Empire?” To which I’d say “Hell yes! Give it all back to the Turks and let them deal with all that bullshit!”
Cite?
Never mind. However, I wouldn’t fancy setting up a system like the current UK one from scratch: “Hi, you’re good at waving and have a good profile! Do you want to greet all foreign heads of state? You’ll have ultimate power over the country provided you promise not to use it.”
what would be wrong with that? Seems that would be a fun thing to have.
The stabilty of the UK has come from over a thousand years of (virtually) uninterrupted evolution of the governmental and legal system.
I’d suggest Bulgaria- the last King there, Simeon, is currently the Prime Minister!
The citizens of these diverse eastern European countries would welcome having some unity…by the constitutional monarchy headquartered in Vienna. Not only would their be free trade within the emp[ire, but nationalist fanaticism would die down quite a bit. Plus, as I say, the great spectacle of court life would be a good entertainment for the proles of the empire…certainly better than the horror that the late Jugoslavia has become!
No. No way.
During and prior to WW1, Austria had many problems with decreasing loyalty to the empire. Eventually, it fell apart.
Now, after 85 years you want to reunite it?
After World War II, after the rise and fall of the iron curtain, after most of the former Austro-Hungarian nations are reunited in the EU?
I very much doubt that even in Austria a majority would support this.
Concerning the royal family:
Though I could imagine Otto to be a good Emperor, he won’t live forever. His son Karl, though, is quite up in the list of Austria’s dumbest celebrities.
He was involved in a scandal concerning defalcations of donations to a third world charity organisation and he was found guilty of attempting to smuggle an antique diadem into Austria.
Don’t get me wrong! I like monarchies in general. Funny uniforms, changing of the guards and all. But in that case: Vive la république! 
There was repression largely in some of the “Hungarian” parts of the empire. I doubt if people in Slovakia, Romania (Transylvania) would want a return of Hungarian rule. Also, the Hungarian minorities in these areas feel discriminated against themselves. It isn’t as bad as the Balkans, but the whole Carpathian area is a bit of an ethnic friction zone.
But I think a loose federation of the core remnants of the Austrian empire proper may be viable. Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Croatia. Interestingly, I think Austria may not be too keen on this because their per capita income is still twice the income in the former communist states (even though those particular former communist states are the wealthiest of the old east bloc nations). Of course, if all these states become part of the European Union, and the EU becomes a federal state, then it would be somewhat moot.
Actually, if anything, I would say years of Austrian dominance is what doomed Yugoslavia-among other things, of course!
Poor Yugoslavia-Aleksandar I must be rolling in his grave! Poor assasinated King.
Oh, and I forgot about Simon-good one!
Considering that people can’t get along in the Balkans with their own brother Slavs, what makes you think that Austrian influence could change things? (BTW, this is a stupid question-but is Austria still separate from Germany?)
Ralph – It was everton who made the comment about “having fun with a Ruritanian theme park” – I took the question as a low-probability potential scenario, and worked with it.
Guin, Austria is still a separate, officially neutral nation; any enthusiasm for Anschluss in the 1920s and 30s was pretty well quashed by how they were treated from 1938-45.
Of course, this is pretty much like being the tallest Munchkin.
It certainly was. I cannot believe you’re serious about this ralph124c. What reason can you possibly have for claiming "the citizens of these diverse eastern European countries would welcome having some unity by the constitutional monarchy headquartered in Vienna. Not only would there be free trade within the empire, but nationalist fanaticism would die down quite a bit. " All the evidence outside of your imagination indicates that the countries you’re thinking of either don’t want to be shackled to one another or if they do want to join a confederation it’s the EU they want to join. They already have free trade, it’s inward investment they need.
It wasn’t nationalist fanaticism that led to the break up of Czechoslovakia – the Czechs just wanted a quickie divorce with no hard feelings from a relationship they never chose in the first place. There was no bloodshed over it.
There was no nationalist fanaticism involved in Slovenia breaking away from Yugoslavia. The war only started when tensions between Croatia, Bosnia-H and Serbia reared up. Of those, Serbia was never wholly within the A-H E anyhow. What current problem would be solved by any Balkan republic being governed from Vienna? The Austrians would hate having to carry the burden of numerous poorer countries being grafted onto it. Germany has suffered a very serious economic downturn since the eastern länder rejoined, and that was a wealthier country than Austria regaining a few states with no language problems or historical tensions at all. The EU will have to carry any burden but has group much broader shoulders than Austria alone.
Hungary haven’t called for it and they already have good relations with their neighbours. Slovenia haven’t called for it either and having just left a union with some of their neighbours why would they want to be shoved back into another one? Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia have just come out of a nightmare union. Do you seriously believe that being governed by Austria or having their ruler wearing a crown would heal an residual wounds between them?
Can you provide even one scrap of evidence that anybody in the region wants a reinstatement of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or any version of it?
If you really have such contempt for “the proles of the empire” that you imagine they would be satisfied with the “spectacle of court life” instead of an improvement in their economies I strongly suggest you stay as far away as possible from Eastern Europe.
