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French Revolution of 1848
Foreign Relations
... while the French had largely stayed neutral during the early months of the 1848 period under Lamartine, minus a few volunteer legions led by French radicals, by that summer the situation in France and across Europe had changed. In early July French Foreign Minister Bastide's offered plan of Franco-British mediation between the Austrians and the Italians regarding the North Italian plain was rejected by the government in Vienna. This provoked a cabinet crisis in Paris, while over half of the minister supported armed intervention on the behalf of the Italians, and a vocal minority argued against. (1) By the evening of 3 July the majority had won the debate for intervention, however in the morning of 4 July in a scene reminiscent of the previous month's insurrection Cavaignac once again cracked down on Paris before any radical insurgency could come to fruition. Cavaignac also used his absolute executive power invested during the June Days to prorogue the National Assembly for nearly seven weeks until the by-elections of September. Many commentators, both French and throughout Europe, worried that Cavaignac would simply seize power for himself altogether and declare himself dictator, emperor, or the founder of a new ruling dynasty. However Cavaignac himself consciously modeled his behavior along the lines of the ancient Cincinnatus (2), and though he held de-facto absolute power in France throughout the summer and autumn months...
December Elections
... on 24 September just days after the re-opening of the National Assembly the parliament's composure took a decidedly rightward shift in the by-elections. Notably for France's future among those new faces was Louis-Napoléon, who had been re-elected to the Assembly following his resignation earlier in the year by five constituencies, once again including Paris. However instead of the metropolis Bonaparte choose to represent the outlying department of Yonne, which allowed him political power without being associated with the 'unruly' Parisian mobs...
... Bonaparte and the others sent to Paris in the September elections entered the Assembly during the start (3) of debates on the extent, and restrictions, on the new executive power in France. Even with Cavaignac's largely hands-off attitude towards the legislature, the affect of his regime were still felt within the body. Debates were held on whether or not to even have a Presidency, or if another forum of governance would be more appropriate for the French people. The few radicals still within the body went so far as to suggest a rehabilitation of the Directory, though this move was rejected outright by the conservative majority within the Assembly...
... on 7 October Lamartine, who had been elected to the Assembly in the by-elections the previous month, rose before the body and argued in favor of a Presidential system modeled upon that of the United States. Hammering against his opponents, both conservatives and radicals, Lamartine argued that for a new dictatorship to arise would require the same environment as of 1804, namely the shocks of la Terreur as well as a charismatic military leader, of which France had neither in 1848. Though many his opponents throughout the Assembly would go on to compare the June Days to la Terruer and Cavaignac to the young Napoléon, by the end of the day the Assembly voted in favor of a Presidential system in which the executive was chosen by electors, who would be popularly elected on the basis of universal male suffrage. Furthermore the Presidential office was constrained by being available for only a single, non-renewable four-year term, while the electors could only choose someone for the office from either among the military or the National Assembly... (4)
... However to further assure protection against future tyranny just two days later moderate Antoine Thouret tabled an amendment which bared members of former ruling dynasties - the Bourbons, Orléans, and Bonapartes - from standing for the Presidency. Louis-Napoléon stood to challenge this motion, however his French was so poor, with a strong German accent acquired from his long years of exile, that he was openly mocked within the parliament. Before the hour was up Thouret contemptuously withdrew his amendment, a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his rather short when...
... As early as 26 November Louis-Napoléon announced his candidacy for the Presidency. Of the six people running for office, only Bonaparte and Cavaignac were considered electable candidates. However, Cavaignac himself was too busy in actually running the state as, with all power absolutely concentrated in himself, he had no ministers nor a bureaucracy nor legislature until September to fall upon. Thus the early led quickly fell to young Bonaparte. Notably Louis-Napoléon had been increasingly active courting the support of both the moderate left, especially the few radicals that had been against the June Days, as well as conservatives that slowly began to support Bonaparte in the belief, correctly, that such an 'imperial' figure would crush the Left...
... On 4 November the French Constitution of the Second Republic was ratified. The preamble of the constitutional text proclaimed the fundamental principles of the Republic, 'In the presence of God and on the behalf of the French people.' Notably the preamble also contained lines constituting a return to the First Republic of 1792, while affirming the 'indivisibility of the Republic' in the face of force, both external and internal. The constitution also included a Bill of Rights, including freedom of the press, assembly, worship, association and property, while also institutionalizing the abolition of slavery declared during the Republic's early months by Schelecher. (5) Under the new Constitution the National Assembly was affirmed as the sole legislature of the country, while the exact number of members, something always in flux previously throughout the 1848 revolutionary period, was set to 750, elected on universal male suffrage. The deputies were to be elected for three-year terms, at the end of which the entire Assembly was renewed, while between sessions an office of twenty-five members elected from among the parliament ensured continuity. The relationship between the legislature and executive was confirmed to that which had been laid out in earlier drafts; the Assembly could not dissolved by the President, and though he held an absolute veto on all bills passed, the parliament could over-turn this via a new bill. The Assembly also was responsible for declaring war and ratifying treaties, however the executive was the Commander-in-Chief of the French military. As well the President appointed a Council of State of ministers of the government, which were responsible to his office alone. The office of a Vice-President was also created, which would take his place in case of failure or death, and chaired the Council of State. Both the Vice-President and the President could be tried before the High Court, which imbued the absolute judicial power of the state. The court was to be made up of five judges elected from among the members of a Court of Cassation, which were appointed by the President. However in cases of impeachment against the President or Vice-President the Assembly would appoint a new High Court. The Court would also convene at the Assembly's decree in cases of high treason against the state...
de Luna, Frederick. "France: Election of President." Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions. 2005 Ed.
... Under the second republic of 1848, France for the first time chose as its head of state and chief executive a president elected by universal male suffrage. The First Republic of 1792 had experimented with several forms of executive power, and even Napoléon Bonaparte as First Consul had shared power (at least in theory) with two others. But the constitutional committee of the national constituent assembly in 1848, partly out of regard for the failure of the earlier forms and partly inspired by the American example, by late May 1848 had decided in favor of a presidential executive, to be elected by the same democratic suffrage that had produced the national assembly itself.
The election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as a deputy in four by- elections on June 4 raised a new issue, however. Alarmed, the Executive Commission decided to arrest the pretender should he return to France from England, but the National Assembly voted to admit him. Louis-Napoléon, however, decided to resign his seat and bide his time. The Parisian insurrection of late June, while turning the assembly against socialist theories and radical activists, left intact the committee's commitment to political democracy. But when Louis-Napoléon again won even more impressively in five by-elections on September 17, there was no new attempt to obstruct the man who was obviously already a strong candidate for the presidency itself, and he calmly took his seat. Despite a new attempt, led by the young Jules Grévy, to create not an elected president but a premier chosen by the assembly, the deputies, after a grandiloquent speech by Alphonse de Lamartine, voted in favor of an electoral college. The constitution adopted on November 4 therefore included the provision for a president to be elected directly in theory by all Frenchmen 21 years of age or older, modeled upon the system in use in the United States at the time. However the constitution also contained several precautions against any abuse of presidential power. The constitution prohibited a president from succeeding himself immediately after one four-year term, required him to take an oath to uphold the constitution, and provided that any attempt to dissolve the legislative assembly would result in the automatic deposition of the president. The constitution also provided that should any candidate fail to win an absolute majority, the national assembly would choose the president from among the leading candidates. Louis-Napoléon had few supporters in the assembly, which presumably would favor General Louis Eugêne Cavaignac, whom it had kept in power as chief executive since the June Days.
The assembly decided to proceed immediately to the election of the president, on December 10 and 11. Although it was apparent that Louis-Napoléon and Cavaignac were the leading candidates, there was considerable room for maneuver among the competing political forces. Most of the moderate republicans favored Cavaignac, but Lamartine stood also and the radicals and socialists put forward Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin and François Raspail. Proposals by some monarchists to offer the candidacies of the legitimist pretender, the Comte de Chambord, or as an Orléanist a son of Louis Philippe or Adolphe Thiers, were soon abandoned as unrealistic; but the leading organization of the combined monarchists, the "party of order," was unable to decide between the republican Cavaignac or Louis-Napoléon, both of whom members detested or distrusted. Both Cavaignac and Napoleon stood above all as men of order, but the general was inept in his appeal for conservative support, most of which in the end went to Bonaparte...
Left, de-facto Dictator Cavaignac. Right, President Bonaparte.
President Bonaparte
... during the Presidential election of 10 & 11 December Louis-Napoléon won his overwhelming victory by a landslide, polling some five million (or 75%) votes against Cavaignac's distance second of 1,448,302 votes (or 20%). The remaining five percent mostly went to the démoc-socs candidate Ledru-Rollin in the form of 400,000. The radical Raspail polled a pitiful 37,000 (0.5%), while Lamartine gained a mere 8,000 (0.28%). The Legitimists candidate, General Changarnier, attracted fewer than a thousand votes (0.06%). Louis-Napoléon won in all but four departments; two in Brittany and two in the Midi. Not without chagrin at his defeat, Cavaignac withdrew into the ranks of the opposition within the Assembly. The election was an overwhelming defeat for all of the republican candidates and in a sense a victory for the Napoleonic legend, incarnate in the little-known nephew of the great Emperor...
... ten days after the election President Bonaparte took the oath of office. One of his first acts was to appoint Odilon Barrot as his prime minister. His Legitimist opponent in the election, General Changarnier (6), was also appointed commander of the armed forces in Paris. Barrot's cabinet included just one republican; all the other ministers were monarchists who quickly set about purging all levels of the new administration of those appointed since the February Revolution. Over the next several weeks these actions radicalized the National Assembly, and moderates began to join the Left against Bonaparte until...
... on 1 January 1849 Barrot initiated a policy resorting traditional fiscal policies to weather the continuing financial crisis by re-imposing unpopular taxes on products such as salt and wine that had been abolished in the previous year. As indirect impositions, these taxes fell disproportionally on the poor. The Left in the Assembly, now further united, could not stop the bill's passage through the parliament, but they successfully mutilated the bill as it made it way through the body, slashing the salt tax in particular to a third of its original value...
... By the end of the month the Assembly overwhelmingly rejected a government motion to ban all political clubs. The deputies of the Left, joined by several moderates, went so far as to introduce a counter-bill of impeachment against Léon Faucher, the Minister of the Interior responsible for the proposed ban. As the mood in France continued to turn against the new regime on 28 January Ledru-Rollin stated in a widely-read article in La Réforme that violations of the people's fundamental liberties "have always sounded the hour of revolution." The next day the government, led by Barrot, put forward a motion for an early dissolution of the Assembly in favor of a new election set for 13 May to match the new constitution and new government. This reactionary move was also supported by the appearance of troops led by the royalist General Changarnier, who surrounded the Assembly under the pretext of defending against a 'mounting popular insurrection.' In one last defiant act the Assembly passed a bill forbidding the government from pursuing a campaign in Italy...
McKnight, William. Trans. W. Scott Haine. The Revolutionary Tradition: France in the Nineteenth Century. 2011 Ed.
... Working-class spokesmen such as Martin Nadaud (7) and Agricole Perdiguier (8) were merely the most famous and prominent of a new generation of working-class and peasant agitators that emerged. However it was only after the June days, as the steadily rising level of repression sent increasing numbers of middle-class protesters (especially lawyers and journalists) to jail for their political activities, and as the political awareness of proletarians grew, did artisans, shopkeepers, and peasant farmers became prominent and often pivotal in radical organizations. The proto-urban villages of the south, from Allier to the Var, proved to be ideal spaces for these "cultural brokers" who diffused a new political awareness to the local peasants. Many of them were the educated sons of prosperous peasants who kept strong ties to their native villages. The 1848 period in France mobilized an unprecedented number of people, first in the cities and then in the villages. Politics in the country was inclusive rather than exclusive; it incorporated tradition and modernity simultaneously. This mass mobilization accommodated newspapers and clubs along with songs, folklore, and village fairs and cafés. Thus the gap between the intellectuals and the people was bridged in an unprecedented fashion. The historian Maurice Agulhon's phrase captures this well: 'politics made its decent into the masses.' This was the great political legacy of 1848 in France...
... Popular culture, caricature, and festivity became more intimately involved in the revolutionary process in 1848 than during 1789 or 1830. Folklore was perhaps more alive in the middle of the nineteenth century than it has even been in French medieval history. Revolutionaries, especially in the countryside, but also in the towns, used the sociability, festivity, and the large crowds created by traditional festivals to bring their political message to the populace. Their vision of a social and democratic republic with a high degree of mutualism (9) complemented the communal solidarity of traditional life. Almost all the folkloric forms of association such as the charivari, carnival, the 'farandole', fairs, and 'veillées' became infused with political purpose. At the same time pamphlets, prints, brochures, songs, newspapers, lithographs, and almanacs also used the motifs of popular culture. Finally, the distance between politics and popular culture was also often bridged by the transformation of popular notions of Christianity into the démoc-soc ideology. In this instance Christ became the first proletarian and his struggle one for social justice...
... In general, urban forms of association, such as clubs and electoral committees, were much more explicitly political than their rural counterparts. This contrast stems not simply from a greater folkloric component in rural France but also the product of governmental strategies of repression which first focused on the cities. By the time the "party of order" turned its attention to the countryside, the republican left had learned to hide its propaganda and organizational work under the cover of folklore. Some aspects of this popular culture were ideal as means of indoctrination. These included such sociable occasions as fairs, chambrées, (private clubs usually in semi-urban southern villages), veillées, taverns, and cafés. Others were well suited for mobilization. Charivaris, dances, group singing or music playing, parades, and demonstrations usually drew a large group that could be used to make a collective statement. Still other aspects of popular culture could be either individual acts of defiance or collective statements of values, including poaching and wood gathering...
... The conjuncture of a rising wave of folkloric expression and political mobilization was one of the unique elements of the 1848 revolution in France. The marriage between popular culture and politics permitted a broader and more rapid diffusion of modern ideologies because of the lack of literacy among a substantial percentage of the French population. Folklore and popular culture connected modern forms of political expression and organization and traditional habits and customs of the French people...
(1) IOTL the government was split half-and-half, with General Cavaignac casting the deciding vote against.
(2) Cavaignac's legacy in France will be something akin to George Washington, or to Cincinnatus himself, ITTL. Respected, somewhat feared, but mostly adored for his role in establishing order throughout the country, for preventing France from entering another round of destructive European wars, and primarily for stepping down from power when the time came. Though of course some will attempted to usurp Cavaignac from his pedestal; those of the Left for the June Days, and those on the right for peacefully stepping down from power instead of seizing it 'to maintain order'.
(3) IOTL of course the parliament had not been prorogued by Cavaignac, and therefore by the September by-elections were largely finishing the debates on executive power, meaning the new conservative 'party of order' had little say. ITTL though while they cannot simply force their will onto the Assembly, the conservatives will leave a decidedly elitist mark on the French constitution of 1848.
(4) IOTL the Assembly selected a system in which the President was elected directly by the people, in which anyone could stand in for the candidacy. However conservative forces within the parliament are much stronger ITTL, and the régime semi-présidentiel is instead chosen due to a perceived notion of the failings of the previous French republican models, including that of the Second Republic just before the June Days.
(5) See Chapter #9 for details.
(6) Changarnier had served for a short time in the bodyguard of Louis XVIII before wisely keeping his head down during the Terror and the Napoleonic period. He joined the army following the Bourbon Restoration, becoming a captain by 1825, and by 1830 he was a member of the Royal Guard and in 1835 took part in the French conquest of Algeria. By 1847 Changarnier was a divisional commander, and succeeded Cavaignac as Governor-General of Algeria following the latter's recall to Paris. Staunchly opposed to republican rule, Changarnier was also opposed to the Bonapartes, making his command under Louis-Napoléon fractious, at best.
(7) Who had originally spoken Occitan, only learning French at 14 when he began work as a mason. It was during this period that Naduad become a radical after learning of the poor conditions of French workers first hand, and nearly died several times as a result of them. By the time he was 19 Naduad was a foreman, a Freemason, and a member of the republican Society for Human Rights. Naduad later became a follower of Étienne Cabet, who had coined the term 'communism' in 1839 as part of his utopian socialist movement. During the 1848 period Naduad had been a member of the Luxembourg Commission, and later played a key role in extended the republican and radical-worker ideology into the rural countryside.
(8) A staunch radical republican, Perdiguier's father had been a captain in La Grande Armée. After 1815 at the age of ten his father was executed, his mother was raped before Perdiguier's eyes before being thrown into jail (where she died), and Perdiguier himself was beaten and dragged through the streets of his native Morières-lès-Avignon. After a brief schooling due to the Catholic church which took the orphan child in, Perdiguier became a carpenter, and in 1839 published his "Book of Companionship," a memoir, article of faith and political pamphlet which was widely circulated and earned him the correspondence of both Victor Hugo and Lamartine. Elected to the National Assembly as a démoc-socs, Perdiguier played a large role in the underground radical movement against Bonaparte in late 1848 and early 1849.
(9) Mutualism originated in the writing of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who has already been cited in Chapter #9; see Citation #5. Mutualism's economic theories rest upon the labor theory of value that holds that when labor or its product is sold, in exchange, it ought to receive goods or services embodying 'the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility,' while anything less is theft of labor. Thus most OTL mutualist theorist are opposed to banks, stock markets, and traditional finances altogether, as they believe receiving an income through loans, investments, rent and etc. does not compose labor, and thus are detrimental to a society in which each person possesses a means of production, either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in a truly free market. Notably mutualist are also opposed to Marxist-Communist state-socialism, as Proudhon instead wishes to socialize the means or production by subjecting capital to the natural law of competition, thus bringing the price of its own use down to cost. The term mutualism comes from biology, and is contrasted to parasitism. Thus mutualist theorists state the capitalist/corporate order is a parasite.
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"Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy, and those who had anything united in common terror."
- Alexis de Tocqueville, remarking on the 1848 Revolutions, in his Recollections
Published in 1893 by his widowed wife
- Alexis de Tocqueville, remarking on the 1848 Revolutions, in his Recollections
Published in 1893 by his widowed wife
French Revolution of 1848
Foreign Relations
... while the French had largely stayed neutral during the early months of the 1848 period under Lamartine, minus a few volunteer legions led by French radicals, by that summer the situation in France and across Europe had changed. In early July French Foreign Minister Bastide's offered plan of Franco-British mediation between the Austrians and the Italians regarding the North Italian plain was rejected by the government in Vienna. This provoked a cabinet crisis in Paris, while over half of the minister supported armed intervention on the behalf of the Italians, and a vocal minority argued against. (1) By the evening of 3 July the majority had won the debate for intervention, however in the morning of 4 July in a scene reminiscent of the previous month's insurrection Cavaignac once again cracked down on Paris before any radical insurgency could come to fruition. Cavaignac also used his absolute executive power invested during the June Days to prorogue the National Assembly for nearly seven weeks until the by-elections of September. Many commentators, both French and throughout Europe, worried that Cavaignac would simply seize power for himself altogether and declare himself dictator, emperor, or the founder of a new ruling dynasty. However Cavaignac himself consciously modeled his behavior along the lines of the ancient Cincinnatus (2), and though he held de-facto absolute power in France throughout the summer and autumn months...
December Elections
... on 24 September just days after the re-opening of the National Assembly the parliament's composure took a decidedly rightward shift in the by-elections. Notably for France's future among those new faces was Louis-Napoléon, who had been re-elected to the Assembly following his resignation earlier in the year by five constituencies, once again including Paris. However instead of the metropolis Bonaparte choose to represent the outlying department of Yonne, which allowed him political power without being associated with the 'unruly' Parisian mobs...
... Bonaparte and the others sent to Paris in the September elections entered the Assembly during the start (3) of debates on the extent, and restrictions, on the new executive power in France. Even with Cavaignac's largely hands-off attitude towards the legislature, the affect of his regime were still felt within the body. Debates were held on whether or not to even have a Presidency, or if another forum of governance would be more appropriate for the French people. The few radicals still within the body went so far as to suggest a rehabilitation of the Directory, though this move was rejected outright by the conservative majority within the Assembly...
... on 7 October Lamartine, who had been elected to the Assembly in the by-elections the previous month, rose before the body and argued in favor of a Presidential system modeled upon that of the United States. Hammering against his opponents, both conservatives and radicals, Lamartine argued that for a new dictatorship to arise would require the same environment as of 1804, namely the shocks of la Terreur as well as a charismatic military leader, of which France had neither in 1848. Though many his opponents throughout the Assembly would go on to compare the June Days to la Terruer and Cavaignac to the young Napoléon, by the end of the day the Assembly voted in favor of a Presidential system in which the executive was chosen by electors, who would be popularly elected on the basis of universal male suffrage. Furthermore the Presidential office was constrained by being available for only a single, non-renewable four-year term, while the electors could only choose someone for the office from either among the military or the National Assembly... (4)
... However to further assure protection against future tyranny just two days later moderate Antoine Thouret tabled an amendment which bared members of former ruling dynasties - the Bourbons, Orléans, and Bonapartes - from standing for the Presidency. Louis-Napoléon stood to challenge this motion, however his French was so poor, with a strong German accent acquired from his long years of exile, that he was openly mocked within the parliament. Before the hour was up Thouret contemptuously withdrew his amendment, a decision that would haunt him for the rest of his rather short when...
... As early as 26 November Louis-Napoléon announced his candidacy for the Presidency. Of the six people running for office, only Bonaparte and Cavaignac were considered electable candidates. However, Cavaignac himself was too busy in actually running the state as, with all power absolutely concentrated in himself, he had no ministers nor a bureaucracy nor legislature until September to fall upon. Thus the early led quickly fell to young Bonaparte. Notably Louis-Napoléon had been increasingly active courting the support of both the moderate left, especially the few radicals that had been against the June Days, as well as conservatives that slowly began to support Bonaparte in the belief, correctly, that such an 'imperial' figure would crush the Left...
... On 4 November the French Constitution of the Second Republic was ratified. The preamble of the constitutional text proclaimed the fundamental principles of the Republic, 'In the presence of God and on the behalf of the French people.' Notably the preamble also contained lines constituting a return to the First Republic of 1792, while affirming the 'indivisibility of the Republic' in the face of force, both external and internal. The constitution also included a Bill of Rights, including freedom of the press, assembly, worship, association and property, while also institutionalizing the abolition of slavery declared during the Republic's early months by Schelecher. (5) Under the new Constitution the National Assembly was affirmed as the sole legislature of the country, while the exact number of members, something always in flux previously throughout the 1848 revolutionary period, was set to 750, elected on universal male suffrage. The deputies were to be elected for three-year terms, at the end of which the entire Assembly was renewed, while between sessions an office of twenty-five members elected from among the parliament ensured continuity. The relationship between the legislature and executive was confirmed to that which had been laid out in earlier drafts; the Assembly could not dissolved by the President, and though he held an absolute veto on all bills passed, the parliament could over-turn this via a new bill. The Assembly also was responsible for declaring war and ratifying treaties, however the executive was the Commander-in-Chief of the French military. As well the President appointed a Council of State of ministers of the government, which were responsible to his office alone. The office of a Vice-President was also created, which would take his place in case of failure or death, and chaired the Council of State. Both the Vice-President and the President could be tried before the High Court, which imbued the absolute judicial power of the state. The court was to be made up of five judges elected from among the members of a Court of Cassation, which were appointed by the President. However in cases of impeachment against the President or Vice-President the Assembly would appoint a new High Court. The Court would also convene at the Assembly's decree in cases of high treason against the state...
de Luna, Frederick. "France: Election of President." Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions. 2005 Ed.
... Under the second republic of 1848, France for the first time chose as its head of state and chief executive a president elected by universal male suffrage. The First Republic of 1792 had experimented with several forms of executive power, and even Napoléon Bonaparte as First Consul had shared power (at least in theory) with two others. But the constitutional committee of the national constituent assembly in 1848, partly out of regard for the failure of the earlier forms and partly inspired by the American example, by late May 1848 had decided in favor of a presidential executive, to be elected by the same democratic suffrage that had produced the national assembly itself.
The election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as a deputy in four by- elections on June 4 raised a new issue, however. Alarmed, the Executive Commission decided to arrest the pretender should he return to France from England, but the National Assembly voted to admit him. Louis-Napoléon, however, decided to resign his seat and bide his time. The Parisian insurrection of late June, while turning the assembly against socialist theories and radical activists, left intact the committee's commitment to political democracy. But when Louis-Napoléon again won even more impressively in five by-elections on September 17, there was no new attempt to obstruct the man who was obviously already a strong candidate for the presidency itself, and he calmly took his seat. Despite a new attempt, led by the young Jules Grévy, to create not an elected president but a premier chosen by the assembly, the deputies, after a grandiloquent speech by Alphonse de Lamartine, voted in favor of an electoral college. The constitution adopted on November 4 therefore included the provision for a president to be elected directly in theory by all Frenchmen 21 years of age or older, modeled upon the system in use in the United States at the time. However the constitution also contained several precautions against any abuse of presidential power. The constitution prohibited a president from succeeding himself immediately after one four-year term, required him to take an oath to uphold the constitution, and provided that any attempt to dissolve the legislative assembly would result in the automatic deposition of the president. The constitution also provided that should any candidate fail to win an absolute majority, the national assembly would choose the president from among the leading candidates. Louis-Napoléon had few supporters in the assembly, which presumably would favor General Louis Eugêne Cavaignac, whom it had kept in power as chief executive since the June Days.
The assembly decided to proceed immediately to the election of the president, on December 10 and 11. Although it was apparent that Louis-Napoléon and Cavaignac were the leading candidates, there was considerable room for maneuver among the competing political forces. Most of the moderate republicans favored Cavaignac, but Lamartine stood also and the radicals and socialists put forward Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin and François Raspail. Proposals by some monarchists to offer the candidacies of the legitimist pretender, the Comte de Chambord, or as an Orléanist a son of Louis Philippe or Adolphe Thiers, were soon abandoned as unrealistic; but the leading organization of the combined monarchists, the "party of order," was unable to decide between the republican Cavaignac or Louis-Napoléon, both of whom members detested or distrusted. Both Cavaignac and Napoleon stood above all as men of order, but the general was inept in his appeal for conservative support, most of which in the end went to Bonaparte...
Left, de-facto Dictator Cavaignac. Right, President Bonaparte.
President Bonaparte
... during the Presidential election of 10 & 11 December Louis-Napoléon won his overwhelming victory by a landslide, polling some five million (or 75%) votes against Cavaignac's distance second of 1,448,302 votes (or 20%). The remaining five percent mostly went to the démoc-socs candidate Ledru-Rollin in the form of 400,000. The radical Raspail polled a pitiful 37,000 (0.5%), while Lamartine gained a mere 8,000 (0.28%). The Legitimists candidate, General Changarnier, attracted fewer than a thousand votes (0.06%). Louis-Napoléon won in all but four departments; two in Brittany and two in the Midi. Not without chagrin at his defeat, Cavaignac withdrew into the ranks of the opposition within the Assembly. The election was an overwhelming defeat for all of the republican candidates and in a sense a victory for the Napoleonic legend, incarnate in the little-known nephew of the great Emperor...
... ten days after the election President Bonaparte took the oath of office. One of his first acts was to appoint Odilon Barrot as his prime minister. His Legitimist opponent in the election, General Changarnier (6), was also appointed commander of the armed forces in Paris. Barrot's cabinet included just one republican; all the other ministers were monarchists who quickly set about purging all levels of the new administration of those appointed since the February Revolution. Over the next several weeks these actions radicalized the National Assembly, and moderates began to join the Left against Bonaparte until...
... on 1 January 1849 Barrot initiated a policy resorting traditional fiscal policies to weather the continuing financial crisis by re-imposing unpopular taxes on products such as salt and wine that had been abolished in the previous year. As indirect impositions, these taxes fell disproportionally on the poor. The Left in the Assembly, now further united, could not stop the bill's passage through the parliament, but they successfully mutilated the bill as it made it way through the body, slashing the salt tax in particular to a third of its original value...
