[center][img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Flag_of_Austria-Hungary_%281869-1918%29.svg/648px-Flag_of_Austria-Hungary_%281869-1918%29.svg.png[/img][/center]
[center][b]Austria-Hungary[/b][/center]
[center][i]Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in a private letter to Aurel Popovici.[/i][/center]
[center][i]February 5th, 1900[/i][/center]

It is my firm belief that the favoritism shown to the Magyars in our 1867 compromise is the root of our empire's problems now. Our nation consists of nearly a dozen ethnics groups, yet only the Germans and the Hungarians hold power. What of the Czechs and the Romanians? What of the Italians and the Serbs? Are we to be surprised when unrepresented minorities protest and consider the Compromise an insult? Is it truly ungraspapable that such an act of unfairness could lead a man - a Serb, a Romanian - to feel betrayed and uncared for? Should we be surprised when, out of anger and desperation, they rise up and commit violence for a moment of attention?

It is my full intent to address the concerns of all of our ethnic groups, not just the Germans and the Hungarians, and to make amends for my uncle's disastrous decision to sign the Compromise which has brought us so much grief. It pains me to hear of the persecution you have experienced as a result of Magyarization attempts against your people. Rest assured, that will not stand when I am Emperor; I intend to give our many ethnic groups greater autonomy. I often think of how quickly our people's many grievances would cease if they all had a fair say and their own semi-autonomous state - a confederacy under a strong central government that actually cares about their concerns, and is free of disproportionate levels of power and favoritism. The irredentism that plagues our country would disappear under such a system, and only then will we be truly united in diversity. No longer would we be divided by ethnic and nationalist tensions.

Your proposal for a 'United States of Greater Austria' is one I am in full support of; semi-autonomous states with their own language and people, equal in representation and importance. I encourage you to continue work on a more detailed draft, and to keep in touch. You have my support, and my gratitude. I will speak to my uncle, though I'm afraid our scheduled shouting-match will yield unsatisfactory results. I sometimes wonder if he lives to irritate me.

[i]-- Your friend, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria[/i]