After a long period ofOttoman wars, Hungary's forces were defeated at theBattle of Mohács in 1526 and its capitalBuda wascaptured in 1541, opening a period of more than 150 years where the country was divided into three parts:Royal Hungary (loyal to theHabsburgs),Ottoman Hungary and the semi-independentPrincipality of Transylvania. The Ottomans recognised the loss of Ottoman Hungary by theTreaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Most of Hungary was reunited and came under Habsburg rule by the turn of the 18th century.
The "H" in the name of Hungary is most likely derived from historical associations with theHuns, who had settled Hungary prior to theAvars.[citation needed] The rest of the word comes from the Latinised form ofByzantine GreekOungroi (Οὔγγροι). The Greek name might be borrowed fromOld Slavonicągrinŭ, in turn borrowed fromOghur-TurkicOnogur ('ten [tribes of the] Ogurs').[34]Onogur was the collective name for the tribes who later joined theBulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars.[35][36]Peter B. Golden also considers the suggestion of Árpád Berta that the name derives fromKhazar Turkicongar (oŋ "right", oŋar- "to make something better, to put (it) right", oŋgar- "to make something better, to put (it) right", oŋaru "towards the right") "right wing". This points to the idea that the Magyar Union before the Conquest formed the "right wing" (western wing) of theKhazar military forces.[37]
The Hungarianendonym isMagyarország, composed ofmagyar ('Hungarian') andország ('country'). The name "Magyar", which refers to the people of the country, more accurately reflects the name of the country in some other languages such asTurkish,Persian and other languages asMagyaristan orLand of Magyars or similar. The wordmagyar is taken from the name of the leading tribe name of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes.[38][39][40]
Roman provinces and barbarian peoples in and near theCarpathian Basin in the 2nd century AD
TheRoman Empire conquered the territory between theAlps and the area west of theDanube River from 16 to 15 BC, the Danube being the frontier of the empire.[41] In 14 BC,Pannonia, the western part of theCarpathian Basin, which includes the west of today's Hungary, was recognised by emperorAugustus in theRes Gestae Divi Augusti as part of the Roman Empire.[41] The area south-east ofPannonia was organised as the Roman provinceMoesia in 6 BC.[41] An area east of the riverTisza became the Roman province ofDacia in 106 AD, which included today's east Hungary. It remained under Roman rule until 271.[42]
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 ofGermanic tribes andCarpian pressure.[42] This period brought many invaders into Central Europe, beginning with theHunnic Empire (c. 370–469). The most powerful ruler of the Hunnic Empire wasAttila the Hun (434–453), who later became a central figure in Hungarian mythology.[43] After the disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, theGepids, an Eastern Germanic tribe, who had been vassalised by the Huns, established their own kingdom in the Carpathian Basin.[44] Other groups which reached the Carpathian Basin during the Migration Period were theGoths,Vandals,Lombards, andSlavs.[42]
In the 560s, theAvars founded the Avar Khaganate, a state that maintained supremacy in the region for more than two centuries. TheFranks underCharlemagne defeated the Avars in a series of campaigns during the 790s.[45] Between 804 and 829, theFirst Bulgarian Empire conquered the lands east of the Danube and took over the rule of the local Slavic tribes and remnants of the Avars.[46] By the mid-9th century, theBalaton Principality, also known as Lower Pannonia, was established west of the Danube as part of the FrankishMarch of Pannonia.[47]
Hungarian raids in the 9–10th centuries: Between 899 and 970, the researchers count 47 (38 to West and 9 to East)[48] raids in different parts of Europe. From these campaigns only 8 were unsuccessful and the others ended with success[49]
TheHoly Crown (Szent Korona), one of the key symbols of Hungary. It was gifted toSaint Stephen, the firstKing of Hungary, who converted the nation to Christianity
By 1006, Stephen consolidated his power and started sweeping reforms to convert Hungary into a Western-stylefeudal state. The country switched to using Latin for administration purposes, and until as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of administration. KingSaint Ladislaus completed the work of KingSaint Stephen, consolidating the Hungarian state's power and strengtheningChristianity. His charismatic personality, strategic leadership and military talents resulted in the termination of internal power struggles and foreign military threats.[59] The wife of the Croatian kingDemetrius Zvonimir was Ladislaus's sister.[60] AtHelen's request, Ladislaus intervened in the conflict and invaded Croatia in 1091.[61] TheKingdom of Croatia entered apersonal union with theKingdom of Hungary in 1102 with the coronation of KingColoman as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in 1102 inBiograd.[62]
Europe in 1097
One of the most powerful and wealthiest king of the Árpád dynasty wasBéla III,[63] who disposed of the equivalent of 23 tonnes of silver per year, according to a contemporaryincome register. This exceeded the income of the French king (estimated at 17 tonnes) and was double the receipts of the English Crown.[64]Andrew II issued theDiploma Andreanum which secured the special privileges of theTransylvanian Saxons and is considered the firstautonomy law in the world.[65] He led theFifth Crusade to theHoly Land in 1217, setting up the largest royal army in the history of Crusades. HisGolden Bull of 1222 was the first constitution inContinental Europe. The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the parliament (parlamentum publicum).
In 1241–1242, the kingdom received a major blow with theMongol (Tatar) invasion. Up to half of Hungary's population of 2 million were victims of the invasion.[66] KingBéla IV letCumans andJassic people into the country, who were fleeing the Mongols.[67] Over the centuries, they were fully assimilated.[68] After the Mongols retreated, King Béla ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortifications, to defend against a possible second Mongol invasion. TheMongols returned to Hungary in 1285, but the newly built stone-castle systems and new tactics (using a higher proportion of heavily armed knights) stopped them. The invading Mongol force was defeated[69] near Pest by the royal army of KingLadislaus IV. As with later invasions, it was repelled handily, the Mongols losing much of their invading force.
TheKingdom of Hungary reached one of its greatest extents during the Árpádian kings, yet royal power was weakened at the end of their rule in 1301. After a destructive period ofinterregnum (1301–1308), the firstAngevin king,Charles I of Hungary – a bilineal descendant of theÁrpád dynasty – successfully restored royal power and defeated oligarch rivals, the so-called "little kings". The second Angevin Hungarian king,Louis the Great (1342–1382), led many successful military campaigns from Lithuania to southern Italy (Kingdom of Naples) and was alsoKing of Poland from 1370. After King Louis died without a male heir, the country was stabilised only whenSigismund of Luxembourg (1387–1437) succeeded to the throne, who in 1433 also becameHoly Roman Emperor.The first HungarianBible translation was completed in 1439. For half a year in 1437, there was an antifeudal and anticlericalpeasant revolt in Transylvania which was strongly influenced byHussite ideas. From a small noble family in Transylvania,John Hunyadi grew to become one of the country's most powerful lords, thanks to his capabilities as a mercenary commander. He was elected governor, then regent. He was a successful crusader against theOttoman Turks, one of his greatest victories being thesiege of Belgrade in 1456.
Renaissance portrait ofMatthias Corvinus, King of Hungary and Croatia (1458–1490), King of Bohemia (1469–1490) and Archduke of Austria (1487–1490)
The last strong king of medieval Hungary was theRenaissance kingMatthias Corvinus (1458–1490), son of John Hunyadi. His election was the first time that a member of the nobility mounted to the Hungarian royal throne without dynastic background. He was a successful military leader and an enlightened patron of the arts and learning.[70] His library, theBibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second only in size to theVatican Library. Items from the Bibliotheca Corviniana were inscribed onUNESCO'sMemory of the World Register in 2005.[71] The serfs and common people considered him a just ruler because he protected them from excessive demands and other abuses by the magnates.[72] Under his rule, in 1479, the Hungarian army destroyed the Ottoman and Wallachian troops at theBattle of Breadfield. Abroad he defeated the Polish and German imperial armies of Frederick at Breslau (Wrocław). Matthias' mercenary standing army, theBlack Army of Hungary, was an unusually large army for its time, and it conqueredVienna as well as parts of Austria andBohemia.
King Matthias died without lawful sons, and the Hungarian magnates procured the accession of the PoleVladislaus II (1490–1516), supposedly because of his weak influence on Hungarian aristocracy.[70] Hungary's international role declined, its political stability was shaken, and social progress was deadlocked.[73] In 1514, the weakened old King Vladislaus II faced a major peasant rebellion led byGyörgy Dózsa, which was ruthlessly crushed by thenobles, led byJohn Zápolya. The resulting degradation of order paved the way for Ottoman preeminence. In 1521, the strongest Hungarian fortress in the South, Nándorfehérvár (today'sBelgrade, Serbia),fell to the Turks. The early appearance of Protestantism further worsened internal relations in the country.
