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Karacsonyi, Janos
The historical right of the
Hungarian nation
EAST-EUROPEAN PROBLEMS
N10.
The
Historical Right of the Hungarian Nation
to its Territorial Integrity
BY
DR(JOHN)KARACSONYI
Member of the Hungarian Academy of Science.
23 1924
LONDON 1920 NEW-YORK
LOW, W. DAWSON & SONS STEIGER & COM P.
BUDAPEST
FERDINAND PFEIFER (ZEIDLER BROTHERS)
The Historical Right of the Hungarian
nation to its Territorial Integrity.
The united attacks of' the Bulgars and Pet-
chenechs compelled the Magyars in 896 a. D. to
emigrate from the lower Danube, the present terri-
tory of Roumania, to Hungary, where along the
shores of the rivers Duna and Tisza the state of
Hungary was founded more than a thousand years
ago. No rights of other nations have been violated
by this occupancy for at that time no other organised-
states existed in this territory, it was an un'm-^
habited bare land as proved by the king of England.
Alfred the Great.
Ten years later the Hungarians conquered the
so-called Moravian and Pannonian Slavs extending
thereby the borders of their land up to the rivers Morva
and Lajta. However the Hungarians did not exter-
minate these Moravian and Pannonian Slavs, on the
contrary they became their fellow citizens, their
brothers, who were on the other hand eagerly
seeking their friendship and their assistance against
the Germans. Thus in the X XII. ' centuries the
Pannonian Slavs "became leaders, members of the
Hungarian nobility, soldiers. In time these Slavs
have been entirely absorbed by the Magyars through
this close connection and the Hungarian language
has taken over many Slav words.
10. sz.
John Kardcsonyi
These ancient Moravian and Pannonian Slavs
have nothing to. do with the present Czechs,
Slovaks and Upper-Moravians. Xhe old Slav words
incorporated into the Hungarian language clearly
prove that these Moravian and Pannonian Slavs
spoke an entirely different language from that of
the Czechs or Slovaks. They did not even live on
the same territor}' where Upper-Moravians and the
Slovaks of to day reside, for their realm was situated
on the plains bordered by the present Lower-Austria
and by the rivers Morva and Garam. Either Deveny
or Pozsony was their capital. .
During the reign of St. Stephen the Hungarian
nation was drawn into the sphere of Western culture.
lie introduced the Christian Catholic religion and
'transplanted Western administration , and justice.
f\Ca-cx>xHungary became a centrally organised kingdom,
acknowledged by the great Western Christian states,-
not only by Germany, but by France and England too.
ical and commercial treaties were concluded
ith Hungary and family ties were formed with
the family of the Hungarian king.
The powerful Hungarian state, erected on Wes-
tern culture, then started to colonise those parts
of Hungary left uninhabited by the migration of
the nations.
The north western mountainous parts of Hun-
gary were in the IX XI. centuries the dividing,
territory between Hungary and Poland and begin-
ning with 1009 between Hungary and the Moravian
and Polish dukedoms. The Czechs have never had
any right to this territory for as far back as 996
the Czech dukedom reached only as far as Koniggratz
and Pardubitz and the new Moravian dukedom
created in the years 100309 belonged to the king
of Poland. Even the demands (not just claims)
filed by the then crowned king Vratiszlav in 1086
pertained to the valleys of Upper-Odera and Upper-
The Historical Right of the Hungarian Nation :\
Morva only. The fact that in the XV. century the
Czech Hussites invaded our territory for the pure
love of plundering and later on the mercenary Giskra
ordered by the Habsburg dynasty, do not consti-
tute any just claim to the land.
In the time of St. Ladislaus when the Moravian
and Polish dukes were bound by family ties to the
king of Hungary there was no further reason for
the existence of a bare territory dividing the two
realms and so colonisation started. First the members
of the royal household were moving from Nyitra to
Trencsen, from Bars to Zolyom, from Hont to Lip to
and Gomor counties, but as these were only few in
numbers and the clearing of forests not to their
liking, Germans were settled there and later on the
ancestors of the Slovaks of to-day were permitted
to emigrate from the upper valleys of the Morva-
Odera and Visztula. These ancestors of the Slovaks
while living in the northern part of the Carpathians
were called in the X XL centuries the White-
Croatiaris. This goes to show that even then they
differed and as to their tongue differ even now to
a very great extent from the Czechs and Poles.
Documents are still existing showing that this
territory has been colonised mostly by the so-called
"soltesz", a sort of contractor who brought people
from foreign lands in order to clear the forests.
