Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/165

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

AUSTRIA 145 ing but the fidelity of the Hungarians saved Maria Theresa. By the treaties of Breslau and Dresden (1742 and 1745), she resigned her claims to Silesia; by that of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), to Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla, and part of Milan. In the mean -time the emperor Charles VII. had died (1745), and Maria^he- resa's husband, Francis Stephen, grand duke of Tuscany, belonging to the ducal family of Lorraine, had been elected German emperor, as Francis I. In order to get Silesia back from Prussia, Maria Theresa conspired with France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden against Frede- rick ; but the seven years' war, in which Fred- erick covered himself with glory, resulted only in the reaffirmation of the status quo. Francis, who died in 1765, was succeeded as emperor by his son Joseph II., who in Austria acted only as assistant regent until the death of his mother (1780). During this period eastern Galicia and Lodomeria were taken forcibly from Poland (1772), the Bukowina was obtained from Tur- key (1777), and some smaller possessions were acquired in Germany by the peace of Teschen (1779), increasing the Austrian dominions altogether to an area of 233,741 sq. m. Joseph II., reversing the traditional policy of his pre- decessors, granted religious liberty to Protes- tants, discontinued the censorship of the press, reorganized public education, abolished 900 convents, and developed industry by a protec- tive tariff; but his arbitrary measures exas- perated the Hungarians, and drove the Austrian Netherlands into rebellion. The latter he tried to exchange for Bavaria, a project which was frustrated by the efforts of Frederick of Prus- sia. No less unfortunate in his war against Turkey, Joseph died from grief (or, as some believed, from poison) in 1790. His brother, Leopold II. (1790-'92), reconciled Hungary and the Netherlands, made peace with Turkey, and entered into the coalition against revolutionary France, but was unable to rescue his sister, Marie Antoinette. Thus his son Francis (1792 -1835) was, immediately on his accession to the throne, drawn into the whirlpool of the revolutionary wars. By the peace of Campo Formio (1797) he lost Lombardy and the Neth- erlands, but obtained in exchange a large por- tion of Venetia. Two years before he had ob- tained western Galicia by the third partition of Poland. In 1799 Austria, allied with Rus- sia, declared war against the French republic for the second time, but was compelled by Bo- naparte to accept the peace of Lun6ville (1801), by which his brother, the archduke Ferdinand, was deprived of Tuscany, being compensated by Salzburg, Passau, Eichstadt, and the title of prince-elector. The public debt of Austria had now increased to 1,200,000,000 florins. On Aug. 11, 1804, Francis proclaimed himself hereditary emperor of Austria (as such Francis I.), uniting all his dominions under the name of the Austrian empire. In the next year, having again gone to war with France, he was forced by the defeat at Austerlitz to sign a most igno- minious peace at Presburg (Dec. 26, 1805). When, by the organization of the Rhenish con- federation (Rhinebund), under the auspices of Napoleon (1806), the integrity of the German empire had been destroyed, Francis laid down the imperial crown of Germany (Aug. G, 1806). A fourth time he determined upon a war against Napoleon, aided only by England (1809), but the result was most disastrous. The peace of Vienna (Oct. 14, 1809) took away from Austria about 42,000 sq. m. of territory, with 3,500,000 inhabitants. Utterly prostrated and driven into bankruptcy, Francis did not dare to withhold his consent when Napoleon proposed to marry his daughter Maria Louisa (1810), and in 1812 he even entered into alli- ance with Napoleon against Russia. But when the Russian campaign had broken Napoleon's power, and Prussia had risen against him, Austria joined in the alliance of England, Rus- sia, Prussia, and Sweden (1813), and took a conspicuous part in the overthrow of the French empire. By the peace of Paris (1814) the Lom- bard and Venetian territories, now united into a kingdom, and all former possessions returned to Austria. In 1815 Francis, with Alexander of Russia and Frederick William III. of Prus- sia, formed the " holy alliance," for the resto- ration of the old monarchical system, Vienna having in the preceding year become the seat of the congress convoked for the purpose of re- constructing Europe. The suppression of lib- eral ideas and movements throughout Europe appeared to be thenceforth the principal object of the Austrian government, of which Prince Metternich was the soul. Austria quelled the popular insurrections in Naples and Piedmont (1820 and 1821), aided by its diplomacy in the suppression of the popular movement in Spain (1823), favored Turkey in its struggle with the Greeks, and crushed the insurrections which in Italy followed close upon the French revolution of 1830. In the interior new at- tempts were made, though without success, to subvert the constitution of Hungary. The death of Francis, who was succeeded by his son Ferdinand (1835), made no change in the Austrian administration. At an interview of Ferdinand with the monarchs of Russia and Prussia the holy alliance was reaffirmed. In the oriental imbroglio of 1840, Austria sided with England and Russia. Unrelenting rigor was exercised in Italy. The Polish insurrec- tion in Cracow (which in consequence was an- nexed to Austria) was accompanied by an at- tempt at rising in the adjoining parts of Galicia (February, 1846) ; but the government suc- ceeded in quelling the movement by instigating the wrath of the peasants against the noble- men, many of whom were massacred. In the Italian provinces the opposition was fostered by the political reforms of Pope Pius IX., and the concessions to popular opinion wrung from the other Italian governments. In Hungary the former parliamentary opposition of the diet had gradually grown into national enmity, es-