Franz Josef, Maximilian, and Hapsburg Liberalism

Franz Josef was the long-lived head of the House of Hapsburg, whose reign saw the Austrian Empire fall from one of the pre-eminent European Great Powers into a fracturing multi-ethnic cockpit.

His brother Maximilian was a liberal guy, who may have been able to use liberal solutions to solve Austria's myriad problems, and keep Austria from slipping into its OTL fate. So in 1849, after putting down the '48 Revolutionaries, Franz Josef falls off his horse and dies. His brother, Maximilian, is now the Austrian Kaiser.

Lets say that Maximilian lives as long as his older brother. When Maximilian dies in 1918, what does he leave behind?
 
I don't know how large a role the Technocracy would play in Maximilian's Empire . . .

What kind of policies could have been enacted that would have saved the Empire? I don't think that the Austro-Hungarian compromise ended up being a particularly good thing, since it was a straight splitting of power, rather than a local devolution of power from the still superior center. Perhaps regional assemblies, with those assemblies having control over purely local affairs, with a central "Imperial" assembly in Vienna that has control of national affiars?

If we're starting from 1849, then the regions would have been: Lombardy-Venetia, Croatia, Hungary, Transylvania, Bohemia, Galacia and Austria. I would think that a nationalities law also would have been enacted at a national level, to protect ethnic minorities in the various localities (similar to the one enacted after the '67 Austro-Hungarian Compromise, but with the additional regional provinces, there are actors within government who will actually want to support the law).

By doing this kind of compromise so soon after the '48 Revolution Maximilian has the advantage of being able to dictate terms, because he is in the superior position to be able to do whatever he likes. During OTL Franz Josef used this time to become an absolute monarch again, but Maximilian seems to have realized in OTL during his Italian period (even before the Italian period I believe) that one could deal openly and honestly with the nationalists and keep them inside the Empire.

The reason I see '48-'50 as the best time to enact these kinds of reforms is because it is the last time in Austrian history that the Hapsburg Emperor clearly has the upper hand, and can do whatever he wants to the Empire. Franz Josef, as I stated, wasted the opportunity by returning to absolutism, but Maximilian won't be so focused on returning to the pre-'48 status quo.
 
Last edited:
Top