Revolutionary Mobilization 623Ferdinand then attempted to renege on his promises and ordered the
universities closed and abolished the Academic Legion within the National
Guard. But again barricades went up in Vienna, and again Ferdinand was
forced to relent.
The Habsburg realm had remained under the grip of feudalism, particu
larly in Galicia and Transylvania. Now fearing rural rebellions on which liber
als and nationalists might capitalize, the emperor in September decreed the
abolition—effective the following year—of all remaining feudal and
seigneurial obligations, including the onerous roboty the yearly obligation of
labor service—sometimes a hundred days working in the fields or on roads—
that peasants owed lords. The crown would compensate the lords for their
losses. Many landowners had already converted the labor obligation into
peasant cash payments. The Austrian parliament also took credit for these
dramatic changes.
Meanwhile, the Hungarian nobles proceeded as if the Habsburg monar
chy no longer existed. Kossuth demanded virtually complete Hungarian
autonomy. He and his allies proclaimed the “March Laws,” under which the
delegates to the Hungarian Diet were to be elected by male property holders.
The cabinet would be responsible to Hungary’s Diet. The emperor of Austria
would remain the king of Hungary, but Hungary would maintain a separate
army and conduct its own foreign policy. The Habsburg court, reeling from
reverses on all sides, had little choice but to approve the changes. The new
Hungarian government immediately proclaimed freedom of the press, estab
lished a civilian guard, and affirmed the abolition of the robot for peasant
landov\iers, while maintaining it for landless peasants.
Although asserting its own autonomy from the Habsburg Empire and abol
ishing serfdom, the Hungarian Diet virtually ignored the autonomy of the
other nationalities within the Hungarian domains, including Croats, Slovaks,
Serbs, and Romanians, some of whose intellectuals viewed the revolutions of
1848 as the victory of the idea of the nation. Croats, the largest of the non
Magyar nationalities in Hungary, were particularly resentful at not having
been consulted. The narrow electoral franchise, based on property owned
and taxes paid, excluded most people of the poorer nationalities from elec
tion to the Diet. So did the requirement that each representative speak Hun
garian, one of Europe’s most difficult languages (although Latin had
remained the official language of Hungary until 1844).
The Magyars’ problem of national minorities became the Habsburg
dynasty’s hope for holding its empire together. The imperial government
began to mobilize the Croats against the Hungarians, whom the Serbs and
Romanians also resented. In March, the emperor appointed Joseph Jelacic
(1801-1859) as the new governor-general for Croatia. Jelacic refused
to cooperate with the Hungarians. In retaliation, the Hungarians refused
to send troops to help the imperial army battle Italian insurgents. Ferdi
nand then withdrew the concessions he had made in March to Hungarian
autonomy.