Editing Franz Joseph I of Austria (section)

==Consolidation of domestic policy==
[[File:2 Gulden - Francis Joseph I Silver Wedding Jubilee.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Silver coin]]: 2 Gulden of Franz Joseph I - Silver Wedding Jubilee]]
[[File:5 corona Franz Joseph 1908.png|thumb|left|250px| [[Silver coin]]: 5 corona, 1908 – The bust of Franz Joseph I facing right surrounded by the legend "Franciscus Iosephus I, Dei gratia, imperator Austriae, rex Bohemiae, Galiciae, Illyriae et cetera et apostolicus rex Hungariae"]]
[[File:Order of the Garter of Franz Joseph I of Austria.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The [[Order of the Garter|garter]] of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria]]
The next few years saw the seeming recovery of Austria's position on the international scene following the near disasters of 1848–1849. Under Schwarzenberg's guidance, Austria was able to stymie [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] scheming to create a new German Federation under Prussian leadership, excluding Austria. After Schwarzenberg's premature death in 1852, he could not be replaced by statesmen of equal stature, and the emperor himself effectively took over as prime minister.{{sfn|Murad|1968|p=41}} He was one of the most prominent Roman Catholic rulers in Europe, and a fierce enemy of [[Anti-Masonry|Freemasonry]].<ref>Simon Sarlin and Dan Rouyer, "The Anti-Masonic Congress of Trento (1896): International Mobilization and the Circulation of Practices against Freemasonry." ''Contemporanea: Rivista di Storia dell'800 e del '900'' (July-Sep 2021), 24#3, pp. 517-536.</ref>

===Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867===
{{Main|Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867}}
[[File:Ferenc József koronázása Budán.jpg|thumb|250px|Franz Joseph's coronation as Apostolic King of Hungary. Painting by [[Edmund Tull]].]]
The 1850s witnessed several failures of Austrian external policy: the [[Crimean War]], the dissolution of its alliance with Russia, and defeat in the [[Second Italian War of Independence]]. The setbacks continued in the 1860s with defeat in the [[Austro-Prussian War]] of 1866, which resulted in the [[Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867]].{{sfn|Murad|1968|p=169}}

The Hungarian political leaders had two main goals during the negotiations. One was to regain the traditional status (both legal and political) of the Hungarian state, which was lost after the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]]. The other was to restore the series of reform laws of the revolutionary parliament of 1848, which were based on the [[12 points of the Hungarian Revolutionaries of 1848|12 points]] that established modern civil and political rights, economic and societal reforms in Hungary.<ref name="Ferenc Szakály 1980 178" />

The Compromise partially re-established<ref>{{Cite book |last1=André Gerrits |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UFY_iWZAj7kC&q=Ausgleich+%22hungarian+parliament%22+re-established&pg=PA42 |title=Political Democracy and Ethnic Diversity in Modern European History |last2=Dirk Jan Wolffram |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8047-4976-3 |page=42}}</ref> the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hungary, separate from, and no longer subject to the Austrian Empire. Instead, it was regarded as an equal partner with Austria. The compromise put an end to 18 years of absolutist rule and military dictatorship which had been introduced by Francis Joseph after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Franz Joseph was crowned King of Hungary on 8 June, and on 28 July he promulgated the laws that officially turned the Habsburg domains into the Dual Monarchy of [[Austria-Hungary]]. 

According to Emperor Franz Joseph, "There were three of us who made the agreement: [[Ferenc Deák (politician)|Deák]], [[Gyula Andrássy|Andrássy]] and myself."<ref>Kozuchowski, Adam. ''The Afterlife of Austria-Hungary: The Image of the Habsburg Monarchy in Interwar Europe''. Pitt Series in Russian and East European Studies. University of Pittsburgh Press (2013), {{ISBN|978-0-8229-7917-3}}. p. 83</ref> However, the role of Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) cannot be understated in facilitating this compromise. Fluent in Hungarian and deeply sympathetic to the Hungarian cause, Elisabeth fostered close relationships with Hungarian leaders, including Count Gyula Andrássy, and worked behind the scenes to persuade Francis Joseph to adopt a more conciliatory approach. Her influence helped build the trust necessary for successful negotiations, and her personal popularity in Hungary significantly bolstered the monarchy's legitimacy in the region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haslip |first=Joan |title=The Lonely Empress: Elizabeth of Austria |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson History |year=2000 |isbn=978-1842120989 |edition=Paperback}}</ref>

Political difficulties in Austria mounted continuously through the late 19th century and into the 20th century. However, Franz Joseph remained immensely respected; the emperor's patriarchal authority held the Empire together while the politicians squabbled among themselves.<ref name="Johnston">:[[Will Johnston|William M. Johnston]], ''The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History, 1848–1938'' (University of California Press, 1983), p. 38</ref>

===Bohemian question===
{{more citations needed|section|date=November 2019}}
[[File:Franz Joseph of Bohemia 1861.jpg|thumb|180px|Franz Joseph in the regalia of the [[Order of the Golden Fleece]], with the [[Bohemian Crown Jewels]] next to him. Painting by [[Eduard von Engerth]] for the Bohemian Diet, 1861.]]

