By the end of the 9
th
century the
hungarian Conquest changed radically the political surface
of Central
europe.
that’s why this process has been discussed for a long time and from many
aspects.
the humble aim of this paper is to frame this process from the aspect of the reception area,
facing the lack of primary sources and the diversity of their interpretations.
the Avar Khaganate
collapsed after 822. What happened with its population?
extincted, assimilated or survived? What
does it mean „Avar” after the Avar Period? From the ethnic aspects the Avar Khaganate was not
a homogeneous empire.
even those people who’s ancestors came from the steppe had different
ethnic origins. After the Avar Conquest (568) two waves of immigration reached the Carpathian
Basin: Kutrigurs (ca. 595) and Onogurs (ca. 670) moved in. Moreover the Avar state had Slavonic
inhabitants, too. Some scholars asserts that after the end of the Avar Period the surviving Avars were
assimilated by Slavs, but the facts and circumstances confute this theory. On the one hand there
were no power to force the Avars to change their own identity. Bulgaria possessed only a small
south-eastern region of the Carpathian Basin, the „Great Moravian
empire” had never existed: this
term was born by misinterpretation of term „Megale Moravia” which actually means ’elder Mora
-
via’. On the other hand several Avars can be identified in the written sources during the 860s and
even after. While in 863 their western group turned to Christianity in Pannonia, the first
hungarian
raids attacked the
eastern Frank
empire in 862.
this year probably means the starting phase of the
hungarian Conquest. It is quite important to emphasize that there is no data for conflicts between
Avars and
hungarians. On contrary: while the new conquerors attacked Bulgaria,
elder Moravia
and Karinthia, their attitude was peaceful towards the Avars.
this is one of the aspects that helps
us to understand, how could the
hungarian Great Principality occupy and reorganize so easily the
Carpathian Basin by the end of the 9
th
century
