Europe in the 19th century

The world of early 19th century Europe was dominated by emperors, kings and queens, and aristocrats. The common person, man or woman, had no voice in politics. Serfdom, a form of contractual slavery to a landlord that dominated family lines for generations, was widespread throughout Europe.

European empires were culturally and ethnically diverse. This was especially true for the Austrian Empire - a major Central European power ruled by the Habsburg Dynasty. What now constitutes Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Slovenes, Croatians, Serbs, Romanians, and Italians all fell under the Austrian and the subsequent Austro-Hungarian regime. These people were frequently tied to geographic locations which correspond with their modern counterparts today. Before 1848, however, the concepts of nationality, nationhood, and culture were different from the connotations and definitions we use today. However, in this era, national identity was beginning to take hold within the geographic regions used as administrative districts by imperial overlords. Characteristics such as a common language, world view, heritage, religion, and region became more defined into ethnolinguistic groups as we understand them today. 

Before the Industrial Revolution, most people lived and worked within the feudal system.  If you were born before the 19th century, chances are that you were destined to be an agricultural laborer in service to a landlord. You and your family would have been tied to the land and, for all practical purposes, unable to leave it. You would pay your taxes in produce, vegetables, and livestock to the landlord and would hopefully have enough leftover for you and your family to survive the year. This arrangement of peasants and landlords had been common practice and enforced by law throughout Europe for more than a millennium. However, there had also always been tradesmen, those with specific skills such as tailors for clothes, cobblers for shoes, and masons for construction. There were also the merchants - those who bought and sold goods at the marketplace for a profit. These roles defined you and your position in society, and there was little social mobility for the vast majority of people.

Then, the arrival of the Industrial Revolution radically changed everything. In just under a century, it swept through the world and upended the 1,000-year-old feudal system. Machines could do the work more quickly and efficiently than teams of people, leading to the displacement of many agricultural laborers and the rapid unraveling of the feudal system. People migrated from the fields to towns and cities, looking for work and a future for their families away from the failing old system. The Empire began developing and expanding capitalist institutions such as banking, industry, and manufacturing. Industrial production increased rapidly in the western half of the empire, while the east remained its agricultural heart. Austria-Hungary’s annual growth was the second-fastest in Europe, behind Germany. With more people in cities, the commoner learned of alternatives to serving their landlord or Church. Literacy rates rose as printed material became more common. Concepts of national identities and the languages used to describe them spread like wildfire through populations who were poor, starving, and tired of imperial wars of conquest. The desire for self-determination, democracy, and a voice in government became increasingly popular. With the American and French Revolutions demonstrating the ability of commoners to overthrow their monarchs, ideas of nationalism and liberty had time to mature and be discussed in bars, cafes, and on the streets throughout the Habsburg Empire. The people discussing them might not have known, however, that these very ideas would soon bring about the end of multiple empires - and the most devastating war the world had ever seen. 

Click on the images below to explore events in Europe and the Americas as well as biographies of historical figures crucial to the creation of Czechoslovakia

Curated by: Sandra Samolik, Pavle Bajić, Francie Smith