"The Women of Eger", oil painting from 1867 commemorating thesiege of Eger, a major victory against the Ottomans
After some150 years of wars with the Hungarians and other states, the Ottomans gained a decisive victory over the Hungarian army at theBattle of Mohács in 1526, where KingLouis II died while fleeing. Amid political chaos, the divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously,John Zápolya andFerdinand I of theHabsburg dynasty. With the conquest ofBuda by the Turks in 1541, Hungary was divided into three parts and remained so until the end of the 17th century. The north-western part, termed asRoyal Hungary, was annexed by the Habsburgs who ruled as kings of Hungary. The eastern part of the kingdom became independent as thePrincipality of Transylvania, under Ottoman (and later Habsburg)suzerainty. The remaining central area, including the capital Buda, was known as the Pashalik of Buda.
In 1686, theHoly League's army, containing over 74,000 men from various nations,reconquered Buda from the Turks. After some more crushingdefeats of the Ottomans in the next few years, the entire Kingdom of Hungary was removed from Ottoman rule by 1718. The last raid into Hungary by the Ottoman vassalsTatars fromCrimea took place in 1717.[74] The constrained Habsburg Counter-Reformation efforts in the 17th century reconverted the majority of the kingdom to Catholicism. The ethnic composition of Hungary was fundamentally changed as a consequence of the prolonged warfare with the Turks. A large part of the country became devastated, population growth was stunted, and many smaller settlements perished.[75] The Austrian-Habsburg government settled large groups ofSerbs and other Slavs in the depopulated south, and settledGermans (calledDanube Swabians) in various areas, but Hungarians were not allowed to settle or re-settle in the south of the Carpathian Basin.[76]
Francis II Rákóczi, leader of the war of independence against Habsburg rule (1703–1711)
Between 1703 and 1711, there was a large-scalewar of independence led byFrancis II Rákóczi, who after the dethronement of the Habsburgs in 1707 at the Diet ofÓnod, took power provisionally as the ruling prince for the wartime period, but refused the Hungarian crown and the title "king". The uprisings lasted for years. The HungarianKuruc army, although taking over most of the country, lost the mainbattle at Trencsén (1708). Three years later, because of the growing desertion, defeatism, and low morale, the Kuruc forces surrendered.[77]
During theNapoleonic Wars and afterward, the Hungarian Diet had not convened for decades.[78] In the 1820s, the emperor was forced to convene the Diet, which marked the beginning of a Reform Period (1825–1848,Hungarian:reformkor). The Hungarian Parliament was reconvened in 1825 to handle financial needs. A liberal party emerged and focused on providing for the peasantry.Lajos Kossuth emerged as a leader of the lowergentry in the Parliament. A remarkable upswing started as the nation concentrated its forces on modernisation even though the Habsburg monarchs obstructed all important liberal laws relating tocivil and political rights and economic reforms. Many reformers (Lajos Kossuth,Mihály Táncsics) were imprisoned by the authorities.
On 15 March 1848, mass demonstrations in Pest and Buda enabled Hungarian reformists to push through a list of12 demands. Under Governor and PresidentLajos Kossuth and Prime MinisterLajos Batthyány, the House of Habsburg was dethroned. The Habsburg ruler and his advisors skillfully manipulated the Croatian, Serbian and Romanian peasantry, led by priests and officers firmly loyal to the Habsburgs, into rebelling against the Hungarian government, though the Hungarians were supported by the vast majority of the Slovak, German andRusyn nationalities and by all the Jews of the kingdom, as well as by a large number of Polish, Austrian and Italian volunteers.[79] In July 1849 the Hungarian Parliament proclaimed and enacted the first laws of ethnic andminority rights in the world.[80] Many members of the nationalities gained the coveted highest positions within the Hungarian Army, likeJános Damjanich andJózef Bem. The Hungarian forces (Honvédség) defeated Austrian armies. To counter the successes of the Hungarian revolutionary army, Habsburg EmperorFranz Joseph I asked for help from the "Gendarme of Europe", TsarNicholas I, whose Russian armies invaded Hungary. This madeArtúr Görgey surrender in August 1849. The leader of the Austrian army,Julius Jacob von Haynau, became governor of Hungary for a few months and ordered the execution ofthe 13 Martyrs of Arad, leaders of the Hungarian army, and Prime Minister Batthyány in October 1849. Kossuth escaped into exile. Following the war of 1848–1849, the whole country was in "passive resistance".
Because of external and internal problems, reforms seemed inevitable, and major military defeats of Austria forced the Habsburgs to negotiate theAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, by which the dual monarchy ofAustria-Hungary was formed. This empire had the second largest area in Europe (after theRussian Empire), and it was the third most populous (after Russia and theGerman Empire). The two realms were governed separately by two parliaments from two capital cities, with a common monarch and common external and military policies. Economically, the empire was a customs union. The old Hungarian Constitution was restored, and Franz Joseph I was crowned asKing of Hungary. The era witnessed impressive economic development. The formerly backward Hungarian economy became relatively modern and industrialised by the turn of the 20th century, although agriculture remained dominant until 1890.[81] In 1873, the old capital Buda andÓbuda were officially united withPest,[82] creating the new metropolis of Budapest.[83][84] Many of the state institutions and the modern administrative system of Hungary were established during this period.
After theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Prime MinisterIstván Tisza and his cabinet tried to avoid the outbreak and escalating of a war in Europe, but their diplomatic efforts were unsuccessful. Austria-Hungary drafted over 4 million soldiers from the Kingdom of Hungary on the side of Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey. The troops raised in the Kingdom of Hungary spent little time defending the actual territory of Hungary, with the exceptions of theBrusilov offensive in June 1916 and a few months later when the Romanian army made an attack into Transylvania,[85][self-published source?] both of which were repelled. TheCentral Powers conquered Serbia. Romania declared war. The Central Powers conquered southern Romania and the Romanian capitalBucharest. In 1916 Franz Joseph died, and the new monarchCharles IV sympathised with the pacifists. With great difficulty, the Central Powers stopped and repelled the attacks of the Russian Empire.
TheEastern Front of the Allied (Entente) Powers completely collapsed. The Austro-Hungarian Empire then withdrew from all defeated countries. Despite great success on the Eastern Front, Germany suffered complete defeat on theWestern Front. By 1918, the economic situation had deteriorated (strikes in factories were organised by leftist and pacifist movements) and uprisings in the army had become common. In the capital cities, the Austrian and Hungarian leftist liberal movements and their leaders supported the separatism of ethnic minorities. Austria-Hungary signed a general armistice inPadua on 3 November 1918.[86] In October 1918, Hungary's union with Austria was dissolved.[87]
With the 1920Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost 72% of its territory, its sea ports, and 3,425,000 ethnic Hungarians.[88][89]
Majority Hungarian areas (according to the 1910 census) detached from Hungary
Following the First World War, Hungary underwent a period of profound political upheaval, beginning with theAster Revolution in 1918, which brought the social-democraticMihály Károlyi to power as prime minister. TheHungarian Royal Honvéd army still had more than 1,400,000 soldiers[90][91] when Károlyi was installed. Károlyi yielded to U.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilson's demand forpacifism by ordering the disarmament of the Hungarian army.[92][93] Disarmament meant that Hungary was to remain without a national defence at a time of particular vulnerability. During the rule of Károlyi's pacifist cabinet, Hungary lost control over approximately 75% of its pre-war territories (325,411 square kilometres (125,642 sq mi)) without a fight and was subject to foreign occupation. TheLittle Entente, sensing an opportunity, invaded the country from three sides—Romania invaded Transylvania, Czechoslovakia annexedUpper Hungary (today's Slovakia), and a jointSerb-French coalition annexedVojvodina and other southern regions. In March 1919, communists led byBéla Kun ousted the Károlyi government and proclaimed theHungarian Soviet Republic (Tanácsköztársaság), followed by a thoroughRed Terror campaign. Despite some successes on the Czechoslovak front, Kun's forces were ultimately unable to resist the Romanian invasion; by August 1919, Romanian troops occupied Budapest and ousted Kun.
