The 1868 Act on National Minorities and the Hungarian–Croatian Reconciliation

Abstract

The Act XXX of 1868 regulated the public law situation of Croats and Hungarians in a uniquely subdualist way within the Monarchy, and the status quo provided an appropriate basis and guarantees for further development. Another significant step in the settlement of ethnic relations within the Monarchy was Act XLIV of 1868, a law that had an organic relationship with the Compromise Act. Both the Compromise Act and the Nationality Act were defined by the public law conception represented by Ferenc Deák, the essence of which is to focus on the terminology of the unified “political nation” for the Hungarian side, and the position and rights of other national minorities were regulated in relation to it. In Deák’s understanding, the concept of the political nation was linked to the idea of the nation-state, which, as a result of domestic political changes after 1875, became increasingly nationalist and upset relations with individual nationalities, including Croats. In the long run, this process led to mutual misunderstandings between the peoples within the Habsburg Monarchy and to an explosion of ethnic and political relations as a result of several unfortunate political factors.