Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Hungary lies within the drainage basin of the Danube River and is dominated by great lowland plains. It has a population of 9.6 million, consisting mostly of ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian is the official language, and among the few in Europe outside the Indo-European family. Budapest is the country's capital and largest city, and the dominant cultural and economic centre.
Prior to the foundation of the Hungarian state, various peoples settled in the territory of present-day Hungary, including the Celts, Romans, Huns, Germanic peoples, Avars and Slavs. Hungarian statehood is traced to the Principality of Hungary, which was established in the late ninth century by Álmos and his son Árpád through the conquest of the Carpathian Basin. King Stephen I ascended the throne in 1000 and converted his realm to a Christian kingdom. The medieval Kingdom of Hungary was a European power, reaching its height in the Late Middle Ages.
After a long period of Ottoman wars, Hungary's forces were defeated at the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and its capital Buda was captured in 1541, opening a period of more than 150 years where the country was divided into three parts: Royal Hungary, Ottoman Hungary and the semi-independent Principality of Transylvania. The Ottomans recognised the loss of Ottoman Hungary by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Most of Hungary was reunited and came under Habsburg rule by the turn of the 18th century.
Wars of independence against the Habsburgs in 1703–1711 and 1848–1849 resulted in a compromise that established the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1867, a major power in the early 20th century. Austria-Hungary collapsed after World War I, and the subsequent Treaty of Trianon in 1920 established Hungary's current borders, resulting in the loss of 71% of its historical territory, majority of its economy, 58% of its population, and 32% of its ethnic Hungarians.
Reeling from the aftermath of the war, Hungary endured turmoil in the early interwar period, culminating in the nationalist conservative regime of Regent ruler Miklós Horthy. Hungary joined the Axis powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. It was occupied by the Soviet Union, which established the Hungarian People's Republic as a satellite state. Following the failed 1956 revolution, Hungary became comparatively freer but remained a repressed member of the Eastern Bloc. As part of the Revolutions of 1989, Hungary peacefully transitioned into a democratic parliamentary republic. It joined the European Union in 2004 and the Schengen Area since 2007.
Hungary is a high-income economy with universal health care and tuition-free secondary education. It has a long history of significant contributions to arts, music, literature, sports, and science and technology. As a popular tourist destination in Europe, Hungary had 24.5 million international visitors in 2019. Hungary is a member of numerous international organisations, including the Council of Europe, European Union, NATO, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Visegrád Group.
Etymology
The "H" in the name of Hungary is most likely derived from historical associations with the Huns, who had settled Hungary prior to the Avars. The rest of the word comes from the Latinised form of Byzantine Greek Oungroi. The Greek name might be borrowed from Old Slavonic ągrinŭ, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the collective name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. Peter B. Golden also considers the suggestion of Árpád Berta that the name derives from Khazar Turkic ongar right", oŋgar- "to make something better, to put "right wing". This points to the idea that the Magyar Union before the Conquest formed the "right wing" of the Khazar military forces.The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország. The name "Magyar", which refers to the people of the country, more accurately reflects the name of the country in some other languages such as Turkish, Persian and other languages as Magyaristan or Land of Magyars or similar. The word magyar is taken from the name of the leading tribe name of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes.
History
Before 895
The Roman Empire conquered the territory between the Alps and the area west of the Danube River from 16 to 15 BC, the Danube being the frontier of the empire. In 14 BC, Pannonia, the western part of the Carpathian Basin, which includes the west of today's Hungary, was recognised by emperor Augustus in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti as part of the Roman Empire. The area south-east of Pannonia was organised as the Roman province Moesia in 6 BC. An area east of the river Tisza became the Roman province of Dacia in 106 AD, which included today's east Hungary. It remained under Roman rule until 271.From 235, the Roman Empire went through troubled times, caused by revolts, rivalry and rapid succession of emperors. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century under the stress of the migration of Germanic tribes and Carpian pressure. This period brought many invaders into Central Europe, beginning with the Hunnic Empire. The most powerful ruler of the Hunnic Empire was Attila the Hun, who later became a central figure in Hungarian mythology. After the disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, the Gepids, an Eastern Germanic tribe, who had been vassalised by the Huns, established their own kingdom in the Carpathian Basin. Other groups which reached the Carpathian Basin during the Migration Period were the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, and Slavs.
