Századok – 2012

KÉTSZÁZ ÉVE SZÜLETETT SZEMERE BERTALAN - Hermann Róbert: A Szemere-kormány külpolitikája III/543

562 HERMANN RÓBERT Veuillez donc encore une fois faire un appel énergique au gouvernement et au peuple, servez vous de tous les moyens à votre porté, pour mettre cette invasion dans son véritable jour. Si vous réussissez à réveiller le gouvernement où vous êtes accrédité à ses véritables intérêts vous rendrez service à ce pays, à nous, et à l'humanité entière. Pest le 25 Juin 1849 Comte Casimir Batthyány Ministre des affaires étrangères Batthyány Kázmér sk fogalmazványa. MOL R. 5. Batthyány Kázmér iratai. Litografált tisztázat. Magyar Országos Levéltár, uo., P 1807. A Puky-család iratai. 2. csomó, 8. tétel., Hadtörténelmi Levéltár. Abszolutizmuskori iratok. 181. csomó. Miscellanen. 11. fasciculus. Német fordításban közli: Ludwig Frey: Kossuth und Ungarns neueste Geschichte. Mannheim, 1849. III. 128-130. THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE SZEMERE GOVERNMENT Robert Hermann (Abstract) The study surveys the foreign policy of the Hungarian government led by Bertalan Szemere, which was in office between 2 May and 11 August in 1849. Both the main lines of foreign policy and the diplomatic apparatus were inherited by the government from the preceding period. Due to the country's isolation, there was no possibility of an en bloc change of the diplomatic corps, which, on the other hand, would not have been justified in so far as the individual agents had so far done whatever they could within the very tight limits set upon them. The foreign policy was based on the concerted ideas of the government itself and of president Lajos Kossuth. The foreign policy of the government had three basic aims: gaining the acknowledgment of Hungarian independence in the West, preventing the Russian intervention, and appeasing the national minorities within Hungary. The relative weight attributed to each of these aims varied over time, and it was only with regard to the minorities that the government had achieved some success by late July 1849. As for the remaining two aims, failure was obvious, for the Western powers refused to acknowledge independent Hungary, and thus made the Russian intervention possible.