The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a constitutional monarchy in Central and Eastern Europe between 1867 and 1918.
When thinking of World War I, Budapest isn’t a city that often comes to mind, even though it served as capital to its empire. With energy that rivaled Vienna and café society that rivaled Paris, Budapest entered the 20th century on the rise. And although it never saw enemy faces inside its walls, the city was destroyed by the Great War all the same. Although I take liberties to bring a group of Allies into the city, it wouldn’t be fair for me to not divulge into how terrible war can be even when it’s not right at your doorstep…
World War I helped lead to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and not only that but half of the Hungarian population was cut away by the Treaty of Trianon and made part of surrounding nations. From 1918 to 1919, Budapest was shaken by two revolutions: The Aster Revolution followed by two years of White Terror.
The Aster Revolution received its name because the revolting citizens placed aster flowers in their hats and caps to symbolize support for the Hungarian National Council and Count Károlyi. They even took it upon themselves to demobilize soldiers in the city. They murdered the former Prime Minister István Tisza and forced Prime Minister Sándor Wekerle to resign. By the end of the day, King Charles IV was forced to accept them and Károlyi became the new Prime Minister. One of his first acts? Dissolving the Austro-Hungarian union.
The victorious Entente powers then took steps to carve out any ethnicity that wasn’t white, including Czechoslovakia and Romania. The overall efforts resulted in Hungary losing two thirds of its land area and one third of its Hungarian-speaking nationals. You don’t have to be an expert in socioeconomics to understand that this drastic change was bound to pull out problem after problems…
The nation’s attempts to form a single stable government failed, and by March of 1919 communists had taken over.