BACKGROUND
Vienna, January of 1867. Emperor Franz Josef I looks at a big map of the Austrian Empire lying over his table. He has painted in blue the areas still occupied by the Prussian Army. The war against the Prussians is technically over, but the treaty of peace is pending to be signed.
Franz Josef has called some of the men he can trust in such a difficult moment: “You can’t see in this map how bad our situation now is” he says to them. “It is not only the fact the Prussians have invaded the Bohemian lands or they are around this city; it is the bankruptcy of the Imperial Treasure; it is our Army, completely defeated and demoralized; it is the Hungarian magnates claiming for their independence; it is our friend nations not wanting to help us, because they do not want to upset the Prussians; it is…the end.” The dramatic words of the Emperor cause a terrifying impact among his audience.
For the first time, Franz Josef pronounces the word ‘abdication’. Of course, many of his advisers try to make him to reconsider the idea. But his decision is firm: “During the last months I have searched the way to save the Empire, but unfortunately there is no way. The only thing I can do is trying to save as much as possible for Austria and the dynasty. I will never accept to become an Emperor only by name, ruling in the dark the broken pieces left by the Prussians. We are not going to like this, but a new time has begun.”
Last Austrian Emperor, Franz Josef I.
The following days, the Emperor calls the Prussians for a Conference of Peace to be set in Prague by the end of March. Prussian King Wilhelm accepts the offer; he and other Prussian officers have been pushing for obtaining territorial concessions and subduing Austria to the Prussian foreign policies, against the opinion of the Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck, whose anti-Catholic and anti-Liberal ideas made him to want Austria out of the Prussian sphere.
Of course, not only Austria and Prussia will attend the Conference of Prague: France, Italy, Russia and the other German states will be present; the United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire are entitled to send observers. The Hungarian magnates will send their own representation, after an official threat of the Diet of proclaiming a unilateral independence if they were not invited as a separate delegation.
Franz Josef will try to save much of his power for his son, Prince Rudolf. Considering that the Austrian Army has lost the effective control over the Bohemian lands, Silesia, Galicia and Hungary, and that there will be no foreign power ready to help them this time, he can only hope to retain the German Austrian provinces and Carniola. However, the Austrian chancellor, Count Belcredi, is going to propose the establishment of a Triple Monarchy between Austria, Hungary and Bohemia.
Prior to the Conference of Prague, the other powers also establish their demands and proposals: Prussia wants to control the Bohemian lands as a separate member of their planned Northern German Confederation; Hungary wants full independence, but Russia wants to prevent it, unless some important compensation (Galicia) is offered; Italy wants the Veneto and Trentino from Austria, and France wants to back Italian claims and obtain some compensation from Prussia due to their neutrality (Luxembourg).
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