Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction

HUNGARY

To the Hungarians (Magyars) and (Hungarian-speaking) Székelys came, as a separate political body, the Saxons in the 12th and 13th centuries. However, the settling of colonists was not yet completed. From the last decade of the 13th century in ever increasing numbers came in over the South Transylvanian Alps groups of people, mainly engaged in animal husbandry, who were comprehensively called Wallachians. They moved up from the right bank of the Lower Danube. The more the Cumans' power declined the more the Wallachians increased in number on the plains of the Lower Danube. When Cumania became a vassal territory of the Hungarian Crown, and the Cuman bishopric became a reality, there was no longer any impediment in the way of immigration into Transylvania. In 1224 the Wallachians are first mentioned as living in the southern border region of Transylvania.

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Traditionally the area called Erdély (from the 12th century also called Transylvania) was 57,244km² and its population approx. 2,5 million (in 1910). In the oldest times this area was a part of the Dacian Kingdom, and between 107 and 275 a part of the Roman province Dacia. In the wake of the Romans came the Goths, Huns, Gepids, Avars, and at the end of the 9th century the Magyars/Hungarians who found here Bulgar and Slav settlements. Géza II brought in Saxon colonists and endowed them with many privileges. A slow seeping in of Wallachians from the Balkan Peninsula persisted. After 1526, i.e., the momentous victory of the Turks over central Hungary, Transylvania became a selv-governing principality under Turkish suzerainty.

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At the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. Emperor Trajan subjugated the Dacians in whose kingdom the area in question lay. Around 270 the Goths forced Emperor Aurelian to give up Dacia. The Roman military and the populace until then enjoying the protection of roman arms was shifted to the south bank of the Danube. It is an error to believe that the present-day Rumanians are the descendants of Romans or Romanized Dacians who allegedly stayed behind in Dacia.

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Herodotos mentions the Agathirses as inhabitants of the region now known as Transylvania. Greek historians of later days called the tribes living there as Getae, the Romans referred to them as Dacians. In 107 A.D. Emperor Trajan defeated the Dacians and organized a part of their kingdom under the name Provincia Dacia.

In 271 Emperor Aurelian ordered the evacuation of Dacia and the settling of its population, together with the protecting military, south of the Danube. Afterwards the Goths, Huns, Gepids, Longobards, Avars, Slavs invaded the region in question. According to new theories, the Hungarian-speaking Székelys moved in together with the Avars and at the end of the 9th century received the Magyars/Hungarians as their relations. By the end of the 11th century the whole of Erdély (from the 12th century also called Transylvania) came firmly under Hungarian rule. During the 13th century the ethnic composition of Transylvania is formed: it is by then inhabited by Hungarians, Saxons and Wallachians/Rumanians. The Székelys are the guardians of the borders, the Saxons specialize in industry and trade, the Wallachians are engaged in animal husbandry.

N.B. Naturally agriculture, timber industry and mining were also taken up, but least by the Wallachians who traditionally moved with their flocks (life of transhumance).

Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction