Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (Franz Joseph Karl; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and monarch of many other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from 2 December 1848 to his death. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation. He was the longest-reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, as well as the third-longest-reigning monarch of any country in European history, after Louis XIV of France and Johann II of Liechtenstein.
Hungarian–Romanian War
In 1918 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy politically collapsed and disintegrated as a result of a defeat in the Italian Front (World War I). During the war Count Mihály Károlyi led a small but very active pacifist anti-war maverick fraction in the Hungarian parliament. He even organized covert contacts with British and French diplomats in Switzerland during the war. On 31 October 1918 the Aster Revolution in Budapest brought Hungarian liberal aristocrat Mihály Károlyi, a supporter of the Entente (Allied nations), to power. The huge Hungarian Royal Honvéd army still had more than 1.400.000 soldiers when Mihály Károlyi was announced as prime minister of Hungary. After World War I Károlyi yielded to Woodrow Wilson's (US) demand for pacifism by ordering the disarmament of the Hungarian army. This happened under the direction of Béla Linder, minister of war in the Károlyi government. Due to the full disarmament of its army, Hungary remained without a national defence at a time of particular vulnerability.