Austria is a uniquely constituted empire in that its constituent parts have no real national association with each other, except for the fact that they are all ruled by the same family, and have been for many years.
Indeed, many of the constituent parts of the Austrian empire have independent national traditions. The empire is purely the result of the dynastic maneuverings of the Hapsburg family, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire for more than three centuries, before it was dissolved by Napoleon in 1805.
The larger part of the Hapsburg territories then were reconstituted as the Austrian Empire. Briefly put, the Austrian Empire is made up of three kingdoms, each of which has its own particular identity, laws, and customs: Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary. To complicate matters, the Hapsburgs also control the northern half of the Balkan peninsula, which they took from the Ottoman Turks over the course of a series of wars in the 17th and early 18th centuries, and most of northern Italy.
So in addition to German-speaking Austrian, Czech-speaking Bohemians, and Hungarian-speaking Magyars, the Hapsburgs rule a collection of Italians, Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Romanians, and Gypsies, all of whom have their own national identity-and few of whom get along well with each other.
Before the Napoleonic period, the Hapsburgs also controlled land in the Low Countries (today the Netherlands and Belgium) and in Central Germany, but those lands were lost to Napoleon in 1805. After defeating the Austrians in that year, Napoleon dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and forced its ruler, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, to re-title himself Franz I, Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, and Apostolic King of Hungary. This led to a reorientation of Hapsburg interests southwards and eastwards, away from its lost German-speaking territories to its Balkan holdings. Vienna now has gone from being at the center of the empire to being on its northwestern edge.
Nonetheless, Austria remains a predominantly German-speaking empire. German is the official language, and most of the ministers and state leaders are of German extraction. One main exception stands to the predominantly German nature of the Austrian court, the Hungarians. Because of the size and wealth of Hungary, relative to other non-German national minorities in the Austrian empire, the Hungarians have been able to secure a wide array of privileges guaranteeing them far more independence than is accorded to other national groups. The Hungarians may be proudly Hungarian and still rise high in Austrian state and society. Other national groups-Czechs, Serbs, Italians, etc.-must assimilate if they want to get anywhere.
Austria originally operated under a system similar to Russia�s, with royal advisors assisting the monarch in the making of decisions regarding the state. After the Peace of Luneville in 1801 ended Austria�s participation in the wars against revolutionary France, Emperor Franz II was persuaded to reform the government to a modern system of formal ministries, each headed by a royal minister who met in council and possessed delegated royal authority for the day-to-day running of the country.
Emperor Franz himself (age 46) has a rather quiet, modest personality and simple tastes, although he knows how to host lavish entermtainments for the benefit of his empire�s reputation. During the Congress, he makes a habit of wearing Austrian military uniform: a white coat, red trousers, and black boots. He is greatly beloved by his German-speaking people, especially the Viennese, who refer to him as �Papa Franz.� His chief minister, Prince Klemens von Metternich, is the dominant personality on the European diplomatic stage, but the emperor himself is regarded as an astute and dedicated ruler, albeit not the best judge of military matters. His personal life is remarkably virtuous for a European monarch of the day-he has no known mistresses, even though his current (third) wife, Maria Ludovika, is so ill that it is rumored she can no longer sleep with him-and he is very fond of his children, in an old-fashioned patriarchal way. His eldest son and heir, Ferdinand, unfortunately is an epileptic and is said to be of less than normal intelligence as well.
A piece of wit from the Congress of Vienna sums up Austria�s experiences in the Napoleonic Wars. Reputedly, members of the British delegation to the Congress were attending a ball, where one Viennese society lady commented, loudly enough to be overheard by the British gentlemen, how badly the British spoke French (still the international language of society and diplomacy). One of the Englishmen bowed to the lady apologetically and said, �It is true, madam, that our facility with the French language is somewhat limited, but we have not had the advantage enjoyed by you Austrians of having had the French twice occupy our capital.�
Austria first warred against the revolutionary government of France while Napoleon Bonaparte was still a general under that regime. Indeed, Bonaparte first made a name for himself by his victories against the Austrians in Italy, forcing them to agree to the Treaty of Campo Formio, which he negotiated independently, with no consultation with Paris. When Bonaparte was away in Egypt, Austria renewed hostilities, but he again defeated them upon his return to Europe in 1799, concluding the Peace of Luneville in 1801. Peace endured until 1805, when the British organized Austria, along with Prussia and Russia, into the Third Coalition. Austrian forces were decisively defeated at the Battle of Austerlitz, the French occupied Vienna for the first time, and Austria was forced to accede to the harsh terms of the treaty of Pressburg. Peace again endured until 1809, when Austria launched an ill-advised campaign against Napoleon on its own, encouraged by French difficulties in Spain. The Austrians scored an initial victory at Essling, but were again decisively defeated at the Battle of Wagram. Napoleon occupied Vienna for the second time; and the following year, 1810, he married Emperor Franz�s eldest daughter, Marie Louise, as one of his conditions for making peace with Austria. In 1811 Austria entered into formal alliance with France; but in 1812, after Napoleon�s disastrous invasion of Russia, Austria joined Prussia, Russia, and Britain in a final and victorious coalition against Napoleon, invading France and securing Napoleon�s abdication in 1814.
