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Hungary The Modern Period
In the fifteenth century lived Janos Hunyadi, perhaps
the
greatest Hungarian general of all time
(see Renaissance and Reformation
, ch. 1). Although Hunyadi fought, not always
successfully, against the Turks several times in the
1440s, he is
best known for his victory against them near Belgrade in
1456.
There the Hungarian forces decisively defeated the Turkish
army
and sent the sultan into flight. However, the Turkish
wars,
together with the petty struggles on the western
borderlands,
drained the national treasury, and increasingly heavy
taxation
and feudal obligations pushed the peasantry into a
rebellion that
was eventually crushed. The country was economically
weakened and
racked by political instability, and its military might
declined
precipitously after the death of King Matyas Corvinus in
1490.
The Ottoman Turks threatened to invade in the 1520s,
but the
Hungarian nobility seemed oblivious. The Turks
successfully
attacked Belgrade in 1521, and on August 29, 1526, met the
small,
poorly equipped Hungarian army at Mohacs. The Hungarian
forces
were nearly wiped out, and their king, Louis II, died in
the
rout. The Turks captured Buda in early September but then
retreated southward, loaded with captives, and having no
intention of permanently occupying Hungary. However, the
struggle
between the Habsburgs and the Hungarian contenders for the
Hungarian throne pulled the Turks deeper into Hungarian
politics,
leading to their military occupation of Buda in 1541 and
the
entire Hungarian plain soon afterward. The Habsburg
emperor was
left with a strip of land in northeastern Hungary (called
"Royal
Hungary"), while Transylvania remained nominally
independent
under Turkish suzerainty
(see
fig. 3). The section of
Hungary
directly under Ottoman rule became a wasteland, as various
Turkish military formations periodically looted and
destroyed
settlements, killing the inhabitants or selling them into
slavery.
In Royal Hungary, the Habsburgs constructed a system of
fortifications along the border with Ottoman Hungary
during the
seventeenth century. Many Hungarian nobles, having fled
the
Turkish zone of occupation, assumed military leadership of
important sectors of this border zone. Their serfs were
obliged
to work twelve days annually on border fortifications, to
perform
military service, and to pay a military tax. Several
Hungarian
military leaders during this time achieved fame for their
exploits. Miklos Zrinyi's heroic stand against the Turks
in 1564
and Istvan Bocskay's victory over the Habsburgs in
Transylvania
in 1604-05 were bright spots in the otherwise dismal
military
history of the Hungarians during the period of Ottoman
occupation
(see Partition of Hungary
, ch. 1).
The failed Turkish attack on Vienna in 1683 began a
process
of retreat that led to the Ottomans' being driven out of
Buda in
1686 and most of Hungary by the end of the century. The
subsequent Habsburg rule, however, proved to be just as
cruel as
that of the Turks, and resulted in an eight-year rebellion
led by
Ferenc Rakoczi
(see Hungary under the Habsburgs
, ch. 1).
The
Treaty of Szatmar (1711) ended this war, during which half
a
million Hungarians died.
During the eighteenth century, the Habsburg
Hofkriegsrat (see Glossary)
in Vienna directly controlled the Hungarian
army, which
was created in 1715. The
Palatine (see Glossary) was
commander in chief of the armed forces in Hungary, but the Habsburgs
deliberately left the office vacant. Responsibility for
recruitment and supply was assumed by the Hungarian
Viceregal Council, located in Pozsony, the capitol of Royal Hungary,
(present-day Bratislava in Czechoslovakia), until 1785 and
then transferred to Buda.
During the first half of the eighteenth century, the
Habsburgs established a Hungarian standing army made up of
six
high commands: one for Hungary proper and the others for
Croatia,
Slavonia, Transylvania, the Banat (in southern Hungary),
and the
Military Frontier Zones (located in Croatia). The
Hungarian
standing army was supported by war taxes paid by the
counties and
towns. Soldiers were supposed to serve for life but were
usually
discharged after twenty years of service. This term was
reduced
to ten years in 1830. Until 1840 soldiers were forced into
service by press gangs; later they were selected by lot.
In 1790 the Hungarian nobility revolted against the
Habsburgs
in an attempt to restore former feudal privileges and
Hungarian
autonomy. A separate Hungarian army was formed from the
banderia, but it was dissolved when the Habsburgs
managed
to avoid war with Prussia and thus were able to redirect
their
imperial forces toward Hungary.
Hungarian soldiers fought in the Habsburg army during
the
wars against France from 1792 to 1815. Except for a small
battle
at Györ in 1808--which the French won--no military action
took
place on Hungarian soil. Nevertheless, the Hungarian
troops
suffered more than 150,000 casualties during these wars.
The revolution that broke out in Vienna in 1848--part
of a
wave of revolts that swept across Europe that year--caused
enough
disruption in the imperial government to allow the
Hungarian
nobility to seize more political autonomy for Hungary.
After
quelling the revolt in other parts of the empire, the
Habsburg
government in September 1848 sent forces into Hungary
under Josip
Jelacic, the Habsburg governor of Croatia. Jelacic's army
was met
by a hastily formed Hungarian army and was driven out of
the
country. The government in Vienna attacked again in the
late fall
and even occupied Pest in early December. In the spring,
however,
these Habsburg forces were driven out by a Hungarian army
under a
young major, Artur Gorgei, while another Hungarian army,
under
General Jozef Bem, drove the Habsburg forces out of
Transylvania.
Nevertheless, in June 1849 the Russian army came to the
rescue of
the Habsburgs and invaded Hungary through the Carpathian
Mountains. Outnumbered and outgunned, Bem's small army was
defeated in August, and Gorgei surrendered his forces to
the
Russians shortly afterward. The revolt was crushed and its
leaders hanged, although Lajos Kossuth, the leader of the
revolutionary government, escaped to the Ottoman Empire.
Although the Compromise of 1867 establishing the Dual
Monarchy of Austria-Hungary gave each country separate
parliaments and separate governments, the Hungarian
military
forces remained under centralized Habsburg control
(see Dual Monarchy
, ch. 1). Thus, Hungarian soldiers, together with
the
other troops of nations under the Habsburg monarchy, found
themselves mobilizing for war in the summer of 1914, first
against Serbia and then against Serbia's ally, Russia. The
largest Hungarian army in history fought under the
imperial flag
on the side of the Central Powers.
Data as of September 1989
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