The Revolution of 1848 as the Key to the Spread of the Liberal State in Europe
With the exception of the aforementioned countries, in the wake of the Revolution of 1830, the reactionary absolutism which had characterized the Ancien Regime became the prevailing trend in Europe once again.
Such was the case in Austria, Russia, the various German states, and the different Italian kingdoms, all territories in which the Metternich doctrine was firmly applied.The situation remained more or less stable until a series of revolutions broke out in Italy, France, the German states and Austria. As we know, in France the February Revolution ushered in the short-lived Second Republic, which would disappear 3 years later as a result of the coup d’etat led by Louis Napoleon, who established the Second Empire. In Spain, this new wave of liberal revolutions was stifled when General Narvaez, who headed up the government, managed for Parliament to temporarily grant him full powers.[886] Narvaez acted effectively, thereby staving off a liberal revolution in Spain for 20 years, which would finally come about under General Prim in 1868. The 1848 revolution would have, nevertheless, more decisive consequences in Italy, Austria and Prussia.[887]
16.5.1 Another Italian Liberal Revolution
16.5.1.1 Revolution Breaks Out in Sicily
Italy had revolted against Austrian absolutism in 1820 and 1830, but in every case the liberal rebellions were crushed by Austrian armies.[888] Revolution broke out again in 1848, and this time took hold in one of the Italian states: the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (Broers 2000, 151-166).
While the most important revolutionary movement took place in France in February, the first revolutionary act of 1848 would come in Italy, on January 12, in Palermo (Sicily), where rebels forced King Ferdinand II (1830-1859) to grant a constitution.
This liberal success gave a prompt boost to the revolt, especially after the outbreak of the February Revolution in Paris, which spurred various Italian monarchs to promulgate constitutions in their kingdoms, such as the Grand Duke of Tuscany, King Charles Albert of Sardinia, and even Pope Pius IX. The rebellion also spread to the regions occupied by Austria: Lombardy and Veneto, where “patriots” revolted in March upon hearing the news that Metternich had fled from Vienna. After a bloody 5-day battle, the Austrians were driven from Milan. Revolution also triumphed in the duchies of Parma and Modena, whose dukes opted to abandon their states as well.16.5.1.2 The Advent of “National Wars”: Royal Defeat and Republican Triumph
The Italian revolution gave way to a national war when Lombardy, Veneto, and the duchies of Parma and Modena, joined with the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont under the leadership of King Charles Albert, who henceforth adopted the tricolor flag as a symbol of “Italian unity”.
Charles Albert, however, was defeated by an Austrian army commanded by General Radetzky at Custoza (July 1848), allowing Austria to regain control over northern Italy. When the monarchy failed to ensure Italian unity and independence, the most extreme liberals, led by Giuseppe Mazzini, proclaimed a republic in Rome (Hearder 2006,113-128) and in Florence, forcing the pope to flee and take refuge in Gaeta, where he was welcomed by the King of the two Sicilies.[889] After the triumph of republican liberalism the Piedmontese, the Romans and the Florentines forced Charles Albert to break the armistice signed with the Austrians (March 20, 1849). Three days later, however, the Italian army was again thrashed by Radetzky at Novara (Sked 2011, 154).
16.5.1.3 Italy Subjugated
Charles Albert abdicated in favor of his son Victor Emmanuel II. The Austrians agreed to sign a new cease-fire in exchange for their occupation of part of the Piedmont, with Radetzky’s troops taking Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and the northern Papal states.
Rome, meanwhile, was occupied by a French expeditionary force which, after defeating Garibaldi and abolishing the Roman Republic, allowed the Pope to return to his states. Venice soon fell. The Italian patriots’ military defeat led to the reestablishment of an absolutist regime and the harsh repression of the liberals, but not without the important consequence that, as a result of the revolts, the King of Piedmont-Sardinia became a compelling symbol of national unity.16.5.1.4 The Piedmont Exception
The only Italian territory in which liberal principles survived was in the Piedmont, where Victor Emmanuel II refused to abolish the constitution granted by his father: the Albertine Statute (Ghisalberti 2006, 35). Hence, Italian patriots took refuge in Turin, which became the “capital” of liberal Italy. Victor Emmanuel, however, realized that Italians alone could not overcome Austrian power, prompting him to seek aid from Napoleon III, at the initiative of his first minister the Count of Cavour.
16.5.2 The Revolution of 1848 in the German Territories
The 1848 revolution also had a major impact on Austria and Prussia, two of the leading European powers since 1816. As both kingdoms aspired to lead the “German nation”, it is important to examine the origins of German nationalism to understand what happened in both states in 1848.
16.5.2.1 The French Origins of the German “Nation”: Napoleon and Prussia
German unity proceeded from nationalist sentiment reflecting, as occurred in Spain, a backlash against the Napoleonic invasion (Aguilera-Barchet 2008, 123-132). Napoleon had restructured the German territories on two occasions: in 1803 at Regensburg, he substantially reduced the number of German states.[890] After his victory at Austerlitz (December 1805), the Emperor of the French created the Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund),[891] which replaced the old Holy German- Roman Empire, dating back to the year 962.[892] Prussia attempted to counter the French threat (Simms 2002, 291-295), but Napoleon’s victories over Frederick William III (1797-1840), led to the dismemberment of the Empire on August 6, 1806, carried out through a set of agreements between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I through the Treaties of Tilsitt (1807).
