Second half of the 18th century, first half of 19th century: transformation of old feudal structures into a modern CIVIC SOCIETY. Czech national movement was a part of this. Ideas of liberalism, like in the whole of Europe. Development of industry, railways, newspapers. Public opinion.
The end of the world of SMALL STRUCTURES. No small, self-contained units. New identity: nation, nationalism.
Czechs within Austria - an inferior nation. Higher education and better careers: a need to know German. Thus political and social demands assumed a nationalist guise.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Czech patriots were only a handful.
After Napoleonic wars, disillusionment. Disappointment with enlightenment and rationalism. Instead of an ideal realm of reason: bloodbath of Jacobite terror and Napoleonic wars, lasting many years. Old dynasties back to power, "did not forget anything and did not learn anything new".
ROMANTIC FEELINGS - as a result. Emotions, imagination. Merging of reality and myth. A romantic hero, suffering the conflict of unrealisable ideals and depressing reality, surrounding him. No more classicist ideals, but fashion of the Gothic middle ages. Return to religiousness, especially catholic. Fashion: literature of early Middle Ages (Niebelungenlied, Ossian) - whether genuine or not.
Romantic fashion ruled for the first half of the 19th century. English gardens were created in Central Europe - sympathies for the British liberal political system. Cult of the folk. Unspoilt rural culture - continuity with ancient times, echoes of heathen myths and heroic epics searched for in folk culture.
Romanticism shaped modern nationalism. Each nation was an independent entity for the Romanticists. Germans: "Old, tired Latin nations", versus "young, active Germans".
Johann Gottfried Herder - future is Slavonic. Historical relics were worshipped.
Central European area: BIEDERMEIER. Being happy with one's lot, living in quiet resignation amidst one's family, a moral and industrious life. Idyllic countryside, cultivated by people.
ROMANTICISM was a cultural style, not a lifestyle. Influenced the arts. BIEDERMEIER influenced applied arts and popular entertainment. Love for one's family, love for the "Motherland", obeying God's will and the divine order on earth. Typical biedermeier virtues, influencing Czech literature into the second half of the 19th century.
POLITICAL TRENDS IN EUROPE in the 1st half of the 19th century
Return of dynasties onto thrones. Legitimity of dynasties, God's appointment. The legitimity of the state derived from this. All other institutions and rights were subordinate.
BUT 19th century was the century of LIBERALISM, not of legitimism.
Liberalism: faith in the freedom of the individual. Demand for a constitution defining basic human freedoms of a democracy.
Aristocrats wanted gradual changes. Constitutional monarchy like in Britain.
Middle of the political spectrum: civic equality, general validity of laws, but political, social and economic unequality is forever given.
DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT: demanded civic equality, political equality. Different degrees of radicalism.
Prior to 1848, all these trends joined against ABSOLUTISM. Nationalistic demands of individual national groups.
1815 - Vienna Congress: believed that everything returned to the past order. No national states. German Union: 35 states and 4 free cities. France: the Bourbon dynasty again. Austria strengthened. Acquired many Italian provinces. Prussia also strengthened.
The international system of the Holy Alliance was supposed to guarantee it. An almost mystical text by tsar Alexander I - how important it is to observe Christian and democratic traditions. Turned into a charter of a collective European antirevolutionary security. All European states apart from Britain, Turkey and the papal state accepted this, pledged to suppress revolutions.
But the Holy Alliance had fissures: Austrian-Prussian competition.
Suppression of revolutions in Naples, in Spain. Great influence by Chancellor Metternich, (Austrian Chancellor, creator of this system) Metternich: suppression of libertarian students in German universities.
Holy Alliance could not act. This was a Christian uprising against muslim conquerors. How to gain influence in the Balkans. Russia wanted this and declared war on Turkey in 1828. Anglo-French ships sent to Greece in 1827 in support. Volunteers - lord Byron.
1829 - Drinopol peace - Turkey defeated by Russia, promised to give Greece autonomy.
