صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Mohhics and its results.

Charles V. and

and Hungary. Austria and Spain were thus divided, and, in was resolved to establish there the rule of the Jesuits. His spite of the efforts of the archduke Charles in the Spanish attempt to do so led to the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War Succession War, were never again united, for at the battle of (see BOHEMIA; THIRTY YEARS' War). Till 1630 the

The Thirty
Mohács, on the 28th of August 1526, Suleiman the fortunes of Austria brightened under the active rule Yearso
Magnificent defeated and killed Louis, king of Bohemia of Ferdinand, who was assisted by Maximilian of War.
and of Hungary, whose sister Anne had married Bavaria and the Catholic League, and by Wallenstein.

Ferdinand. By this victory the Turks conquered and The Palatinate was conquered, the Danish king was overthrown, retained, till the peace of Karlowitz in 1699, the greater part of and it seemed that Austria would establish its predominance Hungary. During most of his life Ferdinand was engaged in over the whole of Germany, and that the Baltic would become combating the Turks and in attempting to secure Hungary. In an Austrian lake. The fortunes of Austria never seemed brighter John Zápolya, who was supported by Suleiman, Ferdinand than in 1628 when Wallenstein began the siege of Stralsund. found an active rival. The Turks besieged Vienna in 1530 and His failure, followed by the arrival of Gustavus Adolphus in made several invasions of Hungary and Austria. At length Germany in 1630, proved the death blow of Austrian hopes. Ferdinand agreed to pay Suleiman an annual tribute for the In 1632 Gustavus Adolphus was killed, in 1634 Wallenstein was small portion-about 12,228 sq. m.--of Hungary which he held. assassinated, and in 1635 France entered into the war. The During Charles V.'s struggles with the German Protestants, Thirty Years' War now ceased to be a religious struggle The Ferdinand preserved a neutral attitude, which contributed to between Catholicism and Protestantism; it resolved Swedish gain Germany a short period of internal peace. Though Ferdi- itself into a return to the old political strife between and French nand himself did not take a leading part in German religious or France and the Habsburgs. Till 1648 the Bourbon luter

vention foreign politics, the period was one of intense interest to Austria. and Habsburg powers continued the war, and at the Throughout the years from 1519 to 1648 there are, said Stubbs, peace of Westphalia Austria suffered severe losses. Ferdinand two distinct ideas in progress which may be regarded as giving III. (1637-1657) was forced to yield Alsace to France, to grant a unity to the whole period. ... The Reformation is one, the territorial supremacy, including the right of making the peace claims of the House of Austria is the other.” Austria did not alliances, to the states of the Empire, and to acknow- of Weste benefit from the reign of Charles V. The emperor was too much ledge the concurrent jurisdiction of the imperial phalia

absorbed in the affairs of the rest of his vast dominions, chamber and the Aulic council. The disintegration

notably those of the Empire, rent in two by religious of the Holy Roman Empire was now practically accomplished, Austria differences and the secular ambitions for which those and though the possession of the imperial dignity continued to

were the excuse, to give any cffective attention to its give the rulers of Austria prestige, the Habsburgs henceforward needs. The peace of Augsburg, 1555, which recognized a dualism devoted themselves to their Austrian interests rather than to within the Empire in religion as in politics, marked the failure of those of the Empire. his plan of union (see CHARLES V.; GERMANY; MAURICE OF In 1657 Leopold I., who had already ruled the Austrian SAXONY); and meanwhile he had been able to accomplish nothing | dominions for iwo years, succeeded his father Ferdinand and to rescue Hungary from the Turkish yoke. It was left for his was crowned emperor in the following year. His long Leopold I. brother Ferdinand, a ruler of consummate wisdom (1556-1564) reign of 48 years was of great importance for Austria, "to establish the modern Habsburg-Austrian empire with its as determining both the internal character and the external policy exclusive territorial interests, its administrative experiments, of the monarchy. The long struggle with France to which the its intricacies of religion and of race."

