ABSTRACT
The revolution of 1848 had unsettled the Habsburg Empire. In Vienna it was not the Government which ruled but the National Guard and the Academic Legion, which decided many legal and administrative matters without reference to the law. On 11 March a great rally of Czechs was held in Prague; the usual constitutional demands were voiced and there was also a call for the unification of Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia within the framework of the monarchy, with the Czechs and Germans enjoying complete equality. The Italian rising against Austrian rule enjoyed great sympathy among the liberals and democrats in many countries, notably England and France, as well as in Germany. The victory of the revolution in the Berlin street fighting and the strength of democracy in the Prussian National Assembly had created an impression that reaction was impossible.
