Ottoman Hungary

Ottoman Hungary (Hungarian: Török hódoltság, lit. 'Turkish subjugation') encompassed the parts of the Kingdom of Hungary which were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire between the occupation of Buda in 1541 and the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The territory was referred to as Macaristan in Ottoman Turkish (which remains the Turkish name for Hungary). For most of its duration, Ottoman Hungary covered Southern Transdanubia and almost the entire region of the Great Hungarian Plain. Ottoman Hungary was divided for administrative purposes into eyalets (further divided into sanjaks) and principalities (vassals). Ownership of much of the land was distributed to Ottoman soldiers and officials with the remaining territory being retained by the Ottoman state. As a border territory, much of Ottoman Hungary was heavily fortified with troop garrisons. Remaining economically under-developed, it became a drain on Ottoman resources. During the centuries long three-way Hungarian–Habsburg–Ottoman wars the Hungarian population was highly decimated. In 1686, Buda was recaptured from the Ottomans, and in 1687, after the Second Battle of Mohács, the Hungarian parliament recognized that the inheritance of the Hungarian crown had passed to the Habsburgs. The imperial armies pushed the Turks out of Hungary relatively quickly and occupied Transylvania as well. Following the defeat of the Ottomans in the Great Turkish War, the Ottomans recognized the loss of the Ottoman Hungary by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The remaining Ottoman occupied territories (that encompassed the southern border regions of the Kingdom of Hungary), Temeşvar Eyalet, Syrmia and Belgrade, were reconquered by the Habsburgs during the Austro-Turkish War between 1716 and 1718, the cession of these regions was acknowledged by signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718.