Political structure of the Austrian Habsburg state. Habsburg Empire

Coat of arms of the Counts of Habsburg

In a golden field is a scarlet lion, armed and crowned with azure.

Habsburgs

The Habsburgs were one of the most powerful royal dynasties in Europe during the Middle Ages and Modern times.

The ancestor of the Habsburgs was Count Guntram the Rich, whose domains lay in Northern Switzerland and Alsace. His grandson Radboth built the Habsburg castle near the Are River, which gave the name to the dynasty. The name of the castle, according to legend, was originally Habichtsburg ( Habichtsburg), "Hawk Castle", in honor of the hawk that landed on the newly built walls of the fortress. According to another version, the name comes from Old German hab- ford: the fortress was supposed to guard the crossing of the Are River. (The castle was lost to the Habsburgs in the 15th century; the territory in which it was located became part of the Swiss Confederation). Radbot's descendants annexed a number of possessions in Alsace (Sundgau) and most of northern Switzerland to their possessions, becoming by the mid-13th century one of the largest feudal families in the southwestern outskirts of Germany. The first hereditary title of the family was the title of Count of Habsburg.

Albrecht IV and Rudolf III (descendants of Radboth in the sixth generation) divided the family domains: the first received the western part, including Aargau and Sundgau, and the second lands in eastern Switzerland. The descendants of Albrecht IV were considered the main line, and the heirs of Rudolf III began to be called the title Count of Habsburg-Laufenburg. Representatives of the Laufenburg line did not play a significant role in German politics and remained, like many other German aristocratic families, a regional feudal house. Their possessions included the eastern part of Aargau, Thurgau, Klettgau, Kyburg and a number of fiefs in Burgundy. This line ended in 1460.

The entry of the Habsburgs into the European arena is associated with the name of the son of Count Albrecht IV (1218-1291). He annexed the vast principality of Kyburg to the Habsburg possessions, and in 1273 he was elected king of Germany by the German princes under the name. Having become king, he tried to strengthen central power in the Holy Roman Empire, but his main success was the victory over the Czech king in 1278, as a result of which the duchies of Austria and Styria came under control.

In 1282, the king transferred these possessions to his children and. Thus, the Habsburgs became rulers of a vast and rich Danube state, which quickly eclipsed their ancestral domains in Switzerland, Swabia and Alsace.

The new monarch was unable to get along with the Protestants, whose rebellion resulted in the Thirty Years' War, which radically changed the balance of power in Europe. The fighting ended with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which strengthened the position and hurt the interests of the Habsburgs (in particular, they lost all their possessions in Alsace).

In 1659, the French king dealt a new blow to the prestige of the Habsburgs - the Peace of the Pyrenees left the western part of the Spanish Netherlands, including the County of Artois, for the French. By this time it became obvious that they had won the confrontation with the Habsburgs for supremacy in Europe.

In the 19th century, the House of Habsburg-Lorraine split into the following branches:

• Imperial- all the descendants of the first Austrian emperor belong to it. Its representatives returned to Russia after World War II, abandoning the noble prefix "von". This branch is now headed by Charles of Habsburg-Lorraine, grandson of the last Austrian Emperor.
• Tuscan- descendants of the brother who received Tuscany in exchange for the lost Lorraine. After the Risorgimento, the Tuscan Habsburgs returned to Vienna. Now it is the most numerous of the Habsburg branches.
• Teshenskaya- descendants of Karl Ludwig, younger brother. Now this branch is represented by several lines.
• Hungarian- she is represented by her childless brother, Joseph, Palatine of Hungary.
• Modena(Austrian Este) - descendants of Ferdinand Charles, the sixth son of the Emperor. This branch was stopped in 1876. In 1875, the title of Duke of Este was transferred to Franz Ferdinand, and after his assassination in 1914 in Sarajevo - to Robert, the second son, and on his mother's side, a descendant of the original Modena Estes. The current head of this line, Karl Otto Lorenz, is married to the Belgian Princess Astrid and lives in Belgium.

In addition to the five main ones, there are two morganatic branches of the Habsburgs:

• Hohenbergs- descendants of the unequal marriage of Archduke Franz Ferdinand with Sophia Chotek. The Hohenbergs, although they are the eldest among the living Habsburgs, do not claim primacy in the dynasty. This branch is now headed by Georg Hohenberg, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, former Austrian ambassador to the Vatican.
• Merans- descendants from the marriage of Johann Baptist, the youngest son, with the daughter of the postmaster, Anna Plöchl.

Representatives of the Habsburg dynasty

King of Germany, Duke of Austria and Styria
, Duke of Austria, Styria and Carinthia
, King of Germany, King of Hungary (Albert), King of Bohemia (Albrecht), Duke of Austria (Albrecht V)
, Duke of Austria, Styria and Carinthia, Count of Tyrol
, Duke of Austria
, Archduke of Austria
, Duke of Western Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, Count of Tyrol

, Duke of Swabia
, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Archduke of Austria
, Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia (Charles III), King of Hungary (Charles IV)
, King of Spain
, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, King of Spain (Aragon, Leon, Castile, Valencia), Count of Barcelona (Charles I), King of Sicily (Charles II), Duke of Brabant (Charles), Count of Holland (Charles II), Archduke of Austria (Charles I)

Asya Golverk, Sergei Khaimin
Compiled based on materials from the encyclopedias Britannica, Larousse, Around the World, etc.

Roman era

Very little is known about the first inhabitants of Austria. Scarce historical evidence suggests the existence of a pre-Celtic population. Around 400–300 BC Warlike Celtic tribes appeared with their own dialect, religious cults and traditions. Mixing with the ancient inhabitants, the Celts formed the kingdom of Norik.

At the beginning of the 2nd century. BC. Rome's power extended to the Danube. However, the Romans were forced to constantly fight the nomadic Germanic barbarians who invaded from the north across the Danube, which served as the border of Roman civilization. The Romans built fortified military camps at Vindobona (Vienna) and at Carnuntum, 48 km from the former; in the Hoer Markt area of ​​Vienna there are remains of Roman buildings. In the middle Danube region, the Romans promoted the development of cities, crafts, trade and mining, and built roads and buildings. Emperor Marcus Aurelius (died at Vindobona in 180 AD) composed part of his immortal Meditations at Carnunt. The Romans implanted religious pagan rituals, secular institutions and customs, Latin language and literature among the local population. By the 4th century. refers to the Christianization of this region.

In the 5th and 6th centuries. Germanic tribes overran most of the Roman possessions in the western part of modern Austria. Turkic-speaking nomads - the Avars - invaded the eastern and southern parts of modern Austria, and Slavic peoples - the future Slovenes, Croats and Czechs - migrated with them (or after them), among whom the Avars disappeared. In the western regions, missionaries (Irish, Franks, Angles) converted pagan Germans (Bavarians) to the Christian faith; The cities of Salzburg and Passau became centers of Christian culture. Around 774, a cathedral was built in Salzburg, and by the end of the 8th century. the local archbishop received authority over neighboring dioceses. Monasteries were built (for example, Kremsmunster), and from these islands of civilization the conversion of the Slavs to Christianity began.

Hungarian invasion of the East March

Charlemagne (742–814) defeated the Avars and began to encourage German colonization of the East March. German settlers received privileges: they were given plots of land, which were cultivated by slaves. Cities on the Middle Danube flourished again.

Frankish rule in Austria ended abruptly. The Carolingian Empire was mercilessly devastated by the Hungarians. These warlike tribes were destined to have a lasting and profound influence on life in the middle part of the Danube valley. In 907, the Hungarians captured the Eastern March and from here carried out bloody raids into Bavaria, Swabia and Lorraine.

Otto I, German Emperor and founder of the Holy Roman Empire (962), defeated a powerful Hungarian army in 955 on the Lech River near Augsburg. Pushed east, the Hungarians gradually settled downstream in the fertile Hungarian Plain (where their descendants still live) and adopted the Christian faith.

Babenberg board

The place of the expelled Hungarians was taken by German settlers. The Bavarian Eastmark, which at that time covered the area around Vienna, was transferred in 976 as a fief to the Babenberg family, whose family holdings were located in the Main valley in Germany. In 996, the territory of the Eastern March was named Ostarriki for the first time.

One of the outstanding representatives of the Babenberg dynasty was Macrgrave Leopold III (reigned 1095–1136). The ruins of his castle on Mount Leopoldsberg near Vienna have been preserved. Nearby are the Klosterneuburg monastery and the majestic Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenstadt, burial place of Austrian rulers. The monks in these monasteries cultivated the fields, taught children, compiled chronicles and cared for the sick, significantly contributing to the education of the surrounding population.

German settlers completed the development of the Eastern March. Methods of cultivating land and growing grapes were improved and new villages were founded. Many castles were built along the Danube and inland, such as Dürnstein and Aggstein. During the period of the Crusades, cities prospered and the wealth of the rulers grew. In 1156, the Emperor awarded the title of Duke to the Margrave of Austria, Henry II. The land of Styria, south of Austria, was inherited by the Babenbergs (1192), and parts of Upper Austria and Krotna were acquired in 1229.

Austria entered its heyday during the reign of Duke Leopold VI, who died in 1230, having become famous as a merciless fighter against heretics and Muslims. The monasteries were showered with generous gifts; the newly created monastic orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans, were cordially received in the duchy, poets and singers were encouraged.

Vienna, which had been in decline for a long time, became the residence of the Duke in 1146; Great benefit was derived from the development of trade thanks to the Crusades. In 1189 it was first mentioned as a civitas (city), in 1221 it received city rights and in 1244 it confirmed them by receiving formal city privileges, which determined the rights and obligations of citizens, regulated the activities of foreign traders and provided for the formation of a city council. In 1234, a more humane and enlightened law on their rights was issued for Jewish residents than in other places, which remained in force until the expulsion of Jews from Vienna almost 200 years later. At the beginning of the 13th century. The city's borders were expanded and new fortifications emerged.

The Babenberg dynasty died out in 1246 when Duke Frederick II died in battle with the Hungarians, leaving no heirs. The struggle for Austria began, an economically and strategically important territory.

Strengthening the Austrian state under the Habsburgs

The Pope transferred the vacant throne of the duchy to Margrave Hermann of Baden (reigned 1247–1250). However, the Austrian bishops and feudal nobility elected the Czech king Přemysl II (Otakar) (1230–1278) as duke, who strengthened his rights to the Austrian throne by marrying the sister of the latter Babenberg. Przemysl captured Styria and received Carinthia and part of Carniola under a marriage contract. Přemysl sought the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, but on September 29, 1273, Count Rudolf of Habsburg (1218–1291), respected both for his political prudence and for his ability to avoid disputes with the papacy, was elected king. Przemysl refused to recognize his election, so Rudolf resorted to force and defeated his opponent. In 1282 - one of the key dates in Austrian history - Rudolph declared the lands of Austria that belonged to him to be the hereditary possession of the House of Habsburg.

From the very beginning, the Habsburgs considered their lands to be private property. Despite the struggle for the crown of the Holy Roman Empire and family discord, the dukes of the House of Habsburg continued to expand the borders of their possessions. An attempt had already been made to annex the land of Vorarlberg in the southwest, but this was completed only by 1523. Tyrol was annexed to the Habsburg possessions in 1363, as a result of which the Duchy of Austria moved closer to the Apennine Peninsula. In 1374, the part of Istria facing the northern tip of the Adriatic Sea was annexed, and 8 years later the port of Trieste voluntarily joined Austria to free itself from Venetian domination. Representative (estate) assemblies were created, consisting of nobles, clergy and townspeople.

Duke Rudolf IV (reigned 1358–1365) made plans to annex the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary to his possessions and dreamed of achieving complete independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Rudolf founded the University of Vienna (1365), financed the expansion of St. Stephen and supported trade and crafts. He died suddenly, without realizing his ambitious plans. Under Rudolph IV, the Habsburgs began to bear the title of Archdukes (1359).

Economy of Austria during the Renaissance

During periods of peace, trade flourished with neighboring principalities and even with distant Russia. Goods were transported to Hungary, the Czech Republic and Germany along the Danube; in volume this trade was comparable to trade along the great Rhine route. Trade with Venice and other northern Italian cities developed. Roads improved, making it easier to transport goods.

Germany served as a profitable market for Austrian wines and grain, and Hungary bought fabrics. Household iron products were exported to Hungary. In turn, Austria bought Hungarian livestock and minerals. In Salzkammergut (Lower Austrian Eastern Alps) large quantities of table salt were mined. Domestic needs for most products, except clothing, were provided by domestic manufacturers. Craftsmen of the same specialty, united in a workshop, often settled in certain urban areas, as evidenced by the names of streets in the old corners of Vienna. Wealthy members of the guilds not only controlled affairs in their industry, but also participated in the management of the city.

Political successes of the Habsburgs

Frederick III. With the election of Duke Albrecht V as German king in 1438 (under the name Albrecht II), Habsburg prestige reached its apogee. By marrying the heiress to the royal throne of the Czech Republic and Hungary, Albrecht increased the possessions of the dynasty. However, his power in Bohemia remained nominal, and both crowns were soon lost to the Habsburgs. The Duke died on the way to the site of the battle with the Turks, and during the reign of his son Vladislav, the Habsburg possessions decreased significantly. After the death of Vladislav, ties with the Czech Republic and Hungary were completely severed, and Austria itself was divided between the heirs.

In 1452, Albrecht V's uncle Frederick V (1415–1493) was crowned Holy Roman Emperor under the name Frederick III. In 1453 he became an Archduke of Austria, and from that time until the formal dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 (except for a short period in the 18th century), the Habsburgs retained the imperial crown.

Despite endless wars, as well as revolts of the nobles and residents of Vienna, Frederick III managed to expand his possessions, annexing part of Istria and the port of Rijeka (1471). Frederick believed that the Habsburg dynasty was destined to conquer the whole world. His motto was the formula “AEIOU” ( Alles Erdreich ist Oesterreich untertan, “The whole earth is subject to Austria”). He wrote this abbreviation on books and ordered it to be carved on public buildings. Frederick married his son and heir Maximilian (1459–1519) to Mary of Burgundy. As a dowry, the Habsburgs received the Netherlands and lands in what is now France. During this period, the rivalry between the Austrian Habsburgs and the French kingdom began, which continued until the 18th century.

Maximilian I (king in 1486, emperor in 1508), who is sometimes considered the second collector of the Habsburg possessions, acquired, in addition to the possessions in Burgundy, the districts of Gorotia and Gradisca d'Isonzo and small territories in the southern parts of modern Austria. He made an agreement with the Czech-Hungarian king to transfer the Czech-Hungarian crown to Maximilian in the event that Vladislav II died without leaving a male heir.

Thanks to skillful alliances, successful inheritances and advantageous marriages, the Habsburg family achieved impressive power. Maximilian found wonderful matches for his son Philip and his grandson Ferdinand. The first married Juana, heiress of Spain with its vast empire. The domains of their son, Emperor Charles V, surpassed those of any other European monarch before or after him.

Maximilian arranged for Ferdinand to marry the heiress of Vladislav, King of Bohemia and Hungary. His marriage policy was motivated by dynastic ambitions, but also by the desire to transform Danubian Europe into a united Christian bastion against Islam. However, the apathy of the people in the face of the Muslim threat made this task difficult.

Along with minor reforms in government, Maximilian encouraged innovations in the military field that foreshadowed the creation of a regular standing army instead of a military aristocracy of warrior knights.

Expensive marriage contracts, financial disarray and military expenses were draining the state treasury, and Maximilian resorted to large loans, mainly from the wealthy Fugger magnates of Augsburg. In return, they received mining concessions in Tyrol and other areas. From the same source, funds were taken to bribe the electoral votes of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Maximilian was a typical prince of the Renaissance. He was a patron of literature and education, supporting scientists and artists such as Conrad Peutinger, a humanist from Augsburg and an expert on Roman antiquities, and the German artist Albrecht Dürer, who, among other things, illustrated books written by the emperor. Other Habsburg rulers and the aristocracy encouraged the fine arts and amassed rich collections of paintings and sculptures that later became the pride of Austria.

In 1519, Maximilian's grandson Charles was elected king, and in 1530 he became Holy Roman Emperor under the name Charles V. Charles ruled the empire, Austria, Bohemia, the Netherlands, Spain and the Spanish overseas possessions. In 1521, he made his brother, Archduke Ferdinand, ruler of the Habsburg lands along the Danube, which included Austria proper, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Tyrol.

Accession of the Czech Republic and Hungary

In 1526, the troops of Suleiman the Magnificent invaded Hungary. Civil strife within the country's ruling class facilitated the victory of the Turks, and on August 29 the flower of the Hungarian cavalry was destroyed on the field of Mohács, and the capital Buda capitulated. The young king Louis II, who fled after the defeat at Mohács, died. After his death, the Czech Republic (with Moravia and Silesia) and Western Hungary went to the Habsburgs.

Until then, the inhabitants of the Habsburg domains spoke almost exclusively German, with the exception of the population of small Slavic enclaves. However, after the annexation of Hungary and the Czech Republic, the Danube Power became a very diverse state in terms of population. This happened just at a time when mononational states were taking shape in Western Europe.

The Czech Republic and Hungary had their own brilliant pasts, their own national saints and heroes, traditions and languages. Each of these countries had its own national estates and provincial diets, which were dominated by wealthy magnates and clergy, but there were far fewer nobles and townspeople. Royal power was more nominal than real. The Habsburg Empire included many peoples - Hungarians, Slovaks, Czechs, Serbs, Germans, Ukrainians and Romanians.