In the 560s, the Avars founded the Avar Khaganate, a state that maintained supremacy in the region for more than two centuries. The Franks under Charlemagne defeated the Avars in a series of campaigns during the 790s. Between 804 and 829, the First Bulgarian Empire conquered the lands east of the Danube and took over the rule of the local Slavic tribes and remnants of the Avars. By the mid-9th century, the Balaton Principality, also known as Lower Pannonia, was established west of the Danube as part of the Frankish March of Pannonia.
Middle Ages (895–1526)
Foundation of the Hungarian state is connected to the Hungarian conquerors, who arrived from the Pontic-Caspian steppe as a confederation of seven tribes. The Hungarians arrived in the Carpathian Basin as a frame of a strong centralised steppe-empire under the leadership of Grand Prince Álmos and his son Árpád: founders of the Árpád dynasty, the Hungarian ruling dynasty and the Hungarian state. The Árpád dynasty claimed to be a direct descendant of Attila the Hun. The Hungarians took possession of the area in a pre-planned manner, with a long move-in between 862 and 895. The rising Hungary conducted successful fierce campaigns and raids, from Constantinople to as far as today's Spain. The Hungarians defeated three major East Frankish imperial armies between 907 and 910. A defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 signaled a provisory end to most campaigns on foreign territories, at least towards the west.Age of Árpádian kings
In 972, the ruling prince Géza of the Árpád dynasty officially started to integrate Hungary into Christian Western Europe. His son Saint Stephen I became the first King of Hungary after defeating his pagan uncle Koppány. Under Stephen, Hungary was recognised as a Catholic Apostolic Kingdom. Applying to Pope Sylvester II, Stephen received the insignia of royalty from the papacy.By 1006, Stephen consolidated his power and started sweeping reforms to convert Hungary into a Western-style feudal state. The country switched to using Latin for administration purposes, and until as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of administration. King Saint Ladislaus completed the work of King Saint Stephen, consolidating the Hungarian state's power and strengthening Christianity. His charismatic personality, strategic leadership and military talents resulted in the termination of internal power struggles and foreign military threats. The wife of the Croatian king Demetrius Zvonimir was Ladislaus's sister. At Helen's request, Ladislaus intervened in the conflict and invaded Croatia in 1091. The Kingdom of Croatia entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1102 with the coronation of King Coloman as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in 1102 in Biograd.
One of the most powerful and wealthiest king of the Árpád dynasty was Béla III, who disposed of the equivalent of 23 tonnes of silver per year, according to a contemporary income register. This exceeded the income of the French king and was double the receipts of the English Crown. Andrew II issued the Diploma Andreanum which secured the special privileges of the Transylvanian Saxons and is considered the first autonomy law in the world. He led the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1217, setting up the largest royal army in the history of Crusades. His Golden Bull of 1222 was the first constitution in Continental Europe. The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the parliament.
In 1241–1242, the kingdom received a major blow with the Mongol invasion. Up to half of Hungary's population of 2 million were victims of the invasion. King Béla IV let Cumans and Jassic people into the country, who were fleeing the Mongols. Over the centuries, they were fully assimilated. After the Mongols retreated, King Béla ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortifications, to defend against a possible second Mongol invasion. The Mongols returned to Hungary in 1285, but the newly built stone-castle systems and new tactics stopped them. The invading Mongol force was defeated near Pest by the royal army of King Ladislaus IV. As with later invasions, it was repelled handily, the Mongols losing much of their invading force.