1830- blow to the Holy Alliance. July - Paris, revolution, swept away the rule of Charles X. Created a civic monarchy of Louis Philippe of Orleans (7th August 1830.) Reverberations in Germany, Belgium and POLAND.
Austria - peace, but the backward monarchy could not organise an anti-revolutionary campaign. Strengthening of Italian garrisons (more taxes) and strong police supervision within Austria.
Russia put down the Polish uprising in 1831.
France - new system was insufficient, working class movement demands in Britain, Irish question, Southern and Central Europe - national problems.
Italy -Guiseppe Mazzini: national movement for liberation. Germany also nationalist unification attempts.
Formally, Kingdom of Bohemia and Margravate of Moravia were independent countries. Offices of governors, subjected to Vienna. Centrally directed state, everything was decided in Vienna. But the existing formal "independence" became the theme of Czech politics until the end of the 19th century.
Austrian Empire - a mixture of many different traditions and economic levels, at the beginning of the 19th century. Bohemia, Hungary, Galicia, many nationalities, the state could not find a reasonable modus vivendi for them. Mixtures. Confusion of views. German liberals underestimated other nationalities and saw their national aspirations as reactionary. Thus nationalists allied themselves with local gentry and saw liberalism as a pretext for Germanisation.
Animosity between liberalism and nationalism.
Austrian government failed to create STATE PATRIOTISM with which people could identify. Almost no one felt AUSTRIAN. Austrian patriotism - based on loyalty to the dynasty, only a few top officers.
Apart from Russia, Austria before 1848 was regarded as the most backward European country. Metternich absolutism. Prince Klement Václav Metternich (1773-1859). Also Emperor Francis I's fault. Desire for NO CHANGE. Government did not know that revolutions originate from untenable situations. Secret police omnipresent. Fear of independent decision making. Lots of bureaucracy, no decisions. The intelligentsia and the educated working classes were seen as enemies.
Students were not allowed to study abroad, so that they would not be infected by new ideas. Suppression of independent thought. Total feebleness of the system in the 1830s and 1840s.
From 1835, rule of Ferdinand I. Stupid. The country ruled by a STATE COUNCIL. Three quarreling, incapable old men.
Between 1815 - 1850, the inhabitants of the Czech Lands grew from 4,8 to 6,8 million. Advances in agriculture, reduction of sheep grazing, more cattle, potatoes, clover. Economic enlightentent from village intelligentsia, teachers, priests.
1811 - state bankruptcy. Military suppliers became rich. Business was regarded as risky. Landowners. Machines into factories: textile, from 1830s: sugar production, building of railways, cotton processing. Glass, engineering, English influence.
First train arrived in Prague in 1845.
1846-47 - famine. 1844 luddite strikes against machines.
State patriotism of Czech nobility before 1848: fidelity to the ruler, but demands for their rights. Interest in the Czech language and support for the national revival. Interest in Czech past. BOHEMISM (land patriotism). Bernard Bolzano: a united political nation, consisting from Czechs and Germans, belonging to a single country, Bohemia.
Czech Language patriotism and the slavyanophile movement
Attempts to introduce Czech into schools. Slavyanophiles: Other Slavonic nations, especially Russia worshipped. Jungmann - uncritically pro Russian. Suspect of being reactionary, anti-liberal.
Glorious Czech past - another crutch. Charles IV, Hussitism, 16th century humanistic culture. Literary frauds Králův Dvůr and Zelená Hora maniscripts (1817 - 1818).
First stage of the national movement was APOLITICAL. Fear of police reprisals. Linguistic and cultural efforts were allowed.
Polish uprising in November 1830 supported by young Czechs.
Mácha's Máj (1836) - rejected futile patriotism and dealt with basic questions of human existence.
1st January 1831 - Matice česká (The Czech Foundation) - Czech publishing.
