HISTORY OF TRANSYLVANIA

• Hungarians first stop was in Transylvania

• The “gyula” vs. St. Steven

About the origin of the Székelys

• Descendants of the in the 11th century from Hungary resettled people

• Descendants of Attila’s Huns

Transylvania in the medieval Hungarian Kingdom

• After the Mongol Invasion

• Voivodes (vajdák) as the lord of the territory

• By the end of the 13th century the royal county structure disintegrated

Székelys

• Similar to the nobility

• The „seats” (székek): Udvarhely, Maros, Csík, Aranyos, Sepsi, Kézdi, Orbai

• Saxon (szász) and Romanian seats

• The diets at Thorenburg (Torda)

• The Ottoman threat

• János Hunyadi

The establishing of the Principality of Transylvania

• The Ottomans and the Habsburgs

• John Szapolyai (Szapolyai János) vs. Habsburg Ferdinand

• The three parts of Hungary

• Transylvania as a political entity– the Unions of the Three Estates (1437, 1459)– the Diet of Torda (1542): John Sigismund

(János Zsigmond) was elected Prince

• Szapolyai

• Stephen Báthori 1571-1586

• Reformation and Religious freedom

• Stephen Bocskai 1604-1606

• Gábor Bethlen vs. Habsburgs

• He was elected King of Hungary in 1620

• Immigration of Vlachs (Romans)

• Transylvanian Renaissance

The Principality of Transylvania 1683-1790

• Imre Thököly • The peace of Karlóca • The Kuruc Rebellion • The changing of the

ethnic balance

The Principality of Transylvania 1790-1867

• Nationalism and liberalism • Transylvania’s population in 1841 • Total: 2.14 million inhabitants

– 1.29 million Romanians, – 606.000 Hungarians, – 214.000 Germans, – 19.900 Gypsies, – 9.100 Armenians (örmények), – 3.155 Jews

• Backward agriculture and economy

• The events of 1848

• The Austro-Hungarian Compromise (kiegyezés) (1867) → Transylvania lost her political autonomy

Transylvania as a part of the Hungarian Kingdom (1867-1920)

• Magyarization → passivism

• World War I

• On November 11th 1918, Emperor Karl I. abdicated  

• The Peace of Trianon