History of Hungary

See also the history of Europe, the history of present-day nations and states, Hungary before the Magyars, and Hungary.

Origins of the Hungarian state

The Balkans in 750

Prince Árpád is crossing the Carpathians. A detail of Árpád Feszty and assistants' vast (over 8000 m²) canvas, painted to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the Magyar conquest of Hungary, now displayed at Ópusztaszer National Memorial Site in Hungary

The commonly accepted view of the origin of the Magyars (known as Hungarians in English) is that they were nomadic people, with indeterminate and disputed origin from the Eurasian plains until the end of the 9th century AD. They were organized as a confederation of seven Magyar and three allied Khazar tribes; the name Hungary / Hungarian is most probably derived from the Turkish term Onogur meaning 'Ten Arrows', signifying united military strength in nomadic symbolism. In 896 they settled in Transylvania ("Exinde montes descenderunt per tres menses et deveniunt in confinium regni Hungariae, scilicet in Erdelw") from where they took possession of Pannonia. Subsequently they also partly occupied what is today eastern Austria and southern Slovakia. After their defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955, they definitively settled in the Carpathian basin.

Árpád was the Magyar leader whom later accounts, written by order of the Árpáds, name as the single leader who led the Hungarian tribes conquering the territory in the 9th century. The ruling prince (fejedelem) Géza of the House of Árpád, who was the tribal ruler of basically what is today western Hungary but also nominal overlord of the seven Magyar tribes, intended to integrate Hungary into Christian (Western) Europe, rebuilding the state according to the Western model. He established a dynasty by naming his son Vajk (later called Stephen) as his successor. This was contrary to the then dominant tradition of the succession of the eldest surviving member of the ruling family.

See also: Hungary before the Magyars, Sources of early Hungarian history

The Kingdom of Hungary

High and Late Middle Ages (1000 - 1526)

Further information: Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages

Duchy of Hungary about 1000 AD (in light blue)

Hungary was established as a Christian kingdom under Stephen I of Hungary, who was crowned in December 1000 AD. He was the son of Géza and thus a descendant of Árpád. By 1006, Stephen had solidified his power, eliminating all rivals who either wanted to follow the old pagan traditions or wanted an alliance with the orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire. Then he started sweeping reforms to convert Hungary into a feudal state, complete with forced Christianisation.

What emerged was a strong kingdom that withstood attacks from German kings and Emperors, passing armies of Crusaders, as well as later nomadic tribes following the Magyars from the East, integrating some of the latter into the population (along with Germans invited to Transylvania and present-day Slovakia, especially after 1242), but also subjugating smaller Slavic kingdoms to the South, among them Croatia, and Slavic territories in present-day central and eastern Slovakia.

In 1241/1242, this kingdom received one major blow in the form of the Mongol invasion of Europe: after the destruction of the Hungarian army in the Battle of Muhi, King Béla IV fled, and one third of the population died (leading later to the invitation of settlers from neighbours in the West and South) in the ensuing destruction (Tatárjárás). Only strongly fortified cities and abbeys could withstand the assault. As a consequence, after the Mongols retreated, King Béla ordered the construction of a line of major border castles (végvár). These proved to be most important in the long struggle with the Ottoman Empire in the following centuries (from the late 14th century onwards), but their cost indebted the King to the major feudal landlords so much that central rule, already diminished by the Aranybulla (lit: Golden Bull, parallel of the Magna Carta), was critically weakened.

Árpád's descendants ruled the country until 1301. After that, most Hungarian kings were from abroad. Under some of these rulers, the Kingdom of Hungary reached its greatest extent, yet the influence of the major landlords was at most kept in check – while the Ottoman Turks, confronted ever more often, increased their strength.

The second Hungarian king in the Angevin line of French origin, Louis I the Great (I. or Nagy Lajos, king 1342-1382) extended his rule over territories from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea, and temporarily occupied the Kingdom of Naples (after his brother was murdered there by his wife, who was also his cousin). From 1370, the death of Casimir III the Great, he was also king of Poland. The alliance between Casimir and Charles I of Hungary, the father of Louis, was the start of a still lasting Polish-Hungarian friendship.

Sigismund, a prince from the Luxembourg line succeeded to the throne by marrying Louis's daughter, Queen Mary, in 1433 even became Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor – but his rule was marked by territorial losses in the South, the 1396 defeat in a late crusade against the Ottoman Turks at Nicopolis, the open dissent of feudal landlords, the Hussite rebellion in the Czech kingdom (which was also under his rule) and partly in Slovakia, and a major peasant rebellion in Transylvania.

