An Introduction to the History of Western Europe Part 69

265. By the end of March, 1848, the prospects of reform were bright indeed. Hungary and Bohemia had been guaranteed const.i.tutional independence; the Austrian provinces awaited their promised const.i.tution; Lombardy and Venetia had declared their independence of Austria; four Italian states had obtained their longed-for const.i.tutions, and all were ready for a war with Austria; Prussia was promised a const.i.tution, and lastly, the National a.s.sembly at Frankfurt was about to prepare a const.i.tution for a united Germany.

[Sidenote: Conservatives and radicals both help to frustrate the realization of the proposed reforms.]

The moderate reformers who had gained these seeming victories had, however, only just reached the most difficult part of their task. They had two kinds of enemies, who abhorred each other but who effectually combined to undo the work of the moderates. These were, first, the conservative party, represented by Austria and the Italian rulers who had been forced most reluctantly to grant const.i.tutions to their subjects; and, secondly, the radicals, who were not satisfied with the prospect of a liberal monarchy and desired a republican or socialistic form of government. While the princes were recovering from the astonis.h.i.+ng humiliations of March, the radicals began to discredit the revolutionary movement and alienate public opinion by fantastic programmes and the murder of hostile ministers.

[Sidenote: Defeat of the Italians under Charles Albert of Sardinia, July, 1848.]

For the moment Austria's chief danger lay in Italy, which was the only one of her dependencies that had actually taken up arms against her. The Italians had been unable to drive out the Austrian army, which, under the indomitable general, Radetzky, had taken refuge in the so-called Quadrilateral, in the neighborhood of Mantua, where it was protected by four great fortresses. Charles Albert of Sardinia found himself, with the exception of a few volunteers, almost unsupported by the other Italian states. The best ally of Austria was the absence of united action upon the part of the Italians, and the jealousy and indifference that they showed as soon as war had actually begun. The pope decided that his mission was one of peace and that he could not afford to join in a war against Austria, the stoutest ally of the Roman church. The king of Naples easily found a pretext for recalling the troops that public opinion had compelled him to send to the aid of the king of Sardinia. Charles Albert was defeated at Custozza, July 25, and compelled to sign a truce with Austria and withdraw his forces from Lombardy.

[Sidenote: Policy of the Italian republicans.]

The Italian republicans, who had imputed to Charles Albert merely personal motives in his efforts to free Italy, now attempted to carry out their own programme. Florence, as well as Venice, proclaimed itself a republic. At Rome the liberal and enlightened Rossi, whom the pope had put at the head of affairs, was a.s.sa.s.sinated in November just as he was ready to promulgate his reforms. The pope fled from the city and put himself under the protection of the king of Naples. A const.i.tutional a.s.sembly was then convoked by the revolutionists, and under the influence of Mazzini, in February, 1849, it declared the temporal power of the pope abolished and proclaimed the Roman republic.

[Sidenote: Hostility between the Germans and Czechs in Bohemia.]

266. Meanwhile the conditions in Austria began to be favorable to a reestablishment of the emperor's former influence. Race rivalry proved his friend in his Austrian domains just as republicanism tended to his ultimate advantage in Italy. The Czechs[449] in Bohemia hated the Germans in 1848, much as they had hated them in the time of Huss. The German part of the population naturally opposed the plan of making Bohemia practically independent of the government at Vienna, for it was to German Vienna that they were wont to look for protection against the enterprises of their Czechish fellow-countrymen. The Germans wanted to send delegates to the Frankfurt convention, and to maintain the union between Bohemia and the German states.

[Sidenote: The Pan-Slavic Congress of 1848.]

[Sidenote: Beginnings of revolt in Bohemia suppressed.]

The Czechs determined to offset the movement toward German consolidation by a Pan-Slavic Congress, which should bring together the various Slavic peoples comprised in the Austrian empire. To this a.s.sembly, which met in Prague in June, 1848, came delegates from the Czechs, Moravians, Ruthenians, and Poles in the north, and the Servians and Croatians in the south. Its deliberations were interrupted by an insurrection that broke out among the people of Prague and gave the commander of the Austrian forces a sufficient excuse for intervening. He established a military government, and the prospect of independence for Bohemia vanished. This was Austria's first real victory.

[Sidenote: The Slavic peoples revolt against Hungary.]

