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58-628: During the Habsburg–Ottoman wars , Upper Hungary meant only the northeastern parts of the Hungarian Kingdom. The northwestern regions (present-day western and central Slovakia) belonged to Lower Hungary . Sometime during the 18th or 19th century, Upper Hungary began to imply the whole northern regions of the kingdom. The population of Upper Hungary was mixed and mainly consisted of Slovaks , Hungarians , Germans , Ashkenazi Jews and Ruthenians . The first complex demographic data are from

116-597: A bloody reputation for so much loss of life. Costly battles like those fought at Buda and Osijek were avoided but not absent in the upcoming conflicts. In any case Habsburg interests were split between fighting for devastated European land under Islamic control, trying to stop the gradual decentralization of Imperial authority in Germany , and for Spain's ambitions in North Africa, the Low Countries and against

174-717: A move against Vienna. Peace was finally concluded in Adrianople in 1568 and renewed in 1576, 1584, and 1591. War would not again break out between the Habsburgs and Ottomans until 1593, in the Long Turkish War . However, throughout this period of peace small-scale warfare continued, a conflict known as the "Little War" (German: Kleinkrieg ). In 1571 the Turks destroyed the Hodejov castle and in 1575 they conquered

232-476: A number of kraje (singular kraj ; usually translated as "Regions" with capital R). Their number, borders and functions have been changed several times. There are eight regions of Slovakia and they correspond to the EU 's NUTS 3 level of local administrative units. Each kraj consists of okresy (counties or districts). There are 79 districts . After a period without kraje and without any equivalent (1990–1996),

290-535: A report from 1594, the Ottoman soldiers had not adopted the pistol yet. In 1602, the grand vizier reported from Hungarian front about the firepower superiority of the Christian forces: "in a field or during a siege we are in distressed position, because the greater part of the enemy forces are infantry armed with muskets, while the majority of our forces are horsemen, and we have very few specialists skilled in

348-519: A state severely weakened by civil conflict, in 1527, in an attempt to drive out John Zápolya and enforce his authority there. John was unable to prevent Ferdinand's campaigning, which led to the capture of Buda and several other key settlements along the Danube. Despite this, the Ottoman sultan was slow to react and only came to the aid of his vassal when he launched an army of about 120,000 men on 10 May 1529. The Austrian branch of Habsburg monarchs needed

406-634: The Modrý Kameň castle. In 1588 there was a battle near the town of Szikszó , where the Hungarian army defeated the Turks. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire rapidly began displacing its Christian opponents at sea. In the 14th century, the Ottomans had only a small navy. By the 15th century, hundreds of ships were in the Ottoman arsenal taking on Constantinople and challenging the naval powers of

464-475: The Northern Hungary region ( Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén , Heves , and Nógrád Counties), was informally called either "Upper Hungary" or "Upland" ( Felső-Magyarország or Felvidék ). Although not strictly defined, the name Felvidék became commonplace to the point that at least one publication concerning the area used it as its title. Other nations used the terms "Upper Hungary" (for the northern part of

522-756: The Szolnok Castle , and turned against the gate of Upper Hungary, Eger . At the end of the July there was an enormous gap in the Hungarian border castle system. In September 1552 the forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Kara Ahmed Pasha laid siege to Eger Castle , located in the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, but the defenders led by István Dobó repelled the attacks and defended the castle. The siege of Eger (1552) become an emblem of national defense and patriotic heroism in Hungary's occupations In 1554,

580-761: The War of the Spanish Succession in the 17th and 18th centuries respectively left the Austrian Empire as the sole firm possession of the House of Habsburg. After the siege of Vienna in 1683, the Habsburgs assembled a large coalition of European powers known as the Holy League to fight the Ottomans and regain control over Hungary. The Great Turkish War ended with the decisive Holy League victory at Zenta . The wars ended after Austria's participation in

