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Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a
landlocked country A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basin, endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked list of states with limited recogni ...
in
Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
. Spanning of the
Carpathian Basin The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only th ...
, it is bordered by
Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
to the north,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
to the northeast,
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
to the east and southeast,
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
to the south,
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...
and
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
to the southwest, and
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
to the west. Hungary has a population of nearly 9 million, mostly ethnic
Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and  ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian, the
official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
, is the world's most widely spoken
Uralic language The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
and among the few non-
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
widely spoken in Europe.
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
is the country's capital and
largest city The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metropo ...
; other major urban areas include
Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...
,
Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...
,
Miskolc Miskolc ( , , ; Czech language, Czech and sk, Miškovec; german: Mischkolz; yi, script=Latn, Mishkoltz; ro, Mișcolț) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 (1 Jan 2014) Miskolc is the ...
,
Pécs Pécs ( , ; hr, Pečuh; german: Fünfkirchen, ; also known by other #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the countr ...
, and
Győr Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia ...
. The territory of present-day Hungary has for centuries been a crossroads for various peoples, including
Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...
,
Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
,
Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
,
Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
,
West Slavs The West Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak the West Slavic languages. They separated from the common Slavic group around the 7th century, and established independent polities in Central Europe by the 8th to 9th centuries. The West Slavic langu ...
and the Avars. The foundation of the Hungarian state was established in the late 9th century AD with the conquest of the Carpathian Basin by Hungarian grand prince
Árpád Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or ''kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' gy ...
. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended the throne in 1000, converting his realm to a Christian kingdom. By the 12th century, Hungary became a regional power, reaching its cultural and political height in the 15th century. Following the
Battle of Mohács The Battle of Mohács (; hu, mohácsi csata, tr, Mohaç Muharebesi or Mohaç Savaşı) was fought on 29 August 1526 near Mohács, Kingdom of Hungary, between the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary and its allies, led by Louis II, and thos ...
in 1526, it was partially occupied by the Ottoman Empire (1541–1699). Hungary came under Habsburg rule at the turn of the 18th century, later joining with the
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
to form
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, a
major power A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power inf ...
into the early 20th century. Austria-Hungary collapsed after
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and the subsequent
Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in ...
established Hungary's current borders, resulting in the loss of 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, and 32% of ethnic Hungarians. Following the tumultuous
interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
, Hungary joined the
Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, suffering significant damage and casualties.''Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite''
Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1947. Reprint: Simon Publications, 2002.
Thomas, ''The Royal Hungarian Army in World War II'', pg. 11 Postwar Hungary became a
satellite state A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting ...
of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
, leading to the establishment of the
Hungarian People's Republic The Hungarian People's Republic ( hu, Magyar Népköztársaság) was a one-party socialist state from 20 August 1949 to 23 October 1989. It was governed by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, which was under the influence of the Soviet Uni ...
. Following the failed
1956 revolution The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
, Hungary became a comparatively freer, though still repressive, member of the
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
. The
removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria The removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria occurred in 1989 during the end of communism in Hungary, which was part of a broad wave of revolutions in various communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The border was still closely ...
accelerated the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and subsequently the Soviet Union. On 23 October 1989, Hungary again became a democratic
parliamentary republic A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the executive branch (the government) derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature (the parliament). There are a number ...
. Hungary joined the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
in 2004 and has been part of the
Schengen Area The Schengen Area ( , ) is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and j ...
since 2007. Since the
Second Orbán Government The second government of Viktor Orbán or the Government of National Cooperation (in Hungarian language, Hungarian: ''A Nemzeti Együttműködés Kormánya'') was the Government of Hungary from 29 May 2010 to 6 June 2014. Orbán formed his second ...
in 2010, the country has undergone significant
democratic backsliding Democratic backsliding, also called autocratization, is the decline in the democratic characteristics of a political system, and is the opposite of democratization. Democracy is the most popular form of government, with more than half of the nat ...
, and is now considered by some to be an authoritarian polity. Hungary is a
middle power In international relations, a middle power is a sovereign state that is not a great power nor a superpower, but still has large or moderate influence and international recognition. The concept of the "middle power" dates back to the origins of ...
in international affairs, owing mostly to its
cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...
and economic influence. It is a
high-income economy A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a nation with a gross national income per capita of US$12,696 or more in 2020, calculated using the Atlas method. While the term "high-income" is often used interchangeably with "First World" a ...
with a very high human development index, where citizens enjoy
universal health care Universal health care (also called universal health coverage, universal coverage, or universal care) is a health care system in which all residents of a particular country or region are assured access to health care. It is generally organized ar ...
and tuition-free
secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...
. Hungary has a long history of significant contributions to
arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...
,
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
,
literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
,
sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...
,
science and technology Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...
.''Hungarian literature – ”Popular poetry is the only real poetry was the opinion of Sándor Petőfi, one of the greatest Hungarian poets, whose best poems rank among the masterpieces of world literature”''.
''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2012 edition
It is a
popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...
tourist destination A tourist attraction is a place of interest that Tourism, tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of ...
in Europe, drawing 24.5 million international tourists in 2019. It is a member of numerous international organisations, including the
Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...
,
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
,
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
,
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
,
World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...
,
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
,
International Investment Bank International Investment Bank (IIB) is a multilateral development institution with headquarters in Budapest, Hungary. It was established in 1970 and operates as an international organisation based on the intergovernmental ''Agreement Establi ...
,
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank that aims to improve economic and social outcomes in Asia. The bank currently has 105 members, including 14 prospective members from around the world. The br ...
, and the
Visegrád Group The Visegrád Group (also known as the Visegrád Four, the V4, or the European Quartet) is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The alliance aims to advance co-o ...
.


Etymology

The "H" in the name of Hungary (and Latin ''Hungaria'') is most likely derived from historical associations with the
Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
, who had settled Hungary prior to the Avars. The rest of the word comes from the Latinised form of
Byzantine Greek Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...
''Oungroi'' (Οὔγγροι). The Greek name might be borrowed from
Old Bulgarian Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and other ...
''ągrinŭ'', in turn borrowed from
Oghur-Turkic The Oghuric, Onoguric or Oguric languages (also known as Bulgar, Pre-Proto-Bulgaric or Lir-Turkic and r-Turkic) are a branch of the Turkic language family. The only extant member of the group is the Chuvash language. The first to branch off from ...
'' Onogur'' ('ten
ribes of the ''Ribes'' is a genus of about 200 known species of flowering plants, most of them native to the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The various species are known as currants or gooseberries, and some are cultivated for their edible f ...
Ogurs'), perhaps entering Slavic through a dialectal *Ongur. '' Onogur'' was the collective name for the tribes who later joined the
Bulgar Bulgar may refer to: *Bulgars, extinct people of Central Asia *Bulgar language, the extinct language of the Bulgars * Oghur languages Bulgar may also refer to: *Bolghar, the capital city of Volga Bulgaria *Bulgur, a wheat product * Bulgar, an Ash ...
tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. Peter B. Golden also considers Árpád Berta's theory, who has suggested that the name derives from Khazar Turkic ongar (oŋ "right," oŋar- "to make something better, to put (it) right," oŋgar-  “to make something better, to put (it) right,” oŋaru “towards the right") “rightwing”. This points to the idea that the pre-Conquest Magyar Union formed the "right wing" (= western wing) of the
Khazar The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
military forces. The Hungarian
endonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
is ''Magyarország'', composed of ''magyar'' ('Hungarian') and ''ország'' ('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 as
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
,
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
and other languages as ''Magyaristan'' or ''Land of Magyars'' or similar. The word ''magyar'' is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, ''magyeri''. The first element ''magy'' is likely from proto-Ugric *''mäńć-'' 'man, person', also found in the name of the
Mansi people The Mansi (Mansi: Мāньси / Мāньси мāхум, ''Māńsi / Māńsi māhum'', ) are a Ugric indigenous people living in Khanty–Mansia, an autonomous okrug within Tyumen Oblast in Russia. In Khanty–Mansia, the Khanty and Mansi lan ...
(''mäńćī, mańśi, måńś''). The second element ''eri'', 'man, men, lineage', survives in Hungarian ''férj'' 'husband', and is cognate with Mari ''erge'' 'son',
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
archaic ''yrkä'' 'young man'.


