alternatehistory.com
Chapter 40 Might of the Magyars
Chapter 40 Might of the Magyars
"Austria-Hungary? What madness is this?! By the end of this war the Austrian Empire shall only rule supreme and the concept of Hungary will forever be wiped out from Europe."- Emperor Ferdinand I 1846
"For Saint Stephen!"- Battle cry of Hungarian revolutionaries 1846
"You complete imbecil! You caused the deaths of tens of thousands of lives to intervene for a failing empire so that half of it could not break away. You did all of this and yet Vienna never chose to help us when Victoria decided to go to war over Crimea. I can see Budapest laughing at this very moment."- Tsar Alexander II 1852
With German Unification and the Italians encroaching ever so closer to Vienna, it was clear to many that Austria had become even more volatile than the Ottomans, the traditional "sick man of Europe". What most people remember in the Danube region is not either of these conflicts though, but Hungary's war for independence. While Hungary had remained loyal for over three centuries and played a key role in several of Austria's victories over the years, never once did they receive any real power or have their rights expanded. After decades of neglect and the rise of nationalism the people of Hungary had enough and sought to gain independence and chose their own destiny. Central Europe was about to receive another key player.
Austria/Bohemia: While the war with the Italians was still raging and Germany began unification, the Austrians decided to switch focus and bear the brunt of their strength on its traditional border with the Kingdom of Hungary. By then it was clear to many in Vienna that Italy was far beyond saving as the entire population of the Italian region had risen up against the Hapsburgs, at the moment France was unable to intervene due to the early instability of the Second Republic and it was clear no one else would become a deterrent to the Italians. On the other hand you had the new German Empire which while was becoming a threat, at the same time was still trying to focus on building its new nation. Naturally with these factors most of the war effort would be focused on preserving Hungary.
In the beginning on September 25th was the launch of the Slovakia Offensive, which as the name suggests was a thrust to control the Slovak region from falling into the hands of Hungary. It was here that Austria had the most success with Slovakia containing little if any Hungarians to support the breakaway republic. Austria was also able to quickly consolidate the region with multiple reinforcements from nearby Bohemia, main Austria, and Galicia. Over the course of October Austria consolidated its hold on the territory and kept the Slovaks loyal to the crown, causing a much needed morale boost with this strike to the Hungarians. A counteroffensive was planned in Budapest in order to retake the region and solidfy Hungarian rule. A 50,000 man army was sent to retake the region on November 2nd under the command of Gyorgy Klapka. The Hungarians found defeat however when the met the main Austrian force at the Battle of Bretislava. When the Hungarians marched to take the important regional city they were shocked to meet a stronger force of around 80,000 men with most troops coming from the Czech and Polish regions. The main cause that dealt the Hungarians a loss though was information of the battle plans being leaked to Austria by Slovak sympathizers who had managed to obtain it from Hungarian officers while they stayed at an inn. The battle was not a total victory for Austria though as they had suffered around 16,000 casualties compared to Hungary's 10,000. After the battle the Hungarian army was forced to cross back into central Hungary and were powerless as Austria confirmed its control over Slovakia. Klapka would later redeem himself though at the Battle/Siege of Buda where a valiant Hungarian defense of 75,000 led by Klapka and Kossuth himself were able to make a stand against the larger force of around 90,000 Austrian troops and protect the capitol from a hostile takeover. For over a month the two sides would fight with Austria launching multiple assaults to try and gain the capitol. Similar to the Siege of Vienna a century and a half earlier, the Hungarians had won due to far superior defenses and the greater will to protect their homeland. The battle was costly for Austria as they had over 20,000 casualties compared to Hungary's lesser but equal ratio of 15,000. On December 10th, the Austrian Army withdrew from the city after its leader, Hungarian General Heinrich Hentzi was captured and executed by Hungarian partisans. For the next two weeks Klapka rallied the Hungarian soldiers of the north to push the Austrians back into Slovakia. The fighting then stopped on the front only due to the arrival of Christmas. Further east the Ukrainian loyalists were also slowly encroaching on Hungarian territory but were stopped by the Hungarians at the city of Uzhorod where they were conducting a siege to try and take it. Any attempts to try and advance into ethnic Hungary though was met with fierce and deadly resistance.
