The Austro-Hungarian Empire was one of the most powerful empires in the world from 1867 until 1918, in which it played a major role in a number of historic events. The empire was formed when Austria was ousted from the German Confederation and the emperor wanted to expand his empire. The Austrian emperor, Francis Joseph, came to a compromise with Hungary, and an agreement called the Ausgleich was passed into law in March of 1967. This officially united the two world powers to form an empire with a cache of resources at its hands. The land owned by the Austro-Hungarian Empire spread across a large chunk of Central Europe, comprising of present day Austria and Hungary, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Croatia. Parts of Poland, Italy, Ukraine and Romania were also under the empire's control.
As one of the world's largest powers at the time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire played a hugely significant role in the onset and fighting of World War One. It was the empire's archduke, Franz Ferdinand, whom the start of the war revolved around. The archduke was assassinated by a Serbian rebel group called the Black Hand while on a visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia in June of 1914. This provided the Austro-Hungarian leadership with a reason to declare war on Serbia, which the empire did not long after the assassination. In response, Russia moved in to support Serbia after just months of fighting.
These events led to the forming of multiple alliances of the powers in the world, who were all looking to expand their empires. The Austro-Hungarian Empire quickly formed an alliance with Germany, which shortly thereafter invaded Belgium, France and Luxembourg. Italy was also allied with the empire. Russia banded with France and the United Kingdom to counter the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany, and the two sides entered World War One, which would last four bloody years. After the United States had entered the war a year earlier, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany agreed to a cease fire toward the end of 1918, effectively ending the war.
