The head of the Hungarian government, Count L. Batthyány, forced to defend his policy even against the radicalizing masses of Pest, tried to quell the minority movements by all means, and to come to a fair and loyal agreement with the Austria, but his efforts proved in vain. In September 1848 the bano Jellaci? Čić broke into the kingdom at the head of a strong army, but his attack was repulsed by the newly organized Hungarian army. When King Ferdinand V (1835-48) appointed Jellacičić himself as royal commissioner of Hungary, the armed conflict between nation and dynasty became inevitable. The organizer and the tireless soul of the struggle for freedom was L. Kossuth (v.). The struggle of 1848-49 forms one of the most beautiful chapters in the military history of the Hungarian people. The Austrian army of Prince A. von Windischgrätz managed to occupy the country’s capital without encountering serious resistance, having the young Hungarian commander Arturo Görgey avoided the battle and led his unarmed army, with skilful maneuvering behind the River Tisza. But in the spring of 1849, epic fights began. Görgey’s victorious army drove the enemy troops out of the country and recaptured Buda, while the army of General G. Bem – a Polish emigrant – freed Transylvania from Austrian and Russian troops, and General M. Perczel ended up breaking the resistance of the insurgent Serbs. Drawing the political consequences from the victorious advance of the Magyar weapons, the parliament of Debrecen proclaimed the decline of the Habsburg dynasty and elected L. Kossuth as governor of Hungary (April 14, 1849). In the meantime, the Austrian government, which had engaged most of its forces in Italy, had managed to obtain the help of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, worried about the victory of revolutionary ideas and possible movements in Poland. After bloody battles, in which the Hungarian government had no other ally than the Venetian government of D. Manin, nor the army other support than that of the heroic Italian legion (A. Monti) and the Polish one, the Russian and Austrian armies they managed to overwhelm the Hungarian resistance. On August 13, 1849, Görgey’s army laid down their arms in front of the Russian army near Világos (Syria, Transylvania). concerned about the victory of revolutionary ideas and possible movements in Poland. After bloody battles, in which the Hungarian government had no other ally than the Venetian government of D. Manin, nor the army other support than that of the heroic Italian legion (A. Monti) and the Polish one, the Russian and Austrian armies they managed to overwhelm the Hungarian resistance. On August 13, 1849, Görgey’s army laid down their arms in front of the Russian army near Világos (Syria, Transylvania). concerned about the victory of revolutionary ideas and possible movements in Poland. After bloody battles, in which the Hungarian government had no other ally than the Venetian government of D. Manin, nor the army other support than that of the heroic Italian legion (A. Monti) and the Polish one, the Russian and Austrian armies they managed to overwhelm the Hungarian resistance. On August 13, 1849, Görgey’s army laid down their arms in front of the Russian army near Világos (Syria, Transylvania). the Russian and Austrian armies succeeded in overcoming the Magyar resistance. On August 13, 1849, Görgey’s army laid down their arms in front of the Russian army near Világos (Syria, Transylvania). the Russian and Austrian armies succeeded in overcoming the Magyar resistance. On August 13, 1849, Görgey’s army laid down their arms in front of the Russian army near Világos (Syria, Transylvania).
The repression was merciless; from the country, placed under the absolutist regime, represented by the gendarmerie and swarms of foreign employees, the territories for the Croats and the Serbs were separated. The union with Transylvania was also abolished. This last attempt at Viennese absolutism also had a Germanizing character, as the official German language was introduced into the administration of the country. The only possibility of self-defense of the people, led by the “wise man of the nation”, Francesco Deák, against the regime of denationalization consisted in passive resistance, while the emigrants, led by L. Kossuth, who had made contact with Mazzini, tried to to inform world opinion of the conditions of the kingdom subjected to the government of Archduke Albert.
The war in Italy of 1859 demonstrated the weakness of the Habsburg monarchy and its absolutist regime. In 1860 Francesco Giuseppe, renouncing absolutism and the ideas of political centralization, restored the individuality of the state to the countries making up his monarchy and tried to come to an agreement with Hungary (October diploma). Except that the nation, which remained faithful to the 1848 Convention, refused to collaborate in the bosom of a common Austro-Hungarian parliament. After four years of renewed absolutism, on the initiative of Deák, in 1865 the negotiations between Franz Joseph and the Hungarian nation were resumed on the basis of the pragmatic sanction of 1723. Accelerated by the unfortunate war of 1866, the compromise was concluded in 1867 and in the same year Francis Joseph had himself crowned king.
The compromise established the independence of the nation-state of Hungary and its complete autonomy in the field of common law and government; affairs concerning the common defense of the monarchy, such as the army, foreign affairs and finances intended to cover the expenses of these two branches of the administration, were declared common affairs, subject to the control of the joint delegations of the Austrian and Hungarian parliaments; between Hungary and Austria a compromise on trade and customs affairs was established as the basis of agreement; the currency was common. The autonomy achieved by Hungary in the compromise of 1867 was greater than that achieved in any other period after 1526.