View attachment 296546
Battle of Budapest
Croatia: Along with Transylvania, Croatia was perhaps the most important out of all the theaters in the war. For near millennia the Kingdom had been linked with Hungary due to a series of dynastic succession that had united the two crowns under one ruler. At first many Hungarians had thought that their brethren to the west would want to join on their quest for independence as part of the new Republic of Hungary. As stated before due to the machinations of Josip Jelacic, they had refused Hungary's offer of cooperation and stayed committed to Austria. This would not be the best choice for Croatia in the war as the Austrian defeats at Trieste and Pakozd would serve to fundamentally weaken the Croatian/Austrian hold on the territory, leaving it ripe for Hungarian conquest. After the Battle of Pakozd the Hungarians had wasted no time in striking and had launched an army of 60,000 men to force the unification of Croatia and Hungary. Over the course of three weeks the Hungarian army had marched virtually unopposed as most of the Croatian forces were trying to organize within the Kingdom or were in the middle of the Italian campaign. The main battle of this campaign was the Battle of Zagreb where a smaller force of 30,000 Croats tried to defend their capitol from the Hungarian onslaught. From October 23rd-30th the Hungarian and Croat forces had battled it out amidst the streets with Hungarian patrols being ambushed by Croat partisans while the Croats suffered massive casualties in open battles and from reigning artillery fire. With each day the Hungarian forces had surrounded the city while they also received supplies secretly from the Ottomans down south. With virtually no hope of reinforcements the government surrendered on October 30th. The Hungarians suffered 5,423 KIA, 5890 WIA, and 612 MIA to take the city. In contrast Croat casualties were high with 7,364 KIA, 6842 WIA, and the rest taken prisoner while the civilians suffered over 5,000 deaths. With the main capitol under their control the Hungarian army continued its march to the sea which it reached on November 24th. The remaining major battle of importance was the Battle of Rejicka on November 28th where the Croatian defenders under Jelacic defended the city to keep an important Adriatic port from Hungarian hands. Unlike Zagreb the Croatians had a much smaller force with only 10,000 troops and the city suffering from the ongoing (though almost over) Italian blockade. After the Hungarians defeated the Croatian army in an initial skirmish on the 28th, the cities population revolted and surrendered to the Hungarians in order to keep their city spared and continue trade with the Mediterranean. The Croatian army was blackmailed into surrender with Jelacic being shot by a group of Hungarian officers for inciting "treason" to Hungary, although rumor has it that the execution was ordered by commanding General Lajos Aulich. The Hungarians maintained their formations after that as they could not risk advancing into Dalmatia for fear of overstretching their supply lines.
View attachment 296547
Hungarian March to the sea
Transylvania: In Transylvania the bloodiest fighting of the war occurred not from the professional armies, but from civilians who waged a massive battle of ethnic violence against each other. The region had been highly contested for years as the Catholic Hungarians had been encroaching upon the lands of the Orthodox Romanians and forcing the process of Magyarization upon them. When Hungary declared independence, servants of Vienna had been dispatched to Transylvania and had promised the Romanian population greater autonomy and freedom from Magyarization if they fought on the side of the Hapsburg throne. Seeing this as the best chance they had in getting rid of Budapest, the Romanians rose up in revolt and started committing immense crimes against their Hungarian neighbors. Multiple atrocities were committed in the early stages of the war with Hungarians committing the same acts in retaliation. Eventually the situation had gotten so bad that only Eastern Transylvania was firmly in Hungary's grasp through the sheer tenacity and ferociousness of Hungarian partisans. Not wanting to lose this important region while other battles were still being waged along the Adriatic and Slovakia, the government in Budapest had dispatched a 55,000 men force under Henrik Dembiniski to retain the territory. At first everything seemed okay as the totality of Eastern Transylvania was swiftly captured by the Hungarians with no major battles taking place due to the bulk of the loyalist armies being deployed west. As the war went west into Transylvania however, the war got bloodier as the Hungarian army was constantly under attack by Romanian guerillas who refused to face Hungary in open combat. Terror spread through the Hungarian ranks as Transylvanians would come in the dead of night dressed as vampires and werewolves, then proceeding to massacre unsuspecting patrols and sleeping troops. While Hungary was slowly taking territory they could never find success in an open battle and were forced to play cat and mouse games with the insurgents. Perhaps the greatest gift that the Transylvanians could give Austria was the fact that they had tied down so many troops of Hungary in 1846. By the end of the year Hungary had conquered half of the region, though they were a long way from finishing.
View attachment 296548
Ethnic violence in Transylvania
View attachment 296550
Map of the Hungarian Revolution by the end of 1846. Red Austria. Green Hungary.
