Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy

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The History of the


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The Habsburgs had ruled many parts of Europe, including Austria, as part of theHoly Roman Empire since the 1200s. Austria was formed during the NapoleonicWars, a series of wars fought from 1799 to 1815 between France, led by NapoleonI, and a number of European nations. Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empirein 1806; in anticipation of this, the Austrian Empire had been created in 1804.

At the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, Austria emerged as one of the mostpowerful states in what was called the German Confederation, and, as such, wasone of the stronger nations in Europe. The Austrian Empire included the kingdomof Hungary, although the ruling class of Hungary, the Magyars, persistentlypressed for more control in the years leading up to the compromise. For the halfcentury after 1815, the Habsburg monarchy faced many serious internal

challenges to its authority. Nationalistic groups demanded more autonomy. Political liberals were dissatisfied

with the centralized Habsburg government, which promoted the idea that theemperor had absolute power to rule the Austrian nation without any interference.The Habsburg rulers managed to contain most of these threats by skillfully usingthe Austrian army and bureaucracy to keep restless subjects in line.


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Externally, however, the Austrian Empire lost ground to rivalstates. Because Austria did not support Russia during theCrimean War (1853-1856), Russia refused in 1859 to supportAustria against the French-supported Italian state of Piedmont

(Piemonte), which drove Austria out of Lombardy(Lombardia), another state in northern Italy.

Under the direction of Prince Otto von Bismarck, theminister-president of the north German state of Prussia, the

Prussians began to challenge Austria for supremacy in theGerman Confederation.

In 1866 Bismarck provoked Austria into the Seven Weeks'War. Austria lost and was expelled from the Confederation.


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Shocked and humiliated by Austria's defeat, Francis Joseph compromisedwith the Magyars in Hungary to shore up his empire and save the Habsburgmonarchy. First, Francis Joseph consolidated the monarchy's power in theGerman states that were part of the empire.

Then, in exchange for Hungarian support of the monarchy, he agreed tosurrender his control of Hungarian internal affairs, including his protectionof the non-Magyar peoples. This was a key point in obtaining Magyarcooperation. This agreement was the basis of the compromise of 1867,which divided the old Austrian Empire into two parts, Austria and the

kingdom of Hungary. The Habsburg monarch would be both the king of Hungary and the

emperor of Austria. The new entity would be called the Austro-HungarianEmpire and would have a single foreign policy, one army, and a unifiedmonetary system.


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In the Austrian part of the new empire, the constitutional monarchy thatwas established in the old Austrian empire by an agreement called theFebruary Patent of 1861 remained in force.

The February Patent was the result of calls for a more democraticgovernment. It transferred power from local legislatures that werecontrolled by the propertied classes and the nobility to a more centralizednational government.

The Magyars, who comprised the nobles and property owners in Hungary,

had opposed the February Patent when it was issued in 1861, and theyopposed it again when the compromise was discussed in 1867.

To appease the Magyars, Francis Joseph agreed that the February Patentwould apply only to Austria's half of the new empire. The compromise

therefore sealed Magyar dominance of Hungary.


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The compromise united two kingdoms under one head of state.Austria had its legislative branch, known as the Reichstag, and theHungarians had theirs, known as the Diet.

The Delegations was a common legislative body that includeddelegates from each parliament; it served as a link between the two

national governments. Each kingdom had its ruling class: theGerman-speaking people in Austria and the Magyars in Hungary. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire included a significant

number of Slavs, although they were a minority in both Austria andHungary. In the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire of approximately 50million people, about 23 million were Slavs.

Since the compromise was primarily an agreement between theHabsburgs and the Magyars, the Slavic peoples were not consultedbefore the compromise was enacted.

Consequently, most Slavs never supported the compromise andSlavic discontent later became an important issue leading to theoutbreak of World War I in 1914.


