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1562-1919 - Habsburg Slovakia

Although the Bohemian Kingdom, the Margravate of Moravia, and Slovakia were all under Hapsburg rule, they followed different paths of development. The defeat at Mohacs in 1526 meant that most of Hungary proper was taken by the Turks; until Hungary's reconquest by the Hapsburgs in the second half of the seventeenth century, Slovakia became the center of Hungarian political, cultural, and economic life. The Hapsburg kings of Hungary were crowned in Bratislava, the present-day capital of Slovakia, and the Hungarian estates met there. Slovakia's importance in Hungarian life proved of no benefit, however, to the Slovaks. In essence, the Hungarian political nation consisted of an association of estates (primarily the nobility).

The name Slovakia only came up in the 19th century, with the emergence of Slovak national identity. Before, the region was called Upper Hungary. Hungary having been a perpetual scene of war for some hundreds of years and the provinces changing masters, as the Christians or Turks happened to be successful, little regard was had to the ancient division of the country. It was usually divided into two parts, i. the Upper, or Larger, which lay north-east of the Danube. And 2. the Lower, or Lesser, on the south-west side of the Danube. Upper Hungary was again subdivided into four governments, viz. 1. Prelburg. 2. Bergstet, or the Berg Towns. 3. New-Hausel. And 4. Caschaw. Lower Hungary also was divided into three governments, viz. 1. that of Buda. 2. Raab. And 3. Canifla.

The north-western highlands form that large hilly district which stretches northward from the bed of the Danube and eastward as far as the line of the Ondava and the Bodrog. This is what is called in ordinary speech Upper Hungary, here we find the largest and loftiest mountain masses of the Carpathians, where inummerable brooks and several good sized rivers take their rise, which in their further course, for the most part southward, form each its own delightful and fertile valley.

The Hungarians conquered the land with the armed hand and to this land they have now the right of a thousand years of uninterrupted possession. The different nationalities that lived together with them within the circle of the united nation came into the country in various ways and with divers titles. Among the nothern Slavs the Slovack, called by the Hungarians Tot (which formerly was the common appellation in the Hungarian language of all the Slavonic race) were spread over the northern part of the country, and that too in a large and dense mass; towards the east they were mixed with Ruthenians, by whom still further east they were replaced. Isolated colonies are settled on the Great-Plain (especially in the country of Bekes) and also in the south. Their numbers were especially increased by the incursions of the Hussite Tchekhs, and they continually increased, especially at the expense of the Germans.

The Slovacks are near relations to the Bohemians and Moravians. They were generally of lofty stature, well built: with broad faces, and prominent cheekbones; for the most part they let their yellow-hair grow long, but did not wear beards or moustaches. Their dress of white baize was completed by a broad leathern girdle, a broadbrimmed hat and sandals. The girls took pleasure in gaudy embroideries. In the most northern districts they lived on oaten bread and potatoes, and their poverty was aggravated by the drinking of brandy. Their dwellings were fragile. Simple, religious, gentle, humble, and quiet, but often deceitful, obstinate, and, when heated, quarrelsome. Their songs were for the most part of a melancholy character. Their powers of apprehension were thought somewhat slow, but they were fit for every kind of work, and are industrious. By preference they occupied themselves in the breeding of cattle and sheep ; and go down to the Great-Plain to reap the harvest. They are very skilful in domestic manufactures. Their women were celebrated for their embroideries : the men carve objects in wood and made and managed rafts and traversed the whole world as wandering workmen. Those who emigrated to America for the most part returned home with their earnings.

Because Slovaks were primarily serfs, they were not considered members of a political nation and had no influence on politics in their own land. The Slovak peasant had only to perform duties: work for a landlord, pay taxes, and provide recruits for military service. Even under such hostile conditions, there were a few positive developments. The Protestant Reformation brought to Slovakia literature written in Czech, and Czech replaced Latin as the literary language of a small, educated Slovak elite. But on the whole, the Slovaks languished for centuries in a state of political, economic, and cultural deprivation.

