Political Map of Europe (1848)

Photo: N. Lackner / UMJ

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In 1848, Europe was in turmoil. National struggles for independence and social unrest flared up all over the continent. It was a time of marching troops, political assemblies, and shaking thrones. The Concert of Europe, the restorative order established by the Congress of Vienna after Napoleon’s defeat in 1814–15, began to totter. Its chief architect, Prince Metternich (1773–1859), fled Austria for Britain.

The map sides with the revolution. It shows how the republic was reproclaimed under the slogans of 1789 in France, while the forces of reaction are represented by the anti-liberal Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) in Italy and Russia’s Tsar Nicholas I (1796–1855), whose armies threaten European aspirations for freedom.

There is, however, a beacon of hope: Archduke Johann (1782–1859), appointed Reichsverweser (regent) by the Frankfurt Parliament, was to help calm the unhinged continent as head of the “United States of Free Germany,” a union that never materialized.

Political Map of Europe with Cartouche, Archduke Johann at the Frankfurt Parliament (1848)
Publisher: Werner Franz
Digital print (original: chalk lithograph on paper, 34 × 52 cm)

Neue Galerie Graz / Universalmuseum Joanneum

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