... By the end of the month the Assembly overwhelmingly rejected a government motion to ban all political clubs. The deputies of the Left, joined by several moderates, went so far as to introduce a counter-bill of impeachment against Léon Faucher, the Minister of the Interior responsible for the proposed ban. As the mood in France continued to turn against the new regime on 28 January Ledru-Rollin stated in a widely-read article in La Réforme that violations of the people's fundamental liberties "have always sounded the hour of revolution." The next day the government, led by Barrot, put forward a motion for an early dissolution of the Assembly in favor of a new election set for 13 May to match the new constitution and new government. This reactionary move was also supported by the appearance of troops led by the royalist General Changarnier, who surrounded the Assembly under the pretext of defending against a 'mounting popular insurrection.' In one last defiant act the Assembly passed a bill forbidding the government from pursuing a campaign in Italy...
McKnight, William. Trans. W. Scott Haine. The Revolutionary Tradition: France in the Nineteenth Century. 2011 Ed.
... Working-class spokesmen such as Martin Nadaud (7) and Agricole Perdiguier (8) were merely the most famous and prominent of a new generation of working-class and peasant agitators that emerged. However it was only after the June days, as the steadily rising level of repression sent increasing numbers of middle-class protesters (especially lawyers and journalists) to jail for their political activities, and as the political awareness of proletarians grew, did artisans, shopkeepers, and peasant farmers became prominent and often pivotal in radical organizations. The proto-urban villages of the south, from Allier to the Var, proved to be ideal spaces for these "cultural brokers" who diffused a new political awareness to the local peasants. Many of them were the educated sons of prosperous peasants who kept strong ties to their native villages. The 1848 period in France mobilized an unprecedented number of people, first in the cities and then in the villages. Politics in the country was inclusive rather than exclusive; it incorporated tradition and modernity simultaneously. This mass mobilization accommodated newspapers and clubs along with songs, folklore, and village fairs and cafés. Thus the gap between the intellectuals and the people was bridged in an unprecedented fashion. The historian Maurice Agulhon's phrase captures this well: 'politics made its decent into the masses.' This was the great political legacy of 1848 in France...
... Popular culture, caricature, and festivity became more intimately involved in the revolutionary process in 1848 than during 1789 or 1830. Folklore was perhaps more alive in the middle of the nineteenth century than it has even been in French medieval history. Revolutionaries, especially in the countryside, but also in the towns, used the sociability, festivity, and the large crowds created by traditional festivals to bring their political message to the populace. Their vision of a social and democratic republic with a high degree of mutualism (9) complemented the communal solidarity of traditional life. Almost all the folkloric forms of association such as the charivari, carnival, the 'farandole', fairs, and 'veillées' became infused with political purpose. At the same time pamphlets, prints, brochures, songs, newspapers, lithographs, and almanacs also used the motifs of popular culture. Finally, the distance between politics and popular culture was also often bridged by the transformation of popular notions of Christianity into the démoc-soc ideology. In this instance Christ became the first proletarian and his struggle one for social justice...
... In general, urban forms of association, such as clubs and electoral committees, were much more explicitly political than their rural counterparts. This contrast stems not simply from a greater folkloric component in rural France but also the product of governmental strategies of repression which first focused on the cities. By the time the "party of order" turned its attention to the countryside, the republican left had learned to hide its propaganda and organizational work under the cover of folklore. Some aspects of this popular culture were ideal as means of indoctrination. These included such sociable occasions as fairs, chambrées, (private clubs usually in semi-urban southern villages), veillées, taverns, and cafés. Others were well suited for mobilization. Charivaris, dances, group singing or music playing, parades, and demonstrations usually drew a large group that could be used to make a collective statement. Still other aspects of popular culture could be either individual acts of defiance or collective statements of values, including poaching and wood gathering...
... The conjuncture of a rising wave of folkloric expression and political mobilization was one of the unique elements of the 1848 revolution in France. The marriage between popular culture and politics permitted a broader and more rapid diffusion of modern ideologies because of the lack of literacy among a substantial percentage of the French population. Folklore and popular culture connected modern forms of political expression and organization and traditional habits and customs of the French people...
(1) IOTL the government was split half-and-half, with General Cavaignac casting the deciding vote against.
(2) Cavaignac's legacy in France will be something akin to George Washington, or to Cincinnatus himself, ITTL. Respected, somewhat feared, but mostly adored for his role in establishing order throughout the country, for preventing France from entering another round of destructive European wars, and primarily for stepping down from power when the time came. Though of course some will attempted to usurp Cavaignac from his pedestal; those of the Left for the June Days, and those on the right for peacefully stepping down from power instead of seizing it 'to maintain order'.
(3) IOTL of course the parliament had not been prorogued by Cavaignac, and therefore by the September by-elections were largely finishing the debates on executive power, meaning the new conservative 'party of order' had little say. ITTL though while they cannot simply force their will onto the Assembly, the conservatives will leave a decidedly elitist mark on the French constitution of 1848.
(4) IOTL the Assembly selected a system in which the President was elected directly by the people, in which anyone could stand in for the candidacy. However conservative forces within the parliament are much stronger ITTL, and the régime semi-présidentiel is instead chosen due to a perceived notion of the failings of the previous French republican models, including that of the Second Republic just before the June Days.
(5) See Chapter #9 for details.
(6) Changarnier had served for a short time in the bodyguard of Louis XVIII before wisely keeping his head down during the Terror and the Napoleonic period. He joined the army following the Bourbon Restoration, becoming a captain by 1825, and by 1830 he was a member of the Royal Guard and in 1835 took part in the French conquest of Algeria. By 1847 Changarnier was a divisional commander, and succeeded Cavaignac as Governor-General of Algeria following the latter's recall to Paris. Staunchly opposed to republican rule, Changarnier was also opposed to the Bonapartes, making his command under Louis-Napoléon fractious, at best.
(7) Who had originally spoken Occitan, only learning French at 14 when he began work as a mason. It was during this period that Naduad become a radical after learning of the poor conditions of French workers first hand, and nearly died several times as a result of them. By the time he was 19 Naduad was a foreman, a Freemason, and a member of the republican Society for Human Rights. Naduad later became a follower of Étienne Cabet, who had coined the term 'communism' in 1839 as part of his utopian socialist movement. During the 1848 period Naduad had been a member of the Luxembourg Commission, and later played a key role in extended the republican and radical-worker ideology into the rural countryside.
(8) A staunch radical republican, Perdiguier's father had been a captain in La Grande Armée. After 1815 at the age of ten his father was executed, his mother was raped before Perdiguier's eyes before being thrown into jail (where she died), and Perdiguier himself was beaten and dragged through the streets of his native Morières-lès-Avignon. After a brief schooling due to the Catholic church which took the orphan child in, Perdiguier became a carpenter, and in 1839 published his "Book of Companionship," a memoir, article of faith and political pamphlet which was widely circulated and earned him the correspondence of both Victor Hugo and Lamartine. Elected to the National Assembly as a démoc-socs, Perdiguier played a large role in the underground radical movement against Bonaparte in late 1848 and early 1849.
(9) Mutualism originated in the writing of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who has already been cited in Chapter #9; see Citation #5. Mutualism's economic theories rest upon the labor theory of value that holds that when labor or its product is sold, in exchange, it ought to receive goods or services embodying 'the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility,' while anything less is theft of labor. Thus most OTL mutualist theorist are opposed to banks, stock markets, and traditional finances altogether, as they believe receiving an income through loans, investments, rent and etc. does not compose labor, and thus are detrimental to a society in which each person possesses a means of production, either individually or collectively, with trade representing equivalent amounts of labor in a truly free market. Notably mutualist are also opposed to Marxist-Communist state-socialism, as Proudhon instead wishes to socialize the means or production by subjecting capital to the natural law of competition, thus bringing the price of its own use down to cost. The term mutualism comes from biology, and is contrasted to parasitism. Thus mutualist theorists state the capitalist/corporate order is a parasite.
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wolf_brother
Banned
The Collapse
[Spacing]
Dissolution of the Hapsburg Empire
The Collapse
The end of the Austrian Hapsburg Empire in late 1848 ushered in an era of conflict unforeseen on the European continent since the Napoleonic period some thirty years earlier. The first such event, the Hungarian War of Independence, was a brief clash which took place during the final years of the dissolution of the empire. The war...
... As early as 29 August during the radicalization of the Magyars Palatine Stephen wrote to the Austrian garrison commander in the fortress of Komárom, upstream from Budapest, telling him to be ready to move on the capitol against the 'planned machinations on the unruly party...'
... Uneasy with Batthyány's government and the 'treachery' of Stephen the Magyar radicals planned a second insurgency. The standard-bearer of the revolutionary cause, the newspaper March Fifteenth, along with the Society for Equality and their own journal, the Radical Democrat, scheduled an enormous French-style banquet for 8 September. The radicals hoped to pressure the resignation of most governmental ministers, excluding only Kossuth and the Minister of the Interior Bertalan Szemere. (1) However, Kossuth learned of the radical's plans, and on 2 September speaking before the parliament he was able to persuade the radicals to postpone the gathering. Kossuth argued that the Hungarian government was currently engaged in delicate negotiations in Vienna, trying hard to avert open war, and any insurrection would provide Stephen the pretext he needed to bring in imperial troops. If Kossuth had known the truth of the matter, perhaps his arguments would have gone the other way. As it was the brilliant Magyar orator was caught flat-footed when only two days later Emperor Ferdinand reinstated Jelačić to his former position as Ban of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia; though this was merely a formal procedure as Jelačić had continued to serve in this position throughout the summer, with tactic Austrian support. (2) The true shift in policy was when later the same day Ferdinand issued a manifesto formally declaring his opposition to Hungarian independence; 'a 'Hungarian Kingdom' separate from the Austrian Empire is a political impossibility.' The conservative court in Vienna continued to attempt to strengthen its footing with the imperial peasantry when on 7 September an imperial decree was issued resolving the question of serfdom throughout the empire. Landlords were to be compensated for dues that steamed from property ownership, but not for any obligations that implied personal servitude...
... The real hammer-blow to Hungarian independence, however, came when on 11 September, while Batthyány was still in Vienna arguing before the imperial court, Jelačić returned to Serbia and gathered his 50,000-strong army. Marching across the Drava river, Jelačić's troops launched an offensive against the Magyars; Hungary and Croatia, both nominally still a part of the Austrian Empire, were now at war. Even as Jelačić launched his country and himself down the road that would lead to their own independence, he sent word back to Vienna promising to deliver Hungary 'from the yoke of an incapable, odious, and rebel government.' Against Jelačić's forces the Hungarians had only some five thousand active troops, mostly raw recruits and National Guards commanded by Count Ádám Teleki, an aristocratic career soldier who was squeamish about taking the field against fellow officers who had sworn an oath to the Hapsburg Emperor. Suffice it to say that among the Magyar political elites, Teleki was not considered reliable. Of course, it also widely acknowledged that there was not much Teleki could possibly do in the face of overwhelming Hapsburg power. Therefore it was no surprise when on 15 September Teleki executed a tactical retreat to Budapest, declaring that was morally bound not to fight the invading Croats. Consequently the Hungarian parliament asked the Palatine Archduke Stephen to command Hungary's forces; however, under orders from Emperor Ferdinand not to resist Jelačić, Stephen refused the command. By the time the Palatine made his noncompliance known to the Diet, Jelačić was less than forty miles from Budapest. As citizens began digging entrenchments outside of the city, inside however Kossuth proposed that a parliamentary committee should be established to deal with confidential military matters, since the responsibility was too much for Batthyány alone, who still had no cabinet due to Ferdinand's rejection of all non-conservatives candidates in favor of only those with a pro-Hapsburg view. Over Batthyány's protest the Diet voted in favor within the hour; Kossuth and his radical allies quickly took control of the new six-man Committee of National Defense. By 23 September Stephen resigned as Palatine and returned to Vienna; historians widely consider that from this moment forward Hungary was a de-facto independent state...
... Kossuth spent the later weeks of September touring the central Hungarian plains, drawing volunteers to the new national army. When he returned to Budapest he claimed that some 15,000 (3) recruits were preparing to join the capitol...
... On 24 September some 20,000 Austrian peasants celebrated the abolition of 'feudalism' throughout the empire. While the celebrations were largely orchestrated by the conservative Austrian nobility, it is important to note that the peasants were largely indifferent to, or opposed, the radicals and reformers throughout the empire; many of whom had originally fought for the peasant's new found rights. The next day in what was meant to be a conciliatory gesture Ferdinand appointed Count Lamberg Ferenc Fülöp (4) as royal commissioner and commander of all forces in Hungary, and Baron Miklós Vay (5) as Prime Minister. However, both of these appointments were illegal under the new Hungarian constitution, because they had not been previously approved by the Hungarian parliament. What was meant to ensure at least some measure of Hapsburg power in Hungary instead only drove the Magyars further away. Three days later the Hungarian Diet officially sent a resolution to Vienna rejecting the appointments of Lamberg and Vay, and declared its determination to uphold the constitution. Further, the new Committee of National Defense ordered the Hungarian forces to uphold only orders sent by the Committee itself or the Hungarian Diet. Lamberg, of course, had no idea of the events happening around him as he entered Hungary. Tragically, on 28 September as Lamberg's carriage was crossing the pontoon bridge over the Danube into Budapest a mob formed at the scene. Made up mostly of artisans, students and soldiers, the rabble dragged Lamberg out of his coach and stabbed him to death. Only the late arrival of the National Guards prevented the crowd from hanging his corpse. The Hungarian Diet, in an effort to avert war, condemned the death of Lamberg the next day, vowing to bring those responsible to justice. However unknown to them at the same time Hungarian forces made a stand against the Croatian invades at the village of Pákozd, only thirty miles from Budapest. There Jelačić's forces, though vastly outnumbering the Magyars, were routed by honvéd units aided by a startling uprising of the local peasantry against the invaders. Jelačić quickly asked for a three-day truce to withdraw his troops to Vienna, claiming doing so to support the Hapsburg monarchy against 'restive elements' in the imperial capitol. The Hungarians agreed, and 'escorted' his forces back to the border. Upon hearing the news that night the situation in Budapest dramatically changed. Boisterous with victory, the radicals converted a meeting of the Committee of National Defense into an emergency, provisional, government with Kossuth as its President. In a power-sharing scheme with the moderates the committee's membership was expanded from six to twelve, drawing in new members from the moderately liberal upper house of the Diet. As well, most of the radical leadership, including Petőfi and Vasvári, left the Committee to join the Honvéd units...
... As early as 30 September, General Anton von Puchner, the Austrian governor of Transylvania and commander of the imperial forces in the province, allowed Romanian nationalist to hold a second great Congress at Blaj. Over two weeks later, on 18 October, Puchner declared the government in Budapest illegal, and called on all 'loyal' Transylvanians to 'rise to the last man, one for all and all for one.' However the Székely, ethnic Magyars living in multicultural eastern Transylvania, declared their loyalty to Hungary, and some 30,000 of them including border regiments took up arms against Puchner. The general was saved though, as the Romanian nationalists backed his move in a bid to unite Transylvania with the Danubian principalities, though by this point it was unclear if the nationalist meant the Russian controlled Moldavians or the autonomous Wallachians within the Turkish Empire. Regardless, groups of Romanians peasants soon tracked down and slaughtered the Magyars fighting for an independent Hungary, as well as several pro-reform Saxon landlords and government officials. In retaliation the Székely and Honvéd chased down Romanian peasants throughout Transylvania, mass executing them; hundreds of villages were razed to the ground as both sides committed themselves into a spiral of increasingly brutal reprisals. By the end of 1849 some 60,000 (6) people had been killed in what later historians consider to be the first modern instance of a Verbunkos. (7) Count Karl-Leiningen-Westerburg, a moderately liberal Saxon magnate with large estates in the Voivodina and the Banat who commanded a Hungarian unit that captured the city of Temesvár after skirmishing with a band of armed peasants, wrote that;
"Then began work which filled me with disgust. In a few moments the village was in flames at various points; and the men started pillaging and committed various offenses. (8) We had the greatest difficulty in getting the flames under control. Yet these villainous Romanians deserved the punishment they got, for they are daily threatening the poor Hungarians who live among them. As I was slowly riding back out of the village, an officer brought thirty prisoners, truly deplorable wretches! As soon they reached me, the officer shouted to them in Romanian (so I was told afterwards) 'Down on your knees before the gentlemen! Kill the dust from the hoofs of his horse!' Disgusted at the sight, I cast a look of derision at the officer and rode away, leaving them to their fate."
Pavel, Teodor. "Transylvanian Saxons." Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions. 2005 Ed.
The Germans of Transylvania, commonly called Saxons, settled in the 12th and 13th centuries eastern portions of the principality. They were given special royal privileges in the Andrean Diploma in 1224, and by 1848 the Fundus Regius territory of the Saxons contained 271 villages, boroughs and towns populated by some 275,000 inhabitants (172,000 Saxons and 203,000 Romanians) ruled by an autonomous territorial-administrative entity called the Universitats Saxonum, with its political, administrative and religious center at Hermannsdadt (Romanian: Sibiu). The majority of Saxons were freemen, though a number of Saxon serf villages existed. Some 40,000 Romanian serfs also existed in the region, which had to pay rent in kind and also give 100 days of forced labor a year. The Saxons tended to defend Hapsburg absolutism, and therefore news of the events from Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Milan and Venice was received with hostility and anxiety by the authorities in Hermannsdadt, and with hope and expectations by reformers and among the ordinary population. The abolition of censorship and the institution of freedom of the press and assembly gave birth to unprecedented political activity in the region. Apprehension over the possible accession of the Romanian population to the status of a political nation on the one hand and reaction to the efforts of Magyar liberals to unite Transylvania with Hungary on the other had a moderating effect on Saxon reform and at the same time strengthened the conservative attachment to the Habsburg court.
The Saxons faced a dilemma. Though many recognized the legitimacy of Romanian aspirations in Transylvania, they also feared for their future as a national-confessional entity in a modern, centralized, national state. The Saxons came to see the union of Transylvania with Hungary as the key, a Magyar programmatic step which both Saxon reformers and the Universitas rejected. They also feared the specter of violent battle in Transylvania as a result. The Romanian national assembly at Blaj (15-17 May 1848), which produced the Romanian revolutionary program, had deeply and favorably influenced the Saxons. Stephan Ludwig Roth, who was present on the Field of Liberty in Blaj, eulogized the event, and the Saxon press began to support recognition of the Romanian cause. An 18 May meeting of Saxon regional delegates met in Hermannsdadt, declared against the union, and sent the emperor another anti-unionist message. One of their arguments was that the opposition to union (Romanian and Saxon) constituted 71% of the Transylvanian population, while support for it (Hungarian and Szekler) was only 26%.
The Saxons started organizing and training guards units in the villages and towns and obtaining munitions for them. The youth were organized into a Jugendbund led by Stephan Ludwig Roth and the student Theodor Fabini. A Romanian-Saxon conference was held in Hermannsdadt on 6 September which reaffirmed the illegality of the union and the authority of Hungarian legislation in Transylvania. Two more proclamations were sent to Vienna that same month, announcing the decision of the Saxons to defend themselves against the Magyars and requesting protection from the emperor. The Third Romanian assembly in Blaj in September, 1848, now called for an armed rising in Transylvania. A committee was set up composed of six Romanians (led by Simion Barnutiu) and three Saxons (C. Müller, P. Lange, Stephan Ludwig Roth) to organize the armed resistance. A Saxon Jäger battalion was added to the Romanian forces that began to form. General Puchner declared a state of war and took over the leadership of the anti-Magyar forces gathering in Transylvania. In the violent battle which devastated Transylvania for the next ten months (November 1848-August 1849) the Saxons fought together with the Romanians under the imperial flag for the defense of the autonomy and liberties which were contested by the Hungarian government...
Final Showdown
... In response to Lamberg's death Emperor Ferdinand formally declared war between the Austrian empire and the Kingdom of Hungary on 3 October. However, the radicals within Vienna supported the Magyars for a multitude of reasons. Without Hungary and with Italy increasingly looking to achieve its own independence there would be no great territorial blocs left to prevent Austria from joining the new Germany. As well a Magyar victory would be a great defeat for the Hapsburg monarchy, and with royal power depleted the radicals would once again hold the reins of power as they had following the imperial flight to Innsbruck. Therefore within hours of the imperial proclamation of war Viennese workers and radical units of the National Guards gathered at the University of Vienna's commons to declare their unconditional support to the Academic Legion. The city swiftly entered another phase of insurrection, with workers attacking factories, while Austrians wearing the Hapsburg black-gold cockades were beaten in the streets. Three days later, in the midst of mounting insurgent behavior, Latour ordered troops to board trains for the Hungarian frontier in the small hours of the morning on 6 October, many of whom refused. Workers, students and National Guards swiftly moved to block the trains from leaving the capitol. In the Gumpendorf, a working class district, a grenadier battalion mutinied and joined the insurrection, demolishing the barracks behind them. Latour called out more troops, which forced the grenadiers into a running action to retreat towards the radical-held railway station. However, National Guard units repeatedly intervened on the grenadiers’ behalf, while the retreating troops themselves use their unit drums to rally the people in their support. Soon a huge crowd had gathered at the railway depot, where workers proceeded to tear up the rails to prevent imperial soldiers from leaving, or reinforcements from entering the city swiftly. When officers of the units giving chase prodded their reluctant troops across the Tabor Bridge towards the first station though they found that several arches had been torn apart and the lumber and masonry used to build a massive barricade. General Hugo von Bredy, the imperial commander in Vienna, attempted to use sappers to destroy the obstacle and restore the bridge; however workers at the barricade took the opportunity to seize one of the army's unguarded cannon. As the insurgents dragged off the gun Bredy ordered his troops to open fire; the Academic Legion returned fire, and Bredy himself was shot dead in the cross-fire, his body falling from his force. However in those same brief moments thirty mutinied grenadiers were cut down in the deadly exchange. The insurgents had numerical superiority, and with their commanding officer dead the imperials were quickly forced to fall back. The insurgents quickly marched further into the city with their newly captured cannons...
... Elsewhere in the city moderate units of the National Guard barricade themselves inside Saint Stephen's Cathedral until radical units of the Guard battered down the doors, stormed the building, and executed the moderate officers. The survivors were given a choice; join the radicals, or meet the same fate...
... Throughout the morning of 6 October across the city imperial standard troops were attacked by both the citizenry and radicalized units of the National Guard. Barricades sprouted up throughout the imperial capitol 'like mushrooms on a fallen timber,' raised by both conservative elements and radicals alike. While Latour was protected by a cordon of soldiers outside the War Minister, the parliament was not, and looking to stop the bloodshed the deputies ordered the military to pull back. Unfortunately for the War Minister as soon as the soldiers left a crowd broke into his ministry with axes, pikes, iron bars, and makeshift weapons from the insurgent-held factories shouting, above all else; 'Where is Latour? He must die!' A deputation from the Reichstag rushed to the ministry to attempt to save Latour, but the mob found him first; cowering in the building's attic. Dragged into the streets, before thousands of witnesses, conservatives, radicals, and innocent bystanders alike, the horde beat the man to death. His head was caved in with a hammer, and then being cleaved off by a saber, before a bayonet sliced into the corpse's heart. His body was then set upon until it was unrecognizable; at which point it was dragged to the square of Am Hof, hung from a lamp post, and set ablaze. With this moral blow, the insurgents swiftly captured the city's arsenal. Though the imperial troops guarding it inflicted terrible casualties using grapeshot, the insurgent struck back by bombarding the building with Congreve rockets. As the arsenal burned the royalists fled, allowing thousands of muskets to be captured by the insurgents before the roof collapsed.
At this point the imperial government completely abandoned Vienna, pulling all of its troops outside of the city. The victorious radicals issued their demands as the sun set, including a reversal of the war against Hungary, the deposition of Ban Jelačić, and the appointment of a 'new and popular government' However, the Emperor, theoretically the only person with the power to make such reforms, was in too busy for such an action in flight to the fortress of Olmütz with the imperial family under heavy military escort. By the end of the night most of the remaining government ministers had joined him, including figures such as Hübner, recently returned from Italy. Importantly the moderate members of the Reichstag also fled Vienna, leaving it entirely in the radical's hands. Perhaps most importantly though, the entire Czech delegation left, returning to Prague a few days later. This left the Austrian Reichstag dominated not only by radicals, but also by Germans and pro-German supporters. Before the end of the night this rump parliament created a permanent emergency committee to deal with the crisis; in theory it only answered to the Reichstag but its powers included the right to issue orders freely. In the imperial power vacuum, the radicals had simply created another position around which their demanded reforms could be initiated.
Victorious celebrations after the Battle for Vienna
The next morning Hungarian forces under General János Móga, but relying on the brilliant tactician Artúr Görgey, (9) engaged a Croat army at Orzora. By this point in the war the tables had turned, and Jelačić's forces were much weaker than the Hungarians, mostly because as his Croats had looted and pillaged across the countryside to feed their bellies and their greed the Magyar peasantry had once again risen up to attack his army's rear, weakening and slowing the Croats. Therefore while it was a surprise to the Magyars, after just a few hours at Orzora the famished and bedraggled Croats retreated from the field...
... On 8 October Emperor Ferdinand authorized a build-up of troops outside of Vienna, to add to the already 12,000-strong garrison under Count Maximilen Auersperg camped just outside the city's walls. Auersperg quickly sent a courier to Jelačić, pleading for assistance; this was the first word Jelačić had received of the uprising, and retrospectively justified his retreat, an action he had spent the last several days deeply troubled by how he was to present the news to the imperial court. Jelačić immediately detached a small section of his army which moved rapidly to the imperial capitol, with the main force coming up behind. As dawn broke on the morning of 9 October Jelačić's main force was just two hours marching time away from the imperial capitol; however a Hungarian legion was in hot pursuit; time was of the essence. The Hungarian parliament sent word to Vienna offering military assistance; however the rump parliament within still claimed to be the legal, constitutional, and loyal authority of the Hapsburg Empire. While the radicals had gained everything that they had originally sought, replying positively to the Magyar offer would mean accepting the fact that they were in rebellion against the Hapsburg monarchy. While most of the deputies were astute enough to recognize they could not depend on the Emperor's good will any longer, no one within the city was willing to take the poisoned chalice. The parliament and city council spent much of the day passing the question of Magyar assistance back and forth to each other. However, the students, bourgeois and workers who had actually taken control of the capitol sent a deputation to the Hungarian forces; unfortunately the Magyars would only respond to a request from the legal authorities within the city. The Hungarians believed, right so, that they would have to explain their actions to the rest of the European community if they made any move to export their revolutionary war of independence beyond their own borders. Meanwhile in a rather foolish move the rump parliament sent a delegation of radical Reichstag deputies to the Emperor at Olmütz, asking him to withdraw his troops from around Vienna. Ferdinand soundly rejected the offer, and took the delegation prisoner. One week later Ferdinand further gave the commanded of the Vienna siege to Windischgrätz, the general who had successfully put down the Prague Uprising, giving him full powers to restore imperial authority. Within days Windischgrätz had issued orders to 30,000 of his most loyal troops in Bohemia to march double-time to Vienna...
... The Austrian struggles were not unnoticed throughout the rest of Germany. On 10 October two delegates arrived in the Olmütz from Frankfurt, sent by Archduke John, to mediate between the court and Vienna. However the imperial government was not determined to crush the revolution, and Ferdinand along with all the members of the Staatskonferenz refused to meet with the deputies. Seven days later Robert Blum (10) and Julius Fröbel (11) arrived in Vienna from Frankfurt as a two-man delegation from the German radicals to offer their support for the Viennese revolution and to discuss Austria's new place within Germany...
