History
The collective memory of the Hungarians also includes Roman times, though Hungarian tribes lived happily in the east around the Ural mountains when the Roman legions settled in the 1st century, and when they left at the beginning of the 5th century. The Hungarians (who are relatives of the Finns and the Estonians) arrived in the Carpathian Basin at the end of the 9th century. There were seven tribes, led by Almos, Előd, Ond, Kond, Tas, Huba and Tohotom. Arpad was the overall commander. For a time, Hungarians raided Western Europe, but in 955 they were fatally defeated. Hungarians had to decide whether to settle and convert to Christianity, or to disappear as dozens of other peoples had. They opted for the latter, and in 1000 King Stephen (later St. Stephen) accepted the crown from pope Silvester II. Thus, Hungary chose Western Christianity, which was a significant move at the time. During the reign of the first king, the strong administrative structure of counties was formed - one that managed to survive for many centuries. Christian faith slowly took the upper hand. Still, paganism remained strong for many decades, resulting in revolts. Medieval Hungary was much larger than the present one: what is now Slovakia and part of Romania, the Principality of Transylvania, and part of Croatia were included. National feelings did not really exist at that time. Documents were written in the official language, Latin, until 1844. In 1241 - 1242 a Mongolian invasion devastated Hungary and forced king Bela IV to build fortified castles on hilltops, thus Buda Castle was built. In 1301 the "Arpad House" was discontinued, Andras III had no male offspring, and the Anjou Charles Robert was invited to the throne. He and his son, Louis the Great, consolidated the country and integrated it to the Europe of the day. It was during his reign (1340 - 1380) when the Turkish threat first appeared, and he defeated them in 1374. The Turks attacked Hungary many times after that, but the great commander, the low-born Janos Hunyadi kept them at bay. His greatest victory took place at the battle of Belgrade in 1456. Two years later his son, Matthias Hunyadi, was elected king, and that proved to be the zenith of medieval Hungary. Fast development, Renaissance influence, a strong army, and European politics are all synonymous with his reign, which is still one of the historical epochs that most Hungarians feel nostalgia for. Matthias realized that his country in itself was too weak to withhold the Turks - his goal was to become the Holy Roman Emperor. He even managed to conquer Vienna, and he died there suddenly and unexpectedly. After his death, Hungary quickly slid downhill. In 1526 the Turks miserably defeated the weak Hungarian army. Even the king, the young Louis II, drowned in a spring while running away. In 1541 the Turks captured Buda, and then for a century and a half stagnation followed (though this was also combined with religious tolerance and the construction of many bath houses). Hungary, as a matter of fact, was cut into three parts: the middle part and the south were under Turkish occupation, the north and the west belonged to the Habsburg Empire, and the semi-independent Principality of Transylvania was balancing between his two Big Brothers. Mind you, Transylvania, considered the cradle of Hungarian civilization, is a sort of Kosovo for most Hungarians, even today. The fact that it belongs to Romania is very difficult to accept. After several attempts, a united European army finally liberated Buda in 1686, and soon all of Hungary was freed from the Turks. To the amazement of the Hungarian nobility, Hungary was not given back its independence, in any form. It was simply incorporated into the Habsburg Empire. This led to a series of riots calling for secession from the Empire. The most important was led by Prince Ferenc Rakoczi II (1703 - 1711). During the 18th century, Hungary also benefited from lots of general development, especially during the reign of Maria Theresa (1740 - 1780). For instance, the formerly Turkish-occupied territories were re-populated. Meanwhile, Hungarians almost lost their language to German (a blessing and a curse at the same time, if one thinks of the Irish). Thanks to some dozens of writers, poets and scholars, who launched the language renewal movement in the first decades of the 19th century, the language survived. Partly thanks to the innovators who invented hundreds of brand new words - from oxygen and hydrogen to medical and philosophical terms. Then came the so called Reform Age when an abundance of new institutions were established, from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Letters to the Stock Exchange and from the National Museum to facilities for horse racing. Many of these initiatives were taken by Count Istvan Szechenyi, who was called the "greatest Hungarian". On March 15, 1848 a revolution broke out, and it gradually evolved into a War of Independence. After a promising military situation and many victorious battles, the Russian tsar was asked to send troops and the situation quickly turned around. After a bloody revenge - the execution of thirteen generals and the peace-seeking, compromising Prime Minister Lajos Batthyany - un-parliamentary dictatorship only gave way to a quasi-democracy when (one year after the defeat of Koniggratz by the Germans) the Austrian Empire was converted to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (The so-called Compromise - Kiegyezés in Hungarian; Ausgleich in German - was signed in 1867.) This meant that there was now almost equal partnership and faster development.
