April Laws

The April laws, also called March laws,^[1] were a collection of laws legislated by Lajos Kossuth with the aim of modernizing Kingdom of Hungary into a nation state. The imperative program included Hungarian control of its popular national guard, national budget and Hungarian foreign policy, as well as the removal of serfdom. They were passed by the Hungarian Diet in March 1848 in Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slovakia)^[2] (German: Pressburg) and signed by Ferdinand V at the Primate's Palace in the same city on 11 April 1848,^[3] as a reaction to the Revolution of 1848. When the revolution was crushed in 1849, Austria did not pass the laws, and Hungary did not retain full external autonomy until the Compromise of 1867 which would later influence Hungary's position in World War I.

References

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 Belligerents Austrian Empire Hungarian Revolutionary Army Kingdom of Hungary Russian Empire Pretext April laws Major battles Pákozd Schwechat Mór Kápolna Komárom Isaszeg Buda Segesvár Szőreg Temesvár Hegyes Other battles Vienna Uprising Influence Hungarian Declaration of Independence Surrender at Világos Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 Leaders for Austria Ferdinand I of Austria Franz Joseph I of Austria Eduard Clam-Gallas Julius Jacob von Haynau Josip Jelačić Prince Franz de Paula of Liechtenstein Franz Schlik Alfred I, Prince of Windisch-Grätz Leaders for Hungary Lajos Batthyány Józef Bem János Damjanich Henryk Dembiński Arisztid Dessewffy Artúr Görgey Richard Guyon György Klapka György Kmety Lajos Kossuth Vilmos Lázár János Móga Alessandro Monti Ferenc Ottinger Mór Perczel István Széchenyi Bertalan Szemere Leaders for Russia Alexander von Lüders Fyodor Sergeevich Panyutin Grigory Yakovlevich Skariatin Ivan Fyodorovich Paskevich Grigory Khristoforovich Zass Nikolai Fyodorovich Engelhardt Maksim Maksimovich Grotenhelm Images