Habsburg Venetia from Status Quo to State of Exception (1815-1854)

This paper is intended to provide a concise overview of the political and institutional situation in the Habsburg Venetia between the reestablishment of the status quo after the Congress of Vienna (1815) and the state of emergency that began in the aftermath of the events of 1848 and lasted until the middle of the following decade. I will also briefly discuss the question of the end of Austrian presence in Italy in 1866. Through a structured and comparative examination of international bibliographic resources and a detailed analysis of complementary archive materials, the value of examined events that only apparently seemed local will be reinterpreted in the light of an overall governmental strategy designed by Vienna for the various territories of the Empire, allowing thus another view of history of the domains that had previously belonged to the former Venetian Republic visible simultaneously through rather unusual manifestations such are the size of power, society and law. The final result will be a useful guide for all those who want to deepen their knowledge of one of the most fascinating and interesting regional components of that unique European cultural mosaic that was represented by the Danube monarchy.