The last strong king was the renaissance king Matthias Corvinus. He was the son of the feudal landlord and warlord John Hunyadi, who led the Hungarian troops in the 1456 Siege of Nándorfehérvár. Building on his fathers' vision, the aim of taking on the Ottoman Empire with a strong enough background, Matthias set out to build a great empire, expanding southward and northwest, while he also implemented internal reforms.

But after Matthias's death, the weak king Ladislaus II of the Polish/Lithuanian Jagiellon line nominally ruled the areas he conquered except Austria, but real power was in the hand of the nobles. In 1514, two years before Ladislaus' death, there was even a major peasant rebellion in the Pannonian lowlands and parts of Transylvania (called the Dózsa Insurrection [after its Transylvanian leader] or Hungarian Peasant's War), crushed barbarously by the nobles. As central rule degenerated, the stage was set for a defeat at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. In 1521, Nándorfehérvár (today Belgrade) fell, and in 1526, the Hungarian army was destroyed in the Battle of Mohács.

Through the centuries the Kingdom of Hungary has kept its old "constitution", based on freedom of nobles, privileged people (Saxons, Jász-kuns) and free royal towns e.g. Buda (Ofen), Košice (Kassa), Pressburg (Pozsony, today: Bratislava), Klausenburg (Kolozsvár, today Cluj-Napoca).

Early modern times (1526 - 1718)

Further information: Ottoman Hungary, Royal Hungary and Transylvania

Eastern Hungarian Kingdom in 1550

After some 150 years of wars with the Ottoman Empire in the south, the Turks conquered parts of Hungary, and continued their expansion until 1556. The Ottomans gained their first decisive victory over the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. The next decades were characterised by political chaos; the divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously, John Zápolya (1526-1540) and Ferdinand Habsburg (1527-1540), whose armed conflicts weakened the country further. With the conquest of Buda in 1541 by the Turks, Hungary fell into three parts. The north-western part (Present-day Slovakia, western Transdanubia, present-day Burgenland, western Croatia and parts of north-eastern present-day Hungary) remained ruled by the Habsburgs, and although formally was independent, subsequently became a province of their empire under the informal name Royal Hungary. The Habsburg Emperors were crowned as Kings of Hungary. The eastern part of the kingdom (Partium and Transylvania), in turn, became an independent Principality, and a Turkish vassal state. The remaining central area (mostly present-day Hungary), including the capital of Buda, became a province of the Ottoman Empire. A large part of the area became devastated by permanent warfare. Most smaller settlements disappeared. Rural people could survive only in larger settlements owned directly and protected by the Sultan, in the so called Khaz towns. The Turks were indifferent to the type of Christian religion of their subjects and the Habsburg counter-reformation measures could not reach this area. As a result, the majority of the population of the area became Protestant (Calvinist). In 1686, Austria-led Christian forces reconquered Buda, and in the next few years, all of the country except areas near Timişoara (Temesvár). In the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz these changes were officially recognized, and in 1718 the entire Kingdom of Hungary was restored from the Ottomans.

Francis Rákóczi

Pressburg (Pozsony, today: Bratislava) became the new capital (1536-1784), coronation town (1563-1830) and seat of the Diet (1536-1848) of Hungary. Trnava (Nagyszombat), in turn, became the religious center in 1541.

Parallelly, between 1604 and 1711, there was a series of anti-Habsburg (i.e. anti-Austrian) and anti-Catholic (requiring equal rights and freedom for all Christian religions) uprisings, which – with the exception of the last one – took place in Royal Hungary, more exactly on the territory of present-day Slovakia. The uprisings were usually organized from Transylvania. The last one was an uprising led by Francis Rákóczi (II. Ferenc Rákóczi), who was chosen by the people to be the future king. When Austrians crushed the rebellion in 1711, Rákóczi was in Poland. He later fled to France, finally Turkey, and lived to the end of his life (1735) in nearby Rodosto. Afterwards, to make further armed resistance impossible, the Austrians blew up some castles, and allowed peasants to use the stones from most of the others as building material (the végvárs among them).

See also: Moldavian Magnate Wars; Stephen Bathory, King of Poland; and Battle of Vienna

18th and 19th century

Further information: Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th and 19th century

18th century (1718 - 1780)

This period was characterized by a reconstruction of the country. The Habsburg rulers pursued a re-settlement of ravaged areas with new immigrants from present-day Austria and Germany, from the northern and eastern parts of the country (present-day Slovakia and Romania), and from Serbia.

Enlightenment (1780 - 1848)

Influenced by the French revolution, and in response to attempts at Germanisation by Joseph II (ruled 1780-1790), there emerged a national revival movement in Hungary of the Magyars, but also of all the other non-Magyar nationalities living in the Kingdom of Hungary.

