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Hungary Partition of Hungary
Unavailable
Figure 3. Hungary During the Period of Partition, 1541-1699
Source: Based on information from C.A. Macartney, Hungary: A
Short History, Chicago, 1962, 64.
The partition of Hungary between the Ottoman and
Habsburg
empires lasted more than 150 years. Habsburg Austria
controlled
Royal Hungary, which consisted of counties along the
Austrian
border and some of northwestern Croatia
(see
fig. 3). The
Ottomans annexed central and southern Hungary.
Transylvania
became an Ottoman vassal state, where native princes, who
paid
the Turks tribute, ruled with considerable autonomy. After
the
Hungarian defeat at Mohacs, the Protestant Reformation
took hold
in Hungary. Initially, German burghers in Transylvania and
Royal
Hungary adopted Lutheranism; later, John Calvin's works
converted
many Magyars in Transylvania and central Hungary. The
Reformation
spread quickly, and by the early seventeenth century
hardly any
noble families remained Catholic. Archbishop Peter Pazmany
reorganized Royal Hungary's Roman Catholic Church and led
a
Counter-Reformation that reversed the Protestants' gains
in Royal
Hungary, using persuasion rather than intimidation.
Transylvania,
however, remained a Protestant stronghold. The Reformation
caused
rifts between Catholic Magyars, who often sided with the
Habsburgs, and Protestant Magyars, who developed a strong
national identity and became rebels in Austrian eyes.
Chasms also
developed between Royal Hungary and Transylvania and
between the
mostly Catholic magnates and the mainly Protestant lesser
nobles.
Data as of September 1989
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