March laws

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The so-called March Laws ( Slovak Marcové (konštitučné) zákony ) or April Laws ( Hungarian Áprilisi törvények ) were 31 laws that were passed on March 15, 1848 by the Hungarian Parliament in Pressburg (Bratislava) at the beginning of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848/1849 . April 1848 came into force.

prehistory

The demands of the Hungarian revolutionaries of March 1848

Since November 1847 a session of the Hungarian Parliament took place in Pressburg. The main demand was the lifting of bondage . However, the nobility had no interest in implementing radical reforms.

On March 13, 1848, the revolution broke out in Vienna . Czech nationalists made demands on the nobility on March 11th. Emperor Ferdinand I (as the Hungarian King Ferdinand V) was afraid to recall Prince Metternich and promised a constitution .

The news about the revolution in Vienna and the riots in Pest prompted the adoption of the laws in March 1848. The draft was drawn up by Lajos Kossuth .

These laws implemented the following resolutions in the Kingdom of Hungary :

  • Abolition of bondage (but only for small farmers)
  • Introduction of general taxation
  • Abolition of the inalienability of the soil
  • Abolition of certain institutions that symbolized the supremacy of Austria in Hungary
  • Introduction of the right to vote (only) for the wealthy and educated (6% of the population)
  • Election of the first Hungarian government independent of Vienna; Imperial (Austrian) organs were only allowed to have a say in the areas of military, finance and foreign policy, and an Austro-Hungarian personal union was practically created
  • Adoption of articles of law on the annual sessions of the Parliament in Pest
  • Restoring freedom of the press; Lift censorship forever
  • Proclamation of universal human and civil rights
  • Declaration of Hungarian as the only official language

Questions pertaining to non-Magyars in the Kingdom, who made up around 60% of the population of Hungary excluding Croatia (or 64% including Croatia), were not addressed and many of the rights that emerged from this document were reserved for Magyars .

On April 11, 1848, King Ferdinand signed the laws in the Primate's Palace in Pressburg.

consequences

The dissatisfaction resulting from these laws on the one hand in Vienna, on the other hand of the non-Magyars as well as those excluded from the new rights (poorer population, some peasants, etc.) were the main trigger of the immediately following uprisings in many areas of the Kingdom of Hungary ( civil war ) and a subsequent war of the Kingdom of Hungary against Austria (from winter 1848) as well as against living in the Kingdom of Hungary and Austria supportive Croats , Slovaks , Serbs , Romanians , Ruthenians and Germans in Romania .

See z. B. Hungarian Revolution 1848/1849 .