Samuel Hamilton March
12, 2004
The Political Evolution of the Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Dynasty and its rule over Austria
materialized as far back as 1273 when, the newly elected German King, Count
Rudolph IV of Habsburg deposed Przemysl Crown Prince Ottokar II and took up the
dominion over the Danube Basin. While this would be the beginning of the
Habsburg reign over central Europe for the next six centuries, noteworthy
political ferment within the nation would not take hold until the early 16th
century which witnessed the union of the Alpine hereditary lands and the crowns
of Bohemia and Hungary-Croatia. The political systems of the constituent
kingdoms that the Habsburgs came to rule soon merged into one political entity.
From this point until the mid-19th century, the Habsburgs
implemented an astute policy of territorial acquisition through marriage which
ultimately made the Habsburg seat one of the great capitals of the world.[1]
However, as the 19th century came into view, so did the beginnings
of nationalistic movements. The once stable Habsburg structure of began to
weaken, and the Hungarian Revolt in 1848, marked the beginning of the Habsburg
EmpireÕs decline.
Through the latter years of
the 15th century and into the early 16th, the Habsburg
Empire quickly burgeoned into a world power. The intermarriage of Maximilian I
to the heiress of Burgundy in 1477 and that of his son Phillip to the heiress
to Castile and Aragon, in 1496, engendered political alliances with powerful
Western kingdoms. When the Duke of Burgundy died in 1478, a year after the
marriage of his daughter and Maximilian, all of the Burgundian possessions,
which included the Netherlands went by right of marriage into the control of
the Habsburgs. However, it was when the son of Phillip, Charles, who married
the other Iberian heiress, Isabella of Portugal, could the newfound
expansiveness of the Habsburg dominion be recognized. When Charles succeeded
his father in 1519, he truly ruled over an empire on which the sun never set,
stretching as it did from the Danube Basin across Western Europe.[2]
Furthermore, in 1526-1527 the Habsburgs took possession of the Alpine
hereditary lands of Bohemia and Hungary-Croatia whose crowns came under the
administration of Charles VÕs brother, Ferdinand. The consolidation of the
German and Central European regions and the Iberian kingdoms under the Habsburg
title greatly influenced European power politics.[3]
The
succession of the Habsburgs to the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary-Croatia
Òestablished merely the dynastic premisesÓ for the development of a Central
European Empire. However, the family ties and the political pacts that were
evident were simply surface indicators that all of the new territory could be
labeled as ÒHabsburg.Ó In reality, it was factors such as the Turkish advance
into Central Europe and the unifying fight against the Reformation that brought
the disparate domains of the Habsburg dominion together and turned it into a
politically sound Empire.[4]
Both of these threats required the collective effort of the entire Habsburg
Empire to suppress. As a result, Emperor Ferdinand implemented new institutions
which would pertain to all of the constituent parts of the Habsburg Empire. The
Secret Council set up in 1527 became the supreme body for affairs of state
(foreign and military) as well as financial matters and collecting taxes from
crown domains. The Court Chamber was the primary administrative body for the
hereditary lands, which oversaw functions of the treasury and a ministry of economic
administration. [5] The Court
War Council was created to serve as a defense ministry with respect to the
German and Austro-Bohemian-Hungarian Habsburg lands. While there was often
dissension between these three offices in the early times of their operation,
their political significance can hardly be ignored. The Habsburg Dynasty was
slowly but surely emerging as a unified empire.
Despite
attempts made by governmental officials of the Habsburg Empire to create a
cohesive political system within Central Europe power, the arrival of the
Turkish Wars as well as the Thirty YearsÕ War brought about years of turbulence
within the monarchy. The Wars between the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Turks went
off and on for years. However, the true and possibly more pressing issue was
the underlying problem of the Habsburg EmpireÕs struggle to gain recognition in
Hungary against the claims of native princes. This separatist problem of
Hungary with regard to the Habsburg rule foreshadowed what was to culminate in
1848 when Hungary would rebel against the Habsburgs. It is important to note
that this was not simply the condition for Hungary-Habsburg relations during
the mid to later decades of the 16th century. The Bohemian revolt of
1618 surfaced as a result of religious tensions between Protestantism and
Catholicism which had originally emerged as a local, confessional conflict and
turned into an outright civil war. By the second half of the 16th
century the majority of monarchyÕs peoples, with the exception of the Czechs, had
adopted some denomination of Protestant religion. In fact, the Catholic
Habsburgs had become a religious minority among their own people and were
consequently forced to grant varying degrees of religious toleration.
