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- Ancient Times. Around 700 BC, Celtic tribes settled in the region that would become Austria. By 15 BC, the area was incorporated into the Roman Empire as the province of Noricum.
- Medieval Period. In 788, Charlemagne established his authority over what would later become Austria, as part of the Carolingian Empire. This marked the beginning of a complex interplay between local nobility, emerging powers, and imperial control.
- Habsburg Dynasty. In 1278, after the Battle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen, the Habsburg dynasty emerged as a significant power in the region under Rudolf I of Habsburg.
- 19th Century. The 19th century was a transformative period for Austria, marked by political and social changes: In 1848, the Revolutions of 1848 swept across Europe, including Austria.
- Overview
- The Age of Metternich, 1815–48
- Revolution and counterrevolution, 1848–59
The 33 years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars are called in Austria—and to some extent in all of Europe—the Age of Metternich. The chief characteristics of this age are the onset of the Industrial Revolution, an intensification of social problems brought on by economic cycles of boom and bust, an increasingly mobile population, more demands for popular participation in government, and the rising tide of nationalism, all watched over by governments intent upon preserving the social, political, and international status quo.
Metternich was the symbol of those forces eager to preserve the status quo. In the debate about his policies, some have argued that Metternich was little more than an oppressive, reactionary but opportunistic statesman, eager to snuff out sparks of revolution and liberalism wherever he could detect them. Moreover, his much vaunted direction of the other powers in preserving the European order was really a mask for maintaining Habsburg influence in international affairs far out of proportion to the power that the monarchy actually possessed. Others contend that Metternich was one of the first philosophical conservatives, basing his social and political policies on coherent principles of orderly and cautious change in the context of good government and his diplomatic policies on maintaining stability by convincing the great powers of their mutual interests in preserving the European order as it then existed.
In international affairs, Metternich’s Concert of Europe did not last long. Within a few years after the Congress of Vienna, it had become clear that the five great powers simply did not have sufficiently similar interests or goals to cooperate on every issue that came before them. After European congresses at Troppau, Laibach, and Verona (1820–22) granted permission to Austria to deal with revolutions in Italy and to France to do the same in Spain, Britain announced its withdrawal from the Concert of Europe, proclaiming that it wanted no more to do with the conservative Continental powers. Likewise, a revolution in France in 1830 weakened that country’s link to Metternich’s system, and he even had trouble with Russia, which was greatly upset by Ottoman persecution of Orthodox Christians during the movement for Greek independence (1821–30).
In domestic matters, Metternich may have desired good government, but his reputation as an oppressor gained considerable credence after 1815. Protests against conservative policies by a gathering of German students (at the Wartburg Festival) in 1817 and the assassination of a conservative playwright (August von Kotzebue) in 1819 led, under Metternich’s guidance, to the German Confederation’s adopting the Carlsbad Decrees, a set of laws placing German and Austrian universities under strict control. Harsh censorship was imposed, and a commission was established at Mainz to investigate all student societies for subversives. Teachers, writers, and students suspected of liberal views were blacklisted throughout Germany and Austria. In 1824 the German Federal diet renewed these provisions for an indefinite period and in 1832 and 1833 expanded them at Metternich’s behest.
Metternich’s name was also equated with suppressing liberalism and radicalism in Italy. In 1821 Austrian troops put down risings in Naples and Piedmont; in 1831 rebellions in Parma, Modena, and the Papal States likewise ended in suppression by Austrian soldiers. The Austrian regime became the nemesis of the Carbonari and Young Italy, two movements associated with Italian nationalism and republicanism that were enormously popular among educated Italians.
Whereas Metternich’s name is often equated with oppression, he in fact was not eager to impose harsh and unrelenting rule in his own state or in others. Metternich believed that the best government was absolutism but that it was best because it guaranteed equal justice and fair administration for all. In the Habsburg monarchy and in the Italian governments he saved from revolution, he advocated reforms that would provide good government for the people. In many places his appeals went unheeded—in the Papal States, for example—and even in Austria his influence in domestic affairs weakened considerably as time went on. In 1826 Emperor Francis appointed Franz Anton, Graf (count) von Kolowrat, minister of state, and he steadily reduced Metternich’s influence in internal policy. In 1835 Francis died and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand, whose limited abilities necessitated the creation of a “state conference” to rule the monarchy. It consisted of two of Ferdinand’s uncles and his brother, along with Kolowrat and Metternich, as permanent members. High policy tended to drift, because the two archdukes were nonentities and Kolowrat and Metternich were usually at odds with one another.
