Upper Hungary

Part of a series on the
History of Hungary
Early history Hungarian prehistory The Carpathian Basin before the Hungarian conquest Roman Pannonia Hunnic Empire
Early medieval Kingdom of the Gepids 454–567 Ostrogothic Kingdom 469–553 Avar Khaganate 567–822 Hungarian invasions of Europe ~800–970 Hungarian conquest 862–895
Medieval Principality of Hungary 895–1000 Kingdom of Hungary 1000–1301 Personal union with Croatia 1102–1918 Golden Bull 1222 Mongol invasion of Hungary 1241–1242 Kingdom of Hungary 1301–1526 Ottoman Wars 1366–1526
Early modern Reformation 1520 Ottoman Wars 1526–1699 Eastern Hungarian Kingdom 1526–1570 Royal Hungary 1526–1699 Ottoman Hungary 1541–1699 Principality of Transylvania 1570–1711 Bocskai uprising 1604–1606 Wesselényi conspiracy 1664–1671 Principality of Upper Hungary 1682–1685 Kingdom of Hungary 1699–1867
Late modern Rákóczi's War of Independence 1703–1711 Principality of Transylvania 1711–1867 Hungarian Reform Era 1825–1848 Revolution of 1848 1848–1849 Hungarian State 1849 Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 1867–1918 Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen 1867–1918 World War I 1914–1918 Interwar period 1918–1941 Hungarian People's Republic 1918–1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic 1919 Hungarian Republic 1919–1920 Treaty of Trianon 1920 Kingdom of Hungary 1920–1946 First Vienna Award 1938 Governorate of Subcarpathia 1939–1945 Second Vienna Award 1940 Revisions of Délvidék 1941 World War II 1941–1945
Contemporary Second Hungarian Republic 1946–1949 Hungarian People's Republic 1949–1989 Revolution of 1956 1956 Goulash Communism 1956–1989 Third Hungarian Republic 1989–2012 Hungary since 2012
Topics Hungarians Timeline History of Transylvania Hungarian language Kingdom of Hungary Árpád dynasty Holy Crown Hungarian Kings Nobility Great Officers Transylvanian Princes Military List of Wars Christianity Economy Flag Coat of arms Literature Music Székelys Jews Budapest
Hungary portal
v t e

Part of a series on the
History of Slovakia
Early history Roman era Lombard state Avar Khaganate
Medieval Slavic states Samo's Empire Principality of Nitra Great Moravia Lower Pannonia
Principality of Hungary (895 – 1000) Principality of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary (1000 – 1526) High Middle Ages Late Middle Ages Domain of Máté Csák Domain of Amade Aba
Ottoman Empire (16th–17th century) Eastern Hungarian Kingdom Ottoman Hungary Uyvar Eyalet Budin Eyalet Eğri Eyalet Principality of Transylvania Principality of Imre Thököly
Habsburg monarchy (1526–1918) Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary Hungarian Revolution of 1848 1848–49 Slovak Uprising Military District of Preßburg Military District of Kaschau Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
Czechoslovakia (1918–1993) Treaty of Trianon 1920 Slovaks in Czechoslovakia 1918–1938 Slovak Soviet Republic 1919 Slovakia during World War II 1939–1945 Slovak Republic 1939–1945 Slovak National Uprising 1944 Slovaks in Czechoslovakia 1948–1989 Slovak Socialist Republic 1969–1990 Velvet Revolution 1989 Post-revolution Czechoslovakia 1989–1992 Dissolution of Czechoslovakia 1993
Contemporary Slovakia Slovak Republic 1993–present
Slovakia portal
v t e

Upper Hungary is the usual English translation of Felvidék (literally: "Upland"), the Hungarian term for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia.^[2][3][4][5] The region has also been called Felső-Magyarország (literally: "Upper Hungary"; Slovak: Horné Uhorsko).

During the Habsburg–Ottoman wars, Upper Hungary meant only the northeastern parts of the Hungarian Kingdom. The northwestern regions (present-day western and central Slovakia) belonged to Lower Hungary. Sometime during the 18th or 19th century, Upper Hungary began to imply the whole northern regions of the kingdom. The population of Upper Hungary was mixed and mainly consisted of Slovaks, Hungarians, Germans, Ashkenazi Jews and Ruthenians. The first complex demographic data are from the 18th century, in which Slovaks constituted the majority population in Upper Hungary.^[6] Slovaks called this territory "Slovensko" (Slovakia), which term appears in written documents from the 15th century, but it was not precisely defined^[7] and the region inhabited by Slovaks held no distinct legal, constitutional, or political status within Upper Hungary.^[8]

Historically there are different meanings:

1. The older Hungarian term Felső-Magyarország (literally: "Upper Hungary"; Slovak: Horné Uhorsko; German: Oberungarn; Ukrainian: Верхня Угорщина; Russian: Верхняя Венгрия) formally referred to what is today Slovakia in the 16th-18th centuries and informally to all the northern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 19th century.
2. The Hungarian Felvidék (literally: "Upper Country", "Upland", "Highland", or perhaps more accurately "Upper Landscape" or "Upper Countryside"; Slovak: Horná zem; German: Oberland; Yiddish: אױבערלאַנד) has had several informal meanings:
   • In the parts of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century, it was usually used:
     • to denote the mountainous northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary as opposed to the southern lowlands
     • more generally, to denote regions or territories situated at a higher altitude than the settlement of the speaker
     • as a synonym for the then-meaning of Felső-Magyarország
   • After World War I, the meaning in Hungarian was restricted to Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, and after World War II to Slovakia only. At the same time, the word felvidék remains a common Hungarian noun applied to areas at higher elevations, e.g., Balaton-felvidék,^[9] a hilly region and national park^[10] adjacent to Lake Balaton.

