Danubia

*This article is about Austria-Hungary and Danubia in 1942: Differently. For Austria and Hungary in the ATM Timeline, check Austro-Bavaria and Magyarograd.*

**Danubia**, officially the **United Federal Multinational Kingdoms of Austria, Hungary, and Slavonia**, is a fictional sovereign monarchy located in Central and South-Western Europe, predominantly marked by the Danube and Leitha Rivers. It only borders the Adriatic Sea as its coast, while also bordering Germania to the North-West, Poland-Lithuania to the North-East, Romulgaria to the East, Serbia to the South, and Italy and Switzerland to the West. Danubia, often mistaken for "Austria-Hungary", is the 6th largest country in Europe. The capitals are Vienna, Budapest, and Zagreb, while the monarchy's other largest and important cities are Bratislava, Prague, and Sarajevo.

In early antiquity, Danubia's current territories were more assimilated into the Roman Empire, as Rhætia, West Rhætia, and Dalmatia. After the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, the inward migration of the Goths from ancient Ruthenia to Rhætia, ancient Lombardy, and even the Iberian Peninsula as well as later the Italian Peninsula ushered the Ostrogothic Kingdom. The territory of present-day Hungary, meanwhile, has for centuries been a crossroads for various peoples, including Celts, Romans, Germanic tribes, Huns, West Slavs and the Avars. After the Franks invaded the Gallic Empire to form the Merovingian Empire, they headed towards the Ostrogoths while successfully defeating them in the Frankish Battle of Lombardy and Bavaria. Austria emerged from the remnants of the Eastern and Hungarian March at the end of the first millennium. The foundation of the Hungarian state was established in the late 9th century AD with the conquest of the Carpathian Basin by Hungarian grand prince Árpád. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended the throne in 1000, converting his realm to a Christian kingdom.

Originally a margraviate of Bavaria, Austria however developed into a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire in 1156 and was later made an archduchy in 1453. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, it was partially occupied by the Ottoman Empire (1541–1699). In the 16th CE, Vienna began serving as the empire's administrative capital and Austria thus became the heartland of the Habsburg Monarchy. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Austria established its own empire, which became a great power and the dominant member of the German Confederation. The empire's stalemate in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 led it to annex the Electorate of Bavaria, as well as with the outcome of the subsequent end of the Confederation, which then paved the way for the establishment of Austria-Hungary a year later, after Hungary came under Habsburg rule at the turn of the 18th CE.

## Etymology

The name "Danubia" comes from the Danube River, the most significant river in the country, dividing the country from North to South. Etymologically, the name itself means "*the land of the Danube*".

Danubia became the official name of the kingdom after the defeat of its successor, Austria-Hungary. The major reason for the name change was because of the Secession of the Slavonian Condominium, a topic discussed by the belligerents of the Grand War. To appease France and the United Kingdom, Austria-Hungary offered Slavonia to be one of the constituent countries of the kingdom, like Austria (Hereditary Lands)/Cisleithania and Hungary/Transleithania. Slavonia later opted out to be an autonomous kingdom within Austria-Hungary (under the rule of Cisleithania, while France and Britain issued the Doctrine of Danubia, which still saw the secedal of Galicia and Transylvania to Poland-Lithuania and Romulgaria respectively, granting autonomy to Slavonia, as well as Austria-Hungary changing its name to *Danubia*, while in turn France and Britain promised Danubia to not dismantle the kingdom.

## History

### a. Ancient History

#### Cisleithania

The land that is now Cisleithania has a diverse history, since its territories range from the Alpes to the Eastern European plains. In hindsight, Cisleithania's history diverges into its crown lands—Lower Austria, Tyrol, Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia.

##### Austria (Lower Austria & Tyrol)

The Central European land that is now Lower Austria and Tyrol (sipmly "Austria") was settled in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes. The Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province. Present-day Petronell-Carnuntum in eastern Austria was an important army camp turned capital city in what became known as the Upper Pannonia province. Carnuntum was home for 50,000 people for nearly 400 years. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area was invaded by Bavarians, Slavs, and Avars. Charlemagne, King of the Franks, conquered the area in AD 788, encouraged colonisation, and introduced Christianity. As part of Eastern Francia, the core areas that now encompass Austria were bequeathed to the house of Babenberg. The area was known as the marchia Orientalis and was given to Leopold of Babenberg in 976.

