The SNR was first established during the revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas, when Ľudovít Štúr, Jozef Miloslav Hurban and Michal Miloslav Hodža founded it in Vienna on 15 September 1848. It called for the establishment of autonomy for the Slovak people within the Kingdom of Hungary and promoted a document known as the Demands of the Slovak Nation. On 19 September, the SNR declared in an assembly held at Myjava that Slovakia would separate from Hungary and called for a national Slovak uprising. A militia was formed in Vienna and marched into western Slovakia, where people from the Czech lands, Moravia and Slovakia joined it in a bid to foment an uprising. The Hungarian army was able to put down the uprising within a month and forced the militia to retreat to Moravia, executing two of its leaders and depriving Štúr, Hurban and Hodža of their citizenship on the grounds of treason. Military engagements continued through the winter and into 1849, but the Slovaks were fully defeated by November 1849. The SNR found itself unable to exercise much authority and ceased to operate by the spring of 1849. Following the suppression of the uprisings in Hungary and Slovakia, the new Austro-Hungarian Emperor, Franz Josef I, sought to co-opt the three Slovak leaders by offering them positions in the state administration. They refused, insisting on their previous demands of a separate Slovak territory within the empire. The Austrian government put them under close surveillance and they were forced to retire from politics.