The court in Vienna took a number of measures to integrate the Czech Republic and Hungary into the Habsburg family domains. Central government departments were reorganized to meet the needs of the expanding power. The palace chancellery and the privy council began to play a prominent role, advising the emperor mainly on issues of international politics and legislation. The first steps were taken to replace the tradition of electing monarchs in both countries with Habsburg hereditary law.

Turkish invasion

Only the threat of Turkish conquest helped unite Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Suleiman's 200,000-strong army advanced along the wide Danube valley and in 1529 approached the walls of Vienna. A month later, the garrison and the inhabitants of Vienna forced the Turks to lift the siege and retreat to Hungary. But wars between the Austrian and Ottoman empires continued intermittently for two generations; and almost two centuries passed until the Habsburg armies completely expelled the Turks from historical Hungary.

The Rise and Fall of Protestantism

The areas where Hungarians lived became the center for the spread of reformed Christianity on the Danube. Many landowners and peasants in Hungary accepted Calvinism and Lutheranism. Luther's teaching attracted many German-speaking townspeople; in Transylvania, the Unitarian movement aroused widespread sympathy. In the eastern part of the Hungarian lands proper, Calvinism prevailed, and Lutheranism became widespread among some of the Slovaks and Germans. In the part of Hungary that came under Habsburg control, Protestantism encountered significant resistance from Catholics. The court in Vienna, which highly valued the importance of Catholicism in maintaining the absolute power of the king, proclaimed it the official religion of Hungary. Protestants were required to pay money to maintain Catholic religious institutions and for a long time were not allowed to hold government positions.

The Reformation spread unexpectedly quickly throughout Austria itself. The newly invented printing allowed both opposing religious camps to publish and distribute books and pamphlets. Princes and priests often fought for power under religious banners. A large number of believers in Austria left the Catholic Church; The ideas of the Reformation were proclaimed in the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna and even in the family chapel of the ruling dynasty. Anabaptist groups (such as the Mennonites) then spread to Tyrol and Moravia. By the middle of the 16th century. a clear majority of the population of Austria seemed to have accepted Protestantism in one form or another.

However, there were three powerful factors that not only restrained the spread of the Reformation, but also contributed to the return of a large part of the neophytes to the fold of the Roman Catholic Church: the internal church reform proclaimed by the Council of Trent; The Society of Jesus (Jesuit order), whose members, as confessors, teachers and preachers, concentrated their activities on converting the families of large landowners to this faith, correctly calculating that their peasants would then follow the faith of their masters; and physical coercion carried out by the Viennese court. The conflicts culminated in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which began in the Czech Republic, where Protestantism was deeply rooted.

In 1606–1609, Rudolf II guaranteed freedom of religion to Czech Protestants through a series of agreements. But when Ferdinand II (reigned 1619–1637) became emperor, Protestants in the Czech Republic felt their religious freedoms and civil rights were threatened. The zealous Catholic and authoritarian ruler Ferdinand II, a prominent representative of the Counter-Reformation, ordered the suppression of Protestantism in Austria itself

Thirty Years' War

In 1619, the Czech Diet refused to recognize Ferdinand as emperor and elected Elector Frederick V, Count Palatine of the Rhine, as king. This demarche led to the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The rebels, who disagreed on all the most important issues, were united only by hatred of the Habsburgs. With the help of mercenaries from Germany, the Habsburg army completely defeated the Czech rebels in 1620 at the Battle of White Mountain near Prague.

The Czech crown was once and for all assigned to the House of Habsburg, the Diet was dispersed, and Catholicism was declared the only legitimate faith.

The estates of the Czech Protestant aristocrats, which occupied almost half the territory of the Czech Republic, were divided among the younger sons of the Catholic nobility of Europe, mainly of German origin. Until the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918, the Czech aristocracy spoke predominantly German and was loyal to the ruling dynasty.

During the Thirty Years' War, the population of the Habsburg Empire suffered enormous losses. The massacre was put to an end by the Peace of Westphalia (1648), according to which the Holy Roman Empire, which included Germany and Italy, virtually ceased to exist, and many princes who owned its lands were able to realize their long-standing dream of independence from the power of the emperor. However, the Habsburgs still retained the imperial crown and influence over German state affairs.

Victory over the Turks

In the second half of the 17th century. The Ottoman armies resumed their attack on Europe. The Austrians fought the Turks for control of the lower reaches of the Danube and Sava rivers. In 1683, a huge Turkish army, taking advantage of the uprising in Hungary, again besieged Vienna for two months, and again caused enormous damage to its suburbs. The city was overflowing with refugees, artillery shelling caused damage to the Cathedral of St. Stephen and other architectural monuments.

The besieged city was saved by a Polish-German army under the command of the Polish king John Sobieski. On September 12, 1683, after a fierce firefight, the Turks retreated and never returned to the walls of Vienna.

From that moment on, the Turks began to gradually lose their positions, and the Habsburgs extracted more and more benefits from their victories. When in 1687 most of Hungary, with its capital Buda, was liberated from Turkish rule, the Hungarian Diet, as a sign of gratitude, recognized the hereditary right of the Habsburg male line to the Hungarian crown. However, it was stipulated that before ascending the throne, the new king had to confirm all the “traditions, privileges and prerogatives” of the Hungarian nation.

The war against the Turks continued. Austrian troops conquered almost all of Hungary, Croatia, Transylvania and most of Slovenia, which was officially secured by the Peace of Karlowitz (1699). The Habsburgs then turned their attention to the Balkans, and in 1717 the Austrian commander Prince Eugene of Savoy captured Belgrade and invaded Serbia. The Sultan was forced to cede to the Habsburgs a small Serbian region around Belgrade and a number of other small territories. After 20 years, the Balkan territory was recaptured by the Turks; The Danube and Sava became the border between the two great powers.

Hungary, under the rule of Vienna, was devastated, its population decreased. Vast tracts of land were given to nobles loyal to the Habsburgs. Hungarian peasants moved to free lands, and foreign settlers invited by the crown - Serbs, Romanians and, above all, German Catholics - settled in the southern regions of the country. It is estimated that in 1720 Hungarians made up less than 45% of the population of Hungary, and in the 18th century. their share continued to decline. Transylvania retained a special political status when governed from Vienna.

Although Hungarian constitutional privileges and local authority were intact, and the tax benefits of the aristocracy were confirmed, the Habsburg court was able to impose its will on the Hungarian ruling elite. The aristocracy, whose land holdings grew along with its loyalty to the crown, remained loyal to the Habsburgs.

During periods of rebellion and strife in the 16th and 17th centuries. More than once it seemed that the multinational Habsburg state was on the verge of imminent collapse. However, the Viennese court continued to encourage the development of education and the arts. Important milestones in intellectual life were the founding of universities in Graz (1585), Salzburg (1623), Budapest (1635) and Innsbruck (1677).

Military successes

A regular army equipped with firearms was created in Austria. Although gunpowder was first used in war in the 14th century, it took 300 years for guns and artillery to become truly formidable weapons. Artillery pieces made of iron or bronze were so heavy that at least 10 horses or 40 oxen had to be harnessed to move them. To protect against bullets, armor was needed, which was burdensome for both people and horses. The fortress walls were made thicker to withstand artillery fire. The disdain for the infantry gradually disappeared, and the cavalry, although reduced in number, lost almost none of its former prestige. Military operations began to largely boil down to the siege of fortified cities, which required a lot of manpower and equipment.

Prince Eugene of Savoy rebuilt the military on the model of the army of France, where he received his military education. Food was improved, troops were housed in barracks, and veterans were given land taken from the Turks. However, aristocrats from the Austrian military command soon began to obstruct the reform. The changes were not profound enough to allow Austria to win the fight against Prussia in the 18th century. However, for generations, the military and bureaucracy provided the Habsburgs with the strong support needed to maintain the integrity of the multinational state.

Economic situation

Agriculture remained the basis of the Austrian economy, but at the same time there was an increase in manufacturing production and financial capital. In the 16th century The country's industry experienced a crisis several times due to inflation caused by the import of precious metals from America to Europe. At this time, the crown no longer had to turn to moneylenders for financial help; now government credit became the source of funds. Iron was mined in quantities sufficient for the market in Styria and silver in Tyrol; in a smaller volume - coal in Silesia.

Architectural masterpieces

After the feeling of the Turkish threat disappeared, intensive construction began in the cities of the Habsburg Empire. Masters from Italy trained local designers and builders of churches and palaces. In Prague, Salzburg and especially in Vienna, buildings in the Baroque style were erected - elegant, graceful, with rich external and internal decoration. Lushly decorated facades, wide staircases and luxurious gardens became characteristic features of the city residences of the Austrian aristocracy. Among them, the magnificent Belvedere Palace with a park, built by Prince Eugene of Savoy, stood out.

The ancient court seat in Vienna, the Hofburg, has been expanded and embellished. The Chancellery of the Court, the huge Karlskirche church, which took 20 years to build, and the imperial summer palace and park in Schönbrunn are just the most striking buildings in a city that shone with its architectural splendor. Throughout the monarchy, churches and monasteries damaged or destroyed during the war were restored. The Benedictine monastery in Melk, located on a cliff above the Danube, is a typical example of Baroque in rural Austria and a symbol of the triumph of the Counter-Reformation.

The Rise of Vienna

Vienna, which finally became an archbishopric, was the center of Catholic Germany and the capital of the Habsburg Empire. People of art and merchants from all over Austria, from the Czech Republic and Hungary, from Spain and the Netherlands, from Italy and southern Germany flocked to the city.

The court and aristocracy encouraged the development of theater, fine arts and music. Along with popular theatrical performances, Italian-style opera flourished. The emperor himself wrote operas in which the archduchesses played. Local folk music, which has made Vienna famous throughout the world, originated in the city's taverns, havens for singers and musicians. During this period, the foundations were laid for what would make the Habsburg seat the musical capital of Europe.

Austria in the 18th century

Throughout the 1700s, Austria survived severe military trials, achieved new heights of power and prestige, and achieved significant cultural achievements.

At first, the prospects for development seemed far from bright. Luck turned away from Emperor Charles VI (reigned 1711–1740). Having no male heirs, he feared that the multinational state would be plunged into internal conflicts or dismembered by foreign powers after his death. To avoid this, the court entered into negotiations with the Land Diets and foreign states in order to achieve recognition of Charles's daughter, Maria Theresa, as heir to the throne.

These efforts were initially successful. The official document, known as the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, stipulated that all Habsburg possessions would remain indivisible at all times and be handed down according to seniority. However, when approving this decision, the Sejms of the Czech Republic and the Hungarian lands made it clear that if the Habsburg dynasty faded away, they would be able to choose another ruling house.

Empress Maria Theresa

In accordance with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Maria Theresa (reigned 1740–1780) ascended the Austrian throne (1740). A heavy burden of responsibility fell on the shoulders of the 23-year-old empress. King Frederick II of Prussia immediately laid claim to most of the prosperous province of Silesia, which was part of the Czech kingdom.

The Prussian monarch did not recognize Maria Theresa's right to the inheritance of Charles VI and declared his intention to free half of the Silesian population, which professed Protestantism, from Catholic Austria. The King of Prussia attacked Silesia without any formal reason or declaration of war, which was contrary to accepted international norms. Thus began a long struggle between Prussia and Austria for dominance in Central Europe, which ended with the final military defeat of Austria in 1866. France and a number of small German principalities took part in the attack on the Habsburg possessions, seeking to expand their possessions.

Unprepared for war and worse armed, Austria easily succumbed to the rapid onslaught of the enemy. At times it began to seem that the monarchy was falling apart. Stubborn and courageous, Maria Theresa took a decisive step by turning to her Hungarian subjects for help. In response to promises of real concessions, the Hungarian magnates demonstrated their loyalty, but their help was insufficient. In 1742, most of Silesia went to Prussia. Despite repeated attempts by Austria to regain the lost province, Prussia held the land until the end of World War II.

In an effort to improve the country's international position, the Empress arranged dynastic marriages for her children (those of the 16 who reached maturity). Thus, Marie Antoinette became the bride of the heir to the throne of France, the future King Louis XVI.

Thanks to the turbulent political events in Europe, Austria made a number of territorial acquisitions. At the beginning of the century, the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium) was annexed, which remained a kind of colony until 1797. Rich provinces in Italy were acquired: Tuscany, most of Lombardy, Naples, Parma and Sardinia (the last three were briefly held by Austria).

Largely contrary to the moral beliefs of Maria Theresa, although in accordance with the wishes of her son Joseph, Austria sided with Russia and Prussia in the first partition of Poland (1772) and received the principalities of Auschwitz and Zatorsk, the southern part of the Krakow and Sandomierz voivodeships, Ruska (without the Kholm land ) and Belz Voivodeship. About a million people lived in this territory, there were fertile lands and salt mines. 23 years later, another part of Poland came under Austrian rule, with its ancient capital Krakow. Claims were also made to the northern part of the Principality of Moldova southeast of Galicia. The area was controlled by the Turks; in 1775 it was incorporated into the Habsburg state under the name Bukovina.

Internal reforms

Measures were taken to improve the mechanism of public administration in Austria and the Czech Republic, strengthen the unity and stability of the provinces, overcome chronic financial deficits and improve the state of the economy as a whole. In all these areas, Prussia served as a model and inspiration. In Austria, it was believed that modernization would increase the military power of the state, confirm Austria's claims to great power status and prepare the way for weakening the power of King Frederick of Prussia.

The Austrian military, public administration and tax system were completely overhauled. The central place in the reorganization of state power was occupied by the State Council, which had advisory functions and consisted of specialists from each of the departments of internal affairs. A new supreme court was created, and the judicial system was separated from the government system. In accordance with the trends characteristic of the Enlightenment, new legal codes were issued. The foreign policy and military departments underwent a radical renewal.

Military spending increased and centralized recruitment was introduced. The increasingly complex organization of the armed forces required the involvement of more civilian workers. To increase the efficiency of public administration and ensure centralization, the number of civil servants in Vienna and in the provinces was expanded; they were now recruited from the middle class. In the hereditary lands of the crown and in the Czech Republic, local landtags lost a number of important functions, and crown officials were given a wide range of powers, ranging from supervision of serfs to jurisdiction in matters of police and education.

The reforms also affected the villages. According to the so-called corvée patents (1771–1778), peasant corvée was limited to three days a week.

In the economic sphere, the development of manufacturing production was encouraged. Despite the resistance of traditional workshop associations, new, modern industrial enterprises were created. Hungary was to serve as a market for industrial products from Austria and a breadbasket for Austrian cities. A universal income tax and a unified system of border and internal duties were introduced. In order to expand international trade, a small merchant fleet was created, and the ports in Trieste and Rijeka were modernized. Companies arose that carried out trade relations with southern Asia.

Enlightened despotism

Maria Theresa's son, Joseph II, who became his mother's co-regent after 1765, often clashed with her over issues of public policy. In 1780 he took the reins of government into his own hands. The new emperor sought to strengthen the power of Austria and its unity, and improve the system of government. He was convinced that the personal power of the sovereign should be unlimited and that he should instill in the consciousness of the peoples inhabiting the country the spirit of a common homeland. Decrees were issued declaring German the state language, which made it possible to unify the sphere of public administration and speed up judicial procedures. The powers of the Hungarian Diet were curtailed, and soon it ceased its activities altogether.

Demonstrating enlightenment and good will, Joseph II proclaimed the equality of all subjects before the court and in the collection of taxes. Print and theater censorship was temporarily relaxed. The amount of quitrent paid by peasants was now regulated by crown officials, and the amount of taxes levied depended on the income from the land.

Although Joseph II declared himself a defender of Catholicism, he waged a vigorous struggle against the power of the Pope. In fact, he sought to transform the church in his domains into an instrument of the state, independent of Rome. The clergy were deprived of their tithes and were forced to study in seminaries under government control, and archbishops were required to formally swear an oath of loyalty to the crown. Church courts were abolished, and marriage began to be viewed as a civil contract outside the jurisdiction of the church. The number of religious holidays was reduced, and the decoration of religious buildings was regulated by the state. Approximately every third of the monasteries was closed.

Joseph II issued a decree on universal and compulsory schooling. Funds for training were to be allocated by the nobility and local authorities. Although this measure was not fully implemented, school attendance increased significantly.

Joseph II died untimely in 1790. His brother, Leopold II, who had proven himself as ruler of Italian Tuscany, quickly restored the shaky order. Serfdom in Hungary was restored, and in Austria the peasant, although he remained personally free, fell into even more severe dependence on the landowner.

The Hungarian Diet, which had not been convened under Joseph II, was reconvened and confirmed the old liberties and constitutional rights of the kingdom. Leopold II also made a number of political concessions to the Czech Republic and was crowned as the Czech king. To enlist the support of the Czech educated class, in which a sense of national identity was awakening, a department of the Czech language was established at the University of Prague.

Achievements in the field of culture

By decree of Joseph II, the “Palace Theater” (founded by Maria Theresa in 1741) was renamed in 1776 to the “Court National Theater” (“Burgtheater”), which maintained a high level of performance until the 20th century. Vienna was famous for its musical culture, the Italians set the tone. In 1729, Metastasio (Pietro Trapassi) arrived in Vienna, taking the position of court poet and librettist, he wrote texts for operas by the Neapolitan Niccolo Jommelli and Christoph von Gluck.

