La historia de Austria abarca la historia de Austria y sus estados predecesores. A finales de la Edad del Hierro, Austria estuvo ocupada por personas de la cultura celta de Hallstatt ( c. 800 a. C.), que primero se organizaron como un reino celta al que los romanos denominaron Noricum , que data de c. 800 a. C. A finales del siglo I a. C., las tierras al sur del Danubio pasaron a formar parte del Imperio romano . En el Período de las Migraciones , el siglo VI, los bávaros , un pueblo germánico , ocuparon estas tierras hasta que cayeron en manos del Imperio franco establecido por los francos germánicos en el siglo IX. El nombre Ostarrîchi (Austria) ha estado en uso desde el año 996 d. C., cuando era un margraviato del ducado de Baviera y desde 1156 un ducado independiente (más tarde archiducado ) del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico (962-1806).
Austria estuvo dominada por la Casa de Habsburgo y la Casa de Habsburgo-Lorena desde 1273 hasta 1918. En 1806, cuando el emperador Francisco II de Austria disolvió el Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, Austria se convirtió en el Imperio austríaco , y también fue parte de la Confederación Alemana hasta la Guerra austro-prusiana de 1866. En 1867, Austria formó una monarquía dual con Hungría: el Imperio austrohúngaro . Cuando este imperio colapsó después del final de la Primera Guerra Mundial en 1918, Austria se redujo a las principales áreas, en su mayoría de habla alemana, del imperio (sus fronteras actuales), y adoptó el nombre de República de Austria-Alemania . Sin embargo, la unión con Alemania y el nombre del país elegido fueron prohibidos por los Aliados en el Tratado de Versalles . Esto condujo a la creación de la Primera República Austriaca (1919-1933).
Tras la Primera República, el austrofascismo intentó mantener a Austria independiente del Reich alemán . Engelbert Dollfuss aceptó que la mayoría de los austriacos fueran alemanes y austríacos, pero quería que Austria permaneciera independiente de Alemania. En 1938, Adolf Hitler, nacido en Austria, anexó Austria a Alemania , lo que fue apoyado por una gran mayoría de los austriacos . [1] Después de la derrota alemana en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, la identidad alemana en Austria se debilitó. Diez años después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial , Austria volvió a convertirse en una república independiente como la Segunda República Austriaca en 1955. Austria se unió a la Unión Europea en 1995.
Dado que el territorio que se entiende por "Austria" sufrió cambios drásticos a lo largo del tiempo, al abordar una historia de Austria se plantean varias preguntas, por ejemplo, si se limita a la actual o antigua República de Austria, o se extiende también a todas las tierras que antes gobernaban los gobernantes de Austria. Además, ¿debería la historia de Austria incluir el período 1938-1945, cuando nominalmente no existía? De las tierras que ahora forman parte de la segunda República de Austria, muchas se agregaron con el tiempo: solo dos de las nueve provincias (Baja y Alta Austria) son estrictamente "Austria", mientras que otras partes de su antiguo territorio soberano ahora forman parte de otros países, por ejemplo, Italia, Croacia, Eslovenia y Chequia. Dentro de Austria hay afinidades que varían regional y temporalmente con los países adyacentes. [2]
Los Alpes eran inaccesibles durante la Edad de Hielo , por lo que la presencia humana no data de antes del Paleolítico Medio , durante la época de los neandertales . Los rastros más antiguos de presencia humana en Austria, de más de 250.000 años, se encontraron en la cueva Repolust en Badl, cerca de Peggau en el distrito Graz-Umgebung de Estiria . Estos incluyen herramientas de piedra, herramientas de hueso y fragmentos de cerámica junto con restos de mamíferos. Se encontraron evidencias de unos 70.000 años de antigüedad en la cueva Gudenus en el noroeste de la Baja Austria.
Los restos del Paleolítico superior son más numerosos en la Baja Austria. Los más conocidos se encuentran en la región de Wachau , donde se encuentran los yacimientos de las dos obras de arte más antiguas de Austria. Se trata de representaciones figurativas de mujeres, la Venus de Galgenberg, hallada cerca de Stratzing y que se cree que tiene 32.000 años de antigüedad, y la cercana Venus de Willendorf (26.000 años de antigüedad) hallada en Willendorf , cerca de Krems an der Donau . En 2005, en la misma zona, se descubrió un doble enterramiento infantil en Krems-Wachtberg, que data de la cultura gravetiense (27.000 años de antigüedad), el cementerio más antiguo encontrado en Austria hasta la fecha. [3] [4]
Los restos del Mesolítico incluyen refugios rocosos (abris) del lago de Constanza y del valle alpino del Rin , un sitio funerario en Elsbethen y algunos otros sitios con artefactos microlíticos que demuestran la transición de vivir como cazadores-recolectores a agricultores y ganaderos sedentarios.
Durante el Neolítico , la mayoría de las áreas de Austria que eran aptas para la agricultura y eran fuentes de materias primas estaban pobladas. Entre los restos se incluyen los de la cultura de la cerámica lineal , una de las primeras culturas agrarias de Europa. El primer asentamiento rural registrado de esta época fue en Brunn am Gebirge en Mödling . El primer monumento industrial de Austria, la mina de sílex en Mauer-Antonshöhe en el barrio Mauer del distrito de Liesing , al sur de Viena, data de este período. En la cultura Lengyel , que siguió a la cerámica lineal en la Baja Austria, se construyeron zanjas circulares .
En el yacimiento de Stollhof , en la región de Hohe Wand , en la Baja Austria, se han identificado restos de la Edad del Cobre en Austria . En el este de Austria son habituales los asentamientos en las cimas de las colinas de esta época. Durante este tiempo, los habitantes buscaron y desarrollaron materias primas en las zonas alpinas centrales. El hallazgo más importante se considera el Hombre de Hielo Ötzi , una momia bien conservada de un hombre congelado en los Alpes que data de aproximadamente el 3300 a. C., aunque estos hallazgos se encuentran ahora en Italia, en la frontera con Austria. Otra cultura es el grupo Mondsee , representado por casas sobre pilotes en los lagos alpinos.
A principios de la Edad del Bronce aparecieron fortificaciones que protegían los centros comerciales de extracción, procesamiento y comercio de cobre y estaño . Esta floreciente cultura se refleja en los artefactos funerarios, como los de Pitten, en Nußdorf ob der Traisen , Baja Austria. A finales de la Edad del Bronce apareció la cultura de los campos de urnas , en la que se inició la extracción de sal en las minas de sal del norte de Hallstatt .
La Edad del Hierro en Austria está representada por la cultura de Hallstatt , que sucedió a la cultura de los campos de urnas bajo influencias de las civilizaciones mediterráneas y de los pueblos esteparios y que gradualmente se transformó en la cultura celta de La Tène .
Esta cultura de la Edad del Hierro temprana recibe su nombre de Hallstatt, un yacimiento tipo en la Alta Austria . La cultura se describe a menudo en dos zonas, la occidental y la oriental, por las que discurrían los ríos Enns , Ybbs e Inn . La zona occidental de Hallstatt estaba en contacto con las colonias griegas de la costa de Liguria . En los Alpes, se mantenían contactos con los etruscos y con las regiones de Italia bajo influencia griega. La zona oriental tenía estrechos vínculos con los pueblos esteparios que habían cruzado la cuenca de los Cárpatos desde las estepas del sur de Rusia.
La población de Hallstatt obtuvo su riqueza de la industria de la sal. En el cementerio de Hallstatt se han descubierto importaciones de artículos de lujo que se extendían desde los mares del Norte y Báltico hasta África. El testimonio más antiguo de una industria vinícola austríaca se descubrió en Zagersdorf , Burgenland , en un túmulo. El carro de culto de Strettweg , Estiria, es un testimonio de la vida religiosa contemporánea.
A finales de la Edad del Hierro , la cultura celta de La Tène se extendió a Austria. Esta cultura dio origen a los primeros nombres tribales locales registrados ( Taurisci , Ambidravi , Ambisontes ) y topónimos. De aquí surgió Noricum (siglo II a . C. ), una confederación de tribus celtas alpinas (tradicionalmente doce) bajo el liderazgo de los Norici . Se limitaba al sur y este de Austria y parte de Eslovenia . El oeste estaba poblado por los Raeti .
Dürrnberg y Hallein (Salzburgo) eran asentamientos salineros celtas. En Estiria oriental y Burgenland (p. ej., Oberpullendorf ) se extraía y procesaba mineral de hierro de alta calidad, que luego se exportaba a los romanos como ferrum noricum ( hierro nórico ). Esto condujo a la creación de un puesto comercial romano en Magdalensberg a principios del siglo I a. C. , reemplazado más tarde por la ciudad romana Virunum. Los asentamientos fortificados en la cima de las colinas , p. ej. Kulm (este de Estiria ), Idunum (moderna Villach ), Burg ( Schwarzenbach ) y Braunsberg ( Hainburg ), eran centros de la vida pública. Algunas ciudades, como Linz , también datan de este período.
Aunque Nórico y Roma habían sido socios comerciales activos y habían formado alianzas militares, alrededor del año 15 a. C. la mayor parte de lo que se conocería como Austria fue anexada al Imperio Romano, comenzando así 500 años de "Austria Romana" (como se la conoció en el siglo XIX). Nórico se convirtió en una provincia romana .
Durante el reinado del emperador Claudio (41-54 d. C.), Noricum estaba delimitado por los bosques de Viena , aproximadamente la frontera oriental actual de Estiria , y los ríos Danubio , Eisack y Drava . Bajo Diocleciano (284-305), la provincia se dividió a lo largo de la principal cordillera alpina en una norte ( Noricum ripense ) y una sur ( Noricum Mediterraneum ). Al otro lado del Ziller en el oeste, correspondiente a las actuales provincias de Vorarlberg y Tirol , se encontraba la provincia de Raetia , que incorporaba el territorio anterior de Vindelicia . En el este se encontraba Panonia , incluido el futuro Burgenland . Al sur estaba la Región 10, Venetia et Histria . [5] El limes danubiano , formaba una línea defensiva que separaba la Alta y la Baja Austria de las tribus germánicas marcomanas y cuadas .
Los romanos construyeron muchas ciudades que sobreviven hoy en día. Entre ellas se encuentran Vindobona ( Viena ), Juvavum ( Salzburgo ), Valdidena ( Innsbruck ) y Brigantium ( Bregenz ). [6] Otras ciudades importantes fueron Virunum (al norte de la actual Klagenfurt ), Teurnia (cerca de Spittal ) y Lauriacum ( Enns ). Entre los sitios arqueológicos del período romano se incluyen Kleinklein (Estiria) y Zollfeld ( Magdalensberg ).
El cristianismo apareció en Austria en el siglo II, lo que dio origen a una organización eclesiástica que se remonta al siglo IV. Tras la llegada de los bávaros , Austria se convirtió en objeto de esfuerzos misioneros, como los de Ruperto y Virgilio, de la misión hiberno-escocesa .
La Gran Migración selló el declive del poder romano en Austria.
En la primera fase (300-500), el Imperio romano fue acosado cada vez más por tribus germánicas a partir del siglo V, incluidos godos y vándalos . A medida que el tejido del Imperio romano se desmoronaba, la capacidad de Raetia, Noricum y Panonia para defenderse se volvió cada vez más problemática. Radagaisus invadió parte del país en 405. [7] Después de varias incursiones en Italia, los visigodos llegaron en 408, bajo el mando de Alarico I. [ 8]
Según lo descrito por Zósimo , Alarico partió de Emona (la actual Liubliana ), que se encontraba entre Panonia Superior y Nórico, cruzando los Alpes Cárnicos , y llegó a Virunum en Nórico, como había acordado el general romano Estilicón , tras varias escaramuzas entre ambos. El Senado romano votó por Estilicón para que Alarico concediera una gran cantidad de dinero para mantener la paz . [8] Desde allí dirigió sus operaciones contra Italia, exigiendo Nórico entre otros territorios, y finalmente saqueó Roma en 410, pero murió en el camino de regreso ese mismo año. [9]
Los visigodos finalmente se marcharon, lo que permitió un corto período de estabilidad, aparte de los disturbios internos en 431. [10] En 451, los hunos invadieron la zona y en 453, se evacuó Panonia. La muerte de Atila en 453 permitió a los ostrogodos dispersar su imperio huno. Muchas tribus, anteriormente bajo los hunos, comenzaron a establecerse a lo largo de la cuenca del Danubio y afirmaron su independencia. Entre ellos estaban los rugios , que formaron sus propias tierras (Rugiland) al otro lado del Danubio.
A partir de 472, los ostrogodos y los alamanes invadieron la zona, pero no la sometieron. Incluso después de que Odoacro derrocara al último emperador romano de Occidente en 476, los restos de la administración romana permanecieron en las provincias antes del colapso final de la Antigüedad tardía en esta zona (véase Severino de Nórico y Flacciteo ). Nórico fue finalmente abandonado en 488, [11] mientras que Raetia fue abandonada por los romanos en favor de los alamanes .
Las ciudades y los edificios abandonados y devastados fueron cayendo en el caos durante los siglos IV y V. En el año 493, la zona formaba parte de las tierras del rey ostrogodo Teodorico y no quedaban influencias romanas. El colapso del imperio ostrogodo comenzó con su muerte en el año 526.
Durante la segunda fase del Período de Migraciones (500-700), los lombardos aparecieron brevemente en las regiones del norte y este alrededor del año 500, y fueron expulsados hacia el sur, hacia Italia, por los ávaros en el año 567. Los ávaros y sus vasallos eslavos se habían establecido desde el mar Báltico hasta los Balcanes . [12] Después de que los ávaros sufrieran reveses en el este en el año 626, los eslavos se rebelaron y establecieron sus propios territorios. Los carantano (eslavos alpinos) eligieron a un bávaro, Odilo, como su conde y resistieron con éxito una mayor subyugación de los ávaros.
Los carantano emigraron hacia el oeste a lo largo del río Drava hacia los Alpes orientales a raíz de la expansión de sus señores ávaros durante el siglo VII, se mezclaron con la población celtorromana y establecieron el reino de Carantania (más tarde Carintia ), que cubría gran parte del territorio oriental y central de Austria y fue el primer estado eslavo independiente en Europa, centrado en Zollfeld . Junto con la población indígena, pudieron resistir una mayor invasión de los vecinos francos y ávaros en los Alpes del sudeste.
Mientras tanto, la tribu germánica de los bávaros ( vasallos francos ) se había desarrollado en los siglos V y VI en el oeste del país y en la más tarde conocida como Baviera , mientras que los alemanes se habían establecido en la más tarde conocida como Vorarlberg . En los Alpes del norte, los bávaros se habían establecido como un ducado raíz alrededor de 550, bajo el gobierno de los agilolfos hasta 788 como un puesto avanzado del Imperio franco oriental . Las tierras que estaban ocupadas por los bávaros se extendían hacia el sur hasta el más tarde conocido como Tirol del Sur , y al este hasta el Enns . El centro administrativo estaba en Ratisbona . Esos grupos se mezclaron con la población retorrománica y la empujaron hacia las montañas a lo largo del valle de Pusteria . [13]
En el sur de la actual Austria, los eslavos se habían asentado en los valles de Drava, Mura y Save hacia el año 600. La migración eslava hacia el oeste detuvo la migración bávara hacia el este hacia el año 610. Su mayor expansión hacia el oeste se alcanzó en el valle de Pusteria en el año 650 , pero gradualmente retrocedió hasta el Enns hacia el año 780. [12] El límite de asentamiento entre eslavos y bávaros corresponde aproximadamente a una línea desde Freistadt a través de Linz , Salzburgo ( Lungau ), hasta el Tirol Oriental ( Lesachtal ), con ávaros y eslavos ocupando el este de Austria y la actual Bohemia .
Carantania, bajo la presión de los ávaros, se convirtió en vasalla de Baviera en 745 y más tarde fue incorporada al imperio carolingio , primero como margraviato tribal bajo duques eslavos y, después de la fallida rebelión de Ljudevit Posavski a principios del siglo IX, bajo nobles designados por los francos. Durante los siglos siguientes, los colonos bávaros bajaron por el Danubio y subieron por los Alpes, un proceso a través del cual Austria se convertiría en un país mayoritariamente de habla alemana. Solo en el sur de Carintia, los eslavos mantuvieron su lengua e identidad hasta principios del siglo XX, cuando la asimilación los redujo a una pequeña minoría.
La relación de Baviera con los francos fue variada, logrando una independencia temporal en 717, pero luego fue subyugada por Carlos Martel . Finalmente, Carlomagno (emperador 800-814) depuso al último duque agilolfo, Tasilo III , asumiendo el control carolingio directo en 788, con reyes bávaros no hereditarios. Posteriormente, Carlomagno lideró a los francos y bávaros contra los ávaros orientales en 791, de modo que en 803 se habían replegado al este de los ríos Fischa y Leitha . [12] Estas conquistas permitieron el establecimiento de un sistema de marcas defensivas (fronteras militares) desde el Danubio hasta el Adriático. [14] Alrededor de 800, Österreich, el "Reino de Oriente", se había unido al Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico. [6]
Entre ellas se encontraba una marca oriental, la Marca Ávara , que correspondía aproximadamente a la actual Baja Austria , bordeada por los ríos Enns , Raab y Drava , mientras que al sur se encontraba la Marca de Carintia . Ambas marcas eran conocidas colectivamente como Marcha orientalis (Marca Oriental), una prefectura del Ducado de Baviera. En 805, los ávaros, con el permiso de Carlomagno, liderados por el khagan ávaro, se asentaron al sureste de Viena . [15]
En 862, una nueva amenaza apareció: los húngaros , que siguieron el patrón de desplazamiento de los territorios más orientales por fuerzas superiores. En 896, los húngaros estaban presentes en gran número en la llanura húngara, desde donde atacaron los dominios francos. Derrotaron a los moravos y en 907 derrotaron a los bávaros en la batalla de Presburgo y en 909 habían invadido las fronteras, obligando a los francos y bávaros a retroceder al río Enns . [14]
Baviera se convirtió en margraviato bajo Engeldeo (890-895) y fue restablecida como ducado bajo Arnulfo el Malo (907-937), quien la unió con el ducado de Carintia , ocupando la mayor parte de los Alpes orientales. Esto duró poco. Su hijo Everardo (937-938) se encontró en conflicto con el rey alemán, Otón I (Otón el Grande), quien lo depuso. El siguiente duque fue Enrique I (947-955), que era hermano de Otón. En 955, Otón logró hacer retroceder a los húngaros en la batalla de Lechfeld , comenzando una lenta reconquista de las tierras orientales, incluidas Istria y Carniola .
Durante el reinado del hijo de Enrique, Enrique II (el Pendenciero) (955-976), Otón se convirtió en el primer emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico (962) y Baviera se convirtió en un ducado del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico . Otón I restableció la marca oriental y fue sucedido por Otón II en 967, y se encontró en conflicto con Enrique, a quien depuso, lo que le permitió reorganizar los ducados de su imperio.
Otón redujo considerablemente Baviera y restableció Carintia al sur. Al este, estableció una nueva Marca Oriental Bávara , posteriormente conocida como Austria, bajo el mando de Leopoldo , conde de Babenberg , en 976. Leopoldo I, también conocido como Leopoldo el Ilustre, gobernó Austria desde 976 hasta 994.
Las marcas estaban supervisadas por un comes o un dux designado por el emperador. Estos términos suelen traducirse como conde o duque, pero estos términos transmitían significados muy diferentes en la Alta Edad Media , por lo que para evitar malentendidos, los historiadores suelen emplear las versiones latinas cuando hablan de los títulos y sus poseedores. En los países de habla lombarda , el título se regularizó finalmente como margrave (en alemán: markgraf ), es decir, "conde de la marca".
El primer registro del nombre «Austria» aparece en el año 996, en un documento del rey Otón III escrito como Ostarrîchi , que hace referencia al territorio de la Marca de Babenberg. Además, durante mucho tiempo se utilizó la forma Osterlant , y se hacía referencia a los habitantes como Ostermann u Osterfrau . El nombre latinizado Austria aplicado a esta zona aparece en los escritos del siglo XII de la época de Leopoldo III (1095-1136). (compárese Austrasia como el nombre de la parte nororiental del Imperio franco). El término Ostmark no es históricamente seguro y parece ser una traducción de marchia orientalis que surgió mucho más tarde.
Los Babenberg siguieron una política de colonización del país, talando bosques y fundando ciudades y monasterios. Gobernaron la Marca inicialmente desde Pöchlarn , y más tarde desde Melk , expandiendo continuamente el territorio hacia el este a lo largo del valle del Danubio , de modo que en 1002 llegó a Viena . La expansión hacia el este fue finalmente detenida por los húngaros recién cristianizados en 1030, cuando el rey Esteban (1001-1038) de Hungría derrotó al emperador Conrado II (1024-1039) en Viena.
