History UsefulNotes / TheSoundOfMartialMusic

The Habsburg Empire was not a normal empire. Even when UsefulNotes/{{Austria}} was the premier power, its preeminence was not the same as that of [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russia under the Tsars]]. Rather the Habsburgs, one of the [[BlueBlood great houses of Europe]], were the feudal system taken to its logical extreme, with dozens of nations having no connection to one another except their joint allegiance to the Habsburg [[TheClan Family]]. (Note that the spelling "Hapsburg," common in older English translations, is not considered the most correct.) Therefore it is proper to refer to their state (and by extension its military) by reference to The Family. ([[UsefulNotes/TheMafia Not that one]] despite occasional resemblances.)

The Habsburg imperial forces were always a motley and colorful patchwork of levies from their various possessions as well as mercenaries. They probably reached their greatest height of prestige during the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, in which they took on France - previously the most feared army in Europe - and its various allies, and utterly, brutally crushed both of them under heel, using to full effect the tactical innovations their Spanish branch had previously acquired from the work of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba. This ushered in almost a century of continuous Habsburg dominance in Europe, represented by the famous Spanish model of multi-national armies known as ''tercios'' and the combined naval power of their coastal properties, a reign that only began to slip during UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar and UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar decades later. The former war saw a portion of the Habsburg Netherlands painfully breaking away to form the Dutch Republic after a century of fighting, only leaving in Austrian hands the provinces later known as Belgium, while the latter saw brilliant but ruthless general Albrecht von Wallenstein fight on against the enemies of the Empire and win a number of battles, only to lose his position due to anti-Imperial Western intervention hammering his army coupled with an overweening personal ambition. Furthermore, the next century would see the Habsburg suffering a massive setback, this time the extinction of their Spanish branch for [[HeirClubForMen lack of male issue]] (and [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIIOfSpain health]]), ultimately leaving the Spanish throne in the hands of their enemies, French House of Bourbon in the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession[[note]]Creator/MariaTheresa was the last Habsburg ruler from the main male line.[[/note]]. Without their global reach, endless natural resources and privileged access to the Mediterranean, the Habsburg saw their power drastically reduced in a way they would never recover from.

The Habsburg imperial forces were always a motley and colorful patchwork of levies from their various possessions as well as mercenaries. They probably reached their greatest height of prestige during the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, in which they took on France - previously the most feared army in Europe - and its various allies, and utterly, brutally crushed both of them under heel, using to full effect the tactical innovations their Spanish branch had previously acquired from the work of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba. This ushered in almost a century of continuous Habsburg dominance in Europe, represented by the famous Spanish model of multi-national armies known as ''tercios'' and the combined naval power of their coastal properties, a reign that only began to slip during UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar and UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar decades later. The former war saw a portion of the Habsburg Netherlands painfully breaking away to form the Dutch Republic after a century of fighting, only leaving in Austrian hands the provinces later known as Belgium, while the latter saw brilliant but ruthless general Albrecht von Wallenstein fight on against the enemies of the Empire and win a number of battles, only to lose his position due to anti-Imperial Western intervention hammering his army coupled with an overweening personal ambition. Furthermore, the next century would see the Habsburg suffering a massive setback, this time the extinction of their Spanish branch for [[HeirClubForMen lack of male issue]] (and [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIIOfSpain health]]), ultimately leaving the Spanish throne in the hands of their enemies, French House of Bourbon in the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession. Without their global reach, endless natural resources and privileged access to the Mediterranean, the Habsburg saw their power drastically reduced in a way they would never recover from.