The great composers Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, representatives of the so-called, worked in Vienna. Viennese classical school. Melody from string quartet op. 76 No. 3 formed the basis (1797), and then the German anthem.

The era of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars

Like all of Europe, Austria suffered the consequences of the French Revolution and the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. The thirst for territorial conquest, the dynastic relationship with the French queen Marie Antoinette, sister of Joseph II and Leopold II, the fear that the ideas of the French Revolution would influence the various peoples of the monarchy, the growth of patriotism, especially among the German-speaking population - the combination of all these various tendencies and motives made Austria intransigent enemy of France.

Wars against France

Military operations against France began in 1792 and continued intermittently until the fall of 1815. More than once during this time, the Austrian armies were defeated, twice Napoleon's grenadiers stormed the famous Vienna, which in terms of population (about 230 thousand people) in Europe was second only to London and Paris. The Habsburg army suffered heavy losses, the suffering and hardships of residents of large and small cities are comparable to the hardships experienced in the world wars of the 20th century. Galloping inflation, the collapse of the tax system and chaos in the economy brought the state to the brink of disaster.

More than once Napoleon dictated peace terms to Austria. Emperor Franz I was forced to marry his daughter Marie Louise to Napoleon (1810), whom he had previously called the “French adventurer.” The peasants of Tyrol, led by innkeeper Andreas Hofer, rebelled and resisted Napoleonic troops. Austrian troops inflicted a painful defeat on the French at Aspern near Vienna (1809), but were defeated by Napoleon a few days later at Wagram. The Austrian army was commanded by Archduke Charles, whose military glory rivaled that of Prince Eugene of Savoy: their equestrian statues adorn Heldenplatz ("Heroes' Square") in the center of Vienna. Austrian Field Marshal Karl Schwarzenberg commanded the Allied forces that defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813.

Austrian Empire

Franz I in 1804 gave his state the name Austrian Empire. By the will of Napoleon, the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, the crown of which for almost four centuries was actually inherited in the Habsburg family, ceased to exist (1806).

Congress of Vienna

The territorial changes in Europe made during the Napoleonic era also affected Austria. It is significant that the international congress, which laid the foundations for a peaceful order after the overthrow of Bonaparte, was convened in Vienna. For several months in 1814–1815, the Habsburg capital was the meeting place for senior politicians of European states large and small. A wide-ranging network of Austrian spies monitored the arriving high-ranking persons.

The Viennese debate was presided over by Count (later Prince) Clemens Metternich, Foreign Minister and later Chancellor of Austria. At the congress, he successfully ensured a secure position for the House of Habsburg in Europe and prevented Russia from expanding its influence into the central part of the continent.

Austria was forced to abandon Belgium, but received substantial compensation for this. Dalmatia, the western part of Istria, the islands in the Adriatic that previously belonged to Venice, the former Venetian Republic itself and the neighboring Italian province of Lombardy came under the scepter of Vienna. Representatives of the Habsburg family received the crowns of Tuscany, Parma and Modena. Austria enjoyed strong influence in the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. As a result, the Apennine Peninsula actually became an appendage of the Danube monarchy. Much of Polish Galicia was returned to Austria, and in 1846 the small Republic of Krakow, the only free part of Poland retained by the peacekeepers in 1815, was annexed.

Opinions about the form of future German statehood were sharply divided. Metternich managed to prevent the creation of a strong union, and a loose confederation was formed - the German Confederation. It covered the German-speaking states of Europe and that part of Austria that was part of the abolished Holy Roman Empire. Austria received the post of permanent chairman of the confederation.

Franz I and Metternich

During the first half of the 19th century. The leading figure in the public life of Austria was Emperor Franz I. As Chancellor of the Empire, Metternich had significant political weight. After the excesses of the French Revolution and the horrors and unrest caused by the Napoleonic Wars, he strove for order and internal harmony. The Chancellor repeatedly advised creating a parliament from representatives of the different nations of Austria and giving the provincial diets real powers, but the emperor did not listen to his advice.

In the field of diplomacy, Metternich made a significant contribution to the preservation of peace in Europe. When the opportunity presented itself, Austrian troops were sent to suppress local uprisings, creating for themselves, their country and its first minister an odious reputation among the adherents of freedom and national unification.

Domestic policy was determined mainly by Emperor Francis I. Government officials kept the entire education sector and students under strict control, prescribing what could be read and studied. The head of the censorship department, Count Joseph Sedlnicki, banned literary works hostile to the absolutism of the emperor or religion, and organizations suspected of political heresy were persecuted. Journalists were prohibited from even using the word “constitution.”

Development of culture

Vienna's prestige as a musical capital remained high thanks to Ludwig van Beethoven. The works of Franz Schubert can be considered the pinnacle of song lyrics. Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss the Father became famous for their waltzes.

The outstanding Austrian playwright of this period was Franz Grillparzer. Light, witty plays were written by Ferdinand Raymund and Johann Nestroy.

In the field of religion, enlightened toleration prevailed. Without the consent of the emperor, no one could be excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. The clergy supervised education, and the Jesuits were allowed to resume their activities in the empire. Restrictions on Jews were relaxed, and synagogues of both Orthodox and Reform Judaism were built in Vienna. A number of Jewish banking families achieved prominent social position and recognition; Among them, Solomon Rothschild stood out, who was friendly with Metternich and in 1823 received the title of baron.

Unrest among national minorities

The Czech intelligentsia developed their native language, literary and historical works were composed in which the medieval Czech Republic was glorified. Patriotic Czech journalists denounced the Austrian administration and restrictions on civil liberties. In Galicia, Polish patriots declared the independence of their people in 1846. However, the most active in the struggle for national freedom were the Hungarians, or rather the middle strata of the Hungarian nobles. Hungarian writers and scientists revived the golden pages of the past and aroused hopes for a glorious future. The recognized apostle of the cultural and national revival of Hungary was Count István Széchenyi, who belonged to one of the proudest aristocratic families in the kingdom. A well-travelled cosmopolitan, he remained loyal to the Habsburgs but advocated reforms in government. The leadership of the national movement was taken over by lawyer Lajos Kossuth. In 1847, his supporters achieved a majority in the Hungarian Diet.

After the death of Franz I in 1835, the leadership of the Austrian government was entrusted to a regency council with the participation of Metternich, since the new emperor, Ferdinand I (1793–1875), proved incapable of governing. Censorship was relaxed and universities received greater freedom.

The revolution in Paris in 1848 echoed with protests in Vienna, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Italian provinces. The Habsburg Empire was in danger of collapse. Groups of students and artisans and the liberal bourgeoisie demanded that Prince Metternich resign from government posts and a constitution be adopted in the country. The Habsburg court agreed. 75-year-old Metternich, who had been the “rock of order” for two generations, fled to England.

The Austrian Constituent Assembly abolished serfdom. This became the main achievement of the revolutionary storm. In October 1848, Vienna experienced a second wave of mass unrest. Street battles waged by reform supporters caused serious destruction in cities. The imperial army crushed the uprising. Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, having assumed dictatorial powers, replaced the weak-minded Emperor Ferdinand I with his 18-year-old nephew, Franz Joseph. A draft constitution was developed that provided for the creation of a federal legislature with the participation of various national groups and the equality of nations. But this document never came into force. Later, a unified imperial constitution was proclaimed, but it was not put into effect.

National requirements

In the Czech Republic, Czech-speaking and German-speaking oppositionists initially united to extract concessions from the House of Habsburg. However, their paths diverged when Czech patriots demanded self-government for the Czech Republic and opposed unification into a single German state. Supporters of moderate views spoke out for the preservation of the Austrian Empire, transformed into a federation based on the equality of peoples.

In June 1848, a congress of Slavic leaders of Austria and representatives of foreign Slavs met in Prague to discuss political problems. There was a clash between Czech patriots and the Germans. As a result, the city was occupied by the Austrian army, which marked the beginning of the restoration of Habsburg power.

The uprising in Hungary followed a more complicated plot. At Kossuth's request, the Viennese court gave Hungary almost complete control over its internal affairs while maintaining dynastic and military ties with Austria. Serfs were freed and broad civil liberties were promised. But Hungarian politicians persistently denied basic human rights to the small peoples of the kingdom, who collectively outnumbered the Hungarians. For Croats and Romanians, Hungarian chauvinism was even worse than Habsburg authoritarianism. These peoples, incited by Vienna, entered into a struggle with the Hungarians, which was soon joined by Austrian troops.

On April 14, 1849, Kossuth declared the independence of Hungary. Since the Austrian government did not have sufficient military forces to suppress the uprising, it turned to Russian Tsar Nicholas I for help. He responded immediately, and Russian troops dealt a fatal blow to the Hungarian uprising. The remnants of Hungarian autonomy were completely liquidated, Kossuth himself fled.

When the Habsburg dynasty seemed on the verge of collapse, Lombardy and Venice rebelled and the Venetian Republic was revived. However, Austrian troops suppressed the rebellion and restored Austrian dominance over the Italian provinces and the entire Apennine Peninsula.

The Viennese court also sought to prevent the unification of the German states in order to prevent Prussia from gaining a dominant position in German-speaking Europe. Austria emerged from the revolutionary upheavals weakened, but retained its integrity.

Reaction and reform

Prince Felix Schwarzenberg effectively ruled Austria until his death in 1852, and then Franz Joseph took over full power. The Germanization of all peoples of the empire who did not speak German was carried out. The Czech patriotic movement was suppressed, the Hungarians were pacified. In 1850, Hungary was united with Austria into a single customs union. According to the concordat of 1855, the Roman Catholic Church received the right to its own educational system and press.

On the Apennine Peninsula, the movement for national unification was led by a skilled politician of the Sardinian Kingdom (Piedmont), Count Camillo Cavour. His plans included the liberation of Lombardy and Venice. In accordance with a secret agreement with the French Emperor Napoleon III, Cavour provoked a war with Austria in 1859. The combined Franco-Sardinian forces defeated Franz Joseph's forces and Austria was forced to abandon Lombardy. In 1860, the pro-Austrian dynasties in the small states of Italy were overthrown, and a united Italian kingdom was formed under the leadership of Piedmont. In 1884, Austria, in alliance with Prussia, went to war against Denmark for control of the small territories of Schleswig and Holstein.

In 1866, a dispute over the division of Danish spoils led to war between Austria and Prussia. Italy took the side of Prussia, and the Austrian Empire was defeated. However, the terms of the peace treaty dictated by Bismarck turned out to be quite tolerable. This was the subtle calculation of the Prussian chancellor. The House of Habsburg had to renounce its historical role in German affairs without ceding any territory to Prussia (except the lands taken from Denmark). On the other hand, although Austrian troops defeated the Italians on land and sea, Venice was transferred to Italy, and a number of Italian regions remained under Habsburg control.

Birth of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy

The loss of territory and prestige necessitated a new form of relations between Austria and Hungary. Various draft constitutions, which provided for the creation of a unified parliament, were prepared without the participation of the Hungarians. Finally, in 1867, the famous “compromise” was worked out ( Ausgleich). The Austrian Empire, proclaimed in 1804, was transformed into a dualist Austria-Hungary, with Hungarians ruling Hungary and Austrians ruling the rest of the new state. In the sphere of international relations, both states had to act as a single entity, maintaining autonomy in internal affairs.

Constitutional reforms

One of the areas of government reorganization in the 1860s in the Austrian half of the dual monarchy was the further development of a constitution. The constitution guaranteed civil liberties and equality for all linguistic groups. A bicameral state parliament, the Reichsrat, was established. Deputies of the lower house were elected through indirect elections. The Constitution provided for broad powers for the legislature, which was to meet once a year. The Cabinet of Ministers was responsible to the lower house. Both chambers had equal legislative power. One of the paragraphs of the constitution (the famous Article XIV) gave the monarch the power to issue decrees between sessions of parliament that had the force of law.

The legislative assemblies of the 17 Austrian states (Landtags) received broader powers, but the crown appointed governors who could override the decisions of the Landtags. Initially, it was the Landtags that elected deputies to the lower house of the Reichsrat, but in 1873 direct elections by districts and curiae (class or qualification categories of voters) were introduced.

Political parties

Austrian-German deputies were divided into rival political factions. The largest group were supporters of the monarchy. In the 1880s, two new parties were organized - the Christian Social and the Social Democratic. The first of them acted mainly on behalf of the Austrian-German peasants and petty bourgeoisie, and its leaders were loyal to the Habsburg dynasty and the Roman Catholic Church.

Social Democrats declared their adherence to the teachings of Karl Marx, but advocated carrying out political and social reforms through constitutional methods. The party was headed by party leader Viktor Adler and theorist in the field of national problems Otto Bauer. Controversies over the national question weakened the movement, but it nevertheless campaigned successfully for universal suffrage for all adult men.

There was also a small but vocal faction of Great Germans who demanded the unification of areas with a German-speaking population with the German Empire. This trend in Austrian politics had a serious impact on the mindset of Adolf Hitler, who spent several years in Vienna.

National minorities

The Czechs demanded that the Czech Republic be given the same status in the monarchy that Hungary received, but they were never able to achieve this. The development of educational opportunities and economic prosperity gave greater confidence to the Czech middle class. In general, Czech patriots such as Tomas Masaryk sought internal self-government for the Czech Republic, without demanding the destruction of the empire and the creation of an independent Czech state. In the Sejm of the Czech Republic there was a struggle between Czech deputies and representatives of Austrian-German elements. Czech-German hostility from time to time paralyzed the work of the parliament in Vienna. The Czechs achieved concessions in the field of language, access to public service and in education, and yet not a single constitutional formula was adopted that could satisfy the claims of the Czechs and at the same time be acceptable to the Austro-Germans.

The Poles in Galicia received a significant degree of autonomy, which completely satisfied them. This province became the object of envy and admiration of Polish patriots living in the Russian and Prussian-German parts of Poland. Among the large Ukrainian minority in Galicia, unrest continued due to discrimination and repression by the Poles, and a small stratum of Ukrainian intelligentsia fought for the rights of their compatriots. One of the Ukrainian factions spoke out for political unification with the Ukrainians of the Russian Empire.

Of all the Austrian peoples, the South Slavs (Slovenes, Croats, Serbs) caused the greatest concern at the Viennese court. The number of representatives of this national group increased in 1908, when Austria-Hungary annexed the former Turkish province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The South Slavs in Austria varied greatly in their views. Some of them sought to unite with the Kingdom of Serbia, others were satisfied with the existing situation, and others preferred the creation of a South Slavic state within the framework of the Habsburg Monarchy.

This last alternative meant the formation of a state covering the South Slavic areas of both Hungary and Austria, with the same status as the Austrian Empire or the Kingdom of Hungary. This proposal met with some support in Austria, but was negatively received by almost all Hungarian politicians. Broader projects were also proposed for the reconstruction of the monarchy into a federal union of peoples, but the concept of the Habsburg "United States" was never put into practice.

There was also no unity among Austria's Italian minority, who lived in south Tyrol, Trieste and the surrounding area. Some Italian-speaking residents tacitly accepted Vienna's rule, while militant separatists called for unification with Italy.

Partly to calm national feelings, partly in response to strong pressure from the Social Democrats, universal adult male suffrage was introduced in 1907 for elections to the Austrian parliament (Reichsrat). However, political unrest in the multinational empire intensified. In the spring of 1914, a break was declared in the work of the Reichsrat, and parliament did not meet for three years.

World War I

The news of the start of the war was greeted with enthusiasm. The danger of an offensive by the Russian army rallied the Austrians; even the Social Democrats supported the war. Official and unofficial propaganda inspired the will to win and largely suppressed interethnic contradictions. The unity of the state was ensured by a harsh military dictatorship; the dissatisfied were forced to submit. Only in the Czech Republic the war did not cause much enthusiasm. All the resources of the monarchy were mobilized to achieve victory, but the leadership acted extremely ineffectively.

Military failures at the beginning of the war undermined the morale of the army and the population. Streams of refugees rushed from the war zones to Vienna and other cities. Many public buildings were converted into hospitals. Italy's entry into the war against the monarchy in May 1915 increased war fervor, especially among the Slovenes. When Romania's territorial claims to Austria-Hungary were rejected, Bucharest went over to the Entente side.

It was at that moment when the Romanian armies were retreating that the eighty-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph died. The new ruler, young Charles I, a man of limited ability, sidelined the men on whom his predecessor had relied. In 1917, Karl convened the Reichsrat. Representatives of national minorities demanded reform of the empire. Some sought autonomy for their peoples, others insisted on complete separation. Patriotic sentiments forced Czechs to desert the army, and the Czech rebel Karel Kramar was sentenced to death on charges of treason, but then pardoned. In July 1917, the emperor declared an amnesty for political prisoners. This gesture of reconciliation reduced his authority among the militant Austro-Germans: the monarch was accused of being too soft.

Even before Charles ascended the throne, Austrian Social Democrats were divided into supporters and opponents of the war. Pacifist leader Friedrich Adler, son of Victor Adler, assassinated the Austrian Prime Minister, Count Karl Stürgk, in October 1916. At the trial, Adler sharply criticized the government. Sentenced to a long prison term, he was released after the revolution in November 1918.

End of the Habsburg dynasty

A low grain harvest, a decrease in food supplies to Austria from Hungary and a blockade by the Entente countries doomed ordinary Austrian city dwellers to hardships and hardships. In January 1918, munitions factory workers went on strike and returned to work only after the government promised to improve their living and working conditions. In February, a riot broke out at the naval base in Kotor, with participants raising a red flag. The authorities brutally suppressed the riots and executed the instigators.