Finalmente se había establecido un territorio "central". El territorio contenía los restos de muchas civilizaciones anteriores, pero los bávaros predominaban, excepto en la zona del lago de Constanza al oeste ocupada por los alamanes ( Vorarlberg ). Persistían algunos grupos de población celtorrománica, como alrededor de Salzburgo , y persistían los nombres de lugares romanos, como Juvavum (Salzburgo). Además, esta población se distinguía por el cristianismo y por su lengua, un dialecto del latín ( el romanche ). Salzburgo ya era un obispado (739) y en 798 un arzobispado.
Aunque los bávaros germánicos fueron sustituyendo poco a poco al romanche como lengua principal, adoptaron muchas costumbres romanas y se cristianizaron cada vez más. De manera similar, en el este, el alemán sustituyó a la lengua eslava. Los vecinos de la Marca de Austria eran el Ducado de Baviera al oeste, los reinos de Bohemia y Polonia al norte, el Reino de Hungría al este y el Ducado de Carintia al sur. En este contexto, Austria, todavía sometida a Baviera, tenía un papel relativamente menor.
Los margraves Babenberg controlaban muy poco de la Austria moderna. Salzburgo, históricamente parte de Baviera, se convirtió en territorio eclesiástico, mientras que Estiria era parte del ducado de Carintia. Los Babenberg tenían propiedades relativamente pequeñas, no solo Salzburgo sino también las tierras de la diócesis de Passau estaban en manos de la iglesia, y la nobleza controlaba gran parte del resto. Sin embargo, se embarcaron en un programa de consolidación de su base de poder. Uno de esos métodos fue emplear sirvientes contratados, como la familia Kuenringern , como Ministeriales y se les asignaron considerables deberes militares y administrativos. [16] Sobrevivieron como dinastía gracias a la buena fortuna y la habilidad en la política del poder, en esa era dominada por la lucha continua entre el emperador y el papado .
El camino no siempre fue fácil. El quinto margrave, Leopoldo II "el Hermoso" (1075-1095) fue depuesto temporalmente por el emperador Enrique IV (1084-1105) tras encontrarse en el lado equivocado de la Disputa de las Investiduras . Sin embargo, el hijo de Leopoldo, Leopoldo III "el Bueno" (1095-1136) apoyó al hijo rebelde de Enrique, Enrique V (1111-1125), contribuyó a su victoria y fue recompensado con la mano de la hermana de Enrique, Agnes von Waiblingen, en 1106, aliándose así con la familia imperial. Leopoldo se concentró entonces en pacificar a la nobleza. Sus fundaciones monásticas , en particular Klosterneuburg y Heiligenkreuz , llevaron a su canonización póstuma en 1458, y se convirtió en el santo patrón de Austria . [17]
Leopoldo III fue sucedido por su hijo, Leopoldo IV "el Generoso" (1137-1141). Leopoldo mejoró aún más el estatus de Austria al convertirse también en duque de Baviera en 1139, como Leopoldo I. Baviera misma había estado en manos de la dinastía Welf (güelfa), que se enfrentó a los Hohenstaufen . Estos últimos llegaron al trono imperial en 1138 en la persona de Conrado III (1138-1152); el duque de Baviera, Enrique el Orgulloso , fue candidato a la corona imperial y disputó la elección de Conrado, y posteriormente fue privado del ducado, que fue otorgado a Leopoldo IV. Cuando Leopoldo murió, sus tierras fueron heredadas por su hermano Enrique II (Heinrich Jasomirgott) (1141-1177).
Mientras tanto, Conrado había sido sucedido como emperador por su sobrino Federico I Barbarroja (1155-1190), que descendía tanto de los güelfos como de los Hohenstauffen y buscaba poner fin a los conflictos dentro de Alemania. Con este fin, devolvió Baviera a los güelfos en 1156, pero como compensación elevó Austria a ducado mediante un instrumento conocido como Privilegium Minus . Enrique II se convirtió así en duque de Austria a cambio de perder el título de duque de Baviera.
Austria era ahora un dominio independiente dentro del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico y Enrique trasladó su residencia oficial a Viena ese año.
En 1186, el Pacto de Georgenberg legó el vecino sur de Austria, el Ducado de Estiria a Austria tras la muerte del duque de Estiria sin hijos, Ottokar IV , que ocurrió en 1192. Estiria había sido separada de las marcas del norte de Carintia , y solo se elevó al estado de ducado en 1180. Sin embargo, el territorio del Ducado de Estiria se extendía mucho más allá del actual estado de Estiria , incluidas partes de la actual Eslovenia ( Baja Estiria ), y también partes de Alta Austria (el Traungau, el área alrededor de Wels y Steyr ) y Baja Austria (el condado de Pitten , los actuales distritos de Wiener Neustadt y Neunkirchen ).
El segundo duque de Austria, el hijo de Enrique II, Leopoldo V el Virtuoso (1177-1194), se convirtió en duque de estos territorios combinados. Leopoldo es quizás más conocido por el encarcelamiento del rey británico Ricardo I después de la Tercera Cruzada (1189-1192), en 1192 en Dürnstein . El dinero del rescate que recibió ayudó a financiar muchos de sus proyectos.
En esa época, los duques de Babenberg llegaron a ser una de las familias gobernantes más influyentes de la región, alcanzando su apogeo durante el reinado del nieto de Enrique, Leopoldo VI el Glorioso (1198-1230), el cuarto duque. [13] bajo el cual floreció la cultura de la Alta Edad Media , incluida la introducción del arte gótico .
A la muerte de Leopoldo, le sucedió su hijo Federico II el Pendenciero (1230-1246). En 1238 dividió el territorio en dos zonas divididas por el río Enns . La parte situada por encima del Enns se convirtió en Ob(erhalb) der Enns (Por encima del Enns) o «Alta Austria», aunque también se utilizaban otros nombres como supra anasum (de un antiguo nombre latino para el río) y Austria superior . Las tierras situadas por debajo del Enns o unter der Enns pasaron a denominarse Baja Austria. El Traungau y el Steyr pasaron a formar parte de Alta Austria en lugar de Estiria. Otro de los logros de Federico fue una Patente de Protección para los judíos en 1244. [18]
Sin embargo, Federico murió en la batalla del río Leitha contra los húngaros y no tuvo hijos supervivientes, por lo que la dinastía Babenburgh se extinguió en 1246.
Lo que siguió fue un interregno , un período de varias décadas durante el cual se disputó el estatus del país y durante el cual el ducado de Federico II fue víctima de un prolongado juego de poder entre fuerzas rivales. Durante este tiempo hubo múltiples pretendientes al título, incluido Vladislao, margrave de Moravia, hijo del rey Wenceslao I de Bohemia . El rey Wenceslao pretendía adquirir el ducado de Austria organizando el matrimonio de Vladislao con la sobrina del último duque, Gertrud , ella misma una heredera potencial y pretendiente.
Según el Privilegium Minus emitido por el emperador Federico Barbarroja en 1156, las tierras austríacas podían ser legadas a través de la línea femenina. Vladislao recibió el homenaje de la nobleza austríaca, pero murió poco después, el 3 de enero de 1247, antes de poder tomar posesión del ducado. Después llegó Herman de Baden en 1248. También reclamó la mano de Gertrudis, pero no tuvo el apoyo de la nobleza. Herman murió en 1250, y su reclamación fue asumida por su hijo Federico , pero su reclamación fue frustrada por la invasión bohemia de Austria.
En un intento de poner fin a la agitación, un grupo de nobles austriacos invitó al rey de Bohemia , Ottokar II Přemysl, hermano de Vladislao, a convertirse en gobernante de Austria en 1251. Su padre había intentado invadir Austria en 1250. Ottokar luego procedió a aliarse con los Babenberg al casarse con Margarita , la hermana del duque Federico II [19] e hija de Leopoldo VI, lo que lo convirtió en un potencial pretendiente al trono, en 1252. Sometió a los nobles pendencieros y se convirtió en gobernante de la mayor parte del área, incluyendo Austria, Estiria (que anteriormente estaba bajo el gobierno de Hungría ), así como Carniola y Carintia , ambas de las cuales había reclamado por un dudoso derecho de herencia. [19]
Ottokar fue un legislador y constructor. Entre sus logros se encuentra la fundación del Palacio Imperial de Hofburg en Viena. Ottokar estaba en condiciones de establecer un nuevo imperio, dada la debilidad del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico tras la muerte de Federico II (1220-1250), en particular después de que la dinastía Hohenstauffen terminara en 1254 con la muerte de Conrado IV y el consiguiente interregno imperial (1254-1273). Por ello, Ottokar se presentó como candidato al trono imperial, pero no tuvo éxito.
Durante el interregno, Austria fue escenario de una intensa persecución de los herejes por parte de la Inquisición . Los primeros casos aparecen en 1260 en más de cuarenta parroquias de la región meridional del Danubio, entre Salzkammergut y los bosques de Viena , y estaban dirigidos principalmente contra los valdenses .
Otakar volvió a disputar el trono imperial en 1273, siendo casi el único en esta posición en el colegio electoral. Esta vez se negó a aceptar la autoridad del candidato ganador, Rodolfo de Habsburgo (emperador entre 1273 y 1291). En noviembre de 1274, la Dieta Imperial en Núremberg dictaminó que todos los bienes de la corona confiscados desde la muerte del emperador Federico II (1250) debían ser restituidos, y que el rey Otakar II debía responder ante la Dieta por no reconocer al nuevo emperador, Rodolfo. Otakar se negó tanto a presentarse como a restituir los ducados de Austria , Estiria y Carintia con la Marca de Carniola , que había reclamado a través de su primera esposa, una heredera de Babenberg , y que había confiscado mientras los disputaba con otro heredero de Babenberg, el margrave Hermann VI de Baden .
Rodolfo refutó la sucesión de Otakar al patrimonio de Babenberg, declarando que las provincias debían volver a la corona imperial debido a la falta de herederos por línea masculina (una posición que, sin embargo, entraba en conflicto con las disposiciones del Privilegium Minus austríaco ). El rey Otakar fue puesto bajo la prohibición imperial ; y en junio de 1276 se le declaró la guerra, y Rodolfo sitió Viena . Tras persuadir al antiguo aliado de Otakar, el duque Enrique XIII de Baja Baviera , a cambiar de bando, Rodolfo obligó al rey de Bohemia a ceder el control de las cuatro provincias a la administración imperial en noviembre de 1276.
Tras haber cedido Ottokar sus territorios fuera de las tierras checas, Rodolfo le volvió a conceder el Reino de Bohemia , prometió en matrimonio a su hija menor, Judith de Habsburgo , con el hijo de Ottokar, Wenceslao II , e hizo una entrada triunfal en Viena. Ottokar, sin embargo, planteó dudas sobre la ejecución del tratado, hizo una alianza con algunos jefes Piast de Polonia y consiguió el apoyo de varios príncipes alemanes, entre ellos Enrique XIII de la Baja Baviera. Para hacer frente a esta coalición, Rodolfo formó una alianza con el rey Ladislao IV de Hungría y dio privilegios adicionales a los ciudadanos de Viena.
El 26 de agosto de 1278, los ejércitos rivales se encontraron en la batalla de Marchfeld , al noreste de Viena, donde Otakar fue derrotado y asesinado. El margraviato de Moravia fue sometido y su gobierno confiado a los representantes de Rodolfo, dejando a la viuda de Otakar, Kunigunda de Eslavonia , con el control únicamente de la provincia que rodeaba Praga, mientras que el joven Wenceslao II fue nuevamente prometido a Judith .
De esta forma, Rodolfo pudo asumir el control exclusivo de Austria como duque de Austria y Estiria (1278-1282), que permaneció bajo el dominio de los Habsburgo durante más de seis siglos, hasta 1918.
De este modo, Austria y el Imperio quedaron bajo una única corona de los Habsburgo, y después de unos pocos siglos (1438) permanecerían así casi continuamente (ver más abajo) hasta 1806, cuando el imperio se disolvió, evitándose los frecuentes conflictos que habían ocurrido anteriormente.
Rodolfo I pasó varios años estableciendo su autoridad en Austria, encontrando algunas dificultades para establecer a su familia como sucesora del gobierno de la provincia. Finalmente, la hostilidad de los príncipes fue superada y pudo legar Austria a sus dos hijos. En diciembre de 1282, en la Dieta de Augsburgo , Rodolfo invistió los ducados de Austria y Estiria en sus hijos, Alberto I (1282-1308) y Rodolfo II el Bonair (1282-1283) como cogobernantes "conjuntamente y solidariamente", y así sentó las bases de la Casa de Habsburgo. Rodolfo continuó sus campañas sometiendo, subyugando y ampliando sus dominios, muriendo en 1291, pero dejando inestabilidad dinástica en Austria, donde con frecuencia el ducado de Austria era compartido entre miembros de la familia. Sin embargo, Rodolfo no tuvo éxito en asegurar la sucesión al trono imperial para los duques de Austria y Estiria.
El ducado conjunto duró solo un año hasta que el Tratado de Rheinfelden en 1283 estableció el orden de sucesión de los Habsburgo . Al establecer la primogenitura, el duque Rodolfo II, que entonces tenía once años, tuvo que renunciar a todos sus derechos a los tronos de Austria y Estiria en beneficio de su hermano mayor Alberto I. Aunque se suponía que Rodolfo debía ser compensado, esto no sucedió, ya que murió en 1290 y su hijo Juan posteriormente asesinó a su tío Alberto I en 1308. Durante un breve período, Alberto I también compartió los ducados con Rodolfo III el Bueno (1298-1307), y finalmente alcanzó el trono imperial en 1298.
A la muerte de Alberto I, el ducado, pero no el imperio, pasó a su hijo, Federico el Hermoso (1308-1330), al menos hasta 1314, cuando se convirtió en cogobernante del imperio con Luis IV . Federico también tuvo que compartir el ducado con su hermano Leopoldo I el Glorioso (1308-1326). Otro hermano, Alberto II el Cojo (1330-1358), sucedió a Federico.
El patrón de corules persistió, ya que Alberto tuvo que compartir el papel con otro hermano menor, Otón I el Alegre (1330-1339), aunque intentó sin éxito establecer las reglas de sucesión en la "Regla de la Casa Albertiniana". Cuando Otón murió en 1339, sus dos hijos, Federico II y Leopoldo II lo reemplazaron, lo que convirtió a tres duques de Austria simultáneos desde 1339 hasta 1344, cuando ambos murieron adolescentes sin descendencia. El gobierno único en el ducado de Austria finalmente regresó cuando su hijo, Rodolfo IV, lo sucedió en 1358.
En el siglo XIV los Habsburgo comenzaron a acumular otras provincias en las proximidades del Ducado de Austria, que había quedado como un pequeño territorio a lo largo del Danubio, y Estiria, que habían adquirido junto con Austria de Otakar. En 1335 Alberto II heredó el Ducado de Carintia y la Marca de Carniola de los entonces gobernantes, la Casa de Gorizia .
Rodolfo IV el Fundador (1358-1365) fue el primero en reclamar el título de Archiduque de Austria, mediante el Privilegium Maius de 1359, que en realidad era una falsificación y no fue reconocido fuera de Austria hasta 1453. Sin embargo, lo habría colocado en pie de igualdad con los demás príncipes electores del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico. Rodolfo fue uno de los gobernantes más activos de su tiempo, iniciando muchas medidas y elevando la importancia de la ciudad de Viena.
En aquella época, Viena estaba subordinada eclesiásticamente a la diócesis de Passau , que Rodolfo subvirtió al fundar la catedral de San Esteban y nombrar al preboste como archicanciller de Austria. También fundó la Universidad de Viena . Mejoró la economía y estableció una moneda estable, el penique de Viena. Cuando murió en 1365 no tenía descendencia y la sucesión pasó a sus hermanos conjuntamente bajo las Reglas de la Casa Rudolfiniana.
En 1363, Rodolfo IV adquirió el condado de Tirol de manos de Margarita de Tirol . De este modo, Austria pasó a ser un país complejo en los Alpes orientales, y a estas tierras se las suele denominar Tierras hereditarias de los Habsburgo, además de simplemente Austria, ya que los Habsburgo también comenzaron a acumular tierras lejos de sus Tierras hereditarias. [20]
Durante casi todo el siglo XV se produjeron disputas familiares y de herencias que debilitaron considerablemente la importancia política y económica de las tierras de los Habsburgo. No fue hasta 1453, durante el reinado de Federico V el Pacífico (1457-1493), cuando el país (al menos los territorios centrales) volvió a estar unido. Los hermanos de Rodolfo IV, Alberto III el Coleta y Leopoldo III el Justo, se pelearon sin cesar y finalmente acordaron dividir el reino en el Tratado de Neuberg en 1379, lo que daría lugar a más cismas posteriores. En total, esto dio lugar a tres jurisdicciones separadas.
En 1379, Alberto III conservó Austria propiamente dicha, gobernando hasta 1395. Fue sucedido por su hijo Alberto IV (1395-1404) y su nieto Alberto V (1404-1439), quien recuperó el trono imperial para los Habsburgo y, a través de sus adquisiciones territoriales, se convirtió en uno de los gobernantes más poderosos de Europa si no hubiera muerto cuando lo hizo, dejando solo un heredero póstumo, nacido cuatro meses después ( Ladislao el Póstumo, 1440-1457). En cambio, fue el tutor y sucesor de Ladislao, el leopoldiano Federico V el Pacífico (1457-1493), quien se benefició. Al haberse extinguido la línea albertiniana, el título pasó de nuevo a los leopoldianos. Federico era tan consciente del potencial de ser el tutor del joven Ladislao que se negó a dejarlo gobernar independientemente al alcanzar la mayoría de edad (12 años en Austria en ese momento) [21] y tuvo que ser obligado a liberarlo por los Estados austriacos (Liga de Mailberg 1452).
Leopoldo III se apoderó de los territorios restantes y gobernó hasta 1386. Le sucedieron dos de sus hijos, Guillermo el Cortés (1386-1406) y Leopoldo IV el Gordo (1386-1411). En 1402 se produjo otra división del ducado, ya que Leopoldo III había tenido cuatro hijos y ni Leopoldo IV ni Guillermo tenían herederos. Los hermanos restantes se dividieron entonces el territorio.
Ernesto el Hierro (1402-1424) se apoderó de Austria Interior, mientras que Federico IV de los Bolsillos Vacíos (1402-1439) se apoderó de Austria Anterior. Cuando Guillermo murió en 1406, esto entró en vigor formalmente con dos líneas ducales separadas, la Línea Ernestina Mayor y la Línea Tirolesa Menor respectivamente.
Línea ernestina (Austria interior, 1406-1457)
La línea ernestina estaba formada por Ernesto y un gobierno conjunto de dos de sus hijos a su muerte en 1424, Alberto VI el Pródigo (1457-1463) y Federico V el Pacífico (1457-1493). Ellos también se pelearon y a su vez se dividieron lo que ahora se había convertido en Baja y Austria Interior tras la muerte de Ladislao en 1457 y la extinción de los albertinos. Alberto se apoderó de Alta Austria en 1458, gobernando desde Linz , pero en 1462 procedió a sitiar a su hermano mayor en el Palacio de Hofburg en Viena, apoderándose también de Baja Austria. Sin embargo, dado que murió sin hijos al año siguiente (1463), sus posesiones revirtieron automáticamente a su hermano, y Federico ahora controlaba todas las posesiones albertinas y ernestinas.
La carrera política de Federico había avanzado de manera importante, ya que heredó el ducado de Austria Interior en 1424. De duque, pasó a ser rey alemán como Federico IV en 1440 y emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico como Federico III (1452-1493).
Línea tirolesa (Austria Austral) 1406–1490
La línea tirolesa estaba formada por Federico IV y su hijo, Segismundo el Rico (1439-1490). Federico trasladó su corte a Innsbruck, pero perdió algunas de sus posesiones en favor de Suiza. Segismundo, que le sucedió, vendió algunas de sus tierras a Carlos el Temerario en 1469 y fue elevado a archiduque por el emperador Federico III en 1477. Murió sin descendencia, pero en 1490 abdicó ante la impopularidad y la Austria Ulterior volvió a manos del entonces archiduque Maximiliano I el Último Caballero (1490-1493), hijo de Federico V, que ahora controlaba efectivamente todo el territorio de los Habsburgo por primera vez desde 1365.
La Inquisición también estuvo activa bajo los Habsburgo, particularmente entre 1311 y 1315 cuando se llevaron a cabo inquisiciones en Steyr , Krems , St. Pölten y Viena. El inquisidor, Petrus Zwicker , llevó a cabo severas persecuciones en Steyr, Enns , Hartberg , Sopron y Viena entre 1391 y 1402. En 1397 hubo entre 80 y 100 valdenses quemados solo en Steyr, ahora recordados en un monumento de 1997.
Durante el Ducado de los Habsburgo, hubo 13 duques consecutivos, de los cuales cuatro también fueron coronados reyes de Alemania : Rodolfo I , Alberto I , Federico el Hermoso y Alberto V (Alberto II como rey de Alemania), aunque ninguno fue reconocido como emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico por el Papa .