Besides these documents all names of cities or
townships ending with l 'Hau" or "vagas" (cut)
prove that this territory was colonised at a later
date and from authentic documents it can be shown
that all colonisation has been started by the Hunga-
rian kings, noblemen or the clergy. Especially the
clergy of Esztergom and the one of Nyitra (founded
around 1 1 16) has taken care of the imigrant Slovaks,
built churches and schools for them. Peter Pazmany
provided them even with priests speaking their
own language and since 1 790 they have an extented
John Karacsonyi
literature of their own, by means of which they were
able to hold on to their nationality to such an extent
that even the famous Czech ethnographer Konla
had to admit that not only their language but also
their dress, their architecture a. s. o. is entirely
different from that of the Czechs and the other
Slovaks. Schools and .offices were always open to
them and many of those who did not attempt the
destruction of Hungary attained without opposition
the foremost positions.
In the north-eastern part of our country the
Carpathian Mountains and valleys were also unin-
habited in the X XIILcenturies for these parts served
as a division between Hungary and Red-Russia. Docu-
ments of 1243, 1263, 1270, 1272, 1278 and 1284
bear witness to the fact how far the hunting grounds
(loco venation-is regum) reached, which were abundant
in game but scarce in population.
Red-Russia came in 1349 under the rule of
Kazmer, king of Poland, an uncle of the king of
Hungary and later on in 1370 under the rule of the
king of Hungary himself. In these' times there came
Ruthenians from Red-Russia, to pasture their cattle
in this uninhabited territory, first according to a
law enacted in 1426 only temporarily, but as it
soon became known that the forests yielded much
larger revenues ^when inhabited, the king and
some other nobleaen settled many Ruthenians in
this territory, in which especially the two contractors
Soltesz and Kenez assisted him. In the northern
part of the county of Zemplen no less than 136
such "Soltesz" settlements were in existence, show-
ing that the colonisation there has started not so
very long ago.
The Ruthenians have been exempted by the
Hungarians from paying tithes. They were permitted
around 1410 to have an ecclesiastical head in
the person of the Bishop of Munkacs, who was
The Historical Right of tin- Hungarian Nation
compelled by Gabriel Bethlen in 1627 to found a
Gymnasium (highschool). After 1647 many a Ruthe-
nian youth has been educated in Hungarian schools
and the Ruthenian literature started in Hungary '
as early as 1698.
At the time of the Hungarian immigration the
greatest territory left uninhabited was in the south-
eastern part of the country. This territory being
situated beyond great forests has been called Tran-
sylvania or Erclely. It was left uninhabited in 896
for the only reason that next to this territory in
Roumania of to-day their most cruel but also the
strongest enemies of the Hungarians, the Beskides
(Bessenyok) lived. This has 'been attested to by
the Greek emperor Constantinus Porphyrogenitus
in 950.
The allegation therefore that the Olahs or
Roumanians of to-day have inhabited this territory
continuously since the colonisation inaugurated by
emperor Trajan is false. We have the statements
of three authors Flavius Vopiscus, Eutropius and
Rofus Lextus that the Roman emperors removed
all the inhabitans from Dacia to the left shore of
the Danube. There did not remain a single Roman,
hence no Roumanian or Olah could descend from
him.
The falsehood that the Olahs or Roumanians
originate from Dacia is proved by their own
language too. Philology has shown without doubt
that the Olah or Roumanian language originated
in the VII X. centuries only. It originated from
the language of those herdsmen who were trans-
planted from southern Italy to Albania and Thessalia.
On the other hand it is also proved without" doubt
that Transylvania and Roumania of to-day was
occupied by the Western Goths from 260376,
by the Eastern Goths from 376 452 (under the
rule of the Kuns) by the Gepids from 452 568,
later on by the Slavs under the rule of the Avares.
In the VII. century this territory was called
Slavonia by the Greek. After the downfall of the
Avares and the retreat oT the Slavs, Transylvania
and the mountainous counties Krasso-Szoreny have
been left uninhabited and only Roumania with her
fertile pastures has been occupied by the Bulgars,
Magyars and Bessenyos.
During the reign of St. Stephen vigorous Hun-
gary started gradually to occupy and to colonise
Transylvania. He occupied in 1010 the valley
of the river Szamos situated in northwestern
Transsylvania, built cities and townships and popu-
lated them with Magyars. In 1092 St. Ladislaus
linked the valleys of the Maros and the Kiskukullo
to Hungary and populated them with Magyars
and Szekelys. King Geza II. permitted the Wallon-
Italians and Saxons emigrating from Burich and
Tachen to settle in the territory of Segesvar and
kagyszeben.v Finally in 1211 the German Order
of Knights started the colonisation of the territory
of Brasso with the permission of King Andrew II.
