AUSTROSLAVISM: a reasonable idea in the dustbin of history

The Hapsburg Empire was a patchwork of different ethnicities, represented by aristocrats of different status and privledge within the Empire. It was a rickety structure that all came crashing down in World War I, after the Empire's armies were destroyed, making it impossible to keep its disparate parts together any longer. But that it even lasted that long is something of a wonder, for the ideas of Nationalism were well underway by mid 19th century, with the Empires very numerous peoples clamoring for their languages and cultures to be recognized, and for some measure of autonomy if not independence.

In 1846, a Czech politician by the name of František Palacký (considered by later Czechs to be one of three founders of Czech nationhood) proposed Austroslavism as a way of giving autonomy to the Slavic peoples of the Hapsburg (Austrian) empire.He proposed a federation of 8 slavic regions, but still under the rubric of the former empire and with fealty to the Austrian Emperor.

The slavic peoples were in the majority if brought together -- 55% of the empire. This alone probably made the Austrians reluctant to go with the idea. There was another rival, more radical concept called pan-Slavism which looked to a unity of all Slavs, including the Russians, independent of Austria. The problem with this idea in the minds of the Czechs is that the Russians, having a much larger population and power, would dominate this kind of arrangement. Austroslavism looks like a reasonable way of keeping the empire together -- but it wasn't the concept that won out. Instead, the Austrians teamed up with the Hungarians -- who controlled all of the Slovak lands and significant parts of other slavic peoples territory -- to form the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. Simmering resentments this caused amongst the Slavs, in particular the Serbs, would lead to revolutions and wars and eventually would bring the whole house of cards down by 1918.

Anyway, it was a good idea, even if it only remained relevant for a couple of years -- from 1846 when the idea first sprang up in Palacký's head until the 1848 revolution, after which the Czechs were suppressed and the moderates influence on the Austrians was diminished.