The Partition of Hungary
The general political chaos became intensified during the first two decades of the 16th century, rendering the nation incapable of effective defense against its foreign foes. In August 1521 a Turkish army under Sultan Suleiman I captured Belgrade and Šabac (both now in Serbia), the chief strongholds of the kingdom in the south. In 1526 Suleiman crushed the Hungarian army at Mohács, where King Louis II and more than 20,000 of his men perished. Following the capture of Buda, on September 10, 1526, Suleiman withdrew from Hungary.
For more than 150 years after the defeat at Mohács, Hungary was the scene of almost continuous strife, chiefly among the Habsburg Holy Roman emperors, who seized control of the western portion of the defunct kingdom; the Turks, who established their suzerainty in the central region; and groups of the native nobility, especially that of Transylvania. In the course of the struggle for control of Hungary, Transylvania became the center of the Magyar movement against Turkish and Austrian, or Habsburg, domination. The Magyars had abandoned the Catholic church during the Reformation, thereby aggravating the enmity of the Habsburgs. After the middle of the 16th century and the beginning of the Counter Reformation, the strife between the Protestant Magyars and the Catholic Habsburgs became increasingly violent. At the end of the Long War (1593-1606), Emperor Rudolf II was forced to grant the Magyars of Transylvania political and religious autonomy, additional territory, and other concessions.
The Transylvanians sided against the Habsburgs during
the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), led at first by Gabriel Bethlen,
prince of Transylvania and king of Hungary. George I Rákóczy,
who succeeded Bethlen as prince of Transylvania in 1631, resumed
the fight against Habsburg domination of western Hungary. In alliance
with the Swedes and French, Rákóczy invaded Austrian
territory in 1644. Emperor Ferdinand III was forced to meet many
of Rákóczy's demands, including the extension of
full freedom of religion to all Hungarians under Habsburg rule.
In the decade following the accession of George II Rákóczy
as prince of Transylvania, the Turks extended their sphere of
influence into Transylvania, gradually reducing it, in effect,
to provincial status. Meanwhile, missionary efforts in the Habsburg
section of Hungary won many people there back into the Roman Catholic
church. Under the influence of the church, these Hungarians abandoned
the nationalist fight against Habsburg overlordship and political
reaction ensued. Increasingly repressive measures were adopted
against Protestants. These persecutions provoked a new revolutionary
uprising in the Hungarian dominions of the Habsburgs. Led by Count
Imre Thököly, the rebels won a series of victories over
the forces of Emperor Leopold I. Thököly obtained the
military support of the Turks in 1682, but in the war that followed,
the emperor's armies succeeded in driving the Turks from most
of Hungary. The collapse of Thököly's insurgent forces
followed swiftly. Besides taking severe reprisals against the
rebel leaders, Leopold forced the Hungarian Diet to declare the
crown of Hungary forever hereditary in the house of Habsburg.
By the provisions of the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, the Turks
retained only the Hungarian Banat, a region they lost 19 years
later. The Treaty of Karlowitz also secured Transylvania to the
Habsburgs.