This work deals principally with the fate of Venice and Venetia during the first twenty years of the so-called second Austrian domination. It begins by providing background to the period, by examining the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, and its early experiences of foreign domination during the Napoleonic era. It then focuses on the nature of Habsburg rule during the reign of Francis I. Challenging longstanding assumptions about the supposedly repressive and exploitative and nature of Austrian control, it highlights the difficulties faced by the authorities in balancing the needs of Ven ... More

This work deals principally with the fate of Venice and Venetia during the first twenty years of the so-called second Austrian domination. It begins by providing background to the period, by examining the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, and its early experiences of foreign domination during the Napoleonic era. It then focuses on the nature of Habsburg rule during the reign of Francis I. Challenging longstanding assumptions about the supposedly repressive and exploitative and nature of Austrian control, it highlights the difficulties faced by the authorities in balancing the needs of Venetia with wider considerations of imperial policy, and in particular the tensions generated by the retention of significant elements of the Napoleonic machinery of government established during the period 1806-1814. The central aim of the book is to move away from the traditional Risorgimento historiography, which focuses on unrest, to explain why Venetia was perhaps the most politically passive area in Europe in the two decades after the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire. The final section of the book examines the developments that took place in the period after Francis I's death in 1835, which permitted the outbreak of revolution in 1848.