It was a veritable Golden Age for Hungary which lasted until 1914. Modern school systems were established, and there were equal rights for all religious denominations, including Judaism. A massive immigration of Jews from the Ukraine lasted for decades. Hungary benefited because the super-fast development of the financial system and of industry was partly because of the endless energy of the new capitalists and industrialists. Fresh immigrants chose to become Hungarians - they dreamed of total assimilation. During that time, Budapest, which was established by connecting three smaller towns in 1873, became a metropolis. Hundreds of cafes, an opera house (with Gustav Mahler as director for some years), museums, elegant public buildings, bath houses, and grand bridges attracted more and more visitors. The peak year of the era was 1896, when a grand exhibition was held to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the Hungarian tribes coming to the Carpathian Basin. Unfortunately, the Hungarian ruling elite blocked the further federalisation of the Monarchy, refusing to share power with the Croatians and the Czechs, which had tragic consequences in the years to come. Hungary not only lost many citizens in World War One, but it also lost the war, two thirds of its territory, and much of its mineral resources. It gained tens of thousands of highly educated refugees who had to live in railway carriages for many months since the country was unable to give them any housing. After the war, Hungary became a bleak and uninspiring country. First there was a short-lived Communist dictatorship (the "red terror"), followed by the "white terror". Rear-admiral Miklos Horthy became regent in a "kingdom without a king". The peace treaty of Versailles (referred to as the Treaty of Trianon in Hungarian, as it was signed in the small Trianon palace) was signed in 1920, and inter-war politics was dictated by the hope of getting back the lost Hungarian territories. Hungarian Jews were blamed for Hungary's defeat in the war, for Trianon, and for everything. In 1920 the first European anti- Semitic law was passed, the infamous "numerus clauses" law, which prescribed that the student body universities could only be six percent Jewish, since that was the proportion in the population. Though the law was lifted in 1927, the poison was there in Hungarian society. Needless to say, Hungary joined the axis, Italy and Germany, in the hope of re-gaining some territory. It was not entirely in vain. In 1938 some territories were returned, later even more. But Hungary was on the wrong side again, and the Soviet Union did not respect these territorial changes after the war. Germany insisted that Hungary accept tough anti-Jewish legislation, three laws, one after the other. The last even criminalised sexual intercourse between Jewish Hungarians and non-Jewish Hungarians (except for decorated Jewish-Hungarian soldiers, who were considered real Hungarians). The war was a disaster for Hungary, in every respect. It lost hundreds of thousands of troops, its territory was devastated, and its towns bombarded. In the spring of 1944 Germany invaded the country, and forced the deportation of Jews beginning in the provinces. Then the process was stopped. Even though in October Hungarian fascists took power and about 70,000 Jewish Hungarians died of ill health and random killings, one can say that Budapest Jewry (though it was decimated) more or less survived. More than 500,000 Hungarian Jews from the provinces were deported and murdered, which was nearly all of them. The rest is more or less well-known. The Red Army did not give up Hungary, on the contrary. After tolerating democracy until 1947, in 1948 it orchestrated a coup d'etat, and the Hungarian Communist Party took power. Nationalisation followed in 1949. Scarcity, cruelty, fabricated trials, closed borders, stagnation, and nationalist rhetoric were typical of the Dark 1950s, under the dictatorship of Matyas Rakosi, a bald, small, chubby, singularly unattractive-looking person. On October 23, 1956 a student demonstration began and it ended as a revolution. It only lasted thirteen days, but it was a sort of redemption for many Hungarians. Two hundred thousand mostly educated young people left the country. Then terror came: hundreds were hung, (including Prime Minister Imre Nagy, the Communist with a human face), and thousands were imprisoned. Nothing was the same after that. From the mid-1960s a snobby, more or less human-faced Communist society came into being. It was unbearable and stupid, but significantly different than the other East-European regimes: "Goulash Communism", "the Happiest Block in the Gulag", call it what you like. But culture mattered. Censorship was lax, the tiny opposition movement was tolerated, and the government constantly wanted to provide citizens with small improvement. In the 1980s Hungary became hugely indebted. Real reforms were not possible, so the social benefits were paid by Western banks. Typically, it was no revolution of any kind that brought democracy back to Hungary. In the wake of Gorbachov's changes, the Communist state simply "melted down". Hungary became a democracy again, a stable one. Privatisation was quick, and for a decade Hungary developed faster than its neighbours. Alas, not any more. In 1999 Hungary joined NA TO and on May 1, 2004 Hungary became part of the EU. On December 21, 2007 it joined the Schengen system. The euro is expected during the late-2010s. Most Hungarians have expected a different Brave New World. But ractically nobody wants the Communists back.