Slovak Uprising 1848 – 49 The Slovak Uprising ( of 1848 / 49 ) ( ) or Slovak Volunteer Campaigns ( ) was an uprising of Slovaks against the Hungarian rule in Upper Hungary ( now Slovakia ) , within the 1848 - 49 revolutions in the Habsburg Monarchy . It lasted from September 1848 to November 1849 . Background . The year 1848 is well - noted in history as a peaking moment in nationalist sentiment among European nationalities . The Slovak nation , though not fully conscious of ethnicity in 1848 , were certainly an important part of the general revolts occurring in the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy . After the revolutionary fervor left Paris in 1848 it traveled to Vienna where a popular uprising ousted the reactionary government of Prince Klemens von Metternich on March 13 , 1848 . This revolutionary fervor soon spread to the Hungarian lands of the Empire . On March 15 , mass protests in Buda and Pest along with a proclamation of the Hungarian Diet , under direction of Lajos Kossuth , saw the Hungarian Kingdom declare itself independent of Habsburg domination . Slovaks before 1848 . Slovaks were not prominently placed in this first wave of revolution to reach Hungarian controlled lands . In fact , many Slovaks were wary of Kossuth ' s policy of Magyarization , which aimed at culturally realigning Slovaks to be Magyar in language , thought and cultural ethic . As early as 1844 some Slovaks became aware to this threat against their culture . On August 26 – 28 , 1844 , a meeting between both Catholic and Protestant confessions of Slovaks met along with other factions in Liptószentmiklós ( today : " Liptovský Mikuláš " ) . This town in the Žilina Region was the base of Slovak nationalist Michal Miloslav Hodža , uncle of future Czechoslovak politician Milan Hodza . The meeting , though with fewer than wished Catholic participation , formed an non - sectarian association called the " Tatrin " in order to unite all Slovak groups in one national bloc . Catholics later became more involved in 1847 with their acceptance of Ľudovít Štúr ' s standardization of the Slovak language . In addition to the uniting of Slovaks in one national bloc , there were other factors leading to the rise in Slovak consciousness before 1848 . In 1845 , governmental authorities permitted the printing of Slovak language newspapers for the first time . The first one was Ľudovít Štúr ' s " The Slovak National News " which printed its first issue on August 1 , 1845 . This was quickly followed by Jozef Miloslav Hurban ' s " Slovak Views on the Sciences , Arts and Literature " which did not have as much success as Stur ' s paper . Beyond the printed word , representatives of the Slovak National Movement worked among average Slovaks promoting education , Sunday schools , libraries , amateur theatre , temperance societies and other social functions . In agriculture , Samuel Jurkovic founded a credit cooperative in the village of Sobotiste , called the Farmer ' s Association , which was the first of its kind in Europe . In November 1847 Ľudovít Štúr , the member of the Hungarian Diet for Zvolen , spoke before his colleagues in Bratislava . In his speech to the Diet , Štúr summed up his six - point platform involving problematic political and economic issues . His points were : Along with these points , of which several even met the praise of Kossuth , Štúr raised the issues about the use of the Slovak language in government and the enforcement of Magyar interference in many parts of Slovak life , including religion . Events of 1848 - 1849 . The years 1848 - 1849 were the build up and eventual execution years of the Slovak Uprising . Build up to the revolt . After the declaration of Hungary ' s independence in mid - March 1848 , the threat of forcible Magyarization grew ever more present . In Hont County , some of this tension came to a boiling point where two Slovaks , named Janko Kral and Jan Rotarides made demands for the liquidation of serfdom and recognition of the Slovak language in schools and the government . These demands soon landed the pair in jail . On March 28 , 1848 a vast assembly of former serfs convened by Liptó County and held in Hodza ' s base of Liptovský Mikuláš was used as a proving ground for systematic recognition of new rights and extended rights to national minorities . This was met well and soon the word was spreading about possible new freedoms that would reach Slovaks , prompting some miners in Central Slovakia to demonstrate rowdily before being quieted by a special commissioner from Budapest . In April 1848 Štúr and Hurban left Slovakia in order to attend a preliminary Slavic meeting in Vienna , which would later provide the basis for the first Pan - Slavic Congress to be held in Prague . In the meantime , back in Liptovský Mikuláš , Hodža along with twenty delegates created a document entitled “ Demands of the Slovak Nationality ” which listed 14 points setting national and social goals for the Slovak nation . Naturally this document was received coldly by Budapest , which subsequently imposed martial law on Upper Hungary and issued warrants for Štúr , Hurban and Hodža on May 12 , 1848 . At the same time , uprisings among Serbs , Croats and Slovenes in the southern part of Hungary diverted Magyar attention to the south , as these conflicts were more armed uprisings than the Slovak one . Hurban attended a session of the Croatian Diet on July 5 , speaking to the Croats on the plight of the Slovaks . Hurban spoke so well a joint Croat - Slovak declaration was issued shortly thereafter which only inflamed Magyar opinion . When the full Pan - Slavic Congress met on June 2 , 1848 , Štúr , Hurban , Hodža and many other prominent Slovaks attended , along with hundreds of other Slavic delegates . This congress was held with the aim of developing a cohesive strategy for all Slavic peoples living in Austro - Hungarian territories . Unfortunately , the congress was cut short when an armed uprising in Prague on June 12 prompted a hurried end to the affair . However , one critical item came out of the short congress for the Slovak cause . In the congress , the Slovaks secured the help of two Czech military officers , Bedřich Bloudek and František Zach , in case the