ambitions of Louis XIV. gave rise, and which culminated in the Before his death Ferdinand divided the inheritance of the War of Spanish Succession, belongs less to the history of Austria German Habsburgs between his three sons. Austria proper was proper than to that of Germany and of Europe. Of more The policy left to his eldest son Maximilian, Tirol to the archduke importance to Austria itself was the war with Sweden (1657-60) of Ferdi- Ferdinand; and Styria with Carinthia and Carniola which resulted in the peace of Oliva, by which the independence band and to the archduke Charles. Under the emperor Maxi- of Poland was secured and the frontier of Hungary safeguarded,

milian II. (1564-1576), who was also king of Bohemia and the campaigns against the Turks (1662-64 and 1683-99),

and Hungary, a liberal policy preserved peace, but by which the Ottoman power was driven from Hungary, and he was unable to free his government from its humiliating the Austrian attitude towards Turkey and the Slav peoples of position of a tributary to the Turk, and he could do nothing thc Balkans determined for a century to come. The first war, to found religious liberty within his dominions on a permanent due to Ottoman aggression in Transylvania, cnded basis. The whole of Austria and nearly the whole of Styria with Montecuculi's

victory over the grand vizier at Turkey. were mainly Lutheran; in Bohemia, Silesia and Moravia, St Gothard on the Raab on the ist of August 1664. various forms of Christian belief struggled for mastery; and The general political situation prevented Leopold from taking Catholicism was almost confined to the mountains of Tirol. full advantage of this, and the peace of Vasvár (August 10)

The accession of Rudolph II.' (1576-1612), a fanatical left the Turks in possession of Nagyvarad (Grosswardein) and

Spanish Catholic, changed the situation entirely the fortress of Ersekujvár (Neuhäusel), Transylvania being Rudolph Under him the Jesuits were encouraged to press on recognized as an independent principality. The next Turkish

the counter-Reformation. In the early part of his war was the direct outcome of Leopold's policy in Hungary, reign there was hardly any government at all. In Bohemia a where the persecution of the Protestants and the suppression state of semi-independence existed, while Hungary preferred of the constitution in 1658, led to a widespread conspiracy. the Turk to the emperor. In both kingdoms Rudolph had This was mercilessly suppressed; and though after a period failed to assert his sovereign power except in fitful attempts to of arbitrary government (1672–1679), the palatinate and the extirpate heresy. With anarchy prevalent within the Austrian constitution, with certain concessions to the Protestants, were dominions some action became necessary. Accordingly in 1606 restored, the discontent continued. In 1683, invited by Hun

the archdukes made a compact agreeing to acknowledge garian malcontents and spurred on by Louis XIV., the Turks

the archduke Matthias as head of the family. This burst into Hungary, overran the country and appeared before compact,

arrangement proved far from successfulMatthias, the walls of Vienna. The victory of the 12th of September,

who was emperor from 1612 to 1619, proved unable gained over the Turks by John Sobieski (see John III. SOBIESKI, to restore order, and when he died Bohemia was practically KING OF POLAND) not only saved the Austrian capital, but was independent. His successor Ferdinand II. (1619-1637) was the first of a series of successes which drove the Turks perman. strong of will; and resolved to win back Germany to the Catholic ently beyond the Danube, and established the power of Austria faith. As archduke of Styria he had crushed out Protestantism in the East. The victories of Charles of Lorraine at Párkány in that duchy, and having been elected king of Bohemia in 1618 (1683) and Esztergom (Gran) (1685) were followed by the

Rudolph V. as archduke of Austria, Il. as emperor. capture of Budapest (1686) and the defeat of the Ottomans al

Maximllian II.

Wars with

The reign of

The family

1606.

Mohács (1688). In 1688 the elector took Belgrade; in 1691 Louis William L. of Baden won the battle of Slankamen, and on the 11th of September 1697 Prince Eugene gained the crowning victory of Zenta. This was followed, on the 26th of January 1699, by the peace of Karlowitz, by which Slavonia, Transylvania and all Hungary, except the banat of Temesvár, were ceded to the Austrian crown. Leopold had wisely decided to initiate a conciliatory policy in Hungary. At the diet of Pressburg (1687-1688) the Hungarian crown had been made hereditary in the house of Habsburg, and the crown prince Joseph had been crowned hereditary king of Hungary (q.v.). In 1697 Transylvania was united to the Hungarian monarchy. A further fact of great prospective importance was the immigration, after an abortive rising against the Turks, of some 30,000 Slav and Albanian families into Slavonia and southern Hungary, where they were granted by the emperor Leopold a certain autonomy and the recognition of the Orthodox religion.

