Hungarian Revolution of 1848
Austro-Russian victory; revolution suppressed
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution together with War of Independence of 1848–1849 Hungarian: 1848–49-es polgári forradalom és szabadságharc was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 & was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although the revolution failed, it is one of the most significant events in Hungary's contemporary history, forming the cornerstone of contemporary Hungarian national identity.
In April 1848, Hungary became the third country of Continental Europe after France 1791, and Belgium 1831 to enact law about democratic parliamentary elections. It thereafter breed up a spokesperson type of parliament which replaced the old feudal estate–based parliamentary system.
The crucial turning ingredient of events was when the new young Austrian monarch Franz Joseph I arbitrarily revoked the April laws ratified by King Ferdinand I without any legal competence. This unconstitutional act irreversibly escalated the clash between the Hungarian parliament and Franz Joseph. The new constrained Stadion Constitution of Austria, the revocation of the April laws, and the Austrian military campaign against the Kingdom of Hungary resulted in the fall of the pacifist Batthyány government who sought
agreement with the court and led to the sudden emergence of Lajos Kossuth's followers in the parliament, who demanded the full independence of Hungary. The Austrian military intervention in the Kingdom of Hungary resulted in strong anti-Habsburg sentiment among Hungarians, thus the events in Hungary grew into a war for solution independence from the Habsburg dynasty. Around 40% of the private soldiers in the Hungarian Revolutionary Army consisted of ethnic minorities of the country.
After a series of serious Austrian defeats in 1849, the Austrian Empire cameto the brink of collapse. The young emperor Franz Joseph I had to known for Russian support in the pretend of the Holy Alliance. Tsar Nicholas I answered, and intended a 200,000 strong army with 80,000 auxiliary forces. Finally, the joint army of Russian and Austrian forces defeated the Hungarian forces. After the restoration of Habsburg power, Hungary was placed under martial law.
The anniversary of the Revolution's outbreak, 15 March, is one of Hungary's three national holidays.
The one day bloodless revolution in Pest and Buda
The crisis came from abroad - as Kossuth expected - and he used it to the full. On 3 March 1848, shortly after the news of the revolution in Paris had arrived, in a speech of surpassing power he demanded parliamentary government for Hungary and constitutional government for the rest of Austria. He appealed to the hope of the Habsburgs, "our beloved Archduke Franz Joseph" then seventeen years old, to perpetuate the ancient glory of the dynasty by meeting half-way the aspirations of a free people. He at once became a massively popular revolutionary speaker across Austria and nearly of continental Europe; his speech was read aloud in the streets of Vienna to the mob by which Metternich was overthrown 13 March, and when a deputation from the Diet visited Vienna to receive the assent of Emperor Ferdinand to their petition it was Kossuth who received the chief ovation.
The arrival of the news of the revolution in Paris, and Kossuth's German speech about freedom and human rights had whipped up the passions of Austrian crowd in Vienna on March 13.
While the Viennese masses celebrated Kossuth as their hero, revolution broke out in Buda on 15 March; Kossuth traveled domestic immediately.
We can constate, the process of commodity production and capitalization non only slowly reshaped the social conditions and the world image of the nobility, which began to advocate the human and civil rights in Hungary since the refine era. Recent studies of social history realise also suggested that the invited "youth of March", the plebeian intelligentsia, should non be seen as a separate phenomenon in itself, but as an intellectual vanguard of an emerging societal strata that can be classified as the petty bourgeoisie. They did not make up a measurable political and economic force in a comparison with the nobility in the nationwide scene, but in historically critical situations, particularly in the more developed, larger urban centers, they could still prove to became a significant or even the deteminant factor. Politically, the petty bourgeoisie was the bearer of radical, republican aspirations similar to the French and German political events.
The revolution started in the Pilvax coffee palacehu at Pest, which was a favourite meeting module of the young extra-parliamentary radical liberal intellectuals in the 1840s.
Early that morning, Sándor Petőfi hurried to the Pilvax café, where the young people gathered. He found Pál Vasvári and Gyula Bulyovszky there, invited them to the apartment of Mór Jókai, where a proclamation was edited for the 12 points. Around 8 o'clock, Petőfi and his companions went to the Pilvax café , and only six appeared at the classification time Petőfi, Jókai, Bulyovszky, Sebő, Ernő Gaál and Dániel Hamary. Here Jókai read out the 12 points and the proclamation. Petofi recited his new poem the National Song.
From here, - according to a preliminary agreement - they went first to the University of Law on University Street. A group of students was already waiting for them in the yard and they immediately brought a chair for Petőfi and Jókai, here Petőfi recited his poem or done as a reaction to a question the night before, the National Song, and Jókai read the 12 points. From here they went to the Medical University on Újvilág Street, where the students also interrupted their university lectures and acted similarly in the courtyard, and later in front of the students of the Faculty of technology science and Philosophy; the very same choreography happened in the University Square too. By this time, not only were they surrounded by a large crowd of youth, but they were also joined by a large audience from the street, which grew. Petőfi has decided that the people would fulfill the number one point of the 12 points, the freedom of the press, by his own authority, which he did. At 10 O'clock they went to the Landerer Publishing and Press agency the largest in the city on the Hatvani street. Saw the enthusianism of the crowd, Petőfi renamed the Hatvani Street to Street of the Free Press. " The print owner provided in, and immediately translating the desired documents into German, a few moments later, thousands came out of the fast press, copies of which were distributed to a gathering audience incessantly despite the pouring rain."
It was only around noon that the raging crowd dispersed, agreeing to go to Buda in the afternoon to release Mihály Táncsics, a political prisoner. A symbol of Petőfi's famous day, activists distributed a three-colored Hungarian cockade to the crowd.
At 3 p.m., a mass demonstration was held in Museum Square at the front of the building of the Hungarian National Museum, and thousands of copies of the National Song and 12 points were distributed; from there they went to the town hall, urging the adoption of the 12 points. The gathered people decided to head to the town hall and there called on the city council totheir wishes. The council hall opened, the items of the program were featured to the council, which were accepted by the council members and was signed by the clerk of the town council too.
They immediately elected acommission, of which Petőfi was a member. The people, appointing their temporary committee, wished the political prisoner Mihály Táncsics - who had been arrested in Buda by the censor's officers - to be released from prison. In structure to fulfill this wish, he moved to Buda around 5 o'clock pm, and gathered around his battalion in the courtyard of the official building, steadfastly stood by his wishes, while his constituency declared: the election of a press court from among the people; . Ferenc Zichy, the chairman of the council, immediately released Táncsics, dragged his car from Buda to the National Theater Square with his own hands, and entered the theater.
On the afternoon of this day, the people wanted József Bajza, the deputy director of the national theater, to perform the banned opera Bánk bán in the theater with full lighting for the celebration of this da. The actors took the stage with cockades of national color, Gábor Egressy sang the National Song, the choir sang the Hungarian Hymn and the National Song. The majority of the audience wanted Táncsics toon the stage, but when he became aware of its ailing condition, he gave up his wish. Eventually, the people dispersed alongside the Rákóczi runner-up. However, the standing committee sat together until morning.