Encyclopedia
Hungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with
Hungary.
The word
Hungarian has also a wider meaning, because – especially in the past – it referred to all inhabitants of the
Kingdom of Hungary irrespective of their ethnicity. Specifically, the
Latin term
natio hungarica referred to all nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary regardless of their ethnicity.
There are around 9.5 million Magyars in
Hungary . Magyars have been the main inhabitants of the
Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium. Following its disappearance with the
Treaty of Trianon, Magyars have become minority inhabitants of
Romania ,
Slovakia ,
Serbia ,
Ukraine and
Russia ,
Austria ,
Croatia , the
Czech Republic and
Slovenia . Significant groups of people with Magyar ancestry live in various other parts of the world , but unlike the Magyars living within the former Kingdom of Hungary, only a minority of these preserves the Hungarian language and tradition.
There was a referendum in Hungary in December 2004 on whether to grant Hungarian
citizenship to Magyars living outside Hungary's borders . The referendum failed due to the insufficient
voter turnout, and caused some recruitment of the local nationalist movements and parties in the surrounding countries.
Origin of the word "Hungarian"
The word is thought to be derived from the Bulgaro-Turkic
Onogur, possibly because the Magyars were neighbours of the Empire of the Onogurs in the 6th century, whose leading tribal union was called the "Onogurs" .
The H- in many languages is a later addition. It was taken over from the word "
Huns", which was a similar semi-nomadic tribe living some 400 years earlier in present-day Hungary and having a similar way of life . In ancient times, through the Middle Ages, and even today, the identification of
Hungarians with the
Huns has often occurred in history and literature, however this identification began to be disputed around the late 19th century, and is still a source of major controversy among scholars who insist that there could be no direct connection between the two.
Hun names like
Attila and Réka are still popular among Hungarians, and forms derived from Latin
Hungaria are used like in the racetrack
Hungaroring .
Magyar is today simply the Hungarian word for Hungarian. In English and many other languages, however, Magyar is used instead of Hungarian in certain contexts, usually to distinguish ethnic Hungarians from the other nationalities living in the Hungarian kingdom.
Ethnic affiliations and origins of the Hungarian people
The origin of the Hungarians is partly disputed. The most widely accepted
Finno-Ugric theory from the late 19th century is based primarily on linguistic and ethnographical arguments, while it is criticised by some as relying too much on linguistics. There are also other theories stating that the Magyars are descendants of
Scythians,
Huns,
Turks,
Avars, and/or
Sumerians. These are primarily based on medieval legends–whose authenticity and scientific reliability is strongly questionable–and non-systematic linguistic similarities. Most scholars therefore dismiss these claims as mere speculation.
The following section shows the Finno-Ugric theory of the origin of modern Hungarian people. For some other theories see Hungarian prehistory.
Finno-Ugric is a group of related
languages, which does not mean that the peoples currently speaking those languages are equally related in terms of ethnicity. The same holds true, for example, for Indo-European languages. Also, the Ugric Hungarian language is about as distantly related to Finnic languages like
Finnish and Estonian as, e.g., European
Russian is related to
Italian or
Spanish.
East of the Ural mountains
In the 4th millennium BC, some of the earliest settlements of the
Finno-Ugric-speaking peoples were situated east of the
Ural Mountains, where they
hunted and
fished. From there, the Ugrians, i.e., the ancestors of the Magyars, were settled in the wood-steppe parts of western
Siberia –from c. 2000 BC onwards at least. Their settlements were identical with the north-western part of the
Andronovo Culture. Some more advanced tribes coming from the southern steppes taught them how to do agriculture, breed cattle and produce
bronze objects. Around 1500 BC, they started to breed
horses and horse riding became one of their typical activities.
Due to climatic changes in the early 1st millennium BC, the Ugrian subgroup known as the Ob-Ugrians–until then living more in the north–moved to the lower
Ob River, while the Ugrian subgroup that was the ancestor of the proto-Magyars remained in the south and became
nomadic herdsmen. From the definitive departure of the Ob-Ugrians , the ancestors of present day Magyars can be considered a separate ethnic group – the proto-Magyars. During the following centuries, the proto-Magyars still lived in the wood-steppes and steppes southeast of the Ural Mountains, and they were immediate neighbours of and were strongly influenced by the ancient
Sarmatians.
