| Hungary before the First World War |
| Late 800s Magyar tribe led by Arpad invades what is now Hungary 900s Magyars raid European towns until... 955 German King Otto I defeats them and they stop invading 1000 Stephen, great-great-grandson of Arpad, gets permission of Pope Sylvester II to become King Stephen I (the first king of Hungary), instating Roman Catholicism as the official religion 1301 Last Arpad king dies heirless 1308-1342 King Charles Robert restores order 1456 Hungarians, led by nobleman John Hunyadi, defeat Ottoman Empire; Hunyadi's son, Matthias Corvinus, becomes king 1490 Matthias' death leads to disorder and a weakened monarchy as Hungarian Diet gains power 1514 Unsuccessful peasant revolt results in serfdom for the peasantry 1526 Ottoman Empire defeats Hungary in the Battle of Mohacs; E. Hungary (Transylvania) becomes an Ottoman principality; N. and W. Hungary become part of Habsburg Empire. Some Jews stay in the community, rival Christian merchants. Late 1600s - early 1700s Habsburgs defeat Ottomans to gain control of all of Hungary; before this time, Jews live under their own laws in cooperation with and reliance upon rulers, but with centralistic governments comes the denial of self-governance (even by some Jews; holding onto tradition, Eastern European Jews and Gentiles do not respond favorably to assimilation, modernity, and liberalism). 1700 Census: 4,071 Jews in Hungary 1703 Revolt against oppressive Habsburg government 1711 Revolt quelled, but government relaxes its harsh rule 1805 Census: 126,620 Jews in Hungary 1830s Count Stephen Szechenyi leads a movement to revive Hungarian culture, language, and national pride 1840s Lajos Kossuth becomes most important leader of the reform movement and turns it into Hungarian independence movement 1844 Jewish Youth, Artisan and Agricultural organizations foster Magyarization to benefit from emancipation (Magyar language a condition of emancipation) 1848 French Revolution incites other European countries; Hungary instates a government accountable to parliament; serfs freed. But again, many E. Europeans were against these revolutions April 1849 Hungary under Kossuth declares independence from the Austro-Hungarian empire August 1849 Austria defeats Hungary and the countries rejoin 1850 Census: 339,816 Jews in Hungary 1859 Austria loses war to France and Italy 1866 Austria loses war to Prussia and Italy 1867 Hungarians led by Francis Deak force emperor Francis Joseph to give Hungary equal status with Austria; a dual monarchy is established, enabling foreign, military, and financial affairs to be controlled jointly, but each country to have its own separate constitutional government. 1875-1890 Kalman Tisza regime has official policy of Magyarization; ignores demands for autonomy of separate nationalities with policy of Magyar chauvinism; National groups other than Jews (Slavs, Romanians) comprise almost half of Hungary's population, and demand the right to self-government to no avail. 1880 Census: 624,826 Jews in Hungary 1880s-1890s Modern anti-Semitism sweeps Europe, despite differences in the economic development and social structure of each country. Gives rise to Zionism. Independent Jewish governments still exist but no longer under the wing of the host country/ruler. The idea of Jews as a nation comes under criticism when Zionists/autonomists ask for specific rights for Jews as a group -- linguistic, cultural, and social autonomy, and this requires not a geographical, but a personal autonomy. 1895 Catholic People's Party sanctions anti-Semitism against "Jewish" socialism and liberalism 1910 Census shows 200,000 of the 911,227 Jews in Hungary are German-speakers |