Modules

‘Yes, but are they allowed to?’ – The revolution of 1848

For the imperial house, the loud voices on the streets were more than just a noisy disturbance: The middle classes were demanding a voice in politics. However, the Habsburgs showed little willingness to make concessions.

The new ordering of Europe in 1814/15

Although posterity knows it best as the ‘dancing Congress’, the Congress of Vienna was in fact a highly serious event of power politics. It imposed a new order on Europe after the turmoil of the Napoleonic wars.

The German Confederation and the German question

The ‘Old Reich’ had gone under – what was now to take its place? Although the German Confederation was intended to replace the dissolved Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburgs had to witness the rapid disappearance of their traditional position of dominance.

‘In the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity’

Once again the conservative monarchs acted in the name of ‘divine Providence’, as they often had when legitimizing territorial claims. However, the Holy Alliance was not destined to last long.

An empire in two halves: the Compromise with Hungary

Following on from the foundation of the Austrian Empire, the Habsburg imperium was subjected to a further major reshaping in the second half of the nineteenth century – the Compromise with Hungary created the ‘Austro-Hungarian Monarchy’.

‘To My Peoples’

When the Emperor wishes to justify a declaration of war, he writes an open letter to ‘his peoples’.

An atmosphere of upheaval in the Monarchy

The idea of the ‘bourgeois subject’ shook the foundations of the monarchy. In the nineteenth century new ideals began to assert themselves against the old ones.

What is a constitution?

The most important slogan of the nineteenth century was CONSTITUTION. But what did people expect from it?

Constitutional experiments. Paper plans and social practice

During the course of the revolutionary events of 1848, it was hoped that the people’s concerns would be reconciled with the interests of the Monarchy in the form of a constitution. 1848 marked the start of an age of draft constitutions on paper which did not always match the aspirations of large sections of society.

The peasant is free

Feudal structures still determined the peasants’ way of life. But this was finally to change as a result of the endeavours of Hans Kudlich…