Toleration
did off some rewards, the first and foremost being the removal of religion as a
source of conflict. Also, by defusing the religious issue, the Habsburg crown
also guaranteed itself the loyalty and support of their protestant
constituents. However, influenced by the Archduke Ferdinand of Inner Austria
who had achieved initial success by reintroducing Catholicism in his lands,
Matthias I (successor of the late Ferdinand who died during the first wave of
the Turkish Wars) decided to follow in the ArchdukeÕs footsteps. It was not long
after the MatthiasÕs religious persecution of the Protestants did he encounter
opposition, especially in Bohemia. When Mattias died in 1619 and was succeeded
by Archduke Ferdinand, the nobility of Bohemia refused to accept a soverign who
was certain to escalate the harassment of its own Protestant population. The
revolt soon turned into an internal conflagration for the Habsburg Empire; in
June 1619 Bohemian rebel forces laid siege to FerdinandÕs new capital at
Vienna, only to be saved by the timely arrival of Styrian cavalry. 25,000
troops were subsequently raised by the Bohemian crown lands, who in reality had
the support of any other disaffected Protestants from elsewhere in the
monarchy. The massive foreign coalition eventually culminated in the battle of
White Mountain. In spite of the Bohemian forceÕs numbers and vigor in cause,
the Habsburg armies were too strong. Furthermore, the Habsburg success
converted Ferdinand II from a virtual prisoner of the Hofburg to one of the
most power and influential rulers in Austrian history.[6] The emperorÕs distinguished reputation
as an intolerant, and somewhat fanatical, partisan of the Counter-Reformation
had proven enduring and strong enough to outstand the Bohemian revolt and the
opposition of his own Protestant states.
Despite
FerdinandÕs ability to emerge victorious from the Bohemian revolts, the next
thirty years witnessed the end of the Habsburg dynastyÕs hegemony.[7]
The territory of the Spanish line of Habsburgs became harder and harder to
maintain as a result of the aggressions of Louis XIV of France. In 1679 a
plague ravaged ViennaÕs populace, taking a staggering death toll through the
year that it lasted. And finally, in 1683, after a failed attempt in 1529, the
Turks advanced on Vienna with an army of 300,000 men and laid siege to the city
and to those 24,000 that hadnÕt fled. Despite the ill-fated circumstances for
Vienna and its constituents, the fortuitous arrival of the Polish army and a
multinational force galvanized by the Duke of Lorraine induced an immediate
retreat of the Turks, having been caught off-guard. Although the one bright
moment of this period was the conversion, in 1687, of the Hungarian crown into
a hereditary entity under the Habsburg dynasty, the Habsburgs had already been
supplanted by the Bourbons as the formidable European dynasty.[8]
This
is not so say that the Habsburg Empire was in the process of total decline,
however, as the 18th century arrived, the actual familial line of
the Habsburgs had begun to wither. The death of Leopold I in 1705 left his
elder son, Joseph I to become the Habsburg Emperor. Leopold, before his death,
had renounced his own claims to Spain and delegated JospehÕs brother Charles to
suffice as the new Spanish sovereign with hopes of creating a second line of Spanish
Habsburgs. However, the unexpected death of Joseph I who left only daughters
with his name, forced Charles (IV) to become Emperor of the Austrian, Bohemian
and Hungarian lands. Due to the void created by CharlesÕ departure from the
Spanish sovereignty, the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) recognized the Bourbon
accession to Spain and the Spanish Americas. [9]
Emblematic of his intransigence, Charles IV could not let go of the Spanish
territory that had been under the rule of the Habsburgs for the previous two
centuries. He remained at war with the Bourbon Spain until 1720, when an
armistice was declared, and by 1725, Spain became recognized as no longer a
Habsburg domain but conversely, a part of Bourbon dominion.
From
1711 to 1740, Charles IVÕs main concern was his circumstance as being the last
male Habsburg. Charles had no sons and he agonized about the Habsburg
succession in some of the hereditary lands that were assured only to a male
heir to the throne. Therefore, Charles, in order to preserve the Habsburg line,
issued his famous and revolutionary Pragmatic Sanction prescribing that in the
event of his dying sonless, the entire Habsburg inheritance should pass:
1)
To a daughter of his,
according to the rule of his primogeniture.[10]
2)
If he himself has no
daughters, to his late brotherÕs daughters.[11]
3)
And if his niecesÕ line
was extinct, the inheritance should go to the heirs of his paternal aunts.[12]
Previous declarations such as this had been made which
included the possibility of a female successor, but they had, however, remained
largely hypothetical assertions until CharlesÕ Pragmatic Sanction. By publicly
enunciating these principles for the first time, the Pragmatic Sanction
necessitated the formal acceptance by the estates of the Habsburg realm.[13]
Furthermore, Charles needed for his Pragmatic Sanction to be recognized on an
international level, lest he want the rest of Europe to question the legitimacy
of the Habsburg throne.