Cuando el duque Alberto V (1404-1439) fue elegido emperador en 1438 (como Alberto II), como sucesor de su suegro, Segismundo de Luxemburgo (1433-1437), la corona imperial volvió una vez más a manos de los Habsburgo. Aunque el propio Alberto solo reinó durante un año (1438-1439), a partir de entonces todos los emperadores fueron Habsburgo (con una sola excepción: Carlos VII entre 1742 y 1745), y los gobernantes de Austria fueron también emperadores del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico hasta su disolución en 1806.
Federico V (duque en 1424, archiduque en 1453, fallecido en 1493) el Pacífico ( emperador Federico III entre 1452 y 1493) confirmó el Privilegium Maius de Rodolfo IV en 1453, y así Austria se convirtió en un archiducado oficial del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, el siguiente paso en su ascenso dentro de Europa, y Ladislao el Póstumo (1440-1457) en el primer archiduque oficial durante un breve período, muriendo poco después. El documento era una falsificación, supuestamente escrito por el emperador Federico I y "redescubierto". Federico tenía un motivo claro para ello. Era un Habsburgo, era duque de Austria Interior además de emperador y, hasta el año anterior, había sido tutor del joven duque de Baja Austria, Ladislao. También heredó el título de Ladislao, y lo hizo cuando Ladislao murió cuatro años después, convirtiéndose en el segundo archiduque.
Los archiduques austriacos tenían ahora el mismo estatus que los demás príncipes electores que elegían a los emperadores. El gobierno austriaco se basaría ahora en la primogenitura y la indivisibilidad. Más tarde, Austria pasaría a ser conocida oficialmente como " Erzherzogtum Österreich ob und unter der Enns " (El archiducado de Austria por encima y por debajo del Enns). En 1861 se volvió a dividir en Alta y Baja Austria .
El poder relativo del emperador en la monarquía no era grande, ya que muchas otras dinastías aristocráticas perseguían su propio poder político dentro y fuera de la monarquía. Sin embargo, Federico, aunque deslucido, persiguió un gobierno duro y efectivo. Buscó el poder a través de alianzas dinásticas. En 1477 Maximiliano (archiduque y emperador 1493-1519), el único hijo de Federico , se casó con María , duquesa de Borgoña , adquiriendo así la mayor parte de los Países Bajos para la familia. La importancia estratégica de esta alianza fue que Borgoña, que se encontraba en la frontera occidental del imperio, estaba demostrando tendencias expansionistas y era en ese momento uno de los estados nacionales más ricos y poderosos de Europa occidental, con territorios que se extendían desde el sur de Francia hasta el mar del Norte .
La alianza se logró a un coste nada desdeñable, ya que Francia, que también reclamaba Borgoña, impugnó esta adquisición, y Maximiliano tuvo que defender los territorios de su nueva esposa de Luis XI , lo que finalmente hizo tras la muerte de María en 1482 en la Paz de Arras . Las relaciones con Francia siguieron siendo difíciles, y Luis XI fue derrotado en la batalla de Guinegate en 1479. Los asuntos con Francia no se concluyeron hasta 1493 en el Tratado de Senlis , después de que Maximiliano se convirtiera en emperador.
Ésta y las posteriores alianzas dinásticas de Maximiliano dieron origen al dicho: [22]
Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube ,
Nam quae Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus [a]
El reinado de Federico fue crucial en la historia de Austria. Unió las tierras centrales simplemente sobreviviendo al resto de su familia. A partir de 1439, cuando Alberto V murió y las responsabilidades de ambos territorios centrales recaían en Federico, consolidó sistemáticamente su base de poder. Al año siguiente (1440) marchó sobre Roma como rey de los romanos con su pupilo, Ladislao, el último duque albertino, y cuando fue coronado en Roma en 1452, no solo fue el primer Habsburgo sino también el último rey alemán en ser coronado en Roma por el Papa. [23]
La dinastía estaba ahora en camino de convertirse en una potencia mundial. El concepto de pietas austriacae (el deber divino de gobernar) se había originado con Rodolfo I, pero fue reformulado por Federico como AEIOU , Alles Erdreich ist Österreich untertan o Austriae est imperare orbi universo (El destino de Austria es gobernar el mundo), que llegó a simbolizar el poder austríaco. [23] Sin embargo, no todos los eventos se desarrollaron sin problemas para Federico. La guerra austrohúngara (1477-1488) dio como resultado que el rey húngaro, Matías Corvino, se estableciera en Viena en 1485 hasta su muerte en 1490. Hungría ocupó toda la Austria oriental. Por lo tanto, Federico se encontró con una corte itinerante, predominantemente en la capital de la Alta Austria, Linz .
Maximiliano I compartió el gobierno con su padre durante el último año del reinado de Federico, siendo elegido rey de los romanos en 1486. Al adquirir las tierras de la línea tirolesa de los Habsburgo en 1490, finalmente reunió todas las tierras austriacas, divididas desde 1379. También tuvo que lidiar con el problema húngaro cuando Matías I murió en 1490. Maximiliano reconquistó las partes perdidas de Austria y estableció la paz con el sucesor de Matías, Vladislao II, en la Paz de Presburgo en 1491. Sin embargo, el patrón dinástico de división y unificación sería uno que seguiría repitiéndose con el tiempo. Con fronteras sin resolver, Maximiliano encontró en Innsbruck, en el Tirol, un lugar más seguro para una capital, entre sus tierras borgoñonas y austriacas, aunque rara vez estaba en un lugar por mucho tiempo, siendo muy consciente de cómo su padre había sido asediado repetidamente en Viena.
Maximiliano elevó el arte de la alianza dinástica a un nuevo nivel y se dedicó a crear sistemáticamente una tradición dinástica, aunque a través de un considerable revisionismo. Su esposa María, moriría en 1482, solo cinco años después de que se casaran. Luego se casó con Ana, duquesa de Bretaña (por poderes) en 1490, una medida que habría llevado a Bretaña , en ese momento independiente, al redil de los Habsburgo, lo que se consideró una provocación para la monarquía francesa. Carlos VIII de Francia tenía otras ideas y anexó Bretaña y se casó con Ana, una situación complicada aún más por el hecho de que ya estaba comprometido con la hija de Maximiliano , Margarita , duquesa de Saboya . El hijo de Maximiliano, Felipe el Hermoso (1478-1506), se casó con Juana , heredera de Castilla y Aragón en 1496, y así adquirió España y sus apéndices italianos ( Nápoles , Reino de Sicilia y Cerdeña ), africanos y del Nuevo Mundo para los Habsburgo.
Sin embargo, Tu felix Austria nube era quizás más romántica que estrictamente realista, ya que Maximiliano no dudaba en hacer la guerra cuando le convenía. Tras arreglar las cosas con Francia en 1493, pronto se vio involucrado en las largas guerras italianas contra Francia (1494-1559). Además de las guerras contra los franceses, estaban las guerras por la independencia suiza . La Guerra de Suabia de 1499 marcó la última fase de esta lucha contra los Habsburgo. Tras la derrota en la Batalla de Dornach en 1499, Austria se vio obligada a reconocer la independencia suiza en el Tratado de Basilea en 1499, un proceso que finalmente se formalizó con la Paz de Westfalia en 1648. Esto fue significativo ya que los Habsburgo se habían originado en Suiza , siendo su hogar ancestral el Castillo de los Habsburgo .
En política interior, Maximiliano puso en marcha una serie de reformas en la Dieta de Worms de 1495 , en la que se puso en marcha el Tribunal de Cámara Imperial como tribunal supremo. Otra nueva institución de 1495 fue el Reichsregiment o gobierno imperial, que se reunía en Núremberg . Este ejercicio preliminar de democracia fracasó y se disolvió en 1502. Los intentos de crear un estado unificado no tuvieron mucho éxito, sino que más bien resurgieron la idea de las tres divisiones de Austria que existían antes de la unificación de Federico y Maximiliano. [24]
A falta de fondos para sus diversos planes, dependió en gran medida de familias de banqueros como los Fugger , y fueron estos banqueros los que sobornaron a los príncipes electores para que eligieran al nieto de Maximiliano, Carlos, como su sucesor. Una tradición que eliminó fue la costumbre centenaria de que el emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico tenía que ser coronado por el Papa en Roma. Incapaz de llegar a Roma, debido a la hostilidad veneciana, en 1508, Maximiliano, con el consentimiento del Papa Julio II , tomó el título de Erwählter Römischer Kaiser ("Emperador romano electo"). Así, su padre Federico fue el último emperador en ser coronado por el Papa en Roma.
Como Felipe el Hermoso (1478-1506) murió antes que su padre, Maximiliano, la sucesión pasó al hijo de Felipe, Carlos I (1519-1521), que se convirtió en el emperador Carlos V, a la muerte de Maximiliano en 1519. Reinó como emperador desde 1519 hasta 1556, cuando abdicó por problemas de salud y murió en 1558. Aunque fue coronado por el papa Clemente VII en Bolonia en 1530 (Carlos había saqueado Roma en 1527), fue el último emperador en ser coronado por un papa. Aunque finalmente no logró su visión de una monarquía universal, Carlos I todavía es considerado el más poderoso de todos los Habsburgo. Su canciller, Mercurino Gattinara, comentó en 1519 que estaba "en el camino hacia la monarquía universal... unir a toda la cristiandad bajo un solo cetro" [25], lo que lo acercaba a la visión de Federico V de AEIOU, y el lema de Carlos Plus ultra (aún más lejos) sugería que esta era su ambición. [26]
Habiendo heredado las posesiones de su padre en 1506, ya era un poderoso gobernante con extensos dominios. A la muerte de Maximiliano, estos dominios se volvieron vastos. Ahora era gobernante de tres de las principales dinastías de Europa: la Casa de Habsburgo de la monarquía de los Habsburgo ; la Casa de Valois-Borgoña de los Países Bajos borgoñones ; y la Casa de Trastámara de las Coronas de Castilla y Aragón . Esto lo convirtió en gobernante de extensas tierras en Europa central, occidental y meridional; y las colonias españolas en América y Asia. Como el primer rey en gobernar Castilla, León y Aragón simultáneamente por derecho propio, se convirtió en el primer rey de España . [27] Su imperio se extendió por casi cuatro millones de kilómetros cuadrados en Europa, el Lejano Oriente y las Américas. [28]
En el camino de Carlos se interpusieron numerosos desafíos que marcarían la historia de Austria durante mucho tiempo. Entre ellos se encontraban Francia, la aparición del Imperio Otomano al este y Martín Lutero (véase más abajo).
Siguiendo la tradición dinástica, los territorios hereditarios de los Habsburgo fueron separados de este enorme imperio en la Dieta de Worms de 1521, cuando Carlos I los dejó en manos de su hermano menor, Fernando I (1521-1564), aunque luego continuó aumentando los territorios de los Habsburgo. Dado que Carlos dejó su Imperio español a su hijo Felipe II de España , los territorios españoles quedaron permanentemente alienados de los dominios del norte de los Habsburgo, aunque siguieron siendo aliados durante varios siglos.
Cuando Fernando también heredó el título de emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico de su hermano en 1558, los Habsburgo habían convertido efectivamente un título electivo en uno hereditario de facto . Fernando continuó la tradición de los matrimonios dinásticos al casarse con Ana de Bohemia y Hungría en 1521, agregando efectivamente esos dos reinos a los dominios de los Habsburgo, junto con los territorios adyacentes de Moravia , Silesia y Lusacia . Esto entró en vigor cuando el hermano de Ana , Luis II, rey de Hungría y Bohemia (y, por lo tanto, de la dinastía Jagellón ), murió sin heredero en la batalla de Mohács en 1526 contra Solimán el Magnífico y los otomanos. Sin embargo, en 1538 el Reino de Hungría estaba dividido en tres partes:
La elección de Fernando como emperador en 1558 permitió reunificar nuevamente las tierras austriacas. Había tenido que hacer frente a revueltas en sus propios territorios, disturbios religiosos, incursiones otomanas e incluso a la disputa por el trono húngaro con Juan Segismundo Zápolya . Sus tierras no eran en absoluto las más ricas de las de los Habsburgo, pero logró restablecer el orden interno y mantener a raya a los turcos, al tiempo que ampliaba sus fronteras y creaba una administración central.
Cuando Fernando murió en 1564, las tierras fueron divididas una vez más entre sus tres hijos, una disposición que había hecho en 1554. [29]
Cuando Martín Lutero fijó sus noventa y cinco tesis en la puerta de la iglesia del castillo de Wittenberg en 1517, desafió las bases mismas del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico, el cristianismo católico y, por ende, la hegemonía de los Habsburgo. Después de que el emperador Carlos V interrogara y condenara a Lutero en la Dieta de Worms de 1521 , el luteranismo y la Reforma protestante se extendieron rápidamente en los territorios de los Habsburgo. Liberados temporalmente de la guerra con Francia por el Tratado de Cambrai de 1529 y la denuncia de la prohibición de Lutero por parte de los príncipes protestantes en Espira ese año, el emperador volvió a tratar el tema en la Dieta de Augsburgo en 1530, momento en el que ya estaba bien establecido.
Ante la creciente amenaza otomana (véase más adelante), necesitaba asegurarse de no enfrentarse a un cisma importante dentro del cristianismo. Refutó la postura luterana ( Confesión de Augsburgo ) con la Confutatio Augustana e hizo que Fernando fuera elegido rey de los romanos el 5 de enero de 1531, asegurando así su sucesión como monarca católico. En respuesta, los príncipes y estados protestantes formaron la Liga de Esmalcalda en febrero de 1531 con el apoyo francés. Los nuevos avances turcos en 1532 (que le obligaron a buscar la ayuda protestante) y otras guerras impidieron al emperador emprender más acciones en este frente hasta 1547, cuando las tropas imperiales derrotaron a la Liga en la batalla de Mühlberg , lo que le permitió imponer una vez más el catolicismo.
In 1541 Ferdinand's appeal to the estates general for aid against the Turks was met by demand for religious tolerance. The triumph of 1547 turned out to be short lived with French and Protestant forces again challenging the emperor in 1552 culminating in the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. Exhausted, Charles started to withdraw from politics and hand over the reins. Protestantism had proved too firmly entrenched to enable it to be uprooted.
Austria and the other Habsburg hereditary provinces (and Hungary and Bohemia, as well) were much affected by the Reformation, but with the exception of Tyrol the Austrian lands shut out Protestantism. Although the Habsburg rulers themselves remained Catholic, the non-Austrian provinces largely converted to Lutheranism, which Ferdinand I largely tolerated.
The Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation was a conservative one, but one that did address the issues raised by Luther. In 1545 the long running Council of Trent began its work of reform and a Counter-Reformation on the borders of the Habsburg domains. The Council continued intermittently until 1563. Ferdinand and the Austrian Habsburgs were far more tolerant than their Spanish brethren, and the process initiated at Trent. However his attempts at reconciliation at the Council in 1562 was rejected, and although a Catholic counteroffensive existed in the Habsburg lands from the 1550s it was based on persuasion, a process in which the Jesuits and Peter Canisius took the lead. Ferdinand deeply regretted the failure to reconcile religious differences before his death (1564).[30]
When Ferdinand I married into the Hungarian dynasty in 1521 Austria first encountered the westward Ottoman expansion which had first come into conflict with Hungary in the 1370s. Matters came to a close when his wife Anne's brother the young king Louis was killed fighting the Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the title passing to Ferdinand. Louis' widow Mary fled to seek protection from Ferdinand.
The Turks initially withdrew following this victory, reappearing in 1528 advancing on Vienna and laying siege to it the following year. They withdrew that winter till 1532 when their advance was stopped by Charles V, although they controlled much of Hungary. Ferdinand was then forced to recognize John Zápolya Ferdinand and the Turks continued to wage war between 1537 and a temporary truce in 1547 when Hungary was partitioned. However hostilities continued almost immediately till the Treaty of Constantinople of 1562 which confirmed the 1547 borders. The Ottoman threat was to continue for 200 years.
Ferdinand I had three sons who survived to adulthood, and he followed the potentially disastrous Habsburg tradition of dividing up his lands between them on his death in 1564. This considerably weakened Austria, particularly in the face of the Ottoman expansion. It was not until the reign of Ferdinand III (Archduke 1590–1637) that they were reunited again in 1620—albeit briefly until 1623. It was not to be until 1665, under Leopold I that the Austrian lands were definitively united.
During the next 60 years the Habsburg monarchy was divided into three jurisdictions:
As the eldest son, Maximilian II and his sons were granted the "core" territories of Lower and Upper Austria. Ferdinand II dying without living issue, his territories reverted to the core territories on his death in 1595, then under Rudolf V (1576–1608), Maximilian II's son.
Maximilian II was succeeded by three of his sons none of whom left living heirs, so the line became extinct in 1619 upon the abdication of Albert VII (1619–1619). Thus Charles II's son Ferdinand III inherited all of the Habsburg lands. However he promptly lost Bohemia which rebelled in 1619 and was briefly (1619–1620) under the rule of Frederick I. Thus all the lands again came under one ruler again in 1620 when Ferdinand III invaded Bohemia, defeating Frederick I.
Although technically an elected position, the title of Holy Roman Emperor was passed down through Maximilian II and the two sons (Rudolf V and Mathias) that succeeded him. Albert VII was Archduke for only a few months before abdicating in favour of Ferdinand III, who also became emperor.
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Rudolf V (Archduke, Emperor Rudolf II 1576–1612), Maximilian's eldest son, moved his capital from Vienna to the safer venue of Prague, in view of the Ottoman threat. He was noted as a great patron of the arts and sciences but a poor governor. Among his legacies is the Imperial Crown of the Habsburgs. He preferred to parcel out his responsibilities among his many brothers (of whom six lived to adulthood), leading to a great heterogeneity of policies across the lands. Among these delegations was making his younger brother Mathias, Governor of Austria in 1593.
In acquiring "Upper Austria" in 1595, his powers were considerably increased, since the remaining Inner Austria territories were in the hands of Ferdinand III who was only 17 at the time. However he handed over the administration to Maximilian III, another younger brother. In 1593 he instigated a new conflict with the Ottomans, who had resumed raids in 1568, in the so-called Long or Fifteen-Year War of 1593 to 1606. Unwilling to compromise, and envisioning a new crusade the results were disastrous, the exhausted Hungarians revolting in 1604. The Hungarian problem was further exacerbated by attempts to impose a counterreformation there. As a result, he handed over Hungary to Mathias who concluded the Peace of Vienna with the Hungarians, and Peace of Zsitvatorok with the Turks in 1606. As a result, Transylvania became both independent and Protestant.[31]
These events led to conflict between the brothers.[32] Melchior Klesl engineered a conspiracy of the archdukes to ensure Mathias' ascendancy. By 1608 Rudolf had ceded much of his territory to the latter. Further conflict led to Mathias imprisoning his brother in 1611, who now gave up all power except the empty title of emperor, dying the following year and being succeeded by Mathias.
Thus Mathias succeeded to the Archduchy in 1608, and became emperor in 1612, until his death in 1619. His reign was marked by conflict with his younger brother Maximilian III who was a more intransigent Catholic and backed the equally fervent Ferdinand II of "Inner Austria" as successor, having served as his regent between 1593 and 1595, before taking over "Upper Austria". The conflicts weakened the Habsburgs relative to both the estates and the Protestant interests. Mathias moved the capital back to Vienna from Prague and bought further peace from Turkey, by a treaty in 1615. Meanwhile, religious fervor in the empire was mounting, and even Klesl by now Bishop of Vienna (1614) and Cardinal (1615) was considered too moderate by extremist Catholics, including Ferdinand II. War was in the air, and the assault on two roral officials in Prague on 23 May 1618 (The Defenestration of Prague) was to spark all out war. Mathias, like his brother Rudolf, became increasingly isolated by Ferdinand who had imprisoned Klesl.
The next brother in line for succession in 1619 was Albert VII, but he was persuaded to step down in favour of Ferdinand II within a few months.
Religion played a large part in the politics of this period, and even tolerance had its limits faced with the incompatible demands of both camps. As the Archduke closest to the Turkish threat, Maximilian II was to continue his father's policy of tolerance and reconciliation, granting Assekuration (legalisation of Protestantism for the nobles) in 1571, as did Charles II with Religionspazifikation in 1572, while in distant Tyrol, Ferdinand II could afford to be more aggressive. Maximilian II's policies were continued by his sons, Rudolf V and Mathias. The strength of the Reformation in Upper Austria was blunted by internal schisms, while in Lower Austria Melchior Khlesl led a vigorous Catholic response, expelling Protestant preachers and promoting reconversion.[33] A further concession by Charles II in 1578, the Brucker Pazifikation, met with more resistance.[31]
The Catholic Revival started in earnest in 1595 when Ferdinand II, who was Jesuit-educated came of age. He had succeeded his father, Charles II in Inner Austria in 1590 and was energetic in suppressing heresy in the provinces which he ruled. Reformation Commissions initiated a process of forced recatholicisation and by 1600 was being imposed on Graz and Klagenfurt.[31][34] Unlike previous Austrian rulers, Ferdinand II was unconcerned about the effect of religious conflict on the ability to withstand the Ottomans. The Counter-Reformation was to continue to the end of the Thirty Year War in 1648.
