Hungary

Republic of Hungary
250px Flag of the Republic of Hungary
Capital	Budapest
Government
Official Language	Hungarian
President	László Sólyom
Area	93,030 km² (109th)
Population (2007 estimate)	10,076,581 (79th)
GDP (2007 estimate)	$169.875 billion (48th)
GDP per capita (2007 estimate)	$16,823[1] (39th)

Hungary, officially the Republic of Hungary is located in Central Europe. Hungary joined the European Union on May 1, 2004. The native people of Hungary are called Magyar. The capital city is Budapest.

History

File:Arpadfeszty.jpg

The arrival of the Magyars at the Carpathian Basin.

For a more detailed treatment, see History of Hungary.
Template:Seealso In the time of the Roman Empire, the region west of the Danube river was known as Pannonia. After the Western Roman Empire collapsed under the stress of the migration of Germanic tribes and Carpian pressure, the Migration Period continued bringing many invaders to Europe. Among the first to arrive were the Huns, who built up a powerful empire under Attila. It is presently believed that the origin of the name "Hungary" does not come from the Central Asian nomadic invaders called the Huns, but rather originated from a later, seventh century Bulgar alliance called On-Ogour, which in Old Turkish meant "(the) Ten Arrows".

After Hunnish rule faded, the Lombards and the Gepids ruled in Pannonia for about 100 years, during which the Slavic tribes began migrating into the region. In the 560s, the Slavs were supplanted by the Avars, who maintained their supremacy of the land for more than two centuries. The Franks under Charlemagne from the west and the Bulgars from the southeast managed to overthrow the Avars in the early ninth century. However, the Franks soon retreated, and the Slavonic kingdom of Great Moravia and the Balaton Principality assumed control of much of Pannonia until the end of the century. The Magyars migrated to Hungary in the late ninth century.

Magyar tradition holds that the Country of the Magyars (Magyarország) was founded by Árpád, who led the Magyars into the Pannonian plain in 896 AD. The "Ten Arrows" mentioned above referred to ten tribes, the alliance of which was the foundation of the army of the invading Magyars.

Stephen I of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary was established in 1000 by King Saint Stephen. Originally named Vajk, Stephen was a direct descendant of Árpád, and was baptised as a child. He married Giselle of Bavaria, the daughter of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria in 996, and after the death of his father Prince Géza in 997, he assumed the mantle of ruler and became the first Christian king of Hungary.

File:Saint Stephen Crown.jpg

The crown of Saint Stephen.

St. Stephen I received his crown from Pope Silvester II in 1000. As a Christian king, he established the Hungarian Church with ten dioceses and the royal administration of the country that was divided into counties (comitatus or vármegye). Hungary became a patrimonial kingdom where the majority of the land was the private property of the ruler. In 1083, he was canonized along with his son, Imre of Hungary.

Initially, Hungarian history and politics developed in close association with that of Poland and Bohemia, driven by the interventions of various Popes and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. Between 1241–1242, under King Béla IV, Hungary was devastated, suffering great loss of life at the hands of the Mongol (Tatar) armies of Batu Khan who defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Muhi. Despite the victory, the Mongols did not occupy Hungary, but withdrew shortly after upon the news of the death of Ögedei Khan, leaving behind a country in ruins. The famous "Bent Cross" atop the crown has become a symbol of Hungary. Originally the cross was upright but was bent when the crown was stolen in the eleventh century.

Árpáds

Gradually, under the rule of the dynasty of the Árpáds and even before it (since the ninth century), Hungary joined the greater West European civilizations. Ruled by the Angevins since 1308, the Kingdom of Hungary slowly lost control over territories later called Wallachia (1330) and Moldavia (1359).

János Hunyadi, the Regent of Hungary, fought defensive wars against the invading Ottoman Empire. The custom of sounding the noon bell is closely related to an important battle against the Ottomans that took place on June 29, 1456, at Nándorfehérvár.

János's son, King Matthias Corvinus, ruled the Kingdom of Hungary from 1458 to 1490. He strengthened Hungary and its government: under his rule, Hungary became an important artistic and cultural centre of Europe during the Renaissance. Matthias, whose wife was Italian, imported artisans from Italy and France. Likewise, Hungarian culture influenced others--for example, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. King Matthias Corvinus was also successful in many battles against the Ottoman Empire.

