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=== Allegation of violent oppression ===
=== Allegation of violent oppression ===
The natural haughtiness of the Magyar has invented a term of reproach for each of the races which share Hungary with him. The German is contemptuously spoken of as the " Svab " (Swabian), the Serb as ''Vad Racz'' or ''thieving Rascian'', the Roumanian as ''olah'' or ''Wallach''; while the Slovak figures in the notorious proverb, ''Tot nem ember'' ''the Slovak is not a man.'' <ref>http://www.archive.org/stream/racialproblemsin00setouoft/racialproblemsin00setouoft_djvu.txt</ref>

Many Slovak intellectuals and activists (such as [[Janko Kráľ]]) were imprisoned or even sentenced to death during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]].<ref>''Encyklopédia spisovateľov Slovenska''. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984.{{Context-inline|date=November 2009}}{{page number}}</ref> One of the incidents that shocked European public opinion<ref name='holec'>{{cite book | last = Holec | first = Roman | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Tragédia v Černovej a slovenská spoločnosť | publisher = Matica slovenská | year= 1997 | location = Martin | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = }}</ref> was the [[Černová tragedy]] when 15 people were killed<ref name='holec'/> and 52 injured in 1907. The case being a proof for the violence of Magyarization is disputed, partly because the sergeant who ordered the shooting and all the shooters were [[ethnic]] [[Slovak people|Slovak]] and partly because of the controversial figure of [[Andrej Hlinka]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Nemzeti hős vagy fasiszta mozgalmár? - Hlinka-politika: egyszer fenn, egyszer lenn (National hero or vanguard of the Fascist movement? - Hlinka-politics: Sometimes high, sometimes low)|language=Hungarian|work=Hírextra|publisher=Originally featured at the online version of Szombat, Hungarian Jewish magazine|url=http://www.hirextra.hu/hirek/article.php?menu_id=2&cat=2&article_id=29072 |date=2007-10-29}}</ref>.
Many Slovak intellectuals and activists (such as [[Janko Kráľ]]) were imprisoned or even sentenced to death during the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]].<ref>''Encyklopédia spisovateľov Slovenska''. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984.{{Context-inline|date=November 2009}}{{page number}}</ref> One of the incidents that shocked European public opinion<ref name='holec'>{{cite book | last = Holec | first = Roman | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Tragédia v Černovej a slovenská spoločnosť | publisher = Matica slovenská | year= 1997 | location = Martin | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = }}</ref> was the [[Černová tragedy]] when 15 people were killed<ref name='holec'/> and 52 injured in 1907. The case being a proof for the violence of Magyarization is disputed, partly because the sergeant who ordered the shooting and all the shooters were [[ethnic]] [[Slovak people|Slovak]] and partly because of the controversial figure of [[Andrej Hlinka]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Nemzeti hős vagy fasiszta mozgalmár? - Hlinka-politika: egyszer fenn, egyszer lenn (National hero or vanguard of the Fascist movement? - Hlinka-politics: Sometimes high, sometimes low)|language=Hungarian|work=Hírextra|publisher=Originally featured at the online version of Szombat, Hungarian Jewish magazine|url=http://www.hirextra.hu/hirek/article.php?menu_id=2&cat=2&article_id=29072 |date=2007-10-29}}</ref>.


Revision as of 08:46, 16 April 2010

Magyarization (also "Magyarisation", "Hungarisation", "Hungarization", "Hungarianization", "Hungarianisation") is a designator applied to a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by various Hungarian authorities in the 19th century and at the beginning of 20th century. These policies aimed at imposing or maintaining the dominance of Hungarian language and culture in Hungarian-ruled regions by encouraging or compelling people of other ethnic groups to adopt the Hungarian language and culture, and to develop a Hungarian identity.

Magyars(Hungarians) in Hungary, 1890 census

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 Hungarian leaders insisted strongly that the Hungary must be Magyar in spirit, in its institutions, and, as far as possible, in its language. Suggestions to the contrary, or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met with derision or abuse. Despite the law, the use of minority languages was almost completely banned in administration and justice. The Magyar language was highly overrepresented in the primary schools and almost all secondary education was in Hungarian.

By the end of the 19th century, the state apparatus was entirely Hungarian in language, as were business and social life above the lowest levels. The percentage of the population with Hungarian as its mother tongue grew from 46.6 % in 1880 to 54.5 % in 1910. The Magyarization of the towns had proceeded at an amazing rate. Nearly all middle-class Jews and Germans and many middle-class Slovaks and Ruthenes had been Magyarized.

However, most of the Magyarization happened in the centre of Hungary and among the middle classes, who had access to education; and much of it was the direct result of urbanization and industrialization. It had hardly touched the rural populations of the periphery, and linguistic frontiers had not shifted significantly from the line on which they had stabilized a century earlier.[1]

Origin of the term

The term generally applies to the policies that were enforced[citation needed] in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary in the 19th century and early 20th century, especially after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867[1], and in particular after the rise in 1871 of the Count Menyhért Lónyay as head of the Hungarian government.[2] The idea owes its existence to the Enlightenment due to which the 19th century saw the emergence of nation-states in many places in Europe (France, Italy, Germany). In its course large areas were culturally and linguistically homogenized (or at least attempts were made to make them so).

