Magyarization

Magyarization (UK: /ˌmædʒəraɪˈzeɪʃən/ US: /ˌmɑːdʒərɪ-/, also Hungarianization; Hungarian: magyarosítás), after "Magyar"—the Hungarian autonym—was an assimilation or acculturation process by which non-Hungarian nationals living in the Kingdom of Hungary, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, adopted the Hungarian national identity and language in the period between the Compromise of 1867 and Austria-Hungary's dissolution in 1918. Magyarization occurred both voluntarily and as a result of social pressure, and was mandated in certain respects by specific government policies.

Before World War I, only three European countries declared ethnic minority rights, and enacted minority-protecting laws: the first was Hungary (1849 and 1868), the second was Austria (1867), and the third was Belgium (1898). In contrast, the legal systems of other pre-WW1 era European countries did not allow the use of European minority languages in primary schools, in cultural institutions, in offices of public administration and at the legal courts.

By emphasizing minority rights and civil and political rights based on individualism, Hungarian politicians sought to prevent establishment of politically autonomous territories for ethnic minorities. However the leaders of the Romanian, Serb and Slovak minorities had been seeking full territorial autonomy instead of minority rights. Hungarian politicians, influenced by their experience during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, viewed such a measure as the first step towards complete disintegration of Kingdom of Hungary.

Magyarization was ideologically based on the classical liberal concepts of individualism (civil liberties of the person) and liberal/civic nationalism in general, which encouraged ethnic minorities' cultural and linguistic assimilation, and on the post-revolutionary standardization of the French language in particular. Although the 1868 Hungarian Nationalities Law guaranteed legal equality to all citizens, including in language use, in this period practically only Hungarian was used in administrative, judicial, and higher educational contexts.

By 1900, Transleithanian state administration, businesses, and high society were exclusively magyarophone, and by 1910, 96% of civil servants, 91.2% of all public employees, 96.8% of judges and public prosecutors, 91.5% of secondary school teachers and 89% of medical doctors had learned Hungarian as their first language. Urban and industrial centers' Magyarization proceeded at a particularly quick rate; nearly all middle-class Jews and Germans and many middle-class Slovaks and Ruthenes spoke Hungarian. Overall, between 1880 and 1910, the percentage of the total population that spoke Hungarian as its first language rose from 46.6% to 54.5%. Most Magyarization occurred in central Hungary and among the educated middle classes, much of it was the direct result of urbanization and industrialization. It hardly touched rural, peasant, and peripheral populations; among these groups, linguistic frontiers did not shift significantly between 1800 and 1900.

While those nationalities who opposed Magyarization faced political and cultural challenges, however these were less severe than the civic and fiscal mistreatment that some of Hungary’s neighboring countries often subjected their ethnic minorities during the interwar period. After the Treaty of Trianon this mistreatment included prejudicial court proceedings, overtaxation, and biased application of social and economic legislation in those countries.