ABSTRACT
The history of Austria's integration into world politics and the world economy during the last decades of the Habsburg Monarchy has been characterized by increasing external dependence in economics and politics, and by growing domestic fragmentation along national and ideological cleavage lines. The artistic and cultural upsurge in fin-de-siecle Vienna that brought Austria undisputed world prestige must also be seen in the context of late industrialization and the practical social barriers that prevented advanced modernity. The new Austrian Republic was part of the industrialized areas of the former monarchy, but its economic structure displayed huge disproportions. Austria, like the other states that were formerly a part of the Danube Monarchy, suffered from a chronic lack of capital and was forced, as a result, to depend on foreign loans and investments. The problems that the Austrian economy had in adapting were clearly expressed in its structural unemployment.
