Religion, Nation, and Revolt in Seventeenth-Century Hungary (Research Brief)

I critically reassess a central paradigm of Hungarian historiography, namely that the Hungarian revolts against the Habsburg Empire during the late seventeenth century were national “wars of independence.” Examination of unstudied Habsburg investigations of ordinary men and women reveals a different story. First, these revolts were multinational, with significant Slovak, Ukrainian, and German participation. Second, defense of Protestant and Orthodox religion – not nationality – was the principal motivation. And third, there was widespread belief that the Ottomans would support their cause. These findings call for further study of the complicated multinational, multi-confessional experiences of communities on the Hungarian frontier of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires.

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Georg Michels, of the University of California, was a 2010-11 Short-Term Travel Grants (STG) fellow.