Written by Giulia Santoni
One hundred years ago, on November 21, the last emperor of the great Austrian Empire, Franz Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, died. Born in Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna in 1830, he ascended the throne at age eighteen and so began his long reign. He ruled for 68 years and during this time period many changes took place in the world, such as the transition from the first steam train to the first automobile, to the creation of the airplane.
Franz Joseph sought to consolidate his reign through various means, ranging from limited concessions, such as universal suffrage, to postponing delicate problems regarding the various nationalities within the empire. The situation he faced was difficult given the tumult within the imperial territories, but he managed to re-establish his dominion in Bohemia and in Hungary and to confirm his important presence in Germany and Italy.
Thus began the period of imperial absolutism, which lasted from 1848 to 1860. After his ascent to the throne, the emperor adopted a cautious strategy and granted the State a constitution in 1849 – revoking it later however in 1870.
The relationship between Franz Joseph and Italy was complicated, as it was Austria who kept the divisions of Italian territory alive and caused Italy to remain subjugated to foreigners. The objective of the Empire was to eliminate Italian national identity through de-nationalization and ethnic replacement.
Lombardy-Venetia began to become increasingly dependent on the Habsburg government and increasingly denounced the strong Germanization policy imposed from above. In this way, Austria sought to insert the territory into a historical, cultural, geographical and ethnical environment alien to it, namely "Mitteleuropa". The Venetian economy and society was therefore subordinated to Austrian interests, and measures and laws were imposed which were incompatible with Italian traditions. The Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia was united to Italy in 1866, but other Italian territories remained under Habsburg dominion, such as Trentino, Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia. Franz Joseph tried to continue with his work of de-Italianization, and therefore accelerated the progressive Germanization and Slavization of these territories.
This vision of reality contrasts strongly with the "Hapsburg myth", according to which Franz Joseph had the ability to live peacefully with all populations and ethnic groups within his empire.
Instead, he was convinced that Italians and Italian-speakers were disloyal to his dynasty, and so he decided to oppose them decisively and sought to achieve the goal of Germanizing and Slavicizing these regions.
The idea was to incite a population loyal to the Habsburgs to attack another population which had to be annihilated. However, this attempt at de-nationalization was not a novelty brought about by Franz Joseph, but had its basis in some projects cultivated by other important personalities of the Empire in the past.
This was felt in the areas of Trentino and Venezia Giulia, with measures taken against Italians in schools (by favoring German and Slovenian language schools), in public employment and bureaucracy (by preferring the recruitment and promotion of Slavs, encouraging immigration and the subsequent expulsion of Italians) and in the press with restrictions against liberal newspapers. Even the religious policy was subjected to this process, with the increase of Croatian and Slavic clergymen, and with the anti-Catholic and pro-Protestant Germanization policies in Trentino. The police itself were accused of arbitrariness in favor of the Habsburgs at the expense of the Italians.
There was a strong contrast between Italian autonomism and Austro-Hungarian centralism, which exacerbated the national rivalry between Italians, Austrians and Slavs.
A central and delicate question was also that concerning the fate of Trentino during the First World War. Indeed, in the case of victory, the Austrians intended to keep the province under partial military jurisdiction, enforce German as the official language and impose it in schools, then purge the administration, Germanize the names and public signs, and promote a sort of Austrian colonization.
This was the plan to de-nationalize and Germanize Trentino, since according to Franz Joseph every Italian was a potential threat to his reign and was therefore politically unreliable.
The process of de-nationalization reached its peak in Dalmatia, where the central instrument for Slavicizing the population was the systematic elimination of Italian culture at the elementary level. Italian was abolished as a language for education, and since 1866 not only were Italian schools no longer open, but all previously existing schools were also closed down. Moreover, there were no longer any Italian universities.
Franz Joseph wanted to obtain the gradual extinction and non-existence of Italianism. Indeed, there were frequent attacks on Italian people and property, a symbol of persecution aimed at the entire Italian population.
In the historical archives of the Italian Foreign Ministry a rich documentation can be found concerning the many incidents that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century in Dalmatia, Trentino and Venezia Giulia, in order to eliminate any trace of autonomous cultural and political life and to de-nationalize all the Italians present in the territories of the Habsburgs.
The emperor instead had a privileged relationship with Tyrol, considered by him to be a "very faithful province" with a long-standing destiny intertwined with that of Austria and Hungary. Ever since his first visit in 1844, he returned frequently to those places he called "a paradise" and where his wife Sissi often resided.
In conclusion, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was seen as a multinational State, and this thanks to the charisma of Franz Joseph, but his death reveals a different reality, namely a State in crisis, both in the civil and military fields, in which protests and popular uprisings were commonplace.
While remembering Franz Joseph's anniversary, we should not only celebrate his charisma and the positive things that he wrought, but also recall his controversial personality which caused many problems to his Empire.
No comments:
Post a Comment