Separatist sentiments grew among the peoples of the empire. At the beginning of the war, patriotic committees of Czechoslovaks (led by Tomas Masaryk), Poles and South Slavs were created abroad. These committees campaigned in the countries of the Entente and America for the national independence of their peoples, seeking support from official and private circles. In 1919, the Entente states and the United States recognized these emigrant groups as a de facto government. In October 1918, national councils within Austria, one after another, declared the independence of lands and territories. Emperor Charles's promise to reform the Austrian constitution on the basis of federalism accelerated the process of disintegration. In Vienna, Austro-German politicians created a provisional government for German Austria, and the Social Democrats agitated for a republic. Charles I abdicated on November 11, 1918. The next day the Republic of Austria was proclaimed.

I think history buffs will find it interesting to read a brief illustrated history of one of the greatest European dynasties, which had a huge impact on shaping the modern world, HABSBURG .

Habsburg family coat of arms:

The origins of the Habsburgs are not precisely known. A number of historians claim that they descended from the French Carolingians. The first Count of Habsburg at the beginning of the 11th century was Radbot . The family name comes from the name of the family house he built Habichtsburg Castle (Falcon's Nest).

This castle was located on the Aar (or Are) River in the territory of modern Switzerland. Little remains of the medieval castle today. Now it looks like this:

The Habsburgs gained real power in 1273, when, by order of Pope Gregory X Count Rudolf of Habsburg became the de facto Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (although he never received this title, being called the King of Germany).
The Pope needed money and Rudolf's support to carry out a new crusade. And although the rulers of other European states did not show much enthusiasm for this, Rudolf I was a decisive man, he used his wealth and influence to expand the borders of his possessions and annex to them a number of vassal lands in relation to him as the German Emperor (Kyburg, Swabia, Austria and the adjacent duchies).

Rudolf I
(19th century sculpture in Speyer Cathedral):

And this is the Speyer Cathedral itself - the largest surviving building of the Romanesque style (XI century),
in the crypt of which Rudolf I of Habsburg was buried in 1291:

The political system of Europe was still in the process of formation. Rudolf I took an unusual step for that time - he made all feudal lands hereditary, and he declared Austria and Styria, captured by him during the fight with the Czech king Přemysl Otakar II, as the dynastic possession of his family, thus forming Austrian Habsburg Monarchy , which existed until 1918.

One of the most prominent representatives of the Habsburgs was the King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459 - 1519) .

Portrait of Maximilian I by Albrecht Dürer (1519):

This Habsburg began to conduct a successful dynastic marriage policy , thanks to which the influence of the dynasty increased even more. He himself married a representative of the Burgundian family, Maria, daughter of Duke Charles the Bold, as a result of which he annexed to the empire not only Burgundy, but also Luxembourg, Brabant, Limburg, Flanders, Boulogne, Picardy, Holland, Zealand, Friesland, etc. (however, I had to fight with France for these lands and not always successfully).

Portrait of Maximilian I by Rubens (1518):

Coat of arms of Maximilian I
(on the shield are the emblems of Austria and Burgundy):

Own son Philippa (1478 - 1506) Maximilian married Infanta Joanna (Juan the Mad), inheriting Castile and Aragon, which was the first step towards turning Spain into the possession of the Habsburgs.

Portrait of Maximilian I and his family
(Bernhard Striegel, after 1515):

The Habsburgs reached their greatest greatness during the reign of the grandson of Maximilian I - Charles V (1500 - 1558) .

Portrait of the young Charles V by Bernaert van Orley (c. 1516):

Under Charles V, Silly and Milan entered the Habsburg sphere of influence, followed by entire states such as Spain and the Netherlands (along with all their overseas colonies). It was then that they began to say about the Habsburg Empire that it was over "the sun never sets" .

Portrait of Charles V by Titian (c. 1550):

Coat of arms of Charles V of Habsburg:

In 1556, Charles V abdicated the throne (tired, disillusioned with his unrealizable plans to make all of Western Europe a single state), which led to the division of his vast empire.

The main western territories (Spain with its overseas colonies and possessions in Italy, as well as the Netherlands) went to his son Philip II (1527 - 1598) , and the eastern ones (Austria, Hungary and Bohemia) - went to his brother Ferdinand (1503 - 1564) .

Since then, with the exception of a few occasional takeoffs, The Habsburg Empire began to fade .
And one of the main reasons for this was probably Charles V .

In 1526 he married the beautiful Isabella of Portugal (1503 - 1539) , who bore him five children, including the future Spanish king Philip II .

Portrait of Isabella of Portugal
works by Titian (1548):

But the whole point is that she was Karl’s cousin. This closely related marriage most likely served as one of the main reasons for the degeneration of the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty.

Charles V and his son Philip II
(Antonio Arias Fernandez, mid-17th century):

And if in the Spanish king Philip II himself the signs of degeneration had not yet fully manifested themselves (at least his policy was quite conscious), then in his descendants the results of incestuous marriages became completely obvious, which was facilitated by the Spanish king himself, who preferred to marry exclusively close ones relatives.

So, first wife Philip II became Maria of Portugal - his cousin (both on his father’s and mother’s side), who gave birth to the monarch’s heir, named Carlos , and died immediately after giving birth. But this heir turned out to be inferior both physically and mentally.

Portrait of the heir of Philip II - Don Carlos
(Alonso Sanchez Coelho, 1558):

In 1568, Don Carlos was arrested personally by his father and placed in solitary confinement. Madrid Alcazar , where he died under unclear circumstances six months later (either he was poisoned on the orders of his father, or died from natural causes).

The Alcazar in Madrid has not survived to this day,
it burned down in 1734 (the Royal Palace is now located in its place),
but, fortunately, we can see what he looked like thanks to contemporary artists:

Second wife Philip II became Queen of England Mary I Tudor , who was his father’s cousin, that is, his aunt (and she was 12 years older than her husband).

Portrait of Mary Tudor by Anthony Mare (1554):

There were no children from this marriage, but even if they were born, they would become heirs not to the Spanish, but to the English throne.

Third wife Philip II French princess Elizabeth Valois as an exception, apparently, she was not his close relative. She bore the king six children, but the boys who could have become heirs to the throne, alas, did not survive, dying immediately after birth. She never left an heir, dying in 1568.

Portrait of Elizabeth of Valois
works by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (1560):

Nevertheless, Philip II did not give up hope of giving birth to an heir and married for the fourth time . And again his chosen one was a close relative - his own maternal niece and the daughter of his paternal cousin - Anna of Austria.

Portrait of Anne of Austria by Giuseppe Arcimbolde (c. 1563):

An heir did emerge from this marriage. He became the king Philip III (1578 - 1627) , who became the first of the incompetent kings of Spain who brought the country to internal decline and foreign policy impotence.

Portrait of Philip III by Franz Purbus the Younger:

Is it any wonder that did the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty end in 1700?
Started in connection with this War of the Spanish Succession ( 1701 - 1714) brought to the Spanish throne Bourbons .

Lasted a little longer Austrian branch of the Habsburgs .

But more about this in next part... (See by tag "Habsburgs" ).

So, to be continued...
Sergey Vorobiev.

The Habsburgs are a dynasty whose representatives held the Spanish throne from 1516 to 1700. It is curious that it was during the reign of the Habsburgs that the coat of arms of Spain was approved: a black eagle (the symbol of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire), around whose head a golden halo shines - a symbol of the sanctity of power. The bird holds a traditional Spanish shield with a semicircular pommel, on which there are red lions (a symbol of power) and Castilian castles (a symbol of state power). On either side of the shield there are two crowns - a memory of the unification of Castile and Aragon, which occurred as a result of the marriage of Isabella I with Ferdinand of Aragon. The coat of arms is topped with the country's motto: "Great and Free."
The history of the Spanish Habsburg line dates back to the moment when the famous royal couple - Isabella I and Ferdinand II of Aragon - became related to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian Habsburg. This happened through the marriages of Infanta Juan (1479-1497) and Infanta Juana (1479-1555) with the children of the emperor in 1496. And although the Spanish crown still belonged to Isabella and Ferdinand, its future fate was predetermined: the infante did not live long and died during his honeymoon, leaving no offspring; the right of succession to the throne thus passed to Juana, the wife of the heir of Emperor Maximilian, Philip the Fair.
Unfortunately, the Spanish kings no longer had legitimate heirs (the illegitimate offspring of Ferdinand II of Aragon were not taken into account), since Infanta Isabella (Portuguese queen, 1470-1498) died in childbirth, and her tiny son Miguel died suddenly in 1500. More one daughter of the royal couple, Maria (1482-1517), became queen of Portugal by marrying the husband of her deceased sister. As for Catherine (1485-1536), she managed to be married to King Henry VIII of England and did not lay claim to the crown.
But the hopes placed on Juana were not justified: the young woman soon after her marriage showed signs of a serious mental disorder. It all started when the newlywed began to fall into severe melancholy, avoided communication with courtiers, and suffered from causeless attacks of furious jealousy. Juana always felt that her husband was neglecting her, and she did not want to meekly endure, like her mother, her husband’s love affairs.
At the same time, the infanta did not just get angry or show dissatisfaction, but fell into a wild rage. When the young couple arrived in Spain in 1502, Isabella I immediately drew attention to the clear signs of darkening of mind in her daughter. She, of course, wanted to find out what this condition could mean for Juana. After listening to the doctors' prognosis of the possible course of the disease, Isabella I made a will in which she appointed her daughter as her heir in Castile (in fact, the queen had no other choice!), but stipulated that King Ferdinand would have to rule on behalf of the Infanta. This condition came into force in the event that Juana was unable to bear the burden of government duties. It is curious that Isabella did not mention her son-in-law, Philip the Handsome, in her will.
But after the death of the queen (1504), when her half-crazed daughter, nicknamed Juana the Mad, ascended the throne, her husband, Philip the Handsome, announced that he would take over the regency. Ferdinand, defeated in palace intrigues, was forced to go to his native Aragon. The situation changed dramatically in 1506, when Isabella's son-in-law unexpectedly followed his mother-in-law into the next world.
Juana by that time could not really rule the country, so Cardinal Cisneros intervened in the affairs of Castile, where anarchy was gaining momentum, and asked Ferdinand of Aragon to return to power and restore order in the state. He had already managed to marry the niece of the King of France, Germaine de Foix, and was going to live out his life in peace at home. But the tragedy of the insane daughter forced the father to once again take on the burden of governing all of Spain. And how could Ferdinand have acted differently when he heard that Juana, not knowing what to do, was traveling around the country with her husband’s corpse?

Whether Juana was truly insane is still debated to this day. Some historians question the fact of the infanta's mental disorder, attributing her antics only to a passionate temperament. However, it is quite difficult to explain the fact that the Queen of Castile ordered the opening of her husband’s coffin several times by other reasons. Experts believe that in this case we need to talk about necrophilia and necromania. In addition, the unfortunate woman clearly suffered from agoraphobia (a disease of open space), avoided human society and often sat for long periods in her room, refusing to go out and let anyone in to her.
Apparently, Ferdinand did not doubt his daughter’s insanity. Although Juana was still considered queen and the question of her deposition was never raised, the disease progressed very quickly, so Ferdinand became regent of Castile. And in 1509, her father sent Juana to Tordesillas Castle - under constant supervision. There, in 1555, the mad queen, who spent half her life in prison, ended her tragic and sorrowful life.
1512 - thanks to the efforts of Ferdinand of Aragon, Navarre was annexed to Castile. When this man died in 1516, Juana, for obvious reasons, did not rule the state; fortunately there was no need to transfer power into the wrong hands: the Spanish crown crowned the grandson of Ferdinand, the first-born of the flawed infanta and Philip the Fair - Charles I of Ghent. It was in 1516 that the Habsburg dynasty officially took the throne of Spain.
Charles I (1500-1558; reigned 1516-1556), christened after Charlemagne, was born in Flanders and spoke Spanish with great difficulty. From birth, he was considered the future heir to a vast kingdom, parts of which were scattered throughout Europe. Although the son of Juana the Mad could hardly have counted on such brilliant prospects if not for the tragic events that took place in this family.
Quite quickly, Charles became the only contender for the Castilian crown. True, at one time he had competitors. Charles's grandfather, Ferdinand of Aragon, married a second time and seriously intended to raise not only his grandchildren, but also his children. But the son of Ferdinand of Aragon and Germaine de Foix, born on May 3, 1509, died almost immediately after birth, and they had no more children.
Karl's father died very early; the mother was unable to rule the country due to insanity, so the grandfather of the heir to the throne, Ferdinand of Aragon, transferred his grandson to be raised in the Netherlands. The boy was to be cared for by his aunt Maria, the wife of Manuel of Portugal.
Having ascended the throne at the age of 16, the young king immediately found himself ruler not only of Castile and Aragon, but also of the Netherlands, Franche-Comté and all the American colonies. True, Charles received the crown under special circumstances: his mother was still considered the queen, so an attempt at the Brussels court to proclaim the son of Juana the Mad as king of Castile and Aragon (March 14, 1516) caused a real riot. The meeting of the Castilian Cortes as early as 1518 did not forget to remind that a mother still has more rights to the throne than her son.
Karl, meanwhile, quickly received a “promotion.” 1519 - he lost another relative - his grandfather Maximilian, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and inherited this title as the eldest man in the family. Thus, King Charles I turned into Emperor Charles V, and Spain, Naples, Sicily, Austria, the Spanish colonies in the New World, as well as the Habsburg possessions in the Netherlands came under his rule.
As a result, Spain became a world power, and its king, accordingly, became the most powerful ruler in Europe. However, after his election as emperor, Charles faced another problem: the new title was higher than the previous one, and therefore was called first when listing titles. However, in Castile they continued to put Juana's name first. Then a compromise was invented for official documents: Charles, called the “King of Rome,” came first, and then the Queen of Castile. Only in 1521, after the suppression of the uprising of the Castilian cities, the name of the unfortunate madwoman completely disappeared from the documents, although for a long time the king ruled under the living mother-queen, whom no one declared deposed.
In the state itself, Karl could not boast of particular popularity and love of his subjects. The monarch appointed his supporters (Flemings and Burgundians) to key positions, and made the Archbishop of Toledo regent during his absence. All the time that Charles was on the throne, Spain was constantly involved in solving problems that had a very distant relation to its national interests, but were directly related to the strengthening of the Habsburg power in Europe.
It was for this reason that the wealth of Spain and its army were thrown into suppressing the Lutheran heresy in Germany, fighting the Turks in the Mediterranean and the French in the Rhineland and Italy. The Spanish monarch clearly had no luck with either the Germans or the Turks; The Spanish military operations against France, having begun triumphantly, ended in painful defeat. Things were successful only with church reforms. Through the efforts of Charles in 1545-1563, the Council of Triden was able to carry out a number of significant changes and additions to church regulations.
Despite the many difficulties that the Spanish monarch encountered at the beginning of his reign, he quickly figured out what was going on, and within a few years he had gained a reputation as a capable and wise king.

