Die Eroberung des autonomen Fürstentums Siebenbürgen durch die Habsburger. Die Gründe und die verwendeten Methoden

• Main Author: Koch – Tufiş Marinel Ovidiu
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava 2015-07-01
• Series: Codrul Cosminului
• Subjects: Habsburgs; policy of expansion; Transylvania
• Online Access: http://atlas.usv.ro/www/codru_net/CC21/1/eroberung.pdf

The annexation of Transylvania by the Habsburg Monarchy was a part of the Court of Vienna’s expansion policy towards South-East of Europe. As a former component of the medieval kingdom of Hungary, Transylvania becomes, in the fourth decade of the sixteenth century, a semi-independent state: the Principality of Transylvania, under Ottoman suzerainty. Since the end of the third decade of the sixteenth century, the Habsburg kings, as heirs of the Hungarian kings, assumed themselves dynastic pretensions to mastery Transylvania. In this regard, the strategic position and the economic and demographic potential of Transylvania had an important role for the Viennese court. The wide range of methods used by the Habsburgs in order to establish their dominion over Transylvania consisted of signing treaties with the rulers of the Principality of Transylvania, initiating dynastic alliances by perfecting marriage projects, or even contracting marriages between the members of the Habsburg dynasty and the rulers of Transylvania. Moreover, the Austrian imperial troops have intervened several times in Transylvania to enforce the policy of the Vienna Court. In 1688, by waiving the Ottoman suzerainty over Transylvania, by the Declaration of the Prince and the general assembly of Transylvania, and by accepting the Habsburg suzerainty over the Principality, the favorable premises for annexation (incorporation) of Transylvania to the Habsburg Monarchy were created.