Monday, Dec 22, 2014
- The Austrian Empire
- Defeat and Discontent
- Austria suffered humiliating military defeats at the hands of first France and Piedmont and then Prussia.
- The empire’s biggest problem was the discontent of the many nationalities living under Habsburg rule.
- The Magyars were the largest and most restive national group.
- The Dual Monarchy
- In 1867, Austria agreed to satisfy the Magyars’ demands for independence by creating a dual monarchy.
- Austria and Hungary became independent and equal states under common Habsburg ruler. The two states still had a united army and common foreign policy. The new empire was known as Austria-Hungary.
- Continued Slavic Discontent
- The dual monarchy satisfied the Magyars but failed to solve the empire’s nationality problem.
- The Slavic regions called for but failed to receive a triple monarchy.
- Slavic discontent posed a significant threat to the future of Austria-Hungary and the peace of Europe.
- Great Britain: Prosperity and Reform
- The “Workshop of the World”
- Great Britain continued to enjoy unprecedented prosperity.
- British shipyards led the world in the construction of iron ships.
- British bankers invested surplus capital in projects all over the globe.
- The Reform Bill of 1867
- Britain’s rapidly growing working class continued to demand electoral reform.
- Led by Benjamin Disraeli, the Conservatives (formerly the Tories), supported a new reform bill.
- The Reform Bill of 1867 extended the suffrage to most of Great Britain’s urban workers.
- It is important to note that British women were still denied the right to vote.
- The Irish Question
- Following the Act of Union in 1801, Ireland was united with Great Britain and governed by the British Parliament.
- Led by Charles Parnell, Irish nationalists sought to achieve home rule granting Ireland its own parliament.
- Prime Minister William Gladstone supported Irish home rule. However, a coalition of Conservatives and anti-home-rule Liberals defeated his home rule bills in 1886 and 1892. Gladstone’s support for Irish home rule split the Liberal Party, enabling the Conservatives to take power.
- Parliament finally passed an Irish home rule bull in 1914. However, the British government suspended the bill for the duration of World War I.
- Peaceful Reforms
- The Franchise Act of 1884 extended voting rights to rural male laborers. By 1914, 80 percent of Britain’s male population was enfranchised.
- Parliament laid the foundation for the British welfare state by establishing a system of health and unemployment insurance.