638-489: The siege of Szigetvár . The siege was meant to be only a temporary stop before taking on Vienna. However, the fortress withstood against the Sultan's armies. Eventually the Sultan, already an old man at 72 years (ironically campaigning to restore his health), died. The Royal Physician was strangled to prevent news from reaching the troops and the unaware Ottomans took the fort, ending the campaign shortly afterward without making

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696-590: The 16th century, the Ottomans had become a serious threat to European powers, with Ottoman ships sweeping away Venetian possessions in the Aegean and Ionian seas and Ottoman-supported Barbary pirates seizing Spanish possessions in the Maghreb . The Protestant Reformation , French–Habsburg rivalry and the numerous civil conflicts of the Holy Roman Empire distracted Christians from their conflict with

754-680: The 16th to the 18th centuries between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy , which was at times supported by the Kingdom of Hungary , Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , The Holy Roman Empire , and Habsburg Spain . The wars were dominated by land campaigns in Hungary, including Transylvania (today in Romania ) and Vojvodina (today in Serbia ), Croatia , and central Serbia . By

812-487: The 18th century, in which Slovaks constituted the majority population in Upper Hungary. Slovaks called this territory " Slovensko " (Slovakia), which term appears in written documents from the 15th century, but it was not precisely defined and the region inhabited by Slovaks held no distinct legal, constitutional, or political status within Upper Hungary. Historically there are different meanings: After World War I,

870-592: The Archduke of Austria, Ferdinand I . Ferdinand's claim to the throne of Hungary was further strengthened by his marriage to Anne , the sister of King Louis II and the only family member claimant to the throne of the shattered kingdom. Consequently, Ferdinand I was elected King of Bohemia , and at the Diet of Pozsony he and his wife were elected king and queen of Hungary. This clashed with the Turkish objective of placing

928-693: The French . Nevertheless, the Ottomans, while hanging on to their supreme power, could not expand as they had in the days of Mehmet and Bayezid. To the east lay further wars against their Shi'ite opponents, the Safavids . Both the French (since 1536) and the Dutch (since 1612) occasionally worked together against the Habsburgs with the Ottomans. Suleiman the Magnificent led one final campaign in 1566, ending at

986-622: The Habsburgs (See Italian Wars ). The situation finally came to a head when Suleiman, the victor at Rhodes in 1522 and at the Battle of Djerba , decided in 1565 to destroy the Knights' base at Malta. The presence of the Ottoman fleet so close to the Papacy alarmed the Spanish, who began assembling first a small expeditionary force (that arrived in time for the siege) and then a larger fleet to relieve

1044-467: The Habsburgs until the middle of the eighteenth century. Historian Gunther E. Rothenberg has emphasized the non-combat dimension of the conflict, in which the Habsburgs built up military communities that protected their borders and produced a steady flow of well-trained, motivated soldiers. While the Habsburgs were occasionally the Kings of Hungary and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (almost always of

1102-480: The Holy League in 1538 at the Battle of Preveza in western Greece. In 1541, Charles led an amphibious attack on the Ottoman stronghold of Algiers , which was defended by Hasan Agha , an Italian renegade from Sardinia . As Charles put ashore, Andrea Doria 's accompanying fleet was battered by a storm and many ships were lost. Charles's land force marched toward Algiers, but sorties by Janissaries halted

1160-701: The Holy Roman Empire after the 15th century), the wars between the Hungarians and the Ottomans included other dynasties as well. Naturally, the Ottoman Wars in Europe attracted support from the West, where the advancing and powerful Islamic state was seen as a threat to Christendom in Europe. The Crusades of Nicopolis (1396) and of Varna (1443–44) marked the most determined attempts by Europe to halt

1218-633: The Hungarian hand cannon "Szakállas puska" in the 15th century. Although Ottoman Janissaries adopted firearms in battles since the beginning of the 16th century, the Ottoman usage of the handheld firearms spread much more slowly than in the Western Christian armies. Wheellock firearms were unfamiliar for Ottoman soldiers until the siege of Székesfehérvár in 1543, despite the fact they had been used for decades by Christian armies in Kingdom of Hungary and in Western Europe. According to

