Hungary History

Hungary History

Much of the area of ​​today’s Hungary belonged to the Roman Empire as the province of Pannonia at the beginning of the Christian era. The area between the Danube and the Tisza was inhabited by Sarmatian Jazygen, which was founded around 400 BC. had immigrated. The Romans were pushed back by the invading Germanic tribes, from 433 the Huns conquered the area of ​​today’s Hungary under their king Attila. When the Hun empire fell apart in the 6th century, Turkic-born Avars took over, which in turn had to give way to the troops of the Franconian ruler Charlemagne at the end of the 8th century.

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In 896, the Hungarian Plain was taken over by the Magyar Horsemen under the leadership of Prince Árp¨¢ds. From here, this people raided northern Italy, France and the regions of Saxony and Moravia. Only their defeat against the German King Otto I in the battle on the Lechfeld (955) was able to end their advance. In the following, the individual Principalities of the Magyars unite to form a unitary state. Stephan I, of the Arpades, made Christian belief the state religion around 1000 and was crowned king by Pope Silvester II (Stephanskrone). Through his wife Gisela, the daughter of Heinrich II of Bavaria, there were close contacts with the German Reich. On Hungarian territory, but also in newly conquered areas (Croatia, Dalmatia, Romania) until the 13th centurypreferably Germans settled (eg in Transylvania). The country ‘

After the extinction of the Arpaden dynasty, Hungary was ruled by the Anjou house (Karl I. Robert, from 1308). Marriage led to close relations with Poland, from 1370 the Hungarian ruler Ludwig I was also King of Poland and expanded the Hungarian territory to include Dalmatia.

The Hungarian king Sigismund (1387-1437) from the House of Luxembourg was German king from 1410, from 1433 emperor of the “Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation”. During his reign, Hungary had to defend itself against the Ottomans (Turks) approaching from the southeast, against whom the Hungarians suffered devastating defeats (1369 Nicopolis, 1444 Varna, 1448 Amselfeld). Under Matthias Corvinius, who was elected to the throne by the Hungarian Reichstag in 1458 at the age of fourteen, Hungary experienced a brief phase of political, economic and cultural prosperity. Corvinius troops held their own against the Ottomans, conquered Moravia, Silesia, Styria and Lower Austria. In 1485 Corvinius made Vienna his residence. After his death, most of the conquered areas were lost again, in the struggle for succession to the Hungarian throne,

Domestic tensions and uprisings by the farmers against the noble landowners (1514) led to a weakening of the country. In 1526 the Hungarian army near Moh¨¢cs was crushed by the Ottoman troops under Sultan Suleiman II.

According to AbbreviationFinder, the Turks occupied part of the crumbling kingdom, which roughly corresponded to today’s Hungary. The western Hungarian territories fell to Austria as Habsburg Hungarians, the east remained independent with the recognition of Ottoman sovereignty (Principality of Transylvania). In the course of the Reformation, the Transylvanian leaders professed Calvinism, and there were repeated conflicts with the Catholic Habsburgs. With the help of the Ottomans, Transylvania Thököly was appointed King of Hungary in 1682. During the Great Turkish War (1683-99) the Habsburg troops conquered most of Hungary, Transylvania and parts of Croatia and Slovenia. In the peace of Karlowitz in 1699 the Habsburg rule over the conquered areas was laid down.

In 1703 countless Hungarians rose under the leadership of the Prince of Transylvania, Ferenc R¨¢koczi II, against the rule of the Habsburgs and their catholization policy. The uprising was put down, but in 1711 the “Peace of Szatm¨¢r” saw a partial autonomy of the Hungarian state within the Austrian monarchy recognized and at the same time granted religious freedom.

In the course of the 18th century, Hungary, which was depopulated by wars and uprisings, became a multinational state through the settlement of numerous Germans, Serbs, Bulgarians and Croats. From 1804 Hungary was part of the Austrian Empire.

In 1848, the struggle for freedom broke out in Hungary under the influence of the uprisings in Vienna and Paris. A government was formed, the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I declared deposed and the republic proclaimed. In 1849 Austria put down the uprising with the help of Russian troops and took power again: partial autonomy was abolished, Hungary to the Austrian province. As a result, the Hungarian independence movement was very popular. After Austria’s defeat against Prussia and Italy there was an Austro-Hungarian “equalization”: Hungary was united with Austria to form a personal union, received its own Reichstag and constitution as an independent kingdom, the emperor of Austria led the foreign and military policy as common monarch (double monarchy).The Hungarians were now on an equal footing with the Austrians, but within the new state the other peoples (Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians) were denied the right to self-determination. In 1873, Buda, Pest and Óbuda were officially united to form the Hungarian capital Budapest. The strata of workers created by industrialization were organized in the Social Democratic Party in 1890.

Hungarian troops within the Austrian army participated in the First World War. After the defeat of Austria, which was allied with Germany, Hungary, led by Count Mih¨¢ly K¨¢rolyi, declared itself an independent republic in November 1918. K¨¢rolyi led the government for a short time, in March 1919 he was deposed by the Budapest Council, an alliance of communist and socialist groups, which proclaimed a council republic headed by B¨¦la Khun. In 1920 the anti-communist Mikl¨®s Horthy came to power, who declared Hungary a parliamentary monarchy. As a result of the Paris peace treaties, Hungary lost two thirds of its previous territory. The Slovak territories became part of Czechoslovakia, Croatia fell to Yugoslavia, Burgenland to Austria, Transylvania and the Banat to Romania.