Miklós Horthy, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1944)
In November 1919, rightist forces led by former Austro-Hungarian admiralMiklós Horthy entered Budapest; exhausted by the war and its aftermath, the populace accepted Horthy's leadership. In January 1920, parliamentary elections were held, and Horthy was proclaimed regent of the reestablishedKingdom of Hungary, inaugurating the so-called "Horthy era" (Horthy-kor). The new government worked quickly to normalise foreign relations while turning a blind eye to aWhite Terror that swept through the countryside; extrajudicial killings of suspected communists and Jews lasted well into 1920.
On 4 June 1920, theTreaty of Trianon established new borders for Hungary. The country lost 71% of its territory and 66% of its pre-war population, as well as many sources of raw materials and its sole port atFiume.[94][95] An estimated 3.3 millionethnic Hungarians were living in the ceded territories, mostly in what is nowRomania,Slovakia andSerbia, although modern sources for this figure range from 2 million to 5 million.[95][96][97] Though the revision of the treaty quickly rose to the top of the national political agenda, the Horthy government was not willing to resort to military intervention to do so.
The initial years of the Horthy regime were preoccupied with putsch attempts byCharles IV, the Austro-Hungarianpretender; continued suppression of communists; and a migration crisis triggered by the Trianon territorial changes. The government's actions continued to drift right with the passage ofantisemitic laws and, because of the continued isolation of the Little Entente, economic and then political gravitation towardsItaly andGermany. TheGreat Depression further exacerbated the situation, and the popularity of fascist politicians increased, such asGyula Gömbös andFerenc Szálasi, promising economic and social recovery. Horthy's nationalist agenda reached its apogee in 1938 and 1940, when the Nazis rewarded Hungary's staunchly pro-Germany foreign policy in theFirst andSecond Vienna Awards, peacefully restoring ethnic-Hungarian-majority areas lost after Trianon. In 1939, Hungary regained further territory from Czechoslovakiathrough force. Hungaryformally joined theAxis powers on 20 November 1940 and in 1941 participated in theinvasion of Yugoslavia, gaining some of its former territories in the south.
Hungary formally entered World War II as an Axis power on 26 June 1941, declaring war on the Soviet Union after unidentified planes bombedKassa,Munkács, andRahó. Hungarian troops fought on theEastern Front for two years. Despite early success at theBattle of Uman,[98] the government began seeking a secret peace pact withthe Allies after theSecond Army suffered catastrophic lossesat the River Don in January 1943. Learning of the planned defection, German troopsoccupied Hungary on 19 March 1944 to guarantee Horthy's compliance.
In October, as the Soviet front approached, and the government made further efforts to disengage from the war, German troops ousted Horthy and installed a puppet government under Szálasi's fascistArrow Cross Party.[98] Szálasi pledged all the country's capabilities in service of the German war machine. By October 1944, the Soviets had reached the river Tisza, and despitesome losses, succeeded in encircling andbesieging Budapest in December.
On 13 February 1945, Budapest surrendered; by April, German troops left the country under Soviet military occupation. 200,000 Hungarians were expelled from Czechoslovakia in exchange for 70,000 Slovaks living in Hungary. 202,000 ethnic Germans were expelled to Germany,[99] and through the 1947Paris Peace Treaties, Hungary was again reduced to its immediate post-Trianon borders.
The war left Hungary devastated, destroying over 60% of the economy and causing significantloss of life. In addition to the over 600,000 Hungarian Jews killed,[100] as many as 280,000[101] other Hungarians were raped, murdered and executed or deported for slave labour.[102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111] After German occupation, Hungary participated inthe Holocaust,[112][113] deporting nearly 440,000 Jews, mainly toAuschwitz; nearly all of them were murdered.[114][115] The Horthy government's complicity in the Holocaust remains a point of controversy and contention.
Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, Hungary became asatellite state of the Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership selectedMátyás Rákosi to front theStalinisation of the country, and Rákoside facto ruled Hungary from 1949 to 1956. His government's policies of militarisation, industrialisation, collectivisation, and war compensation led to a severe decline in living standards. In imitation of Stalin'sKGB, the Rákosi government established a secret political police, theÁVH, to enforce the regime; approximately 350,000 officials and intellectuals were imprisoned or executed from 1948 to 1956.[117] Many freethinkers, democrats, and Horthy-era dignitaries were secretly arrested and extrajudicially interned in domestic and foreigngulags. Some 600,000 Hungarians were deported to Soviet labour camps, where at least 200,000 died.[118]
After Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union pursued a programme ofde-Stalinisation that was inimical to Rákosi, leading to his deposition. The following political cooling saw the ascent ofImre Nagy to the premiership. Nagy promised market liberalisation and political openness. Rákosi eventually managed to discredit Nagy and replace him with the more hard-lineErnő Gerő. Hungary joined theWarsaw Pact in May 1955, as societal dissatisfaction with the regime swelled. Following the firing on peaceful demonstrations by Soviet soldiers and secret police, and rallies throughout the country on 23 October 1956, protesters took to the streets in Budapest, initiating the1956 Revolution.
In an effort to quell the chaos, Nagy returned as premier, promised free elections, and took Hungary out of the Warsaw Pact. The violence nonetheless continued as revolutionary militias sprung up against the Soviet Army and the ÁVH; the roughly 3,000-strong resistance fought Soviet tanks usingMolotov cocktails and machine-pistols. Though the preponderance of the Soviets was immense, they suffered heavy losses, and by 30 October 1956, most Soviet troops had withdrawn from Budapest to garrison the countryside. For a time, the Soviet leadership was unsure how to respond but eventually decided to intervene to prevent a destabilisation of the Soviet bloc. On 4 November, reinforcements of more than 150,000 troops and 2,500 tanks entered the country from the Soviet Union.[119] Nearly 20,000 Hungarians were killed resisting the intervention, while an additional 21,600 were imprisoned afterward for political reasons. Some 13,000 were interned and 230 brought to trial and executed. Nagy was secretly tried, found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed by hanging in June 1958. Because borders were briefly opened, nearly a quarter of a million people fled the country by the time the revolution was suppressed.[120]
After a second, briefer period of Soviet military occupation,János Kádár, Nagy's former minister of state, was chosen by the Soviet leadership to head the new government and chair the new rulingSocialist Workers' Party. Kádár quickly normalised the situation. In 1963, the government granted a general amnesty. Kádár proclaimed a new policy line, according to which the people were no longer compelled to profess loyalty to the party if they tacitly accepted the socialist regime as a fact of life. Kádár introduced new planning priorities in the economy, such as allowing farmers significant plots of private land within the collective farm system (háztáji gazdálkodás). The living standard rose as consumer goods and food production took precedence over military production, which was reduced to one-tenth of prerevolutionary levels.
In 1968, theNew Economic Mechanism introduced free-market elements into the socialist command economy. From the 1960s through the late 1980s, Hungary was often referred to as "the happiest barrack" within the Eastern bloc. During the latter part of the Cold War Hungary'sGDP per capita was fourth only toEast Germany,Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union.[121] As a result of this relatively highstandard of living, a more liberalised economy, a less censored press, and less restricted travel rights, Hungary was generally considered one of the more liberal countries in which to live in Central Europe during communism. In 1980, Hungary sent aCosmonaut into space as part of theInterkosmos. The first Hungarian astronaut wasBertalan Farkas. Hungary becamethe seventh nation to be represented in space by him.[122] In the 1980s, however, living standards steeply declined again because ofa worldwide recession to which communism was unable to respond.[123] By the time Kádár died in 1989, the Soviet Union was in steep decline and a younger generation of reformists saw liberalisation as the solution to economic and social issues.
Hungary's transition from communism to capitalism (rendszerváltás, "regime change") was peaceful and prompted by economic stagnation, domestic political pressure, and changing relations with other Warsaw Pact countries. Although theHungarian Socialist Workers' Party beganRound Table Talks with various opposition groups in March 1989, the reburial of Imre Nagy as a revolutionary martyr that June is widely considered the symbolic end of communism in Hungary. Free elections were heldin May 1990, and theHungarian Democratic Forum, a major conservative opposition group, was elected to the head of a coalition government.József Antall became the first democratically elected prime minister since World War II.
With the removal of state subsidies and rapid privatisation in 1991, Hungary was affected by a severe economic recession. The Antall government's austerity measures proved unpopular, and the Communist Party's legal and political heir, theSocialist Party, won the subsequent1994 elections. This abrupt shift in the political landscape was repeated in1998 and2002; in each electoral cycle, the governing party was ousted and the erstwhile opposition elected. Like most other post-communist European states, however, Hungary broadly pursued anintegrationist agenda,joining NATO in 1999 and the European Unionin 2004. As a NATO member, Hungary was involved in theYugoslav Wars.