When the ultra-pious and intransigent Ferdinand II (1619–1637) was elected Emperor (as Ferdinand II) in 1619 to succeed his cousin Mathias, he embarked on an energetic attempt to re-Catholicize not only the Hereditary Provinces, but Bohemia and Habsburg Hungary as well as most of Protestant Europe within the Holy Roman Empire.
Outside his lands, Ferdinand II's reputation for strong headed uncompromising intolerance had triggered the religious Thirty Years' War in May 1618 in the polarizing first phase, known as the Revolt in Bohemia. Once the Bohemian Revolt had been put down in 1620, he embarked on a concerted effort to eliminate Protestantism in Bohemia and Austria, which was largely successful as was his efforts to reduce the power of the Diet. The religious suppression of the Counter-Reformation reached its height in 1627 with the Provincial Ordinance.[35]
After several initial reverses, Ferdinand II had become more accommodating but as the Catholics turned things around and began to enjoy a long string of successes at arms he set forth the Edict of Restitution in 1629 in an attempt to restore the status quo of 1555 (Peace of Augsburg), vastly complicating the politics of settlement negotiations and prolonging the rest of the war. Encouraged by the mid-war successes, Ferdinand II became even more forceful, leading to infamies by his armies such as the Frankenburg Lottery (Frankenburger Würfelspiel) (1625), suppression of the consequent Peasants' Revolt of 1626, and the Sack of Magdeburg (1631)[36] Despite concluding the Peace of Prague (1635) with Saxony, and hence the internal, or civil, war with the Protestants, the war would drag on due to the intervention of many foreign states.
By the time of Ferdinand II's death in 1637, the war was progressing disastrously for the Habsburgs, and his son Ferdinand III (1637–1657) who had been one of his military commanders was faced with the task of salvaging the consequences of his father's extremism. Ferdinand III was far more pragmatic and had been considered the leader of the peace party at court and had helped negotiate the Peace of Prague in 1635. However, with continuing losses in the war he was forced to make peace in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, concluding the war. One of his acts during the latter part of the war was to give further independence to the German states (ius belli ac pacis—rights in time of war and peace) which would gradually change the balance of power between emperor and states in favour of the latter.
While its ultimate causes prove to be elusive, the war was to prove a roller-coaster as Habsburg over-reach led to it spreading from a domestic dispute to involve most of Europe, and which while at times appearing to aid the Habsburg goal of political hegemony and religious conformity, ultimately eluded them except in their own central territories.
The forced conversions or evictions carried out in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, together with the later general success of the Protestants, had greatly negative consequences for Habsburg control of the Holy Roman Empire itself. Although territorial losses were relatively small for the Habsburgs, the Empire was greatly diminished, the power of the ruler reduced and the balance of power in Europe changed with new centres emerging on the empire's borders. The estates were now to function more like nation states.
While deprived of the goal of universal monarchy, the campaigns within the Habsburg hereditary lands were relatively successful in religiously purification, although Hungary was never successfully re-Catholicized. Only in Lower Austria, and only among the nobility, was Protestantism tolerated. Large numbers of people either emigrated or converted, while others compromised as crypto-Protestants, ensuing relative conformity. The crushing of the Bohemian Revolt also extinguished Czech culture and established German as the tool of Habsburg absolutism. The Austrian monarchs thereafter had much greater control within the hereditary power base, the dynastic absolutism grip was tightened and the power of the estates diminished. On the other hand, Austria suffered demographically and financially, therefore becoming less vigorous as a nation-state.
The Baroque Austrian Monarchy was established. Despite the dichotomy between outward reality and inner conviction, the rest of the world saw Austria as the epitome of forcible conformity, and conflation of church and state.
In terms of human costs, the Thirty Years' wars many economic, social, and population dislocations caused by the hardline methods adopted by Ferdinand II's strict counter-reformation measures and almost continual employment of mercenary field armies contributed significantly to the loss of life and tragic depopulation of all the German states, during a war which some estimates put the civilian loss of life as high as 50% overall. Studies mostly cite the causes of death due to starvation or as caused (ultimately by the lack-of-food induced) weakening of resistance to endemic diseases which repeatedly reached epidemic proportions among the general Central European population—the German states were the battle ground and staging areas for the largest mercenary armies theretofore, and the armies foraged among the many provinces stealing the food of those people forced onto the roads as refugees, or still on the lands, regardless of their faith and allegiances. Both townsmen and farmers were repeatedly ravaged and victimized by the armies on both sides leaving little for the populations already stressed by the refugees from the war or fleeing the Catholic counter-reformation repressions under Ferdinand's governance.[37]
The Austrian lands finally came under one archduchy in 1620, but Ferdinand II quickly redivided them in 1623 in the Habsburg tradition by parcelling out "Upper Austria" (Further Austria and Tirol) to his younger brother Leopold V (1623–1632) who was already governor there. Upper Austria would remain under Leopold's successors till 1665 when it reverted to the senior line under Leopold I.
Leopold V's son Ferdinand Charles succeeded him in Upper Austria in 1632. However he was only four at the time, leaving his mother Claudia de' Medici as regent till 1646.
Despite the setbacks of the Thirty Years' War, Austria was able to recover economically and demographically and consolidate the new hegemony often referred to as Austrian Baroque.[38] By 1714 Austria had become a great power again. Yet the roots of Habsburg legitimacy, with its reliance on religious and political conformity, was to make it increasingly anachronistic in the Age of Enlightenment. Nevertheless, in the arts and architecture the baroque flourished in Austria. In peacetime Ferdinand III (1637–1657) proved to be a great patron of the arts and a musician.
Upon Ferdinand's death in 1657 he was succeeded by his son Leopold I (1657–1705), whose reign was relatively long. Meanwhile, in "Upper Austria" Ferdinand Charles (1632–1662) although also an arts patron ruled in an absolutist and extravagant style. His brother Sigismund Francis (1662–1665) succeeded him briefly in 1662, but dying without heir in 1665 his lands reverted to Leopold I. Thus from 1665 Austria was finally reunited under one archduchy.
Leopold I's reign was marked by a return to a succession of wars. Even before he succeeded his father in 1657, he was involved in the Second Northern War (1655–1660) a carry over from Sweden's involvement in the Thirty Years' War, in which Austria sided with Poland, defeating Transylvania, a Swedish ally and Ottoman protectorate.
At the end of that war the Ottomans overran Nagyvárad in Transylvania in 1660, which would mark the beginning of the decline of that principality and increasing Habsburg influence. In vain the Transylvanians appealed to Vienna for help, unaware of secret Ottoman-Habsburg agreements.
Fortunately for Austria, Turkey was preoccupied elsewhere during the Thirty Years' War when she would have been vulnerable to attack on her eastern flanks. It was not until 1663 that the Turks developed serious intentions with regard to Austria, which let to a disastrous event for the Ottoman army, being defeated at the Battle of Saint Gotthard the following year.
The terms, dictated by the need to deal with the French in the west, were so disadvantageous that they infuriated the Hungarians who revolted. To make matters worse, after executing the leaders, Leopold attempted to impose a counter-reformation, starting a religious civil war, although he made some concessions in 1681. Thus by the early 1680s Leopold was facing Hungarian revolt, backed by the Ottomans and encouraged by the French on the opposite flank.
Meanwhile, Austria became involved elsewhere with the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678) which was concluded with the Treaties of Nijmegen giving the French considerable opportunities, indeed the activities of the French, now also a major power, distracted Leopold from following up his advantage with the Turks, and Austro-Ottoman relationships were governed by the Peace of Vasvár which would grant some twenty years relief. However the reunions bought a badly needed French neutrality while Austria kept watch to the east. The Ottomans next moved against Austria in 1682 in retaliation against Habsburg raids, reaching Vienna in 1683, which proved well fortified, and set about besieging it. The allied forces eventually proved superior and the lifting of the siege was followed by a series of victories in 1686, 1687 and 1697, resulting in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), Belgrade having fallen in 1688 (but recaptured in 1690). This provided Austrian hegemony over southern Central Europe and introduced a large number of Serbs into the Empire, who were to have a major impact on policies over the ensuing centuries.
With the eastern frontier now finally secured, Vienna could flourish and expand beyond its traditional limits. In the east Leopold was learning that there was little to be gained by harsh measures, which policy bought his acceptance and he granted the Hungarian diet rights through the Diploma Leopoldianum of 1691. However, on the military front, this merely freed up Austria to engage in further western European wars. Austria was becoming more involved in competition with France in Western Europe, fighting the French in the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697).
On the domestic front, Leopold's reign was marked by the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna in 1670, the area being renamed Leopoldstadt. While in 1680 Leopold adopted the so-called Pragmatica, which re-regulated the relationship between landlord and peasant.[39]
Most complex of all was the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), in which the French and Austrians (along with their British, Dutch and Catalan allies) fought over the inheritance of the vast territories of the Spanish Habsburgs. The ostensible cause was the future Charles III of Austria (1711–1740) claiming the vacant Spanish throne in 1701. Leopold engaged in the war but did not live to see its outcome, being succeeded by his Joseph I in 1705. Joseph's reign was short and the war finally came to an end in 1714 by which time his brother Charles III had succeeded him.
Although the French secured control of Spain and its colonies for a grandson of Louis XIV, the Austrians also ended up making significant gains in Western Europe, including the former Spanish Netherlands (now called the Austrian Netherlands, including most of modern Belgium), the Duchy of Milan in Northern Italy, and Naples and Sardinia in Southern Italy. (The latter was traded for Sicily in 1720).[40] By the conclusion of the war in 1714 Austria had achieved a pivotal position in European power politics.
The end of the war saw Austria's allies desert her in terms of concluding treaties with the French, Charles finally signing off in the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714. While the Habsburgs may not have gained all they wanted, they still made significant gains through both Rastatt and Karlowitz, and established their power. The remainder of his reign saw Austria relinquish many of these fairly impressive gains, largely due to Charles's apprehensions at the imminent extinction of the House of Habsburg.
For Charles now had succession problems of his own, having only two surviving daughters. His solution was to abolish sole male inheritance by means of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. In 1703 his father Leopold VI had made a pact with his sons that allowed for female inheritance but was vague on details, and left room for uncertainty. The Pragmatic Sanction strengthened this and in addition made provision for the inseparability of the Habsburg lands.
This was to form the legal basis for the union with Hungary and to legitimise the Habsburg monarchy. It would be confirmed by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and would last to 1918. He then needed to strengthen the arrangement by negotiating with surrounding states. Internal negotiation proved to be relatively simple and it became law by 1723.
Charles was now willing to offer concrete advantages in territory and authority in exchange for other powers' worthless recognitions of the Pragmatic Sanction that made his daughter Maria Theresa his heir. Equally challenging was the question of the heir apparent's marital prospects and how they might influence the European balance of power. The eventual choice of Francis Stephen of Lorraine in 1736 proved unpopular with the other powers, particularly France.
War continued to be part of European life in the early 18th century. Austria was involved in the War of the Quadruple Alliance and the resulting 1720 Treaty of The Hague was to see the Habsburg lands reach their greatest territorial expansion. War with France had broken out again in 1733 with the War of the Polish Succession whose settlement at the Treaty of Vienna in 1738 saw Austria cede Naples and Sicily to the Spanish Infante Don Carlos in exchange for the tiny Duchy of Parma and Spain and France's adherence to the Pragmatic Sanction. The later years of Charles's reign also saw further wars against the Turks, beginning with a successful skirmish in 1716–1718, culminating in the Treaty of Passarowitz. Less successful was the war of 1737–1739 which resulted in the Austrian loss of Belgrade and other border territories at the Treaty of Belgrade.[41]
On the domestic front military and political gains were accompanied by economic expansion and repopulation, as Austria entered the period of High Baroque with a profusion of new buildings, including the Belvedere (1712–1783) and Karlskirche (1716–1737), exemplified by the great architects of the period, such as Fischer, Hildebrandt and Prandtauer. However the Habsburgs' finances were fragile. They had relied on Jewish bankers such as Samuel Oppenheimer to finance their wars, and subsequently bankrupted him. However the financial system in Austria remained antiquated and inadequate. By the time of Charles' death in 1740 the treasury was almost depleted.
Religious intolerance in Austria, once unquestioned in the Erblande and the neighbouring catholic territories became the subject of more intense scrutiny by 1731 when 22,000 suspected crypto-Protestants were expelled from Salzburg and the Salzkammergut by the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Similar intolerance was displayed to the Jewish population in Bohemia and surrounding areas under the Familianten in 1726 and 1727. Worse would have followed had there not also been a realisation that there were economic consequences and that some accommodation was required to the more rationalist ideas of western Europe. Among these was cameralism which encouraged economic self-sufficiency in the nation state. Thus domestic industries such as the Linzer Wollzeugfabrik were founded and encouraged, but often such ideas were subjugated by vested interests such as aristocracy and church. Rationalist emphasis on the natural and popular were the antithesis of Habsburg elitism and divine authority. Eventually external powers forced rationalism on Austria.
By the time of his death in 1740, Charles III had secured the acceptance of the Pragmatic Sanction by most of the European powers. The remaining question was whether it was realistic in the complicated power games of European dynasties.
Charles III died on 20 October 1740, and was succeeded by his daughter Maria Theresa. However she did not become Empress immediately, that title passing to Charles VII (1742–1745) the only moment in which the imperial crown passed outside of the Habsburg line from 1440 to 1806, Charles VII being one of many who repudiated the 1713 Pragmatic Sanction. As many had anticipated all those assurances from the other powers proved of little worth to Maria Theresa.
On 16 December 1740 Prussian troops invaded Silesia under King Frederick the Great. This was the first of three Silesian Wars fought between Austria and Prussia in this period (1740–1742, 1744–1745 and 1756–1763). Soon other powers began to exploit Austria's weakness. Charles VII claimed the inheritance to the hereditary lands and Bohemia, and was supported by the King of France, who desired the Austrian Netherlands. The Spanish and Sardinians hoped to gain territory in Italy, and the Saxons hoped to gain territory to connect Saxony with the Elector's Polish Kingdom. France even went so far as to prepare for a partition of Austria.[42]
Austria's allies, Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Russia, were all wary of getting involved in the conflict; ultimately, only Britain provided significant support. Thus began the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), one of the more confusing and less eventful wars of European history, which ultimately saw Austria holding its own, despite the permanent loss of most of Silesia to the Prussians. That represented the loss of one of its richest and most industrialised provinces. For Austria the War of Succession was more a series of wars, the first concluding in 1742 with the Treaty of Breslau, the second (1744–1745) with the Treaty of Dresden. The overall war however continued until the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748).
In 1745, following the reign of the Bavarian Elector as Emperor Charles VII, Maria Theresa's husband Francis of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was elected Emperor, restoring control of that position to the Habsburgs (or, rather, to the new composite house of Habsburg-Lorraine),[43] Francis holding the titular crown until his death in 1765, but his empress consort Maria Theresa carrying out the executive functions. The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 applied to the hereditary possessions of the Habsburgs and Archduchy of Austria but not the position of Holy Roman Emperor, which could not be held by women, thus Maria Theresa was Empress Consort not Empress Regnant.
For the eight years following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle that ended the War of the Austrian Succession, Maria Theresa plotted revenge on the Prussians. The British and Dutch allies who had proved so reluctant to help her in her time of need were dropped in favour of the French in the so-called Reversal of Alliances of 1756, under the advice of Kaunitz, Austrian Chancellor (1753–1793). This resulted in the Treaty of Versailles of 1756. That same year, war once again erupted on the continent as Frederick, fearing encirclement, launched a pre-emptive invasion of Saxony and the defensive treaty became offensive. The ensuing Third Silesian War (1756–1763, part of the larger Seven Years' War) was indecisive, and its end saw Prussia holding onto Silesia, despite Russia, France, and Austria all combining against him, and with only Hanover as a significant ally on land.
The end of the war saw Austria, poorly prepared at its start, exhausted. Austria continued the alliance with France (cemented in 1770 with the marriage of Maria Theresa's daughter Archduchess Maria Antonia to the Dauphin), but also facing a dangerous situation in Central Europe, faced with the alliance of Frederick the Great of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia. The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 caused a serious crisis in east-central Europe, with Prussia and Austria demanding compensation for Russia's gains in the Balkans, ultimately leading to the First Partition of Poland in 1772, in which Maria Theresa took Galicia from Austria's traditional ally.
Over the next several years, Austro-Russian relations began to improve. When the War of Bavarian Succession (1778–1779) erupted between Austria and Prussia following the extinction of the Bavarian line of the Wittelsbach dynasty, Russia refused to support Austria, its ally from the Seven Years' War, but offered to mediate and the war was ended, after almost no bloodshed, on 13 May 1779, when Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiated an end to the war. In the agreement Austria received the Innviertel from Bavaria, but for Austria it was a case of status quo ante bellum. This war was unusual for this era in that casualties from disease and starvation exceeded wounds, and is considered the last of the Cabinet wars in which diplomats played as large a part as troops, and as the roots of German Dualism (Austria–Prussia rivalry).
Although Maria Theresa and her consort were Baroque absolutist conservatives, this was tempered by a pragmatic sense and they implemented a number of overdue reforms. Thus these reforms were pragmatic responses to the challenges faced by archduchy and empire, not ideologically framed in the Age of Enlightenment as seen by her successor, Joseph II.[44]
The collision with other theories of nation states and modernity obliged Austria to perform a delicate balancing act between accepting changing economic and social circumstances while rejecting their accompanying political change. The relative failure to deal with modernity produced major changes in Habsburg power and Austrian culture and society. One of the first challenges that Maria Theresa and her advisers faced was to restore the legitimacy and authority of the dynasty, although was slowly replaced by a need to establish the needs of State.
Maria Theresa promulgated financial and educational reforms, with the assistance of her advisers, notably Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz and Gerard van Swieten. Many reforms were in the interests of efficiency. Her financial reforms considerably improved the state finances, and notably introduced taxation of the nobility for the first time, and achieved a balanced budget by 1775. At an administrative level, under Haugwitz she centralised administration, previously left to the nobility and church, along Prussian models with a permanent civil service. Haugwitz was appointed head of the new Directorium in publicis und cameralibus in 1749. By 1760 it was clear this was not solving Austria's problems and further reform was required. Kaunitz' proposal for a consultative body was accepted by Maria Theresa. This Council of State was to be based on the French Conseil d'État which believed that an absolutist monarch could still be guided by Enlightenment advisors. The council was inaugurated in January 1761, composed of Kaunitz the state chancellor, three members of the high nobility, including von Haugwitz as chair, and three knights, which served as a committee of experienced people who advised her. The council of state lacked executive or legislative authority. This marked Kaunitz' ascendency over von Haugwitz. The Directory was abolished and its functions absorbed into the new united Austrian and Bohemian chancelleries (Böhmisch-Österreichische Hofkanzlei) in 1761.[45]
While Von Haugwitz modernised the army and government, van Swieten reformed health care and education. Educational reform included that of Vienna University by Swieten from 1749, the founding of the Theresianum (1746) as a civil service academy as well as military and foreign service academies. An Education Commission was established in 1760 with a specific interest in replacing Jesuitical control, but it was the papal dissolution of the order in 1773 that accomplished this. The confiscation of their property enabled the next step. Aware of the inadequacy of bureaucracy in Austria and, in order to improve it, Maria Theresa and what was now referred to as the Party of Enlightenment radically overhauled the schools system. In the new system, based on the Prussian one, all children of both genders from the ages of 6 to 12 had to attend school, while teacher training schools were established. Education reform was met with hostility from many villages and the nobility to whom children represented labour. Maria Theresa crushed the dissent by ordering the arrest of all those opposed. Although the idea had merit, the reforms were not as successful as they were expected to be; in some parts of Austria, half of the population was illiterate well into the 19th century. However widespread access to education, education in the vernacular language, replacement of rote learning and blind obedience with reasoning was to have a profound effect on the relationship between people and state.
Other reforms were in civil rights which were defied under the Codex Theresianus, begun in 1752 and finished in 1766. Specific measures included abolition of torture, and witch burning. Also in industrial and agrarian policy along cameralist lines, the theory was to maximise the resources of the land to protect the integrity of the state. Widespread problems arising from war, famine unrest and abuse made implementation of landlord-peasant reforms both reasonable and reasonable. Maria Theresa and her regime had sought a new more direct link with the populace, now that administration was no longer to be farmed out, and this maternalism combined with cameralist thinking required taking a closer interest in the welfare of the peasantry and their protection, which transpired in the 1750s. However these had been more noted than observed. In the 1770s more meaningful control of rents became practical, further eroding privilege.
While reforms assisted Austria in dealing with the almost constant wars, the wars themselves hindered the implementation of those reforms.
