April Laws in the context of "Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867"

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⭐ Core Definition: April Laws

The April Laws, also called March Laws, were a collection of laws legislated by Lajos Kossuth with the aim of modernizing the Kingdom of Hungary into a parliamentary democracy, nation state. The laws were passed by the Hungarian Diet in March 1848 in Pozsony (Pressburg, now Bratislava, Slovakia) and signed by king Ferdinand V at the Primate's Palace in the same city on 11 April 1848.

The April laws utterly erased all privileges of the Hungarian nobility. In April 1848, Hungary became the third country of Continental Europe [after France (1791), and Belgium (1831) ] to enact law about democratic parliamentary elections. The new suffrage law (Act V of 1848) transformed the old feudal estates based parliament (Estates General) into a democratic representative parliament. This law offered the widest suffrage right in Europe at the time. The imperative program included Hungarian control of its popular national guard, national budget and Hungarian foreign policy, as well as the removal of serfdom.

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👉 April Laws in the context of Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (German: Ausgleich, Hungarian: Kiegyezés) established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which was a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states. The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereignty and status of the Kingdom of Hungary, being separate from, and no longer subject to, the Austrian Empire. The compromise put an end to the 18-year-long military dictatorship and absolutist rule over Hungary which Emperor Franz Joseph had instituted after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Hungary was restored. The agreement also restored the old historic constitution of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Hungarian political leaders had two main goals during the negotiations. One was to regain the traditional status (both legal and political) of the Hungarian state, which had been lost after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The other was to restore the series of reform laws (the so-called April Laws) of the revolutionary parliament of 1848, which were based on the 12 points that established modern civil and political rights and economic and societal reforms in Hungary. The April Laws of the Hungarian revolutionary parliament (with the exception of the laws based on the 9th and 10th points) were restored by Franz Joseph.

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April Laws in the context of Grand Principality of Transylvania

The Principality of Transylvania, from 1765 the Grand Principality of Transylvania, was a realm of the Hungarian Crown ruled by the Habsburg and Habsburg-Lorraine monarchs of the Habsburg monarchy (later Austrian Empire) and governed by mostly Hungarians. After the Ottomans were ousted from most of the territories of medieval Kingdom of Hungary, and after the failure of Rákóczi's War of Independence (1703–1711), the Habsburg dynasty claimed the former territories of the Principality of Transylvania under the capacity of their title of "King of Hungary". During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian government proclaimed union with Transylvania in the April Laws of 1848 (after the Transylvanian Diet's confirmation on 30 May and the king's approval on 10 June for Transylvania to become once again an integral part of Hungary). After the failure of the revolution, the March Constitution of Austria decreed that the Principality of Transylvania be a separate crown land entirely independent of Hungary. In 1867, as a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the principality was reunited with Hungary proper.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 ← Grand Principality of Transylvania ← Principality of Transylvania (1711–1867)
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Lajos Batthyány → Lajos Kossuth → Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867) → Parliamentary system → Nation state → Hungarian Diet → Bratislava → Slovakia → Ferdinand I of Austria → Primate's Palace, Bratislava → The Estates → Militia → Government budget → Foreign policy → Serfdom →