The history of Austria in the nineteenth century was more complicated than of any other country of Europe. Its main reason was that Austria was not a single nation. After the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the empire of Austria had become an important one in the continent as a consequence of the decisions of the Congress of Vienna.
To the west of the Austrian empire were the Austrian duchies, chiefly German; to the north, Bohemia; to the east, the kingdom of Hungary which occupied the plain of the middle Danube; to the south, the kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.
Within such an extensive boundary, there were the states of Hungary, Bohemia, Austria, Poland, Yogoslavia and the ports of northern Italy. Since the empire consisted of several states having their own culture, there were at least twelve races which lived in respective states.
Of these, the two leading races in this Austrian empire were the Germans who lived in the Austrian duchies, and the Magyars who dominated the population of Hungary. Besides, there were also Rumanians and Serbs who lived in the Empire.
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Thus, the empire of Austria in 1815 was a gathering of people of different races whose religions, cultures, occupations; languages were quite different from one another. That is why, it was said that –
“Austria is a purely imaginary name, a conventional title for a complex of sharply divided peoples.”
As regards the political condition and the formation of Austrian empire in 1815, Francis I, the king of Austria had remarked:
“My realm is like worm-eaten house, if one part is removed, one cannot tell how much will fall.”