When referring to personal and geographic names, Magyarization stands for the replacement of an originally non-Hungarian name with a Hungarian one. For instance, the Romanian name "Ion Negru" would become "János Fekete", or the Slavic name "Novo Selo" would become "Újfalu".

Magyarization in broader sense

As is often the case with policies intended to forge or bolster national identity in a state, Magyarization was perceived by other ethnic groups such as the Romanians, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Serbs, Croats, etc., as aggression or active discrimination, especially where they formed the majority of the population.

Historical context

Joseph II (1780-90), a leader influenced by the Enlightenment sought to centralize control of the empire and to rule it as an enlightened despot.[3] He decreed that German replace Latin as the empire's official language.[3]

Hungarians perceived Joseph's language reform as German cultural hegemony, and they reacted by insisting on the right to use their own tongue.[3] As a result, Hungarian lesser nobles sparked a renaissance of the Hungarian language and culture.[3] The lesser nobles questioned the loyalty of the magnates, of whom less than half were ethnic Magyars, and even those had become French- and German-speaking courtiers.[3]

In July 1849, Hungarian Revolutionary Parliament proclaimed and enacted foremost the ethnic and minority rights in the world, but it was too late: To counter the successes of the Hungarian revolution of 1848, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph asked for help from the "Gendarme of Europe," Czar Nicholas I, whose Russian armies invaded Hungary. The huge army of the Russian Empire and the Austrian forces proved too powerful for the Hungarian army, and General Artúr Görgey surrendered in August 1849.

The Magyar national reawakening subsequently triggered national revivals among the Slovak, Romanian, Serbian, and Croatian minorities in Hungary and Transylvania, who felt threatened by both German and Magyar cultural hegemony.[3] The national feeling was being encouraged from across the frontiers of Romania and Serbia and (in the case of the Slovaks) from Bohemia. Hungaro-Croatian relations too deteriorated, after a period of quiescence, when the Serbian government began propagating a theory of South Slav (Yugoslav) unity designed to detach the Croats from the monarchy. These national revivals later blossomed into the nationalist movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that contributed to the empire's ultimate collapse.[3]

Magyarization in the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary

The term Magyarization is usually used in regards to the national policies implemented by the government of the Kingdom of Hungary, which was part of the Habsburg Empire. The onset of this process dates to the late 18th century [4] and was intensified after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which increased the power of the Hungarian government within the newly formed Austria-Hungary.[2] [5] some of them had little desire to be declared a national minority like in other cultures. However, Jews in Hungary appreciated the emancipation in Hungary at a time when antisemitic laws were still applied in Russia and Romania. Large minorities were concentrated in various regions of the kingdom, where they formed significant majorities. In Transylvania proper (1867 borders), the 1910 census finds 55.08% Romanian-speakers, 34.2% Hungarian-speakers, and 8.71% German-speakers. In the north of the Kingdom, Slovaks and Ruthenians formed an ethnic majority also, in the southern regions the majority were South Slavic Croats, Serbs and Slovenes and in the western regions the majority were Germans[citation needed]. The process of Magyarization did not succeed in imposing the Hungarian language as the most used language in all territories in the Kingdom of Hungary. In fact the profoundly multinational character of historic Transylvania was reflected in the fact that during the fifty years of the dual monarchy, the spread of Hungarian as the second language remained limited. In 1880, 5.7 percent of the non-Hungarian population, or 109,190 people, claimed to have a knowledge of the Hungarian language; the proportion rose to 11 percent (183,508) in 1900, and to 15.2 percent (266,863) in 1910. These figures reveal the reality of a bygone era, one in which millions of people could conduct their lives without speaking the state's official language.[6] The policies of Magyarization aimed to make the fluency in Hungarian language a requirement for access to basic government services such as local administration, education, and justice.

Between 1850 and 1910 the ethnic Hungarian population increased by 106.7%, while the increase of other ethnic groups was far slower: Serbians and Croatians 38.2%, Romanians 31.4% and Slovaks 10.7%.[7]

According to census data, the Hungarian population of Transylvania increased from 24.9% in 1869 to 31.6% in 1910. In the same time, the percentage of Romanian population decreased from 59.0% to 53.8% and the percentage of German population decreased from 11.9% to 10.7%. Changes were more significant in cities with predominantly German and Romanian population. For example, the percentage of Hungarian population increased in Braşov from 13.4% in 1850 to 43.43% in 1910, meanwhile the Romanian population decreased from 40% to 28.71% and the German population from 40.8% to 26.41%.

State policy and ethnic relations

Distribution of nationalities within the Kingdom of Hungary, according to the 1880 census (based on mother tongue interpreted as the language one was most comfortable using[8][9]).
Distribution of nationalities within the Kingdom of Hungary without Croatia), according to the 1910 census. Regions with population density below 20 persons/km2 are left blank and the corresponding population is represented in the nearest region with population density above that limit.