A pious Catholic, her reforms which affected the relation between state and church in favour of the former, did not extend to any relaxation of religious intolerance, but she preempted Pope Clement XIV's suppression of the Jesuits in 1773[46][47] by issuing a decree which removed them from all the institutions of the monarchy. There was both a suspicion of their excesses and of their tendency to political interference which brought them into conflict with the progressive secularisation of culture. Thus they were removed from control of censorship in 1751, and the educational reforms threatened their control over education. She was hostile to Jews and Protestants but eventually abandoned efforts for conversion, but continued her father's campaign to exile crypto-Protestants (mainly to Transylvania as in 1750). In 1744 she even ordered the expulsion of Jews, but relented under pressure by 1748. In her later years though she took some measures to protect the Jewish population.
Maria Theresa had a large family, sixteen in all, of whom six were daughters that lived to adulthood. They were only too aware that their fate was to be used as political pawns. The best known of these was the tragic figure of Maria Antonia (1755–1793).
When Maria Theresa's consort Francis died in 1765, he was succeeded by his son Joseph II as emperor (1765–1790) because of male primogeniture. Joseph was also made co-ruler or co-regent with his mother. Joseph, 24 at the time, was more ideologically attuned to modernity and frequently disagreed with his mother on policy, and was often excluded from policy making. Maria Theresa always acted with a cautious respect for the conservatism of the political and social elites and the strength of local traditions. Her cautious approach repelled Joseph, who always sought the decisive, dramatic intervention to impose the one best solution, regardless of traditions or political opposition. Joseph and his mother's quarrels were usually mediated by Chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz who served for nearly 40 years as the principal minister to both Maria Theresa and Joseph.
Joseph frequently used his position as leverage, by threatening resignation. The one area he was allowed more say on was in foreign policy. In this, he showed similar traits to Austria's arch-enemy Frederick II of Prussia (1740–1786),[48] also his intellectual model. He was successful in siding with Kaunitz in Realpolitik, undertaking the first partition of Poland in 1772 over his mother's principled objections. However his enthusiasm for interfering in Bavarian politics by invoking his ties to his former brother in law, Maximilian III, ended Austria in the War of Bavarian Succession in 1778. Although largely shut out of domestic policy, he used his time to acquire knowledge of his lands and people, encouraged policies he was in accord with and made magnanimous gestures such as opening the Royal Parks of Prater and Augarten to the public in 1766 and 1775 (Alles für das Volk, nichts durch das Volk—Everything for the people, nothing by the people).
On her husband's death Maria Theresa was therefore no longer empress, the title of which fell to her daughter-in-law Maria Josepha of Bavaria until her death in 1767 when the title fell vacant. When Maria Theresa died in 1780 she was succeeded in all her titles by Joseph II.
As the first of the Habsburg-Lorraine (Habsburg-Lothringen) Dynasty Joseph II was the archetypical embodiment of The Enlightenment spirit of the 18th century reforming monarchs known as the "enlightened despots".[49] When his mother Maria Theresa died in 1780, Joseph became the absolute ruler over the most extensive realm of Central Europe. There was no parliament to deal with. Joseph was always positive that the rule of reason, as propounded in the Enlightenment, would produce the best possible results in the shortest time. He issued edicts—6,000 in all, plus 11,000 new laws designed to regulate and reorder every aspect of the empire. The spirit was benevolent and paternal. He intended to make his people happy, but strictly in accordance with his own criteria.[43]
Josephinism (or Josephism) as his policies were called, is notable for the very wide range of reforms designed to modernize the creaky empire in an era when France and Prussia were rapidly upgrading. Josephinism elicited grudging compliance at best, and more often vehement opposition from all sectors in every part of his empire. Failure characterized most of his projects. Joseph set about building a rational, centralized, and uniform government for his diverse lands, a pyramid with himself as supreme autocrat. He expected government servants to all be dedicated agents of Josephinism and selected them without favor for class or ethnic origins; promotion was solely by merit. To impose uniformity, he made German the compulsory language of official business throughout the Empire. The Hungarian assembly was stripped of its prerogatives, and not even called together.
As President of the Court Audit Office, Count Karl von Zinzendorf (1781–1792)[50] introduced Appalt, a uniform system of accounting for state revenues, expenditures, and debts of the territories of the Austrian crown. Austria was more successful than France in meeting regular expenditures and in gaining credit. However, the events of Joseph II's last years also suggest that the government was financially vulnerable to the European wars that ensued after 1792.[51] Joseph reformed the traditional legal system, abolished brutal punishments and the death penalty in most instances, and imposed the principle of complete equality of treatment for all offenders. He ended censorship of the press and theatre.
To equalize the incidence of taxation, Joseph ordered a fresh appraisal of the value of all properties in the empire; his goal was to impose a single and egalitarian tax on land. The goal was to modernize the relationship of dependence between the landowners and peasantry, relieve some of the tax burden on the peasantry, and increase state revenues. Joseph looked on the tax and land reforms as being interconnected and strove to implement them at the same time. The various commissions he established to formulate and carry out the reforms met resistance among the nobility, the peasantry, and some officials. Most of the reforms were abrogated shortly before or after Joseph's death in 1790; they were doomed to failure from the start because they tried to change too much in too short a time, and tried to radically alter the traditional customs and relationships that the villagers had long depended upon.
In the cities the new economic principles of the Enlightenment called for the destruction of the autonomous guilds, already weakened during the age of mercantilism. Joseph II's tax reforms and the institution of Katastralgemeinde (tax districts for the large estates) served this purpose, and new factory privileges ended guild rights while customs laws aimed at economic unity. The intellectual influence of the Physiocrats led to the inclusion of agriculture in these reforms.
In 1781–82 he extended full legal freedom to serfs. Rentals paid by peasants were to be regulated by imperial (not local) officials and taxes were levied upon all income derived from land. The landlords saw a grave threat to their status and incomes, and eventually reversed the policy. In Hungary and Transylvania, the resistance of the landed nobility was so great that Joseph compromised with halfway measures—one of the few times he backed down. After the great peasant revolt of Horea, 1784–85, however, the emperor imposed his will by fiat. His Imperial Patent of 1785 abolished serfdom but did not give the peasants ownership of the land or freedom from dues owed to the landowning nobles. It did give them personal freedom. Emancipation of the Hungarian peasantry promoted the growth of a new class of taxable landholders, but it did not abolish the deep-seated ills of feudalism and the exploitation of the landless squatters.
Capital punishment was abolished in 1787, although restored in 1795. Legal reforms gained comprehensive "Austrian" form in the civil code (ABGB: Allgemeine Bürgerliche Gesetzbuch) of 1811 and have been seen as providing a foundation for subsequent reforms extending into the 20th century. The first part of the ABGB appeared in 1786, and the criminal code in 1787. These reforms incorporated the criminological writings of Cesare Beccaria, but also first time made all people equal in the eyes of the law.
To produce a literate citizenry, elementary education was made compulsory for all boys and girls, and higher education on practical lines was offered for a select few. He created scholarships for talented poor students, and allowed the establishment of schools for Jews and other religious minorities. In 1784 he ordered that the country change its language of instruction from Latin to German, a highly controversial step in a multilingual empire.
By the 18th century, centralization was the trend in medicine because more and better educated doctors requesting improved facilities; cities lacked the budgets to fund local hospitals; and the monarchies wanted to end costly epidemics and quarantines. Joseph attempted to centralize medical care in Vienna through the construction of a single, large hospital, the famous Allgemeines Krankenhaus, which opened in 1784. Centralization worsened sanitation problems causing epidemics a 20% death rate in the new hospital, which undercut Joseph's plan, but the city became preeminent in the medical field in the next century.[52]
Joseph's Catholicism was that of Catholic Reform and his goals were to weaken the power of the Catholic Church and introduce a policy of religious toleration that was the most advanced of any state in Europe. In 1789 he issued a charter of religious toleration for the Jews of Galicia, a region with a large, Yiddish-speaking, traditional Jewish population. The charter abolished communal autonomy whereby the Jews controlled their internal affairs; it promoted "Germanization" and the wearing of non-Jewish clothing.
Probably the most unpopular of all his reforms was his attempted modernization of the highly traditional Roman Catholic Church. Calling himself the guardian of Catholicism, Joseph II struck vigorously at papal power. He tried to make the Catholic Church in his empire the tool of the state, independent of Rome. Clergymen were deprived of the tithe and ordered to study in seminaries under government supervision, while bishops had to take a formal oath of loyalty to the crown. He financed the large increase in bishoprics, parishes, and secular clergy by extensive sales of monastic lands. As a man of the Enlightenment he ridiculed the contemplative monastic orders, which he considered unproductive, as opposed to the service orders. Accordingly, he suppressed a `` of the monasteries (over 700 were closed) and reduced the number of monks and nuns from 65,000 to 27,000. Church courts were abolished and marriage was defined as a civil contract outside the jurisdiction of the Church. Joseph sharply cut the number of holy days and reduced ornamentation in churches. He greatly simplified the manner of celebration. Critics alleged that these reforms caused a crisis of faith, reduced piety and a decline in morality, had Protestant tendencies, promoted Enlightenment rationalism and a class of liberal bourgeois officials, and led to the emergence and persistence of anti-clericalism. Many traditional Catholics were energized in opposition to the emperor.
The Habsburg Empire developed a policy of war and trade as well as intellectual influence across the borders. While opposing Prussia and Turkey, Austria was friendly to Russia, though tried to remove Romania from Russian influence.
In foreign policy, there was no Enlightenment, only hunger for more territory and a willingness to undertake unpopular wars to get the land. Joseph was a belligerent, expansionist leader, who dreamed of making his Empire the greatest of the European powers. Joseph's plan was to acquire Bavaria, if necessary in exchange for Belgium (the Austrian Netherlands). Thwarted by King Frederick II of Prussia in 1778 in the War of Bavarian Succession, he renewed his efforts again in 1785 but Prussian diplomacy proved more powerful. This failure caused Joseph to seek territorial expansion in the Balkans, where he became involved in an expensive and futile war with the Turks (1787–1791), which was the price to be paid for friendship with Russia.
The Balkan policy of both Maria Theresa and Joseph II reflected the Cameralism promoted by Prince Kaunitz, stressing consolidation of the border lands by reorganization and expansion of the military frontier. Transylvania had been incorporated into the frontier in 1761 and the frontier regiments became the backbone of the military order, with the regimental commander exercising military and civilian power. Populationistik was the prevailing theory of colonization, which measured prosperity in terms of labor. Joseph II also stressed economic development. Habsburg influence was an essential factor in Balkan development in the last half of the 18th century, especially for the Serbs and Croats.
The nobility throughout his empire disliked Joseph's taxes, egalitarianism, despotism and puritanism. In Belgium and Hungary, his attempts to subordinate everything to his own personal rule in Vienna were not well received. Even commoners were affected by Joseph's reforms, such as a ban on baking gingerbread because Joseph thought it bad for the stomach, or a ban on corsets. Only a few weeks before Joseph's death, the director of the Imperial Police reported to him: "All classes, and even those who have the greatest respect for the sovereign, are discontented and indignant."[53]
In Lombardy (in northern Italy) the cautious reforms of Maria Theresa in Lombardy had enjoyed support from local reformers. Joseph II, however, by creating a powerful imperial officialdom directed from Vienna, undercut the dominant position of the Milanese principate and the traditions of jurisdiction and administration. In the place of provincial autonomy he established an unlimited centralism, which reduced Lombardy politically and economically to a fringe area of the Empire. As a reaction to these radical changes the middle class reformers shifted away from cooperation to strong resistance. From this basis appeared the beginnings of the later Lombard liberalism.
By 1788 Joseph's health but not his determination was failing. By 1789 rebellion had broken out in protest against his reforms in Belgium (Brabant Revolution) and Hungary, and his other dominions were restive under the burdens of his war with Turkey. His empire was threatened with dissolution, and he was forced to sacrifice some of his reform projects. The emperor died on 20 February 1790 at 48, mostly unsuccessful in his attempts to curtail feudal liberties.[54]
Behind his numerous reforms lay a comprehensive program influenced by the doctrines of enlightened absolutism, natural law, mercantilism, and physiocracy. With a goal of establishing a uniform legal framework to replace heterogeneous traditional structures, the reforms were guided at least implicitly by the principles of freedom and equality and were based on a conception of the state's central legislative authority. Joseph's accession marks a major break since the preceding reforms under Maria Theresa had not challenged these structures, but there was no similar break at the end of the Josephinian era. The reforms initiated by Joseph II had merit despite the way they were introduced. They were continued to varying degrees under his successors. They have been seen as providing a foundation for subsequent reforms extending into the 20th century.
Upon his death in 1790, Joseph was briefly succeeded by his younger brother Leopold VII.
Joseph's death proved a boon for Austria, as he was succeeded by his younger brother, Leopold II, previously the more cautiously reforming Grand Duke of Tuscany. Leopold knew when to cut his losses, and soon cut deals with the revolting Netherlanders and Hungarians. He also managed to secure a peace with Turkey in 1791, and negotiated an alliance with Prussia, which had been allying with Poland to press for war on behalf of the Ottomans against Austria and Russia. While restoring relative calm to what had been a crisis situation on his accession in 1790, Austria was surrounded by potential threats. While many reforms were by necessity rescinded, other reforms were initiated including more freedom of the press and restriction on the powers of the police. He replaced his brother's police minister, Johann Anton von Pergen, with Joseph Sonnenfels an advocate of social welfare rather than control.
Leopold's reign also saw the acceleration of the French Revolution. Although Leopold was sympathetic to the revolutionaries, he was also the brother of the French queen. Furthermore, disputes involving the status of the rights of various imperial princes in Alsace, where the revolutionary French government was attempting to remove rights guaranteed by various peace treaties, involved Leopold as Emperor in conflicts with the French. The Declaration of Pillnitz, made in late 1791 jointly with the Prussian King Frederick William II and the Elector of Saxony, in which it was declared that the other princes of Europe took an interest in what was going on in France, was intended to be a statement in support of Louis XVI that would prevent the need from taking any kind of action. However, it instead inflamed the sentiments of the revolutionaries against the Emperor. Although Leopold did his best to avoid war with the French, he died in March 1792. The French declared war on his inexperienced eldest son Francis II a month later.
Vienna and Austria dominated European music during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, typified by the First Viennese School. This was the era of Haydn, and Mozart's Vienna period extended from 1781 to 1791 during which he was court composer. Opera, particularly German opera was flourishing. Mozart wrote many German operas including the Magic Flute. Initially the pillars of the establishment—the monarchy, such as Joseph II and to a lesser extent his mother, the aristocracy and the religious establishment were the major patrons of the arts, until rising middle class aspirations incorporated music into the lives of the bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, the Baroque was evolving into the less grandiose form, the Rococo.
The virtual abolition of censorship under van Swieten also encouraged artistic expression and the themes of artistic work often reflected enlightenment thinking.
Francis II (1792–1835) was only 24 when he succeeded his father Leopold VII in 1792, but was to reign for nearly half a century and a radical reorganisation of European politics. He inherited a vast bureaucracy created by his uncle whose legacy of reform and welfare was to last throughout the next two centuries. The image of the monarch had profoundly changed, as had the relationship between monarch and subject. His era was overshadowed by events in France, both in terms of the evolving Revolution and the onset of a new form of European warfare with mass citizen armies. Austria recoiled in horror at the execution of Francis' aunt Maria Antonia in 1793 (despite futile attempts at rescue and even negotiation for release), leading to a wave of repression to fend off such dangerous sentiments influencing Austrian politics. At the same time Europe was consumed by the French Revolutionary (1792–1802) and Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). The French Revolution effectively ended Austria's experiment with modernity and reform from above, and marked a retreat to legitimacy.
Francis started out cautiously. The bureaucracy was still Josephist and the legal reforms under the guidance of Sonnenfels resulting in the Criminal Code of 1803 and the Civil Code of 1811. On the other hand, he restored Pergen to his position of Chief of Police. The discovery of a Jacobin plot in 1794 was a catalyst to the onset of repression. The leaders were executed or imprisoned, but there was little evidence of a tangible threat to the Habsburgs. Suppression of dissent with the Recensorship Commission of 1803 created a void in cultural and intellectual life, yet some of the world's greatest music comes from this time (see below). There were still elements of Josephism abroad, and Stadion, the foreign minister with his propagandist Friedrich von Gentz was able to appeal to popular nationalism to defeat Napoleon.
What exactly such nationalism actually represented is difficult to precisely identify—certainly it was directed to German culture within the Habsburg lands, but it is not clear to what degree it differentiated between 'Austrian' and 'German'. Certainly many of those such nationalism appealed to were German romantics such as Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, such that patriotism rather than true nationalism appeared to be the goal. Cultural museums were established and citizens militia established— but in the German-speaking lands.
Josephism remained alive and well in the other members of Francis' generation. Archduke Johann (1782–1859) was a nationalism advocate who was behind the Landwehr movement, and with Joseph Hormayr incited revolt in Bavarian occupied Tyrol, while Archduke Charles carried out reform of the military. A statue to Joseph was even set up in Josephsplatz in 1807 to rally the populace. In this way the Archdukes' centralism contrasted with Stadion's decentralisation and attempt to give more say to the estates. Nevertheless, such nationalism was successful in rebuilding Austria throughout its various military and political setbacks of the French wars.
Following Austria's resounding defeat in 1809, Francis blamed reform, and removed the Archdukes from their position. Stadion was replaced by Metternich, who, although a reformer, placed loyalty to the monarch above all. The Landwehr was abolished, and following the discovery of yet another planned Tyrolean uprising Hormayr and Archduke Johann were interned, and Johann exiled to Styria.
France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792. The increasing radicalization of the French Revolution (including the execution of the king on 21 January 1793), as well as the French occupation of the Low Countries, brought Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Spain into the war, which became known as the War of the First Coalition. This first war with France, which lasted until 1797, proved unsuccessful for Austria. After some brief successes against the utterly disorganized French armies in early 1792, the tide turned, and the French overran the Austrian Netherlands in the last months of 1792. By the Battle of Valmy in September it was evident to Austria and their Prussian allies that victory against France would elude them, and Austria suffered a further defeat in November at Jemappes, losing the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium). While the Austrians were so occupied, their erstwhile Prussian allies stabbed them in the back with the 1793 Second Partition of Poland, from which Austria was entirely excluded. This led to the dismissal of Francis's chief minister, Philipp von Cobenzl, and his replacement with Franz Maria Thugut in March 1793.[55]
Once again, there were initial successes against the disorganized armies of the French Republic in 1793, and the Netherlands were recovered. But in 1794 the tide turned once more, and Austrian forces were driven out of the Netherlands again—this time for good. Meanwhile, the Polish Crisis again became critical, resulting in a Third Partition (1795), in which Austria managed to secure important gains. The war in the west continued to go badly, as most of the coalition made peace, leaving Austria with only Britain and Piedmont-Sardinia as allies. In 1796, the French Directory planned a two-pronged campaign in Germany to force the Austrians to make peace, with a secondary thrust planned into Italy. French forces entered Bavaria and the edge of the Tyrol, before encountering Austrian forces under Archduke Charles, the Emperor's brother, at Amberg (24 August 1796) who was successful in driving the French back in Germany. Meanwhile, the French Army of Italy, under the command of the young Corsican General Napoleon Bonaparte, was brilliantly successful, forcing Piedmont out of the war, driving the Austrians out of Lombardy and besieging Mantua. Following the capture of Mantua in early 1797, Bonaparte advanced north through the Alps against Vienna, while new French armies moved again into Germany. Austria sued for peace. By the terms of the Treaty of Campo Formio of 1797, Austria renounced its claims to the Netherlands and Lombardy, in exchange for which it was granted the territories of the Republic of Venice with the French. The Austrians also provisionally recognized the French annexation of the Left Bank of the Rhine, and agreed in principle that the German princes of the region should be compensated with ecclesiastical lands on the other side of the Rhine.
The peace did not last for long. Soon, differences emerged between the Austrians and French over the reorganization of Germany, and Austria joined Russia, Britain, and Naples in the War of the Second Coalition in 1799. Although Austro-Russian forces were initially successful in driving the French from Italy, the tide soon turned—the Russians withdrew from the war after a defeat at Zürich (1799) which they blamed on Austrian recklessness, and the Austrians were defeated by Bonaparte who was now the First Consul, at Marengo, which forced them to withdraw from Italy, and then in Germany at Hohenlinden. These defeats forced Thugut's resignation, and Austria, now led by Ludwig Cobenzl, to make peace at Lunéville in early 1801. The terms were mild—the terms of Campo Formio were largely reinstated, but now the way was clear for a reorganization of the Empire on French lines. By the Imperial Deputation Report of 1803, the Holy Roman Empire was entirely reorganized, with nearly all of the ecclesiastical territories and free cities, traditionally the parts of the Empire most friendly to the House of Austria, eliminated.
