→ Main article: History of Hungary
9th to 15th century
The Magyars, led by the Grand Duke Árpád, migrated into the Carpathian Basin at the end of the 9th century, allegedly in 896, and conducted raids throughout Europe. These were successfully continued by Árpád's successors until 955, when Otto I was able to repel the Hungarian attacks with a crushing victory on the Lechfeld. The Kingdom of Hungary was founded on August 20, 1000 by Stephen I, who shaped the country according to the Carolingian model against the bitter resistance of the old nobility (founding of the county system that still exists today).
In the "Mongol Storm", as the attacks of the Golden Horde of the Mongols under the army leader Batu Khan in the years 1241 and 1242 are called, the country was devastated and depopulated in large parts; 50% of the population of Hungary died. King Béla IV called settlers from the Holy Roman Empire (Swabia) into the country for the new settlement, who subsequently became partly Magyarized.
In 1301 Andrew III, the last ruler of the House of Árpád, died. In 1370-1386 and 1440-1444 Hungary was ruled by the Angevins and Jagiellons in personal union with Poland.
Subsequently, Hungary had only one Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus, who ruled the country from 1458 to 1490. Under the highly educated Matthias, Hungary rose to become a major political power and a center of Renaissance culture and humanism. As a Renaissance prince, he attracted scholars and artists from Italy to his court, founded the university in Pressburg (Pozsony, today Bratislava) and the Corvina library in Ofen (Budapest); his great empire disintegrated after his death.
Between 1490 and 1526 the Polish-Lithuanian Jagiellons ruled Hungary and Bohemia in personal union.
16th to 19th century
The end of Hungary's independence came around the middle of the 16th century with the conquests by the Ottoman Empire. On August 29, 1526, Sultan Suleyman I defeated King Louis II of Bohemia and Hungary at Mohács (where a memorial has been located since 1976), who drowned while fleeing. Most of Hungary came under Turkish rule, with the unconquered parts either coming under Habsburg rule in continuity with the Hungarian kingship as Royal Hungary (including western Upper Hungary) or being separated from Hungary and placed under Ottoman suzerainty as the Principality of Transylvania.
After 145 years of Turkish occupation of Hungary, Buda fell after the second siege in 1686, and the Habsburgs now conquered all of Hungary. The Hungarians, however, disapproved of their harsh rule, so that from 1703 to 1711 there was a Kuruc rebellion under Prince Franz II Rákóczi, a nobleman from Transylvania. Since the tensions between the Hungarian nobility and the Viennese court could not be eliminated, they erupted (after apparently amicable negotiations and concessions by the emperor to the Hungarians) in the revolution of 1848/49, which was bloodily put down with the help of Russia (invoking the "Holy Alliance"), permanently worsening the climate in the monarchy.
After continuing unrest in the country, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 made Hungary an equal part of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Franz Joseph I now called himself Apostolic King of Hungary (he now had himself crowned in Buda) and Emperor of Austria (until then the Hungarian royal title had been subordinate to the imperial title). This personal union, established de jure by the Pragmatic Sanction, became a real union through identical Austrian and Hungarian basic laws concerning foreign policy and the army as well as their financing. A voluntary customs and trade union followed, the guilder and later the crown currency remained common (Austro-Hungarian Bank). Ferenc Deák and Count Gyula Andrássy played a leading role in the success of the settlement for the Hungarian side. The Hungarian "half of the empire" (as they liked to say in imperial Austria; Hungary did not want the term empire for the Dual Monarchy) included the lands of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia (essentially the present-day state of Croatia without Dalmatia), Vojvodina, a large part of Romania (Transylvania in the broader sense and the now Romanian part of Banat), and small parts of Poland and Ukraine (Carpathian Ukraine). Subsequently, there was a significant economic boom in the country and especially in its capital, which was expressed not least in the millennium celebrations of the Magyar land seizure and the Budapest Millennium Exhibition in 1896.
