WI: Habsburgs promote the Venetian language
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Thomas1195
Banned
The source also said that it because Manin was not a strong leader and he was also ill at the time - causing the Venetians to lose plenty of crucial opportunities to encourage defections from the Austrian Army and especially the fleet in Pola, Istria and Dalmatia (where Venetian sympathy was actually strong), as well as to integrate the mainland. However, at the beginning, all classes and all major mainland cities declared support for the Republic - a stronger leader would have been able to marshall those sympathies, both in Italy and in Dalmatia.
Yeah. OTOH, Venetian sympathy in Dalmatia/Pola/Istria was strong IOTL.
Belluno, Paduo, Rovigo, Treviso, Udine and Vicenza joined the San Marco Republic.
Verona didn't. Belluno flipped just as fast in favor of the Austrians. So did Vicenza. Much support indeed. Again, Mannin only found support in the middle classes of the former Venetians in the mainland from Venice itself.
Also i find it quite heartening to see you dodge the question. The politicians decided to side with Marco indeed. Yet, much of the pro-Austrian violence in the mainland allowed the Austrians to win much of their battles in the mainland and recapture it. Most of the middle and rural class did not support Venetians in the manner the Venetians of Venice itself
Militarily, misreadings of the fluctuating political status in northern Italy—combined with Manin's indecision and ill-health, which confined him to bed at critical moments[2]—led to several damaging poor judgements by Venice. The Austrian fleet was stationed in the formerly-Venetian port of Pola, in Istria. Despite Venice having much sympathy there, they made no effort to seize the fleet.[1]
There were mixed feelings, Verona and Padua were some of the most loyalist (towards the Republic of Venice) regions of the venetian terrafirma, they even revolted during Bonaparte's invasion that ended abolishing the republic. The only region where at least the notables were stubbornly anti-venetian was the republic's territories in Lombardy (Crema, Brescia and Bergamo), that even revolted during Napoleon's invasion.
I think you'll find political necessity and invented tradition to be capable of anything. It depends on who's driving the process.
Thomas1195
Banned
The source did literally confirmed Venetian sympathy in Dalmatia - it was the Venetians' failure to capitalize on this by not inciting revolts there. IOTL, Tommaseo, another revolutionary leader, did call for inciting revolutions in Dalmatia more than once.
It was Manin who failed to solidify original support - admittedly he did have a blind spot in his views. As for the middle class, the link stated outright that most of the middle class backed the revolution, while the lower class became indifferent.
However, ITTL, even the mainland would have been more Venetian - if the Habsburgs ever attempts to promote Venetian culture. A whole new can of worms would be opened, because an independent Venetian culture was inseparable from the Old Republic. Worse, the economic policies would be unlikely to diverge - Trieste would be still favoured over Venice, whereas high debts following the Napoleonic Wars mean that Lombardy-Venetia would have become a cash cow like IOTL.
In the end, the Habsburgs did what they did - backing away from home rule IOTL - because they realized that complete independence was inevitable in such case. In other Italian states, they might be able to get away by appointing a Habsburg member as separate king, but Venetia was different.
Yeah, and the Dalmatian side was even more loyal.
As I said, the Habsburg ended up doing what they did IOTL, because they realized that complete independence was the only outcome from a Venetian home rule. Easier said than done.
Lombardy/Milan was different because they had stopped being an independent state for centuries.
Thomas1195
Banned
And note that being revolutionaries at least nominally allowed the French to trumpet democratization and incite revolts in a way that no other contemporary factions (which were all monarchies) could.
Sigh......
From The Provisional Austrian Regime in Lombardy–Venetia, 1814–1815 by R. John Rath, Chapter 12:-
"It is perhaps of profound importance to understand the nature of the old Venetian republic when taking into account the Austrian and Habsburg conquest of it after the end of the War of the Sixth Coalition. The Venetian Republic had a long and glorious history, however by the time when Napoleon abolished it, it was nowhere near the days of its glory. It was filled with corruption, and a cesspool of Doges who were incompetent and ill-studied for leading a mercantile nation. Economics was working against Venice as well. Venice remained mercantilist in economical policy whilst the rest of Europe slowly changed it's economic policies to show a mixture of free trade economics and mercantilist economics. Pure mercantilist economics was outdated by the 1750s, and no longer beneficial economically, yet Venice held on to it doggedly not willing to change according to the times, and this is what we must look at and study at the end.
