Franz Joseph I (August 18, 1830 - November 21, 1916), the emperor of Austria and Austria Hungary (December 2, 1848 - November 21, 1916), the ruler of junior and southern Europe from the 19th century to the 20th century. He is the grandson of Franz II, the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the eldest son of Grand Duke Franz Carl, and the nephew of Ferdinand I. His mother is Princess Sophie, the daughter of King Maximilian I of Bavaria.
Franz Joseph was made crown prince because his uncle Ferdinand I had no children. Soon after, his uncle Ferdinand I issued an edict to abdicate due to spiritual problems, so Franz Joseph became emperor. At the beginning of his reign, he forced Prussia to sign the Olmitz Treaty, which was hostile to the Russian Empire and the Second Reich of France. He was known to the world because he reorganized the Austrian Empire into the Austro Hungarian Empire. In 1879, he allied himself with the German Empire led by the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1914, he issued an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia, drawing Austria and Germany into the First World War. In 1916, he died in Vienna due to pneumonia at the age of 86. His nephew Karl I ascended the throne.

The Emperor of Sunset
Franz Joseph in his youth
In the second half of the 19th century, there was a handsome young emperor in the luxurious capital Vienna, who ruled the second largest empire in Europe. His lineage was noble, and he was the direct descendant of the Habsburg dynasty with a history of 600 years. He worked very hard, taking cold baths and sleeping in the army bed, and he was skilled in using his subjects' eight languages, as well as an extremely beautiful queen. But at the end of his 68 years of rule, everything was like a dream. His brother was shot in Mexico, his wife was assassinated by an Italian anarchist in Geneva, his son committed suicide at a young age, and his chosen successor was shot and killed by the Serbian mafia. His retaliatory war for this caused tens of millions of people to fall into a sea of blood, and also made the empire for which he had fought his whole life unstable, This man was Franz Joseph I, the tragic emperor of Austria Hungary.

Ascended the throne in a riot
Franz Joseph I was the eldest son of Archduke Franz Carl and Princess Sophie, daughter of King Maximilian I of Bavaria. Because his uncle Ferdinand I had no children, he was educated to be the presumed successor of the emperor. In 1848, he participated in the suppression of the uprising against Austrian rule in Lombardy Venezia Kingdom in Italy. When the revolution spread to the imperial capital Vienna, the emperor Ferdinand I was forced to abdicate due to spiritual reasons, Franz took the throne in Olmitsden on December 3.
Franz and Cici
During the first 10 years of his rule, the so-called "new autocracy", he personally made foreign policy and strategic decisions, and together with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Felix Schwarzenberg, he began to restore imperial order. In November 1850, he forced Prussia to sign the Olmitz Treaty, disbanded the German Confederation, and made obeisance to Austria, which was considered the shame of the second Jena by Prussians. However, the Prime Minister's brutal rule in the country and the intolerant police institution aroused people's rebellious feelings. When the government withdrew its promise to make the Constitution in 1849 under revolutionary pressure in 1851, this feeling became more threatening. The consequences of withdrawing the promise were far-reaching, which led to the Liberal Party's long-term distrust of Franz Joseph's rule, and led to the attempt to assassinate the Emperor of Austria in Vienna in 1853 and the Milan riots.

