Britannica Sources used in this answer

Why did Lajos Kossuth’s plans for an uprising in Hungary collapse in 1859?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Lajos Kossuth’s plans for an uprising in Hungary in 1859 collapsed because of a sudden shift in international diplomacy.

Earlier that year, as war between Austria and France became imminent, the French emperor Napoleon III invited Kossuth to organize a revolt in Hungary to coincide with the outbreak of hostilities. Kossuth agreed to the plan, and military preparations were coordinated with France and Piedmont. However, the initiative failed in July 1859 when Napoleon III concluded an armistice with the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I, effectively abandoning the Hungarian cause and leaving the revolutionaries to their fate.1