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| b. Hungary |
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(See 1844)| |
| 1848, Feb. 29 |
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| The news of the French revolution reached Pressburg and instilled a financial panic among merchants, who recalled the failure of the Bank of Vienna in 1789 and 1830. Pesti Hirlap reported that shops were refusing to accept bank notes, and on March 5, a crowd tried to exchange their bank notes for silver at the state bank in Buda. | 1 |
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| March 3 |
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| Kossuth, in a speech in the Diet, denounced the Vienna system and called for a constitution for Hungary that would establish authority in the representatives of the people. | 2 |
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| March 15 |
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| The youth of Budapest met in Pest to demonstrate in support of the twelve points drafted by radicals. The points included a responsible government, freedom of the press, and equality before the law as well as national claims for a Hungarian national bank, a national army, and the formation of a national guard. The twelve points were accepted by the municipal council, which established the Committee of Public Order. Separately, Croats organized a national committee demanding a government autonomous from Hungary. | 3 |
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| March |
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| The Pressburg Diet responded to the Hungarian revolutionaries at Pest with moderate reforms. The Diet abolished forced labor but maintained many other manorial rights. Count Batthyány established a government that included both Kossuth and Széchenyi. | 4 |
| Austrian challenge. Austria notified Batthyány that it wanted to maintain control of Hungary's finances. The Committee of Public Order called a meeting and demanded that, if Vienna refused to ratify the March Laws, it would form a provisional government in Pest. Vienna recognized the Hungarian government at once. | 5 |
| The Committee of Public Order mirrored the feelings of the middle classes and peasants. The middle classes had armed themselves in preparation for the continuation of the revolution, and the peasants had freed themselves of manorial obligations without waiting for resolution from Vienna. Vienna, having been defeated in Italy and struggling to maintain control in Bohemia, conceded to Hungarian demands. | 6 |
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| Sept |
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| Vienna attempted to regain control of Hungary. The emperor revoked his acceptance of the March Laws. The Vienna government attempted to establish a puppet government under Baron Nicholas Vay. Gen. Count Lamberg, at Pressburg, was given full powers to dissolve the Hungarian Assembly, but he was killed by a popular uprising (Sept. 28) before he could read the act of dissolution. | 7 |
| War between Hungarian nationalists and portions of the Hungarian army under Kossuth, and the Viennese army, started with the escalation of Austrian troops crossing the Drave on Sept. 1. | 8 |
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