With Bonaparte's assumption of the title of Emperor of the First French Empire on 18 May 1804, Francis II, seeing the writing on the wall for the old Empire, and arbitrarily took the new title of "Emperor of Austria" as Francis I, in addition to his title of Holy Roman Emperor. This earned him the title of Double Emperor (Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire, Francis I of Austria). The arrival of a new, French, emperor on the scene and the restructuring of the old presented a larger threat to the Habsburgs than their territorial losses to date, for there was no longer any certainty that they would continue to be elected. Francis had himself made emperor of the new Austrian Empire on 11 August not long after Napoleon. The new empire referred to not a new state but to the lands ruled by Austria, that is the Habsburgs, which was effectively many states.
Soon, Napoleon's continuing machinations in Italy, including the annexation of Genoa and Parma, led once again to war in 1805—the War of the Third Coalition, in which Austria, Britain, Russia, and Sweden took on Napoleon. The Austrian forces began the war by invading Bavaria, a key French ally in Germany, but were soon outmaneuvered and forced to surrender by Napoleon at Ulm, before the main Austro-Russian force was defeated at Austerlitz on 2 December. Napoleon entered Vienna itself, as much a celebrity as conqueror. By the Treaty of Pressburg, Austria was forced to give up large amounts of territory—Dalmatia to France, Venetia to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, the Tyrol to Bavaria, and Austria's various Swabian territories to Baden and Württemberg, although Salzburg, formerly held by Francis's younger brother, the previous Grand Duke of Tuscany, was annexed by Austria as compensation.
The defeat meant the end of the old Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon's satellite states in southern and Western Germany seceded from the Empire in the summer of 1806, forming the Confederation of the Rhine, and a few days later Francis proclaimed the Empire dissolved, and renounced the old imperial crown on 6 August 1806.
Over the next three years Austria, whose foreign policy was now directed by Philipp Stadion, attempted to maintain peace with France, avoiding the War of the Fourth Coalition (1806–1807) but obliged to do France's bidding. The overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons in 1808 was deeply disturbing to the Habsburgs, who rather desperately went to war once again in 1809, the War of the Fifth Coalition this time with no continental allies, but the United Kingdom. Stadion's attempts to generate popular uprisings in Germany were unsuccessful, and the Russians honoured their alliance with France, so Austria was once again defeated at the Battle of Wagram, although at greater cost than Napoleon, who had suffered his first battlefield defeat in this war, at Aspern-Essling, had expected. However Napoleon had already re-occupied Vienna. The terms of the subsequent Treaty of Schönbrunn were quite harsh. Austria lost Salzburg to Bavaria, some of its Polish lands to Russia, and its remaining territory on the Adriatic (including much of Carinthia and Styria) to Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces. Austria became a virtual subject state of France.
Klemens von Metternich, the new Austrian foreign minister, aimed to pursue a pro-French policy.[56] Francis II's daughter Marie Louise, was married to Napoleon in 1810. Austria was effectively bankrupt by 1811 and the paper money lost considerable value, but contributed an army to Napoleon's invasion of Russia in March 1812. With Napoleon's disastrous defeat in Russia at the end of the year, and Prussia's defection to the Russian side in March 1813, Metternich began slowly to shift his policy. Initially he aimed to mediate a peace between France and its continental enemies, but when it became apparent that Napoleon was not interested in compromise, Austria joined the allies and declared war on France in August 1813 in the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814). The Austrian intervention was decisive. Napoleon was defeated at Leipzig in October, and forced to withdraw into France itself. As 1814 began, the Allied forces invaded France. Initially, Metternich remained unsure as to whether he wanted Napoleon to remain on the throne, a Marie Louise regency for Napoleon's young son, or a Bourbon restoration, but he was eventually brought around by British Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh to the last position. Napoleon abdicated on 3 April 1814, and Louis XVIII was restored, soon negotiating a peace treaty with the victorious allies at Paris in June, while Napoleon was exiled to Elba.
Napoleon escaped in February 1815, Louis fled and thus the final phase of the war, the War of the Seventh Coalition, ensued—the so-called Hundred Days of Napoleon's attempt at restoration. This culminated with the decisive Battle of Waterloo in June. The Napoleonic wars ended with the second Treaty of Paris that year, and Napoleon's final exile to St Helena.
With the completion of the long running French wars a new order was required in Europe and the heads of the European states gathered in Vienna for a prolonged discussion of Europe's future, although the Congress was actually convened in September 1814 prior to Napoleon's attempted return, and completed on 9 June 1815, nine days before the Battle of Waterloo. At the completion of the Napoleonic wars, Austria found itself on the winning side as a new European leader, largely due to Metternich's diplomatic skills. It was as much a grand social event of the representatives of the great powers as a true Congress and was chaired by Metternich. Its purpose was to restore a new European order to emerge from the chaos of the Napoleonic wars. While Austria was the diplomatic leader, the military victory was largely that of Russia and Prussia, aided by Britain and Spain, and Austria had little to add to the final defeat of Napoleon on 18 June 1815 at Waterloo.[57] Metternich's intent was to create a balance of power in Europe, under a new entity, the German Confederation with Austrian leadership, out of the ashes of the Holy Roman Empire.[58]
The resulting order was referred to as the Concert of Europe, which would now meet regularly to resolve outstanding differences. In addition to redrawing the political map, it established spheres of influence. Achieving the presidency of this new entity was Austria's greatest gain from the Congress. What the Congress could not do was to recover the old order or ancien régime on which Austrian and Habsburg authority had rested. In the new order, a Holy Alliance was created between Austria, Russia and Prussia. This was subsequently enlarged to include most European nations. Notable exceptions were Great Britain, wary of Metternich's strategy of repressive interventionism, and the Ottoman Empire. In the redrawing of the European map, Austrian gains were modest compared to Russia and Prussia, reflecting its relatively weak negotiating position. Austria regained most of the territory it had lost to Napoleon in the western part of the nation (Tyrol, Salzburg and Voralberg). In Italy it gained the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Piacenza. These latter political entities were ruled by various branches of the Habsburgs. It did not, however, regain Belgium and the Austrian Netherlands, but the trading of territories restored a contiguous territory, as envisaged by Joseph II, and gave Austria control over Italy. The Emperor Francis was unwilling to adapt to this new order, requiring diplomacy on Metternich's part, depicting it as conservative Romanticism, religion and order versus the revolutionary spirit of 1789. Thus, the Holy Alliance became a mechanism for countering any moves against legitimate order. Metternich has therefore been portrayed Europe's fireman, extinguishing any signs of revolutionary spirit. The resultant onset of peace provided the opportunity for both reforms and prosperity in Austria, but its backward looking policies within a Europe characterised by rapid change set the scene for eventual failure.[59][60]
Napoleonic Vienna was the Vienna of Beethoven, whose single opera Fidelio was premiered there in 1805, attended by the French military. It was also the era of the third (Eroica) (1805) with its ambivalent relation to Napoleon, and the fifth (Schicksals-) and the sixth (Pastorale) symphonies (1808).
The period following the Congress of Vienna was one of relative political stability and is better known for its culture (Biedermeier). Other names for the years 1815–1848 include Vormärz ("before March") referring to period before the revolution of March 1848 and "The Age of Metternich" referring to his dominant position in European politics. Under the control of Metternich (who became Chancellor in 1821), the Austrian Empire entered a period of censorship and a police state, with surveillance spying and imprisonment of the opposition, while others emigrated. For Europe it was a period characterised by increasing industrialisation, the social consequences of economic cycles, population mobility and nationalism. All of these were regarded warily by governments intent on preserving the existing order.[61][58]
In 1823, the Emperor of Austria made the five Rothschild brothers barons. Nathan Mayer Rothschild in London chose not to take up the title. The family became famous as bankers in the major countries of Europe.[62]
The Congress of Vienna was followed by a series of other congresses, referred to as the Congress System, including the Congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821) and Verona (1822). These largely served to further suppress change, though a notable exception was the reintegration of France at the first of these, resulting in the Quintuple Alliance of the five great powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia and then France). Within the Quintuple Alliance, the more conservative Holy Alliance of Russia, Austria and Prussia tended to dominate the discourse. The Congress System of dispute resolution did not survive the 1820s, and in particular the intervention in the War of Greek Independence (1821-1832) over Metternich's objections, revealed the limits of his power. Further cracks in the old order appeared as South America broke away from Spain and Portugal, a liberal regime appeared in Portugal, and French Revolution and the independence of Belgium in 1830. Throughout there had been a division within the Quintuple Alliance between the more liberal western nations of Britain and France and the more conservative Holy Alliance in the east. The London conference of 1830 to decide on Belgian independence from the Netherlands effectively led to Britain's withdrawal from the Alliance. 1840 saw a number of related events that reflected on the unity of the Great Powers. Austria relied on Russia over the Eastern Question, and the Oriental crisis of that year split those powers, at least temporarily. While in the west, the Rhine crisis between France and the German Confederation, further fuelled the nascent German nationalism movement, typified by Die Wacht am Rhein[63]
Closer to home, Metternich exerted his influence in suppressing German nationalism. The Wartburg Festival of 1817 with its calls for German unity and condemnation of conservatism created alarm. Metternich prevented Austrian universities participating and further activism in 1819 with the assassination of August von Kotzebue in 1819 resulted in the Carlsbad Decrees of that year, suppressing free speech, and the Vienna Final Act[b] of 1820 empowering the German Confederation to act against member states. Neither fully succeeded in delaying the nationalist movement for long.[63]
Early efforts among the Italians to create a unified nation, including the Carbonari in Lombardy-Venetia were put down by Metternich with military intervention, similarly in Poland. Meanwhile, the minority populations within the empire, such as the Slavs and Poles were seeking national identities, distinct from Austria. Metternich sought to deflect these movements into cultural identity. Similarly in Germany, a Prussian led German Customs Union of the German states was formed in 1833, but Austria did not join, identifying within it German nationalism.[58][64] One of the few administrative reforms was the granting of a diet to Galicia.[65]
Metternich kept a firm hand on government resisting the constitutional freedoms demanded by the liberals. Government was by custom and by imperial decree. He was both an oppressive reactionary opportunist but also a true conservative politician. His role in directing European affairs gave the Habsburgs a disproportionate influence relative to their actual powers.[61] The extensive security mechanism was headed by Count Joseph Sedlnitzky, under Metternich's personal supervision, while religion was seen merely as a tool for supporting authority.[65]
State intervention in fiscal matters was relatively restrained, although the National Bank of Austria was established in 1816 to restore the nation's credit status. Taxation was largely left to the provinces and uneven within the empire, Hungary paying disproportionally less. The aristocrats were also undertaxed. One of the results was that the military budget was relatively small, and thus unable to give much force to Metternich's foreign policies. Economic growth was relatively small and did not keep pace with population growth.[66] Industrialisation in Austria began around 1830, primarily in Vienna and Voralberg. 1838 saw the first railway, connecting Vienna and Deutsch-Wagram, a distance of about 15 km, and construction on the Austrian Southern Railway (Österreichische Südbahn) started the following year. In shipping, the Danube Steam Navigation Company was established in 1829, while Austrian Lloyd became the largest shipping company in the Mediterranean. These economic developments came at a cost as large numbers of farm workers migrated to the growing urban industries to form an expanding proletariat.[67]
Francis firmly resisted Metternich's proposals for overhauling the Monarchy.[65] When Francis died in 1835, his son Ferdinand I (1835-1848) "Ferdinand the Benign" succeeded him, but proved unfit to govern due to illness, with much of the decision making falling to his uncle Archduke Louis of Austria and Metternich. Consequently, Austria entered a period of political stagnation with Francis being unwilling to make reforms and Ferdinand being incapable of so doing, and Metternich committed to preserving the status quo.[68]
During this period both liberalism and nationalism were on the rise, which resulted in the Revolutions of 1848. Metternich and the mentally handicapped Emperor Ferdinand I were forced to resign to be replaced by the emperor's young nephew Franz Joseph.
Separatist tendencies (especially in Lombardy and Hungary) were suppressed by military force. A constitution was enacted in March 1848, but it had little practical impact, although elections were held in June. The 1850s saw a return to neoabsolutism and abrogation of constitutionalism. However, one of the concessions to revolutionaries with a lasting impact was the freeing of peasants in Austria. This facilitated industrialization, as many flocked to the newly industrializing cities of the Austrian domain (in the industrial centers of Bohemia, Lower Austria, Vienna, and Upper Styria). Social upheaval led to increased strife in ethnically mixed cities, leading to mass nationalist movements.
On the foreign policy front, Austria with its non-German constituencies, was faced with a dilemma in 1848 when Germany's Constituent National Assembly, of which Austria was a member, stated that members could not have a state connection with non-German states, leaving Austria to decide between Germany or its Empire and Hungarian union. However these plans came to nothing for the time being, but the concept of a smaller Germany that excluded Austria was to re-emerge as the solution in 1866. Austria's neutrality during the Crimean War (1853–1856), while the emperor was preoccupied with his wedding, antagonized both sides and left Austria dangerously isolated, as subsequent events proved.[69]
While Austria and the Habsburgs held hegemony over northern Italy, the south was the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with the Papal States intervening. Italy had been in a turmoil since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, with insurrections starting in 1820. King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, an absolutist monarch, sought to strengthen his position by a further dynastic alliance with Austria. He already had a connection through his second wife, Maria Theresa, granddaughter of the emperor Leopold II This he achieved by marrying his son, Francis II, to Duchess Maria Sophie of Bavaria in February 1859. Marie was a younger sister of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, making Francis brother in law to the Emperor. Ferdinand died a few months later in May, and Francis and Maria Sophie ascended the throne.
In the meantime Austria had fallen into a trap set by the Italian risorgimento. Piedmont, jointly ruled with Sardinia had been the site of earlier insurrections. This time they formed a secret alliance with France (Patto di Plombières), whose emperor, Napoleon III was a previous Carbonari. Piedmont then proceeded to provoke Vienna with a series of military manoeuvres, successfully triggering an ultimatum to Turin on 23 April. Its rejection was followed by an Austrian invasion, and precipitated war with France (Second Italian War of Independence 1859). Austria mistakenly expected support and received none, and the country was ill-prepared for war, which went badly. The Habsburg rulers in Tuscany and Modena were forced to flee to Vienna.
In May 1859 Austria suffered a military defeat at the Battle of Varese and in June at Magenta against the combined forces of France and Sardinia. The emperor refused to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation which was causing great hardship at home, and took over direct command of the army, though not a professional soldier. Later that month a further defeat at Solférino sealed Austria's fate, and the emperor found himself having to accept Napoleon's terms at Villafranca. Austria agreed to cede Lombardy, and the rulers of the central Italian states were to be restored. However the latter never happened, and the following year in plebiscites, all joined the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. By April 1860 Garibaldi had invaded and quickly subdued Sicily, and by February 1861 the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ceased to exist, Francis and Maria fled to Austria.
These events severely weakened the emperor's position. The government's absolutist policies were unpopular and these setbacks led to domestic unrest, Hungarian secessionism, criticism of Austria's governance and allegations of corruption. The first casualties were the emperor's ministers. The Finance Minister, Karl Ludwig von Bruck killed himself. Other casualties were Count Karl Ferdinand von Buol (Foreign Minister), Interior Minister Baron Alexander von Bach, Police Minister Johann Freiherr von Kempen von Fichtenstamm, Adjutant General Karl Ludwig von Grünne, together with army generals.
The result was a reluctant undertaking by the emperor and his chief advisor Goluchowski to return to constitutional government, culminating in the October Diploma (October 1860) establishing constitutional monarchy through a legislative assembly and provincial autonomy. This was never completely implemented due to Hungarian resistance, demanding the full autonomy lost in 1849. Consequently, the October Diploma was replaced by the February Patent, in 1861 establishing a bicameral legislative body, the Reichsrat. The upper house consisted of appointed and hereditary positions, while the lower house, the House of Deputies was appointed by the provincial diets. The Reichsrat would meet with or without the Hungarians, depending on the issues being considered. This was a first step towards the establishment of a separate Cisleithanian legislature, on the other hand the more limited role of the diets in the February Patent, compared to the October Diploma, angered the champions of regionalism. The Reichsrat was dominated by liberals, who were to be the dominant political force for the next two decades.
Prussia and Denmark had already fought one war in 1848–1851 over the territories that lined their common border, Schleswig-Holstein which resulted in Denmark retaining them. By 1864 Austria was at war again, this time allying itself with Prussia against Denmark in the Second Schleswig War, which although successful this time, turned out to be Austria's last military victory. The war concluded with the Treaty of Vienna by which Denmark ceded the territories. The following year the Gastein Convention resolved the control of the new territories, Holstein being allocated to Austria, after initial conflicts between the allies. However this did little to ease the Austria–Prussia rivalry over the German question. The ongoing efforts by Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian Minister President, to revoke the agreement and wrest control of the territories would soon lead to all out conflict between the two powers and achieve the desired weakening of Austria's position in central Europe.
From the 1848 revolution, in which much of the Hungarian aristocracy had participated, Hungary remained restless, restoration of the constitution and de-throne the House of Habsburg, opposing the centralist trials of Vienna and refusing to pay taxes.[70] Hungary had little support in the court at Vienna which was strongly Bohemian and considered the Hungarians as revolutionaries. From the loss of the Italian territories in 1859, the Hungarian question became more prominent. Hungary was negotiating with foreign powers to support it, and most significantly with Prussia. Therefore, Hungary represented a threat to Austria in any opposition to Prussia within the German Confederation over the German Question. Therefore, cautious discussions over concessions, referred to as Conciliation by the Hungarians,[71] started to take place. Emperor Franz Joseph traveled to Budapest in June 1865 and made a few concessions, such as abolishing the military jurisdiction, and granting an amnesty to the press. However these fell far short of the demands of the Hungarian liberals whose minimal demands were restoration of the constitution and the emperor's separate coronation as King of Hungary. Chief among these were Gyula Andrássy and Ferenc Deák, who endeavoured to improve their influence at the court in Vienna.[72] In January 1866 a delegation of the Hungarian parliament traveled to Vienna to invite the imperial family to make an official visit to Hungary, which they did, at some length from January to March.
While Andrássy was making frequent visits to Vienna from Budapest during early 1866, relations with Prussia were deteriorating. There was talk of war. Prussia had signed a secret treaty with the relatively new Kingdom of Italy on 8 April, while Austria concluded one with France on 12 June, in exchange for Venetia.
While the motives for the war, Prussian masterplan or opportunism, are disputed, the outcome was a radical re-alignment of power in Central Europe. Austria brought the continuing dispute over Holstein before the German diet and also decided to convene the Holstein diet. Prussia, declaring that the Gastein Convention had thereby been nullified, invaded Holstein. When the German diet responded by voting for a partial mobilization against Prussia, Bismarck declared that the German Confederation was ended. Thus this may be considered a Third Schleswig War.
Hostilities broke out on 14 June as the Austro-Prussian War (June–August 1866), in which Prussia and the north German states faced not only Austria but much of the rest of Germany, especially the southern states. Three days later Italy declared war on Austria in the Third Italian War of Independence, Italy now being Prussia's ally. Thus Austria had to fight on two fronts. Their first engagement resulted in a minor victory against the Italians at Custoza near Verona on 24 June. However, on the northern front Austria suffered a major military defeat at the Battle of Königgrätz in Bohemia on 3 July. Although Austria had a further victory against the Italians in a naval battle at Lissa on 20 July, it was clear by then that the war was over for Austria, Prussian armies threatening Vienna itself, forcing the evacuation of the court to Budapest. Napoleon III intervened resulting in an armistice at Nikolsburg on 21 July, and a peace treaty in Prague on 23 August. In the meantime the Italians who had had a series of successes throughout July, and signed an armistice at Cormons on 12 August rather than face the remaining Austrian army freed from its northern front.
As a result of these wars Austria had now lost all its Italian territory and was now excluded from further German affairs, that were now reorganised under Prussian dominance in the new North German Confederation. The Kleindeutschland concept had prevailed. For the Austrians in Italy, the war had been tragically pointless, since Venetia had already been ceded.
While Austria was reeling from the effects of war, the Hungarians increased the pressure for their demands. Andrássy was regularly in Vienna, as was Ferenc Deák and the Hungarian position was backed by constitutionalists and liberals. While anti-Hungarian sentiments ran high at the court, the Emperor's position was becoming increasingly untenable, with the Prussian army now at Pressburg (now Bratislava), and Vienna crammed with exiles, while hope for French intervention proved to be fruitless. The Hungarians recruited Empress Elisabeth who became a strong advocate for their cause. György Klapka had organised a legion fighting for the Prussians, which Bismarck had supported, that entered Hungary and agitated for Hungarian independence.
However the needs of the other provinces had to be considered before entering into any form of Hungarian dualism which would give Hungary special privileges, and started to fan the flames of Czech nationalism, since Slavic interests were likely to be submerged. People started to talk about the events of 1848 again. By February 1867 Count Belcredi resigned as Minister President over his concerns about Slavic interests, and was succeeded by foreign minister Ferdinand Beust, who promptly pursued the Hungarian option which had become a reality by the end of the month.
