The First Austrian Government (Part 1)
The Austrian General Election of 1837
The excitement in the lead up to Austria’s first general election, and indeed the largest election in terms of voters in world history, was building up to a great crescendo. In the great South German cities the GDDP ran great rallies drawing 10s of thousands in their marches whilst throughout the Empire parties like the BLP and FPO campaigned vigorously.
Austria would use a Parliamentary system not too dissimilar to that of the United Kingdom. In constituencies throughout the Empire men would elect a local Member of the Reichstag (MR) and these new elected officials would go to the Parliament in Vienna and form the government. There were exactly 100 constituencies in 1837 each with a roughly equal population.
In reality there were two main contenders for the position of Chancellor:
Rudolf von Arenberg was the leader of BLP – originally from the Liberal faction of the party von Arenberg was also one of the most leftist members of the BLP.
Albert von Brandenburg, Duke of Silesia, seemed to represent everything the FPO stood for. His breeding was impeccable (having descended from Frederick the Great of Brandenburg, his mother was also a Habsburg) and he was of clear noble standing yet he was also a new member of the upper nobility. The Duchy of Silesia had only passed to Austria in 1816 and before then Albert’s family had been in effective exile for over a century (having to make do with a collection of manor houses across Europe). Albert von Brandenburg therefore represented both change and the old order. However his greatest talent was for his fiery speeches – whilst they would pale in comparison to the speeches that would be made by leaders deeper into the century democracy was still new in Austria and few men at the forefront of the main parties possessed his auditory talents.
When the election arrived in October Austria was presented with a strange situation – the Reichstag was most definitely hung. Von Brandenburg had received the largest share of the vote as the FPO were the only party to win more than ¼ of the seats available, therefore the new Kaiser – Victor – gave the FPO the first chance to try to form a government (through coalitions). If the FPO failed then the BLP would be given a chance, if they failed there would likely have to be another election.
The greatest success story of the election was the GDDP which took an impressive 20 seats out of 100. This also meant that the GDDP received 2/5s of the entire German vote. It was the two supposed mainstream parties – the BLP and the FPO – that failed to perform as neither got close to the figure of seats they had hoped for.
Von Brandenburg quickly concluded a deal with the Christian Union in which the Union agreed to become a subservient coalition member for very little in return (the FPO promised to help the CU on any ‘Christian’ issues). This left the FPO in an intriguing position – an alliance with either the Liga Lombardia or the GDDP would give von Brandenburg the majority of MRs and therefore give him the confidence of the House. Yet neither side was particularly desirable. The LL was the closest ideologically but the FPO was not keen on decentralisation whilst allying with the GDDP would likely alienate non-Germans and would harm the FPO be association with what was considered to be the far-right of Austrian politics. So von Brandenburg decided to begin the difficult process of courting the LL leadership. It wasn’t until November that the FPO concluded this government making alliance and von Brandenburg was forced to allow Lombardy a separate Office of Trade – this gave Lombard traders long sought after independence from the German dominated Office of Imperial Trade. The new government coalition called itself the Coalition of the Willing but was more often called the Coalition of the Right by Austrians and by the press.
Albert von Brandenburg
Lived: 1784-1856
Chancellor of the Austrian Empire: 1837-1848
Political Party: Freedom Party Austria
Government: Coalition of the Willing (1837-1843) Freedom Party Austria (1843-1848)
Immediately after being made Chancellor von Brandenburg and a group of MRs from every single party in the Reichstag went to convene with Emperor Victor of Austria and India and decide how the new democracy would work.
