ABSTRACT
Most students appear to believe that the Habsburg Monarchy was ‘in decline’ between 1867 and 1914. Almost nobody inside the Monarchy was working for a republic during the period and practically no one wanted to see the Monarchy break up. The other races of the Monarchy – quite properly – felt cheated by it. In the first place, it was an agreement made, not between the representatives of the various parts of the Monarchy, but between Franz Joseph and the Magyar leadership. Good’s belief that the Monarchy proved to be economically beneficial to all of its parts is shared by many other economic historians, especially those concerned with Hungary. The nationality problem has to be considered in more detail, however, since many people believe it to have been responsible for the downfall of the Monarchy, a view made popular perhaps by the writings of R. W. Seton-Watson more than anybody else.
