6 - 1897–1914: Modernisation

Summary

Nationalism created constant political crisis in Cisleithania, and Hungary. Franz Joseph threatened radical franchise reform to deter Magyar nationalists; and implemented it in Cisleithania to weaken nationalism, without the requisite effect. In 1914 Cisleithania was being ruled by “bureaucratic absolutism”, Hungary by “parliamentary absolutism”. Other aspects of the Monarchy’s life, however, were prospering; nationalist politicians assumed a future within the Monarchy. There were regional national compromises; the Bohemian conflict was moderating. The Monarchy’s national diversity provided a creative matrix for innovative culture, with modernism having a complicated relation to nationalism. The most significant form of modern culture, “critical modernism”, was largely a Jewish response to antisemitism and a dysfunctional society. The administrative system’s problems remained unsolved. The state was being challenged by incipient federalization as well as nationalist inroads at the centre, but radical reform was unlikely. The South Slav problem proved terminal for the Monarchy because of Serbian (-Croatian) irrendentism. Aehrenthal thought Bosnia’s annexation in 1908 could lead to a quasi-trialist restructuring of the Monarchy, but this was unrealistic. Instead the Bosnian crisis led to the collapse of European Turkey and Serbian aggrandisement. Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in July 1914 only confirmed the need to stop Serbia at all costs.