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| c. Austria and Bohemia |
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(See 1842–44)| |
| 1848, March 11 |
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| Prague meeting drew up Twelve Articles of St. Wenceslas, demanding Czech-German equality in education and government service. | 1 |
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| March 13–14 |
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| Students in Vienna marched to the Landhaus to present a petition after hearing Kossuth's speech read aloud. The crowd reached the Hofburg where the Diet sat and, when the guards would allow only the delegates in, began to spread throughout the streets and squares surrounding the Hofburg. Alarmed by their large numbers, the authorities fired on the crowd in an effort to clear the area. Meanwhile, workers had been prevented from entering the city. They burned several factories and looted shops in protest. | 2 |
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| March 15 |
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| the emperor summoned the Diet to begin consideration of a constitution. | 3 |
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| April 8 |
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| Czechs obliged Vienna to promise a Bohemian constitutional assembly. Revolutionary movements also took place in Galicia, Moravia, and elsewhere. | 4 |
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| April 25 |
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| The new government, under Pillersdorf, published a new constitution. The new constitution provided for a bicameral legislature with a Senate composed of both life members and members elected by the great landowners and a Chamber of Deputies elected by voters who met a high property qualification, thus limiting the vote so that workers would not be directly represented. Women could not vote. | 5 |
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| May 9 |
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| A new electoral law, passed in response to demonstrations, enabled the lower middle class and the peasants to vote but excluded workmen who were paid by the day or the week, domestic servants, those receiving public assistance, and all women. | 6 |
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| May 14 |
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| The government dissolved the Central Committee, formed by students and members of the National Guard during March. | 7 |
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| May 15 |
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| The Storm Petition (Sturmpetition). Students, workers, and the members of the National Guard marched to the Hofburg and demanded that the government establish universal adult male suffrage, that the army be called up only at the request of the National Guard, and that parliament consist of a single chamber. The government promised to revise the constitution. The emperor and his family fled to Innsbruck. | 8 |
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| May 26 |
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| The government retrenched and ordered the dissolution of the University Legion, and the troops ordered the National Guard to stand down. As a result, barricades went up throughout Vienna, and the workers and National Guard came to the students' aid. A committee of safety controlled Vienna during the following months. | 9 |
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| June |
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| The first Pan-Slav Congress (composed, however, almost entirely of Czech delegates) met at Prague under the presidency of Francis Palácky, the eminent Bohemian historian and national leader. It proclaimed the solidarity of the Slavic peoples (as against the Germans), but stressed also the equality of all peoples, and proposed a European congress to deal with outstanding international problems. | 10 |
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| June 12 |
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| The Princess Windischgrätz, wife of the commander of the forces at Prague, was accidentally shot and killed during a student demonstration. Prince Alfred Windischgrätz, who favored strong repressive measures, seized this opportunity to bring up reinforcements. | 11 |
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