Following the accession of Franz Joseph to the throne in 1848, the political representatives of the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] hoped and insisted that account should be taken of their historical state rights in the upcoming constitution. They felt the position of [[Bohemia]] within the [[Habsburg monarchy]] should have been highlighted by a [[Coronation of the Bohemian monarch|coronation of the new ruler to the king of Bohemia]] in Prague (the last coronation took place in 1836). However, before the 19th century the Habsburgs had ruled Bohemia by hereditary right and a separate coronation was not deemed necessary.

His new government installed the system of [[neoabsolutism]] in Austrian internal affairs to make the Austrian Empire a unitary, centralised and bureaucratically administered state. When Franz Joseph returned to constitutional rule after the debacles in Italy at [[Battle of Magenta|Magenta]] and [[Battle of Solferino|Solferino]] and summoned the diets of his lands, the question of his coronation as king of Bohemia again returned to the agenda, as it had not since 1848. On 14 April 1861, Emperor Franz Joseph received a delegation from the Bohemian Diet with his words (in Czech):

{{blockquote|I will have myself crowned King of Bohemia in Prague, and I am convinced that a new, indissoluble bond of trust and loyalty between My throne and My Bohemian Kingdom will be strengthened by this holy rite.<ref name="lecaine">{{Cite book |last=Le Caine Agnew |first=Hugh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_SOie5SJQwC |title=The limits of loyalty: imperial symbolism, popular allegiances, and state patriotism in the late Habsburg monarchy |date=2007 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-84545-202-5 |editor-last=Cole |editor-first=Laurence |location=New York |pages=86–112 |language=en |chapter=The Flyspecks on Palivec's Portrait: Franz Joseph, the Symbols of Monarchy, and Czech Popular Loyalty |access-date=17 November 2016 |editor-last2=Unowsky |editor-first2=Daniel L.}}</ref>}}

In contrast to his predecessor Emperor [[Ferdinand I of Austria|Ferdinand]] (who spent the rest of his life after his abdication in 1848 in Bohemia and especially in Prague), Franz Joseph was never crowned separately as king of Bohemia. In 1861, the negotiations failed because of unsolved constitutional problems. However, in 1866, a visit of the monarch to Prague following defeat at the [[Battle of Königgrätz]] was a huge success, testified by the considerable numbers of new photographs taken.

[[File:Portrait of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria (by Philip Alexius de Laszlo) – Hungarian National Museum.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Portrait by [[Philip de László]], 1899]]

In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian compromise and the introduction of the dual monarchy left the Czechs and their aristocracy without the recognition of separate Bohemian state rights for which they had hoped. Bohemia remained part of the [[Cisleithania|Austrian Crown Lands]]. In Bohemia, opposition to dualism took the form of isolated street demonstrations, resolutions from district representations, and even open air mass protest meetings, confined to the biggest cities, such as Prague. The Czech newspaper ''[[Národní listy]]'' complained that the Czechs had not yet been compensated for their wartime losses and sufferings during the Austro-Prussian War, and had just seen their historic state rights tossed aside and their land subsumed into the "other" half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, commonly called "Cisleithania".<ref name="lecaine" />

The Czech hopes were revived again in 1870–1871. In an Imperial [[Rescript]] of 26 September 1870, Franz Joseph referred again to the prestige and glory of the [[Lands of the Bohemian Crown|Bohemian Crown]] and to his intention to hold a coronation. Under Minister-President [[Karl Hohenwart]] in 1871, the government of Cisleithania negotiated a series of fundamental articles spelling out the relationship of the Bohemian Crown to the rest of the Habsburg Monarchy. On 12 September 1871, Franz Joseph announced:

{{blockquote|Having in mind the constitutional position of the Bohemian Crown and being conscious of the glory and power which that Crown has given us ''and our predecessors''… we gladly recognise the rights of the kingdom and are prepared to renew that recognition through our coronation oath.<ref name="lecaine" />}}

For the planned coronation, the composer [[Bedřich Smetana]] had written the opera ''[[Libuše (opera)|Libuše]]'', but the ceremony did not take place. The creation of the [[German Empire]], domestic opposition from German-speaking liberals (especially [[Sudeten Germans|German-Bohemians]]) and from Hungarians doomed the [[Fundamental Articles of 1871|Fundamental Articles]]. Hohenwart resigned and nothing changed.

Many Czech people were waiting for political changes in monarchy, including [[Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk]] and others. Masaryk served in the ''[[Imperial Council (Austria)|Reichsrat]]'' (Upper House) from 1891 to 1893 in the [[Young Czech Party]] and again from 1907 to 1914 in the [[Czech Realist Party|Realist Party]] (which he had founded in 1900), but he did not campaign for the independence of Czechs and Slovaks from Austria-Hungary. In Vienna in 1909 he helped [[Hinko Hinković]]'s defense in the fabricated trial against prominent Croats and Serbs members of the Serbo-Croatian Coalition (such as [[Frano Supilo]] and [[Svetozar Pribićević]]), and others, who were sentenced to more than 150 years and a number of death penalties. The Bohemian question would remain unresolved for the entirety of Franz Joseph's reign.