By the conquest of Hungary and Transylvania Leopold completed the edifice of the Austrian monarchy, of which the foundations had been laid by Ferdinand I. in 1526. He had. also done much for its internal consolidation. By the death of the archduke Sigismund in 1665 he not only gained Tirol, but a considerable sum of money, which he used to buy back the Silesian principalities of Oppeln and Ratibor, pledged by Ferdinand III. to the Poles. In the administration of his dominions, too, Leopold succeeded in strengthening the authority of the central government. The old estates, indeed, survived; but the emperor kept the effective power in his own hands, and to his reign are traceable the first beginnings of that system of centralized bureaucracy which was established under Maria Theresa and survived, for better or for worse, till the revolution of 1848. It was under Leopold, also, that the Austrian standing army was established in spite of much opposition; the regiments raised in 1672 were never disbanded. For the intellectual life of the country Leopold did much. In spite of his intolerant attitude towards religious dissent, he proved himself an enlightened patron of learning. He helped in the establishment of the universities of Innsbruck and Olmütz; and under his auspices, after the defeat of the Turks in 1683, Vienna began to develop from a mere frontier fortress into one of the most brilliant capitals of Europe. (See LEOPOLD I.)

Leopold died in 1705 during the war of Spanish Succession (1702-13), which he left as an evil inheritance to his sons Joseph I. War of (d. 1711) and Charles VI. The result of the war was Spanish a further aggrandizement of the house of Austria; Succes but not to the extent that had been hoped. Apart s100 from the fact that British and Austrian troops had been unable to deprive Philip V. of his throne, it was from the point of view of Europe at large by no means desirable that Charles VI. should succeed in reviving the empire of Charles V. By the treaty of Utrecht, accordingly, Spain was left to the House of Bourbon, while that of Austria received the Spanish Netherlands, Sardinia and Naples.

The treaty of Karlowitz, and the settlement of 1713-1714, marked a new starting-point in the history of Austria. The efforts of Turkey to regain her ascendancy in eastern Austria from 1715 Europe at the expense of the Habsburgs had ended to 17:40. in failure, and henceforward Turkish efforts were confined to resisting the steady development of Austria in the direction of Constantinople. The treaties of Utrecht, Rastadt and Baden had also re-established and strengthened the position of the Austrian monarchy in western Europe. The days of French invasions of Germany had for the time ceased, and revenge for the attacks made by Louis XIV. was found in the establishment of Austrian supremacy in Italy and in the substitution of Austrian for Spanish domination in the Netherlands.

The situation, though apparently favourable, was full of difficulty, and only a statesman of uncommon dexterity could have guided Austria with success through the ensuing years. Composed of a congeries of nationalities which included Czechs,

|

Magyars, Ruthenes, Rumanians, Germans, Italians, Flemings and other races, and with territories separated by many miles, the Habsburg dominions required from their ruler patience, tolerance, administrative skill and a full knowledge of the currents of European diplomacy. Charles VI. possessed none of these qualities; and when he died in 1740, the weakness of the scattered Habsburg empire rendered it an object of the cupidity of the continental powers. Yet, though the War of Spanish Succession had proved a heavy drain on the resources of the hereditary dominions of the Austrian crown, Charles VI. had done much to compensate for this by the successes of his arms in eastern Europe. In 1716, in alliance with Venice, he declared war on the Turks; Eugene's victory at Peterwardein involved the conquest of the banat of Temesvár, and was followed in 1717 by the capture of Belgrade. By the treaty signed at Passarowitz on the 21st of July 1718, the banat, which rounded off Hungary and Belgrade, with the northern districts of Servia, were annexed to the Habsburg monarchy.

The

Important as these gains were, the treaty none the less once more illustrated the perpetual sacrifice of the true interests of the hereditary dominions of the house of Habsburg to its European entanglements. Had the war continued, Austria would undoubtedly have extended her conquests down the Danube But Charles was anxious about Italy, then in danger from Spain, which under Alberoni's guidance had occupied Sardinia and Sicily. On the 2nd of August 1718, accordingly, Charles joined the Triple Alliance, henceforth the Quadruple Alliance. The coercion of Spain resulted in a peace by which Charles obtained Sicily in exchange for Sardinia. The shifting of the balance of power that followed belongs to the history of Europe (q.v.); for Austria the only important outcome was that in 1731 Charles found himself isolated. Being without a son, he was now anxious to secure the throne for his daughter Maria Theresa, in accordance with the Pragmatic Pragmatic Sanction of the 19th of April 1713, in which he had Sanction. pronounced the indivisibility of the monarchy, and had settled the succession on his daughter, in default of a male heir. It now became his object to secure the adhesion of the powers to this instrument. In 1731 Great Britain and Holland agreed to respect it, in return for the cession of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla to Don Carlos; but the hostility of the Bourbon powers continued, resulting in 1733 in the War of Polish Succession, the outcome of which was the acquisition of Lorraine by France, and of Naples, Sicily and the Tuscan ports by Don Carlos, while the power of the Habsburg monarchy in northern Italy was strengthened by the acquisition of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla. At the same time Spain and Sardinia adhered to the Pragmatic Sanction. Francis, the dispossessed duke of Lorraine, was to be compensated with Tuscany. On the 12th of February 1736 he was married to the archduchess Maria Theresa, and on the 11th of May following he signed the formal act ceding Lorraine to France.

