How many different ethnic groups did the Austro-Hungarian Empire rule?
The Italian and German campaigns for national unification altered the balance of power in continental Europe. These campaigns challenged the dominance of Austria’s Habsburg Monarchy. While Italy and Germany were each coming together, the Austrian Empire was coming apart. Within its boundaries lived Austrian Germans, the Magyars of Hungary, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians, Romanians, Serbs, and Croats. Its people practiced the Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and Muslim religions. Little other than geography held these groups together.
