REVOLUTIONEN UND REFORMEN. 1848/49 IN DER (SPÄTEREN) CISLEITHANISCHEN HÄLFTE DER HABSBURGERMONARCHIE
Revolutions and Reforms. 1848/49 in the (Later) Cisleithanian Half of the Habsburg Monarchy

Summary/Abstract: At first the paper discusses the question whether the European events of 1848/49 can be regarded as one revolution or as a series of interconnected revolutions. As factors for the latter count the diversity of social groups and persons involved in the process, the plurality of problems addressed in the course of events and the ambivalently perceived valence of these problems in various regions as well as the variety of methods used to cope with the issues involved. In the western part of the Habsburg Monarchy three problem areas were of special significance: the expansion of political participation, the rising national awareness and the improvement of the social and material conditions of living for many population groups. Whereas the expansion of political participation in the diets of various provinces occurred in a rather evolutionary manner, the introduction of a single state-parliament and the accompanying electoral regulations amounted to a revolutionary break with the past. The dissimilar possibilities to participate pointed to the future, although they came into play fully only at different times. The attempt to convert the growing national awareness of parts of the population (nowhere as high as stated later) to political power, coupled with an administrative restructuring of the Habsburg Monarchy (discussed for the first time at the Reichstag of Vienna and Kremsier) was not successful at that time, but the Monarchy had to cope with the problems underlying these discussions until its very end. As to the efforts of actions taken to alleviate the “social question”, the revolutionary uprising of urban lower strata and industrial workers were in sum of little avail, contrary to the on the whole moderate appearance of the peasants which benefited from the legally endorsed (and never rescinded) abolition of dues and tributes to the lords of the manor (Grundentlastung) and the end of the manorial system, a benefit which however applied only to peasants (thus enabling them – at least in theory – to become part of the modern market economy) but not to the quite numerous agrarian lower classes. Yet the abolition of the manorial rule resulted in the creation of a modern and tight administrative organization by which the state was enabled to exert an extensive and still growing influence on the entire population.

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