R. J. W. Evans. Austria, Hungary, and the Habsburgs: Essays on Central Europe c. 1683-1867. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. 368 pp. $99.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-928144-2.
Reviewed by Andrew L. Thomas (Department of History and Political Science, Salem College)
Published on H-German (May, 2007)
Habsburgs and Hungarians in the Central European Landscape
This work is a collection of persuasive revisionist essays on central European history from approximately 1683 to 1867 by R. J. W. Evans. Its chronological bookends underscore the important role of Austro-Hungarian relations in shaping the region. Evans places the essays within the context of the rapid increase of Habsburg control over Hungarian lands following the failed Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 to the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. In his earlier magisterial work, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550-1700 (1979), Evans argued that the Habsburg monarchy rested upon the triadic foundation of dynasty, aristocracy, and the Catholic Church during the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries. This latest work reflects his interest over the past twenty years on the significance of this foundation for later Habsburg history. Evans convincingly asserts that from the late seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century three new pillars, the army, bureaucracy, and managed economy, were added to strengthen the monarchy. He maintains that these new pillars, as well as attempts at readjusting the traditional three, were key elements of Emperor Joseph II's reform movement in the late eighteenth century. He also argues that Joseph's efforts, known as Josephinism, were the most ambitious of all attempts at Enlightened Absolutism in Europe. Evans makes clear, however, the fact that Joseph's reforming measures were never fully incorporated in the Habsburg crown lands, particularly in Hungary. In his discussion of the army, bureaucracy, and managed economy, Evans further buttresses recent works treating these themes individually in monographs by Michael Hochedlinger, Waltraud Heindl, John Komlós, and P. G. M. Dickson.
The first essay sets the tone of the book by addressing the question of why, after two decades of considerable success against the Turks, the Habsburg monarchy failed to establish a stronger rule in central Europe, especially in Hungary. Evans claims that the Habsburgs' ideology of governance was inadequate during this period because traditional Habsburg imperial interests and support of the Counter-Reformation clashed with Hungarian customs and privileges. He notes that the most serious revolt against Habsburg rule between White Mountain (1620) and the 1848 Revolution was the Rákóczi rebellion in Hungary, which began in 1703 and lasted eight years. Evans challenges popular assumptions about this revolt by claiming that it was a reflection rather than the cause of Habsburg weakness in Hungary.
Besides mentioning the common claims about the role of outside influences on the shaping of the Enlightenment in Habsburg lands, Evans breaks new ground by emphasizing the important role of indigenous traditions in the region. He maintains that the efforts by Catholic clergy in central Europe to promote religious toleration actually mirrored many of the values of the Renaissance and Protestant reform movements. Evans asserts that the national aspirations of the monarchy's diverse ethnic groups were the region's most significant influence on the shaping of the modern world. For example, he maintains that Pan-Slavism began as a movement to address concerns of the Slavic inhabitants of Slovakia and Croatia, not Russia or Poland.
Evans also elucidates both the etymological origins and the cultural constructs of the frontiers of central Europe and offers new insights on the role of cartographers as creators of cultural identities in Habsburg lands, especially during the Enlightenment. Evans also delineates how Magyars justified their continual dominance over other ethnic groups in the kingdom of Hungary--even though by the nineteenth century they represented only 45 percent of the population--and cogently claims that the Magyars accomplished this effect by extending their ethnic frontier so that it matched Hungary's historical frontier. Evans challenges older assumptions about Joseph II by claiming that initially Joseph enjoyed the support of diverse ethnic groups because he had encouraged local vernaculars for educational use. Thus, Joseph's desire to Germanize the administration should not be seen as a failure to value the non-German native languages in the region for state purposes.
Evans also demonstrates that, despite tensions between Hungarians and Germans in the nineteenth century, a considerable degree of common interest existed between Magyars and Germans and their conceptions of liberalism and nationalism, which played no small role in the political development of central Europe. He notes the cooperation between the Frankfurt Assembly and the Hungarian Parliament in 1848 and the Dual Monarchy and the Wilhelmine Empire. Likewise, Evans also challenges older claims by maintaining that the Habsburg monarchy was not solely reactionary in the 1850s, but a promoter of a genuine reform movement that displayed considerable innovation and success at the expense of alienating Hungarian customs and privileges. Indeed, he argues that Emperor Francis Joseph's policies of neo-absolutism during the 1850's shared many characteristics of Josephinism.
The strengths and weaknesses of the book are those inherent within the structure of a monograph consisting of collected essays. All of the essays have been revised from their original published forms and treat fundamental themes that offer particularly valuable insights into Habsburg-Hungarian relations. Indeed, even the only chapter devoted to Bohemian affairs offers noteworthy perspectives on the events that led to the disparity between Bohemian integration and Hungarian separatism within the Habsburg monarchy. Because each essay was originally meant to stand on its own, the monograph does not share the same narrative flow that unite chapters in most books. For example, some chapters, such as the one on Lutheran Saxons in Transylvania, seem less connected with the rest. Nevertheless, this book as a whole is an invaluable addition to our understanding of the Habsburg monarchy, one that complements Evans's previous pioneering endeavors in this field.
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Citation:
Andrew L. Thomas. Review of Evans, R. J. W., Austria, Hungary, and the Habsburgs: Essays on Central Europe c. 1683-1867.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
May, 2007.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=13222
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