Bashkiria and the Khazar khaganate
In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the Proto-Magyars moved to the west of the Ural Mountains to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the
Volga River .
In the early 8th century, a part of the proto-Magyars moved to the
Don River , a territory called
Levedia. The descendants of those proto-Magyars who stayed in
Bashkiria were seen there as late as in 1241.
Indeed, many historical references related both the Magyars and the
Bashkirs as two branches of the same nation. However, modern Bashkirs are quite different from their original stock, largely decimated during the
Mongol invasion , and assimilated into
Turkic peoples.
The proto-Magyars around the Don River were subordinates of the
Khazar khaganate. Their neighbours were the archaeological Saltov Culture, i.e.
Bulgars and the
Alans, from whom they learned gardening, elements of cattle breeding and of agriculture. The Bulgars and Magyars shared a long-lasting relationship in
Khazaria, either by alliance or rivalry. The system of 2 rulers is also thought to be a major inheritance from the Khazars. Tradition holds that the Magyars were organized in a confederacy of seven tribes called
Jeno,
Kér,
Keszi,
Kürt-Gyarmat,
Megyer ,
Nyék, and
Tarján.
Etelköz
Around 830, a civil war broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar tribes out of the Khazars joined the Magyars and they moved to what the Magyars call the
Etelköz, i.e. the territory between the
Carpathians and the
Dnieper River . Around 854, the Magyars had to face a first attack by the
Pechenegs. Both the Kabars and earlier the
Bulgars may have taught the Magyars their
Turkic languages; according to the Finno-Ugric theory, this is used to account for at least 300 Turkic words and names still in modern Hungarian. The new neighbours of the Magyars were the
Vikings and the eastern
Slavs. Archaeological findings suggest that the Magyars entered into intense interaction with both groups. From 862 onwards, the Magyars along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of looting raids from the Etelköz to the Carpathian Basin–mostly against the
Eastern Frankish Empire and
Great Moravia, but also against the
Balaton principality and
Bulgaria.
Entering the Carpathian Basin
In 895/896, probably under the leadership of
Árpád, a part of them crossed the Carpathians to enter the
Carpathian basin. The tribe called Magyars was the leading tribe of the Magyar alliance that conquered the center of the basin. At the same time , the Magyars in Etelköz were attacked by
Bulgaria , and then by their old enemies, the Pechenegs. It is uncertain whether or not those conflicts were the cause of the Magyar departure from Etelköz.
In the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars initially occupied the Great Moravian territory at the upper/middle
Tisza river–a scarcely populated territory, where, according to Arabian sources, Great Moravia used to send its criminals, and where the
Roman Empire had settled the Iazyges centuries earlier. From there, they intensified their looting raids all over continental Europe. In 900, they moved from the upper Tisza river to Transdanubia , which later became the core of the arising Hungarian state. Their allies, the Kabars, probably led by Kursan, probably settled in the region around
Bihar.
Remnants of the
Avars lived in the southwest and
Romanians in the east and southeast, although the latter is a matter of controversy . After the battle of Augsburg , the Magyars gradually changed their pastoral way of life to an agricultural one and borrowed hundreds of agricultural Slavic words. See
History of Hungary for a continuation, and Hungary before the Magyars for the background.
Many of the Magyars, however, remained to the north of the Carpathians after 895/896, as archaeological findings e.g. in
Polish Przemysl suggest. They seem to have joined the other Magyars in 900. There is also a consistent Hungarian population in
Transylvania that is historically not related to the Magyars led by Árpád: the
Székelys, the main ethnic component of the Hungarian minority in Romania. They are fully acknowledged as Magyars. The Székely people's origin, and in particular the time of their settlement in Transylvania, is a matter of historical controversy .