After World War I, the meaning of Felvidék in Hungarian (Felső-Magyarország was not used anymore) was restricted to the Slovak and Carpathian Ruthenian parts of Czechoslovakia. Today the term Felvidék is sometimes used in Hungary when speaking about Slovakia, and it is exclusively (and anachronistically) used in Hungarian historical literature when speaking about the Middle Ages, i.e., before the name actually came into existence. The three counties of the region that remained in Hungary after World War I, however, are never called Upper Hungary today, only Northern Hungary (Észak-Magyarország). Any use of the word Felvidék to denote all of modern Slovakia is considered offensive by Slovaks,^[11] and inappropriate by some Hungarians,^[12] but it is now commonly used by the sizeable Hungarian minority in the southern border-zone of Slovakia^[13] to identify the Hungarian-majority areas where they live.^[14][15] Some of them call themselves felvidéki magyarok, i.e. the "Upland Hungarians." The word felvidék is also used as a component of the toponym Balaton-felvidék, describing the hilly area north of Lake Balaton, with no connection to the historical Upper Hungary.^[16]

The term Upper Hungary often occurs in publications on history as a somewhat-anachronistic translation of other, earlier (then Latin) designations denoting approximately the same territory. Some of the other terms were Partes Danubii septentrionales (Territories to the north of the Danube) or Partes regni superiores (Upper parts of the Kingdom). The actual name "Upper Hungary" arose later from the latter phrase.

In the 15th century, the "Somorja (Šamorín), Nagyszombat (Trnava), Galgóc (Hlohovec), Nyitra (Nitra), Léva (Levice), Losonc (Lučenec), Rimaszombat (Rimavská Sobota), Rozsnyó (Rožňava), Jászó (Jasov), Kassa (Košice), Gálszécs (Sečovce), Nagymihály (Michalovce)" line was the northern "boundary" of the Hungarian ethnic area.^[17]

The Principality of Nitra emerged in the 8th century and developed into an independent Slavic state; although the polity may have lost its independence when it was still at the stage of development.^[18][19] In the early 9th century, the polity was situated on the north-western territories of present-day Slovakia.

The term emerged approximately after the conquest of today's Hungary by the Ottomans in the 16th century when Felső-Magyarország (German: Oberungarn; Slovak: Horné Uhorsko) referred to present-day eastern Slovakia and the adjacent territories of today's Hungary and Ukraine that were not occupied by the Ottoman Empire. That territory formed a separate military district (the "Captaincy of Upper Hungary" (1564–1686) headquartered in Kassa/Kaschau/Košice) within Royal Hungary. At that time, present-day western Slovakia, and sometimes also the remaining territories of Royal Hungary to the south of it, were called Lower Hungary (Hungarian: Alsó-Magyarország; German: Niederungarn; Slovak: Dolné Uhorsko).

It was briefly a separate vassal state of the Ottoman Empire under Imre Thököly in the 1680s.

This usage occurs in many texts up to around 1800 – for example, the renowned mining school of Schemnitz/Selmecbánya/Banská Štiavnica in present-day central Slovakia was founded in "Lower" Hungary (not in "Upper" Hungary) in the 18th century and Pozsony (today's Bratislava) was also referred to as being in "Lower" Hungary in the late 18th century.

From the 18th century (in many texts however only after around 1800) until 1920, the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary north of the Tisza and the Danube, which comprised present-day Slovakia, Carpathian Ruthenia, and approximately the Northern Hungary region (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Heves, and Nógrád Counties), was informally called either "Upper Hungary" or "Upland" (Felső-Magyarország or Felvidék). Although not strictly defined, the name Felvidék became commonplace to the point that at least one publication concerning the area used it as its title.^[20] Other nations used the terms "Upper Hungary" (for the northern part of the Kingdom), "Slovakia" (only for the territory predominantly inhabited by the Slovaks), and "Ruthenia" (the territory predominantly inhabited by the Ruthenians) in parallel. The Slovaks themselves called the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary to the south of Slovakia Dolná zem ("Lower Land").

In the course of the creation of Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I, Czechoslovakia originally demanded that all of Upper Hungary be added to Czechoslovak territory (i.e. including the territory between the Tisza River and present-day Slovakia). The claim for its acquisition, however, was not based on the whole area having a single common name, "Upper Hungary", but on the presence of a Slovak minority in the region.

In 1720 of the 63 largest towns on the territory of present-day Slovakia with at least 100 taxpaying households 40 had Slovak majority, 14 German and 9 Hungarian majority.^[21]

The first ethnic data of whole Hungarian Kingdom by county was published in 1842. According to this survey the total population of the counties in Upper Hungary exceeded 2.4 million, with the following ethnic distribution: 59.5% Slovaks, 22% Magyars, 8.3% Ruthenians, 6.7% Germans and 3.6% Jews.^[22]

Upper Hungary included the counties of Pozsony, Nyitra, Bars, Hont, Trencsén, Turóc, Árva, Liptó, Zólyom, Gömör és Kis-Hont, Szespes, Abaúj-Torna, Sáros and Zemplén.^[6] In the last census of 1910 in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was based on native language, Slovak speakers were a majority in many of these counties.^[23]

• Carpathian Germans
• Oberlander Jews
• Felvidék national football team

49°00′00″N 19°00′00″E / 49.0000°N 19.0000°E / 49.0000; 19.0000