The 33 years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars are called in Austria—and to some extent in all of Europe—the Age of Metternich. The chief characteristics of this age are the onset of the Industrial Revolution, an intensification of social problems brought on by economic cycles of boom and bust, an increasingly mobile population, more demands for popular participation in government, and the rising tide of nationalism, all watched over by governments intent upon preserving the social, political, and international status quo.
Metternich was the symbol of those forces eager to preserve the status quo. In the debate about his policies, some have argued that Metternich was little more than an oppressive, reactionary but opportunistic statesman, eager to snuff out sparks of revolution and liberalism wherever he could detect them. Moreover, his much vaunted direction of the other powers in preserving the European order was really a mask for maintaining Habsburg influence in international affairs far out of proportion to the power that the monarchy actually possessed. Others contend that Metternich was one of the first philosophical conservatives, basing his social and political policies on coherent principles of orderly and cautious change in the context of good government and his diplomatic policies on maintaining stability by convincing the great powers of their mutual interests in preserving the European order as it then existed.
In international affairs, Metternich’s Concert of Europe did not last long. Within a few years after the Congress of Vienna, it had become clear that the five great powers simply did not have sufficiently similar interests or goals to cooperate on every issue that came before them. After European congresses at Troppau, Laibach, and Verona (1820–22) granted permission to Austria to deal with revolutions in Italy and to France to do the same in Spain, Britain announced its withdrawal from the Concert of Europe, proclaiming that it wanted no more to do with the conservative Continental powers. Likewise, a revolution in France in 1830 weakened that country’s link to Metternich’s system, and he even had trouble with Russia, which was greatly upset by Ottoman persecution of Orthodox Christians during the movement for Greek independence (1821–30).
In domestic matters, Metternich may have desired good government, but his reputation as an oppressor gained considerable credence after 1815. Protests against conservative policies by a gathering of German students (at the Wartburg Festival) in 1817 and the assassination of a conservative playwright (August von Kotzebue) in 1819 led, under Metternich’s guidance, to the German Confederation’s adopting the Carlsbad Decrees, a set of laws placing German and Austrian universities under strict control. Harsh censorship was imposed, and a commission was established at Mainz to investigate all student societies for subversives. Teachers, writers, and students suspected of liberal views were blacklisted throughout Germany and Austria. In 1824 the German Federal diet renewed these provisions for an indefinite period and in 1832 and 1833 expanded them at Metternich’s behest.
Metternich’s name was also equated with suppressing liberalism and radicalism in Italy. In 1821 Austrian troops put down risings in Naples and Piedmont; in 1831 rebellions in Parma, Modena, and the Papal States likewise ended in suppression by Austrian soldiers. The Austrian regime became the nemesis of the Carbonari and Young Italy, two movements associated with Italian nationalism and republicanism that were enormously popular among educated Italians.
Whereas Metternich’s name is often equated with oppression, he in fact was not eager to impose harsh and unrelenting rule in his own state or in others. Metternich believed that the best government was absolutism but that it was best because it guaranteed equal justice and fair administration for all. In the Habsburg monarchy and in the Italian governments he saved from revolution, he advocated reforms that would provide good government for the people. In many places his appeals went unheeded—in the Papal States, for example—and even in Austria his influence in domestic affairs weakened considerably as time went on. In 1826 Emperor Francis appointed Franz Anton, Graf (count) von Kolowrat, minister of state, and he steadily reduced Metternich’s influence in internal policy. In 1835 Francis died and was succeeded by his son Ferdinand, whose limited abilities necessitated the creation of a “state conference” to rule the monarchy. It consisted of two of Ferdinand’s uncles and his brother, along with Kolowrat and Metternich, as permanent members. High policy tended to drift, because the two archdukes were nonentities and Kolowrat and Metternich were usually at odds with one another.
The year 1848 was a time of European-wide revolution. A general disgust with conservative domestic policies, an urge for more freedoms and greater popular participation in government, rising nationalism, social problems brought on by the Industrial Revolution, and increasing hunger caused by harvest failures in the mid-1840s all contributed to growing unrest, which the Habsburg monarchy did not escape. In February 1848 Paris, the archetype of revolution at that time, rose against its government, and within weeks many major cities in Europe did the same, including Vienna.
