HISTORY 254W SPRING 1995

Linkage Through Language Program

THE HABSBURG MONARCHY AND ITS PEOPLES : 1740-1918



Instructor: Professor Ronald E. Coons
Office: Wood Hall 227
Hours: Mon., 1:00-2:00 p.m., Tues. and Thurs.,
9:00-10:00 a.m., and by appointment
Phone: 486-4160; 486-3722 (messages)

The LTL-section will be team-taught by Profs. Coons and Kecht. This weekly 1-hour class will be conducted in German. Prof. Kecht's office hours are Tuesdays 12-1 p.m. and Thursdays, 11-12 a.m. in Arjona 122. Her phone number is 486-1533.

The LTL-section of this course will allow students with at least four semesters of German to apply their language skills and study the course topics in more depth and from a different perspective. The materials used in the LTL-section complement what is being read and discussed in the 254 class. These authentic foreign language materials (e.g., letters, memoirs, political manifestoes, legal texts, poems, essays, feature films, historical videos, slides) will augment the understanding of the historical issues at hand.

This history course will analyze those forces which brought the collapse of the multinational, dynastic state of the Habsburgs at the beginning of the twentieth century and those which held it together through the end of the nineteenth, with special attention to the Monarchy's influence upon, and response to, modern European history.


Students should purchase the following titles, available at the UConn Co-op:

Victor Mamatey, The Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1815. New York: Krieger, 1978.

Alan Sked, A History of the Habsburg Empire. London/New York: Longman, 1989.

T.C.W. Blanning, Joseph II. London/New York: Longman, 1994.

Carl E. Schorske, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna. New York: Viking, 1981.

Joseph Roth, Radetzky March. Woodstock, NY: Overlook, 1985.

Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., Austria-Hungary and the Coming of the First World War. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.
Additional reading assignments: Students enrolled in the "Linkage Through Language" Program either will find their reading assignments on reserve in the Homer Babbidge Library or will receive xeroxed materials from the instructor.



ASSIGNMENTS:

History 254 is a "W" course. To meet the "W" requirement, two course assignments are designed to help students develop their skills in historical writing.


1. Due Friday, March 10:

Each student will write a five-page paper on some important figure in the history of the Habsburg Monarchy from the period before 1815. A list of possible subjects will be provided early in the semester; students are urged to choose a subject and to begin preparing a paper as soon as possible. Late papers will be penalized, and students are required to clear the topic of their papers with the instructor before submitting them.

Students taking History 254 in the context of the "Linkage Through Language" Program are also expected to write a paper of approximately five pages on a topic to be determined in consultation with the instructor. They should, however, do as much reading as possible IN GERMAN. The paper is to be written IN ENGLISH.


2. HOUR EXAMINATION:

At some point in the semester there will be either an in-class or a take-home examination. The date of the exam will be announced at least one week in advance.


3. Due Friday, May 5:

Each student is required to submit a term paper of approximately ten pages dealing with any topic in Habsburg history during the period 1790-1918. Possible topics include: 1) some aspect of the nationality conflict, 2) a problem or an episode in diplomatic or political history, 3) some aspect of social, economic, intellectual, or artistic history, 4) a major personality, or 5) a member of the Habsburg dynasty.

Students taking History 254 in the context of the "Linkage Through Language" Program are expected to write a similar paper, with the exception that as much of their reading as possible should be conducted in GERMAN.

Students have a measure of freedom in choosing the topic of their paper but should keep one major limitation in mind: NO PAPER WILL BE ACCEPTED UNLESS THE TOPIC HAS BEEN DISCUSSED WITH THE INSTRUCTOR IN HIS OFFICE AT A MUTUALLY CONVENIENT TIME. Students would do well, moreover, to submit an outline for critique before the begin to write. When submitted, papers MUST be accompanied by a copy of a preliminary draft.



POLICY ON RE-WRITTEN PAPERS:

Papers will be returned with a provisional grade that will become permanent unless students wish to submit a revised paper. If a student elects this option, the final grade for the assignment will be the average of the grades for the initial and the revised paper. Students are warned, however, that in rewriting their papers they are expected to do more than simply incorporate the instructor's suggested revisions.


ATTENDANCE POLICY:

Attendance will be taken at each lecture and is highly encouraged.





LECTURE TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS:


Topic 1: Introduction: Why Study the Habsburg Monarchy?

