1790-1815 1840-1849






Hungary during the years of Restauration



As not so many reforms had been implemented in Hungary during the years of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte, the policy of RESTAURATION had a rather indirect impact on Hungary - political reforms which potentially undermined Habsburg rule had to be prevented, potential revolutionaries sorted out by the SECRET POLICE before they could do any harm. Austria also was an active supporter of the HOLY ALLIANCE and in 1820 ans 1821 sent troops to quell liberal uprisings in Piedmont and Naples, troops most of whom were recruited in Hungary. In 1825, Vienna also demanded taxes to be paid which had been approved by the diet of 1815, but not collected due to the victory over Napoleon at Waterloo.
Hungarian leaders were very concerned about the unexpected, high taxation and demanded a WRITTEN CONSTITUTION which Emperor Francis outright refused. However, he called for the diet to assemble.

The Hungarian diet was still dominated by the nobility; it stressed the necessity to hold up the (unwritten) feudal constitution, a demand which indirectly targeted at limiting royal absolute authority. The diet of 1825/27 reiterated demands of the diet of 1790/1791, such as no taxation without the diet's approval and the stipulation that a diet should be called to assemble every three years. These demands were accepted by Francis, as they had been accepted by his predecessor Leopold in 1790/91.
The Hungarian diet was bicameral. In the LOWER CHAMBER the country's nobility, clergy and royal cities were represented; in the UPPER CHAMBER high dignitaries of the clergy or nobility or persons with a royal invitation were present; both chambers had to agree if legislation was to be passed. Members of the lower chamber were bound to stick to their instructions.
While the diet made little progress in regard of democratic reforms, it set in motion the process which lead to the foundation of the HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (1830) which promoted the use of Hungarian language in arts and sciences. Count ISTVAN SZECHENYI, whose donation was instrumental in setting up the Academy, sought to prepare the Hungarians for modernizing reforms by publishing; he criticized the outdated economic system and suggested the introduction of a banking system.
LIBERALISM became the dominant force in Hungary's diet of 1832-1836, which debated the elimination of religious discrimination (against protestants and Jews) and worked toward the emancipation of the peasants, the abolition of serfdom.
Hungary's political centers, Buda and Pest, were to be joined by a bridge across the Danube.

1825 had marked a turning point in Hungarian history, as the diet's demands of 1790/91 from now on were implemented, the diet regularly called for and given an active roll in legislation.
Although the necessity for political reform was obvious, reform progress was very slow. In 1831 a peasant revolt broke out among the Slovak, Ruthenian and Vlach minorities in the north and northeast.





EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Hungarian Revival, from A Short History of Austria-Hungary by H. Wickham-Steed, 1914, anti-Habsburg
Renaissance and Reform, from C.A. Macartney, Hungary - A Short History, 1962
Hang the Kings, from Istvan Lazar, Hungary - A Brief History, 1989/1993, slightly polemic
Hungary, from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914 edition
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Peter F. Sugar (ed.), A History of Hungary, Indiana Univ. Press 1990, 432 pp.


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 11th 2004

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