The Influence of the Ideas of the Bourgeois Revolution in France on Ivan Mažuranić

The French Revolution is the culmination of ideological and political confrontations of various groups with the ancien régime . Such groups were inspired primarily by the political philosophy of French enlighteners and encyclopedists, who described the principles of a new constitutional state (Sunajko 2008). The various constitutional models aimed at uniting free people into a community that would satisfy the principle of freedom as a basic and inalienable human right (Rodin 1989). Immediately after its outbreak, the Revolution had a negligible impact in Croatia, noticeably smaller than in the rest of the Habsburg Monarchy, where it was also of minor extent and meant freedom only for the nobility. After almost six decades a favorable revival climate was created in Croatia and a great figure who could valorize this rose on the Croatian political scene. His name was Ivan Mažuranić, writer and future ban commoner. This paper analyses how the ideas of the Revolution influenced Mažuranić’s work. Particular attention is given to his political writings Hrvati Mađarom [ Croatians to Hungarians ] and Manifest naroda hrvatsko-slavonskog [ Manifesto of the Croatian-Slavonian People ], published in the revolutionary year of 1848, when Mažuranić was inspired by revolutionary ideas. After that, he turned completely to politics, in a response to the Hungarian hegemonic demands toward the Croats and other non-Hungarian peoples from March and April 1848, whereby the Hungarians referred exclusively to their historical right. Accepting the ideas of the Revolution and the then views of Croatian revivalists, Mažuranić refers to the natural rights as well. He advocates the freedom and equality of Croats and their fundamental historical and natural national rights, including the right to equality of Croatian. Moreover, he advocates the language equality of all peoples in the Monarchy. As a true Christian, he condemns the feudal social order, thus reconciling Christian motives and libertarian ideas.