Hungary is alandlocked country. Its geography has traditionally been defined by its two main waterways, theDanube andTisza rivers. The common tripartite division—Dunántúl ("beyond the Danube",Transdanubia),Tiszántúl ("beyond the Tisza"), andDuna–Tisza köze ("between the Danube and Tisza")—is a reflection of this. The Danube flows north–south through the centre of contemporary Hungary, and the entire country lies within itsdrainage basin.
Transdanubia, which stretches westward from the centre of the country towards Austria, is a primarily hilly region with a terrain varied by low mountains. These include the very eastern stretch of theAlps,Alpokalja, in the west of the country, theTransdanubian Mountains in the central region of Transdanubia, and theMecsek Mountains andVillány Mountains in the south. The highest point of the area is the Írott-kő in the Alps, at 882 metres (2,894 ft). TheLittle Hungarian Plain (Kisalföld) is found in northern Transdanubia.Lake Balaton andLake Hévíz, the largest lake in Central Europe and the largest thermal lake in the world, respectively, are in Transdanubia as well.
TheDuna–Tisza köze andTiszántúl are characterised mainly by theGreat Hungarian Plain (Alföld), which stretches across most of the eastern and southeastern areas of the country. To the north of the plain are the foothills of theCarpathians in a wide band near theSlovakian border. TheKékes at 1,014 m (3,327 ft) is the tallest mountain in Hungary and is found there.
Hungary has atemperate seasonal climate,[147][148] with generally warm summers with low overall humidity levels but frequent rain showers and cold snowy winters. Average annual temperature is 9.7 °C (49.5 °F). Temperature extremes are 41.9 °C (107.4 °F) on 20 July 2007 atKiskunhalas in the summer and −35 °C (−31.0 °F) on 16 February 1940 atMiskolc in the winter. Average high temperature in the summer is 23 to 28 °C (73 to 82 °F) and average low temperature in the winter is −3 to −7 °C (27 to 19 °F). The average yearly rainfall is approximately 600 mm (23.6 in).
Hungary is aunitary,parliamentary republic. The Hungarian political system operates under a framework reformed in 2012; this constitutional document is theFundamental Law of Hungary. Amendments generally require a two-thirds majority of parliament; the fundamental principles of the constitution (as expressed in the articles guaranteeing human dignity, the separation of powers, the state structure, and therule of law) are valid in perpetuity. 199 Members of Parliament (országgyűlési képviselő) are elected to the highest organ of state authority, theunicameralOrszággyűlés (National Assembly), every four years in a single-roundfirst-past-the-post election with anelection threshold of 5%.[citation needed]
ThePresident of the Republic (köztársasági elnök) serves as thehead of state and is elected by the National Assembly every five years. The president is invested primarily with representative responsibilities and powers: receiving foreign heads of state, formally nominating the prime minister at the recommendation of the National Assembly, and serving ascommander-in-chief of thearmed forces.[149] Importantly, the president is also invested withveto power and may send legislation to the 15-memberConstitutional Court for review. The third most significant governmental position in Hungary is theSpeaker of the National Assembly, who is elected by the National Assembly and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body.[citation needed]
Theprime minister (miniszterelnök) is elected by the National Assembly, serving as thehead of government and exercisingexecutive power. Traditionally, the prime minister is the leader of the largest party in parliament. The prime minister selectsCabinet ministers and has the exclusive right to dismiss them, although cabinet nominees must appear before consultative open hearings before one or more parliamentary committees, survive a vote in the National Assembly, and be formally approved by the president. The Cabinet reports to Parliament.[citation needed]
Since the fall of communism, Hungary has amulti-party system. Thelast Hungarian parliamentary election took place on 3 April 2022.[150] The result was a victory for Fidesz–KDNP alliance, preserving its two-thirds majority with Orbán remaining prime minister.[151] It was the third election according to the new Constitution of Hungary which went into force on 1 January 2012. Thenew electoral law also entered into force that day. The voters elected 199 MPs instead of previous 386 lawmakers.[152][153] Since 2014, voters ofethnic minorities in Hungary are able to vote on nationality lists. The minorities can obtain a preferential mandate if they reach the quarter of the ninety-third part of the list votes.[154] Nationalities who did not get a mandate could send a nationality spokesman to theNational Assembly. The current political landscape in Hungary is dominated by the conservative Fidesz, who have a near supermajority, and three medium-sized parties, the left-wingDemocratic Coalition (DK), the far-rightOur Homeland Movement and liberalMomentum.
The judicial system of Hungary is acivil law system, divided between courts with regular civil and criminal jurisdiction, and administrative courts with jurisdiction over litigation between individuals and the public administration. Hungarian law is codified and based onGerman law and, in a wider sense, civil law orRoman law. The court system for civil and criminal jurisdiction consists of local courts (járásbíróság), regional appellate courts (ítélőtábla), and the supreme court (Kúria). Hungary's highest courts are located in Budapest.[155]
Law enforcement in Hungary is split among the police and the National Tax and Customs Administration. TheHungarian Police is the main and largest state law enforcement agency in Hungary. It carries nearly all general police duties such as criminal investigation, patrol activity, traffic policing, border control. It is led by the national police commissioner under the control of theMinister of the Interior. The body is divided into county police departments which are also divided into regional and town police departments. The National Police has subordinate agencies with nationwide jurisdiction, such as the "Nemzeti Nyomozó Iroda" (National Bureau of Investigation), a civilian police force specialised in investigating serious crimes, and thegendarmerie-like, militarised "Készenléti rendőrség" (Stand-by Police) mainly dealing with riots and often reinforcing local police forces. Because of Hungary's accession to theSchengen Treaty, the police and border guards were merged into a single national corps, with the border guards (Határőrség Magyarországon) becoming police officers. This merger took place in January 2008. The Customs and Excise Authority remained subject to theMinistry of Finance under the National Tax and Customs Administration.[156]
Since 1989, the top foreign policy goal has been achieving integration into Western economic and security organisations. Hungary joined thePartnership for Peace programme in 1994 and has actively supported theIFOR andSFOR missions in Bosnia. Since 1989 Hungary has improved its often frosty neighbour relations by signing basic treaties with Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. These renounce all outstanding territorial claims and lay the foundation for constructive relations. However, the issue ofethnic Hungarian minority rights in Romania, Slovakia, and Serbia periodically cause bilateral tensions to flare up. However, relations with Serbia have more recently become extremely close due to strong Hungarian advocacy for Serbian EU membership, while relations with Slovakia have warmed due to cooperation on shared priorities within EU structures.[160][161] Since 2017, therelations with Ukraine rapidly deteriorated over the issue of theHungarian minority in Ukraine.[162] Since 1989, Hungary has signed all of theOSCE documents, and served as the OSCE's Chairman-in-Office in 1997. Historically, Hungary has had particularly friendlyrelations with Poland; this special relationship was recognised by the parliaments of both countries in 2007 with the joint declaration of 23 March as "The Day of Polish-Hungarian Friendship".[163] According to the 2024Global Peace Index, Hungary is the 14th most peaceful country in the world.[164]
The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces. TheMinistry of Defence jointly withchief of staff administers the armed forces, including theHungarian Ground Force (HDF) and theHungarian Air Force. Since 2007, the Hungarian Armed Forces has been under a unified command structure. The Ministry of Defence maintains political and civil control over the army. A subordinate Joint Forces Command coordinates and commands the HDF. In 2016, the armed forces had 31,080 personnel on active duty, the operative reserve brought the total number of troops to fifty thousand. In 2016, it was planned that military spending the following year would be $1.21 billion, about 0.94% of the country's GDP, well below the NATO target of 2%. In 2012, the government adopted a resolution in which it pledged to increase defence spending to 1.4% of GDP by 2022.[165]
Military service is voluntary, thoughconscription may occur in wartime. In a significant move for modernisation, Hungary decided in 2001 to buy 14JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft for about 800 million EUR. Hungarian National Cyber Security Centre was re-organised in 2016 in order to become more efficient throughcyber security.[166] In 2016, the Hungarian military had about 700 troops stationed in foreign countries as part of international peacekeeping forces, including 100 HDF troops in the NATO-ledISAF force in Afghanistan, 210 Hungarian soldiers in Kosovo under command ofKFOR, and 160 troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hungary sent a 300-strong logistics unit to Iraq in order to help the U.S. occupation with armed transport convoys, though public opinion opposed the country's participation in the war.[citation needed]
Hungary is divided into 19counties (vármegye). Thecapital (főváros)Budapest is an independent entity. The counties and the capital are the 20NUTS third-level units of Hungary. The states are further subdivided into 174districts (járás).[167] The districts are further divided intotowns and villages, of which 25 are designatedtowns with county rights (megyei jogú város), sometimes known as "urban counties" in English. The local authorities of these towns have extended powers, but these towns belong to the territory of the respective district instead of being independent territorial units. County and district councils and municipalities have different roles and separate responsibilities relating to local government. The role of the counties are basically administrative and focus on strategic development, while preschools, public water utilities, garbage disposal, elderly care, and rescue services are administered by the municipalities.