... On 20 October in a proclamation written by Hübner Emperor Ferdinand warned that measures would be taken to curb the press, freedom of assemblies and the militias in the fact of the continuing problems Austria was facing after flirting with the 'liberal experiment.' Alarmed by this move the Czech deputies at Olmütz persuaded Ferdinand to offer reassurances that a constitution would still be drafted. However, two days later Ferdinand ordered the Austrian parliament to relocate from Vienna to Kremsier in Moravia by 15 November - an order which the rump parliament in Vienna predictably rejected within hours of receiving. By the morning of 23 October Windischgrätz's and Jelačić's forces surrounded the city, some 70,000 strong; Vienna was now completely cut off from the outside world, including its water and gas lines, which Windischgrätz ordered cut. The Marshal issued his 'simple' demand to the radicals; that the city surrender within 48 hours. The insurrectionaries responded by sortieing against the imperial outposts around the city in throughout the night, probing for a weak point. Although the Magyar forces are only twenty-eight miles away on the Hungarian-Austrian border, they continued to sit still and wait for a formal request from the rump Austrian parliament, with Kossuth expressing the Hungarian position that 'We are not entitled to force out air upon people who do not express their willingness to accept it.' On the morning of 26 October Windischgrätz kept his promise and ordered his troops to take Vienna. While the revolutionary outposts outside the city walls were taken easily, importantly with the insurgent-captured gun batteries dug into the Schmeltz cemetery captured after a brief bombardment by Hapsburg artillery, the city itself is a much harder nut to crack. Jelačić led the main assault, and after twelve-hours of constant street-to-street fighting had only managed to advance into the city's eastern suburbs. Baron Pillersdorf, now a member of the Austrian parliament, asked Windischgrätz to offer some concessions in return for a Viennese surrender. When he was rebuffed Pillersdorf remarked 'Well then, may the responsibility of all the blood shed fall on your head,' to which Windischgrätz gravely replied 'I accept the responsibility.'
However as early as 27 October an undeclared cease-fire was in-affect as fighting came to a lull in the early morning hours. That day (12) Kossuth joined the Hungarian forces along the border; with him came 15,000 volunteers, bringing the total force up to 31,000 men. That night every battery around the city opened fire on the insurrectionary entrenchments still manned outside. At nine o'clock Windischgrätz himself led his troops from Schönbrunn and broke into the industrial suburbs, while Jelačić consolidated his grip on the eastern suburbs. For this Jelačić used his elite troops, the Montenegrins, who, wrapped in their traditional fiery red cloaks and carrying curbed blades clamped in their mouths, clambered over the insurgent's fortifications in the dead of the night, clearing or capturing thirty barricades in hand-to-hand fighting. By the middle of the night imperial troops stood in front of the walls of the inner city, while the suburbs were mostly ashes and rubble. Seeing the flames of Vienna in the night sky Kossuth decided that the time for legalities was over; 'Vienna still stands. The courage of her inhabitants, our most faithful allies against the attacks of the reactionaries, is still unshaken.' The Hungarian army quickly and non-too-quietly crossed into Austria. Within the imperial capitol, the revolutionary General Wenzel Messenhauser, commanded of the remaining Viennese National Guard, who had spent the past two days uninterrupted in the cathedral tower of Saint Stephen's directing his forces, spotted the approach of the Magyars by their torch lights, and was the among the first to hear their cannon open up in the rear of the imperial forces outside the city. Repudiating the city council's peace overtures the Viennese radicals, National Guards, Academic Legion and workers sortied against the imperial forces outside the inner-city walls. In response to this new threat, Windischgrätz detached Jelačić and Auersperg with 28,000 men to meet the Hungarians.
As the Austrians hurried to meet the Magyar threat, they rushed straight into an ambush just a few miles outside of the city. The lead Hapsburg forces marched straight into the mouths of twenty Hungarian cannon, which were hidden behind the heights of Schwechat. (13) Auersperg was killed in the slaughter, and after the fact Jelačić wrote that, as the Hungarian artillery opened fire it was 'truly murderous at so short a distance.' Within an hour the Hapsburgs were routed and fell back to Vienna. Joyous Viennese revolutionaries saw and heard the massacre as it happened from the towers of the inner-city; over half a dozen sorties swiftly occurred over the next several hour as the Viennese desperately attempted to keep the reactionary forces out of the city before the Magyars could arrive in time. Windischgrätz was no fool, and knew that against the Magyars with the insurgent Viennese behind his back his forces could not win in a fair stand-up fight. As well with the only road large enough to transport his host effectively blocked by the rapidly approaching Magyars, he knew it was only a matter of time before the last large Hapsburg force between the capitol and imperial court was crushed between the revolutionary anvil and the Hungarian hammer. With the only two options left before either to capture the city and fortify in before the Magyars arrived or to surrender and wring some concessions out of the radicals, just as the Magyar forces began to close on him Windischgrätz sent out the white flag of peace and offered a truce on two simple conditions; one, that the Hapsburg monarchy be retained in the peace settlement, and two, that he and his forces were not to be harmed. Kossuth, and the radicals within Vienna, quickly accepted...
The Battle of Schwechat
... By as early as 12 November the imperial court had surrendered to the radicals, both German and Magyar. While several historians have argued that the imperial family could have taken flight once more and rallied further forces to their aid, this is generally disregarded as a well-wishing theory of Hapsburg-enthusiasts. The Hapsburg court had already spent most of the 1848 period putting down various uprisings throughout its empire, meaning there was no safe haven to turn to, perhaps save Jelačić's Banship, however this was soon revealed to be a false Eden when in early 1849...
... As well, the imperial court also faced the mounting pressure of German unification. The court worried that with such a loss as had been suffered at Vienna, it was only a matter of time before German freischärlers began to storm south from the northern states; worriedly even the strong imperial ally-vassal of Bavaria showed signs of such restlessness...
... Finally it should be remembered that these events did not take place within a vacuum. The court at Olmütz worried that if the Hapsburg civil war continued, as it was being taken to refer to already, that surrounding powers such as France, Russia, or the dreaded Turk might intervene. Russia in particular had...
Dawles, Richard. Trans. William McKnight. The Victorian Era. Brussels: Writer's Guild, 2007.
After the revolutionary fighting and unrest in Frankfurt and other German capitols throughout the summer and early autumn came the largest popular uprising in Germany in Vienna on 6 October 1848. The rebellion began when Austrian soldiers refused to fight against the revolutionary government in Budapest. Within a few hours a movement arose in the politically charged Hapsburg capitol, in particular among proletariat workers, skilled craftsmen, students, and the petite bourgeoisie. The rage of the people focused swiftly on the government quarters and on the counter-revolutionary ('reactionary') troops which people feared would advance on progressive forces in the city. Thus the ministry of war was stormed, and as a result of this assault the Minister Theodor von Latour was killed. By the end of the day the government, with the exception of the Minister of Finance Philipp von Krauss, and the emperor had fled to the fortress of Olmütz. These events brought about a risky confrontation. In Vienna the city council took power and drew on the revolutionary workers, burghers and students for support. The Viennese revolutionaries declared their solidarity with the Hungarian people, but ultimately underestimated the important of the Slav's struggle...
... The government camp rallied around the military and the aristocracy who supported tough measures against the revolution and the full restoration of Hapsburg absolutism, including Hapsburg power in the resurgent Reich. On 23 October a force of 70,000 imperial soldiers commanded by Field Marshal Alfred von Windischgrätz and Croatian Ban Josip Jelačić completed the siege of Vienna. The defenders of the capitol were able to muster an armed force of thirty to forty thousand armed men (National Guard, Academic Legion, and revolutionary corps) under the command of General Wenzel Messenhauser, but many of the fighters were poorly armed or untrained. The insurgents only chance was reinforcement from outside; i.e. military relief from Hungary. The defenders put up courageous resistance in their almost hopeless struggle, especially after their faith was aroused by the approach of the Hungarian army. With the defeat of the Austrians by this Magyar force the Hapsburg's last hope vanished. The number of army casualties in Vienna during the October Revolution was less than two hundred, while over three thousand revolutionaries gave up their lives...
German nationalist Robert Blum on the Viennese barricades
... Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg, Windischgrätz's brother-in-law whose sister had been killed in the Prague Uprising, was asked to form a new government. Though tainted by his familial connections to Windischgrätz, Schwarzenberg was a moderate that believed in the Hapsburg tradition, but believed above all in reform. In his acceptance letter Schwarzenberg wrote that 'Democracy must be tamed and its excesses must be challenged but in the absence of other means of help that can only be done by the government itself.' His cabinet included other moderate or liberal, pro-German nobles, including Franz Stadion, Alexander Bach, and Philipp von Krauss. Notably none of the new appointments included reactionaries who had fought for the Hapsburg throne, either in Bohemia, Italy, Hungary, or the imperial capitol, and many of them, Stadion in particular, were remarked upon for their survival due to giving into the liberal demands at first, before the radicalization of the reform movement...
... Over the next few weeks the rump parliament in Vienna incorporated the liberal and few conservatives deputies who had fled the capitol and traveled to Kremsier; however the true authority in the empire was by this time wrapped in a complex and delicate power-sharing arrangement in Vienna between the radical workers, bourgeoisie, Academic Legion, National Guard, and the radical delegates who had stayed at the Reichstag in Vienna. Over the next several months the parliament worked to produce a liberal constitution, though the early drafts largely had to be rewritten following Austria's ascension to...
... The fighting did not stop throughout the Hapsburg Empire with the surrender of the Hapsburg throne however. On 30 November, Puchner, disregarding early reports of the events of Vienna as Magyar lies, led a force of imperial troops and Romanian volunteers into Hungary proper; however they were swiftly checked by a hastily assembled Hungarian force under Polish exile General Józef Bem, who had fought at Vienna in October. On a one-day long battle Puchner's forces were devastated and by early December Bem led a conquering invasion of Transylvania...
... As well in early January of 1849 the Hungarian forces turned their attention south towards Jelačić, and…
... On 2 December, with a heavy heart, Schwarzenberg persuaded the ill and weakening Emperor Ferdinand to abdicate in order to break the liberal promises he had made earlier in the year so that the new regime could begin with a clean slate. The crown therefore passed to Ferdinand's younger brother, Archduke Franz Karl. (14) Under the Vienna Accord, signed by all parties in mid-1849, the Hapsburg Empire was transformed into a confederation; Austria, Bohemia, Illryia, Hungary all became separate but equal Kingdoms within the loose imperial framework, while much of the smaller imperial territories were absorbed in one way or another by these four Kingdoms. Galicia-Lodomeria, Bukovina, Silesia, and Transylvania fell to the Hungarians, while Carinthia, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg joined the Austrian Archduchy proper; Moravia was fused into Bohemia, and finally Carniola, Gorizia-Gradisca, Istria, Trieste were incorporated into Illyria. For this reason after the 1848 period the Hapsburg confederation is sometimes referred to as the 'Quadruple Monarchy.' Notably in the territorial shuffle while Hungary also officially gained the Voivodeship, the Banat and the former Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia were merged into a new Banship, a military province directly controlled by the official liaison of the Hapsburg monarchy; Jelačić. The Magyars were initially opposed to such a move, especially considering the on-going war between the Hungarians and the Croats, however the maneuvers of the Turks along the border throughout the year, and in Wallachia in 1848, finally convinced the Hungarian Diet to agree after one final...
... under the Accord, Franz Karl became Archduke Karl V of Austria and the Hapsburg Empire, while his eldest sons became Kings of the realms by age and importance, though nominally they were all subservient to their father the Archduke. Therefore his eldest son Franz Joseph became King of Bohemia, the middle son Maximilian became King of Hungary, and the youngest son Karl Ludwig became King of Illyria...
... Obviously of course, the Hapsburg Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia was explicitly not mentioned in the document, due to that region's...
(1) Born of a poor noble family, Szemere was originally a poet before becoming involved in the reform movement in the 1830s. After traveling abroad throughout the European capitols in 1835, Szemere published his diary Utazás külföldön ('Traveling abroad'), in which Szemere revealed how backward Hungary was in relation to the rest of Europe, as well as other Europeans prejudices about Magyars. The journal made Szemere an over-night celebrity, and, previously having studied law, Szemere became a judge in Borsod county between 1841 and 1847, before being elected to the Hungarian Diet in early 1848.
(2) See Chapter #10 for details.
(3) Roughly three thousand more volunteers than IOTL.
(4) Also known by his Austrian name of 'Count Franz Philipp von Lamberg,' Lamberg had served in the War of the Six Coalition, and became a career military man. By 1842 he was a Feldmarschallleutnant, and in 1847 had been a member of the Magyar reform diet. Though a conservative, he was no reactionary. As an upper member of the Hungarian nobility, Lamberg was trusted as both a loyal Magyar and Hapsburg supporter.
(5) Vay had been previously appointed as Palatine Stephen's plenipotentiary commissioner in Transylvania in June. Though liberals rejected his conservative stance, many respected him for his 'upright and straightforward character.'
(6) 1.5x times more than OTL; the Hungarians, the Saxons (Germans) and the Romanians are much more politically united, radicalized, nationalized, and organized than OTL. The entire Balkan area is just as much a potential powder-keg ITTL as it was IOTL.
(7) AKA a genocide, or ethnic cleansing. IOTL the word 'genocide' was coined in 1944 by a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, and come from the Greek word génos ('race') and the Latin -cidium ('cutting') via French -cide. ITTL the equivalent term is Verbunkos, an early 18th century Magyar word culturally transposed from the German Werbung, or Werben, meaning to recruit, and initially referred to the traditional music played during such an occasion. ITTL the phrase means to 'recruit via terror,' and could possibly be more aptly compared to OTL's civil wars in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia where factions will recruit new 'volunteers' from among the survivors of their destruction. Broadly ITTL any complex ethnic, cultural or religious conflict would be referred to as a Verbunkos.
(8) Read: rape, random killings, blackmail, theft, etc. You should get the picture.
(9) Born of a Magyar noble, Görgey entered the Bodyguard of Hungarian Nobles at Vienna in 1837, where he combined military service with courses at the university. In 1845 he left the army to study chemistry at the University of Prague and manage the family estates in Hungary after his father's death. Görgey was one of the few Hungarian nobles to call for independence immediately during the start of the 1848 period, and after entering the Honvéd Army quickly become a major and commandant of the National Guard units north of the Tisza River. IOTL after the failure of Hungarian independence Görgey was remarkably not court-martialed, but did spend several years kept in confinement at Klagenfurt. He spent the least years of his life as a railway engineer, and it was only after his death that his important role during the war and unique natural military talent was widely acknowledged throughout what had then become Austria-Hungary.
(10) Seen throughout Chapter #5, Blum was the leader of the nascent German democrats, a movement which sought to bring 'all' the people of Germany together, including the outcast Jews, Poles, etc. Born in poverty in Cologne, the son of a failed theologian, Blum worked as a craftsman through several trades before moving to Berlin to continue his, admittedly lackluster, education. After serving his required time in the Prussian army Blum returned to Cologne, where he entered the republican movement, contributing to the liberal Zeitung für die elegante Welt ('Newspaper for the elegant world'). During an abortive uprising in 1845 in Saxony Blum dissuaded the armed rebels from storming the barracks of Leipzig, ultimately peacefully winding down the entire insurrection, a feat which resulted in him later being elected a representative in Leipzig's city council. IOTL Blum was arrested during the Vienna siege and executed by the Austrians; becoming a martyr for the German liberal movement.
(11) Nephew of the founder of the kindergarten system (of which I plan to write of later), Fröbel had been born within the Prussian Province of Saxony, and later he become a naturalized Swiss citizen in 1833. Though he moved to Dresden in 1846, just year ahead of the ITTL Swiss Civil War, Fröbel had been apart of the Free Democratic Party, and editor of their newspaper Der schweizerische Republikaner ('The Swiss Republican'), during which time he issued several scientific works and political pamphlets, many of which were heavily censored or suppressed throughout the German states.
(12) IOTL Kossuth arrived one day later, on 28 October, which had grave consequences for both the Magyars and the Viennese. ITTL though the Hungarian military position is stronger, and so Kossuth feels more comfortable joining the honvéd army earlier.
(13) This is, very roughly, the opposite of IOTL. Due to the earlier movement of the Hungarians they are able to position themselves much more effectively.
(14) IOTL Ferdinand did abdicate, however Franz Karl's wife Sophie was able to persuade her husband to renounce his claim and the throne passed to Karl's eldest son, the eighteen-year old Franz Joseph. ITTL though with Hapsburg authority suffering such a serious blow Franz Karl accepts the responsibility of rebuilding the House's base of power.
[Spacing]
"Blood and blood everywhere! Brother will slay brother and nation nation, in a frenzy. Houses will be marked with crosses of blood for burning."
- Count István Széchenyi, during the opening stages of the Hungarian War of Independence
3 September 1848
- Count István Széchenyi, during the opening stages of the Hungarian War of Independence
3 September 1848
Dissolution of the Hapsburg Empire
The Collapse
The end of the Austrian Hapsburg Empire in late 1848 ushered in an era of conflict unforeseen on the European continent since the Napoleonic period some thirty years earlier. The first such event, the Hungarian War of Independence, was a brief clash which took place during the final years of the dissolution of the empire. The war...
... As early as 29 August during the radicalization of the Magyars Palatine Stephen wrote to the Austrian garrison commander in the fortress of Komárom, upstream from Budapest, telling him to be ready to move on the capitol against the 'planned machinations on the unruly party...'
... Uneasy with Batthyány's government and the 'treachery' of Stephen the Magyar radicals planned a second insurgency. The standard-bearer of the revolutionary cause, the newspaper March Fifteenth, along with the Society for Equality and their own journal, the Radical Democrat, scheduled an enormous French-style banquet for 8 September. The radicals hoped to pressure the resignation of most governmental ministers, excluding only Kossuth and the Minister of the Interior Bertalan Szemere. (1) However, Kossuth learned of the radical's plans, and on 2 September speaking before the parliament he was able to persuade the radicals to postpone the gathering. Kossuth argued that the Hungarian government was currently engaged in delicate negotiations in Vienna, trying hard to avert open war, and any insurrection would provide Stephen the pretext he needed to bring in imperial troops. If Kossuth had known the truth of the matter, perhaps his arguments would have gone the other way. As it was the brilliant Magyar orator was caught flat-footed when only two days later Emperor Ferdinand reinstated Jelačić to his former position as Ban of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia; though this was merely a formal procedure as Jelačić had continued to serve in this position throughout the summer, with tactic Austrian support. (2) The true shift in policy was when later the same day Ferdinand issued a manifesto formally declaring his opposition to Hungarian independence; 'a 'Hungarian Kingdom' separate from the Austrian Empire is a political impossibility.' The conservative court in Vienna continued to attempt to strengthen its footing with the imperial peasantry when on 7 September an imperial decree was issued resolving the question of serfdom throughout the empire. Landlords were to be compensated for dues that steamed from property ownership, but not for any obligations that implied personal servitude...
... The real hammer-blow to Hungarian independence, however, came when on 11 September, while Batthyány was still in Vienna arguing before the imperial court, Jelačić returned to Serbia and gathered his 50,000-strong army. Marching across the Drava river, Jelačić's troops launched an offensive against the Magyars; Hungary and Croatia, both nominally still a part of the Austrian Empire, were now at war. Even as Jelačić launched his country and himself down the road that would lead to their own independence, he sent word back to Vienna promising to deliver Hungary 'from the yoke of an incapable, odious, and rebel government.' Against Jelačić's forces the Hungarians had only some five thousand active troops, mostly raw recruits and National Guards commanded by Count Ádám Teleki, an aristocratic career soldier who was squeamish about taking the field against fellow officers who had sworn an oath to the Hapsburg Emperor. Suffice it to say that among the Magyar political elites, Teleki was not considered reliable. Of course, it also widely acknowledged that there was not much Teleki could possibly do in the face of overwhelming Hapsburg power. Therefore it was no surprise when on 15 September Teleki executed a tactical retreat to Budapest, declaring that was morally bound not to fight the invading Croats. Consequently the Hungarian parliament asked the Palatine Archduke Stephen to command Hungary's forces; however, under orders from Emperor Ferdinand not to resist Jelačić, Stephen refused the command. By the time the Palatine made his noncompliance known to the Diet, Jelačić was less than forty miles from Budapest. As citizens began digging entrenchments outside of the city, inside however Kossuth proposed that a parliamentary committee should be established to deal with confidential military matters, since the responsibility was too much for Batthyány alone, who still had no cabinet due to Ferdinand's rejection of all non-conservatives candidates in favor of only those with a pro-Hapsburg view. Over Batthyány's protest the Diet voted in favor within the hour; Kossuth and his radical allies quickly took control of the new six-man Committee of National Defense. By 23 September Stephen resigned as Palatine and returned to Vienna; historians widely consider that from this moment forward Hungary was a de-facto independent state...
... Kossuth spent the later weeks of September touring the central Hungarian plains, drawing volunteers to the new national army. When he returned to Budapest he claimed that some 15,000 (3) recruits were preparing to join the capitol...
... On 24 September some 20,000 Austrian peasants celebrated the abolition of 'feudalism' throughout the empire. While the celebrations were largely orchestrated by the conservative Austrian nobility, it is important to note that the peasants were largely indifferent to, or opposed, the radicals and reformers throughout the empire; many of whom had originally fought for the peasant's new found rights. The next day in what was meant to be a conciliatory gesture Ferdinand appointed Count Lamberg Ferenc Fülöp (4) as royal commissioner and commander of all forces in Hungary, and Baron Miklós Vay (5) as Prime Minister. However, both of these appointments were illegal under the new Hungarian constitution, because they had not been previously approved by the Hungarian parliament. What was meant to ensure at least some measure of Hapsburg power in Hungary instead only drove the Magyars further away. Three days later the Hungarian Diet officially sent a resolution to Vienna rejecting the appointments of Lamberg and Vay, and declared its determination to uphold the constitution. Further, the new Committee of National Defense ordered the Hungarian forces to uphold only orders sent by the Committee itself or the Hungarian Diet. Lamberg, of course, had no idea of the events happening around him as he entered Hungary. Tragically, on 28 September as Lamberg's carriage was crossing the pontoon bridge over the Danube into Budapest a mob formed at the scene. Made up mostly of artisans, students and soldiers, the rabble dragged Lamberg out of his coach and stabbed him to death. Only the late arrival of the National Guards prevented the crowd from hanging his corpse. The Hungarian Diet, in an effort to avert war, condemned the death of Lamberg the next day, vowing to bring those responsible to justice. However unknown to them at the same time Hungarian forces made a stand against the Croatian invades at the village of Pákozd, only thirty miles from Budapest. There Jelačić's forces, though vastly outnumbering the Magyars, were routed by honvéd units aided by a startling uprising of the local peasantry against the invaders. Jelačić quickly asked for a three-day truce to withdraw his troops to Vienna, claiming doing so to support the Hapsburg monarchy against 'restive elements' in the imperial capitol. The Hungarians agreed, and 'escorted' his forces back to the border. Upon hearing the news that night the situation in Budapest dramatically changed. Boisterous with victory, the radicals converted a meeting of the Committee of National Defense into an emergency, provisional, government with Kossuth as its President. In a power-sharing scheme with the moderates the committee's membership was expanded from six to twelve, drawing in new members from the moderately liberal upper house of the Diet. As well, most of the radical leadership, including Petőfi and Vasvári, left the Committee to join the Honvéd units...
... As early as 30 September, General Anton von Puchner, the Austrian governor of Transylvania and commander of the imperial forces in the province, allowed Romanian nationalist to hold a second great Congress at Blaj. Over two weeks later, on 18 October, Puchner declared the government in Budapest illegal, and called on all 'loyal' Transylvanians to 'rise to the last man, one for all and all for one.' However the Székely, ethnic Magyars living in multicultural eastern Transylvania, declared their loyalty to Hungary, and some 30,000 of them including border regiments took up arms against Puchner. The general was saved though, as the Romanian nationalists backed his move in a bid to unite Transylvania with the Danubian principalities, though by this point it was unclear if the nationalist meant the Russian controlled Moldavians or the autonomous Wallachians within the Turkish Empire. Regardless, groups of Romanians peasants soon tracked down and slaughtered the Magyars fighting for an independent Hungary, as well as several pro-reform Saxon landlords and government officials. In retaliation the Székely and Honvéd chased down Romanian peasants throughout Transylvania, mass executing them; hundreds of villages were razed to the ground as both sides committed themselves into a spiral of increasingly brutal reprisals. By the end of 1849 some 60,000 (6) people had been killed in what later historians consider to be the first modern instance of a Verbunkos. (7) Count Karl-Leiningen-Westerburg, a moderately liberal Saxon magnate with large estates in the Voivodina and the Banat who commanded a Hungarian unit that captured the city of Temesvár after skirmishing with a band of armed peasants, wrote that;
"Then began work which filled me with disgust. In a few moments the village was in flames at various points; and the men started pillaging and committed various offenses. (8) We had the greatest difficulty in getting the flames under control. Yet these villainous Romanians deserved the punishment they got, for they are daily threatening the poor Hungarians who live among them. As I was slowly riding back out of the village, an officer brought thirty prisoners, truly deplorable wretches! As soon they reached me, the officer shouted to them in Romanian (so I was told afterwards) 'Down on your knees before the gentlemen! Kill the dust from the hoofs of his horse!' Disgusted at the sight, I cast a look of derision at the officer and rode away, leaving them to their fate."
Pavel, Teodor. "Transylvanian Saxons." Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions. 2005 Ed.
The Germans of Transylvania, commonly called Saxons, settled in the 12th and 13th centuries eastern portions of the principality. They were given special royal privileges in the Andrean Diploma in 1224, and by 1848 the Fundus Regius territory of the Saxons contained 271 villages, boroughs and towns populated by some 275,000 inhabitants (172,000 Saxons and 203,000 Romanians) ruled by an autonomous territorial-administrative entity called the Universitats Saxonum, with its political, administrative and religious center at Hermannsdadt (Romanian: Sibiu). The majority of Saxons were freemen, though a number of Saxon serf villages existed. Some 40,000 Romanian serfs also existed in the region, which had to pay rent in kind and also give 100 days of forced labor a year. The Saxons tended to defend Hapsburg absolutism, and therefore news of the events from Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Milan and Venice was received with hostility and anxiety by the authorities in Hermannsdadt, and with hope and expectations by reformers and among the ordinary population. The abolition of censorship and the institution of freedom of the press and assembly gave birth to unprecedented political activity in the region. Apprehension over the possible accession of the Romanian population to the status of a political nation on the one hand and reaction to the efforts of Magyar liberals to unite Transylvania with Hungary on the other had a moderating effect on Saxon reform and at the same time strengthened the conservative attachment to the Habsburg court.
The Saxons faced a dilemma. Though many recognized the legitimacy of Romanian aspirations in Transylvania, they also feared for their future as a national-confessional entity in a modern, centralized, national state. The Saxons came to see the union of Transylvania with Hungary as the key, a Magyar programmatic step which both Saxon reformers and the Universitas rejected. They also feared the specter of violent battle in Transylvania as a result. The Romanian national assembly at Blaj (15-17 May 1848), which produced the Romanian revolutionary program, had deeply and favorably influenced the Saxons. Stephan Ludwig Roth, who was present on the Field of Liberty in Blaj, eulogized the event, and the Saxon press began to support recognition of the Romanian cause. An 18 May meeting of Saxon regional delegates met in Hermannsdadt, declared against the union, and sent the emperor another anti-unionist message. One of their arguments was that the opposition to union (Romanian and Saxon) constituted 71% of the Transylvanian population, while support for it (Hungarian and Szekler) was only 26%.
The Saxons started organizing and training guards units in the villages and towns and obtaining munitions for them. The youth were organized into a Jugendbund led by Stephan Ludwig Roth and the student Theodor Fabini. A Romanian-Saxon conference was held in Hermannsdadt on 6 September which reaffirmed the illegality of the union and the authority of Hungarian legislation in Transylvania. Two more proclamations were sent to Vienna that same month, announcing the decision of the Saxons to defend themselves against the Magyars and requesting protection from the emperor. The Third Romanian assembly in Blaj in September, 1848, now called for an armed rising in Transylvania. A committee was set up composed of six Romanians (led by Simion Barnutiu) and three Saxons (C. Müller, P. Lange, Stephan Ludwig Roth) to organize the armed resistance. A Saxon Jäger battalion was added to the Romanian forces that began to form. General Puchner declared a state of war and took over the leadership of the anti-Magyar forces gathering in Transylvania. In the violent battle which devastated Transylvania for the next ten months (November 1848-August 1849) the Saxons fought together with the Romanians under the imperial flag for the defense of the autonomy and liberties which were contested by the Hungarian government...
