The Various Races of Austro-Hungary
Insurrection of the radicals in Vienna suppressed.
Accession of Francis Joseph I, 1848-.
In October, 1848, the radical party rose in Vienna as it had in Paris after the deposition of Louis Philippe. The minister of war was brutally murdered and the emperor fled. The city was, however, besieged by the same commander who had put down the insurrection in Prague, and was forced to surrender. The imperial government was now in a position still further to strengthen itself. The emperor, a notoriously inefficient person, was forced to abdicate (December 2, 1848) in favor of his youthful nephew, Francis Joseph I, who still sits upon the Austrian throne. Moreover, a new Metternich appeared in the person of Schwarzenberg.
Suppression of Hungarian republic.
Final peaceful union between Austria and Hungary, 1867.
A vigorous campaign was begun against Hungary, which, under the influence of the patriotic Kossuth, had deposed its Hapsburg king and declared itself an independent republic under the presidency of Kossuth. The Tsar placed his forces at the disposal of Francis Joseph, and with the aid of an army of one hundred and fifty thousand Russians, who marched in from the east, the Hungarians were compelled, by the middle of August, to surrender. Austria took terrible vengeance upon the rebels. Thousands were hung, shot, and imprisoned, and many, including Kossuth, fled to the United States or elsewhere. But within a few years Hungary won its independence by peaceful measures, and it is now on exactly the same footing as the western dominions of Francis Joseph in the dual federation of Austria-Hungary.
Austria defeats the king of Sardinia at Novara, March, 1849.