Claim:
Hungary has always existed surrounded by hostile powers, constantly having to defend itself against strangers, especially western expansionism.
Rebuttal:
Hungary, like all other countries, has been the subject of many attacks from the outside. These, however, lasted for a relatively short time, while none of Hungary’s periods of prosperity and greatness could be imagined without the impact of the world around us and our cooperation with it.
True, Hungary was attacked many times – but not more than any other country, and the fights these involved (with the exception of the 150-year Ottoman occupation) only took up a few decades of our history. On the other hand, none of the periods of Hungarian greatness and prosperity would have been possible without western models, adapting western values and indeed, without western support. Most of the kings in the Árpád dynasty took wives from abroad, mostly the west, and married off their daughters likewise. From the 14th century onwards, most of the kings themselves were ’imported from abroad’. All this brought with it diplomatic support, alliances and cultural influences. St Stpehen invited missionaries, minters, monks, builders and scribes from the west, thus setting the tone of the Hungarian middle ages: the church and its structure, Latin as a language and the alphabet, a cosmology, the coronation ceremony, arcitectural styles, the knightly code of conduct and arms, etc. The Holy Crown of Hungary came from abroad, so did the shape and components of the coat of arms that later became the emblem of the country. Viticulture, courtly life, the Gothic style, the first universities, the privileges of towns, the system of guilds, the structuring of society into orders, the mechanisms and technologies shaping industry, the various decrees, chronicles and descriptions of the life of kings, etc. all came to Hungary from the west.
All this, of course, holds true for later centuries as well. The renaissance, protestantism, the printing press, the Jesuit and Piarist schools, the baroque and classicism, the Enlightenment, romanticism with its art, music, literature and theatre all gave rise to their local, Hungarian versions following western models and inspirations, not to mention Hungarian advances in science. The 18th and 19th centuries, when the entire territory of Hungary became part of the Hapsburg empire brought with them great prosperity. Apart from a few absolutistic episodes even the constitutional rule of the Hungarian aristocracy and nobility remained intact.
The political goals from those of the 1848 revolution all the way to the change of regime in 1989 were all inspired by wstern models, including the separation of the branches of power, the creation of a limited, divided and controlled power, the freedom rights, equity and the rule of law as opposed to absolutism and dictatorship (which were, by the way, also ’imported goods’).
All this doesn’t mean that the culture of the Hungarians was weak – just the opposite: its stregth came from its flexibility and acceptance. This is what made Western Europe successful, which has also been open to external influence.
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Funded by the European Union. The information and statements contained herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the European Union or the Tempus Public Foundation. Neither the European Union nor the funding authority can be held responsible for them.
