Hungarian Images of the Romanians in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
Hungarian Images of the Romanians in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes the image of the Romanians, as it appears in several important Hungarian texts in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Revolution of 1848 gave the Hungarians an ambivalent lesson about the Romanians. On the one hand, the latter behaved like enemies. This generated a negative imagological reaction from the Hungarians. On the other hand by the crushing combined force of Austria and Russia, opened up the possibility of collaborating with Romanians, as well as with the other oppressed peoples in eastern and Danubian Europe. But in the age of dualism, the image of the Romanians in Hungary, closely entwined with that of their conationals across the mountains, received a new political label, which had first been used during the revolution: Daco-Romanianism. Irredentism, which was coined by the Italians later, in the last decades of the nineteenth century, was an equivalent term. The Romanians were, therefore, seen to be characterized by “Daco-Romanian irredentism.” This phrase gained traction as Bucharest was becoming the capital of a more consolidated Romanian state and the Romanians in Transylvania were making ever more aggravating claims, which could be associated with this national dream. The Hungarians’ image of the Romanians during this period always stood between official nationalism and the utopia of fraternity.

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