Popular demonstrations occurred at Mannheim, Cassel, Breslau, Koenigsberg
and along the Rhine region in Cologne, Duesseldorf and Aix-la-Chapelle. A
popular convention at Heidelberg, on March 5, had resolved upon a national
assembly to be held at Frankfort-on-the-Main by the end of March. Elections
for this assembly were being held throughout Germany. The long-desired
union of Germany was at last to be accomplished. On March 14, King
Frederick William of Prussia convoked the Prussian Assembly for April 27,
to deliberate upon Prussia's part in the proposed German union. Then came
the news of the events in Vienna. Crowds gathered in the streets excitedly
discussing the events of the day. Attempts on the part of the police to
disperse them led to threatening encounters. Under the stress of alarming
bulletins from Vienna, the King issued a rescript on March 18, in which he
not only convoked the Prussian Assembly for the earlier date of April 2,
but himself proposed such reforms as constitutional government, liberty of
speech, liberty of the press, and the reconstitution of the Germanic
Federation as a national union of states--a realization in brief of all the
most ardent ideals of the German Liberals. Now the popular agitators
proposed a monster demonstration to thank the King for his concessions.
Shortly after noon, on March 18, the processions converged upon the palace.
Immense crowds filled the streets. The appearance of the King upon the
balcony was greeted with cheers. King Frederick William tried to speak but
could not make himself heard. The troops set out to clear the palace
grounds. Angry shouts arose for the withdrawal of the soldiery. In the
confusion two shots were fired. A panic ensued: "We are betrayed," cried
the leaders, and called the people to arms. The troops of the garrison
charged into the rioters. Barricades were thrown up, and here and there
church bells rang the tocsin. From three in the afternoon until early the
next morning, fighting continued in the streets. The entire garrison of
Berlin was called out and with the help of the bright moonlight succeeded
in clearing one street after another. Prince William, the future German
Emperor, gained unenviable notoriety by his zeal. At two in the morning
the King gave orders to stop firing. He issued a proclamation: "To my dear
people of Berlin," the mild tone of which only betrayed his weakness. On
the following day all the troops were withdrawn and ordered out of the
city. Prince William likewise left Berlin in deep chagrin and departed for
England. His palace had to be protected from the fury of the people by
placards pronouncing it the property of the nation. Once more the rioters
appeared before the royal palace with the bodies of some of their slain.
The King convoked a new Ministry and consented to substitute armed citizens
and students for his royal guards. A general amnesty was proclaimed. On
March 21, the King agreed to adopt "the sacred colors of the German Empire"
for those of Prussia. After the manner of the weak Emperor of Austria, he
rode through the streets of Berlin wearing a tricolor sash. Not satisfied
with this, the revolutionists, on March 22, paraded before the palace with
the open biers of 187 men that had been killed during the riots. Standing
on his balcony with bared head, King Frederick William reviewed the ghastly
procession. In a manifesto published at the close of the day he declared:
"Germany is in ferment within and exposed from without to danger from more
than one side. Deliverance from this danger can come only from the most
intimate union of the German princes and people under a single leadership.
I take this leadership upon me for the hour of peril. I have to-day assumed
the old German colors, and placed myself and my people under the venerable
banner of the German Empire. Prussia is henceforth merged into Germany."
Thus Frederick William, by word and acts, which he afterward described as a
comedy, directly encouraged the imperial aspirations of liberal Germany.
The passage of his address in which he spoke of external dangers
threatening Germany came true sooner than was expected. King Christian
VIII. of Denmark had died early in the year. The fear of revolution at
Copenhagen drove his son Frederick VII., the last of the Oldenburg line, to
prick the war bubble blown by his father. On March 22, he called the
leaders of the Eider-Dane party--the party which regarded the Eider as the
boundary of the Danish dominions, thus converting Schleswig into a Danish
province--to take the reins of government. The people of Schleswig and
Holstein protested. The King was checkmated at Kiel by the appointment of a
provisional government. The troops joined the people, and the insurrection
spread over the whole province. The struggle then began. Volunteers from
all parts of Germany rushed to the northern frontier. The German Bundestag
admitted a representative of the threatened Duchies, and intrusted Prussia
with their defence. An attempt was made to organize a German fleet. General
Wrangel was placed in command of the Prussian forces despatched toward
Denmark. Before he could arrive, the untrained volunteer army of
Schleswig-Holsteiners suffered defeat at Bau. A corps of students from the
University of Kiel was all but annihilated.
