Hungarian Defence Forces
In April 1867, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was established. Franz Josef, the head of the ancient Habsburg dynasty, was recognized as both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Nevertheless, the issue of what form the Hungarian military would take remained a matter of serious contention between Hungarian patriots and Austrian leaders. As the impasse threatened the political union, Emperor Franz Josef ordered a council of generals in November of the same year. Ultimately, the leaders resolved on the following solution: in addition to the joint (k.u.k.) army, Hungary would have its own defence force, whose members would swear their oath to the King of Hungary (who was also Emperor of Austria) and the national constitution, use the Hungarian language of command, and display their own flags and insignia. (Austria would also form its own parallel national defence force, the "Landwehr".) As a result of these negotiations, on 5 December 1868, the Royal Hungarian Landwehr ("Magyar Kiralyi Honvédség", or Defence Force) was established.
Emperor of Austria
In 1866, Austria lost the war with Prussia and Italy. Francis Joseph I was urged to solve the internal problems of his realm and was well-advised to provide a substantial rise to the Hungarian nobility, which had stayed in passive resistance to him after the crushed Hungarian revolution of 1848 and 1849. In the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 ("Ausgleich"), Hungary was recognized as a self-governing kingdom outside of the Austrian Empire. The Habsburg lands were restructured into a dual union which shared a monarch and a common army, navy and foreign policy. Transylvania and Croatia-Slavonia were acknowledged as lands of the Hungarian crown, which were called Transleithania by government officials to distinguish them from Cisleithania, the lands remaining in the Austrian Empire from 1867 onwards. These were officially known only as the "Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council" ("Die im Reichsrat vertretenen Königreiche und Länder"). Unofficially ever since, these territories officially were called "Austria" from 1915 to 1918 only, despite the fact that all the citizens held the common Austrian citizenship since 1867.