The First World War put an end to this. Kaiser Franz-Josef I. of Austria-Hungary carefully "considered everything, then considered everything again", at least so he said when he declared war on Serbia, thus starting WWI. However, he probably did not even remotely thought of the collapse of his empire, which actually happened. At the end of the war the Monarchy disintegrated and the consequences for Hungary were even worse than for Austria: in the post-war chaos its neighbours easily occupied most of its territory and the peace treaty of Trianon dictated by the Western powers approved their capture.

The collapse of the Habsburg empire and Historic Hungary

The Treaty of Trianon

In case you do not know, Trianon is one of the royal palaces in Versailles: Hungary's peace treaty has actually been signed in Petit Trianon (marvellous architecture, but very sad associations for Hungarians) and it meant the following:

* that of about 283,000 sq. km. which had comprised the area of Historic Hungary, Hungary of Trianon was left with 93,000 sq. km.,
* Of the total population of 18 million, Hungary of Trianon was left with 7.6 million,
* and of the population of 10 million ethnic Hungarians, 3.2 million were allotted to the neighbouring states.

(Historic Hungary is a term meaning the kingdom that occupied the whole Carpathian Basin since the Conquest, while the country within its current borders is usually referred to as Hungary of Trianon.)

Trianon is often called the "second Mohács" as it marks the second and final fall of Historic Hungary: although most Hungarians admit today that this was an inevitable event (as the ethnic minorities had the right for independence), the treaty is still viewed not only as tragic but also unjust because the borders cut away territories populated solely by ethnic Hungarians, too.