Cisleithania

Crown lands

Cisleithania consisted of 15 crown lands which had representatives in the Imperial Council (Reichsrat), the Cisleithanian parliament in Vienna. The crown lands centered on the Archduchy of Austria (Erzherzogtum Österreich) were not states, but provinces in the modern sense. However, they were areas with unique historic political and legal characteristics and were therefore more than mere administrative districts. They have been conceived of as "historical-political entities".

Each crown land had a regional assembly, the Landtag, which enacted laws (Landesgesetze) on matters of regional and mostly minor importance. Until 1848, the Landtage had been traditional diets (assemblies of the estates of the realm). They were disbanded after the Revolutions of 1848 and reformed after 1860. Some members held their position as ex officio members (e.g., bishops), while others were elected. There was no universal and equal suffrage, but a mixture of privilege and limited franchise. The executive committee of a Landtag was called Landesausschuss and headed by a Landeshauptmann, being president of the Landtag as well.

From 1868 onwards Emperor Franz Joseph himself (in his function as monarch of a crown land, being king, archduke, grandduke, duke or count) and his Imperial–Royal (k.k.) government headed by the Minister-President of Austria were represented at the capital cities of the crown lands—except for Vorarlberg, which was administered with Tyrol, and Istria and Gorizia-Gradisca, which were administered together with Trieste under the common name of Austro-Illyrian Littoral—by a stadtholder (Statthalter), in few crown lands called Landespräsident, who acted as chief executive.

Kingdoms

• Kingdom of Bohemia (Land of the Bohemian Crown)
• Kingdom of Dalmatia
• Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria

Archduchies

• Archduchy of Austria above the Enns (unofficially Upper Austria)
• Archduchy of Austria below the Enns (unofficially Lower Austria)

Grand duchies

• Grand Duchy of Kraków (subdivision of Galicia and Lodomeria)

Duchies

• Duchy of Bukovina
• Duchy of Carinthia
• Duchy of Carniola
• Duchy of Salzburg
• Duchy of Silesia (Land of the Bohemian Crown)
• Duchy of Styria

Margraviates

• Margraviate of Istria (part of the Austrian Littoral)
• Margraviate of Moravia (Land of the Bohemian Crown)

Princely counties

• Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca (part of the Austrian Littoral)
• Princely County of Tyrol
• Princely County of Vorarlberg

Free cities

• Free City of Trieste (part of the Austrian Littoral)

Condominium

• Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina (governed jointly by Cisleithania and Transleithania) from 1878

Politics

According to the "December Constitution", a redraft of the emperor's 1861 February Patent, the Austrian government was generally responsible in all affairs concerning the Cisleithanian lands, except for the common Austro-Hungarian Army, the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the Foreign Ministry, these k.u.k. matters remained reserved for the Imperial and Royal Ministers' Council for Common Affairs of Austria-Hungary.

The Austrian Reichsrat, a bicameral legislature implemented in 1861, became the Cisleithanian parliament. Originally consisting of delegates of the Landtage, in 1873 direct election of the House of Deputies (Abgeordnetenhaus) was introduced with a four-class franchise suffrage for male landowners and bourgeois. Equal, direct, secret and universal suffrage—for men—was not introduced until a 1907 electoral reform. In this Lower House (with 353 members in 1873 and 516 in 1907), at first German-speaking deputies dominated, but with the extension of the suffrage the Slavs gained a majority. An ethnic nationalist struggle between German-speaking and Slavic deputies, especially in the context of the Czech National Revival, was played out. Leaders of the movement like František Palacký advocated the emancipation of the Slavic population within the Monarchy (Austroslavism), while politicians of the Young Czech Party principally denied the right of the Reichsrat to put any decisions relevant for the "Czech lands", and used means of filibustering as well as absence to torpedo its work. They were antagonized by radical German nationalists led by Georg von Schönerer, demanding the dissolution of the Monarchy and the unification of the "German Austrian" lands with the German Empire.

After 1893, no k.k. government was able to rely on a parliamentary majority. Nevertheless, Polish members of parliament and politicians like Count Kasimir Felix Badeni achieved some success involving Galician Poles by special regulations for this "developing country"; thence the Polenklub played a constructive role most of the time. Politics were frequently paralysed because of the tensions between different nationalities. When Czech obstruction at the Reichsrat prevented the parliament from working, the emperor went on to rule autocratically through imperial decrees (Kaiserliche Verordnungen) submitted by his government. The Reichsrat was prorogued in March 1914 at the behest of Minister-President Count Karl von Stürgkh, it did not meet during the July Crisis and was not reconvened until May 1917, after the accession of Emperor Karl in 1916.

For representation in matters relevant to the whole real union of Austria-Hungary (foreign affairs, defence, and the financing thereof) the Reichsrat appointed delegations of 60 members to discuss these matters parallel to Hungarian delegations of the same size and to come, in separate votes, to the same conclusion on the recommendation of the responsible common ministry. In Cisleithania, the 60 delegates consisted of 40 elected members of the House of Representatives (Abgeordnetenhaus) and 20 members of the Upper House (Herrenhaus). The delegations convened simultaneously, both either in Vienna or in Budapest, though spatially divided. In case of not getting the same decision in three attempts, the law permitted the summoning of a common session of both delegations and the eventual counting of the votes in total, but the Hungarians, who averted any Imperial "roof" over their part of the dual monarchy, as well as the common ministers, carefully avoided reaching this situation. Austria-Hungary as a common entity did not have its own jurisdiction and legislative power, which was shaped by the fact that there was no common parliament. The common diplomatic and military affairs were managed by delegations from the Imperial Council and the Hungarian parliament. According to the compromise, the members of the delegates from the two parliaments had no right to debate, they had no right to introduce new perspectives and own ideas during the meetings, they were nothing more than the extended arms of their own parliaments. All decisions had to be ratified by the Imperial council in Vienna and by the Hungarian parliament in Budapest. Without the Austrian and Hungarian parliamentary ratifications, the decisions of the delegates were not valid in Austria or in Kingdom of Hungary.

Population

In 1910, Cisleithania had a population of about 28.6 million. The largest group within Cisleithania were Austrian Germans (including Yiddish-speaking Jews), who made up around a third of the population. German-speakers and Czechs made up a majority of the population. Almost 60% of Cisleithania's population was ethnically Slavic.

Religion

Religion groups in Cisleithania included Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Evangelicals, Muslims and Jews. Roman Catholics were the largest religious group in the country that accounted for 79% of the population. While on the other hand, Greek Catholics accounted for 12% of the population. In the Austrian half, Orthodox church had 770,000 believers mostly concentrated in Dalmatia and Bukovina which represented 2.3% of the population. The Evengelical churches had 600,000 believers that represented 2% of the population in Cisleithania. Muslims, predominantly Sunni, became the citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the occupation in 1878 and later annexation in 1908. At the time they were called the Mohammedans and they were accounted for 1.2% of the population. Jews, according to the resource, represented 4.6% of the whole Austro-Hungarian population.

Economy

Historical estimates for the economy of Cisleithania include the output of territories comprising modern Austria and historical Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, Bukovina, Dalmatia and the Austrian Littoral. Over the period 1870 to 1913, GDP per capita in Austria-Hungary grew by 1.12 percent per annum compared to 1.52 percent in Germany. GDP per capita grew by 1.01 percent per annum in Cisleithania compared to 1.31 percent in Transleithania or Hungary. Economic growth was significantly faster in the years after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise than in the preceding half-century.