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Austria THE HABSBURG EMPIRE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
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Figure 3. Austrian Empire, 1815
The Napoleonic Wars
What began as a retrenchment in Austria's reform program
ground to a complete halt when the international crisis caused by
the French Revolution engulfed Europe in a generation of war.
Meeting in Potsdam in 1791, Leopold II and the king of Prussia
jointly declared that the revolutionary situation in France was a
common concern of all sovereigns. Although the declaration did
not become the framework for European military intervention in
France as its authors had hoped, it set Austria and the French
Revolution on an ideological collision course. In April 1792,
revolutionary France declared war on Austria.
The first war lasted for five years until Austria, abandoned
by its allies, was forced to make peace on unfavorable terms.
Austria renewed the war against France in 1799 and again in 1805
but was swiftly defeated both times. In the otherwise unfavorable
settlement after the defeat in 1805, however, Austria did receive
Salzburg, a territory formerly ruled by an archbishop, in
compensation for the loss of various Italian and German
possessions.
Because French domination of Germany raised the possibility
that Napoleon Bonaparte or one of his subordinates could be
elected Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold's son, Franz II (r. 1792-
1835), took two steps to protect Habsburg interests. First, to
guarantee his family's continued imperial status, he adopted a
new, hereditary title, Emperor of Austria, in 1804, thus becoming
Franz I of Austria. Second, to preclude completely the
possibility of Napoleon's election, in 1806 he renounced the
title of Holy Roman Emperor and dissolved the Holy Roman Empire.
In the final years of the decade, the German Habsburg area
was swept with anti-French nationalist fervor. Erroneously
believing that similar nationalist fervor throughout Germany
would produce a victory, Austria declared war on France in April
1809. In the Tirol, then under Bavarian rule, the peasants, led
by Andreas Hofer, rebelled and scored surprising victories before
being subdued by Napoleon's forces. Elsewhere in Germany,
however, nationalist feeling had little effect. Austria's defeat
was swift, and significant territorial losses followed.
In the wake of this defeat, Franz appointed a new foreign
minister, Clemens von Metternich, who sought reconciliation with
France. He accomplished this by arranging a marriage between
Franz's daughter, Marie Louise, and Napoleon, who was eager for
the prestige of marriage into one of the principal dynasties of
Europe and the creation of an heir. The marriage took place in
the spring of 1810 but yielded little immediate return for
Austria.
In 1813 Napoleon's position began to weaken. His invasion of
Russia had failed, and Britain was scoring victories in the
Iberian Peninsula. Both sides of the conflict began bidding for
Austria's support. In August of that year, Austria broke its
alliance with France and declared war. Despite generous subsidies
from Britain, the final campaigns against Napoleon in 1814 and
1815 strained Austria's financial and human resources. Thus,
Austria emerged as a victor from the war but in a severely
weakened state.
Data as of December 1993
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