1556 - Charles abdicated the throne in favor of his son Philip. The Austrian possessions of the crown passed to the brother of the former ruler, Ferdinand, and Spain, the Netherlands, lands in Italy and America went to Philip II (ruled 1556-1598). Despite the fact that the new monarch was of German origin, he was born and raised in Spain, therefore he was a Spaniard to the core. It was this Habsburg who proclaimed Madrid the capital of Spain; He himself spent his entire life in the medieval castle of Escurial, where he said goodbye to his loved ones for the last time.
Philip II, of course, lacked the reckless courage that distinguished his father, but he was distinguished by prudence, prudence and incredible perseverance in achieving his goal. In addition, Philip II was in unshakable confidence that the Lord himself had entrusted him with the mission of establishing Catholicism in Europe, and therefore he tried his best to fulfill his destiny.
Despite his sincere desire to work for the good of the country, the new monarch was catastrophically unlucky. The series of failures lasted for many years. Too harsh policies in the Netherlands led to a revolution that began in 1566. As a result, Spain lost power over the northern part of the Netherlands.
The Spanish king tried to draw England into the Habsburg sphere of influence, but to no avail; Moreover, English sailors started a real pirate war with Spanish traders, and Queen Elizabeth clearly supported the rebel Dutch. This greatly irritated Philip II and prompted him to take up the creation of the famous Invincible Armada, whose task was to land troops in England.
Philip maintained correspondence with the Queen of Scotland, the Catholic Mary Stuart, promising her full support in the fight against her English relative, the Protestant Elizabeth I. And it is not known how the future fate of England might have developed if the formidable Spanish Armada had not been defeated in 1588 by British in several naval battles. After this, Philip's power forever lost its supremacy at sea.
The King of Spain actively intervened in the French religious wars, so that Henry IV, being a Huguenot, could not calmly sit on the French throne. But after he converted to Catholicism, Philip was forced to withdraw Spanish troops and recognize the new king of France.
The only thing that Habsburg could boast of was the annexation of Portugal to the Spanish possessions (1581). The monarch did not need any special valor for this, because he received the Portuguese crown by inheritance. After the death of King Sebastian, Philip II laid claim to the Portuguese throne; since he had good reasons to claim this crown, there were no people willing to argue with him. It is curious that the Spanish monarchs held Portugal for only 60 years. At the first opportunity, its inhabitants chose to leave the rule of the Habsburgs.
In addition to the annexation of Portugal, a major achievement of Philip II's policy was the brilliant naval victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto (1571). It was this battle that undermined the naval power of the Ottoman dynasty; after it, the Turks were never able to restore their influence on the sea.
In Spain, Philip did not change the existing administrative system; he only strengthened it as best he could and centralized his power. However, the reluctance to carry out reforms led to the fact that many of the orders and instructions of Philip II himself were often not carried out, simply getting bogged down in the jungle of an extensive bureaucracy.
Philip's piety led to the unprecedented strengthening of such a terrible machine as the notorious Spanish Inquisition. Under this king, the Cortes were convened extremely rarely, and in the last decade of the reign of Philip II, the cornered Spaniards were generally forced to renounce most of their freedoms.
Philip II could not claim to be the guarantor of the rights and freedoms of his subjects, because he more than once retreated from his word and violated the laws and agreements he himself approved. So, in 1568, the monarch gave permission for the persecution of the so-called Moriscos - forcibly baptized Muslims. Naturally, they responded with rebellion. It was possible to suppress the Morisco protests only after three years and with great difficulty. As a result, the Moriscos, who previously controlled a significant part of the trade in the southern part of the country, were evicted to the barren interior regions of Spain.
Thus, Philip II brought Spain to a crisis. Although it was considered a great world power in 1598, it was in fact two steps away from disaster: the international ambitions and obligations of the House of Habsburg had almost completely exhausted the country's resources. The income of the kingdom and receipts from the colonies amounted to a huge amount and seemed incredible in the 16th century, but Charles V, despite this, managed to leave his successor no less incredible debts.
It got to the point that Philip II was forced twice during his reign - in 1557 and 1575 - to declare his country bankrupt! And because he did not want to reduce expenses and refused to reform the tax system, Philip’s economic policy caused enormous harm to Spain. The government in the last years of the life of the stubborn Philip barely made ends meet; Spain's short-sighted financial policy and negative trade balance (achieved through his own efforts) dealt a powerful blow to trade and industry.
Particularly harmful was the continuous influx of precious metals into the country from the New World. Such “wealth” led to the fact that in Spain it became especially profitable to sell goods, but buying, on the contrary, was unprofitable, because prices in the country were many times higher than in Europe. The 10% tax on trade turnover, which was one of the main sources of income for the Spanish treasury, helped to completely collapse the economy of the once powerful state.
Naturally, Philip III (reigned 1598-1621), who received the kingdom in such a deplorable state, could not improve the difficult situation in the Spanish economy. The next Habsburg, Philip IV (reigned 1621-1665), failed to improve the situation. Nevertheless, they both tried to the best of their ability to overcome the difficulties that they inherited from their predecessor.
Philip III, in particular, was able to make peace with England in 1604, and in 1609 he signed a truce with the Dutch for 12 years. Although both of Spain's main opponents were neutralized for a time, this did not greatly affect the state's economy, because the king was distinguished by exorbitant spending on lavish entertainment and on his many favorites.
In addition, in 1609-1614, the monarch completely expelled the descendants of the Moors - the Moriscos (Mudejars) from the country, thereby depriving Spain of more than a quarter of a million (!) of its most hardworking citizens. Many of the Moriscos were strong farmers, and their expulsion accelerated the onset of an agricultural crisis in the state.
Charles II - the last of the Habsburgs
In general, by the middle of the 17th century, Spain, again on the verge of state bankruptcy, had lost its former prestige and lost a considerable part of its possessions in Europe. The loss of the northern Netherlands had a particularly hard impact on the country's economy. And when in 1618 Emperor Ferdinand II did not get along with Czech Protestants and the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) broke out in Germany, in which many European states were involved, Spain took the side of the Austrian Habsburgs - thus Philip III hoped to regain the Netherlands.
And although the monarch’s aspirations were not destined to be justified (instead, the country acquired new huge debts, continuing to decline), his son and successor, Philip IV, adhered to the same policy. At first, the Spanish army achieved some success in the battles for unknown whose ideals; Philip IV owed this to the famous general Ambrogio Di Spinola, an excellent strategist and tactician. However, Spain's military happiness turned out to be very fragile. Since 1640, Spain suffered one defeat after another.
The situation was complicated by uprisings in Catalonia and Portugal: the huge gap between the wealth of the royal court and the poverty of the masses gave rise to many conflicts. One of them, the rebellion in Catalonia, gained such momentum that it required the concentration of all Spanish military forces. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the current situation, Portugal achieved the restoration of its own independence: in 1640, a group of conspirators seized power in Lisbon. The Spanish king did not have the slightest opportunity to cope with the rebels, so in 1668 Spain was forced to recognize the independence of Portugal.
Only in 1648, at the end of the Thirty Years' War, did the subjects of Philip IV receive greater respite; at that time, Spain continued to fight only with France. The end to this conflict was put in 1659, when both sides signed the Iberian Peace.
The last ruler of the Habsburg dynasty in Spain was the sickly, nervous and suspicious Charles II, who reigned from 1665-1700. His reign did not leave a noticeable mark on Spanish history. Because Charles II left no heirs and died childless, after his death the crown of Spain passed to the French Prince Philip, Duke of Anjou. The King of Spain himself appointed him as his successor, stipulating that henceforth the crowns of France and Spain would be separated forever. The Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV and great-grandson of Philip III, became the first representative of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon. The Habsburg royal family in Spain thus ceased to exist.
M. Pankova

1. Austria

The Habsburg monarchy, formed in the 15th-16th centuries. in the middle Danube basin, was a multinational state that included German, Slavic and Hungarian lands of Central Europe. Throughout this period, the Habsburg Monarchy had to defend itself against formidable Turkish invasions. Only towards the end of the 17th century. the Turkish danger was eliminated. After the Turkish invasion in the 70-80s of this century ended in their complete defeat, the Habsburgs themselves went on the offensive on the eastern borders. Now their hands were free to intensify their policies in Western Europe.

Expansion of the possessions of the House of Habsburg

According to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 with the Turks, the Austrian Habsburgs received Eastern Hungary and Transylvania, as well as Croatia and part of Slovenia - Slavic lands, which were called the “military border”. Somewhat later, according to the Peace of Utrecht and Rastatt, as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish Netherlands, as well as extensive possessions in Italy: Lombardy with Milan, Naples and Sardinia, went to Austria. Southern Italian provinces by the middle of the 18th century. were completely lost by the Habsburgs, but the northern Italian possessions remained in their hands until the second half of the 19th century. According to the Peace of Pozarevac (Passarovitsa) of 1718, Austria received a number of more lands from Turkey - Banat, the rest of Slavonia, Northern Bosnia, a significant part of Serbia with Belgrade and part of Wallachia. Most of these lands, however, were soon also lost (according to the Peace of Belgrade in 1739), but the influence of Austria on the Balkan Peninsula still remained in the following decades.

As a result of the first division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, Polish and Ukrainian lands were added to the numerous possessions of the Habsburgs. As a result of all these annexations, the national composition of the Austrian state began to be distinguished by extraordinary diversity. At least up to two dozen different peoples were part of the Austrian monarchy in the 18th century: Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Carpathian and Galician Ukrainians, Poles, Serbs, Croats, Hungarians, Romanians, Italians and others, and in the general population Slavic peoples occupied first place in number.

Centralization of management and bureaucratization of the state apparatus

Annexed to Austria by force, as a result of wars and complex diplomatic intrigues (in particular, through the Habsburgs using their position as a dynasty from which the Holy Roman Emperors were invariably chosen), the peoples of the Habsburg Monarchy increasingly felt their disenfranchised position and the incompatibility of their national interests with the interests of the dominant Austrian class. However, the class solidarity of feudal lords of all nationalities in suppressing peasant unrest, which stretched almost continuously through the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as the emergence of more or less stable economic ties between individual parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, the transformation in the 18th century. Vienna to a major economic center of the Danube basin - all this determined the relative strength of the Austrian multinational state.

Market Square in Vienna. Engraving by S. Kleiner

Centralizing tendencies in Habsburg policy especially intensified from the second half of the 17th century. Having been defeated in the struggle for dominance in Europe, the Austrian Habsburgs, at the end of the Thirty Years' War, concentrated all their efforts on the most important task of strengthening the political unity of their diverse possessions.

The solution to this problem was primarily to strengthen the Catholic reaction. Imperial decrees 1651-1657 ordered the forced conversion of Protestants to Catholicism and the merciless persecution of those who persisted. Leopold I (1658-1705) pursued a policy of Catholic reaction in the Hungarian and Slavic lands.

In the last decades of the 17th century. The Habsburgs strengthened the previously existing central government institutions in Vienna and created new ones: the State Council, the Royal Chancellery, the Military Council under the Emperor, the College of Commerce, etc. Their activities reveal the same desire to subordinate the provincial administration to their full control, which was observed in the German principalities. However, the centralization and bureaucratization of the apparatus did not achieve such success here as, for example, in Brandenburg. Despite the efforts of the Habsburgs, their hereditary lands for a long time retained the features of feudal fragmentation: the historically established privileges of the provinces; special provincial landtags and diets, which constrained the actions of the central government in the field of finance; provincial governors, elected by the estates from the ranks of the local aristocracy; customs barriers between provinces, etc.

Mercantilism policy

Among the various areas of the Austrian multinational state, economic hegemony in the second half of the 17th century. and the first half of the 18th century. increasingly moved to Austria proper. However, compared not only with England, Holland, France, but even with some German principalities, Austria was an economically backward country. Austrian industry was concentrated mainly in Vienna and generally in the Lower Austria region. She wore it until the end of the 17th century. mainly still of a craft nature and was relatively poorly developed. In Vienna, with its population of 100 thousand, there were by the end of the 17th century. a total of 1,679 masters and 4,111 apprentices, and the first place in number was occupied by representatives of such professions as gardeners, tailors, jewelers, etc. Manufacture, not only of a centralized type, but also of a dispersed type, was just beginning to develop by this time.

Market relations were not widespread. Austria's communication even with neighboring provinces - Styria, Carinthia, Carinthia and Tyrol - was difficult due to the lack of good roads. Austria exported relatively few of its industrial products abroad. On the contrary, industrial raw materials and semi-finished products - wool, flax, yarn, ore - were exported freely and in significant quantities to other countries, to the detriment of the development of Austrian industry.

Nevertheless, a number of facts testified to the beginning of economic shifts. Village domestic industry at the beginning of the 18th century. to a certain extent, it was already connected with buyers who, purchasing its products, partly exported these goods (for example, yarn) abroad. Along with the old ones (mirror, glass), new industries arose: porcelain, furniture, paper.

Particularly characteristic during this period was the growth of large commercial capital, which sought to obtain from the government a monopoly not only in the field of trade, but also in the field of industrial production. The government, for fiscal purposes, was very willing to sell patents for monopoly trade in certain goods. Almost all Austrian large-scale trade, especially foreign trade, was concentrated in the hands of a few capitalists - appaltators. Large merchants and aristocrats close to the court sought to acquire patents that brought large profits. Trade and industrial companies in Austria played a large role in the accumulation of capital. But the system of monopolies retarded the growth of small and medium-sized capital employed directly in production, despite the fact that the government, based on fiscal interests and military-economic needs, pursued a policy of encouraging industry and allocated some, however insignificant, part of state funds for the development of large capitalist production.

The young Austrian bourgeoisie brought forward theoreticians of this policy from among itself. Back in the 60s and 70s of the 17th century. In Austria, a large number of writers appeared who promoted the then fashionable “national economy”, developed the ideas of mercantilism, and defended the idea of ​​​​the need to create and encourage domestic large-scale industrial production. The most prominent representatives of Austrian mercantilism of this time were: Philipp Wilhelm von Hernigk (1638-1713), Johann Joachim Becher (1635-1682) and Wilhelm Schröder (1640 - 1688).

In Hernigk’s “Ten Rules of Mercantilism,” one encounters both the old demands of the mercantilists (prohibition of the export of gold and silver, the search primarily for foreign markets) and new provisions aimed at developing the country’s own large industry (prohibition of the import of foreign industrial goods if they can be produced in your country, stopping the export of raw materials, etc.).

Hernigk, Becher and Schroeder were not only theorists, but also practitioners who (especially the last two) as senior officials enjoyed a certain influence at the Viennese court. Hernigk in his works criticized the government for its passivity, lethargy and indecisiveness in matters of “national economy”. Becher and Schröder, closer to the court, created some large enterprises with the direct support of the government. Becher founded the Eastern Trading Company, which in turn organized a number of manufactories that produced silk threads, stockings, ribbons, silk and woolen fabrics, linen, velvet, shoes, and mirrors. The labor of workers in centralized manufactory was widely combined with the use of home workers. The number of the latter even slightly exceeded the number of manufacturing workers in the proper sense of the word. The company also included private individuals as shareholders. This half-state, half-private company did not last long, however. It collapsed partly due to insufficient support from the state, partly due to the low economic level of the country and the dominance of the guild organization of crafts and trade.

Important for the economic development of Austria in the first half of the 18th century. had such measures as the founding of a state bank in Vienna in 1703, the construction of a number of highways connecting Vienna with the Adriatic Sea, Carinthia, Styria and Tyrol, the construction of sea harbors in Fiume and Trieste, and the founding of a number of new trading companies. At this time, the Austrian East India Company was also created, which existed, however, for a very short time and did not achieve any noticeable success. The organization of bank credit and control over exports and imports were carried out by the Austrian government more or less consistently, especially in the second half of the 18th century, during the period of “enlightened absolutism.”

Agrarian system

In Austria itself in the 18th century. Personal serfdom no longer existed. The peasants for the most part were free Chiishevik holders who sat on the land of secular and spiritual lords and paid them cash rent. In this regard, the position of the peasants in the Austrian countryside was somewhat more favorable compared to the position of the peasants in the Czech Republic, Hungary, as well as Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, in which serfdom dominated. Since in Austria proper peasants and feudal lords belonged to the same nationality, the national oppression that was felt in many other provinces of the Habsburg Monarchy did not exist here. In an Austrian village of the 18th century. Peasant farming is increasingly connected with the market. The elite of the peasants who traded and founded industrial establishments stands out; they exploited the labor of farm laborers and artisans. At the same time, there is a growing stratum of poor people in the countryside, who are completely or partially deprived of the opportunity to run an independent household. Many of these poor peasants were engaged in crafts, working for buyers and manufacturers.

However, even in the Austrian countryside, feudal oppression was felt quite strongly. The nobility was the owner of the overwhelming majority of arable land, forests, meadows, etc. In addition to the chinsha, the feudal lords collected a number of other taxes and payments from the peasants. Corvée has also been preserved (10-12 days a year). Peasants were subject to numerous government taxes. Landowners, not content with receiving feudal rent, seized peasant plots and especially communal lands and forests. The estates of the Austrian nobles developed mines, salt mines, had breweries and vodka factories, as well as spinning and weaving factories. The nobleman, owning an industrial enterprise and possessing various privileges, suppressed with his competition the emerging merchant and peasant manufacture and craft. Quite often, noble entrepreneurs combined the exploitation of hired labor with the use of forced labor; obliging dependent peasants to work in their manufactory, they partly counted this work to them as corvee, and partly paid them reduced wages, as a kind of “obligated” workers. Although the Austrian peasants, as already noted, were not personally dependent, the lords had in their hands such methods of non-economic coercion as class noble rights, for example, the right to demand that the sons and daughters of peasants work as farm laborers or servants in a noble estate.

Like the French and West German peasantry, Austrian peasants in the 18th century. They also suffered greatly from usury, the spread of which was facilitated by the growing shortage of land, the oppression of state taxes, and the increase in seigneurial monetary exactions.

Pragmatic sanction

The Habsburg possessions were a conglomeration of lands that for a long time lacked uniformity in administration. The Habsburg state did not even have a specific name. By Austria we meant only Austria in the narrow sense, that is, the former Eastern, or Austrian, mark. To designate the entire Habsburg monarchy, a descriptive expression was used: “The hereditary possessions of the House of Habsburg.” There was no specific law on the inheritance of these possessions. The question was unclear what would happen to the lands of the monarchy in the event of the end of the Habsburg dynasty. This question became especially acute at the beginning of the 18th century, when Emperor Charles VI (1711 - 1740), having no sons, had to legitimize the transfer of his possessions to his descendants through the female line. The new law on succession to the throne, issued in 1713, was called the Pragmatic Sanction. He established that the “hereditary lands of the House of Habsburg” are indivisible and pass as a whole by inheritance to the eldest son of the deceased king or, in the absence of sons, to his eldest daughter. Based on this law, Charles VI's eldest daughter Maria Theresa was proclaimed heir to the throne, and her husband Francis I Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, was elected Holy Roman Emperor under the name Franz I.

Charles VI took all measures to ensure that the Pragmatic Sanction was recognized by all class representative assemblies in the lands of the Austrian Monarchy, as well as by foreign governments. Nevertheless, the new order of succession gave the Prussian king Frederick II a reason to attack Silesia and seize it. Thus began the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740, which was unsuccessful for Austria.

The Peace of Aachen in 1748 guaranteed Austria Pragmatic Sanction, but Prussia received international recognition of its rights to most of Silesia. The Seven Years' War against Prussia (1756-1763), which followed soon after, ended with the separation of this entire province from Austria. Feudal fragmentation and weak ties between the various lands of the Habsburg Monarchy were one of the main reasons for its military failures. The absence of a unified army, disordered financial organization, insufficient development of industry, the feudal-serf system in most provinces, the undisguised hatred of the oppressed peoples for the rule of the Habsburgs and Austrian feudal lords - all this inevitably had to lead to defeat.