The eastern and southern portion of the Hapsburg domains were not more h.o.m.ogeneous than the west and north. When a const.i.tution was granted to Hungary it was inevitable that the races which the Hungarians (Magyars) had long dominated should begin to consider how they might gain the right to govern themselves. The Slavs inhabiting Carniola, Carinthia, Istria, Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia, and Servia had long meditated upon the possibility of a united Slavic kingdom in the south. Both the Servians and Croatians now revolted against Hungary. Like the Germans in Bohemia, the Servians and Croatians were on the whole friendly to the Vienna government, from which they had less to fear than from the establishment of Hungarian independence, which would put them at the mercy of the Magyars. It was, therefore, with the support of the Austrian ministry that an army of Servians and Croatians crossed into Hungary in September.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Various Races of Austro-Hungary]

[Sidenote: Insurrection of the radicals in Vienna suppressed.]

[Sidenote: Accession of Francis Joseph I, 1848-.]

In October, 1848, the radical party rose in Vienna as it had in Paris after the deposition of Louis Philippe. The minister of war was brutally murdered and the emperor fled. The city was, however, besieged by the same commander who had put down the insurrection in Prague, and was forced to surrender. The imperial government was now in a position still further to strengthen itself. The emperor, a notoriously inefficient person, was forced to abdicate (December 2, 1848) in favor of his youthful nephew, Francis Joseph I, who still sits upon the Austrian throne. Moreover, a new Metternich appeared in the person of Schwarzenberg.

[Sidenote: Suppression of Hungarian republic.]

[Sidenote: Final peaceful union between Austria and Hungary, 1867.]

A vigorous campaign was begun against Hungary, which, under the influence of the patriotic Kossuth, had deposed its Hapsburg king and declared itself an independent republic under the presidency of Kossuth.

The Tsar placed his forces at the disposal of Francis Joseph, and with the aid of an army of one hundred and fifty thousand Russians, who marched in from the east, the Hungarians were compelled, by the middle of August, to surrender. Austria took terrible vengeance upon the rebels. Thousands were hung, shot, and imprisoned, and many, including Kossuth, fled to the United States or elsewhere. But within a few years Hungary won its independence by peaceful measures, and it is now on exactly the same footing as the western dominions of Francis Joseph in the dual federation of Austria-Hungary.

[Sidenote: Austria defeats the king of Sardinia at Novara, March, 1849.]

[Sidenote: Accession of Victor Emmanuel as king of Sardinia.]

It remained for Austria to reestablish her prestige in Italy and in the German Confederation. In March, 1849, Charles Albert renewed the war which had been discontinued after the defeat at Custozza. The campaign lasted but five days and closed with his crus.h.i.+ng and definitive defeat at Novara (March 23), which put an end to the hopes of Italian liberty for the time being. Charles Albert abdicated in favor of his son, Victor Emmanuel, who was destined before many years to become king of Italy.

[Sidenote: Austria reestablishes the former conditions in Italy, except in Piedmont.]

After bringing the king of Sardinia to terms, Austria pushed southward, reestablis.h.i.+ng the old order as she went. The ephemeral Italian republics were unable to offer any effectual resistance. The former rulers were restored in Rome, Tuscany, and Venice, and the const.i.tutions were swept away from one end of the peninsula to the other, except in Piedmont, the most important part of the king of Sardinia's realms.

There Victor Emmanuel not only maintained the representative government introduced by his father, but, by summoning to his councils d'Azeglio and others known throughout Italy for their liberal sentiments, he prepared to lead Italy once more against her foreign oppressors.

[Sidenote: Question of the extent of the proposed union.]

[Sidenote: Impossibility of a German state which should include both Austria and Prussia.]

267. In Germany, as elsewhere, Austria profited by the dissensions among her opponents. On May 18, 1848, the National a.s.sembly, consisting of nearly six hundred representatives of the German people, had met at Frankfurt. It immediately began the consideration of a new const.i.tution that should satisfy the popular longings for a great free German state, to be governed by and for the people. But what were to be the confines of this new German state? The confederation of 1815 did not include all the German inhabitants of Prussia, and did include the heterogeneous western possessions of Austria,--Bohemia and Moravia, for example, where a great part of the people were Slavs. There was no hesitation in deciding that all the Prussian territories should be admitted to the new union. As it appeared impossible to exclude Austria altogether, the a.s.sembly agreed to include those parts of her territory which had belonged to the confederation formed in 1815. This decision rendered the task of founding a real German state practically impossible; for the new union was to include two great European powers who might at any moment become rivals, since Prussia would hardly consent to be led forever by Austria. So heterogeneous a union could only continue to be, as it had been, a loose confederation of practically independent princes.

[Sidenote: The a.s.sembly at Frankfurt gives Austria time to recover.]

