Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary, empire formed by the union of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austrian Empire in 1867. It was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the empire's throne, in 1914, by one of the many nationalist groups seeking independence that led directly to World War I. The empire, which was allied with Germany, ceased to exist at the end of World War I, and its lands were divided among the East European nations.