[Sidenote: Russia stems revolution]
An attempted rising of the Poles, in the Prussian province of Posen and at
Cracow, was quickly suppressed. As soon as the news of the revolution in
Paris reached Russia, the absolute ruler of that vast empire mobilized his
armies, "so that, if circumstances should demand it, the tide of Anarchy
could be dammed." After the abortive revolt at Cracow, Czar Nicholas issued
an imperial manifesto, closing with a quotation from Isaiah: "Listen, ye
heathen, and submit, for with us is God." When the spirit of revolt spread
to Moldavia and Wallachia, Emperor Nicholas without further ado despatched
a Russian army corps across the Pruth. The Sultan of Turkey was prevailed
upon to do the same. Russian and Turkish troops occupied Jassy and
Bucharest during the summer.
[Illustration: OPENING OF THE OPERA
Painted by Edouard Detaille
Copyright by M. Knoedler & Co.]
[Sidenote: Frankfort Vor-Parlament]
[Sidenote: Revolution in Baden]
[Sidenote: General Gagern shot]
[Sidenote: Flight of rebels]
The German preliminary Parliament of five hundred delegates had met at
Frankfort in April. It lasted but five days. The Republicans found
themselves outnumbered, when they submitted their scheme for a national
constitution. Repulsed in this, the Liberals proposed that they should
continue in session until the real National Parliament should meet, thus
extending their function beyond the limits of a mere constituent assembly.
Outvoted in this, the leaders of the extreme Republicans resorted to armed
revolt. Assisted by Polish refugees and men from France, they raised the
red flag in Baden. Friedrich Hecker, a popular orator and representative of
Baden, headed the movement. George Herwegh, the poet, took charge of the
refugees from Switzerland and a group of German operatives recently
returned from France. A provisional government was declared in the lake
district of Baden. The Parliamentary majority of Frankfort, on breaking up,
left behind a committee of fifty to prepare the draft of a constitution.
The Bundestag meeting at the same time called for military measures against
the insurgents. From three sides troops advanced into Baden. A Bavarian
detachment marched from Lindau, Swabian troops came from the Black Forest,
while from the north Hessian forces were led by General von Gagern, a
brother of the new Prime Minister of Hesse. On April 19, Von Gagern
encountered the revolutionists under Hecker at Kandern. While haranguing
the insurgents, he was shot from his horse. The troops charged the
insurgents with the bayonet and dispersed them in less than an hour. Four
days later the revolutionary intrenchments at Freiburg were stormed. On the
27th, Herwegh's corps of 1,000 refugees was dispersed by General Miller.
Hecker fled to America. The other leaders likewise made good their escape.
On April 29 they issued a manifesto at Strasburg: "An overwhelming number
of imported bestial mercenaries have crushed Republican aspirations in
Baden, and have once more subjected the people to the hateful tyranny of
princes."
