1683-1790






The Principality of Transylvania, 1790-1867



Liberalism and Nationalism were the two political keywords characterizing the 19th century.
Yet in Transylvania main demands of liberalism - equality before the law, the abolition of servitude, the abolition of privileges, equal treatment of all confessions and ethnies, would mean the break-up of the political structure of the country.
The diet was dominated by the ethnically Hungarian nobles, which were not interested in granting personal liberty or political franchise to both Vlach and Hungarian peasants. The Lutheran Saxons also feared losing their privileges which had been restored by Joseph II. in 1790. Nationalism equally was dangerous, as it made the Hungarian nobility aware that Hungarians formed a minority in the country. The Transylvania Saxons were not very susceptible to German nationalism, for over the last century they had learned to look at the (German) administration in Vienna with scepticism.
Nationalism found the most ardent supporters among Transylvania's Vlachs, who formed the majority of the population but were treated as subjects without political rights.

In 1841, Transylvania had a total population of 2.14 million inhabitants, of them 1.29 million Romanians, 606.000 Hungarians, 214.000 Germans, 19.900 Gypsies, 9.100 Armenians and 3.155 Jews.
Transylvania's agriculture was backward, still sticking to the medieval three field rotation system. The mass of the peasants still were serfs by status. The nobles, estate owners tried to improve their position by demanding excessive corvee labour, by appropriating the common etc.
The Transylvanian economy had suffered from the factual Austrian state bankrupcy of 1811; the number of craftsmen in Transylvania declined in the early decades of the 19th century. Roads, transportation in general was poor.
In 1835 Transylvania's first bank opened in Kronstadt. Trade expositions were held in Kronstadt 1843, Hermannstadt 1844.

Meanwhile Hungary proper was grasped by the fever of nationalism, and in Hungary's parliament, the demand for the reincorporation of Transylvania into Hungary was frequently made. In 1842, Stephan Ludwig Roth spoke out against the Magyarization of Transylvania. Transylvania's Romanians in 1848 held a meeting at Blaj, where they rejected the union with Hungary proposed by Hungary's diet, declared Transylvania to be part of an envisioned Romania; the meeting, organized by the Romanian Orthodox Church, laid the foundation for the Romanian National Party. The delegates who attended the Blaj meeting suffered their houses being burnt down, being jailed or even being killed; in September 1848 armed resistance was organized. Meanwhile Hungary passed a law annexing Transylvania; Emperor Francis Joseph was bullied into acceptance. Transylvania's Saxon Estate, in a memorandum, postulated the emancipation of Transylvania's Romanian ethnic group. In 1849, the Hungarians executed Stephan Ludwig Roth, the administrator of Transylvania's Saxon Estate ('Nationsuniversität').

Hungary's revolt was suppressed, the war affecting Transylvania as well (230 villages razed, 40,000 killed, damage of 30 million gold florin afflicted). Transylvania continued to be administrated as a separate administrative entity. When, according to the October Diploma of 1860, a central parliament for all of the Austrian Empire was elected, Transylvania's 539,000 Hungarians and Szeklers were represented by 24 deputees, her 1,353,000 Romanians by 8 deputees, as were her 196,000 Saxons. The Transylvanian diet elected in 1863 was composed of 56 Romanians, 54 Hungarians and Szeklers and 44 Saxons and Swabians.
In 1865 the Transylvanian Diet established three official languages : Hungarian, German, Romanian. In 1867 when the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich (Compromise) was signed, in which Transylvania was fully reincorporated into Hungary; Transylvania lost her political autonomy and became subject to Magyarization policy.
In 1851 the MilitÄrgrenze was dissolved, large border tracts reintegrated into Transylvania.



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EXTERNAL
LINKS 		The Rise of Transylvania, from A Short History of Austria-Hungary by H. Wickham-Steed, 1914
History of Cluj (Kolozsvar/Klausenburg), from webcluj
The Hungarians of Transylvania, from Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Rumania, timeline
Transylvania, from Catholic Encyclopedia
The Transylvania Saxons, from genealogy.net
The History of Transylvania and the Transylvanian Saxons, by Konrad Gündisch, 114 K (focusses much on the settlement history; ch. 5 : Province of the Habsburg Empire
Daniel Feher, National Awakening ? Examine the Content of the "Romanian National Question" in Transylvania before 1848, posted by School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Univ. of London
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Peter F. Sugar (ed.), A History of Hungary, Indiana Univ. Press 1990, 432 pp.
Istvan Lazar, Transylvania - a Short History, Safety Harbor : Ingram 1997, 274 pp., KMLA Lb.Sign. 949.84 L431t
Ernst Wagner (ed.), Quellen zur Geschichte der Siebenbürger Sachsen (Sources on the History of the Transylvania Saxons), Köln : Böhlau, 2 Vol.s, 1981, in German
Carl Göllner, Die Siebenbürger Sachsen in den Revolutionsjahren 1848-1849 (The Transylvania Saxons in the Revolution Years, 1848-1849), Bucharest : Bibliotheca Historica Romaniae, 1967, in German
Milton G. Lehrer, Transylvania. History and Reality, Bartleby Press 1986 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on May 2nd 2006

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