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The Austro-Hungarian Empire disgraced itself in oppressing Serbia via ultimatum in August 1914. Its attack on Serbia (despite Serbia's submission to most of the ultimatum) precipitated WWI and led eventually to its own downfall. Its mistreatment of its own minorities led to its desertion by all of the non-German speaking provinces, but left German speaking minorities scattered among the succession states, most notably in the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia which in turn formed the occasion for Hitler's second aggression following the takeover of Austria itself. Much of the world concluded that multiethnic empires could not be held together. The USSR, CS, and Yugoslavia tried to build multiethnic states, but the idea is essentially dead, and the future seems to hold further detailed partitioning and perhaps a gathering together in a high-level European Union, which curiously enough, allows for free migration and employment among the member states and absolute equality of human rights. |