"Austria-Hungary? What madness is this?! By the end of this war the Austrian Empire shall only rule supreme and the concept of Hungary will forever be wiped out from Europe."- Emperor Ferdinand I 1846
"For Saint Stephen!"- Battle cry of Hungarian revolutionaries 1846
"You complete imbecil! You caused the deaths of tens of thousands of lives to intervene for a failing empire so that half of it could not break away. You did all of this and yet Vienna never chose to help us when Victoria decided to go to war over Crimea. I can see Budapest laughing at this very moment."- Tsar Alexander II 1852
With German Unification and the Italians encroaching ever so closer to Vienna, it was clear to many that Austria had become even more volatile than the Ottomans, the traditional "sick man of Europe". What most people remember in the Danube region is not either of these conflicts though, but Hungary's war for independence. While Hungary had remained loyal for over three centuries and played a key role in several of Austria's victories over the years, never once did they receive any real power or have their rights expanded. After decades of neglect and the rise of nationalism the people of Hungary had enough and sought to gain independence and chose their own destiny. Central Europe was about to receive another key player.
Austria/Bohemia: While the war with the Italians was still raging and Germany began unification, the Austrians decided to switch focus and bear the brunt of their strength on its traditional border with the Kingdom of Hungary. By then it was clear to many in Vienna that Italy was far beyond saving as the entire population of the Italian region had risen up against the Hapsburgs, at the moment France was unable to intervene due to the early instability of the Second Republic and it was clear no one else would become a deterrent to the Italians. On the other hand you had the new German Empire which while was becoming a threat, at the same time was still trying to focus on building its new nation. Naturally with these factors most of the war effort would be focused on preserving Hungary.
In the beginning on September 25th was the launch of the Slovakia Offensive, which as the name suggests was a thrust to control the Slovak region from falling into the hands of Hungary. It was here that Austria had the most success with Slovakia containing little if any Hungarians to support the breakaway republic. Austria was also able to quickly consolidate the region with multiple reinforcements from nearby Bohemia, main Austria, and Galicia. Over the course of October Austria consolidated its hold on the territory and kept the Slovaks loyal to the crown, causing a much needed morale boost with this strike to the Hungarians. A counteroffensive was planned in Budapest in order to retake the region and solidfy Hungarian rule. A 50,000 man army was sent to retake the region on November 2nd under the command of Gyorgy Klapka. The Hungarians found defeat however when the met the main Austrian force at the Battle of Bretislava. When the Hungarians marched to take the important regional city they were shocked to meet a stronger force of around 80,000 men with most troops coming from the Czech and Polish regions. The main cause that dealt the Hungarians a loss though was information of the battle plans being leaked to Austria by Slovak sympathizers who had managed to obtain it from Hungarian officers while they stayed at an inn. The battle was not a total victory for Austria though as they had suffered around 16,000 casualties compared to Hungary's 10,000. After the battle the Hungarian army was forced to cross back into central Hungary and were powerless as Austria confirmed its control over Slovakia. Klapka would later redeem himself though at the Battle/Siege of Buda where a valiant Hungarian defense of 75,000 led by Klapka and Kossuth himself were able to make a stand against the larger force of around 90,000 Austrian troops and protect the capitol from a hostile takeover. For over a month the two sides would fight with Austria launching multiple assaults to try and gain the capitol. Similar to the Siege of Vienna a century and a half earlier, the Hungarians had won due to far superior defenses and the greater will to protect their homeland. The battle was costly for Austria as they had over 20,000 casualties compared to Hungary's lesser but equal ratio of 15,000. On December 10th, the Austrian Army withdrew from the city after its leader, Hungarian General Heinrich Hentzi was captured and executed by Hungarian partisans. For the next two weeks Klapka rallied the Hungarian soldiers of the north to push the Austrians back into Slovakia. The fighting then stopped on the front only due to the arrival of Christmas. Further east the Ukrainian loyalists were also slowly encroaching on Hungarian territory but were stopped by the Hungarians at the city of Uzhorod where they were conducting a siege to try and take it. Any attempts to try and advance into ethnic Hungary though was met with fierce and deadly resistance.
