The Hungarian Revolution of 1848, also known in Hungary as Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 (Hungarian: 1848–49-es forradalom és szabadságharc) was one of a number of European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although the Hungarian War of Independence failed, it is one of the most significant events in Hungary's modern history, forming the cornerstone of modern Hungarian national identity—the anniversary of the Revolution's outbreak, 15 March, is one of Hungary's three national holidays.
In April 1848, Hungary became the third country of Continental Europe (after France, in 1791, and Belgium, in 1831) to enact a law implementing democratic parliamentary elections. The new suffrage law (Act V of 1848) transformed the old feudal parliament (Estates General) into a democratic representative parliament. This law offered the widest right to vote in Europe at the time. The April laws utterly erased all privileges of the Hungarian nobility.
The crucial turning point came when the new Austrian monarch Franz Joseph I arbitrarily revoked the April laws without any legal right (since they had already been ratified by King Ferdinand I). This unconstitutional act irreversibly escalated the conflict between him and the Hungarian parliament. 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 Lajos Kossuth's followers (who demanded full independence for Hungary) suddenly gaining power in the parliament. Austrian military intervention in the Kingdom of Hungary resulted in strong anti-Habsburg sentiment among Hungarians, and the events in Hungary grew into a war for total independence from the Habsburg dynasty. Around 40% of the private soldiers in the Hungarian Revolutionary Volunteer Army consisted of ethnic minorities of the country. Regarding the officer staff of Hungary: Around half of the officers and generals of the Hungarian Honvéd Army had foreign origin. There were at least as many ethnic Hungarian professional officers in the Imperial Habsburg army as in the Hungarian revolutionary Honvéd army.
In regard to diplomacy and foreign policy during the revolution, the Hungarian liberals - similar to the other European liberal revolutionaries of 1848 – were primarily motivated by ideological considerations. They supported countries and forces that aligned with their new moral and political standards. They also believed that governments and political movements sharing the same modern liberal values should form an alliance against the "feudal type" of monarchies. This outlook was similar to modern liberal internationalism.
After a series of serious Austrian defeats in 1849, the Austrian Empire came close to the brink of collapse. The new emperor Franz Joseph I had to call for Russian help in the name of the Holy Alliance. In the hope of Russian military support, the young Emperor Franz Joseph kissed the hands of the Ruler of all the Russians in Warsaw on 21 May 1849. Nicholas I of Russia agreed with Franz Joseph and sent a 200,000 strong army with 80,000 auxiliary forces. The joint Russo-Austrian army finally defeated the Hungarian forces, Habsburg power was restored and Hungary was placed under martial law.
Unlike other Habsburg-ruled areas, the Kingdom of Hungary had an old historic constitution, which limited the power of the Crown and had greatly increased the authority of the parliament since the 13th century. The Golden Bull of 1222 was one of the earliest examples of constitutional limits being placed on the powers of a European monarch, which was forced on the Hungarian king in much the same way King John of England was made to sign Magna Carta.
In 1804, Emperor Franz assumed the title of Emperor of Austria for all the Erblande of the dynasty and for the other Lands, however the new Erblande term was not applied to Kingdom of Hungary The Court reassured Hungary's separate parliament, the Diet of Hungary, however, that the assumption of the monarch's new title did not in any sense affect Hungary's separate legal system and constitution.
The other serious problem for the Habsburgs was the traditionally highly autonomous counties of Hungary, which proved to be a solid and major obstacle in the construction of Habsburg absolutism in Hungary. The counties were the centers of local public administration and local politics in Hungary, and they possessed a recognized right to refuse to carry out any "unlawful" (unconstitutional) royal orders. Thus, it was possible to question the legality of a surprisingly high proportion of the royal orders which emanated from Vienna.
Until 1848, the Kingdom of Hungary's administration and government remained largely untouched by the government structure of the "overarching" Austrian Empire. However the old Hungarian constitution and Hungarian public law made it legally impossible to merge the Kingdom of Hungary into a different state. Hungary's central government structures remained well separated from the imperial government. The country was governed by the Council of Lieutenancy of Hungary (the Gubernium) – based in Pozsony (now Bratislava) and later in Pest – and by the Hungarian Royal Court Chancellery in Vienna.
While in most Western European countries (like France and Britain) the king's reign began immediately upon the death of his predecessor, in Hungary the coronation was absolutely indispensable as, if it were not properly executed, the Kingdom stayed "orphaned". Even during the long personal union between the Kingdom of Hungary and other Habsburg ruled areas, the Habsburg monarchs had to be crowned as King of Hungary in order to promulgate laws there or exercise royal prerogatives in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. Since the Golden Bull of 1222, all Hungarian monarchs were obliged to take an oath during the coronation ceremony to uphold the constitutional arrangement of the country, to preserve the liberties of its subjects and to respect the territorial integrity of the realm. From 1526 to 1851, the Kingdom of Hungary also maintained its own customs borders, which separated Hungary from the united customs system of other Habsburg ruled territories.
In February 1790 the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II died and was succeeded by Francis I, putting a stop to enlightened reforms in Hungary, which outraged reform-oriented French-speaking intellectuals who were followers of new radical ideas based on French Enlightenment philosophy. Ignác Martinovics, who worked as a secret agent for the new Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II, until 1792 in his Oratio pro Leopoldo II explicitly declared that only authority derived from a social contract should be recognized; he saw the aristocracy as the enemy of mankind, because they prevented ordinary people from becoming educated. In another of his works, Catechism of People and Citizens, he argued that citizens tend to oppose any repression and that sovereignty resides with the people. He also became a Freemason, and was in favour of the adoption of a federal republic in Hungary. As a member of the Hungarian Jacobins, he was considered an idealistic forerunner of revolutionary thought by some, and an unscrupulous adventurer by others. He stirred up a revolt against the nobility among the Hungarian serfs, a subversive act which led Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, to dismiss Martinovics and his boss, Ferenc Gotthardi, the former chief of the secret police. He was executed, together with six other prominent Jacobins, in May 1795. More than 42 members of the republican secret society were arrested, including the poet János Batsányi and linguist Ferenc Kazinczy.
Though the Hungarian Jacobin republican movement did not affect the policy of the Hungarian Parliament and the parliamentary parties, it had strong ideological ties with forces beyond the parliament: radical youths and students like the poet Sándor Petőfi, the novel-writer Mór Jókai, the philosopher and historian Pál Vasvári, and the journalist József Irinyi who sparked the revolution in the Pilvax coffee palace on 15 March 1848.