[Sidenote: The cause of Italy]
[Sidenote: Other Powers hostile]
[Sidenote: Italy isolated]
The unexpected outbreak of revolution in Vienna and Hungary had inspired
the Italians to rebel against Austrian rule with new confidence. On March
30, Pio Nono at Rome issued a proclamation to the people of Italy, in which
he said: "The events which have followed one another with such astounding
rapidity during the last two months are not the work of man. Woe to him
who, in this storm that shatters cedars as well as oaks, hears not the
voice of the Lord." Under the command of General Durando, a band of
Crociati, or crusaders, marched from Rome against the Austrians. Count
Balbo was placed in command of the Piedmontese army. To the remonstrances
of the British Ambassador at Turin, King Charles Albert replied that he
must either march against Austria or lose his crown. England, indeed, was
emphatic in its disapproval of the Italian national movement. In the pages
of the "Edinburgh Review," Sir Archibald Allison, the court historian,
wrote: "It is utterly repugnant to the first principles of English policy,
and to every page in English history, to lend encouragement to the
separation of nationalities from other empires." The new republican
government in France, on its part, had no desire to see a strong Italian
national State spring up on its southern frontier. Lamartine, the French
Foreign Minister, declined Charles Albert's request to sanction his
military occupation of Lombardy. A strong French army of observation was
concentrated on the Italian frontier in the Alps. Germany, which in later
years was destined to become the strongest ally of Italy, was still so
bound up with Austria that when Arnold Ruge in the Frankfort Parliament
dared to express a wish for the victory of Italian arms against Austria, a
great storm of indignation broke out in Germany. As a last resort, Charles
Albert, on April 6, proposed an offensive and defensive alliance to
Switzerland, but the little republic wisely declined to emerge from its
traditional neutrality. It was then that the Italians raised the defiant
cry: "Italia fara de se" (Italy will fight her own battles). When the hard
beset Austrian Government, in a confidential communication of Minister
Wessendberg to Count Casati, showed itself inclined to yield Lombardy upon
payment of Lombardy's share in the Austrian national debt, the proposition
was curtly declined.
[Sidenote: Set-back at Naples]
[Sidenote: Neapolitan forces recalled]
[Sidenote: Pio Nono's allocution]
It was a fatal move. The course of Italy, as Dante once sang, seemed like
that of "a ship without stars in a wild storm." Affairs took a wrong turn
in Naples. There a new popular Parliament had just been elected, which was
about to meet, when there were some final difficulties between the King and
his Liberal Ministers over the exact wording of the oath of allegiance. The
excitable Neapolitan populace forthwith became unmanageable. The Swiss
Guards, who had long been the butt of the people, put down the revolt
without mercy. Once more King Ferdinand was master. He hastened to dismiss
his Cabinet and dissolved the Parliament before it could come to order.
Orders were sent to General Pepe, who had marched to the front in northern
Italy with 14,000 men, to return at once. General Pepe, who had already
reached Bologna and had entered hostilities under Charles Albert's command,
declined to obey the orders of his sovereign. His rank and file trooped
back to Naples. Only fifteen hundred Neapolitan volunteers remained with
Pepe at the front. A number of the officers who returned felt their
disgrace so keenly that they committed suicide. The Neapolitan fleet, which
had already succeeded in raising the Austrian blockade of Venice, was
likewise ordered home. A more serious blow to the cause of Italy was Pio
Nono's apparent change of front. On April 29, without previous consultation
with his new Ministry, the Pope issued the famous "Allocution," in which he
declared that he had despatched his troops northward only for the defence
of the Papal dominions, and that it was far from his intentions to join
with the other Italian princes and peoples in the war against Austria. The
Papal Ministry immediately handed in its resignation. The Municipal Council
of Rome called upon the Pope to abstain from interference with his army.
General Durando, commanding the Papal troops at the front, had already
yielded to their entreaties by crossing the Po. Now he threw in his lot
with Charles Albert. Pio Nono sent a confidential messenger to Naples to
arrange for an asylum there, in case the people should turn against him at
Rome.