Fortunately
for Charles, by 1738, it looked as though his sanction was ratified by Europe
without creating much discord: Saxony, Bavaria, Spain, Russia, Prussia,
Hanover-England, and finally France had all, in one way or another,
acknowledged the CharlesÕ Pragmatic Sanction. However, when Charles died in
1740, his daughter who took to the throne, Maria Theresa was confronted by the
Prussian invasion of Silesia. What ensued was the War of the Austrian
Succession. All of the extensions of the Habsburg territory came into conflict:
Bavaria and Saxony challenged the Habsburg position in Germany with a French
backing while Bourbon Spain made attempts to oust the Habsburgs from Lombardy.
As soon as Maria Theresa came to the throne, all the Habsburg Empire went
up-for-grabs. Luckily Great Britain came and offered support, yet more as a
result of their hostility toward the French than their general fidelity to the
Pragmatic Sanction.
The
War of Austrian Succession ended in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle[14]
and ultimately cost Maria Theresa most of Silesia, part of Lombardy and the
duchies of Parma and Piacenza. The hub of the empire, her fatherÕs hereditary
lands were left untouched. Furthermore, when Maria TheresaÕs husband Frances
Stephan of Lorraine was recognized as Holy Roman Emperor with the title Francis
I, a new dynastic era emerged, that of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
Of the losses that Maria Theresa and the
Habsburg monarchy had to endure, the gravest and more ominous was the loss of
Silesia. Silesia had always served as a critical buffer for the Habsburg
Empire; as it absorbed the brunt of an invading force, the Habsburgs were given
time to assemble armies that were ready to fight the rest of the invading
forces that was able to permeate through Silesia. However, with the Prussian
occupation of Silesia(except for three counties), the Maria Theresa had to
contend with for the first time an opposing force being threateningly close to
one of the hereditary lands of the empire: Bohemia. Theresa understood the
impending danger and dealt with it by instituting reforms and new policies which
would go unparalleled in the history of the Habsburg Empire. With the help of
Privy Secretary Bartenstein and Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz, Maria
Theresa set into motion reforms that would affect every official within the
monarchyÕs administration. She began by recasting the central administration in
order to replace old and complacent officials with new ones who were ready to
deal with the empireÕs most pressing issues. By 1742, a new State Chancery was
in operation as well as a handful of other new offices. Although these changes
rendered the central government more efficient, Maria Theresa, Bartenstein and
Haugwitz new that in order to restore the monarchyÕs position as a great power,
there had to be increases in revenue as well as an increase in military forces.[15]
By the end of 1747, Haugwitz present a plan for increasing the army to over
200,000 men, which required specific numbers of troops from each of the
Habsburg domains. With regard to revenue, Haugwitz believed that rather than
squeeze all of the increase in revenue out of the peasantry, the noblesÕ own
domain lands would now buttress at least of the burden for that region (whether
it be Bohemia, Hungary-Croatia et cetera). Haugwitz did not propose to abolish
the statesÕ rights to approve taxes or participate in their collection, however
in 1748, Haugwitz did establish a system of crown deputations to monitor its
local allocation and collection of duties within the Erblande.[16]
In
less than a decade of her ascendancy to the Habsburg throne, Maria Theresa,
with the help of Haugwitz and Bartenstein, had doubled state revenue,
reconstructed the administrative and military system and had begun the process
of entrusting it to her heirs to the Habsburg throne.
