Andrássy, Gyula, Count

(1823–1890)

   Hungarian prime minister and Habsburg foreign minister. Andrássy was born March 1823 in Kassa to a distinguished Magyar family, became a member of parliament in 1847, and joined the Hungarian independence movement led by Lajos Kossuth. He served as a commander with the Hungarian troops in the war of independence in 1848–49. As a consequence of the Hungarian defeat he was forced to flee the country but was permitted to return in 1857. He became one the preeminent Hungarian politicians that negotiated the Ausgleich of 1867, which settled Hungary’s semiautonomous position within the Habsburg Empire. Andrássy was the leader of the liberals and prime minister of Hungary from 1867 to 1871, when he was appointed foreign minister of the Habsburg monarchy, a position he held until 1879. His “Andrássy Note” of December 1875 influenced the Congress of Berlin in 1878. He pushed for the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War. Just before he resigned in October 1879, Andrássy signed the Dual Alliance treaty with Germany. He died in February 1890 in Istria.

   See also <>; <>; <>; <>; <>.

   FURTHER READING:

    Bagdasarian, Nicholas Der. The Austro-German Rapprochement, 1870-1879. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1976;

    Harris, David. A Diplomatic History of the Balkan Crisis, 1875-1878. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1969.

   GUENTHER KRONENBITTER