Slovakia in the early modern period
Civil War (1526-1538)
On August 29, 1526, the troops of the Kingdom of Hungary suffered a crushing defeat by the Turks (the Ottoman Empire ) at Mohács , in which King Ludwig II was also killed. A day later, his wife Maria and the royal court from Buda / Ofen fled to Pressburg (now Bratislava ). The huge one-day battle is considered to be the border between the Middle Ages and modern times in the history of Slovakia .
In November 1526, a group of noblemen had Johann Zápolya crowned king by the Slovak bishop Štefan Podmanický from Nitra / Neutra. Johann Zapolya was the kingdom's richest nobleman, Duke of Transylvania , and he owned huge estates in Slovakia too . In December of the same year, however, another group elected the Habsburg Ferdinand I , Maria's brother, to be king and had him crowned by the same bishop a year later . A civil war followed in 1527–1538 , in which the supporters of the two opposing kings fought against each other and which very often took place in Slovakia [especially southwestern Slovakia, mining towns]. In 1528 Johann Zapolya became a vassal and ally of the Ottomans . After the Peace of Oradea in 1538, Zapolya remained Eastern Slovakia , Carpathian Ukraine and Transylvania and Ferdinand remained the rest of Slovakia as well as the areas of the Kingdom of Hungary not yet occupied by the Turks (i.e. western and central Slovakia, Burgenland , Croatia ) . It was also agreed that the Habsburgs would receive the territories of Zapolya after his death.
Collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary and Reformation (1540–1604)
After the death of Zapolya in 1540, the supporters of Zapolyas broke the peace of Oradea / Großwardein and elected Johann Zapolya's son Johann Sigismund instead of Ferdinand I. In 1541 the Turks conquered Buda / Ofen and the Kingdom of Hungary was definitely divided into three parts by the end of the 17th century:
- The Habsburg "Royal Hungary" (in fact a Habsburg province): today's Slovakia (except for Turkish areas in the southernmost central Slovakia) + a small part of northeastern Hungary as well as Burgenland and western Croatia. They were all areas that were almost exclusively inhabited by non- Magyars (Germans and Slavs).
- Transylvania in what is now western Romania (subsequently extended to eastern Slovakia), which was a Turkish vassal and later the starting point for the anti-Habsburg uprisings (see below) in Slovakia
- The Turkish province in present-day Hungary, which was a direct part of the Ottoman Empire .
In 1543 the Turks also conquered Esztergom / Gran, whereby the Turkish border reached today's Slovakia for the first time. Esztergom / Gran became the starting point for Turkish campaigns in neighboring Habsburg Slovakia. A Turkish campaign of 1552 initiated in principle a long Turkish-Habsburg war that lasted with interruptions until 1568 (Peace of Edirne ). The Turks also conquered other areas in southern central Slovakia from 1552 to 1554 - the areas around the cities of Šahy , Ďarmoty , Szécsény , Fiľakovo and Šalgovo . From Fiľakovo, the Turks also often plundered the Slovak mining towns and the Spiš . In principle, however, the Turkish-Habsburg borders in Slovakia were constantly changing. In the Turkish-Habsburg border areas, the residents (even in the 17th century) had to endure the tribulation and looting on both sides.
A relatively quiet period followed from 1568 to 1592. In the 1570s, today's town of Nové Zámky / Neuhäusel was built as a completely new border fortress.
Although Slovakia remained formally part of Hungary, more than 400 years of Magyar-influenced politics came to an end at the beginning of the 16th century with the Turkish conquest of today's Hungary, and policies determined by the House of Habsburgs prevailed. For example, the Hungarian Chamber founded by Emperor Ferdinand , the supreme economic and administrative authority, had its seat in Pressburg from 1531 to 1848. Parallel to the occupation of today's Hungary by the Turks, all the institutions of the kingdom were relocated to Slovakia. The royal court fled to Pressburg as early as August 1526. In 1529 the Hungarian central authorities also fled to Pressburg. In 1536 Pressburg was finally declared the capital and coronation city of Hungary by the Hungarian parliament. The central authorities stayed in Pressburg until 1784, the coronations of Hungarian kings took place here from 1563 to 1830 and the sessions of the Hungarian state parliament were held here from 1542 to 1848. The Hungarian state parliament was held a few times in other Slovak cities (e.g. in 1543 in Banská Bystrica / Neusohl). From 1541–1820 Trnava / Tyrnau was also the seat of the Archdiocese of Esztergom / Gran, which was conquered by the Turks in 1543, and thus became the center of the Church and the Counter-Reformation in Royal Hungary.