Treaty of Belgrade, 1739.

The last years of Charles VI. were embittered by the disastrous outcome of the war with Turkey (1738–1739), on which he had felt compelled to embark in accordance with the terms of a treaty of alliance with Russia signed in 1726. After a campaign of varying fortunes the Turks beat the imperial troops at Krotzka on the 23rd of July 1739 and laid siege to Belgrade, where on the 1st of September a treaty was signed, which, with the exception of the banat, surrendered everything that Austria had gained by the treaty of Passarowitz. On the 20th of October 1740, Charles died, leaving his dominions in no condition to resist the attacks of the powers, which, in spite of having adhered to the Pragmatic Sanction, now sought to profit from their weakness. their internal development Charles had done much. His religious attitude was moderate and tolerant, and he did his best to promote the enlightenment of his subjects. He was zealous, too, for the promotion of trade and industry, and, besides the East India Company which he established at Ostend, he encouraged the development of Trieste and Fiume as sea-ports and centres of trade with the Levant.

Yet for

Austria and Bavaria

Austria and the

The accession of Maria Theresa to the throne of the Habsburgs | divided between Austria and Prussia, whose rivalry for the marks an important epoch in the history of Austria. For a hegemony was to last until the victory of Königgrätz (1866) de

while, indeed, it seemed that the monarchy was on finitely decided the issue in favour of the Hohenzollern monarchy. Therese. the point of dissolution. To the diplomacy of the The loss of Silesia led Austria to look for a compensation

18th century the breach of a solemn compact was but elsewhere. The most obvious direction in which this could be lightly regarded; and Charles VI. had neglected the advice of sought was in Bavaria, ruled by the decadent house. Prince Eugenc to leave an effective army of 200,000 men as a of Wittelsbach, the secular rival of the house of more solid guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction than the signa- Habsburg in southern Germany. The question of the tures of the powers. As it was, the Austrian forces, disorganized annexation of Bavaria by conquest or exchange had in the long confusion of the Turkish wars, were in no condition occupied the minds of Austrian statesmen throughout the to withstand Frederick the Great, when in 1740, at the head of century: it would not only have removed a perpetual menace the splendid army bequeathed to him by his father, he invaded to the peace of Austria, but would have given to the Habsburg Silesia (see AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION, WAR OF) The Prussian monarchy an overwhelming strength in South Ge. many. The victory at Mollwitz (April 10, 1741) brought into the field against matter came to an issue in 1777, on the death of the elector Austria all the powers which were ambitious of expansion at Maximilian III. The heir was the elector palatine Charles her expense France, Bavaria, Spain, Saxony and Sardinia. Theodore, but Joseph II., who had been elected emperor in 1765, Nor was the peril wholly external. Apart from the perennial in succession to his father, and appointed co-regent with his discontents of Magyars and Slavs, the confusion and corruption mother-claimed the inheritance, and prepared to assert his of the administration, and the misery caused by the ruin of the claims by force. The result was the so-called War of Bavarian finances, had made the Habsburg dynasty unpopular even in its Succession. As a matter of fact, however, though the armies German states, and in Vienna itself a large section of public . under Frederick and Joseph were face to face in the field, the opinion was loudly in favour of the claims of Charles of Bavaria.affair was settled without actual fighting; Maria Theresa, fearing Yet the war, if it revealed the weakness of the Austrian monarchy, the chances of another struggle with Prussia, overruled her son revealed also unexpected sources of strength Not the least of at the last moment, and by the treaty of Teschen agreed to be these was the character of Maria Theresa herself, who to the content with the cession of the Quarter of the Inn (Innviertel) fascination of a young and beautiful woman added a very and some other districts. masculine resolution and judgment. In response to her personal Meanwhile the ambition of Catherine of Russia, and the war appeal, and also to her wise and timely concessions, the Hun- with Turkey by which the empire of the tsars was advanced to garians had rallied to her support, and for the first time in history the Black Sea and threatened to establish itself south

Russia, a woke not only to a feeling of enthusiastic loyalty to a Habsburg of the Danube, were productive of consequences of monarch, but also to the realization that their true interests enormous importance to Austria in the East. Russian were bound up with those of Austria (see HUNGARY. History). control of the Danube was a far more serious menace Ottoman