Final Showdown
... In response to Lamberg's death Emperor Ferdinand formally declared war between the Austrian empire and the Kingdom of Hungary on 3 October. However, the radicals within Vienna supported the Magyars for a multitude of reasons. Without Hungary and with Italy increasingly looking to achieve its own independence there would be no great territorial blocs left to prevent Austria from joining the new Germany. As well a Magyar victory would be a great defeat for the Hapsburg monarchy, and with royal power depleted the radicals would once again hold the reins of power as they had following the imperial flight to Innsbruck. Therefore within hours of the imperial proclamation of war Viennese workers and radical units of the National Guards gathered at the University of Vienna's commons to declare their unconditional support to the Academic Legion. The city swiftly entered another phase of insurrection, with workers attacking factories, while Austrians wearing the Hapsburg black-gold cockades were beaten in the streets. Three days later, in the midst of mounting insurgent behavior, Latour ordered troops to board trains for the Hungarian frontier in the small hours of the morning on 6 October, many of whom refused. Workers, students and National Guards swiftly moved to block the trains from leaving the capitol. In the Gumpendorf, a working class district, a grenadier battalion mutinied and joined the insurrection, demolishing the barracks behind them. Latour called out more troops, which forced the grenadiers into a running action to retreat towards the radical-held railway station. However, National Guard units repeatedly intervened on the grenadiers’ behalf, while the retreating troops themselves use their unit drums to rally the people in their support. Soon a huge crowd had gathered at the railway depot, where workers proceeded to tear up the rails to prevent imperial soldiers from leaving, or reinforcements from entering the city swiftly. When officers of the units giving chase prodded their reluctant troops across the Tabor Bridge towards the first station though they found that several arches had been torn apart and the lumber and masonry used to build a massive barricade. General Hugo von Bredy, the imperial commander in Vienna, attempted to use sappers to destroy the obstacle and restore the bridge; however workers at the barricade took the opportunity to seize one of the army's unguarded cannon. As the insurgents dragged off the gun Bredy ordered his troops to open fire; the Academic Legion returned fire, and Bredy himself was shot dead in the cross-fire, his body falling from his force. However in those same brief moments thirty mutinied grenadiers were cut down in the deadly exchange. The insurgents had numerical superiority, and with their commanding officer dead the imperials were quickly forced to fall back. The insurgents quickly marched further into the city with their newly captured cannons...
... Elsewhere in the city moderate units of the National Guard barricade themselves inside Saint Stephen's Cathedral until radical units of the Guard battered down the doors, stormed the building, and executed the moderate officers. The survivors were given a choice; join the radicals, or meet the same fate...
... Throughout the morning of 6 October across the city imperial standard troops were attacked by both the citizenry and radicalized units of the National Guard. Barricades sprouted up throughout the imperial capitol 'like mushrooms on a fallen timber,' raised by both conservative elements and radicals alike. While Latour was protected by a cordon of soldiers outside the War Minister, the parliament was not, and looking to stop the bloodshed the deputies ordered the military to pull back. Unfortunately for the War Minister as soon as the soldiers left a crowd broke into his ministry with axes, pikes, iron bars, and makeshift weapons from the insurgent-held factories shouting, above all else; 'Where is Latour? He must die!' A deputation from the Reichstag rushed to the ministry to attempt to save Latour, but the mob found him first; cowering in the building's attic. Dragged into the streets, before thousands of witnesses, conservatives, radicals, and innocent bystanders alike, the horde beat the man to death. His head was caved in with a hammer, and then being cleaved off by a saber, before a bayonet sliced into the corpse's heart. His body was then set upon until it was unrecognizable; at which point it was dragged to the square of Am Hof, hung from a lamp post, and set ablaze. With this moral blow, the insurgents swiftly captured the city's arsenal. Though the imperial troops guarding it inflicted terrible casualties using grapeshot, the insurgent struck back by bombarding the building with Congreve rockets. As the arsenal burned the royalists fled, allowing thousands of muskets to be captured by the insurgents before the roof collapsed.
At this point the imperial government completely abandoned Vienna, pulling all of its troops outside of the city. The victorious radicals issued their demands as the sun set, including a reversal of the war against Hungary, the deposition of Ban Jelačić, and the appointment of a 'new and popular government' However, the Emperor, theoretically the only person with the power to make such reforms, was in too busy for such an action in flight to the fortress of Olmütz with the imperial family under heavy military escort. By the end of the night most of the remaining government ministers had joined him, including figures such as Hübner, recently returned from Italy. Importantly the moderate members of the Reichstag also fled Vienna, leaving it entirely in the radical's hands. Perhaps most importantly though, the entire Czech delegation left, returning to Prague a few days later. This left the Austrian Reichstag dominated not only by radicals, but also by Germans and pro-German supporters. Before the end of the night this rump parliament created a permanent emergency committee to deal with the crisis; in theory it only answered to the Reichstag but its powers included the right to issue orders freely. In the imperial power vacuum, the radicals had simply created another position around which their demanded reforms could be initiated.
Victorious celebrations after the Battle for Vienna
The next morning Hungarian forces under General János Móga, but relying on the brilliant tactician Artúr Görgey, (9) engaged a Croat army at Orzora. By this point in the war the tables had turned, and Jelačić's forces were much weaker than the Hungarians, mostly because as his Croats had looted and pillaged across the countryside to feed their bellies and their greed the Magyar peasantry had once again risen up to attack his army's rear, weakening and slowing the Croats. Therefore while it was a surprise to the Magyars, after just a few hours at Orzora the famished and bedraggled Croats retreated from the field...
... On 8 October Emperor Ferdinand authorized a build-up of troops outside of Vienna, to add to the already 12,000-strong garrison under Count Maximilen Auersperg camped just outside the city's walls. Auersperg quickly sent a courier to Jelačić, pleading for assistance; this was the first word Jelačić had received of the uprising, and retrospectively justified his retreat, an action he had spent the last several days deeply troubled by how he was to present the news to the imperial court. Jelačić immediately detached a small section of his army which moved rapidly to the imperial capitol, with the main force coming up behind. As dawn broke on the morning of 9 October Jelačić's main force was just two hours marching time away from the imperial capitol; however a Hungarian legion was in hot pursuit; time was of the essence. The Hungarian parliament sent word to Vienna offering military assistance; however the rump parliament within still claimed to be the legal, constitutional, and loyal authority of the Hapsburg Empire. While the radicals had gained everything that they had originally sought, replying positively to the Magyar offer would mean accepting the fact that they were in rebellion against the Hapsburg monarchy. While most of the deputies were astute enough to recognize they could not depend on the Emperor's good will any longer, no one within the city was willing to take the poisoned chalice. The parliament and city council spent much of the day passing the question of Magyar assistance back and forth to each other. However, the students, bourgeois and workers who had actually taken control of the capitol sent a deputation to the Hungarian forces; unfortunately the Magyars would only respond to a request from the legal authorities within the city. The Hungarians believed, right so, that they would have to explain their actions to the rest of the European community if they made any move to export their revolutionary war of independence beyond their own borders. Meanwhile in a rather foolish move the rump parliament sent a delegation of radical Reichstag deputies to the Emperor at Olmütz, asking him to withdraw his troops from around Vienna. Ferdinand soundly rejected the offer, and took the delegation prisoner. One week later Ferdinand further gave the commanded of the Vienna siege to Windischgrätz, the general who had successfully put down the Prague Uprising, giving him full powers to restore imperial authority. Within days Windischgrätz had issued orders to 30,000 of his most loyal troops in Bohemia to march double-time to Vienna...
... The Austrian struggles were not unnoticed throughout the rest of Germany. On 10 October two delegates arrived in the Olmütz from Frankfurt, sent by Archduke John, to mediate between the court and Vienna. However the imperial government was not determined to crush the revolution, and Ferdinand along with all the members of the Staatskonferenz refused to meet with the deputies. Seven days later Robert Blum (10) and Julius Fröbel (11) arrived in Vienna from Frankfurt as a two-man delegation from the German radicals to offer their support for the Viennese revolution and to discuss Austria's new place within Germany...
... On 20 October in a proclamation written by Hübner Emperor Ferdinand warned that measures would be taken to curb the press, freedom of assemblies and the militias in the fact of the continuing problems Austria was facing after flirting with the 'liberal experiment.' Alarmed by this move the Czech deputies at Olmütz persuaded Ferdinand to offer reassurances that a constitution would still be drafted. However, two days later Ferdinand ordered the Austrian parliament to relocate from Vienna to Kremsier in Moravia by 15 November - an order which the rump parliament in Vienna predictably rejected within hours of receiving. By the morning of 23 October Windischgrätz's and Jelačić's forces surrounded the city, some 70,000 strong; Vienna was now completely cut off from the outside world, including its water and gas lines, which Windischgrätz ordered cut. The Marshal issued his 'simple' demand to the radicals; that the city surrender within 48 hours. The insurrectionaries responded by sortieing against the imperial outposts around the city in throughout the night, probing for a weak point. Although the Magyar forces are only twenty-eight miles away on the Hungarian-Austrian border, they continued to sit still and wait for a formal request from the rump Austrian parliament, with Kossuth expressing the Hungarian position that 'We are not entitled to force out air upon people who do not express their willingness to accept it.' On the morning of 26 October Windischgrätz kept his promise and ordered his troops to take Vienna. While the revolutionary outposts outside the city walls were taken easily, importantly with the insurgent-captured gun batteries dug into the Schmeltz cemetery captured after a brief bombardment by Hapsburg artillery, the city itself is a much harder nut to crack. Jelačić led the main assault, and after twelve-hours of constant street-to-street fighting had only managed to advance into the city's eastern suburbs. Baron Pillersdorf, now a member of the Austrian parliament, asked Windischgrätz to offer some concessions in return for a Viennese surrender. When he was rebuffed Pillersdorf remarked 'Well then, may the responsibility of all the blood shed fall on your head,' to which Windischgrätz gravely replied 'I accept the responsibility.'
However as early as 27 October an undeclared cease-fire was in-affect as fighting came to a lull in the early morning hours. That day (12) Kossuth joined the Hungarian forces along the border; with him came 15,000 volunteers, bringing the total force up to 31,000 men. That night every battery around the city opened fire on the insurrectionary entrenchments still manned outside. At nine o'clock Windischgrätz himself led his troops from Schönbrunn and broke into the industrial suburbs, while Jelačić consolidated his grip on the eastern suburbs. For this Jelačić used his elite troops, the Montenegrins, who, wrapped in their traditional fiery red cloaks and carrying curbed blades clamped in their mouths, clambered over the insurgent's fortifications in the dead of the night, clearing or capturing thirty barricades in hand-to-hand fighting. By the middle of the night imperial troops stood in front of the walls of the inner city, while the suburbs were mostly ashes and rubble. Seeing the flames of Vienna in the night sky Kossuth decided that the time for legalities was over; 'Vienna still stands. The courage of her inhabitants, our most faithful allies against the attacks of the reactionaries, is still unshaken.' The Hungarian army quickly and non-too-quietly crossed into Austria. Within the imperial capitol, the revolutionary General Wenzel Messenhauser, commanded of the remaining Viennese National Guard, who had spent the past two days uninterrupted in the cathedral tower of Saint Stephen's directing his forces, spotted the approach of the Magyars by their torch lights, and was the among the first to hear their cannon open up in the rear of the imperial forces outside the city. Repudiating the city council's peace overtures the Viennese radicals, National Guards, Academic Legion and workers sortied against the imperial forces outside the inner-city walls. In response to this new threat, Windischgrätz detached Jelačić and Auersperg with 28,000 men to meet the Hungarians.
As the Austrians hurried to meet the Magyar threat, they rushed straight into an ambush just a few miles outside of the city. The lead Hapsburg forces marched straight into the mouths of twenty Hungarian cannon, which were hidden behind the heights of Schwechat. (13) Auersperg was killed in the slaughter, and after the fact Jelačić wrote that, as the Hungarian artillery opened fire it was 'truly murderous at so short a distance.' Within an hour the Hapsburgs were routed and fell back to Vienna. Joyous Viennese revolutionaries saw and heard the massacre as it happened from the towers of the inner-city; over half a dozen sorties swiftly occurred over the next several hour as the Viennese desperately attempted to keep the reactionary forces out of the city before the Magyars could arrive in time. Windischgrätz was no fool, and knew that against the Magyars with the insurgent Viennese behind his back his forces could not win in a fair stand-up fight. As well with the only road large enough to transport his host effectively blocked by the rapidly approaching Magyars, he knew it was only a matter of time before the last large Hapsburg force between the capitol and imperial court was crushed between the revolutionary anvil and the Hungarian hammer. With the only two options left before either to capture the city and fortify in before the Magyars arrived or to surrender and wring some concessions out of the radicals, just as the Magyar forces began to close on him Windischgrätz sent out the white flag of peace and offered a truce on two simple conditions; one, that the Hapsburg monarchy be retained in the peace settlement, and two, that he and his forces were not to be harmed. Kossuth, and the radicals within Vienna, quickly accepted...
The Battle of Schwechat
... By as early as 12 November the imperial court had surrendered to the radicals, both German and Magyar. While several historians have argued that the imperial family could have taken flight once more and rallied further forces to their aid, this is generally disregarded as a well-wishing theory of Hapsburg-enthusiasts. The Hapsburg court had already spent most of the 1848 period putting down various uprisings throughout its empire, meaning there was no safe haven to turn to, perhaps save Jelačić's Banship, however this was soon revealed to be a false Eden when in early 1849...
... As well, the imperial court also faced the mounting pressure of German unification. The court worried that with such a loss as had been suffered at Vienna, it was only a matter of time before German freischärlers began to storm south from the northern states; worriedly even the strong imperial ally-vassal of Bavaria showed signs of such restlessness...
... Finally it should be remembered that these events did not take place within a vacuum. The court at Olmütz worried that if the Hapsburg civil war continued, as it was being taken to refer to already, that surrounding powers such as France, Russia, or the dreaded Turk might intervene. Russia in particular had...
Dawles, Richard. Trans. William McKnight. The Victorian Era. Brussels: Writer's Guild, 2007.
After the revolutionary fighting and unrest in Frankfurt and other German capitols throughout the summer and early autumn came the largest popular uprising in Germany in Vienna on 6 October 1848. The rebellion began when Austrian soldiers refused to fight against the revolutionary government in Budapest. Within a few hours a movement arose in the politically charged Hapsburg capitol, in particular among proletariat workers, skilled craftsmen, students, and the petite bourgeoisie. The rage of the people focused swiftly on the government quarters and on the counter-revolutionary ('reactionary') troops which people feared would advance on progressive forces in the city. Thus the ministry of war was stormed, and as a result of this assault the Minister Theodor von Latour was killed. By the end of the day the government, with the exception of the Minister of Finance Philipp von Krauss, and the emperor had fled to the fortress of Olmütz. These events brought about a risky confrontation. In Vienna the city council took power and drew on the revolutionary workers, burghers and students for support. The Viennese revolutionaries declared their solidarity with the Hungarian people, but ultimately underestimated the important of the Slav's struggle...
... The government camp rallied around the military and the aristocracy who supported tough measures against the revolution and the full restoration of Hapsburg absolutism, including Hapsburg power in the resurgent Reich. On 23 October a force of 70,000 imperial soldiers commanded by Field Marshal Alfred von Windischgrätz and Croatian Ban Josip Jelačić completed the siege of Vienna. The defenders of the capitol were able to muster an armed force of thirty to forty thousand armed men (National Guard, Academic Legion, and revolutionary corps) under the command of General Wenzel Messenhauser, but many of the fighters were poorly armed or untrained. The insurgents only chance was reinforcement from outside; i.e. military relief from Hungary. The defenders put up courageous resistance in their almost hopeless struggle, especially after their faith was aroused by the approach of the Hungarian army. With the defeat of the Austrians by this Magyar force the Hapsburg's last hope vanished. The number of army casualties in Vienna during the October Revolution was less than two hundred, while over three thousand revolutionaries gave up their lives...
German nationalist Robert Blum on the Viennese barricades
... Prince Felix zu Schwarzenberg, Windischgrätz's brother-in-law whose sister had been killed in the Prague Uprising, was asked to form a new government. Though tainted by his familial connections to Windischgrätz, Schwarzenberg was a moderate that believed in the Hapsburg tradition, but believed above all in reform. In his acceptance letter Schwarzenberg wrote that 'Democracy must be tamed and its excesses must be challenged but in the absence of other means of help that can only be done by the government itself.' His cabinet included other moderate or liberal, pro-German nobles, including Franz Stadion, Alexander Bach, and Philipp von Krauss. Notably none of the new appointments included reactionaries who had fought for the Hapsburg throne, either in Bohemia, Italy, Hungary, or the imperial capitol, and many of them, Stadion in particular, were remarked upon for their survival due to giving into the liberal demands at first, before the radicalization of the reform movement...
... Over the next few weeks the rump parliament in Vienna incorporated the liberal and few conservatives deputies who had fled the capitol and traveled to Kremsier; however the true authority in the empire was by this time wrapped in a complex and delicate power-sharing arrangement in Vienna between the radical workers, bourgeoisie, Academic Legion, National Guard, and the radical delegates who had stayed at the Reichstag in Vienna. Over the next several months the parliament worked to produce a liberal constitution, though the early drafts largely had to be rewritten following Austria's ascension to...
... The fighting did not stop throughout the Hapsburg Empire with the surrender of the Hapsburg throne however. On 30 November, Puchner, disregarding early reports of the events of Vienna as Magyar lies, led a force of imperial troops and Romanian volunteers into Hungary proper; however they were swiftly checked by a hastily assembled Hungarian force under Polish exile General Józef Bem, who had fought at Vienna in October. On a one-day long battle Puchner's forces were devastated and by early December Bem led a conquering invasion of Transylvania...
... As well in early January of 1849 the Hungarian forces turned their attention south towards Jelačić, and…
... On 2 December, with a heavy heart, Schwarzenberg persuaded the ill and weakening Emperor Ferdinand to abdicate in order to break the liberal promises he had made earlier in the year so that the new regime could begin with a clean slate. The crown therefore passed to Ferdinand's younger brother, Archduke Franz Karl. (14) Under the Vienna Accord, signed by all parties in mid-1849, the Hapsburg Empire was transformed into a confederation; Austria, Bohemia, Illryia, Hungary all became separate but equal Kingdoms within the loose imperial framework, while much of the smaller imperial territories were absorbed in one way or another by these four Kingdoms. Galicia-Lodomeria, Bukovina, Silesia, and Transylvania fell to the Hungarians, while Carinthia, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg joined the Austrian Archduchy proper; Moravia was fused into Bohemia, and finally Carniola, Gorizia-Gradisca, Istria, Trieste were incorporated into Illyria. For this reason after the 1848 period the Hapsburg confederation is sometimes referred to as the 'Quadruple Monarchy.' Notably in the territorial shuffle while Hungary also officially gained the Voivodeship, the Banat and the former Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia were merged into a new Banship, a military province directly controlled by the official liaison of the Hapsburg monarchy; Jelačić. The Magyars were initially opposed to such a move, especially considering the on-going war between the Hungarians and the Croats, however the maneuvers of the Turks along the border throughout the year, and in Wallachia in 1848, finally convinced the Hungarian Diet to agree after one final...
... under the Accord, Franz Karl became Archduke Karl V of Austria and the Hapsburg Empire, while his eldest sons became Kings of the realms by age and importance, though nominally they were all subservient to their father the Archduke. Therefore his eldest son Franz Joseph became King of Bohemia, the middle son Maximilian became King of Hungary, and the youngest son Karl Ludwig became King of Illyria...
... Obviously of course, the Hapsburg Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia was explicitly not mentioned in the document, due to that region's...
(1) Born of a poor noble family, Szemere was originally a poet before becoming involved in the reform movement in the 1830s. After traveling abroad throughout the European capitols in 1835, Szemere published his diary Utazás külföldön ('Traveling abroad'), in which Szemere revealed how backward Hungary was in relation to the rest of Europe, as well as other Europeans prejudices about Magyars. The journal made Szemere an over-night celebrity, and, previously having studied law, Szemere became a judge in Borsod county between 1841 and 1847, before being elected to the Hungarian Diet in early 1848.
(2) See Chapter #10 for details.
(3) Roughly three thousand more volunteers than IOTL.
(4) Also known by his Austrian name of 'Count Franz Philipp von Lamberg,' Lamberg had served in the War of the Six Coalition, and became a career military man. By 1842 he was a Feldmarschallleutnant, and in 1847 had been a member of the Magyar reform diet. Though a conservative, he was no reactionary. As an upper member of the Hungarian nobility, Lamberg was trusted as both a loyal Magyar and Hapsburg supporter.
(5) Vay had been previously appointed as Palatine Stephen's plenipotentiary commissioner in Transylvania in June. Though liberals rejected his conservative stance, many respected him for his 'upright and straightforward character.'
(6) 1.5x times more than OTL; the Hungarians, the Saxons (Germans) and the Romanians are much more politically united, radicalized, nationalized, and organized than OTL. The entire Balkan area is just as much a potential powder-keg ITTL as it was IOTL.
(7) AKA a genocide, or ethnic cleansing. IOTL the word 'genocide' was coined in 1944 by a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, and come from the Greek word génos ('race') and the Latin -cidium ('cutting') via French -cide. ITTL the equivalent term is Verbunkos, an early 18th century Magyar word culturally transposed from the German Werbung, or Werben, meaning to recruit, and initially referred to the traditional music played during such an occasion. ITTL the phrase means to 'recruit via terror,' and could possibly be more aptly compared to OTL's civil wars in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia where factions will recruit new 'volunteers' from among the survivors of their destruction. Broadly ITTL any complex ethnic, cultural or religious conflict would be referred to as a Verbunkos.
(8) Read: rape, random killings, blackmail, theft, etc. You should get the picture.
(9) Born of a Magyar noble, Görgey entered the Bodyguard of Hungarian Nobles at Vienna in 1837, where he combined military service with courses at the university. In 1845 he left the army to study chemistry at the University of Prague and manage the family estates in Hungary after his father's death. Görgey was one of the few Hungarian nobles to call for independence immediately during the start of the 1848 period, and after entering the Honvéd Army quickly become a major and commandant of the National Guard units north of the Tisza River. IOTL after the failure of Hungarian independence Görgey was remarkably not court-martialed, but did spend several years kept in confinement at Klagenfurt. He spent the least years of his life as a railway engineer, and it was only after his death that his important role during the war and unique natural military talent was widely acknowledged throughout what had then become Austria-Hungary.
(10) Seen throughout Chapter #5, Blum was the leader of the nascent German democrats, a movement which sought to bring 'all' the people of Germany together, including the outcast Jews, Poles, etc. Born in poverty in Cologne, the son of a failed theologian, Blum worked as a craftsman through several trades before moving to Berlin to continue his, admittedly lackluster, education. After serving his required time in the Prussian army Blum returned to Cologne, where he entered the republican movement, contributing to the liberal Zeitung für die elegante Welt ('Newspaper for the elegant world'). During an abortive uprising in 1845 in Saxony Blum dissuaded the armed rebels from storming the barracks of Leipzig, ultimately peacefully winding down the entire insurrection, a feat which resulted in him later being elected a representative in Leipzig's city council. IOTL Blum was arrested during the Vienna siege and executed by the Austrians; becoming a martyr for the German liberal movement.
(11) Nephew of the founder of the kindergarten system (of which I plan to write of later), Fröbel had been born within the Prussian Province of Saxony, and later he become a naturalized Swiss citizen in 1833. Though he moved to Dresden in 1846, just year ahead of the ITTL Swiss Civil War, Fröbel had been apart of the Free Democratic Party, and editor of their newspaper Der schweizerische Republikaner ('The Swiss Republican'), during which time he issued several scientific works and political pamphlets, many of which were heavily censored or suppressed throughout the German states.
(12) IOTL Kossuth arrived one day later, on 28 October, which had grave consequences for both the Magyars and the Viennese. ITTL though the Hungarian military position is stronger, and so Kossuth feels more comfortable joining the honvéd army earlier.
(13) This is, very roughly, the opposite of IOTL. Due to the earlier movement of the Hungarians they are able to position themselves much more effectively.
(14) IOTL Ferdinand did abdicate, however Franz Karl's wife Sophie was able to persuade her husband to renounce his claim and the throne passed to Karl's eldest son, the eighteen-year old Franz Joseph. ITTL though with Hapsburg authority suffering such a serious blow Franz Karl accepts the responsibility of rebuilding the House's base of power.
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wolf_brother
Banned
You destroyed Austria-Hungary.
I...., no,..... impossible.........
Well, 'Austria-Hungary' still exists, technically, in the form of the Hapsburg 'Quadruple Monarchy.' There is still a Hapsburg empire (at this point in the TL), but the Austrian Empire ITTL will be viewed historically as a post-Napoleonic attempt of the Austrian-Germans to lord over the rest of the lands under the Hapsburgs. As things stand now, the Magyars, Croats, South Slavs, Czechs and Austrian-Germans each have their own 'slice of the pie' underneath the unifying umbrella of the Hapsburg monarchy.
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Yeah, the Habsburgs aren't destroyed, but they form a German Confederation style system wherein the component Kingdoms are held together by the House of Habsburg.
And I never expected to see the Kingdom of Illyria revived.
And I never expected to see the Kingdom of Illyria revived.
wolf_brother
Banned
Well, even IOTL it wasn't disbanded until 1849, so revived isn't quite the right word. ITTL it continues to serve as an efficient way to organize the territories of the former Illyrian Provinces as well as some of the South Slavs such as the Slovenes or the Croats into one administrative unit. As well it allows for each of the sons of Franz Karl to have a kingdom of their own while allowing Austria to maintain the Hapsburg crown as both Emperor and Archduke. It simply works out as best as can be expected for everyone involved.
wolf_brother
Banned
The German Question
[Spacing]
Bernard, Chung-Ho. Foundations of the Modern World. Seoul: Imperial Directory, 1997.
German Question
The German Question was a long-running debate between 1806 and 1849 over the best way to achieve German unification. The Großdeutsche Lösung ('Greater German solution') favored unifying all German-speaking peoples under one state (the Großdeutschland), and was favored by the German liberals and radicals, as well as the Hapsburg Austrians. The Kleindeutsche Lösung ('Lesser German solution') sought only to unify the northern German states and did not include Austria, and occasionally also excluded Austrian allies such as Bavaria, (the Kleindeutschland) a position forwarded by the Prussian government but enjoyed little elsewhere...
... While a number of factors were involved, the most prominent was religion. A Großdeutschland which benefited Austria and the southern German states would imply a strong Catholic position, a situation that was largely found unsavory by the staunchly Protestant north Germans...
... Almost all of the deputies to the 1848-49 Frankfurt parliament agreed that a unified Germany would modernize the economy, and shape Germany into a world power. The chairman of the parliament's economic committee, Friedrich von Ršhne, summed up the position summarily when he stated that; "The liberated German nation is eager to reap the fruits of its political emancipation. It demands the political unity of Germany so that it can break the chains which bind domestic commerce. It demands political unity so that it can win for its Fatherland the eminent position in foreign affairs. The divided states have until now been in no position to assert this claim against foreign nations, but the united Germany will know how to enforce it." While there was scant disagreement about reducing the number of German states, though some did argue strongly in favor of incorporating many of the smaller territories into their larger neighbors or merging into new states, the greatest number of arguments arose over the precise demarcation of which territories should constitute the new Germany. The members of the constitutional commission at Frankfurt clearly stated early in 1848 that no part of the Reich would consist of non-German territories. At the time the commissioners had been referring to the Hapsburg Austrian empire's non-German territories, however ultimately the commission's words would be proven wrong by...
... With the collapse of the Austrian empire in late 1848, and open warfare between the Hapsburg kingdoms, the Kleindeutsche Lösung was largely swept away. Though the exact composition of Austria's entrance into the new Germany would not, could not, be determined until after the 1849 Vienna Accord, the unification of all the southern German peoples into Germany proper was guaranteed by December of 1848. Notably though the strongly German populated but polyethnic Hapsburg Kingdom of Illyria adamantly did not Germany, owing to the weak rule of King Karl Ludwig and the strong rule of the conservative nobility, many of which in who were in flight to Illyrian cities such as Trieste or Laibach after the Vienna Uprising and...
