Habsburg Austria Part II
To the east, only the Banat of Tenesvar (1739) was preserved of what had been snatched from Turkey. Joseph II then bought Galicia and Bucovina (1772), but a new Austro-Russian advance in the Balkans, with which Austria gained Belgrade and Bosnia (1788-91), was frustrated by a coalition led by Prussia. On the other hand, the fruits of the war of the Spanish succession (Milan, Naples, Sicily, the Netherlands) were sold or exchanged, while in Campoformido (1797) Napoleon I he sacrificed the Republic of Venice to Austria. Even in the context of a very troubled period, economic development was accentuated. Charles VI had already encouraged internal trade and manufacturing industry and promoted trade on the Adriatic by stipulating treaties with Turks and Barbareschi, establishing the Compagnia del Levante and the free ports of Trieste and Fiume. However, the results were scarce, also due to the distance of the rich mining provinces (Moravia and Silesia) from the large trades. Finally, the spread of cotton companies and the new communication routes (via del Semmering and via Carolina) are noteworthy. Maria Teresa (to the throne from 1740 to 1780) and Joseph II, the son Maria Teresa associated with the throne from 1765, had abandoned the unproductive royal industry, promoting customs liberalization and peasant emancipation. “Enlightened” reforms took place in the field of worship, education, law and civil liberties, but their centralistic and authoritarian approach pushed the dominated countries to rebellion (1793: independence of the Austrian Netherlands). On the other hand, economic and social progress, supported by the strong demographic increase (40% in 50 years in Austria alone), production (textiles, glass, porcelain, iron) and consumption, now involved and stimulated even the humblest classes. The State received the backbone from the Teresian reforms: financial, central administrative (unification of the chancelleries, then the establishment of a Directory and the Council of State) and provincial; the latter encountered serious obstacles in Hungary, where the Austrian bureaucracy was unable to supplant the local tycoons. According to thereligionfaqs, in the first half of the nineteenth century, from the Napoleonic wars Austria (assuming the name of the Austrian Empire in 1804) was reintegrated into its territories, with supremacy in Italy and the presidency of the Germanic Confederation, but financially weakened and fearful that every new war favored the revolutionary movements. It was therefore affirmed with Austria (assumed the name of the Austrian Empire in 1804) was reinstated in its territories, with supremacy in Italy and the presidency of the Germanic Confederation, but financially weakened and fearful that every new war would favor the revolutionary movements. It was therefore affirmed with Austria (assumed the name of the Austrian Empire in 1804) was reinstated in its territories, with supremacy in Italy and the presidency of the Germanic Confederation, but financially weakened and fearful that every new war would favor the revolutionary movements. It was therefore affirmed with Metternich, called in 1809 to lead the country by Francis II, a real estate policy, aimed at maintaining balance. While the Holy Alliance failed in the second decade, also the internal conditions gradually worsened: the economic flourishing was not enough to placate the dissatisfaction of the Lombardy-Veneto region; Hungary skimped on contributions by claiming the ancient autonomies. As mechanization and transport developed, there was an agricultural crisis and industrial overproduction (1846-48) as well as an exacerbation of the social problem, closely linked to political and national ones. The intertwining of liberalism and contrasting nationalisms was fatal to the revolutionary explosion of 1848, which also resulted in the abolition of the feudal regime in the countryside by the ephemeral Constituent Assembly. The monarchy was able to crush the rebellions in Prague, Vienna and Hungary (1848-49), defeat Piedmont in Novara (1849) and also reassert its dominance in Germany. Baron Bach, who, in addition to exasperating Germanization and bureaucratization, restored the ancient privileges of the Church with an concordat (1855). But a serious financial crisis that culminated in the collapse of the Vienna Stock Exchange (1857), the diplomatic failure in Paris after the Crimean War (1856) and the defeat in Italy (1859) characterized a new negative period, concluded by the war with Prussia and the consequent loss of Veneto and of all claims in Germany (1866). With Hungary, the concessions of 1860-61 proved vain, it was necessary to come to a compromise (Ausgleich) of the “double monarchy” (1867). Austria then turned to the east, first under the control of the policy of Bismarck, architect of Triple Alliance (1882). But this worsened relations with the Slavs, so much so as to cause, in conjunction with the new demands raised by socialism, frequent paralysis of the Parliament created in 1860-61. Direct universal suffrage (1907), which gave the majority to the Slavs, was accompanied by the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (1908) and the opposition, shared by Italy, to a Serbian outlet on the Adriatic. Faced with the successes of the Balkan League (1912-13), which in turn prevented an outlet in Thessaloniki, Austria defended Turkey with Germany, clashing hopelessly with Russia. The ultimatum of Vienna to Serbia (23 July 1914) opened the First World War, destined to precipitate internal conflicts without escape despite the defection of revolutionary Russia in the opposing camp., who succeeded Francesco Giuseppe (1916), tried in vain a separate peace and a federalist reform; in 1918 Czechs, Croats-Slovenes and Poles chose independence. This was followed by the rout on the Italian front, the renunciation of power by Charles I and the proclamation of the Austrian Republic (12 November 1918).