The mainland and lagoon of Venice had always been detached from the main island of Venice, and as such they shared a deep sense of rivalry and mistrust with one another. Verona and Padua had revolted against Napoleon when the Republic had been abolished, but only so because of reactionary French brutality in the occupied Italian lands. The rebels in Verona and Padua reportedly even danced and rejoiced when the Republic had been abolished, which simply goes to show how much of a distance between the political and diplomatic realities existed in the Island and the lagoon and the mainland. More yet was the situation that was between Venice and it's old colony of Dalmatia. Under the Venetian rule, the Dalmatians had underwent a mediocre cultural and economical growth and period of stability, however the constant reprisals against Croat language and culture in Dalmatia from the Venetians made it all the harder for Dalmatians to be angry that Venice had fallen. However that didn't mean the Dalmatians were happy with Napoleonic Rule either. Napoleon's rule in Dalmatia was marked with war and high taxation, which caused several rebellions. On the other hand, French rule greatly contributed to Croatian national awakening (the first newspaper in Croatian was published then in Zadar, the Il Regio Dalmata – Kraglski Dalmatin), the legal system and infrastructure were finally modernized somewhat in Dalmatia, and the educational system flourished. French rule brought a lot of improvements in infrastructure; many roads were built or reconstructed. Napoleon himself blamed Marshal Auguste Marmont, the governor of Dalmatia, that too much money was spent. However, in 1813, the Habsburgs once again declared war on France and, by the following year, had restored control over Dalmatia.
The Dalmatian Croat awakening was so high that in 1815 when Vienna wished to merge the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia with Dalmatia, the people of Dalmatia and the Dalmatian Council soundly and unanimously rejected this proposal and instead it became the Kingdom of Dalmatia as a Habsburg Domain."
From Venice and Venetia under the Habsburgs: 1815-1835 by David Laven, Chapter 15:-
"Habsburg Venice was a mixed affair for both sides involved. The rural classes were very supportive of the Habsburg monarchy and due to relative higher number of the rural population, the Habsburgs had managed to gain the support of the majority of the population, however this was tenuous. The old patricians and elites and oligarchs that had run the Venetian Republic and their families resisted doggedly and fiercely against the rule of the Habsburgs. They dreamt an era in which the Republic would return. This sentiment was more or less confined within the borders of the island of Venice itself, and the rest of the 'mainland' Venice didn't share this view. However what the mainland did share however was the rising calls for Italian reunification. As such instead of Venetian nostalgia, the people in the north felt Italian nationalism. Certainly in 1848 the mainland Venetians only supported Mannin and Council because of their tacit promise to merge the Republic of San Marco with the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont which would then create a Kingdom of North Italy.
The Habsburgs for the most part respected the local culture. Everything except for the highest administration was done in the Italian language, however the continued resistance against Habsburg rule in the urban areas and the urban elite made the Habsburgs significantly less restrained, as they started to overtax the resisting cities to make them come to heel. The Habsburgs didn't have the appetite to launch military reprisals, as they knew such a thing would have been counterproductive, and simply used their old tactic of overtaxation like the one they had used in Bohemia, and Galicia to bring the mainland Venetians to heel. Of course this in itself had side effects and consequences."
From the The Siege of Venice by Jonathan Keates, Chapter 13:-
"The 1848 Revolution and 1st War of Italian Independence is a tragedy of the highest kind. Perhaps the biggest fault in the attempt for independence, was the simply dysfunctionality between the mainland, and the lagoon in the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. Lombardy had fallen to the Sardinians, however sights in Milan saw massive pro-Austrians and Loyalists, supported by a good proportion of the population launch multiple attacks at the rear of the Sardinian Armies which led to massive logistical difficulties for the Sardinians to maintain.
