The only good news is the Ukrainians. To be honest, whether it is Ukraine in this plane or Ukraine in history, during this period, the Ukrainians had the weakest tendency to national independence, and the entire system was also the most chaotic, including Ukrainian aristocracy, anarchists, Bolsheviks, etc. For this chaos, the princes could bribe most of the middle and lower levels of Ukraine as long as they could guarantee their living standards and basic rights. As for the high-level? Well, after seeing the Bolsheviks massacre the nobles in other parts of Russia, they should know how to choose. At most, the prince would have to pay money, and the Bolsheviks were dead!

But no matter what, with the addition of tens of millions of people, this will inevitably lead to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's dual regime. If you look at Austria alone, the population is only more than 20 million, of which less than half of the Germans, and the Czechs who are still obedient now are only equivalent to the new population. Moreover, there are many independent nations. In this case, simply giving independence to a certain nation and then oppressing other nations together with this nation is not feasible. It is also the root cause of the weakness of the Austro-Hungarian Empire!

In fact, in history, Fritz also realized this problem in the later period of his reign. Even the Grand Duke of Ferdinand realized it. Moreover, other ethnic groups have never given up their demands for national autonomy! In order to change the national issues within the empire, the Austro-Hungarian rulers have begun to consider countermeasures since the time of the Crown Prince Ferdinand. The most famous of them is undoubtedly the three-legged empire system proposed by the Crown Prince Ferdinand - Austria, Hungary and Bohemia! However, this plan was not only opposed by the Germans in Bohemia and the Hungarians, but even Germany and Russia also expressed their opposition, because the latter was worried that after giving these ethnic independence, it would bring a very bad demonstration effect to the ethnic minorities in neighboring countries!

In addition to this plan, there were people in the Austro-Hungarian Empire who proposed a plan that would be easier to solve domestic ethnic problems. This plan was proposed by Professor Orel Popovich in 1906. He planned to imitate the federal government mechanism of Switzerland (Switzerland is also a typical multiethnic country. It can be seen from its official language that this neutral country actually divides French, German, Italian and Romansh as its official languages...) into 15 federal states and autonomous regions according to ethnic and language. Each state has its own government and laws, and the state only has the dominance in national fields such as finance, national defense, customs, and transportation.

How about this plan? In fact, in the prince's opinion, it is almost possible to see the best plan of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at this stage. Of course, if this plan is implemented, the German national ruling region in Austria will also be divided. But it doesn't matter, the basic plate of the German region tends to be imperial governments, and it's okay whether it is divided or not. What's more, this can be divided from the German-ruled areas in Bohemia and Moravia, and the basic plate of the central region has actually been expanded.

Hungary, another pole of the empire, will be divided according to this plan. Slovakia in the north of Hungary will become an independent state, and Transylvania in the southeast and Croatia in the south will also be established. If other places are included, the area of ​​control of the Hungarian government will drop by more than one-third. The weight of the Hungarian government within the empire will also decrease.

As for how to maintain ruling stability, don't forget that in this plan, the country has the dominance of military and financial issues, that is, the Vienna government will command the entire country's army! Historically, the Austro-Hungarian army was actually divided into three parts, namely the Imperial Army and the troops of the two kingdoms themselves. In fact, in the second half of the 19th century, Austria and Hungary's respective armies had almost no coordinated combat; almost all suppressed domestic rebellions. The central government that controlled tariffs and national finances would also have financial guarantees. You should know that in history, Hungary had independent tariff rights! And the various kingdoms within the German Empire had no tariff rights!

This plan actually transitions the oligarchical rule of the binary empire to the federal system. It can satisfy the demands of various nations to the greatest extent while maintaining the unity of the country. At least the state has financial and military power, as well as control over domestic transportation hubs and postal services. Moreover, after the ruling areas of various ethnic groups are greatly divided, even if some places are independent, they will be suppressed soon. It is more stable than the binary empire. But needless to say, the Hungarians will definitely disagree with this plan and will naturally die.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire acquired Ukraine and Russian Poland's territory, this policy could be directly promoted to new regions, which would be easier for locals to accept. Of course, if you encounter a hard-working national independence element, there is no need to say anything. Everyone can see the truth on the battlefield!

In fact, when Hungary was in a civil strife, Austria was also preparing. Princess Mary is now the female grand duke of Bohemia and Moravia. This is almost a prince's territory and will remain unchanged. The Galician region will be divided into Western Galicia, mainly Poles and Eastern Galicia, mainly Ukrainians. Slovenians and Croats will also have their own ethnic provinces. Some Germans living in some other ethnic areas will also have next-level autonomous regions.

At the same time, the Vienna government has contacted representatives from the Slovaks, Slovenia and Croatia, and has made nationalized the army and allegiance to the central government in exchange for certain national rights of national autonomy. This is undoubtedly tempting for ethnic and regions that currently want national autonomy but do not really want independence. The Romanians in Transylvania are more troublesome, and Vienna does not want to contact them yet.

In terms of new territory, whether it is Russian Poland or Western Ukraine, corresponding work is also being carried out. At the same time, in the upper and lower levels of action, on the one hand, the Austro-Hungarian Empire needs the help of local nobles, but at the same time, future industrialization and construction also require a large amount of free labor, which determines that the Austro-Hungarian Empire cannot continue Russian-style rule and needs a balance in taking into account the stability of the regime and the interests of the people.

In other words, so far, the Austro-Hungary Empire has been preparing for the new domestic political situation after the war, and now the biggest and most serious problem is Hungary! After all, it is a country of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is not easy to demolish or handle it well. This time, Prime Minister Sati's interview will be the time for both sides to showdown!
Chapter completed!