Hungarians, also known as Magyars (Hungarian: magyarok), are a nation and ethnic group who speak Hungarian and are primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 13.1â€"14.7 million Hungarians, of whom 8.5â€"9.8 million live in today's Hungary (as of 2011). About 2.2 million Hungarians live in areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the 1918â€"1920 dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Treaty of Trianon, and are now parts of Hungary's seven neighbouring countries, especially Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine. Significant groups of people with Hungarian ancestry live in various other parts of the world, most of them in the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, Chile, and Argentina. Hungarians can be classified into several subgroups according to local linguistic and cultural characteristics; subgroups with distinct identities include the Székely, the Csángó, the Palóc, and the Jassic (Jász) people.
§Name
The exonym "Hungarian" is thought to be derived from Ugor or the Bulgar-Turkic On-Ogur (meaning "ten" Ogurs), which was the name of the Utigur Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. Although, written sources called Magyarok "Hungarians" prior to the conquest of the Carpathian Basin (in 837 "Ungri" mentioned by Georgius Monachus, in 862 "Ungri" by Annales Bertiniani, in 881 "Ungari" by the Annales ex Annalibus Iuvavensibus) when they still lived on the steppes of Eastern Europe eastward from the Carpathians. The Hungarians probably belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance, and it is possible that they became its ethnic majority. In the Early Middle Ages the Hungarians had many different names, such as "Ungherese" (in Italian) or "Ungar" (in German) or "Hungarus". The "H-" prefix is an addition in Medieval Latin.
Another possible explanation comes from the Old Russian word Yugra (Югра). It may refer to the Hungarians at a time when they dwelt east of the Ural Mountains along the natural borders of Europe and Asia before their settlement of Hungary.
The Hungarian people refer to themselves by the demonym "Magyar" rather than the term "Hungarian". Magyar is a Finno-Ugric word from the Old Hungarian, mogyër. The term "Magyar" possibly comes from the name of the most prominent Hungarian tribe, called Megyer. The tribal name "Megyer" became "Magyar" referring to the Hungarian people as a whole. The term Magyar may also come from the Hunnic term "Muageris" or Mugel.
The Greek cognate of Tourkia (Greek: ΤουÏκία) was used by the Byzantine emperor and scholar Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in his book De Administrando Imperio, though in his use, "Turks" always referred to Magyars.
The historical Latin term Natio Hungarica ("Hungarian nation") had a wider meaning, as it once referred to all nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary, regardless of their ethnicity.
§History
§Pre-4th century AD
During the 4th millennium BC, the Uralic-speaking peoples who were living in the central and southern regions of the Urals split up. Some dispersed towards the west and northwest and came into contact with Iranian speakers who were spreading northwards. From at least 2000Â BC onwards, the Ugrian speakers became distinguished from the rest of the Uralic community. Judging by evidence from burial mounds and settlement sites, they interacted with the Andronovo culture.
§4th century to c. 830 AD
In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the Hungarians moved to the west of the Ural Mountains to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the Volga River known as Bashkiria (Bashkortostan) and Perm Krai.
In the early 8th century, some of the Hungarians moved to the Don River to an area between the Volga, Don and the Seversky Donets rivers. Meanwhile, the descendants of those Hungarians who stayed in Bashkiria remained there as late as 1241.
The Hungarians around the Don River were subordinates of the Khazar khaganate. Their neighbours were the archaeological Saltov Culture, i.e. Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians, Onogurs) and the Alans, from whom they learned gardening, elements of cattle breeding and of agriculture. Tradition holds that the Hungarians were organized in a confederacy of seven tribes. The names of the seven tribes were: JenÅ', Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer, Nyék, and Tarján.
§c. 830 to c. 895
Around 830, a rebellion broke out in the Khazar khaganate. As a result, three Kabar tribes of the Khazars joined the Hungarians and moved to what the Hungarians call the Etelköz, the territory between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River. The Hungarians faced their first attack by the Pechenegs around 854, though other sources state that an attack by Pechenegs was the reason for their departure to Etelköz. The new neighbours of the Hungarians were the Varangians and the eastern Slavs. From 862 onwards, the Hungarians (already referred to as the Ungri) along with their allies, the Kabars, started a series of looting raids from the Etelköz into the Carpathian Basin, mostly against the Eastern Frankish Empire (Germany) and Great Moravia, but also against the Balaton principality and Bulgaria.
