Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire
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| Austrian Revolutions | |||
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| Part of the Revolutions of 1848 | |||
 Barricades in Prague during the revolutionary events. | |||
| Date | 13 March 1848 – November 1849 | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by |
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| Goals | |||
| Resulted in | Counterrevolutionary victory
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| Parties | |||
The Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire were a set of revolutions that took place in the
Besides these nationalists, liberal, and even socialist currents resisted the Empire's longstanding conservatism.
Background
The events of 1848 were the product of mounting social and political tensions after the Congress of Vienna of 1815. During the "pre-March" period, the already conservative Austrian Empire moved further away from ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, restricted freedom of the press, limited many university activities, and banned fraternities.
Social and political conflict
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Conflicts between
Despite lack of freedom of the press and association, there was a flourishing liberal German culture among students and those educated in German universities.[citation needed] They published pamphlets and newspapers discussing education and language; the need for basic liberal reforms was assumed. These middle class liberals largely understood and accepted that forced labor is not efficient, and that the Empire should adopt a wage labor system. The question was how to institute such reforms.
Notable liberal clubs of the time in Vienna included the
More to the left was a radicalized, impoverished intelligentsia. Educational opportunities in 1840s Austria had far outstripped employment opportunities for the educated.[2]
Industrial revolution
The industrial revolution, which spread to Austria in the 1840s, has been cited as a key factor leading up to the 1848 revolution, and argued to be a far greater contributor than intellectual developments in the 19th century. The industrial revolution had hurt small businesses and brought poor working conditions, which made ordinary citizens - namely the middle and lower classes - more receptive to revolutionary thought.[3]
Direct cause of the outbreak of violence
In 1845,
Revolution in the Austrian lands
An early victory leads to tension
After news broke of the February victories in Paris, uprisings occurred throughout Europe, including in
The established order collapsed rapidly because of the weakness of the Austrian armies.
Social and political conflict as well as inter and intra confessional hostility momentarily subsided as much of the continent rejoiced in the liberal victories. Mass political organizations and public participation in government became widespread.
However, liberal ministers were unable to establish central authority. Provisional governments in Venice and Milan quickly expressed a desire to be part of an Italian confederacy of states; but for the Venetian government this lasted only five days, after the 1848 armistice between Austria and Piedmont. A new Hungarian government in Pest announced its intentions to break away from the Empire and elect Ferdinand its King, and a Polish National Committee announced the same for the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.
Social and political tensions after the "Springtime of Peoples"
The victory of the party of movement was looked at as an opportunity for lower classes to renew old conflicts with greater anger and energy. Several tax boycotts and attempted murders of tax collectors occurred in Vienna. Assaults against soldiers were common, including against Radetzky's troops retreating from Milan. The archbishop of Vienna was forced to flee, and in Graz, the convent of the Jesuits was destroyed.
The demands of nationalism and its contradictions became apparent as new national governments began declaring power and unity.
By early summer, conservative regimes had been overthrown, new freedoms (including freedom of the press and freedom of association) had been introduced, and multiple nationalist claims had been exerted. New parliaments quickly held elections with broad franchise to create constituent assemblies, which would write new constitutions. The elections that were held produced unexpected results. The new voters, naïve and confused by their new political power, typically elected conservative or moderately liberal representatives. The radicals, the ones who supported the broadest franchise, lost under the system they advocated because they were not the locally influential and affluent men. The mixed results led to confrontations similar to the
The Czechs held a
Counterrevolution
Insurgents quickly lost in street fighting to King Ferdinand's troops led by General Radetzky, prompting several liberal government ministers to resign in protest. Ferdinand, now restored to power in Vienna, appointed conservatives in their places. These actions were a considerable blow to the revolutionaries, and by August most of northern Italy was under Radetzky's control.
In
Attention then turned to Hungary. War in Hungary again threatened imperial rule and prompted Emperor Ferdinand and his court to once more flee Vienna. Viennese radicals welcomed the arrival of Hungarian troops as the only force able to stand up against the court and ministry. The radicals took control of the city for only a short period of time. Windisch-Grätz led soldiers from Prussia to quickly defeat the insurgents. Windisch-Grätz restored imperial authority to the city. The reconquering of Vienna was seen as a defeat over German nationalism. At this point, Ferdinand I named the noble Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg head of government. Schwarzenberg, a consummate statesman, persuaded the feeble-minded Ferdinand to abdicate the throne to his 18-year-old nephew, Franz Joseph. Parliamentarians continued to debate, but had no authority on state policy.
