Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence
Hungary revolted in March 1848, governed itself for a year, and was crushed by a Russian army lent to Austria. The rising began on 15 March in Pest with a crowd, a poem read aloud by Sándor Petőfi and twelve demands printed on a press seized for the purpose — freedom of the press, a responsible ministry, annual parliament, equality before the law, an end to serfdom, a national bank and army. Vienna, with revolutions in its own streets, conceded almost everything within weeks. The April Laws made Hungary a constitutional state in personal union with Austria, with its own government under Batthyány, and abolished serfdom with compensation. The difficulty was that Hungary's own minorities — Croats, Serbs, Romanians, Slovaks, more than half the kingdom's population — wanted from Budapest what Budapest wanted from Vienna, and were offered civil equality as individuals rather than national rights. Vienna used them. Jelačić, the Croatian ban, invaded in September with imperial approval. The war went well for Hungary through the spring of 1849 under Görgei and the Polish general Bem, and in April the parliament at Debrecen deposed the Habsburgs and declared independence with Kossuth as governor-president. That decision removed any prospect of compromise and brought in Nicholas I, who sent some 200,000 Russian troops under the Holy Alliance. Görgei surrendered to the Russians at Világos in August 1849 rather than to the Austrians. Batthyány and thirteen generals were executed in October, and Kossuth spent the rest of his life in exile. The Habsburgs then governed Hungary as conquered territory for a decade and had to negotiate with the survivors anyway in 1867. Petőfi disappeared at Segesvár at twenty-six and became the national poet, and 15 March is a national holiday.
- Year: 1848 CE
- Category: Political
