Mark Imre Major : American Hungarian Relations 1918-1944

No state in European history has a beginning so precisely definable as that of Hungary. It was brought into being when the Magyars crossed the Carpathians in 896 and settled in the basin of the middle Danube. The chieftain Arpad led the first Magyars into the Carpathian basin, and he gave his name to the first great Hungarian dynasty, which ruled until 1301. For the next half-century the Magyars were the scourge of Europe, which they raided far and wide. Their lithe, little horses outdistanced any news of their coming. Historians have counted thirty-three expeditions between 898 and 955, some of them to places as far afield as Bremen, Cambrai, Orleans, Nimes, Otranto, and Constantinople. Most of these raids were simply profitmaking expeditions, in which cities and churches were ransacked for gold and treasure.

In this half-century they inflicted dreadful damage on Europe, but this mode of life was not without risks. Arnulf of Bavaria almost annihilated one of their armies in 917 and in 933 Henry the Fowler gave them a frightful beating near Merseburg. Finally, in 955, Otto the Great inflicted a terrible defeat outside Augsburg. Their leaders were taken, hanged, and according to legend, only seven of the whole host escaped.

Duke Geza (972-997) broke with his father's policy and sent ambassadors to Otto's court. With the establishment of friendly

relations the raids in the West ceased. Henry III consented to the marriage of his sister, Gisella, to Geza's son, Vajk, who had already been baptized under the name of Stephen. The marriage took place in 996. A year later Geza died.

St. Stephen (proclaimed a saint in 1083) was the real founder of the Hungarian Kingdom and perhaps the most important figure in Hungarian history. He ruled from 997 to 1038 and established direct contacts with Pope Sylvester II, who favored him with special temporal and spiritual privileges. The Pope sent him a crown and granted him the title of Apostle, presumably in recognition of his conversion of many souls to Christianity. The coronation took place on Christmas Day in 1000. Henceforth, Hungary became an outpost of the West against the East. The Pope gave Stephen and his successors the right to found episcopal sees, and Hungary was made independent of German ecclesiastical control. The Hungarian king appointed bishops, abbots, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, simply informing the Pope of his choice. Thus, the bitter conflict over lay investiture which developed between the Pope and West European rulers was unknown in Hungary. When the Benedictines entered Hungary, their monasteries became not only centers of religion, but also centers of Western civilization. The monks cleared the lands, introduced Western methods of agriculture, and became the first teachers. St. Stephen's successors were known as Apostolic Kings of Hungary and the Holy Crown of St. Stephen became a symbol of the Hungarian nation.

St. Stephen also brought about internal reforms which shaped Hungarian history. Instead of organizing his kingdom on a feudal basis, he divided the realm into counties administrated by counts, after the fashion of Charlemagne's I Empire. These counties became not only important units of administration, but also the foundations of local autonomy and self-government. The free men met in county assemblies, and eventually the counties sent deputies to the Diet. The counties continued to play an important role until very recent times, and the history of the development

of Hungarian government is rooted in the county organization.

Three thirteenth century events deeply influenced Hungarian history. One was the granting of the Golden Bull of 1222 to the nation by the king. This was a charter of liberties, not unlike the Magna Charta of 1215 in England. Like the latter, the Golden Bull has been variously interpreted, but it has always been considered one of the cornerstones of the Hungarian Constitution

The second development was that the kings welcomed immigrants and brought in large groups of Germans, who worked the gold mines of the Zips and settled in the border province of Transylvania. It was normal procedure to grant such foreign groups special privileges, and the thirteenth century brought a grant of extensive privileges to the "Saxons" of Transylvania (1224), who established an island of German culture and maintained their special position until the dislocations of World War II. They developed seven important municipal centers and were often referred to as the "Siebenburgen Saxons." At the time of the Reformation they became Lutherans and, along with some Slovak groups, were the chief representatives of that faith in Hungary.

The thirteenth century also saw the great Mongol invasion of 1241, which left the country devastated. Fortunately, the Mongols did not long remain.

The Arpad dynasty come to an end in 1301, and the nobles elected Charles I of Anjou (1301-1342) as their sovereign. He proved to be an able ruler and paved the way for the reign of Louis the Great (1342-1382), under whom Hungary came to the peak of its power. Louis the Great was an able administrator. He encouraged trade, granted many municipal charters, and founded the first Hungarian University at Pecs. Louis was also elected King of Poland and ruled over a vast empire which extended from the middle Vistula to the Adriatic and deep into the Balkans. The union of the Hungarian and Polish crowns was repeated again in the late Middle Ages, and at times there was also a union with the Bohemian crown.

When the Ottoman Turks began their march northward in the Balkan Peninsula, Hungary's location made her a natural leader in the attempt to block the expansion of the Turks to Western Europe. The popes encouraged the Hungarian kings to undertake a number of crusades. Sigismund I., who ruled Hungary from 1387 to 1437, and who also reigned as Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, for a time held off the Turks. His activity in the council of Constance, which ended the schism in the Church, as well as his attempt to suppress the Hussite heresy, were at least in part designed to unite Western Christendom in a common front against the new Eastern menace. Time and time again the Hungarians fought the battles of the West, and John Hunyadi won fame for his victories over the Turks.

