Austro-Slavism envisioned peaceful cooperation between the smaller Slavic nations of
Central Europe within the
Habsburg monarchy not dominated by
German-speaking elites. Palacký proposed a federation of eight national regions, with significant self-governance. After the suppression of the Czech revolution in
Prague in June 1848, the program became irrelevant. The Austrian Empire transformed into
Austria-Hungary (1867), honouring
Hungarian, but not Slavic demands as part of the
Ausgleich. This further weakened the position of Austro-Slavism, as did the dawn of the coercive policy of
Magyarization during the 1880s. As a political concept, however, Austro-Slavism persisted until the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1918.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who was
heir presumptive to
Emperor Franz Joseph, was a true believer in Austro-Slavism, which he felt was a necessary and long overdue reform if the Empire was to survive. The Archduke's reform plans, which were almost certainly sold to the Governments of Russia and Serbia by Colonel
Alfred Redl, are believed , accordingly, to have played a major role in causing senior
Pan-Slavist officers within the
military intelligence service of Serbia to covertly plan the Archduke's 1914 assassination in
Sarajevo. Long before his death, however, the Archduke had passed his sympathies for Austro-Slavism and plans to return the Empire to
Federalism down to his nephew, who went on to become the last Habsburg monarch: Emperor
Charles I of Austria. The 1918 collapse of Austria-Hungary owed a great deal to Emperor Charles' failure to implement Austro-Slavist reforms due to both foreign and domestic politicians and to the ongoing chaos of the
First World War. Meanwhile,
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who was later to become the first President of
Czechoslovakia, had successfully convinced
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson during the
First World War that the Slavic peoples of Austria-Hungary were oppressed and needed to be liberated. This, in turn, led directly to President Wilson's rejection of the efforts of Emperor
Charles I of Austria to return the Empire to
federalism (such as the abortive
United States of Greater Austria plan). President Wilson's refusal to accept an end to the war on any other terms led directly to the collapse of the Empire in 1918. == Prominent supporters ==