The first Hungarian national government is formed,…

The first Hungarian national government is formed, under the leadership of Lajos Batthyány, on April 11.

Lajos Kossuth prods the Hungarian Diet to rush through a body of laws.

Under duress, the Diet's upper house approves a sweeping reform package, signed by Emperor Ferdinand, that alters almost every aspect of Hungary's economic, social, and political life.

These so-called April Laws, the first democratic revolutionary laws in Hungary, create independent Hungarian ministries of defense and finance, and the new government claims the right to issue currency through its own central bank.

The lower "table" of parliament is reorganized on a representative basis.

These laws are the first modern laws in Hungary, which put an end to the feudal privileges of the nobility and serfdom, proclaim the freedom of religion, the freedom of the press, the foundation of the Hungarian National Bank, organize the first democratic election in Hungary based in popular representation, and a national guard.

Guilds lose their privileges; the nobles become subject to taxation; entail, tithes, and the corvée are abolished; villein status is abolished and villein holdings are transferred to their cultivators; freedom of the press and assembly are created; and a Hungarian national guard is established.

The Habsburg emperor and Hungarian king, Ferdinand I of Austria, ratifies these laws, which form the base of modern Hungary.

The April Laws also provide for the restoration of the territorial integrity of the lands of the Hungarian crown, subject, in the case of Transylvania, to the agreement of its Diet.

However, the conservatives resent the land reform, and the centralists—i.e., those who advocate a Vienna-dominated empire—regard the independent ministry, particularly its three “common” portfolios, as dangerous to the integrity of the monarchy.

The Vienna government enlists the non-Magyar ethnic groups—notably the Serbs, Romanians, and Croats—who fear the nationalism of the new Hungarian government, in an initial attempt to overthrow it.