According to the contract concluded between Vladislav and Maximilian Habsburg, Ferdinand von Habsburg became the Hungarian king, but he had to share his power with the Duke Ján Zapolský. Also Turks involved the dispute. The result was splitting the Hungary into three parts. Slovakia (excluding the eastern part) became an essential part of the Habsburg Hungary.

16th and 17th centuries were the bloodiest centuries in the whole history of Slovakia. Many areas of Slovakia were literally devastated. There was constant threat of the Turkish invasion, because the Slovak ethnic group was in the close vicinity of the Turks. It was repeated until the defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683.

Habsburgs aspired to absolutist government, which encountered resistance in the Hungarian aristocracy. In 1618,when the anti-Habsburg uprising erupted in Prague, Hungarian nobles rose up too. In 1678 young aristocrat Imrich Thököly organized malcontents. In a very short time he managed to occupy the whole of Eastern and Central Slovakia. Turkish sultan promised the crown of Hungary to Thököly if he conforms to him. Thököly stroked in. In the war in 1683, Turks were defeated, first in Vienna and then in Hungary.

The bloodiest settlement with insurgents happened in Presov, the main actor was General Antonio Caraffa. Twenty-four rebels were executed. They cut off their hands first, then the heads and after they had put their body parts on the hooks and hung them around the roads to castle as warning.

The 18th century is called enlightened century. New Emperor Karol VI wanted to prevent the power struggle for the crown. In 1713 he issued the pragmatic sanction. It allowed that also female descendent could step into throne if the dynasty dies off in male tail. Pragmatic sanction opened a path to the throne for the daughter of Karol VI.

In the year 1740 Mária Terézia (Maria Theresa) became an empress. With an assistance of advisers she has launched a reform of the entire country with a view to centralize the state, but also to modernize and bring it to forward to western European monarchies. Many of the reforms were according to enlightenment ideas that were disseminated in Europe from France. Top of her reform efforts was a scheme for the organization in education known as the Education Ratio (in 1777).

After Maria Theresa's death, her son Jozef II. took over the throne. He was a well-informed and educated man, who on the instruction of his mother studied in the spirit of the enlightenment. His most important reforms were the patent of Tolerance in 1781 and the abolition of serfdom in the year 1785. Tolerance patent alleged civil equality for all members of the Christian faith.v Events that were handled in Europe and Hungary in the 19th century influenced the Slovak national movement. At the center of attention were the language, literature and history. In 1846, Ludovít Stúr issued Slovak grammar. Adoption of literary Slovakian language was not only lingual, but also an important political declaration.

In Austria, the revolution began in March 1848. Hungarian parliament passed a law on the independence of Hungary (associated with Austria only in monarch person). Slovak national requirements have resulted in the recognition of independence of the Slovak nation. Lord has fulfilled some of the Slovak language requirements. However, the revolution ended in the battle at Világos in August 1849.

Agreement between Austria and Hungary in 1866, brought a strong Magyarization policy, which resulted in closing down three Slovak grammar schools in the years 1874 - 1875 by government and culminated on 6th of April in 1875, when the Slovak cultural institution was repealed. Emigration overseas (to U.S. and Canada) has become a mass phenomenon in the northern areas of Slovakia at the end of the century.

In Hungary the government gave full sway to Hungarian nationalism. Only a year after the Compromise of 1867, the Nationalities Act established Hungarian as the exclusive official language. Slovak was relegated to private use and was regarded by the authorities as a peasant dialect. Franchise laws restricted the right to vote to large property holders (approximately 6 percent of the total population), thus favoring the Hungarian aristocracy. As a result, Slovaks rarely elected parliamentary representatives. The Slovaks, nevertheless, formed the Slovak National Party. Supported by Catholics and Protestants, the Slovak National Party was conservative and pan-Slavic in orientation and looked to autocratic Russia for national liberation. It remained the center of Slovak national life until the twentieth century.