Political life before 1848
A patriot became a Citizen. Karel Havlíček Borovský, outstanding Czech journalist rejected the sentimental idyll (criticised Tyl's Poslední Čech, 1845) , end of praising Czech books for being Czech. Discovered horrors in Russia and rejected the ideas of Slavonic brotherhood. Jakub Malý - rejected Bohemism.
Czech Musem - became a center for national activity. The Industrial Union set up a Czech industrial school. First liberal Czech politicians.
Radical democratic movement of students and small craftsmen. The "Repeal" Union -centre of activity (Irish example).
1846: Victory of liberal democratic cantons over conservative ones in civil war in Switzerland.
January 1848: uprising in Palermo, Naples - constitution was adopted.
Paris - 24th February 1848, barricades, the monarchy of Louis Phillippe collapsed. 25th February, France became a republic. Parliament refused to deal with the social question. June uprising of Paris working classes, suppressed militarily. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon's son in law elected president. In 1852 Napoleon carried out a coup and called himself Emperor Napoleon III.
Italian Risorgimento.
German liberals: Provisional parliament called to Frankfurt for 31st March 1848. Elected parliament, wanted to include all German regions, including Austria. Disagreement from Austria, from other nationalities.
13th March 1848: uprising in Vienna. Metternich fell, 14th March: emperor promised constitutional reforms, court offices were turned into ministries.
Many liberal and nationalist demands, unsolved corvee, radicalism of students, low political sophistication of most inhabitants. Hungary openly demanded autonomy.
25th April - Pillersdorf's constitution issued (Franz von Pillersdorf, Interior Minister, leading member of new government). 8th May: electoral rules for elections for a new Imperial Assembly. Emperor right of veto. Dissatisfaction, another Vienna uprising, the court escaped to Innsbruck. Security Council took over power in Vienna.
June 1848: new government of Anton Doblhoffer, Justice minister Alexander Bach.
22nd July: new Imperial Assembly in session, abolishing of corvee, new constitution. The army supported the emperor. Campaign against Hungary.
Asseembly: conflict between left wing German liberals, supporting Hungary, Slavonic Deputies worried by ruthless Hungarisation of Slavonic inhabitants.
Slavonic Deputies supported strong, independent Austria. Pinned their hopes on the Emperor, German liberals saw them as reactionaries.
Slavonic Deputies prevented the hearing of Hungarian delegation demanding protection from the Austrian army, attacking Budapest.
October 1848: new barricades in Vienna. War minister Latour was hanged on a lantern for waging war against Hungary. The Emperor fled to Olomouc.
On 1st November, Vienna capitulated to Austrian troops (Windischgraetz).
Imperial Assembly met in Kroměříž, Mroavia, on 28th November, working on the constitution on the basis of French and American liberalism. Equality of citizens before law, abolishment of capital punishment, national service introduced. Rieger: the people is the source of all power.
But 2nd December 1848, Ferdinand resigned, replaced by Franz Josef I. On 7th March 1849 the Imperial Assembly was dissolved.
Hungarian revolution was crushed.
11th March 1848: the Repeal Association called a meeting of citizens to St Wenceslas Baths. Petition to the Emperor, demanding equality of Czech and German language, recognition of Czech Lands, liberal reforms of the state bureaucracy. The St Wenceslas Council turned itself into the National Council.
Evasive response of the Viennese government taken as insufficient. Second petition, demanding a modern representative assembly for Czech Lands and a special ministry.
8th April: Emperor approved most of these demands.
But from April 1848, conflicts between Czechs and Germans. František Palacký invited to Frankfurt, thus approving the incorporation of Bohemia into Germany. On 11th April, Palacký rejected this in an open letter. Incorporation of Bohemia into Germany is mediaeval, like relations between rulers. Palacký defined Central Europe as an area, inhabited by small nations, threatened equally by Germany and Russia. Strong Austrian Empire must be a guarantor of their free development. Czech policy for many decades. "If Austria did not exist, we would have to create it."
Czech Germans left the national council, in protest against political stance of the Czechs. It was obvious that Czechs fought with Germans for supremacy. Suddenly, modern confident Czech nation.
