history

The Revolutions of 1848—Part 3

Meanwhile, in the Austrian Empire, a more complicated situation unfolded.

The biggest problem turned out to be nationalism.

As in Prussia, the military would play a huge role in the

suppression of the insurgencies.

Following events in Vienna similar to those in Berlin, Emperor Ferdinand promised a

constitution and a variety of reforms.

But when revolts broke out in Hungary, Bohemia, and Austrian-controlled Northern

Italy (Lombardy and Venetia), Ferdinand reversed himself, which only led to some

barricades going up in Vienna.

Then, reversing himself yet again, Ferdinand got his family together and went to

Innsbruck, fearing that if he remained in Vienna he'd find himself a prisoner of

revolutionaries just like Louis XVI during the Great French Revolution.

Emperor Ferdinand of Austria, 1835-1848

Barricades in Vienna, 1848

Erected by Students

Italy– a further complication

Italy was divided essentially into Piedmont (NW), Austrian provinces, the Papal

States, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. When revolts broke out in Naples

and in Austrian-controlled Lombardy, many Italians looked to King Charles

Albert of Piedmont for leadership. After wavering for a time, he ordered his

army, swelled by volunteers from all over Italy, into Lombardy, an act of war against Austria.

King Charles Albert of Sardinia-Piedmont

Italy in 1848

In Italy, the 81 year-old Count Joseph Radetzky, commander of well-trained

Austrian forces in Italy, defeated the inexperienced, disorganized, and poorly

supplied Italian nationalist army under Piedmontese leadership at Custoza

near Milan in early August, 1848.

Charles Albert was forced to negotiate an armistice with the

Austrians.

After defeating the Piedmontese, the Austrians blockaded and bombarded

Venice (which was part of the Austrian Empire) until the Venetian Republic capitulated in late August, 1849.

Count Joseph Radetzky

The struggle lasted longest in Central Europe. The key problem areas were Bohemia,

Hungary, and Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire.

First to be dealt with was Bohemia, where the chief event was the establishment of a

Pan-Slav Congress in Prague in June 1848.

Delegates, representing different nationalities, had only two things in common,

resentment toward Hapsburg policies that favored the German-speaking part of the

Empire's diverse population, and fear of a greater Germany (Austrian) solution to the

problem of German unification, believing such a solution would leave the

non-German minorities even more subservient to the Germans.

Finally, the Congress issued a declaration calling for the reorganization of the empire

into a federation that would respect the rights of each nationality.

On June 16, Prince Alfred Windischgratz put an end to such a lofty aspiration by

bombarding Prague into submission with cannon fire.

Next, it was Vienna's turn to pay. Windischgratz's army routed insurgents in the

Hapsburg capital in October and November 1848, killing over 3,000 people in

the process.

At this time, Emperor Ferdinand was persuaded by his ministers to abdicate in

favor of his 18-year-old nephew, Franz Joseph.

At the same time, Austrian officials implemented a carefully coordinated system

of surveillance, spying, and repression aimed at political subversives.

Prince Alfred Windischgratz

Emperor Franz Josef

Finally, there was Hungary, where the majority Magyars decided on independence,

sparking a civil war against the minority Croats as well as war against Austria in

September 1848.

The empire's Poles and Romanians backed the Magyars. On April 14, 1849, the

Hungarian Diet or legislature proclaimed Magyar independence and made a

radical nationalist and lawyer Lajos Kossuth president of the Hungarian republic.

Franz Joseph, feeling a threat to his monarchy's survival, called on Russian Tsar

Nicholas I for help, who responded by sending an army of 140,000-190,000 men

to aid Joseph von Jelachich's Croatian army. In August, the Hungarians capitulated,

and what followed were massive numbers of arrests, many executions, and the

declaration of martial law

It was all very complicated. A Hungarian explained the revolutions in Central Europe

this way: "the King of Hungary declared war on the King of Croatia, and the Emperor of Austria remained neutral, and all three monarchs were the same person.”

Results:

1. “The springtime of the people" was followed by a wave of repression,

dashing the hopes of liberals, radicals, republicans, socialists, democrats, and

nationalists throughout Europe. Someone once quipped that European

history reached a turning point in 1848, only that it failed to turn.

2. States became stronger after the events of 1848-49. For one thing,

governments learned their lessons. No more troublesome civic militias or

national guards. Professionalized armies came to enjoy a monopoly of

firepower.

3. Yet, the revolutions produced crucial changes and political

legacies.

a. the destruction of the feudal regime in Central Europe.

b. the politicization of the masses begun by the Great French

Revolution developed further as workers put forth demands for

political rights.

c. the revolution was also a training ground for republicanism in

France and nationalism in Italy and Central Europe. It also

scattered a generation of republicans and socialists throughout

much of the world.

d. finally, the outcome represented a critical juncture in the history of

modern Germany, because it crushed the hopes for a unification of

Germany along liberal lines, either as a republic or a constitutional

monarchy, though it did increase support for unification. Therefore, the

revolutions paved the way for a conservative solution to the unification

problem. A conservative nationalism in fact that would have ominous

ramifications for Europe and indeed the world, not only in the nineteenth

century, but in the twentieth century as well.

Attendance questions:

For Monday: Who wouldn’t accept a crown from the gutter”?

For today: Who became the new Austrian emperor during the revolutions of 1848-

1849?