„We want Mohács”! Central European national consciousness and the expectation of an apocalyptic end in the modern age

Abstract

The Battle of Mohács was a shocking event in its own time, but it was not the end of the world that was strongly awaited in that period in general and in Hungarian society. The expectation of apocalypticism associated with losing battles was common in the region. The generation of the 200th anniversary of the battle of Mohács will mythologize it. The defeat of the 1948–49 War of Independence was superimposed on the event of Mohács, linking to it a secularised apocalypse and a history of national suffering. The Trianon Peace Treaty, which brought the First World War to a catastrophic end for Hungary, was later associated with the myth of Mohács. For this reason, the Mohács debates have been repeated for decades.