Austrian “enlightened absolutism” and reforms of the second half of the 18th century.

Austria's failures in two major wars made clear to the ruling circles the urgency of reform. These reforms, carried out during the reign of Maria Theresa (1740 - 1780) and her son Joseph II (1780 - 1790), are very characteristic of the policy of “enlightened absolutism”. As in other countries, “enlightened absolutism” in Austria carried out reforms in the interests of the ruling class of nobles and made only minimal concessions to the rising bourgeoisie. The government sought only to eliminate the most crude feudal institutions that hindered the development of the country. The most important of the measures taken was military reform, the need for which was felt especially acutely. In 1748, shortly after the end of the first Austro-Prussian War, a new military recruitment procedure was introduced in the country. Recruitment was carried out according to special mobilization lists in the newly created military districts. Recruits were supposed to serve for life. Thus, the size of the army increased significantly and uniformity was introduced into its recruitment.

The army reform was of a class nature. Recruits were recruited mainly from the poorest people. The nobility, clergy, intelligentsia (teachers, doctors, officials), as well as merchants and entrepreneurs were not subject to recruitment. A wealthy peasant could also be exempt from military service, who was given the right to hire a “hunter” in his place. In the transformed army, soldiers were subjected to increased military drill; whipping was widespread. The number of officers has increased greatly. As before the reform, the officer cadre consisted primarily of nobles with an insignificant layer of people from the bourgeoisie. To train officers, a Military Academy was founded in Vienna - the so-called Teresianum (named after Maria Theresa). By the 80s of the 18th century. the number of the Austrian army was increased to 278 thousand people, i.e. it significantly exceeded the number of the Prussian army.

The government also paid great attention to financial reform. In an effort to increase tax revenue, Maria Theresa passed a law on a general income tax, from which the nobility and the church were not exempt. At the same time, for the same fiscal purposes, a general population census was carried out, and a beginning was made for the statistical recording of land, livestock and other movable and immovable property. In 1775, many internal trade duties were abolished, while the duties imposed on foreign trade were increased. Both Maria Theresa and Joseph II consistently applied the principle of mercantilism, setting high duties on foreign industrial products and low duties on imported raw materials. The export abroad of such types of industrial raw materials as flax, wool, and metals was completely prohibited.

In order to encourage industry, the government of “enlightened absolutism” exempted new industrial establishments from taxes for up to ten years. Technical and vocational schools were established to train skilled workers; To train engineering and technical personnel, a Mining Academy, a Trade Academy, and special technical and agricultural schools were organized in Vienna.

Judicial reforms occupied a large place in the activities of Maria Theresa and Joseph II. They limited the seigneurial arbitrariness against the peasants. Judicial functions were declared the exclusive prerogative of the state. New criminal and civil codes were developed (1768), judicial torture was abolished (1776), and the use of the death penalty was limited. Criminals imprisoned were forced to work in craft workshops or factories.

At this time, the beginning of secular lower and secondary general education was also laid in Austria. The University of Vienna, previously entirely under the influence and control of the Catholic Church, was reorganized and became secular.

Partly under Maria Theresa, and especially under Joseph II, a number of measures were taken in Austria that significantly limited the privileges of the Catholic Church: numerous monasteries were closed, partial secularization of church lands was carried out, and the Jesuits were expelled from Austrian possessions. On the other hand, laws on the persecution of Protestants (in particular, the “Czech brothers”, etc.) were repealed, and Protestant communities received freedom of religious worship. The administration of the Catholic Church in the Habsburg lands, in particular the church's use of its income, was brought under the control of officials. Despite these measures to limit the privileges of the Catholic Church as a special corporation, it continued to remain a great force in the Austrian monarchy. By subjugating the church, the government sought to take advantage of its material resources and its ideological influence on the masses as widely as possible.

The reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II did not at all weaken the national contradictions of the Habsburg monarchy. On the contrary, they aggravated them even more, worsening the legal position of non-German nationalities. Forced introduction of German as a single official language in all provinces, preference for persons of German origin in military and civil service, abolition of local (provincial) privileges and features in the field of court, administration and taxes, encouragement of the growth of German noble landownership and German capital in dependent lands - all this made the Czechs and other Slavs, as well as Hungarians, Italians and other nationalities, feel their inferior position even more strongly. Ultimately, the policy of centralization, which was the essence of the reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II, not only failed to overcome the decentralizing tendencies caused by the presence of numerous nationalities, but even strengthened centrifugal forces. This was facilitated by the formation in the Habsburg monarchy, in the context of the beginning of the transition of the entire country from feudalism to capitalism, of bourgeois nations with their own national cultures. By the end of the 18th century. national contradictions became the main source of weakness of the Austrian state.

The reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II did not resolve the agrarian question. Serfdom was preserved in the vast majority of Habsburg lands. Government measures on this issue were of an indecisive, compromise nature (the liberation of peasants in a number of lands from personal dependence, etc.), but even in such a moderate form they met with sharp opposition from the nobility and in fact remained unrealized.

Culture

In the 18th century Austria has taken a leading place in the development of musical culture. European opera, as a result of two centuries of development, reached its peak in the work of Viennese composers - Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 - 1782) and Wolfgang Amedee Mozart (1756 - 1791). Classical symphony and classical chamber music were created by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and the brilliant Mozart.

When they talk about the classical style in music (in the sense of a certain direction, along with romanticism, impressionism, etc.), they mean primarily the Viennese classical school, represented by the names of Haydn and Mozart, and in the 19th century - Beethoven. Gluck also largely belonged to this school.

In other areas of culture, Austria in the 18th century. made a smaller contribution, although during this period Austrian literature, theater, fine arts, scientific thought and practical medicine did not remain aloof from the general development. In the field of medicine, the introduction in 1761 by the Viennese physician L. Auenbrugger of percussion, a method for examining the internal organs of a patient by tapping on the body, giving a sound indicator, was important. The two old Austrian universities, which existed from 1365 in Vienna and from 1585 in Graz, were joined in 1677 by a new university in Innsbruck. In the 18th century Journalism has developed significantly. Since 1724, an official organ, the Vienna Gazette, began to be published; The Viennese humorous sheet "Spatzvogel" appeared. Enlightenment ideas penetrate into Austrian literature and journalism. Along with the spread of sentimental poetry, parody literature comes into fashion, ridiculing the poetic forms of classicism.

Theater occupied a large place in the spiritual life of Austria. In the 17th century theater and dramatic literature were influenced by the Jesuits. But at the beginning of the new century, realistic tendencies intensified in theatrical art and drama, mainly under the influence of folk theater. They received their most vivid expression in the activities of Joseph Anton Stranitzky (1676-1727), a Czech by birth, an outstanding actor and playwright, the leader of the troupe, which after 1712 became the first stationary folk theater in Vienna.

Italian opera dominated the court theater in Vienna. Here a complete type of magnificent decorative musical performance in the Baroque style on a mythological plot has matured. This type of theatrical performance became a model for all European court opera stages of the 18th century. In this century, many famous Italian artists worked in Vienna - composers, singers, instrumentalists, choreographers, famous librettists of the Italian sickle opera (grand, “serious” opera) - Apostolo Zeno and Pietro Metastasio, the most prominent representative of the family of theater artists and architects - Fernando Galli -Bibiena.

The period of “enlightened absolutism” was marked by the opening of the Burg Theater in Vienna (1748), in which, along with foreign, mainly Italian, troupes, Austrian dramatic actors began to perform, as well as the establishment of the “National Singspiel” (1778), where musical plays like comic opera. However, the development of national drama was hampered by the theater's dependence on the tastes of the imperial court and aristocracy, and only decades later the Burgtheater grew into the largest center of dramatic art in Austria.

From the beginning of the 18th century. Vienna is surrounded by a wide belt of aristocratic palaces, distinguished by their unique elegant architecture; among them are the Schönbrunn Palace, built by Fischer von Erlach (1656-1723), the palaces of the Belvedere Park (architect Lucas Hildebrandt, 1668-1745). Decorative sculpture, sculptural portraits, decorative painting, and landscapes are receiving significant development.

But all these successes were eclipsed by the world fame of the musical art of Austria. This glory was earned by the great Viennese composers. Their life was not easy, their creative activity encountered obstacles, they had to defend their artistic ideals in a stubborn struggle with the conservative tastes of the court camarilla and clerical circles. Gluck, who began the reform of opera and ballet in Vienna (operas “Orpheus and Eurydice” - 1762, “Alceste” - 1767, “Paris and Helen” - 1770, ballet “Don Juan” - 1761), did not find support here and was forced to move his activities to Paris. Haydn served as conductor for the Viennese magnate Esterhazy for almost 30 years and suffered due to his forced position. He created his best symphonies in Paris and London; In England, under the impression of Handel’s oratorios he heard, his new oratorio style arose.

The fate of Mozart was tragic. After several years of humiliating dependence on the Salzburg archbishop, he settled in Vienna as an independent, but financially completely unsecured artist. He had to experience material need, and he died very young, in the full bloom of his creative powers.

The art of Gluck, Haydn and Mozart - coming from the people - is imbued with a deeply democratic spirit and reflects the progressive humanistic ideas of the Enlightenment.

The principles of Gluck's opera reform were formed under the direct influence of the social views of the Enlightenment and were akin to many of the most important principles of the aesthetics of Diderot, Winckelmann and Lessing. Gluck is the creator of a new musical tragedy, in which ancient images served as a form for expressing the ideals of civil and moral valor. Simplicity and truthfulness, drama, ideological aspiration, integrity of artistic concept - these are the foundations of his operatic style, which was completed in the Parisian period of his work (“Iphigenia in Aulis”, “Armida”, “Iphigenia in Tauris”).

Haydn's music is directly related to folk art: it uses melodies, intonations, rhythms of folk songs and dances of various nationalities of the Austrian Monarchy. Haydn raised the symphony, as well as the most important genres of chamber music (quartets, trios, sonatas) to the highest level of classical art and at the same time democratized them and made them accessible to the public. Haydn's music is characterized by cheerfulness, naturalness, imagery, humor, and closeness to folk life. The apotheosis of peasant labor and a hymn to nature was his picturesque oratorio “The Seasons” (1801).

Mozart is a universal musical nature. Creator of the best symphonies of the 18th century. - G minor and C major (“Jupiter”), the founder of the modern piano concerto, the author of the unsurpassed “Requiem”, rich in content quintets, quartets, orchestral music, Mozart was at the same time the greatest musical playwright. Based on the previous types of comic, serious and fairy-tale opera, Mozart created new opera genres of a realistic style - comedy opera (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786), drama opera (Don Giovanni, 1787) and philosophical fairy tale opera (The Magic Flute, 1791).

Mozart had a cherished idea: to create a national opera house. The dominance of Italian opera forced the composer to use Italian librettos for most of his operas, including Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni; he did not want to establish musical theater in his native language. “And how they would love me if I helped raise the German national music scene!” - he says in one of his letters to his father. With contempt and anger, Mozart wrote about the aristocracy, alien to national dignity and bowing to foreign fashion. With his last opera, The Magic Flute, he made an invaluable contribution to the creation of German opera.

At the end of the 18th century. Ludwig van Beethoven began working in Vienna. His heroic musical style is a reflection of the revolutionary era and belongs to the new, 19th century.

2. Czech Republic

Economic development of the Czech Republic in the second half of the 17th century.

The Thirty Years' War caused serious damage to the Czech Republic. During the hostilities, many cities were devastated, and those that survived were in decline. The feudal reaction that began after 1620 led to mass emigration from the Czech Republic. Many skilled craftsmen left the country, but those who remained in their homeland were ruined by confiscations and war indemnities and eked out a miserable existence, not having a sufficient market to sell their goods either in the cities, much less in the devastated villages. Under conditions of serfdom and the dominance of natural economic relations, the peasantry had very low purchasing power. The privileges of the feudal lords, whose position strengthened during the period of reaction, also harmed the interests of the cities.

A direct violation of the ancient rights of cities was the organization of auctions in the lord's towns. Some lords paved new roads for these auctions and prohibited peasants, under threat of severe punishment, from selling agricultural products in cities.

The townspeople were subject to numerous state taxes (the constant berna, which in the 17th century also received the name of indemnity; the duty on crafts and trade, established in 1654, etc.). The tax paid by cities on the lands they owned was very burdensome.

Politically, Czech cities were completely powerless. City self-government was preserved only formally. All power in the cities was concentrated in the hands of royal officials, mostly of German nationality.

From the end of the 17th century. Centralized manufactories using the labor of civilian workers appeared in the Czech countryside. Such manufactories first appeared in textile and glass production. But dispersed manufacture was most widespread during this period. Many peasants, due to a lack of land, excessive taxes and levies, were forced to seek help in non-agricultural labor, in particular in home weaving. The richest peasants (village elders, innkeepers, etc.) bought their products from village spinners and weavers for resale. By delivering raw materials to weavers on credit and making advances, buyers economically subjugated small commodity producers. They entered into agreements with feudal lords for the right to sell linen in their domains, subject to the deduction of a certain duty in favor of the lord. Thus, during the period of the emergence of capitalist industry in the Czech Republic, the exploitation of peasants by capitalist buyers played a huge role.

In the second half of the 17th century. Along with the decline of the petty nobility, the intensive growth of large landownership continued. The feudal estate was increasingly drawn into the process of commodity production. Czech feudal lords exported their goods (grain, wool) to various European countries, especially to Northern Germany. At the same time, they sought to prevent the penetration of foreign merchants into the Czech Republic, organizing auctions mainly at the borders of the state.

The situation of the peasants

The expansion of the master's economy required additional labor, which could only be obtained by strengthening the corvée system. The natural consequence of this was a new sharp deterioration in the position of the peasantry, already devastated by the Thirty Years' War. It was during this period that the process known as the “second edition of serfdom” reached the highest point of its development in the Czech Republic.

Documents characterizing the situation in the Czech countryside in the second half of the 17th century indicate that peasants had to perform burdensome corvee labor.

As a result of the stratification of the peasantry by the middle of the 17th century. more than half of the peasant households had plots of less than 10 strykhs (about 3 hectares). Most of the other plots did not exceed 30 plots (about 8 hectares) per yard. With regard to the size of allotments, the old feudal division into sedlyaks, khalupniks, etc. loses its significance, remaining only as a relic and no longer influencing the size of feudal duties.

In 1680, Emperor Leopold I issued the so-called Corvee Patent, which limited corvée work to three days a week, but this patent was not actually enforced. The peasant was cruelly exploited by both the lord and the state, who levied a tax on him, which increased sixfold in 100 years, from the mid-17th to the mid-18th century.

Having concentrated judicial and administrative functions in their hands, the feudal lords entangled the peasants with numerous prohibitions, restrictions, etc. The peasants were forbidden to: leave the estate, marry without the permission of the lords, send their children to learn a craft, carry and generally have weapons, hunt, fish, collect brushwood from former communal lands; they were obliged to grind grain at the master's mill, bake bread in the master's bakery, and buy beer only at the lord's tavern. The peasant was ordered to present his children to the feudal lord when they reached the age of ten, so that the lord could choose his servants from among them. The feudal lord retained the right to posthumous exaction. Violations of the rules established by the lord were punishable by fines and corporal punishment, even the death penalty.

Catholic reaction

One of the consequences of the Czech defeat in the Thirty Years' War was the strengthening of the Catholic reaction. In March 1651, the emperor approved a project for carrying out a counter-reformation in the Czech Republic, which provided for the confiscation of the property of all non-Catholics and declared Catholicism the only legal religion. Protestant Czechs were threatened with cruel punishments, including expulsion and death. Protestant books were taken from the population and burned, and punitive troops were sent to villages and towns. Religious persecution caused a new wave of emigration. After 1651, more than 30 thousand people fled and were expelled from the Czech Republic. All progressive Czech professors were expelled from the University of Prague. The university came under the leadership of the Jesuit order, who treated the memory of John Hus and the Hussites with particular hatred. The Jesuits systematically destroyed Czech works that had survived from this time and called for the struggle for national independence. The best representatives of the Czech intelligentsia were exterminated or forced to emigrate. Among those who left the Czech Republic in the middle of the 17th century. There were the greatest teacher Jan Amos Comenius, the historian Pavel Stransky and many others.

Anti-feudal movement

The severe social and religious oppression that raged in the Czech Republic during and in the first decades after the Thirty Years' War led to an intensification of the class and liberation struggles. The main force opposing feudal oppression was the peasantry. The main reason for his discontent was the strengthening of serfdom. The feudal lords often still managed to force the peasants to carry out their previous duties, but attempts to introduce additional corvée aroused resistance. Mass escapes of peasants became a frequent occurrence; going into the forests, they united in armed groups (the so-called slaughter), attacked lords and merchants and shared the captured goods with the poor.

In 1679-1680 The peasant movement began in the Frydlantsky Panate (in Northern Bohemia), and then it spread to a number of other regions. The peasants turned to the emperor demanding the abolition of the most hated feudal duties and extortions, and after refusing to satisfy these demands, they began to destroy the master's estates and deal with Habsburg officials. Regular troops were sent against the peasants. Two squads of punitive forces, even resorting to the help of artillery, brutally dealt with the rebels. The movement was suppressed everywhere by the beginning of July 1680. The weakness of the uprising, despite its wide scope, is explained by the fact that the rebels had no single center, no single leadership, no common program. The uprising was not homogeneous in its social composition. Its core was the lower strata of the peasantry, but some of the wealthier peasants also took part in the uprising. This also determined the difference in tactics. In some cases, the peasants did not dare to take up arms or allowed themselves to be dissuaded from using weapons, in others they resisted decisively and steadfastly, engaging with the troops in bloody battles. In 1693, in the southwest of the Czech Republic, the Chods (state peasants performing border service) rebelled and defended their ancient liberties. In 1695, the rebellious peasants of 30 villages of the Hukvaldian lordship in North-Eastern Moravia achieved some success, where the lord, at the direction of the government, interested in calming the border region, partially satisfied the demands of the peasants.