The first Hungarian government after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the 1867–1871 liberal government led by Count Gyula Andrássy and sustained by Ferenc Deák and his followers, passed the 1868 Nationality Act, that declared "all citizens of Hungary form, politically, one nation, the indivisible unitary Hungarian nation (nemzet), of which every citizen of the country, whatever his personal nationality (nemzetiség), is a member equal in rights." The Education Act, passed the same year, shared this view as the Magyars simply being primus inter pares ("first among equals"). At this time ethnic minorities "de jure" had a great deal of cultural and linguistic autonomy, including in education, religion, and local government.[10]

However, after education minister Baron József Eötvös died in 1871, and in Andrássy became imperial foreign minister, Deák withdrew from active politics and Menyhért Lónyay became the Hungarian prime minister. He became steadily more allied with the Magyar gentry, and the notion of a Hungarian political nation increasingly became one of a Magyar nation. "[A]ny political or social movement which challenged the hegemonic position of the Magyar ruling classes was liable to be repressed or charged with 'treason'…, 'libel' or 'incitement of national hatred'. This was to be the fate of various Slovak, South Slav [e.g. Serb], Romanian and Ruthene cultural societies and nationalist parties from 1876 onward…"[11] All of this only intensified after 1875, with the rise of Kálmán Tisza.[12]

For a long time, number of non-Hungarians that lived in the Kingdom of Hungary was much larger than a number of ethnic Hungarians. According to the 1787 data, the population of the Kingdom of Hungary numbered 2,322,000 Hungarians (29%) and 5,681,000 non-Hungarians (71%). In 1809, the population numbered 3,000,000 Hungarians (30%) and 7,000,000 non-Hungarians (70%). As an increasingly intense Magyarization policy was implemented after 1867,[13] the ethnic relations changed in favour of Hungarians: according to the 1900 census, number of Hungarian language speakers in the Kingdom was 8,500,000 (51%), while number of speakers of other languages was 8,100,000 (49%)[citation needed]. In 1910 census, number of Hungarian speakers was 9,944,628 (54.4%), while number of speakers of other languages was 8,319,905 (45.6%).[citation needed]

This is a Austro-Hungarian bill from 1849, before the main period of Magyarization. Note the multilingual inscriptions. Later, German and Hungarian languages dominated, scripts in other languages became smaller.[1]

Although in Slovak, Romanian and Serbian history writing administrative and often repressive Magyarization is usually singled out as the main factor accountable for the dramatic change in the ethnic composition of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 19th century, it should be noted that spontaneous assimilation was also an important factor. In this regard, it must be pointed out that large territories of central and southern Kingdom of Hungary lost their previous, predominantly Magyar population during the numerous wars fought by the Habsburg and Ottoman empires in the 16th and 17th centuries. These empty lands were repopulated, by administrative measures adopted by the Vienna Court especially during the 18th century, by Hungarians and Slovaks from the northern part of the Kingdom that avoided the devastation (see also Royal Hungary), Swabians, Serbs (Serbs were majority in most southern parts of the Pannonian Plain during Ottoman rule, i.e. before those Habsburg administrative measures), Croats and Romanians. The result of this migration was that on a large swath of land, roughly between Kecskemét and the southern border areas[citation needed], various ethnic groups lived side by side (this ethnic heterogeneity is preserved until today in certain parts of Vojvodina, Bačka and Banat). After 1867, Hungarian became the lingua franca on this territory in the interaction between ethnic communities, and individuals who were born in mixed marriages between two non-Magyars often grew a full-fledged allegiance to the Hungarian nation. Of course since Latin was the official language until 1842 and the country was directly governed from Vienna (which excluded any large-scale governmental assimilation policy from the Hungarian side before the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the factor of spontaneous assimilation should be given due weight in any analysis relating to the demographic tendencies of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 19th century.

The other key factor in mass ethnic changes is that between 1880 and 1910 about 3 million[2] of Austro-Hungarians migrated to the United States alone. More than half of them were from Hungary (1.5 million+ or about 10% of the total population) alone[14][15] The term "másfélmillió koldus országa" ("land of the one and half million beggars") was coined that time to describe the situation. Besides the 1.5 million that fled to the US (2/3 of them or about a million were ethnically non Hungarians) mainly Romanians and Serbs had migrated to their newly established mother states in large numbers, like the Principality of Serbia (recognized internationally in 1878) or the Kingdom of Romania (internationally recognized in 1881). Amongst them were such noted people, like the early aviator Aurel Vlaicu (his face is on the 50 Romanian lei) or famous writer Liviu Rebreanu (first illegally in 1909, then legally in 1911). Also many fled to Western Europe or other parts of the Americas.