History


Before 895

The
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
conquered the territory between the
Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
and the area west of the
Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
River from 16 to 15 BC, the Danube being the frontier of the empire.Kershaw, Stephen P. (2013). ''A Brief History of The Roman Empire: Rise and Fall. London.'' Constable & Robinson Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78033-048-8. In 14 BC, Pannonia, the western part of the
Carpathian Basin The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewhat different sense, with only th ...
, which includes today's west of Hungary, was recognised by emperor
Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
in the ''
Res Gestae Divi Augusti ''Res Gestae Divi Augusti'' (Eng. ''The Deeds of the Divine Augustus'') is a monumental inscription composed by the first Roman emperor, Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments. The ''Res Gestae'' is especially sig ...
'' as part of the Roman Empire. The area south-east of
Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...
was organised as the Roman province
Moesia Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; el, Μοισία, Moisía) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River, which included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Alban ...
in 6 BC. An area east of the river
Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa, is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. Once, it was called "the most Hungarian river" because it flowed entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national borders. The Tisza be ...
became the Roman province of
Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus r ...
in 106 AD, which included today's east Hungary. It remained under Roman rule until 271.Scarre, Chris (2012). ''Chronicle of the Roman Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial Rome.'' London. Thames & Hudson Ltd. ISBN 978-0-500-28989-1. From 235, the Roman Empire went through troubled times, caused by revolts, rivalry and rapid succession of emperors. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century under the stress of the migration of
Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
and
Carpian The Carpi or Carpiani were a Dacian tribe that resided in the eastern parts of modern Romania in the historical region of Moldavia from no later than c. AD 140 and until at least AD 318. The ethnic affiliation of the Carpi remains disputed, as ...
pressure. This period brought many invaders into Central Europe, beginning with the
Hunnic Empire The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
(c. 370–469). The most powerful ruler of the Hunnic Empire was
Attila Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European traditio ...
the Hun (434–453), who later became a central figure in Hungarian mythology.Kelly, Christopher (2008). ''Attila The Hun: Barbarian Terror and The Fall of The Roman Empire.'' London. The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-0-224-07676-0. After the disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, the
Gepids The Gepids, ( la, Gepidae, Gipedae, grc, Γήπαιδες) were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion a ...
, an Eastern Germanic tribe, who had been vassalised by the Huns, established their own kingdom in the Carpathian Basin. Other groups which reached the Carpathian Basin during the Migration Period were the
Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
,
Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...
,
Lombards The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and ...
, and
Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
. In the 560s, the Avars founded the Avar Khaganate, a state that maintained supremacy in the region for more than two centuries. The
Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
under
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
defeated the Avars in a series of campaigns during the 790s.Lajos Gubcsi
Hungary in the Carpathian Basin
MoD Zrínyi Media Ltd, 2011
Between 804 and 829, the
First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europ ...
conquered the lands east of the Danube and took over the rule of the local Slavic tribes and remnants of the Avars.Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005). ''Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities.'' New York: Routledge. p. 158. ISBN 1-57958-468-3. By the mid-9th century, the
Balaton Principality Early Slavs settled in the eastern and southern parts of the former Roman province of Pannonia. The term ''Lower Pannonia'' ( la, Pannonia inferior, hu, Alsó-pannoniai grófság, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Donja Panonija, Доња Панонија, sl, Spo ...
, also known as Lower Pannonia, was established west of the Danube as part of the Frankish
March of Pannonia The March of Pannonia or Eastern March ( la, marcha orientalis) was a frontier march of the Carolingian Empire, named after the former Roman province of ''Pannonia'' and carved out of the preceding and larger Avar march. It was referred to in so ...
.Luthar, Oto, ed. (2008). ''The Land Between: A History of Slovenia.'' Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH. ISBN 9783631570111.


Middle Ages (895–1526)

The freshly unified
Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and  ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
led by
Árpád Árpád (; 845 – 907) was the head of the confederation of the Magyar tribes at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries. He might have been either the sacred ruler or ''kende'' of the Hungarians, or their military leader or '' gy ...
(by tradition a descendant of Attila), settled in the Carpathian Basin starting in 895. According to the Finno-Ugrian theory, they originated from an ancient
Uralic The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
-speaking population that formerly inhabited the forested area between the
Volga The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
River and the
Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
. As a federation of united tribes, Hungary was established in 895, some 50 years after the division of the
Carolingian Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–888) was a large Frankish-dominated empire in western and central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lom ...
at the
Treaty of Verdun The Treaty of Verdun (), agreed in , divided the Francia, Frankish Empire into three kingdoms among the surviving sons of the emperor Louis the Pious, Louis I, the son and successor of Charlemagne. The treaty was concluded following almost three ...
in 843, before the unification of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until they were consolidated in the 8th century into the four kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, Wess ...
. Initially, the rising
Principality of Hungary The (Grand) Principality of HungaryS. Wise BauerThe history of the medieval world: from the conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade W. W. Norton & Company, 2010, p. 586George H. HodosThe East-Central European region: an historical outline ...
("Western Tourkia" in medieval Greek sources) was a state created by a semi-nomadic people. It accomplished an enormous transformation into a Christian realm during the 10th century. This state was well-functioning, and the nation's military power allowed the Hungarians to conduct successful fierce campaigns and raids, from
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
to as far as today's Spain. The Hungarians defeated no fewer than three major East Frankish imperial armies between 907 and 910. A defeat at the
Battle of Lechfeld The Battle of Lechfeld was a series of military engagements over the course of three days from 10–12 August 955 in which the Kingdom of Germany, led by King Otto I the Great, annihilated the Hungarian army led by '' Harka '' Bulcsú and the ch ...
in 955 signaled a provisory end to most campaigns on foreign territories, at least towards the west.


Age of Árpádian kings

In 972 the ruling prince ( hu, fejedelem)
Géza Géza is a Hungarian given name and may refer to any of the following: * Benjamin Géza Affleck * Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians * Géza I of Hungary, King of Hungary * Géza II of Hungary, King of Hungary * Géza, son of Géza II of Hungar ...
of the
Árpád dynasty The Árpád dynasty, consisted of the members of the royal House of Árpád (), also known as Árpáds ( hu, Árpádok, hr, Arpadovići). They were the ruling dynasty of the Principality of Hungary in the 9th and 10th centuries and of the Kingd ...
officially started to integrate Hungary into Christian Western Europe. His first-born son,
Saint Stephen I Pope Stephen I ( la, Stephanus I) was the bishop of Rome from 12 May 254 to his death on 2 August 257.Mann, Horace (1912). "Pope St. Stephen I" in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company. He was later Canonizati ...
, became the first
King of Hungary The King of Hungary ( hu, magyar király) was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 (or 1001) to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" (''Apostoli Magyar Király'') was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 ...
after defeating his
pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...
uncle
Koppány Koppány, also known as Cupan, was the Duke of Somogy in Hungary in the late 10th century. According to modern scholars' consensus view, he was a member of the royal Árpád dynasty. Koppány was the lord of the southern region of Transdanubia dur ...
, who also claimed the throne. Under Stephen, Hungary was recognised as a Catholic
Apostolic Kingdom His (Royal) Apostolic Majesty was a styled title used by the Kings of Hungary, in the sense of being latter-day apostles of Christianity. First creation The origin of this title dates from about A.D. 1000 when it was conferred by Pope Silvester I ...
. Applying to
Pope Sylvester II Pope Sylvester II ( – 12 May 1003), originally known as Gerbert of Aurillac, was a French-born scholar and teacher who served as the bishop of Rome and ruled the Papal States from 999 to his death. He endorsed and promoted study of Arab and Gre ...
, Stephen received the insignia of royalty (including probably a part of the
Holy Crown of Hungary The Holy Crown of Hungary ( hu, Szent Korona; sh, Kruna svetoga Stjepana; la, Sacra Corona; sk, Svätoštefanská koruna , la, Sacra Corona), also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen, named in honour of Saint Stephen I of Hungary, was the ...
, currently kept in the Hungarian Parliament Building, Hungarian Parliament) from the papacy. By 1006, Stephen consolidated his power and started sweeping reforms to convert Hungary into a Western Feudalism, feudal state. The country switched to using Latin for administration purposes, and until as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of administration. Around this time, Hungary began to become a powerful kingdom. Ladislaus I of Hungary, Ladislaus I extended Hungary's frontier in Transylvania and invaded Kingdom of Croatia (925–1102), Croatia in 1091. The Croatian campaign culminated in the Battle of Gvozd Mountain in 1097 and a Croatia in personal union with Hungary, personal union of Croatia and Hungary in 1102, ruled by Coloman, King of Hungary, Coloman. The most powerful and wealthiest king of the Árpád dynasty was Béla III of Hungary, Béla III, who disposed of the equivalent of 23 tonnes of silver per year. This exceeded the income of the French king (estimated at 17 tonnes) and was double the receipts of the English Crown. Andrew II of Hungary, Andrew II issued the ''Diploma Andreanum'' which secured the special privileges of the Transylvanian Saxons and is considered the first Autonomous administrative division, autonomy law in the world. He led the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1217, setting up the largest royal army in the history of Crusades. His Golden Bull of 1222 was the first constitution in Continental Europe. The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the parliament (''parlamentum publicum''). In 1241–1242, the kingdom received a major blow with the Mongolian invasion of Hungary, Mongol (Tatar) invasion. Up to half of Hungary's population of 2 million were victims of the invasion. King Béla IV let Cumans and Jasz people, Jassic people into the country, who were fleeing the Mongols. Over the centuries, they were fully assimilated into the Hungarian population. After the Mongols retreated, King Béla ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortifications, to defend against a possible second Mongol invasion. The Second Mongol invasion of Hungary, Mongols 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 near Pest by the royal army of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary, Ladislaus IV. As with later invasions, it was repelled handily, the Mongols losing much of their invading force.


Age of elected kings

The Kingdom 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 of interregnum (1301–1308), the first Capetian House of Anjou, Angevin king, Charles I of Hungary – a bilineal descendant of the Árpád dynasty – successfully restored royal power and defeated oligarch rivals, the so-called "little kings". The second Angevin Hungarian king, Louis I of Hungary, Louis the Great (1342–1382), led many successful military campaigns from Lithuania to southern Italy (Kingdom of Naples) and was also List of Polish monarchs, king of Poland from 1370. After King Louis died without a male heir, the country was stabilised only when Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387–1437) succeeded to the throne, who in 1433 also became Holy Roman Emperor. Sigismund was also (in several ways) a bilineal descendant of the Árpád dynasty. The first Hungarian Bible translations, Bible translation was completed in 1439. For half a year in 1437, there was an antifeudal and anticlerical Transylvanian peasant revolt, peasant revolt in Transylvania which was strongly influenced by Hussite ideas. From a small noble family in Transylvania, John Hunyadi grew to become one of the country's most powerful lords, thanks to his outstanding capabilities as a mercenary commander. He was elected governor, then regent. He was a successful crusader against the Ottoman Turks, one of his greatest victories being the Siege of Belgrade (1456), siege of Belgrade in 1456. The last strong king of medieval Hungary was the Renaissance king Matthias 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. His library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second only in size to the Vatican Library. Items from the Bibliotheca Corviniana were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme, Memory of the World Register in 2005. The serfs and common people considered him a just ruler because he protected them from excessive demands and other abuses by the magnates. Under his rule, in 1479, the Hungarian army destroyed the Ottoman and Wallachian troops at the Battle of Breadfield. Abroad he defeated the Polish and German imperial armies of Frederick at Breslau (Wrocław). Matthias' mercenary standing army, the Black Army of Hungary, was an unusually large army for its time, and it conquered Vienna as well as parts of Austria and Bohemia.


