The multi-ethnicity of the Hapsburg Empire

Today’s lecture on the multi-ethnicity of the Hapsburg Empire was very interesting and informative. The family tree that the speaker provided was also helpful in understanding the diplomatic marriages which we had learned in our readings played such an important role in prospering the Hapsburg’s Empire. He pointed out that there were only a few ways that homogeneous states could be formed: through assimilation, immigration/expulsion, border rectification, and genocide. Since none of these options are particularly “politically correct,” and the heterogeneous empire was obviously not working out, we found ourselves in the same state of indecision that the people of the Austro-Hungarian empire found themselves leading up to World War I.

The folklore museum seemed an appropriate activity to follow this lecture. Even though it was difficult to know what the different artifacts actually were, the rich, cultural influences in the carvings and artwork gave us a sense of the real heritage these minority peoples wanted to protect!