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Hungary End of the Partition
The Ottoman Empire gradually weakened after Suleyman's
death
in 1559. Soon, the Ottoman occupation of Hungary continued
not so
much because of the Turk strength but because of the
West's
disunity and lack of resolve. Hungarian nobles grew
impatient
with the Habsburgs' persecution of Protestants and
reluctance to
take steps to drive out the Turks. Their discontent
exploded
after the Habsburg imperial army routed a Turkish force at
St.
Gotthard in 1664. Instead of pressing for concessions,
Emperor
Leopold I (1657-1705) concluded the Treaty of Vasvar in
which he
conceded to the Turks more Hungarian territory than they
had ever
possessed. After Vasvar, even many Catholic magnates
turned
against the Habsburgs.
After a failed Hungarian plot to throw off Habsburg
rule,
Leopold suppressed the Hungarian constitution, subjected
Royal
Hungary to direct absolute rule from Vienna, and harshly
repressed Hungarian Protestants, handing over Protestant
ministers who refused to deny their faith to work as
galley
slaves. Hungarian discontent deepened. In 1681 Imre
Thokoly, a
Transylvanian nobleman, led a rebellion against the
Habsburgs and
forced Leopold I to convoke the Diet and restore Hungary's
constitution and the office of palatine. Sensing weakness,
the
Turks made their strike against Austria, but Polish forces
routed
them near Vienna in 1683. A Western campaign then
gradually drove
the Turks from Hungary, and the sultan surrendered almost
all of
his Hungarian and Croatian possessions in the Peace of
Karlowitz
in 1699.
Data as of September 1989
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