The February Patent was a constitution of the Austrian Empire promulgated in the form of letters patent on 26 February 1861.
The February Patent was a constitution of the Austrian Empire promulgated in the form of letters patent on 26 February 1861.
In the Austrian Empire, the early 1860s were a period of significant constitutional reforms. The revolutions and wars of the late 1840s-1850s had created a national sense of discontent. The disastrous war in Italy demonstrated openly the weaknesses of the Austrian bureaucracy and army. The burgeoning influence of Prussia and the German Confederation was also a cause for concern. Emperor Francis Joseph I (r.1848-1916) saw that, if he was to maintain his empire, he must begin some reforms. In March 1860, the Emperor began a 'strengthening' of the Reichsrat, the imperial council, by adding new members and giving it advisory powers over major financial and legislative issues, including the formation of a new constitution. The parliament split into two parties, a native German-speaking and a non-German-speaking side. The German side pushed for a stronger central government, but the non-German side (Czechs and Hungarians) pushed for a division of power between the estates. Francis Joseph tried to formulate a compromise in the new constitution, the "October Diploma" (adopted 20 October 1860). The Diploma created a one-hundred-member parliament with extended powers over the empire's finances but no power over the military or legislation. Also, the Parliament did not have power over Hungary, except in matters that affected the entire empire. The Hungarian Diet controlled Hungarian internal affairs.
The new Parliament did not please either side, however. State finances continued to fail; the Germans were not happy with the power given to the diets; and the non-Germans were disappointed by the amount of power that remained in the Emperor's hands. In addition to continuing internal problems, the Austrian Empire was plagued by outside pressures, specifically the evolution of the German Confederation. For centuries, the Habsburgs had been in control of the German states. Even when the German Confederation of States formed in 1815, Austria maintained its influence. With the rise of Prussia in Eastern Europe, that influence was threatened. The Emperor saw the expansion and centralization of Parliament as a way to gain internal strength that would transfer into external power. When Anton Ritter von Schmerling became Secretary of State in late 1860, he took on the task of revising the October Diploma.
On 26 February 1861 the February Patent, a letters patent issued by Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, was adopted as the "Imperial Constitution of 1861." It was proclaimed as a revision of the previous October Diploma, the "Irrevocable Fundamental Law of the State." The February Patent established in the Austrian Empire a bicameral imperial parliament, still called the Reichsrat, with an upper chamber appointed by the emperor and an indirectly elected lower chamber. The members of the upper chamber were appointed for life and included the crown prince, prominent bishops, heads of noble families, and great citizens. Delegates sent from the diets comprised the 343-member lower chamber, with 120 representatives from Hungary, 20 from Venetia, and 203 from the remaining non-Hungarian estates. The Emperor could check the actions of the lower chamber by appointing more of his supporters to the upper chamber.
The responsibilities of the new Parliament were divided into a 'greater' and a 'lesser' section. In the 'greater' section were matters that affected the empire as a whole, including Hungary. The 'lesser' section was for matters in the estates. Essentially, it superseded the function of the diets in non-Hungarian lands. The Hungarian Diet could function alongside the 'lesser' Parliament if needed. Under the February Patent, the Parliament had more decision-making power than it had before, but it was still completely subject to the Emperor. On the other hand, the Emperor could make political and military decisions without the Parliament's consent and could make any decision he wanted whenever the Parliament was not in session, if it might be an 'emergency.'
The Frebruary Patent explicitly excluded women from political participation, and established a census suffrage for men. [1] [2]
The empire's Magyar population refused to cooperate in the new system, resiling from the more liberal changes made in the October Diploma which in fact still wanted to restrain the sovereignty of Hungary. Only German or Romanian delegates from Hungarian lands attended the lower house. This resistance severely undermined the purpose of the Imperial Parliament—to unify the diverse parts of the empire through representation in a central body.
In September 1865, Emperor Francis Joseph suspended the February Patent. [3] The Austrian Germans protested, but the Czechs, Slavs, and Poles were delighted and pressed forward with their autonomous programs. [3] On 17 February 1867, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Hungary was effectively restored, and matters progressed speedily towards the Compromise of 1867. [4] Of its own accord, the Reichsrath added some laws which amended the February Patent, and decided that these laws, the Compromise, and the revised Constitution of Cisleithania, should come into force at the same time as a whole. [4]
The history of Austria covers the history of Austria and its predecessor states. In the late Iron Age Austria was occupied by people of the Hallstatt Celtic culture, they first organized as a Celtic kingdom referred to by the Romans as Noricum, dating from c. 800 to 400 BC. At the end of the 1st century BC, the lands south of the Danube became part of the Roman Empire. In the Migration Period, the 6th century, the Bavarii, a Germanic people, occupied these lands until it fell to the Frankish Empire establish by the Germanic Franks in the 9th century. The name Ostarrîchi (Austria) has been in use since 996 AD when it was a margravate of the Duchy of Bavaria and from 1156 an independent duchy of the Holy Roman Empire.
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his death on 21 November 1916. In the early part of his reign, his realms and territories were referred to as the Austrian Empire, but were reconstituted as the dual monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. From 1 May 1850 to 24 August 1866, he was also president of the German Confederation.
The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a multinational European great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, it was the third most populous monarchy in Europe after the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom. Along with Prussia, it was one of the two major powers of the German Confederation. Geographically, it was the third-largest empire in Europe after the Russian Empire and the First French Empire.
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which was a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states. The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereignty and status of the Kingdom of Hungary, being separate from, and no longer subject to, the Austrian Empire. The compromise put an end to the 18-year-long military dictatorship and absolutist rule over Hungary which Emperor Franz Joseph had instituted after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Hungary was restored. The agreement also restored the old historic constitution of the Kingdom of Hungary.