Decline (1490–1526)

King Matthias died without lawful sons, and the Hungarian magnates procured the accession of the Pole Vladislaus II of Hungary, Vladislaus II (1490–1516), supposedly because of his weak influence on Hungarian aristocracy. Hungary's international role declined, its political stability was shaken, and social progress was deadlocked. In 1514, the weakened old King Vladislaus II faced a major peasant rebellion led by György Dózsa, which was ruthlessly crushed by the Hungarian nobility, nobles, led by John Zápolya. The resulting degradation of order paved the way for Ottoman pre-eminence. In 1521, the strongest Hungarian fortress in the South, Nándorfehérvár (today's Belgrade, Serbia), Siege of Belgrade (1521), fell to the Turks. The early appearance of Protestantism further worsened internal relations in the country.


Ottoman wars (1526–1699)

After some Ottoman wars in Europe, 150 years of wars with the Hungarians and other states, the Ottomans gained a decisive victory over the Hungarian army at the
Battle of Mohács The Battle of Mohács (; hu, mohácsi csata, tr, Mohaç Muharebesi or Mohaç Savaşı) was fought on 29 August 1526 near Mohács, Kingdom of Hungary, between the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary and its allies, led by Louis II, and thos ...
in 1526, where Louis II of Hungary, King Louis II died while fleeing. Amid political chaos, the divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously, John Zápolya and Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg, Habsburg dynasty. With the conquest of Buda 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 as Royal Hungary, was annexed by the Habsburgs who ruled as kings of Hungary. The eastern part of the kingdom became independent as the Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711), Principality of Transylvania, under Ottoman (and later Habsburg) suzerainty. The remaining central area, including the capital Buda, was known as the Pashalik of Buda. The vast majority of the seventeen and nineteen thousand Ottoman soldiers in service in the Ottoman fortresses in the territory of Hungary were Orthodox and Muslim Balkan Slavs rather than ethnic Turkish people. Orthodox Southern Slavs were also acting as akinjis and other light troops intended for pillaging in the territory of present-day Hungary. In 1686, the Holy League (1684), Holy League's army, containing over 74,000 men from various nations, Siege of Buda (1686), reconquered Buda from the Turks. After some more crushing Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718), defeats 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 vassals Crimean Khanate, Tatars from Crimea took place in 1717. 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. The Austrian-Habsburg government settled large groups of Serbs and other Slavs in the depopulated south, and settled Germans of Hungary, Germans (called Danube Swabians) in various areas, but Hungarians were not allowed to settle or re-settle in the south of the Carpathian Basin.


From the 18th century to World War I (1699–1918)

Between 1703 and 1711, there was a large-scale Rákóczi's War of Independence, war of independence led by Francis II Rákóczi, who after the dethronement of the Habsburgs in 1707 at the Diet of Ónod, 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 Hungarian Kuruc army, although taking over most of the country, lost the main Battle of Trenčín, battle at Trencsén (1708). Three years later, because of the growing desertion, defeatism, and low morale, the Kuruc forces finally surrendered. During the Napoleonic Wars and afterward, the Hungarian Diet had not convened for decades. In the 1820s, the emperor was forced to convene the Diet, which marked the beginning of a Reform Period (1825–1848, hu, reformkor). Count István Széchenyi, one of the most prominent statesmen of the country, recognised the urgent need for modernisation and his message got through. The Hungarian Parliament was reconvened in 1825 to handle financial needs. A liberal party emerged and focused on providing for the peasantry. Lajos Kossuth—a famous journalist at that time—emerged as a leader of the lower gentry 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 to civil 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 of 12 points of the Hungarian Revolutionaries of 1848, 12 demands. Under Governor and President Lajos Kossuth and Prime Minister Lajos 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, and induced them to rebel against the Hungarian government, though the Hungarians were supported by the vast majority of the Slovak, German and Rusyns, Rusyn nationalities and by all the Jews of the kingdom, as well as by a large number of Polish, Austrian and Italian volunteers. In July 1849 the Hungarian Parliament proclaimed and enacted the first laws of ethnic and minority rights in the world. Many members of the nationalities gained the coveted highest positions within the Hungarian Army, like General János Damjanich, an ethnic Serb who became a Hungarian national hero through his command of the 3rd Hungarian Army Corps or Józef Bem, who was Polish and also became a national hero in Hungary. The Hungarian forces (''Royal Hungarian Landwehr, Honvédség'') defeated Austrian armies. To counter the successes of the Hungarian revolutionary army, Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, Franz Joseph I asked for help from the "Gendarme of Europe", Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas I, whose Russian armies invaded Hungary. This made Artúr Görgei, Artúr 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 of the 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 the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, by which the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
was formed. This empire had the second largest area in Europe (after the Russian Empire), and it was the third most populous (after Russia and the German 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 as
King of Hungary The King of Hungary ( hu, magyar király) was the ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 (or 1001) to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" (''Apostoli Magyar Király'') was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 ...
. 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. In 1873, the old capital Buda and Óbuda were officially united with Pest, Hungary, Pest, thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. Many of the state institutions and the modern administrative system of Hungary were established during this period. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Prime Minister István 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 9 million (fighting forces: 7.8 million) soldiers in World War I (over 4 million 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 the Brusilov offensive in June 1916 and a few months later when the Romanian army made an attack into Transylvania, both of which were repelled. The Central Powers conquered Serbia. Romania declared war. The Central Powers conquered southern Romania and the Romanian capital Bucharest. In 1916 Emperor Joseph died, and the new monarch Charles I of Austria, Charles IV sympathised with the pacifists. With great difficulty, the Central Powers stopped and repelled the attacks of the Russian Empire. The Eastern Front (World War I), Eastern Front of the Allied (Allies of World War I, Entente) Powers completely collapsed. The Austro-Hungarian Empire then withdrew from all defeated countries. On the Italian front, the Austro-Hungarian army made no progress against Italy after January 1918. Despite great success on the Eastern Front, Germany suffered complete defeat on the Western Front (World War I), Western 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 commonplace. In the capital cities, the Austrian and Hungarian leftist liberal movements (the maverick parties) and their leaders supported the separatism of ethnic minorities. Austria-Hungary signed a general armistice in Padua on 3 November 1918. In October 1918, Hungary's union with Austria was dissolved.


Between the World Wars (1918–1941)

Following the First World War, Hungary underwent a period of profound political upheaval, beginning with the Aster Revolution in 1918, which brought the social-democratic Mihály Károlyi to power as prime minister. The Royal Hungarian Honvéd, Hungarian Royal Honvéd army still had more than 1,400,000 soldiers when Károlyi was installed. Károlyi yielded to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's demand for pacifism by ordering the disarmament of the Hungarian army. This happened under the direction of Béla Linder, minister of war in the Károlyi government.Dixon J. C
''Defeat and Disarmament, Allied Diplomacy and Politics of Military Affairs in Austria, 1918–1922''
Associated University Presses 1986. p. 34.
Sharp A
''The Versailles Settlement: Peacemaking after the First World War, 1919–1923''
Palgrave Macmillan 2008. p. 156.
Disarmament of its army 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 former pre-WW1 territories () without a fight and was subject to foreign occupation. The Little Entente, sensing an opportunity, invaded the country from three sides—Hungarian-Romanian War, Romania invaded Transylvania, Czechoslovakia annexed Upper Hungary (today's Slovakia), and a joint Kingdom of Serbia, Serb-French Army, French coalition annexed Vojvodina and other southern regions. In March 1919, communists led by Béla Kun ousted the Károlyi government and proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic (''Tanácsköztársaság''), followed by a thorough Red Terror (Hungary), Red 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. In November 1919, rightist forces led by former Austro-Hungarian admiral Miklós 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 reestablished Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946), Kingdom 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 a White Terror (Hungary), White Terror that swept through the countryside; extrajudicial killings of suspected communists and Jews lasted well into 1920. On 4 June 1920, the
Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in ...
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 at Rijeka, Fiume. 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 by Charles IV of Hungary, Charles IV, the Austro-Hungarian pretender; continued suppression of communists; and a migration crisis triggered by the Trianon territorial changes. Though free elections continued, Horthy's personality and those of his personally selected prime ministers dominated the political scene. The government's actions continued to drift right with the passage of Antisemitism, antisemitic laws and, because of the continued isolation of the Little Entente, economic and then political gravitation towards Kingdom of Italy#Fascist regime (1922–1943), Italy and Nazi Germany, Germany. The Great Depression further exacerbated the situation, and the popularity of fascist politicians increased, such as Gyula Gömbös and Ferenc 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 the First Vienna Award, First and Second Vienna Awards, peacefully restoring ethnic-Hungarian-majority areas lost after Trianon. In 1939, Hungary regained further territory from Czechoslovakia Slovak–Hungarian War, through force. Hungary Tripartite Pact, formally joined the
Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
on 20 November 1940 and in 1941 participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia, gaining some of its former territories in the south.


World War II (1941–1945)

Hungary formally entered World War II as an Axis power on 26 June 1941, declaring war on the Soviet Union after unidentified planes bombed Košice, Kassa, Munkacheve, Munkács, and Rakhiv, Rahó. Hungarian troops fought on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front for two years. Despite early success at the Battle of Uman,J. Lee Ready (1995), ''World War Two. Nation by Nation'', London, Cassell, page 130. the government began seeking a secret peace pact with Allies of World War II, the Allies after the Second Army (Hungary), Second Army suffered catastrophic losses Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh offensive, at the River Don in January 1943. Learning of the planned defection, German troops Operation Margarethe, occupied 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 fascist Arrow Cross Party. 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 despite Battle of Debrecen, some losses, succeeded in encircling and Siege of Budapest, besieging Budapest in December. After German occupation, Hungary participated in the Holocaust. During the German occupation in May–June 1944, the Arrow Cross and Hungarian police deported nearly 440,000 Jews, mainly to Auschwitz concentration camp, Auschwitz. Nearly all of them were murdered. The Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg managed to save a considerable number of Hungarian Jews by giving them Swedish passports. Rezső Kasztner, one of the leaders of the Hungarian Aid and Rescue Committee, bribed senior Schutzstaffel, SS officers such as Adolf Eichmann to allow some Jews to escape. The Horthy government's complicity in the Holocaust remains a point of controversy and contention. The war left Hungary devastated, destroying over 60% of the economy and causing significant World War II casualties#endnote Hungary, loss of life. In addition to the over 600,000 Hungarian Jews killed, as many as 280,000 other Hungarians were raped, murdered and executed or deported for slave labour by Czechoslovaks, Soviet Red Army troops, and Yugoslavs. 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, and through the 1947 Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, Paris Peace Treaties, Hungary was again reduced to its immediate post-Trianon borders.


