The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 established the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary. The Compromise re-established partially the sovereignty
of the Kingdom of Hungary, separate from, and no longer subject to the
Austrian Empire. Under the Compromise, the lands of the House of Habsburg were
reorganized as a real union between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of
Hungary. The Cisleithanian and Transleithanian regions of the state
were governed by separate parliaments and prime ministers. Unity was
maintained through rule of a single head of state, reigning as both the Emperor
of Austria and King of Hungary, and common monarchy-wide ministries of
foreign affairs, defence and finance under his direct authority. The armed
forces were combined with the Emperor-King as commander-in-chief.
The names conventionally used for the two realms were derived from the river
Leitha, or Lajta, a tributary of the Danube and the traditional border
between Austrian and Magyar lands. The Leitha however did not form the entire
border nor was its whole course part of the border: the Cis- and Trans- usage
was by force of custom rather than geographical accuracy.
According to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria only three people contributed to
the compromise: "There were three of us who made the agreement: Deák, Andrássy
and myself." History
In the Middle Ages Austria was a quasi-independent state within the Holy
Roman Empire, ruled by the House of Habsburg, while the Kingdom of Hungary
was a sovereign state outside the empire. In 1526 at the Battle of Mohács,
Hungary was defeated and partially conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The
crown of Hungary was inherited by the Habsburgs. The Ottomans were
subsequently driven out of Hungary in 1699. From 1526 to 1804, Austria and
Hungary were a personal union under the Habsburgs, but remained nominally and
legally separate. In 1804–6, the Holy Roman Empire was
abolished, and the Austrian Empire was created. This Empire came to comprise
all Habsburg lands ruled by Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, largely without
changing the status quo that existed between them before 1804.
= After the Hungarian revolution = In the failed Hungarian Revolution of
1848, the Magyars came close to regaining independence, and were
defeated by the Austrian Empire only with the aid of the Russian Empire.
Prime Minister Félix von Schwarzenberg and his government, operating since
November 1848, pursued radically new imperial policy. It wanted to develop a
uniform empire in the spirit of the imperial constitution issued by Franz
Joseph I in Olmütz on 4 March 1849, and as a result, Hungary's constitution and
her territorial integrity were abolished and she became subsumed into the
hereditary lands. After the 1848-49 Hungarian War of Independence, a
military dictatorship was created in Hungary. Every aspect of Hungarian life
was put under close scrutiny and governmental control. The territory of
the country was partitioned into crown lands, and the Hungarian government and
Hungarian parliament were suspended. This started an era of absolutist rule
in Hungary. German became the official language of
public administration. The edict issued on 9 October 1849 placed education under
state control, the curriculum was prescribed and controlled by the state,
the education of national history was confined, and history was taught from a
Habsburg viewpoint. Even the bastion of Hungarian culture, the Academy was kept
under control: the institution was staffed with foreigners, mostly Germans,
and the institution was practically defunct until the end of 1858.
Hungarians responded with passive resistance. Anti-Habsburg and
anti-German sentiments were strong. In the following years, the empire
instituted several reforms, but failed to resolve these problems.
In 1866, Austria was completely defeated in the Austro-Prussian War and its
position as the leading state of Germany ended forever, as the remaining German
minor states were soon absorbed into the German Empire created by Prussia.
Austria also lost almost all of its remaining claims and influence in Italy,
which had been its chief foreign policy interest.
The state needed to redefine itself to maintain unity in the face of
nationalism. Adoption
As a consequence of the Franco-Austrian War, and the Austro-Prussian War the
Habsburg Empire was on the verge of collapse in 1866, as these military
endeavours resulted in monumental state debt, and a financial crisis.
The Habsburgs were forced to reconcile with Hungary to save their empire and
dynasty. The Habsburgs and part of the Hungarian political elite arranged the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, despite the fact that the overwhelming
majority of the populace wanted full independence.
Hungarian statesman Ferenc Deák is considered the intellectual force behind
the Compromise. Deák initially wanted independence for Hungary and supported
the 1848 Revolution, but he broke with hardline nationalists and advocated a
modified union under the Habsburgs. Deák took the line that, while Hungary had
the right to full internal independence, questions of defence and foreign affairs
were "common" to both Austria and Hungary under the Pragmatic Sanction. He
also felt that Hungary benefited through continued unity with wealthier, more
industrialized Austria, and that the Compromise would end the pressures on
Austria of continually choosing between the Magyar and Slav populations of the
Kingdom of Hungary. Imperial Chancellor Beust quickly negotiated the Compromise
with the Hungarian leaders. Beust was particularly eager to renew the conflict
with Prussia, and thought a quick settlement with Hungary would make that
possible. Franz Joseph and Deák signed the Compromise, and it was ratified by
the restored Diet of Hungary on 29 May 1867.