The Turkish conquest of what is now Hungary also changed the ethnic structure of Slovakia.
1547 Royal Hungary primarily for military purposes in two was marginal head Teams (Grenzgeneralate; Slovak kapitanáty ) divided. One was Slovakia, the other the remaining areas. From 1563 to 1686 the territory of Slovakia was then divided into 2 border chiefs - "Zisdanubia and Mining Cities" in western and central Slovakia and "Upper Hungary" in eastern Slovakia as well as in small parts of northeastern present-day Hungary and Carpathian Ukraine. Until about the end of the 17th century, the term Upper Hungary referred to eastern Slovakia and the adjacent areas, and Lower Hungary the rest of Slovakia and the rest of Royal Hungary.
Already appeared in Slovakia in 1521, the Reformation spread quickly in Slovakia during the warlike years around the middle of the 16th century. After the assembly at Pressburg in 1548 strict regulations especially against the radical Reformation Anabaptist movement (in Slovakia in terms of the Hutterites and Habaner ) and Calvinists had adopted, were in Slovakia, following the example of the Augsburg Confession three confessions (moderate Protestant "religions “) To prevent accusations of heresy : In 1549 Leonhard Stöckel from Bardejov / Bartfeld wrote the Confessio Pentapolitana for the cities of the Pentapolitana , followed in 1559 by the Confessio Heptapolitana (or Montana) for the cities of the Heptapolitana and in 1569 the Confessio Scepusiana of the Spiš cities . At the end of the 16th century, the Slovak and German Protestants were mostly supporters of the Augsburg Confession of Martin Luther , while the Magyars became largely Calvinists under the influence of Matthias Dévay . In 1562 the first Jesuits , the harbingers of the Counter-Reformation, were invited to Slovakia by Archbishop Mikuláš Oláh . The book Luther's Catechism , published in Bardejov / Bartfeld in 1581, was the first printed book in the Slovak language .
15 Years War (1593–1606) and uprising by Stephan Bocskay (1604–1606)
After an economic crisis in the Ottoman Empire, another war broke out against the Turks (1593-1606) in 1593. It is known as the 15-year-old or the Long War. In its last phase it coincided with the anti-Habsburg uprising of Stephan Bocskay (1604-1606). With regard to the territory of Slovakia, in addition to border shifts, there was mainly devastation on the part of the Turks in 1599 in large areas of western and central Slovakia, where they also abducted thousands of people.
In 1604, however, the anti-Habsburg uprising of Stephan Bocskay broke out in Slovakia , helping the Turks to regain territories that they had previously lost in the Fifteen Years' War (e.g. 1604 Pest , 1605 Esztergom / Gran). The uprising of Stephan Bocskay (1604–1606) was the first of a series of anti-Habsburg uprisings that took place almost exclusively in Slovakia in the following century (except for the last) (1604–1711). Common characteristics of the uprisings were that they were directed against the Habsburgs, against the Counter-Reformation and against Viennese centralism , and that they were usually supported by the Ottomans (Turks). But each of them also had very specific causes. In 1604, after some fighting in autumn, Bocskay conquered eastern Slovakia, and by October 1605, supported by the Turks and Slovak aristocrats, he conquered all of Slovakia, except for Pressburg. In the summer of 1605 he even tried to penetrate into Moravia and Austria .
In 1606 the 15-year war and the uprising were ended by a peace signed at Hurbanovo (peace extensions were made in 1615, 1618, 1625, 1627, 1650), which gave Hungary freedom of religion, among others. During the subsequent period of peace, the Evangelical was accordingly in 1607 in Bratislava Lyceum founded, which played an important role later in the history of Slovaks, and 1609 was the Slovak Juraj Turzo ( Georg Thurzo ), a great patron of the Protestants and the Slovaks, the Palatine elected . The freedom of religion, newly won in 1606, quickly came to an end, as the Counter-Reformation successfully prevailed. As early as 1611, the Catholic Synod of Trnava / Tyrnau , organized by the Slovak Archbishop František Forgáč , adopted measures for an intensive Counter-Reformation. In 1616 a Hungarian, the Jesuit Peter Pázmaň (Pazmány), who later founded the Pasmaneum in Vienna in 1623 , was appointed Archbishop of Trnava. His appointment marked the definitive end of the Reformation in Slovakia. For example, the brother courts of the Anabaptist Hutterites were smashed. Slovakia has been a predominantly Catholic country again since the 19th century.
