Nationalism and the Habsburg Empire
This was because such people were diametrically opposed to making any compromises, even ones that might stabilize the empire as a whole, at the expense of their own power (Cohen, 2025).
The revolutions of 1848 Before exploring the policies of the central government aimed at building loyalty among the variegated populations of the empire, the situation in 1848 needs to be considered. This will allow us to observe the changes across the period covered in this essay and the state of public sentiment in the mid-19 th century in Austria-Hungary. The question of whether the revolutions and uprisings of 1848 were motivated by a desire for national self-determination rather than material factors is essential to understanding the historiography of the empire. This essay will argue from a position of fundamental agreement with much recent work on the subject. That is, 1848’s revolutions in Austria were not driven by nationalist sentiment; motivation instead came from a desire for reform that granted greater power and rights to non-elite members of Austrian society. In France and Britain, revolts and political unrest more generally were predicated on an opposition to the self-interested governance of the aristocracy (Clark, 2023, p. 24). This desire for reform on class lines was also shared, to a lesser degree, in the uprisings across the disparate states of Germany and Italy where nationalist sentiment was inextricably linked to discontent with the aristocracy (Clark, 2023, p. 25). The nationalism of these states was based on a desire for a more united state that would be able to overcome the self-interest of the landed élite and better provide for its subjects (Clark, 2023, p. 177). This therefore greatly differed from any nationalist movements in Austria-Hungary which were secessionist rather than unitarian. Although these various regions of Europe all experienced revolutions and uprisings, none were on the same scale as the revolutions faced by the Habsburgs. Many of the most revolutionary cities were those largely populated by non-German speakers (such as Milan, Prague, Venice, and Lviv), while those that largely spoke German (such as Linz, Salzburg, Klagenfurt, and Innsbruck) experienced much less activity . This would seem to indicate a level of nationalism fuelling discontent. Certainly, nationalism was important in Milan and Venice which would be integrated into Sardinia-Piedmont in the next two decades, marking the completion of the Risorgimento and the formation of Italy. However, as was the pattern for much of Europe, the force of this nationalist sentiment can be attributed to the larger size of urban settlements in Italy. Much of the peasantry would remain loyal to the empire during the Second War of Italian Independence rather than siding with the forces of Sardinia-Piedmont, as the Austrian military command feared (Deak, 1990, p. 32). This pattern expands to German-speaking areas as well: Vienna was the only major German- speaking city in the empire, and it was therefore the only German-speaking city to experience significant unrest. Among those nationalities that largely inhabited rural areas, such as the Slovenes, Poles, and Ruthenes, there was also little desire for revolution (Judson, 2016, p. 260). In 1848, there was simply not a deep-rooted sense of national identity (Cohen, 2025). One would only form much later in the century; at this point in history, nationalism was only a relatively recent idea originating among intellectuals like Voltaire and Herder.
The riots of 1848 were in large part caused by the particularly poor harvest of 1846 and other poor harvests in 1847 and 1848 (Clark, 2023, p. 326). This, combined with the growth of capitalism and the destruction of traditional local privileges, such as grazing, pannage, turbary, and estovers (rights of
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