The Great Migration (*Völkerwanderung*) sealed the decline of Roman power in Austria. In the First Phase (300–500 AD) the Roman Empire was increasingly harassed by Germanic tribes from the 5th CE, including Goths and Vandals. As the fabric of the Roman Empire crumbled, the ability of Rhætia and Western Rhætia (Noricum and Pannonia) to defend themselves became increasingly problematic. Radagaisus overran part of the country in 405. (Géza Alföldy pp. 213–4). After several raids on Italy, the Visigoths arrived in 408, under Alaric I.

The Visigoths eventually moved on, allowing a short period of stability apart from domestic disturbances in 431. (Alföldy p. 214). 451 saw the Huns pour through the land, and in 433, Pannonia had had to be evacuated under the Hun attacks. The death of Attila in 453 allowed the Ostrogoths to scatter his Hunnish Empire. Many tribes, formerly under the Huns now started to settle along the Danube basin and assert their independence.

##### Bohemia & Moravia

In the classical era, as a result of the 3rd century BC Celtic migrations, Bohemia became associated with the Boii. The Boii founded an oppidum near the site of modern Prague. Later in the 1st CE, the Germanic tribes of the Marcomanni and Quadi settled there. Slavs from the Black Sea–Carpathian region settled in the area (their migration was pushed by an invasion of peoples from Siberia and Eastern Europe into their area: Huns, Avars, Bulgars and Magyars). In the 6th, the Huns had moved westwards into Bohemia, Moravia, and some of present-day Austria and Germany.

During the 7th CE, the Frankish merchant Samo, supporting the Slavs fighting against nearby settled Avars, became the ruler of the first documented Slavic state in Central Europe, Samo's Empire. The principality of Great Moravia, controlled by Moymir Dynasty, arose in the 8th CE. It reached its zenith in the 9th CE (during the reign of Svatopluk I of Moravia), holding off the influence of the Franks. Great Moravia was Christianized, with a role being played by the Byzantine mission of Cyril and Methodius. They codified the Old Church Slavonic language, the first literary and liturgical language of the Slavs, and the Glagolitic alphabet.

#### Transleithania (Hungary)

The Roman Empire conquered the territory between the Alps and the area west of the Danube River from 16 to 15 BC, the Danube being the frontier of the empire. In 14 BC, Pannonia, the western part of the Carpathian Basin, which includes today's west of Transleithania/Hungary, was recognised by emperor Augustus in the *Res Gestae Divi Augusti* as part of the Roman Empire. The area south-east of Pannonia was organised as the Roman province of Moesia in 6 BC. An area east of the river Tisza became the Roman province of Dacia in 106 AD, which included today's east Hungary. It remained under Roman rule until 271. From 235, the Roman Empire went through troubled times, caused by revolts, rivalry and rapid succession of emperors. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century under the stress of the migration of Germanic tribes and Carpian pressure.

This period brought many invaders into Central Europe, beginning with the Hunnic Empire (c. 370–469). The most powerful ruler of the Hunnic Empire was Attila the Hun (434–453), who later became a central figure in Hungarian mythology. After the disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, the Gepids, an Eastern Germanic tribe, who had been vassalised by the Huns, established their own kingdom in the Carpathian Basin. Other groups which reached the Carpathian Basin during the Migration Period were the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, and Slavs.

In the 560s, the Avars founded the Avar Khaganate, a state that maintained supremacy in the region for more than two centuries. The Franks under Charlemagne defeated the Avars in a series of campaigns during the 790s. Between 804 and 829, the First Bulgarian Empire conquered the lands east of the Danube and took over the rule of the local Slavic tribes and remnants of the Avars. By the mid-9th century, the Balaton Principality, also known as Lower Pannonia, was established west of the Danube as part of the Frankish March of Pannonia.

### b. High Middle Ages

#### Austria

The first record showing the name Austria is from 996, where it is written as Ostarrîchi, referring to the territory of the Babenberg March. In 1156, the Privilegium Minus elevated Austria to the status of a duchy. In 1192, the Babenbergs also acquired the Duchy of Styria. With the death of Frederick II in 1246, the line of the Babenbergs was extinguished.