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For the first 20 years after 1867, Austria-Hungary enjoyed ameasure of security both at home and abroad. Hungary was calmfor the first time in decades. Under the guidance of Klmn Tisza,Hungary's prime minister from 1875 to 1890, the Hungarian

liberals in power were loyal to the compromise. The Magyars encountered strong resistance, however, when they

tried to impose the Magyar language and Magyar culture on thenon-Magyar peoples of Hungary. Austria experienced a period ofreform and prosperity under German liberal governments from

1867 to 1879. After 1879, a coalition of conservative, aristocratic, clerical, and

Slavic elements managed to neutralize the contendingnationalities by setting one group against another so that no onegroup would ever become too powerful.


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This small group of political insiders known as the IronRing was controlled until 1893 by Prime Minister CountEduard Taaffe, a childhood friend of Francis Joseph.

The Habsburg monarchy's foreign policy was simplified

when it lost territory in Italy and lost the Seven Weeks'War to Prussia in 1866.

It concentrated on maintaining commercial markets andkeeping expansionist powers from claiming Habsburg

possessions that were populated largely by Romaniansand Slavic peoples.

On the last point, Francis Joseph knew those territorieswere safe as long as he could prevent two or more great

powers from uniting against Austria-Hungary.


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In their efforts to forestall such a combination, Austro-Hungarianstatesmen showed considerable flexibility and ingenuity. They were able toachieve their foreign policy objectives peacefully by securing timelyalliances with other great powers.

Austria-Hungary was most concerned about limiting Russia's expansion inthe Balkan Peninsula. In 1878 the Balkan Peninsula was made up of theindependent countries of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, andMontenegro, in addition to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which still belongedto the Ottoman Empire.

In that year, with Britain's support, Austria-Hungary stationed troops in

Bosnia, to prevent the Russians from expanding into nearby Serbia. Inanother measure to keep the Russians out of the Balkans, Austria-Hungaryformed an alliance, the Mediterranean Entente, with Britain and Italy in1887 and concluded mutual defense pacts, with Germany in 1879 and withRomania in 1883, against possible Russian attack.


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Relations with Serbia, Italy, and Romania wereimproved in the early 1880s with separatealliances. Finally, Austria-Hungary worked with

Russia to resolve their mutual differencespeacefully through the Three Emperors' League(1873-1878) and then the Three Emperors'Alliances (1881-1887).

The three emperors were Francis Joseph, WilliamI of Germany, and Alexander II (who died in 1881)and Alexander III of Russia. These measureshelped Austria-Hungary to achieve security.


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Between 1895 and 1906, Austria-Hungary was preoccupied

with internal problems. During the early years of thecompromise, nationalistic and ethnic conflicts were pushed

aside, but these conflicts exploded in the mid-1890s. Conflicts between the Germans and the Czechs in Bohemia

paralyzed the Austrian Reichstag. In Hungary, the long-repressed critics of the compromise, mainly the non-Magyarpeoples who resented the rule of the Magyars, could no

longer be silenced.Negotiations in Hungary for the renewal of the compromise,which had to be approved every 10 years, dragged on from1897 to 1906 without resolution. Some opponents of thecompromise objected to institutionalized Magyar rule.


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Francis Joseph handled most of these domestic problems by resorting tohis imperial executive powers to rule Austria-Hungary. He governedthrough the cabinet ministers and appointed civil servants. Since theAustrian Reichsrat and the Hungarian Diet were so divided they could do

little more than debate the issues, the emperor enacted emergencylegislation and budgets were administered by emergency decrees. Hesubjected Hungary to a virtual state of martial law.

The dual monarchy seemed to be close to breaking apart, especially in1905 when, in Hungary, the defenders of the 1867 compromise weredefeated at the polls. Francis Joseph finally brought the Hungarians in linein 1906 when he threatened to give voting rights to the non-Magyars inHungary.

The Magyars were a minority population in Hungary, and they knew thiswould end their supremacy. The renewal of the compromise finally wonHungarian approval in 1906.

Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy

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