The historical development of Hungary's territorial boundaries

Hungary is a country in Central Europe. Today, it is rather small, at just over 93,000 square kilometers. But previously in its history, Hungary was much larger, with its rule stretching over vast lands outside what is today their national territory. In this video, I want to take a look at that territorial evolution, understanding how the Hungarian state was first created, how it evolved throughout time until modern days, and how its territory evolved and changed alongside that history. This is the territorial evolution of Hungary. Before we keep going on with the video, a quick message from this week's sponsor, Scentbird. Scentbird is a service that has reimagined everything about how people discover, shop for, purchase, and even experience fragrances. Scentbird lets you choose a new designer fragrance to try every month for just $17. Every month you get to pick what you want to receive, so there are no surprises. They have perfumes and colognes and a lot of unisex options. 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But during the 9th century, the Magyars arrived, conquering the Carpathian Basin and allowing these early Hungarians to settle for the first time in Central Europe. And they were no strangers to that land. You see, other than the Romans, the Huns or the Ostrogoths, the Carpathian Basin had also later been ruled by three early medieval powers, the First Bulgarian Empire, East Francia and Moravia, which had fought each other for the control of this Carpathian Basin, and each occasionally hired Hungarian horsemen as soldiers. Therefore, the Hungarians who dwelled in the Pontic steppes east of the Carpathians were already very familiar with their future homeland when the conquest began. There are various theories as to why these Hungarians moved towards Central Europe after dwelling in the east for so long. Some state it was fully planned by them, wanting to establish a new homeland in a more prosperous region, but others state that they were pushed to the west by the attack of other eastern peoples, the Pechenegs and the Bulgarians. This great gift shows us that theory and the process of what became known as the Hungarian land taking, pushing back those who ruled those areas and settling them themselves, either by founding new settlements or joining those that already existed. Finally, establishing a Christian kingdom in around the year 1000, which lasted until 1918. That's almost 1000 years. Granted, the regime changed a lot, and the amount of sovereignty they technically had also did, and most importantly, their territory. So, let's take a look at that. In the following years after that year 1000 establishment, the Kingdom of Hungary, which already occupied a pretty gigantic territory in Central Europe, expanded even further, moving past Pannonia and onto the Adriatic coast. The name Pannonian comes from the province of the Roman Empire, which included part of these territories. By 1190, during the kingdom of Bela III, Hungary included all of this territory, encompassing what is today Hungary itself, but also Romanian Transylvania, Slovakia, Slavonia, Croatia, and Bosnia. They didn't rule each area directly and there were a good number of local autonomies by the late 1200s, in addition to an impressive administrative division, especially for a medieval state, but this Hungarian glory was short-lived. And the reason was simple. The Mongols. In 1241, the Mongolian hordes led by Batu Khan invaded Hungary. Severely outnumbered, the Hungarians were defeated decisively in the Battle of Mohi. One of the sources that wrote about this Mongolian invasion wrote, More than 500,000 Hungarian people were massacred and the whole kingdom reduced to ashes. Estimates estimate the losses between 20 and 50 percent of the population. In the plains, between 50 and 80 percent of the settlements were destroyed. This allows us to really understand the aggressiveness and the devastation that the Mongolian invasions brought. A few years later, in 1301, the ruling dynasty ran its course and was extinct. The last King's death created an opportunity for lower lords, who had by that time achieved de facto independence, to strengthen their local autonomy, creating an interregnum of the kingdom's existence until 1308. One took over Slovakia, another administered Transylvania and Croatia became temporarily independent as well. Eventually, a new heir regained those lands by 1323, fighting a difficult war of unification. And so, their temporarily shattered territory was restored. The new king, Charles I, now of the Angevin dynasty, successfully restored power and Hungary was thriving once again. One of the reasons those initial tribes had moved in was due to the wealth of the Hungarian territory, namely in gold. At this time, they were producing 1,350 kilograms of gold a year. That was one third of the global production at the time. The second Hungarian king of the Angevin line, Louis the Great, extended his rule as far as the Adriatic Sea and occupied the Kingdom of Naples several times. In two successful wars against Venice, he was able to annex Dalmatia, Ragusa, and further territories on the Adriatic coastline. Some Balkan states, such as Wallachia, Moldova, Serbia, and Bosnia became his vassals, and successful campaigns were led against the Ottomans. In this map, we can see just how far their reach extended during the 14th century, although rule over Wallachia and Moldova was temporary. The last strong Hungarian king was Matthias Corvinus who ruled from 1458 to 1490 and he was the last ruler which attempted a further territorial expansion. He set out to build a realm that would expand to the south and northwest and while he lost some small territories and failed to conquer or reconquer many of the others, he was actually successful in conquering lands to the west and north. We can see his main campaigns in this map. He wanted Hungary to become strong enough to fully push back the Ottomans, which he deemed their biggest threat. And so, he moved against the Holy Roman Empire, going to war with Austria and also Bohemia, thinking that if he could defeat those powers and conquer territory from them, then he would become powerful enough to face the Ottomans and beat them decisively, using a standing mercenary army called the Black Army. But again, the great success was short-lived. Matthias died without a direct successor and the following rulers allowed Hungary to fall into chaos, weakening it and opening the door for Ottoman conquest of their territories. In 1521, the strongest Hungarian fortress in the south, where modern