§Entering the Carpathian Basin (c. 895)
In 895/896, under the leadership of Ãrpád, some Hungarians crossed the Carpathians and entered the Carpathian Basin. The tribe called Magyar was the leading tribe of the Hungarian alliance that conquered the centre of the basin. At the same time (c. 895), due to their involvement in the 894â€"896 Bulgaro-Byzantine war, Hungarians in Etelköz were attacked by Bulgaria and then by their old enemies the Pechenegs. The Bulgarians won the decisive battle of Southern Buh. It is uncertain whether or not those conflicts were the cause of the Hungarian departure from Etelköz.
From the upper Tisza region of the Carpathian Basin, the Hungarians intensified their looting raids across continental Europe. In 900, they moved from the upper Tisza river to Transdanubia (Pannonia), which later became the core of the arising Hungarian state. At the time of the Hungarian migration, the land was inhabited only by a sparse population of Slavs, numbering about 200,000, who were either assimilated or enslaved by the Hungarians.
Archaeological findings (e.g. in the Polish city of Przemyśl) suggest that many Hungarians remained to the north of the Carpathians after 895/896. There is also a consistent Hungarian population in Transylvania, the Székelys, who comprise 40% of the Hungarians in Romania. The Székely people's origin, and in particular the time of their settlement in Transylvania, is a matter of historical controversy.
§History after 900
Medieval Hungary controlled more territory than medieval France, and the population of medieval Hungary was the third largest of any country in Europe. The Hungarian leader Ãrpád is believed to have led the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin in 896. In 907, the Hungarians destroyed a Bavarian army in the Battle of Pressburg and laid the territories of present-day Germany, France, and Italy open to Hungarian raids, which were fast and devastating. The Hungarians defeated the Imperial Army of Louis the Child, son of Arnulf of Carinthia and last legitimate descendent of the German branch of the house of Charlemagne, near Augsburg in 910. From 917 to 925, Hungarians raided through Basle, Alsace, Burgundy, Saxony, and Provence. Hungarian expansion was checked at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, ending their raids against Western Europe, but the raids on the Balkan Peninsula continued until 970. Hungarian settlement in the area was approved by the Pope when their leaders accepted Christianity, and Stephen I the Saint (Szent István) was crowned King of Hungary in 1001. The century between the arrival of the Hungarians from the eastern European plains and the consolidation of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1001 was dominated by pillaging campaigns across Europe, from Dania (Denmark) to the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal). After the acceptance of the country into Christian Europe under Stephen I, Hungary served as a bulwark against further invasions from the east and south, especially against the Turks.
At this time, the Hungarian nation numbered around 400,000 people. The first accurate measurements of the population of the Kingdom of Hungary including ethnic composition were carried out in 1850â€"51. There is a debate among Hungarian and non-Hungarian (especially Slovak and Romanian) historians about the possible changes in the ethnic structure of the region throughout history. Some historians support the theory that the proportion of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin was at an almost constant 80% during the Middle Ages. Non-Hungarians numbered hardly more than 20% to 25% of the total population. The Hungarian population began to decrease only at the time of the Ottoman conquest, reaching as low as around 39% by the end of the 18th century. The decline of the Hungarians was due to the constant wars, Ottoman raids, famines, and plagues during the 150 years of Ottoman rule. The main zones of war were the territories inhabited by the Hungarians, so the death toll depleted them at a much higher rate than among other nationalities. In the 18th century their proportion declined further because of the influx of new settlers from Europe, especially Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and Germans. According to the immigrationist theory of the origins of the Romanian people, it is suggested that Romanians entered Transylvania during the same period. As a consequence of Turkish occupation and Habsburg colonization policies, the country underwent a great change in ethnic composition as its population more than tripled to 8 million between 1720 and 1787, while only 39% of its people were Hungarians, who lived primarily in the centre of the country.