Second of all was the question of Venice. When Mannin had declared the Republic of San Marco, he had given the Venetian council a tacit announcement and promise that after independence had been secured from Vienna, the republic would join a future Kingdom of North Italy with the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. This was perhaps the catalyst that made much of the Venetian Mainland, even despite their hatred and rivalry for the Venetian Islanders to declare support for the republic, because of their rising Italian nationalism. However the most loyalist of the cities, Verona did not. This was perhaps the changing point. Even in areas where the main regional capitals had declared support for the republic, the rural folk rebelled against 'Islander Domination' and instead declared their support for their own bid for independence or to Vienna. They would not support the new republic in Venice. As this violence started, it spread into the cities as well. Pro-Austrians and Anti-Venetian Islanders stormed Belluno and Vicenza creating an atmosphere of absolute anarchy. Combined with the Anti-Venetian Islanders and the Pro-Austrians, their side of the fight had the majority of the population backing them, and as such these fights that broke out created a general feeling of anarchy. When the Austrian Army returned to fight, they found themselves surprised to find that many cities instead opened their doors to them declaring re-allegiance to the Habsburg Crown, without a fight and of their own free will. As soon as the Sardinians started to be beaten back, even more and majority of the cities returned under Habsburg rule without a fight and of their own free will.
This ideological rivalry and hatred between the Islanders and Mainlanders simply snuffed the revolution and bid for independence in 1848. Habsburg reprisal was brutal and turned the opinion post war against them, leading to the liberation in 1859, however in 1848, inter-rivalry and class difference of opinions destroyed the bid of independence."
From the same book in Chapter 19:-
"In 1848, the Croatian Assembly published the People's Requests, in which they requested among other things the abolition of serfdom and the unification of Dalmatia and Croatia. The Dubrovnik Municipality was the most outspoken of all the Dalmatian communes in its support for unification with Croatia. A letter was sent from Dubrovnik to Zagreb with pledges to work for this idea. In 1849, Dubrovnik continued to lead the Dalmatian cities in the struggle for unification. A large-scale campaign was launched in the Dubrovnik paper L'Avvenire (The Future) based on a clearly formulated programme: the federal system for the Habsburg territories, the inclusion of Dalmatia into Croatia and the Slavic brotherhood. The president of the council of Kingdom of Dalmatia was the politician Baron Vlaho Getaldić.
In the same year, the first issue of the Dubrovnik almanac appeared, Flower of the National Literature (Dubrovnik, cvijet narodnog književstva), in which Petar Preradović published his noted poem "To Dubrovnik". This and other literary and journalistic texts, which continued to be published, contributed to the awakening of the national consciousness reflected in efforts to introduce the Croatian language into schools and offices, and to promote Croatian books. The Emperor Franz Joseph brought the so-called Imposed Constitution which prohibited the unification of Dalmatia and Croatia and also any further political activity with this end in view. The political struggle of Dubrovnik to be united with Croatia, which was intense throughout 1848–49, did not succeed at that time.
Nonetheless, when revolution broke out in 1848 there were some who advocated for a reunification of the Kingdom of Dalmatia with the Sardinians and Venetians, however by this point, Habsburg loyalty in Dalmatia was too well entrenched, and the Habsburgs had used well of the Croatian National Awakening to make the majority of the population reject any sort of claims or questions of rejoining a new Venetian republic, ending the movement then and there. Some ethnic Italians rioted due to this fact, however unsupported by the majority of the population, these riots were put down fast by the local Landswehr made up of Dalmatians themselves."
Actually if we have the Lombard Kingdom as the POD, Venetian could be called Austrian instead.
It's kind of ironic that back then, Venice was perhaps more popular among some of the peoples of the Stato da Mar that did not speak Italian or Venetian as their first language - even Giuseppe Viscovich, the author of the farewell speech to the Serenissima in Perasto just a few decades prior, originally did it in Croatian, and his surname basically speaks for itself, too - than among the inhabitants of the Stato da Tera.
Had some things gone differently in 1848, it's very likely that the Habsburg navy could've defected en masse to the cry of Viva San Marco, but I think the peoples of Dalmatia and Istria would've been in for a hell of a shock, since it's one thing to be part of a cosmopolitan and libertine republic fueled by grappa and trade, another thing entirely's to be part of a centralist and conservative kingdom dominated by landowners and officials - you know, putting it this way, no wonder the Terraferma distrusted Venice, since even today it's got quite the reputation for conservatism, colourful invocations directed to the Lord notwithstanding.