However, the multi-ethnic state of the Kingdom of Hungary was characterized by internal tensions (aspirations for independence of the non-Magyar peoples, nationality conflicts in the course of the Magyarization policy). Although the leading role in industrialization was often played by representatives of minorities (German Austrians and Jews), who tended towards voluntary Magyarization, this did not apply to the Slavic and Romanian populations of the Hungarian half of the empire. This favoured the break-up of the heterogeneous state structure after the lost First World War. The decisions of the victorious powers resulted in Hungarian minorities living in Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (now mainly Serbia) as a result of the Treaty of Trianon. However, Slovak, Romanian and German minorities also remained in Hungary.
From 1918 to 1945
On October 31, 1918, Hungary declared its withdrawal from the Real Union with Austria and recalled the Magyar troops from the Italian front. With that the k. u. k. Monarchy was dissolved. In response to urgent demands from top Hungarian politicians, King Charles IV declared on 13 November 1918 at Eckartsau Palace (Lower Austria) his renunciation of any share in the affairs of state in Hungary, just as he had declared for Austria as Emperor Charles I two days earlier. However, a formal abdication did not take place.
Prime Minister Mihály Károlyi proclaimed the democratic Republic of Hungary on 16 November 1918, and in January 1919 he was elected the country's first president. However, the social grievances resulting from the lost war continued. After the peaceful civil revolution of 1918, the government of the new republic enacted People's Law Number 1, which for the first time in Hungarian history guaranteed equal voting rights for both sexes, exercised through party lists. However, no elections were held on this basis. The conservative wing of the nationalist movement overthrew Prime Minister Mihály Károlyi in a counter-revolution, and women's suffrage was again abolished.
After Károly's resignation on 21 March 1919, the Communists, led by Béla Kun, took power and established a soviet republic. The post-revolutionary electoral law of November 1919, contained in the government decree 5985/1919/ME, then guaranteed again a gradually extended right to vote. Nevertheless, the 1920 elections were rocked by intimidation and corruption. Women and men over 24 had the right to vote if they had been Hungarian citizens for six years and had already resided in Hungary for at least six months. Women's right to vote was limited to those who could read and write. Men were exempt from the age restriction if they had served at least twelve weeks of military service at the front. A serious setback followed in 1922: a suffrage reform raised the voting age for women to 30. A certain level of schooling also became a requirement: four years of primary school for men and six for women (four if they had at least three children or were their own income and heads of household).
In order to regain the territories lost after the First World War (Transylvania, Slovakia), Hungary took military action against its neighbouring countries. In the Hungarian-Romanian War, however, the Hungarian "Red Army" quickly found itself on the defensive. With the occupation of large parts of the country by Romanian troops, the socialist republic collapsed on August 1, 1919, and Béla Kun was forced to flee. After the end of the soviet republic, Archduke Joseph August of Austria, from 7 August to 23 August Reichsverweser, failed in his attempt to form a government because of the negative attitude of the Allies. In the end, the former imperial and royal admiral Miklós H. H. Admiral Miklós Horthy, who had previously formed a conservative counter-government to the Communists in Szeged, entered Budapest with his troops on 16 November 1919.
Elected by the National Assembly as imperial administrator, Horthy formally reinstated the monarchy on March 1, 1920, but subsequently remained de facto head of state. Charles IV attempted twice to resume rule in Hungary from his exile in Switzerland; both times, however, Horthy refused to hand over power. The restoration of the Habsburg monarchy was forbidden to Hungary in the course of the peace negotiations (Paris Suburb Treaties) (Treaty of Trianon). On November 6, 1921, the Reichstag passed the so-called Dethronement Act, formally deposing the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. The government then recognized the Trianon Peace Treaty, under the terms of which Hungary had to cede two-thirds of its territory to Czechoslovakia, Romania, the South Slav state, and Austria. Most of the territories now ceded had already separated from Hungary in 1918/1919 and had joined the new successor states of the Danube Monarchy or been taken possession of by them; the later Burgenland, however, did not become part of Austria until the autumn of 1921.
→ Main article: Hungary in the Second World War
From 1933 onwards, under Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös, Hungary moved politically closer and closer to Nazi Germany due to economic crises and revisionist propaganda. In the Vienna Arbitration Awards dictated by Nazi Germany, Hungary received back Hungarian-inhabited southern Slovakia (along the Danube) in 1938 and a considerable part of Transylvania (from Romania) in 1940. The Balkan campaign (1941) also gave Prekmurje to Hungary. However, each of these territories had to be abandoned again in 1945.