Revolts of Gabriel Bethlen (1619–1626) and Georg I. Rákóczi (1644–1645), first Turkish war (1663–1664)
Gabriel Bethlen , Prince of Transylvania since 1615 , took advantage of the Habsburgs' preoccupation with the anti-Habsburg uprising in the Czech Republic (1618–1620) and massively attacked the Habsburg area (ie today's Slovakia) in 1619. Bethlen's first campaign in Slovakia took place between 1619 and 1621. His troops, led by Georg I. Rákóczi , ruled all of today's Slovakia, including Pressburg, in October 1619. In Pressburg he was even given the Hungarian crown by the Palatine . Together with Bohemian and Moravian troops, however, he did not succeed in conquering Vienna. At the state parliaments convened by Bethlen, general religious freedom was declared (1619, Pressburg), Bethlen was elected "Prince" of Hungary (1620, Bratislava) and king - although he refused a coronation - (1620, Banská Bystrica / Neusohl) . After the defeat of the Czechs on the White Mountain , the Habsburgs were also successful in the fight against Bethlen in 1621 (e.g. the conquest of Bratislava and Nitra in May). In December 1621, Bethlen finally renounced the conquered territories and the title of king in the peace treaty of Mikulov / Nikolsburg and he (and with it Transylvania) received two principalities in Silesia and seven eastern Slovak counties until his death . In addition, freedom of religion was confirmed.
Bethlen's second campaign to Slovakia and Moravia from 1623 to 1624 ended with the Peace of Vienna of May 1624 through which the peace of Mikulov / Nikolsburg was more or less renewed. Finally, in 1626, Bethlen’s third campaign to Slovakia took place - this time with the aim of joining the coalition troops ( England , Netherlands , Denmark , Germany , France ) of the Thirty Years War under Count Ernst von Mansfeld (1580–1626), one of his most famous mercenary generals Time to join in Silesia. In Szécsény , Bethlen joined Turkish troops. The campaign failed, however, and the troops of Bethlen and the Habsburgs clashed on the Ipeľ / Eipel river in October . In December, Bethlen and the Habsburgs signed the (third) Peace of Pressburg, which more or less confirmed the previous two peace treats of this uprising.
1631-1632 followed the peasant uprising of Peter Császár in what is now northeastern Hungary and in eastern Slovakia, which was caused by the looting of Habsburg mercenaries after the end of the fighting against Bethlen. After the execution of Császár in Košice / Kaschau in March 1632, a mass rebellion against the nobility broke out, but it was suppressed in 1632 by the troops of Georg Rákóczi for the Habsburgs.
In 1635 the University of Trnava / Tyrnau was founded. It was initially a center of the Counter Reformation, then in the 18th century a center of the Slovak national movement. Together with the University of Košice / Kaschau, founded in 1657, it was the only university in Slovakia and the whole of Royal Hungary in the 17th century.
After Georg Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania since 1630, received the Turkish consent to an attack in the Habsburg territories in 1643, the anti-Habsburg uprising of Georg I. Rákóczi (1644–1645) began. By March 1644 he conquered the whole of Slovakia with the aim of joining the Swedish troops in Moravia as part of the Thirty Years' War. In April, however, he was stopped by Habsburg troops near Hlohovec . After numerous other fights in Slovakia and South Moravia, the Linz Peace Treaty was concluded between Emperor Ferdinand II and Georg Rákóczi in August 1645 , according to the Rákóczi (and thus also Transylvania ) 7 counties in Slovakia and in today's northeastern Hungary until his death (two also for the time afterwards).
During the Turkish war of 1663/1664 , southern Slovakia was a central theater of war that claimed tens of thousands of victims through violence and deportation. The Turks decided to attack the important Nové Zámky / Neuhäusel fortress in 1663 because Vienna was defended too well. The Habsburg troops were moved to what is now western Slovakia. In September, after a 39-day siege, Nové Zámky capitulated and the Turks declared it the center of a new Turkish province ( Sanjak ) in southern Slovakia. Ottoman-Tatar patrols also looted large parts of western Slovakia, Moravia and Silesia. After news of the Turkish conquest of what is now southern Slovakia, panic gripped the whole of Europe. Emperor Leopold I received support from the estates of his hereditary lands and the imperial estates, from Spain , the pope and Italian princes. Even France presented as part of the Confederation of the Rhine troops. In what is now Slovakia, the Habsburg troops under Louis de Souches regained Nitra / Neutra in May and massacred the Turks at the Battle of Levice in July . Then the 20-year peace of Vasvár / Eisenburg was signed in August , according to which the Turks were allowed to keep their conquests after 1660 (including Nové Zámky) and the Habsburgs were only allowed to build a new fortress on the Waag (today's Leopoldov / Leopoldau 1665) was allowed.