As an indication of how much the constituent parts would desire a resumption of a Habsburg monarchy, let’s note that Hungary from 1919 to 1944 was officially a monarchy, and could have called Karl or Otto to resume the throne at any time, but remained under the regency of Admiral Horthy in preference to doing so.
Minor nitpick, everton: I was under the impression that the breakup of Czechoslovakia (which, BTW, ticked off the younger brother of one of my boys: he’d just learned to spell it, and then it went out of existence! ;)) was due to the desire of the Slovaks for an amicable divorce – the Czechs were happy to be the leading partner in the union but the Slovaks hated playing second fiddle, IIRC.
Your points about economic differences are well taken – but the Dual Monarchy was a relatively rich state simply because the integration of industry in its west with rich agriculture in its east, particularly the Pannonian plain in Hungary and much of Transylvania, worked well in the 19th century. I wonder whether there would be a long-term benefit to Austria in resuming such a relationship, regardless of the short-term economic impacts. (Treat this as a what-if question; I concur that nobody since Churchill died other than the Habsburgs themselves and a few incurable romantic royalists is seriously interested in the idea.)
This is so short-sighted. Austro-Hungary is a joke. If you really wanted to reconstitute the Hapsburg empire there should be no settling for half-measures - I favor re-creating the empire of Franz Joseph PLUS the empires of udolf I, Charles V and Philip III. ALL the Hapsburg territories. Including all of areas listed by Poly, with the addition of most of Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands, all of Latin America ( minus Brazil of course ), the Phillipines, assorted coastal districts in Africa and Asia, and chunks of eastern France ( plus the enclave in France at Charollais ).
Now there would be the perfect administrative unit. Compact, efficient, homogenous ;). We could even give it a fancy new name - something like…oh…the ‘European Union’ :p. Or perhaps the ‘Hapsburg World Co-Prosperity Sphere’.
That should be Rudolf I.
Well, since the wealthier eastern countries are just about to join the EU, it would hardly make a difference. Free trade will be established and in the long term, I expect that they will become members of the monetary union and the Schengen area.
If these countries and Austria have common interests, they can work together, thus increasing their influence in Europe.
I don’t see any additional advantage to be gained from establishing The Empire Part 2 that could overweight inescapable problems with nationalist movements.
Tamerlane, we could talk about that if the US volunteers for fighting the wars that we start. You just cannot count on those cowardly Germans anymore. 
Polycarp: I must admit I didn’t follow the news as closely as I ought to have done, but I could have sworn it was the Czechs’ idea. However, further reading confirms that there had been a gradual shift towards devolution from the central government by both the Czech and Slovak state parliaments since the end of 1990 and the Slovak parliament made several key moves towards a breakaway; they passed a law making Slovakian the official language of their part of the country and the Slovak National Party made a couple of attempts at achieving independence without getting the necessary majority until May 1992. So you’re quite right, although in the end the Czechs got to keep the flag and all the best CDs, and they still keep in touch on the holidays.
I sympathise with the boy you mention. It also spoiled a good Christmas cracker joke “Q: What Scandinavian city can you see from the Alps? A: Oslo (it’s in Czechoslovakia) groan”
Tamerlane: maybe then you could conquer it? Go on, you must be itchin’ for a good bit of conquerin’ – it’s been a while.
ralph124c: this seems to be a crackpot notion and so far you haven’t offered any reasoned argument in favour of it. Since this is your thread, it’s up to you to offer something of substance to debate. So please would you try to answer these questions?
It ought to be obvious to you that a restoration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with the 1914 borders is out of the question. Therefore, what countries do you suggest should be included in a cut-down version of it?
What historical precedent is there for including those countries as a joint monarchy?
What political or economic problems do you believe those countries currently have? Offer evidence to back up your argument.
How would those problems be alleviated by removing their national sovereignty and replacing it with a joint monarchy?
Why would a restoration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire be equal to or better than the plans these countries already have for their future?
Well, the obvious way for the Austro-Hungarian empire to be reconsituted would be for war to break out between Hungary and Turkey. The Turks would win, killing Hungary’s king. The Hungarians beg the Austrians to save them from the Turks and the Austrian king becomes king of Hungary. And so it goes.
Now, one thing I’ve never figured out. How did Portugal remain an independent country? All the other kingdoms of Iberia got incorporated into Spain. The kings of Spain inherited Portugal several times. Why wasn’t Portugal incorporated like Aragon and Castile?
Nah, that could never happen.
Portugal was inherited by Phillip II in 1580, and became part of the “Iberian Union”, but Phillip was content to leave it under internal Portugese control, and Phillip II, and to a lesser extent, Phillip III tended to respect Portugese autonomy. Then, when Phillip IV came to the throne, he disbanded the previous 6 man governing council and gave it to one of his Dukes, who then started collecting high taxes and extensive troop levies to support a war against France.
The war made Phillip IV unpopular, and, in 1640, first the Catalans and then the Portugese revolted, the Portugese resistance forming around a relative of the old Portugese king. They drove the Spanish out and allied with the French and English, and were able to keep their independence that way.