The reduction of the Kingdom of Prussia to half its former size was a humiliating blow, engendering a wave of nationalist fervor (Breuilly 2009, 256-284). This was initially seized upon by the aristocrats Stein and Hardenberg, who championed an elite-led movement for Prussian regeneration.[893] This “Prussian protonationalism” would be consolidated thanks to the military reform of General Scharnhorst and the influence of eminent intellectuals like Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), and Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), founder of the University of Berlin, the leaders of a movement of enlightened nationalism that transformed Prussian political culture (Levinger 2002).
This “nationalist” feeling was decisive in making Prussia one of the forces which would ultimately vanquish Napoleon in 1813, as Prussia rose to become a leading European power during the Restoration period (Simms 2000, 97-114).
16.5.2.2 Austria Heads up the “Germanic Confederation”
The Congress of Vienna (1815) replaced the Napoleonic “Confederation of the Rhine” with a Germanic Confederation (Deutscher Bund) of 39 states, once again under an Emperor of Austria, which represented a reversion to the structure of the Holy German-Roman Empire, abolished in 1806 (John 2000, 83-96). As such, it was a weak union in which the states maintained their total independence, only meeting sporadically in assemblies (diets) that represented the sovereigns of their respective states, and not their inhabitants.[894]
16.5.2.3 The Zollverein or the Prussian Way Towards German Integration
The Kingdom of Prussia reacted to this state of things in 1818 by undertaking a momentous initiative: the establishment of a customs union (Zollverein).[895] Thanks to it the interior customs services between the states controlled by the Hohenzollern disappeared, while the tariffs paid by those not belonging to the Zollverein increased. With its initiative, Prussia managed to favor commerce within the scope of the “union”, bringing about a considerable increase in economic activity.
The success of this tariff policy was so great that all the German states ended up forming part of this free economic space which may, without any doubt, be considered a precursor of the current process of European integration. By 1834, all the states of the Germanic Confederation had been incorporated into the Zollverein.[896]The balance between Austria and Prussia, however, would be broken by the 1848 revolution and a group of intellectuals who hoped to bring about a strong, unified Germany, accompanied by political reforms in the individual German states (Pogge von Strandmann 2002, 107).[897]
16.5.3 The Austrian Empire and the Revolution
16.5.3.1 The Fall of Metternich
Immediately after news spread of the triumph of the revolution in Paris, rebellion broke out in Budapest (Hungary), and Prague (Bohemia). On March 13 the revolutionaries, headed by university students (Robertson 1980, 206-236), took over Vienna, forcing Metternich to flee.[898] Overwhelmed, the Austrian government accepted all the rebels’ demands and pledged to convene a constitutional assembly.
16.5.3.2 A Military Backlash and the Crushing of the Rebels
The army, however, remained loyal to the monarchy. Austrian troops counterattacked, first prevailing in Bohemia (June 1848). Four months later they occupied Vienna (October 31). The government soon fell into the hands of the Prince of Schwarzenberg, who suggested to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria that he abdicate in favor of his nephew, the young Franz Joseph (1848-1916), who dissolved the constitutional assembly and promulgated a constitution which was ultimately suspended (March 1849).
To subjugate the Hungarians, Austria had to ally with Russia, with the Austro-Russian Coalition quelling a rebellion in August of 1848, through a harsh campaign of repression. Hungary lost the broad autonomy it had enjoyed before, and was divided into provinces ruled by Austrian officials who did not even know the Hungarian language (Magyar), and only spoke German.[899]
The 1848 revolution had failed in the Austrian Empire, but not in the other German territories.
It had a particularly decisive impact on one of them: Prussia, whose sovereign aspired to secure independence from Austria.16.5.4 Prussia vs. Austria: The Fight for German Supremacy
In 1848, the German-speaking population lived in a multitude of states still formally ruled over by the Emperor of Austria. However, as the revolution initially spread to Vienna that year, King Frederick William IV of Prussia (1840-1861) moved to supplant the Austrian Emperor and establish himself as the new champion of all the German-speaking peoples (Pan-Germanism), thereby seeking an integration of all Germans “from the top down”.[900]
There soon emerged, however, other, more grassroots attempts to unite the German peoples. Circumstances were favorable to the restructuring of the German states, as the revolutionary triumphs scored across Europe in 1848, advanced the idea of a German nation. In fact, throughout the German territories nationalist agitation had begun in 1847. Just after the triumph of the revolution in France, a group of German patriots in Heidelberg managed to convoke an assembly (diet), composed of members of the various assemblies of the German states (including the Austrian Empire). This body resolved to convene a constitutional parliament, to be elected by universal suffrage amongst all the citizens forming part of the Germanic confederation, including all the German states not forming part of the Austrian Empire (Rapport 2009, 59).