Austria-Hungary was created through the mechanism of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. Thus the Hungarians finally achieved much of their aims. The western half of the realm known as (Cisleithania) and the eastern Hungarian (Transleithania), that is the realms lying on each side of the Leitha tributary of the Danube river, now became two realms with different interior policy - there was no common citizenship and dual-citizenship was banned either -, but with a common ruler and a common foreign and military policy. The empire now had two capitals, two cabinets and two parliaments. Only three cabinet positions served both halves of the monarchy, war, foreign affairs and finance (when both sectors were involved). Costs were assigned 70:30 to Cisleithania, however the Hungarians represented a single nationality while Cisleithania included all the other kingdoms and provinces. Andrássy was appointed as the first Minister President of the new Hungary on 17 February. Feelings ran high in the provinces, and the Diets in Moravia and Bohemia were shut down in March.
Emperor Franz Joseph made a speech from the throne in May to the Reichsrat (Imperial Council) asking for retroactive ratification and promising further constitutional reforms and increased autonomy to the provinces. This was a major retreat from absolutism. On 8 June, the Emperor and Empress were crowned King and Queen of Hungary in a ceremony whose pomp and splendour seemed out of keeping with Austria's recent military and political humiliation and the extent of financial reparations. As part of the celebrations the emperor announced further concessions that aggravated relationships between Hungary and the rest of the monarchy. An amnesty was declared for all political offences since 1848 (including Klapka and Kossuth) and reversal of the confiscation of estates. In addition the coronation Gift was directed to the families and veterans of the revolutionary Honvéds, which was revived as the Royal Hungarian Honvéd.
In return for the Liberals support of the Ausgleich, concessions were made to parliamentary prerogatives in the new constitutional law. The law of 21 December 1867, although frequently amended, was the foundation of Austrian governance for the remaining 50 years of the empire, and was largely based on the February Patent, the Imperial Council and included a bill of rights. Ultimately the political balance of the dual monarchy represented a compromise between authoritarianism and parliamentarianism (Rechtsstaat) (Hacohen 2002). Like most compromises it was rejected by extremists on both sides, including Kossuth.
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1873 marked the Silver Jubilee of Franz Joseph, and provided not only an occasion for celebration but also one of reflection on the progress of the monarchy since 1848. Vienna had grown from a population of 500,000 to over a million, the walls and fortifications had been demolished and the Ringstrasse constructed with many magnificent new buildings along it. The Danube was being regulated to reduce the risk of flooding, a new aqueduct constructed to bring fresh water into the city, and many new bridges, schools, hospitals, churches and a new university built.
Foreign policy
What was supposed to be a temporary emergency measure was to last for half a century. Austria succeeded in staying neutral during the Franco Prussian War of 1870–71 despite those who saw an opportunity for revenge on Prussia for the events of 1866. However Austria's allies among the South German States were now allied with Prussia, and it was unlikely that Austria's military capacity had significantly improved in the meantime. Any residual doubts were rapidly dispelled by the speed of the Prussian advance and the subsequent overthrow of the Second Empire.
In November 1871 Austria made a radical change in foreign policy. Ferdinand Beust, the First Prime Minister (to 1867), Chancellor and Foreign Minister (1866–1871) of the Dual Monarchy, was dismissed. Beust was an advocate of revanche against Prussia, but was succeeded by the Hungarian Prime Minister, the liberal Gyula Andrássy as Foreign Minister (1871–1879), although both opposed the federalist policies of Prime Minister Karl Hohenwart (1871) while Prince Adolf of Auersperg became the new Prime Minister (1871–1879). Andrássy 's appointment caused concern among the conservative Court Party, but he worked hard to restore relationships between Berlin and Vienna, culminating in the Dual Alliance of 1879.
In 1878, Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had been cut off from the rest of the Ottoman Empire by the creation of new states in the Balkans following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and the resulting Congress of Berlin (June–July 1878). The territory was ceded to Austria-Hungary, and Andrássy prepared to occupy it. This led to a further deterioration of relations with Russia and was to lead to tragic consequences in the next century. Austrian troops encountered stiff resistance and suffered significant casualties. The occupation created controversy both within and without the empire and led to Andrássy's resignation in 1879. This territory was finally annexed in 1908 and put under joint rule by the governments of both Austria and Hungary.
The departure of the Liberal Government and of Andrássy from the Foreign Office (k. u. k. Ministerium des Äußern) marked a sharp shift in Austria-Hungary's foreign policy, particularly in relation to Russia, Count Gustav Kálnoky (1881–1895) Andrássy's Conservative replacement pursuing a new rapprochement.
Economy
The second half of the 19th century saw a lot of construction, expansion of cities and railway lines, and development of industry. During the earlier part of this period, known as Gründerzeit, Austria became an industrialized country, even though the Alpine regions remained characterized by agriculture. Austria was able to celebrate its newfound grandeur in the Vienna World Exhibition of 1873, attended by all the crowned heads of Europe, and beyond. This period of relative prosperity was followed by the 1873 Stock market crash.
Political parties became legitimate entities in Austria from 1848, apart from a brief lapse in the 1850s. However the structure of the legislative body created by the 1861 February Patent provided little scope for party organisation. Initial political organisation resembled the cleavages in Austrian culture. Since the time of the Counter-Reformation the Catholic Church had assumed a major role in the political life of the empire, in conjunction with the aristocracy and conservative rural elements. Allied against these forces were a more secular urban middle class, reflecting the Enlightenment and the French Revolution with its anti-clericism (Kulturkampf). Other elements on the left were German nationalism, defending Greater German interests against the Slavs, and found support among urban intelligentsia. However party structure was far from cohesive and both groupings contained factions which either supported or opposed the government of the day. These parties reflected the traditional right/left split of political vision. The left, or Liberal factions were known as the Constitutional Party, but both left and right were fragmented into factions. Without direct elections there was no place for constituency organisation, and affinities were intellectual not organisational. Nor, without ministerial responsibility, was there a need for such organisation. The affinities were driven by respective visions of the representative institutions. The left derived its name from its support in principle of the 1861–1867 constitution and were the driving elements of the 1848 revolution, the right supported historic rights. The left drew its support from the propertied bourgeoisie (Besitzbürgertum), affluent professionals and the civil service. These were longstanding ideological differences.[73] The 1867 elections saw the Liberals take control of the lower house under Karl Auersperg (1867–1868) and were instrumental in the adoption of the 1867 constitution and in abrogating the 1855 Concordat (1870).
Suffrage progressively improved during the period 1860–1882. The selection of deputies to the Reichsrat by provincial legislatures proved unworkable particularly once the Bohemian diet effectively boycotted the Reichsrat in an attempt to acquire equal status with the Hungarians in a tripartite monarchy. As a result, suffrage was changed to direct election to the Reichsrat in 1873.
Even then by 1873 only six percent of the adult male population were franchised (Hacohen 2002). The initial divisions into Catholic, liberal, national, radical and agrarian parties differed across ethnic grounds further fragmenting the political culture. However, there was now emerging the presence of extra-parliamentary parties whereas previously parties were purely intra-parliamentary. This provided an opportunity for the disenfranchised to find a voice. These changes were taking place against a rapidly changing backdrop of an Austrian economy that was modernising and industrialising and economic crises such as that of 1873 and its resultant depression (1873–1879), and the traditional parties were slow to respond to the demands of the populace. By the election of 1901, the last election under the defined classes of franchisement extraparliamentary parties won 76 of the 118 seats.
This era saw anti-liberal sentiments and declining fortunes of the Liberal party which had held power since 1867 apart from a brief spell of conservative government in 1870–71. In 1870 Liberal support for Prussia in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War displeased the Emperor and he turned to the Conservatives to form a government under Count Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart (1871). Hohenwart was the conservative leader in parliament, and the Emperor believed his more sympathetic views to Slavic aspirations and federalism would weaken the Austro-German Liberals. Hohenwart appointed Albert Schäffle as his commerce minister and drew up a policy known as the Fundamental Articles of 1871. The policy failed, the Emperor withdrew his support and the Liberals regained power.
The Liberal party became progressively unliberal and more nationalistic, and against whose social conservatism the progressive intellectuals would rebel (Hacohen 2002). During their 1870–71 opposition they blocked attempts to extend the dual monarchy to a tripartite monarchy including the Czechs, and promoted the concept of Deutschtum (the granting of all rights of citizenship to those who displayed the characteristics of the solid German Bürger). They also opposed the extension of suffrage because restricted suffrage favoured their electoral base (Hacohen 2002). In 1873 the party fragmented, with a radical faction of the Constitutional Party forming the Progressive Club, while a right-wing faction formed the conservative Constitutionalist Landlordism leaving a rump of 'Old Liberals'. The result was a proliferation of German Liberal and German National groups.
While Liberal achievements had included economic modernisation, expanding secular education and rebuilding the fabric and culture of Vienna, while collaborating with the Administration (Verwaltung), after 1873 a progressive series of schisms and mergers continued to weaken the party which effectively disappeared by 1911.
The Liberal cabinet of Adolf Auersperg (1871–1879) was dismissed in 1879 over its opposition to Foreign Minister Gyula Andrássy's (1871–1879) Balkan policy and the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which added more Slavs and further diluted German nationalism and identity. In the ensuing elections the Liberals lost control of parliament and went into opposition, the incoming government under Count Edward Taaffe (1879–1893) basically consisting of a group of factions (farmers, clergy and Czechs), the "Iron Ring", united in a determination to keep the Liberals out of power.
Andrássy, who had nothing in common with Taaffe, tended his resignation on the grounds of poor health and to his surprise it was accepted. His name was raised again when the new Foreign minister, Haymerle died in office in 1881, but Taaffe and his coalition had no time for a Liberal foreign minister (let alone a Hungarian and Freemason), and he was passed over in favour of Count Gustav Kálnoky (1881–1895).[74]
However the Liberal opposition filibustered leading the government to seek electoral reform as a strategy to weaken their position, which was enacted in 1882. Despite this, the coalition, nominally conservative and committed to anti-socialism passed a series of social reforms over the decade 1880–1890, following the examples of Germany and Switzerland. These were reforms which the Liberals had been unable to get past a government strongly tied to the concept of individual's rights to self-determination free from government interference[75] Such measures had the support of both the Liberals, now the United Left (Vereinigte Linke 1881) and the German National Party (Deutsche Nationalpartei 1891), an offshoot of the German National Movement. The electoral reforms of 1882 were the most influential in that it enfranchised proportionally more Germans.
Social reform now moved to become a platform of conservative Catholics like Prince Aloys de Paula Maria of Liechtenstein, Baron Karl von Vogelsang, and Count Egbert Belcredi[76] The era of electoral reform saw the emergence of Georg von Schonerer's Pan-German League (1882), appealing to an anti-clerical middle class, and Catholic social reformers such as L. Psenner and A. Latschka created the Christian Social Association (Christlich-Sozialer Verein) (1887). Around the same time F. Piffl, F. Stauracz, Ae. Schoepfer, A. Opitz, Karl Lueger and Prince Aloys Liechtenstein formed the United Christians to advocate Christian social reform.[77] These two organisations merged in 1891 under Karl Lueger to form the Christian Social Party (Christlichsoziale Partei, CS).
However the Taaffe government's policy of ethnic inclusiveness fuelled nationalism among the German-speaking population. The Liberals had maintained the strong centralism of the absolutist era (with the exception of Galicia in 1867) while the Conservatives attempted a more federalist state that ultimately led to the fall of the Taaffe government in 1893, including a second attempt at Bohemian Ausgleich (Tripartite monarchy) in 1890[75][78]
On the left the spread of anarchical ideas and oppressive government saw the emergence of a Marxist Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) in 1889 which succeeded in winning seats in the 1897 elections which followed further extension of suffrage in 1896 to include peasants and the working classes, establishing universal male suffrage, though not equal.
The universal male suffrage introduced in 1907 by Minister-President Freiherr von Beck changed the balance of power, formally tilted towards German Austrians, and revealed that they were now a minority in a predominantly Slavic empire. In the 1900 census, Germans were 36% of the Cisleithanian population but the largest single group, but never acted as a cohesive group (nor did any other national group), although they were the dominant group in the political life of the monarchy. Germans were followed by Czechs and Slovaks (23%), Poles (17), Ruthenians (13), Slovenes (5), Serbo-Croats (3), Italians (3) and Romanians 1%. However these national groups, especially the Germans were often scattered geographically. The Germans also dominated economically, and in level of education.
The post reform 1907 parliament (Reichsrat) was elected along national lines, with only the Christian-Social and Social Democrat parties predominantly German. However Austria was governed by the Emperor who appointed the Imperial Council of Ministers, who in turn answered to him, parliament being left free to criticise government policy. Technically it had the power to legislate from 1907, but in practice the Imperial government generated its own legislation, and the Emperor could veto his own minister's bills. The major parties were divided geographically and socially, with the social democrats base being the towns, predominantly Vienna, and having a very different perspective to the devout but illiterate peasantry in the countryside. The latter were joined by the aristocracy and bourgeoisie in supporting the status quo of the monarchy.
The 1911 elections elected a parliament that would carry Austria through the war and the end of the empire in 1918.[79][80]However, the effectiveness of parliamentarism was hampered by conflicts between parties representing different ethnic groups, and meetings of the parliament ceased altogether during World War I.
The initial years of the 19th century following the Congress of Vienna, up until the revolution of 1848 was characterised by the Biedermeier period of design and architecture, partly fueled by the repressive domestic scene that diverted attention to domesticity and the arts.
With the reign of Franz Joseph (1848–1916) came a new era of grandeur, typified by the Belle Époque style, with extensive building and the construction of the Ringstrasse in Vienna with its monumental buildings (officially opened 1 May 1865, after seven years). Architects of the period included Heinrich Ferstel (Votivkirche, Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien), Friedrich von Schmidt (Rathaus), Theophil Hansen (Parliament), Gottfried Semper (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Burgtheater), Eduard van der Nüll (Opera) and August Sicardsburg (Opera).
1897 saw the resignation of a group of artists from the Association of Austrian Artists (Gesellschaft bildender Künstler Österreichs), headed by Gustav Klimt who became the first president of this group which became known as the Vienna Secession or Wiener Secession (Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs). The movement was a protest against the historicism and conservatism of the former organisation, following similar movements in Berlin and Munich. Partly this was a revolt against the perceived excesses of the earlier Ringstrasse era, and a yearning to return to the relative simplicity of Biedermaier. From this group Josef Hoffman and Koloman Moser formed the Vienna Arts and Crafts Workshop (Wiener Werkstätte) in 1903 to promote the development of applied arts. The Secession became associated with a specific building, the Secession Building (Wiener Secessionsgebäude) built in 1897 and which housed their exhibitions, starting in 1898. The Secession as originally conceived splintered in 1905 when Klimt and others left over irreconcilable differences. The group however lasted until 1939 and the outbreak of the Second World War.[81]
Architecturally this was the era of Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) and the contrasting work of men like Otto Wagner (Kirche am Steinhof) known for embellishment and Adolf Loos, who represented restraint. Art Nouveau and the modern style came relatively late to Austria, around 1900, and was distinguishable from the earlier movement in other European capitals.[82]
One of the prominent literary figures was Karl Kraus, the essayist and satirist, known for his newspaper "The Torch", founded in 1899.
On the musical scene, Johan Strauss and his family dominated the Viennese scene over the entire period, which also produced Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Lehár and Gustav Mahler among others.
By the opening years of the 20th century (Fin de siècle) the avant garde were beginning to challenge traditional values, often shocking Viennese society, such as Arthur Schnitzler's play Reigen, the paintings of Klimt, and the music of Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg and the Second Viennese School.
Nationalist strife increased during the decades until 1914. The assassination in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist group of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to Franz Joseph as Emperor, helped to trigger World War I. In November 1916 the Emperor died, leaving the relatively inexperienced Charles (Karl) in command. The defeat of the Central Powers in 1918 resulted in the disintegration of Austria-Hungary, and the Emperor went into exile.
The First World War ended for Austria on 3 November 1918, when its defeated army signed the Armistice of Villa Giusti at Padua following the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. This applied just to Austria-Hungary, but Hungary had withdrawn from the conflict on 31 October 1918. Austria was forced to cede all territory occupied since 1914, plus accept the formation of new nations across most of its pre-war territory, and the allies were given access to Austria. The empire was thus dissolved.
The Provisional National Assembly met in Vienna from 21 October 1918 to 19 February 1919, as the first parliament of the new Austria, in the Lower Austria parliamentary buildings. It consisted of those members of the Imperial Council elected in 1911 from German speaking territories with three presidents, Franz Dinghofer, Jodok Fink, and Karl Seitz. The National Assembly continued its work till 16 February 1919 when elections were held. On 30 October it adopted a provisional constitution and on 12 November it adopted German Austria as the name of the new state. Since the Emperor, Charles I (Karl I) had stated on 11 November that he no longer had "any share in the affairs of state", although he always said that he never abdicated, Austria was now a republic.
However the provisional constitution stated that it was to be part of the new German (Weimar) Republic proclaimed three days earlier. Article 2 stated: "German Austria is part of the German Republic".
Karl Renner was proclaimed Chancellor of Austria, succeeding Heinrich Lammasch and led the first three cabinets (12 November 1918 – 7 July 1920) as a grand coalition of the largest parties, although some were composed of a large number of splinter groups of the German National and German Liberal movements, and were numerically the largest group in the assembly.
On 22 November Austria claimed the German-speaking territories of the former Habsburg Empire in Czechoslovakia (German Bohemia and parts of Moravia), Poland (Austrian Silesia) and the South Tyrol, annexed by Italy. However Austria was in no position to enforce these claims against either the victorious allies or the new nation states that emerged from the dissolution of the Empire and all the lands in question remained separated from the new Austria.
French premier Georges Clemenceau said: "Austria is what's left". An empire of over 50 million had been reduced to a state of 6.5 million.
On 19 February elections were held for what was now called the Constituent National Assembly. Although the Social Democrats won the most seats (41%) they did not have an absolute majority and formed a grand coalition with the second-largest party, the Christian Socialists. On 12 March the National Assembly declared "German Austria" to be part of the "German Republic".
Large sections of the population and most representatives of political parties were of the opinion that this "residual" or "rump state" – without Hungary's agriculture sector and Bohemia's industry – would not be economically viable. The journalist Hellmut Andics (1922–1998) expressed this sentiment in his book entitled Der Staat, den keiner wollte (The state that nobody wanted) in 1962.
Austria's exact future remained uncertain until formal treaties were signed and ratified. This process began with the opening of the Peace Conference in Paris on 18 January 1919 and culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Saint Germain on 10 September that year, although the National Assembly initially rejected the draft treaty on 7 June.
The fledgling Republic of German-Austria was to prove short lived. The proposed merger with the German Empire (Weimar Republic) was vetoed by the Allied victors in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (10 September 1919) under Article 88 which prohibited economic or political union. The allies were fearful of the long-held Mitteleuropa dream—a union of all German-speaking populations. The treaty was ratified by parliament on 21 October 1919. Austria was to remain independent, and was obliged to be so for at least 20 years.
The treaty also obliged the country to change its name from the "Republic of German Austria" to the "Republic of Austria", i.e., the First Republic, a name that persists to this day. The German-speaking bordering areas of Bohemia and Moravia (later called the "Sudetenland") were allocated to the newly founded Czechoslovakia. Many Austrians and Germans regarded this as hypocrisy since U.S. president Woodrow Wilson had proclaimed in his famous "Fourteen Points" the "right of self-determination" for all nations. In Germany, the constitution of the Weimar Republic explicitly stated this in article 61: Deutschösterreich erhält nach seinem Anschluß an das Deutsche Reich das Recht der Teilnahme am Reichsrat mit der seiner Bevölkerung entsprechenden Stimmenzahl. Bis dahin haben die Vertreter Deutschösterreichs beratende Stimme.—"German Austria has the right to participate in the German Reichsrat (the constitutional representation of the federal German states) with a consulting role according to its number of inhabitants until unification with Germany." In Austria itself, almost all political parties together with the majority of public opinion continued to cling to the concept of unification laid out in Article 2 of the 1918 constitution.[83]
Although Austria-Hungary had been one of the Central Powers, the allied victors were much more lenient with a defeated Austria than with either Germany or Hungary. Representatives of the new Republic of Austria convinced the allies that it was unfair to penalize Austria for the actions of a now dissolved Empire, especially as other areas of the Empire were now perceived to be on the "victor" side, simply because they had renounced the Empire at the end of the war. Austria never did have to pay reparations because allied commissions determined that the country could not afford to pay.
However, the Treaty of Saint Germain also confirmed Austria's loss of significant German-speaking territories, in particular the southern part of the County of Tyrol (now South Tyrol) to Italy and the German-speaking areas within Bohemia and Moravia to Czechoslovakia. In compensation (as it were) it was to be awarded most of the German-speaking part of Hungary in the Treaty of Trianon concluded between the Allies and that country; this was constituted the new federal state of Burgenland.