Empire Although, then, as the result of the war, Silesia was by the to Austria than the neighbourhood of the decadent treaty of Dresden transferred from Austria to Prussia, while in Ottoman power; and for a while the policy of Austria towards Italy' by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 cessions were the Porte underwent a change that foreshadowed her attitude made at the expense of the house of Habsburg to the Spanish towards the Eastern Question in the 19th century. In spite of Don Philip and to Sardinia, the Austrian monarchy as a whole the reluctance of Maria Theresa, Kaunitz, in July 1771, concluded had displayed a vitality that had astonished the world, and was a defensive alliance with the Porte. He would have exchanged in some respects stronger than at the beginning of the struggle, this for an active co-operation with Turkey, could Frederick notably in the great improvement in the army and in the posses- the Great have been persuaded to promise at least neutrality sion of generals schooled by the experience of active service. in the event of a Russo-Austrian War. But Frederick was un

The period from 1747 to 1756, the year of the outbreak of the willing to break with Russia, with whom he was negotiating the Seven Years' War, was occupied in preparations for carrying partition of Poland; Austria in these circumstances dared not into effect the determination of Maria Theresa to recover the take the offensive; and Maria Theresa was compelled to purlost provinces. To give any chance of success, it was recognized chase the modification of the extreme claims of Russia in Turkey that a twofold change of system was necessary: in internal and by agreeing to, and sharing in, the spoliation of Poland. Her in external affairs. To strengthen the state internally a complete own share of the spoils was the acquisition, by the revolution of its administration was begun under the auspices first treaty

of partition (August 5, 1772), of Galicia papildikood of Count F. W. Haugwitz (1700-1765); the motley system which and Lodomeria. Turkey was left in the lurch; and had survived from the middle ages was gradually replaced by Austrian troops even occupied portions of Moldavia, in order an administrative machinery uniformly organized and central to secure the communication between the new Polish provinces ized; and the army especially, hitherto patched together from and Transylvania. At Constantinople, too, Austria once more the quotas raised and maintained by the various diets and supported Russian policy, and was rewarded, in 1777, by the provincial estates, was withdrawn from their interference. acquisition of Bukovina from Turkey. In Italy the influence of These reforms were practically confined to the central provinces the House of Austria had been strengthened by the marriage of the monarchy; for in Hungary, as well as in the outlying of the archduke Ferdinand with the heiress of the d'Estes of territories of Lombardy and the Netherlands, it was recognized Modena, and the establishment of the archduke Leopold in the that the conservative temper of the peoples made any revolu- grand-duchy of Tuscany. tionary change in the traditional system inadvisable.

In internal affairs Maria Theresa may be regarded as the Meanwhile, in foreign affairs, it had become clear that for practical founder of the unified Austrian state. The new system Austria the enemy to be dreaded was no longer France, but of centralization has already been referred to. It only internal

Prussia, and Kaunitz prepared the way for a diplomatic remains to add that, in carrying out this system, Maria reforms revolution, which took effect when, on the ist of May Theresa was too wise to fall into the errors afterwards

1756, Austria and France concluded the first treaty made by her son and successor. She was no doctrin- Maria and Seven of Versailles. The long rivalry between Bourbons and aire, and consistently acted on the principle once laid Habsburgs was thus ended, and France and Austria down by Machiavelli

, that while changing the substance, the remained in alliance or at peace until the outbreak of prince should be careful to preserve the form of old institutions. the French Revolution. So far as Austria was concerned, the Alongside the new bureaucracy, the old estates survived in Seven Years' War (q v.) in which France and Austria were ranged somnolent inactivity, and even in Hungary, though the ancient against Prussia and Great Britain, was an attempt on the part constitution was left untouched, the diet was only summoned of Maria Theresa to recover Silesia. It failed; and the peace of four times during the reign, and reforms were carried out, without Hubertsburg, signed on the 15th of February 1763, left Germany I protest, by royal ordinance. It was under Maria Theresa, too,

under

Austriag. Prench allianco,

Theresa

Years'

that the attempt was first made to make German the official | the Bavarian throne, the duke of Zweibrücken, in response to language of the whole monarchy; an attempt which was partly successful even in Hungary, especially so far as the army was concerned, though Latin remained the official tongue of the diet, the county-assemblies and the courts.

