Austria-Hungary as an early model of a Federal Europe
The Hanseatic League is often depicted as an early version of the European Union. There is some truth in this. Both the EU and the Hanseatic League stand for ideas like Free Trade, Representative Democracy and an open-minded European spirit that goes beyond national identity. That's all true. But one has to remind that the Hanseatic League was an Alliance of more or less self-governing autonomous city-states, while modern Europe is mostly shaped by large nation-states.
In this regard, the Habsburg Monarchy was much closer to the vision of a modern Federal Europe, than the Hanseatic League ever was. What was the Habsburg Empire basically? A "collection" of many Kingdoms, Duchies, Principalities, Counties and Free Cities, which were united by the House of Habsburg, but nonetheless kept their own statehood, national identity and regional customs. Sometimes regions left the Habsburg Monarchy and sometimes territories joined the Habsburg Monarchy. It was a flexible structure and never a centralistic unitary state.
Spain is a perfect example for that. As part of the Habsburg Monarchy, Spain was a collection of many countries, each with their own language, identity, laws and tradition. When the Archducal House of Habsburg lost Spain - with exception of the Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) to the French Royal House of Bourbon in the early 18th century, Spain became a centralistic unitary state, modelled after France. This lead to ethnic regional conflicts inside of Spain that are still not yet solved.
Due to the first French Revolution, the idea of a modern nation-state was spread in Europe and Latin America. This lead to calls for more even more autonomy or even full independence inside of the Habsburg Monarchy. Especially among the Hungarians, a revolutionary spirit spread, which erupted in a successfull revolution. But that revolutionary Hungarian Republic was oppressed and reintegrated with the help of a Russian military interrvention. Sure, the Hungarians, Czechs, Poles and others had their statehood and autonomy. But this was not enough anymore. The central government in Vienna still was way too powerful for the other nationalities inside of the Habsburg Empire. Then Prussia kicked Austria out of the German Confederation and Emperor Francis Joseph feared new insurrections. Fortunately his wife Elisabeth had made friends among the Hungarian Aristocrats (Magnates), even with former revolutionaries. So Empress "Sissi" persuaded the Emperor to agree to a totally new deal with the Hungarians. Since 1804, the Habsburg Monarchy had been organized as the Austrian Empire. Now it was reorganized in a real union of Austria and Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 satisfied the demands of the Hungarian nation. Having been revolutionary separatists before, the Hungarians now were loyal supportes of the Habsburg Monarchy. This model of a compromise was the right way.
It was even cited by the early Irish independence movement as a role model for a possible Anglo-Irish compromise. But the chance to continue this way and to secure the existence of the Habsburg Monarchy for the 21st century, was missed. New compromises were discussed. Inside of the Hungarian half of the Habsburg Monarchy, there was a Croatian–Hungarian Settlement in 1868 which granted Croatia more autonomy. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the Crown Prince, wanted to continue the way of decentralization and build some kind of United States of Greater Austria or Danube Federation.
But the plan died with him in 1914, when a Serbian nationalist killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his Czech wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo.
The new Crown Prince Archduke Karl, who became Emperor-King in 1916, tried to continue the decentralization process. In October 1918, the Dual Monarchy became a Trialist Monarchy, a real union between Austria, Hungary and now also Croatia (State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs). Shortly after, the other countries of the Habsburg Monarchy were granted full self-government. But it was too late. They all used their new freedom to declare independence. Indeed the Croatian Parliament never deposed Emperor-King Karl. Rather the Croatian Government entered into the Union with Serbia and Montenegro without parliamentary consent to establish what would be called Yugoslavia soon.
It became obvious soon that the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy did not solve a single nationality issue, but rather created new conflicts. Over centuries, people had been free to move inside of the Empire. So now litterally every successor state of Austria-Hungary had ethnic minorities. There were proposals to at least restore an economic union. For example the planned customs union between Austria and Germany in 1931 was supposed to be open for the former territories of Austria-Hungary to join later. The plan failed because the former Allied Powers were opposed to it and used economic pressure to make Austria withdraw from the plan.