Other historians, particularly Slovaks and Romanians, argue that the drastic change in the ethnic structure hypothesized by Hungarian historians in fact did not occur. They argue that the Hungarians accounted for only about 30â€"40% of the Kingdom's population since its establishment. In particular, there is a fierce debate among Hungarians and Romanian historians about the ethnic composition of Transylvania through these times.
In the 19th century, the proportion of Hungarians in the Kingdom of Hungary rose gradually, reaching over 50% by 1900 due to higher natural growth and Magyarization. Between 1787 and 1910 the number of ethnic Hungarians rose from 2.3 million to 10.2 million, accompanied by the resettlement of the Great Hungarian Plain and Voivodina by mainly Roman Catholic Hungarian settlers from the northern and western counties of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1715 (after the Ottoman occupation) the Southern Great Plain was nearly uninhabited but now has 1.3 million inhabitants, nearly all of them Hungarians.
Spontaneous assimilation was an important factor, especially among the German and Jewish minorities and the citizens of the bigger towns. On the other hand, about 1.5 million people (about two-thirds non-Hungarian) left the Kingdom of Hungary between 1890â€"1910 to escape from poverty.
The years 1918 to 1920 were a turning point in the Hungarians' history. By the Treaty of Trianon, the Kingdom had been cut into several parts, leaving only a quarter of its original size. One-third of the Hungarians became minorities in the neighbouring countries. During the remainder of the 20th century, the Hungarians population of Hungary grew from 7.1 million (1920) to around 10.4 million (1980), despite losses during the Second World War and the wave of emigration after the attempted revolution in 1956. The number of Hungarians in the neighbouring countries tended to remain the same or slightly decreased, mostly due to assimilation (sometimes forced; see Slovakization and Romanianization) and to emigration to Hungary (in the 1990s, especially from Transylvania and Vojvodina).
After the "baby boom" of the 1950s (Ratkó era), a serious demographic crisis began to develop in Hungary and its neighbours. The Hungarian population reached its maximum in 1980, then began to decline.
For historical reasons (see Treaty of Trianon), significant Hungarian minority populations can be found in the surrounding countries, most of them in Romania (in Transylvania), Slovakia, and Serbia (in Vojvodina). Sizable minorities live also in Ukraine (in Transcarpathia), Croatia (primarily Slavonia), and Austria (in Burgenland). Slovenia is also host to a number of ethnic Hungarians, and Hungarian language has an official status in parts of the Prekmurje region. Today more than two million ethnic Hungarians live in nearby countries.
There was a referendum in Hungary in December 2004 on whether to grant Hungarian citizenship to Hungarians living outside Hungary's borders (i.e. without requiring a permanent residence in Hungary). The referendum failed due to insufficient voter turnout. On May 26, 2010, Hungary's Parliament passed a bill granting dual citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living outside of Hungary. Some neighboring countries with sizable Hungarian minority expressed concerns over the legislation.
§Later influences
Besides the various peoples mentioned above, the Magyarok assimilated or were influenced by subsequent peoples arriving in the Carpathian Basin. Among these are the Cumans, Pechenegs, Jazones, Germans, Vlachs (Romanians) and Slavs, amongst others. Ottomans, who occupied the central part of Hungary from c. 1526 until c. 1699, inevitably exerted an influence, as did the various nations (Germans, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and others) that resettled depopulated territories after their departure. Similar to other European countries, Jewish, Armenians, and Roma (Gypsy) minorities have been living in Hungary since the Middle Ages.
§Ethnic affiliations and genetic origins
The linguistic heritage of the Hungarians comes from Finno-Ugric peoples. A branch of Uralic speakers migrated from their earlier homeland near the Ural mountains and settled in various places in Eastern Europe, until they conquered the Carpathian Basin between the 9th and 10th centuries. Present-day Hungarian populations seem to be genetically European. Compared to the European nations, Andrea Vágó-Zalán's study determined that the Bulgarians were genetically the closest and the Finns were the furthest from the recent Hungarian population.