Topic 2: Central European Geography

Topic 3: The Peoples of Central Europe

Topic 4: Annus Mirabilis I: 1526
Mamatey, The Rise of the Habsburg Empire, 1-27
R.J.W. Evans, "The Austrian Habsburgs," in A. G. Dickens,
ed., The Courts of Europe (New York: McGraw Hill, 1977), 121-145

Topic 5: The Institutions of 1526

Topic 6: From White Mountain to Westphalia
Mamatey, 28-57

Topic 7: Annus Mirabilis II: 1683
Mamatey, 58-74

Topic 8: The Inheritance of Maria Theresa
Mamatey, 74-100

Topic 9: The Reforms of Maria Theresa
Mamatey, 101-127
Blanning, Joseph II,1-55
E. Wangermann, "Maria Theresa: A Reforming Monarchy", in
A. G. Dickens, ed., The Courts of Europe, 283-303

Topic 10: Stupor Habsburgicus: Joseph II
Mamatey, 127-139
Blanning, 56-208

Topic 11: "One Step Backward, and No Steps Forward" - The Brief Reign of Leopold II
Mamatey,139-160
Ernst Wangermann, The Austrian Achievement (London: Thames, 1973), 157-186.

Topic 12: Cultural Nationalism

Topic 13: Biedermeier/Vormaerz - The Age of Reaction
Sked, A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1-40

Topic 14: The Road to Revolution
Sked, 41-88

Topic 15: "Das Sturmjahr" - 1848
Sked, 89-136
Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848-1851 (New York: Cambridge UP, 1994), 203-218, 221- 230.

Topic 16: Neoabsolutism
Sked, 137-186

Topic 17: Foreign Policy and Constitutional Experimentation
Sked, 187-207

Topic 18: The Liberal Era - Discussion
Schorske, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, xvii-xxix, 3-115.

Topic 19: The Last Decades of Peace
Sked, 208-238
Joseph Roth, Radetzky March

Topic 20: The Road to Sarajevo - Discussion
Sked, 239-258
Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., Austria-Hungary and the Coming of the First World War

Topic 21: Finis Austriae
Sked, 258-272

******FINAL EXAMINATION******



INTERDEPARTMENTAL 222: LINKAGE THROUGH LANGUAGE
1 HOUR/1 CREDIT

READING ASSIGNMENTS:

In the LTL-section of History 254, students will receive a variety of reading assignments that are accompanied by study guides and glossaries facilitating comprehension. In order to encourage further development of writing skills, students will be asked to submit the answers to the questions on the particular texts in writing. In class we will discuss the key elements of the selected German materials emphasizing the connections to what has been addressed in the lectures of History 254. A separate grade will be given for students' work in the LTL-section. Oral and written performance will be evaluated equally.


LECTURES I: Why Study the Habsburg Monarchy?
Central European Geography

1. Woche: Dienstag, 31. Januar 1995
Thema: Die Konturen des Habsburger Reiches: Namen der Ländereien

LECTURES II: Peoples of the Habsburg Monarchy
Annus Mirabilis, Institutions of 1526

2. Woche: Dienstag, 7. Februar
Thema: Rudolf von Habsburg und Österreich




LECTURES III: Rudolph II, 30 Years War, Land Reforms after 1620,
Leopold I, Prinz Eugen

3. Woche: Dienstag, 14. Februar
Thema: Prinz Eugen von Savoyen (Im Unterricht wird das Porträt von Prinz Eugen zusätzlich durch Auszüge aus der Video-Serie von Brigitte Vacha und Alois Hawlik, Die Habsburger-- Eine europäische Familiengeschichte (Wien , 1992) illustriert.)




LECTURES IV: The Inheritance of Maria-Theresia; Austrian Baroque;
Charles VI, Pragmatic Sanction

4. Woche: Dienstag, 21. Februar
Thema: Das barocke Österreich

LECTURES V: Maria-Theresia's Character; Maria-Theresia's Reforms

5. Woche: Dienstag, 28. Februar
Thema: Kaiserin Maria-Theresia


LECTURES VI: Joseph II; Agrarian Reforms; Josephinism

6. Woche: Dienstag, 7. März
Thema: Kaiser Joseph II. und seine Mutter



LECTURES VII: The Brief Reign of Leopold II; Impulses behind Early Nationalism

7. Woche: Dienstag, 14. März
Thema: Der Frühnationalismus



LECTURES VIII: Cultural Nationalism; Biedermeier Culture

8. Woche: Dienstag, 28. März
Thema: Die Kultur der Biedermeierzeit



LECTURES IX: Vormärz; Metternich; Background to Revolution

9. Woche: Dienstag, 4. April
Thema: Das "System" Metternichs




LECTURES X: Road to Revolution; Revolution of 1848/49; Conservative Resurgence


10. Woche: Dienstag, 11. April
Thema: Das Sturmjahr 1848


LECTURES XI: Neoabsolutism; Economic Development

11. Woche: Dienstag, 18. April
Thema: Die Zeit des Neoabsolutismus


LECTURES XII: Crimean War; Italian and German Questions; Constitutional Experimentation

12. Woche: Dienstag, 25. April
Thema: Scheinkonstitutionalismus


LECTURES XIII: Liberal Era: Progressive Reforms; High Capitalism; 1873

13. Woche: Dienstag, 2. Mai
Thema: Der alte Kaiser


LECTURES XIV: The Road to Sarajevo; Word War I; Death of Francis Joseph

14. Woche: Dienstag, 9. Mai
Thema: Der Untergang der Monarchie