3 - 1852–1867: Transformation

Summary

Between 1852 and 1867 the Monarchy was severely diminished in power and status. It was also transformed from an absolute monarchy to a (dual) (quasi-) constitutional monarchy. The new emperor, Franz Joseph, first attempted a revolution from above: neo-absolutism. This combined political absolutism with radical reform: expansion of the bureaucracy, a stronger police state, a Concordat with the papacy, economic liberalization, replacing Vienna’s walls with the Ringstrasse. However, the new system was fragile, and challenged by a politically frustrated economic middle class. The Monarchy experienced a diplomatic debacle. Schwarzenberg’s death in April 1852 left foreign policy to Franz Joseph, a sorcerer’s apprentice. Clumsy diplomacy in the Crimean War led to the disastrous Franco-Austrian War of 1859, financial crisis, and the collapse of neo-absolutism. A series of attempted quasi-constitutional restructurings, and then an attempt to reassert Habsburg hegemony in Germany, were unsuccessful. Eventually Franz Joseph compromised with the Hungarian leadership, but not before the catastrophic Austro-Prussian War of 1866 effectively ejected the Monarchy from Germany. The Compromise of 1867 with Hungary kept the Monarchy going, but was extremely complicated, and was to prove unwieldy. It did not “square the circle” of Austro-Hungarian relations so much as cut the circle in two.