Victor’s original manifesto was kept – every man over 20 who was an Imperial citizen and lived within the European part of the Empire could vote, the Reichstag would run all government affairs, the Emperor’s support was required for all legislation and the Emperor could veto any decisions made by the Reichstag. In early 1838 both Emperor and Reichstag left the negotiations happy, they agreed to the following:
• Victor’s manifesto stood
• A new government building, called the Reichstag, would be constructed to house the Parliament. Until its completion the Parliament would be housed in the halls of the Hofburg
• The Chancellor had the ability to call an election at any time but must call one at least every 6 years
• The Imperial coffers would become the state coffers (under Reichstag control) – this effectively took much of Victor’s personal fortune for the state although the Emperor was allowed to take half of the Imperial coffers for his personal use
• The Emperor would receive a yearly allowance from the Reichstag – he would not be allowed to collect any taxation
• The Reichstag would conduct foreign policy but would require the Emperor’s support. The Emperor was denied the right to partake in any independent foreign policy with Reichstag approval.
With this manifesto secure von Brandenburg went ahead as the first democratically elected Chancellor in Austrian history. However the new state hit problems almost immediately.
In 1838 Britain, France and New England all went into deep recession – these were Austria’s main international trading partners and their woe quickly spread to Austria. Whilst Austria did go into recession it was not nearly as severe as in Britain, France and New England. The crisis was essentially caused by a speculative bubble that had arisen in the USA and had spread the two European states. When this bubble burst the US economy collapses – the main investors in the US were Britain and France and these countries lost most of their investments. The burgeoning industry of New England started to close down whilst almost ½ of all US banks closed. Meanwhile in Britain and France the main banks dramatically raised interest rates which brought an end to investment whilst a lack of confidence led to a sharp decline in the actions of British and French capitalists. Unemployment then soared across the three nations. Austria meanwhile lost large amounts of capital and suffered from industrial stagnation and a lower level of unemployment but was comparatively much better off. The Austrian overseas Empire still helped trade flow throughout the Empire.
Through 1838 and 1839, during the worst part of the recession, von Brandenburg was forced to keep his eye firmly fixed upon the East. The Austrian opium trade was proving disastrous for China as an estimated 20 million Chinese were totally addicted to the drug whilst millions more used it heavily. Opium was draining China dry whilst at the same time making Austrian merchants wealthy beyond belief. The Chinese government had been trying to crack down on the trade and imposed ever greater restrictions on the Austrian merchants in Canton (the only port open to Europeans in China). However the merchants blatantly disregarded the Chinese government and often evaded their restrictions. However in July 1839 a Chinese government official seized 7 ship loads of Opium in Canton harbour and had it all burnt. The Austrian merchants had lost millions of marks worth of produce and returned to Vienna with a fiery desire for vengeance.
At this stage Austria’s trade in Asia was all that was protecting her from the worst of the recession and so von Brandenburg approved the sending of a task force to China to reimburse the merchants – 7 regular frigates, 2 steamships (a new development from Britain) and around 10,000 men were sent towards China.
When the Chinese attacked the British task force with at least 30 ships, perhaps more, they faced utter destruction. Not one Austrian ship was sunk whilst the entire Chinese navy lay in ruins with the few ships that escaped limping towards the relative safety of the Yangtze.
Over the course of the next few years Austrian troops would occupy Canton and Shanghai, defeat the Chinese army in several major engagements and used its fleet to bombard cities like Suzhou, Nanking and Qingdao. In 1841 the British decided to join the Austrians in their war and sent several ships and a few thousand soldiers to bolster the Austrian war effort. In fact the Chinese only agreed to peace in 1842 after the Austrians threatened to seize Nanking.
The Austrians and British would force the Chinese into the first of the Unequal Treaties with the Treaty of Nanking. China was forced to cede the Island of Hong Kong and a small territory on the mainland adjacent to the island to Austria. At the time this island was little more than a small wishing village but its capturers saw its immense potential. Meanwhile 5 ports throughout China were opened to both Austrian and British merchants with all trade restrictions on these two nations’ goods to be stopped.
Meanwhile just as the Austrians and British fought in Asia the French looked to expand their colonial ambition in Africa as between 1840 and 1843 they took over a series of Maghreb states in North Africa. This caused a minor diplomatic spat as Italy and even more so Spain objected to the French invasion but in the end did nothing to prevent it.
But by 1843 von Brandenburg’s first term in office was coming to an end, the second election loomed large on the horizon.
o.
