WARS AND THE POPULATION OF HUNGARY 1521-1718

Abstract

Due to the disintegration of the state, the decline of economic and social conditions, and above all large demographic losses, the epoch of Ottoman rule (15411718) in certain parts of the Kingdom of Hungary has been considered as the worst period in the history of Hungary and Magyars.

In the mentioned period 21 wars were waged on the territory of Hungary (Habsburg - Ottoman, Transylvanian - Ottoman, Habsburg - Hungarian). Despite the natural growth of the population and large-scale immigration from Balkans, as a result of the above mentioned conflicts, the number of Hungary's population had stagnated for more than one and a half centuries. In contrast, the average growth of European population in the same period was close to 60%. Due to the heavy wartime destructions, the network of settlements has radically been thinned and structurally modified. As a significant result of the permanent war conditions and the massive immigration, the proportion of Magyars in the ethnic composition of the country's population had fallen from 75-80% to 50%. The main result of this process was the emergence of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural society, which has provoked the change in character of the state, as well the problems that have appeared in this multi-ethnic society in the age of nationalism.