Hungary

Country Briefs: Hungary is located in Central Europe and is bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia. Hungary is one of those 42 countries of the world that has no coastline. It is also known as the County of the Magyars.

Hungary is spread over an area of 93,030 square kilometers and its population is not more than 11 million people. The largest city of Hungary, Budapest is its capital city. Budapest alone nestles a population of more than one million people.

Hungary was known as Pannonia during the rule of Roman Empire. Soon after around AD 300 Rome surrendered to the Germanic tribes migration and Carpians’ pressure. Hungary was flooded with invaders during the Migration Period. According to some people the name Hungary is given by the foremost migratory in the region, the Huns. While a large section of people deem that the name Hungary comes from a 7^th century Turkic alliance called Onogur.

The Germanic tribes, Lomabrds and Gepids who ruled in the region for around 100 years, followed the Huns. The Avars that came after them remained in Pannonia for around two centuries. After that the Franks under Charlemagne overpowered the Avars from the west and the Bulgars from the southeast.

After the Franks it was the Slavonic kingdom of Great Moravia and the Balaton Principality took over the country. In 9^th century the Magyars came and settled in Hungary. It is largely believed that the ruler of the Magyar tribe, Arpad founded Hungary in 895. In 1000 the King St. Stephen I of Magyar tribe established Hungary.

Over the years the Arpads converted Hungary into an independent and sovereign kingdom. In 1308 the Angevins, the three distinct medieval dynasties that originated as counts of the western French province of Anjou, ruled Hungary.

From 1458 to 1490 the non-dynastic king Matthias Cornivus governed Hungary. Matthias did lot of development in Hungary. He strengthened the Hungarian military base too.

But as soon as the Ottoman Turks gained power, Hungary landed in trouble. In 16^th century Hungary lost its freedom at the hands of the Turks. The Turks conquered most of the parts of Hungary and the parts that were left were captured by Austria. After 150 years Austria was successful in gaining control over entire Hungary, thereby ending the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

Due to the Battle of Solferinio (in 1859) and the Battle of Koniggrat (in 1866), Hungary became an autonomous part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867.  The Hungarian government that came to power and tried to unify the kingdom by Magyars and other past nationalities. However the Austrio-Hunagry Empire ended soon due to the First World War. As a result on 16^th November 1918 an independent Hungarian republic was proclaimed.

In 1919 Romans invaded Hungary and seized most of its areas including Budapest. In January 1920 there were elections in Hungary for a unicameral assembly. Admiral Horthy the elected Regent restored Hungary to a kingdom and ruled there with his autocratic powers till 1944.

On 4^th June 1920 the Treaty of Trianon was signed. The treaty regulated the situation of the new Hungarian state by confining its borders. Abiding by the treaty the size of Hungary got reduced to two-thirds and around one-third of Magyar population went to dwell as minorities in the neighboring countries.

In 1930 in order to acquire the areas lost during the First World War, Horthy allied with the Nazi Germany. The alliance turned out to be a little beneficial as some territories were returned to Hungary in two Vienna Awards that happened in 1938 and 1940.

In 1941 Hungary plunged into the Second World War and fought against the Soviet Union. In October 1944 Hitler replaced Horthy with the Hungarian Nazi collaborator Ferenc Szalasi and his Arrow Cross Party.

The Arrow Cross Party participated in the Holocaust (the systematic state-sponsored persecution and genocide of the European Jews during the second world war by Nazi Germany). Though Hungary deported numerous Jews to the Auschwitz yet around five million Jews were killed in the country.

Hungary witnessed one year of democracy from 1946 to 1947. In 1948 the Communist leader Matyas Rakosi established a Stalinist rule in Hungary that proved devastating for it. As a result the Hungarians revolted and their rage was well expressed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Hungary also withdrew from the Warsaw Pact or the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance that was a military organization of Central and Eastern European Communist states. Hungary also endeavored to dissolve the Warsaw Pact in 1980.

In 1991 when Soviet Union collapsed Hungary developed healthy relations with Western Europe, joined NATO in 1999 and subsequently the European Union in 2004.

Hungary Divisions

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