The late-war Austrian minister president, Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg, wanted to divide Bohemia by setting up administrative counties (Verwaltungskreisen) based on the nationality of the population. On 26 September 1918, his successor, minister president Max Hussarek von Heinlein, offered the Czechs wide-ranging autonomy within Imperial and Royal Austria. This came too late, however, because exiled Czechs had already achieved the status of an ally in the United States during the First World War and as a result of the Triple Entente, and the imperial and royal government in Vienna was no longer considered a serious power by the victors of the war.[1]