Communism (1945–1989)

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, Hungary became a
satellite state A satellite state or dependent state is a country that is formally independent in the world, but under heavy political, economic, and military influence or control from another country. The term was coined by analogy to planetary objects orbiting ...
of the Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership selected Mátyás Rákosi to front the Stalinism, Stalinisation of the country, and Rákosi ''de 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's KGB, the Rákosi government established a secret political police, the State Protection Authority, ÁVH, to enforce the regime. In the ensuing purges, approximately 350,000 officials and intellectuals were imprisoned or executed from 1948 to 1956. Many freethinkers, democrats, and Horthy-era dignitaries were secretly arrested and extrajudicially interned in domestic and foreign gulags. Some 600,000 Hungarians were deported to Soviet labour camps, where at least 200,000 died. After Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union pursued a programme of De-Stalinization, de-Stalinisation that was inimical to Rákosi, leading to his deposition. The following political cooling saw the ascent of Imre Nagy to the premiership and the growing interest of students and intellectuals in political life. Nagy promised market liberalisation and political openness, while Rákosi opposed both vigorously. Rákosi eventually managed to discredit Nagy and replace him with the more hard-line Ernő Gerő. Hungary joined the Warsaw 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 the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, 1956 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 using Molotov 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. 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.


Kádár era (1956–1988)

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 ruling Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, Socialist Workers' Party. Kádár quickly normalised the situation. In 1963, the government granted a general amnesty and released the majority of those imprisoned for their active participation in the uprising. 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. In many speeches, he described this as, "Those who are not against us are with us." 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 pre-revolutionary levels. In 1968, the New 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's Lists of countries by GDP per capita, GDP per capita was fourth only to East Germany, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union.* As a result of this relatively high standard 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 the 1980s, however, living standards steeply declined again because of Early 1980s recession, a worldwide recession to which communism was unable to respond. 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.


Third Republic (1989–present)

Hungary's transition from communism to democracy and capitalism (''rendszerváltás'', "regime change") was peaceful and prompted by economic stagnation, domestic political pressure, and changing relations with other Warsaw Pact countries. Although the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party began Hungarian Round Table Talks, Round 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. Over 100,000 people attended the Budapest ceremony without any significant government interference, and many speakers openly called for Soviet troops to leave the country. Free elections were held 1990 Hungarian parliamentary election, in May 1990, and the Hungarian 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, the Hungarian Socialist Party, Socialist Party, won the subsequent 1994 Hungarian parliamentary election, 1994 elections. This abrupt shift in the political landscape was repeated in 1998 Hungarian parliamentary election, 1998 and 2002 Hungarian parliamentary election, 2002; 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 an European integration, integrationist agenda, Enlargement of NATO, joining
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
in 1999 and the European Union 2003 Hungarian European Union membership referendum, in 2004. As a NATO member, Hungary was involved in the Yugoslav Wars.


Democratic erosion and shift into authoritarianism (2010–present)

In 2006, 2006 protests in Hungary, major nationwide protests erupted after it was revealed that Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány had claimed in Őszöd speech, a closed-door speech that his party "lied" to win the 2006 Hungarian parliamentary election, recent elections. The popularity of left-wing parties plummeted in the ensuing political upheaval, and in 2010, Viktor Orbán's national conservatism, national-conservative Fidesz party was 2010 Hungarian parliamentary election, elected to a parliamentary supermajority. The legislature consequently approved a Constitution of Hungary, new constitution, among other sweeping governmental and legal changes. Although these developments were met with and still engender controversy, Fidesz secured a second parliamentary supermajority 2014 Hungarian parliamentary election, in 2014, a third 2018 Hungarian parliamentary election, in 2018, and a fourth 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, in 2022. In the late 2010s, Orbán's government came under increased international scrutiny over alleged rule-of-law violations. In 2018, the European Parliament voted to act against Hungary under the terms of Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union. Hungary has and continues to dispute these allegations. In 2022, the European Parliament passed a resolution stating that Hungary had become a "hybrid regime of electoral autocracy" following a "breakdown in democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law" under Orbán's government. Hungary was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary, COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the Hungarian parliament passed a law granting the government the power to rule by decree, suspending by-elections and outlawing certain forms of medical disinformation. Parliament rescinded this law on 16 June 2020 because of the improving epidemiological situation in Hungary.


Geography

Hungary is a
landlocked country A landlocked country is a country that does not have territory connected to an ocean or whose coastlines lie on endorheic basin, endorheic basins. There are currently 44 landlocked countries and 4 landlocked list of states with limited recogni ...
. Its geography has traditionally been defined by its two main waterways, the
Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
and
Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa, is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. Once, it was called "the most Hungarian river" because it flowed entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national borders. The Tisza be ...
rivers. The common tripartite division—''Dunántúl'' ("beyond the Danube", Transdanubia), ''Tiszántúl'' ("beyond the Tisza"), and ''Duna-Tisza kőze'' ("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 its drainage 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 the
Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
, ''Alpokalja'', in the west of the country, the Transdanubian Mountains in the central region of Transdanubia, and the Mecsek Mountains and Villány Mountains in the south. The highest point of the area is the Írott-kő in the Alps, at . The Little Hungarian Plain (''Kisalfőld'') is found in northern Transdanubia. Lake Balaton and Lake Hévíz, the largest lake in Central Europe and the largest thermal lake in the world, respectively, are in Transdanubia as well. The ''Duna-Tisza kőze'' and ''Tiszántúl'' are characterised mainly by the Great Hungarian Plain (''Alfőld''), which stretches across most of the eastern and southeastern areas of the country. To the north of the plain are the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, Carpathians in a wide band near the
Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
n border. The Kékes at is the tallest mountain in Hungary and is found there. Phytogeography, Phytogeographically, Hungary belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, the territory of Hungary belongs to the terrestrial ecoregion of Pannonian mixed forests. It had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 2.25/10, ranking it 156th globally out of 172 countries. Hungary has 10 national parks, 145 minor nature reserves, and 35 landscape protection areas.


Climate

Hungary has a Temperate climate, temperate seasonal climate, with generally warm summers with low overall humidity levels but frequent rain showers and cold snowy winters. Average annual temperature is . Temperature extremes are on 20 July 2007 at Kiskunhalas in the summer and on 16 February 1940 at
Miskolc Miskolc ( , , ; Czech language, Czech and sk, Miškovec; german: Mischkolz; yi, script=Latn, Mishkoltz; ro, Mișcolț) is a city in northeastern Hungary, known for its heavy industry. With a population of 161,265 (1 Jan 2014) Miskolc is the ...
in the winter. Average high temperature in the summer is and average low temperature in the winter is . The average yearly rainfall is approximately . Hungary is ranked sixth in an environmental protection index by ''GW''/''Climate Action Network, CAN''.


Government and politics

Hungary is a Unitary state, unitary,
parliamentary republic A parliamentary republic is a republic that operates under a parliamentary system of government where the executive branch (the government) derives its legitimacy from and is accountable to the legislature (the parliament). There are a number ...
. The Hungarian political system operates under a framework reformed in 2012; this constitutional document is the Constitution of Hungary, Fundamental 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 the rule of law) are valid in perpetuity. 199 Members of Parliament (''országgyűlési képviselő'') are elected to the highest organ of state authority, the Unicameralism, unicameral ''Országgyűlés'' (National Assembly (Hungary), National Assembly), every four years in a single-round first-past-the-post voting, first-past-the-post election with an Electoral threshold, election threshold of 5%. The President of Hungary, President of the Republic (''köztársasági elnök'') serves as the head 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 as commander-in-chief of the Hungarian Ground Forces, armed forces. Importantly, the president is also invested with veto power and may send legislation to the 15-member Constitutional Court of Hungary, Constitutional Court for review. The third most significant governmental position in Hungary is the List of speakers of the National Assembly (Hungary), Speaker of the National Assembly, who is elected by the National Assembly and responsible for overseeing the daily sessions of the body. The Prime Minister of Hungary, prime minister (''miniszterelnök'') is elected by the National Assembly, serving as the head of government and exercising Executive (government), executive power. Traditionally, the prime minister is the leader of the largest party in parliament. The prime minister selects Government of Hungary, Cabinet 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. Following a decade of Fidesz–Christian Democratic People's Party (Hungary), Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) rule led by Viktor Orbán, Freedom House's ''Nations in Transit 2020'' report reclassified Hungary from a democracy to a transitional or hybrid regime. According to the report, "the right-wing alliance... has gradually undermined the rule of law in Hungary and established tight control over the country's independent institutions... [it] has steadily rewritten the Hungarian constitution, and eliminated democratic safeguards statutorily embodied in the Constitutional Court, Prosecutors Office, Media Authority, and State Audit Office...". It also limited parliamentary oversight, independent media, non-governmental organisations and academics, while consolidating power around the central government. Other democracy barometers have also rated Hungary as not a democracy, and there are a wide variety of labels for Hungary's political system found in scholarship. According to data from the V-Dem Institute, Hungary is one of the most rapidly autocratization, autocratising countries in the world as of 2021.


