ACTA HISTORICA - A MTA TÖRTÉNETTUDOMÁNYI FOLYÓIRATA TOM. 9 (1963)
9. kötet / 1-2. sz. - ETUDES - Z. HORVÁTH: The Rise of Nationalism and of the Nationality Problem in Hungary in the Last Decades of Dualism
The Rise of Nationalism and the Nationality Problem in Hungary in the Last Decades of Dualism by Z. HORVÁTH In the second half of the XlXth century, Hungary was speedily transformed by capitalism. Efforts to maintain the existing social order encumbered with the remains of feudalism and the balance of power and to prevent democratic progress resulted in a situation full of complexities. In the course of these efforts national sentiment, natural product of evolution fostered by centuryold traditions, the wars of independence and by memories of the reform movement — as well as of the Revolution of 1848 — became disfigured, a nationalistic, chauvinistic self-glorification represented mainly by the lesser nobility, "gentry". This current of rabid nationalism had catastrophic consequences. Among others, it compromised sound patriotism, degraded natural claims for independence into commonplaces. Even the justified national aspirations deriving from the bourgeois-democratic spirit were subordinated to its reactionary, anti-democratic class-spirit. During the period which followed the Compromise of 1867, this tendency increasingly hindered economic, political and cultural progress. It became one of the causes of the downfall of the Dual Monarchy, to which it owed its position of power. Without taking into account the development of this chauvinism and ultra-nationalism the policy of Hungary towards her ethnic minorities in the period of dualism is not understandable. It can be clearly stated that the nationality problem which resulted in the disruption of historic Hungary twenty years later was practically insoluble at the end of the century, or even in 1867. Naturally, if the necessity of eliminating biasedness from any historical analysis needs any mention at all it is here. Even today this problem has many ticklish points involving, up to tradition and deep-rooted prejudice. After the Austro—Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the Hungarian Parliament passed a Nationality Law. Both Deák and Eötvös, who proposed and drafted the law, evidently thought that they had gone as far as possible in giving concessions to the nationalities. In any case, in the period of dualism, the ruling classes of Hungary, the followers of Deák as well as those of the party 1 Acta Historica IX/1—2.