* UsefulNotes/MariaTheresa

The Habsburg family became known for its skill in diplomacy and acquired many possessions by marriage, giving rise to the motto "Let others wage wars, but you, merry Austria, marry!" (''Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube!)''. At one time, by a merger with the Spanish royal family of Trastámara in the 15th century, the Habsburg crowned themselves at the head of the nascent Spanish Empire and became an entity with holdings in the Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere, becoming the first - and until its end the largest - "empire on which the sun never sets". The Spanish-based section of the family and the Austrian-based one were split, with UsefulNotes/CharlesV giving Spain and the Netherlands to his son UsefulNotes/PhilipII and the Central/Eastern European realms to his brother Ferdinand, albeit those would remain closely allied. Their union coincided with a golden age for both parties, though marked by an ever-present squeezing of resources from Spain and Italy to fund warring efforts in Northern Europe, which would be a perennial headache for the Mediterranean lower classes, much less inclined to fight unproductive conflicts in remote, unpronounceable countries. Philip would also briefly bring the Portuguese Empire to the team for (guess what) reasons of blood and marriages, forming the Iberian Union, although the Portuguese would end up later revolting and breaking away upon realizing that becoming a target for the Habsburg's enemies had turned the whole thing into a severe case of AwesomeButImpractical.

The Habsburg imperial forces were always a motley and colorful patchwork of levies from their various possessions as well as mercenaries. They probably reached their greatest height of prestige during the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, in which they took on France - previously the most feared army in Europe - and its various allies, and utterly, brutally crushed both of them under heel, using to full effect the tactical innovations their Spanish branch had previously acquired from the work of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba. This ushered in almost a century of continuous Habsburg dominance in Europe, represented by the famous Spanish model of multi-national armies known as ''tercios'' and the combined naval power of their coastal properties, a reign that only began to slip during UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar and UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar decades later. The former war saw a portion of the Habsburg Netherlands painfully breaking away to form the Dutch Republic after a century of fighting, only leaving in Austrian hands the provinces later known as Belgium, while the latter saw brilliant but ruthless general Albrecht von Wallenstein fight on against the enemies of the Empire and win a number of battles, only to lose his position due to anti-Imperial Western intervention hammering his army coupled with an overweening personal ambition. Furthermore, the next century would see the Habsburg suffering a massive setback, this time the extinction of their Spanish branch for [[HeirClubForMen lack of male issue]] (and [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIIOfSpain health]]), ultimately leaving the Spanish throne in the hands of their enemies, French House of Bourbon in the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession. Without their global reach, unending natural resources and privileged access to the Mediterranean, the Habsburg saw their power drastically reduced in a way they would never recover from.

* UsefulNotes/JohnOfAustria

After that the Habsburg forces mostly just scrapped by. They could always field a decent army, but rarely a BadassArmy, though exceptional generals like Tilly, Eugene of Savoy, or Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen occasionally won outstanding victories. It was, however, always a colorful force and had as one of its most interesting features a number of [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Races]] from Central Europe and the Balkans, such as the Hussars from Hungary and the Grenzers from Croatia, Serbia and Romania. Slightly less romantic were the rather stolid [[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht ethnic Germans]] from Austria and allied states. Unfortunately, being a "colorful" force was also its own downfall. The diversity in the armed forces, comprised of conscripts from dozens of ethnicities together speaking more than ten languages often made command and control difficult. They won few spectacular battles, but they did keep the Empire together until UsefulNotes/WorldWarI which ushered in the end of the Habsburgs as a state and the end of their military, a time by which the Austro-Hungarian forces were probably one of the ''worst'' armies in Europe. Before Russia's domestic collapse in 1917, the Russian Army under Brusilov utterly smashed their Austro-Hungarian opponents in Ukraine, to the point that UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany had to bail them out. The Austrians also suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of the much smaller Serbian army, again only managing to occupy the country with substantial German aid. The Austro-Hungarian army had considerably more success against the incompetent Italians, to the point Germany felt it could only trust Austria to hold the Italian Front... but in the end they ''still'' managed to lose! It should be mentioned that many of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers were Slavs, and were understandably reluctant to fight against other Slavs for the sake of German or Hungarian masters.

* Jaroslav Hašek's ''[[LongTitle The Fateful Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk During the World War]]'', better known just as ''Literature/TheGoodSoldierSvejk'' or just ''Švejk'' ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS with all attendant variations thereof]]), an utterly hilarious (though also gut-wrenching no less often) satirical novel about titular "[[BlatantLies good soldier]]" during the last days of the Empire. Sadly also unfinished -- Hašek [[DiedDuringProduction died of tuberculosis]] after finishing barely a third of its intended size, with Švejk didn't even getting to the front lines -- it's still one of the greatest achievements of the Czech literature in particular and world literature in general.