History after 900
The Magyar leader
Árpád is believed to have led the Hungarians into the
Carpathian Basin in 896. Magyar expansion was checked at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. Hungarian settlement in the area became approved by the
Pope by the crowning of
Stephen I the Saint in 1001 when the leaders accepted
Christianity. The century between the Magyars' arrival from the eastern European plains and the consolidation of the
Kingdom of Hungary in 1001 was dominated by pillaging campaigns across Europe, from Dania to the
Iberian peninsula .
At the Hungarian conquest, the Hungarian nation numbered between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people. The Slavic population of the region was also nearly fully assimilated by the Magyars, except those living in present-day
Croatia and
Slovakia. Croatia joined the Kingdom in 1102.
The first accurate measurements of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary including ethnic composition were carried out in 1850-51. There is a debate among Magyar and non-Magyar historians about the possible changes in the ethnic structure throughout history.
- Some historians support the theory that the Magyars' percentage in the Carpathian Basin was at an almost constant 80% during the Middle Ages, and began to decrease only at the time of the Ottoman conquest, reaching as low as around 39% in the end of the 18th century. The decline of the Magyars was due to the constant wars, famines and plagues during the 150 years of Ottoman rule. The main zones of war were the territories inhabited by the Magyars, so the death toll among them was much higher than among other nationalities. In the 18th century their percentage declined further because of the influx of new settlers from Germany, Serbia, and other countries.
- Some Slovak and Romanian historians tend to emphasise the multi-ethnic nature of the Kingdom even in the Middle Ages and argue that the drastic change in the ethnic structure hypothesized by Hungarian historians in fact did not occur. Therefore, the Magyars are supposed to have accounted only for about 30-40% of the Kingdom's population since its establishment. In particular, there is a fierce debate among Magyar and Romanian historians about the ethnic composition of Transylvania through the times; see Origin of Romanians.
In the
19th century, the percentage of Magyars in the Kingdom of Hungary rose gradually, reaching over 50% by 1900. Spontaneous assimilation was an important factor, especially between the German and Jewish minorities and the citizens of the bigger towns. Magyarization of the nationalities was a declared policy of the Hungarian government in the second half of the 19th century.
The years 1918 - 1920 were a turning point in the Magyars' history. By the
Treaty of Trianon, the Kingdom had been cut into several parts, leaving only 1/4 of its original size, and about one third of the Magyars became minorities in the neighbouring countries. In the 20th century the Magyar population of Hungary grew from 7,1 million to around 10,4 million , in spite of the big human loss in the second world war and the wave of emigration after the failed revolution in 1956. The number of Hungarians in the neighboring countries mostly stagnated or slightly decreased, because of the assimilation, emigration to Hungary and natural decrease.
After the "baby boom" of the 1960s a serious demographic crisis began to develop in Hungary, parallel to the neighbouring countries. The Magyars reached their highest point in 1980 and after that they began to sink. The Magyar population of Hungary and neighbouring countries is expected to further decrease to 7-8 million by 2050.
The Magyars represent today only around 35% of the population of the Carpathian Basin. Their number is appr. 12-13 million in 2006, almost the same as in 1910. While other ethnic groups increased their numbers 2 or 3 times during the 20th century, the Magyar population stagnated. The increase of population in Hungary was the third slowest in the world after Bulgaria and St. Kitts & Nevis between 1950 and 2000–only 8.6% .
Later influences
Besides the various peoples mentioned above, who mixed with the Magyars during their long way to and at their arrival in Hungary, the Magyars also include an input from other peoples settled in this territory after the arrival of the Magyars, for example the
Cumanians,
Pechenegs, Jazones,
Germans and other Western-European settlers in the
Middle Ages.
Romanians and
Slovaks have lived together and blended with Magyars since early medieval times.
Turks who occupied the central part of present-day Hungary from c. 1541 to c. 1699 and especially the various nations , that settled depopulated territories after the departure of the Turks in the 18th century all added their important contribution in composing the modern Hungarian nation. The advanced economic and political conditions of the Slavs, who had been settling in the entire area, exerted a significant influence over the newly-arrived Magyars after 896 ; in fact, several Hungarian words relating to agriculture, politics, religion and handicrafts, were borrowed from Slavic languages. Both
Jewish and
Roma minorities have been living in Hungary since the Middle Ages.
Maps and images
See also
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References
External links