Political parties

Since the fall of communism, Hungary has a multi-party system. The 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, last Hungarian parliamentary election took place on 3 April 2022. This parliamentary election was the 8th since the 1990 Hungarian parliamentary election, 1990 first multi-party election. The result was a victory for Fidesz–KDNP alliance, preserving its two-thirds majority with Orbán remaining prime minister. It was the third election according to the new Constitution of Hungary which went into force on 1 January 2012. The Electoral system of Hungary, new electoral law also entered into force that day. The voters elected 199 MPs instead of previous 386 lawmakers. The current political landscape in Hungary is dominated by the conservative Fidesz, who have a near supermajority, and two medium-sized parties, the left-wing Democratic Coalition (Hungary), Democratic Coalition (DK) and liberal Momentum Movement, Momentum. After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of communist dictatorship in 1989, a democratic form of government was established. Today's parliament is still called ''Országgyűlés'' just like in royal times, but in order to differentiate between the historical royal diet is referred to as the "National Assembly" now. The Diet of Hungary was a legislative institution in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the early modern period. The articles of the 1790 diet set out that the diet should meet at least once every 3 years, but since the diet was called by the Habsburg monarchy, this promise was not kept on several occasions thereafter. As a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, it was reconstituted in 1867. The Latin term ''Natio Hungarica'' ("Hungarian nation") was used to designate the political elite which had participation in the diet, consisting of the Hungarian nobility, nobility, the Catholic clergy, and a few enfranchised burghers, regardless of language or ethnicity.


Law and judicial system

The judicial system of Hungary is a Civil law (legal system), civil 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 on Law of Germany, German law and in a wider sense, civil law or Roman law. The court system for civil and criminal jurisdiction consists of local courts (''járásbíróság''), regional appellate courts (''ítélőtábla''), and the supreme court (''Curia of Hungary, Kúria''). Hungary's highest courts are located in Budapest. Law enforcement in Hungary is split among the police and the National Tax and Customs Administration. The Rendőrség, Hungarian 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 the Ministry of Interior (Hungary), Minister 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 the gendarmerie-like, militarised "Készenléti rendőrség" (Stand-by Police) mainly dealing with riots and often reinforcing local police forces. Because of Hungary's accession to the Schengen Agreement, Schengen 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 the Ministry of Finance (Hungary), Ministry of Finance under the National Tax and Customs Administration.


Foreign relations

The foreign policy is based on four basic commitments: to atlanticism, Atlantic co-operation, to European integration, to international development and to international law. Hungary has been a member of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
since December 1955 and a member of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
,
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, the
Visegrád Group The Visegrád Group (also known as the Visegrád Four, the V4, or the European Quartet) is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The alliance aims to advance co-o ...
, the WTO, the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, AIIB and the International Monetary Fund, IMF. Hungary took on the presidency of the Council of the European Union for half a year in 2011 and the next will be in 2024. In 2015, Hungary was the fifth largest OECD non-DAC donor of development aid in the world, which represents List of development aid country donors, 0.13% of its Gross National Income. Budapest is home to more than 100 embassies and representative bodies as an international political actor. Hungary hosts the main and regional headquarters of many international organisations as well, including European Institute of Innovation and Technology, European Police College, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, International Centre for Democratic Transition, Institute of International Education, International Labour Organization, International Organization for Migration, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Red Cross, Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe, Danube Commission (1948), Danube Commission and others. Since 1989, the top foreign policy goal has been achieving integration into Western economic and security organisations. Hungary joined the Partnership for Peace programme in 1994 and has actively supported the Implementation Force, IFOR and Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFOR 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 of Hungarian diaspora, ethnic Hungarian minority rights in Romania, Slovakia, and Serbia periodically cause bilateral tensions to flare up, although relations with Serbia have more recently become extremely close due to strong Hungarian advocacy for Serbian EU membership. Since 2017, the Hungary–Ukraine relations, relations with Ukraine rapidly deteriorated over the issue of the Hungarians in Ukraine, Hungarian minority in Ukraine. Since 1989, Hungary has signed all of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE documents, and served as the OSCE's Chairman-in-Office in 1997. Historically, Hungary has had particularly friendly Hungary–Poland relations, relations 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".


Military

The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the nation's armed forces. The Minister of Defence (Hungary), Ministry of Defence jointly with Commander of the Defence Forces (Hungary), chief of staff administers the armed forces, including the Hungarian Ground Forces, Hungarian Ground Force (HDF) and the Hungarian 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. Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime. In a significant move for modernisation, Hungary decided in 2001 to buy 14 Saab JAS 39 Gripen, JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft for about 800 million EUR. Hungarian National Cyber Security Center was re-organised in 2016 in order to become more efficient through cyber security. 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-led International Security Assistance Force, ISAF force in Afghanistan, 210 Hungarian soldiers in Kosovo under command of Kosovo Force, KFOR, 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.


Administrative divisions

Hungary is divided into 19 Counties of Hungary, counties (''megye''). The List of historical capitals of Hungary, capital (''főváros'')
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
is an independent entity. The counties and the capital are the 20 Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, NUTS third-level units of Hungary. The states are further subdivided into 174 Districts of Hungary, districts (''járás''). The districts are further divided into List of cities and towns of Hungary, towns and villages, of which 25 are designated City with county rights, towns 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. Since 1996, the counties and city of Budapest have been grouped into List of regions of Hungary, seven regions for statistical and development purposes. These seven regions constitute NUTS' second-level units of Hungary. They are Central Hungary, Central Transdanubia, Northern Great Plain, Northern Hungary, Southern Transdanubia, Southern Great Plain, and Western Transdanubia.


Cities and towns

Hungary has 3,152 municipalities as of 15 July 2013: 346 towns (Hungarian term: ''város'', plural: ''városok''; the terminology doesn't distinguish between city, cities and towns – 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 Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia ...
, and
Pécs Pécs ( , ; hr, Pečuh; german: Fünfkirchen, ; also known by other #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the countr ...
) have agglomerations, and the Hungarian Statistical Office distinguishes seventeen other areas in earlier stages of agglomeration development. The largest city is Budapest, while the smallest town is Pálháza with 1,038 inhabitants in 2010. The largest village is Solymár with a population of 10,123 as of 2010. There are more than 100 villages with fewer than 100 inhabitants while the smallest villages have fewer than 20 inhabitants.


Economy

Hungary is an OECD World Bank high-income economy, high-income mixed economy with List of countries by Human Development Index, very high human development index and skilled labour force with the List of countries by income equality, 16th lowest income inequality in the world. Furthermore, it is the List of countries by economic complexity, 9th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index. The economy is the List of countries by GDP (PPP), 57th-largest in the world (out of 188 countries measured by IMF) with $265.037 billion output and ranks List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita, 49th in the world in terms of GDP per capita measured by purchasing power parity. Hungary is an export-oriented market economy with a heavy emphasis on foreign trade, thus the country is the List of countries by exports, 36th largest export economy in the world. The country has more than $100 billion export in 2015 with high, $9.003 billion Balance of trade, trade surplus, of which 79% went to the EU and 21% was extra-EU trade. Hungary has a more than 80% Private sector, privately owned economy with List of countries by tax revenue to GDP ratio, 39.1% overall taxation, which provides the basis for the country's Welfare state, welfare economy. On the expenditure side, household consumption is the main component of Gross domestic product, GDP and accounts for 50% of its total use, followed by gross fixed capital formation with 22% and government expenditure with 20%. Hungary continues to be one of the leading nations for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern Europe, the inward FDI in the country was $119.8 billion in 2015, while investing more than $50 billion abroad. , the key trading partners were Germany, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, France, Italy, Poland and Czech Republic. 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). 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 for mobile technology, information security, and related hardware research. The Employment-to-population ratio, employment rate was 68.3% in 2017; the employment structure shows the characteristics of Post-industrial society, post-industrial economies, 63.2% of employed workforce work in service sector, the industry contributed by 29.7%, while agriculture with 7.1%. Unemployment rate was 4.1% in 2017, down from 11% during the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Hungary is part of the European 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. Large List of companies of Hungary, Hungarian companies are included in the BUX, the stock market index listed on Budapest Stock Exchange. Well-known companies include the Fortune Global 500 firm MOL Group, the OTP Bank, Gedeon Richter Plc., Magyar Telekom, CIG Pannonia, FHB Mortgage Bank, FHB Bank, Zwack liqueur, Zwack Unicum and more. Besides this Hungary has a large portion of specialised Small and medium-sized enterprises, small and medium enterprise, for example a significant number of automotive suppliers and technology Startup company, start ups among others. Budapest is the financial and business capital, classified as an Alpha Global city, world city in the study by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. On the national level, Budapest is the primate city of Hungary regarding business and economy, accounting for 39% of the national income, the city has a gross metropolitan product more than $100 billion in 2015, making it one of the largest regional economies in the European Union. Budapest is also among the Top 100 GDP performing cities in the world, measured by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Furthermore, Hungary's corporate tax rate is only 9%, which is relatively low for EU states. Hungary maintains its own currency, the Hungarian forint (HUF), although the economy fulfills the Euro convergence criteria, Maastricht criteria with the exception of public debt, List of countries by public debt, but it is also significantly below the EU average with the level of 75.3% in 2015. The Hungarian National Bank—founded in 1924, after the dissolution of Austro-Hungarian Empire—is currently focusing on price stability with an inflation target of 3%.


Science and technology

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 the List of countries by research and development spending, 25th highest ratio in the world. Hungary ranks 32nd among the most innovative countries in the Bloomberg L.P., Bloomberg Innovation Index. Hungary was ranked 34th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, down from 33rd in 2019. 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. 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. The key actor of research and development in Hungary is the National Research, Development and Innovation (NRDI) Office, which is a national strategic and Funding of science, funding 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. Scientific research is supported partly by industry and partly by the state, through universities and by scientific state-institutions such as Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Hungary has been the home of some of the most prominent researchers in various scientific disciplines, notably physics, mathematics, chemistry and engineering. As of 2018, List of Hungarian Nobel laureates, twelve Hungarian scientists have been recipients of a Nobel Prize. Until 2012 three individuals—Csoma, János Bolyai and Tihanyi—were included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, Memory of the World register as well as the collective contributions Tabula Hungariae and Bibliotheca Corviniana. Contemporary scientists include mathematician László Lovász, physicist Albert-László Barabási, physicist Ferenc Krausz, and biochemist Árpád Pusztai. Hungary has excellent mathematics education which has trained numerous outstanding scientists. Famous Hungarian mathematicians include father Farkas Bolyai and son János Bolyai, who was one of the founders of non-Euclidean geometry; Paul Erdős, famed for publishing in over forty languages and whose Erdős numbers are still tracked, and John von Neumann, a key contributor in the fields of quantum mechanics and game theory, a pioneer of digital computing, and the chief mathematician in the Manhattan Project. Notable Hungarian inventions include the lead dioxide match (János Irinyi), a type of carburetor (Donát Bánki, János Csonka), the electric (AC) train engine and generator (Kálmán Kandó), holography (Dennis Gabor), the Kalman filter (Rudolf E. Kálmán), and Rubik's Cube (Ernő Rubik).


