question_answer

How was the Habsburg Empire a patchwork of many different regions and peoples in Europe? Explain.                                                                                                                               [Foreign 2008]

Answer:

Because of geographical and ethnic diversities Habsburg Empire symbolised a patchwork of different regions and peoples of Europe. It included Alpine region of Tyrol, Austria and Sudetenland as well as Bohemia and Galicia and Italian regions of Lombardy and Venetia.

Several languages were spoken in these regions, e.g. in Hungary the people spoke Magyr in Galicia-Polish-in Lombardy and Venetia-Italian in Bohemia and Sudetenland they spoke German.

The language spoken by the aristocracy was German, Italian, Polish while the peasants usually spoke local dialects.

Various ethnic groups lived in the peripheries of the empire. Three dominant groups lived within the boundaries of the empire. A mass of subject were peasant peoples were Bohemians and Slovaks in the North, Slovenes in Carniola, Croats in the South and Roumans to the east of Transylvania. Only binding force among these groups was a common allegience to the emperor.