[[File:Galicia.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The former '''Austrian Galicia''' depicted across a map of Poland's post-1945 borders.]]
[[File:Galicia.jpg|right|300px|thumb|The former '''Austrian Galicia''' depicted across a map of Poland's post-1945 borders.]]
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The political transformation of the [[Eastern Europe]] after 1918 was a direct result of the collapse of the [[German Second Empire]] and the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] during the last months of 1918, as well as due to the unsettled western borders of the ex-[[Russian Empire]] which collapsed in 1917 and which was the midst of revolution and civil war.