Industrial development in the 18th century.

By the beginning of the 18th century. The urban industry of the Czech Republic was still dominated by guild regulation, and the townspeople opposed the creation of manufactories within the city and even in its environs. Therefore, some industries (textile and metallurgy) back in the 17th century. moved almost entirely to the village. The city, with its workshops, was limited to the production of shoes and clothes, bakery, winemaking, etc. Thus, capitalist manufacturing initially developed in the countryside. The most intensive organization of new manufacturing production took place in the lordships of the largest land magnates.

Spreading throughout the country, this process, despite the resistance of the workshops, from the middle of the 18th century. It also takes over the city, where, due to the influx of cheap labor from the countryside, a significant number of non-guild artisans and workers appear. This fact indicates the further decline of the guild system. The government was forced to officially limit shop privileges and, in fact, even abolish many of them. Laws of 1731 and 1739 craft guilds were subordinated to state control, and many previous regulations that hindered the development of non-guild crafts were abolished. In the second half of the 18th century. the further development of non-shop production forced the government to recognize a number of industries as completely free from shop regulation. Interested in the development of Czech industry, especially after the loss of Silesia, the Habsburgs in the second half of the 18th century. 14 of the most important crafts were declared free from guild organization, including cloth, linen, glass, metallurgy, and paper. After this, manufactories appeared in the suburbs, and sometimes in the territory of the “old city”.

The nature of manufactures in both towns and villages is gradually changing. Until the middle of the 17th century. Scattered manufactories were widespread. Thus, one of the Litoměřice manufactories had, on average, about 50 skilled hosiery makers in the first half of this century, who lived only during the training period at the manufactory itself, and the rest of the time in the surrounding villages; They worked not only for the main manufactory, but also independently and even competed with the manufactory. But already from the end of the 17th century. Centralized and mixed-type manufactories appeared. In the latter, the main workforce and machines were concentrated in one or two buildings, but at the same time entrepreneurs used the labor of home workers. A large cloth factory in Gorny Litvinov, equipped with high-tech equipment for that time, employed 400 workers, where water was used to produce water. Already in this early period of the existence of manufactories in the Czech Republic, they were distinguished by a fairly high degree of division of labor.

Textile manufactories amounted to in the 18th century. the basis of industrial production in the Czech Republic. In addition, manufactories are known in other branches of production, especially glass, which arose in almost all parts of the Czech Republic. Glaziers enjoyed a number of privileges from the feudal lords, in particular they could buy off corvee and, for a fee, exempt their children from serving in the castle. Czech glass was sold both to the domestic market and for export to all European countries.

By 1755 there were 250 manufactories in the Czech Republic with a total number of workers, apprentices, etc. of 188,500. Of these, 177,450, i.e. almost 95%, were employed in textile production.

The abolition of serfdom in the Czech Republic by patent in 1781 had a significant impact on the development of manufacturing production. During the period from 1780 to 1782, the number of manufactories almost doubled, and the number of workers in them by more than 20%. By the end of the century, the number of large cloth factories reached 10, and large wool spinning enterprises in the city of Brno alone reached 15. Some idea of ​​the nature of these new type of enterprises is given by the description of one of them, located in the Litoměřice region. It was located in two one-story buildings, consisted of two main and eight auxiliary workshops, as well as a dormitory. In 1787, this manufactory employed 766 permanent workers and had 64 machines.

The technical level of Czech industry in general was still not high, and the pace of its development was somewhat slow. Mining and metallurgical production developed better than other industries, although here the transition to the blast furnace process took place a whole century later than in the developed countries of Western Europe. The most important industries were captured by the Germans. Mostly small and partly medium-sized industry, mainly textiles, remained in the hands of the Czechs. As in Austria, the Habsburgs pursued a mercantilist policy in the Czech Republic. The promotion of trade and industry was used by the Habsburgs as a means to more fully integrate the Czech Republic into the general Austrian system. In order to develop trade and streamline manufacturing production in the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 18th century. a number of government institutions, the so-called collegiums, were founded that controlled private trade and industry. To store the most important imported goods, warehouse centers were established, where the quality of the goods was checked and permission to sell them was issued. The main such center was the city of Prague. In a number of cities in the 18th century. fairs open (in Pilsen, Brno, etc.). All this somewhat pushed the commercial and industrial development of the Czech Republic. However, the tax policy of the Habsburgs hampered the further expansion of large-scale industry and negated the positive significance of some of the incentive measures of government mercantilism.

Peasant movements in the 18th century.

Antifeudal peasant movements in the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 18th century. intensified. In 1705, peasants from villages around the city of Jihlava rebelled. In 1713, an uprising took place in the Pečki estate in the Kouržim region. The rebels complained that they were forced to work in corvee four days a week instead of three. The government was forced to issue a patent on corvee in 1717, which had the goal of splitting the anti-feudal movement with the help of small concessions. This patent basically repeated the contents of the “Corvee Patent” of 1680, but clarified some points, for example, regarding the length of the serf’s working day, which was supposed to last from sunrise to sunset.

20s of the 18th century. were marked by a new rampant Catholic reaction in the Czech Republic. Laws issued by the Habsburg government from 1721 to 1726 ordered that “subjects who persist in heresy” be imprisoned, sent to the galleys, and even executed. The property of the executed peasants went to the master. Therefore, peasant uprisings in the Czech Republic in the 30s of the 18th century. often directed against religious oppression. Thus, the peasants who rebelled in the Opochensky pantry in 1732 demanded religious freedom, but at the same time refused to fulfill feudal duties. The uprising was suppressed by armed force.

The growth of the peasant movement in the 20s and 30s, as well as numerous cases of peasants fleeing abroad due to religious persecution, forced the government to issue a new patent on corvee in 1738. Like the previous patents of 1680 and 1717, the law of 1738 did not bring significant relief to the peasants. True, this patent established the size of the assigned corvee, but the feudal lords nullified this concession by introducing new emergency duties.

In the second half of the 18th century. In connection with the further development of capitalist relations, the Czech village noticeably changes its appearance. The process of social differentiation of the dependent peasantry is significantly accelerating. Rich owners stand out, sending farm laborers to work for themselves. The broad masses of the small peasantry are becoming increasingly ruined. Tens of thousands of pauperized peasant families were drawn into the process of capitalist production. In most cases, they were used by capitalists as home weavers and spinners, producing semi-finished products for textile factories for meager wages. They were increasingly attracted to work in centralized manufactories.

The largest anti-feudal uprising of peasants in the 18th century. there was an uprising in 1775, which began in Northern Bohemia and then spread to part of Moravia. The center of the uprising was the village of Rtyne in the Nakhod Panate. Peasant detachments from various regions moved towards Prague, intending to capture the city. The uprising also involved semi-proletarianized layers of the urban population and rural landless peasants, who worked as hired workers in various industries or as farm laborers and servants on the master's estate. On the way to Prague, the rebels dealt with the most hated lords and destroyed their estates.

Despite the fact that some of the rebels still retained monarchical illusions, hoping to receive new concessions from the Habsburgs, and even agreed to perform some duties for the lords, in general the uprising took place under the banner of the struggle for the complete elimination of the feudal-serf system. The uprising of 1775, which coincided in time with the Pugachev movement, is all the more interesting because the rebels in the Czech Republic knew about the peasant war in Russia. A rumor spread among them that the Russians were going to the Czech Republic and would help the Czech peasants deal with their lords.

The scale of the uprising was so great that the government sent an entire army to suppress it. In a series of bloody battles, during which government troops made extensive use of artillery, the rebel peasants were defeated.

Patents 1775 and 1781

The uprising of 1775 showed the depth of the crisis of the feudal-serf system in the Czech Republic. The new economic needs of emerging capitalism necessitated the removal of such an obstacle as serfdom. On the other hand, the ruling class of feudal lords feared a repetition of peasant uprisings. These circumstances forced the Habsburg government to make some concessions to the peasants. With the Patent of 1775, Maria Theresa's government attempted to appease the peasants by once again "regulating" corvée. However, a rumor spread among the peasants that this was not a real patent, but a false one, and that the officials hid the real, “golden patent”, since by this decree corvee was supposedly abolished completely. The next patent, issued in 1781 by Joseph II, abolished serfdom and gave peasants the right to move from one landowner to another. Peasants could also move to the cities, learn a craft, etc. But the patent of 1781 did not completely eliminate feudal exploitation, since it did not affect landownership. Yet the publication of this patent had great consequences for the development of Czech capitalist industry. Land-poor and landless peasants went en masse to the cities, where capitalist manufacturing developed faster than before. At the same time, the patent contributed to the further stratification of the peasantry, the top of which could now turn into free land owners.

Culture

As already mentioned, in the period after the Thirty Years' War, Czech culture began to be persecuted. In conditions of religious persecution and the dominance of German officials. The struggle for the preservation and development of the national language comes first. Back in the 17th century. the talented scientist Boguslav Balbin (1621-1688) wrote the book “Defense of the Slavic, in particular the Czech, language,” in which he outlined his patriotic ideas. He also owns the work “Fragments from the History of the Kingdom of Bohemia,” containing a rich collection of Czech chronicles.

Numerous works on national history, archeology, and ethnography played a major role in the development of the national self-awareness of the Czech people. At the end of the 18th century. in these areas a group of Czech intellectuals emerged: Dobner, Pelzl, Durich, Dobrovsky. These representatives of early bourgeois historiography are characterized by a critical approach to sources and the fight against Catholic and feudal reaction. They sought to restore the true history of their country, freeing it from Jesuit falsification.

Frantisek Martin Pelzl (1734-1801) is one of the founders of Czech bourgeois historiography. As a professor of Czech language and literature at the University of Prague, Pelzl in 1791 published the “New Czech Chronicle” in Czech, which was a unique experience in presenting Czech history. In addition, for a number of years Pelzl worked on compiling a biographical dictionary of Czech and Moravian scientists and writers. G. Dobner (1719-1790) became famous for his lengthy work containing critical comments on the Latin translation of the Czech chronicle of the 16th century. V. Gaeka. Vaclav Durich (1735-1802) - a prominent Czech Slavist. In particular, he introduced Czech society to the ancient Slavic alphabet - the Cyrillic alphabet.

The largest Czech philologist and historian is the “first awakener of the Czech people,” the son of a peasant, Joseph Dobrovsky (1753-1829). The works of Dobrovsky, who led the Czech national movement, reflected all the most significant events in the social life of the Czech Republic in the 18th - early 19th centuries. He was the first to publish magazines in the Czech Republic that treated topical issues of science and literature, glorifying Jan Hus, Zizka and other heroes of the Czech national movement. He was one of the founders of modern Slavic studies in the Czech Republic. He owns the first textbook of the Russian language for the Czechs and several articles on ancient Russian literature (“On the Chronicle of Nestor”, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”). Dobrovsky was interested in natural science and was an expert in botany and geology. His scientific worldview contained elements of materialism.

Czech historians of the 18th century. played the role of educators and ideologists of the young Czech bourgeoisie. But their activities were limited by class. They considered cultural revival to be the main task of the national liberation movement.

In the second half of the 18th century. A number of national educational organizations are emerging in the Czech Republic. Since the beginning of the 70s, a private “Scientific Society” has been functioning, which in 1784 became the official “Czech Society of Sciences”, in 1790 - the “Royal Czech Society of Sciences”. The society united the greatest scientists, it included Pelzl, Dobrovsky, Durich. In 1789, the “Patriotic-Economic Society” arose; in 1792, a department of the Czech language was opened at the University of Prague (“Clementinum”).

Due to the struggle for teaching in schools in the native language, a large number of grammars of the Czech language appear. During the last quarter of the 18th and first quarter of the 19th century. 28 titles of such manuals were published. Since 1782, the “Prague Postal Newspaper” began to be published, the publication of numerous Old Czech historical, literary and linguistic monuments was organized, and mass publication of educational literature was established.

At the end of the 18th century. A whole galaxy of talented poets appeared. In 1785, a collection of poems by Vaclav Tam (1765-1816) was published, glorifying the patriotic aspirations of the Czech people. Patriotic themes are characteristic of the odes of Puchmaier (1769-1820), for example, “To Jan Žižka of Trocnov” and “Into the Czech Language”. Puchmeier and a group of writers organized the systematic publication of literary almanacs.

At the same time, the national Czech theater emerged. Only for the period 1786-1792. About 300 dramas, translated and original, appeared in Czech. However, the Czech theater existed mainly thanks to the efforts of amateur troupes, which had to compete with professional German theater under extremely difficult conditions.

Fine art of the Czech Republic XVII-XVIII centuries. represented by a number of major masters, including Karel Shkreta (1610-1674), Peter Brandl (1668-1739), W. Rainer (1689-1743). All of them are characterized by a realistic depiction of reality. The portraits of K. Shkreta are especially widely known, and some of his paintings (for example, “The Family of the Jeweler Miseronio”, etc.) are still considered significant works of art.

Back in the 17th century. Several sculpture workshops were founded in Prague. In 1730, in one of them M. Braun created a sculptural portrait of Charles IV and a number of statues that still decorate the Charles Bridge in Prague.

In Czech architecture of the 17th-18th centuries. Baroque style dominates. But even in the magnificent monuments of baroque architecture, elements of folk art slip through. Folk motifs are especially striking in the architecture of Kilian Ignatius Dientzenhofer (1689-1751). The decorations of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Prague are made in a manner reminiscent of folk wood carving.

In the field of music, the trends of the Czech national revival emerged in the work of Boguslav of Montenegro (1684-1742), the ideological predecessor of Smetana and Dvořák.

A remarkable representative of Czech science of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. is Georg Prochaska (1749-1820), an outstanding anatomist, physiologist and ophthalmologist, professor at the Universities of Vienna and Prague. A deeply scientific, objective approach to research led Prohaska to the materialist path, made him one of the founders of the materialist development of problems of physiology, one of the creators of the theory of reflexes. The scientist rose to a correct understanding of the problem of the relationship of the organism with its environment. Prohaska's scientific activity was combined with extensive practical work. He has performed thousands of surgeries. His theoretical views and practical experience were summarized in a number of manuals on physiology, which were among the best manuals of that time. He founded excellent anatomical museums in Prague (1778) and Vienna (1791), as well as a scientific medical society in Prague (1784)

The activities of educators - scientists, writers, poets, publicists, the emergence of scientific, educational and literary societies, the revival of publishing activities, the emergence of a national theater are characteristic features of the rapid rise of Czech culture that began in the second half of the 18th century. on the path of national revival.

3. Hungary

Hungary under Habsburg and Ottoman rule

By the middle of the 17th century. the lands of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary were still divided into three parts in accordance with the territorial division established shortly after the Battle of Mohács: the central, most part was captured by the Turks; the western and northwestern part, inhabited by Hungarians and Slovaks, fell under Habsburg domination; finally, in the eastern and southeastern parts, where a significant part of the population were Moldovans and Wallachians, the Principality of Transylvania, dependent on the Turkish Sultan, arose. In the second half of the 17th century. these lands were the scene of bloody Austro-Turkish wars, as a result of which by the end of the century almost all of them became part of the Habsburg monarchy.

During the period of the Turkish wars, the Habsburgs were interested in support from the Hungarian magnates and therefore provided their Hungarian possessions with the appearance of some independence: from time to time the Hungarian estate Diet was convened, the nobility retained undivided dominance in local governing bodies - comitat assemblies. The situation, however, began to change significantly in the second half of the 17th century, when the gradual transformation of the Habsburg state into an absolute monarchy began. The Habsburgs imposed a new heavy tax burden on the Hungarian and Slovak lands. Responsibility for collecting taxes was assigned to landowners. The latter used this right to further strengthen their power over the peasants, but nevertheless were dissatisfied with both the tax policy of the Viennese government and the infringement of their class rights and privileges, the termination of the convening of diets, etc. Attempts of the Habsburgs to establish an absolutist regime in the Hungarian lands to the detriment of the interests of the Hungarian feudal lords led to a number of noble conspiracies in the second half of the 17th century.

Noble conspiracies

One of the leaders of the noble opposition was the Hungarian feudal lord Miklos Zrinyi. Possessing remarkable literary abilities, Zrinyi in his works, in particular in his treatise on King Matthias (Matthew Corvinus), developed the idea of ​​​​restoring an independent Hungarian state. In the fight against the Habsburgs, Zrinyi counted on the support of the Principality of Transylvania, but these plans, due to the strengthening of the power of the Turkish Sultan in the principality, could not be implemented. His courageous struggle for national independence made his name popular among the people.

After the death of Miklós Zrinyi (1664), a group of Hungarian nobles repeatedly tried to rebel against the Habsburgs. In 1666-1667 such an attempt was made by Franz Vyashshelena, which entailed the occupation of Hungary by Austrian troops. In 1670-1671 an even larger noble conspiracy led by Petr Zrinyi, Ferenc Nadasdy and Ferenc Rakoczy I was uncovered; many of its participants were executed. The failures of numerous conspiracies are explained by the fact that their organizers counted exclusively on outside help - from France or Turkey.