The social, religious and educational reforms of Maria Theresa also mark her reign as the true epoch of transition from medieval to modern conditions in Austria. In religious matters the empress, though a devout Catholic and herself devoted to the Holy See, was carried away by the prevailing reaction, in which her ministers shared, against the pretensions of the papacy The anti-papal tendency, known as Febronianism (q.v.), had made immense headway, not only among the laity but among the clergy in the Austrian dominions. By a new law, papal bulls could not be published without the consent of the crown, and the direct intercourse of the bishops with Rome was forbidden; the privileges of the religious orders were curtailed; and the education of the clergy was brought under state control. It was, however, only with reluctance that Maria Theresa agreed to carry out the papal bull suppressing the Society of Jesus; and, while declaring herself against persecution, she could never be persuaded to accept the views of Kaunitz and Joseph in favour of toleration. Parallel with the assertion of the rights of the state as against the church, was the revolution effected in the educational system of the monarchy. This, too, was taken from the control of the church; the universities were remodelled and modernized by the introduction of new faculties, the study of ecclesiastical law being transferred from that of theology to that of jurisprudence, and the elaborate system of elementary and secondary education was established, which survived with slight modification till 1869.

and

Inism."

The death of Maria Theresa in 1780 left Joseph II. free to attempt the drastic revolution from above, which had been Joseph II. restrained by the wise statesmanship of his mother. He was himself a strange incarnation at once of "Joseph doctrinaire liberalism and the old Habsburg autocracy. Of the essential conditions of his empire he was constitutionally unable to form a conception. He was a disciple, not of Machiavelli, but of Rousseau; and his scattered dominions, divided by innumerable divergences of racial and dass prejudice, and encumbered with traditional institutions to which the people clung with passionate conservatism, he regarded as so much vacant territory on which to build up his ideal state. He was, in fact, a Revolutionist who happened also to be an emperor. "Reason" and "enlightenment" were his watchwords; opposition to his wise measures he regarded as obscurantist and unreasonable, and unreason, if it proved stubborn, as a vice to be corrected with whips. In this spirit be at once set to work to reconstruct the state, on lines that strangely anticipated the principles of the Constituent Assembly of 1789. He refused to be crowned or to take the oath of the local constitutions, and divided the whole monarchy into thirteen departments, to be governed under a uniform system. In ecclesiastical matters his policy was also that of "reform from above," the complete subordination of the clergy to the state, and the severance of all effective ties with Rome. This treatment of the "Fakirs and Ulemas" (as he called them in his letters), who formed the most powerful element in the monarchy, would alone have ensured the failure of his plans, but failure was made certain by the introduction of the conscription, which turned Even the peasants, whom he had done much to emancipate, against him. The threatened revolt of Hungary, and the actual revolt of Tirol and of the Netherlands (see BELGIUM: History) together with the disasters of the war with Turkey, forced him, before he died, to the formal reversal of the whole policy of reform.

In his foreign policy Joseph II had been scarcely less unhappy. In 1784 he had resumed his plan of acquiring Bavaria for Austria by negotiating with the elector Charles Theodore its exchange for the Netherlands, which were to be erected for his benefit into a " Kingdom of Burgundy." The clector was not unwilling, but the scheme was wrecked by the opposition of the heir to

whose appeal Frederick the Great formed, on the 23rd of July 1785, a confederation of German princes (Fürstenbund) for the purpose of opposing the threatened preponderance of Austria. Prussia was thus for the first time formally recognized as the protector of the German states against Austrian ambition, and had at the same time become the centre of an anti-Austrian alliance, which embraced Sweden, Poland and the maritime powers. In these circumstances the war with Turkey, on which Joseph embarked, in alliance with Russia, in 1788, would hardly have been justified by the most brilliant success. The first campaign, however, which he conducted in person was a dismal failure; the Turks followed the Austrian army, disorganized by disease, across the Danube, and though the transference of the command to the veteran marshal Loudon somewhat retrieved the initial disasters, his successes were more than counterbalanced by the alliance, concluded on the 31st of January 1790, between Prussia and Turkey. Three weeks later, on the 20th of February 1790, Joseph died broken-hearted.

[ocr errors]

Leopold

[ocr errors]

