Austria - a Historical Anomaly

Sweden is playing Austria tonight, in the qualifying round to next year's FIFA Football World Cup.

Austria is a strange country. The people speak German, just like in Germany. Until the middle of the 19th century, there was no doubt that modern day Austria was a part of the many German countries which existed at the time. Then in 1871, the rest of Germany united into a German Empire, while Austria stuck to their own Emperor. After the fall of the monarchies in 1918, many people was in facour of merging the new German and Austrian republics. This would make sense, since the only real reason for the countries not having united sixty years earlier was their different monarchs. The victors of the First World War did not want Germany to gain Austria, though. Later, Nazi Germany annexed Austria, but the victors of the Second World War did not want Austria to stay part of Germany. Furthermore, the Austrians wanted to be independent again, to show they had also been victims of Nazi German occupation (even though a lot of the Austrians had been in favour of the annexation and gladly fought on the Nazi side in the war).

In short, the main reason for Austria being a sovereign country, is that it had its own monarch in 1871. Being a separate country as a republic is just strange. Austria should reinstate its monarchy, then there would be a real reason for the country to exist. Now it is just a historic anomaly. Because of this, they should lose the game.