After Russia, Austria can field the largest army on the continent, with 425,000 men under arms in 1814. Many of those troops, however, are committed to defending Austria�s northern and eastern borders, as both Prussia and Russia have designs on expansion that will bring them even closer to Austria�s frontiers.
Like Prussia, Austria has no navy to speak of.
Austria has two main political concerns, one external, one internal. Externally, Austria is faced with two expansion-minded neighbors, Prussia and Russia. The Prussians want to annex Saxony, while the Russians want to annex Poland. This would replace two relatively weak buffer states on or near Austria�s frontiers with the two great powers, who are allied to each other. Austria does not want to see this happen. On the contrary, having just fought almost two decades of intermittent warfare to contain one expansionist nation on the continent, Austria would prefer not to see anybody take France�s place. Rather, Austria would like to see Europe returned, as much as possible, to the status quo ante that existed before the French Revolution, namely with a balance of European powers, none having sufficient might to overshadow the others. Austria, of course, wants to see itself in the top tier of those powers. This desire meshes well with the desires of England, which also wishes to see a balance of power maintained on the Continent, as opposed to domination by one or two over-mighty nations.
A major problem for Austria is the central German states that used to belong to the Holy Roman Empire before its dissolution. Now that Napoleon has been defeated, these numerous, mostly small states-only a couple, like Bavaria and Saxony, are large enough to qualify as more or less independent kingdoms-are trying to decide if they want to rejoin the empire (now the Austrian Empire), form a new German empire by coming under Prussia�s rule, or maintain some sort of independence from both German-speaking powers and form their own loose confederation of allied states. Nationalist German feelings are running strong in the central German states, encouraged by the recent struggle against the French occupiers; but people in these various small states are not in agreement as to whether their important German identity would be best expressed and served by rejoining Austria, joining Prussia, or forming their own entity, a German Confederation. Austria, naturally, would be happy if these small German states returned to its imperial fold, but would also settle for seeing them form a vague German Confederation that would act as a buffer between Austria and Prussia. The main thing Austria does not want to see is for Prussia either to devour the other German-speaking states or exercise any sort of hegemony over them.
Internally, Austria for many years has been playing a very delicate game, trying to suppress nationalist tendencies among its own subjects to prevent its multi-national patchwork of an empire from coming apart at the seams. A wide-ranging and very effective network of secret police and informants has been developed for just this purpose. Therefore, Austria is firmly against any discussion of redrawing European boundaries based on any notions of national identity. Let the old ruling families return as much as is possible, is Austria�s conservative mantra-especially as many of the old ruling families in question are either junior lines of the Hapsburg family or related to them by marriage. So, in addition to opposing nationalist aspirations at home, Austria also opposes them abroad, whether among the Germans, the Italians, or the Poles. In the latter two cases, Austria has direct national interest; much of northern Italy is under Austrian control, and Alexander I of Russia is using the cause of Polish nationalism to mask his own ambitions in that region. For that matter, the Austrians would, on general principle, not be terribly interested in talking about Irish nationalism for the same reasons, a fact with binds Britain (which is certainly not interested in talking about the Irish Question) even more closely to Austria.
How one views the Austrians depends much upon where one is from. If, for example, one is an Italian from the north, a Serb, or a Pole, the Austrians are oppressors who maintain their rule ruthlessly through spies, informants, and the secret police. If, however, one is a subject of one of the Great Powers, this attitude changes dramatically. They consider the Austrians urbane, sophisticated, and master diplomats. Since the Revolution, Vienna has replaced Paris as the international center of art and culture. And, while British fashion may be spreading through Europe as the cutting edge, the Austrians are still regarded as the best examples of traditional charm and elegance. The Hungarians do all they can to maintain a separate identity from the Austrians. They are regarded as romantic, exotic, and a bit wild and somewhat untamed, with a bit of the gypsy in them: rather like the Russians, but without the unpleasant expansionist tendency one finds among the latter.