Allegation of violent oppression

The natural haughtiness of the Magyar has invented a term of reproach for each of the races which share Hungary with him. The German is contemptuously spoken of as the " Svab " (Swabian), the Serb as Vad Racz or thieving Rascian, the Roumanian as olah or Wallach; while the Slovak figures in the notorious proverb, Tot nem ember the Slovak is not a man. [16]

Many Slovak intellectuals and activists (such as Janko Kráľ) were imprisoned or even sentenced to death during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.[17] One of the incidents that shocked European public opinion[18] was the Černová tragedy when 15 people were killed[18] and 52 injured in 1907. The case being a proof for the violence of Magyarization is disputed, partly because the sergeant who ordered the shooting and all the shooters were ethnic Slovak and partly because of the controversial figure of Andrej Hlinka[19].

Education

Schools funded by churches and communes had the right to provide education in minority languages. These church-funded schools, however, were mostly founded before 1867, that is, in different socio-political circumstances. Clause 38 of the 1868 law about nationalities of the Kingdom of Hungary, determined that church-funded schools teaching in minority languages could be closed and replaced with commune-funded schools sponsored by the government.[citation needed] In practice, the majority of students in commune-funded schools who were native speakers of minority languages were instructed exclusively in Hungarian. Moreover, the number of minority-language schools was steadily decreasing: in the period between 1880 and 1913, when the number of Hungarian-only schools almost doubled, the number of minority language-schools almost halved.[20] Countless personal names were Magyarized in a short period of time, often forcibly or unwillingly.[citation needed] Nonetheless, Transylvanian Romanians had more Romanian-language schools under Hungarian rule than there were in the Romanian Kingdom itself. Thus, for example, in 1880, in Hungary there were 2,756 schools teaching exclusively in the Romanian language, while in the Kingdom of Romania there were only 2,505.[21]

The effect of Magyarization on the education system in Hungary was very significant, as can be seen from the official statistics submitted by the Hungarian government to the Paris Peace Conference: (Formally, all the Jewish people of the kingdom were considered as Hungarians, who had higher rato in tertiary education than Christians)

Hungarian Romanian Slovak German Serbian Ruthenian
% of total population 54.5% 16.1% 10.7% 10.4% 2.5% 2.5%
Kindergartens 2,219 4 1 18 22 -
Elementary schools 14,014 2,578 322 417 n/a 47
Junior high schools 652 4 - 6 3 -
Science high schools 33 1 - 2 - -
Teachers' colleges 83 12 - 2 1 -
Gymnasiums for boys 172 5 - 7 1 -
High schools for girls 50 - - 1 - -
Trade schools 105 - - - - -
Commercial schools 65 1 - - - -

Source:[22]

The climax of disingenuousness is reached in the Hungarian propaganda documents by quoting the number of elementary schools — 3500 in 1905 — in which Romanian was the language of instruction - as proof of the thoughtful care of the Hungarian State for its Romanian wards. These schools were founded and maintained at their own expense by the Transylvanian Romanians themselves; but once established, the central government stepped in and insisted (1879) that the instructors should learn Hungarian, so as to be able to teach in that language.

In 1907 Albert Apponyi, the Minister of Religion and Education of Hungary ruled that the schools where the instructors had not made sufficient progress should be replaced by Hungarian schools; He decided that even religious instruction should be given only in Hungarian and not in the language of the Minorities.

As the Minorities did not submit to this hard rule, a new order was issued in 1909 to the effect that if a priest did not obey and did not give religious instruction in Hungarian, his salary would not be paid. The same law also stipulated that if the reason of the priest’s refusal to obey was that his ecclesiastical superior had given him orders not to do so, this superior should be told to withdraw these orders. If he did not do so, the payment of the salaries of the whole of the clergy under his direction would be suspended. The same law also provided that only a priest who could speak and write Hungarian should be paid out of State funds. If he did not know the language, he would have to learn it within five years. Where the State undertook to give instruction, the Church, if it wanted to establish a school, had to do so at its own expense. A number of special Church questions are dealt with in a separate paper.[23]

In 1917, Apponyi closed the Romanian normal schools; but the ferment started by the Russian Revolution caused their reopening. He did, however succeed in that year in banishing Romanian altogether from the primary schools.

The net result of this anti-Romanian campaign has been not a falling-off in the use of Romanian as a colloquial language, but a far greater illiteracy among the Romanian of Transylvania. There was one gymnasium (lycee) in their own tongue for every 25,000 Germans in Transylvania, and one for every 25,000 Hungarians; for the Romanians, one for every 585,000, and this in spite of the urgent appeal of the Romanian church authorities to be allowed to open more at their own expense. Accordingly, the percentage of illiteracy in the Romanian counties of Transylvania ran as high as 65 and 70 percent[24]

Election system

The census system of the post-1867 Kingdom of Hungary was unfavourable to nationalities. According to the 1874 election law, which remained unchanged until 1918, only the upper 5.9% of whole population had voting rights. That high census effectively excluded almost the whole peasantry and the working class from the political life. The percentage of low-income people was somewhat higher among the nationalities than among the Magyars, except the Germans who were generally richer. In Hungarian point of view, the structure of settlement system caused differences in earning possibilities and wages. The Hungarians and Germans were ever so much urbanised than Slovaks Romanians and Serbs in Kingdom of Hungary.