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1276-558: The Hungarian-majority areas where they live. Some of them call themselves felvidéki magyarok , i.e. the "Upland Hungarians." The word felvidék is also used as a component of the toponym Balaton-felvidék, describing the hilly area north of Lake Balaton , with no connection to the historical Upper Hungary. The term Upper Hungary often occurs in publications on history as a somewhat-anachronistic translation of other, earlier (then Latin ) designations denoting approximately

1334-589: The Italian republics of Venice and Genoa . In 1480, the Ottomans unsuccessfully laid siege to Rhodes , the stronghold of the Knights of St. John . When the Ottomans returned in 1522 , they were more successful and the Christian powers lost a crucial naval base. In retaliation, Charles V led a massive Holy League of 60,000 soldiers against the Ottoman city of Tunis . After Hayreddin Barbarossa 's fleet

1392-513: The Kingdom of Hungary. After the death of John Zápolya in 1540, Ferdinand's inheritance was robbed, given instead to John's son, John Sigismund Zápolya . Attempting to enforce the treaty, the Austrians advanced on Buda where they experienced another defeat by Suleiman; the elderly Austrian General Wilhelm von Roggendorf proved to be incompetent. Suleiman then finished off the remaining Austrian troops and proceeded to de facto annex Hungary. By

1450-661: The Kingdom), "Slovakia" (only for the territory predominantly inhabited by the Slovaks ), and "Ruthenia" (the territory predominantly inhabited by the Ruthenians) in parallel. The Slovaks themselves called the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary to the south of Slovakia Dolná zem ("Lower Land"). In the course of the creation of Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I, Czechoslovakia originally demanded that all of Upper Hungary be added to Czechoslovak territory (i.e. including

1508-610: The Ottomans. Meanwhile, the Ottomans had to contend with the Persian Safavid Empire and to a lesser extent the Mamluk Sultanate , which was defeated and fully incorporated into the empire. Initially, Ottoman conquests in Europe made significant gains with a decisive victory at Mohács reducing around one third of central Hungary to the status of an Ottoman tributary . Later, the Peace of Westphalia and

1566-582: The Turkic advance into Central Europe and the Balkans . For a while the Ottomans were too busy trying to put down Balkan rebels such as Vlad Dracula . However, the defeat of these and other rebellious vassal states opened up central Europe to Ottoman invasion. The Kingdom of Hungary now bordered the Ottoman Empire and its vassals . After King Louis II of Hungary was killed at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, his widow Queen Mary of Austria fled to her brother

1624-606: The Turks in 1541, west and north Hungary recognized a Habsburg as king (" Royal Hungary "), while the central and southern counties were occupied by the Sultan (" Ottoman Hungary "), and the east became the Principality of Transylvania . The vast majority of the seventeen and nineteen thousands Ottoman 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 were also acting as akinjis and other light troops intended for pillaging in

1682-517: The advance, and Charles withdrew. Despite the loss of Rhodes, Cyprus (an island farther from Europe than Rhodes) remained Venetian. When the Knights of St. John moved to Malta , the Ottomans found that their victory at Rhodes only displaced the problem; Ottoman ships came under frequent attacks by the Knights, as they attempted to stop Ottoman expansion to the West. Not to be outdone, Ottoman ships struck many parts of southern Europe and around Italy, as part of their wider war, allied with France against

1740-472: The castles in the Hont and Nógrád counties . The Habsburg army under Erasmus von Teufel  [ de ] made a belated attempt to stop the Ottoman troops at Plášťovce (then Palást ), but was completely defeated in a two-day battle of Palást  [ sk ] , and 4,000 German and Italian prisoners were deported to Constantinople. The two armies united under Szolnok , then besieged and conquered