In 1245 the number of the Magyars, Szekelys
and Saxons was diminished by the murderous
attacks of the Tartars to such extent that their
expansion ceased though-, the higher located moun-
tainous parts of this territory were still bare. For
this reason the kings of Hungary permitted shepherds
of Roumania and Bulgaria to settle there. They
were used partly as frontier-guard partly as soldiers
and stood under the jurisdiction of special authori-
ties, the so called "Vajdak". The rest was colo-
nised by contractors so called "Kenez" who acted
for a long time as their judges also.
Not counting therefore that little fraction trans-
planted by King Bela III in 1183 from the territory
of Sofia Nish to Kercz- (in order to act as bor-
derguard) the Olahs (Roumanians) immigrated into
The Historical Right of the Hungarian Nation
our country only after 1245. In 1293 their number
was still so small that there would have been
plenty of room for all of them in the valley of
Szekos, east of Gyulafehervar, an area of no
more than 25 square miles. Their number increased
however to a large extent in the XIV. century
when extended settlements were in progress. Most
of the settlers came into the mountainous counties
of Krasso-Szoreny, Hunyad Alsofehervar, Zarand,
Bihar, Szatmar and Maramaros. From these the
large landowners derived some income too as most
of the settlers raised hogs and cattle. In order to
give an asylum to the aforementioned "Vajda's"
from Roumania, the Hungarian kings ceded the
forts of Fogaras and Omlas to them, Vajda Vlajko
settled these new Roumanians in the county of
Fogaras, which territory has everi in 1372 still been
called "nova plantatio", new settlement. From at
least 229 Olah or Roumanian townships we can
prove with authentic documents that they were
founded after 1 241 and for about more than 500 town-
ships and cities we have proofs that the Olahs settled
there only after 1526 in place of the extinct Hun-
garians. During the five years from 1641 1646
no less than 10,000 Olah families, that is 50,000
people immigrated into Hungary from Roumania,
as can be proved by contemporary writers.
As at the time of their immigration the Olahs
(Roumanians) were under the leadership of Bulgar-
Slav Kenez and Bulgar-Slav -priests, the language
of their public worship was for centuries old-
Slav. Especially here in Hungary the Protestant
sovereigns of Transylvania and some Transylvanian
Protestant ministers were eager to introduce to the
new settlers Western culture and persuaded their
priests to abandon the old-Slavic language. The
Holy Scriptures were translated into Olah (Rou-
manian) and the priests compelled to preach in
Roumanian. After a good many of them changed
faith and became Catholics, the Hungarian Catholic
clergy sent many Roumanian young men to Rome
and Vienna by whom the Roumanian, national
literature was started. Furthermore many Hungarian
scientists, educators and tradesmen went over to
Roumania.
It was therefore the Hungarian nation - - as
we see which introduced culture into Transyl-
vania. The Hungarian created such a feeling of
public safety that the Olahs trustfully settled down
and acquired the first rudiments of justice and
administration.
It would be a terrible injustice therefore to
tear away Transylvania from the Hungarians
who after the horrors of the immigration of the
nations were first to plough this soil, who received
the Saxons and Olahs with friendship. It would be
a terrible injustice also to cede Transylvania to a
nation which immigrated three centuries later to
the then already safe territory.
Into the southern part of our country immigrated
but only after 1389 that tribe of the Serb people
which was called Racz. Up to that time only Hun-
garians lived in this territory and French travellers
of the XIII XV. centuries bear witness to it that
this part of the land always belonged. immediately
to the Hungarian kingdom. This Racz people never
claimed for themselves special rights or special terri-
tory, only those Serbs who fled from Old Servia at the
end of 1690 did so. This claim was unjust for empe-
ror-king Leopold I and also his generals as can
be proved by their letters -- promised special terri-
tory and special government only in case they
should be brought back to their old country, to
Servia. This is acknowledged by the most famous
historian of the Serbs, by Hilarian Buvaracz and
by their foremost leader Szava Tokoly. Besides this
The Historical Right of ihe Hun^u-jan Nation
in 1792 even this unjust claim to special territory
and special rights was renounced by all the Serbs
inhabiting Hungary, in consideration of which they
received a form of ^selfgovernment and such special
rights in regard to schools and churches that, shortly
after their literature was started and schools were
built, the students of which became the first wor-
kers for the national culture in Servia after it was
freed from the oppression of the Turks in 1864.