Wesselenyi's conspiracy (1664–1671), first Kuruc campaign (1672) and Kuruc partisan war (1672–1678)
The disadvantageous "Shameful Peace of Eisenburg" sparked outrage across the country and was one of the motives for the magnate conspiracy of Wesselényis (1664 / 1666–1670 / 1671). It was a conspiracy of magnates from Habsburg Hungary, which initially aimed to detach the country from Habsburg influence. In Slovakia, the east Slovak magnates Franz I. Rákóczi and Stephan II. Thököly were particularly involved. It was not until 1670, after enough evidence was gathered, that the Habsburgs sent troops to Slovakia and Croatia. In July, Habsburg troops conquered eastern Slovakia and in December 1670 Stephan Thököly's Orava / Arwa castle in northern Slovakia. Thököly died in the process, but his son Emmerich Thököly , who later became famous, managed to escape to Transylvania . The suppression of the Wesselenyi conspiracy had devastating consequences. A special court in Pressburg summoned over 200 suspicious nobles (including Protestant clerics) in 1671 . Many fled en masse to Transylvania and their possessions were confiscated by the Habsburgs (families Nádasdy , Zrinski , Thököly , Wesselenyi, etc.).
In the field of religion, the first higher Protestant (Evangelical) school in Habsburg Hungary was active in Prešov / Eperies. From 1671 to 1681 the re-Catholicization (ie violent Counter-Reformation) culminated . Habsburg troops were often used to forcibly wrest their churches from the Protestants, which caused various unrest.
In the year 1672 (spring-November) the Kuruzen's first campaign followed . The Kuruzen were groups of armed anti-Habsburg fighters in northern Habsburg Hungary (ie mainly in Slovakia). In 1672 they conquered eastern and northern Slovakia. The consequences of the suppression of this first Kuruzen campaign were again devastating. From 1672 to 1678 a kind of partisan war followed in Slovakia. The number of Kuruzen increased steadily and Eastern Slovakia was largely devastated. They were supported by Transylvania and since 1677 by France (because of the war between France and Vienna since 1673). Another consequence was the introduction of a kind of Habsburg dictatorship in the Kingdom of Hungary (1673; the state parliament was abolished, among other things) and a new wave of persecution of Protestants resulted. From 1673 to 1674, the largest trial against the Protestants took place at the Pressburg Special Court under the leadership of the Slovak Juraj Selepčéni Pohronec (György Szelepcsény) and the Bishop Leopold Karl Graf von Kollonich . 278 Protestants then had to emigrate with their families, 30 received life sentences and 62 were sent to Italy to be sold as galley slaves .
Uprising of Emmerich Thököly (1678–1687 / 1688) and second Turkish war (1683–1699)
In 1678 the partisan war of the Kuruzen turned into a new uprising. The campaign to Slovakia, supported by France, Poland , Transylvania and (initially only indirectly) the Turks, began in the town of Mukatschewo in 1678. The leader of the Kurucs at that time was Emmerich Thököly , the son of a Slovak magnate born in Kežmarok / Kesmark. In the 18th century he was also referred to pejoratively as "tót király", ie Slovak king. The Kuruzzen conquered eastern and central Slovakia, but the Habsburg troops, among other things, recaptured the central Slovak mining towns. In 1680 the Kurucs conquered the whole of Slovakia (with the exception of well-fortified cities such as Pressburg) and part of Moravia. But the constant fighting continued. Thököly's successes as well as an imminent war against the Turks forced Emperor Leopold I to repeal the Habsburg dictatorship of 1673 in royal Hungary and to convene the state parliament. In 1682 Turkish troops conquered Košice / Kaschau, the center of Upper Hungary (i.e. eastern Slovakia), and in September the Turkish governor of Buda / Ofen crowned Thököly king of Upper Hungary (eastern Slovakia), which, like Transylvania, became a vassal territory in the castle of Fiľakovo the Turks was declared. As a result, many cities in Slovakia surrendered, so that after a ceasefire agreement with the Habsburgs of November 1682, Thököly's principality (kingdom) reached in the west as far as the Hron / Gran river (with the exception of the mining towns).