Noble conspiracies served as a pretext for Emperor Leopold to further subjugate the Hungarian lands. All power in Hungary was concentrated in the hands of the imperial-royal governor. At the end of the 17th century. A wave of Austrian officials poured into Hungary, and the number of occupation troops was increased. The Hungarian troops (Honvéds), who carried out border service, were disbanded as untrustworthy. The maintenance of the Austrian imperial troops was a particularly heavy burden for the Hungarian peasants.

From the end of the 16th century. the overwhelming majority of Hungarian townspeople and nobility accepted the reformation. The supporters of the Habsburgs in Hungary were exclusively Catholics. It is not surprising that a Catholic reaction was associated with the strengthening of Habsburg power in Hungary. Protestant churches were closed and some were used as stables for Austrian troops. Hundreds of Protestant pastors were arrested and executed. The Jesuits entered the country and took over all the schools.

Kurutsy and their struggle in the 70-80s of the 17th century.

Numerous exactions, outrages and robberies of the occupying troops forced many Hungarian and Slovak peasants to abandon their homes and flee; There were frequent cases when entire villages were emptied. The fugitive peasants were nicknamed Kurucs (crusaders) in memory of the participants in the Peasant War of 1514. They headed to the eastern regions bordering Transylvania, hoping to join forces there with the Transylvanian peasants. Many nobles involved in anti-Habsburg conspiracies, as well as Protestants fleeing persecution, also hid in these same areas.

The Kuruts, whose strength grew from year to year, attacked the Austrian troops. In the summer of 1672, an uprising began in Northern Hungary. In addition to Hungarian peasants, Slovaks took part in it. This uprising was used to his advantage by the nobleman Imre Tököy (Emerik Tekeli), who led it in 1678. The rebel detachments led by him were supported by Hungarian and Slovak peasants. Soon, a significant part of the Hungarian and Slovak lands was cleared of Austrian troops, and Tököy, taking advantage of the support of the Sultan and Louis XIV, who were interested in weakening the Habsburgs, proclaimed himself prince of the liberated territory.

Emperor Leopold, frightened by the successes of the Kurucs, was forced to make a number of concessions to the Hungarian feudal lords. He agreed to the resumption of the activities of the Hungarian Diet, temporarily stopped the persecution of Protestants, and generously distributed titles, orders, and crown lands to the Hungarian magnates.

The Turks used the Tököy uprising to advance deeper into Austria and besieged Vienna. But here they were defeated in September 1683. After this, Tököy left the central regions, which were soon completely devastated by the retreating Turks, who exterminated and drove into slavery many thousands of Hungarian and Slovak inhabitants. In 1684-1685 Austrian troops took almost all of Slovakia from Tökoy, and his principality ceased to exist.

Extension of Habsburg power throughout Hungary and Transylvania

In the next two years, Habsburg troops occupied the Hungarian capital of Buda, and then drove the Turks out of Transylvania, which was now a vassal state of Austria. In 1690, after the death of the Transylvanian prince Michael Apofi, his throne was seized by Tököy, but not for long. Transylvania could not resist the military power of the Habsburg Monarchy and soon completely lost its independence.

Thus, by the end of the 17th century. Turkish oppressors were replaced by Austrian ones. The conquest of all the lands of the former Kingdom of Hungary by the Habsburgs was accompanied by a bloody massacre of Kurucs and Protestants. According to contemporaries, the executions of the leaders of the Hungarian liberation movement were carried out daily for a whole month by thirty executioners. The Hungarian population had to support at their own expense the Habsburg troops who continued military operations against the Turks. The troops collected taxes and at the same time robbed the peasants, dooming entire villages to hunger and ruin; the rich cities of the Hungarian lowland fell into complete decline.

Captured by the Habsburgs during the Austro-Turkish War of 1683-1699. Hungarian lands were sold to Austrian courtiers and generals; The Hungarian feudal lords, who remained loyal to Austria, were given land holdings that had previously been in the hands of the Turks. In 1687, Hungarian magnates proclaimed the Habsburg dynasty as the bearer of hereditary royal power. The paragraph on the right to resist the illegal actions of the king was excluded from the Golden Bull. Thus, the Hungarian feudal lords reconciled with the Habsburgs in order to maintain, with their help, unlimited power over their serfs.

In an effort to turn Hungary into an ordinary province, the Habsburgs tried to implement a policy of centralization and the inculcation of Catholicism here. German colonists played an important role in carrying out this policy.

At the end of the 17th century. The serfs again rose up to fight against the Austrian invaders and Hungarian feudal lords. Detachments of fugitive serfs made numerous raids on the estates of magnates. Peasant uprisings swept across the country; The largest of them was the armed uprising of Wallachian and Hungarian serfs that broke out in 1697 in Northwestern Transylvania. Its leaders were peasants Ferenc Tokai, Gyorgy Salontai and Martin Kabai. Soon the uprising spread to neighboring lands. The rebels occupied the fortresses of Sárospatak and Tokaj and for more than three months successfully repelled attacks by Austrian troops. When the uprising was suppressed with the help of large military forces, many fugitive peasants hid for a long time in the forests and swamps of the Tisza Valley, continuing the fight using guerrilla methods.

National liberation movement at the beginning of the 18th century.

At the beginning of the 18th century. A broad national liberation movement developed in Hungary. It was no longer as spontaneous as the peasant uprisings of the 17th century. The entire Hungarian people rose up. His cry “For the Motherland, for Freedom!” called for a fight against foreign oppressors for the creation of an independent Hungary.

The uprising broke out in 1703 in the Munkács (Mukachevo) region; at first it was directed against feudal lords, tax collectors and moneylenders. The peasants refused to fulfill feudal duties, destroyed the premises of local administrative bodies, attacked warehouses of requisitioned products, and in some cases dealt with the most hated officials and nobles by lynching.

Gradually, the uprising of serfs began to develop into a powerful national liberation movement, which was joined by other segments of the population dissatisfied with the Habsburg yoke - the urban poor, the ruined small and middle-class nobility, and the lower clergy. The recognized leader of the national liberation movement was the nobleman Ferenc Rakoczi II, the son of Rakoczi I, who was executed for participating in a noble conspiracy against Leopold. In his appeals to the Hungarian people, Rakoczi called for a struggle to destroy the hated rule of the Habsburgs and restore Hungarian independence. By responding to this call, the Hungarian peasants hoped to achieve their main goal - the abolition of serfdom. One of the peasant leaders, Tomasz Ese, directly wrote to Rakoczy: “Those serfs who faithfully serve with weapons in the hands of your grace will no longer be serfs after this... because the struggle is against the oppressors of the poor people.”

The ground was so prepared for a mass uprising that within a few weeks it covered almost the entire country. The detachments of the rebel Kuruc peasants, led by Tomas Ese, Tomas Borbely, Albert Kisz and others, won one victory after another. The combat successes of the peasant detachments were facilitated by the fact that they included well-armed formations of the old army of the Kuruts - participants in the movements of the late 17th century. Ukrainians, Slovaks, Moldovans and Vlachs fought shoulder to shoulder with Hungarian peasants against the hated Habsburg yoke. The great mobility and maneuverability of the Kuruc troops, their tactics of surprise attacks, enormous material and moral support from the population - all this gave the rebels a number of important advantages over the Austrian troops. As a result of the successful military operations of the Kurucians in 1704, almost the entire territory of Hungary proper, Slovakia, Transylvania and present-day Carpathian Ukraine was liberated from the Austrians. Only isolated fortresses remained in the hands of the imperial troops.

After the victory over the Austrians in May 1704, the Kurucians threatened even Vienna itself, but did not receive the expected help from the French and were forced to retreat. During this period, the national liberation struggle of the Hungarians proceeded in close connection with events of international significance - the War of the Spanish Succession and the Northern War. France, interested in weakening the Austrian Habsburgs, openly supported the rebels. When the successes of Swedish weapons in Poland and the expulsion of King Augustus II worsened the position of Russia, Peter I entered into negotiations with France and offered Rakoczi the Polish throne. In September 1707, an agreement was signed in Warsaw, according to which Peter I undertook to provide Rakoczi with assistance for the liberation of Hungary and Transylvania if Rakoczi ascended the Polish throne and France signed an alliance treaty with Russia. In the summer of 1708, the Russian embassy came to Rakoczi. However, the occupation of Poland by the Swedes and the failure of negotiations with France prevented the implementation of the Warsaw Pact.

The successes of the Kuruts led to the fact that a significant part of the nobility took part in the liberation movement. Soon the nobles took a leading position in it. But they sought to use the movement to restore their social and political rights infringed by the Habsburgs. Another part of the nobility, mainly magnates, openly opposed the uprising, hoping with their support for the Habsburgs to bargain for themselves new land holdings and political privileges. One of the largest Hungarian feudal lords, Pal Esterhazy, concluded an agreement with the Habsburgs, according to which he was to receive a quarter of all lands that would be confiscated after the defeat of the national liberation movement. The highest Catholic clergy also provided open support for the Habsburgs, threatening with excommunication all church ministers who took part in the war of liberation.

For about seven years, most of the territory of the former Kingdom of Hungary was under the rule of the Kurucs. In the liberated lands, Rakoczi and his comrades began vigorous activity. The main attention was paid to organizing a combat-ready army. Regular salaries were established for the soldiers, a special military school was founded for the training of officers, and military hospitals were created in military units. The families of ordinary soldiers were partially exempt from taxes, and the families of those killed in the war of liberation were given state benefits. In 1704, weapons factories were built to produce cannons and artillery shells. Many textile enterprises supplied the army with uniforms. The center of the military industry was the city of Debrecen. Some of the uniforms, as well as weapons, were imported from abroad. On the initiative of Rakoczi, many roads were built in the country, regular postal service was established; Soon after the start of the Kuruc War, Rakoczi began publishing a weekly newspaper.

Defeat of the uprising

Despite numerous progressive measures carried out on the initiative of Rakoczi, the noble leadership of the uprising was unable to resolve the main issue that worried the bulk of the peasant rebels - the abolition of serfdom. Moreover, peasants who refused to bear feudal duties were severely punished. The influence of the peasant leaders of the uprising weakened every year; many of them, including Tomas Ese, were removed from the leadership of the army and replaced by aristocratic generals who treated the Kurucians with undisguised hostility. All this led to a narrowing of the social base of the uprising and adversely affected the combat effectiveness of Rakoczi's army. Even the deprivation of the Habsburg throne at the Onod Diet in 1707 and the announcement of Rakoczi as the head of the independent Hungarian state could not inspire the peasants and motivate them to continue the war, all the burdens of which ultimately fell on their shoulders.

In an effort to prevent the disintegration of his army, Rakoczi in 1709 issued a decree according to which all peasants who took part in the war of liberation were declared free and received a number of benefits. The decree, however, was already a belated step; it failed to attract the disappointed peasantry into the army and give new strength to the liberation movement. Rakoczy’s hopes for foreign policy support, which he regarded as the main condition for the successful completion of the war with the Habsburgs, also did not materialize. Louis XIV, to whom Rakoczi offered a protectorate over Hungary at the beginning of the war, refused to enter into an agreement with the Hungarian government and did not provide the expected assistance. Equally unsuccessful was Rakoczi's appeal to Poland, Sweden, Turkey and Prussia.

The narrowing of the social base of the uprising led to a series of major defeats for Rakoczy's army at Trencin (1708), Rochmany, Szolnok and Eger (1710). After this, Rakoczi's army retreated to Munkács. At this most critical moment, Rakoczy turned to Russia for help. After the Battle of Poltava, relations between Russia and Hungary took on an exclusively friendly character. Rakoczi refused to let the remnants of the Swedish army pass through the territory under his control. Rakoczi's representative at the French court initiated the resumption of negotiations on an alliance between France and Russia. However, the Russian-Turkish war that began in 1711 prevented Peter I from providing armed assistance to Rakoczi. Meanwhile, in Hungary, the reactionary nobility, who occupied leading positions in the government and army, took advantage of Rakoczi's military failures and foreign policy difficulties to conspire with the Habsburgs. On May 1, 1711, Count Sándor Károly, one of Rákóczi’s generals, signed the Satmar Peace Treaty with the Austrians, recognizing Habsburg power over Hungary. Rakoczi, who had previously left Hungary, lived for some time in Poland and France, and then moved to Turkey, trying in vain with the support of the Sultan to regain Transylvania.

After the Habsburgs, with the help of the Hungarian feudal lords, managed to suppress the national liberation movement, the Kurucs were disarmed, the estates of the nobles who took part in the uprising were confiscated and distributed to Austrian officers and Catholic prelates, or sold to Viennese burghers. The Hungarian tycoons also received their share. The Hungarian nobility retained its class rights.

Compromise of the Hungarian nobility with the Habsburgs

The Hungarian nobles, having agreed with the Habsburgs, intensified the exploitation of both the Hungarian and Croatian, Serbian, Slovak, Romanian and Ukrainian peasants. The peasant masses responded to this with new protests. In 1711-1713 detachments of Slovak peasants, led by a participant in the liberation war of the Kurucs, the Slovak national hero Yuri Janosik, won many glorious victories over the feudal lords.

As a result of long, devastating wars, the Hungarian economy almost ceased to develop. Conditions for capitalist production were created extremely slowly in Hungary. On the other hand, the economic policy of the Habsburgs was intended to perpetuate the position of Hungary as a country that was an agrarian appendage of the more industrially developed Austria. The rule of the Hungarian magnates, who retained their unlimited class privileges even under the rule of the Habsburgs, also led to a delay in the development of productive forces in the Hungarian countryside.

The conspiracy between the Habsburgs and the Hungarian feudal lords, directed against the masses, was consolidated in the first half of the 18th century. a number of legislative acts. According to the law of 1741, the lands of feudal lords were forever exempted from taxation. The dominance of the nobility in committee governing bodies was strengthened again. The committees, headed by local magnates, viewed themselves as a kind of independent state and in every possible way hindered the implementation of national economic events if they violated the interests of the local nobility. For the time being, the Habsburgs put up with such decentralization, seeing it as a significant obstacle to a new rise in the national liberation movement, and also counting on the fact that the divided Hungarian nobility would be more compliant with the crown.

Peasant revolt in Transylvania

Peasant unrest of a local nature broke out, mainly in Transylvania, in the 20s, 30s, 50s and 60s of the 18th century. They often took the form of religious movements that merged with national and social struggles. All nationalities living in the Hungarian territory of the Habsburg Monarchy took part in these movements. The largest of them took place in the 80s under the leadership of folk heroes Horiya, Kloshka and Krishan.

The uprising began in October 1784 in the village of Mestyakan; it soon covered the entire Zerand region, and then spread to Hunedoaru county. The peasants destroyed and set fire to noble estates and killed the most cruel feudal lords. The main demand of the peasants was the abolition of serfdom.

The short-term successes of the poorly armed rebel army soon gave way to defeats, their leaders were captured and executed. The Transylvanian peasant uprising of 1784 did not find support in the poorly developed city, but it still dealt a serious blow to the feudal-serf system. The uprising caused serious alarm to the Viennese government and served as one of the main reasons for the publication of the patent of 1785, which extended to Hungary the patent of 1781 issued for the Czech Republic. Although this act abolished the attachment of peasants to the land, they were still obliged to perform corvee labor and remain “private subjects” of the feudal lord. Numerous feudal duties remained in force, placing a heavy burden on the peasant economy.

The rise of Hungarian national culture

The policy of forced Germanization did not break the fighting spirit of the best representatives of the Hungarian national culture. The largest Hungarian educator D. Besenyi (1747-1811) in his works promoted the national Hungarian culture and put forward the task of reviving the national language and literature. Besenyi's tragedies and comedies played a significant role in the creation of the national Hungarian theater.

Attempts at forced assimilation undertaken by the Habsburgs in Hungary actually led to the opposite results. At the end of the 18th century. The desire of the Hungarian people for independence awakened with new and even greater force. The growth of productive forces, although occurring at a slow pace, the development of industry and trade, in particular trade in agricultural products (due to their increasing exports), and some revitalization of cities created the necessary economic prerequisites for national and cultural upsurge. This rise was expressed in various forms. Literary circles were created in the country to study the native language and literature, numerous theater societies arose not only in Budapest, but also in a number of provincial cities.

The 1980s saw the appearance of the first Hungarian literary magazine “Magyar Museum”, the first Hungarian newspaper “Magyar Hermondo” and the first literary almanac “Urania”. The enlightener Laszlo Kelemen (1763-1814) was the founder of the first permanent Hungarian theater (1790).

At the same time, the founders of the modern Hungarian literary language, philology and literary criticism, Ferenc Kazinczy and Miklos Revai, began their activities. The purification of the Hungarian language from Germanisms begins.

Thus, like the Czech Republic, Hungary at the end of the 18th century. experienced the rise of its national culture, caused by a powerful popular national liberation movement.

The Austrian feudal-absolutist Habsburg monarchy was then still strong enough to suppress social and national liberation movements. The Habsburgs took advantage of the fragmentation and lack of coordination of the actions of the oppressed peoples; they skillfully played on the racial and national differences between them, increasing pressure on some (for example, the Czechs) and making concessions to others (for example, the Hungarians). Nevertheless, the awakening national consciousness and the growth of the national culture of the oppressed peoples foreshadowed the inevitable defeat of the great power policy of the Habsburgs.