... Another issue to be resolved however was that of the Poles. The Prussian and Austrian Polish partitions were undoubtedly non-German territories, however obviously neither the Hohenzollerns nor the Hapsburgs were willing to let go of these lands. Though there were arguments in favor of a (forced) 'Germanization' of the Poles, this was quickly dismissed as being unpractical. The parliament in Frankfurt had already previously offered the Polish people under Prussian rule the Grand Duchy of Posen as an autonomous territory within the German Reich; though of course this was not a confirmed bargain until the...
... With the downfall of the Austrian empire the parliament in Frankfurt swiftly saw to grant the same offer to the Grand Duchy of Krakow, securing the Poles yet another autonomous province and creating situation that was neither Großdeutschland nor Kleindeutschland. Though this still left Prussian territories outside of the long-established Holy Roman Empire that were traditionally Polish, eventually these territories were simply added to the new Germany as administered Prussian territories. While the Poles in Germany, particularly in Posen, might have been in a position to argue against this move many of them were simply content to receive the entirety of the Grandy Duchy, as well as claiming Krakow...
... The greatest issue for the German people would soon be revealed as one that was outside of the German territories. Three member states were ruled by foreign monarchs; the King of Denmark, the King of the Netherlands, and the King of Great Britain. The first was Duke of Holstein, which sparked the 1848-49 Schleswig-Holstein War; the second was the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Duke of Limburg; and the latter was King of Hanover until 1837's Succession Crisis, after which Hanover was in a dynastic union with Britain's ruling House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (2). Suffice it to say that this caused innumerable headaches in Frankfurt and throughout Germany; how were these territories to be a part of the new German state? Undoubtedly Holstein, Luxembourg, Limburg and Hanover all had a clear German population, with German language, customs and traditions, so they could not be excluded from Germany as the pan-Hapsburg Magyars, South Slavs, Italians, and etc. could. Further, after granting provincial autonomy to the Slavic Poles to offer the same status to these territories was distastefully unthinkable. Thus the German parliament eventually concluded to simply have these territories as part of the new Germany, with the ruling monarchs acting in personal (or in Britain's cause dynastic) union. Of course in Hanover the issue became a moot point when in...
German Unification
Frankfurt Crisis
... on 16 September, under mounting British and Russian pressure, particularly the partial mobilization of Russian forces within Congressional Poland, the German parliament reversed its vote continuing the Schleswig-Holstein War. The reaction of the nationalist patriots, joined by their radical cousins, throughout Germany was swift. By the next morning twelve thousand people in Frankfurt had gathered outside of the Paulskirche while leftist demagogues called for a second revolution. The protestors agreed to gather again the next day for an even larger protest, at which time it was planned they would declare those who had voted in favor of the armistice traitors to the Fatherland, and therefore their mandates to the parliament revoked. Upon receiving word of these grave punctuations Archduke John's new Prime Minister, the Austrian Anton von Schmerling (3) called for troops from nearby Hesse-Darmstadt, as well as from the great German powers of Austria and Prussia, to protect the assembly. As scheduled on 18 October, as the crowds gathered, over one thousand soldiers, mostly Hessians, marched into the city in the early morning hours. As this militant procession made its way through the city streets however, some of the protesters found an unguarded back entrance to the Paulskirche and attempted to break in. Moving swiftly, Heinrich von Gagern blocked the doorway, his voice thundering even outside of the building into the streets; 'I declare every transgressor against this holy place a traitor to the Fatherland!' Immediately the protesters withdrew, and the monarchist troops swept the crowd from the square. Barricades were thrown up throughout the city in response, and the Hessians quickly took it upon themselves to broke through these fortifications to 'bring order' to the streets. Two Prussian delegates, Hans von Auerswald and Felix Luchnowsky (4), against all warnings, left the safety of the cathedral to investigate the insurrection first hand. Both von Auerswald and Luchnowsky, though conservatives, were also firmly in the reformist camp, both of them also being members of Bismarck’s new conservative Association. von Auerswald in particular seemed to misunderstand or mischaracterize the uprising, to his folly. As they walked through the city streets the two were trapped by insurgents and chased into a blind alleyway; von Auerswald was killed on the spot, while the slightly more famous Luchnowsky was tortured before his death. His bones were shattered with repeated blows, the word 'Outlaw' was posted around his beck, and his broken body was hung from a tree and used as target practice until...
... By the end of the day over sixty people were killed, and Frankfurt was placed under martial law by the royalist German troops led by the Hessians... (5)
Berlin Uprising
... As early as 21 October the famous Australian (6) General Helmuth von Moltke, who was originally from Prussia, wrote to his brother regarding the conservative reaction to the continuing radical uprisings throughout Germany that 'They now have the power in their hands and perfect right to use it. If they don't do it this time, than I am ready to emigrate with you to Adelaide [Australia].'
... In the environment of the on-going conflict throughout the German states in late 1848 the Prussian parliament continued its diligent work to produce a liberal constitution. The process was slow and tortuous, as liberal and radical deputies continually clashed with more conservative parliamentarians. In one notable example on 1 October conservatives threatened to walk-out over a move supported by both radicals and moderates to expunge from the royal title the words 'by the Grace of God,' and to abolish noble titles and the death penalty...
... On 13 October the Prussian National Assembly voted to declare the primarily middle-class civic guard the only legitimate police force. Since the March Revolution, and the more recent Held Uprising in June and the storming of the armory, 'mobile associations' of workers, students and artisans had mostly policed Berlin. Radical protests erupted throughout the city in response to the Assembly's vote, with canal workers the next day smashing the steam pumps they saw as a threat to their professions. The civic guard arrived on the scene and opened fire, killing eleven. The city was in a state of low-level warfare between radical elements, liberal moderates in favor of 'law and order' associations and the few conservatives still in the Prussian capitol for weeks after these events. Into this environment the later events were no surprise to even contemporary observers, so that when on...
... The radical Democratic Congress, an 'anti-parliament' intended as a counterweight to the conservative-heavy parliament in Frankfurt, convened in Berlin on 31 October. Led by Franz Zitz (7), a member of the Frankfurt parliament, and Johann Jacoby (8), a member of both the German and Prussian parliaments, the Congress notably drew upon the earlier worker’s movement’s parliaments in Germany, which was strongest in Prussia at the time. As the Congress broke for lunch Zitz and Jacoby led a 2,500-strong protest march, made up of both radicals and middle-class bourgeois, to the Prussian Assembly where, below red flags, Jacoby demanded the parliament send troops to help the Viennese against the Hapsburg counter-revolution. After barely an hour of debate the parliament reject the radical demands, and within minutes the mob had stormed the Singakademie. As the parliamentarians escaped through a storeroom side door a shot was fired out from an unknown source; instantly the workers, students, artisans and the civic guards turned on each other, both sides believing the other had fired the shot. Within minutes Held's railway workers arrived on the scene and began to break up the brawl, though the civic guard fired upon them as well, killing eleven workers...
... on 1 November Frederick William appointed the conservative Count von Brandenburg as Prime Minister; however the Prussian parliament rejected Brandenburg as a reactionary, and sent a delegation to the King begging him to reconsider, arguing that such a move would led to a coup against the monarchy. Jacoby, who was a member of the delegation, complained loudly back at the Democratic Congress later that day that 'That's the trouble with kings; they don't want to hear the truth!' Within the hour some 3,000 protesters had filled Berlin's streets, uniting the radical and liberal causes in demanding Frederick William recant his appointment of Count Brandenburg. It was into this situation that slightly over a week later, on 9 November, Count Brandenburg read a royal proclamation before the National Assembly declaring that, for their own protection, the deputies were dismissed until the end of the month, at which point the parliament would reconvene in Brandenburg. The move could not help but be compared to Frederick William's earlier dismissal of the United Landtag, and swiftly the same reaction flared up throughout the Prussian capitol. The parliament rejected Count Brandenburg's order, and declared it illegal under the Charte Waldeck, which although the final draft of the Prussian constitution was still under revision acted as the ultimate law of the land - at least as far as the liberals and radicals were concerned. However, their loyalty’s split between devotion to the King and to the new liberal order, the civic guard refused to defend the parliament against the royalist counter-revolution that everyone knew was coming. Moving quickly, liberal and democratic-radical leaders within the parliament began to mobile their own forces, combining the democratic clubs, 'mobile associations,' and civic guards that would support the parliament into a new Prussian militia.
The next morning, General Friedrich von Wrangel, who had previously commanded the Prussian units in the Schleswig-Holstein War before being made the military governor of Berlin, moved some thirteen thousand troops supported by sixty cannons into Berlin to quell the 'parliamentary insurrection.' However with the royalist troops only two hundred paces away from the Singakademie the burgher civic guard drew up around the parliament in a protective ring around the building; the liberal civic guard has chosen its loyalties. Meanwhile, Held's locomotive workers gathered in front of the royal palace. The Prussian delegates, watched by supporters in the public gallery, began the day's business as though Wrangle's men did not exist; debating the abolition of axes on quill pins, dog biscuits and the feed for peasant's 'house cow.' In the late afternoon the President of the assembly, Julius Gierke, sent a polite (9) note to Wrangle, asking how long his troops intended to stand outside as their presence was not required; Wrangle tersely replied that he did not recognize the parliament, and gave the delegates fifteen minutes to adjourn. Sitting in a simple field chair in front of his troops, pointedly looking at his watch, Wrangle could have easily resolved the situation peacefully. Though it is unlikely the parliament would have backed down (10), Wrangle, as a trained and professional military man, should have known that such a direct and heavy-handed on the civilians and Berliner citizenry approach would lead to disaster. Though he had a large and well-trained army at his back, and indeed prior to the 1848 period the Prussian military was regarded as the most professional in all of Europe, Wrangle was still grossly outnumbered simply by the sheer size of the Berliner protestors. Though not all of the blame for the ensuing events can be squarely placed on Wrangle's shoulders. By appointing Count Brandenburg in the first place Frederick William and the conservative court in Berlin had given the radicals and liberals a rallying point to unify against, where as previously the oft-shaky coalition had already began to break down during the constitutional debates. Further the Prussian Assembly and both its liberal and radical allies could have found some way to avert the crisis, either in general or specifically to the issue of a Prussian general sitting outside the parliament with some sixty cannon pointed at the building. Perhaps the greatest failure for the immediate future was by Wrangle himself though; by sitting in front of his troops, between the two heavily armed guards, he was a perfect target. As the aged General rose an unknown source fired out a single shot. Although sources indicate no one was harmed, and indeed appears the shot was aimed into the air, the sound of the musketry was enough to ignite both groups. Wrangle was one of the first to die, with his body riddled by musket-fire from both sides. Without a commander, and with the moral loss of firing on their own man, as the battle expanded beyond the Singakademie, which itself was devastated by successive artillery fire from less than two hundred paces, the Prussian forces attempted to retreat to the city walls. However the citizenry in the surrounding districts rose up against the Prussian forces, and in a six-hour battle that raged across most of Berlin, the entire 13,000 Prussian division was slaughtered to the last man; though most of Berlin was naught but rubble and dust by the end of the night, and an estimated 50% of the Berliner civic population was killed in the carnage...
The Berlin Uprising
... Even as the Second Battle for Berlin raged, Held organized his locomotive workers, soon joined by other radical and liberal elements either fleeing the battle or hoping to rally further militant, outside of the royal palace. Frederick William had only recently returned to Berlin some few days prior, and as such was now trapped within his own city as the Prussian military clashed with the Berliner insurrectionaries. With the Prussian assembly destroyed by Wrangle's artillery, soon there were only two factions within the radical movement in Berlin; Held's workers, and Jacoby's Democratic Congress. Jacoby himself had escaped the slaughter at the Singakademie by virtue of not being there, as he had been attending a meeting of the Democratic Congress' executive commission. As one of the few remaining Prussian parliamentarians alive Jacoby swiftly captured the liberals support, and rallied them alongside his own democratic base in a 30,000-strong armed march on the royal palace. Here, in a clash of ego's between Held and Jacoby, the fate of Prussia was decided. While Jacoby's ardent radical supports were in favor of overthrowing the Hohenzollern monarchy and establishing a German republic, Jacoby himself suffered a moment of trepidation. Had the revolutionary gone too far already? Could they afford to go further? What would the reaction be throughout the rest of Prussia? The rest of Germany? Jacoby knew that the radical movement had to move quickly to establish themselves as the legitimate power in Berlin in they wanted to avoid further bloodshed, but how? Into this mental space strode Held. Statuesque and confident, himself a former Prussian office, Held argued that it would be better for the revolutionaries to force Frederick William from the throne and replace him with a more pliable monarch. Though puppet-kings can be found throughout the history of Europe and Germany, never before had some suggested, and been in the position, to create a king to whom the people were the puppeteer. As the two argued the radicals stood still, unexpectedly (to the conservative cause) not storming or firing upon the royal palace, for which the events and actors of the next few hours were unknowingly thankful for...
... As the radicals argued outside, while making sure no one escaped the square surrounding the Stadtschloss, the conservative court within fretted. Frederick William himself had slumped into a deep depression, and was unresponsive to the ministers and nobles around him who argued and clamored over the best course of action. Into this void strode the young Otto von Bismarck, who had previously rallied to the King's cause during the March Revolution. Echoing events that had happened earlier in the year in France, Bismarck strode forward and grasped Frederick William by the shoulders, rocking the king out of his deep reverie, arguing that the only path left before them was for Frederick William to abdicate the throne. The King offered no response, according to eye witness accounts, he merely looked sadly in the eyes the young Junker as a piece of paper and ink was slid before him. Slowly, 'his face pale and drawn, his breath hard and labored as if every word on the page was a step up a steep mountain,' Frederick William signed away his rights and claims as monarch of the Prussian kingdom. What happened to Frederick William next remains a historical mystery. As the conservative court argued who should next replace him the old king apparently disappeared from view. The next time he was seen again was outside the palace in the royal gardens, with a single shot through his forehead. Although many believed it to be a suicide, conspiracy theories abound that a lone radical infiltrator managed to break into the royal compound and slew the aged king, or more sinisterly, that Bismarck himself put down his own monarch like a common dog. Regardless though...
... With Frederick William's abdication Bismarck rallied his Associates to him, as well as those of von Gagern's own Association, though this had been largely subsumed by Bismarck's by the time of November Crisis, and other 'new conservative' figures, including several from the local chapter of the Piusverein. With the royal palace firmly under-thumb Bismarck himself marched outside, unguarded, under a white flag of truce, and met with both Held and Jacoby, informing them of Frederick William's 'retirement.' Bismarck asked for open lines of communication between the royal palace and the conservative forces still fighting throughout the city, in order to locate the heir-presumptive, William. While Held was willing to do this, under certain conditions, Jacoby, recovering some of his earlier lost spirit, informed the conservative leader that William was unsuitable to the radicals (and liberals) as a King for his earlier actions during the March Revolution; the Kartätschenprinz ('Prince of Grapeshot') was still well remembered and hated throughout Prussia by his own people...
... Perhaps luckily for all sides involved, Prince William himself was killed during the fighting throughout the city leading a sortie against a well-defended and armed barricade just a half mile away from the city walls as he attempted to escape the capitol and rally the Prussian military garrisons outside to crush the revolution. However these same garrisons were, for the most part, paralyzed into inaction as broken and often contradictory reports drifted out of the capitol; that the revolutionaries had burned the city, no they there had been an abortive uprising but it had been put down by Frederick William, no the King was dead by William's own hands, and the smoke seen in the distance was a coup...
... As such the crown next passed to Prince William's eldest son, the seventeen-year old Frederick William. Although rumors abounded that the young man's mother, Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, had engineered the events of November in order to place her young son on the throne, these were general discredited. (11) Eventually a compromise was met by Bismarck, Jacoby and Held where by the Hohenzollerns remained Kings of Prussia, with Regency officially under Augusta for the now-king Frederick III of Prussia, though unofficially power was to be shared between the three factions, with each taking part in the guiding of Frederick until he reached twenty-four, an age agreed upon by Held, Bismarck, and a reluctant Jacoby. As well the Prussian Assembly was to be reconvened, with special by-elections held later that month under new suffrage laws worked out by Bismarck and Jacoby that returned a staunchly liberal parliament, who immediately set to work finishing work on the new liberal Prussian constitution, which severely limited the monarchy's role in governance...
Left, King Frederick III of Prussia. Right, Queen dowager and regent Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
... Supported by 'new conservatives' such as Bismarck on 5 December the new Prussian constitution was proclaimed; largely modeled on the Charte Waldeck there was to be a two-chamber parliament, with the lower house elected by universal male suffrage, while the upper house was indirectly elected through a complex process that historically would always favor the radical-liberals in the large cities. The radical-liberal base was further strengthened because the upper house alone had to be consulted regarding important matters such as treaties or taxes. (12) The King's role as an executive was largely removed, with the King holding a suspensive veto, and command of the military; though even this latter was highly water-down by radicals who had survived the First and Second Battle for Berlin...
The Republican States
... On 22 October Gustav Struve (13) led a march of German revolutionaries into Baden from across Germany. Seizing the border-town of Lörrach they proclaimed a German republic, promised social reforms, and began to confiscate the property of known conservative supporters, bourgeois and nobles alike. By the end of the first day Struve's Legion had swollen to over twelve thousand men and women as volunteers swarmed to Lörrach from the surrounding German states. Four days later Struve's Legion defeated Grand Duke Leopold's forces at Staufen in two-hour battle in which the conservative army was forced to flee the field. The commanding general, whose name has unfortunately not been recorded, was torn apart by the angry revolutionary mob as he was attempting to surrender to Struve...
... When word of the November Crisis reached Baden Struve instantly took some 350 of his closest followers and marched on Berlin in support of the radical cause there, though they would not arrive until well-after the settlement between Bismarck’s Association and the radical-liberal coalition. Leaving the vast majority of his legion behind, Struve left the newly-proclaimed republic in the hands of his officers, and though the pace of radical-inspired reform continued, a de-facto cease-fire soon came into being between the radical republicans and the royalist Badenese as both sides were content to sit, lick their wounds and prepare for the next round. By January of 1849 the revolution had largely petered out without Struve to rally around, though republican forces continued to hold onto Lörrach and the surrounding territories...
The German Constitution
... On 24 October the parliament agreed on the first three articles of the German constitution, which declared that the German empire would consist of the entire territory of the old Confederation, though they left Schleswig-Holstein open to future debate, and that no part of the empire may form a state with non-German lands. Furthermore, any German country that shared a head of state with a non-German one should have a purely personal, dynastic union. At the time of the declaration the move was an obvious attempt to force a Kleindeutschland solution, and lead to another round of low-key protests against both the parliament and the Hessians throughout Frankfurt for several days. However with the aftermath of the Hapsburg Austrian Empire’s dissolution and the severe curtailing of Hohenzollern power in Prussia...
... In his opening speech on 19 May Gagern had defined the main task of the national assembly as the creation of a 'constitution for Germany,' and to this goal the parliament worked fervently. However while all of the participants were unified in their ends, many arguments and factions arose over the means to those ends. While the opening sessions and first several weeks had been quite chaotic, the deputies seated haphazardly, independent of political affiliations, nominal orderly parliamentary procedure developed quickly. Soon deputies began assembly in Klubs ('Clubs'), which served as proto-political parties and led to the birth of the Fraktionen ('factions'). While these Fraktionen were broadly divided into three basic camps; the democratic left (demokratische Linke), also known as the 'whole ones' consisted of the radicals and moderate leftists; the liberal center, also known as the 'halves' which maintained the left and center-right liberals; and the conservative right, known derisively as the 'nones,' composed mostly of northern (Prussian) 'new conservatives,' as well as reactionaries from throughout Germany. However to view these groups as homogeneous blocs would be incorrect, as each of them were inherently quite unstable. The factions themselves were more equated with political clubs of the Revolutionary Era some thirty-years past than there with modern political parties, and as such they tended to act like them, even taking the names of their venue of choice. Thus the Café Milani consisted of some 40 conservatives, mostly 'new' conservatives, while the 120-member Casino was the broad center-right liberal moderates. The pitiful 20-man Landsberg was the center-left, with the one-hundred strong Württemberger Hof acted as the largest single liberal bloc. Alternatively the Deutscher Hof, composed of 65 delegates, made up the left-liberals, while a mere 55 far leftist radicals and democrats constituted the Donnersberg. In his memories the deputy Robert Mohl wrote about the formation and function of the Klubs and Fraktionens as such;
"In regard to the most important major questions, for example about Austria's participation and about the election of emperors, the usual club-based divisions could be abandoned temporarily to create larger overall groups, as the United Left, the Greater Germans in Hotel Schröder, the Imperials in Hotel Weidenbusch. These party meetings were indeed an important part of political life in Frankfurt, significant for positive, but clearly also negative, results. A club offered a get-together with politically kindred spirits, some of whom became true friends, comparably rapid decisions, and, as a result, perhaps success in the over assembly."
Therefore the German parliament slowly but steadily lumbered forward, sometimes in sudden bursts, much like the German nation herself, towards a unified Germany and a constitution. However in the meantime the parliament went through Presidents of the Assembly at a terrifyingly rapid pace, so that by the time Eduard Simson was elected for the second time to the position just in time for the proclamation of the new German constitution he was the fifth such parliamentary executive...
... Two days after Christmas, with the full weight of the events in Prussia and Austria crashing home to several in Frankfurt, the parliament published the Grundrechte ('Basic Rights'), a list of guaranteed person liberties, including equality before the law and habeas corpus, something that had been noticeably missing from several German states in the Vormärz. (14) Among its many promises the law guaranteed freedom of religion, education, opinion and the press. All aristocratic privileges were abolished, including the manorial jurisdiction and the police powers of landlords over their peasants. It also abolished the death penalty, corporal punishment and the pillory, a device used for punishment by public humiliation and physical abuse throughout the German states during the period. As well marriage was changed from a largely ceremonial duty of the church into a state civil ceremony, and legally binding act. In addition the judiciary was freed from political influence, the first step in the creation of German's independent judicial branch. Finally, the national minorities (namely the Poles) were promised 'their national development, especially equality of the rights of their languages' in religion, education, law and local government. While all of these new rights were ground-breaking steps for German liberalism and equality, interestingly the most controversial act of the law was freedom of travel and choice of occupation, which earned the Grundrechte the rejection of the old guilds that feared that freedom of occupation would mean the guilds would lose control over who entered their trade. Among the princely states Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt and Bavaria all declared their immediate recognition of the Grundrechte, while Prussia and Austria, the two largest states in Germany, remained quite on the subject, with their own newly liberalized parliaments busier focusing on their own stately issues rather than ideal of German unification. Thus for the first time in history the course of the German nation was left to the so called 'Third Germany,' the smaller German states...
The German Empire in January 1849
(1) The Elder, but ITTL the younger will never rise to historical fame, so there is no reason to differentiate the two.
(2) Which does not change its name to the very English-sounding 'Windsor' ITTL.
(3) A liberal reformer himself, von Schmerling however was also firmly a part of the 'party of order,' and held high priority the retaining of legal niceties throughout Germany. Having been born to a minor Austrian noble family, von Schmerling studied law at Vienna, entering public service in 1829; by 1847 he entered the Estates of Lower Austria and was a leader of the liberal reform movement. During the outbreak of the March Revolution in Vienna von Schmerling was one of the deputies which carried the demands of the people into the palace to present to Emperor Ferdinand. For this he was elected to the Frankfurt parliament, and quickly become the President of the diet.
(4) Who had entered the Prussian Army in 1834, but left it in 1838 to offer his services to the Spanish Pretender Infante Carlos, Count of Molina ('Carlos V'), during the First Carlist War, becoming a brigadier-general in the Pretender's forces, during which time Luchnowsky famously fought and won a duel with the Spanish General Montenegro. Returning to Prussia he was elected to the United Landtag in 1847 before being sent to Frankfurt in 1848, where he used his substantial oratorical skills to rally the conservative cause.
(5) IOTL the Prussians took command, as they had provided an additional thousand soldiers over ITTL. However with most of the soldiers ITTL from Hesse-Darmstradt, it only makes sense for their command to take control of the situation. This will have profound affect on the relationship of the German states vis-à-vis the smaller states vs. the larger states.
(6) Yes
(7) A prominent attorney from the Prussian Rhineland, Zitz had married his wife, Katharina, in 1837 somewhat against his own will under threat of suicide, though they remained married for the rest of their lives and to all accounts were happy together. Franz was a respected member of the far left of the Frankfurt parliament, but ultimately left to form the Democratic Congress following the outrage at the parliament's turnabout on its war vote. Zitz played an enormous if largely historically ignored role in the Rhineland and in German politics during the 1848 period.
(8) A Prussian Jew, Jacob had studied medicine before entering the practice in his hometown of Königsberg. Only becoming politically active following the 1830 July Revolution, Jacoby initially dedicated himself to the cause of Polish liberation, but slowly but steadily drifted into the radical camp, and by 1841 he wrote the extremely important Prussian radical pamphlet Vier Fragen, beantwortet von einem Ostpressen ('Four Questions Answered by an East Prussian') which outlined the right of the people to a constitution; though he was officially charged with high treason for such and forced to flee Prussia he maintained his connections to the radical cause, and by the 1848 period was elected to both Frankfurt and Berlin on the radical ticket.
(9) The note in question was destroyed IOTL and ITTL, and so debate rages as to the exact contents and the 'tone' of the letter. Many argue that while on the surface the note was polite in form, in actually it was a sarcastic barb against Wrangle that meant to stir him up, perhaps to the parliament's advantage.
(10) Which, actually, is exactly what happened IOTL.
(11) Augusta was among the first of a new breed of German noble ladies who were remarkably intelligent, and interested in politics, especially in popular (proletarian) politics. The marriage between Augusta and William was an arranged one forced on them both by the wishes of King Frederick William III of Prussia, and it was a loveless one. IOTL in liberal circles an idea was seriously discussed following the March Revolution and Frederick William's flight from Berlin on whether or not he should abdicate, and if the Crown Prince should as well renounce his claims to the throne, and have Augusta take up a regency for her son. IOTL we also do know that Augusta regularly communicated with Bismarck via letter during this period; however the contents of these messages are unknown as both Bismarck and Augusta burned all of their letters and their diaries from the period following the conservative reestablishment of power. I see it as highly plausible consider the events of ITTL for them to unite in order to present a Hohenzollern regency.
(12) Somewhat like the US Senate in regards to the House of Representatives.
(13) Who was last seen in Chapter #5 as a leader of the radicals and inspired Hecker's Uprising. Struve had been an early radical leader, and as editor of the Mannheimer Journal was condemned to prison several times for his outspoken views until he was compelled to retire from the newspaper in 1846. IOTL Hecker and Struve fled to Switzerland following Hecker's Uprising and planned a second uprising in September; ITTL the second uprising takes place, because Struve was never with Hecker and thus not killed in the field. IOTL Struve's September uprising was somewhat half-assed, as the legion had marched into Baden from Switzerland, and only had two casks of gunpowder, one of which turned out to be too wet to use. ITTL the revolutionaries are better organized, better equipped, and somewhat more numerous.
(14) 'Pre-March,' basically referring to the time period between the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and March Revolutions of 1848. Historically ITTL this will also be known as the Age of Metternich and the Conservative Order, and will be known for and widely studied for its rampant police states in response to the growing liberal, and ultimately radical, movements.
[Spacing]
"We now have 40,000 men in and around Berlin; the critical point of whole German question lies there."
- Helmuth von Moltke (1), in a letter to his brother, before the November Crisis
21 September 1848
- Helmuth von Moltke (1), in a letter to his brother, before the November Crisis
21 September 1848
Bernard, Chung-Ho. Foundations of the Modern World. Seoul: Imperial Directory, 1997.