Budapest, the capital and most populous city of Hungary
Hungary has 3,152municipalities as of 15 July 2013: 346 towns (Hungarian term:város, plural:városok; the terminology does not distinguish betweencities andtowns – the term town is used in official translations) and 2,806 villages (Hungarian:község, plural:községek) which fully cover the territory of the country. The number of towns can change, since villages can be elevated to town status by act of the president. Budapest has a special status and is not included in any county while 23 of the towns are so-called urban counties (megyei jogú város – town with county rights). All county seats except Budapest are urban counties. Four of the cities (Budapest, Miskolc,Győr, andPécs) have agglomerations, and the Hungarian Statistical Office distinguishes seventeen other areas in earlier stages of agglomeration development.[168] The largest city is Budapest. There are more than 100 villages with fewer than 100 inhabitants while the smallest villages have fewer than 20 inhabitants.[citation needed]
Hungary is part of theEuropean single market which represents more than 508 million consumers. Several domestic commercial policies are determined by agreements among European Union members and by EU legislation. Hungary is an export-orientedmarket economy with a heavy emphasis on foreign trade, thus the country is the36th largest export economy in the world. The country has more than $100 billion export in 2015 with high, $9.003 billiontrade surplus, of which 79% went to the EU and 21% was extra-EU trade.[174] Hungary has a more than 80%privately owned economy with39.1% overall taxation, which provides the basis for the country'swelfare economy. On the expenditure side, household consumption is the main component ofGDP and accounts for 50% of its total use, followed by gross fixedcapital formation with 22% and government expenditure with 20%.[175]
Hungary continues to be one of the leading nations for attractingforeign direct investment (FDI) inCentral and Eastern Europe; the inward FDI in the country was $119.8 billion in 2015, while investing more than $50 billion abroad.[7] As of 2015[update], the key trading partners were Germany, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, France, Italy, Poland and Czech Republic.[176] Major industries include food processing, pharmaceuticals, motor vehicles, information technology, chemicals, metallurgy, machinery, electrical goods, and tourism (with 12.1 million international tourists in 2014).[177] Hungary is the largest electronics producer in Central and Eastern Europe. Electronics manufacturing and research are among the main drivers of innovation and economic growth in the country. In the past 20 years Hungary has also grown into a major centre formobile technology,information security, and related hardware research.[178]
Hungary's achievements in science and technology have been significant, and research and development efforts form an integral part of the country's economy. Hungary spent 1.61% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on civil research and development in 2020, which is the25th highest ratio in the world.[187] Hungary ranks 32nd among the most innovative countries in theBloomberg Innovation Index.[188] Hungary was ranked 36th in theGlobal Innovation Index in 2024.[189] In 2014, Hungary counted 2,651 full-time equivalent researchers per million inhabitants, steadily increasing from 2,131 in 2010 and compares with 3,984 in the U.S. or 4,380 in Germany.[190] Hungary's high technology industry has benefited from both the country's skilled workforce and the strong presence of foreign high-tech firms and research centres. Hungary also has one of the highest rates of filed patents, the sixth highest ratio of high-tech and medium high-tech output in the total industrial output, the 12th highest research FDI inflow, placed 14th in research talent in business enterprise and has the 17th best overall innovation efficiency ratio in the world.[191]
The key actor of research and development in Hungary is the National Research, Development and Innovation (NRDI) Office, which is a national strategic andfunding agency for scientific research, development and innovation, the primary source of advice on RDI policy for the Hungarian government and the primary RDI funding agency. Its role is to develop RDI policy and ensure that Hungary adequately invest in RDI by funding excellent research and supporting innovation to increase competitiveness and to prepare the RDI strategy of the government, to handle the NRDI Fund and represents the government and RDI community in international organisations.[192]
Hungary has a highly developed road, railway, air, and water transport system. Budapest serves as an important hub for theHungarian railway system (MÁV). The capital is served by three large train stations calledKeleti (Eastern),Nyugati (Western), andDéli (Southern)pályaudvars (termii).Szolnok is the most important railway hub outside Budapest, whileTiszai Railway Station in Miskolc and the main stations ofSzombathely,Győr,Szeged, andSzékesfehérvár are also key to the network.
From March 2024, transport on the Hungarian railwayMÁV will be free for people aged 65 and over and under 14 years of age.[196]
Budapest,Debrecen, Miskolc, andSzeged have tram networks. TheBudapest Metro is the second-oldest undergroundmetro system in the world; itsLine 1 dates from 1896. The system consists of four lines. Acommuter rail system,HÉV, operates in the Budapest metropolitan area.Hungary has a total length of approximately 1,314 km (816.48 mi) motorways (Hungarian:autópálya). Motorway sections are being added to the existing network, which already connects many major economically important cities to the capital. Ports are located at Budapest,Dunaújváros andBaja.
There are five international airports:Budapest Ferenc Liszt (informally called "Ferihegy"),Debrecen,Hévíz–Balaton (also called Sármellék Airport),Győr-Pér, andPécs-Pogány, but only two of these (Budapest and Debrecen) receive scheduled flights. Low-budget airlineWizz Air is based at Ferihegy.
Hungary's total energy supply is dominated byfossil fuels, withnatural gas occupying the largest share, followed byoil andcoal.[197] In June 2020, Hungary passed a law binding itself to a target ofnet-zero emissions by 2050. As part of a broader restructuring of the nation's energy and climate policies, Hungary also extended its National Energy Strategy 2030 to look even further, adding an outlook until 2040 that prioritises carbon-neutral and cost-effective energy while focusing on reinforcingenergy security andenergy independence.[197] Key forces in the country's 2050 target includerenewables,nuclear electricity, andelectrification of end-use sectors. Significant investments in the power sector are expected, including for the construction of two new nuclear energy generating units. Renewable energy capacity has increased significantly, but in recent years growth in the renewables sector has stagnated. What is more, certain policies that limit development ofwind power are expected to negatively impact the renewables sector.[197]
Hungary's emission of greenhouse gases has dropped alongside the economy's decreasing use of carbon-based fuels. However, independent analysis has identified space for Hungary to set more ambitious emissions reduction targets.[197]
Hungary's population was 9,689,000 in 2021, according to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, making it the fifth most populous country in Central and Eastern Europe, and amedium-sized member state of the European Union. As in other formerEastern bloc countries, its population has decreased markedly since the fall of communism, having peaked at 10.8 million in 1980.[198]Population density stands at 107 inhabitants per square kilometre, which is about two times higher than theworld average. Around 70% of the population lives in cities and towns overall, which is well above the global rate of 56% butlower than most developed countries; one quarter of Hungarians live in theBudapest metropolitan area in north-central region.
