Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale, examines the Habsburg dynasty's role in shaping the lands that became Ukraine. He tests the historical accuracy of the Privilegium Maius, a document claiming ancient privileges for Habsburg rule, and traces how the family's administration of Galicia and other territories left institutional and cultural marks still visible in Ukrainian identity. This class sits within Snyder's broader course on the emergence of the modern Ukrainian nation, part of a series asking what it means for a nation to exist and how Polish, Russian, Jewish, and Ukrainian self-understanding intertwine. Snyder draws on his command of multiple European languages and archival sources to connect Habsburg administrative history to later Ukrainian nation-building, treating the dynasty not as a footnote but as a formative actor in the region's political development.