Both the Czech and Italian revolutions were defeated by the Habsburgs. Prague was the first victory of counter-revolution in the Austrian Empire.
Revolution in the Kingdom of Hungary
The Hungarian Diet was reconvened in 1825 to handle financial needs. A liberal party emerged in the Diet. The party focused on providing for the peasantry in mostly symbolic ways because of their inability to understand the needs of the laborers. Lajos Kossuth emerged as the leader of the lower gentry in the Diet.
In 1848, news of the outbreak of revolution in Paris arrived as a new national cabinet took power under Kossuth, and the Diet approved a sweeping reform package, referred to as the "
- Freedom of the Press (The abolition of censure and the censor's offices)
- Accountable ministries in Buda and Pest (Instead of the simple royal appointment of ministers, all ministers and the government must be elected and dismissed by the parliament)
- An annual parliamentary session in Pest. (instead of the rare ad-hoc sessions which was convoked by the king)
- Civil and religious equality before the law. (The abolition of separate laws for the common people and nobility, the abolition of the legal privileges of nobility. Full religious liberty instead of moderated tolerance: the abolition of (Catholic) state religion)
- National Guard. (The forming of their own Hungarian national guard, it worked like a police force to keep the law and order during the transition of the system, thus preserving the morality of the revolution)
- Joint share of tax burdens. (abolition of the tax exemption of the nobility, the abolition of customs and tariff exemption of the nobility)
- The abolition of socage. (abolition of Feudalism and abolition of the serfdom of peasantry and their bondservices)
- Juries and representation on an equal basis. (The common people can be elected as juries at the legal courts, all people can be officials even on the highest levels of the public administration and judicature, if they have the prescribed education)
- National Bank.
- The army to swear to support the constitution, our soldiers should not be sent to abroad, and foreign soldiers should leave our country.
- The freeing of political prisoners.
- Union with Transylvania[11]
In April 1848, Hungary became the third country of Continental Europe (after France, in 1791, and Belgium, in 1831) to enact a law implementing democratic parliamentary elections. The new suffrage law (Act V of 1848) transformed the old feudal parliament (Estates General) into a democratic representative parliament. This law offered the widest right to vote in Europe at the time.[12] The April laws utterly erased all privileges of the Hungarian nobility.[13]
These demands were not easy for the imperial court to accept, however, its weak position provided little choice. One of the first tasks of the Diet was abolishing serfdom, which was announced on March 18, 1848.
The Hungarian government set limits on the political activity of both the Croatian and Romanian national movements. Croats and Romanians had their own desires for self-rule and saw no benefit in replacing one central government for another. Armed clashes between the Hungarians and the Croats, Romanians, Serbs, along one border and Slovaks on the other ensued. In some cases, this was a continuation and an escalation of previous tensions, such as the 1845 July victims in Croatia.
The Habsburg Kingdom of Croatia and the Kingdom of Slavonia severed relations with the new Hungarian government in Pest and devoted itself to the imperial cause. Conservative Josip Jelačić, who was appointed the new ban of Croatia-Slavonia in March by the imperial court, was removed from his position by the constitutional monarchist Hungarian government. He refused to give up his authority in the name of the monarch. Thus, there were two governments in Hungary issuing contradictory orders in the name of Ferdinand von Habsburg.[14]
Aware that they were on the path to civil war in mid-1848, the Hungarian government ministers attempted to gain Habsburg support against Jelačić by offering to send troops to northern Italy. Additionally, they attempted to come to terms with Jelačić himself, but he insisted on the recentralization of Habsburg authority as a pre-condition to any talks. By the end of August, the imperial government in Vienna officially ordered the Hungarian government in Pest to end plans for a Hungarian army. Jelačić then took military action against the Hungarian government without any official order.
The national assembly of the Serbs in Austrian Empire was held between 1 and 3 May 1848 in Sremski Karlovci, during which the Serbs proclaimed autonomous Habsburg crownland of Serbian Vojvodina. The war started, leading to clashes as such in Srbobran, where on July 14, 1848, the first siege of the town by Hungarian forces began under Baron Fülöp Berchtold. The army was forced to retreat due to a strong Serbian defense. With war raging on three fronts (against Romanians and Serbs in Banat and Bačka, and Romanians in Transylvania), Hungarian radicals in Pest saw this as an opportunity. Parliament made concessions to the radicals in September rather than let the events erupt into violent confrontations. Shortly thereafter, the final break between Vienna and Pest occurred when Field Marshal Count Franz Philipp von Lamberg was given control of all armies in Hungary (including Jelačić's). In response to Lamberg being attacked on arrival in Hungary a few days later, the imperial court ordered the Hungarian parliament and government dissolved. Jelačić was appointed to take Lamberg's place. War between Austria and Hungary had officially begun.