As in much of Europe, the revolution of 1848 in the Habsburg monarchy may be divided into the three categories of social, democratic-liberal, and national, but outside Vienna the national aspect of the revolution fairly soon overshadowed the other two. On March 13, upon receiving news of the Paris rising, crowds of people, mostly students and members of liberal clubs, demonstrated in Vienna for basic freedoms and a liberalization of the regime. As happened in many cities in this fateful year, troops were called out to quell the crowds, shots were fired, and serious clashes occurred between the authorities and the people. The government had no wish to antagonize the crowds further and so dismissed Metternich, who was the symbol of repression, and promised to issue a constitution.
From that beginning to the end of October 1848, Vienna ebbed and flowed between revolution and counterrevolution, with one element or another gaining influence over the others. In mid-May the Habsburgs and their government became so concerned about the way matters were going that they fled Vienna, although they did return in August when it appeared that more-conservative elements were asserting control. The emperor issued a constitution in April providing for an elected legislature, but when the legislature met in June it rejected this constitution in favour of one that promised to be more democratic. As the legislature debated various issues over the summer and autumn, the Habsburgs and their advisers regrouped both their confidence and their might, and on October 31 the army retook Vienna and executed a number of the city’s radical leaders. By this time the legislature had removed itself to Kremsier (now Kromeríz, Czech Republic) in the province of Moravia, where it continued to work on a constitution. It finished its work there, issued its document, and was promptly overruled and then dismissed by the emperor.
Although the assembly in the end did not create a working constitution for Austria, it did issue one piece of legislation that had long-lasting influence: it fully emancipated the peasantry. The conservative regime that followed kept and implemented this law.
In other parts of the monarchy, the revolution of 1848 passed quickly through a liberal-democratic to a national phase, and in no place was this more evident or more serious than in Hungary. Joseph II’s effort to incorporate Hungary more fully into the monarchy, along with the early 19th century’s rising national awareness throughout Europe, had a profound impact upon the aristocratic Hungarians who held sway in the country. Modern nationalism made them even more intent on preserving their cultural traditions and on continuing their political domination of the land. Consequently, after 1815 the Hungarian nobility engaged in a number of activities to strengthen the Hungarian national spirit, demanding the use of Hungarian rather than Latin or German as the language of government and undertaking serious efforts to develop the country economically. The revolution in Paris and then the one in Vienna in March 1848 galvanized the Hungarian diet. Under the leadership of a young lawyer and journalist named Lajos Kossuth, the Hungarian diet demanded of the sovereign sweeping reforms, including civil liberties and far greater autonomy for the Hungarian government, which would from then on meet in Pest (Buda and Pest were separate cities until 1873, when they officially merged under the name Budapest). Under great pressure from liberal elements in Vienna, the emperor acceded to these wishes, and the Hungarian legislators immediately undertook creating a new constitution for their land.
This new constitution became known as the March Laws (or April Laws) and was really the work of Kossuth. The March Laws provided for a popularly elected lower house of deputies, freedom for the “received religions” (i.e., excluding Jews), freedom of the press, peasant emancipation, and equality before the law. As the Hungarians set up their new national government based on these principles, they encountered from some of the minority nationalities living in their land the kind of resistance they had offered the Austrians. A characteristic of the new regime was an intense pride in being Hungarian, but the population in the Hungarian portion of the Habsburg monarchy was 60 percent non-Hungarian. And in 1848 all the talk about freedom and constitutions and protection of one’s language and culture had inspired many of these people as well. But Kossuth and his colleagues had no intention of weakening the Hungarian nature of their new regime; indeed, they made knowledge of Hungarian a qualification for membership in parliament and for participation in government. In other words, the new government seemed as unsympathetic to the demands and hopes of its Serbian, Croatian, Slovak, and Romanian populations as Vienna had been to the demands of the Hungarians.
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Habsburgs. Politics. Dynasties and royalty. Empires. 1156. Vienna is adopted by the Babenberg rulers as the capital city of Austria. Go to Babenberg in The Oxford Companion to German Literature (3 ed.) See this event in other timelines: 12th century.
Throughout the 19th century, Austria faced numerous conflicts and wars. It participated in the Revolutionary Year of 1848, a series of uprisings across Europe, and the subsequent Hungarian Revolution of 1848, led by Lajos Kossuth.
The new Europe of the 19th century is no longer characterized by frequent wars. Instead, each nation is confronted internally by the likelihood of revolution. Austria and Germany: 1815-1834: It is Austria's hope and intention that the congress of Vienna will restore the Habsburg role within Germany, albeit in a much simplified context.
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