Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849 was the most serious of the secessionist movements that erupted across the Habsburg Empire during the Springtime of Nations. Led by Lajos Kossuth and the Diet at Pozsony, the revolution began with the April Laws of 1848, which transformed Hungary into a near-independent constitutional state under the Habsburg crown. When the dynasty moved to reverse these concessions, the conflict escalated into open war. In April 1849 the Hungarian Diet at Debrecen declared full independence and deposed the House of Habsburg. The new Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, unable to defeat the Hungarian armies (the honvéd) alone, invoked the Holy Alliance and obtained the intervention of Tsar Nicholas I; some 200,000 Russian troops poured into Hungary and broke the revolution by August 1849. The Habsburgs also exploited the empire's other nationalities — arming Croats under Jelačić, Serbs, and Romanians against the Magyar revolutionaries. The suppression imposed a decade of neo-absolutist centralisation, but the unresolved Hungarian question would ultimately force the dynasty into the Compromise of 1867.
- Year: 1848 CE
- Category: Political