In 1900, nearly 33% of the deputies were elected by less than 100 and close upon 66% of the deputies were elected by less than 1000 votes.[25] Transylvania had an even worse representation, the more Romanian a county was, the fewer voters did it possess. Out of the Transylvanian deputies sent to Budapest, 35 represented the 4 mostly Hungarian counties and the chief towns (together forming 20% of the population), whereas only 30 deputies represented another 72% of the population, which was predominantly Romanian.[26][27]

In 1913, even the electorate that elected only one-third of the deputies had a non proportional ethnic composition.[25] The Magyars who gave the 54.5% of the whole population (in Hungary proper) had 60.2% majority in the electorate. Ethnic Germans participated with 10.4% in population and 13.0% in the electorate. The participation of other ethnic groups was as follows: Slovaks (10.7% in population, 10.4% in the electorate), Romanians (16.1% in population, 9.9% in the electorate), Rusyns (2.5% in population, 1.7% in the electorate), Croats (1.1% in population, 1.0% in the electorate), Serbs (2.2% in population, 1.4% in the electorate), and others (2.2% in population, 1.4% in the electorate).

Officially, Hungarian electoral laws haven't contained any legal discrimination based on nationality or language. The high census wasn't uncommon in other European countries in the 1860s but later the countries of Western-Europe gradually lowered and at last abolished their censi. That never happened in the Kingdom of Hungary, although electoral reform was one of the main topic of political debates in the last decades before World War I.

Names

See also: List of Magyarized geographical names

The Magyarization policy under the governing of Dezső Bánffy between 1895 and 1899 also included forced[citation needed] Magyarization of personal and geographical names. The law about registry books prescribed that all names in these books should be in Hungarian. The native names of non-Hungarians were, thus, replaced with Hungarian ones, for example Serbian name Stevan was replaced with Istvan or Jelena with Ilona. The policy included not only Magyarization of personal names, but of surnames as well.

Hungarian authorities put constant pressure upon all non-Hungarians to Magyarize their names and the ease with which this could be done gave rise to the nickname of Crown Magyars (the price of the registration being one krone).[26] In 1881 the "Central Society for Name Magyarization" (Központi Névmagyarositó Társaság) was founded in 1881 in Budapest. The aim of this private society was to provide advice and guidelines for those who wanted to Magyarize their surnames. Telkes Simon became the chairman of the society, who professed that “one can achieve being accepted as a true son of the nation by adopting a national name”. The society began an advertising campaign in the newspapers and sent out circular letters. They also made a proposal to lower the fees of the name changing. The proposal was accepted by the Parliament and the fee was lowered from 5 Forints to 50 Krajcárs. After this the name changings peaked in 1881 and 1882 (with 1261 and 1065 registered name changes), and continued in the following years on the average of 750-850 per year.[28] During the Bánffy-administration there was another boost with the highest 6700 application forms in 1897, mostly due to the pressure from authorities and employers of the government sector. Statistics show that only between 1881 and 1905 42,437 surnames were Magyarized.(It is less than 0.5% of the total non-Hungarian population of Hungarian Kingdom)[26] Voluntary Magyarization of German or Slavic-sounding surnames remained a typical phenomenon in Hungary during the course of the whole 20th century.

Together with Magyarization of personal names and surnames, the exclusive use of the Hungarian names of geographical places, instead of multilingual usage, was also common. For the places that were not known under Hungarian names in the past, new Hungarian names were invented and used in administration instead of the former original non-Hungarian names. Examples of places where original non-Hungarian names were replaced with newly invented Hungarian names: Szvidnik - Felsővízköz (in Slovak Svidník, now Slovakia), Najdás - Néranádas (in Romanian Naidǎş, now Romania), Sztarcsova - Tárcsó (in Serbian Starčevo, now Serbia), Lyutta - Havasköz (in Ukrainian Lyuta, now Ukraine), Bruck - Királyhida (now Bruck an der Leitha, Austria).[29]

According to Hungarian statistics[30] and considering the huge number of assimilated persons between 1700-1944 (~3 million) only 340,000-350,000 names were magyarised between 1815-1944; this happened mainly inside the Hungarian-speaking area. (One Jewish name out of 17 was Magyarised, in comparation with other nationalities: one out of 139 (Catholic) -427 (Evangelical) for Germans and 170 (Catholic) -330 (Evangelical) for Slovaks.