Belgrade is in Serbia, fell to the Turks. And in 1526, the Hungarian army was crushed at the Battle of Mohacs. After this, the Ottomans conquered large areas of Hungarian territory, expanding their rule up to 1556. We can see it here on this map. The territory previously held by the Hungarians was almost entirely occupied by the Ottomans, reorganizing it into Eyalets, an administrative division of the Turks, including the area where modern Hungary is. This period of history is really confusing, but from what I could understand, the remaining Hungarian lands actually broke up into two, the Principality of Upper Hungary and Royal Hungary. The principality maintained some autonomy, but was essentially an Ottoman vassal state. But correct me in the comments if I'm wrong about this. While royal Hungary became a part of the Habsburg monarchy, with the Habsburg king holding most control over it. In fact, the northwestern part of the old kingdom of Hungary, present-day Slovakia, western Transdanubia and Burgenland, plus western Croatia and parts of present-day Hungary itself, remained under Habsburg rule. On this map, we can see how the control of the Habsburgs grew so much during this period and also the one that followed. The Habsburg emperors would, from then on, be crowned also as kings of Hungary. Only over 100 years later, in 1686, did a large European force come together, known as the Holy League, to retake the Balkans from the Turks. A joint army of 74,000 men with German, Croat, Hungarian, Italian, even Danish, French, English and Spanish soldiers defeated the Ottomans and reconquered all the former Hungarian lands. In the Treaty of Karlovitz in 1699, these territorial changes were officially recognized and in 1718, the entire Kingdom of Hungary was removed from Ottoman rule. But while political control of the lands was restored, the amount of Hungarian people that were effectively left and living in those areas was significantly diminished, as a consequence of the constant war of over a century. And it was arguably not the same as before. Hungary was now directly connected with the Habsburgs, and they were the true rulers of Hungary for a great period of time. The territory was restored, in great similarity to what they initially had in that great first kingdom, but the kingdom itself was not. What followed from this point onward was the evolution of Hungary's status within the Habsburg Empire, then transforming into Austria-Hungary, which existed from 1867 to 1918. As far as I know, during this period there were no significant territorial changes, if any at all, to Hungary's territory within the empire, save in 1868 when Croatia was recognized as an autonomous region. In this map, we can see the counties of the kingdom of Hungary within the empire in 1880 and in this one, the percentage of Magyars in the territory. It's very interesting to see that. Despite the distribution being throughout the whole territory, the areas in which the highest concentration took place are in the shape of modern Hungary. The only exception is the highest values being at this eastern tip of Transylvania where a large Hungarian population exists even today. And by this time, we are getting close to Hungary's modern form. However, two key moments of territorial changes were still about to take place, each of them connected to one of the world wars. In the First World War, Hungary was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire still, a member of the Central Powers which were defeated. Upon defeat, the empire was dissolved and its territories divided. Hungary especially lost the vast majority of its land through the Treaty of Trianon. In this map, we can see which territories they lost and to who. Austria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Romania each took a piece of the former kingdom of Hungary. In this other map, we can see the composition of the population in each area and we can see how there were in fact a good number of Hungarians in both Slovakia and Transylvania. And it was a very significant loss of territory. They even made propaganda posters of other countries attempting to illustrate to them what such a loss would mean in their context, the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Italy. Of course, the argument was that those territories were not rightfully Hungarian, being populated in majority by other peoples, which wasn't the case for the comparisons they made. After this moment, Hungary was finally the way we know it today. But one key moment is missing, World War II. As Hungary sided with the Axis powers, its territory grew throughout the war. In 1938, the First Vienna Award granted them a small part of Slovakia when the Germans had annexed the rest. Soon after, they also occupied Carpathian Ruthenia in 1939, just as the war was beginning. The Second Vienna Award awarded them Transylvania once again, taking it away from Romania in 1940. And finally, in 1941, they annexed some of the Yugoslav territories, almost entirely restoring their losses from the Treaty of Trianon. However, the Axis powers were also defeated, and so all of these territorial gains were lost for Hungary, which at the end of the conflict was once again reduced, reaching the territory it has today. Thanks again to Scentbird for sponsoring this video, remember to use the link in the description and the code GK55 if you want to try it out and get 55% off your first month. So, that is the territorial evolution of Hungary, how it began from an early migratory people arriving to central Europe and settling there, to their expansion across neighbouring territories, across the many issues they faced, such as the Mongols and the Ottomans, as well as internal struggles which, at times, led to the loss of land. But allowing us to see how gigantic their territory once was, whether rightfully or not. Being reduced, then recovered, about three different times, but then finally consolidating the land in which the descendants of those original Magyars were, in fact, most common in. The land we today know as Hungary, where they still live, along with many others who joined them there and are rightfully Hungarian as well, perhaps arriving to the region today from somewhere else as the Magyars themselves did in the 9th century. Many Hungarians still live in the areas they lost in 1918 and then again in 1945 and that loss is sometimes still an issue discussed, especially when it comes to Transylvania. Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want and leave a comment below with which country I should do this type of video on next. I will see you next time for more general knowledge.