This article was first conceived as a commemorative address for the centenary of the extinction of the Habsburg monarchy, which occurred in November 1918. It seeks to take a correspondingly broad view, geographically and chronologically, of the factors that occasioned that collapse. It addresses three main themes, structured loosely around three classic historiographical analyses of the monarchy as a whole. The great irony of the last phase of Habsburg rule in Central Europe is that it was undermined by precisely those elements in the politics and society of the region that seemed, on the face of things, to derive most advantage from it. The article concentrates on the long-term dysfunctionality caused by the evolution of the Hungarian and German problems, and by the progressive enfeeblement of dynastic institutions. It also engages more briefly with a countervailing phenomenon, that some of those interests most conspicuously spurned by central government might have been the readiest to rescue it. On the argument presented here, World War I, which finally brought the monarchy low, was a catalyst rather than an independent determiner of that outcome.

中文翻译：

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纪念哈布斯堡王朝灭亡一百年：三个大师的诠释

这篇文章最初被设想为纪念 1918 年 11 月哈布斯堡王朝灭亡一百周年的讲话。它试图从地理和时间顺序上对导致崩溃的因素采取相应的广泛观点。它涉及三个主要主题，围绕三个对整个君主制的经典史学分析松散地构建。中欧哈布斯堡王朝最后阶段的最大讽刺是，它被该地区政治和社会中那些从表面上看似乎从中获得最大优势的因素所破坏。这篇文章着重于匈牙利和德国问题的演变以及王朝制度的逐渐衰弱所造成的长期功能失调。它还更简短地涉及一种反补贴现象，即那些最明显被中央政府唾弃的利益中的一些可能最愿意拯救它。就这里提出的论点而言，第一次世界大战最终使君主制处于低位，它是该结果的催化剂，而不是独立的决定者。