We will not be a colony! But were we?

A Historiographical Overview of the Interpretation of Hungary as an Austrian Colony

Abstract

In the unifying Habsburg Empire, which operated with centralised economic control during the 18th century, Hungary could not, or could only to a limited extent, shape its trade and customs policy or its industrial and infrastructural development. This relationship was interpreted by the nascent institutionalized Hungarian historiography of the 19th century as colonial dependence. The portrayal of Hungary as an ‘Austrian colony’ and the resulting narrative were employed by national-romantic and post-Trianon historiography, as well as by the Marxist interpretation of history in the 1950s — albeit with different emphases and objectives. It was not until the 1970s that a critique of colonial discourse emerged, although the stereotype still sometimes resurfaces today.