The Austrian Military and its Role and Implication in Building State Loyalty in the Context of Political and National Movements – Neoabsolutism and Liberalism, 1849–1867

LORÁND L. MÁDLY
Abstract
In the cohesion of the society in the Austrian Empire, as well at the educational level, the Military played an important role in shaping identities. In the army, which promoted and cultivated the image of a unitary Austrian people, meanwhile paying respect to the different nationalities through shaping regiments with certain command and communication languages, an educational process (less educated recruits gaining skills and learning languages) as well as cultivation of the founding myths and images of the State (Austrian Laws, the Good Emperor) took also place. In the role of the Military in education and raising the social welfare status, the implementation of the Military Borders played an important role. Whereas these phenomena were specific in the buildup phase of the modern Habsburg Empire, on the bases which Enlightment, Enlighted Absolutism and Mercantilism could offer, some of the characteristics changed along with the evolution of national movements, with a starker expression in the eastern crown lands. The most important turning point was the 1848 Revolution, characterized by the Hungarian struggle for gaining independence from Vienna and the subsequent conflicts which coalesced around this. After this caesura a long and stony path led through provisories (Neoabsolutism and Dualism)—more or less successful reforms to the Dualism. The military borders were dissolved, unsuccessful military operations such the Crimea war increased state debt dramatically but the Empire gained a more consolidated administrative and judiciary shape, and the bases of Parliamentarism were laid.
This presentation aims to underscore these evolutions with brief considerations regarding developments and aspects in the crown land of Transylvania, from the murky afterward of the Revolution, through the experiments in Neoabsolutism and Liberalism until the first years of Dualism. The permanent need for an equal consideration of all Nationalities in administration and military was a commandment of these years and interacted with the conceptions and identities of all the involved, from the military commitment—for or against Vienna—in the revolutionary years to shaping a multinational, more professionalized military, which featured many interesting aspects.
Keywords: Habsburg Empire, Austrian Military, Liberalism, Neoabsolutism, Dynastic Loyalty.