German Question
The German Question was a long-running debate between 1806 and 1849 over the best way to achieve German unification. The Großdeutsche Lösung ('Greater German solution') favored unifying all German-speaking peoples under one state (the Großdeutschland), and was favored by the German liberals and radicals, as well as the Hapsburg Austrians. The Kleindeutsche Lösung ('Lesser German solution') sought only to unify the northern German states and did not include Austria, and occasionally also excluded Austrian allies such as Bavaria, (the Kleindeutschland) a position forwarded by the Prussian government but enjoyed little elsewhere...
... While a number of factors were involved, the most prominent was religion. A Großdeutschland which benefited Austria and the southern German states would imply a strong Catholic position, a situation that was largely found unsavory by the staunchly Protestant north Germans...
... Almost all of the deputies to the 1848-49 Frankfurt parliament agreed that a unified Germany would modernize the economy, and shape Germany into a world power. The chairman of the parliament's economic committee, Friedrich von Ršhne, summed up the position summarily when he stated that; "The liberated German nation is eager to reap the fruits of its political emancipation. It demands the political unity of Germany so that it can break the chains which bind domestic commerce. It demands political unity so that it can win for its Fatherland the eminent position in foreign affairs. The divided states have until now been in no position to assert this claim against foreign nations, but the united Germany will know how to enforce it." While there was scant disagreement about reducing the number of German states, though some did argue strongly in favor of incorporating many of the smaller territories into their larger neighbors or merging into new states, the greatest number of arguments arose over the precise demarcation of which territories should constitute the new Germany. The members of the constitutional commission at Frankfurt clearly stated early in 1848 that no part of the Reich would consist of non-German territories. At the time the commissioners had been referring to the Hapsburg Austrian empire's non-German territories, however ultimately the commission's words would be proven wrong by...
... With the collapse of the Austrian empire in late 1848, and open warfare between the Hapsburg kingdoms, the Kleindeutsche Lösung was largely swept away. Though the exact composition of Austria's entrance into the new Germany would not, could not, be determined until after the 1849 Vienna Accord, the unification of all the southern German peoples into Germany proper was guaranteed by December of 1848. Notably though the strongly German populated but polyethnic Hapsburg Kingdom of Illyria adamantly did not Germany, owing to the weak rule of King Karl Ludwig and the strong rule of the conservative nobility, many of which in who were in flight to Illyrian cities such as Trieste or Laibach after the Vienna Uprising and...
... Another issue to be resolved however was that of the Poles. The Prussian and Austrian Polish partitions were undoubtedly non-German territories, however obviously neither the Hohenzollerns nor the Hapsburgs were willing to let go of these lands. Though there were arguments in favor of a (forced) 'Germanization' of the Poles, this was quickly dismissed as being unpractical. The parliament in Frankfurt had already previously offered the Polish people under Prussian rule the Grand Duchy of Posen as an autonomous territory within the German Reich; though of course this was not a confirmed bargain until the...
... With the downfall of the Austrian empire the parliament in Frankfurt swiftly saw to grant the same offer to the Grand Duchy of Krakow, securing the Poles yet another autonomous province and creating situation that was neither Großdeutschland nor Kleindeutschland. Though this still left Prussian territories outside of the long-established Holy Roman Empire that were traditionally Polish, eventually these territories were simply added to the new Germany as administered Prussian territories. While the Poles in Germany, particularly in Posen, might have been in a position to argue against this move many of them were simply content to receive the entirety of the Grandy Duchy, as well as claiming Krakow...
... The greatest issue for the German people would soon be revealed as one that was outside of the German territories. Three member states were ruled by foreign monarchs; the King of Denmark, the King of the Netherlands, and the King of Great Britain. The first was Duke of Holstein, which sparked the 1848-49 Schleswig-Holstein War; the second was the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Duke of Limburg; and the latter was King of Hanover until 1837's Succession Crisis, after which Hanover was in a dynastic union with Britain's ruling House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (2). Suffice it to say that this caused innumerable headaches in Frankfurt and throughout Germany; how were these territories to be a part of the new German state? Undoubtedly Holstein, Luxembourg, Limburg and Hanover all had a clear German population, with German language, customs and traditions, so they could not be excluded from Germany as the pan-Hapsburg Magyars, South Slavs, Italians, and etc. could. Further, after granting provincial autonomy to the Slavic Poles to offer the same status to these territories was distastefully unthinkable. Thus the German parliament eventually concluded to simply have these territories as part of the new Germany, with the ruling monarchs acting in personal (or in Britain's cause dynastic) union. Of course in Hanover the issue became a moot point when in...
German Unification
Frankfurt Crisis
... on 16 September, under mounting British and Russian pressure, particularly the partial mobilization of Russian forces within Congressional Poland, the German parliament reversed its vote continuing the Schleswig-Holstein War. The reaction of the nationalist patriots, joined by their radical cousins, throughout Germany was swift. By the next morning twelve thousand people in Frankfurt had gathered outside of the Paulskirche while leftist demagogues called for a second revolution. The protestors agreed to gather again the next day for an even larger protest, at which time it was planned they would declare those who had voted in favor of the armistice traitors to the Fatherland, and therefore their mandates to the parliament revoked. Upon receiving word of these grave punctuations Archduke John's new Prime Minister, the Austrian Anton von Schmerling (3) called for troops from nearby Hesse-Darmstadt, as well as from the great German powers of Austria and Prussia, to protect the assembly. As scheduled on 18 October, as the crowds gathered, over one thousand soldiers, mostly Hessians, marched into the city in the early morning hours. As this militant procession made its way through the city streets however, some of the protesters found an unguarded back entrance to the Paulskirche and attempted to break in. Moving swiftly, Heinrich von Gagern blocked the doorway, his voice thundering even outside of the building into the streets; 'I declare every transgressor against this holy place a traitor to the Fatherland!' Immediately the protesters withdrew, and the monarchist troops swept the crowd from the square. Barricades were thrown up throughout the city in response, and the Hessians quickly took it upon themselves to broke through these fortifications to 'bring order' to the streets. Two Prussian delegates, Hans von Auerswald and Felix Luchnowsky (4), against all warnings, left the safety of the cathedral to investigate the insurrection first hand. Both von Auerswald and Luchnowsky, though conservatives, were also firmly in the reformist camp, both of them also being members of Bismarck’s new conservative Association. von Auerswald in particular seemed to misunderstand or mischaracterize the uprising, to his folly. As they walked through the city streets the two were trapped by insurgents and chased into a blind alleyway; von Auerswald was killed on the spot, while the slightly more famous Luchnowsky was tortured before his death. His bones were shattered with repeated blows, the word 'Outlaw' was posted around his beck, and his broken body was hung from a tree and used as target practice until...
... By the end of the day over sixty people were killed, and Frankfurt was placed under martial law by the royalist German troops led by the Hessians... (5)
Berlin Uprising
... As early as 21 October the famous Australian (6) General Helmuth von Moltke, who was originally from Prussia, wrote to his brother regarding the conservative reaction to the continuing radical uprisings throughout Germany that 'They now have the power in their hands and perfect right to use it. If they don't do it this time, than I am ready to emigrate with you to Adelaide [Australia].'
... In the environment of the on-going conflict throughout the German states in late 1848 the Prussian parliament continued its diligent work to produce a liberal constitution. The process was slow and tortuous, as liberal and radical deputies continually clashed with more conservative parliamentarians. In one notable example on 1 October conservatives threatened to walk-out over a move supported by both radicals and moderates to expunge from the royal title the words 'by the Grace of God,' and to abolish noble titles and the death penalty...
... On 13 October the Prussian National Assembly voted to declare the primarily middle-class civic guard the only legitimate police force. Since the March Revolution, and the more recent Held Uprising in June and the storming of the armory, 'mobile associations' of workers, students and artisans had mostly policed Berlin. Radical protests erupted throughout the city in response to the Assembly's vote, with canal workers the next day smashing the steam pumps they saw as a threat to their professions. The civic guard arrived on the scene and opened fire, killing eleven. The city was in a state of low-level warfare between radical elements, liberal moderates in favor of 'law and order' associations and the few conservatives still in the Prussian capitol for weeks after these events. Into this environment the later events were no surprise to even contemporary observers, so that when on...
... The radical Democratic Congress, an 'anti-parliament' intended as a counterweight to the conservative-heavy parliament in Frankfurt, convened in Berlin on 31 October. Led by Franz Zitz (7), a member of the Frankfurt parliament, and Johann Jacoby (8), a member of both the German and Prussian parliaments, the Congress notably drew upon the earlier worker’s movement’s parliaments in Germany, which was strongest in Prussia at the time. As the Congress broke for lunch Zitz and Jacoby led a 2,500-strong protest march, made up of both radicals and middle-class bourgeois, to the Prussian Assembly where, below red flags, Jacoby demanded the parliament send troops to help the Viennese against the Hapsburg counter-revolution. After barely an hour of debate the parliament reject the radical demands, and within minutes the mob had stormed the Singakademie. As the parliamentarians escaped through a storeroom side door a shot was fired out from an unknown source; instantly the workers, students, artisans and the civic guards turned on each other, both sides believing the other had fired the shot. Within minutes Held's railway workers arrived on the scene and began to break up the brawl, though the civic guard fired upon them as well, killing eleven workers...
... on 1 November Frederick William appointed the conservative Count von Brandenburg as Prime Minister; however the Prussian parliament rejected Brandenburg as a reactionary, and sent a delegation to the King begging him to reconsider, arguing that such a move would led to a coup against the monarchy. Jacoby, who was a member of the delegation, complained loudly back at the Democratic Congress later that day that 'That's the trouble with kings; they don't want to hear the truth!' Within the hour some 3,000 protesters had filled Berlin's streets, uniting the radical and liberal causes in demanding Frederick William recant his appointment of Count Brandenburg. It was into this situation that slightly over a week later, on 9 November, Count Brandenburg read a royal proclamation before the National Assembly declaring that, for their own protection, the deputies were dismissed until the end of the month, at which point the parliament would reconvene in Brandenburg. The move could not help but be compared to Frederick William's earlier dismissal of the United Landtag, and swiftly the same reaction flared up throughout the Prussian capitol. The parliament rejected Count Brandenburg's order, and declared it illegal under the Charte Waldeck, which although the final draft of the Prussian constitution was still under revision acted as the ultimate law of the land - at least as far as the liberals and radicals were concerned. However, their loyalty’s split between devotion to the King and to the new liberal order, the civic guard refused to defend the parliament against the royalist counter-revolution that everyone knew was coming. Moving quickly, liberal and democratic-radical leaders within the parliament began to mobile their own forces, combining the democratic clubs, 'mobile associations,' and civic guards that would support the parliament into a new Prussian militia.
The next morning, General Friedrich von Wrangel, who had previously commanded the Prussian units in the Schleswig-Holstein War before being made the military governor of Berlin, moved some thirteen thousand troops supported by sixty cannons into Berlin to quell the 'parliamentary insurrection.' However with the royalist troops only two hundred paces away from the Singakademie the burgher civic guard drew up around the parliament in a protective ring around the building; the liberal civic guard has chosen its loyalties. Meanwhile, Held's locomotive workers gathered in front of the royal palace. The Prussian delegates, watched by supporters in the public gallery, began the day's business as though Wrangle's men did not exist; debating the abolition of axes on quill pins, dog biscuits and the feed for peasant's 'house cow.' In the late afternoon the President of the assembly, Julius Gierke, sent a polite (9) note to Wrangle, asking how long his troops intended to stand outside as their presence was not required; Wrangle tersely replied that he did not recognize the parliament, and gave the delegates fifteen minutes to adjourn. Sitting in a simple field chair in front of his troops, pointedly looking at his watch, Wrangle could have easily resolved the situation peacefully. Though it is unlikely the parliament would have backed down (10), Wrangle, as a trained and professional military man, should have known that such a direct and heavy-handed on the civilians and Berliner citizenry approach would lead to disaster. Though he had a large and well-trained army at his back, and indeed prior to the 1848 period the Prussian military was regarded as the most professional in all of Europe, Wrangle was still grossly outnumbered simply by the sheer size of the Berliner protestors. Though not all of the blame for the ensuing events can be squarely placed on Wrangle's shoulders. By appointing Count Brandenburg in the first place Frederick William and the conservative court in Berlin had given the radicals and liberals a rallying point to unify against, where as previously the oft-shaky coalition had already began to break down during the constitutional debates. Further the Prussian Assembly and both its liberal and radical allies could have found some way to avert the crisis, either in general or specifically to the issue of a Prussian general sitting outside the parliament with some sixty cannon pointed at the building. Perhaps the greatest failure for the immediate future was by Wrangle himself though; by sitting in front of his troops, between the two heavily armed guards, he was a perfect target. As the aged General rose an unknown source fired out a single shot. Although sources indicate no one was harmed, and indeed appears the shot was aimed into the air, the sound of the musketry was enough to ignite both groups. Wrangle was one of the first to die, with his body riddled by musket-fire from both sides. Without a commander, and with the moral loss of firing on their own man, as the battle expanded beyond the Singakademie, which itself was devastated by successive artillery fire from less than two hundred paces, the Prussian forces attempted to retreat to the city walls. However the citizenry in the surrounding districts rose up against the Prussian forces, and in a six-hour battle that raged across most of Berlin, the entire 13,000 Prussian division was slaughtered to the last man; though most of Berlin was naught but rubble and dust by the end of the night, and an estimated 50% of the Berliner civic population was killed in the carnage...
The Berlin Uprising
... Even as the Second Battle for Berlin raged, Held organized his locomotive workers, soon joined by other radical and liberal elements either fleeing the battle or hoping to rally further militant, outside of the royal palace. Frederick William had only recently returned to Berlin some few days prior, and as such was now trapped within his own city as the Prussian military clashed with the Berliner insurrectionaries. With the Prussian assembly destroyed by Wrangle's artillery, soon there were only two factions within the radical movement in Berlin; Held's workers, and Jacoby's Democratic Congress. Jacoby himself had escaped the slaughter at the Singakademie by virtue of not being there, as he had been attending a meeting of the Democratic Congress' executive commission. As one of the few remaining Prussian parliamentarians alive Jacoby swiftly captured the liberals support, and rallied them alongside his own democratic base in a 30,000-strong armed march on the royal palace. Here, in a clash of ego's between Held and Jacoby, the fate of Prussia was decided. While Jacoby's ardent radical supports were in favor of overthrowing the Hohenzollern monarchy and establishing a German republic, Jacoby himself suffered a moment of trepidation. Had the revolutionary gone too far already? Could they afford to go further? What would the reaction be throughout the rest of Prussia? The rest of Germany? Jacoby knew that the radical movement had to move quickly to establish themselves as the legitimate power in Berlin in they wanted to avoid further bloodshed, but how? Into this mental space strode Held. Statuesque and confident, himself a former Prussian office, Held argued that it would be better for the revolutionaries to force Frederick William from the throne and replace him with a more pliable monarch. Though puppet-kings can be found throughout the history of Europe and Germany, never before had some suggested, and been in the position, to create a king to whom the people were the puppeteer. As the two argued the radicals stood still, unexpectedly (to the conservative cause) not storming or firing upon the royal palace, for which the events and actors of the next few hours were unknowingly thankful for...
... As the radicals argued outside, while making sure no one escaped the square surrounding the Stadtschloss, the conservative court within fretted. Frederick William himself had slumped into a deep depression, and was unresponsive to the ministers and nobles around him who argued and clamored over the best course of action. Into this void strode the young Otto von Bismarck, who had previously rallied to the King's cause during the March Revolution. Echoing events that had happened earlier in the year in France, Bismarck strode forward and grasped Frederick William by the shoulders, rocking the king out of his deep reverie, arguing that the only path left before them was for Frederick William to abdicate the throne. The King offered no response, according to eye witness accounts, he merely looked sadly in the eyes the young Junker as a piece of paper and ink was slid before him. Slowly, 'his face pale and drawn, his breath hard and labored as if every word on the page was a step up a steep mountain,' Frederick William signed away his rights and claims as monarch of the Prussian kingdom. What happened to Frederick William next remains a historical mystery. As the conservative court argued who should next replace him the old king apparently disappeared from view. The next time he was seen again was outside the palace in the royal gardens, with a single shot through his forehead. Although many believed it to be a suicide, conspiracy theories abound that a lone radical infiltrator managed to break into the royal compound and slew the aged king, or more sinisterly, that Bismarck himself put down his own monarch like a common dog. Regardless though...
... With Frederick William's abdication Bismarck rallied his Associates to him, as well as those of von Gagern's own Association, though this had been largely subsumed by Bismarck's by the time of November Crisis, and other 'new conservative' figures, including several from the local chapter of the Piusverein. With the royal palace firmly under-thumb Bismarck himself marched outside, unguarded, under a white flag of truce, and met with both Held and Jacoby, informing them of Frederick William's 'retirement.' Bismarck asked for open lines of communication between the royal palace and the conservative forces still fighting throughout the city, in order to locate the heir-presumptive, William. While Held was willing to do this, under certain conditions, Jacoby, recovering some of his earlier lost spirit, informed the conservative leader that William was unsuitable to the radicals (and liberals) as a King for his earlier actions during the March Revolution; the Kartätschenprinz ('Prince of Grapeshot') was still well remembered and hated throughout Prussia by his own people...
... Perhaps luckily for all sides involved, Prince William himself was killed during the fighting throughout the city leading a sortie against a well-defended and armed barricade just a half mile away from the city walls as he attempted to escape the capitol and rally the Prussian military garrisons outside to crush the revolution. However these same garrisons were, for the most part, paralyzed into inaction as broken and often contradictory reports drifted out of the capitol; that the revolutionaries had burned the city, no they there had been an abortive uprising but it had been put down by Frederick William, no the King was dead by William's own hands, and the smoke seen in the distance was a coup...
... As such the crown next passed to Prince William's eldest son, the seventeen-year old Frederick William. Although rumors abounded that the young man's mother, Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, had engineered the events of November in order to place her young son on the throne, these were general discredited. (11) Eventually a compromise was met by Bismarck, Jacoby and Held where by the Hohenzollerns remained Kings of Prussia, with Regency officially under Augusta for the now-king Frederick III of Prussia, though unofficially power was to be shared between the three factions, with each taking part in the guiding of Frederick until he reached twenty-four, an age agreed upon by Held, Bismarck, and a reluctant Jacoby. As well the Prussian Assembly was to be reconvened, with special by-elections held later that month under new suffrage laws worked out by Bismarck and Jacoby that returned a staunchly liberal parliament, who immediately set to work finishing work on the new liberal Prussian constitution, which severely limited the monarchy's role in governance...
Left, King Frederick III of Prussia. Right, Queen dowager and regent Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
... Supported by 'new conservatives' such as Bismarck on 5 December the new Prussian constitution was proclaimed; largely modeled on the Charte Waldeck there was to be a two-chamber parliament, with the lower house elected by universal male suffrage, while the upper house was indirectly elected through a complex process that historically would always favor the radical-liberals in the large cities. The radical-liberal base was further strengthened because the upper house alone had to be consulted regarding important matters such as treaties or taxes. (12) The King's role as an executive was largely removed, with the King holding a suspensive veto, and command of the military; though even this latter was highly water-down by radicals who had survived the First and Second Battle for Berlin...
The Republican States
... On 22 October Gustav Struve (13) led a march of German revolutionaries into Baden from across Germany. Seizing the border-town of Lörrach they proclaimed a German republic, promised social reforms, and began to confiscate the property of known conservative supporters, bourgeois and nobles alike. By the end of the first day Struve's Legion had swollen to over twelve thousand men and women as volunteers swarmed to Lörrach from the surrounding German states. Four days later Struve's Legion defeated Grand Duke Leopold's forces at Staufen in two-hour battle in which the conservative army was forced to flee the field. The commanding general, whose name has unfortunately not been recorded, was torn apart by the angry revolutionary mob as he was attempting to surrender to Struve...
... When word of the November Crisis reached Baden Struve instantly took some 350 of his closest followers and marched on Berlin in support of the radical cause there, though they would not arrive until well-after the settlement between Bismarck’s Association and the radical-liberal coalition. Leaving the vast majority of his legion behind, Struve left the newly-proclaimed republic in the hands of his officers, and though the pace of radical-inspired reform continued, a de-facto cease-fire soon came into being between the radical republicans and the royalist Badenese as both sides were content to sit, lick their wounds and prepare for the next round. By January of 1849 the revolution had largely petered out without Struve to rally around, though republican forces continued to hold onto Lörrach and the surrounding territories...
The German Constitution
... On 24 October the parliament agreed on the first three articles of the German constitution, which declared that the German empire would consist of the entire territory of the old Confederation, though they left Schleswig-Holstein open to future debate, and that no part of the empire may form a state with non-German lands. Furthermore, any German country that shared a head of state with a non-German one should have a purely personal, dynastic union. At the time of the declaration the move was an obvious attempt to force a Kleindeutschland solution, and lead to another round of low-key protests against both the parliament and the Hessians throughout Frankfurt for several days. However with the aftermath of the Hapsburg Austrian Empire’s dissolution and the severe curtailing of Hohenzollern power in Prussia...
... In his opening speech on 19 May Gagern had defined the main task of the national assembly as the creation of a 'constitution for Germany,' and to this goal the parliament worked fervently. However while all of the participants were unified in their ends, many arguments and factions arose over the means to those ends. While the opening sessions and first several weeks had been quite chaotic, the deputies seated haphazardly, independent of political affiliations, nominal orderly parliamentary procedure developed quickly. Soon deputies began assembly in Klubs ('Clubs'), which served as proto-political parties and led to the birth of the Fraktionen ('factions'). While these Fraktionen were broadly divided into three basic camps; the democratic left (demokratische Linke), also known as the 'whole ones' consisted of the radicals and moderate leftists; the liberal center, also known as the 'halves' which maintained the left and center-right liberals; and the conservative right, known derisively as the 'nones,' composed mostly of northern (Prussian) 'new conservatives,' as well as reactionaries from throughout Germany. However to view these groups as homogeneous blocs would be incorrect, as each of them were inherently quite unstable. The factions themselves were more equated with political clubs of the Revolutionary Era some thirty-years past than there with modern political parties, and as such they tended to act like them, even taking the names of their venue of choice. Thus the Café Milani consisted of some 40 conservatives, mostly 'new' conservatives, while the 120-member Casino was the broad center-right liberal moderates. The pitiful 20-man Landsberg was the center-left, with the one-hundred strong Württemberger Hof acted as the largest single liberal bloc. Alternatively the Deutscher Hof, composed of 65 delegates, made up the left-liberals, while a mere 55 far leftist radicals and democrats constituted the Donnersberg. In his memories the deputy Robert Mohl wrote about the formation and function of the Klubs and Fraktionens as such;
"In regard to the most important major questions, for example about Austria's participation and about the election of emperors, the usual club-based divisions could be abandoned temporarily to create larger overall groups, as the United Left, the Greater Germans in Hotel Schröder, the Imperials in Hotel Weidenbusch. These party meetings were indeed an important part of political life in Frankfurt, significant for positive, but clearly also negative, results. A club offered a get-together with politically kindred spirits, some of whom became true friends, comparably rapid decisions, and, as a result, perhaps success in the over assembly."
Therefore the German parliament slowly but steadily lumbered forward, sometimes in sudden bursts, much like the German nation herself, towards a unified Germany and a constitution. However in the meantime the parliament went through Presidents of the Assembly at a terrifyingly rapid pace, so that by the time Eduard Simson was elected for the second time to the position just in time for the proclamation of the new German constitution he was the fifth such parliamentary executive...
... Two days after Christmas, with the full weight of the events in Prussia and Austria crashing home to several in Frankfurt, the parliament published the Grundrechte ('Basic Rights'), a list of guaranteed person liberties, including equality before the law and habeas corpus, something that had been noticeably missing from several German states in the Vormärz. (14) Among its many promises the law guaranteed freedom of religion, education, opinion and the press. All aristocratic privileges were abolished, including the manorial jurisdiction and the police powers of landlords over their peasants. It also abolished the death penalty, corporal punishment and the pillory, a device used for punishment by public humiliation and physical abuse throughout the German states during the period. As well marriage was changed from a largely ceremonial duty of the church into a state civil ceremony, and legally binding act. In addition the judiciary was freed from political influence, the first step in the creation of German's independent judicial branch. Finally, the national minorities (namely the Poles) were promised 'their national development, especially equality of the rights of their languages' in religion, education, law and local government. While all of these new rights were ground-breaking steps for German liberalism and equality, interestingly the most controversial act of the law was freedom of travel and choice of occupation, which earned the Grundrechte the rejection of the old guilds that feared that freedom of occupation would mean the guilds would lose control over who entered their trade. Among the princely states Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt and Bavaria all declared their immediate recognition of the Grundrechte, while Prussia and Austria, the two largest states in Germany, remained quite on the subject, with their own newly liberalized parliaments busier focusing on their own stately issues rather than ideal of German unification. Thus for the first time in history the course of the German nation was left to the so called 'Third Germany,' the smaller German states...
The German Empire in January 1849
(1) The Elder, but ITTL the younger will never rise to historical fame, so there is no reason to differentiate the two.
(2) Which does not change its name to the very English-sounding 'Windsor' ITTL.
(3) A liberal reformer himself, von Schmerling however was also firmly a part of the 'party of order,' and held high priority the retaining of legal niceties throughout Germany. Having been born to a minor Austrian noble family, von Schmerling studied law at Vienna, entering public service in 1829; by 1847 he entered the Estates of Lower Austria and was a leader of the liberal reform movement. During the outbreak of the March Revolution in Vienna von Schmerling was one of the deputies which carried the demands of the people into the palace to present to Emperor Ferdinand. For this he was elected to the Frankfurt parliament, and quickly become the President of the diet.
(4) Who had entered the Prussian Army in 1834, but left it in 1838 to offer his services to the Spanish Pretender Infante Carlos, Count of Molina ('Carlos V'), during the First Carlist War, becoming a brigadier-general in the Pretender's forces, during which time Luchnowsky famously fought and won a duel with the Spanish General Montenegro. Returning to Prussia he was elected to the United Landtag in 1847 before being sent to Frankfurt in 1848, where he used his substantial oratorical skills to rally the conservative cause.
(5) IOTL the Prussians took command, as they had provided an additional thousand soldiers over ITTL. However with most of the soldiers ITTL from Hesse-Darmstradt, it only makes sense for their command to take control of the situation. This will have profound affect on the relationship of the German states vis-à-vis the smaller states vs. the larger states.
(6) Yes
(7) A prominent attorney from the Prussian Rhineland, Zitz had married his wife, Katharina, in 1837 somewhat against his own will under threat of suicide, though they remained married for the rest of their lives and to all accounts were happy together. Franz was a respected member of the far left of the Frankfurt parliament, but ultimately left to form the Democratic Congress following the outrage at the parliament's turnabout on its war vote. Zitz played an enormous if largely historically ignored role in the Rhineland and in German politics during the 1848 period.
(8) A Prussian Jew, Jacob had studied medicine before entering the practice in his hometown of Königsberg. Only becoming politically active following the 1830 July Revolution, Jacoby initially dedicated himself to the cause of Polish liberation, but slowly but steadily drifted into the radical camp, and by 1841 he wrote the extremely important Prussian radical pamphlet Vier Fragen, beantwortet von einem Ostpressen ('Four Questions Answered by an East Prussian') which outlined the right of the people to a constitution; though he was officially charged with high treason for such and forced to flee Prussia he maintained his connections to the radical cause, and by the 1848 period was elected to both Frankfurt and Berlin on the radical ticket.
(9) The note in question was destroyed IOTL and ITTL, and so debate rages as to the exact contents and the 'tone' of the letter. Many argue that while on the surface the note was polite in form, in actually it was a sarcastic barb against Wrangle that meant to stir him up, perhaps to the parliament's advantage.
(10) Which, actually, is exactly what happened IOTL.
(11) Augusta was among the first of a new breed of German noble ladies who were remarkably intelligent, and interested in politics, especially in popular (proletarian) politics. The marriage between Augusta and William was an arranged one forced on them both by the wishes of King Frederick William III of Prussia, and it was a loveless one. IOTL in liberal circles an idea was seriously discussed following the March Revolution and Frederick William's flight from Berlin on whether or not he should abdicate, and if the Crown Prince should as well renounce his claims to the throne, and have Augusta take up a regency for her son. IOTL we also do know that Augusta regularly communicated with Bismarck via letter during this period; however the contents of these messages are unknown as both Bismarck and Augusta burned all of their letters and their diaries from the period following the conservative reestablishment of power. I see it as highly plausible consider the events of ITTL for them to unite in order to present a Hohenzollern regency.
