Symbolic Employment of und or u.
Prior to 1867, the collection of territories under the control of the Habsburg monarch in Vienna used kaiserlich und königlich or the hyphenated kaiserlich-königlich interchangeably. Neither of the spellings defined a hierarchy among the Habsburg dynastic kingdoms, principalities, duchies, and other bodies politic. The Habsburg monarchs ruled the kingdoms of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia as their Kings. The title Emperor applied to their role as heads of the conglomerate of the mostly German states called the Holy Roman Empire until 1806. The same title, Emperor, came to identify their role as rulers of the newly named Austrian Empire that the Habsburgs attributed so from 11 August 1804.
After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Hungarians insisted on the und ("and"), not the hyphen, in all usage in line with the new autonomous status of the kingdom within the Habsburg lands. Use of the phrase "Kaiserlich und königlich" was decreed in a letter written by the Emperor on October 17, 1889 for the military, the navy and the institutions shared by the both parts of the empire. Subsequently, the abbreviation k.k. did only refer to the institutions of the "Austrian" part of Austria-Hungary (Cisleithania.) The abbreviation m.k. (Hungarian: magyar királyi), or kgl. ung. (German: königlich ungarisch), both meaning "Royal Hungarian", was applied in reference to the governmental bodies of the Kingdom of Hungary (Transleithania.)
In official documents, the abbreviation used provides information on the lands targeted:
- k.k. or k.-k., meaning "imperial (Austria) – royal (Bohemia)", pertains to the Austrian Empire before 1867 and to the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867–1918
- k.u.k., meaning "imperial (Austria) and royal (Hungary)", pertains to the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867–1918
Read more about this topic: Imperial And Royal
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