Migration

Part of the Magyarization was a result of internal migration of segments of the ethnically non-Hungarian population to the Kingdom of Hungary's central predominantly Hungarian counties and to Budapest where they assimilated. The ratio of ethnically non-Hungarian population in the Kingdom was also dropping due to their overrepresentation among the migrants to foreign countries, mainly to the United States.[31] Hungarians, the largest ethnic group in the Kingdom representing 45.5% of the population in 1900, accounted for only 26.2% of the emigrants, while non-Hungarians (54.5%) accounted for 72% from 1901 to 1913.[32] The areas with the highest emigration were the northern mostly Slovak inhabited counties of Sáros, Szepes, Zemlén, and from Ung county where a substantial Rusyn population lived. In the next tier were some of the southern counties including Bács-Bodrog, Torontál, Temes, and Krassó-Szörény largely inhabited by Serbs, Romanians, and Germans, as well as the northern mostly Slovak counties of Árva and Gömör-Kishont, and the central Hungarian inhabited county of Veszprém. The reasons for emigration were mostly economic.[33] Additionally, some may have wanted to avoid Magyarization or the draft, but direct evidence of other than economic motivation among the emigrants themselves is limited.[34] The Kingdom's administration welcomed the development as yet another instrument of increasing the ratio of ethnic Hungarians at home.[35]

The Hungarian government made a contract with the English-owned Cunard Steamship Company for a direct passenger line from Rijeka to New York. Its purpose was to enable the government to increase the business transacted through their medium.[36] While encouraging emigration, the company did not give passports to ethnic Hungarians.[37]

By 1914, a total number of 3 million had emigrated,[38] of whom about 25% returned. This process of returning was halted by World War I and the partition of Austria-Hungary. The majority of the emigrants came from the most indigent social groups, especially from the agrarian sector. Almost 530,000 people left the country between 1905 and 1907, which shows a direct connection[citation needed] between the U.S. trade fluctuation[citation needed] and Hungary's developing stages[citation needed] (the living standard of the peasantry, decline of agrarian movements, and even the Phylloxera plague). Magyarization did not cease after the collapse of Austria-Hungary but has continued within the borders of the post-WW-I Hungary throughout most of the 20th century and resulted in drastic decrease of numbers of ethnic Non-Hungarians .[39]

Greek-Catholic Hungarians

According to the 2001- census 268,935 Greek-Catholic Christians. Excepting few thousands of Romanians, Ukrainians and Rusyns, most of them are today ethnically and linguistically related to Hungarians. Most of the Greek-Catholic Hungarians have Rusyn[40] and Romanian[41][42] ancestors. The Hungarian Greek-Catholic diocese of Hajdudorog was founded in 1912. On that time, the diocese promoted the replacement of the Rusyn and Romanian liturgic language with Hungarian. Today, the seat of the diocese is in Nyíregyháza.

Jews

In the nineteenth century, the Neolog Jews were located mainly in the cities and larger towns. They arose in the environment of the latter period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire generally good period for upwardly mobile Jews, especially those of modernizing inclinations. In the Hungarian portion of the Empire, most Jews (nearly all Neologs and even most of the Orthodox) adopted the Hungarian language as their primary language and viewed themselves as "Magyars of the Jewish persuasion".[43] The Jewish minority which to the extent it is attracted to a secular culture is usually attracted to the secular culture in power, was inclined to gravitate toward the cultural orientation of Budapest.[44] (The same factor prompted Prague Jews to adopt an Austrian cultural orientation, and at least some Vilna Jews to adopt a Russian orientation.[44])

After the emancipation of Jews in 1867, the Jewish population of the Kingdom of Hungary (as well as the ascending German population[45]) actively embraced Magyarization, because they saw it as an opportunity for assimilation without conceding their religion. (We also have to point out that in case of the Jewish people that process had been preceded by a process of Germanization[44] earlier performed by Habsburg rulers). Stephen Roth writes, "Hungarian Jews were opposed to Zionism because they hoped that somehow they could achieve equality with other Hungarian citizens, not just in law but in fact, and that they could be integrated into the country as Hungarian Israelites. The word 'Israelite' (Template:Lang-hu) denoted only religious affiliation and was free from the ethnic or national connotations usually attached to the term 'Jew'. Hungarian Jews attained remarkable achievements in business, culture and less frequently even in politics. But even the most successful Jews were not fully accepted by the majority of the Magyars[citation needed] as one of their kind — as the events following the Nazi German invasion of the country in World War II so tragically demonstrated." [46] However, in the 1930s and early 1940s Budapest was a safe haven for Slovak, German and Austrian Jewish refugees[47] and a center of Hungarian Jewish cultural life[47].

In 2006 the Company for Hungarian Jewish Minority could not collect 1000 signatures for a petition to declare Hungarian Jews a minority[48] even though there are at least 100 000 Jews in the country. The official Hungarian Jewish religious organization, Mazsihisz advised not to vote for the new status because they think that Jews identify themselves as a religious group, not as a 'national minority'. There was no real control throughout the process and non-Jewish people could also sign the petition[48] .

