Hungarian Border Defence and the Habsburg Financial and Military Transformation in the 16th Century

Abstract

This article explores the financial and military transformation within the new Habsburg composite state in central Europe after the fateful Battle of Mohács 1526. As an answer to the Ottoman challenge, the Habsburg ruler together with his own lands and those of the wider Reich established an extended border defence system in Hungary and Croatia. During the Long Turkish War (1591/93–1606) all the crucial factors of an early military and fiscal revolution are clearly visible. Thus, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire catalysed the development of a central European defence and financial system. The rudiments of a fiscal-military state can be observed particularly in connection with the Hungarian military border and its operations. The resulting changes laid the basis for a common financial and military framework that also helps explain the ensuing evolution towards a fiscal-military state in the Thirty Years War and beyond.