The situation needed all the statesmanship of the new ruler, Leopold II. This was less obvious in his domestic than in his foreign policy, though perhaps equally present. As grand-duke of Tuscany Leopold had won the reputation of an enlightened and liberal ruler; but meanwhile 'Josephinism "had not been justified by its results, and the progress of the Revolution in France was beginning to scare even enlightened princes into reaction. Leopold, then, reverted to the traditional Habsburg methods; the old supremacy of the Church, regarded as the one effective bond of empire, was restored; and the Einheitsstaat was once more resolved into its elements, with the old machinery of diets and estates, and the old abuses. It was the beginning of that policy of "stability" associated later with Metternich, which was to last till the cataclysm of 1848. For the time, the policy was justified by its results. The spirit of revolutionary France had not yet touched the heart of the Habsburg empire, and national rivalries were expressed, not so much in expansive ambitions, as in a somnolent clinging to traditional privileges. Leopold, therefore, who made his début on the European stage as the executor of the ban of the Empire against the insurgent Liégeois, was free to pose as the champion of order against the Revolution, without needing to fear the resentment of his subjects. He played this rôle with consummate skill in the negotiations that led up to the treaty of Reichenbach (August 15, 1790), which ended the quarrel with Prussia and paved the way to the armistice of Giurgevo with Turkey (September 10). Leopold was now free to deal with the Low Countries, which were reduced to order before the end of the year. On the 4th of August 1791, was signed at Sistova the definitive peace with Turkey, which practically established the status quo.

Austria and the French

Revolu

tion.

On the 6th of October 1790, Leopold had been crowned Roman emperor at Frankfort, and it was as emperor, not as Habsburg, that he first found himself in direct antagonism to the France of the Revolution. The fact that Leopold's sister, Marie Antoinette, was the wife of Louis XVI had done little to cement the Franco-Austrian alliance, which since 1763 had been practically non-existent; nor was it now the mainspring of his attitude towards revolutionary France. But by the decree of the 4th of August, which in the general abolition of feudal rights involved the possessions of many German princes enclaves in Alsace and Lorraine, the Constituent Assembly had made the first move in the war against the established European system. Leopold protested as sovereign of Germany; and the protest was soon enlarged into one made in the name of Europe. The circular letter of Count Kaunitz, dated the 6th of July 1791, calling on the sovereigns to unite against the Revolution, was at once the beginning of the Concert of Europe, and in a sense the last manifesto of the Holy Roman Empire as "the centre of political unity" But the common policy proclaimed in the famous declaration of Pillnitz (August 27), was soon wrecked upon the particular interests of the powers. Both Austria and Prussia

utionary Wars.

were much occupied with the Polish question, and to have to throw the weight of her support into the scale of whichever plunged into a crusade against France would have been to have side should prove most amenable to her claims. The news of left Poland, where the new constitution had been proclaimed the battle of Vittoria, following on the reluctance of Napoleon on the 3rd of May, to the mercy of Russia. Towards the further to listen to demands involving the overthrow of the whole development of events in France, therefore, Leopold assumed of his political system in central Europe, decided Austria in at first a studiously moderate attitude; but his refusal to favour of the Allies. By this fateful decision Napoleon's fall respond to the demand of the French government for the dis-was assured. By the treaty of Trachenberg (July 12, 1813) persal of the corps of émigrés assembled under the protection the Grand Alliance was completed; on the 16th, 17th and of the German princes on the frontier of France, and the insistence 18th of October the battle of Leipzig was fought; and the on the rights of princes dispossessed in Alsace and Lorraine, victorious advance into France was begun, which issued, precipitated the crisis. On the 25th of January 1792 the French on the 11th of April 1814, in Napoleon's abdication. (See Assembly adopted the decree declaring that, in the event of no NAPOLEON, NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS, EUROPE.) satisfactory reply having been received from the emperor by the It was a recognition of the decisive part played by Austria ist of March, war should be declared. On the 7th of February in these great events that Vienna was chosen as the scene of the Austria and Prussia signed at Berlin an offensive and defensive great international congress summoned (September treaty of alliance. Thus was ushered in the series of stupendous 1814) for the purpose of re-establishing the balance Coveese events which were to change the face of Europe and profoundly of power in Europe, which Napoleon's conquests had to affect the destinics of Austria. Leopold himself did not live upset. An account of the congress is given elsewhere (see to see the beginning of the struggle; he died on the ist of March VIENNA, CONGRESS OF). The result for Austria was a triumphant 1792, the day fixed by the Legislative Assembly as that on which vindication of Metternich's diplomacy. He had, it is true, been the question of peace or war was lo be decided.

