Hungarian Revolution of 1848: Kossuth Against the Habsburgs

The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 began in Pest on 15 March 1848 as part of the wave of Revolutions of 1848 and grew into a war of independence against the Austrian Habsburg monarchy. Under leaders such as Lajos Kossuth, Hungary won a constitutional government, abolished serfdom and in April 1849 declared independence. The revolution was crushed in August 1849 by Austrian and Russian armies, but it became one of the defining events of modern Hungarian history.

Background

In 1848 the Kingdom of Hungary was part of the Habsburg Austrian Empire, with its own diet (parliament), dominated by the nobility, and the Habsburg emperor as its king. Since the 1820s a reform movement led by figures such as Count István Széchenyi and, more radically, Lajos Kossuth had demanded economic modernisation, the end of serfdom, taxation of the nobility and greater autonomy from Vienna.

Hungary was also a multinational kingdom. Magyars, the Hungarian-speakers, made up less than half of the population; the rest included Romanians, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, Germans and Ruthenians. Hungarian liberals wanted a modern nation-state with Hungarian as the official language, which alarmed many of these groups.

March and April 1848

On 3 March 1848, after news of the February revolution in Paris, Kossuth gave a speech in the Diet at Pressburg (now Bratislava) calling for a constitution. The uprising in Vienna on 13 March and the fall of Metternich gave the Hungarians their chance.

On 15 March young radicals in Pest, among them the poet Sándor Petőfi, the writer Mór Jókai and others meeting at the Pilvax café, printed the Twelve Points, a list of demands, and Petőfi’s poem the National Song, without submitting them to the censor. Large crowds gathered, and the radical writer Mihály Táncsics was released from prison. The city council and the governor accepted the demands without bloodshed. The Twelve Points called, among other things, for freedom of the press, a responsible ministry in Buda-Pest, an annual parliament, equality before the law, general taxation, the abolition of serfdom, a national guard and union with Transylvania.

The Diet quickly passed a package of reforms, which King Ferdinand V (Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria) signed on 11 April 1848. These April Laws created a government responsible to parliament, with Count Lajos Batthyány as prime minister and Kossuth as finance minister. They ended serfdom and feudal dues, introduced taxation for nobles, equality before the law, a free press and a national guard, and united Transylvania with Hungary.

From reform to war

During the summer of 1848 the court in Vienna regained confidence and increasingly opposed Hungarian autonomy. Serbs in the south and Romanians in Transylvania rose against the Hungarian government, and Croatia, led by its ban (governor) Josip Jelačić, rejected Budapest’s authority. In September 1848 Jelačić invaded Hungary with Vienna’s backing, but he was checked by the new Hungarian army, the Honvéd, at Pákozd on 29 September.

Batthyány resigned and power passed to a Committee of National Defence led by Kossuth. In late October a Hungarian force advancing to help revolutionary Vienna was defeated at Schwechat. In December the young Franz Joseph replaced Ferdinand as emperor, and Hungary refused to recognise him as king because he had not been crowned under the Hungarian constitution. In January 1849 Field Marshal Windischgrätz took Buda and Pest, and the government moved to Debrecen. Kossuth’s government financed the war by printing its own banknotes, the so-called Kossuth notes, and built up an army of well over 100,000 men, including many officers who had previously served in the imperial army. Foreign volunteers, notably Poles, also fought for Hungary.

The spring campaign and independence

In spring 1849 the Hungarian army under Artúr Görgei won a series of victories, including Isaszeg on 6 April, and drove the Austrians out of most of the country. In Transylvania the Polish general Józef Bem waged a successful campaign. On 14 April 1849, in the Great Reformed Church of Debrecen, the Hungarian parliament declared the Habsburg dynasty deposed and Hungary independent, with Kossuth as Governor-President. Buda was retaken on 21 May 1849.

Russian intervention and defeat

Franz Joseph appealed to Tsar Nicholas I, who sent an army of about 200,000 men under Prince Ivan Paskevich in June 1849, while Austrian forces under General Julius von Haynau advanced from the west. Facing far larger armies on several fronts, the Hungarians were steadily pushed back. Petőfi disappeared, almost certainly killed, at the Battle of Segesvár on 31 July 1849, and the main army was defeated at Temesvár on 9 August.

Kossuth handed power to Görgei and fled to the Ottoman Empire. On 13 August 1849 Görgei surrendered to the Russians at Világos. The fortress of Komárom, under György Klapka, held out until early October and won honourable terms.

Reprisals and consequences

Haynau carried out harsh reprisals. On 6 October 1849, thirteen Hungarian generals were executed at Arad, and on the same day Batthyány was shot in Pest. Many more were imprisoned or conscripted into the Austrian army, and thousands went into exile, some to Britain, others to the United States or the Ottoman Empire. Kossuth’s tour of Britain and the United States in 1851–1852 drew huge crowds and made him one of the most famous political exiles of the century, though it brought no practical help for Hungary. Hungary was placed under direct rule from Vienna, a period of absolutism associated with the interior minister Alexander Bach.

The abolition of serfdom, however, was not reversed. Austria’s defeats in Italy in 1859 and against Prussia in 1866 forced a new settlement, the Compromise of 1867, which created Austria-Hungary and restored Hungarian self-government, with Franz Joseph crowned king. Kossuth refused to accept the Compromise and remained in exile, dying in Turin in 1894.

Legacy

15 March is a Hungarian national holiday, and 6 October a day of mourning. Kossuth, Petőfi and the martyrs of Arad are commemorated in statues and street names across Hungary. The memory of 1848 shaped later movements: in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, demonstrators gathered at the statue of General Bem in Budapest. The conflicts with Croats, Serbs and Romanians also left lasting bitterness and are remembered very differently in those countries.

Myths and facts

“Petőfi recited the National Song on the steps of the National Museum.” This is the best-known image of 15 March, but historians doubt that he actually recited the poem there; contemporary accounts suggest it was read at several places in the city that day.

“Austrian officers clinked beer glasses at Arad.” The tradition that Hungarians do not clink beer glasses rests on this story, which has no firm contemporary evidence.

Timeline

• 1848, 15 March: Revolution in Pest; the Twelve Points and the National Song are printed.
• 1848, 11 April: Ferdinand V signs the April Laws.
• 1848, 29 September: Hungarian forces check Jelačić at Pákozd.
• 1848, 2 December: Franz Joseph becomes emperor.
• 1849, 6 April: Hungarian victory at Isaszeg.
• 1849, 14 April: Declaration of Independence in Debrecen.
• 1849, June: Russian armies invade Hungary.
• 1849, 31 July: Petőfi disappears at the Battle of Segesvár.
• 1849, 13 August: Görgei surrenders at Világos.
• 1849, 6 October: The 13 Martyrs of Arad and Batthyány are executed.

Why it matters

The Hungarian Revolution was the most sustained armed challenge to the Habsburgs in 1848–1849 and was defeated only by Russian intervention. It ended serfdom in Hungary, laid the foundations of modern Hungarian national identity and led, two decades later, to the Compromise that created Austria-Hungary.