The Nationalities in the Habsburg Empire in the 19^th Century

I. Nationalities in the Habsburg Empire (Mason doc. 1)

Germans                                   23.9%

Czechs                                     12.6

Hungarians                               20.2

Romanians                                6.4

Poles                                        10

Ruthenians                                7.9

Croats                                      5.3

Serbs                                       3.8

Jews                                         4.5

A.  Czechs & Germans in Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Lands)

• Modernization, industrialization, urbanization
• Czech revival: German supremacy contested
• Germans react with German ethnic nationalism

B.  Poles and Ruthenians in Galicia

• 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

• “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

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 18^th 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.

• 19^th century cultural revival and contacts with Czechs: linguistic kinship & pan-Slavism
• 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
   

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