Thanks to Pál Lipták's researches it has been known for almost half a century that only 16.7 percent of 10th century human bones belong to the Euro-Mongoloid and Mongoloid types. The European characteristics in the biological composition of the recent Hungarian population and the lack of Asian markers are not solely due to the thousand years of blending. Biologically, the population around 1000 AD in Hungary was made up almost exclusively of Europeans.
According to István Raskó's team, "genetic differences exist between the ancient and recent Hungarian-speaking populations, and no genetic continuity is seen". This study suggests "a Siberian lineage of the invading Hungarians, which later has largely disappeared". Another conclusion was that "modern Hungarian and Szekler populations are genetically closely related"
According to Dreisziger, István Raskó's research concludes that present-day Hungarians are the descendants of the subjugated pre-conquest population. István Raskó presumed that Ãrpád's Magyarjai carried the Hungarian language, however the results of his studies may imply that the conquerors were not Hungarians but a small-numbered Turkic-speaking people.
Horolma Pamjav's group sees a connection between Madjars (a Kazakh tribe) and recent Hungarian population "they were closest to the Hungarian population rather than their geographical neighbors". The drawn conclusion was that "modern Hungarians may trace their ancestry to Central Asia, instead of the Eastern Uralic region as previously thought".
Anthropologically, the type of Magyars of the conquest phase shows similarity to that of the Andronovo people, in particular of the Sarmatian groups around the southern Urals. The Turanid (South-Siberian) and the Uralid types from the Europo-Mongoloids were dominant among the conquering Hungarians. The Turkic (Onogur) components in the ancient Magyars were characterized by Turanid (24%), Pamirian (20%) and subordinated "Andronovo" types. Within the blood group system attributed to Karl Landsteiner, the rate of the "0" and "B" bloodgroup genes characterizing Hungarians (31.05% and 17.90%) is off from the Indo-European and Finno-Ugrian nations, but it is within the range found among Central Asian Turkic nations.
The occurrence of the Turkic types (Turanid, Pamirian, Anterior-Asian and Mongoloid) in the modern Hungarians is assessed to 46.2%, that of the Finno-Ugrians (Uraloid, Lapponoid and approx. 55% of the East Baltic type) to 4.6%, while the Old Slavic (approx. 45% of the East-Baltic type and each 50% of the Nordoid and Cromagnoid types) and the German (approx. each 50% of the Nordoid and the Cromagnoid types) constitute 3.2% and 0.5%, respectively.
§Maps
§Traditional costumes (18th and 19th century)
§Folklore and communities
§See also
§Notes
§References
§Bibliography
- Molnar, Miklos (2001). A Concise History of Hungary. Cambridge Concise Histories (Fifth printing 2008 ed.). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBNÂ 978-0-521-66736-4.Â
- Korai Magyar Történeti Lexicon (9â€"14. század) (Encyclopedia of the Early Hungarian History (9thâ€"14th Centuries)) Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó; 753. ISBN 963-05-6722-9.
- Károly Kocsis (DSc, University of Miskolc) â€" Zsolt Bottlik (PhD, Budapest University) â€" Patrik Tátrai: Etnikai térfolyamatok a Kárpát-medence határon túli régióiban + CD (for detailed data), Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) â€" Földrajtudományi Kutatóintézet (Academy of Geographical Studies); Budapest; 2006.; ISBN 963-9545-10-4
§External links
- Origins of the Hungarians from the Enciklopédia Humana (with many maps and pictures)
- Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin
- Hungary and the Council of Europe
- Facts about Hungary
- Hungarians outside Hungary â€" Map
Genetic studies
- MtDNA and Y chromosome polymorphisms in Hungary: inferences from the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Uralic influences on the modern Hungarian gene pool
- Probable ancestors of Hungarian ethnic groups: an admixture analysis
- Human Chromosomal Polymorphism in a Hungarian Sample
- Hungarian genetics researches 2008â€"2009 (in Hungarian)