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The Revolutions of 1848

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Part 3: Hungary and Elsewhere

Hungary
Those conducting the uprising in Hungary did not start from the same baseline as their brethren and sistren in Austria. Hungary had for several centuries been governed by a constitution and a parliament. It was still a kingdom, though, and that kind of leadership was seen to be lacking in the era of Enlightenment. As well, Hungary had not kept pace with other countries around it in terms of basic reforms. For example, the parliament, the Diet, did not meet from 1811 to 1825; and when it did reconvene did nothing to give the vote to anyone who wasn't in the highest echelon of society. As a further insult to the lower and middle classes, those in the regal and top classes paid no taxes. The Diet had two chambers; the members of the Lower Chamber were increasingly liberal as the years went by, but the Upper Chamber continued to be staffed by the rich and so meaningful reforms were few and far between.

News of the Paris revolution and the ouster of Metternich emboldened the protesters in Hungary, and a large group of people marched through the streets of Pest on March 15. Among their 12 Points (demands) were freedom of the press, the freeing of political prisoners, a parliament that met annually (instead of at the will of the king), civil and religious equality, and equal representation before the law. The crowd swelled to a very large number of people. That and a similarly sized demonstration in Buda convinced the imperial governor to agree to all 12 Points.

The Hungarian revolution was one that stretched beyond 1848. At the end of that year, those in power had agreed to many liberal demands and had promised reform and new form of government. At the same time, however, counter-revolutionary forces were gathering power and momentum. Hungary would eventually tilt back toward authoritarian rule; that would occur in 1849.

Prussia
Another large German state to undergo large-scale protests against authority was Prussia. In March, large crowds gathered in Berlin and made demands of King Frederick William IV (left). Among those demands were a constitution, parliamentary elections, and freedom of the press. The king agreed, but subsequent clashes between demonstrators and soldiers resulted in deaths and a wholesale battle ensued in the streets of Berlin. After a few days, the fighting stopped. The king made a show of marching through the streets to attend a funeral for those killed in the fighting.

Next came an elected government, the Constitutional National Assembly, also known as the Frankfurt Parliament, which had members from a number of German states. Set with the unenviable task of passing laws that would benefit all of the myriad German states, the assembly failed to generate any legislation. That assembly was dissolved, and another one, the Berlin Assembly, took its place. In December, however, the king broke up the assembly and declared a constitutional monarchy headed by a parliamentary government. Elected as the first head of the new parliament was Otto von Bismarck.

Other forces of revolution took hold in other countries and territories:

• King Christian VIII of Denmark died in January 1848, and his successor, Frederick VII, accepted the various demands of a combination of farmers and liberals who rose up in opposition to the continuation of absolute monarchy. The result was a constitutional monarchy, with the king sharing power with a two-house parliament.
• Switzerland, after a short civil war in November 1847, formed a new constitution that bound together a number of previously independent cantons into a united entity, with an assembly, an executive, and a judiciary.
• King Ferdinand II of Sicily proved unable to maintain control in the wake of revolts in Naples, Salerno, and Sicily and agreed to a more representational provisional government.
• King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia did the same, after a brief uprising that was crushed by a large contingent of Austrian troops.

The Revolutions of 1848 were so widespread and so varied in nature and key developments and outcomes that they shared very little in the grand scheme of things. One thing that was common to all, however, was the inexorable move away from absolute rule to a form of government that more clearly represented the will of the people and the need for those people to have certain guaranteed freedoms and rights. People in some countries would take longer to achieve these things than others.

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