Szász Zoltán (szerk.): History of Transylvania. III. From 1830 to 1919 - East European Monographs 599. Atlantic Studies on Society Change 108. (New York, 2002)
XI. Zoltán Szász: The Age of Absolutism in Transylvania (1849 - 1867) - 2. Political Life in the Ear of Absolutism - The Impact of the Crimean War
387 The Age of Absolutism The Impact of the Crimean War In 1853, war broke out in the immediate vicinity of the Austrian empire. Determined to destroy Ottoman power in Europe, Czar Nicholas I sent his troops in July to sweep out Turks and occupy the Romanian principalities. The Habsburg régime faced a difficult foreign policy decision. It was bound to Russia by the counter-revolutionary Holy Alliance, and some prominent Austrian generals wanted to support the czarist action. At the same time, the Russian invasion of the Danubian principalities endangered Austria’s position in the Balkans as well as free navigation, and the bourgeois elements in the government, Bach included, wanted to draw away from Russia. By autumn it had become clear that England and France would side with Turkey, and this emboldened the latter to declare war on Russia on October 16. The Habsburg empire’s geographical situation made it a valuable ally, and the two warring camps vied for Vienna’s support. The czar’s court tried to persuade Francis Joseph to adopt positive neutrality, while England and France invited his military cooperation. At first, Francis Joseph chose neutrality; but his failure to have the Russians pull out of the Romanian principalities, along with his suspicion that St. Petersburg favoured independence movements in the Balkans, turned him into the czar’s political enemy. When Western naval forces reached the Black Sea, and Russia was summoned to withdraw from the Romanian principalities, Austria proceeded to seal agreements, first with Prussia, then with France and England, and finally, in June 1854, with Turkey. The emergence of this hostile coalition prompted the czar to pull out his troops from Moldavia and Wallachia, and to ponder measures for ‘the severe punishment of perfidious Austria.’ Austria thus surprised the world by failing to come to the czar’s assistance; its ambivalent neutrality amounted to a stab in the back of its ally.