16.5.4.1 The Political Consequences of the Berlin Rebellion
Prussia was soon enveloped in a revolutionary whirlwind. On March 18, 1848 revolution broke out in Berlin. In response to the turmoil, King Frederick William IV (1840-1861), agreed to convene a National Assembly to be elected by universal suffrage. The resulting parliament, a revolutionary successor to the old German Confederation, a loose body of 39 German states formed at the Congress of Vienna and dominated by Austria (Thackeray 2004, 5), was constituted in May of 1848 in Frankfurt, as a constitutional assembly charged with drafting a Prussian constitution.[901]
16.5.4.2 Testing the “Bottom Up” Approach to German Integration: The Frankfurt Parliament
The Parliament thus chosen was constituted on May 18, 1848 and established a provisional federal government led by a liberal Austrian archduke.[902] It also drafted a “Constitution for Germany”, which became a federal state presided over by an emperor. The former states endured, but above them a government was created consisting of an emperor (Kaiser) and an elected parliament. The federal government was assigned powers over some areas of joint concern (diplomacy, army, customs duties) while other authorities were retained by the different states. Finally, the Frankfurt Parliament discussed whether the federal state should include Austria to form a Grofideutsche LOSung or Austria should be excluded, thereby creating a Kleindeutsche LOSung,[903] the latter option being that which prevailed. In March of 1849, the Austrian representatives abandoned the Frankfurt Parliament (Merkl 1993, 32).
The Frankfurt Parliament, however, failed to achieve its objectives because Frederick William IV, upon learning that revolution had been suppressed in Austria-Hungary, rejected the crown offered him by the representatives, as this would have meant being appointed by an elected assembly and renouncing his dynastic legitimacy. Neither would he accept the constitution adopted by the members of the parliament, which led to its dissolution (Thackeray 2004, 17). German integration “from the bottom up” had failed.
16.5.4.3 From the Erfurt Union to the Punctation of Olmiitz: Austria’s Victory Over Prussia
Despite having rejected the federal constitution proposed by the Frankfurt Parliament, Frederick William did not give up on the unification of all Germans, but rather acted to carry out an integration spearheaded by the Prussian monarchy. Firstly, he moved to head up a German Union consisting of the Austrian Empire and a new “German Empire”.
The King of Prussia’s proposal, however, was only accepted by small states. Thus arose a limited union which elected a parliament that would meet in Erfurt, and adopt a constitution presented by the King of Prussia (April 1850). This restricted union failed to take shape, however, because of the firm opposition of Austria, which once again enjoyed a position of strength, after having subjugated its rebels. The Austrian government, supported by Tsar Nicholas I, sent an ultimatum to the King of Prussia, and Frederick William ended up accepting all of Austria’s conditions in the Punctation of Olmiitz, or Olmutzer Punktation, of November 1850 (Winkler 2007, 112-113). Thus was the restricted union (Erfurt Union) dissolved, with the Austrian Empire once again ruling over the German states. In short, the situation reverted to that existing prior to 1848.[904]
16.5.5 Prussia Becomes a Constitutional Kingdom
Frederick William IV not only rejected the Crown offered by the Frankfurt Parliament, but also the constitution adopted by it.[905] He did not, however, simply restore absolutism, but rather established another constitution (January, 1850), unilaterally endorsed by him. What the king wished to make clear was that the establishment of a constitutional regime was the prerogative of the king and not that of the “nation” (Kolkey 1995, 82-83). In this regard he was successful, as the constitutional system instituted by Frederick William IV would remain in force in Prussia until 1918.
The new Prussian Constitution created a bicameral legislature with two chambers: an upper house (Herrenhaus), made up of members of the landowning nobility (junkers[906]), appointed by the king; and a lower house of representatives (Landtag)
chosen by universal, indirect and weighted suffrage. This legislature, however, was hardly democratic, as it favored the representation of the wealthy. Thus, the middle class was not yet able to exercise real political influence, and Prussian society maintained its rigid class divisions.[907]
The Prussian Constitution of 1850 also failed to establish a parliamentary regime. In theory, the chambers of the legislature voted on the laws, but the king could legislate via ordonnances, executive orders, when the legislature was not in session. The parliament also approved taxes, provided that they were new, as all traditional ones were maintained until rescinded by law. The appointment of ministers was the exclusive purview of the king, who could also dismiss them freely. In summary, in Prussia the monarchy retained sovereignty.[908]
16.5.6 Relative Calm in Europe by 1850
By the end of 1850, it seemed that the revolutionary earthquakes which had shaken Europe 2 years earlier had been in vain. The nationalist movements had failed, and the liberals had only obtained tangible results in the form of two constitutional texts: the Albertine Statute of 1848, which continued to be the constitution of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia; and the Prussian Constitution of 1850. Austria had managed to regain hegemony in Italy and Germany and to consolidate its brand of strict imperial centralism.
This tranquility, however, was misleading, as within 20 years the Austrian Empire would suffer the loss of Italy (which became an independent, unified state) and be defeated by the Kingdom of Prussia, which finally became the core and primary force driving the German integration process. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, nevertheless, would remain a great power until the end of the First World War.
16.6