Veszprém a török korban (Veszprémi Múzeumi Konferenciák 9. 1998)

Fodor Pál: Török politika Magyarországon (1520–1541)

Pál Fodor TURKISH POLITICS IN HUNGARY (1520-1541) After the Ottomans had gradually crushed the resistance of the Hungarian Kingdom in constant warfare of more than one hundred years, from the 1520s on they began to occupy Hungarian territories. Concerning the political aims of sultan Süleyman (1520-1566) two diametrically opposed view have been advanced. One group of scholars maintain that the Ottoman ruler did not want to subjugate Hungary directly, but he wished to compel the Hungarians to accept a vassal status similar to that of the Wallachian and Moldavian principalities. According to others, the Ottoman ruler intended to extend his dominion over Hungary from the outset, and to this end he used the traditional Ottoman method of gradual conquest. The author of the article share the latter opinion, and at first he demonstrates how the strategy of gradual conquest was applied in Hungary between 1520 and 1541. At the same time, he regards the Ottoman occupation of Central Hungary in 1541 as a consequence of the Hapsburg aspiration as well. Originally, both the Ottomans and the Hapsburgs aimed at dominating the whole of Hungary, but, due to the balance of their military forces, none of them was able to carry out maximum programme. As a result, Hungary became an area of war and conflicts between two world empires for more than one century and a half, and the Hungarian Kingdom, which had been exceptionally unified during the Middle Ages, was divided into three - Ottoman, Hapsburg and Transylvanian - spheres of political influence. 15