Perhaps no event epitomizes World War I’s destruction of the old world order like the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The empire and its predecessors loomed large over Europe for half a century, and at its height comprised some 50 million people over a land mass of 261,242 square miles stretching from Trieste to Krakow and from Prague to the gates of Belgrade.

Ruled by Emperor Franz Josef, Austria-Hungary had begun to industrialize by 1914 and boasted the intellectually freewheeling Vienna as its leading city. Yet it was an autocracy, and its ruling Habsburg regime was dominated by aristocrats and military officers, reflecting the empire’s conservative and militaristic tendencies.

Perhaps no event epitomizes World War I’s destruction of the old world order like the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The empire and its predecessors loomed large over Europe for half a century, and at its height comprised some 50 million people over a land mass of 261,242 square miles stretching from Trieste to Krakow and from Prague to the gates of Belgrade.