Like most European countries, Hungary is experiencingsub-replacement fertility; its estimatedtotal fertility rate of 1.43 children per woman is well below the replacement rate of 2.1.[7] Consequently, its population has been gradually declining and rapidly aging; the average age is 42.7 years, among the highest in the world.[7] This trend has been exacerbated by a high rate of emigration, particularly among young adults, and anti-immigration policies, which accelerated in the 1990s but have since somewhat abated.[198]
In 2011, the conservative government began a programme to increase the birth rate amongethnic Magyars by reinstating three-year maternity leave and boosting the availability of part-time jobs; the fertility rate has since gradually increased from its nadir of 1.27 children per woman in 2011,[199] in some years rising as high as 1.5.[200] In 2015, 47.9% of births were to unmarried women.[201]Life expectancy was 71.96 years for men and 79.62 years for women in 2015,[7] growing continuously since the fall of Communism.[202]
Hungary recognises two sizeable minority groups, designated as "national minorities" because their ancestors have lived in their respective regions for centuries in Hungary: aGerman community of about 130,000 that lives throughout the country, and aRomani minority that numbers around 300,000 and mainly resides in the northern part of the country. Some studies indicate a considerably larger number of Romani in Hungary (876,000 people – c. 9% of the population.).[203][204] According to the 2011 census, there were 8,314,029 (83.7%) ethnicHungarians, 308,957 (3.1%)Romani, 131,951 (1.3%)Germans, 29,647 (0.3%)Slovaks, 26,345 (0.3%)Romanians, and 23,561 (0.2%)Croats in Hungary; 1,455,883 people (14.7% of the total population) did not declare their ethnicity. Thus, Hungarians made up more than 90% of people who declared their ethnicity.[205] In Hungary, people can declare more than one ethnicity, so the sum of ethnicities is higher than the total population.[206]
Regions of Central and Eastern Europe inhabited by Hungarian speakers today
Hungarian is theofficial and predominant spoken language. Hungarian is the13th most widely spoken first language in Europe with around 13 million native speakers and it is one of 24 official and working languages of the European Union.[207] Outside Hungary, it is also spoken in neighbouring countries and by Hungarian diaspora communities worldwide. According to the 2011 census, 9,896,333 people (99.6%) speak Hungarian in Hungary, of whom 9,827,875 people (99%) speak it as afirst language, while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as asecond language.[205] English (1,589,180 speakers, 16.0%), and German (1,111,997 speakers, 11.2%) are the most widely spoken foreign languages, while there are several recognised minority languages in Hungary (Armenian,Bulgarian,Croatian,German,Greek,Romanian,Romani,Rusyn,Serbian,Slovak,Slovenian, andUkrainian).[208]
Hungarian is a member of theUralic language family, unrelated to any neighbouring language and distantly related toFinnish andEstonian. It is the largest of the Uralic languages in terms of the number of speakers and the only one spoken in Central Europe. Standard Hungarian is based on the variety spoken in Budapest. Although the use of the standard dialect is enforced, Hungarian has several urban and ruraldialects.
Contemporary Hungary has noofficial religion and recognisesfreedom of religion as a fundamental right. However, the constitution "recognises Christianity's nation-building role" in its preamble[213] and in Article VII affirms that "the state may cooperate with the churches for community goals."[214] The 2022 census showed that 42.5% of the Hungarians were Christians, most of whom wereRoman Catholics (római katolikusok) (27.5%) andHungarian ReformedCalvinists (reformátusok) (9.8%), alongsideLutherans (evangélikusok) (1.8%),Greek Catholics (1.7%), and other Christians (1.7%).Jewish (0.1%),Buddhist (0.1%) andIslamic (0.1%) communities are small minorities. 40.1% of the population did not declare a religious affiliation, while 16.1% declared themselves explicitly irreligious.[3]
During the initial stages of the ProtestantReformation, most Hungarians adopted first Lutheranism and then Calvinism in the form of the Hungarian Reformed Church. Key figures in the Calvinist movement includedMárton Kálmáncsehi (1500–1550) andPéter Melius Juhász (1532–1572). Melius Juhász played a pivotal role in translating theBible and other religious texts into Hungarian, and he established Debrecen in the Great Plain as the heart of Hungarian Calvinism, earning it the titles "HungarianGeneva" or "theCalvinist Rome."[215] In the second half of the 16th century, theJesuits led aCounter-Reformation campaign, and the population once again became predominantly Catholic. This campaign was only partially successful, however, and the (mainly Reformed) Hungarian nobility were able to secure freedom of worship for Protestants. In practice, this meantcuius regio, eius religio; thus, most individual localities in Hungary are still identifiable as historically Catholic, Lutheran, or Reformed. The country's eastern regions, especially around Debrecen, remain almost completely Reformed,[216] a trait they share with historically contiguous ethnically Hungarian regions across the Romanian border.Orthodox Christianity in Hungary is associated with the country's ethnic minorities: Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Romanians, Rusyns, Ukrainians, and Serbs.
Historically, Hungary was home to asignificant Jewish community, with a pre-World War II population of more than 800,000; however, it is estimated that just over 564,000 Hungarian Jews were killed between 1941 and 1945 during the Holocaust in Hungary.[217] Between 15 May and 9 July 1944 alone, over 434,000 Jews were deported.[218] Of over 800,000 Jews living within Hungary's borders in 1941–1944, about 255,500 are thought to have survived. There are about 120,000 Jews in Hungary today.[219][220]
Education is predominantly public, run by theMinistry of Education.Preschool-kindergarten education iscompulsory and provided for all children between three and six years old, after which school attendance is also compulsory until the age of sixteen.[27]Primary education usually lasts for eight years.Secondary education includes three traditional types of schools focused on different academic levels: theGymnasium enrolls the most gifted children and prepares students for university studies; the secondary vocational schools for intermediate students lasts four years and the technical school prepares pupils forvocational education and work. The system is partly flexible and bridges exist.[221] TheTrends in International Mathematics and Science Study rated 13–14-year-old pupils in Hungary among the best in the world for maths and science.
Most of the universities arepublic institutions, and students traditionally study without fees. The general requirement for university is theMatura. The Hungarian publichigher education system includes universities and other higher education institutes that provide both education curricula and related degrees up to doctoral degree and also contribute to research activities. Health insurance for students is free until the end of their studies. English and German language are important in Hungarian higher education; there are a number of degree programmes that are taught in these languages, which attracts thousands ofexchange students every year. Hungary's higher education and training has been ranked 44 out of 148 countries in the Global Competitiveness Report 2014.[222]
Hungary ranks fourth (above neighbour Romania, and after China, the United States and Russia) in the all-time medal count at theInternational Mathematical Olympiad with 336 total medals, dating back to 1959.
Hungary maintains auniversal health care system largely financed by governmentnational health insurance. According to theOECD, 100% of the population iscovered by universal health insurance,[26] which is free for children, students, pensioners, people with low income, handicapped people, and church employees.[223][224] Hungary spends 7.2% of GDP on healthcare, spending $2,045 per capita, of which $1,365 is provided by the government.[225]
Hungary is one of the main destinations ofmedical tourism in Europe, particularly for dentistry,[226][227] in which its share is 42% in Europe and 21% worldwide.[227][228]Plastic surgery is also a key sector, with 30% of the clients coming from abroad. Hungary is well known for its spa culture and is home tonumerous medicinal spas,[229] which attract "spa tourism".[230]
In common with developed countries, cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of mortality, accounting for 49.4% (62,979) of all deaths in 2013.[231] However, this number peaked in 1985 with 79,355 deaths, and has been declining continuously since the fall of communism.[231] The second leading cause of death is cancer with 33,274 (26.2%), which has been stagnant since the 1990s.[231] Deaths from accidents dropped from 8,760 in 1990 to 3,654 in 2013; the number of suicides has declined greatly from 4,911 in 1983 to 2,093 in 2013 (21.1 per 100,000 people), the lowest since 1956.[231] There are considerable health disparities between the western and eastern parts of Hungary; heart disease, hypertension, stroke, and suicide is prevalent in the mostly agricultural and low-income Great Plain region in the east, but infrequent in the high-income, middle class areas of Western Transdanubia and Central Hungary.[232] Smoking is a leading cause of death, although it is in steep decline: The proportion of adult smokers declined to 19% in 2013 from 28% in 2012, owing to strict regulations such as a nationwide smoking ban in every indoor public place and the limiting of tobacco sales to state-controlled "National Tobacco Shops".[233]
RomanesqueJák Abbey, built between 1220 and 1256Closeup of the HungarianArt Nouveau architectural details on the Kiskunfélegyháza Town Hall
Hungary is home to thelargest synagogue in Europe, built in 1859 inMoorish Revival style with a capacity of 3,000 people; thelargest medicinal bath in Europe, completed in 1913 in ModernRenaissance style and located in the Budapest city park; one of thelargest basilicas in Europe; thesecond-largest territorial abbey in the world; and the largestearly Christian necropolis outside Italy. Notable architectural styles includeHistoricism and variants ofArt Nouveau. In contrast to Historicism, Hungarian Art Nouveau is based on national architectural characteristics. Taking the eastern origins of the Hungarians into account,Ödön Lechner, the most important figure in Hungarian Art Nouveau, was initially inspired by Asian architecture and later by traditional Hungarian decorative designs. In this way, he created an original synthesis of architectural styles. By applying them to three-dimensional architectural elements, he produced a version of Art Nouveau that was specific to Hungary. Turning away from the style of Lechner, yet taking inspiration from his approach, the group of "Young People" (Fiatalok), which includedKároly Kós and Dezsö Zrumeczky, used the characteristic structures and forms of traditional Hungarian architecture to achieve the same end.