Would it not be peculiar if the Hungarians
would loose their own home procured and defended
with their own lifeblood just because they gave
shelter to the poor immigrating Serbs !
The parts beyond the Drava were not the
dwellingplaces of some one unified nation but
can be divided into three sections according to
history, geography and ethnography.
The eastern part of the Bulgarian territory
located between the Drava and Szava has been
occupied by the Hungarians in 897- The Bulgars
had neither geographical nor historical rights to
this territory. Porphyrogeneta Constantiri is witness
to it that this part has been in possession of Hunga-
rians as early as 950 wherefore the Hungarian kings
St. vStephen and St. Ladislaus subordinated its po-
pulation to the Bishop of Pecs and Kalocsa. Then
entirely Hungarian counties with Hungarian juris-
diction have been organised.
After the bloody battle of .Rigomezo in 1389
the Serbs joined the Turks till 1406 and together
devastated this territory. The Turks continued
this, from 1458 1526. By and by this territory
became depopulated. Later on, but especially after
1526, so called Racz (Serbs) settled down in
great numbers so that in the XVII. and at
the beginning of the XVIII. century this territory
was called Little-Raczia. In 1 746 it has been linked
partly with the military borderguard territory
10 ^ John Kardcsonyi
partly^ it became subordinated to the Banus of
Croatia and Slavonia under the name of Lower-
Slavonia, but as to taxes and representation they
still were subordinated directly to the Hungarian
government. Since 1848 viz. since 1871 it is
entirely a part of the Banate of Croatia-Slavonia.
The population .of the western part of the
territory located between the Drava and Szava is
not Croatian but Slavonian and has a special
(Kojkavci) dialect. Only in 1443 and after 1528
did real Croatians settle there.
This territory belonged from 8431083 to
the German Empire. In 896 it was governed by
the duke of Braszlav. In 901 it came to Bavaria,
in 976 to .Carinthia. St. Ladislaus making war
upon the Germans in 1082 83 in order to compel
the German emperor Henry IV. to abandon the
storming of Rome, ( occupied this territory and
connected it with Hungary to which the German
emperor agreed, according to the peace treaty
of 1092.
The Croatian kings themselves never laid any
claims to this territory and never possessed it.
They did not build a single fort^ a single church.
It is a mistake to assert that one of the Bishops,
territory - - mentioned in the proceedings of the
Council of Spalato in 926 was located here
for the territorry between the Drava and Szava
always belonged to Pannonia. This archbishop of
Dalmatia and the bishops subordinated to him
could therefore have no jurisdiction. On the con-
trary, the memories of the German rule were still
noticable even in the XIII - XV. c'enturies partly
in the taxes similar to those in Carinthia, partly
in the names* of official boards.
St. Ladislaus in order to elevate the neglected
Slavon people in the territory situated between the
Drava and Szava established a bishopric seat in
The Historical Right of the Hnn^inun' Nation It
Zagreb and by dividing this territory into three
counties, introduced Hungarian jurisdiction. Only
in 1190 did king Adalbert III. join the three coun-
ties Koros, Zagreb and Varasd to the dukedom
of Croatia of which his son was the ruler. And
as the Croatian dukedom was also called the Slav
dukedom, the name of Slavonia was applied to
these three counties too, and from 1241 to 1746
this territory has been constantly called Slavonia.
It is clear therefore that also the western part
of the territory situated between the Drava and
Szava has been civilised by the Hungarians. The
Hungarians defended it against the spreading of
the Turks, but they never suppressed the mother-
tongue of its population and always helped to
develop their selfgovernment. The population
appreciating this clung to the Hungarians faithfully
up to the XVII. century. Under Hungarian influence
its Catholic literature (the Protestant literature stood
under the influence of the German and Slovenian
clergy) was started, their jurisdiction especially pri-
vate law was the same as in Hungary, so that
the famous Tripartitum of Verboczy has been
translated and published by Pergosid in the Slavon
language in 1574.
Old Croatia was located south of the river
Kulpa and the mountain Gozd in the valleys of
the Urna, Koka and Cetina. It was from 8001059
a separate dukedom. In 10591090 a separate
kingdom. Around 1063 Geza I. king of Hungary
married the sister of Peter Krekimir, king of
Croatia. In 1090 the male line of the Croatian
king being extinct, Croatia by right of female
lineage became transferred to the sons of Geza I.
king of Hungary. For this reason Almos, the
second son of Geza I. and with the bein of his
uncle St. Ladislaus has been made king of Croatia
in 1091.