In return, Horthy entered the war against the Soviet Union on the side of the Axis powers on 27 June 1941, but suffered heavy losses due to insufficient equipment. Contact was made with the Western Allies, but they referred to Moscow. When these contacts became known to the Germans, they occupied the country from mid-March 1944 and set up a collaboration government under Döme Sztójay, who immediately began deporting the Jewish population. Over 200,000 of the Jewish Hungarians living on the territory of the state in 1937 perished in concentration and extermination camps. Another 200,000-plus victims came from the territories Hungary occupied under the Vienna Arbitration Awards. After Romania surrendered, Horthy decided to send a delegation with an offer of surrender to Moscow on September 28, 1944, and negotiations led to the radio proclamation of the armistice on October 15. After Horthy's arrest in the autumn of 1944, war participation continued under the fascist Arrow Cross movement of Ferenc Szálasi. For Hungary, the fighting of the Second World War ended with the battle for Hungary and the occupation of the country by the RedArmy, which was completed by 4 April 1945.
Eastern Bloc, Hungarian Uprising and the Fall of the Wall
Hungary came under Soviet influence due to the Yalta Treaty. In 1945, unrestricted suffrage was restored. In the free parliamentary elections in November 1945, the Smallholders' Party won 57% of the vote, with the Communists in third place, just behind the Social Democrats, with 17%. Under Soviet pressure, the Communists were nevertheless admitted to the government and gradually seized power until 1949, subjugating the country to Soviet-style communism. In 1948 the Hungarian Social Democratic Party was forcibly united with the Communists to form the Party of Hungarian Labourers (MDP), which was replaced by the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) in 1956. On August 20, 1949, a constitution based on the Soviet model was adopted. Until 1953, Hungary pursued a Stalinist course under Mátyás Rákosi.
On 23 October 1956 there was a popular uprising, during which Imre Nagy, who had already been Prime Minister from 1953 to 1955, regained this office. He formed a multi-party government and called for parliamentary democracy and Hungarian neutrality. However, the uprising was bloodily put down by the Soviet army. Many Hungarians then left the country and emigrated to Western Europe or North America. Nagy was executed (his ashes were not ceremonially interred in Hungary until 1989). János Kádár, until then deputy prime minister, became general secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party as well as prime minister. The initial repression of those involved in the uprising was followed by amnesties in the years between 1959 and 1963, which led to releases. In 1968 Hungary participated in the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact states in Czechoslovakia, which had become dangerously liberal for the Eastern Bloc.
Beginning in the 1960s, Kádár, who was General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party until 1988 and also Prime Minister from 1956 to 1958 and from 1961 to 1968, allowed certain liberalizations in the political, economic, and cultural spheres that became known as "goulash communism." In 1987/1988 opposition groups were formed that promoted the peaceful change of system and questioned the legitimacy of Soviet (de facto Russian) domination (mention should be made of Imre Pozsgay, who in the office of minister of state publicly contradicted the doctrine of the "counterrevolution of 1956").
In 1988, under the pressure of circumstances, the now already elderly Kádár resigned at a special congress of the state party USAP, and was succeeded by Károly Grósz. There were also opposition voices in the communist USAP demanding free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. This initiated the opening of the border to Austria, the dismantling of the border fortifications and thus the cutting of the Iron Curtain. As early as 2 May 1989, Hungarian border guards began dismantling the border fence. On 27 June 1989, Gyula Horn, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, together with his Austrian counterpart Alois Mock, cut the barbed wire at the border between Austria (Klingenbach) and Hungary (Sopron) in a symbolic action. Until August 1989, Hungary always extradited captured fugitives to the GDR. From 11 September 1989 Hungary also officially allowed GDR citizens to leave the country for Austria.
Hungary played a decisive role in the revolutions of 1989 in the former Eastern bloc countries and thus also in the peaceful revolution in the GDR, which paved the way for the reunification of Germany.
