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Romania Unification of Transylvania and Hungary
In 1863 Franz Joseph convened the Transylvanian Diet.
Hungarian
deputies boycotted the session because Franz Joseph had
not
convened it in accordance with the 1848 laws, and Romanian
and
German deputies held the majority. The rump Diet passed
laws that
underscored Transylvania's autonomy and equal status for
the
Romanian, Hungarian, and German languages. Transylvania's
Romanians
at last joined the Magyars, Szeklers, and Germans as the
fourth
Transylvanian "nation," and the Romanian Orthodox Church
became a
received religion. Franz Joseph later permitted
Transylvania's
Orthodox Church to separate from the Serbian Patriarchate.
Romanian
literary figures soon founded the Association for the
Cultivation
of Romanian Language and Literature, which became a focal
point of
Romanian cultural life in Transylvania.
Romanians enjoyed equal status in Transylvania for only
a short
time. The need to shore up the weakening empire pressed
Vienna
toward compromise with Budapest. In 1865 Franz Joseph
convened a
second Transylvanian Diet, this time with a Hungarian
majority,
which abrogated the 1863 legislation and endorsed
unification of
Hungary and Transylvania. Defeat at the hands of Prussia
in 1866
further revealed Austria's weakness, and in 1867 Franz
Joseph
agreed to the Ausgleich, a compromise whereby Austria and
Hungary
joined to form the Dual Monarchy--two sovereign states
with a
unified foreign policy.
Data as of July 1989
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