The grand coalition was dissolved on 10 June 1920, being replaced by a CS- SDAPÖ coalition under Michael Mayr as Chancellor (7 July 1920 – 21 June 1921), necessitating new elections which were held on 17 October, for what now became the National Council, under the new constitution of 1 October. This resulted in the Christian Social party now emerging as the strongest party, with 42% of the votes and subsequently forming Mayr's second government on 22 October as a CS minority government (with the support of the GDVP) without the Social Democrats. The CS were to continue in power until the end of the first republic, in various combinations of coalitions with the GDVP and Landbund (founded 1919).
The borders continued to be somewhat uncertain because of plebiscites in the tradition of Woodrow Wilson. Plebiscites in the regions of Tyrol and Salzburg between 1919 and 1921 (Tyrol 24 April 1921, Salzburg 29 May 1921) yielded majorities of 98% and 99% in favour of unification with Germany, fearing that "rump" Austria was not economically viable. However such mergers were not possible under the treaty.
On 20 October 1920, a plebiscite in part of the Austrian state of Carinthia was held in which the population chose to remain a part of Austria, rejecting the territorial claims of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to the state. Mostly German-speaking parts of western Hungary was awarded to Austria as the new province Burgenland in 1921, with the exception of the city of Sopron and adjacent territories, whose population decided in a referendum (which is sometimes considered by Austrians to have been rigged) to remain with Hungary. The area had been discussed as the site of a Slavic corridor uniting Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia. This made Austria the only defeated country to acquire additional territory as part of border adjustments.
Despite the absence of reparations, Austria under the coalition suffered hyperinflation similar to that of Germany, destroying some of the financial assets of the middle and upper classes, and disrupting the economy. Adam Ferguson attributes hyperinflation to the existence of far too many people on the government payroll, failure to tax the working class, and numerous money losing government enterprises. The fascists blamed the left for the hyperinflation; Ferguson blames policies associated with the left.[84] Massive riots ensued in Vienna in which the rioters demanded higher taxes on the rich and reduced subsidies to the poor. In response to the riots, the government increased taxes but failed to reduce subsidies.
The terms of the Treaty of Saint Germain were further underlined by the Geneva Protocols of the League of Nations (which Austria joined on 16 December 1920) on 4 October 1922 between Austria and the Allies. Austria was given a guarantee of sovereignty provided it did not unite with Germany over the following 20 years. Austria also received a loan of 650 million Goldkronen which was successful in halting hyperinflation, but required major restructuring of the Austrian economy. The Goldkrone was replaced by the more stable Schilling, but resulted in unemployment and new taxes, loss of social benefits and major attrition of the public service.[83]
The First World Congress of Jewish Women was held in Vienna in May 1923.[85]
Emerging from the war, Austria had two main political parties on the right and one on the left. The right was split between clericalism and nationalism. The Christian Social Party, (Christlichsoziale Partei, CS), had been founded in 1891 and achieved plurality from 1907–1911 before losing it to the socialists. Their influence had been waning in the capital, even before 1914, but became the dominant party of the First Republic, and the party of government from 1920 onwards. The CS had close ties to the Roman Catholic Church and was headed by a Catholic priest named Ignaz Seipel (1876–1932), who served twice as Chancellor (1922–1924 and 1926–1929). While in power, Seipel was working for an alliance between wealthy industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church. The CS drew its political support from conservative rural Catholics. In 1920 the Greater German People's Party (Großdeutsche Volkspartei, GDVP) was founded from the bulk of liberal and national groups and became the junior partner of the CS.[86]
On the left the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) founded in 1898, which pursued a fairly left-wing course known as Austromarxism at that time, could count on a secure majority in "Red Vienna" (as the capital was known from 1918 to 1934), while right-wing parties controlled all other states. The SDAPÖ were the strongest voting bloc from 1911 to 1918.
Between 1918 and 1920, there was a grand coalition government including both left and right-wing parties, the CS and the Social Democratic Workers' Party (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ). This gave the Social Democrats their first opportunity to influence Austrian politics. The coalition enacted progressive socio-economic and labour legislation such as the vote for women on 27 November 1918, but collapsed on 22 October 1920. In 1920, the modern Constitution of Austria was enacted, but from 1920 onwards Austrian politics were characterized by intense and sometimes violent conflict between left and right. The bourgeois parties maintained their dominance but formed unstable governments while socialists remained the largest elected party numerically.
Both right-wing and left-wing paramilitary forces were created during the 20s. The Heimwehr (Home Resistance) first appeared on 12 May 1920 and became progressively organised over the next three years and the Republikanischer Schutzbund was formed in response to this on 19 February 1923. From 2 April 1923 to 30 September there were violent clashes between Socialists and Nazis in Vienna. That on 2 April, referred to as Schlacht auf dem Exelberg (Battle of Exelberg), involved 300 Nazis against 90 Socialists.[87] Further episodes occurred on 4 May and 30 September 1923. A clash between those groups in Schattendorf, Burgenland, on 30 January 1927 led to the death of a man and a child. Right-wing veterans were indicted at a court in Vienna, but acquitted in a jury trial. This led to massive protests and a fire at the Justizpalast in Vienna. In the July Revolt of 1927, 89 protesters were killed by the Austrian police forces.
Political conflict escalated until the early 1930s. The elections of 1930 which returned the Social Democrats as the largest bloc turned out to be the last till after World War II. On 20 May 1932, Engelbert Dollfuß, Christian Social Party Agriculture Minister became Chancellor, with a majority of one.
Dollfuss and the Christian Social Party, moved Austria rapidly towards centralized power in the Fascist model. He was concerned that German National Socialist leader Adolf Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, after his party had become the largest group in the parliament and was quickly assuming absolute power. Similarly the Austrian National Socialists (DNSAP) could easily become a significant minority in future Austrian elections. Fascism scholar Stanley G. Payne, estimated that if elections had been held in 1933, the DNSAP could have secured about 25% of the votes. Time magazine suggested an even higher level of support of 50%, with a 75% approval rate in the Tyrol region bordering Nazi Germany.[88][89][90] The events in Austria during March 1933 echoed those of Germany, where Hitler also effectively installed himself as dictator in the same month.
On 4 March 1933, there occurred an irregularity in the parliamentary voting procedures. Karl Renner (Social Democratic Party of Austria, Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs SPÖ), president of the National Council (Nationalrat: lower house of parliament) resigned in order to be able to cast a vote on a controversial proposal to deal with the railroad strike that was likely to pass by a very small margin, which he was not able to do while holding that office. Consequently, the two vice-presidents representing the other parties, Rudolf Ramek (Christian Social Party) and Sepp Straffner (Greater German People's Party) also resigned for the same reason. In the absence of the President the session could not be concluded.
Although there were procedural rules which could have been followed in this unprecedented and unforeseen event, the Dollfuss cabinet seized the opportunity to declare the parliament unable to function. While Dollfuss described this event as "self-elimination of Parliament" it was actually the beginning of a coup d'etat that would establish the "Ständestaat" (Austrofascism, Austrofaschismus) lasting to 1938.
Using an emergency provision enacted during the First World War, the Economic War Powers Act (Kriegswirtschaftliches Ermächtigungsgesetz, KWEG 24. Juli 1917 RGBl.[91] Nr. 307) the executive assumed legislative power on 7 March and advised President Wilhelm Miklas to issue a decree adjourning it indefinitely. The First Republic and democratic government therefore effectively ended in Austria, leaving Dollfuss to govern as a dictator with absolute powers. Immediate measures included removing the right of public assembly and freedom of the press. The opposition accused him of violating the constitution.[92][93][94]
An attempt by the Greater German People's Party and the Social Democrats to reconvene the council on 15 March was prevented by barring the entrance with police and advising President Wilhelm Miklas to adjourn it indefinitely. Dollfuss would have been aware that Nazi troops had seized power in neighbouring Bavaria on 9 March. Finally, on 31 March, the Republikanischer Schutzbund (paramilitary arm of the Social Democratic Party) was dissolved (but continued illegally).
Dollfuss then met with Benito Mussolini for the first time in Rome on 13 April. On 23 April, the National Socialists (DNSAP) gained 40 per cent of the vote in the Innsbruck communal elections, becoming the largest voting bloc, so in May all state and communal elections were banned.
On 20 May 1933, Dollfuss replaced the "Democratic Republic" with a new entity, merging his Christian Social Party with elements of other nationalist and conservative groups, including the Heimwehr, which encompassed many workers who were unhappy with the radical leadership of the socialist party, to form the Patriotic Front (Vaterländische Front), though the Heimwehr continued to exist as an independent organization until 1936, when Dollfuss' successor Kurt von Schuschnigg forcibly merged it into the Front, instead creating the unabidingly loyal Frontmiliz as a paramilitary task force. The new entity was allegedly bipartisan and represented those who were "loyal to the government".
The DNSAP was banned in June 1933. Dollfuss was also aware of the Soviet Union's increasing influence in Europe throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, and also banned the communists, establishing a one-party Austrofascist dictatorship largely modeled after Italian fascism, tied to Catholic corporatism and anti-secularism. He dropped all pretence of Austrian reunification with Germany so long as the Nazi Party remained in power there.
Although all Austrian parties, including the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDAPÖ) were banned, Social Democrats continued to exist as an independent organization, including its paramilitary Republikaner Schutzbund, which could muster tens of thousands against Dollfuss' government.
In August 1933, Mussolini's government issued a guarantee of Austrian independence ("if necessary, Italy would defend Austria's independence by force of arms"). Dollfuss also exchanged 'Secret Letters' with Benito Mussolini about ways to guarantee Austrian independence. Mussolini was interested in Austria forming a buffer zone against Nazi Germany. Dollfuss always stressed the similarity of the regimes of Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, and was convinced that Austrofascism and Italian fascism could counter totalitarian national socialism and communism in Europe.
Dollfuss escaped an assassination attempt in October 1933 by Rudolf Dertil, a 22-year-old who had been ejected from the military for his national socialist views.
Despite the March coup d'état, the SPÖ continued to seek a peaceful resolution, but when the new Austrofascist regime tried to search the party's office in Linz for weapons on 12 February 1934, members of the Schutzbund fought back. The resistance spread and became the Austrian Civil War, in which the weakened party and its supporters were quickly defeated and the party and its various ancillary organisations were banned.[95]
On 1 May 1934, the Dollfuss cabinet approved a new constitution that abolished freedom of the press, established one party system and created a total state monopoly on employer-employee relations. This system remained in force until Austria became part of Nazi Germany in 1938. The Patriotic Front government frustrated the ambitions of pro-Hitlerite sympathizers in Austria who wished both political influence and unification with Germany, leading to Dollfuss' assassination by a group of Nazis on 25 July 1934.[96]
His successor Kurt Schuschnigg maintained the ban on pro-Hitlerite activities in Austria, but was forced to resign on 11 March 1938 following a demand by Adolf Hitler for power-sharing with pro-German circles. Following Schuschnigg's resignation, German troops occupied Austria with no resistance.
Although the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of St. Germain had explicitly forbidden the unification of Austria and Germany, the native Austrian Hitler was vastly striving to annex Austria during the late 1930s, which was fiercely resisted by the Austrian Schuschnigg dictatorship. When the conflict was escalating in early 1938, Chancellor Schuschnigg announced a plebiscite on the issue on 9 March, which was to take place on 13 March. On 12 March, German troops entered Austria, who met celebrating crowds, in order to install Nazi puppet Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. With a Nazi administration already in place the country was now integrated into Nazi Germany renamed as "Ostmark" until 1942, when it was renamed again as "Alpen-und Donau-Reichsgaue" ("Alpine and Danubian Gaue"). A rigged[97] referendum on 10 April was used to demonstrate the alleged approval of the annexation with a majority of 99.73% for the annexation.[98]
As a result, Austria ceased to exist as an independent country. This annexation was enforced by military invasion but large parts of the Austrian population were in favour of the Nazi regime, and many Austrians participated in its crimes. The Jews, Communists, Socialist and hostile politicians were sent to concentration camps, murdered or forced into exile.[99]
Just before the end of the war, on 28 March 1945, American troops entered Austria and the Soviet Union's Red Army crossed the eastern border two days later, taking Vienna on 13 April. American and British forces occupied the western and southern regions, preventing Soviet forces from completely overrunning and controlling the country.
According to the plans by Winston Churchill, a south German state would be formed including Austria and Bavaria.[100]
However, in April 1945 Karl Renner, an Austrian elder statesman, declared Austria separate from the other German-speaking lands and set up a government which included socialists, conservatives and communists. A significant number of these were returning from exile or Nazi detention, having thus played no role in the Nazi government. This contributed to the Allies' treating Austria more as a liberated, rather than defeated, country, and the government was recognized by the Allies later that year. The country was occupied by the Allies from 9 May 1945, and under the Allied Commission for Austria established by an agreement on 4 July 1945, it was divided into Zones occupied respectively by American, British, French and Soviet Army personnel, with Vienna being also divided similarly into four sectors, with an International Zone at its heart.
Though under occupation, this Austrian government was officially permitted to conduct foreign relations with the approval of the Four Occupying Powers under the agreement of 28 June 1946. As part of this trend, Austria was one of the founding members of the Danube Commission, which was formed on 18 August 1948. Austria would benefit from the Marshall Plan, but economic recovery was slow.
Unlike the First Republic, which had been characterized by sometimes violent conflict between the different political groups, the Second Republic became a stable democracy. The two largest leading parties, the Christian-democratic Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), remained in a coalition led by the ÖVP until 1966. The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), who had hardly any support in the Austrian electorate, remained in the coalition until 1950 and in parliament until the 1959 election. For much of the Second Republic, the only opposition party was the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which included German nationalist and liberal political currents. It was founded in 1955 as a successor organisation to the short-lived Federation of Independents (VdU).
The United States countered starvation in 1945–46 with emergency supplies of food delivered by the US Army, by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), and by the privately organized Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (CARE). Starting in 1947, it funded the Austrian trade deficit. Large-scale Marshall Plan aid began in 1948 and operated in close cooperation with the Austrian government. However, tensions arose when Austria—which never joined NATO—was ineligible for the American shift toward rearmament in military spending.[101] The US was also successful in helping Austrian popular culture adopt American models. In journalism, for example, it sent in hundreds of experts (and controlled the newsprint), closed down the old party-line newspapers, introduced advertising and wire services, and trained reporters and editors, as well as production workers. It founded the Wiener Kurier, which became popular, as well as many magazines such as Medical News from the United States, which informed doctors on new treatments and drugs. The Americans also thoroughly revamped the radio stations, in part with the goal of countering the Soviet-controlled stations. On an even larger scale the education system was modernized and democratized by American experts.[102]
The two major parties strove towards ending allied occupation and restoring a fully independent Austria. The Austrian State Treaty was signed on 15 May 1955. Upon the termination of allied occupation, Austria was proclaimed a neutral country, and everlasting neutrality was incorporated into the Constitution on 26 October 1955.
The political system of the Second Republic came to be characterized by the system of Proporz, meaning that posts of some political importance were split evenly between members of the SPÖ and ÖVP. Interest group representations with mandatory membership (e.g., for workers, businesspeople, farmers etc.) grew to considerable importance and were usually consulted in the legislative process, so that hardly any legislation was passed that did not reflect widespread consensus. The Proporz and consensus systems largely held even during the years between 1966 and 1983, when there were non-coalition governments.
The ÖVP-SPÖ coalition ended in 1966, when the ÖVP gained a majority in parliament. However, it lost it in 1970, when SPÖ leader Bruno Kreisky formed a minority government tolerated by the FPÖ. In the elections of 1971, 1975 and 1979 he obtained an absolute majority. The 70s were then seen as a time of liberal reforms in social policy. Today, the economic policies of the Kreisky era are often criticized, as the accumulation of a large national debt began, and non-profitable nationalized industries were strongly subsidized.
Following severe losses in the 1983 elections, the SPÖ entered into a coalition with the FPÖ under the leadership of Fred Sinowatz. In Spring 1986, Kurt Waldheim was elected president amid considerable national and international protest because of his possible involvement with the Nazis and war crimes during World War II. Fred Sinowatz resigned, and Franz Vranitzky became chancellor.
In September 1986, in a confrontation between the German-national and liberal wings, Jörg Haider became leader of the FPÖ. Chancellor Vranitzky rescinded the coalition pact between FPÖ and SPÖ, and after new elections, entered into a coalition with the ÖVP, which was then led by Alois Mock. Jörg Haider's populism and criticism of the Proporz system allowed him to gradually expand his party's support in elections, rising from 4% in 1983 to 27% in 1999. The Green Party managed to establish itself in parliament from 1986 onwards.
The SPÖ–ÖVP coalition persisted until 1999. Austria joined the European Union in 1995 (Video of the signing in 1994), and Austria was set on the track towards joining the Eurozone, when it was established in 1999.
In 1993, the Liberal Forum was founded by dissidents from the FPÖ. It managed to remain in parliament until 1999.Viktor Klima succeeded Vranitzky as chancellor in 1997.
In 1999, the ÖVP fell back to third place behind the FPÖ in the elections. Even though ÖVP chairman and Vice Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel had announced that his party would go into opposition in that case, he entered into a coalition with the FPÖ—with himself as chancellor—in early 2000 under considerable national and international outcry. Jörg Haider resigned as FPÖ chairman, but retained his post as governor of Carinthia and kept substantial influence within the FPÖ.
In 2002, disputes within the FPÖ resulting from losses in state elections caused the resignation of several FPÖ government members and a collapse of the government. Wolfgang Schüssel's ÖVP emerged as the winner of the subsequent election, ending up in first place for the first time since 1966. The FPÖ lost more than half of its voters, but reentered the coalition with the ÖVP. Despite the new coalition, the voter support for the FPÖ continued to dwindle in all most all local and state elections. Disputes between "nationalist" and "liberals" wings of the party resulted in a split, with the founding of a new liberal party called the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) and led by Jörg Haider. Since all FPÖ government members and most FPÖ members of parliament decided to join the new party, the Schüssel coalition remained in office (now in the constellation ÖVP–BZÖ, with the remaining FPÖ in opposition) until the next elections. On 1 October 2006 the SPÖ won a head on head elections and negotiated a grand coalition with the ÖVP.[103] This coalition started its term on 11 January 2007 with Alfred Gusenbauer as Chancellor of Austria.[104] For the first time, the Green Party of Austria became the third-largest party in a nationwide election, overtaking the FPÖ by a narrow margin of only a few hundred votes.
The grand coalition headed by Alfred Gusenbauer collapsed in the early summer of 2008 over disagreements about the country's EU policy. The early elections held on 28 September resulted in extensive losses for the two ruling parties and corresponding gains for Heinz-Christian Strache's FPÖ and Jörg Haider's BZÖ (the Green Party was relegated to the 5th position). Nevertheless, SPÖ and ÖVP renewed their coalition under the leadership of the new SPÖ party chairman Werner Faymann.[105] In 2008 Jörg Haider died in a controversial car accident[106] and was succeeded as BZÖ party chairman by Herbert Scheibner and as governor of Carinthia by Gerhard Dörfler.
In the legislative elections of 2013, SPÖ received 27% of the vote and 52 seats; ÖVP 24% and 47 seats, thus controlling together the majority of the seats. FPÖ received 40 seats and 21% of the votes, while the Greens received 12% and 24 seats. Two new parties, Stronach and the NEOS, received less than 10% of the vote, and 11 and nine seats respectively.[107]
On 17 May 2016, Christian Kern from SPÖ was sworn in as new chancellor. He continued governing in a "grand coalition" with ÖVP. He took the office after former chancellor, also from SPÖ, Werner Faymann's resignation.[108]
On 26 January 2017, Alexander Van der Bellen was sworn into as the mostly ceremonial - but symbolically significant - role of Austrian president.[109]
After the Grand Coalition broke in Spring 2017 a snap election was proclaimed for October 2017. ÖVP with its new young leader Sebastian Kurz emerged as the largest party in the National Council, winning 31.5% of votes and 62 of the 183 seats. SPÖ finished second with 52 seats and 26.9% votes, slightly ahead of FPÖ, which received 51 seats and 26%. NEOS finished fourth with 10 seats (5.3 percent of votes), and PILZ (which split from the Green Party at the start of the campaign) entered parliament for the first time and came in fifth place with 8 seats and 4.4% The Green Party failed with 3.8% to cross the 4% threshold and was ejected from parliament, losing all of its 24 seats.[110] The ÖVP decided to form a coalition with the FPÖ. The new government between the centre-right wing and the right-wing populist party under the new chancellor Sebastian Kurz was sworn in on 18 December 2017,[111] but the coalition government later collapsed in the wake of the “Ibiza” corruption scandal[112] and new elections were called for 29 September 2019. The elections lead to another landslide victory (37.5%) of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) who formed a coalition-government with the reinvigorated (13.9%) Greens, which was sworn in with Kurz as chancellor on January 7, 2020.[113]
On 11 October 2021, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigned, after pressure triggered by a corruption scandal. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg of ÖVP succeeded him as chancellor.[114] Following a corruption scandal involving the ruling ÖVP, Austria got its third conservative chancellor in two months after Karl Nehammer was sworn into office on 6 December 2021. His predecessor Alexander Schallenberg had left the office after less than two months. ÖVP and the Greens continued to govern together.[115]