1798-706: The conquest of today's Hungary by the Ottomans in the 16th century when Felső-Magyarország (German: Oberungarn; Slovak: Horné Uhorsko ) referred to present-day eastern Slovakia and the adjacent territories of today's Hungary and Ukraine that were not occupied by the Ottoman Empire . That territory formed a separate military district (the " Captaincy of Upper Hungary " (1564–1686) headquartered in Kassa/Kaschau/ Košice ) within Royal Hungary . At that time, present-day western Slovakia , and sometimes also

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1856-509: The decline of the Ottoman Empire. Recent historians have taken a broader perspective, noting that the Habsburgs at the same time resisted internal separatist movements and were fighting Prussia and France for control of central Europe. The key advance made by the Europeans was an effective combined arms doctrine involving the cooperation of infantry, artillery and cavalry. Nevertheless, the Ottomans were able to maintain military parity with

1914-531: The defeat at Vienna, the Ottoman Sultan had to turn his attention to other parts of his domain. Taking advantage of this absence, Archduke Ferdinand launched an offensive in 1530, recapturing Esztergom and other forts. An assault on Buda was only thwarted by the presence of Ottoman Turkish soldiers. As in the previous Austrian offensive, the return of the Ottomans forced the Habsburgs in Austria to go on

1972-637: The defensive. In 1532, Suleiman sent a massive Ottoman army to take Vienna. However, the army took a different route to Kőszeg . After a defence by a mere 700-strong force led by the Croatian earl Nikola Jurišić , the defenders accepted an "honorable" surrender of the fortress in return for their safety. The Sultan then withdrew, content with his success, and recognizing the limited Austrian gains in Hungary, while forcing Ferdinand to recognize John Zápolya as King of Hungary. Tatar raiders plundered Lower Austria and carried off many people into slavery . While

2030-452: The devastation wrought upon Hungary in the previous few years it is not surprising that the will to resist one of the world's most powerful states was lacking in many of the recently garrisoned Habsburg settlements. The Sultan arrived at Vienna on 27 September 1529. Ferdinand's army was some 16,000 strong – he was outnumbered roughly 7 to 1 and the walls of Vienna were an invitation to Ottoman cannon (6 ft thick along some parts). However,

2088-483: The economic power of Hungary for the Ottoman wars. During the Ottoman wars the territory of former Kingdom of Hungary shrunk by around 70%; despite these territorial and demographic losses, the smaller, heavily war-torn Royal Hungary remained economically more important than Austria or Kingdom of Bohemia at the end of the 16th century, as it was Ferdinand's largest source of revenue. The earliest type of Turkish hand cannons are called as "Şakaloz", which word came from

2146-582: The heavy cannons on which the Ottomans relied to breach the walls were all abandoned on the way to Vienna, after they got stuck in mud due to heavy rainfall. Ferdinand defended Vienna with great vigour. By 12 October, after much mining and counter-mining an Ottoman war council was called and on 14 October the Ottomans abandoned the siege. The retreat of the Ottoman army was hampered by the resistance of Pozsony, which attempted to attack Ottoman forces. Early snowfall made matters worse, and it would be another three years before Suleiman could campaign in Hungary. After

2204-468: The island. The ultra-modern star-shaped fort of St Elmo was taken only with heavy casualties including the Ottoman general Turgut Reis , and the rest of the island was too much. Even so, Barbary piracy continued and the victory at Malta had no effect on Ottoman military strength in the Mediterranean. Regions of Slovakia Since 1949 (except 1990–1996), Slovakia has been divided into

2262-553: The kraje were reintroduced in 1996. As for administrative division, Slovakia has been subdivided into 8 kraje since 24 July 1996: in Regional Council Since 2002, Slovakia is divided into 8 samosprávne kraje (self-governing regions), which are called by the Constitution vyššie územné celky (Higher Territorial Units), abbr. VÚC. The territory and borders of the self-governing regions are identical with