12 John Kardcsony
In 1095, however, Almos resigned from the
Kingdom of Croatia in order to secure for himself
the Hungarian dukedom of the territory located
beyond the Tisza and transferred the Croatian
Kingdom to his brother Coloman, king of Hun-
gary. Coloman after suppressing Croatian insurrec-
tions in 1096 united Croatia with Hungary as his
inheritance from his mother's side. Later on in
1104 Coloman made an agreement with the em-
peror of Greece; the then ruler of the cities of
Dalmatia and linked these cities to Hungary also.
To the Croatians and Italians living in these
Dalmatian cities selfgovernment was granted. The
Croatians were able to go to war under the ruler-
ship of "their Bans, special judges passed senten-
ces on them and they could even maintain their
old letters. The citizens of Dalmatia too elected
their own officials and kept strictly to their habi-
tual rights.
Thus the Hungarian nation did not become an
oppressor of the Croatians but on the contrary its
saviour. If the Croatians would not have come
into such a close contact with the Hungarians, the
pressing Serbs would have assimilated them enti-
w*vu * rely in the XIII. century, depriving them of their
~~" language and culture. Besides this in 1493 and
, 15012 the Hungarians defended them against the
Turks, as far as this could be done, and when
^j, the Croatians had to flee from their old country
u-7 Sx/i4-o in 1528, the Hungarians received them cordially,
granting them special rights.
Anything published by Croatian historians con-
trary to these facts is based either on error or
untruth.
It is untrue that the Croatians submitted them-
selves to the king of Hungary by an international
agreement in 1 102. A canon of Spalato has written
something to this effect in 1330 but his report
The Historical Right of the Hungarian Nation \_3
shows such great ignorance that in the face or
authentic data the assertions of so illiterate a person
can be accepted by ignorant or prejudiced people
on ly.
It is untrue furthermore that Coloman has been
crowned Croatian king in Tenger-Belgrad in 1102.
The charter of Zara referring to this is a fraud
committed by the solicitor of the nuns of Zara 90
years later. But this so^citor made so many diplo-
matic errors in preparing this forgery that only
those can be misled by it, who want to be misled.
However, even he did ndt dare to report that king
Coloman has been crowned "regem Croatiae", so
that just the decisive proof jis missing. Granting
even that the crowning has taken place in Tenger-
Belgrad this could have been only the usual intro-
ductory crowning.
Bosnia and Herzegovina also fell as an inheri-
tance to the royal Hungarian family. King Adalbert
II. married the daughter of the first duke of Bosnia,
whose dowry Bosnia or otherwise called Rama he
Bestowed upon his son Ladislaus in 1138. It is
true that this Bosnia became an independent king-
dom but true is also that this independent kingdom
had been utterly destroyed by the Turks in 1463.
One year later king Mathevvs I. reconquered the
northertly part of Bosnia- from the Turks and from
the Bosniaks, renewing the rights of the Hunga-
rian kings. The dukes of Herzegovina on the other
hand have themselves taken refuge with the kings
of Hungary when in 1'482 Herzegovina was occu-
pied by the Turks.
Bosnia as well as Herzegovina remained under
the jurisdiction of their own bans and dukes and
adhered to their customes because Hungary never
.annihilated any other nationality and never tried
to abolish customs not in contradiction with the
public safety. Both countries were flourishing
If you want to- keep abreast of events in
East Europe
read the following publications:
East European Problems
No. 1 . The Peace-Treaty Proposed to Hun-
gary. By Count Albert Apponyi.
No. 2. Establishment of Three States in
the Place of One. By A Kovdcs.
No. 3. The Solution of the Fiume Question.
By > Ddrdqy.
No. 4. The Gfeogfaphica4 Impossibility of
the^zeckState; ^ By Dr. Francis Fodor.
No. 5. Can Roumanian Rufre in East-Hun-
gary Last? By A. Kovdcs.
No. 6. West-Hungary. By Gustav Thirring.
No. 7. The Martyrdom of Croatia.
By C Battorich.
No. 8 The Hungarians of Moldavia. By
John TatrosL
No. 9. The Hungarian-Polish Frontier
Question.
No 10. The Historical Right of the Hungarian
, ; ^a|ipin to its Territorial Integrity.
By John Kafdcsotiyi.
For specimen copy please apply to
Low, W. Dawsons & Sons, London E. C.
St. Dunstan's House, Fleet Street.
Steiger & Comp. New-York E. 49 Murray Street.
Ferd. Pfeifer (Zeidler Brothers), Budapest IV.
7 Kossuth Lajos Street.
D Karacsonyi, Janos
651 The historical right of
H7K37 the Hungarian nation
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