Transylvania

Transylvania (German: Siebenbürgen) is a Central European region located in the eastern half of the Carpathian Basin, today in central Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historic Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, since 1919, Transylvania also encompasses, in the north-west, parts of the historical regions of Crişana, Maramureş and Partium, and in the west, eastern Banat. Outside Romania, it is strongly associated with Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, while within Romania and Hungary the region is known for the scenic beauty of its Carpathian landscape and its rich history.

History

Transylvania is an ancient land. After 106 AD the Roman Empire conquered Dacia and its wealth (gold and salt) was systematically exploited. After the Romans' withdrew in 271 AD, it was subject to various temporary influences and migration waves: Visigoths, Carpians, Huns, and Gepids (Slavs). Before the 10th century Magyar tribes slowly subdued Transylvania, which became part of the Kingdom of Hungary (11th–16th century). As a political entity, Transylvania is mentioned from the 11th century (after the Hungarian conquest) as a province of the Kingdom of Hungary. After the battle of Mohács it became an autonomous principality under the Ottoman Empire, before returning to Hungary, ruled by the Habsburgs in 1711, and subsequently part of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

Following the defeat of Austria-Hungary in The Great War, Hungary was brutally dismembered by the victorious plutocratic western liberal Allies who awarded Transylvania to the Kingdom of Romania in the Treaty of Trianon despite Romania changing sides during the war, as well as their complete defeat.

Transylvanian Saxons (Siebenbürger Sachsen)

Transylvanian Saxons, German-speaking population that in the Middle Ages settled in Transylvania, then part of Hungary. The Transylvanian Saxons represented one of the three nations that made up the Transylvanian feudal system. Their region was called the Szászföld (Hungarian: Saxon Lands) or Királyföld (Royal Lands). A small population of Saxons continues to live in Transylvania, now part of Romania. In the 12th century King Géza II of Hungary (reigned 1141–62) invited Germans to settle and defend relatively sparsely populated Transylvania. The people who arrived were in fact not all Saxons; they came from the whole of the German-speaking region and also included Walloons. The first group of immigrants settled in southern Transylvania, in the region of Nagyszeben (present-day Sibiu, Rom.). The existing inhabitants of the area were moved elsewhere, thereby creating a homogeneous German-speaking region (the Altland). Later settlers moved into the surrounding areas inhabited by Magyars (Hungarians) and Romanians. The second great wave of German settlement took place after the Hungarian king Andrew II (reigned 1205–35) granted the Barcaság area (around present-day Brașov, Rom.) in southeastern Transylvania to the Teutonic Order in 1211. The order, however, attempted to found its own state, and so Andrew, in order to win the Saxons’ favour against the Teutonic Knights, granted the Saxons a wide range of privileges in his decree of 1224, the Andreanum. As a result the Saxons were united as one nation under the leadership of the crown lieutenant (comes; Latin: count) in Nagyszeben, and they received new territories. They were guaranteed free elections for priests and local leaders, together with exemption from customs duties and taxes, except for an annual payment to the king for the lands they had received from him. The Saxons also were obliged to provide soldiers for the king; these would come from their patrician class, the Gräfe.

Though in principle all members of Transylvanian Saxon society were equal, in practice they were led by the Gräfe. Outside the Saxon Lands the Gräfe were effectively thought of as nobles. But because the Saxon Lands were considered to be the property of the universitas (Latin: community), they could not fall into private hands; thus, many of the Gräfe acquired aristocratic estates in the counties of royal Hungary. By the 15th century the Gräfe had become completely Magyarized, and they gave up their status in the Saxon Lands. Meanwhile, what had begun as a peasant society gradually transformed into an urban one, with the citizens of the developing Saxon towns—such as Sighișoara—eventually becoming the leading force. In 1324 the Saxons rebelled against the Hungarian king Charles I (reigned 1308–42), who, after suppressing the rebellion, reorganized the region by creating three new territories for those Saxons who had settled in parts of Transylvania other than the Barcaság. Crown lieutenants governed the Saxon territories, with the exception of Nagyszeben, which was divided into sedes (Latin: seats) led by crown judges. In 1437 the Saxons signed the Union of Kápolna; they thus became one of the three feudal nations of Transylvania, alongside the Magyar nobility and the Szeklers (a distinct Magyar people). All the Saxon territories gradually came to be controlled by crown judges, and between 1464 and 1469 each territory won the right to elect its own crown judge. The Andreanum decree was extended to cover the three additional Saxon territories in 1486, from which time the leader of all the Saxon Lands was the Saxon count, who also held the title of mayor of Nagyszeben. he germ of the Reformation first appeared among the Transylvanian Saxons in the 1530s. In 1545 the Saxon universitas stated its acceptance of Lutheran teachings, and in 1553 the Saxons began to elect their own bishops.