View attachment 296546
Battle of Budapest
Croatia: Along with Transylvania, Croatia was perhaps the most important out of all the theaters in the war. For near millennia the Kingdom had been linked with Hungary due to a series of dynastic succession that had united the two crowns under one ruler. At first many Hungarians had thought that their brethren to the west would want to join on their quest for independence as part of the new Republic of Hungary. As stated before due to the machinations of Josip Jelacic, they had refused Hungary's offer of cooperation and stayed committed to Austria. This would not be the best choice for Croatia in the war as the Austrian defeats at Trieste and Pakozd would serve to fundamentally weaken the Croatian/Austrian hold on the territory, leaving it ripe for Hungarian conquest. After the Battle of Pakozd the Hungarians had wasted no time in striking and had launched an army of 60,000 men to force the unification of Croatia and Hungary. Over the course of three weeks the Hungarian army had marched virtually unopposed as most of the Croatian forces were trying to organize within the Kingdom or were in the middle of the Italian campaign. The main battle of this campaign was the Battle of Zagreb where a smaller force of 30,000 Croats tried to defend their capitol from the Hungarian onslaught. From October 23rd-30th the Hungarian and Croat forces had battled it out amidst the streets with Hungarian patrols being ambushed by Croat partisans while the Croats suffered massive casualties in open battles and from reigning artillery fire. With each day the Hungarian forces had surrounded the city while they also received supplies secretly from the Ottomans down south. With virtually no hope of reinforcements the government surrendered on October 30th. The Hungarians suffered 5,423 KIA, 5890 WIA, and 612 MIA to take the city. In contrast Croat casualties were high with 7,364 KIA, 6842 WIA, and the rest taken prisoner while the civilians suffered over 5,000 deaths. With the main capitol under their control the Hungarian army continued its march to the sea which it reached on November 24th. The remaining major battle of importance was the Battle of Rejicka on November 28th where the Croatian defenders under Jelacic defended the city to keep an important Adriatic port from Hungarian hands. Unlike Zagreb the Croatians had a much smaller force with only 10,000 troops and the city suffering from the ongoing (though almost over) Italian blockade. After the Hungarians defeated the Croatian army in an initial skirmish on the 28th, the cities population revolted and surrendered to the Hungarians in order to keep their city spared and continue trade with the Mediterranean. The Croatian army was blackmailed into surrender with Jelacic being shot by a group of Hungarian officers for inciting "treason" to Hungary, although rumor has it that the execution was ordered by commanding General Lajos Aulich. The Hungarians maintained their formations after that as they could not risk advancing into Dalmatia for fear of overstretching their supply lines.
View attachment 296547
Hungarian March to the sea
Transylvania: In Transylvania the bloodiest fighting of the war occurred not from the professional armies, but from civilians who waged a massive battle of ethnic violence against each other. The region had been highly contested for years as the Catholic Hungarians had been encroaching upon the lands of the Orthodox Romanians and forcing the process of Magyarization upon them. When Hungary declared independence, servants of Vienna had been dispatched to Transylvania and had promised the Romanian population greater autonomy and freedom from Magyarization if they fought on the side of the Hapsburg throne. Seeing this as the best chance they had in getting rid of Budapest, the Romanians rose up in revolt and started committing immense crimes against their Hungarian neighbors. Multiple atrocities were committed in the early stages of the war with Hungarians committing the same acts in retaliation. Eventually the situation had gotten so bad that only Eastern Transylvania was firmly in Hungary's grasp through the sheer tenacity and ferociousness of Hungarian partisans. Not wanting to lose this important region while other battles were still being waged along the Adriatic and Slovakia, the government in Budapest had dispatched a 55,000 men force under Henrik Dembiniski to retain the territory. At first everything seemed okay as the totality of Eastern Transylvania was swiftly captured by the Hungarians with no major battles taking place due to the bulk of the loyalist armies being deployed west. As the war went west into Transylvania however, the war got bloodier as the Hungarian army was constantly under attack by Romanian guerillas who refused to face Hungary in open combat. Terror spread through the Hungarian ranks as Transylvanians would come in the dead of night dressed as vampires and werewolves, then proceeding to massacre unsuspecting patrols and sleeping troops. While Hungary was slowly taking territory they could never find success in an open battle and were forced to play cat and mouse games with the insurgents. Perhaps the greatest gift that the Transylvanians could give Austria was the fact that they had tied down so many troops of Hungary in 1846. By the end of the year Hungary had conquered half of the region, though they were a long way from finishing.
View attachment 296548
Ethnic violence in Transylvania
View attachment 296550
Map of the Hungarian Revolution by the end of 1846. Red Austria. Green Hungary.
- Kaiser Chris
- Word Count: 1.8k