In the 1930s, Hungary was closely related to the fascist powers Italy and later also Germany (1927 friendship treaty with Italy, 1939 accession to the Anti-Comintern Pact). In return, the country got back parts of the areas lost after the First World War. In 1941 Hungary also declared was on the Soviet Union. When the defeat of National Socialist Germany became foreseeable, the anti-German voices increased in the country, whereupon German troops occupied Hungary in 1944. Under the German-friendly government under Ferenc Sz¨¢lasi, Jews and opposition figures were massly deported to German concentration camps. In April 1945, all of Hungary was occupied by Soviet troops. When they retreated, the German troops had completely destroyed all important bridges and rail links in Hungary.

The development after the end of the Second World War in Hungary was similar to that in the other countries occupied by the Russian Red Army: opposition groups and political parties were banned (USAP unitary party) and a regime that was friendly to Moscow was installed. Countless intellectuals and clergymen were either driven out of the country or imprisoned, and the industry nationalized. In 1948, Árp¨¢d Szakasits became the new head of state, L¨¢jos Dinny¨¦s head of the government. Hungary became a member of the COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Aid) and later of the Warsaw Pact (1955).

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After the death of the Soviet dictator Stalin in 1953, the Hungarian prime minister Imre Nagy initiated a “de-Stalinization course”, but was removed from office and excluded from the USAP party. The reforms he implemented were reversed. In 1956 there were student riots, which culminated in the Hungarian uprising in October. Imre Nagy again entered the political arena and campaigned for an end to Soviet oppression and a Hungarian course of its own. The uprising of Soviet troops quickly ended the uprising, Nagy was arrested and executed along with other liberal socialists. His successor J¨¢nos K¨¢d¨¢r became head of state and leader of the USAP party. In the following decades, Hungary followed its own course and was considered the most liberal country in the Eastern Bloc. By trading with non-aligned Austria and allowing private initiatives, the Hungarian economy was extremely stable. The policy of “perestroika” (transformation) and “glasnost” (openness) of the Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev was immediately implemented in Hungary in an opening and liberalization of the country. Party leader K¨¢d¨¢r had to resign in 1988, his successor K¨¢roly Gr¨®sz presented a market-based economic program. In September 1989 there was a symbolic act on the Austro-Hungarian border, which symbolized the end of the so-called “Iron Curtain” (dismantling the self-shot system, Cutting through the barbed wire). Countless refugees from the GDR fled across the “green border” to the West. The unified USAP party dissolved in 1989, and in October of the same year the People’s Republic became the “Republic of Hungary”.

Hungary made the transition to a free market economy in the 1990s, and the country’s governments sought foreign policy to connect with the West. In 1991 the country signed an association agreement with the European Community.

In 1994 Gyula Horn became Prime Minister of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), the successor party to the Communist Party. It formed a coalition government made up of the MSZP and the Federation of Free Democrats (SZDSZ). From May 1998 the three parties, the Bund Young Democrats, the Independent Small Farmers’ Party and the Hungarian Democratic Forum formed a government coalition, while the MSZP and SZDSZ went into opposition; The head of government was Viktor Orb¨¢n. In 2002 the center-left opposition won the parliamentary elections and Peter Medgyessy from the MSZP became the new head of government.

In 1996 a basic agreement was concluded with the neighboring country Romania, which ended the border disputes that had been smoldering since the end of the First World War. In 1997, around 85% of Hungarians eligible to vote voted in a referendum for the country to join the North Atlantic Defense Alliance (NATO) in March 1999. Hungary’s official accession negotiations with the European Union (EU) started in November 1998; the accession took place in May 2004.

When the social-liberal Prime Minister Gyurcsc¨¢ny (MSZP) unintentionally admitted in September 2006 that he had lied about the economic situation and the necessary tax increases and austerity measures before the April 2006 elections, there was a domestic political crisis. There were several violent riots in Budapest, which also overshadowed the celebrations on the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising (October 23, 2006). However, Gyurcsc¨¢ny managed to stay in office in a vote of confidence in Parliament; he was also able to keep the party leadership of the MSZP. The government coalition of MSZP and the Federation of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) ordered a strict budgetary consolidation course, which almost halved the immense budget deficit. individual measures of health reform and tuition fees were rejected by a large majority in a referendum in March 2008. Gyurcsc¨¢ny then went on a more moderate course. For this he accepted the break with the SZDSZ and had headed a minority government since April. The subprime crisis (real estate crisis) in the USA and the sudden illiquidity of the previously strongly growing market with asset-backed securities triggered a worldwide financial and confidence crisis in 2007/2008, which hit Hungary particularly hard. The IMF, EU and World Bank provided a € 20 billion bailout package in October 2008 to support the country.

In view of the escalating financial and economic crisis, Gyurcsc¨¢ny announced his resignation as head of government in March 2009. Subsequently, by means of a constructive vote of no confidence, Parliament elected the previous Minister of Economy Gordon Bajnai as the new Prime Minister. The parliamentary elections in April 2010 brought the Fidesz MSZP a clear majority. Viktor Orb¨¢n has been the Prime Minister since May 2010. Pal Schmitt was elected new president in June 2010; he retired in April 2012 after his doctorate was revoked for plagiarism. His successor is J¨¢nos Áder.

In 2011 the Hungarian National Assembly adopted a new constitution for Hungary. It came into force on January 1, 2012. The next day, tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the constitution and the policies of the Orb¨¢n government.

Hungary President