Ottomans

The forthcoming two centuries were dominated by constant warfare against the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans gained a decisive victory over the Hungarian army at the battle of Mohács in 1526. The next decades were characterised by political chaos; the divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously, Ferdinand Habsburg (1526-1540) and János Szapolyai (1526-1540), whose armed conflicts weakened the country further. After the conquest of Buda by the Ottomans in 1541, the Kingdom of Hungary came to be divided into three parts: one third of Hungary fell under Ottoman rule; one third (in the West) remained under Habsburg rule Kings of Hungary); and the third part, in the east (originally supporting János Szapolyai), remained independent (the Principality of Transylvania) and subsequently become a semi-independent, vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. It was only more than 150 years later, at the end of the seventeenth century, that Austria and its Christian allies regained the territories of the Kingdom from the Ottoman Empire.

Austro-Hungarian empire

File:Francisc rakoczi.jpg

Ferenc II Rákóczi, painted by Ádám Mányoki.

After the final retreat of the Ottomans, struggle began between the Hungarian nation and the Habsburg kings for the protection of noblemen' rights (thus guarding the autonomy of Hungary). The fight against Austrian absolutism resulted in an unsuccessful revolt for popular freedom between 1703 and 1711, led by a Transylvanian nobleman, Ferenc II Rákóczi. The revolution and war of 1848–1849 eliminated serfdom and secured civil rights. The Austrians were finally able to prevail, but only with Russian help.

Thanks to the victories against Austria by the French-Italian coalition (the Battle of Solferino, 1859) and Prussia (Battle of Königgrätz, 1866), Hungary would eventually, in 1867, manage to become a theoretically equal half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (see Ausgleich). Having achieved this, the Hungarian government made an effort to nationally unify the kingdom by Magyarisation of the various other nationalities. This lasted until the end of World War I, when the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed.

On November 16, 1918, an independent Hungarian Republic was proclaimed. This was Hungary's first republic.

Interwar era

Following World War I, Romania took control over Transylvania and eastern Hungary, Czechoslovakia took control over the northern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary (also known as Upper Hungary), and a joint Serbian and French army took control over the southern parts. These territories had a majority population of the respective occupying nations, however each had significant Hungarian population as well. The post-War Entente backed the subsequent annexations of these territories.

In March 1919, the Communists took power in Hungary. In April, Béla Kun proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. But Kun's government, like its immediate predecessor, proved to be short-lived. This was despite some initial military successes against the Czechoslovakian Army.

On 13 June1919, the Versailles Peace Conference ordered Hungary to evacuate the northern territories and Romania to leave Tiszántúl. Hungary fulfilled its part of the order by 30 June 1919. But the Romanian army refused to leave Tiszántúl.

The ensuing war between Hungary and Romania led to the defeat of the Hungarian Red Army. By August 1919, more than half of present-day Hungary, including Budapest, was occupied by Romania. The Romanian occupation lasted until November 1919 when the Romanian army departed.

Rightist Hungarian military forces, led by the former Austro-Hungarian Admiral Miklós Horthy, entered Budapest in the wake of the Romanian army's departure and filled the vacuum of state power. In January 1920, elections were held for a unicameral assembly. Admiral Horthy was elected Regent, thereby formally restoring the monarchy to Hungary. However, there would be no more "Kings of Hungary" despite attempts by the former Habsburg ruler to return to his former seat of power. Horthy ruled as Regent until 16 October 1944. Hungary remained a parliamentary democracy. But, after 1932, autocratic tendencies gradually returned as a result of Nazi influence and the Great Depression.

File:Kingdom of Hungary counties.svg

Map of the counties in the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen (the Kingdom of Hungary proper and Croatia-Slavonia) around 1880.

On June 4, 1920, the Treaty of Trianon was signed, establishing Hungary's new borders. Compared with the pre-war Kingdom, post-Trianon Hungary had 71% less territory and 66% less population. About one-third of the Magyar population became minorities in neighbouring countries. Hungary also lost its only sea port at Fiume (today Rijeka). Therefore, Hungarian politics and culture of the interwar period was dominated by irredentism ( the restoration of historical "Greater Hungary").