Besides the two principal styles, Budapest also displays local versions of trends originating from other European countries. TheSezession fromVienna, the GermanJugendstil,Art Nouveau from Belgium and France, and the influence of English and Finnish architecture are all reflected in the buildings constructed at the turn of the 20th century.Béla Lajta initially adopted Lechner's style, subsequently drawing his inspiration from English and Finnish trends; after developing an interest in theEgyptian style, he finally arrived at modern architecture.Aladár Árkay took almost the same route.István Medgyaszay developed his own style, which differed from Lechner's, using stylised traditional motifs to create decorative designs in concrete. In the sphere of applied arts, those chiefly responsible for promoting the spread of Art Nouveau were the School and Museum of Decorative Arts, which opened in 1896.
In the Budapest downtown area almost all the buildings are about one hundred years old, with thick walls, high ceilings, and motifs on the front walls.[234][235]
Hungary has renowned composers of contemporary classical music,György Ligeti,György Kurtág,Péter Eötvös,Zoltán Kodály andZoltán Jeney among them. Bartók was among the most significant musicians of the 20th century. His music was invigorated by the themes, modes, and rhythmic patterns of the Hungarian and neighbouring folk music traditions he studied, which he synthesised with influences from his contemporaries into his own distinctive style.[236]Folk music is a prominent part of the national identity and has been significant in former country parts that belong—since the 1920 Treaty of Trianon—to neighbouring countries such as Romania, Slovakia, Poland and especially in southern Slovakia and Transylvania. After the establishment of a music academy led by Liszt andFerenc Erkel,
Broughton claims that Hungary's "infectious sound has been surprisingly influential on neighboring countries (thanks perhaps to the common Austro-Hungarian history) and it's not uncommon to hear Hungarian-sounding tunes in Romania, Slovakia and Poland".[237] It is also strong in theSzabolcs-Szatmár area and in the southwest part of Transdanubia, near the border with Croatia. TheBusójárás carnival in Mohács is a major Hungarian folk music event, formerly featuring the long-established and well-regardedBogyiszló Orchestra.[238]
Hungarian classical music has long been an "experiment, made from Hungarian antecedents and on Hungarian soil, to create a conscious musical culture [using the] musical world of the folk song".[239] Although the Hungarian upper class has long had cultural and political connections with the rest of Europe, leading to an influx of European musical ideas, the rural peasants maintained their own traditions such that by the end of the 19th-century Hungarian composers could draw on rural peasant music to (re)create a Hungarian classical style.[240] For example, Bartók collected folk songs from across Central and Eastern Europe, including Romania and Slovakia, while Kodály was more interested in creating a distinctively Hungarian musical style.
During the era of communist rule in Hungary, a Song Committee scoured and censored popular music for traces of subversion and ideological impurity. Since then, however, the Hungarian music industry has begun to recover, producing successful performers in the fields ofjazz such as trumpeterRudolf Tomsits, pianist-composerKároly Binder and, in a modernised form of Hungarian folk,Ferenc Sebő andMárta Sebestyén. The three giants of Hungarian rock,Illés,Metró andOmega, remain very popular, especially Omega, which has followings in Germany and beyond as well as in Hungary. Older veteran underground bands such asBeatrice, from the 1980s, also remain popular.
Traditional dishes such as the world-famousgoulash (gulyás stew orgulyás soup) feature prominently in Hungarian cuisine. Dishes are often flavoured withpaprika (ground red peppers), a Hungarian innovation.[241] The paprika powder, obtained from a special type of pepper, is one of the most common spices used in typical Hungarian cuisine. Thick, heavy sour cream calledtejföl is often used to soften the flavour of a dish. The famous Hungarian hot river fish soup calledfisherman's soup orhalászlé is usually a rich mixture of several kinds of poached fish.[242]
Other dishes arechicken paprikash,foie gras made of goose liver,pörkölt stew,vadas, (game stew with vegetable gravy anddumplings), trout with almonds and salty and sweet dumplings, liketúrós csusza, (dumplings with freshquark cheese and thick sour cream). Desserts include the iconicDobos torte,strudels (rétes), filled with apple, cherry, poppy seed or cheese,Gundel pancake, plum dumplings (szilvás gombóc),somlói dumplings, dessert soups like chilledsour cherry soup and sweet chestnut puree,gesztenyepüré (cookedchestnuts mashed with sugar and rum and split into crumbs, topped with whipped cream).Perec andkifli are widely popular pastries.[243]
Thecsárda is the most distinctive type of Hungarian inn, an old-style tavern offering traditional cuisine and beverages.Borozó usually denotes a cosy old-fashioned wine tavern,pince is a beer or wine cellar and asöröző is apub offering draught beer and sometimes meals. Thebisztró is an inexpensive restaurant often with self-service. Thebüfé is the cheapest place, although one may have to eat standing at a counter. Pastries, cakes and coffee are served at the confectionery calledcukrászda, while aneszpresszó is a café.
The famousTokaji wine. It was calledVinum Regum, Rex Vinorum ("Wine of Kings, King of Wines") byLouis XIV of France.
Pálinka is a fruit brandy, distilled from fruit grown in the orchards situated on the Great Hungarian Plain. It is a spirit native to Hungary and comes in a variety of flavours including apricot (barack) and cherry (cseresznye). However, plum (szilva) is the most popular flavour. Beer goes well with many traditional Hungarian dishes. The five main Hungarian beer brands are:Borsodi,Soproni,Arany Ászok,Kõbányai, andDreher.[244] People traditionally do not clink their glasses or mugs when drinking beer. There is an urban legend in Hungarian culture that Austrian generals clinked their beer glasses to celebrate the execution ofthe 13 Martyrs of Arad in 1849. Many people still follow the tradition, although younger people often disavow it, citing that the vow was only meant to last 150 years.[245]
Hungary is ideal for wine-making, and the country can be divided into numerous regions.[246] The Romans brought vines to Pannonia, and by the 5th century AD, there are records of extensive vineyards in what is now Hungary. The Hungarians brought their wine-making knowledge from the East. According toIbn Rustah, the Hungarian tribes were familiar with wine-making long before theirconquest of the Carpathian Basin.[247] The different wine regions offer a great variety of styles: the main products of the country are elegant and full-bodied dry whites with good acidity, although complex sweet whites (Tokaj), elegant (Eger) and full-bodied robust reds (Villány andSzekszárd). The main varieties are: Olaszrizling,Hárslevelű,Furmint,Pinot gris or Szürkebarát,Chardonnay (whites), Kékfrankos (orBlaufrankisch in German),Kadarka,Portugieser,Zweigelt,Cabernet Sauvignon,Cabernet Franc andMerlot. The most famous wines from Hungary areTokaji Aszú andEgri Bikavér.[248][249]Tokaji wine has received accolades from numerous great writers and composers.[250]For over 150 years, a blend of forty Hungarian herbs has been used to create the liqueurunicum, a bitter, dark-coloured liqueur that can be drunk as an apéritif or after a meal.[251]
TheHungarian Grand Prix inFormula One has been held at theHungaroring just outside Budapest, which circuit hasFIA Grade 1 licence.[259] Since 1986, the race has been a round of theFormula One World Championship. The track was completely resurfaced for the first time in early 2016, and it was announced the Grand Prix's deal was extended for a further five years, until 2026.[260]Chess is a popular and successful sport, and the Hungarian players are the eighth most powerful overall on the ranking ofWorld Chess Federation.[261] There are about 54Grandmasters and 118International Masters, which is more than inFrance orUnited Kingdom.Judit Polgár generally considered thestrongest female chess player of all time. Some of the world's bestsabre athletes have historically also hailed from Hungary,[262][263] and in 2009, theHungary men's national ice hockey team qualified for their firstIIHF World Championship, in 2015, they qualified for their second world championship in the top division.
^University of British Columbia. Committee for Medieval Studies,Studies in medieval and renaissance history, Committee for Medieval Studies, University of British Columbia, 1980, p. 159
^abcdef"Hungary".The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved27 March 2014.