As a result, Ottokar II of Bohemia effectively assumed control of the duchies of Austria, Styria, and Carinthia. His reign came to an end with his defeat at Dürnkrut at the hands of Rudolph I of Germany in 1278. Thereafter, until World War I, Austria's history was largely that of its ruling dynasty, the Habsburgs.

In the 14th and 15th CE, the Habsburgs began to accumulate other provinces in the vicinity of the Duchy of Austria. In 1438, Duke Albert V of Austria was chosen as the successor to his father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund. Although Albert himself only reigned for a year, henceforth every emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was a Habsburg, with only one exception.

The Habsburgs began also to accumulate territory far from the hereditary lands. In 1477, Archduke Maximilian, only son of Emperor Frederick III, married the heiress Maria of Burgundy, thus acquiring most of the Netherlands for the family. In 1496, his son Philip the Fair married Joanna the Mad, the heiress of Castile and Aragon, thus acquiring Spain and its Italian, African, Asian and New World appendages for the Habsburgs.

#### Hungary

The freshly unified Hungarians led by Árpád (by tradition a descendant of Attila), settled in the Carpathian Basin starting in 895. According to the Finno-Ugrian theory, they originated from an ancient Uralic-speaking population that formerly inhabited the forested area between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. As a federation of united tribes, Hungary was established in 895, some 50 years after the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun in 843, before the unification of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Initially, the rising Principality of Hungary ("Western Tourkia" in medieval Greek sources) was a state created by a semi-nomadic people. It accomplished an enormous transformation into a Christian realm during the 10th century. This state was well-functioning, and the nation's military power allowed the Hungarians to conduct successful fierce campaigns and raids, from Constantinople to as far as today's Spain. The Hungarians defeated three major East Frankish imperial armies between 907 and 910. A defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 signaled a provisory end to most campaigns on foreign territories, at least towards the west.

##### Age of Árpádian Kings

The most powerful and wealthiest king of the Árpád dynasty was Béla III, who disposed of the equivalent of 23 tonnes of silver per year, according to a contemporary income register. The Mongols returned to Hungary in 1285, but the newly built stone-castle systems and new tactics (using a higher proportion of heavily armed knights) stopped them. After the Mongols retreated, King Béla ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortifications, to defend against a possible second Mongol invasion. The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the parliament (parlamentum publicum).

Applying to Pope Sylvester II, Stephen received the insignia of royalty (including probably a part of the Holy Crown of Hungary, currently kept in the Hungarian Parliament) from the papacy.

The country switched to using Latin for administration purposes, and until as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of administration. The invading Mongol force was defeated near Pest by the royal army of King Ladislaus IV. This exceeded the income of the French king (estimated at 17 tonnes) and was double the receipts of the English Crown.

##### Age of Elected Kings

After a destructive period of interregnum (1301–1308), the first Angevin king, Charles I of Hungary—a bilineal descendant of the Árpád dynasty—successfully restored royal power and defeated oligarch rivals, the so-called "little kings". The second Angevin Hungarian king, Louis the Great (1342–1382), led many successful military campaigns from Lithuania to southern Italy (Kingdom of Naples) and was also King of Poland from 1370. Matthias' mercenary standing army, the Black Army of Hungary, was an unusually large army for its time, and it conquered Vienna as well as parts of Austria and Bohemia.

The Kingdom of Hungary reached one of its greatest extents during the Árpádian kings, yet royal power was weakened at the end of their rule in 1301. His library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second only in size to the Vatican Library. After King Louis died without a male heir, the country was stabilised only when Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387–1437) succeeded to the throne, who in 1433 also became Holy Roman Emperor.

#### Conclusion

In 1526, following the Battle of Mohács, Bohemia and the part of Hungary not occupied by the Ottomans came under Austrian rule. Ottoman expansion into Hungary led to frequent conflicts between the two empires, particularly evident in the Long War of 1593 to 1606. The Turks made incursions into Styria nearly 20 times, of which some are cited as "burning, pillaging, and taking thousands of slaves". In late September 1529, Suleiman the Magnificent launched the first siege of Vienna, which unsuccessfully ended, according to Ottoman historians, with the snowfalls of an early beginning winter.