Fearing the evolution of a full-fledged Slovak national movement, the Hungarian government attempted to do away with various aspects of organized Slovak life. In the 1860s, the Slovaks had founded a private cultural foundation, the Slovak Matica, which fostered education and encouraged literature and the arts. At its founding, even the Austrian emperor donated 1,000 florins for the Slovak Matica. In 1875 the Hungarian government dissolved the Slovak Matica and confiscated its assets. Similar attacks were made against Slovak education. In 1874 all three Slovak secondary schools were closed, and in 1879 a law made Hungarian mandatory even in church-sponsored village schools. The Hungarian government attempted to prevent the formation of an educated, nationally conscious, Slovak elite.

It is remarkable that the Slovak national movement was able to survive. Most Slovaks continued to live as peasants or industrial laborers. Poverty prevailed, and on the eve of World War I about 20 percent of the population of Slovakia had emigrated to other lands. This emigration aided the national movement, for it received both moral and financial support from Slovaks living abroad, particularly in the United States. The Slovak national movement was aided also by the example of other nationalities struggling against the Hungarians (particularly the Romanians) and by contacts with the Czechs.

While Bohemia and Moravia were among the more favored nations in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Slovakia's position was far less enviable. Hungarian rule systematically excluded Slovaks from the political arena. They were consistently gerrymandered out of parliamentary seats and administrative posts, even in local government. In 1910, when Czechs could be found throughout the Austrian bureaucracy, Slovaks held only 5 percent of the judicial offices and 3 percent of the civil service positions in Slovakia. Electoral laws reinforced this inequity: Austrian-dominated lands had universal adult male suffrage, while lands under Hungarian rule had limited suffrage and significant educational and age restrictions. Hungarians were far more aggressively assimilationist than their Austrian counterparts following the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary (also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire) in 1867. Whereas Czech institutions and fraternal associations thrived under the relatively benign tolerance of Austrian rule, the Hungarians closed Slovak secondary schools, repressed Slovak cultural organizations, made Hungarian the official language in 1868, and pursued a course of thoroughgoing Magyarization.

The contrast between the economy of the Czech lands and that of Slovakia was as dramatic as their differing political heritages. Slovakia was agrarian, while the Czech lands were among the most industrialized regions in Europe. But the contrast went beyond that: Czech farmers represented a relatively prosperous, literate, and politically articulate group of middle-income agriculturlists; Slovaks farmers were peasant farmers in tenancy on Hungarian estates.

The Hungarian rule was as strong as it was heavy. It was not until 1907, after the criminal massacre at Czernova, that the Magyars first began to realize the impossibility of ever assimilating the Slovak people. They also at this time became aware of a " Slovak danger" emanating from America. The Slovak people who emigrated to the United States bore with them feelings of bitterness and resentment against the despotism and cruelty of the Hungarian Government. They speedily learned to profit by the free institutions of their adopted country, and organized various Slovak leagues, societies and clubs - notably the American Slovak League (Narodnie Slovensky Spolok), the First Catholic Slovak Union and others. These societies did all in their power to awaken Slovak sentiment, and contributed materially -to the support of the Slovak press in Hungary.

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 played a significant role in the Slovak history. The idea of Czechoslovakia state appeared very early among the Slovaks and was related to the progress of the war. Beyond the domestic rebellion the foreign Czechoslovakia's revolt led by Tomás G. Masaryk and Slovak Milan Rastislav Stefánik also evolved. Their task was to organize foreign military legions.

In October, Czechoslovakia's government was formed. Tomás Garrigue Masaryk became the first president of the Czechoslovakia. On 28th of October in 1918 the state of Czechoslovakia was declared. Peace Agreements in Paris finally established the Czechoslovakia as a new state on the map of Europe. On 29th of February 1920 the Constitution of Czechoslovakia was approved.