[Sidenote: Garibaldi]
[Sidenote: Battle of Goito]
[Sidenote: Cortatone]
[Sidenote: Surrender of Peschiera]
[Sidenote: Radetzky firm]
Charles Albert on the Mincio lost three precious weeks. His army now
numbered nearly one hundred thousand men, only sixty thousand of whom were
trained soldiers. About this time he was joined by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who
had just returned from the revolutionary battlefields of South America,
whither he had been driven an exile from Charles Albert's own dominions. He
was received with honor, and was put in charge of a volunteer corps which
he had raised at Milan. The Austrian commander profited by the delay of his
opponents to place his army between the strong fortresses of Verona,
Mantua, Legnano and Peschiera, and to draw reinforcements from the Tyrol,
until the situation in Austria itself became so threatening that no further
aid could be given him. In truth, the fate of the Austrian empire now
rested on the aged shoulders of Radetzky. On April 8, the Sardinian army,
in a sharp engagement at Goito, effected the passage of the Mincio. The
Austrians lost one thousand men. Siege was now laid to Peschiera. A Tuscan
division moved on Mantua, while the bulk of Charles Albert's army cut off
Verona from the roads to the Tyrol. Radetzky was driven to take the
offensive. In a fight at Cortatone he defeated the Tuscans, but within
twenty-four hours the Austrian garrison of Peschiera was brought to the
point of capitulation. The Italians took two thousand one hundred and fifty
men. On May 6, Charles Albert made an attempt to drive the Austrians out of
their positions in front of Verona. Repulsed at Santa Lucia, he was forced
to fall back on the Mincio. Under the influence of the peace party, the
Austrian Emperor now directed Radetzky to offer an armistice to the
Italians. Simultaneously with this, Austrian reinforcements cut their way
through to Verona. Radetzky sent Prince Felix Schwarzenberg to Innsbruck to
implore the Emperor for permission to continue the combat. This was
reluctantly given. Fearing another reversal of his orders, Radetzky
forthwith threw his army into Venetia. General Durando and his Papal army
were shut up in Vicenza, and compelled to capitulate. The capture of
Vicenza was followed by that of all the Venetian mainland east of the
Adige.
[Sidenote: Custozza]
[Sidenote: Fall of Milan]
[Sidenote: Truce of Vigevano]
The republic of St. Mark sought shelter under the royal AEgis of Piedmont.
Manin, the liberator of Venice, resigned his presidency and went into
retirement. Charles Albert now moved on Mantua, leaving half his army at
Peschiera and further north. Radetzky instantly threw himself on the weakly
guarded centre of the long Sardinian line. Charles Albert sought too late
to rejoin his northern detachments. At Custozza, on July 25, he suffered a
signal defeat. While he was thrown back over the Mincio the northern
divisions were also overcome. Charles Albert retreated to Milan closely
followed by Radetzky. He declared himself unable to hold the city. The
people rose against him. On the night of August 5, he escaped with
difficulty, protected by General La Marmora and a few guards. Milan
capitulated on the following day. When the Austrians made their triumphant
entry, half of the population left their homes to emigrate to Piedmont and
Switzerland. On August 9, an armistice was arranged at Vigevano. Venice
refused to accept it, and detaching itself once more from Sardinia,
restored Manin to power. Garibaldi with his volunteers likewise held aloof
and carried the fight into the northern mountains. From there he was
eventually dislodged by D'Aspre and crossed the frontier into Switzerland.
[Sidenote: Raffet's battle scenes]
The picturesque scenes of the revolutionary struggle in Italy have been
perpetuated by Denis-Auguste-Marie Raffet, a pupil of Charlot and of Gros,
who had already distinguished himself by his lithographs of the brief
Belgian war of 1832, and by his Russian and Oriental sketches made while
travelling with Prince Demidov. The motley uniforms of the volunteers of
Garibaldi, the Swiss Papal Guards and the Austrian, Piedmontese and French
troops, as well as the picturesque costumes of the Italian peasantry,
afforded a great scope for Raffet's brush. One of the most characteristic
specimens of Raffet's art during this period is his well-known picture of
"The Evening of the Battle of Novara."
