page_title: History of Hungary
section_title: Ottoman wars
hierarchical_section_title: History of Hungary / Early modern period / Ottoman wars
caption_attribution_description: English: Central Europe during the short-term existence of Imre Thököly's Principality of Upper Hungary. - Habsburg and Ottoman territories, including Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary (Royal Hungary) and Habsburg Croatia, Ottoman vassal states (Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Principality of Upper Hungary (existed between 1682-1685), Montenegro, Ragusa) and Ottoman eyalets. The Ottoman expansion was asked by prince Imre Thököly in Upper Hungary (centered in present-day Slovakia) against the Habsburgs. The Ottoman Rule in Upper Hungary lasted only for 3 months.
context_page_description: Hungary in its modern borders roughly corresponds to the Great Hungarian Plain.
  During the Iron Age, it was at the boundary of Celtic, Illyrian and Iranian cultural spheres.
  The name "Pannonian" comes from Pannonia, a province of the Roman Empire. Only the western part of the territory of modern Hungary formed part of the ancient Roman Province of Pannonia. The
  Roman control collapsed with the Hunnic invasions of 370–410 and Pannonia was part of the Ostrogothic Kingdom during the late 5th to mid 6th century, succeeded by the Avar Khaganate.civil
  The Magyar invasion takes place during the 9th century.
  The Magyars were Christianized at the end of the 10th century, and the Christian Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD 1000,
  ruled by the Árpád dynasty for the following three centuries.
  In the high medieval period, the kingdom expanded beyond Pannonia, to the Adriatic coast. In 1241 during the reign of Béla IV, Hungary was invaded by the Mongols under Batu Khan. The outnumbered Hungarians were decisively defeated at the Battle of Mohi by the Mongol army. King Béla fled to the Holy Roman Empire and left the Hungarian population under the mercy of the Mongols.
context_section_description: After the Ottomans achieved their first decisive victory over the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, their forces conquered large parts of the kingdom of Hungary and continued their expansion until 1556. This period was characterized by political chaos. A divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously, János Szapolyai (r. 1526–1540, of Hungarian-German origin) and the Austrian Ferdinand of Habsburg (r. 1527–1540). Armed conflicts between the new rival monarchs further weakened the country. With the Turkish conquest of Buda in 1541, Hungary was riven into three parts.
  The northwestern part of the old kingdom of Hungary (present-day Slovakia, western Transdanubia and Burgenland, plus western Croatia and parts of present-day northeastern Hungary) remained under Habsburg rule as the realm of King Ferdinand. Although initially independent, it would later become a part of the Habsburg Monarchy under the informal name Royal Hungary. The Habsburg Emperors would from then on be crowned also as Kings of Hungary. The Turks were unable to conquer the northern and western parts of Hungary.
  The eastern part of the kingdom (Partium and Transylvania) at first became an independent principality, but was gradually brought under Turkish rule as a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The remaining central area (most of present-day Hungary), including the capital of Buda, became a province of the Ottoman Empire. Much of the land was devastated by recurrent warfare. Most small Hungarian settlements disappeared. Rural people living in the new Ottoman provinces could survive only in larger settlements known as Khaz towns, which were owned and protected directly by the Sultan. The Turks were indifferent to the Christian denominations practiced by their Hungarian subjects.
  For this reason, a majority of Hungarians living under Ottoman rule became Protestant (largely Calvinist), as Habsburg counter-Reformation efforts could not penetrate the Ottoman lands. Largely throughout this time, Pozsony (in German, Pressburg, today Bratislava) acted as the capital of the kingdom of Hungary (1536–1784), the town in which the Hungarian kings were crowned (1563–1830) and the seat of the Diet of Hungary (1536–1848). Nagyszombat (modern Trnava) acted in turn as the religious center beginning in 1541. The vast majority of the soldiers in service in the Ottoman fortresses in the territory of Hungary were Orthodox and Muslim Balkan Slavs, instead of ethnic Turkish people. Southern Slavs also served as akıncıs and other light troops intended for pillaging in the territory of present-day Hungary.
  In 1558 the Transylvanian Diet of Turda declared free practice of both the Catholic and Lutheran religions, but prohibited Calvinism. In 1568, the Diet extended this freedom, declaring that, "It is not allowed to anybody to intimidate anybody with captivity or expulsion for his religion". Four religions were declared as accepted (recepta), while Orthodox Christianity was "tolerated" (though the building of stone Orthodox churches was forbidden). When Hungary entered the Thirty Years' War of 1618–48, Royal (Habsburg) Hungary joined the Catholic side, then Transylvania joined the Protestant side.
  In 1686, two years after the unsuccessful Battle of Buda, a renewed European campaign was started to re-take the Hungarian capital. This time, the army of the Holy League was twice as large, at over 74,000 men, including German, Croat, Dutch, Hungarian, English, Spanish, Czech, Italian, French, Burgundian, Danish and Swedish soldiers, along with other Europeans as volunteers, artilleryman, and officers, and the Christian forces reconquered Buda in the second Battle of Buda. The second Battle of Mohács (1687) was a crushing defeat for the Turks. In the next few years, all of the former Hungarian lands, except areas near Timișoara (Temesvár), were taken back from the Turks. At the end of the 17th century, Transylvania also became part of Hungary again. In the Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699, these territorial changes were officially recognised, and in 1718, the enti
caption: The Kingdom of Hungary, Principality of Upper Hungary and Principality of Transylvania in the 17th century.
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