Magyarization in Upper Hungary

Although the share of Slovaks within the electorate (10,4%) largely reflected their weight in the total population of Hungary proper (10,7%) Slovaks had extremely marginal representation in the parliament (1 deputy out of 420 MPs). Although at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 there were more than one thousand Slovak elementary schools, their number was gradually reduced to 322 by 1918.[49][50][51][52]

Notable dates

  • 1844 - Hungarian is gradually introduced for all civil records (kept at local parishes until 1895). German became an official language again after the 1848 revolution, but the laws reverted in 1881 yet again. From 1836 to 1881, 14,000 families had their name Magyarized in the area of Banat alone.
  • 1874 - All Slovak secondary schools closed. Also the Matica slovenská closed by force one year later.[citation needed]
  • 1898 - Simon Telkes publishes the book "How to Magyarize family names".
  • 1897 - The Bánffy law of the villages is ratified. According to this law, all officially used village names in the Hungarian Kingdom had to be in Hungarian language.
  • 1907 - The Apponyi educational law made Hungarian a compulsory subject in all schools in the Kingdom of Hungary. This also extended to confessional and communal schools, which had the right to provide instruction in a minority language as well. "All pupils regardless of their native language must be able to express their thoughts in Hungarian both in spoken and in written form at the end of fourth grade [~ at the age of 10 or 11]"[20]
  • 1907 - The Černová tragedy in present-day northern Slovakia, a controversial event in which 15 people were killed during a clash between 7 ethnic slovak gendarmes who were ethnic Slovak and local villagers./The commander Was slovak people/

Post-Trianon Hungary

Considerable number of other nationalities remained within the frontiers of the post-Trianon Hungary:

According to the 1920 census 10.4% of the population spoke one of the minority languages as mother language:

  • 551,212 German (6.9%)
  • 141,882 Slovak (1.8%)
  • 23,760 Romanian (0.3%)
  • 36,858 Croatian (0.5%)
  • 23,228 Bunjevac and Šokac(0.3%)
  • 17,131 Serb (0.2%)

The number of bilingual people was much higher, for example

  • 1,398,729 people spoke German (17%)
  • 399,176 people spoke Slovak (5%)
  • 179,928 people spoke Croatian (2.2%)
  • 88,828 people spoke Romanian (1.1%).

Hungarian was spoken by 96% of the total population and was the mother language of 89%.

The percentage and the absolute number of all non-Hungarian nationalities decreased in the next decades, although the total population of the country increased. Bilingualism was also disappearing. The main reasons of this process were both spontaneous assimilation and the deliberate Magyarization policy of the state. Minorities made up 8% of the total population in 1930 and 7% in 1941 (on the post-Trianon territory).