In 1683, parallel to the Thököly uprising, the long-awaited great Turkish war (1683–1699) began. The 250,000-strong Turkish army under the leadership of Kara Mustafa also included some of Thököly's Kuruzen and was supported by France . Habsburg troops had to be withdrawn from most of Slovakia, which meant that the area up to the Waag fell into the hands of the Kuruc. The Turks reached Vienna on July 14th and the city was blocked for two months. In the meantime, Thököly has conquered the rest of Slovakia with Turkish support. Charles of Lorraine was at least able to successfully defend the Pressburg Castle and temporarily retake western Slovakia for a few days. After the defeat of the Turks at Vienna on September 12, 1683, not only the suzerainty of the Turks in Central Europe slowly ended, but also Thököly's uprising. In November 1683 the Habsburg troops conquered large parts of western and central Slovakia from the Kuruc. In August 1685 Aeneas Caprara conquered Nové Zámky / Neuhäusel, which was still occupied by the Turks, whereby the last Turkish province in Slovakia fell. From then on, the Habsburg troops quickly succeeded in liberating other areas of Slovakia from the Kurucs and Turks. After the conquest of Prešov / Eperies by the Habsburgs and the arrest of Thököly by the Turks (because he was considered to be the cause of the Turkish war) in autumn 1685, the Kurucs of Košice / Kaschau surrendered in October, as did the entire anti-Habsburg Kuruc movement began to dissolve.
In 1686, Buda / Ofen was recaptured in the course of the Turkish war after 145 years of Turkish occupation (Pressburg remained the capital of Hungary until 1784/1848) and Transylvania again submitted to Habsburg suzerainty (definitely 1691). After the Turks were completely defeated at Mohács in August 1687, the 170-year tripartite division of Hungary and the Turkish occupation of today's Hungary essentially came to an end.
The revenge of Emperor Leopold I von Habsburg for the Thököly uprising was not long in coming: this was followed by the Eperies Blood Court (1687, see also Prešov ) and the declaration of the Hungarian crown as hereditary for the male Habsburgs. The concessions to the Protestants of 1681 were confirmed.
1690 began the first of the waves of resettlement of the areas of the Kingdom of Hungary south of Slovakia, which had been depopulated by the Turkish rule, which the Slovaks refer to as "Dolná Zem" (the Lower Country). Further waves followed in 1711 and 1745 but also later. In the course of this colonization, thousands of Slovaks (among other things) came to the south, mainly to today's Hungary (since 1690 [in addition to older settlements]), Serbia (since 1745) and Romania (since 1748).
Revolt of Francis II Rákóczi (1703–1711)
The last anti-Habsburg uprising, also known as the Kuruc War, that of Francis II Rákóczi (1703–1711) began in 1703 when Rákóczi became the leader of a (failed) Kuruc uprising in the traditionally Calvinist Western Carpathian Ukraine (part of the Kingdom of Hungary). At the same time (summer 1703) the first (new) Kuruz troops were formed in eastern Slovakia. Since the Habsburg troops were also involved in the War of the Spanish Succession , the Kurucs had almost all of Slovakia (initially except for the cities of Bratislava, Trenčín , Nitra, Košice, Prešov, Bardejov, Leopoldov, Nové Zámky and Komárno) under control and devastated it by the end of December Surroundings of the two capitals Vienna and Pressburg (now Bratislava). After further fighting, the now 100,000 Kuruzen also controlled the suburbs of Pressburg and what is now northern Hungary in the summer of 1705. In autumn Rákóczi was elected “Prince” of Hungary by “his” parliament in Szécsény and freedom of religion was declared. In the years 1706 and 1707 there was very little fighting in Slovakia, but Rákóczi had to cope with numerous social unrest among workers and nobles due to the poor economic situation. In 1706 there were unrest among Slovak workers and miners and protests by ethnic Slovak counties at the Ónod (near Miskolc ) parliament held by Rákóczi in the summer of 1707 . The decisive turning point came in 1708. After two Habsburg armies had defeated Rákóczi's troops in the great battle of Trenčín in July – August 1708 , a series of defeats began for Rákóczi. By October 1708, the Habsburgs had penetrated the central Slovak mining towns and in April 1711 the last larger settlement, Košice / Kaschau, fell into the hands of the Habsburgs . 80,000 people died as a result of this uprising.
Rákóczi fled to Poland and Rákóczi's commander in chief Alexander Károlyi was persuaded by the Habsburgs to conclude the Peace of Sathmar (1711), after which the traditional freedoms of the nobles in the Kingdom of Hungary were renewed and the Habsburgs were recognized as kings of Hungary again. This peace and the subsequent parliamentary sessions in Pressburg in 1712 and 1714 ended the last anti-Habsburg uprising and essentially established relations between the Habsburgs and the nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918.