Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
In 1848, the
Austrian Empire under the Habsburgs was confronted with the combined effect of economic,
social class, and national conflicts. Within its boundaries lived Austrian
Germans,
Hungarians,
Slovenes,
Poles,
Czechs,
Slovaks,
Ruthenians,
Romanians,
Serbs,
Italians and
Croats.
The focus of hatred was
Prince Metternich, a seeming
avatar of reaction. The
absolute ruler,
Emperor Ferdinand, was feebleminded and incompetent (which, according to some, may be the result of
incest in the Habsburg family). He was oddly popular, and people generally saw him as guided by ineffective advisors (which was fairly close to the truth).
Business interests favoured reform. The People wanted solid finance, roads, railroads, and technology. High
tariffs crippled commerce. The crown would not lower tariffs on foreign wheat during times of famine.
Press freedom was a
liberal dream, and government spies were everywhere. All books, newspapers and ads had to be government-approved. Factory workers were miserable. Private ownership of firearms was also restricted by the government.
Hungary was affected by a nationalist revolt in
1844, with the revolt's leader
Kossuth attacking Chancellor Metternich. Kraków had just been annexed in
1846 following an unsuccessful
Polish uprising. The
1847 depression hit hard. Crime, prostitution, homelessness, and begging increased, while hungry workers couldn't even afford potatoes.
A few early victories
The
Paris Revolution filtered over to
Vienna, raising the already-insistent calls for liberal reform. The Habsburg Court pressured Prince Klemens von Metternich to step down in order to placate the subject nationalities, and he resigned on
March 13, 1848, fleeing to
England. He had been in office for many years. Now 74, he was seen as a
reactionary, having conducted foreign affairs for thirty years, with notably less competence since
1835. Revolts broke out across the Empire, and The Habsburg territories of
Lombardy and
Venetia were in arms.
Vienna had troubles as well. There was violence and
Luddite destruction of
property. Many employers later announced concessions. On
March 14 the
press was declared free.
Metternich's fall was deemed a great victory by at least some of the revolutionaries, most of whom were students. Metternich was seen as a reactionary exemplar of the old order, and he had been ousted. But the Revolution increased
unemployment over 1847, and Vienna seemed in a reign of terror, for there was a
crime wave. The Habsburgs were pushed towards reform for a short time. By April there was a
constitution for parts of the empire.
The Imperial Court fled to
Innsbruck by
May 17, while in France, the old order was already re-asserting itself.
Anarchy was looking less appealing.
Ethnic disputes
Of all the nationalities the Hungarians pushed hardest for
self-determination.
In Hungary a new national cabinet took power under
Lajos Kossuth and the Diet (parliament) approved a sweeping reform package (referred to as the March Laws) that changed almost every aspect of Hungary's economic, social, and political life, giving the Magyar nobility and lower gentry in the parliament control over its own military, its budget, and foreign policy.
The Czechs held a
Pan-Slav congress in
Prague, primarily composed of
austroslavs who wanted greater freedom within the Empire, but their status as peasants and
proletarians surrounded by a German middle class doomed their autonomy. They also disliked the prospect of annexation of Bohemia to a German Empire.
Both the Czech and Italian revolutions were defeated by the Habsburgs, by some means or other (more on the Italians in another page). Prague was the first victory of counter-revolution in the Austrian Empire.
On the meeting of the peoples of the Empire that was held in
Bratislava, the
Serbs had pleaded for the acknowledgement of their nation, education in their language and their separate region.
Lajos Kossuth, the leader of Hungary, rebuffed them, announcing that "the only nation that exists in the Hungarian Kingdom is the Magyar nation" and that "the rebels should be punished by sword".
The revolters have some more successes
The early successes of the revolution in the Habsburg lands were easy -- perhaps too easy, for divisions in the revolutionaries soon showed, capitalized upon by the counter-revolution.
On July 22, the Austrian
Constituent Assembly gathered in Vienna, aware of the power of the revolutionaries, but frightened of
mob rule and
democracy. Something had to give, and here came a few of the accomplishments of the revolution -- the
feudal system under which the peasants (the bulk of the population) lived was reduced; the widely hated
robot rule of service to one's lord was abolished, and some hereditary rights of the nobility were cut. While the peasants achieved some of their goals, the monarchy was untouched, and when the revolutionaries murdered the unpopular minister of war, conservatives put Vienna under
military rule by October 1848. The Constituent Assembly invited the royal family back from Innsbruck; Emperor Ferdinand I was replaced.
