Union Under the Habsburgs

UNION UNDER THE HABSBURGS The Pragmatic Sanction.—The peace of Szatmar ended the long strife between the Magyars and the Habsburgs and opened a new era of reconciliation. The next century and a half witnessed the reopening of the great central plain, the Magyarization of its mixed races, German, Croat, Slovak, Serb, and other nationals, and the formation there of a compact and vigorous race, speak ing one language, attached to the same institutions. The first changes, however, strengthened the Government rather than the nation. Thus in 1715 a standing army was set up, the diet, how ever, retaining the right of fixing the number of recruits and voting the necessary supplies. Important judicial and military reforms were carried and the magistrates and officials made re sponsible to the king alone, and all measures adopted were of a centralizing tendency. But it was to the diet assembled at Press burg that Charles III. appealed in 1723 to grant the Pragmatic Sanction which settled the succession in favour of his daughter, Maria Theresa. The law as enacted set up a contract which re mained the basis of the relations between Crown and nation till 1848. Hungary was declared to be an integral part of the Habs burg dominions, and Charles swore to preserve the Hungarian Constitution intact, with all its rights, laws and privileges.

During the reign of Charles VI. there were two Turkish wars. The first, beginning in 1716, was terminated by the peace of Pas sarowitz (July 21, I 718) , by which the Temeskoz was freed from the Turks, and Serbia, northern Bosnia and Little Walachia were once more incorporated with Hungary. But by the peace of Bel grade (Sept. I, 1739), which terminated the second war, all these conquests, except the Banate of Temesvar were lost.

Enlightened Despotism.

With Maria Theresa the age of enlightened despotism began. Deeply grateful for Mag yar services in the War of the Austrian Succession, she used her authority to benefit her people ; but she would not share it with them. She appointed no palatine, nor was any diet summoned after 1764, but her people loved and trusted the great queen and felt themselves safe in her hands. Large sums were spent on schools and universities, and her benevolence extended to the serfs, who found in the feudal prescription of 1767, which restored to them the right of transmigration, a measure of protection against the exactions of their landlords. To all the Magyars she was espe cially gracious, and her court was crowded with the nobles who had stood by her in the stormy commencement of her reign. Joseph II. (1780-90) had the same ideals as his mother but less practical sense. He aimed at the amalgamation of all his domin ions under an absolute sovereign, the whole to be uniform in lan guage, laws and administration. Almost all the reforms he tried to force on his reluctant subjects were salutary; but they offended prejudices and, particularly, privileges. He refused to be crowned, and he roused national feeling by making German the official language in Hungary (1774), and by abolishing the ancient county assemblies, and set the privileged classes against him by proclaim ing equal liability to taxation, and by attempting to improve the relations between the peasants and landlords. Before his death in 179o, he retracted some of his edicts and restored the Con stitution. Leopold II. (179o-92) found his country on the brink of a revolt, and his first task was to undo Joseph's work, to restore the privileges of the Magyar nobles, and to confirm the national liberties by the laws of 179o-91. The reconciliation was timely, for Francis I. (1792-1835), who succeeded Leopold, received a declaration of war from the French Legislative Assembly imme diately after his succession. Further reform was checked, for the time, by the Government's reactionary policy, due to the Jacobin terror. The Magyars stood loyally by the empire during the revolutionary years, unshaken by Napoleon's attempts to seduce them from their allegiance. Ignaz Jozsef Martinovics and the Hungarian Jacobins vainly conducted revolutionary propaganda.

Hungarian Revival.

When peace came Hungarian feeling remained conservative, though there were undercurrents, literary and artistic, noble and plebeian, which set towards the liberalism which was pervading western Europe. But in 1823 an unconstitu tional war tax and levy of recruits caused a burst of indignation, and the withdrawal of the edicts at the diet summoned in 1825. It led also to the formation of a Liberal party eager for reforms and strongly opposed to Metternich's system of inertia. The chief leaders were Szechenyi (q.v.), Deak, Count Batthyany, Baron Eotvos, and the fiery and eloquent Louis Kossuth (q.v.). Each successive diet showed a growth in Liberal strength, and on the accession of Ferdinand I. (1835-48) the Government took strong repressive measures, and Kossuth and other leaders were impris oned. But the nation was not to be cowed; the Diet of 1839 in sisted on their release, laws were passed making Hungarian the official language, and relieving the peasants from some of their feudal obligations.