The Habsburg family became known for its skill in diplomacy and acquired many possessions by marriage, giving rise to the motto "Let others wage wars, but you, merry Austria, marry!" (''Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube!)''. At one time, by a merger with the Spanish royal family of Trastámara in the 15th century, the Habsburg crowned themselves at the head of the nascent Spanish Empire and became an entity with holdings in the Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere, becoming the first - and until its end the largest - "empire on which the sun never sets". The Spanish-based section of the family and the Austrian-based one were split, with UsefulNotes/CharlesV giving Spain and the Netherlands to his son UsefulNotes/PhilipII and the Central/Eastern European realms to his brother Ferdinand, albeit those would remain allied and functionally the same in many aspects. Their union coincided with a golden age for both parties, though marked by the ever-present squeezing of resources from Spain and Italy to fund warring efforts in Northern Europe, which would be a perennial headache for the Mediterranean lower classes, much less inclined to fight unproductive conflicts in remote, unpronounceable countries. Philip would also briefly bring the Portuguese Empire to the team for (guess what) having been married to their heiress, forming the Iberian Union, although the Portuguese would end up later revolting and breaking away upon realizing that becoming a target for the Habsburg's enemies had turned the whole thing into a severe case of AwesomeButImpractical.

The Habsburg imperial forces were always a motley and colorful patchwork of levies from their various possessions as well as mercenaries. They probably reached their greatest height of prestige during the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, in which they took on France - previously the most feared army in Europe - and its various allies, and utterly, brutally crushed both of them under heel, using to full effect the tactical innovations their Spanish branch had previously acquired from the work of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba. This ushered in almost a century of continuous Habsburg dominance in Europe, represented by the famous Spanish model of multi-national armies known as ''tercios'' and the combined naval power of their coastal properties, a reign that only began to slip during UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar and UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar decades later. The former war saw a portion of the Habsburg Netherlands painfully breaking away to form the Dutch Republic after a century of fighting, only leaving in Austrian hands the provinces later known as Belgium, while the latter saw brilliant but ruthless general Albrecht von Wallenstein fight on against the enemies of the Empire and win a number of battles, only to lose his position due to anti-Imperial Western intervention hammering his army coupled with an overweening personal ambition. Furthermore, the next century would see the Habsburg suffering the important setback, this time the extinction of their Spanish branch for [[HeirClubForMen lack of male issue]] (and [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIIOfSpain sanity]]), ultimately leaving the Spanish throne in the hands of their enemies, French House of Bourbon in the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession. Without their global reach, unending natural resources and privileged access to the Mediterranean, the Habsburg saw their power drastically reduced in a way they would never recover from.

[[quoteright:249:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AustroHungarianArmy.jpg]]

''[[https://youtu.be/phyMWFmrChk Vorwärts marsch! Links, rechts, links, rechts!]]''

The Habsburg imperial forces were always a motley and colorful patchwork of levies from their various possessions as well as mercenaries. They probably reached their greatest height of prestige during the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, in which they took on France - previously the most feared army in Europe - and its various allies, and utterly, brutally crushed both of them under heel, using to full effect the tactical innovations their Spanish branch had previously acquired from the work of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba. This ushered in almost a century of continuous Habsburg dominance in Europe, represented by the famous Spanish model of multi-national armies known as ''tercios'' and the combined naval power of their coastal properties, a reign that only began to slip during UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar and UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar decades later. The former war saw a portion of the Habsburg Netherlands painfully breaking away to form the Dutch Republic after a century of fighting, only leaving in Austrian hands the provinces later known as Belgium, while the latter saw brilliant but ruthless general Albrecht von Wallenstein fight on against the enemies of the Empire and win a number of battles, only to lose his position due to anti-Imperial Western intervention hammering his army coupled with an overweening personal ambition. Furthermore, the next century would see the Habsburg suffering the important setback, this time the extinction of their Spanish branch for [[HeirClubForMen lack of male issue]] (and [[RoyallyScrewedUp sanity]]), ultimately leaving the Spanish throne in the hands of their enemies, French House of Bourbon in the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession. Without their global reach, unending natural resources and privileged access to the Mediterranean, the Habsburg saw their power drastically reduced in a way they would never recover from.

