Southeast Europe

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
1.1 Important historical developments
A. History
Historically speaking, Romanian-Hungarian relations have often been one of the most
critical in Eastern Europe. Analysing the historical conflict between Romanians and
Hungarians, many researchers have stressed the different cultural and religious
identities of the two peoples. Dennis Deletant pointed out the lack of “synchronism”
between the cultural experiences of Hungarians and the predominantly Eastern
Orthodox experience of Romanians. Its effect consisted in a divergence of behavioural
values (Deletant, 1990:2). George Schopflin (Schopflin, 1988), Trond Gilberg (Gilberg,
1990) and Ken Jowitt (Jowitt, 1971) indicated the different historical experiences of the
two peoples. When the modern nation-building process took place in the 19th century,
Hungarians in Transylvania considered themselves as belonging to the Hungarian
nation, while Romanians in Transylvania identified themselves (through the cultural
movements) with the modern Romanian national movement. Different interests and
political orientations generated a historical mythology that was sometimes based on
conflict. These led to subsequent political and military confrontations between the two
nations in 1848, and during the two World Wars.
The beginning of Hungarian history, like as with most nations, is quite nebulous. The
only certain indicator is the language: Hungarians speak a Finno-Ugric language
belonging to the Uralic language family. It is likely that at the beginning the Uralic
tribes lived in the area of the Ural Mountains. There are other hypotheses that place
their origin somewhere East of the Ural Mountains, in Western Siberia or Central Asia.
The Hungarians separated from the Ugric group around 1000 BC, and started moving
West. Their migration took place in several phases. During the migration process, they
were exposed to linguistic and cultural influences from the Turks and the Iranians,
nations with whom they had contact (Magyarország története, I/1, 1987:377-544,
Kopeczi, 1994: 110-114).
The “settlement” took place in 895 AD: the Hungarian tribes led by Árpád entered the
Carpathian Basin. In order to make sure that the Hungarians would survive between the
Roman-German Empire and the Byzantine Empire, and also that they would be
integrated in the European order, Duke Géza (died in 997), descendent of Árpád,
decided to convert them to Christianity. Stephen the Saint (997 to 1038), son of Géza,
succeeded to the throne in 1000AD. The Hungarian Christian Kingdom was established
during his time (Kristó, 1998: 48-114, Kopeczi, 1994: 138-178).
The Hungarian and Romanian historiographers have different opinions about the time
when Transylvania (called Transylvania in Romanian, Erdély in Hungarian, and
Siebenbürgen in German) became part of the Hungarian Kingdom. On the one hand,
relying on the theory of Dacian-Roman continuity, Romanian historiographers hold that
the Hungarians found Romanian states when they came to the present territory of
Transylvania. They also believe that the conquest of Transylvania by the Hungarians
was a step-by-step process that lasted for many years, and was completed in the 13th
century (Pascu, 1983).
4