The Nationalities in the Habsburg Empire in the 19th Century
III. Nationalities in the Habsburg Empire (Mason doc. 1)
Germans
Czechs
Hungarians
Romanians
Poles
Ruthenians
Croats
Serbs
Jews
23.9%
12.6
20.2
6.4
10
7.9
5.3
3.8
4.5
A. Czechs & Germans in Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Lands)
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Modernization, industrialization, urbanization
Czech revival: German supremacy contested
Germans react with German ethnic nationalism
B. Poles and Ruthenians in Galicia
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Poles as old political nation, not just cultural
Poles in Habsburg Empire, Russian Empire & Prussia
Nobility nationalism
lack of peasant
1846 Galician uprising begins by proclaiming peasant emancipation
Yet defeated by Austrians with help of peasants
Polish nationalists turn to “small deeds” organic work of education, improvement
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“Ruthenians” become Ukrainians as they gain national consciousness
divided among Austria, Russia, Hungary
In Austria they live in Galicia and Bukovina (B. = part of Moldavian Principality
taken by Austria in 1775)
Most Galician Ruthenians are Uniate, peasants
Ruthenians preferred Austrian gov’t to Polish landlords
Austrians freed peasants from landlord oppression & used that to keep Poles in
check until 1867
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2
C. Hungarians old noble nation with tradition of uninterrupted statehood.
Kingdom included Slovak, Serb, Romanian, Ruthenian peasants. Croats also nobility.
Non-Magyars became Magyarized as they became educated
D. Romanians (Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia)
 In Transylvania intense interest in the ancient Latin/Roman heritage
 argue for political recognition in Habsburg Empire
 Cultural work in 18th cent. impetus to national movements all over Balkans and
Central Europe
 As Wallachian and Moldavian Romanians make progress toward independence
Transylvanian Romanians look to them
 Irredentism
E. Slovaks in Hungary since medieval times.
 19th century cultural revival and contacts with Czechs: linguistic kinship & panSlavism
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Slovaks less modern than Czechs, more rural
Hussite movement Czech phenomenon, Slovaks more pious
F. Croats allied with Hungarian Crown from M.A.
 Croats interpret medieval union as voluntary between 2 noble nations.
 Catholics they looked West
 cultural revival “Illyrian” national movement
G. Jews Dispersed nation
 Urban minority
 vulnerable to charge of not being native
 modernization brings other ethnic groups into competition with Jews
 loyal to the Habsburg Monarchy or to non-Jewish liberal national movements
(Hungarian, Polish, Czech)
 Jewish national movement, Zionism, in 1880s-90s—in reaction to other
nationalisms that excluded them