(12) Somewhat like the US Senate in regards to the House of Representatives.
(13) Who was last seen in Chapter #5 as a leader of the radicals and inspired Hecker's Uprising. Struve had been an early radical leader, and as editor of the Mannheimer Journal was condemned to prison several times for his outspoken views until he was compelled to retire from the newspaper in 1846. IOTL Hecker and Struve fled to Switzerland following Hecker's Uprising and planned a second uprising in September; ITTL the second uprising takes place, because Struve was never with Hecker and thus not killed in the field. IOTL Struve's September uprising was somewhat half-assed, as the legion had marched into Baden from Switzerland, and only had two casks of gunpowder, one of which turned out to be too wet to use. ITTL the revolutionaries are better organized, better equipped, and somewhat more numerous.
(14) 'Pre-March,' basically referring to the time period between the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 and March Revolutions of 1848. Historically ITTL this will also be known as the Age of Metternich and the Conservative Order, and will be known for and widely studied for its rampant police states in response to the growing liberal, and ultimately radical, movements.
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Wouldn't Frederick of Prussia still be the third like in OTL, since his predecessor with the same regnal name was Frederick II (the Great)?
wolf_brother
Banned
Ah, but his regal name is Frederick William IV, keeping his full name, so he follows Frederick William III of Prussia. You can see his mother, Augusta's, influence there, and she was in turn deeply influenced in life by Frederick William III.
EDIT: I think I found the confusing portions of the text, and have corrected them accordingly.
Nope.
Frederick William III (OTL); ruled from 1797 to 1840, so the events of TTL would have him long in the grave.
Frederick William IV: ruled from 1840 to 1861 (in OTL), but dies due to a gunshot wound TTL in 1848. In OTL succeeded by his brother William (who became William I of Prussia, and later Germany in OTL), but William dies earlier TTL, so Frederick William IV's nephew and William's son Frederick succeeds his uncle. He would thus take the regnal name Frederick III, unless he prefers to ape his uncle.
Frederick William III (OTL); ruled from 1797 to 1840, so the events of TTL would have him long in the grave.
Frederick William IV: ruled from 1840 to 1861 (in OTL), but dies due to a gunshot wound TTL in 1848. In OTL succeeded by his brother William (who became William I of Prussia, and later Germany in OTL), but William dies earlier TTL, so Frederick William IV's nephew and William's son Frederick succeeds his uncle. He would thus take the regnal name Frederick III, unless he prefers to ape his uncle.
wolf_brother
Banned
Well damn, I tripped myself up with my own changes
At least it was caught early; thanks for the heads-up. Editing the name change is no big deal, but I'm glad I'll be able to do to it before I posted another chapter. So OTL by another route. Funny how that works out.I'm just happy someone is actually reading along enough to notice these things when I don't
wolf_brother
Banned
Forty years, if he dies the same year as IOTL, will be a long time. On the other hand though, the strong radical-liberal parliament will certainly undercut many of the reforms OTL Frederick III wished to make. As well the politics will be very different, with Prussia as one member in a German Empire instead of Prussia being the German empire. Finally Frederick is only 17 at the moment ITTL, he could grow into a very different man from OTL. Suffice it to say I haven't decided how his path will take him yet, I'll have to think about it the context of his world down the line chronologically-speaking. There are certainly plenty of opportunities though. (And I'm open to suggestions.)
So far it looks like you could butterfly his marriage away, and the Kaiserin was a big influence on him in OTL.
I have finally had the time to fully catch up on this timeline, and I must say it is fantastic. Although I have a few questions:
-Who is going to take the German Imperial throne? The Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns both seem severely weakened, so I am curious to see how it turns out.
-Why isn't the southern chunk of Austria maintained in Austria instead of joining the kingdom of Illyria? From the best of my knowledge, that region is pretty much entirely German speaking. I guess the Burgenland is in a similar vein, except that it does not have a historical connection to the Reich the way the aforementioned territory does.
Again, great work, I am quite envious of the depth of your knowledge and quality of your research especially.
Scipio
-Who is going to take the German Imperial throne? The Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns both seem severely weakened, so I am curious to see how it turns out.
-Why isn't the southern chunk of Austria maintained in Austria instead of joining the kingdom of Illyria? From the best of my knowledge, that region is pretty much entirely German speaking. I guess the Burgenland is in a similar vein, except that it does not have a historical connection to the Reich the way the aforementioned territory does.
Again, great work, I am quite envious of the depth of your knowledge and quality of your research especially.
Scipio
wolf_brother
Banned
I doubt he'll marry the same ITTL; more likely a marriage to a German princess. I'll have to decide who though. Suggestions?
I've just read through the first three pages of this. It looks really good. Consider me subscribed, and keep up the good work!
Thanks! Next update should be posted tomorrow.
The first will be covered in a future update. We're steadily moving into the the events of 1849, which will still have a few more shocks and hurdles that will change the political environment.
To answer the second, I have to reiterate what I've already said in response to SavoyTruffle; what many people are assuming as Southern Austria was already apart of the Kingdom of Illyria IOTL during the period; it was only after 1848 that the kingdom was disbanded. With the events of ITTL the administrative division continues and is expanded upon during the territorial reshuffling in the Vienna Accord.
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wolf_brother
Banned
il Risorgimento, Act IV
[Spacing]
North Italian Divide
... By 1 October on paper the Austrians had some twenty-one thousand troops surrounding the Venetian lagoon; in reality though over a third of those were sick from malaria. Within the city itself the deep fault lines between Italian factions began to present themselves, with in-fighting in the form of Mazzini's Italian Club's systemic offensive of press criticism against Manin's government, arguing that the moderates were not 'sufficiently energetic' in their prosecution of the war. Manin's critics also argued, perhaps somewhat naively, that a demonstration of unanimous republican sentiment would compel the either the new French republic to intervene and rescue the beleaguered Venetians, or Garibaldi and other Italian nationalists to join the Venetian cause as an Italian rallying point. Perhaps most worryingly for the moderates, the all-important cohort of the non-Venetians were increasingly drawn into the club's orbit. Therefore on 2 October Manin, acting as a triumvir, had the leaders of the Club arrested, and soldiers were banned from joining political organizations. However, to sooth their fiery tempers Manin also promised that the Venetian Assembly meet to draft new electoral laws by 11 October, and further implied that the large non-Venetian contingent defending the city would be enfranchised...
... Though defeated by the Austrians in the Italian War, Charles Albert's dreams of a unified North Italian kingdom continued forward unabated. On 10 October his prime minister, Vincenzo Gioberti (1) summoned an Italian-wide congress to discuss the creation of an Italian constituente to meet in Turin until 30 October. Gioberti, and Charles Albert himself, viewed the congress as a liberal alternative to both the papal league and the republican’s unitary state...
... In the early morning hours of 27 October a 4,000-strong Italian force, personally led by Pepe and an officer by the name of Giovanni Cavedalis, sortied from the Marghera fort, the Venetians only controlled fort on the terra firma. Emerging from the thick morning fog they silently bayoneted the Austrian gunners guarding the good, and then surprised and overwhelmed the defenders of Mestre in hand-to-hand fighting that claimed some six hundred lives. During the fighting the patriotic priest Ugo Bassi (2) was wounded once again giving spiritual comfort to the fallen; both Italian patriots and Hapsburg troops alike. Ultimately the Venetians were victorious, managing to defeat the superior Austrian forces, capturing several cannon and other supplies, and taking over five hundred prisoners with them. The battle was a boost for Venetian morale, and led to celebrations throughout the city over the next several days as word began to enter the city of the Vienna Uprising...
... With the defeat of the Hapsburg forces at Vienna in late October the Austrian front on the North Italian plain largely collapsed as Hapsburg units and commanders were left without direction or support. Radetzky, as the most senior Hapsburg commander in all of Italy, quickly sent runners with orders to the various Austrian forces, bringing them to the Quadrilateral to unit with his command. Radetzky hoped to present a strong defense to prevent Italian incursions into Austria, and possibly to offer this significant force to the Hapsburg throne to put down the Magyars and revolutionary Austrians, though this last was not to be. Immediately following the withdrawal of the Austrians Italian forces moved forward, in Venetia and Lombardy. In the later particularly the Milanese, without either Austrian or Piedmontese oversight, swiftly elected a new government led by the former mayor, Casati. However, Casati was without any real power in Lombardy, and while Milan itself was policed the rest of Lombardy was largely ravaged by roving bands of bandits that fell upon civilians, Italian patriots, Hapsburg supports, and each other with equal gusto. Charles Albert saw in this his second chance for an expanded kingdom, and ordered the Italian constituent assembly to relocate to Milan, guarded of course by his army. As the Piedmontese swiftly approached Casati sent word across Italy pleading for aid. Casati's message in particular was sent to Venice, where with the withdraw of von Welden's besieging Austrians the Venetians swiftly reconnected with the other six provinces devoid of Hapsburg forces, actively recruiting into Venetia's pan-Italian forces; within a few weeks some five thousand volunteers had been modeled onto Cavedalis' forces. Venice itself was a moderately liberal-republican state, as the triumvirate took the opportunity to cement its rule, with the Venetian Constituent Assembly acting as a legislative rubber-stamp for Manin. By 11 November Venetia was secure enough for Manin himself to personally lead a force of some 15,000-strong to Milan to dispute Charles Albert's control of the city. Although the Italian-led Venetians didn't arrive until well after Charles Albert had secured the Lombard capitol, on 8 November, Manin was able to fortify within Custoza, the site of Charles Albert's crushing defeat overlooking the Po River and preventing the Piedmontese from entering Venetia proper.
At this point the war for Italian unification could have easily broke down into a scuffle between North Italian states which likely would have swiftly expanded to include the other Italian states and likely surrounding powers such as France, German Austria or Hapsburg Illyria. Fortunately however both Charles Albert and Manin were pragmatists, and thus it should have been no surprise when on 14 November Charles Albert sent a small deputation led by Camillo Benso (3) under the white flag to Custoza with an offer to the Venetian-led Italians, while also making the same offer to Casati; the Venetians, Piedmontese and Lombards would meet in neutral Guastalla, though the neutrality of the site was in doubt as Parma had elected to join Piedmont earlier in the year, to discuss the 'Lombard issue'. Regardless though both Manin and Casati agreed, and over the next month instead of fighting the three Italian factions negotiated, while keeping a close eye on the events in central Italy. The largest point of contention was, of course, Lombardy, though the Venetians and Piedmontese also clashed over Italian unification. Charles Albert argued that the duchy should fall under Savoyard control, basing his arguments upon the earlier Lombard vote in favor of 'fusion' with Piedmont. Indeed Charles Albert originally tried to argue that all of the North Italian plain should fall to him, based on Venice's similar vote, though Manin quickly and brutally suppressed this motion by arguing pointedly that this might have been true, but Charles Albert had given up his claims to Venice, and implicitly Lombardy, by abandoning the Italian war effort, to which Charles Albert retorted that his withdraw from the war was a tactical retreat and he fully planned to re-enter the war as soon as he was able (4). The fragile truce grew weak as the negotiations dragged on, with both sides threatening to turn to arms if their demands were not met, a position which led the Lombards', whose deputation was led by Casati himself, arguments for their own self-governance increasingly ignored, though the wily politician swiftly subsumed the Lombard position into both the Piedmontese and Venetian factions in the form of arguments for autonomy. Perhaps things would have eventually turned to an out-right Italian Civil War if it weren't for the events in the east. While Hapsburg power had fallen out in Vienna, within Italy itself Radetzky held onto a large and powerful force which was well supplied and positioned to strike into either Lombardy or Venetia. As well Manin became increasingly anxious about being so far away from Venice as worrying reports poured into Guastalla from Venetia of increasing numbers of reactionary Hapsburg nobles, officials, and most importantly imperial troops that were flocking to Illyria. Manin feared that this was force would soon launch an invasion of Venice, coupled with Radetzy's forces in the Quadrilateral, before these twin armies would storm through the North Italian plain and south across the Po river, turning back the revolution and leaving Austrian power even more secure than before the start of 1848. Of course in retrospect these fears were largely unfounded, as these Hapsburg forces largely sat in Illyria, minus a few units that participated in the Hungarian-Croatian War. Finally, under Venice's new electoral laws the latest election for the Venetian Assembly was held without Manin's presence on 5 January. Though there was a strong movement to topple Manin's power - both from Mazzinians trying to regain the initiative, and by conservatives who wanted to end the war by coming to terms with the Austrians in Verona - Manin's working class support meant that he remained in control with a large mandate, though the Mazzinians, increasingly coalescing once again into a unified political front, also made large gains...
... With the Treaty of Guastalla, signed by all participants in mid February 1849, the question of North Italy was settled through a compromise that left all those involved largely unsatisfied, save perhaps Casati's Lombards. Lombardy fell to Savoyard Piedmont, however the territory was guaranteed certain autonomous privileges, including self-government. Though Milan would send a delegation to Turin to participate in the Piedmontese government, the province was to handle all issues pertaining exclusively to Lombards excepting only taxes, foreign affairs and the military, all of which fell under Turin's purview. While Manin quickly returned to Venice to handle the republic's defense and politics, he left a small deputation behind under his close ally Tommaseo, who had only recently returned to Italy from his failed diplomatic mission to France. Tommaseo thus returned with Charles Albert to Turin, where the Italian deputies, dominated by Charles Albert's North Italians, continued to work on the Italian constituente...
Left, Piedmontese Prime Minister Cavour. Right, Venetian Triumvir Daniele Manin
Central Italian Republics
... On October 2, Pius' close friend Pellegrino Rossi, a move seen by the Roman population as a proxy-declaration by the Pope, proposed an Italian league, led by the Pope, but opposed Roman involvement in the war, stating that 'In a constitutional government such as ours everything would result in confusion and disorder, if the opinions and actions of the whole people did not breath a spirit of life into the law.' While there was some hesitation, with this moderating move Pius' continued agitation for Rossi's appointment finally overcame parliamentary opposition. One of the more progressive cardinals jokingly congratulated Rossi, stating 'I have known you extremely well, Sir, ever since you were burn in effigy.' Though humorous it was a grim indicator of the challenges the Papacy faced. Upon taking office Rossi's first action was to initiate reforms of the administration, putting the state's finances on a stable footing and restoring law and order throughout Rome. For the latter he called on his college General Carlo Zucchi (5) to command the Papal military and 'restore discipline.' Perhaps most importantly for the Italian cause, Rossi opened negotiations with the other Italian states, namely Piedmont and Tuscany over the formation of an Italian league...
... On 9 October, at the urging of Tuscan democrats led by Guerrazzi and Montanelli, Garibaldi led his followers, now numbering less than one hundred - mostly officers - out of the Alps to Tuscany to lead a volunteer army against the Neapolitan king. However as the redcoats crossed the Apennines to the Papal borders in the early morning hours, General Zucchi, who had received word of Garibaldi's approach, marched with four hundred Papal Swiss Guards from Bologna to Ferrara to block Garibaldi's forces. Garibaldi bitterly wrote that; 'We had left South America for this: to fight in the snow of the Apennines. It was distressing to see these worthy young lads in the mountains in such harsh weather: most were wearing only light clothes, some were in rags, all were hungry.' However in Bologna, now without Zucchi's presence, Father Gavazzi led a huge demonstration in support of the redcoats; chanting below the window of Zucchi's second in command, Gavazzi's supports clamored 'Either our brother's come here or you come down from that balcony!' - The implications were obvious. Receiving word of the protest that afternoon, Zucchi agreed to a compromise; Garibaldi's forces would be allowed to cross the Romagna, but it had to march to Ravenna, where it would embark for Venice to support Manin's defense of the city. Of course this did not...
... Little less than a month later Papal undercover police discovered a revolutionary plot to stage a coup against the Pop himself. Led by Neapolitan Vincenzo Carbonelli, who had already earned his revolutionary reputation fighting on the barricades in Naples earlier in the year, the plotters planned to rile up the Roman populace, the Neapolitan refugees, and the Reduci (the 'Returned'), demobilized soldiers that had returned to Rome (6), in order to seize the city and force Pius to join the war effort. Carbonelli himself was imprisoned, along with several leading Neapolitans, and by 12 October the lot of them had been deported back to Naples by Rossi. In reaction to Rossi's purge, a small fractional radical club, including leaders such as the physician Pietro Sterbini (7), and Circerruacchio's son, Luigi Brunetti, met in a tavern near the Piazza del Popolo the next day. There an alleged conspiracy was born, in which it was agreed that Rossi should be assassinated at the opening of parliament in two day's time. Though no hard facts ever came forward supporting these allegations, with the events that took place it is little wonder that both the younger Brunetti and Sterbini were roundly hailed and vilified for their 13 October meeting.
At the opening of the Papal parliament Sterbini was cheered on as he arrived at the Cancelleria Palace to take his seat in the Chamber of Deputies by clusters of the Reduci in the crowds. Ten minutes later though as Rossi's carriage approached though the crowd fell silent. Walking the some twenty yards past the gate of the Palace the crowds closed behind him; however Rossi pressed on towards the staircase at the end of the walk, reportedly wearing his renowned definitely contemptuous smile. As he started up the steps an unidentified young man staggered out of the crowd, striking Rossi on the side. As the aging Rossi turned to face this assault, another assailant - allegedly according to eye-witness reports Luigi Brunetti himself - plunged a dagger into the prime minister's throat, severing his carotid artery. As blood sprayed the assassins the other Reduci pulled daggers and moved forward; Rossi was only saved when his friends and supporters in the crowd lifted his limp body up and carried him into a nearby house; however he died within minutes. The Belgian ambassador later wrote that 'Order had only one energetic and highly intelligent representative left at Rome. This representative was Monsieur Rossi, and that is exactly why he was killed.' Within hours popular republican sentiment swept through the city, with the carabinieri and civic guard fraternizing with the republican radicals. In the Quirinal Palace (8) Pius received word of his friend's death with stunned silence; his government resigned en-masse, and still Pius did not react. It is thought by modern psychologists that Pius entered a deep depression with the death of Rossi, and judging by later events, he did not emerge until...
Papal Prime Minister Pellegrino Rossi
... By noon the radicals in Rome listed their demands: Pius was to appoint a ministry that supported at the least the renewal of the war against Austria, and his support of the constituente - which they also demanded revised. That night Sterbini lead a procession of Reduci and members of the Circolo Populare, Rome's only remaining republican club, in a march on the Corso. Cheering triumphantly they hailed Rossi's assassin as the new Brutus beneath the window of Rossi's recently-widowed wife, hurling taunts and jibes and chanting 'Blessed be the hand that stabbed Rossi.' The next day in the afternoon a crowd gathered on the Piazza del Popolo and marched on the Quirinal to press the republican demands. At two o'clock the mob broke through one of the gates of the palace, left unlocked by two sympathetic Swiss Guards who led the chanting crowds into the palace grounds (9). Though Pius agreed to appoint the popular Giuseppe Galleti, a liberal lawyer that had taken part in the 1830-31 insurrections, to lead the new government, he refused to give way further. Growing angry and impatient, the some seven thousand mostly armed demonstrators on the piazza began to chant 'A democratic ministry or a republic!' Worryingly for the Papal government among the crowd were regular soldiers, civic guards and carabineri who had joined the protests. As the demonstrations quickly spiraled out of any single agent's control some members of the mob tried to burn down a side entrance into the Quirinal, prompting the loyal Swiss Guards to fire warning shots into the air; unfortunately it was not clear this was a warning, and the insurgents quickly climbed nearby towers to fire back. One of Pius' secretaries was killed in the exchange when a bullet shattered the window of his office, lacerating his face and exposed neck with glass shards. As the radicals wheeled up a cannon to blast open the main gate, Pius yielded and appointed a new government which included Sterbini, Galletti and Mamiani. Over thirty people were killed in the day's events, the fast majority of them Papal officials caught between the fighting Swiss Guards and the insurgents. Immediately the new government pushed forward with its liberal program, including a declaration of war and the summoning of a constitutional congress. Just over a week later on 24 October Pius fled Rome, and the Papal States altogether, disguised as a humble parish priest. Along with only a small squad of Swiss Guards that discovered the Pope in-flight near the Papal boarder, Pius crossed into the Kingdom of Naples, taking refuge in the coastal fortress of Gaeta, where...
... Garibaldi's forces, now numbering over five hundred as republican recruiting picked up following Rossi's death, turned south from Ravenna and marched towards Rome. Garibaldi wrote in his diary on 27 October that 'In getting rid of him [Rossi] the ancient metropolis of the world shows itself worthy of its illustrious past.' Within a few days Garibaldi's forces entered Rome in a triumphant parade, however he was rebuffed by the liberal government and his legion wintered at Forligno. Republicans were not the only forces rallying to Rome though. By 1 December Queen Isabella II of Spain issued a proclamation declaring Pius under the protection of all Catholic states and called for an international congress to resolve the matter. Without hours diplomatic wires arrived in Madrid from the various Catholic capitols; while Austria, which had recently undergone the November Revolution, was ambivalent to the issue, Naples, which was actually protecting the Pope, swiftly agreed, followed some days later by France. In Naples itself, under the influence of conservative Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli (10) Pius disavowed the new government in Rome, and appealed to the newly raised Hapsburg emperor, Franz Karl, 'his very dear son,' for assistance. With little-to-no option left back in Rome, as Pius refused to return as a constitutional ruler, and as Spanish, French, Neapolitan and, allegedly, Austrian, pressure increased to become involved in the situation, the radicals in control of the city agreed to hold elections to a Roman Constituent Assembly. In retaliation Pius excommunicated in advance all who would participate in the election, though this did not stop many from taking part in the election. Under continuing pressure from the republicans the Roman government, a loose collection of radicals, republicans and liberals left in de-facto control of the city, declared that the hundred candidates who attracted the most votes to the Roman assembly would represent Rome in an all-Italian constitutional congress. Just under two weeks later on 26 January the Roman Constituent Assembly elections were held under universal male suffrage; the moderate liberal vote collapsed entirely as liberals and conservatives throughout the city largely did not vote, fearing Papal retribution (and eternal damnation), handing the radicals an overwhelming victory. While most deputies were landowners or middle-class professionals of the petite bourgeoisie, their sympathies ranged from democratic to purely republican. Notably, seven men from outside Rome itself were elected, including Garibaldi and Mazzini, though the latter was not in the city itself at the time...
... North of Rome in Tuscany on 10 January the Tuscan parliament, summoned by Grand Duke Leopold almost a year earlier, meet for the first time. Dominated by liberal moderates, just a week for the Roman elections a demonstration of some 35,000 people in Florence forced the government to agree to the election of thirty-seven delegates to participate in the Constituent Assembly in Rome on the basis of universal male suffrage, which took place on 30 January. The next day however Leopold fled Florence, first to Siena and then to the small port of Santo Stefano before traveling to Naples, joining Pius in exile at Gaeta after the warm invitation of King Ferdinand. As a Hapsburg, Leopold was promised military aid from Radetzky 'as soon as I have put down the demagogues of Piedmont.' Of course the Hapsburg military aid...
... On 5 February the Roman Assembly met for the first time. The question immediately arose as to what to do now. Pius was clearly apart of the reaction, and while Radetzky had yet to make any move, his promise to Leopold was well known. While some proposed a republic moderates such as Mamiani worried that such a state would stand little chance with reactionary Naples and monarchist Piedmont surrounding it. However, to the delegates there seemed to be no other viable alternative as Pius continued to compromise, or even return the increasingly insistent letters of the Assembly, even going so far as to refuse to meet with a delegation that bpleaded for his return led by the moderate Prince Tommaso Corsini and several priests. Thus on 9 February the Constituent Assembly overwhelming proclaimed Rome a 'pure democracy, and it will take the glorious name of The Roman Republic.' Among the 163 delegates were notables such as the lawyer Francesco Sturbinetti, Carlo Armellini, Sterbini, Muzzarelli, and Carlo Luciano Bonaparte, the later of whom, when called upon during the Assembly's roll-call, replied by calling out 'Viva la Repubblica!' The government instantly set out to craft the laws of the new republic, and among the first to be agreed upon was freedom of religion; however while the Papal States were declared at an end, in fact and in law, the Pope 'had every guarantee needed for the independence exercise of his spiritual power.' Immediately celebrations broke out across the city, and throughout the former Papal States in cities such as Bologna and Ferrara, and even in independent San Marino...
Proclamation of the Roman Republic
... Mazzini, rushing to Rome from his Swiss exile upon hearing the news of Pius' flight from the metropolis, was stopped in Tuscany on 7 February by Guerrazzi, who warned Mazzini that he was a too controversial of a figure for Italian unification, and should stay away from Rome for the greater cause. Guerrazzi also argued with Mazzini regarding the latter's plans for the future, as Mazzini had begun to, loudly, proclaim his support for the ideal of unification of republican-controlled Rome and Tuscany. Guerrazzi and other Tuscan moderates worried that such a mode would provoke a Piedmontese, or Neapolitan, reactionary intervention. It was not to be, and after Mazzini continued on to Rome the liberal Tuscan parliament gave into mounting radical pressure, and as a massive crowd surged outside the parliament's meeting chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio on 18 February the assembly vested ultimate Tuscan power in a triumvirate of Guerrazzi, Montanelli, and the democrat Giuseppe Mazzoni. The three quickly met and immediately declared Tuscany a republic, though Guerrazzi continued to adamantly argue that Tuscany must remain independent and not join in a union with Rome. In a way Guerrazzi's position was eventually adopted, when ultimately...
(1) Born of modest means, Gioberti earned a degree in theology in 1823 and two years later was ordained a priest, becoming a professor of theology at the University of Turin and court chaplain by 1831. However Gioberti was one of the leading figures of a new wave of liberal, patriotic Italian, clergy, and had strong ties to Mazzini's Young Italy society. In 1842 Gioberti published his masterpiece, Del Primato civile e morale degli Italiani ('The Civic and Moral Primacy of the Italians'), in which he argued that having the led the (European) world twice in ancient and medieval times, Italy could do so a third time, and strongly advocated an Italian federation led by the Pope, while concurrently the Church would adapt itself to modern culture and civil religion. Gioberti became Minister of Public Instruction under Piedmont's new liberal constitutional system, and was appointed prime minister later in the year.
(2) Who had entered the Barnabite order at the age of 18 following the fallout of an 'unhappy love affair,' Bassi returned to his native Rome to enter the ministry in 1833. In this role be became somewhat renowned throughout the Italian states for his fiery sermons which drew large crowds. Bassi earned a reputation not only for his eloquence, but also for his piety; the traveling priest was so poor himself from spending all of his time and money preaching and tending the poor that he often did not have enough food to eat, and lived off the humble thanks of his supporters. Bassi was the army chaplain under Durando, and was injured at Treviso in May, and was thus carried to Venice by sympathetic Italians to heal.
(3) A leading figure in Italian unification IOTL, Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour was the OTL founder of the Italian Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia during Italian unification under Victor Emmanuel. Born in Turin during the Napoleonic period, Cavour was sent to the Turin Military Academy at only ten years of age, though he was often in trouble with the military authorities as even at such a young age he was too headstrong to smoothly operate under the rigid military discipline. Cavour left the military in 1831 to move to Switzerland, where he spent time with his Protestant relatives in Geneva. It is here that Cavour is believed to have first been exposed to Italian nationalism, secular liberalism, and federalism. Cavour then spent several years traveling through Europe, spending time particularly in Paris and London before returning to Turin in 1838 where he entered politics. With the events of 1848 Cavour was a guiding light in favor of Piedmontese constitutionalism, though he was not at first offered a position within the new Chamber of Deputies as Charles Albert was still suspicious of overtly liberal ministers. ITTL after his government walked out, a move which Cavour opposed, Charles Albert appointed Cavour to lead a new government.
(4) Which is of course what Charles Albert did in IOTL, voiding the Austrian-Piedmontese truce in March 1849 only to be defeated in an even more devastating defeat than before at the Battle of Novara, which led to Charles Albert's abdication in favor of his eldest son Victor Emmanuel.
