Counter-Revolution 633Croatian regiments loyal to the Habsburg emperor attack Viennese revolutionaries,
October 1848.
condemned the Germans for having oppressed the Slavic peoples and called
for the reorganization of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy into a federation
that would take into consideration the rights of each nationality.
While the Pan-Slav Congress, like the Frankfurt Parliament, was discussing
lofty national questions, ordinary people were hungry. On June 12, 1848,
barricades went up in Prague, manned by artisans and the laboring poor.
Prince Alfred Windischgratz (1787—1862), the Habsburg imperial governor,
ended the insurrection four days later, bombarding Prague with cannon fire.
Meanwhile, in northern Italy, the Habsburg imperial army defeated the
Piedmontese forces, which had moved to assist the revolutions against
Austria-Hungary, and Jelacic’s Croatian army defeated Hungarian revolu
tionary forces.
In August, Emperor Ferdinand returned to Vienna and was welcomed by
the middle classes. When he began to shut down the workshops, which had
been established to provide work for the unemployed, the workers rose up, as
they had in Paris, before being crushed by the National Guard. Two months
later, workers rebelled again. Ferdinand fled Vienna for a second time, taking
his court to Moravia. The imperial armies under Windischgratz bombarded
Vienna, killing more than 3,000 people. Once again, enthusiastic revolution
aries proved no mat A for the professional armies of the established powers.
The emperor imposed martial law, closed the political clubs, dissolved the
National Guard, and reestablished censorship. Arrests, trials, and executions
followed. The emperor appointed a council of advisers (the Reichsrat)y but
was under no obligation to consult it.