Austro-Hungarian Empire

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The **Austro-Hungarian Empire** (often simply referred to as **Austria-Hungary**) was a historic human state that existed in Central Europe on the planet Earth in the Sol System that originated in 1867, following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise which established a real union between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. It collapsed following the end of the Great War in 1916.

In 1815, the Congress of Vienna was held to redraw the map of Europe after the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars. The Congress of Vienna also led to the creation of the German Confederation, an association of German states, which was intended to replace the Holy Roman Empire that been dissolved in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. However, the German Confederation was weakened by rivalry between its two most powerful members, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire, for supremacy among the German states.

In 1866, the Austro-Prussian War erupted between Prussia and the Austrian Empire as a result of a dispute over the administration of Schleswig-Holstein, which the two of them had conquered from Denmark in the Second Schleswig War in 1864. Prussia was victorious in the conflict, resulting in Prussian hegemony over the other German states. The German Confederation collapsed, and the Prussian-led North German Confederation was formed in 1867 to replace it. The Austrian Empire did not join the North German Confederation, and instead pursued its own course independently of the other German states following its defeat in the Austro-Prussian War. In 1867, the Austrian Empire formed a union with the Kingdom of Hungary, with the two nations establishing the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Meanwhile, the members of the North German Confederation would go on to form the German Empire after achieving victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War.

Under the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the lands of the House of Habsburg were reorganized as a real union between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, headed by a single monarch who reigned as Emperor of Austria in the Austrian half of the empire, and as King of Hungary in Kingdom of Hungary. The Cisleithanian (Austrian) and Transleithanian (Hungarian) states were governed by separate parliaments and prime ministers. The two countries conducted unified foreign diplomatic and defense policies. For these purposes, "common" ministries of foreign affairs and defence were maintained under the monarch's direct authority, as was a third ministry responsible only for financing the two "common" portfolios.

In 1882, the Austro-Hungarian Empire formed the Triple Alliance, a defensive military alliance, with the German Empire and Italy. However, Italy would end up fighting alongside Great Britain, France and the Russian Empire against Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Great War.

In 1889 Austria-Hungary conducted its first manned orbital spaceflight using a liquid-fueled rocket launched from the region of Galicia. In 1908 the nation successfully landed 30 astronauts in the Phaethontis quadrangle region of Mars, where they constructed a temporary research outpost and remained for one year. The Austro-Hungarian interplanetary spaceships used a liquid propellant consisting of nitric acid and hydrazine. The Austro-Hungarian government envisioned eventually establishing a colonial empire on Mars and Venus, however plans for further Austro-Hungarian interplanetary spaceflights were delayed by the need to prepare for a likely war in Europe.

In 1912, Austria-Hungary commissioned its first orbital weapons platform. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had launched four orbital weapons platforms by the end of the Great War in 1916.

Although tensions between the great powers had been growing for some time, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, by a Serb nationalist during a visit to Sarajevo in 1914 is considered to be the most immediate cause of the Great War. During the Great War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was allied with the German Empire and fought against the Russian Empire, Great Britain and France. The Ottoman Empire also joined the war on the German and Austro-Hungarian side. Austro-Hungarian forces fought mainly on the eastern front against the Russian Empire during the conventional phase of the Great War. Russian forces achieved some initial successes in the conflict, advancing into territory held by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire. However, by 1915 the Austro-Hungarian and German armies had gained the initiative, dealing the Russians heavy casualties and forcing the Russian army into retreat from Russian-controlled Poland.

In 1916 Great Britain, France and the Russian Empire launched a surprise attack using a fleet of armed space capsules and rockets directed at the orbital weapons platforms of Germany, Austria-Hungary and their allies. It was hoped that destroying most of the German-led alliance's fleet of orbital weapons platforms would leave Germany and Austria-Hungary with no way to retaliate against an attack by the Allies' own orbital weapons, which would have forced them to surrender and bring a swift end to the war. However, the surprise attack was detected by German and Austro-Hungarian forces soon after it began and the leaders of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire ordered their weapons platforms to open fire on Allied cities and military targets before they could be destroyed. After the German and German-allied battle stations began firing, the Allies ordered their own orbital weapons stations to fire on Germany and its allies. Many long-range rockets were also used by both sides to strike each other. The short exchange of orbital kinetic weapons and rockets left most of Europe destroyed. Tens of millions of civilians would eventually die from the strikes themselves, as well as from the resulting breakdown of food, water and electricity supplies in addition to outbreaks of disease. The use of chemical shells in many of the orbital projectiles and rockets left some parts of Europe uninhabitable for several years.

The Austrian capital of Vienna and the Hungarian capital of Budapest were heavily bombed and destroyed, killing Charles I - Austrian Emperor and Apolistic King of Hungary - and much of his line of succession, as well as many government and military leaders in Austria and Hungary. Discontent with the Empire had been growing among its people due to the poor economic conditions the population was subjected to during the Great War, the military's relatively poor performance against the Allies in the conflict, and tensions among the many different ethnic groups in the Austrian-dominated nation. The power vacuums resulting from the collapse of the government led to many groups within what had once been the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire declaring independence. Parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire would eventually comprise a number of newly independent states, including the Republic of German-Austria, the Hungarian Republic, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and parts of Poland.