Search

All the works, dealing with the nationality problem fundamentally, need a kind of generally applicable basis in the form of a consensus in connection with the usage of theoretical concepts like people and nation. In the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy primarily the complexity of factors and the lack of unity meant a problem that also characterised the particular Austrian nationality question. So, in the contemporary Austria, three radically different elements were against each other. Various ethnic groups, as well as the historical units of kingdoms and provinces were opposing the central power whilst the demands of the ethnic groups in comparison with the demands of the other two groups became more and more significant and radical. Nation and nationality are the products of social development, thus cannot be defined without the consideration of the geographical and chronological scope in question; in other words, in the Habsburg Monarchy of the 19th century, one way to define nation and nationality led through the contemporary theories of these concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]