III.

Francis Joseph’s Empire and the Great Powers

After a successful start—Francis Joseph’s government defeated the revolution at home and re-established Austria’s authority among the German states—Austria’s international situation deteriorated. Francis Joseph’s half-hearted support of the Western Powers during the Crimean War earned her little more than Russia’s wrath and had a ruinous effect on Austria’s finances. In 1859, Francis Joseph fell into the trap set for him by the French ruler Napoleon III and the Piedmontese politician Camillo Cavour and was defeated by French-Piedmontese troops at the battles of Magenta (June 4) and Solferino (June 24). Without support from his German confederates, Francis Joseph had to cede Lombardy to Napoleon, who passed it on to Piedmont (see Unification of Italy).

North of the Alps, Austria’s position proved equally precarious. A national movement aiming at a united Germany reemerged in 1859 (see German Unification). After 1862, the Prussian Minister-President Otto von Bismarck harnessed this movement to eject Austria from Germany. Having involved her in the war against Denmark in 1864, Bismarck precipitated a war against Austria in 1866 (see Seven Weeks’ War). Even though Francis Joseph’s troops twice defeated Prussia’s ally Italy, the Prussian victory at Königgrätz (also known as Sadowa) on July 3 proved decisive. The peace agreed in Prague on August 23, 1866, was relatively lenient, but still sealed Austria’s exclusion from a Prussian-dominated Germany and the handover of the province of Venetia to the Kingdom of Italy.

Having lost her former spheres of interest in Germany and Italy, the main thrust of Austria’s foreign policy was naturally directed towards the explosive field of Balkan politics. At the Congress of Berlin, chaired by Bismarck in 1878, Austria and Britain forced Russia to relinquish most of the spoils of her recent victory over Turkey (see Russo-Turkish Wars). Austria was authorized to occupy the formerly Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. With the Russo-German-Austrian Three Emperors’ League of 1873 destroyed, Germany and Austria concluded the Dual Alliance (1879). Henceforth, three key components shaped the course of Austrian foreign policy: (i) the long-term alliance with Germany; (ii) Austria’s relationship with Russia, which vacillated from renewed alliance (Three Emperors’ Alliance, 1881-1887) and limited co-operation (Austro-Russian Agreement, 1897) to outright hostility; and (iii) a keen interest in the affairs of the Balkans. Austro-Russian relations eventually broke down during the crisis of 1908-1909 when Austria—with German backing and despite furious Russian protests—unilaterally annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina. During the subsequent Balkan Wars, the Russian-backed kingdom of Serbia emerged as the main thorn in Francis Joseph’s side.