In
1789, the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars made Maria TheresaÕs reform
program ground to a complete halt. Instead, three fundamental changes took
shape as a result of the French Revolution: (1) the dissolution of the Holy
Roman Empire in 1806, (2) the definitive renunciation if the southern
Netherlands by the Habsburgs in 1797 and the most foreboding, (3) the awakening
of the spirit of nationalism in a modernizing world.[17]
The
response to the French eruption was the notorious Pillnitz Declaration of 1792,
in which Leopold II (who became the sole emperor after his brother Joseph II
died in 1790) and Frederick William II of Prussia announced that they were
willing to act in concert with their constituent monarchs in order to forcibly
restore the monarchy under Louis XIV in France.[18]
However, Leopold for the most part was bluffing, hoping that if he puffed out
his chest enough that others would rally behind his assertion. When he
decreased his army by 25,000 men, Leopold showed that he did not believe that
war was truly on the horizon. Although the declaration did not become the
framework for European military intervention in France as its authors had
hoped,[19]
it created a very tenuous relationship between the France and Austria which
retained diametrically incongruent ideologies. In 1792, not only did Leopold II
die and his 24-year-old son ascend to the throne, revolutionary France declared
war on Austria.
The
first bouts of war between Napoleonic France and Austria lasted for five years
before Austria was rapidly abandoned by its military aid and Francis I had to
make unfavorable concessions to the French. Austria tried to renew the war in
1799 and in 1805, but NapoleonÕs dexterity on the field of battle proved
insurmountable to the Austrians. In light of the minimal success that Francis could
achieve, he appointed a new foreign minister in 1809, Clemens von Metternich,
who sought reconciliation with France. Metternich went about accomplishing this
resolution between France and Austria by arranging the marriage of Francis IÕs
daughter, Marie Louise, with Napoleon in 1811. The French military strategist
was eager for the prestige of marriage into one of the principal European
families and the heir that he would be able to conceive as a result. One year
later, Metternich was able to end the hostility between the two nations when in
March he negotiated AustriaÕs first alliance with revolutionary France.
However, this was not the end of MetternichÕs subterfuge. When NapoleonÕs Grand
ArmŽe invaded Russia, Metternich sent with them 30,000 Austrian troops under
the command of Prince Karl Philip Schwarzenberg. Metternich sent this Austrian
army into Russia with the French to maintain the appearance that Austria had an
alliance with the French when in reality Metternich was simply trying to
promote French goodwill by participating in the campaign. [20]
Furthermore, Metternich was also surreptitiously keeping alive the option of
joining a subsequent anti-French coalition by avoiding active hostilities with
the Russians.[21] And this is
exactly how it played out for Metternich and Austria. By the following summer,
the Grand ArmŽeÕs destruction by the Russian winter had led to the formation of
a Fourth Coalition which consisted of Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Great Britain,
Spain, Portugal and Austria (even though it was the first anti-French alliance
in which Austria had not been a found member). In the fall of 1813, 568,000
poorly supplied Austrian soldiers took to the field. Yet, more than half of
these troops joined the 570,000 strong allied army. After the first victory at
Leipzig in October, Napoleon was quickly deserted by the German princes that
had been at his aid. On March 31, 1814, the allied coalition force marched on
Paris and forced NapoleonÕs abdication eleven days later.
Despite
the success of defeating Napoleon and the French, Austria was left financially
beleaguered as a result. The ruling monarchy under Francis I essentially became
obsolete once Metternich took office. Metternich, as a result of the spread of
nationalism and liberalism from the French Revolution, imposed his conservative
ideology on the people. He used the example of liberal revolutions in Spain and
Naples and revolutionary activity in Germany to demonstrate the universal
menace posed by liberalism.[22] Metternich created a police state by
working closely with the director of police Count Sedlnitzky. Prominent
nationalists, such as Hungarian Louis Kossuth, were thrown in jail for
conspiracy. Books, newspapers, journals, plays and even paintings could be
banned if the content was deemed likely to foment national or liberal feelings.
The death of Francis I in 1835 marked the end of the strong-willed Habsburg
Emperors that had ruled Central Europe for the preceding five centuries. His
son Ferdinand II, who suffered from epilepsy, ascended to the throne and was
merely a puppet at that point as Metternich passed more and more pieces of
repressive legislation. Finally, in 1848, the bowel broke and cradle fell;
Metternich had become such a hated symbol of nationalist and liberal repression
that the forces that Metternich had tried to suppress ultimately exploded in
his face. Clemens von Metternich was forced to flee to England as the Habsburg
Empire became a distant memory of greatness and the nations that had originally
comprised its body began to create their own identities.
The
Habsburg Empire was one of the greatest Empires to ever rule in Europe.
However, despite their long tenure of ruling, one cannot help but notice that
there were not very many periods of political repose within the Empire. This
can most likely be attributed to the fact that the Habsburg Empire was a nation
comprised of eleven different national groups. When there exists such a
heterogeneous mixture of peoples under one rule, it is hard to avoid the
inevitability of a constantly polarized nation. While this was the case for the
Habsburgs, to their credit, they were able to maintain such a fragile rule for
over 550 years. But when the nationalist movement of the 19th
century arrived, the end of Habsburg Empire was inexorable.