The Compromise was negotiated and legitimised by only a very small part of
Hungarian society, and was seen by a very large part of the population as a
betrayal of the Hungarian cause and the heritage of the 1848-49 War of
Independence. The Compromise was very unpopular and the government resorted to
force to suppress civil dissent. The Compromise caused deep and lasting
schisms in Hungarian society. Beust's desired revenge against Prussia
did not materialize. When in 1870, Beust wanted Austria-Hungary to support France
against Prussia, Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy was "vigorously
opposed", effectively vetoing Austrian intervention.
Terms Under the Compromise, Austria and
Hungary had separate parliaments that met in Vienna and Buda, respectively,
that passed and maintained separate laws. Each region had its own
government, headed by its own prime minister. The "dual monarchy" consisted
of the emperor-king, and the common ministers of foreign affairs, defence,
and finance in Vienna. The monetary and economic terms of the Compromise were
renegotiated every ten years. Under the terms of the Compromise
Hungary took over a large part of the towering Austrian state debt.
The King retained royal privileges: He became the supreme warlord, and kept
all decisional authority on the structure, organization and
administration of the army in his hands. He appointed the senior officials, had
the right to declare war, and he was the commander-in-chief of the army;
He had the right to declare state of emergency;
He had the right of preliminary royal assent of every bill the Cabinet Council
wanted to report to the National Assembly. He had the right to veto any
law passed by the National Assembly; He had the right to dissolve the
National Assembly; and He had the right to appoint and dismiss
the members of the Cabinet Council. This meant a strong reduction in
Hungarian sovereignty and autonomy even in comparison with the pre-1848 status
quo. Despite Austria and Hungary sharing a
common currency, they were fiscally sovereign and independent entities.
Continuing pressures The resulting system was maintained
until the dissolution of the dual monarchy following World War I. The
favoritism shown to the Magyars, the second largest ethnic group in the dual
monarchy after the Germans, caused discontent on the part of other ethnic
groups like the Slovaks and Romanians. Although a "Nationalities Law" was
enacted to preserve the rights of ethnic minorities, the two parliaments took
very different approaches to this issue. The basic problem in the later years was
that the Compromise with Hungary only encouraged the appetites of
non-Hungarian minorities in Hungary that were historically within the boundaries
of the Hungarian Kingdom. The majority of Hungarians felt they had accepted the
Compromise only under coercion. The Austrian Archduke, separately crowned
King of Hungary, had to swear in his coronation oath not to revise or
diminish the historic imperial domains of the Hungarian nobility, magnates, and
upper classes. These Hungarian groups never acquiesced to granting "their"
minorities the recognition and local autonomy which the Austrians had given
to the Magyars themselves in the Compromise.
In the Kingdom of Hungary, several ethnic minorities faced increased
pressures of Magyarization. Further, the renegotiations that occurred every ten
years often led to constitutional crises. Ultimately, although the
Compromise hoped to fix the problems faced by a multi-national state while
maintaining the benefits of a large state, the new system still faced the
same internal pressures the old had. To what extent the dual monarchy stabilized
the country in the face of national awakenings and to what extent it
alleviated, or aggravated, the situation are debated even today.
In a letter of February 1, 1913, to Berchtold, his Foreign Minister,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand said that "irredentism in our country ... will
cease immediately if our Slavs are given a comfortable, fair and good life"
instead of being trampled on. The end
With the political agenda dominated by war and imminent defeat, in the middle
of October 1918 the Hungarian government, with the agreement of King
Charles IV of Hungary, gave notice of termination. The 1867 compromise was
formally terminated on 31 October 1918. Shared institutions such as the Council
of Ministers remained formally in force until 2 November 1918, but by this time
for all practical purposes power had devolved from Budapest to the various
emerging nationally based regions that would form the basis for the redrawing
of the map of middle Europe at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 which formally
began its own work early in 1919. Notes
References Chronology of the Compromise
The Dual Monarchy in Hungary Nationalism in Hungary
Further reading Cornwall, Mark, Last Years Of
Austria-Hungary: A Multi-National Experiment in Early Twentieth-Century
Europe, University of Exeter Press . Seton-Watson, R. W., "The
Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich of 1867", The Slavonic and East European Review:
123–40, JSTOR 4203588 . Seton-Watson, R. W., "Transylvania since
1867", The Slavonic Review: 101–23, JSTOR 4201928 .
Taylor, A. J. P., The Habsburg Monarchy, 1815 – 1918: A history of the Austrian
Empire and Austria-Hungary., New York: Macmillan .
Tihany, Leslie C, "The Austro-Hungarian Compromise, 1867–1918: A Half Century of
Diagnosis; Fifty Years of Post-Mortem", Central European History: 114–38, JSTOR
4545523 . Sowards, Steven W, Nationalism in
Hungary, 1848–1867. Twenty Five Lectures on Modern Balkan History, Michigan State
University, retrieved 19 March 2009 .