The Hungarian Raids

Determining the timeframe of the Hungarian raids poses challenges due to the scarcity of written sources. Scholars agree that the year 970 marks the end of the raids, but the starting point is more difficult to establish. The traditional view links the first such actions to the Hungarian Conquest. Written sources portray the Hungarians as a raiding people, with no records of such activities prior to 830. The first recorded action involving the Hungarians dates to 836–838, when the Levedian Hungarians participated in an unsuccessful campaign against the Macedonians alongside the Danube Bulgarians. In 862, they intervened in internal conflicts within the Frankish Empire, and in 881, they fought alongside Svatopluk against the Franks. By 892, they fought alongside the Franks against the Moravians. Immediately before the Conquest, they conducted a campaign against the Bulgarians in alliance with Byzantium. Between 830 and 890, sources document six raiding campaigns. Arab sources (Ibn Rusta, Jayhani) suggest the 830s as the beginning of the raids, giving the raids a span of at least 130 years.

When examining the geographical extent of the raids, two phases can be distinguished. Before the Conquest, most military actions targeted Eastern Slavs to the north. To the west, they only reached as far as present-day eastern Austria, and to the south, the Balkans. The Conquest expanded the radius of their raiding activities. Of the 47 campaigns conducted after the Conquest, 42 occurred between 899 and 955. Of these, 38 targeted the west, and only four were directed southward. After 955, the western raids ceased, and subsequent actions (five in total) were exclusively directed southward, though the number of southern campaigns may have been higher. Byzantine author Skylitzes mentions multiple campaigns against Byzantium between 944 and 954, though exact dates are unknown. It is certain that between 899 and 970, there were more campaigns against Byzantium and Bulgaria than are documented, and possibly more westward campaigns as well. Following the Conquest, the previously dominant northern direction of raids was replaced by a western focus. These actions reached increasingly distant targets. Initially, the Hungarians attacked territories adjacent to their settlement areas, such as Northern Italy, Carinthia, Moravia, and Bavaria. By 906, they reached Saxony; in 909, Swabia; in 910, Franconia; in 911, they crossed the Rhine; in 915, they advanced to the Danish border; in 926, they reached the Atlantic Ocean; in 937, the Apennine Peninsula; and in 942, they raided the Iberian Peninsula. The Hungarians also reached Constantinople multiple times. Due to limited sources, northern campaigns remain less well-documented.

The raids were primarily motivated by the desire to acquire loot and captives. Their focus on monasteries can be explained by the availability of food and valuable goods, such as precious metals and textiles, in one place. The loot included luxury items that their society could not produce. The raiders were supported not by their own resources but by those of more developed foreign societies. Looting was essentially a form of resource redistribution, comparable to trade. Attacking and plundering neighbors was not unique to nomadic peoples; for example, the Franks also engaged in such practices. When the Hungarians obtained money, its value lay in its precious metal content rather than its use as currency, as monetary circulation was minimal. The Hungarians killed many during their campaigns instead of taking captives. Captives were offered for ransom at the site of their capture, yielding valuable goods. If not ransomed, the captives were sold, integrating the Hungarians into the slave trade. Before the Conquest, captured Slavs were sold in Byzantium. Skilled captives were used for labor-intensive tasks.

The campaigns of the 9th century likely occurred within the framework of the tribal confederation, with Grand Prince Árpád deciding on their initiation. After the Conquest, this changed; raids were conducted by temporary alliances of tribes. Six instances are known when the Hungarians conducted multi-directional campaigns within a single year. Some historians suggest that the military leadership of Árpád dynasty princes indicates centralized direction.

There are two main views on the participants of the raids. One suggests that shepherds marginalized from production sought an outlet from the crisis of pastoral society. The other argues that the middle-ranking warrior class and the retinue of the elites formed the manpower for the raids.

The cessation of the raids and the lack of loot led to a reliance on internal resources, achieved by organizing production and establishing service villages to supply princely courts. Defeats in the west and the spread of Christianity prompted a shift to peaceful foreign policy. The Hungarians integrated into foreign trade, and wealth accumulation enabled the maintenance of military retinues through peaceful means. The old kinship-based clan system disintegrated, and the retinue evolved into a centralized authority above the population. The period between 830 and 970 marks the era of military democracy, the precursor to the formation of the Hungarian state.

Győrffy György "Honfoglalás, megtelepedés és kalandozások", Akadémia kiadó, Budapest, 1977

Kristó Gyula "Magyar kalandozások, kalandozó magyarok" in "Fejezetek a régebbi magyar történelemből", Budapest, 1981

Bálint Csanád "A kalandozások néhány kérdéséhez" in "Nomád társadalmak és államalakulatok", Akadémia kiadó, Budapest, 1983