Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

Timeline The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (German: Ausgleich, Hungarian: Kiegyezés) established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which was a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states.

[1] The Compromise only partially re-established[2] the former pre-1848 sovereignty and status of the Kingdom of Hungary, being separate from, and no longer subject to, the Austrian Empire.

The compromise put an end to the 18-year-long military dictatorship and absolutist rule over Hungary which Emperor Franz Joseph had instituted after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

Therefore, the political maintenance of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, and thus Austria-Hungary itself, was mostly a result of the popularity of the pro-compromise ruling Liberal Party among ethnic minority voters in the Kingdom of Hungary.

Louis II's brother-in-law, Ferdinand I of Habsburg, was elected King of Hungary by a rump Parliament in Pozsony (now Bratislava) in December 1526.

[8][9] The Ottomans were subsequently driven out of Hungary by the cooperation of international Western Christian forces led by Prince Eugene of Savoy between 1686 and 1699.

Unlike other Habsburg-ruled areas, the Kingdom of Hungary had an old historic constitution,[10] which limited the power of the Crown and had greatly increased the authority of the parliament since the 13th century.

The Hungarian parliament was the most important political assembly since the 12th century, which emerged to the position of the supreme legislative institution in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s.

The Court reassured the diet, however, that the assumption of the monarch's newly adopted title (Emperor of Austria) did not in any sense affect the laws and the constitution on the territory of Kingdom of Hungary.

These laws were approved by the Hungarian Diet in March 1848 in Pozsony (Pressburg, now Bratislava, Slovakia)[28] and were signed by king Ferdinand V at the Primate's Palace in the same city on 11 April 1848.

This act was unconstitutional, as the laws remained in force due to having been signed by his uncle, King Ferdinand I, and he had no right to "revoke" them.

However, if the monarch sought to abdicate and appoint a successor before his death, the only lawful course of action was for the parliament to dethrone the old king and elect a new one.

Amidst the prevailing legal and military tensions, the Hungarian parliament declined to grant Franz Joseph this privilege.

On 7 March 1849, an imperial proclamation was issued in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph, establishing a unified constitution for the entire empire.

Under this new decree, the traditional territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Hungary would be dismantled and divided into five distinct military districts, while the Principality of Transylvania would be reestablished.

[34] Austrian Prime Minister Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg and his government, which took office in November 1848, embarked on a radically new imperial policy.

Their aim was to cultivate a cohesive empire in accordance with the imperial constitution proclaimed by Franz Joseph I in Olmütz on 4 March 1849.

The threat of fiscal insolvency and the demands of his creditors for an open and credible budgetary process forced the unwilling Franz Joseph to authorize political reform.

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.

[53] The foreign policy and defense, as well as financing them, were the most important joint affairs of Austria-Hungary, the resulting dual monarchy, to be based on the Pragmatic Sanction of 1723.

When, in 1870, Beust wanted Austria–Hungary to support France against Prussia, Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy was "vigorously opposed" and effectively vetoed Austrian intervention.

[71] Before the World War I, only three European countries declared ethnic minority rights, and enacted minority-protecting laws: the first was Hungary (1849 and 1868), the second was Austria (1867), and the third was Belgium (1898).

[76] As early as the mid-1880s, Lord Salisbury, leader of the British Conservative Party, had contemplated using the 1867 Austro-Hungarian example as a model for a reformed relationship between Britain and Ireland.

[77] In 1904, Arthur Griffith published the highly influential book The Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland, setting out a detailed proposal for an Anglo-Irish dual monarchy similar to the Austro-Hungarian one.

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which established the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, is occasionally cited in speculative and folkloric accounts as having an influence on Ireland during its struggle for autonomy within the British Empire.

While there is no historical evidence to support these claims, some narratives suggest that Irish nationalist leaders viewed the Compromise as a model for negotiating Home Rule.

According to these accounts, the structure of the Dual Monarchy, which granted Hungary significant autonomy while preserving its union with Austria, was admired by Irish political thinkers.

This theoretical influence is said to have shaped discussions within the Home Rule movement, fostering ideas of an "Irish-British dual governance" arrangement.