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Hungary Reign of Charles VI and Maria Theresa
Leopold's successor, Charles VI (1711-40), began
building a
workable relationship with Hungary after the Treaty of
Szatmar.
Charles needed the Hungarian Diet's approval for the
Pragmatic
Sanction, under which the Habsburg monarch was to rule
Hungary
not as emperor but as a king subject to the restraints of
Hungary's constitution and laws. He hoped that the
Pragmatic
Sanction would keep the Habsburg Empire intact if his
daughter,
Maria Theresa, succeeded him. The Diet approved the
Pragmatic
Sanction in 1723, and Hungary thus agreed to became a
hereditary
monarchy under the Habsburgs for as long as their dynasty
existed. In practice, however, Charles and his successors
governed almost autocratically, controlling Hungary's
foreign
affairs, defense, and finance but lacking the power to tax
the
nobles without their approval. The Habsburgs also
maintained
Transylvania's separation from Hungary.
Charles organized Hungary's first modern, centralized
administration and in 1715 established a standing army
under his
command, which was entirely funded and manned by the
nonnoble
population. This policy reduced the nobles' military
obligation
without abrogating their exemption from taxation. Charles
also
banned conversion to Protestantism, required civil
servants to
profess Catholicism, and forbade Protestant students to
study
abroad.
Maria Theresa (1740-80) faced an immediate challenge
from
Prussia's Frederick II when she became head of the House
of
Habsburg. In 1741 she appeared before the Hungarian Diet
holding
her newborn son and entreated Hungary's nobles to support
her.
They stood behind her and helped secure her rule. Maria
Theresa
later took measures to reinforce links with Hungary's
magnates.
She established special schools to attract Hungarian
nobles to
Vienna. During her reign, the members of the magnate class
lost
their Hungarian national identity, including their
knowledge of
the Hungarian language.
Under Charles and Maria Theresa, Hungary experienced
further
economic decline. Centuries of Ottoman occupation,
rebellion, and
war had reduced Hungary's population drastically, and
large parts
of the country's southern half were almost deserted. A
labor
shortage developed as landowners restored their estates.
In
response, the Habsburgs began to colonize Hungary with
large
numbers of peasants from all over Europe, especially
Slovaks,
Serbs, Croatians, and Germans. Many Jews also immigrated
from
Vienna and the empire's Polish lands near the end of the
century.
Hungary's population more than tripled to 8 million
between 1720
and 1787. However, only 39 percent of its people were
Magyars,
who lived mainly in the center of the country.
A complex patchwork of minority peoples emerged in the
lands
along Hungary's periphery. Droves of Romanians entered
Transylvania during the same period. The Protestant and
Catholic
Hungarians and Germans who had been there for years had
considered the Orthodox Romanians inferior and relegated
them to
serfdom. In the eighteenth century, leaders of the
Orthodox
Church began arguing that Romanians were descendants of
the Roman
Dacians and thus Transylvania's original inhabitants. The
Orthodox leaders demanded, without success, that the
Romanians be
recognized as Transylvania's fourth "nation" and the
Orthodox
Church as its fifth "established" religion.
In the early to mid-eighteenth century, Hungary had a
primitive agricultural economy that employed 90 percent of
the
population. The nobles failed to use fertilizers, roads
were poor
and rivers blocked, and crude storage methods caused huge
losses
of grain. Barter had replaced money transactions, and
little
trade existed between towns and the serfs. After 1760 a
labor
surplus developed. The serf population grew, pressure on
the land
increased, and the serfs' standard of living declined.
Landowners
began making greater demands on new tenants and began
violating
existing agreements. In response, Maria Theresa issued her
Urbarium of 1767 to protect the serfs by restoring their
freedom
of movement and limiting the
corvee (see Glossary).
Despite her efforts and several periods of strong demand for grain,
the situation worsened. Between 1767 and 1848, many serfs left
their holdings. Most became landless farm workers because a lack
of industrial development meant few opportunities for work in
the towns.
Data as of September 1989
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