Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction

SPAIN ( & SPANISH AMERICA)

History. Herodotos called the ancient inhabitants of what is now known as Transylvania Agathirses. In the same area later developed the kingdom of the Dacians. Between 101 and 107 Emperor Trajan founded there the Roman province Dacia and planted colonists in it hailing from all parts of the Empire. In 275 Dacia fell to the Goths, afterwards to the Huns; in 452 it passed to the Gepids and finally to the Avars. On the arrival of the Magyars, the country, sparsely populated at that time, was without a sovereign. The kings of the Árpád Dynasty occupied and colonized it over long periods; first Stephen I, later Ladislas I who settled the Székelys in the eastern marches of the country as border guards. German colonists (Saxons and Flamands) were called in by Géza II (1141-62). The Saxons, whose privileges were confirmed by Andreas II, formed under their counts with the magyars and (Magyar-speaking) Székelys the three nations. Over these was placed the king's deputy, the voivode, and over the Székelys the Székely-gespan (Székely-overseer). The Rumanians who migrated into the area during the reign of Andreas II remained as serfs and without any rights.

Population. Transylvania's population was formed of three distinct elements. To the basis of the language and the Rumanian customs which derived from the fusion of the Roman colonists and the ancient Dacians came admixtures (borrowings) from the colonies of the Germans and the Magyars/Hungarians. In 1901 the Rumanians of Transylvania numbered 1,397,282 or 56% of the total population, the Germans 233,019, or 9,4%, the magyars 814,994, or 33%.

N.B. In 452 King Attila of the Huns was still ruling strongly, so an area close to his headquarters could not possibly pass to the Germanic Gepids.The writer of the article ,,Transylvania,, came in contradiction with him-/herself. Under the subsection ,,History" he/she states that the ancestors of the Rumanians migrated into the area in question during the reign of Andreas II (1205-1235; in fact few arrived during that time, but many more after the Mongol invasion of 1241-42), but under the subsection ,,Population" he/she adopts the standard Daco-Roman propaganda according to which, ever since the withdrawal of the Romans there was a Daco-roman population on the soil of Transylvania, to which came as admixtures the Germans and the Hungarians. Even in the sequence of the arrival of these peoples one can detect the tendentiousness of the Daco-roman propagandists, for they prefer to mention the German colonists before the Hungarians who had been masters of the area in question since approx. 895, while the Germans were called in as colonists as late as 1143 and later. Such is the effect of distorted history in some encyclopedias.

The area of Transylvania was inhabited even in the remote past. Almost all its population consists of Rumanians, with the exception of the southeastern region where in the form of villages German and Magyar/Hungarian settlements exist. ... Cluj (202,715 inhabitants) and Sibiu (120,111 inhabitants) are cultural and commercial centres and seats of fairly diversified industry. ... Of particular importance is the triangle Medias - Tirnaveni - Sighisoara which has the aspect of a quasi conurbation.

N.B. In 1981 Transylvania was inhabited by a conservatively estimated 2,5 million Hungarians and over 200,000 ethnic Germans. It is sheer Ceausescu-propaganda, quite in tune with the claim that ,,Rumania is a unitary nation state", to write that almost all people in Transylvania are Rumanians. Bucharest propagandists have seen to it that all towns of Transylvania be shown with Rumanian names only, in spite of the fact that not a single town in Transylvania has ever been founded by Rumanians. Cluj = Hungarian Kolozsvár, German Klausenburg; Sibiu = Hungarian Nagyszeben, German Hermannstadt. There is a string of other famous, old townships in Transylvania which are far more important than the conurbation mentioned by the encyclopedia. Incidentally, Medias = Hungarian Medgyes, German Mediasch; Tirnaveni = Hungarian Dicsöszentmárton; Sighisoara = Hungarian Segesvár, German Schässburg. At least the 1981 edition of Gran Enciclopedia Rialp served as the willing vehicle of deceitful Ceausescu-propaganda.

Transylvania. (Rumanian Transylvania or Ardeal; Hungarian Erdély; German Siebenbürgen). It is a natural and historical region of Rumania.

Historical Notes. The area which corresponds to present-day Transylvania was conquered by Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D., together with the rest of Dacia which was included in the new large province of the Roman Empire. In 270 the Romans abandoned the territories north of the Danube, which became the possession of the Goths; afterwards it was invaded, among others, by the Heruls, Vandals, Huns, Gepids and Avars; the latter created a state which endured to the last years of the 800's when it collapsed under pressure from the Magyars who began their penetration into Transylvania. From the immigration of small communities it advanced - particularly after its incorporation into the Kingdom of Hungary (1003) - to a more intense settlement which was reinforced in the 12th century by the arrival of various nuclei of Saxon colonists. - The three different ethnic groups, namely the original Rumanians, further the Hungarians and the Germans coexisted in the same area; as proof large amounts of toponyms exist in three variants.

N.B. Nothing is said about the origin of the Rumanian names Ardeal and Transylvania. Both are borrowings from Hungarian; Transylvania is a 12th century Latin translation of Old Hungarian Erdel 'the land beyond the forest line'. The description of the area in question as a former Roman colony, afterwards the possession of a string of peoples is correct. However, erroneous is the statement that the Avar realm collapsed under the onslaught of the Hungarians/Magyars. It fell apart around 800 under pressure from the Frankish and Bulgar Empires. The magyars had no fight against the Avars, and began to settle in the area in question around 895. - The large amount of Rumanian - Hungarian - German toponyms in present-day Transylvania is mainly the result of the Rumanian government's efforts since 1920 to cover every non-Rumanian toponym with a Rumanian name, even if no Rumanian has ever lived in the area in question. The writer of the article drew a wrong conclusion or had been tendentiously informed.

Among the three different ethnic groups mentioned above, the Wallachians/Rumanians were most certainly not original in Transylvania. See the statement of ENCICLOPEDIA UNIVERSAL ILUSTRADA EUROPEO-AMERICANA, Madrid, 1975 which, under ,,Transylvania - History" correctly and clearly says that the Rumanians migrated into Transylvania during the reign of the Hungarian king Andreas II (1205-35) and remained as serfs and without any rights. Such glaring contradictions in encyclopedias printed in Spain or anywhere speak volumes as regards the verity of the Daco-Roman propaganda supplied to many editorial offices.

Lajos Kazar: Facts against fiction