Rather amazingly, the last Austrian Crown Prince, Otto von Habsburg (or Otto Habsburg-Lothringen in Austria)[[note]]he - like the rest of the Habsburgs - was legally barred from using the [[TheVonTropeFamily 'von']] in the Austrian Republic after their official abrogation of the nobility in 1919[[/note]] lived until the ripe old age of 98, [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/04/otto-von-habsburg-obituary dying on the 4th of July, 2011]] . Had he actually succeeded his father on the throne he would have [[LongRunner reigned for 88 years, becoming the longest reigning monarch in history, by a huge margin (The record holder, Louis XIV reigned for 72 years).]] A politician of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion, he allegedly once punched [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Ian Paisley]] after the latter insulted UsefulNotes/ThePope as ''the Antichrist'' in the European Parliament.

Rather amazingly the last Austrian Crown Prince, Otto von Habsburg (or Otto Habsburg-Lothringen in Austria)[[note]]he - like the rest of the Habsburgs - was legally barred from using the [[TheVonTropeFamily 'von']] in the Austrian Republic after their official abrogation of the nobility in 1919[[/note]] lived until the ripe old age of 98, [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/04/otto-von-habsburg-obituary dying on the 4th of July, 2011]] . Had he actually succeeded his father on the throne he would have [[LongRunner reigned for 88 years, becoming one of the longest reigning monarchs in European history.]] A politician of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion, he allegedly once punched [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Ian Paisley]] after the latter insulted UsefulNotes/ThePope as ''the Antichrist'' in the European Parliament.

* ''Series/ViennaBlood'', a TV miniseries based on a series of mystery novels by Frank Talis, is set in Vienna in 1906-7. A Vienna detective forms an oddball partnership with a young psychiatrist ([[AllPsychologyIsFreudian an early devotee of Sigmund Freud]]), and together, TheyFightCrime.

The Habsburg family became known for its skill in diplomacy and acquired many possessions by marriage, giving rise to the motto "Let others wage wars, but you, merry Austria, marry!" (''Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube!)''. At one time, by a merger with the Spanish royal family of Trastámara in the 15th century, the Habsburg crowned themselves at the head of the nascent Spanish Empire and became an entity with holdings in the Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere, becoming the first - and until its end the largest - "empire on which the sun never sets". The Spanish-based section of the family and the Austrian-based one were split, with UsefulNotes/CharlesV giving Spain and the Netherlands to his son UsefulNotes/PhilipII and the Central/Eastern European realms to his brother Ferdinand, albeit those would remain functionally the same in many aspects. Their union ushered a golden age for both parties, marked still by the ever-present squeezing of resources from Castile and Italy to fund warring efforts in Central Europe, which would be a perennial headache for the Mediterranean lower classes, much less inclined to fight wars in remote countries of unpronounceable names. Philip would also briefly bring the Portuguese Empire to the team for (guess what) having been married to their heiress, forming the Iberian Union, although the Portuguese would end up later revolting and breaking away upon realizing that becoming a target for the Habsburg's enemies had turned the whole thing into a severe case of AwesomeButImpractical.

The Habsburg imperial forces were always a motley and colorful patchwork of levies from their various possessions as well as mercenaries. They probably reached their greatest height of prestige during the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, in which they took on France - previously the most feared army in Europe - and its various allies, and utterly, brutally crushed both of them under heel, using to full effect the tactical innovations their Spanish branch had previously acquired from the work of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba. This ushered in almost a century of continuous Habsburg dominance in Europe, represented by the famous Spanish model of multi-national armies known as ''tercios'' and the combined naval power of their coastal properties, a reign that only began to slip during UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar and UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar decades later. The former war saw a portion of the Habsburg Netherlands painfully breaking away to form the Dutch Republic after a century of fighting, only leaving in Austrian hands the provinces later known as Belgium, while the latter saw brilliant but ruthless general Albrecht von Wallenstein fight on against the enemies of the Empire and win a number of battles, only to lose his position due to anti-Imperial Western intervention hammering his army coupled with an overweening personal ambition. Furthermore, the next century would see the Habsburg suffering the important setback, this time the extintion of their Spanish branch for [[HeirClubForMen lack of male issue]] (and [[RoyallyScrewedUp sanity]]), ultimately leaving the Spanish throne in the hands of the French House of Bourbon in the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession. Without their global reach, unending natural resources and privileged access to the Mediterranean, the Habsburg saw their power drastically reduced in a way they would never recover from.

