– Prince Klemens von Metternich gives up office as State Chancellor and Foreign Minister of the Austrian Empire. March 15 – Hungarian Revolution of 1848: The Hungarian young revolutionary intellectuals, led by Sándor Petőfi, Mór Jókai, etc., called the Márciusi Ifjak (Young men of March) organize peaceful mass demonstrations in Pest, forcing the city's Habsburg authorities to accept the 12 Points: the Hungarian claim for freedom and self-determination within the Habsburg Empire. On the same day, Lajos Kossuth and representatives of the Diet of Hungary go to Vienna, and force the emperor and Hungarian king Ferdinand I of Austria to accept Hungarian claims for self-determination within the empire. March 18 In a Berlin barricade, fighting between revolutionaries and royalist forces marks the culmination of the German revolutions of 1848–49. Hundreds are killed in the clashes, but King Frederick William IV of Prussia is forced to honour the dead, and appoint a liberal government. The Boston Public Library is founded by an act of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts. March 22 – The Republic of San Marco comes into existence in Venice. March 23 – The settlement of Dunedin, New Zealand is founded, with the arrival of settlers from Scotland on board the John Wickliffe. March 24 – The First Schleswig War (, or Three Years' War ()), a military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, begins. March 29 – Queen's College, London, founded, the world's first school to award academic qualifications to young women. April–June April 10 A Chartist 'Monster Rally' is held in Kennington Park London, headed by Feargus O'Connor. A petition demanding the franchise is presented to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Illinois and Michigan Canal is completed. April 11 – The first Hungarian national government is formed, under the leadership of Lajos Batthyány. The April Laws, the first democratic revolutionary laws in Hungary, are promulgated. These laws are the first modern laws in Hungary, which put an end to the feudal privileges of the nobility and serfdom, proclaim the freedom of religion, the freedom of the press, the foundation of the Hungarian National Bank, organises the first democratic election in Hungary based in popular representation, national guard, reunion of Transylvania with Hungary, etc. The Habsburg emperor, and Hungarian king Ferdinand I of Austria, ratify