Fight for Survival: Plan U
Blog Post by Hanns Mahler:
“If you’re a Danubian, like me, you would know what Plan U is. It’s talked about in almost every history class, even if you’re enrolled in the University of Vienna for Chinese history.
Let’s start with some background. Hungary, after the death of Franz Josef, found itself ruled by Franz Ferdinand. And he was different - pretty darn different - from Josef. Hungary wasn’t going to be allowed to be so OP. Ferdinand was going to nerf it.
Smashing the Magyar Nobility:
The Royal Hungarian Honvéd, as we all know, was a complete and utter failure. It wasn’t even mobilized! The armies smashed the Honvéd, most famously at Bratislava. The Magyar nobility was destroyed.
With the largest obstacle to federalization demolished, Franz Ferdinand begun a path that he hoped would lead to greater unity among Danubians (back then, the Empire of the Danube was called Austria-Hungary) - an ambitious language program that would synthesize the big languages of the nation - Hungarian, German, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, and Romanian.
Austroslavic: A new language
Of course, a synthesis of these languages would prove to be impossible. To simplify the process, the number of languages was reduced to German and the Slavic languages, which was already extremely difficult. Czech, Slovak, and Polish found themselves being an easy triplet, just like Croatian, Slovenian, and Serbian. Ruthenian and Ukrainian formed an easy duo. Synthesizing them and German was profoundly more difficult.
Eventually, a balance was established. A language was created. The Austroslavic language that exists today is a testament to their efforts.
Although many of us speak it now, it was unpopular back then. With the exception of Bohemia and Slovenia, which had already been mixed enough to be classified as dialects, Austroslavic was barely used.
But as federalization and industrialization continued, allowing more inter-regional movement, more and more people spoke more and more Austroslavic. In addition to commerce and trade affecting Austroslavic’s success, the fact that it was mandatory in schools further promoted its usage. Areas that were barely literate, like those in Croatia and Transylvania, quickly adopted Austroslavic as schools spread into their territory.
By the end of the first Five Year Plan to build schools and promote Austroslavic, a measly 20% had adopted it. Still, it had fared better than most had thought it would. Linguistics and culture weren’t the only aspects of Ferdinand’s reign.
Boring Old Economics
Well, too bad. I’m an Economics Major at the University of Vienna, so here I go.
Franz Ferdinand pursued a dynamic industrialization policy that saved the nation more than any silly linguistic policy could. As German aid flooded into our country, factories and railroads began to pop up everywhere.
Since I’m still learning, I won’t go into much detail. So that was, in essence, all I was going to say about economics. Awkward conclusion to this chapter.
Political Reorganization
Franz Ferdinand thought and thought and thought about a solution to Austria’s ethnic problems. It was almost impossible to create mostly homogenous provinces in Danubia because everybody was so scattered.
Then he thought of a solution - the solution that has continued today. Nations were composed of people, not land. So multiple ‘nations’ could exist inside Danubia - or rather, coexist. There would be an Austrian state for Germans, a Hungarian state for Hungarians, and Slavic state for Slavs, regardless of where they lived. Geography was now irrelevant. But what about Italians and Romanians?
Ha! Sucks to be Italian or Romanian.
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Author's Note: Based on what I've read, the Ottomans had a similar system to this.