The country enjoyed a period of prosperity and glory under Hunyadi's son, Mathias Corvinus, who ruled from 1458 to 1490. Mathias Corvinus was a patron of Renaissance learning and did much to advance the intellectual life of his kingdom. He founded a university at Pozsony (Pressburg) and revived the universities at Pecs and Buda. Corvinus also organized a strong, efficient mercenary army. He stressed the light cavalry and thus originated the famous Hungarian hussars. He too was able to keep the Turks at bay: in addition he advanced to the west, winning control over parts of Austria and Bohemia.

On August 29, 1526, the Hungarians were defeated at Mohacs by Suleiman the Magnificent. Louis Jagello, King of Hungary and Bohemia, perished with his whole army. The Sultan swept on to Buda, from which he returned to Constantinople, taking a tremendous booty and some 105,000 captives. This was the most tragic period of Hungarian history. The Turkish invasion devastated the country and led to one and a half centuries of partition. The Turks lorded over the heart of the country and reduced it to a near-desert. The Habsburgs held the western part of Hungary, while national independence survived only in Transylvania. These were also the years of the Reformation, and Protestant doctrines swept across Hungary. It was, however, the

Reformed doctrines of Calvinism that appealed to the Magyars, for Lutheranism was associated with German influence. The first legislative declaration in the world in favor of the free profession of religions was made in Hungary. The Declaration of the Diet of Torda (1557) read as follows: "Everyone may follow the faith he wishes, but he must not hurt those of other faiths."

Following their defeat at Vienna in 1683, the Turks had to abandon Hungary. To populate and defend the territories freed from the Turks, the Habsburgs started a vigorous policy of colonization. Immigrants and settlers came from all over Europe. Germans and Slovaks were settled in the southern regions. Many Serbs sought refuge from Turkish rule and were welcomed as settlers in the newly acquired southern territories.

The reconquest of Hungary also revived the old feuds with the Habsburg Empire. Francis Rakoczi headed a large armed movement of protest against Habsburg domination from Vienna. In order to obtain international recognition the Hungarian Diet proclaimed the dethronement of the House of Habsburg and elected Rakoczi Ruling Prince. Rakoczi's troops occupied most of Hungary. However, when the Habsburg army was released from the War of Spanish Succession, the long insurrection (1703-1711) was suppressed. A truce was arranged in 1711. Charles III persuaded the Hungarian Diet in 1723 to accept the Pragmatic Sanction which proclaimed that in default of male heirs, a female might inherit the throne. In return for this loyalty, the Habsburg agreed to preserve intact the Hungarian constitution with all its rights, laws, privileges, and customs.

The reforms of Joseph II (1780-1790) were a drastic effort to create uniformity in the administration of the Habsburg lands. But the Hungarians were able to maintain historic Hungarian customs, and Hungary retained its separateness. This continued even after the Habsburgs proclaimed themselves emperors of an Austrian Empire and the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved (1806). To the Hungarians, the emperor remained simply King of Hungary.

In the 1840's the rising revolutionary spirit swept across Europe, reaching Austria as well as Hungary. The leaders of the Hungarian reform movement, Stephen Szechenyi and Louis Kossuth, pressed Emperor Ferdinand I for substantially greater constitutional concessions. In 1848, the political tension erupted in the War of Independence, which was suppressed only with the intervention of Russia. The Habsburgs placed Hungary under martial law. Thirteen leading generals, Louis Batthyany, Prime Minister of independent Hungary, and many other patriots were either shot or hanged. Others took refuge abroad.

The new emperor, Francis Joseph I, attempted to rule Hungary from Vienna under a policy of centralization, known from its originator as the "Bach System." Alexander Bach, the Regent of the Emperor, staffed his administration with German and Czech officials from Bohemia, who did not know the language of the people, and German became the official language. The Magyars refused to cooperate.

The Compromise of 1867 established the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Thus the Compromise recognized Hungary's constitutional status after a struggle of three centuries.

There were henceforth two entirely separate states: the Empire of Austria with its Parliament and the kingdom of Hungary with its Parliament. In the first, Francis Joseph was to rule as emperor, in the second, as king. There were three common ministers, those of foreign affairs, war, and finance. Both Parliaments elected special committees, called Delegations, which enacted legislation covering joint affairs. A common army was created, and after its quota was filled, recruits were assigned to serve in the state militias. The quota each state was to pay to the common budget was to be settled by treaty every ten years.

Under the Compromise, Austria and Hungary went their own ways in internal affairs, but Austrian and Hungarian troops fought side by side during World War I. The end of World War I brought the end of the Dual-Monarchy.

Mark Imre Major : American Hungarian Relations 1918-1944