The Habsburg family became known for its skill in diplomacy and acquired many possessions by marriage, giving rise to the motto "Let others wage wars, but you, merry Austria, marry!" (''Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube!)''. At one time, because of a previous merger with the royal family of Spain, it was an empire with holdings in the Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere, becoming the first "Empire on which the sun never sets"; however, the Spanish-based section of the family and the Austrian-based one were split, with UsefulNotes/CharlesV giving Spain and the Netherlands to his son Phillip (Felipe II of Spain) and the Central/Eastern European realms to his brother Ferdinand, and the Spanish branch eventually died out for [[HeirClubForMen lack of male issue]] (and [[RoyallyScrewedUp sanity]]).

The Habsburg imperial forces were always a motley and colorful patchwork of levies from their various possessions as well as mercenaries. They probably reached their greatest height of prestige during the UsefulNotes/ItalianWars, in which they took on France- previously the most feared army in Europe- and the wealth of Italy and utterly, brutally crushed both under heel. This ushered in almost a century of continuous Habsburg dominance that only began to slip during UsefulNotes/TheEightyYearsWar and UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar decades later. The latter saw brilliant but ruthless general Wallenstein fight on against the enemies of the Empire and win a number of battles -- only to lose his position due to anti-Imperial Western intervention hammering his army coupled with an overweening personal ambition.

After that the Habsburg forces mostly just scraped by. They could always field a decent army, but rarely a BadassArmy, though exceptional generals like Tilly, Eugene of Savoy, or Archduke Charles of Austria-Teschen occasionally won outstanding victories. It was, however, always a colorful force and had as one of its most interesting features a number of [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Warrior Races]] from Central Europe and the Balkans, such as the Hussars from Hungary and the Grenzers from Croatia, Serbia and Romania. Slightly less romantic were the rather stolid [[UsefulNotes/WeAreNotTheWehrmacht ethnic Germans]] from Austria and allied states. Unfortunately being a "colorful" force was also its own downfall. The diversity in the armed forces, comprised of conscripts from dozens of ethnicities together speaking more than ten languages often made command and control difficult. They won few spectacular battles, but they did keep the Empire together until UsefulNotes/WorldWarI which ushered in the end of the Habsburgs as a state and the end of their military. By this time the Austro-Hungarian forces were probably one of the ''worst'' armies in Europe. Before Russia's domestic collapse in 1917, the Russian Army under Brusilov utterly smashed their Austro-Hungarian opponents in Ukraine, to the point that UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany had to bail them out. The Austrians also suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of the much smaller Serbian army, again only managing to occupy the country with substantial German aid. The Austro-Hungarian army had considerably more success against the incompetent Italians, to the point Germany felt it could only trust Austria to hold the Italian Front... but in the end they ''still'' managed to lose! It should be mentioned that many of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers were Slavs, and were understandably reluctant to fight against other Slavs for the sake of German or Hungarian masters.

* FairForItsDay: Despite being historically a deeply Catholic, decidedly anti-democratic realm that flirted with feudalism and absolutism at times where both were considered hopelessly antiquated concepts, the Austrian Empire became, [[HegemonicEmpire by necessity]], a European trailblazer in terms of religious, ethnic, political and national integration. Towards the end of its existence, the Empire ''encouraged'' the use of regional cultures and tongues, to the point of forcing its bureaucrats to learn one or more languages. The national anthem had no less than fourteen[[note]]German, Hungarian, Czech, Italian, Illyrian, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Slovenian, Romanian, Greek, Aramaic, Ruthenian and Hebrew[[/note]] official versions. Jews also prospered under the Habsburgs, with places such as Czernowitz (modern-day Chernivtsi, Ukraine) becoming international centres of Judeo-European culture. During World War 1, a record-breaking percentage of the officer corps was made up of Jews, and the troops were tended to by Catholic, Protestant, Christian Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim chaplains alike. Emperor Karl's plans for a post-war [[TheFederation United States of Austria]], while [[WhatCouldHaveBeen never realised]], served as a major influence for the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion Pan-European movement and later the EU]]. Unfortunately, the simmering nationalist, supremacist and fundamentalist elements in the constituent nations (and, in particular, [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler one of their most famous disciples]]) ended up [[BalkaniseMe destroying the Empire from within]] and directly kicked off decades of UsefulNotes/{{Fascism}} and more than a century of ethnic, religious and political strife across Central and Eastern Europe.

