Downfall Of The Austro Hungarian Empire

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Revelations of the instability of imperial nations and their colonies in the Twentieth century marked the beginning of the end of a multipolar power system that once influenced the world. This inevitable outcome would be the result of the attitudes held by the colonial powers, the ideologies set by the anti-imperialist forces, and the role of external powers. The factors of politics and military actions would also catalyze the power shift by the end of WWII. Early in the twentieth century we would find the collapse of four large empires; which would consist of the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and the Ottoman Empire.
After having been under imperial rule that could be brutal and demanding, many nations sought sovereignty; and many…show more content…
The loss of power plays a key role here, for the losers of the wars were once on top of the world. Germany would lose both world wars and lose territories gained like Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. And as the Allies fought a island-hopping strategy war against the Japanese in the Pacific, they would bring liberation to nations like the Philippines, Burma, and other small islands. These giant wars were just catalysts that would advance the end of occupation by larger nations. Other nations would follow on withdrawing from occupation after the wars, but not all would go without disputes over the future of their past territories.
Changes of ideologies from Europe to Asia would also increase the probability of diminishing the multi-polar distribution of power. The most popular trend were taking the ideas of Karl Marx seriously and shaping economic policies around this ideology. To little surprise, past governments and rulers refused to adapt this ideology and this lead to civil conflicts. More revolutions would come from the Russian Revolution that transformed the Soviet Union, and the rise of Mao Zedong and Communist China after WWII. These nations would grow to become large powers that would play key roles in future events, and soon their ideologies would also play a role in their demise. For these reasons, the breakdown of the global multi-polar distribution of power during WWI through WWII was highly probable.
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