Untraveled Avenues: Hungarian Political Imaginaries of France, 1867-1894

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Centered on the Dualist era, my paper examine Hungarian elites’ appeals to what they perceived to be valuable “Western” models in debates over what direction their country should take in the decades following the 1867 Compromise. In my broader dissertation, I show the ways in which Anglocentric political and developmental thought existed across the political spectrum, influencing both nationalist elites, and their more progressive opponents. In this paper, however, I examine another potential model, one which held great influence for a time, only to fade drastically—that of France. If England was an outstanding model for Hungary’s Dualist elite, the image of France burned brighter for others—those who held fast to the memory of 1848. Focusing on the Kossuthist politician Dénes Pázmándy, I examine how French models became a point of reference for those who remained irreconcilably opposed to Habsburg rule. If, for many pro-Compromise elites, England’s parliamentary tradition, constitutionalism, and gentry-led stability served as a model to follow, those who remained loyal to the politics of Kossuth saw France as the homeland of liberty, fraternity, and equality—the birthplace of the French Revolution, rational government, and modern nationalism. I examine prominent moments of Francocentric Hungarian political expression, culminating at the 1889 Paris Exhibition. Finally, I argue that, despite its apparent strength, this link between Francocentric thought and Kossuthist elites was ultimately shattered by France’s growing friendliness toward Russia, which culminated in the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894. Ultimately, Hungarian elites’ deep-seated Russophobia would leave France, and French models, unpalatable.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Tom Szigeti is a PhD Candidate in the history department at New York University. His research field is modern Central and Eastern Europe. His work focuses on the ways in which nationalist policies in both Dualist and interwar Hungary can be understood as attempts at state-building; an attempt, in other words, to take the multi-linguistic, multi-ethnic kingdom, and transform it into a “modern” nation-state. In particular, he is interested in the ways that Hungarian elites’ implementation of what they perceived as “Western” models influenced the development of such policies.