In our household, we have one whose sentimentality applies particularly to the Austro-Hungarian empire during the half century leading up to the First World War. In that period, he believes, the Austro-Hungarian empire was, despite its faults, a remarkably successful multi-national state - and also very successful in spreading civilisation, (opera houses, theatres, cafes, fine municipal buildings), to all the exotic corners of its territories.
This, I imagine is why, when it was his turn to set up our two cribs this Christmas, (which, as I mentioned the year before last come respectively from Austria:
he decided not to separate them, but to put them all together in a reenactment of the Austro-Hungarian empire's glory days:
It was very good of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to spread civilization to the Trentino, Venice, etc. (Well, OK, the fifty-year cutoff excludes most of Italy.)
ReplyDeleteGood to see you starting the year on a combative note, George.
ReplyDeleteOh Barbara, I'm feeling hungry, I wish I could have a gemischte salate and a schnitzel, followed by Eszterhazy cake, and all washed down with a viertel of Gruner Veltliner.
ReplyDeleteZ: Of course the Dual Monarchy was in many ways preferable to the immediate successor states and infinitely so to a couple of the subsequent regimes. Still, I suspect some of the far-flung corners considered themselves to have had civilization before the empire got there.
ReplyDeleteBB: Yes, Italy's part in the breakup of the empire was unseemly.
They may have done, but then many of my fellow citizens believe Canberra has civilisation, George
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