2 - 1835–1851: Revolution and Reaction

Summary

The System seized up after 1835. Austrian influence waned, as liberal and nationalist movements strengthened. Domestic policy was hamstrung by financial problems. In the Vormärz economic and social development led to political demands, mainly in nationalist form, although there was a revolt by peasants against Polish nationalist nobles in Galicia in 1846. The economic crisis from 1846 on made the System founder. March 1848 saw revolutions in Vienna, Budapest and other centres in the Monarchy. Plans were made for constitutional, often national, governments, but the revolutions failed and the Habsburg dynasty regained power by military successes and revolutionaries’ divisions. On 2 December 1848 Franz Joseph replaced Ferdinand as emperor, marking the Reaction’s success. The relationship between the Monarchy and Germany in 1848 is the book’s first example of “squaring the circle”. No solution to unifying Germany while including Austria succeeded in this period, partly because the success of reaction in the Monarchy undermined the premiss of such a state. Schwarzenberg’s regime dismantled most revolutionary achievements, except the emancipation of the peasantry. A decreed constitution was never implemented. The regime defeated the Hungarian revolutionaries, with Russian assistance. The new emperor, Franz Joseph, against Schwarzenberg’s advice, then moved to absolutism.