December 15, 1866.
Trieste, the Austrian Empire's most important port.
Since the end of the Prussian-Austrian War, Austria had handed Venice over to Italy through France, and Trieste had naturally become the sole most important port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was about to be born in February 1867.
At present, the Austrian government was negotiating with Hungary's Magyar nobility, the two sides fiercely arguing over rights and obligations.
The following February, the two sides reached a compromise. Hungary's Magyar nobility gained rights equal to Austria's, but the Magyars had to guarantee that Hungary would remain within the empire. This was the Dual Monarchy.
Trieste was the Austro-Hungarian Empire's shipbuilding center and maritime trade hub.
It had once fought Venice for two full centuries. The locals later voluntarily sought the Habsburgs' protection and were incorporated into the Austrian Empire, after which it had always remained Austria's core territory.
Trieste actually had its own dialect, but due to the growing number of Italians, the Republic of Venice's period of prosperity, and Italian culture's influence in Europe, among other factors, speaking Italian became the mainstream.
After World War I, Italy annexed Trieste on the grounds that it spoke Italian. Thus Austria lost Trieste, which it had ruled for five hundred years. It truly was land that had belonged to it since ancient times, showing just how inefficient and incompetent the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been as a whole.
Even now, the city retained a strong Viennese character, and there were quite a few German-speaking residents. If the Austrian government had begun promoting German education here, Austria would never have become a landlocked country after World War I.
The later Trieste, meanwhile, went from being the Austro-Hungarian Empire's jewel to an utterly unremarkable Italian city.
This showed the power of cultural influence. Trieste had