Slovaks came to armed blows with the Hungarians . Though many calls for autonomy came from nearly every corner of the Empire , Vienna noted that at neither the Pan - Slavic conference nor other Slavic uprisings was the thought of the breakup of the Empire considered , only this was so in Hungary . Seeing the situation as malleable , the Emperor along with his closest advisors authorized armed action against the Hungarian uprising . This first manifested itself in the form of the leader of the Croatians , Ban ( governor ) Josip Jelačić , a friend of the Slovaks , who was authorized to march against the Hungarians in August 1848 after the Hungarians had defied a direct imperial order . Despite this , Vienna ’ s response to the Hungarian uprising had stayed largely quiet and mixed . While allowing Jelacic to march against the Magyars , they had also given the Hungarian Army several units in order to help preserve internal order . At the same time , Slovaks started working with Jelacic ' s Croatians by creating a Slovak volunteer corps . This corps was put together and gathered in Vienna from August to September 1848 . In order to lead this burgeoning revolt , a Slovak National Council was organized in Vienna , where a marker stands today commemorating the spot . The council was made up of Štúr , Hurban and Hodža — the " big three " of the Slovak nationalist groups — with the Czech František Zach as commander - in - chief . Revolt . Initially , the strategy for the volunteer corps was not clear . However , on September 16 a decision was made that the 600 men of the corps would march from Vienna , up the Vág River valley and into Turóc County and Liptó County Counties via the southern Moravian town of Břeclav . When the corps arrived at the Slovak border on the 18th , they were met with 500 more volunteers from Brno and Prague . Once convened , the volunteers received arms and swore an oath on the Slovak flag . Despite nudging Viennese cooperation , when the volunteers encountered Imperial troops on the road to Miava they were regarded coolly by the troops . Once the volunteers arrived in Miava , an assembly of Slovaks with Hurban presiding took the step of seceding from Hungary on September 19 , 1848 . Imperial troops soon ordered the Slovaks volunteers to leave Myjava , though this order was rejected and instead the corps attacked an Imperial detachment and confiscated its supplies . Despite this inauspicious act , Imperial troops ordered both sides to halt the fighting . After several more days of indecisive armed action , the volunteers retreated back into Moravia . Not long after , the new commander of Imperial forces sent to restore order in the Kingdom of Hungary , Count von Lamberg , was hacked and mangled by an irate mob in central Budapest only three days after arrival . This halted attempts at negations between Kossuth and the Imperial party . The Viennese response was to formally order the disbandment the Hungarian Diet and the appointment of Ban Josip Jelačić as newest commander over Hungary . However , effective response to this latest development was also halted by another popular , pan - Germanic uprising in Vienna at the time which resulted in the death of war minister Count Latour on October 6 , 1848 . In this midst of the turmoil in Vienna , which saw the Emperor and the Imperial Diet flee to Olomouc in Moravia , Magyars stepped up measures against Slovaks , stripping the leaders of the Slovak National Council of their Hungarian citizenship and executing a handful of prisoners . This move caused the Slovak faction to appeal more to the Imperial court and despite initial concerns of the commander - in - chief Prince Windisch - Grätz , another Slovak volunteer unit was allowed to be created . Initial recruitment problems delayed this second campaign of the volunteer units until December 4 , 1848 . Throughout December and January , the Slovak volunteers under Bloudek worked with Imperial troops to reoccupy Túrócszentmárton . On January 13 , 1849 a mass rally in Túrócszentmárton was followed by the signing up of new volunteers . Acting with Imperial support , Bloudek moved east and , picking up another few thousand volunteers , occupied Prešov ( Eperjes ) on February 26 and Košice ( Kassa ) on March 2 . Meanwhile , another detachment of Slovaks was defeated after running into Magyar forces near Muráň ( Murányalja ) in Banská Bystrica . To make matters worse , dissension between Czech and Slovak officers in the volunteer corps began to erupt . After leading activist rallies in Eperjes and Túrócszentmárton , Štúr and Hurban led a delegation of twenty - four men to meet the new Emperor Franz Jozef with a proposal to make Slovakia an autonomous grand duchy directly under Viennese oversight with representation in the Imperial Diet . The delegates also requested a Slovak provincial diet , with further demands for Slovak schools and institutions . Despite a formal audience with the Emperor , little real progress resulted and the Slovaks were sent packing hoping for more productive results in the future . After several victorious battles in Spring of 1849 , Kossuth and the Hungarian Diet declared the Habsburgs deposed and formed a republic in Hungary on April 14 , 1849 . Around the same time , the Slovak volunteer corps , largely stationed in Árva County , was dealing with internal struggles of its own . Conflicts between Czech and Slovak officers soon brought about the effectual dissolving of the corps . After Russian intervention by Tsar Nicholas I brought about the gradual fall of Kossuth and Hungarian independence . During this period , the corps was revived one final time to ' mop - up ' isolated Magyar units until the eventual capitulation of Magyar forces at Világos ( what is now Şiria in Romania ) on August 13 , 1849 . On October 9 , 1849 , the Imperial army transferred the Slovak corps from the central territories of Upper Hungary to Pozsony , where it was formally disbanded on November 21 , 1849 . This marked the end of Slovak participation in the Revolutions of 1848 - 1849 that swept the continent of Europe Aftermath . Slovak Perspective . Historians Anton Špiesz and Dušan Čaplovič sum up the impacts of the uprising and the era the following way :