Ka cika wannan magana: Franz Joseph ya damu da kishin ƙasa a lokacin mulkinsa duka. Ya kammala Yarjejeniyar Austro-Hungary ta 1867, wanda ya ba da ikon cin gashin kai ga Hungary kuma ya canza Daular Austriya zuwa Daular Austriya-Hungary. Ya yi mulki cikin lumana na shekaru 45 masu zuwa, amma da kansa ya sha wahala bala'in kisan ɗan'uwansa Sarkin Maximilian I na Mexico a 1867, da kashe kansa na dansa Crown Prince Rudolf a 1889, da kisan matarsa Empress Elisabeth ("Sisi") a 1898, da kisan dan uwansa da magaji, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a 1914. Bayan Yaƙin Austro-Prussian, Austria-Hungary ta mai da hankalinta ga Balkans, wanda ya kasance wurin tashin hankali na duniya saboda rikice-rikice da Masarautar Rasha. Ƙungiyar
Rikicin Bosnian ya kasance sakamakon haɗakar Franz Joseph na Bosnia da Herzegovina a cikin 1908, wanda sojojinsa suka mamaye tun daga taron Berlin (1878). A ranar 28 ga Yuni, 1914, kisan dan uwansa Franz Ferdinand a Sarajevo ya haifar da Austria-Hungary ta ayyana yaƙi da Masarautar Serbia, wanda abokin tarayya ne na Daular Rasha. Wannan ya kunna tsarin kawance wanda ya haifar da Yaƙin Duniya na 1. Sarkin ya mutu a 1916, bayan ya yi mulkin yankunansa kusan shekaru 68. An gaje shi da babban dan uwansa Charles.