See also: List of Rulers of Hungary and List of Heads of State of Hungary
History since 1989
After 1989/90 Hungary became (politically speaking) part of the Western state system. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989/90, the Hungarian state system was also renewed. On 23 October 1989 - the anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian National Uprising - the Republic of Hungary was proclaimed, and a modified version of the 1949 socialist constitution came into force. The model for this modified version was, among others, the German Basic Law. The government is responsible to the parliament, and the prime minister is responsible for the government's activities. In order to ensure the greatest possible stability of the government, the institution of a constructivevote of no confidence was created. Hungary's first free parliamentary elections since 1947 took place in March 1990.
The Hungarian Parliament is unicameral. It elects the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the members of the Constitutional Court, the Ombudsman of Minorities, the President of the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor General. The power of the President, elected for a five-year term, is limited.
Hungarian politics has been characterized by frequent changes of majority since the introduction of free and secret elections until 2010.
After the 1990 election, a conservative coalition government consisting of the MDF, FKgP and KDNP ruled until 1994. The prime minister was initially József Antall, and after his death in December 1993, Péter Boross. The governing coalition suffered a heavy defeat in the May 1994 election, while the Socialists (MSzP), who had emerged from the former Communist Unity Party, won an absolute majority of seats with 33% of the vote due to the electoral system. The new prime minister was Gyula Horn, who formed a coalition with the left-wing liberals (SzDSz) despite his party's absolute majority. The 1998 election brought another change of power. Fidesz, until then a small party, became the strongest parliamentary group. Viktor Orbán became prime minister for the first time. He presided over a coalition of Fidesz, MDP and the FKgP, which disintegrated during the election period, until its surprisingly narrow defeat in 2002.
In March 1999, Hungary became a member of NATO after its parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of accession on 9 February. The country thus became one of the first countries of the former Eastern bloc to join the alliance.
After the 2002 elections, the MSzP again took over government responsibility together with the SzDSz. The new Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány, who had been in office since 29 September 2004, succeeded Péter Medgyessy, who had resigned after attempts to restructure the government.
On 1 May 2004, Hungary joined the European Union after a referendum resulted in an approval rate of 83.8%.
The government of MSzP and SzDSz was re-elected in the parliamentary elections of 9 and 23 April 2006. This was the first time that a government managed to remain in office.
In September 2006, details became public about a speech Gyurcsány had given to his parliamentary group after the parliamentary elections in April. In this speech Gyurcsány spoke of how the government had only lied in recent years in order to conceal the true state of the state's finances. With this speech Gyurcsány wanted to get his party to go along with the consolidation measures he had planned (VAT increase, practice fee, layoffs in the public service). In September and October 2006 there were repeated violent riots, especially in Budapest, which also overshadowed the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 1956popular uprising. Gyurcsány offered his resignation on 21 March 2009. A minority government of socialists and non-party professionals was subsequently formed in April 2019 under the non-party former economy minister Gordon Bajnai, tolerated by the SzDSz.
In the 2010 parliamentary elections, the electoral alliance of Fidesz and KDNP won 263 of the 386 mandates and thus had the two-thirds majority necessary for constitutional changes. On 29 May 2010, the new parliament elected Viktor Orbán as the new prime minister. On 18 April 2011, with the votes of the ruling parties, the new constitution, which came into force on 1 January 2012, was adopted, the Fundamental Law of Hungary. As the foundations of the nation, the Basic Law professes in its preamble, among other things, God, Crown (St. Stephen's Crown) and Fatherland, Christianity, family and national pride. The official name of the state was changed from Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság) to Hungary (Magyarország). However, Article B of the Constitution continues to refer to Hungary's form of government as a republic, and the form of government is parliamentary.
János Áder has been president since 2012.
In both the 2014 and 2018 parliamentary elections, Fidesz narrowly won a two-thirds majority in an alliance with the KDNP under amended electoral law.
The country became a stopover point for a large movement of refugees and migrants during the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 onwards. Coming from Greece, they tried to reach Western Europe along various routes known as the Balkan route. The government erected a border fence on the country's southern borders and tightened its migration and refugee policy.
Hungary has been an observer in the Turkic Council since 2018.