After 1843 there was some disintegration in the Liberal ranks; Kossuth's violent speeches and articles in the first Hungarian polit ical newspaper, Pesti Hirlap, which he started in 1841, and his advocacy of armed reprisals alarmed Szechenyi and the moderates, though as usual the extremists prevailed. New concessions were wrung from the reluctant Government, mixed marriages being legalized, and the nobles losing their monopoly of official positions.

Revolution of 1848.

Continued dissensions among the Lib erals led to the formation of a Centre Party by the Moderates, and Szechenyi even joined the Government. However, just before the election of 1847, Deak succeeded in reuniting all Liberals on the common platform of the "Ten Points" afterwards known as the March laws : responsible government ; popular representa tion; the incorporation of Transylvania; right of public meeting; absolute religious liberty; universal equality before the law; uni versal taxation ; the abolition of serfdom with compensation to the landlords ; abolition of the aviticum—an obsolete land-tenure. The elections gave the Progressives a complete victory, and all efforts to bring about a compromise with the Government were fruitless, and it was proposed to dissolve the diet. But in Feb. 1848 tidings reached Pressburg of the revolution at Paris and its repercussions throughout Germany, where every Government was threatened with overthrow. Kossuth's motion for the appoint ment of an independent responsible ministry was accepted by the lower house. The emperor hesitated, but on March 13 the Vienna revolution broke out and Metternich fled to England, and yielding to pressure or panic the harassed monarch appointed Count Louis Batthyany premier of the first responsible Hungarian ministry, which included Kossuth as minister of finance and Sze chenyi as minister of home affairs. The March laws were enacted at Pressburg and received the royal assent (April Io), and Hun gary became a virtually independent State. The aspirations of the Magyars were assured the support of the German Democrats who, for the moment, were in power at Vienna, but in the national movement a cleavage now appeared.

Jellaae and the Non-Magyar Races.—The increasing Mag yar national chauvinism and especially the attempt to impose the Magyar language universally, had stimulated a national reaction among the Southern Slays, Slovaks and Rumans; each sought for themselves a separate national existence, and the franchises of the new constitution had been so limited that the Slays seemed to be threatened with political annihilation. The Imperial Government was at first hostile to this movement, hoping that its concessions to the Magyars would secure their support against revolution else where; a hope that seemed justified by Batthyany's consent to send Hungarian troops for the war in Italy. That the emperor was led to encourage Slav aspirations was due partly to the vio lence of the Kossuth party, now dominant at Budapest, partly to the influence of Baron Jellacic (q.v.), who was made Ban of Croatia in April. Jellacic, a soldier and a loyal servant of the emperor, advised him to break the power of the Magyar and Ger man revolutionaries by means of the Slays who were equally hos tile to both, and set up against the dualism favoured at Budapest and Vienna the federal system favoured by the Slays. This policy he pursued with masterly skill. His first acts were to repudiate the authority of the Hungarian diet, to replace Magyar officials with ardent "Illyrians" (as the advocates of the Southern Slav movement were then called), and to proclaim martial law. Under pressure from the palatine and Batthyany, the emperor ordered him, on May 7, to desist from his separatist plans and to take his orders from Budapest. He not only refused to obey, but, prob ably with the connivance of the Government, convened the Croa tian diet at Agram on June 5, of which the first act was to declare the independence under the Habsburgs of the South Slav districts of Austria and Hungary. Dismissed from his office on June 10 at the instance of Batthyany, Jellacic went to Innsbruck, whither Ferdinand had retired, and in an interview convinced him of the loyalty of his intentions, and returned to Croatia with practically unfettered discretion. Meantime the Hungarian Government had been playing into his hands. At a time when everything depended on the army, they had destroyed the main tie which bound the Austrian court to their interests by tampering with the fidelity of the Hungarian army to the Crown. A National Guard had been created, and the disaffected troops bribed by increased pay to desert their colours and join the new force, and in June the garri son of Budapest had taken an oath to the new constitution. All hope of crushing revolutionary Vienna with Magyar aid being at an end, Jellacic was free to carry out his policy of uniting the forces of the Southern Slays with the imperial army. The alliance was cemented in July by a military demonstration of which Jellacic was the hero, and followed by a Government announce ment that the basis of the Austrian State was "the recognition of the equal rights of all nationalities." Jellaele Invades Hungary.—The Hungarian diet, which met on July 2, at once took up the challenge. It was dominated by Kossuth, whose inflammatory orations, denouncing the treachery of the Slays, precipitated a crisis which the moderates of the cabinet were powerless to avert. At his instance the diet refused to vote supplies for the Croat troops, and ordered a levy of 200, 00o men and a national defence loan of £4,500,000. Desultory fighting had already begun in the south, and a bloody insurrection of the Rumans began in Transylvania, and in September Ferdi nand, emboldened by Radetzki's victory at Custozza (July 2 5 ) and the resulting truce in Italy, refused his sanction to the meas ure passed by the diet in July. Jellacic, reinstated in all his hon ours, crossed the Drave on Sept. II, with 36,00o Croat troops and advanced to Lake Balaton. This made the Kossuth party supreme at Budapest; Szechenyi had lost his reason; Deal and Eotvos retired into private life, and Batthyany unhappily con sented to remain in office, though hardly in power. The Palatine, Archduke Stephen, resigned his office on Sept. 24, and as a last effort for compromise, and with Batthyany's approval, General Count Lamberg was sent to take command of all the troops, Mag yar and Slav, and to bring about an armistice. The diet, on Kos suth's motion, and on a technical point, ordered the troops not to obey their new commander. Next day Lamberg was torn to pieces on the bridge of Budapest by an infuriated mob. War was now inevitable ; Batthyany retired, and a royal proclamation on Oct. 2 placed Hungary under martial law, with Jellacic as com mander-in-chief. He was defeated at Pakozc on Sept. 29, and on an order to certain Viennese regiments to march to his assistance, a new insurrection broke out in Vienna on Oct. 3, and the em peror again fled from the capital. His army, under Prince Win dischgratz, laid siege to Vienna, and as the revolutionists of Aus tria and Hungary were closely allied, a large body of the new Honved militia was despatched by the committee of national defence which had replaced the defunct Hungarian cabinet. They were defeated at Schwechat (Oct. 31), and Vienna surrendered the following day.

