Hungarian Revolution of 1848 - War of Independence

War of Independence

In 1848 and 1849, the Hungarian people or Magyars, who wanted independence, formed a majority only in about a third of the total country known as "Hungary and Transylvania," and the Magyars were boxed in by their traditional enemies. In the north, from Nagyszombat (now Trnava, Slovakia) to the Nitra and the Prešov were almost two millions Slovaks and a few Ruthenians.

Croats and Slovenes lived in the south, between the Danube, the Sava and the Drava. More to the east, there was a Serb colony numbering over a million. These Slavic areas – the Slovenes and the Serbs – were linked with the Wallachians and the Saxons of Transylvania. Often these different ethnic groups were at war with each other.

In 1848– 49, the Austrian monarchy, and those advising them, skillfully manipulated the Croatians, Serbians and Romanians, making promises to the Magyars one day and making conflicting promises to the Serbs and other groups the next. Some of these groups were led to fight against the Hungarian Government, by their leaders who were striving for their own indepence; this triggered numerous brutal incidents between the Magyars and most notably Romanians.

But in 1848 and 1849, the Hungarians were supported by most Slovaks, Germans, Rusyns and Hungarian Slovenes, the Hungarian Jews, and many Polish, Austrian and Italian volunteers. On 28 July 1849, the Hungarian Revolutionary Parliament proclaimed and enacted the laws on ethnic and minority rights. But these were overturned after the Russian and Austrian armies crushed the Hungarian Revolution. Occasionally, the Austrian throne would overplay their hand in their tactics of divide and conquer in Hungary – with some quite unintended results. This happened in the case of the Slovaks who had begun the war as at least indifferent if not positively anti-Magyar, but came to support the Hungarian Government against the Dynasty. But in another case, the Austrians' double-dealing brought some even more surprising new allies to the Hungarian cause during the war in 1849: