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Hungary The Revolution of March 1848
In March 1848, revolution erupted in Vienna, forcing
Austria's Chancellor Klemens von Metternich to flee the
capital.
Unrest broke out in Hungary on March 15, when radicals and
students stormed the Buda fortress to release political
prisoners. A day later, the Diet's liberal-dominated lower
house
demanded establishment of a national government
responsible to an
elected parliament, and on March 22 a new national cabinet
took
power with Count Louis Batthyany as chairman, Kossuth as
minister
of finance, and Szechenyi as minister of public works.
Under
duress, the Diet's upper house approved a sweeping reform
package, signed by Ferdinand, that altered almost every
aspect of
Hungary's economic, social, and political life. These
so-called
April Laws created independent Hungarian ministries of
defense
and finance, and the new government claimed the right to
issue
currency through its own central bank. Guilds lost their
privileges; the nobles became subject to taxation; entail,
tithes, and the corvee were abolished; some peasants
became
freehold proprietors of the land they worked; freedom of
the
press and assembly were created; a Hungarian national
guard was
established; and Transylvania was brought under Hungarian
rule.
The non-Magyar ethnic groups in Hungary feared the
nationalism of the new Hungarian government, and
Transylvanian
Germans and Romanians opposed the incorporation of
Transylvania
into Hungary. The Vienna government enlisted the
minorities in
the first attempt to overthrow the Hungarian government.
Josip
Jelacic--a fanatic anti-Hungarian--became governor of
Croatia on
March 22 and severed relations with the Hungarian
government a
month later. By summer the revolution's momentum began to
wane.
The Austrians ordered the Hungarian diet to dissolve, but
the
order went unheeded. In September Jelacic led an army into
Hungary. Batthyany resigned, and a mob lynched the
imperial
commander in Pest. A committee of national defense under
Kossuth
took control, authorized the establishment of a Hungarian
army,
and issued paper money to fund it. On October 30, 1848,
imperial
troops entered Vienna and suppressed a workers' uprising,
effectively ending the revolution everywhere in the empire
except
Hungary, where Kossuth's army had overcome Jelacic's
forces. In
December Ferdinand abdicated in favor of Franz Joseph
(1848-1916), who claimed more freedom of action because,
unlike
Ferdinand, he had given no pledge to respect the April
Laws. The
Magyars, however, refused to recognize him as their king
because
he was never crowned.
The imperial army captured Pest early in 1849, but the
revolutionary government remained entrenched in Debrecen.
In
April a "rump" Diet deposed the Habsburg Dynasty in
Hungary,
proclaimed Hungary a republic, and named Kossuth governor
with
dictatorial powers. After the declaration, Austrian
reinforcements were transferred to Hungary, and in June,
at Franz
Joseph's request, Russian troops attacked from the east
and
overwhelmed the Hungarians. The Hungarian army surrendered
on
August 13, and Kossuth escaped to the Ottoman Empire. A
period of
harsh repression followed. Batthyany and about 100 others
were
shot, several society women were publicly whipped, and the
government outlawed public gatherings, theater
performances,
display of the national colors, and wearing of national
costumes
and Kossuth-style beards.
Data as of September 1989
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