The 1848–1849 revolution and Kossuth's Ottoman refuge

The revolution that broke out in Pest on 15 March 1848 became a war of independence against Habsburg rule, with Lajos Kossuth leading the independent Hungarian state; 15 March is now one of Hungary's three national holidays.

In 1849 Austrian and Russian troops crushed the war of independence. Kossuth and thousands of Hungarian refugees crossed into the Ottoman Empire, and despite Austrian and Russian demands the sultan refused to hand them over.

Kossuth lived in Kütahya in 1850–1851, where his house is now a museum; Hungarians remember this as an act of Ottoman friendship and a bright page in Hungarian–Turkish relations.