A FELVILÁGOSULT ABSZOLUTIZMUS EGÉSZSÉGÜGYE: A modern magyar egészségügyi rendszer megteremtése a 18. században = THE HEALTH REVIEW OF ABSOLUTISM: Founding the modern Hungarian health system in the 18th century

Since the middle Ages, Hungary’s prolonged 18th century provided the first opportunity to leave behind the medieval legacy of this country. After the lost battle at Mohács 1526 against the spreading Ottoman Empire, the kingdom founded in 1000 A.D. was split up in three parts for more than 150 years. Hungary entered first Europe’s modern period at the turn of the 17th and 18th century in the wake of the long series of successful Habsburg military campaigns against the Ottomans. As a result, the Habsburg house incorporated the royal Hungary like other provinces to its empire. Following the military victories, the primary issue of the imperial-royal public health was creating a nationwide defence system in Hungary to hold up the devastating plague epidemic invasions crossing the eastern and southern state borders. Since the late 1720s, and after the era massive epidemic devastations, the peaceful socioeconomic development revealed a number of earlier second tier problems of water supply, food security, community and industrial waste material management, burial hygiene and many other related issues. Obviously, the community and individual medical services were insufficient to cope with all these problems. However, the imperial-royal health legislation endeavoured to keep pace with these emerging needs too, while enacting relevant laws and strove to create circumstances up to the level of the most developed European nations