Austria-Hungary or Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918): This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy (German: Donaumonarchie) also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie (“Double Monarchy”) meaning two states under one crowned ruler. It was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe. The union was a result of the Ausgleich or Compromise of 1867, under which the Austrian House of Habsburg agreed to share power with the separate Hungarian government, dividing the territory of the former Austrian Empire between them. The Dual Monarchy existed for 51 years until 1918, when it was dissolved following military defeat in the First World War.
The two capitals of the Monarchy were Vienna for Austria and Budapest for Hungary. [1] Austria-Hungary was geographically the second largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire (621 538 km², or 239,977 sq. m in 1905 [4] ), and the third most populous (after Russia and the German Empire). Today, the territory it covered has a population of about 69 million.
The Monarchy bore the full name internationally of “The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen”.