[Sidenote: Austrian court returns]
[Sidenote: Jellacic ban of Croatia]
[Sidenote: Croats and Serbs secede from Magyars]
[Sidenote: Riots in Vienna]
[Sidenote: Jellacic disavowed]
[Sidenote: Civil War in Hungary]
[Sidenote: Metternich's comment]
The success of Radetzky restored a measure of confidence in Austria. The
Emperor and his court, who had sought refuge at Innsbruck, consented to
return to Vienna. There the promised elections had been held, and an
assembly representing all the provinces of the Empire, excepting Hungary
and Italy, had met in the third week of July. With the armies of Radetzky
and Windischgraetz within call, the Emperor and his Ministry assumed a
bolder front toward the Magyars. The concessions exacted by Hungary in
April had raised that kingdom almost to the position of an independent
state. Under its separate management of the Hungarian army, Austria found
it difficult even to use her Magyar troops at the front in Italy. The
Magyars showed the same haughty spirit toward the Austrian Serbs, Slavs and
Croatians. After Hungary's successful emancipation in March, the Serbs of
southern Hungary demanded from Kossuth the restoration of their own local
autonomy. The Magyars insisted on maintaining their ascendency, and decreed
that only the Magyar language should be the language of the state. Slavic
race feeling was kindled to sudden hatred. The Croatian national committee
at Agram, that had assumed charge of affairs after the catastrophe in
March, elected Jellacic, the colonel of the first Croatian regiment, Ban of
Croatia. The appointment was confirmed at Vienna, even before formal
notification had reached the Emperor. On assuming office, Jellacic caused
all Magyar officials to be driven out of the country, and broke off all
relations with the Hungarian government at Pesth. Batthyany, the Hungarian
Premier, hastened to Vienna, and obtained the disavowal of Jellacic. No
attention was paid to this at Agram. Now, General Hrabovsky, commanding the
troops in the southern provinces, received orders from Pesth to suspend
Jellacic from office and bring him to trial for high treason. In the
meanwhile the Serbs, meeting in Congress at Carlowitz on the Lower Danube,
proclaimed home rule, elected a Voiovode of their own and authorized him to
enter into intimate relations with their fellow Slavs in Croatia. This was
in the middle of May. Vienna during these same days was in a continual
uproar. Early in May a report that the Austrian Ambassador at London had
given a formal reception to Prince Metternich upon his arrival in England
caused an outbreak of popular wrath in Vienna. A mob surrounded the house
of Count Ficquelmont, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and compelled him to
resign his office. Detachments of troops patrolled the streets at night. On
May 15, the people revolted against this measure before the Palace, and
compelled Minister Pillersdorf to sign an order for the withdrawal of the
troops. The Emperor and his family fled to the Tyrol. At Innsbruck, where
he was received with great demonstrations of loyalty, the Emperor issued a
rescript in which he declined to return to his capital or to open the
national assembly until order should be restored. In Croatia, on hearing of
Hrabovsky's orders, the Palatine was burned in effigy. Batthyany hastened
to Innsbruck to turn this Slavic affront to the crown to account. By
assuring to the Emperor the support of Hungary's troops against the
Italians, Batthyany obtained the Emperor's signature to an emphatic
condemnation of Jellacic and his suspension from office. Jellacic then set
out for Innsbruck, accompanied by a large deputation of Croats and Serbs.
On the day that he arrived at Innsbruck, Batthyany at Pesth published the
text of the Emperor's orders against the Ban. Still Jellacic held his
ground. He regained the Emperor's favor by issuing an address to the
Croatian soldiers serving in Italy, enjoining them to stand by the colors
no matter what reports reached them from home. He was permitted to return
to Croatia and to resume his government at Agram. As soon as he reached
home, he declared himself the champion of Austrian unity, and assumed
dictatorial powers. Civil war broke out in Lower Hungary. General
Hrabovsky, when he attempted to occupy Carlowitz, encountered serious
opposition. He was attacked with such vehemence, by the Serbs led by
Stratimirovic, that he had to beat a retreat. The Hungarian Diet at Pesth
called for a levy of 200,000 men to crush the Slavic rebellion. In the face
of a letter from the Emperor, condemning the resistance offered to the
Hungarian government by the Slavs, Kossuth charged the Austrian Court with
instigating the civil war. Evidence was brought forward to show that the
Minister of War at Vienna was encouraging Austrian officers to join the
insurrection. Such was the situation in Austria at midsummer. A
characteristic comment on this apparently sudden disintegration of the
Austrian Empire at this time was furnished by Prince Metternich to his
fellow refugee, Francois Pierre Guizot, the fallen Prime Minister of
France. "During the catastrophes of 1848," writes Guizot, in his "Memoires
pour servir a l'Histoire de mon Temps," "meeting Prince Metternich at
London one day, I said to him: 'Explain to me the causes of your revolution
in Austria. I know why and how things happened in Paris; but in Austria,
under your government, I cannot understand.' He replied with a smile of
mingled pride and sadness: 'I have sometimes ruled Europe, but Austria
never.'"