unable to prevent the retention of the grand-duchy of Warsaw The events of the period that followed, in which Austria by Alexander of Russia; but with the aid of Great Britain and necessarily played a conspicuous part, are dealt with elsewhere France (secret treaty of January 3, 1815) he had frustrated effects of (see EUROPE, FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY Wars, the efforts of Prussia to absorb the whole of Saxony, Bavaria the Revol NAPOLEON, NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS). Here it will was forced to disgorge the territories gained for her by Napoleon

only be necessary to mention those which form per- at Austria's expense, Illyria and Dalmatia were regained, and

manent landmarks in the progressive conformation of Lombardy was added to Venetia to constitute a kingdom under the Austrian monarchy. Such was the second partition the Habsburg crown; while in the whole Italian peninsula of Poland (January 23, 1793), which eliminated the "buffer French was replaced by Austrian influence. In Germany the state " on which Austrian statesmanship had hitherto laid such settlement was even more fateful for Austria's future. The importance, and brought the Austrian and Russian frontiers into Holy Empire, in spite of the protests of the Holy See, was not contact. Such, too, was the treaty of Campo Formio (October 17, restored, Austria preferring the loose confederation of sovereign 1797) which ended the first revolutionary war. By this treaty states (Staatenbund) actually constituted under her presidency. the loss of the Belgian provinces was confirmed, and though Such a body, Metternich held,“ powerful for defence, powerless Austria gained Venice, the establishment of French preponder- for offence," would form a guarantee of the peace of central ance in the rest of Italy made a breach in the tradition of Habs- Europe-and of the preponderance of Austria; and in its councils burg supremacy in the peninsula, which was to have its full | Austrian diplomacy, backed by the weight of the Habsburg effect only in the struggles of the next century. The rise of power beyond the borders of Germany, would exercise a greater Napoleon, and his masterful interference in Germany, produced influence than any possible prestige derived from a venerable a complete and permanent revolution in the relations of Austria title that had become a by-word for the union of unlimited to the German states. The campaigns which issued in the treaty pretensions with practical impotence. Moreover, to the refusal of Lunéville (February 9, 1801) practically sealed the fate of the to revive the Empire-which shattered so many patriotic hopes old Empire. Even were the venerable name to survive, it was in Germany-Austria added another decision yet more fateful. felt that it would pass, by the election of the princes now tributary By relinquishing her claim to the Belgian provinces and other to France, from the house of Habsburg to that of Bonaparte outlying territories in western Germany, and by acquiescing in Francis II. determined to forestall the possible indignity of the the establishment

of Prussia in the Rhine provinces, she abdicated subordination of his family to an upstart dynasty to Prussia her position as the bulwark of Germany against France, "Emplre On the 14th of May 1804, Napoleon was proclaimed and hastened the process of her own gravitation towards the

emperor of the French; on the 11th of August Slavonic East to which the final impetus was given in 1866. End of the Francis II. assumed the style of Francis I, hereditary In order to understand the foreign policy of Austria, insepar

emperor of Austria. Two years later, when the defeat ably associated with the name of Metternich, during the period of Austerlitz had led to the treaty of Pressburg from the close of the congress of Vienna to the out. Internal

(January 1, 1806), by which Austria lost Venice and break of the revolutions of 1848, it is necessary to know affairs of Tirol, and Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine had broken something of the internal conditions of the monarchy Austria the unity of Germany, Francis formally abdicated the title and before and during this time. In 1792 Leopold II. had Francis II. functions of Holy Roman emperor (August 6, 1806).

been succeeded by his son Francis II. His popular and Austria had to undergo further losses and humiliations, designation of our good Kaiser Franz " this monarch Metter notably by the treaty of Vienna (1809), before the outcome of owed to a certain simplicity of address and bonhomie sich. Napoleon's Russian campaign in 1812 gave her the opportunity which pleased the Viennese, certainly not to his serious qualities for recuperation and revenge. The skilful diplomacy of Metter as a ruler He shared to the full the autocratic tempet of the nich, who was now at the head of the Austrian government, Habsburgs, their narrow-mindedness and their religious and enabled Austria to take full advantage of the situation created intellectual obscurantism; and the qualities which would have by the disaster to Napoleon's arms. His object was to recover made him a kindly, if somewhat tyrannical, father of a family. Austria's lost possessions and if possible to add to them, a policy and an excellent head clerk, were hardly those required by the which did not necessarily involve the complete overthrow of the conditions of the Austrian monarchy during a singularly critical French emperor. Austria, therefore, refused to join the alliance period of its history. between Russia and Prussia signed on the 17th of March 1813, The personal character of the emperor, moreover, gained a but pressed on her armaments so as to be ready in any event. special importance owing to the modifications that were made Her opportunity came after the defeats of the Allies at Lützen in the administrative system of the empire. This had been originand Bautzen and the conclusion of an arnustice at Pleswitz. ally organized in a series of departments: Aulic chanceries for Between 200,000 and 300,000 Austrian troops were massed in Austria, for Hungary and Transylvania, a general Aulic chamber Bohemia; and Austria took up the role of mediator, prepared for finance, domains, mines, trade, post, &c., an Aulic council

The

of Austria."

Holy Romas Empire.

« السابقةمتابعة »