Slovaks in Hungary

A Slovak family in Hungary (1907, Sátoraljaújhely)

Slovaks in Hungary (Slovak: Maďarskí Slováci) are the third largest minority in Hungary, after Romas and Germans. According to the Census in 2001, a total number of 17,692 people claimed themselves to be Slovaks in Hungary. The total number of people who can speak the Slovak language is 56,107.^[1] According to the estimates of minority organisations, there are about 100,000-110,000 people with Slovak ancestry in Hungary. Hence, the estimated population of Slovaks in Hungary is ranging from 0.18% to 1.1% of the total population of Hungary.^[2][3]

History

The presence of the Slovak ethnicity in the territory of present-day Hungary dates back to the Middle Ages.^[4] In the 9th-10th century, the Slovak-populated territories were part of the Great Moravia. Subsequently in the 9th century these areas were included into the Principality of Hungary out of which the Kingdom of Hungary emerged in AD.1000. In the 16th century, after the Battle of Mohács during the Turkish wars, the Kingdom of Hungary was split into three parts and the Slovak populated regions mostly became part of the Habsburg controlled Royal Hungary. After Ottomans were defeated in the end of the 17th century, all Slovak-populated areas were included into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. In this time, Slovaks mainly lived in the northern parts of the country, often referred to as Upper Hungary (present-day Slovakia). In the 18th and 19th century, some Slovak migrants started to settle in other counties (in the northern parts of present-day Hungary) and developed strong mutual language contact with the Hungarians and later also settled in the some southern regions. Following a period of Slovak demand for autonomy within Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary conflicts between Slovaks and Hungarians arose. According to the Treaty of Trianon from 1920, most of Slovak-speaking territories of the pre-war Kingdom of Hungary were recognized as part of Czechoslovakia.^[5] Some Slovaks, however, remained within the borders of post-Trianon Hungary. According to Austro-Hungarian data from 1900 there was 192,200 Slovaks in the territory of present-day Hungary (2.8% of total population).^[6] According to Hungarian census 141,882 people spoke Slovak in 1920.^[7] The Czechoslovak-Hungarian population exchange that took place after 1920 was repeated after World War II when about 73,000 Slovaks resettled from Hungary to Slovakia.^[8]

References

See also

• Hungarians in Slovakia