User:Conmettern

I am working on European history of the modern era, basically from 1789 to 1945 and also contemporary history. I am trying to rewrite articles that do not provide sufficient insight and/or material into the corresponding subjects or the structure of which - in my opinion - should be changed.

Revolutions of 1848-1849 in the Habsburg Empire

The revolutionary wave of 1848 commenced in Palermo, passing to Paris and from there to the Habsburg lands. Dissatisfaction with the Metternich system constituted the background of these events. In many European countries liberals, nationalists and socialists raised protests against the reactionary political system established by the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815. In Austria, liberals were fighting for freedom of speech and assembly, workers demanded better conditions in factories and nationalists claimed the dissolution of the reactionary German Confederation and wished all German states to be unified. Although the revolutions of 1848-1849 exercised essential influence on the domestic policies as well as the foreign relations of the Habsburg empire, the results of the latter were not as severe as these of the former, as the international position of Austria did not change much during this period of time. The Habsburg Empire had to face revolutionary events in three main theaters: in Italy, Germany, and Hungary.

As for the Italian theater, Austrian troops were sent to suppress riots in Palermo, Milan and Venice. Additionally, the Habsburg army had to defend twice the attack of Piedmont-Sardinia on the Austrian-ruled Lombardo-Veneto. In Hungary, the revolutions developed into independence war against the Habsburg power. In the revolutionary period also the German issue became one of the most crucial for the Habsburgs. Austria had to pay attention to the liberal intentions of the Frankfurt Parliament, which aimed at building a democratic constitutional unified German state, being therefore unacceptable for an absolutist empire like Austria. Also the struggle for mastery in Germany between Austria and Prussia became critical.

For the initiators of the revolution the only result was defeat. For the conservative and reactionary leaders of the Habsburg empire, the results of the revolution were positive, as the problems in each of the three theaters were solved in favor of the Austrian leadership. Austrian troops suppressed the uprisings in Northern Italy, Piedmont-Sardinia was forced to retreat from Lombardo-Veneto, the Hungarian resistance was destroyed with aid of Russian armed intervention, the Frankfurt Parliament turned out to be incapable of changing the course of events, and was dissolved in 1849, and the Prussian attempt to unify Northern Germany under Prussian hegemony had failed, as Prussia was forced to sign the Capitulation of Olmütz because of an Austrian ultimatum backed by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.