The War of Independence.—The Austrian army having tri umphed, the reactionary Schwarzenberg ministry was appointed in November to wipe out all traces of the revolution. Next month the feeble but well-meaning emperor abdicated in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph (1848-1916) . The new emperor was a youth of 18, who could be little more than the mouthpiece of Schwarzenberg's policy and might claim to be uncommitted to the constitutional obligations reluctantly accepted by his uncle. The Budapest diet refused to acknowledge the title of the new sovereign, declaring it to be invalid under Hungarian law, and called the nation to arms to resist the encroachment. This gave the revolt a show of legality and served to conciliate the military chiefs, who hated the idea of a republic, and refused to consider themselves rebels; actually, till the close of the revolt, Kossuth was ruler of Hungary.

The army of Prince Windischgratz entered Hungary on Dec. 15, and was allowed to occupy the western counties and Budapest (Jan. 5, 1849), with little opposition, the Magyar Government and diet retiring to Debreczen behind the Theiss. A last attempt at reconciliation was made by moderates of the diet, but Windisch gratz insisted on unconditional submission; Deal, Batthyany and their friends retired into private life. Kossuth's plan of cam paign was to give battle in the marshy regions of the interior, but there was no real accord between him and the Magyar military chiefs. The first sign of discord was a proclamation issued on Jan. 15 by Gorgei (q.v.) who commanded on the upper Danube, declaring the war to be a struggle for constitutional rights and denouncing republican aspirations. This was at the beginning of a campaign in mid-winter, in which Gorgei showed remarkable military talents; but his success caused jealousy in official quar ters, and Dembinski, a Polish refugee, was given the chief corn mand in Feb. 1849. The Austrian army advanced, and of ter a bloody two days' battle at Kapolna (Feb. 26-27) Dembinski was forced to retreat behind the Theiss. He resigned the command and was succeeded by Gorgei, who led the Honved army to a series of victories. Ably seconded by Klapka and Damjanich, he pressed forward and Szolnok, Isaszeg and Nagysarlo were stages in a triumphal progress which ended in the raising of the siege of Komarom and the recapture of Buda on May 25. Meanwhile the changing fortunes of the war had destroyed all hope of corn promise. Early successes and the victory of Kapolna had con firmed the Austrian court in its policy of unifying the empire. A proclamation was issued in March in the emperor's name, estab lishing a constitution for the empire, in which Hungary, cut up into half-a-dozen administrative districts, was little more than the largest of several subject provinces. This manifesto reached Debreczen simultaneously with the news of the recapture of Buda. It was met with a proclamation, equally ill-judged, in which Kossuth and the diet declared the independence of Hungary and the exclusion of the house of Habsburg from the throne, and elected Kossuth president of the Hungarian republic (April 14). This rash step completed the alienation of the military from the civil administration; henceforth Gorgei acted in complete inde pendence.

