1815-1840 1849-1866










The Hungarian Revolution of 1848/1849


The years between 1840 and 1848 were marked by political debates about the scope, direction and procedure of political reform, both in the diet and in the gazettes, in which Count ISTVAN SZECHENYI and LAJOS KOSSUTH, a law student turned parliamentarian, featured prominently. Newspapers were a major instrument to familiarize the readership - an estimated 200,000 Hungarians subscribed to newspapers - with the democratic procedures and constitutions reformers wanted to implement. Censorship regulations easily could be circumvented by reporting in detail on parliamentary debates in Britain or France.
Szechenyi was the more conservative, Kossuth the more radical liberal, but they had many views in common, such as supporting the decision of the diet of 1843/44 to make Hungarian the official language of administration, jurisdiction and education, in the entire kingdom. The diet of the Kingdom of Hungary thus more and more turned into a diet of the Hungarian ethnicity; the minorities - Croats, Serbs, Germans, Vlachs, Ruthenians, Slovaks - felt alienated, did not read the Hungarian newspapers and books, did not feel part of the sentiment towards a reformed, modernized Hungary.

In 1843/44 relations between the Austrian administration and Hungary's diet turned to the worse, as economic interests conflicted and Metternich regarded the diet overstepping it's bounds in discussing topics such as the status of cities, educational and economic reform.

In February 1848, revolutionaries established control over Vienna, paralyzing Austria's government. In the Hungarian diet, meeting in Bratislava, Hungary's administrative capital, far reaching reforms were now discussed when radicals lead by SANDOR PETOEFI revolted, organizing a COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY which took over the administration of the city of Budapest.
The Hungarian diet, under the leadership of Count Szechenyi and Lajos Kossuth, had become more confident and daring in it's demands for reform, but continued to accept the Habsburg dynasty as the country's legitimate kings. Emperor Ferdinand V., aware of the momentary weakness of his position, made concessions but supported Croatia's BAN Josip Jelacic in fighting the revolutionaries.

In April 1848, the APRIL LAWS were passed, which functioned as Hungary's new constitution; Hungary was to be a constitutional hereditary monarchy, parliament to be convened annually, royal decisions required the signature of a minister; representatives of the lower house should be elected; Hungary was to have a separate army, administration and judiciary. Civil rights, such as equality before the law, the abolition of privileges of the Catholic church and of nobility, serfdom was abolished.
A major flaw of the constitution was that it did not mention the national minorities, most notably the Kingdom of Croatia, which technically formed a state in a state as Hungary did within the larger Austrian Empire.
The Hungarian diet called for militias to be formed, which were to take an oath on the new constitution. The minorities fealt threatened, for instance the Vojvodina Serbs and Transylvania's Germans and Vlachs. At the Pan-Slav congress held in Prague speeches were held describing the Hungarians as enemies of the Pan-Slavic movement.

Croatian Ban Jelacic invaded Hungary in August; tension ran high. An Austrian general, Count F.P. LAMBERG, coming to Budapest to negotiate, was lynched by a mob, the situation in Vienna itself equally getting out of (Habsburg's) hand. Now Emperor Ferdinand V. resigned; new chancellor Count FELIX ZU SCHWARTZENBERG accepted Russia's offer to send troops. Early in 1849, Austria's forces suffered setbacks, but with the aid of Russian troops in summer and early fall of 1849, Hungary was occupied.
Under military pressure, in July 1849, revolutionary Hungary was finally willing to grant rights to it's ethnic minorities, most notably the Romanians and Serbs (Slovakia and Ruthenia were occupied by Russian troops). However, the revolutionaries were defeated, most of their reforms undone. Men like Lajos Kossuth had to go into exile.





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
Articles from the Encyclopedia of the Revolutions of 1848 : Serbia's Role in the Conflict in Vojvodina in 1848-1849, Ban Josip Jelacic, Jozef Zachariasz Bem, Crowd Politics in the Hungarian Revolution, Slovak Peasant Revolt, Slovak Newspapers
DOCUMENTS Flag of 1848, from FOTW
Hungary in 1848/49, a selection of documents posted by Habsburg Net
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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