Transport

Hungary has a highly developed road, railway, air, and water transport system. Budapest serves as an important hub for the Hungarian State Railways, Hungarian railway system (''MÁV''). The capital is served by three large train stations called ''Budapest Keleti station, Keleti'' (Eastern), ''Budapest Nyugati station, Nyugati'' (Western), and ''Budapest Déli station, Déli'' (Southern) ''pályaudvar''s (terminuses). Szolnok is the most important railway hub outside Budapest, while Miskolc Tiszai railway station, Tiszai Railway Station in Miskolc and the main stations of Szombathely,
Győr Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia ...
,
Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...
, and Székesfehérvár are also key to the network. Budapest,
Debrecen Debrecen ( , is Hungary's second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the largest Hungarian city in the 18th century and i ...
, Miskolc, and
Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...
have tram networks. The Budapest Metro is the second-oldest underground rapid transit, metro system in the world; its Metro Line M1 (Budapest Metro), Line 1 dates from 1896. The system consists of four lines. A regional rail, commuter rail system, ''BHÉV, HÉV'', operates in the Budapest metropolitan area. Hungary has a total length of approximately motorways ( hu, 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 and Baja, Hungary, Baja. There are five international airports: Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport, Budapest Ferenc Liszt (informally called "Ferihegy"), Debrecen International Airport, Debrecen, Hévíz–Balaton Airport, Hévíz–Balaton (also called Sármellék Airport), Győr-Pér International Airport, Győr-Pér, and Pécs-Pogány International Airport, Pécs-Pogány, but only two of these (Budapest and Debrecen) receive scheduled flights. Low-budget airline Wizz Air is based at Ferihegy.


Energy

Hungary's total energy supply is dominated by fossil fuels, with natural gas occupying the largest share, followed by Petroleum, oil and coal. In June 2020, Hungary passed a law binding itself to a target of Carbon neutrality, net-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 prioritizes carbon-neutral and cost-effective energy while focusing on reinforcing energy security and energy independence. Key forces in the country's 2050 target include Renewable energy, renewables, Nuclear power, nuclear electricity, and electrification 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 of wind power are expected to negatively impact the renewables sector. 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.


Demographics

Hungary's population was 9,937,628 according to the 2011 census, making it the fifth most populous country in Central and Eastern Europe and Demographics of the European Union, medium-sized member state of the European Union. Population density stands at 107 inhabitants per square kilometre, which is about two times higher than the List of countries and dependencies by population density, world average. More than one quarter of the population lived in the Budapest metropolitan area, 6,903,858 people (69.5%) in cities and towns overall. Like most other European countries, Hungary is experiencing sub-replacement fertility; its estimated total fertility rate of 1.43 children per woman is well below the replacement rate of 2.1, albeit higher than its nadir of 1.28 in 1999, and remains considerably below the high of 5.59 children born per woman in 1884. As a result, its population has been gradually declining and rapidly aging. In 2011, the conservative government began a programme to increase the birth rate with a focus on ethnic Magyars by reinstating 3 year maternity leave as well as boosting part-time jobs. The fertility rate has gradually increased from 1.27 children born per woman in 2011. The natural decrease in the first 10 months of 2016 was only 25,828 which was 8,162 less than the corresponding period in 2015. In 2015, 47.9% of births were to unmarried women. Hungary has one of the oldest populations in the world, with the average age of 42.7 years. Life expectancy was 71.96 years for men and 79.62 years for women in 2015, growing continuously since the fall of Communism. Hungary recognises two sizeable minority groups, designated as "national minorities" because their ancestors have lived in their respective regions for centuries in Hungary: a Germans of Hungary, German community of about 130,000 that lives throughout the country, and a Romani 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.). According to the 2011 census, there were 8,314,029 (83.7%) ethnic
Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and  ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
, 308,957 (3.1%) Romani people, 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. In Hungary, people can declare more than one ethnicity, so the sum of ethnicities is higher than the total population. Today, approximately Hungarian diaspora, 5 million Hungarians live outside Hungary.


Languages

Hungarian is the official language, official and predominant spoken language. Hungarian is the Languages of Europe, 13th 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. 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 a first language, while 68,458 people (0.7%) speak it as a second language. 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 language, Armenian, Bulgarian language, Bulgarian, Croatian language, Croatian, German language, German, Greek language, Greek, Romanian language, Romanian, Romani language, Romani, Rusyn language, Rusyn, Serbian language, Serbian, Slovak language, Slovak, Slovenian language, Slovenian, and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian). Hungarian is a member of the Uralic languages, Uralic language family, unrelated to any neighbouring language and distantly related to
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
and Estonian language, Estonian. It is the largest of the Uralic languages in terms of the number of speakers and the only one spoken in Central Europe. There are sizeable populations of Hungarian speakers in Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Israel, and the U.S. Smaller groups of Hungarian speakers live in Canada, Slovenia, and Austria, but also in Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, and Chile. Standard Hungarian is based on the variety spoken Budapest. Although the use of the standard dialect is enforced, Hungarian has several urban and rural dialects.


Religion

Hungary is a historically Christianity, Christian country. Hungarian historiography identifies the foundation of the Hungarian state with Stephen I's baptism and coronation with the Holy Crown of Hungary, Holy Crown in A.D. 1000. Stephen promulgated Catholic Church, Catholicism as the state religion, and his successors were traditionally known as the Apostolic Majesty, Apostolic Kings. The Catholic Church in Hungary remained strong through the centuries, and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Esztergom–Budapest, Archbishop of Esztergom was granted extraordinary temporal privileges as prince-primate (''hercegprímás'') of Hungary. Although contemporary Hungary has no State religion, official religion and recognises freedom of religion as a fundamental right, the constitution "recognises Christianity's nation-building role" in its preamble and in Article VII affirms that "the state may cooperate with the churches for community goals." The 2011 census showed that the majority of Hungarians were Christians (54.2%), with Catholic Church in Hungary, Roman Catholics (''római katolikusok'') (37.1%) and Reformed Church in Hungary, Hungarian Reformed Calvinism, Calvinists (''reformátusok'') (11.1%) making up the bulk of these alongside Lutheranism, Lutherans (''evangélikusok'') (2.2%), Greek Catholic Church, Greek Catholics (1.8%), and other Christians (1.3%). Jewish (0.1%), Buddhist (0.1%) and Muslim (0.06%) communities are in the minority. 27.2% of the population did not declare a religious affiliation while 16.7% declared themselves explicitly irreligious, another 1.5% atheist. During the initial stages of the Protestant Reformation, most Hungarians adopted first Lutheranism and then Calvinism in the form of the Hungarian Reformed Church. In the second half of the 16th century, the Society of Jesus, Jesuits led a Counter-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 meant ''cuius 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 (the "Calvinist Rome"), remain almost completely Reformed, a trait they share with historically contiguous ethnically Hungarian regions across the Romanian border. Eastern Orthodox Church, 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 a History of the Jews in Hungary, significant Jewish community with a pre-World War II population of more than 800,000, but it is estimated that just over 564,000 Hungarian Jews were killed between 1941 and 1945 during the Holocaust in Hungary. Between 15 May and 9 July 1944 alone, over 434,000 Jews were deported on 147 trains, most of them to Auschwitz, where about 80% were gassed on arrival. Some Jews were able to escape, but most were either deported to concentration camps, where they were killed by Arrow Cross Party, Arrow Cross members. From 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.


Education

Education is predominantly public, run by the Minister of Education (Hungary), Ministry of Education. Preschool-kindergarten education is compulsory education, compulsory and provided for all children between three and six years old, after which school attendance is also compulsory until the age of sixteen. Primary education usually lasts for eight years. Secondary education includes three traditional types of schools focused on different academic levels: the Gymnasium (school), Gymnasium 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 for vocational education and the world of work. The system is partly flexible and bridges exist, graduates from a vocational school can achieve a two years programme to have access to vocational higher education for instance. The Trends 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 are public university, public institutions, and students traditionally study without fee payment. The general requirement for university is the Matura. The Hungarian public higher 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 of Student exchange program, exchange students every year. Hungary's higher education and training has been ranked 44 out of 148 countries in the Global Competitiveness Report 2014. Hungary has a long tradition of higher education reflecting the existence of established knowledge economy. The established universities include some of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest in the world, the first was the University of Pécs founded in 1367 which is still functioning, although in 1276, the university of Veszprém was destroyed by the troops of Peter I Csák, Peter Csák but it was never rebuilt. Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Sigismund established Óbuda University in 1395. Another, Universitas Istropolitana, was established 1465 in Pozsony by Matthias Corvinus. Nagyszombat University was founded in 1635 and moved to Buda in 1777, and it is called Eötvös Loránd University today. The world's first institute of technology was founded in Selmecbánya in 1735; its legal successor is the University of Miskolc. The Budapest University of Technology and Economics is considered the oldest institute of technology in the world with university rank and structure, its legal predecessor the Institutum Geometrico-Hydrotechnicum was founded in 1782 by Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Joseph II. Hungary ranks fourth (above neighbour Romania, and after China, the United States and Russia) in the all-time medal count at the International Mathematical Olympiad with 336 total medals, dating back to 1959.