The improbability that the a.s.sembly at Frankfurt would succeed in its undertaking was greatly increased by its unwise conduct. Instead of proceeding immediately to frame a new form of government, it devoted several months to the formulation of the general rights of the German citizen. This gave a fine opportunity to the theorists, of which there were many in the a.s.sembly, to ventilate their views, and by the time that the const.i.tution itself came up for discussion, Austria had begun to regain her influence and was ready to lead the conservative forces once more. She could rely upon the support of the rulers of South Germany, for they were well satisfied with the old confederation and the independence that it gave them.

[Sidenote: The a.s.sembly asks the king of Prussia to become emperor of Germany.]

[Sidenote: Frederick William IV refuses the imperial crown.]

In spite of her partiality for the old union, Austria could not prevent the a.s.sembly from completing its new const.i.tution. This provided that there should be an hereditary emperor at the head of the government, and that exalted office was tendered to the king of Prussia. Frederick William IV had been alienated from the liberal cause, which he had at first espoused, by an insurrection in Berlin. He was, moreover, timid and conservative at heart; he hated revolution and doubted if the National a.s.sembly had any right to confer the imperial t.i.tle. He also greatly respected Austria, and felt that a war with her, which was likely to ensue if he accepted the crown, would not only be dangerous to Prussia, since Francis Joseph could rely upon the a.s.sistance of the Tsar, but dishonorable as well, in Austria's present embarra.s.sment. So he refused the honor of the imperial t.i.tle and announced his rejection of the new const.i.tution (April, 1849).

[Sidenote: The National a.s.sembly disperses and the old diet is restored.]

This decision rendered the year's work of the National a.s.sembly fruitless, and its members gradually dispersed, with the exception of the radicals, who made a last desperate effort to found a republic.

Austria now insisted upon the reestablishment of the old diet, and nearly came to war with Prussia over the policy to be pursued.

Hostilities were only averted by the ignominious submission of Prussia to the demands of Schwarzenberg in 1851.

[Sidenote: Results of the revolutions of 1848.]

While the revolutions of 1848 seem futile enough when viewed from the standpoint of the hopes of March, they left some important indications of progress. The king of Prussia had granted his country a const.i.tution, which, with some modifications, has served Prussia down to the present day. Piedmont also had obtained a const.i.tution. The internal reforms, moreover, which these countries speedily introduced, prepared them to head once more, and this time with success, a movement for national unity.

It will be noted that the revolution of 1848 aimed to do more than the French Revolution of 1789. Not only was the national question everywhere an important one, but there were plans for the economic reorganization of society. It was no longer simply a matter of abolis.h.i.+ng the remnants of feudalism and insuring equal rights to all and the partic.i.p.ation of the more prosperous cla.s.ses in the government. Those who lived by the labor of their hands and were employed in the vast industries that had developed with the application of steam machinery to manufacture also had their spokesmen. The relation of the state to the industrial cla.s.ses, and of capital to labor, had become, as they still are, the great problems of modern times.

[Sidenote: Decline of Austrian influence after 1851.]

In 1851 Austria had once more, in spite of the greatest obstacles, established the system of Metternich. But this victory was of short duration, and it was her last. Five years later the encroachments of Russia in Turkey brought on the Crimean War, of which something will be said later. In this war Austria observed an inglorious neutrality; she thereby sacrificed much of her prestige with both Russia and the western powers, and encouraged renewed attempts to free both Italy and Germany from her control.

[Sidenote: Development of Piedmont under Cavour.]

268. Under Victor Emmanuel and his great minister, Cavour, Piedmont had rapidly developed into a modern state. It sent a contingent to the aid of the western powers in the Crimean War waged by France and England against Russia (1853-1856); it developed its resources, military and economic, and at last found an ally to help it in a new attempt to expel Austria from Italy.

[Sidenote: Position and policy of Napoleon III.]

Napoleon III, like his far more distinguished uncle, was a usurper. He knew that he could not rely upon mere tradition, but must maintain his popularity by deeds that should redound to the glory of France. A war with Austria for the liberation of the Italians, who like the French were a Latin race, would be popular; especially if France could thereby add a bit of territory to her realms, and perhaps become the protector of the proposed Italian confederation. A conference was arranged between Napoleon and Cavour. Just what agreement was reached we do not know, but Napoleon no doubt engaged to come to the aid of the king of Sardinia, should the latter find a pretense for going to war with Austria. Should they together succeed in expelling Austria from northern Italy, the king of Sardinia was to reward France by ceding to her Savoy and Nice, which both geographically and racially belonged to her.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cavour]

[Sidenote: Victories of Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon III over Austria.]

By April, 1859, Victor Emmanuel had managed to involve himself in a war with Austria. The French army promptly joined forces with the Piedmontese, defeated the Austrians at Magenta, and on June 8, Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel entered Milan amid the rejoicings of the people. The Austrians managed the campaign very badly, and were again defeated at Solferino (June 24).