The Dual Monarchy of
Austria-HungarySection 13.66
Was Germany really united after 1871?
The Habsburg Empire after 1848• Bismarck left 1/6th of Germans
left outside the empire • Had to work out their future with
a dozen other nationalities around the Danube
• Amazing resilience is shown by the Habsburg presence
• Attacked by Revolutionary France (1789-1799)
• Attacked by Napoleon (1799-1809)
• Broken up in 1848 and restored by Russian intervention
• Attacked by Napoleon III in 1859• Attacked by Bismarck in 1866• Yet it held together until 1918• Its character greatly changed
during the 1850s-60s
The Habsburgs v Nationalism• How would the Habs react to problems of
nationalism?• Francis Joseph 1848 to 1916• Deeply seated in his own anachronism• Lived in a pompous dream world• Disliked everything liberal, progressive,
modern• Incapable of ambitious projects, bold
decisions, persevering actions• Yet post 1848 government was not idle• Tried Germanic centralization (language)• Bureaucratic efficiency and modernization• Maintained the abolition of serfdom (from 1848)• Built RR• Germanic centralization was distasteful to the
non-German nationalities• Especially to the Magyars • Magyars made up less than half the mixed
Hungarian population
The Compromise of 1867• Ausgleich (a tie)• A compromise between the Germans and the
Magyars• Was to the disadvantage of the slavs
(considered backwards)• Dual Monarchy was created• West of the Leith was Austria: German
Language• East of the Leith was Hungary: Magyar• Equal to each other• Each had own constitution, parliament• Austrian administrative language = German• Hungarian = Magyar• Neither state could interfere in the others
internal affairs• State joined by Habsburgs who would be
Emperor over Austria and King of Hungary• Delegates from each parliament would meet
regularly alternately in each others capitals• Was also a common ministry of war, finance,
foreign affairs
National and Social Questions• A semblance of two nation states was created • Germans were less than half the people in
Austria– Included Slovenes, Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians
• Magyars were less than half the people in Hungary– Included Slovaks, Croats, Serbs,
Transylvanians (Romanians)• Neither nation-state was democratic• Austria did not adopt universal male suffrage
until 1907• Hungary enfranchised only 25% of adult
males in 1914• Owners of the great landed estates remained
the dominant class• Landless peasants had no educated or
wealthy class to advocated for their nationalities (Slovak, Serbs)
• Landlordism became major social issue• Aristocracy (educated, civilized) v. depressed
peasant masses who had been left out of modernity
German 24%
Hungarian 20%
Czech 13%
Polish 10%
Ruthenian 8%
Romanian 6%
Croat 5%
Slovak 4%
Serb 4%
Slovene 3%
Italian 3%