The war led to the
After Vienna was recaptured by imperial forces, General Windischgrätz and 70,000 troops were sent to Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution and as they advanced the Hungarian government evacuated Pest. However the Austrian army had to retreat after heavy defeats in the Spring Campaign of the Hungarian Army from March to May 1849. Instead of pursuing the Austrian army, the Hungarians stopped to retake the Fort of Buda and prepared defenses. In June 1849 Russian and Austrian troops entered Hungary heavily outnumbering the Hungarian army. Kossuth abdicated on August 11, 1849, in favour of
On August 13, after several bitter defeats in a hopeless situation Görgey, signed a
Western Slovak Uprising
Slovak Uprising was an uprising of
Serb Revolution of 1848–1849
The
The Second Wave of Revolutions
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Revolutionary movements of 1849 faced an additional challenge: to work together to defeat a common enemy. Previously, national identity allowed Habsburg forces to conquer revolutionary governments by playing them off one another. New democratic initiatives in Italy in the spring of 1848[when?] led to a renewed conflict with Austrian forces in the provinces of Lombardy and Venetia. At the very first anniversary of the first barricades in Vienna, German and Czech democrats in Bohemia agreed to put mutual hostilities aside and work together on revolutionary planning. Hungarians faced the greatest challenge of overcoming the divisions of the previous year, as the fighting there had been the most bitter. Despite this, the Hungarian government hired a new commander and attempted to unite with Romanian democrat Avram Iancu, who was known as Crăişorul Munţilor ("The Prince of the Mountains"). However, division and mistrust were too severe.
Three days after the start of hostilities in Italy,
See also
- United Slovenia
- Anton Füster
- Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848–1849 by Christopher Clark
References
- ^ Bidelux & Jeffries 1998, pp. 315–316
- ^ Bidelux & Jeffries 1998, p. 316
- ISSN 0276-1742.
- ^ "Between two worlds: The Hungry Forties in Europe". RTÉ.ie. 27 January 2022.
- ^ Bidelux & Jeffries 1998, pp. 295–296
- ^ Bidelux & Jeffries 1998, p. 298
- ^ Schwarzschild 1947, p. 174: "Metternich, like Louis Philippe, fled to London"
- ^ Bidelux & Jeffries 1998, p. 314
- ^ Bidelux & Jeffries 1998, p. 310
- ^ "The Italians who stayed loyal to the Habsburgs, Gilberto Oneto, 8th December 2010" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-16. Retrieved 2015-08-03.
- ^ "március15". marcius15.kormany.hu. Archived from the original on 2017-09-17. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
- ^ prof. András Gerő (2014): Nationalities and the Hungarian Parliament (1867–1918) Link:[1] Archived 2019-04-25 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-1-139-49580-6.
- ^ Sperber 2005, p. 143
- ^ Marx & Engels, p. 618.
- ^ Szabó, János B. (5 September 2006). "Hungary's War of Independence". historynet.com. Archived from the original on 1 April 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-139-49494-6.
Bibliography
- Bidelux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (1998). A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16111-8.
- Engels, Friedrich. "Articles from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung: March 6—May 19, 1849". Collected Works. Vol. 9. Archived from the originalon 2005-02-09 – via Marxists.
- Nobili, Johann. Hungary 1848: The Winter Campaign. Edited and translated Christopher Pringle. Warwick, UK: Helion & Company Ltd., 2021.
- Sperber, Jonathan (2005). The European Revolutions, 1848–1851. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83907-5.
- Schwarzschild, Léopold (1947). The Red Prussian: The Life and Legend of Karl Marx. New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
Further reading
- Robin Okey, The Habsburg Monarchy c. 1765–1918: From Enlightenment to Eclipse, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002
- Otto Wenkstern, History of the war in Hungary in 1848 and 1849, London: J. W. Parker, 1859 (Digitized version)
External links
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 Leaders for Hungary | |
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