See also: History of HungaryHungary, at just over half the land area of the Empire, at the time was a bit like the
American South of the time:
agricultural, backwards economically, controlled by a conservative elite, and soon to fight a war of independence that would eventually fail due to ethnic, linguistic, and religious splits.
The Hungarians set out to form their own government, but restricted the new
Pest Diet to speakers of
Hungarian. This angered the Slavs and the Romanians who had their own desires for self-rule and saw no benefit in replacing one centralist government for another. Armed clashes between the Hungarians on the one hand and the
Croats,
Romanians,
Serbs and
Slovaks on the other hand ensued.
Croatia, the only province of the Hungarian Kingdom that already had some form of
home rule, sided with the Habsburgs and severed relations with the new Hungarian government.
Josip Jelačić, who had become governor of Croatia in March, led an army into Hungary by September 1848. Hungarians filtered over from Italy; many women served, but independent Hungary progressively shrunk.
On the Serb National Assembly in
Sremski Karlovci in May, 1848,
Serbs, aided by the
Romanians and
Croats, declared the unification of the regions of
Srem,
Banat,
Bačka, and
Baranja (including parts of the
Military Frontier) into the province of
Serbian Vojvodina and wanted to unite with the
Ottoman autonomous
principality of Serbia. Hungarians were outraged by this declaration and their army confronted the Serb army near
Srbobran, where the Serbs and other peoples gained victory over Hungarians. Later
Serbs and
Croats reached an agreement to cooperate with Austria and Russia. Serbs gained their province, enlarged and much more ethnically diverse, containing more Germans and Romanians than Serbs. It was named the
Vojvodina of Serbia and Tamiš Banat and it was a big disappointment for the Serbian unity movement. Soon, both sides had successes of their own.
Basing his ideas on the American
Declaration of Independence, Hungary's leader
Kossuth declared independence. It lasted about four months. By May the Hungarian secessionists had recaptured all of their country except Buda, which they won after a three-week bloody
siege. Hungary came close to independence in 1849.
However, it was not to be. The Austrians had enlisted the help of the
Russians, while the Hungarians solicited help from as far away as the United States, to no avail. England did nothing; many in the U.S.A. and England at least privately favored Hungarian independence, but their governments did nothing. Finally, the Hungarians surrendered to the Russian troops at
Világos.
Many of the rebels were
hanged or shot. Some of the most active of the executed secessionists are called the
13 Martyrs of Arad (György Lahner, Lajos Aulich, János Damjanich, Károly Knezich, Károly Leiningen-Westerburg, Ernő Poeltenberg, Ignác Török, József Nagy-Sándor, Arisztid Dessewffy, Ernő Kiss, Vilmos Lázár, József Schweidel). Kossuth and others ultimately escaped to America, Kossuth giving speeches and collecting money for a new war to save his Fatherland. While Kossuth was safe, Hungary was punished extensively, with the punishments being administered from Vienna, and all local control abolished. But serfs were legally freed, one of a handful of victories for the serfs; moreover, Habsburgs couldn't keep industry from developing in Hungary any more.
Nationalist feeling among the Czechs, Bohemians, had been smoldering for centuries. They demanded a constitution and autonomy within the Hapsburg Empire. A
Pan-Slav Congress attempted to unite all Slavic Peoples, but accomplished little because divisions were more decisive among them than was unified opposition to Hapsburg control It was dominated by
Austroslavism. In June 1848, Prague submitted to a military occupation, followed by a military dictatorship in July, after all revolutionary groups had been crushed.
The Habsburgs put Vienna under
martial law, and reactionary activities spread throughout the Empire. The Habsburgs gave
Baron Alexander von Bach an
absolute mandate over the Kingdom of Hungary, including Croatia whose contribution to the quelling of the revolution was ignored.
Despite real successes, nationalistic antagonisms doomed further reform. Bach was later replaced after the
"Compromise" of 1867 and the creation of
Austria-Hungary. The Austrian Empire collapsed in
1918 at the end of
World War I, splitting into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and several other states.
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Hungarian Revolution of 1848*
Political Chronologies of the 1848 Revolutions: AUSTRIAN EMPIRENext: The German states 
