Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire Catholicism and between members of different confessions. These conflicts were often mixed with conflict with the state. Important for the revolutionaries were state conflicts including the armed forces and collection of taxes. As 1848 approached, the revolutions the Empire crushed to maintain longstanding conservative minister Klemens Wenzel von Metternich's Concert of Europe left the empire nearly bankrupt and in continual need of soldiers. Draft commissions led to brawls between soldiers and civilians. All of this further agitated the peasantry, who resented their remaining feudal obligations. Despite lack of freedom of the press and association, there was a flourishing liberal German
Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire lands rightfully belonged to a united German state, despite the fact that the majority of the people of Bohemia and Moravia spoke Czech — a Slavic language. Czech nationalists viewed the language as far more significant, calling for a boycott of the Frankfurt Parliament elections in Bohemia, Moravia, and neighboring Austrian Silesia (also partly Czech-speaking). Tensions in Prague between German and Czech nationalists grew quickly between April and May. After the abolition of serfdom on April 17, Supreme Ruthenian Council was established in Galicia to promote the unification of ethnic Ukrainian lands of Eastern Galicia, Transcarpathia and Bukovyna in one