2320-464: The last census of 1910 in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was based on native language, Slovak speakers were a majority in many of these counties. 49°00′00″N 19°00′00″E  /  49.0000°N 19.0000°E  / 49.0000; 19.0000 Habsburg%E2%80%93Ottoman wars [REDACTED]   Ottoman Empire Vassal states : [REDACTED] Habsburg monarchy Mediterranean The Ottoman–Habsburg wars were fought from

2378-561: The meaning of Felvidék in Hungarian ( Felső-Magyarország was not used anymore) was restricted to the Slovak and Carpathian Ruthenian parts of Czechoslovakia . Today the term Felvidék is sometimes used in Hungary when speaking about Slovakia, and it is exclusively (and anachronistically) used in Hungarian historical literature when speaking about the Middle Ages, i.e., before the name actually came into existence. The three counties of

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2436-480: The musket" According to Alvise Foscarini's (Venetian ambassador in Constantinople ) report in 1637, "few Janissaries even knew how to use an arquebus " Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent easily wrested from Ferdinand most of the gains he had achieved in the previous two years – to the disappointment of Ferdinand I, only the fortress of Pozsony resisted. Considering the size of Suleiman's army and

2494-454: The peace between the Austrians and the Ottomans would last for nine years, John Zápolya and Ferdinand found it convenient to continue skirmishes along their respective borders. In 1537 Ferdinand broke the peace treaty by sending his ablest generals to a disastrous siege of Osijek , which was another Ottoman triumph. Nevertheless, Ferdinand was recognized by the Treaty of Nagyvárad as the heir of

2552-650: The puppet John Zápolya on the throne, setting the stage for a conflict between the two powers. Suleiman I's campaign of 1529 Siege of Vienna (1529) Ottoman–Habsburg War (1526–1538) Conquest of Tunis (1535) Algiers expedition (1541) Expedition to Mostaganem (1558) Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir Long Turkish War Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664) Great Turkish War Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739) Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791) The Austrian lands were in miserable economic and financial conditions, thus Ferdinand desperately introduced

2610-402: The region that remained in Hungary after World War I, however, are never called Upper Hungary today, only Northern Hungary ( Észak-Magyarország ). Any use of the word Felvidék to denote all of modern Slovakia is considered offensive by Slovaks, and inappropriate by some Hungarians, but it is now commonly used by the sizeable Hungarian minority in the southern border-zone of Slovakia to identify

2668-443: The remaining territories of Royal Hungary to the south of it, were called Lower Hungary (Hungarian: Alsó-Magyarország; German: Niederungarn; Slovak: Dolné Uhorsko ). It was briefly a separate vassal state of the Ottoman Empire under Imre Thököly in the 1680s. This usage occurs in many texts up to around 1800 – for example, the renowned mining school of Schemnitz/Selmecbánya/ Banská Štiavnica in present-day central Slovakia

2726-602: The same territory. Some of the other terms were Partes Danubii septentrionales (Territories to the north of the Danube ) or Partes regni superiores (Upper parts of the Kingdom ). The actual name "Upper Hungary" arose later from the latter phrase. In the 15th century, the "Somorja ( Šamorín ), Nagyszombat ( Trnava ), Galgóc ( Hlohovec ), Nyitra ( Nitra ), Léva ( Levice ), Losonc ( Lučenec ), Rimaszombat ( Rimavská Sobota ), Rozsnyó ( Rožňava ), Jászó ( Jasov ), Kassa ( Košice ), Gálszécs ( Sečovce ), Nagymihály ( Michalovce )" line

2784-530: The so-called Turkish Tax (Türken Steuer). Despite this, he was not able to collect enough money to pay the expenses of the defense costs of the Austrian lands. His annual revenues only allowed him to hire 5,000 mercenaries for two months, thus Ferdinand asked help from his brother Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor , and started to borrow money from rich bankers like the Fugger family . Ferdinand I attacked Hungary,