^Kristó Gyula – Barta János – Gergely Jenő: Magyarország története előidőktől 2000-ig (History of Hungary from the prehistory to 2000), Pannonica Kiadó, Budapest, 2002,ISBN963-9252-56-5, p. 687, pp. 37, pp. 113 ("Magyarország a 12. század második felére jelentős európai tényezővé, középhatalommá vált"/"By the 12th century Hungary became an important European constituent, became a middle power", "A Nyugat részévé vált Magyarország ... /Hungary became part of the West"), pp. 616–644
^Thomas,The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II, pg. 11
^"1989. évi XXXI. törvény az Alkotmány módosításáról" [Act XXXI of 1989 on the Amendment of the Constitution].Magyar Közlöny (in Hungarian).44 (74). Budapest: Pallas Lap- és Könyvkiadó Vállalat: 1219. 23 October 1989.
^abcKershaw, Stephen P. (2013).A Brief History of The Roman Empire: Rise and Fall. London. Constable & Robinson Ltd.ISBN978-1-78033-048-8.
^abcScarre, Chris (2012).Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome. London. Thames & Hudson Ltd.ISBN978-0-500-28989-1.
^Kelly, Christopher (2008).Attila The Hun: Barbarian Terror and The Fall of The Roman Empire. London. The Bodley Head.ISBN978-0-224-07676-0.
^Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005).Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. New York: Routledge. p. 158.ISBN1-57958-468-3.
^Luthar, Oto, ed. (2008).The Land Between: A History of Slovenia. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH.ISBN9783631570111.
^Szabados, György (August 2005)."Vereség háttér nélkül? Augsburg, 955" [Defeat without background? Augsburg, 955].Hitel – irodalmi, művészeti és társadalmi folyóirat [literary, artistic and social journal] (in Hungarian) (8).
^Varga, Gergely I B; Kristóf, Lilla Alida; Maár, Kitti; Kis, Luca; Schütz, Oszkár; Váradi, Orsolya; Kovács, Bence; Gînguță, Alexandra; Tihanyi, Balázs; Nagy, Péter L; Maróti, Zoltán; Nyerki, Emil; Török, Tibor; Neparáczki, Endre (January 2023). "The archaeogenomic validation of Saint Ladislaus' relic provides insights into the Árpád dynasty's genealogy".Journal of Genetics and Genomics.50 (1):58–61.doi:10.1016/j.jgg.2022.06.008.PMID35809778.
^The Mongol invasion: the last Arpad kings, Encyclopædia Britannica – "The country lost about half its population, the incidence ranging from 60 percent in the Alföld (100 percent in parts of it) to 20 percent in Transdanubia; only parts of Transylvania and the northwest came off fairly lightly."
^Laszlo Peter, Martyn C. Rady, Peter A. Sherwood: Lajos Kossuth sas word...: papers delivered on the occasion of the bicentenary of Kossuth's birth (page 101)
^Ignác Romsics (2002).Dismantling of Historic Hungary: The Peace Treaty of Trianon, 1920 Issue 3 of CHSP Hungarian authors series East European monographs. Social Science Monographs. p. 62.ISBN978-0-88033-505-8.
^University of Chicago. Division of the Social Sciences, Human Relations Area Files, inc, A study of contemporary Czechoslovakia, University of Chicago for the Human Relations Area Files, inc., 1955, Citation 'In January 1947 the Hungarians complained that Magyars were being carried off from Slovakia to Czech lands for forced labor.'
^Alfred J. Rieber (2000).Forced Migration in Central and Eastern Europe, 1939–1950. Psychology Press. p. 50.ISBN978-0-7146-5132-3.A presidential decree imposing an obligation on individuals not engaged in useful work to accept jobs served as the basis for this action. As a result, according to documentation in the ministry of foreign affairs of the USSR, approximately 50,000 Hungarians were sent to work in factories and agricultural enterprises in the Czech Republic.
^Canadian Association of Slavists, Revue canadienne des slavistes, Volume 25, Canadian Association of Slavists., 1983
^S. J. Magyarody, The East-central European Syndrome: Unsolved conflict in the Carpathian Basin, Matthias Corvinus Pub., 2002
^Mike Thomson (13 November 2012)."Could the BBC have done more to help Hungarian Jews?". BBC (British broadcasting service).the BBC broadcast every day, giving updates on the war, general news and opinion pieces on Hungarian politics. But among all these broadcasts, there were crucial things that were not being said, things that might have warned thousands of Hungarian Jews of the horrors to come in the event of German occupation. A memo setting out policy for the BBC Hungarian Service in 1942 states: "We shouldn't mention the Jews at all". By 1943, the BBC Polish Service was broadcasting the exterminations. And yet his policy of silence on the Jews was followed until the German invasion in March 1944. After the tanks rolled in, the Hungarian Service did then broadcast warnings. But by then it was too late "Many Hungarian Jews who survived the deportations claimed that they had not been informed by their leaders, that no one had told them. But there's plenty of evidence that they could have known", said David Cesarani, professor of history at Royal Holloway, University of London.
^"Hungarian PM sees shift to illiberal Christian democracy in 2019 European vote".Reuters. 28 July 2018. Retrieved29 July 2020.Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that European parliament elections next year could bring about a shift toward illiberal 'Christian democracy' in the European Union that would end the era of multiculturalism.
^Alex Kish, George (2011).The Origins of the Baptist Movement Among the Hungarians: A History of the Baptists in the Kingdom of Hungary From 1846 to 1893. BRILL. p. 18.ISBN978-90-04-21136-0.
^N. Ciolan, Ioan (1993).Transylvania: Romanian History and Perpetuation. Military Publishing House. p. 41.ISBN978-973-32-0316-2.Catholicism in the Hungarian Kingdom was a state religion
^Hóman, Bálint (1983).King Stephen the Saint. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 18.ISBN978-973-32-0316-2.The Roman Catholic Church was placed under State protection, while the Catholic religion became the state religion of the Hungarian Kingdom
^Eberhard, Winfried (2018) [1995]. "Reformation and Counterreformation in East Central Europe". In Brady, Thomas A.; Oberman, Heiko A.; Tracy, James D. (eds.).Handbook of European History 1400–1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation. Vol. II. Leiden: Brill. pp. 565–568.ISBN978-90-04-39168-0.
^Szabolcsi Although the Hungarian upper class has long had cultural and political connections with the rest of Europe, leading to an influx of European musical ideas, the rural peasants maintained their own traditions such that by the end of the 19th century Hungarian composers could draw on rural peasant music to (re)create a Hungarian classical style. For example,Béla Bartók andZoltán Kodály, two of Hungary's most famous composers, are known for using folk themes in their own music.
^Szalipszki, p. 12 Refers to the country as "widely considered" to be a "home of music".
^Szabolcsi,The Specific Conditions of Hungarian Musical Development "Every experiment, made from Hungarian antecedents and on Hungarian soil, to create a conscious musical culture (music written by composers, as different from folk music), had instinctively or consciously striven to develop widely and universally the musical world of the folk song. Folk poetry and folk music were deeply embedded in the collective Hungarian people's culture, and this unity did not cease to be effective even when it was given from and expression by individual creative artists, performers and poets."
^"Szabolcsi".Mek.oszk.hu. Retrieved20 September 2009.
^Ian Spencer Hornsey, The Chemistry and Biology of Winemaking, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2007, p. 49,ISBN9780854042661
^This is the world-famous sweet, topaz-colored wine known throughout the English-speaking world asTokay. "A rich, sweet, moderately strong wine of a topaz color, produced in the vicinity of Tokay, in Hungary; also, a similar wine produced elsewhere."Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language (Springfield, Mass.: G.&C. Merriam, 1913). SeeTokay at page 2166.
^"Aszfaltavató a Hungaroringen" (in Hungarian).Hungaroring. 14 April 2016. Retrieved15 April 2016."A Magyar Nagydíj szerződését újabb öt évvel meghosszabbítottuk, ami azt jelenti, hogy a futamunknak 2026-ig helye van a Formula–1-es versenynaptárban." Translates as "We have extended the Hungarian Grand Prix's contract for a further 5 years, which means that our race has a place on the F1 calendar until 2026".
Nagy, Kálmán (2007).A honfoglalás korának hadtörténete [Military History of the Age of the Hungarian Conquest] (in Hungarian). Budapest: Heraldika Kiadó.
![Location of Hungary (dark green) – in Europe (green & dark grey) – in the European Union (green) – [Legend]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aEU-Hungary.svg)
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