Bibliography:
1)
Charles W. Ingrao The
Habsburg Monarchy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
2)
Gordon Brook-Shepherd The
Austrians (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1996)
3)
Robert A. Kann, History
of the Habsburg Empire (Berkley: UCLA Press, 1974)
4)
Encyclopedia Britannica
5)
http://reference.allrefer.com
The
Fieldston School______________________________________________________________
Andrew
Meyers
DBQ/ Research Essay Grading Sheet
|
You are graded on seven
categories: (items needing improvement are highlighted) |
||
|
à |
Introduction |
zinger, background (who, what,
when, where), definitions, relevance, thesis (why, how, Òso whatÓ), Òroad
mapÓ to rest of essay |
|
à |
Organization/ Structure |
thesis-driven, topic sentences,
paragraphing, transitions, logical flow |
|
à |
Factual Support |
relevance, selection, range of
sources, dates, people, historical events, context, evidence and
counter-evidence, examples |
|
à |
Quotation Choice/Use |
number, choice/use, intro,
analysis, discussion, format, relevance, citation |
|
à |
Analysis and Argument |
consistent thesis argument,
addresses counter-argument, thorough discussions, effective analysis, original interpretation, use of
secondary sources/historiography |
|
à |
Prose and Mechanics |
prose, punctuation, word
choice, colloquialisms, spelling, passive voice, capitals, vague antecedents,
verb tense, agreement, sentence fragments, vague language |
|
à |
Conclusion |
restatement, expansion,
answering the Òso whatÓ question (significance) |
(Ã = very good; ¥ = satisfactory;
x = unsatisfactory)
A =
If you fulfill all seven categories effectively, thoroughly, elegantly, and are
utterly convincingly
A- =
If you fulfill all seven categories effectively and thoroughly
B+ =
If you fulfill six
B =
If you fulfill five
B- =
If you fulfill four
C+ =
If you fulfill three
C =
If you fulfill two But
C- =
If you fulfill one
D =
If you attempt to fulfill one
Comment
.This is masterful!
Grade
A
Essay
Form and Correction Key
Introduction
ÒZingerÓ
Background
Thesis
+ Road Map: points A, B,+ C
Body
Paragraph ÒAÓ
Topic
Sentence ÒAÓ
Evidence
(quotes, dates, events)+ Analysis
Transistion
to ÒBÓ
Body Paragraph ÒBÓ
Topic
Sentence ÒBÓ
Evidence
(quotes, dates, events)+ Analysis
Transistion
to ÒCÓ
Body Paragraph ÒCÓ
Topic
Sentence ÒCÓ
Evidence
(quotes, dates, events)+ Analysis
Transistion
to conclusion
Conclusion
Restate
Thesis (more fully)
Expansion
(Òso what?Ó)
Correction Symbols
WW wrong word
(Choose a more appropriate word. Try a thesaurus.)
NSW no such word (Choose a
more appropriate word. Try a thesaurus.)
AWK awkward word or phrase
(Try a different word that fits the meaning of the sentence more closely.)
¦
insert
paragraph ( A new idea deserves a new ¦ .)
insert
AA ambiguous
antecedent (It is unclear to which noun the pronoun refers. Replace with proper
noun.)
VT faulty
verb tense agreemant (ie. shifting from past to present)
TS topic
sentence (Each TS should relate to your thesis and summarize the paragraph.)
/ lower
case (ie. a capital with a diagonal line through it should become a lowercase)
_ upper
case (ie. ÒaÓ means it
should be ÒAÓ )
remove
unclear
phrase
UNC unclear idea
??? what
the heck are you talking about?
pt punctuation
sp spelling
qt quotation
form (Indent, single-space and provide a citation of the source in the text or
in a footnote.)
cite citation
(Provide a citation of the source for the quotation or idea.)
coll colloquialism
(ie, ÒYo, Lincoln really dissed Jeff Davis, y'knowÓ)
frag sentence
fragment (ie, ÒEntering the war for political reasons, not moral ones.Ó)
passive passive voice (ie, change
ÒThe Constitution was writtenÓ to Òthe framers wrote the Comnstitution.Ó)
sig significance
(what is the significance of this point?)
reverse
Æ
change
RO run-on
sentence (Break up the sentence into a few smaller ones)