After WWII about 200,000 Germans were deported to Germany according to the decree of the Potsdam Conference. Under the forced exchange of population between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, approximately 73,000 Slovaks left Hungary. After these population movements Hungary became an ethnically almost homogeneous country except the rapidly growing number of Roma people in the second half of the 20th century.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Hungary - Social and economic developments". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-20. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |accessmonth=, |month=, and |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ a b Bideleux and Jeffries, 1998, p. 363.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "A Country Study: Hungary - Hungary under the Habsburgs". Federal Research Division. Library of Congress. Retrieved 2008-11-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ Pástor, Zoltán, Dejiny Slovenska: Vybrané kapitoly. Banská Bystrica: Univerzita Mateja Bela. 2000
  5. ^ Michael Riff, The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present, Valentine Mitchell, London, 1992, ISBN 0-85303-220-3.
  6. ^ Religious Denominations and Nationalities
  7. ^ IGL - SS 2002 - ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Karl Vocelka - VO
  8. ^ Rogers Brubaker (2006). Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town. Princeton University Press. p. 65. ISBN 9780691128344.
  9. ^ Eagle Glassheim (2005). Noble Nationalists: The Transformation of the Bohemian Aristocracy. Harvard University Press. p. 25. ISBN 9780674018891.
  10. ^ Bideleux and Jeffries, 1998, p. 362–363.
  11. ^ Bideleux and Jeffries, 1998, p. 363–364.
  12. ^ Bideleux and Jeffries, 1998, p. 364.
  13. ^ Bideleux and Jeffries, 1998, p. 362–364.
  14. ^ Rogers Bruebaker: Nationalism Reframed, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  15. ^ Yosi Goldshṭain, Joseph Goldstein: Jewish history in modern times
  16. ^ http://www.archive.org/stream/racialproblemsin00setouoft/racialproblemsin00setouoft_djvu.txt
  17. ^ Encyklopédia spisovateľov Slovenska. Bratislava: Obzor, 1984.[needs context][page needed]
  18. ^ a b Holec, Roman (1997). Tragédia v Černovej a slovenská spoločnosť. Martin: Matica slovenská. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  19. ^ "Nemzeti hős vagy fasiszta mozgalmár? - Hlinka-politika: egyszer fenn, egyszer lenn (National hero or vanguard of the Fascist movement? - Hlinka-politics: Sometimes high, sometimes low)". Hírextra (in Hungarian). Originally featured at the online version of Szombat, Hungarian Jewish magazine. 2007-10-29.
  20. ^ a b Romsics, Ignác. Magyarország története a huszadik században ("A History of Hungary in the 20th Century"), p. 85-86.
  21. ^ Raffay Ernő: A vajdaságoktól a birodalomig-Az újkori Románia története = From voivodates to the empire-History of modern Romania, JATE Kiadó, Szeged, 1989)
  22. ^ Z. Paclisanu, Hungary's struggle to annihilate its national minorities, Florida, 1985 pp. 89-92
  23. ^ Ethnic Minorities from Romania in Documents from the Nations’ Society (1923-1932) http://www.scribd.com/doc/3046093/Problema-minoritatilor-etnice
  24. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=dYLtOFBzZikC&pg=PA392&dq=United+Roumania+De+charles+Upson+Clark&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
  25. ^ a b R.W. Seton-Watson, Corruption and reform in Hungary, London, 1911 Cite error: The named reference "setonwatson1911" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  26. ^ a b c R.W. Seton-Watson, A history of the Roumanians, Cambridge, University Press, 1934, pp.403 Cite error: The named reference "setonwatson1934" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  27. ^ Georges Castellan, A history of the Romanians, Boulder, 1989, pp.146
  28. ^ A Pallas nagy lexikona
  29. ^ Lelkes György: Magyar helységnév-azonosító szótár, Talma Könyvkiadó, Baja, 1998
  30. ^ Template:Hu icon Kozma, István, A névmagyarosítások története. A családnév-változtatások, História (2000/05-06)
  31. ^ István Rácz, A paraszti migráció és politikai megítélése Magyarországon 1849–1914. Budapest: 1980.
  32. ^ Júlia Puskás, Kivándorló Magyarok az Egyesült Államokban, 1880-1914. Budapest: 1982.
  33. ^ László Szarka, Szlovák nemzeti fejlõdés-magyar nemzetiségi politika 1867-1918. Bratislava: 1995.
  34. ^ Aranka Terebessy Sápos, "Középső-Zemplén migrációs folyamata a dualizmus korában." Fórum Társadalomtudományi Szemle, III, 2001.
  35. ^ László Szarka, A szlovákok története. Budapest: 1992.
  36. ^ James Davenport Whelpey, The Problem of the Immigrant. London: 1905.
  37. ^ Dr. Dimitrije Kirilović, Pomađarivanje u bivšoj Ugarskoj, Novi Sad - Srbinje, 2006
  38. ^ Immigration push and pull factors, conditions of living and restrictive legistration, UFR d'ETUDES ANGLOPHONES,Paris
  39. ^ Loránt Tilkovszky, A szlovákok történetéhez Magyarországon 1919–1945. Kormánybiztosi és más jelentések nemzetiségpolitikai céllal látogatott szlovák lakosságú településekről Hungaro – Bohemoslovaca 3. Budapest: 1989.
  40. ^ The Rusyns - Rusyn
  41. ^ Spatiul Istoric si ethnic romanesc, vol.1, Editura Militara, Bucuresti, 1992
  42. ^ http://www.sfantuldaniilsihastrul.ro/fisiere/pagini.pdf
  43. ^ Michael Riff, The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present, Valentine Mitchell, London, 1992, ISBN 0-85303-220-3.
  44. ^ a b c Mendelsohn, Ezra (1987). The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars. Indiana University Press. p. 87. ISBN 0253204186. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  45. ^ Erényi Tibor: A zsidók története Magyarországon, Változó Világ, Budapest, 1996
  46. ^ Roth, Stephen. "Memories of Hungary", p.125–141 in Riff, Michael, The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present. Valentine Mitchell, London, 1992, ISBN 0-85303-220-3. p. 132.
  47. ^ a b "Budapest". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2008-06-02. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |month=, and |coauthors= (help)
  48. ^ a b Index - Nem lesz kisebbség a zsidóság
  49. ^ Viator, Scotus: Racial problems in Hungary. 1906
  50. ^ Marko, Martinický: Slovensko-maďarské vzťahy.1995
  51. ^ Dejiny Bratislavy. Archív hlavného mesta SSR Bratislavy. 1978
  52. ^ Hanák, Jozef: Obsadenie Bratislavy.2004

Sources

  1. Dr. Dimitrije Kirilović, Pomađarivanje u bivšoj Ugarskoj, Novi Sad - Srbinje, 2006 (reprint). Originally printed in Novi Sad in 1935.
  2. Dr. Dimitrije Kirilović, Asimilacioni uspesi Mađara u Bačkoj, Banatu i Baranji, Novi Sad - Srbinje, 2006 (reprint). Originally printed in Novi Sad in 1937 as Asimilacioni uspesi Mađara u Bačkoj, Banatu i Baranji - Prilog pitanju demađarizacije Vojvodine.
  3. Lazar Stipić, Istina o Mađarima, Novi Sad - Srbinje, 2004 (reprint). Originally printed in Subotica in 1929 as Istina o Madžarima.
  4. Dr. Fedor Nikić, Mađarski imperijalizam, Novi Sad - Srbinje, 2004 (reprint). Originally printed in Novi Sad in 1929.
  5. Borislav Jankulov, Pregled kolonizacije Vojvodine u XVIII i XIX veku, Novi Sad - Pančevo, 2003.
  6. Dimitrije Boarov, Politička istorija Vojvodine, Novi Sad, 2001.
  7. Robert Bideleux and Ian Jeffries, A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change, Routledge, 1998. ISBN 0-415-16111-8 hardback, ISBN 0-415-16112-6 paper.
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