Hungary 1720

The story of Hungary is interesting as although its current size has shrunk to peanut, the medieval and colonial era was far more majestic. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had once stretched from Bohemia to Transylvania and from Galicia to the former Duchy of Carinthia, it covered a total of 11 European nations including parts of Italy as well. But the empire's existence came into prominence only in the 19th century, after a joint union of the Kingdom of Hungary with that of Austria. Going back to the early 18th century, when the situation was still chaotic, it's Hungary under the Habsburg dynasty. 

The Habsburg Dynasty is one of the longest-running lineages in medieval Europe, starting from the 13th century and stretching up to the 20th century. Majorly centred in eastern Europe, the Habsburg clan also had its footmarks in the Low Countries (Belgium and Luxembourg), and parts of Italy and Germany. Vienna served as the longest-running capital (1440-1583, 1611-1804), and it was multi-ethnocentric heaven, a predecessor to almost the entire central and eastern Europe of today. The Hungarian Kingdom went into unions with several countries in the past before Austria and was also occupied by the Ottoman Turks between 16th to 17th centuries. 

Bringing our focus only to the Hungarian boundaries, the Hungary of the 18th century stretched within the borders west to the Carpathian mountains and sandwiched by Carinthia, Bohemia, Poland and the Ottoman Turks. At this time, the Ottomans had their boundaries stretched up to the Danube and every Balkan power was part of the empire, whose boundaries stretched through three continents. It's an interesting contrast that there was a time when the Roman Empire had a position centred in Europe but stretched its borders in Asia and Africa, while other civilizations were either nomads or barbarians. The 18th century Holy Roman Empire was just centred to German-speaking Europe - modern-day Germany majorly. The Polish-Lithuanian Union was another gigantic piece of land spread throughout eastern Europe and Hungary was practically landlocked between these two empires. 

Today's Hungarian boundaries are only what a central-eastern portion of the bigger kingdom once was. Much of Transylvania is in Romania, the western lands are now Austria and the southern coastline has literally Balkanised into sovereigns that still have tense boundaries among them. To compare these European powers and label them with a conglomeration of various fiefdoms and city-states, the Hungarian lands always had their fate swindling vis-a-vis numerous treaties, wars, marriages etc. Such a semi-autonomous structure of monarchy existed in various parts of the world where a supreme monarch would control the administration of numerous kings and princes, they themself having varying degrees of autonomy. Hence, the concept of 'country' or 'sovereign state' or even an 'empire' in its current definition is ambiguous. One royalty could hold multiple offices and would be in charge of more than one territory and can align itself to a semi or total autonomy; at the same time, another royalty could hold a single territory and still be barred by any title. 

Today's administrative and provincial structures are an oversimplification of how the royalties would see their territories as. Hungary can be considered both as an independent country, at the same time being a kingdom in union with others, swinging between either the Ottomans or the Habsburgs. A more formal Hungarian People's Republic was formed in 1918 and two years later, much of the former territories were surrendered at the end of the First World War; Fiume, Croatia, Slavonia, Vojvodina, Banat, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Transylvania, Slovakia etc., forming a chain of small European sovereign states. A similar bifurcation into various jigsaw took place in its immediate neighbour to the south, the former Yugoslavia, the repercussions of which are still felt in certain pockets. 

The Hungarian name for the country is Magyarország, something similar to countless other dominions that have multiple names in varying languages. Although older maps have the entire Balkan region denoted by names such as Dacia, Thracia, Macedonia and Greece (or Græcia) overwhelming other territories, varying spellings such as Hongrie, Hungaria, Vngaria, Ungaria etc. denoting Hungarian lands are found as well. The proper name 'Hungary' had already appeared on 18th century maps as a separate entity, the same way as German states were clubbed as 'Germany'. Older maps have always shown Hungaria surrounded by Dalmatia, Austria, Moldavia, Bosnia and Polonia, irrespective of the timeline it was sketched in. 

Below here is a recreation of a 1720 dated map, originally created by George Willdey, a British cartographer (1676-1737). For simplification, the territory is plainly marked as 'Hungary'. The map also marks the settlements of Buda and Pest, combining in 1873 as Budapest. The map, since sketched in 1720, refers to the immediate exit of Hungary from the Ottoman Empire (in 1718).