* FairForItsDay: Despite being historically a deeply Catholic, decidedly anti-democratic realm that flirted with feudalism and absolutism at times where both were considered hopelessly antiquated concepts, the Austrian Empire became, [[HegemonicEmpire by necessity]], a European trailblazer in terms of religious, ethnic, political and national integration. Towards the end of its existence, the Empire ''encouraged'' the use of regional cultures and tongues, to the point of forcing its bureaucrats to learn one or more languages. The national anthem had no less than fourteen[[note]]German, Hungarian, Czech, Italian, Illyrian, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Slovenian, Romanian, Greek, Aramaic, Ruthenian and Hebrew[[/note]] official versions. Jews also prospered under the Habsburgs, with places such as Czernowitz (modern-day Chernivtsi, Ukraine) becoming international centres of Judeo-European culture. During World War 1, a record-breaking percentage of the officer corps was made up of Jews, and the troops were tended to by Catholic, Protestant, Christian Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim chaplains alike. Emperor Karl's plans for a post-war [[TheFederation United States of Austria]], while [[WhatCouldHaveBeen never realised]], served as a major influence for the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion Pan-European movement and later the EU]]. Unfortunately, the simmering nationalist, supremacist and fundamentalist elements in the constituent nations ended up [[BalkaniseMe destroying the Empire from within]] and directly kicked off decades of UsefulNotes/{{Fascism}} and more than a century of ethnic, religious and political strife across Central and Eastern Europe.

* FairForItsDay: Despite being historically a deeply Catholic, decidedly anti-democratic realm that flirted with feudalism and absolutism at times where both were considered hopelessly antiquated concepts, the Austrian Empire became, [[HegemonicEmpire by necessity]], a European trailblazer in terms of religious, ethnic, political and national integration. Towards the end of its existence, the Empire ''encouraged'' the use of regional cultures and tongues, to the point of forcing its bureaucrats to learn one or more languages. The national anthem had no less than fourteen[[note]]German, Hungarian, Czech, Italian, Illyrian, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Slovenian, Romanian, Greek, Aramaic, Ruthenian and Hebrew[[/note]] official versions. Jews also prospered under the Habsburgs, with places such as Czernowitz (modern-day Chernivtsi, Poland) becoming international centres of Judeo-European culture. During World War 1, a record-breaking percentage of the officer corps was made up of Jews, and the troops were tended to by Catholic, Protestant, Christian Orthodox, Jewish and Muslim chaplains alike. Emperor Karl's plans for a post-war [[TheFederation United States of Austria]], while [[WhatCouldHaveBeen never realised]], served as a major influence for the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion Pan-European movement and later the EU]]. Unfortunately, the simmering nationalist, supremacist and fundamentalist elements in the constituent nations ended up [[BalkaniseMe destroying the Empire from within]] and directly kicked off decades of UsefulNotes/{{Fascism}} and more than a century of ethnic, religious and political strife across Central and Eastern Europe.

One rather odd victory they had was Lissa, in which they defeated the Italian fleet in the war with Prussia and Italy in the nineteenth century -- probably the only naval battle the Central-European Habsburgs ever won. Also, while their battleships did practically nothing during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, the tiny Austrian submarine force managed to pull off some amazing stunts; captain Von Trapp (made popular in Film/TheSoundOfMusic) was their greatest submarine ace. Another peculiarity noted by historians was that by the end of WWI, the Austro-Hungarian Army "laid down their arms" (rather than ''surrendered''); they ''outlasted the Empire they served.''

* ''Film/TheIllusionist'': It takes place in turn of the century Vienna involving a dramatized retelling of the Mayerling Incident.

* ''VideoGame/AncestorsLegacy'' has a campaign depicting Rudolph's trials as Holy Roman Emperor.