(5) A former general of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, after which Zucchi had entered into the service of the Duke of Moderna Francis IV, successfully defeating the invading Austrians with only some 800 volunteers, though eventually Modena was conquered. Afterward an Austrian military commission condemned Zucchi to death, and only the intervention of the French court commuted this to twenty years of imprisonment, a sentence Zucchi was still serving in Palmanova when he was released by the invading Piedmontese.
(6) i.e., Durando's surviving forces following the Battle of Vicenza. See Chapter #8 for details.
(7) A Roman physician, Sterbini had taken part in the abortive Italian uprisings in Rome, Marche, the Romagna and Umbria in 1821, though with the fallout and Austrian intervention he was forced with to Tuscany and then Corsica. Moving to Marseille in 1835 Sterbini began to write pamphlets for Mazzini, and returned to Italy later that year. After the Piedmontese armistice in August 1848 Sterbini tried to incite the Roman people to rise up, asking "O armed people, without asking permission to anyone. Is the man attacked by a killer made another murderer for defending his life if he has the means to do it? You do not need governments to declare war, nor ministers who give out arms. Declare war with the fact of action, look for weapons in yourselves."
(8) IOTL the Pope resided in the Palazzo del Quirinale from its construction in 1583 until 1870. It was only during OTL's Roman Question and the prigioniero del Vaticano that the Holy See moved into the Vatican.
(9) IOTL the crowds broke through the gate at 3pm, and the two helpless Swiss Guards just barely managed to escape with their lives. ITTL these two anonymous guards are more influenced by Italian nationalism, and the events of the Swiss Civil War.
(10) Called the 'Italian Richelieu,' Antonelli resisted Italian unification throughout his long career. It has been argued that Antonelli orchestrated the flight of Pius to Gaeta. IOTL after the events of 1848 and Pius' restoration to Rome he became the Cardinal Secretary of State, a role he played until his death. Not withstanding promises to the powers (France & Austria) upon his return to Rome he violated the conditions of the Roman surrender by wholesale imprisonment of liberals. It was estimated that up to 50% of those had been involved in the Roman Republic IOTL were imprisoned and eventually deported by Antonelli between 1850 and 60. Although it did not prevent Pius' beatification IOTL, many historians believe that Antonelli's notoriety and actions on behalf of Pius prevented the Pope's canonization.
[Spacing]
"A young Roman has wielded anew the sword of Brutus and drowned the marble steps of the Capitol with the tyrant's blood!"
- Giuseppe Garibaldi, on the Roman Revolution
27 November 1848
- Giuseppe Garibaldi, on the Roman Revolution
27 November 1848
North Italian Divide
... By 1 October on paper the Austrians had some twenty-one thousand troops surrounding the Venetian lagoon; in reality though over a third of those were sick from malaria. Within the city itself the deep fault lines between Italian factions began to present themselves, with in-fighting in the form of Mazzini's Italian Club's systemic offensive of press criticism against Manin's government, arguing that the moderates were not 'sufficiently energetic' in their prosecution of the war. Manin's critics also argued, perhaps somewhat naively, that a demonstration of unanimous republican sentiment would compel the either the new French republic to intervene and rescue the beleaguered Venetians, or Garibaldi and other Italian nationalists to join the Venetian cause as an Italian rallying point. Perhaps most worryingly for the moderates, the all-important cohort of the non-Venetians were increasingly drawn into the club's orbit. Therefore on 2 October Manin, acting as a triumvir, had the leaders of the Club arrested, and soldiers were banned from joining political organizations. However, to sooth their fiery tempers Manin also promised that the Venetian Assembly meet to draft new electoral laws by 11 October, and further implied that the large non-Venetian contingent defending the city would be enfranchised...
... Though defeated by the Austrians in the Italian War, Charles Albert's dreams of a unified North Italian kingdom continued forward unabated. On 10 October his prime minister, Vincenzo Gioberti (1) summoned an Italian-wide congress to discuss the creation of an Italian constituente to meet in Turin until 30 October. Gioberti, and Charles Albert himself, viewed the congress as a liberal alternative to both the papal league and the republican’s unitary state...
... In the early morning hours of 27 October a 4,000-strong Italian force, personally led by Pepe and an officer by the name of Giovanni Cavedalis, sortied from the Marghera fort, the Venetians only controlled fort on the terra firma. Emerging from the thick morning fog they silently bayoneted the Austrian gunners guarding the good, and then surprised and overwhelmed the defenders of Mestre in hand-to-hand fighting that claimed some six hundred lives. During the fighting the patriotic priest Ugo Bassi (2) was wounded once again giving spiritual comfort to the fallen; both Italian patriots and Hapsburg troops alike. Ultimately the Venetians were victorious, managing to defeat the superior Austrian forces, capturing several cannon and other supplies, and taking over five hundred prisoners with them. The battle was a boost for Venetian morale, and led to celebrations throughout the city over the next several days as word began to enter the city of the Vienna Uprising...
... With the defeat of the Hapsburg forces at Vienna in late October the Austrian front on the North Italian plain largely collapsed as Hapsburg units and commanders were left without direction or support. Radetzky, as the most senior Hapsburg commander in all of Italy, quickly sent runners with orders to the various Austrian forces, bringing them to the Quadrilateral to unit with his command. Radetzky hoped to present a strong defense to prevent Italian incursions into Austria, and possibly to offer this significant force to the Hapsburg throne to put down the Magyars and revolutionary Austrians, though this last was not to be. Immediately following the withdrawal of the Austrians Italian forces moved forward, in Venetia and Lombardy. In the later particularly the Milanese, without either Austrian or Piedmontese oversight, swiftly elected a new government led by the former mayor, Casati. However, Casati was without any real power in Lombardy, and while Milan itself was policed the rest of Lombardy was largely ravaged by roving bands of bandits that fell upon civilians, Italian patriots, Hapsburg supports, and each other with equal gusto. Charles Albert saw in this his second chance for an expanded kingdom, and ordered the Italian constituent assembly to relocate to Milan, guarded of course by his army. As the Piedmontese swiftly approached Casati sent word across Italy pleading for aid. Casati's message in particular was sent to Venice, where with the withdraw of von Welden's besieging Austrians the Venetians swiftly reconnected with the other six provinces devoid of Hapsburg forces, actively recruiting into Venetia's pan-Italian forces; within a few weeks some five thousand volunteers had been modeled onto Cavedalis' forces. Venice itself was a moderately liberal-republican state, as the triumvirate took the opportunity to cement its rule, with the Venetian Constituent Assembly acting as a legislative rubber-stamp for Manin. By 11 November Venetia was secure enough for Manin himself to personally lead a force of some 15,000-strong to Milan to dispute Charles Albert's control of the city. Although the Italian-led Venetians didn't arrive until well after Charles Albert had secured the Lombard capitol, on 8 November, Manin was able to fortify within Custoza, the site of Charles Albert's crushing defeat overlooking the Po River and preventing the Piedmontese from entering Venetia proper.
At this point the war for Italian unification could have easily broke down into a scuffle between North Italian states which likely would have swiftly expanded to include the other Italian states and likely surrounding powers such as France, German Austria or Hapsburg Illyria. Fortunately however both Charles Albert and Manin were pragmatists, and thus it should have been no surprise when on 14 November Charles Albert sent a small deputation led by Camillo Benso (3) under the white flag to Custoza with an offer to the Venetian-led Italians, while also making the same offer to Casati; the Venetians, Piedmontese and Lombards would meet in neutral Guastalla, though the neutrality of the site was in doubt as Parma had elected to join Piedmont earlier in the year, to discuss the 'Lombard issue'. Regardless though both Manin and Casati agreed, and over the next month instead of fighting the three Italian factions negotiated, while keeping a close eye on the events in central Italy. The largest point of contention was, of course, Lombardy, though the Venetians and Piedmontese also clashed over Italian unification. Charles Albert argued that the duchy should fall under Savoyard control, basing his arguments upon the earlier Lombard vote in favor of 'fusion' with Piedmont. Indeed Charles Albert originally tried to argue that all of the North Italian plain should fall to him, based on Venice's similar vote, though Manin quickly and brutally suppressed this motion by arguing pointedly that this might have been true, but Charles Albert had given up his claims to Venice, and implicitly Lombardy, by abandoning the Italian war effort, to which Charles Albert retorted that his withdraw from the war was a tactical retreat and he fully planned to re-enter the war as soon as he was able (4). The fragile truce grew weak as the negotiations dragged on, with both sides threatening to turn to arms if their demands were not met, a position which led the Lombards', whose deputation was led by Casati himself, arguments for their own self-governance increasingly ignored, though the wily politician swiftly subsumed the Lombard position into both the Piedmontese and Venetian factions in the form of arguments for autonomy. Perhaps things would have eventually turned to an out-right Italian Civil War if it weren't for the events in the east. While Hapsburg power had fallen out in Vienna, within Italy itself Radetzky held onto a large and powerful force which was well supplied and positioned to strike into either Lombardy or Venetia. As well Manin became increasingly anxious about being so far away from Venice as worrying reports poured into Guastalla from Venetia of increasing numbers of reactionary Hapsburg nobles, officials, and most importantly imperial troops that were flocking to Illyria. Manin feared that this was force would soon launch an invasion of Venice, coupled with Radetzy's forces in the Quadrilateral, before these twin armies would storm through the North Italian plain and south across the Po river, turning back the revolution and leaving Austrian power even more secure than before the start of 1848. Of course in retrospect these fears were largely unfounded, as these Hapsburg forces largely sat in Illyria, minus a few units that participated in the Hungarian-Croatian War. Finally, under Venice's new electoral laws the latest election for the Venetian Assembly was held without Manin's presence on 5 January. Though there was a strong movement to topple Manin's power - both from Mazzinians trying to regain the initiative, and by conservatives who wanted to end the war by coming to terms with the Austrians in Verona - Manin's working class support meant that he remained in control with a large mandate, though the Mazzinians, increasingly coalescing once again into a unified political front, also made large gains...
... With the Treaty of Guastalla, signed by all participants in mid February 1849, the question of North Italy was settled through a compromise that left all those involved largely unsatisfied, save perhaps Casati's Lombards. Lombardy fell to Savoyard Piedmont, however the territory was guaranteed certain autonomous privileges, including self-government. Though Milan would send a delegation to Turin to participate in the Piedmontese government, the province was to handle all issues pertaining exclusively to Lombards excepting only taxes, foreign affairs and the military, all of which fell under Turin's purview. While Manin quickly returned to Venice to handle the republic's defense and politics, he left a small deputation behind under his close ally Tommaseo, who had only recently returned to Italy from his failed diplomatic mission to France. Tommaseo thus returned with Charles Albert to Turin, where the Italian deputies, dominated by Charles Albert's North Italians, continued to work on the Italian constituente...
Left, Piedmontese Prime Minister Cavour. Right, Venetian Triumvir Daniele Manin
Central Italian Republics
... On October 2, Pius' close friend Pellegrino Rossi, a move seen by the Roman population as a proxy-declaration by the Pope, proposed an Italian league, led by the Pope, but opposed Roman involvement in the war, stating that 'In a constitutional government such as ours everything would result in confusion and disorder, if the opinions and actions of the whole people did not breath a spirit of life into the law.' While there was some hesitation, with this moderating move Pius' continued agitation for Rossi's appointment finally overcame parliamentary opposition. One of the more progressive cardinals jokingly congratulated Rossi, stating 'I have known you extremely well, Sir, ever since you were burn in effigy.' Though humorous it was a grim indicator of the challenges the Papacy faced. Upon taking office Rossi's first action was to initiate reforms of the administration, putting the state's finances on a stable footing and restoring law and order throughout Rome. For the latter he called on his college General Carlo Zucchi (5) to command the Papal military and 'restore discipline.' Perhaps most importantly for the Italian cause, Rossi opened negotiations with the other Italian states, namely Piedmont and Tuscany over the formation of an Italian league...
... On 9 October, at the urging of Tuscan democrats led by Guerrazzi and Montanelli, Garibaldi led his followers, now numbering less than one hundred - mostly officers - out of the Alps to Tuscany to lead a volunteer army against the Neapolitan king. However as the redcoats crossed the Apennines to the Papal borders in the early morning hours, General Zucchi, who had received word of Garibaldi's approach, marched with four hundred Papal Swiss Guards from Bologna to Ferrara to block Garibaldi's forces. Garibaldi bitterly wrote that; 'We had left South America for this: to fight in the snow of the Apennines. It was distressing to see these worthy young lads in the mountains in such harsh weather: most were wearing only light clothes, some were in rags, all were hungry.' However in Bologna, now without Zucchi's presence, Father Gavazzi led a huge demonstration in support of the redcoats; chanting below the window of Zucchi's second in command, Gavazzi's supports clamored 'Either our brother's come here or you come down from that balcony!' - The implications were obvious. Receiving word of the protest that afternoon, Zucchi agreed to a compromise; Garibaldi's forces would be allowed to cross the Romagna, but it had to march to Ravenna, where it would embark for Venice to support Manin's defense of the city. Of course this did not...
... Little less than a month later Papal undercover police discovered a revolutionary plot to stage a coup against the Pop himself. Led by Neapolitan Vincenzo Carbonelli, who had already earned his revolutionary reputation fighting on the barricades in Naples earlier in the year, the plotters planned to rile up the Roman populace, the Neapolitan refugees, and the Reduci (the 'Returned'), demobilized soldiers that had returned to Rome (6), in order to seize the city and force Pius to join the war effort. Carbonelli himself was imprisoned, along with several leading Neapolitans, and by 12 October the lot of them had been deported back to Naples by Rossi. In reaction to Rossi's purge, a small fractional radical club, including leaders such as the physician Pietro Sterbini (7), and Circerruacchio's son, Luigi Brunetti, met in a tavern near the Piazza del Popolo the next day. There an alleged conspiracy was born, in which it was agreed that Rossi should be assassinated at the opening of parliament in two day's time. Though no hard facts ever came forward supporting these allegations, with the events that took place it is little wonder that both the younger Brunetti and Sterbini were roundly hailed and vilified for their 13 October meeting.
At the opening of the Papal parliament Sterbini was cheered on as he arrived at the Cancelleria Palace to take his seat in the Chamber of Deputies by clusters of the Reduci in the crowds. Ten minutes later though as Rossi's carriage approached though the crowd fell silent. Walking the some twenty yards past the gate of the Palace the crowds closed behind him; however Rossi pressed on towards the staircase at the end of the walk, reportedly wearing his renowned definitely contemptuous smile. As he started up the steps an unidentified young man staggered out of the crowd, striking Rossi on the side. As the aging Rossi turned to face this assault, another assailant - allegedly according to eye-witness reports Luigi Brunetti himself - plunged a dagger into the prime minister's throat, severing his carotid artery. As blood sprayed the assassins the other Reduci pulled daggers and moved forward; Rossi was only saved when his friends and supporters in the crowd lifted his limp body up and carried him into a nearby house; however he died within minutes. The Belgian ambassador later wrote that 'Order had only one energetic and highly intelligent representative left at Rome. This representative was Monsieur Rossi, and that is exactly why he was killed.' Within hours popular republican sentiment swept through the city, with the carabinieri and civic guard fraternizing with the republican radicals. In the Quirinal Palace (8) Pius received word of his friend's death with stunned silence; his government resigned en-masse, and still Pius did not react. It is thought by modern psychologists that Pius entered a deep depression with the death of Rossi, and judging by later events, he did not emerge until...
Papal Prime Minister Pellegrino Rossi
... By noon the radicals in Rome listed their demands: Pius was to appoint a ministry that supported at the least the renewal of the war against Austria, and his support of the constituente - which they also demanded revised. That night Sterbini lead a procession of Reduci and members of the Circolo Populare, Rome's only remaining republican club, in a march on the Corso. Cheering triumphantly they hailed Rossi's assassin as the new Brutus beneath the window of Rossi's recently-widowed wife, hurling taunts and jibes and chanting 'Blessed be the hand that stabbed Rossi.' The next day in the afternoon a crowd gathered on the Piazza del Popolo and marched on the Quirinal to press the republican demands. At two o'clock the mob broke through one of the gates of the palace, left unlocked by two sympathetic Swiss Guards who led the chanting crowds into the palace grounds (9). Though Pius agreed to appoint the popular Giuseppe Galleti, a liberal lawyer that had taken part in the 1830-31 insurrections, to lead the new government, he refused to give way further. Growing angry and impatient, the some seven thousand mostly armed demonstrators on the piazza began to chant 'A democratic ministry or a republic!' Worryingly for the Papal government among the crowd were regular soldiers, civic guards and carabineri who had joined the protests. As the demonstrations quickly spiraled out of any single agent's control some members of the mob tried to burn down a side entrance into the Quirinal, prompting the loyal Swiss Guards to fire warning shots into the air; unfortunately it was not clear this was a warning, and the insurgents quickly climbed nearby towers to fire back. One of Pius' secretaries was killed in the exchange when a bullet shattered the window of his office, lacerating his face and exposed neck with glass shards. As the radicals wheeled up a cannon to blast open the main gate, Pius yielded and appointed a new government which included Sterbini, Galletti and Mamiani. Over thirty people were killed in the day's events, the fast majority of them Papal officials caught between the fighting Swiss Guards and the insurgents. Immediately the new government pushed forward with its liberal program, including a declaration of war and the summoning of a constitutional congress. Just over a week later on 24 October Pius fled Rome, and the Papal States altogether, disguised as a humble parish priest. Along with only a small squad of Swiss Guards that discovered the Pope in-flight near the Papal boarder, Pius crossed into the Kingdom of Naples, taking refuge in the coastal fortress of Gaeta, where...
... Garibaldi's forces, now numbering over five hundred as republican recruiting picked up following Rossi's death, turned south from Ravenna and marched towards Rome. Garibaldi wrote in his diary on 27 October that 'In getting rid of him [Rossi] the ancient metropolis of the world shows itself worthy of its illustrious past.' Within a few days Garibaldi's forces entered Rome in a triumphant parade, however he was rebuffed by the liberal government and his legion wintered at Forligno. Republicans were not the only forces rallying to Rome though. By 1 December Queen Isabella II of Spain issued a proclamation declaring Pius under the protection of all Catholic states and called for an international congress to resolve the matter. Without hours diplomatic wires arrived in Madrid from the various Catholic capitols; while Austria, which had recently undergone the November Revolution, was ambivalent to the issue, Naples, which was actually protecting the Pope, swiftly agreed, followed some days later by France. In Naples itself, under the influence of conservative Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli (10) Pius disavowed the new government in Rome, and appealed to the newly raised Hapsburg emperor, Franz Karl, 'his very dear son,' for assistance. With little-to-no option left back in Rome, as Pius refused to return as a constitutional ruler, and as Spanish, French, Neapolitan and, allegedly, Austrian, pressure increased to become involved in the situation, the radicals in control of the city agreed to hold elections to a Roman Constituent Assembly. In retaliation Pius excommunicated in advance all who would participate in the election, though this did not stop many from taking part in the election. Under continuing pressure from the republicans the Roman government, a loose collection of radicals, republicans and liberals left in de-facto control of the city, declared that the hundred candidates who attracted the most votes to the Roman assembly would represent Rome in an all-Italian constitutional congress. Just under two weeks later on 26 January the Roman Constituent Assembly elections were held under universal male suffrage; the moderate liberal vote collapsed entirely as liberals and conservatives throughout the city largely did not vote, fearing Papal retribution (and eternal damnation), handing the radicals an overwhelming victory. While most deputies were landowners or middle-class professionals of the petite bourgeoisie, their sympathies ranged from democratic to purely republican. Notably, seven men from outside Rome itself were elected, including Garibaldi and Mazzini, though the latter was not in the city itself at the time...
... North of Rome in Tuscany on 10 January the Tuscan parliament, summoned by Grand Duke Leopold almost a year earlier, meet for the first time. Dominated by liberal moderates, just a week for the Roman elections a demonstration of some 35,000 people in Florence forced the government to agree to the election of thirty-seven delegates to participate in the Constituent Assembly in Rome on the basis of universal male suffrage, which took place on 30 January. The next day however Leopold fled Florence, first to Siena and then to the small port of Santo Stefano before traveling to Naples, joining Pius in exile at Gaeta after the warm invitation of King Ferdinand. As a Hapsburg, Leopold was promised military aid from Radetzky 'as soon as I have put down the demagogues of Piedmont.' Of course the Hapsburg military aid...
... On 5 February the Roman Assembly met for the first time. The question immediately arose as to what to do now. Pius was clearly apart of the reaction, and while Radetzky had yet to make any move, his promise to Leopold was well known. While some proposed a republic moderates such as Mamiani worried that such a state would stand little chance with reactionary Naples and monarchist Piedmont surrounding it. However, to the delegates there seemed to be no other viable alternative as Pius continued to compromise, or even return the increasingly insistent letters of the Assembly, even going so far as to refuse to meet with a delegation that bpleaded for his return led by the moderate Prince Tommaso Corsini and several priests. Thus on 9 February the Constituent Assembly overwhelming proclaimed Rome a 'pure democracy, and it will take the glorious name of The Roman Republic.' Among the 163 delegates were notables such as the lawyer Francesco Sturbinetti, Carlo Armellini, Sterbini, Muzzarelli, and Carlo Luciano Bonaparte, the later of whom, when called upon during the Assembly's roll-call, replied by calling out 'Viva la Repubblica!' The government instantly set out to craft the laws of the new republic, and among the first to be agreed upon was freedom of religion; however while the Papal States were declared at an end, in fact and in law, the Pope 'had every guarantee needed for the independence exercise of his spiritual power.' Immediately celebrations broke out across the city, and throughout the former Papal States in cities such as Bologna and Ferrara, and even in independent San Marino...
Proclamation of the Roman Republic
... Mazzini, rushing to Rome from his Swiss exile upon hearing the news of Pius' flight from the metropolis, was stopped in Tuscany on 7 February by Guerrazzi, who warned Mazzini that he was a too controversial of a figure for Italian unification, and should stay away from Rome for the greater cause. Guerrazzi also argued with Mazzini regarding the latter's plans for the future, as Mazzini had begun to, loudly, proclaim his support for the ideal of unification of republican-controlled Rome and Tuscany. Guerrazzi and other Tuscan moderates worried that such a mode would provoke a Piedmontese, or Neapolitan, reactionary intervention. It was not to be, and after Mazzini continued on to Rome the liberal Tuscan parliament gave into mounting radical pressure, and as a massive crowd surged outside the parliament's meeting chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio on 18 February the assembly vested ultimate Tuscan power in a triumvirate of Guerrazzi, Montanelli, and the democrat Giuseppe Mazzoni. The three quickly met and immediately declared Tuscany a republic, though Guerrazzi continued to adamantly argue that Tuscany must remain independent and not join in a union with Rome. In a way Guerrazzi's position was eventually adopted, when ultimately...
(1) Born of modest means, Gioberti earned a degree in theology in 1823 and two years later was ordained a priest, becoming a professor of theology at the University of Turin and court chaplain by 1831. However Gioberti was one of the leading figures of a new wave of liberal, patriotic Italian, clergy, and had strong ties to Mazzini's Young Italy society. In 1842 Gioberti published his masterpiece, Del Primato civile e morale degli Italiani ('The Civic and Moral Primacy of the Italians'), in which he argued that having the led the (European) world twice in ancient and medieval times, Italy could do so a third time, and strongly advocated an Italian federation led by the Pope, while concurrently the Church would adapt itself to modern culture and civil religion. Gioberti became Minister of Public Instruction under Piedmont's new liberal constitutional system, and was appointed prime minister later in the year.
(2) Who had entered the Barnabite order at the age of 18 following the fallout of an 'unhappy love affair,' Bassi returned to his native Rome to enter the ministry in 1833. In this role be became somewhat renowned throughout the Italian states for his fiery sermons which drew large crowds. Bassi earned a reputation not only for his eloquence, but also for his piety; the traveling priest was so poor himself from spending all of his time and money preaching and tending the poor that he often did not have enough food to eat, and lived off the humble thanks of his supporters. Bassi was the army chaplain under Durando, and was injured at Treviso in May, and was thus carried to Venice by sympathetic Italians to heal.
(3) A leading figure in Italian unification IOTL, Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour was the OTL founder of the Italian Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia during Italian unification under Victor Emmanuel. Born in Turin during the Napoleonic period, Cavour was sent to the Turin Military Academy at only ten years of age, though he was often in trouble with the military authorities as even at such a young age he was too headstrong to smoothly operate under the rigid military discipline. Cavour left the military in 1831 to move to Switzerland, where he spent time with his Protestant relatives in Geneva. It is here that Cavour is believed to have first been exposed to Italian nationalism, secular liberalism, and federalism. Cavour then spent several years traveling through Europe, spending time particularly in Paris and London before returning to Turin in 1838 where he entered politics. With the events of 1848 Cavour was a guiding light in favor of Piedmontese constitutionalism, though he was not at first offered a position within the new Chamber of Deputies as Charles Albert was still suspicious of overtly liberal ministers. ITTL after his government walked out, a move which Cavour opposed, Charles Albert appointed Cavour to lead a new government.
(4) Which is of course what Charles Albert did in IOTL, voiding the Austrian-Piedmontese truce in March 1849 only to be defeated in an even more devastating defeat than before at the Battle of Novara, which led to Charles Albert's abdication in favor of his eldest son Victor Emmanuel.
(5) A former general of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, after which Zucchi had entered into the service of the Duke of Moderna Francis IV, successfully defeating the invading Austrians with only some 800 volunteers, though eventually Modena was conquered. Afterward an Austrian military commission condemned Zucchi to death, and only the intervention of the French court commuted this to twenty years of imprisonment, a sentence Zucchi was still serving in Palmanova when he was released by the invading Piedmontese.
(6) i.e., Durando's surviving forces following the Battle of Vicenza. See Chapter #8 for details.
(7) A Roman physician, Sterbini had taken part in the abortive Italian uprisings in Rome, Marche, the Romagna and Umbria in 1821, though with the fallout and Austrian intervention he was forced with to Tuscany and then Corsica. Moving to Marseille in 1835 Sterbini began to write pamphlets for Mazzini, and returned to Italy later that year. After the Piedmontese armistice in August 1848 Sterbini tried to incite the Roman people to rise up, asking "O armed people, without asking permission to anyone. Is the man attacked by a killer made another murderer for defending his life if he has the means to do it? You do not need governments to declare war, nor ministers who give out arms. Declare war with the fact of action, look for weapons in yourselves."
(8) IOTL the Pope resided in the Palazzo del Quirinale from its construction in 1583 until 1870. It was only during OTL's Roman Question and the prigioniero del Vaticano that the Holy See moved into the Vatican.
(9) IOTL the crowds broke through the gate at 3pm, and the two helpless Swiss Guards just barely managed to escape with their lives. ITTL these two anonymous guards are more influenced by Italian nationalism, and the events of the Swiss Civil War.
(10) Called the 'Italian Richelieu,' Antonelli resisted Italian unification throughout his long career. It has been argued that Antonelli orchestrated the flight of Pius to Gaeta. IOTL after the events of 1848 and Pius' restoration to Rome he became the Cardinal Secretary of State, a role he played until his death. Not withstanding promises to the powers (France & Austria) upon his return to Rome he violated the conditions of the Roman surrender by wholesale imprisonment of liberals. It was estimated that up to 50% of those had been involved in the Roman Republic IOTL were imprisoned and eventually deported by Antonelli between 1850 and 60. Although it did not prevent Pius' beatification IOTL, many historians believe that Antonelli's notoriety and actions on behalf of Pius prevented the Pope's canonization.
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Italy is shaping up to be a interesting affair.
It looks like that this Italy is a mishmash of republics and monarchies, and unlike OTL Piedmont may not dominate the entire peninsula.
Also, you're confusing right with left, and the Papal States has a city named Ferrara.
It looks like that this Italy is a mishmash of republics and monarchies, and unlike OTL Piedmont may not dominate the entire peninsula.
Also, you're confusing right with left, and the Papal States has a city named Ferrara.