Autocracy and constitutionalism
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I of Austria
After Schwarzenberg died in 1852, Franz Joseph no longer appointed the Prime Minister, and he took over the power himself. Although he is diligent, his intelligence is not high, and he often goes astray in complex international politics. The mistakes made by the Austrian Empire in the Crimean War were mainly his own. He ignored the consistent support of the Russian Empire and mobilized the army stationed in Galicia to the Russian border, forcing Nikolai I to withdraw from the Danube River, which caused a permanent rift between the two countries. Before his suicide, Tsar Nikolai I lamented Austria's betrayal: "I am the biggest fool in the world, and I actually expect others to know how to repay me." But the western countries, because he did not directly participate in the war, regarded him as a treacherous figure trying to get something for nothing, and finally he did not flatter both sides. Because of the complex domestic financial problems, he began to reduce military expenditure in 1859, but was caught by Gaffer's tricks and could not help but provoke him to declare war on the Kingdom of Sardinia. Unexpectedly, catching mice brought out elephants. Napoleon III of France changed his face as fast as turning a book. He suddenly pulled out his sword without warning to help the weak Sardinian. For the first time in history, he quickly brought 100000 troops to the Italian battlefield through railway mobility. The expected border guard punishment turned into the main confrontation between the big countries. Franz's personal presence in the battlefield had no effect. The command of both armies was chaotic, while Austria was even more chaotic, The failure of the Battle of Solferino seriously damaged Austria's military reputation. In July, he hastily concluded the Peace Treaty of Free Town, ceding Lombarby to his opponent to end the war. The crisis atmosphere that emerged after the defeat prompted Franz Joseph to return to pay attention to constitutional issues, and the constitutional trial period - the federal constitution and the central group constitution - alternated until 1867.
Multi-ethnic country
Commemorative statue of Franz Joseph
Commemorative statue of Franz Joseph
In the war against Denmark in 1864, Joseph and Prussia formed an alliance in an attempt to delay their dominance in Germany, but in vain. After the victory of Prussia and Austria, a quarrel occurred, and the war between the two sides was inevitable. Prussia and Sardinia formed an alliance, forming a tendency to attack Austria. Diplomats proposed to give Venice to Sardinia by the hand of Napoleon III of France to avoid this unfavorable situation. Although it was doomed to lose Venice, Joseph thought that it would be disgraceful to lose a province without a war, and it would be more glorious to die, so he changed the position of Archduke Albrecht Friedrich Rudolph, who was good at attacking, and Ludwig von Benedek, who was good at defending. The end of the Franco Prussian War was the failure of the northern front, the victory of the southern front, and the failure of Austria, which handed over Venice, But it guarantees the psychological advantage over the South.
As Franz Joseph failed to reach a federal solution that satisfied all ethnic groups, the relationship between ethnic groups further deteriorated. In 1867, the situation became clear, and we had to compromise like Hungarians who did not listen to the command, resulting in the formation of a "dual monarchy of empire and kingdom". In this dual monarchy, Austria and Hungary coexisted in an equal partnership. This compromise gave Hungarians considerable rights to expand their influence, and the Slavic nationalities suffered losses; Bohemians (Czechs) and Poles did not share the privileges enjoyed by Austrian Germans in the Austrian part of the empire, that is, the western half; Croats, Slovaks and southern Slavs did not share the privileges enjoyed by Hungarians in the eastern half of Hungary. Franz Joseph recognized this biased approach, which violated the core principle of basic equality of all ethnic groups in this multi-ethnic country. The relationship between the state and the emperor formed by the long-term evolution in history was replaced by the submission of various nationalities to the Austrian German monarch or the Hungarian monarch. In this way, the country will remain restless. Under the pressure of the Austrian German people, the Austrian emperor also vetoed the last reform attempt to give all Slavic languages equality with Hungarian and German. As for the recognition and restoration of the ancient rights of the Czech people, it constrained the foreign policy of the Austro Hungarian Empire and threatened its internal affairs. What is more disadvantageous is the problem of the southern Slavs. Since 1867, Croats under the rule of Hungary felt that they were constantly Hungarianized. The rule of Hungarians finally made Serbia, where Slavs live, the sworn enemy of the dual monarchy.

Diplomatic arena
Franz
Count Andrahi is the most outstanding Foreign Minister of Franz Joseph. He not only aligned Germany with Austria in 1879, but also won the first major diplomatic victory of the empire in the Balkans by occupying Bosnia and Herzegovina. The emperor of Austria tried his best to stand aside and maintain the alliance with Germany. Although Italy formed a trilateral alliance with Germany and Austria in 1882 and Romania signed a secret treaty with Germany and Austria in 1883, he had great reservations about Italy and Romania. Franz Joseph's diplomatic style was to advocate private exchanges between monarchs. In 1873, he appeared in Berlin side by side with Tsar Alexander II. Decisively promote the alliance of the three emperors. Later, he also worked to prevent potential conflicts with Russia through personal contacts. After his visit to Petersburg in 1897 and Tsar Nicholas II's visit in 1903, he tried to define the interests of Austria and Russia in the Balkans, but this policy was hastily undermined by Foreign Minister Ellenthal in a crisis that led to the annexation of the occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina region in 1908. From 1908 to 1914, he insisted on peaceful diplomacy despite the warning of the Chief of Staff, Franz Konrad von Hzendorf. Hzendorf repeatedly proposed to carry out pre emptive preventive war against Serbia or Italy. But in July 1914, at the instigation of the Foreign Minister Count Bertold, he rashly issued an ultimatum to Serbia, leading to the outbreak of World War I. In 1916, when the war was raging, he died quietly at the age of 86. His grandson Carl I succeeded him to the throne.