A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

674 Ch. 17 • The Era of National Unification

carried out an aggressive foreign policy, nationalism threatened the ver)
existence of the Habsburg monarchy. Ethnic tensions within the Austro­
Hungarian Empire, the second largest European state, were in many ways
those of Europe itself. In the meantime, the unification of Germany, as
well as that of Italy, altered the balance of power in Central Europe. Uni­
fied Germany, not Austria, was now unquestionably the strongest state in
Central Europe. Moreover, the absorption of Lombardy and Venetia intc
the new Italian state had come at the expense of the Austrian Habsburgs

Diversity and Cohesion in the Habsburg Empire

The provinces that formed the Habsburg domains represented extraordi­
nary linguistic, cultural, and historical diversity (see Map 17.3). Elever

Map 17.3 Nationalities in the Habsburg Empire The diverse nationals

ties and lands encompassed by the Habsburg Empire during the 1860s and 1870s