Health

Hungary maintains a universal health care system largely financed by government national health insurance. According to the OECD, 100% of the population is List of countries by health insurance coverage, covered by universal health insurance, which is free for children, students, pensioners, people with low income, handicapped people, and church employees. Hungary spends 7.2% of GDP on healthcare, spending $2,045 per capita, of which $1,365 is provided by the government. Hungary is one of the main destinations of medical tourism in Europe, particularly for dentistry, in which its share is 42% in Europe and 21% worldwide. 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 to Culture of Hungary#Spa culture, numerous medicinal spas, which attract "spa tourism". In common with developed countries, cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of mortality, accounting for 49.4% (62,979) of all deaths in 2013. However, this number peaked in 1985 with 79,355 deaths, and has been declining continuously since the fall of communism. The second leading cause of death is cancer with 33,274 (26.2%), which has been stagnant since the 1990s. Deaths from accidents dropped from 8,760 in 1990 to 3,654 in 2013; the number of suicides has declined precipitously from 4,911 in 1983 to 2,093 in 2013 (21.1 per 100,000 people), the lowest since 1956. 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. Smoking is a leading cause of death in the country, 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". Hungary ranks as the Global Peace Index, 17th safest country in the world, with a homicide rate of 1.3 per 100,000 people.


Culture


Architecture

Hungary is home to the Dohány Street Synagogue, largest synagogue in Europe, built in 1859 in Moorish Revival architecture, Moorish Revival style with a capacity of 3,000 people; the Széchenyi thermal bath, largest medicinal bath in Europe, completed in 1913 in Modern Renaissance architecture, Renaissance style and located in the Budapest city park; one of the Esztergom Basilica, largest basilicas in Europe; the Pannonhalma Archabbey, second-largest territorial abbey in the world; and the largest Pécs, early Christian necropolis outside Italy. Notable architectural styles include Historicism and Art Nouveau, or rather several variants of Art 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 Indian and Syrian 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 included Károly 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. The Sezession from Vienna, the German Jugendstil, 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 the Ancient Egypt, Egyptian 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. Foreigners have unexpectedly "discovered" that a significantly large portion of the citizens lives in old and architecturally valuable buildings. 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.


Music

Hungarian music consists mainly of traditional Hungarian folk music and music by prominent composers such as Franz Liszt and Béla Bartók, considered to be among the greatest Hungarian composers. Other renowned composers are Ernst von Dohnányi, Franz Schmidt (composer), Franz Schmidt, Zoltán Kodály, Gabriel von Wayditch, Rudolf Wagner-Régeny, László Lajtha, Franz Lehár, Emmerich Kálmán, Kálmán Imre, Sándor Veress and Miklós Rózsa. Hungarian traditional music tends to have a strong dactyl (poetry), dactylic rhythm, as the language is invariably stressed on the first syllable of each word. Hungary has renowned composers of contemporary classical music, György Ligeti, György Kurtág, Péter Eötvös, Zoltán Kodály and Zoltán 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. 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 and Ferenc Erkel, Hungary produced an important number of art musicians: * Pianists: Ernő von Dohnányi, Ervin Nyiregyházi, Andor Földes, Tamás Vásáry, György Sándor, Géza Anda, Annie Fischer, György Cziffra, Edward Kilenyi Jr., Edward Kilényi, Balint Vazsonyi, Bálint Vázsonyi, András Schiff, Zoltán Kocsis, Dezső Ránki, Jenő Jandó and others. * Violinists: Joseph Joachim, Leopold Auer, Jenő Hubay, Jelly d'Arányi, Joseph Szigeti, Sándor Végh, Emil Telmanyi, Zathurecky, Ede Zathurecky, Zsigmondy, Franz von Vecsey, Zoltán Székely, Tibor Varga (violinist), Tibor Varga and newcomers Antal Szalai, Vilmos Szabadi, Kristóf Baráti and others. * Opera singers: Astrid Varnay, József Simándy, Júlia Várady, Julia Hamari, Júlia Hamari, Kolos Kováts (Bluebeard in Bartók's Bluebeard) * Conductors: Eugene Ormandy, George Szell, Antal Doráti, János Ferencsik, Fritz Reiner, sir Georg Solti, István Kertész (conductor), István Kertész, Ferenc Fricsay, Zoltán Rozsnyai, Sándor Végh, Arpad Joo, Árpád Joó, Ádám Fischer, Iván Fischer, Péter Eötvös, Zoltán Kocsis, Tamás Vásáry, Gilbert Varga and others * String Quartets: Budapest String Quartet, Budapest Quartet, Hungarian Quartet, Végh Quartet, Takács Quartet, Kodály Quartet, Éder Quartet, Festetics String Quartet, Festetics Quartet, 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". It is also strong in the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, Szabolcs-Szatmár area and in the southwest part of Transdanubia, near the border with Croatia. The Busójárás carnival in Mohács is a major Hungarian folk music event, formerly featuring the long-established and well-regarded Bogyiszló Orchestra.Broughton, pp. 159–167 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". 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, 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 (1944–1989), 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 of jazz such as trumpeter Rudolf Tomsits, pianist-composer Károly Binder and, in a modernised form of Hungarian folk, Ferenc Sebő and Márta Sebestyén. The three giants of Hungarian rock, Illés (band), Illés, Metró (Hungarian band), Metró and Omega (band), Omega, remain very popular, especially Omega, which has followings in Germany and beyond as well as in Hungary. Older veteran underground bands such as Beatrice (band), Beatrice, from the 1980s, also remain popular.


Literature

In the earliest times, Hungarian language was written in a Old Hungarian script, runic-like script (although it was not used for literature purposes in the modern interpretation). The country switched to the Latin alphabet after being Christianised under the reign of Stephen I of Hungary in the 11th century. The oldest remained written record in Hungarian language is a fragment in the Establishing charter of the abbey of Tihany (1055) which contains several Hungarian terms, among them the words ''feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea'', "up the military road to Székesfehérvár, Fehérvár" The rest of the document was written in Latin.
The oldest remaining complete text in Hungarian language is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer ''(Halotti beszéd és könyörgés)'' (1192–1195), a translation of a Latin sermon. The oldest remaining poem in Hungarian is the Old Hungarian ''Lamentations of Mary'' ''(Ómagyar Mária-siralom)'', also a (not very strict) translation from Latin, from the 13th century. It is also the oldest surviving
Uralic The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
poem. Among the first chronicles about Hungarian history were ''Gesta Hungarorum'' (''Deeds of the Hungarians'') by the unknown author usually called Anonymus (notary of Béla III), Anonymus, and ''Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum'' (''Deeds of the Huns and the Hungarians'') by Simon Kézai. Both are in Latin. These chronicles mix history with legends, so historically they are not always authentic. Another chronicle is the ''Képes krónika'' (''Illustrated Chronicle''), which was written for Louis I of Hungary, Louis the Great. Renaissance literature flourished under the reign of King Matthias. Janus Pannonius, although he wrote in Latin, is considered one of the most important persons in Hungarian literature, being the only significant Hungarian Humanist poet of the period. The first printing house was also founded during Matthias' reign, by András Hess in Buda. The first book printed in Hungary was the ''Chronica Hungarorum''. The most important poets of the period were Bálint Balassi and Miklós Zrínyi. Balassi's poetry shows medieval influences, his poems can be divided into three sections: love poems, war poems and religious poems. Zrínyi's most significant work, the epic ''The Siege of Sziget, Szigeti veszedelem'' (''The'' ''Peril of Sziget'', written in 1648/49) is written in a fashion similar to the ''Iliad'' and recounts the heroic Siege of Szigetvár, Battle of Szigetvár, where his great-grandfather died while defending the castle of Szigetvár. Among the religious literary works, the most important is the Bible translation by Gáspár Károlyi (the second Bible translations into Hungarian, Hungarian Bible translation in history), the Protestant pastor of Gönc, in 1590. The translation is called the ''Bible of Vizsoly'', after the town where it was first published. The Hungarian enlightenment took place about fifty years after the French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment. The first enlightened writers were Maria Theresa's bodyguards (György Bessenyei, János Batsányi and others). The greatest poets of the time were Mihály Csokonai and Dániel Berzsenyi. The greatest figure of the language reform was Ferenc Kazinczy. The Hungarian language became feasible for all type of scientific explanations from this time, and furthermore, many new words were coined for describing new inventions. Hungarian literature has recently gained some renown outside the borders of Hungary (mostly through translations into German, French and English). Some modern Hungarian authors have become increasingly popular in Germany and Italy especially Sándor Márai, Péter Esterházy, Péter Nádas and Imre Kertész. The latter is a contemporary Jewish writer who survived the Holocaust and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2002. The older classics of Hungarian literature and Hungarian poetry have remained almost totally unknown outside Hungary. János Arany, a famous 19th-century Hungarian poet, is still much loved in Hungary (especially his collection of ballads), among several other "true classics" like Sándor Petőfi, the poet of the Revolution of 1848, Endre Ady, Mihály Babits, Dezső Kosztolányi, Attila József, Miklós Radnóti and János Pilinszky. Other well-known Hungarian authors are Mór Jókai. Frigyes Karinthy, László Krasznahorkai, Ferenc Móra, Géza Gárdonyi, Zsigmond Móricz, Ephraim Kishon, Géza Gárdonyi, Arthur Koestler, Ferenc Molnár, Elie Wiesel, Kálmán Mikszáth, Gyula Illyés, Miklós Szentkuthy, Magda Szabó and Stephen Vizinczey.


