The Hapsburg Empire was founded in 1282 (or 1526, depending on who you ask) and lasted until 1918. Despite its increasingly antiquated and illiberal tendencies, it survived the reformation, the Thirty Years War, the Enlightenment, the Age of Revolution, the Revolutions of 1848, and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 — but not World War I. We’re joined today by Jonathan Parker, who walks us through why. Jonathan is a historian of nationalism and national identity, especially within the Austro-Hungarian lands in the decades before and after the First World War. His current project examines the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and the transfer of popular allegiances from the Empire to the nation-state.