Cisleithania, officially The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council, was the northern and western part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in the Compromise of 1867—as distinguished from Transleithania. This name for the region was a common, but unofficial one.
The emperor of Austria was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The hereditary imperial title and office was proclaimed in 1804 by Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and continually held by him and his heirs until Charles I relinquished power in 1918.
The Imperial Council was the legislature of the Austrian Empire from 1861, and from 1867 the legislature of Cisleithania within Austria-Hungary. It was a bicameral body: the upper house was the House of Lords, and the lower house was the House of Deputies. To become law, bills had to be passed by both houses, signed by the government minister responsible, and then granted royal assent by the Emperor. After having been passed, laws were published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. In addition to the Imperial Council, the fifteen individual crown lands of Cisleithania had their own diets.
The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities that were ruled by the House of Habsburg and, following the partition of the dynasty, especially by its Austrian branch. From the 18th century it is also referred to as the Danubian monarchy or the Austrian monarchy.
The Kingdom of Hungary between 1526 and 1867 existed as a state outside the Holy Roman Empire, but part of the lands of the Habsburg monarchy that became the Austrian Empire in 1804. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the country was ruled by two crowned kings. Initially, the exact territory under Habsburg rule was disputed because both rulers claimed the whole kingdom. This unsettled period lasted until 1570 when John Sigismund Zápolya abdicated as King of Hungary in Emperor Maximilian II's favor.
The October Diploma was a constitution of the Austrian Empire adopted by Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph on 20 October 1860. The Diploma was written by the Minister of Interior, Agenor Gołuchowski. It attempted to increase the power of the conservative nobles by giving them more power over their own lands through a program of aristocratic federalism. This policy was a failure almost from the start, and Franz Joseph was forced to make further concessions in the February Patent of 1861. Even so, historians have argued that the October Diploma began the "constitutional" period of the empire.
From 1867 to 1918, Országgyűlés was the name of the bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of Hungary (Transleithania) during the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918), replacing the earlier Hungarian Diet.
The Young Czech Party was formed in the Bohemian crown land of Austria-Hungary in 1874. It initiated the democratization of Czech political parties and led to the establishment of the political base of Czechoslovakia.
The Diet of Hungary or originally: Parlamentum Publicum / Parlamentum Generale was the most important political assembly in Hungary since the 12th century, which emerged to the position of the supreme legislative institution in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the early modern period until the end of World War II. The name of the legislative body was originally "Parlamentum" during the Middle Ages, the "Diet" expression gained mostly in the early modern period. It convened at regular intervals with interruptions from the 12th century to 1918, and again until 1946.
The March Constitution, also called Imposed March Constitution or Stadion Constitution, was a constitution of the Austrian Empire promulgated by Minister of the Interior Count Stadion between 4 March and 7 March 1849. Though declared irrevocable, it was eventually revoked by the New Year's Eve Patent of Emperor Franz Joseph I on 31 December 1851. The Stadion Constitution emphasized power for the monarch; it also marked the way of the neo-absolutism in the Habsburg ruled territories. It preempted the Kremsier Constitution of the Kremsier Parliament. This state of affairs would last until the October Diploma of 20 October 1860 and the later February Patent of 26 February 1861.
The Reichstag, also called Kremsier Parliament, was the first elected parliament in the Austrian Empire. It lasted for only a short time between July 1848 and 7 March 1849, but had an important effect on Austrian history. Its main product was the Kremsier Constitution which was preempted by the imposed March Constitution.
The House of Lords was the upper house of the Imperial Council, the bicameral legislature of the Austrian Empire from 1861 and of the Cisleithanian (Austrian) half of Austria-Hungary upon the Compromise of 1867. Created by the February Patent issued by Emperor Franz Joseph I on 26 February 1861, it existed until the end of World War I and the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy, when on 12 November 1918 the transitional National Assembly of German-Austria declared it abolished. It was superseded by the Federal Council of the Austrian Parliament implemented by the 1920 Federal Constitutional Law.
The December Constitution is a set of six acts that served as the constitution of the Cisleithanian half of Austria-Hungary. The acts were proclaimed by Emperor Franz Joseph on 21 December 1867 and functioned as the supreme law of the land until the collapse of the empire in 1918. Five of the Constitution's acts were replaced by the Federal Constitutional Law between 1918 and 1920; the sixth law, a bill of rights, is still in force.
The Old Czech Party was formed in the Kingdom of Bohemia and Bohemian Crown Lands of Austrian Empire in Revolution Year of 1848. They initiated Czech national program, forming of modern national through Czech National Revival and better position of Bohemia within the Habsburg Monarchy.
Women's suffrage was introduced in Austria on 12 November 1918 with the foundation of the Republic of Austria after the fall of the Habsburg monarchy with the end of World War I. While men had gained the right to vote in the years of 1861 until 1907, women were explicitly excluded from political participation since the February Patent in 1861. Only unmarried landholding women were allowed to vote, before 1907.
The government of Austria-Hungary was the political system of Austria-Hungary between the formation of the dual monarchy in the Compromise of 1867 and the dissolution of the empire in 1918. The Compromise turned the Habsburg domains into a real union between the Austrian Empire in the western and northern half and the Kingdom of Hungary. in the eastern half. The two halves shared a common monarch, who ruled as Emperor of Austria over the western and northern half portion and as King of Hungary over the eastern portion. Foreign relations and defense were managed jointly, and the two countries also formed a customs union. All other state functions were to be handled separately by each of the two states.
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