Cuisine

Traditional dishes such as the world-famous goulash (''gulyás'' stew or ''gulyás'' soup) feature prominently in Hungarian cuisine. Dishes are often flavoured with paprika (ground red peppers), a Hungarian innovation. 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 called ''tejföl'' is often used to soften the flavour of a dish. The famous Hungarian hot river fish soup called fisherman's soup or ''halászlé'' is usually a rich mixture of several kinds of poached fish. Other dishes are chicken paprikash, foie gras made of goose liver, ''pörkölt'' stew, ''vadas'', (game stew with vegetable gravy and Spätzle, dumplings), trout with almonds and salty and sweet dumplings, like ''túrós csusza'', (dumplings with fresh Quark (dairy product), quark cheese and thick sour cream). Desserts include the iconic Dobos torte, strudels (''rétes''), filled with apple, cherry, poppy seed or cheese, Palatschinke, Gundel pancake, plum dumplings (''Knödel, szilvás gombóc''), ''somlói'' dumplings, dessert soups like chilled sour cherry soup and sweet chestnut puree, ''gesztenyepüré'' (cooked chestnuts mashed with sugar and rum and split into crumbs, topped with whipped cream). ''Pretzel, Perec'' and ''kifli'' are widely popular pastries. The ''csárda'' 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 a ''söröző'' is a pub offering draught beer and sometimes meals. The ''bisztró'' is an inexpensive restaurant often with self-service. The ''büfé'' is the cheapest place, although one may have to eat standing at a counter. Pastries, cakes and coffee are served at the confectionery called ''cukrászda'', while an ''eszpresszó'' is a café. 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: Borsod Brewery, Borsodi, Soproni, Arany Ászok, Kõbányai, and Dreher Brewery, Dreher. 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 of the 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. Hungarian wine, Hungary is ideal for wine-making, and the country can be divided into numerous regions. 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 to Ahmad ibn Rustah, Ibn Rustah, the Hungarian tribes were familiar with wine-making long before their conquest of the Carpathian Basin. 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 wine region, Tokaj), elegant (Eger wine region, Eger) and full-bodied robust reds (Villány and Szekszárd). The main varieties are: Olaszrizling, Hárslevelű, Furmint, Pinot gris or Szürkebarát, Chardonnay (whites), Kékfrankos (or Blaufränkisch, Blaufrankisch in German), Kadarka, Blauer Portugieser, Portugieser, Zweigelt, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The most famous wines from Hungary are Tokaji, Tokaji Aszú and Egri Bikavér. Tokaji, meaning "of Tokaj", or "from Tokaj" in Hungarian, is used to label wines from the wine region of Tokaj. Tokaji wine has received accolades from numerous great writers and composers including Ludwig van Beethoven, Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Liszt, Franz Schubert, Schubert and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe; Joseph Haydn's favourite wine was a Tokaji. Louis XV and Frederick the Great tried to outdo one another when they entertained guests with Tokaji. Napoleon III ordered 30–40 barrels of Tokaji at the French Royal Court every year. Gustav III of Sweden loved Tokaji. In Russia, customers included Peter the Great and Elizabeth of Russia, Empress Elizabeth, while Catherine the Great actually established a Russian garrison in the town of Tokaj with the aim of assuring regular wine deliveries to Saint Petersburg. For over 150 years, a blend of forty Hungarian herbs has been used to create the liqueur unicum. Unicum is a bitter, dark-coloured liqueur that can be drunk as an apéritif or after a meal, thus helping digestion.


Folk art

Ugrós (jumping dances) are old-style dances dating back to the Middle Ages. The ugrós can include solo or couple dances accompanied by old-style music, shepherd and other solo man's dances from Transylvania, and marching dances, along with remnants of medieval weapon dances. Karikázó is a circle dance performed by women accompanied by the singing of folk songs. Csárdás are newer style dances developed in the 18 and 19th centuries, which includes embroidered costumes and energetic music. From the men's intricate boot slapping dances to the ancient women's circle dances, Csárdás demonstrates the infectious exuberance of the Hungarian folk dancing still celebrated in the villages. Verbunkos is a solo man's dance evolved from the recruiting performances of the Austro-Hungarian army. The legényes is a men's solo dance done by the ethnic Hungarian people living in the Kalotaszeg region of Transylvania. Although usually danced by young men, it can be also danced by older men. The dance is generally performed freestyle by one dancer at a time in front of a band. Women participate in the dance by standing in lines to the side and singing or shouting verses while the men dance. Each man performs a number of points (dance phrases), typically four to eight without repetition. Each point consists of four parts, each lasting four counts. The first part is usually the same for everyone (there are only a few variations). It was in the beginning of the 18th-century that the present style of Hungarian folk art took shape, incorporating both Renaissance and Baroque elements, depending on the area, as well as Persian Sasanian Empire, Sassanide influences. Flowers and leaves, sometimes a bird or a spiral ornament, are the principal decorative themes. The most frequent ornament is a flower with a centrepiece resembling the eye of a peacock's feather. Nearly all the manifestations of folk art practiced elsewhere in Europe also flourished among the Magyar peasantry at one time or another, their ceramics and textile being the most highly developed of all. The finest achievements in their textile arts are the embroideries which vary from region to region. Those of Kalotaszeg are charming products of Oriental design, sewn chiefly in a single colour—red, blue, or black. Soft in line, the embroideries are applied on altar cloths, pillowcases, and sheets. The Tolna County, Sárköz and Mezőkövesd, Matyóföld regions produce the finest embroideries. The women's caps generally exhibit black and white designs as delicate as lace and give evidence of the people's wonderfully subtle artistic feeling. The embroidery motifs applied to women's wear have also been transposed to tablecloths and runners suitable for modern use as wall decorations.


Sport

Hungary at the Olympics, Hungarian athletes have been successful contenders in the Summer Olympic Games. Hungary ranks 9th with a total of 511 medals in the All-time Olympic Games medal table, all-time Summer Olympic Games medal count. Hungary has the third-highest number of Olympic medals per capita and second-highest number of gold medals per capita in the world. Hungary has historically excelled in Olympic water sports. In water polo the men's Hungarian team is the Water polo at the Summer Olympics, leading medal winner by a significant margin, and in swimming List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men), the men's and List of Olympic medalists in swimming (women), the women's teams are both rank fifth-most successful. Hungary leads the overall medal count in Canoeing at the Summer Olympics, canoeing and kayaking. Hungary won its first gold medal in Winter Olympics in 2018 in men's short track speed skating with a team of four: Csaba Burján, Shaolin Sándor Liu, Shaoang Liu, and Viktor Knoch. Hungary hosted many global sports events, including the 1997 World Amateur Boxing Championships, 2000 World Fencing Championships, 2001 World Allround Speed Skating Championships, 2008 World Interuniversity Games, 2008 World Modern Pentathlon Championships, 2010 ITU World Championship Series, 2011 IIHF World Championship, 2013 World Fencing Championships, 2013 World Wrestling Championships, 2014 World Masters Athletics Championships, 2017 World Aquatics Championships and 2017 World Judo Championships, only in the last two decade. Besides these, Hungary was the home of many European-level tournaments, like 2006 European Aquatics Championships, 2010 European Aquatics Championships, 2013 European Judo Championships, 2013 European Karate Championships, 2017 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, 2017 European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship and will be the host of 4 matches in the UEFA Euro 2020, which will be held in the 67,889-seat new Multi-purpose stadium, multi-purpose New Puskás Ferenc Stadium, Puskás Ferenc Stadium. The Hungarian Grand Prix in Formula One has been held at the Hungaroring just outside Budapest, which circuit has Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA Grade 1 license. Since 1986, the race has been a round of the Formula 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. Chess is a popular and successful sport, and the Hungarian players are the eighth most powerful overall on the ranking of FIDE, World Chess Federation. There are about 54 Grandmaster (chess), Grandmasters and 118 FIDE titles, International Masters, which is more than in France or United Kingdom. Judit Polgár generally considered the Glossary of chess#Strength, strongest female chess player of all time. Some of the world's best Sabre (fencing), sabre athletes have historically also hailed from Hungary, and in 2009, the Hungary men's national ice hockey team qualified for their first Ice Hockey World Championships, IIHF World Championship, in 2015, they qualified for their second world championship in the top division.


Football

Hungary has won three Olympic football titles, and the country finished as runners-up in the 1938 FIFA World Cup, 1938 and 1954 FIFA World Cups, and third in 1964 European Nations' Cup, Euro 1964. Hungary revolutionised the sport in the 1950s, laying the tactical fundamentals of Total Football, total football and dominating international football with the ''Aranycsapat'' ("Golden Team"), which included Ferenc Puskás, top goal scorer of the 20th century, to whom FIFA dedicated its newest award, the FIFA Puskás Award, Puskás Award. The team of that era has the second World Football Elo Ratings#All-time highest ratings, all-time highest Football Elo Rating in the world, with 2166, and one of the longest undefeated runs in football history, remaining unbeaten in 31 games spanning more than four years. The post-golden age decades saw a gradually weakening Hungary, though recently there is renewal in all aspects. The Hungarian Children's Football Federation was founded in 2008, as youth development thrives. They hosted the 2010 UEFA Futsal Championship in Budapest and Debrecen, the first time the Hungarian Football Federation, MLSZ staged a UEFA finals tournament. Also, the national teams have produced some surprise successes such as beating UEFA Euro 2004, Euro 2004 winner Greece national football team, Greece 3–2 and 2006 FIFA World Cup winner Italy national football team, Italy 3–1. During UEFA Euro 2016 Hungary won UEFA Euro 2016 Group F, Group F and were eventually defeated in the round of 16.


Media

During the Communist era (1945–1989) the mass media in Hungary were mainly under Stalinism, Stalinist control. In the 2020s major television channels include TV2 (Hungarian TV channel), TV2 and RTL (Hungarian TV channel), RTL and radio networks include Karc FM and Radio 1. Some daily newspapers, such as ''Magyar Hírlap'', no longer issue print versions but maintain just an online presence, and others have closed in recent years. Many media outlets have "merged to form a conglomerate", the Central European Press and Media Foundation.Hungary profile - Media
bbc.com. Retrieved 2 december 2022.


See also

* Outline of Hungary * Index of Hungary-related articles


Notes


References


Further reading

* Kontler, László: ''Millennium in Central Europe: A History of Hungary'', Atlantisz Könyvkiadó, Budapest, 1999 (East-European Non-Fiction), .


External links

; Government
Official site of the Hungarian Government

Official site of the Hungarian Prime Minister

Official site of the President of Hungary

Official Hungarian Tourism website
; General information
"Hungary"
in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''
Hungary
from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD
Hungary
at the European Union, EU *
Forecasts for Hungary
from International Futures
Hungary
from the BBC News
Hungary
''The World Factbook''. Central Intelligence Agency.
Statistical Profile of Hungary at the Association of Religion Data Archives
*
FAO Country Profiles: Hungary

Daily News Hungary

Hungary Today – The latest news about Hungary
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