In a message dated 5/10/2006 2:37:55 PM Mountain Standard Time, akibb1@verizon.net writes: It is a fact that the Austrian Empire was - in fact - the first United States of Europe! The Austrian Empire was united only because the Austrian Kaiser had managed to become hereditary king of the kingdom of Bohemia and Hungary as well as the ruler of the hereditary Austrian lands. His power brought others into the fold becasue they were willing to submit in order to have his protection or to be shed of a less benign ruler. For example, the Bosnians wanted to prevent the Serbs from taken them over so they asked Austria to protect them (witness the more recent history in that area between the Serbs and Bosnians, Croatians and Slovenians). The Austrian Kaiser also managed to make himself or his heirs the hereditary Holy Roman Emperor during the 18th century which made him the supreme ruler of all of Germany -- and having the German states under his thumb made him even more powerful. Saxony, Hannover, Bavaria, Mainz and others where very fai thful to the Austrian Kaiser (Bavarian princesses married Austrian Habsburgs) as a means to protect their own interest agains a rising Prussian power. Not that they all just bowed and obeyed -- there were many fights and full-fledged wars between various German powers and the Holy Roman Emperor over time -- including medieval battles between Bavaria and the HRE.. Napoleon finally brought the HRE to an end in the first decade of 1800 and that was when the Austrian Empire became a separate entity again. The Kaiser always had to be somewhat careful to keep the nobillity of each crownland allied / alligned with him or risk uprisings or wars of independence. He did that with high offices in Vienna that also had high pensions, with gifts of estates confiscated fromn those he could not trust and other favors. The Hungarians were particularly eager to separate as an autonomous state (the Austro-Hungarian war in 1849-50 was pretty bloody) and achieved some autonomy after 1868 when the old empire became known as the "Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy" (I wonder where the Bohemian crown fit into that interpretation?) . But the Kaiser still wore the Hungarian crown of an "autonomous" Hungary. One thing that Austria failed to do in terms of a "united" federation was to make an economic partnership between the crownlands so all could trade back and forth without customs or other taxes. But the Kaiser was more interested in tax revenue than in efficient economics -- even after Prussia established a German trade bund that gave them a distinct advantage in the overall economy of Europe and was clearly a means to building wealth. Can you imagine what it would be like if the US if every state charged a tax on goods that passed through it on the way to another state? Under the circumstances it is amazing that the empire and subsequent dual monarchy lasted as long as it did. Karen