Századok – 1999

Tanulmányok - Molnár András: Hadügyi reformkísérletek 1848 előtt. (Az önálló nemzeti haderő megteremtésének előzményei) VI/1193

HADÜGYI REFORMKÍSÉRLETEK 1848 ELŐTT 1215 lishment of a national army or the military independence of the country. Thus, when these things became a reality in the spring of 1848, they were seemingly without any precedents. In fact, in parliament, at debates in the counties, in the press and in academic life, numerous less well-known 'second-line' oppositon politicians expressed strong criticisms and proposed more-or-less concrete plans concerning the reform of the military system of the country. However, these reflections and suggestions rarely attracted much publicity, received little attention, did not achieve any spectacular results, and therefore, by and large, became neglected by posterity. Between 1815 and 1848, the absolutist goverment in Vienna used the Imperial and Royal Army for breaking the constitutional national movements, terrifying the internal liberal opposition, and for security tasks. Hungarian regiments were put into action mainly beyond the borders'against the Italian and Polish movements, while the foreign regiments were deployed in Hungary to effect political oppression. In order to counter such abuses of authority, the opposition aspired to bolster the national character of the Hungarian army. They expressed such demands during parliamentary debates primarily in connection with bills about the supply of raw recruits, acceptance of war taxes, and debates concerned with the spread of the Hungarian language. The activities of Hungarian officials of the Imperial and Royal Army primarily served to further the establishment and dissemination of Hungarian military language and science. The most audacious scientific criticism of the defence system of the country was undertaken by the historian Mihály Horváth. In accordance with their social reform plans, the Hungarian liberal opposition endeavoured to decrease or terminate the one-sided burdens of military service and supply which were inflicted upon the non-noble population. The first concrete idea of a 'national guard', involving noble and non-noble alike, came from Count Ottó Zichy. Zichy's 1843 plan for the reform of the defence system of Hungary was modelled after the Prussian Landwehr, and included the introduction of general and compulsory military service. As the plan could not surface in parliament, some opposition politicans thought they had located the germ of an independent national force in the militia of free royal cities. Thus, during the 1840s, they began to reorganize Hungarian squadrons of militia in a national spirit.