page_title: Hungarian Revolution of 1848
section_title: The one day bloodless revolution in Pest and Buda
hierarchical_section_title: Hungarian Revolution of 1848 / The one day bloodless revolution in Pest and Buda
caption_attribution_description: English: Hungarian cockade Magyar: Magyar kokárda, szalagrózsa. A kokárda kivitelezéséhez a vízszintesen sávozott magyar nemzeti zászlót jelképező, piros-fehér-zöld szalagot körbehajlítják, középen összehúzva összevarrják és rendszerint két pántlikát is illesztenek hozzá. Vexillológus tudósok szerint, hogy ha van pántlikája a kokárdának, akkor kívül piros – belül zöld a szalagrózsa, ha nincs, akkor a heraldikai szabályok szerint a szalagrózsának kívül kell zöldnek lennie, belül a pirosnak
context_page_description: The Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848-1849 was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Being one of the most determinative events in Hungary's modern history, it is also one of the cornerstones of the Hungarian national identity. The crucial turning point of the events were the April laws which were ratified by King Ferdinand I, however the new young Austrian monarch Franz Joseph I arbitrarily revoked the laws without any legal competence. This unconstitutional act irreversibly escalated the conflict between the Hungarian parliament and Franz Joseph. The new constrained Stadion Constitution of Austria, the revocation of the April laws and the Austrian military campaign against the Kingdom of Hungary resulted in the fall of the pacifist Batthyány government and led to the sudden emergence of Lajos Kossuth's followers in the parliament, who demanded the full independence of Hungary.
context_section_description: The crisis came from abroad - as Kossuth expected - and he used it to the full. On 3 March 1848, shortly after the news of the revolution in Paris had arrived, in a speech of surpassing power he demanded parliamentary government for Hungary and constitutional government for the rest of Austria. He appealed to the hope of the Habsburgs, "our beloved Archduke Franz Joseph" (then seventeen years old), to perpetuate the ancient glory of the dynasty by meeting half-way the aspirations of a free people. He at once became the leader of the European revolution; his speech was read aloud in the streets of Vienna to the mob by which Metternich was overthrown (13 March), and when a deputation from the Diet visited Vienna to receive the assent of Emperor Ferdinand to their petition it was Kossuth who received the chief ovation. The arrival of the news of the revolution in Paris, and Kossuth's German speech about freedom and human rights had whipped up the passions of Austrian crowd in Vienna on March 13.
  While Viennese masses celebrated Kossuth as their hero, revolution broke out in Buda on 15 March; Kossuth traveled home immediately.
  The revolution started in the Pilvax coffee palace at Pest, which was a favourite meeting point of the young extra-parliamentary radical liberal intellectuals in the 1840s. On the morning of March 15, 1848, revolutionaries marched around the city of Pest, reading Sándor Petőfi's Nemzeti dal (National Song) and the 12 points (the twelve demands of theirs) to the crowd (which swelled to thousands). Declaring an end to all forms of censorship, they visited the printing presses of Landerer and Heckenast and printed Petőfi's poem together with the demands. A mass demonstration was held in front of the newly built National Museum, after which the group left for the Buda Chancellery (the Office of the Governor-General) on the other bank of the Danube.
  The bloodless mass demonstrations in Pest and Buda forced the Imperial governor to accept all twelve of their demands.
  Austria had its own problems with the revolution in Vienna that year, and it initially acknowledged Hungary's government. Therefore, the Governor-General's officers, acting in the name of the King appointed Hungary's new parliament with Lajos Batthyány as its first Prime Minister. The Austrian monarchy also made other concessions to subdue the Vienna masses: on 13 March 1848, Prince Klemens von Metternich was made to resign his position as the Austrian Government's Chancellor. He then fled to London for his own safety.
caption: The Hungarian cockade used in 1848
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