Demands of the Nation

The Demands of the Nation (Croatian: Zahtijevanja naroda) is the name of a political petition that was adopted on March 25, 1848 in Kingdom of Croatia. In its 30 points it contains principles and programs of the Croatian citizens, as well as national, state, legal, social and liberal seeks to change Croatian position within the Austrian Empire, and to change the state structure and social issues within Croatia.

Adoption

Demands of the Nation, which were read by Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski at a meeting of Grand National Assembly, were unanimously adopted in the National Home palace. Demands of the Nation were actually political program of the People's Party which had governed all Croatian counties since 1842. The session of the Grand National Assembly that was held on March 25, 1848, as a result of the Illyrian movement and social upheavals all across Europe in mid-19th century, is considered to be the beginning of the modern Croatian Parliament (Sabor). The session is important because it was for the first time in history attended by members of all social classes representing the Triune Kingdom Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia. In addition to members of different classes, session was attended by students of the Zagreb People's Orthodox Academy and attenders of the Roman Catholic Episcopal seminary.

Demands of the Nation were actually political program of the People's Party so they were printed in the form of a leaflet with a print run of 15,000 bilingual Croatia-German copies so they could be made known to a larger number of people.

On March 29, 1848 Demands were submitted to the Emperor Franz Joseph I by special Croatian delegation of 400 people that were led by Ljudevit Gaj. Emperor hasn't shown intention to meet the requirements, but Josip Jelačić already forbid Croats to receive any further orders from the Government in Budapest.

Notable demands

The document consists of 30 points with demands which included:

  • election of Josip Jelačić to the position of Ban,
  • convening Sabor as soon as possible,
  • annexation of Dalmatia and the Military Frontier to Croatia,
  • establishment of the modern University in Croatia,
  • Croatian independence from Kingdom of Hungary regarding finance, language and education,
  • creation of a Croatian national army
  • freedom of press, religion, studying and speech,
  • equality for everyone before the courts, public hearings, oral argument, introduction of a jury and accountability of judges,
  • stronger acceptance and emancipation of the Croatian Jews,
  • suffrage for everyone,
  • abolition of class privileges and serfdom.
gollark: Go `util::format_time(rev.timestamp)` yourself.
gollark: ++deploy attack bees
gollark: I don't think WASM threads are widely supported.
gollark: RocketRace is my other account.
gollark: How?

References
  • Neda Engelsfeld, History of the Croatian state and law: Period from the 18th to 20th century, Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, Zagreb, 2002
  • Dalibor Čepulo, Croatian legal history in the European context from the Middle Ages to the modern times, Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, 2012
  • Ljiljana Dobrovšak: Jews in the Croatian lands 1848/1849, Papers - Institute for the Croatian History, Vol. 30, 1997, p. 77-89
  • Magdalena Lončarić, "Historia Varasdiensis. Journal of Varaždin Historiography ", Vol.1 No.1, 2011
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.