The post-war episode after WWI had also seen the rise of a new movement, that was especially supported by former inhabitants of Austria-Hungary: the International Paneuropean Union, established in 1922. The International Paneuropean Union's first President was Richard Nikolaus Eijiro, Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi, a former Austro-Hungarian aristocrat with Austrian, Czech, Japanese and Greek ancestry. The International Paneuropean Union's second President was Otto Habsburg-Lothringen, the former Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. The International Paneuropean Union advocated - and still advocates for European unification.
In the end, the difference between the idea of the United States of Greater Austria and the United States of Europe was not that big. A federal union of self-governing states. A federal union of many different people of different faiths and different ethnicities. So it was no wonder that both ideas were shaped by people from Austria-Hungary.
The need to find a modern, sustainable federalist solution to preserve the Habsburg Monarchy and to achieve European unification - it was basically two sides of the same problem.
Especially the British realized soon that it was a mistake to let Austria-Hungary fall apart. Otto Habsburg-Lothringen was not only a former Arduke of Austria - he was also the Archenemy of Adolf Hitler. Hitler hated Otto so much, that the official military Codename for the German occupation if Austria was even "Operation Otto". The German soldiers had orders to arrest and kill Otto. In exile, he became a good friend of British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Otto saved the good reputation of Austria. Otto convinced the Allies that Austria was the first victim of N#zi expansionism. That is seen controversial as many Austrians welcomed the German occupiers. However, the N#zi Party never had achieved parliamentary majority in Austria. And for example in France, many French Citizens in the end also supported the German occupiers and even joined French military units under German command - with the approval of the French Government of Marshal Petain. Among the last defenders of Berlin were French Citizens in German uniforms, while at the same time Austrian Citizens served in exclusively Austrian military units among Marshal Tito's People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia to liberate their country from German occupation. Nobody would ever question that France was a victim of N#zi occupation. So there are good arguments to count Austria as the first in the list of countries occupied by Germany through military and political aggression. In 1945, Churchill proposed a Danube Federation with Otto as Head of State. A Federal Union of former Austria-Hungary and the South German states Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Not as a mere resurrection of the old Habsburg Monarchy, but rather as a federal Democracy and nucleus for a United States of Europe as proposed one year later by Churchill in his famous speech to the Academic Youth of Europe in Zurich, Switzerland.
For around one year, the British had been the only to fight the Axis Powers. In the first years of the War the Soviets were Allies of Germany, France had surrendered and the Americans were neutral. Now both the Americans and the Soviets rejected Churchill's proposal for a Danube Federation. Today, all former territoried of Austria-Hungary are Member States of the Council of Europe. Many, but not all, are also Member States of the European Union.
Modern European Federalism has been shaped by the experiences of Austria-Hungary's difficult search for a sustaibable, suprantional federation. And this source of inspiration is much stronger than the other source of European Federalism, which would be the Socialist one. Sure, Socialists and Social Democrats were also in favour of a European Federation. The Soviet Union somehow was a manifestation of that. And both Austrian and German Social Democrats in the interwar period strongly supported Unification of Austria and Germany and as that was unrealistic due to Allied veto against such a plan, other European Countries were sometimes included in these unification plans. But these sources have little to nothing to do with modern European Federalism. Modern European Federalism indeed is somehow a "child" of Austria-Hungary.
From the beginning of European unification process on it has been obvious that not all European countries are willing to take part in European unification in the same amount and speed. So it makes sense to have a Europe not only of two speeds, but if many speeds. And regional cooperations can be a good addition to the Council of Europe and the European Union. In 2020, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine, inspired by their common history in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, revived the spirit of the Union of Lublin, which had edtablished the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569 as a real union, by crearing the Lublin Triangle. The Lublin Triangle is no state and not even a federation. But it is a close regional cooperation with some aspects of federalism like a joint military unit, the Lithuanian–Polish–Ukrainian Brigade.
Inspired by the Lublin Triangle, we advocate for a Danube Federation, Danube Forum or Danube Alliance as a regional cooperation between the former nations of Austria-Hungary together with Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Of course the military neutrality of Austria has to be preserved in such a regional cooperation. But a close cooperation in fields like economy and culture is very much desirable. All involved states would profit from such a regional alliance. And the larger European unification process would also profit from it. Because regional cooperations offer many oportunities to implement and experiment with different mechanisms of economical and political cooperation and integration which can function as a positive examples and role models for both the Council of Europe and the European Union.