Intervention of Russia.

Meanwhile their disasters in Hun gary had compelled the Austrians to accept the assistance which Nicholas, tsar of Russia, offered in the spirit of the Holy Alliance. An Austro-Russian alliance was announced in May and a com mon plan of campaign arranged. The Austrian general, Count Haynau, was to attack from the west, the Russian prince Paske vitch from the north, the two encircling armies converging on the mid-Theissian counties. The Magyars were hopelessly out ' numbered and divided among themselves; they had no plan of campaign and no commander, Gorgei having been deposed by Kossuth. Haynau's victorious advance compelled a decision: the Government, abandoning Budapest, retired first to Szeged and finally to Arad. The Russians were by this time approaching the Theiss. The last pitched battle of the war was fought at Temes var, when Dembinski was utterly routed (Aug. 9), and on the 13th Gorgei, who had been appointed dictator, surrendered with his whole army to the Russian general, Riidiger, at Vilagos. The rest of the army and the fortresses followed his example, and the garrison of Komarom capitulated after a heroic defence. Kos suth, Dembinski, Bern and others took refuge in Turkey. Gorgei had secured his personal safety, but his unfortunate companions in-arms underwent the penalties of martial law as administered by the "butcher Haynau." On Oct. 6, 1849, 13 generals were hanged or shot at Arad, and Batthyany, who had taken no part in the war, was shot at Budapest the same day. The anniversary is still a day of national mourning. This holocaust ushered in a regime of military tribunals, dragooning and wholesale confiscations.

The "Bach System" and "Provisorium."—From 1851 to 186o Hungary lived under a despotism called the "Bach System," after Baron Bach, the Austrian minister of the interior. Historic Hungary did not exist for the bureaucrats, mostly German, Czech or Galician, who administered the counties under an imperial council responsible to the emperor alone. Such of the reforms of 1848 as ministered to material prosperity were not neglected, and a new and better system of finance was inaugurated. But the system took no root in the soil; the soul of the nation rejected it, and the slightest impact from within or without could not fail to overthrow it.

Meanwhile the ill-compacted empire sustained repeated shocks. The Crimean War isolated her in Europe and cost her the friend ship of Russia; the Italian War in 1859 had shown her military weakness; the headship of Germany was passing to Prussia. Some concession to the subject races was thought advisable. In the emperor visited Hungary, and the estates of political offenders were restored to them. In 1859 it was decreed that the language spoken in the higher schools should be regulated according to circumstances of nationality, and the October Diploma of 186o offered the shadow of local autonomy and a constitution as a sop to allay Magyar discontent. It won some favour from those Mag yar magnates who had not broken with the court, but the nation rejected it on the advice of Deak, now the most influential man in Hungary. The February Patent (1861), the work of Anton von Schmerling, had somewhat more substance in it; after long debate it was rejected, again by the advice of Deak, by a diet assembled at Pressburg. In an address to the Crown, drawn up by him, the diet prayed for the restoration of the political and territorial integrity of Hungary, the coronation of the king, and the restitution of the fundamental laws. Thereupon the diet was dissolved on Aug. 21, and the taxes were levied by military exe cution: the so-called Provisorium had begun.

But the international situation became so urgent that the court was again driven to concessions. The emperor came to Buda in June 1865 and a provisional Government was formed; the Febru ary constitution was suspended and in December the diet was summoned. A composition with Austria was generally desired, and by none more than by Deak, who commanded the votes of two-thirds of the deputies. A committee was appointed to draft a new Constitution, based on the Pragmatic Sanction (1722), but its labours were interrupted by the Seven Weeks' War with Prussia. The Peace of Prague (Aug. 1866), which excluded Aus tria from Italy and Germany, made the fate of the Habsburg monarchy absolutely dependent on a compromise with the Mag yars. The negotiations were carried out by Deak and Baron Beust, and were far advanced on the reassembly of the diet in November. In Feb. 1867 a responsible independent Hungarian ministry was formed under Count Julius Andrassy (q.v.), and in March the new Constitution was adopted by 200 votes to 89.

(X.)