The Compromise and the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy

The historic event of 1867 known as 'The Great Compromise' resolved the intolerable hostility between Hungary and Austria that followed the 1848-49 War of Independence. The Compromise gave Hungary back its internal independence and its responsible parliamentary government. The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was established on these grounds and thus began the Era of Dualism that lasted until World War I.

The reign of terror led by Haynau, who was commissioned to 'create order' after the Hungarian War of Independence, ceased in the summer of 1850 because of international indignation. This was replaced by Alexander von Bach's (1850-59) neo-absolutist system, during which civic development was able to commence. It was nonetheless still a state administration supported by military power.

Passive resistance became a lifestyle in Hungary: the nobility undertook no office, paid no tax and outwitted the regulations, with the more or less open desire to re-establish the state of 1848. Ferenc Deák, who as a member of parliament supported the 1848 laws, summarised his thoughts about the Great Compromise with Austria in an article published in the Pest Daily (Pesti Napló) Easter issue of 16th April 1865. The beginning of the Compromise process is calculated from this so-called 'Easter Article' (Húsvéti cikk).

The foreign political situation was also advantageous to Hungary in the forefront of the Great Compromise: following the war that Austria lost against Prussia in 1866, the Austrian court was forced to make allowances for Hungarian endeavours. The negotiations, which went on for six months, began in that same year. The new act stated that: Hungary's independence of constitutional public law and internal governance is infrangible.

The Hungarian Parliament passed the act on 8th June 1867. Prime minister Count Gyula Andrássy placed the Hungarian crown on the head of Franz Joseph, and thus the dualist state alliance emerged under the name of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The countries had their own independent domestic politics, but represented a united power to the outside world, which was reinforced by a common ruler, common issues, foreign policy, military affairs, and finances.Two sharply opposite views emerged concerning the evaluation of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in Hungary. The exiled leading politicians of the 1848 War of Independence (among them Lajos Kossuth) continued to insist on complete independence. Ferenc Deák and his followers believed that the Great Compromise offered more stable foundations for Hungarian independence. The military failure of the War of Independence had demonstrated that Hungary alone was unable to defeat Austria and its allies.The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy fell apart in 1918 following the defeat of Germany and its allies in World War I. The disintegration of the Monarchy was brought to an unhappy consummation in the dissection of Hungary sanctioned by the prevailing powers, as decreed by the Trianon Peace Treaty.