Those territories and peoples from whom the Habsburg emperors in Vienna demanded allegiance. Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire (1806), Emperor Francis II continued to rule as Francis I (1804–35), Emperor of Austria and of the hereditary Habsburg lands of Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia and Transylvania, Galicia (once a province of Poland), and much of northern Italy (Venetia and Lombardy). He ruled by means of a large bureaucracy, a loyal army, the Roman Catholic Church, and an elaborate police force. His chief minister was Chancellor Metternich. Nationalist feelings were emerging, and during the reign of his successor Ferdinand I (1835–48), liberal agitation for reform developed. Vienna was becoming rapidly industrialized and in March 1848, at a time of economic depression, riots in the capital led to Metternich’s resignation. The emperor abolished censorship and promised a constitution. This, published in April, was not democratic enough for radical leaders, who organized a popular protest on 15 May 1848. The emperor fled to Innsbruck and later abdicated. His 18‐year‐old nephew Francis Joseph succeeded. There were movements for independence among all the peoples of the empire, including the Hungarians led by Kossuth, the Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Romanians, and Italians. A Pan‐Slav conference met (1848) in Prague. But the opposition to the government in Vienna was divided and the Prime Minister, Felix Schwarzenberg and Francis Joseph were able to regain control. The army crushed the reform movements in Prague and Vienna and with the help of Russia, subjugated Budapest. Alexander Bach, the new Minister of the Interior, greatly strengthened the centralized bureaucracy, and the empire regained some stability, until its defeat by France and Piedmont at Magenta and Solferino, which ended Austrian rule in Italy. In an effort to appease nationalist feeling the emperor proposed a new federal constitution, but it came too late and after a further defeat at Sadowa he agreed to the Ausgleich (Compromise) of 1867 and the creation of Austria‐Hungary.