Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/380

* HUNGARY. 32G HUNGARY. a struggle lietw^'n llie rivals aiij fresh invasions by Sol_vumn lliu Mayniticriit (who liaii givi-u his sup|>urt to John ZApolya), Huii-jpiry, after 1541, rviiiaiuod rent iuto tlirof parts. The central part of the Kingdom, with the eapital, Uuda, cuuie into the ininicdiate possession of the Turks. The Austrian power for a long time was eon- lined to the western part of the eouutry. The religious poliey of the Uapshurg J-^mperurs and I he activity of the .Jesuits exeiled the tiene op- position of the Protestants, whieh culminated in 1004 in a great rising, headed by Stephen Boca- kay (q.v. ), who in the I'eace of X'ienna. in 1006, forced the F.miK>ror Rudolph II. to grant religious freedom to his Protestant subjects in Hungary. At the In-giuning of the Thirty Years' War (1018-48). and toward its close, the princes of Transylvania were in arms for the Protestant cause against the llapslmrgs. Ferdinand III. ( lU.'iT-.'iT ) was compelled to concede a large measure nf self-government and religious freedom to the llungsiriaus; but his successor, Leopold I., initiated a policy of repression which led to a formidable uprising under Tiikiilyi (10781. who summoned the Turks to his aid. In ltiS3 Vienna, the capital of the Hapsburgs. after a heroic de- fense, was on the point of falling into the hands of the Jloslems, when the victory achieved Iwfore the city by .John Sobieski and the tlerman princes turned the tide of war, and the power of Turkey collapsed. 13uda was recoverecl by the Chris- tians in 1080. After sanguinary vengeance had been wreaked on the leailers of the rebellion, Leopold I. forced the Hungarians in 1087 to de- clare the crown of Hungary forever hereditary in the House of Hapsburg. The dominion of the Turks rapidlv disappeared from Ilungiiry: the Treaty of Ka'rlowitz (1099) left only the'Hanat in their hands; and that. too. was acquired by the Treaty of Passu rowitz (1718) as a rcHilt of the victories of Prince Kugene. The Treaty of Karlowitz also secured Transylvania to the Haps- burgs. In 1703 Francis Kikoczy excited the Hun- garians to rise in defense of their liberties against the Austrian House, and a struggle en- sued which was not terminateil until 1711, when Charles VI.. immediately after his accession, foinid it necessary to Cfime to terms with his Hungarian subjects. Charles VI. succeeded in gaining the approval of the Hungarians for his Pragmatic Sanction by the grant of extensive privileges: and after tlie Kmperor's death, when the onslaught nf Frederick the (ireat. the Saxons, the Bavarians, and the French threatened the dismemlHMimnI of the Austrian realm (1741), the nation rallied to the sipport of the young t^luecn. Maria Theresa, who had appealed to the National Diet, assembled at Pressburg. During her reign Hingary enjoyed an era of progress and prosperity. The reforms of Joseph II., her son and successor (1780-90), were received with violent opposition, because of their attae'< on the local liWrties of the people through the in- stitution of a strongly centralized administra- tion. Bitter dissatisfaction was also aroused by the Kmperor's attempts to make German the ofTicial language of the country. In 1790 .Joseph II. saw himself driven to repeal his measures of reform, except those dealing with the abolition of serfdom and the establishment of freedom of worship. Under I..eopold 11.(1790-92) the old Constitution was restored : but his successor, F'rancis I. ( 1792-183.'5). ruled in an arbitrary fashion, and .seldom troubled himself to assemble the Diet. In his reign a great political upheaval began to nnmifest itself in Hungary. The period after 181,5 witnessed the rapiil development of an intense national (.Magyar) consciousness, which evinced itself in the demand for a strictly consti- tutional government and the enactment of wide- spread reforms. The strife of parties was carried from the legislative hall to the pres.s, and the Liberals grew in strength as their support among the ma-s of the |x-ople increased. This great national and reform movement, which was headed by such men as Szi'chenyi. Batthyi'inyi, E<itvos, IX'ftk, and Kossuth, and which was accompaniea by remarkable activity in the lield of literature, constitutes a brilliant and stirring episode in the annals of Kurope in the sceijnd <puirter of the nineteenth century. Notable gains were the law of 1S43. whieh made men not of noble liloml eligible lor ollice, and the enactment of measures for making the Magjar tongue the olhcial lan- guage of Hungary. The revolutionary movement of 1848. which, emanating fnmi France, con- vulsed a great part of Kurope, brouglit upon Hungjiry a sudden and terrible catastrophe. In March of that year, immediately after the down- fall of Mctternii-h, who had so long guided the reactionary policy of Austria. th<? Hungarians were accorded an independent Ministry. Indcr its giiidanee the progress of lilx-ral reform con- tinued. But the hostile attitude of the .ustrian Court toward the new order, and the encourage- ment which it gave to the Croats and Wallaehs, who rose in revolt against (he Magjar rule, re- sulted in an open war l(«>tween the House of Hapsburg and Hungary, which, under the lead of Kossuth, declared its inde|)endence in April. 1SI9. After an heroic struggle (the ilctails i,f which will be found in the article Af.sTRl.v-Hi x- <i.RY). Hungary succuml«-d to the combined forces of Austria and Kussia. and was deprived of its constitutional lil)erties and treated as a con- quered country. Before many years, however, the Emperor Francis .Joseph was forced to recog- nize the necessity of some kind of reconciliatior with his Hungarian subjects, and the blow sus- tained by Austria at the hands of Prussia in ISOO brought alinut the reerection of Hungary as a constituticmal kingdom. The demands of (he Hungarian ])eoplc. as set forth by their great spokesman. Francis De-lk. were acceded to in the Ausgleich of 1807, by which the present dual- istic frame of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was established. The settlement was sealed by the coronation of Frani'is .Joseph as King of Hungsirv on .June 8. 1807. the ceremony taking place at Buda with extraordinary pomp. The revivified Magv-ar people now set itself with ardor to the task of the strengthening of its nationality, the introduction of political and ecclesiastical reforms, the extension of public education, and the development of the economic resources of the country-. Tlie nation enthusiasti- cally followed the lead of the great Francis Defik. who. at his death, in 1870. had an able successor in Tisza. The patriotic zeal of the Magyars has at times transgressed the bounds of moderation, anil the measures taken to extend the use of the .Magyar tongue have excited fierce opposition, es- pecially in Croatia. The economic progress of Hungary in the last three decades has been al- most unprecedented, and the energy and enter- prise displayed in the building of railways, the