Imperial and Royal Coat of
Arms
Austria-Hungary (also known as the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, Austro-Hungarian monarchy or k.u.k. Monarchy), more
formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the
Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint
Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of
the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe.
The union was a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867,
under which the House of Habsburg agreed to share power with the
separate Hungarian government, dividing the territory of the former
Austrian Empire between them. The Austrian and the Hungarian lands
became independent entities enjoying equal status. Austria-Hungary
was a multinational realm and one of the world's great powers at
the time. The dual monarchy had existed for 51 years until it
dissolved on 31 October 1918 before a military defeat on the
Italian front of the First World War.
The realm comprised modern-day Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and
parts of Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and
Ukraine.
Ethnic map of Austria-Hungary, 1910
census