[Sidenote: The Frankfort Parliament]
[Sidenote: John of Austria elected leader]
[Sidenote: Prussia discredited]
[Sidenote: Foreign Powers intervene]
[Sidenote: Truce of Malmoe]
[Sidenote: Frankfort Parliament powerless]
At Frankfort, during this interval, the national parliament of Germany was
convened on May 18. The event was celebrated throughout Germany with the
ringing of bells and bonfires at night. In truth, the assembly was such
that Germany might well be proud of it. Of the 586 delegates, more than a
hundred were university professors and scholars of eminence. Among them
were such men as Arndt, the poet, Gervinus and Dahlberg, the historians,
with others of like note. A promising unity of ideals seemed to prevail.
Heinrich von Gagern, a man of high character and parliamentary experience,
was elected chairman by a majority of 305 out of 397 votes. It was his
proposal to create a central executive in the person of a _Reichsverweser_.
Archduke John of Austria, one of the most popular of German princes, was
elected to this office by an overwhelming majority of 436 votes. The
Archduke, who was then presiding over the new Austrian Assembly at Vienna,
accepted the honor. By the time the German Bundestag adjourned, on July 13,
everything seemed full of promise. The minor German States formally
acknowledged the new Reichsverweser. King Frederick William of Prussia
invited him, together with many members of the Frankfort Parliament, to the
Cologne Cathedral festival on August 14. There the King pledged the
Archduke at a public banquet: "May he give us," declared the King, "united
and free German peoples; may he give us united and free sovereigns." A few
days later an event occurred which opened the eyes of the Germans to
Prussia's real part in the destinies of Germany. This was the armistice of
Malmoe, concluded on August 26, between Denmark and Prussia. The early
German victories at Dannewirk and Oversee had borne no fruit. The Danes
were masters of the sea, and mercilessly ravaged the German coasts,
unprotected by any navy. As King Frederick William remarked, it was like a
fight between a hound and a fish. The Danes took innumerable prizes and
crippled the commerce of the Hanseatic cities. General Wrangel thereupon
exacted a contribution of 2,000,000 thalers in Jutland. For every
fisherman's hut that the Danish fleet might injure on the German coast, he
threatened to lay a Danish village in ashes. The foreign Powers objected to
such ruthless campaigning. The Scandinavian States intervened on behalf of
Denmark. Emperor Nicholas of Russia, who regarded the Schleswig-Holstein
movement as an unjustifiable rebellion, came to their support. Lord
Palmerston, who had once proposed to end the quarrel by simply cutting the
disputed territory in two, according to the preferences of the inhabitants,
now threw in the weight of England with the other Powers. Prussia was
constrained to withdraw her army. According to the provisions of the seven
months' truce forced upon Prussia at Malmoe in Sweden, all prisoners were to
be returned, the Schleswig-Holstein army was to be disbanded, while a
temporary government of the duchies was to be administered by
representatives of Denmark and Prussia. All Germany was in an uproar. The
Frankfort Parliament repudiated the armistice by 238 against 221 votes. The
new-formed German Ministry resigned. Prof. Dahlmann, one of the
protagonists of the Schleswig-Holstein movement, was commissioned to form a
new Ministry. His efforts resulted only in failure. The conviction grew
that the German Parliament was powerless. Presently the Parliament revoked
its own decision, approving the armistice by 258 over 236 votes. After all,
it was plain that the most momentous German question of the day had been
settled independently of united Germany by Prussia standing alone. In South
Germany the revolutionists were once more called to arms.
[Sidenote: The French Republic]
[Sidenote: National workshops]
[Sidenote: Fyffe's judgment]