New governor Leo Thun, (1st May), tried to set up an independent Czech government.
June 1848 - Slavonic Congress - representatives of Austrian Slavs, austroslavism, demanding nationally just and federalised Austria.
Austrian military commander of Bohemia Alfred Windischgraets decided to conquer Prague. Barricades, open conflicts, students commanded by young radical Josef Václav Frič. The army mastered main roads, ignored the barricades, Prague capitulated on 17th June. 43 dead revolutionaries. Liberals like Palacký saw these riots as a disaster, which prevented the setting up of a Czech Assembly, Frič: the uprising woke up the nation.
Police investigation, abolishment of the National Council, Germans in Prague were glad.
In the autumn, Prague radicals sympatised with Vienna, Havlíček liberals and conservatives saw this as a betrayal of Czech national interests.
Czech liberals abolished corvee, introduced civic liberties.
Dilletante May 1849 conspiracy put an end to the Radical movement. Prague state of siege. Imprisonment of many radicals. Liberals silenced. Karel Havlíček deported to Brixen in 1851.
From the autumn of 1848, Austrian foreign policy was run by prince Schwarzenberg who wanted to turn Austria into a Great Power again, including Germany in Austria. He made Austria's rival, Prussia, to agree with the reintroduction of the German Union in 1851.
Schwarzenberg died in 1852. Young Emperor conducted foreign policy. Crimean War (1853) first between Turkey and Russia. France and Britain supported Turkey. Russia was defeated. Austria did not dare support France and Britain, failed to become European power, Austria was defeated in Northern Italy in 1859, unification of Italy.
Alexander Bach - Viennese lawyer. Attempt to reintroduce absolutism. New Years Eve Decrees from 31st December 1851. Only equality of citizens before law, abolishment of corvee and religious freedom was retained. Close connection between the Church and the State. Problems for Czech and Austrian Catholicism due to the association with neoabsolutism.
Reduction of the teaching of Czech. Suppression of Czech public life. Police surveillance even over the Czech Museum. Czech national movement reduced to cultural activity.
"Brixen martyr" Karel Havlíček - died in 1856 - his funeral in Prague - a large demonstration against Austrian rule.
Liberal reforms of the bureaucracy. Self-governing villages, political districts, land ministries. This system existed until 1950, when abolished by the communists.
Liberal reforms in trade and industry. No obstacles. Regional chambers of commerce.
Reforms of school education. New emphasis of scholarly research and scholarly work of university professors.
But the 1859 defeat in Italy made the neoabsolutist model collapse. Catastrophic state of state finances. Gradual introduction of constitutional reforms.
20th October 1860 - October diploma. Federalist principles envisaged, but return to a centralist model, which was liked by the German bureaucracy and middle classes.
26th February 1861 - February Constitution. Lawmaking powers given to Imperial Council. Two chambers: upper chamber - hereditary, lower chamber - elected deputies. Limited power of regional assemblies.
1st January 1861 - F.L. Rieger, Národní listy: published the Czech political programme, demanded national equality, civil rights and self-government. The Imperial Council did not give the Czech Lands self-government. Czech Deputies decided to ignore it. In 1864, divided Czech schools into Czech, mixed and German. Czech cultural activities.
1860s: liberal conservative Old Czech Party (Palacký, Rieger), radical democratic Young Czech party (Karel Sladkovský), supported by Národní listy, edited by J. Grégr. Strong polemics.
Palacký: The Idea of the Austrian State (1865) - only federalised Austria, according to language divisions, has any future.
Otto Bismarck became Prussian premier in 1862. Resolution over conflict of supremacy of Germany and Austria. 1866 Prussians defeated Austria on Czech territory, mostly loyal Czech soldiers killed. Austrian state policy let the inhabitants sort out the war damage without state help. Prussia gained an opportunity for a further unification of Germany, which led to the first world war. Austria lost influence in Germany and Italy, turned its attention to the Balkans, which was its undoing.