Košice During the Reign of Maria Theresa: The Main Reasons for Changes in the City

Abstract

While the period of Middle Ages is the period of heyday for Košice while the town represents a closed and fully autonomous community, 16th and 17th century is the period of economic and political decline which is typical for the struggle to preserve the original form of urban society. Maria Theresa’s reign represents repeated flourish of the town. The objective of this paper is to ask also about the reasons for this positive development and also to look for an answer to the question whether this was a credit of Maria Theresa or of her court’s policy. Košice paid an involuntary price for this positive transformation in the form of loss of its original identity. The development of the city was positive in many aspects and was changing the town to a modern (in the Early Modern Times context) metropolis of a given part of the country – Northeast Hungary.