2842-427: The territory and borders of the kraje . Therefore, the word "kraj" can be replaced by "VÚC" or "samosprávny kraj" in each case in the above list. The main difference is that organs of samosprávne kraje are self-governing , with an elected chairperson and assembly, while the organs of kraje are appointed by the government. The term "Region" ( Slovak : kraj ) should not be confused with: Historically, Slovakia

2900-536: The territory between the Tisza River and present-day Slovakia ). The claim for its acquisition, however, was not based on the whole area having a single common name, "Upper Hungary", but on the presence of a Slovak minority in the region. In 1720 of the 63 largest towns on the territory of present-day Slovakia with at least 100 taxpaying households 40 had Slovak majority, 14 German and 9 Hungarian majority. The first ethnic data of whole Hungarian Kingdom by county

2958-487: The territory of present-day Hungary. There were wasted opportunities on both sides in the Little War; Austrian attempts to increase their influence in Hungary were just as unsuccessful as the Ottoman drives to Vienna. Nonetheless, there were no illusions as to the status quo: the Ottoman Empire was still a very powerful and dangerous threat. Even so, the Austrians would go on the offensive again, their generals building

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3016-491: The time a peace treaty was enforced in 1551, Habsburg Hungary had been reduced to little more than border land. In 1552 two Ottoman armies crossed the border into the Hungarian kingdom. One of them – led by Hadim Ali Pasha – started a campaign against the western and central part of the country while the second army – led by Kara Ahmed Pasha – attacked the fortresses in the Banat region. Ottoman troops conquered nine-tenths of

3074-519: The town of Fiľakovo in south-central Slovakia with the castle of the same name was conquered by the Turks and was the seat of a sanjak until 1593, when it was reconquered by the Imperial troops. On 27 March 1562, Hasszán, the sanjak-bey of Fülek (Fiľakovo) castle, defeated the Hungarian army of the Upper Lands at the Battle of Szécsény  [ sk ] . After the seizure of Buda by

3132-521: The war of 1787–1791 , which Austria fought allied with Russia. Intermittent tension between Austria and the Ottoman Empire continued throughout the nineteenth century, but they never fought each other in a war and ultimately found themselves allied in World War I , after which both empires were dissolved. Historians have focused on the second siege of Vienna of 1683 , depicting it as a decisive Austrian victory that saved Western civilization and marked

3190-414: Was defeated by a Genoese one, Charles' army put 30,000 of the city's residents to the sword. Afterwards, the Spanish placed a friendlier Muslim leader in power. The campaign was not an unmitigated success; many Holy League soldiers succumbed to dysentery, only natural for such a large overseas army. Furthermore, much of Barbarossa's fleet was not present in North Africa and the Ottomans won a victory against

3248-481: Was founded in "Lower" Hungary (not in "Upper" Hungary) in the 18th century and Pozsony (today's Bratislava ) was also referred to as being in "Lower" Hungary in the late 18th century. From the 18th century (in many texts however only after around 1800) until 1920, the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary north of the Tisza and the Danube , which comprised present-day Slovakia , Carpathian Ruthenia , and approximately

3306-445: Was published in 1842. According to this survey the total population of the counties in Upper Hungary exceeded 2.4 million, with the following ethnic distribution: 59.5% Slovaks , 22% Magyars , 8.3% Ruthenians , 6.7% Germans and 3.6% Jews . Upper Hungary included the counties of Pozsony , Nyitra , Bars , Hont , Trencsén , Turóc , Árva , Liptó , Zólyom , Gömör és Kis-Hont , Szespes , Abaúj-Torna , Sáros and Zemplén . In

3364-409: Was the northern "boundary" of the Hungarian ethnic area. The Principality of Nitra emerged in the 8th century and developed into an independent Slavic state; although the polity may have lost its independence when it was still at the stage of development. In the early 9th century, the polity was situated on the north-western territories of present-day Slovakia . The term emerged approximately after

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