The Fall of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Crisis of Modern Europe: A Historical–Sociological Comparison

The Habsburg Empire was for several centuries a major European power centre, and represents a highly instructive case of state formation. Its final failure has been the subject of a highly diverse debate, ranging from moral accusation to the acceptance of historical inevitability. A closer focus on structural reasons will highlight the question of military efficiency and the centrifugal impact of multiple nationalisms, exacerbated by parliamentarisation. Looking at recent crises of the European Union (centrifugal tendencies of and within member states, inability to act in emergency situations), we can observe striking similarities with the Habsburg Empire. European decision-making at the highest levels is reminiscent of debates in the Austrian Reichsrat. Both these supra-national survival units, as Norbert Elias would call them, can be described as economically efficient agencies of modernisation. A key difference is that the Union lacks both an army and an imperial charisma. Its military arm is external: the US as the pacifier of Europe. But attempts to change that are likely to end in disaster.