Under the rule of Klemens von Metternich (1773–1859), the Empire was ushered into a time of censorship and harsh social order maintained by the police, between 1815 and 1848, during the Biedermaier period (named after a fictional character portrayed as a ‘common man’), or Vormärz (Pre-March) period. Both liberalism and nationalism had their influence in the state, which developed into the Revolutions of 1848. Metternich and Emperor Ferdinand I were forced to abdicate. Separatist movements, especially in Hungary and Lombardy, arose but were suppressed by the military. Industrialisation and subsequent migration sprung into the larger cities and regions of Bohemia, Lower Austria, Vienna and Upper Styria. Social insecurity and ethnic tension led to a mass nationalist movement. The joined forces of France and Sardinia led to the defeat and subsequent loss of Tuscany and Lombardy, which were given to the Kingdom of Sardinia, whose aim was to establish an Italian country.

Prussia managed to banish Austria from Germany in the war of 1886, when the industrialised state of Austria-Hungary was established. However, parliament had difficulties operating because of the many ethnic groups and tension, even while the period still held the name Gründerzeit, defining the economic upswing in the mid-19th Century. In the second half of 19th Century, Austria-Hungary invaded Bosnia and the new country of Herzegovina, one of the first to free itself from the Ottoman Empire. The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, triggered the beginning of the First World War, led by all the colonised countries or empires.

Following the debacle of Austria-Hungary in the First World War, the Empire disintegrated. The nationalist movement had played its role, with German Austria now insisting on nationalistic rights, supported by their name The First Republic of German Austria. The Austrian parliament wanted unification with Germany, but it was feared that Austria could not be economically stable. What’s more, France and Italy rejected the idea of a large German state. Austria would be autonomous for 20 years, so as to witness its development. After the war, Austria did not pay reparations, as it was thought to be an insolvent country. In 1925, Austria’s currency was changed from the krone to schilling, due to inflation. Austria now has a democratic, political stratum, with a pluralist system of both left- and right-wing parties.