## Politics

### a. Internal Politics

#### Joint Government

The common government (officially designated Ministerial Council for Common Affairs, or *Ministerrat für gemeinsame Angelegenheiten* in German) came into existence in 1867 as a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise. The Government of Austria, which ruled the monarchy until then became the government of the Austrian part and another government was formed for the Hungarian part. A common government was also formed for the few matters of common national security—the Common Army, navy, foreign policy and the imperial household, and the customs union. It consisted of three Imperial and Royal Joint-ministries:

* Ministry of the Imperial and Royal Household and Foreign Affairs, known as the Imperial Chancellery before 1869;
* Imperial and Royal Ministry of War, known as the Imperial Ministry of War before 1911;
* Imperial and Royal Ministry of Finance, known as the Imperial Ministry of Finance before 1908, responsible only for the finances of the other two joint-ministries.

The Minister of the Imperial and Royal Household and Foreign Affairs was the chairman (except when the Monarch was present and led the meetings himself) and thus he was de facto the common prime minister. Since 1869 the prime ministers of the Austrian and Hungarian halves of the monarchy were also members of the common government.

Relations during the half-century after 1867 between the two parts of the dual monarchy featured repeated disputes over shared external tariff arrangements and over the financial contribution of each government to the common treasury. These matters were determined by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, in which common expenditures were allocated 70% to Austria and 30% to Hungary. This division had to be renegotiated every ten years. There was political turmoil during the build-up to each renewal of the agreement. By 1907, the Hungarian share had risen to 36.4%. The disputes culminated in the early 1900s in a prolonged constitutional crisis. It was triggered by disagreement over which language to use for command in Hungarian army units and deepened by the advent to power in Budapest in April 1906 of a Hungarian nationalist coalition. Provisional renewals of the common arrangements occurred in October 1907 and in November 1917 on the basis of the status quo. The negotiations in 1917 ended with the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy.

In 1878, the Congress of Berlin placed the Bosnian Province of the Second Greek Empire under Austro-Hungarian occupation. The region was formally annexed in 1908 and was governed by Austria and Hungary jointly (a *Condominium*). The governor-general of Bosnia and Herzegovina was always an army officer, but he was first and foremost the head of the civil administration in the province (the Bosnian Office, German: *Bosnische Amt*) and was subordinated to the common Ministry of Finance (as the common government lacked a ministry of the interior). Bosnia received a Territorial Statute (Landesstatut) with the setting up of a Territorial Diet, regulations for the election and procedure of the Diet, a law of associations, a law of public meetings, and a law dealing with the district councils. According to this statute Bosnia-Herzegovina formed a single administrative territory under the responsible direction and supervision of the Ministry of Finance of the Dual Monarchy in Vienna.

## Infrastructure

### a. Telecommunications

#### Telegraph

The first telegraph connection (Vienna—Brno—Prague) had started operation in 1847. In Hungarian territory the first telegraph stations were opened in Pressburg (Pozsony, today's Bratislava) in December 1847 and in Buda in 1848. The first telegraph connection between Vienna and Pest–Buda (later Budapest) was constructed in 1850, and Vienna–Zagreb in 1850.

Austro-Bavaria subsequently joined a telegraph union with German states. In the Kingdom of Hungary, 2,406 telegraph post offices operated in 1884. By 1914 the number of telegraph offices reached 3,000 in post offices and further 2,400 were installed in the railway stations of the Kingdom of Hungary.

#### Telephone

The first telephone exchange was opened in Zagreb (8 January 1881), the second was in Budapest (1 May 1881), and the third was opened in Vienna (3 June 1881). Initially telephony was available in the homes of individual subscribers, companies and offices. Public telephone stations appeared in the 1890s, and they quickly became widespread in post offices and railway stations. Austria–Hungary had 568 million telephone calls in 1913; only two Western European countries had more phone calls: the German Empire and the United Kingdom. Danubia as Austria-Hungary was followed by France with 396 million telephone calls and Italy with 230 million phone calls. In 1916, there were 366 million telephone calls in Cisleithania, among them 8.4 million long distant calls. All telephone exchanges of the cities, towns and larger villages in Transleithania were linked until 1893. By 1914, more than 2000 settlements had telephone exchange in Kingdom of Hungary.