During the Napoleonic Wars and afterwards, the Hungarian Diet had not convened for decades. In the 1820s, the Emperor was forced to convene the Diet, and thus a Reform Period began. Nevertheless, its progress was slow, because the nobles insisted on retaining their privileges (no taxation, exclusive voting rights, etc.). Therefore the achievements were mostly of national character (e.g. introduction of Hungarian as the official language of the country, instead of the former Latin). The other nationalities of the country protested against these measures.

The first measurements of the population on the area of the Kingdom of Hungary (including Croatia) were performed in the late 18th century. Different estimates based on these measurements put the proportion of the Magyars in the Kingdom (with or without Croatia) at 29% to 42% towards the end of the 18th century. A first thorough research in 1836-40 put the percentage of Magyars at 36-37% (without Croatia 48%) and a census in 1850-51 at 45.4% in all the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary. The official percentages of the other nationalities according to the 1850-51 census (although it was criticised for bias towards the percentage of Hungarians and Germans already at that time) were:

• Slovaks (18.6%)
• Germans (11.8%)
• Romanians (10.1%)
• Serbs and Croats (5.6%)
• Ukrainians and Ruthenians (4.8%)
• Others (3.7%)

The Habsburg Emperors and particularly the chancellor Metternich refused to implement reforms and this led to a national revolution.

The 1848 Revolution (1848 - 1849)

See also: The Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas

The revolution started on March 15, 1848, with bloodless events in Pest and Buda (mass demonstrations forcing the imperial governor to accept all demands) followed by various insurrections throughout the kingdom, which enabled Hungarian reformists to declare Hungary's autonomy within the Habsburg Empire, under the governor Lajos Kossuth and the first Prime minister Lajos Batthyány. During the subsequent civil war, the Magyars, and with them foreign revolutionaries that came to fight after their own revolutions were crushed, had to fight against the Austrian Army, but also against the Serbs, Croats, Slovaks, Romanians and Transylvanian Germans living on the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary, who had their own ethnic-national movements, and were unwilling to accept a Hungarian dominance. (Though, ethnic allegiances weren't that clear at the time: the majority of revolution-starting Buda and Pest was German-speaking, while revolutionary poet and national icon Sándor Petőfi was of Serbian and Slovak descent.)

Faced with revolution at home in Vienna too, Austria first accepted Hungary's autonomy. However, after the Austrian revolution was beaten down, and Franz Joseph replaced his mentally retarded uncle Ferdinand I as Emperor, Austria again refused to accept Hungarian autonomy, and a civil war followed. Initially, the Hungarian forces (Honvédség) defeated Austrian armies (at Pákozd in September 1848 and at Isaszeg in April 1849), during which they even declared Hungary's total independence of Austria in April 1849. Because of the success of revolutional resistance, Franz Joseph had to ask for help from "The Gendarme of Europe", Czar Nicholas I, and Russian armies invaded Hungary, causing antagonism between the Hungarians and the Russians. Julius Freiherr von Haynau, the leader of the Austrian army who then became governor of Hungary for a few months of retribution, ordered the execution of 13 leaders of the Hungarian army (only a minority of which spoke Hungarian) in Arad and the Prime minister Batthyány in Pest.

Lajos Kossuth went into exile, with stations in the USA (where a county in Iowa was named after him), in Istanbul and in the Italian city of Turin. Realizing the biggest political error of the Revolution and himself – the confrontation with the minorities of Hungary – he popularized the idea of a multi-ethnic confederation of republics along the Danube, which might have prevented the escalation of hostile feelings between the ethnic groups in these areas. Many of Kossuth's revolutionary comrades in exile, including the sons of one of his sisters, stayed in the USA, and fought on the Union side in the US Civil War.

After the revolution (1849 - 1867)

Map of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1850

Map of the counties in the Kingdom of Hungary around 1880

  Magyars in Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1911

Following the war of 1848-49, the whole country was in "passive resistance". Archduke Albrecht von Habsburg was appointed governor of the Kingdom of Hungary, and this time was remembered for Germanization pursued with the help of Czech officers.

Austria - Hungary (1867 - 1918)

Main article: Austria-Hungary

Due to external and internal problems, reforms seemed inevitable to secure the integrity of the Habsburg Empire. Major military defeats, like the Battle of Königgrätz (1866), forced the Emperor to concede internal reforms. To appease Hungarian separatism, the Emperor made a deal with the Hungarian nobility led by Ferenc Deák, called the Compromise of 1867, by which the dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary came into existence.

The Empire was reorganised into two entities: the mostly western half of the realm, Cisleithania, and the Kingdom of Hungary, Transleithania. The two realms were governed separately with a common ruler and common external, military, and economic policies. The first premier of the Kingdom of Hungary after the Compromise was Count Gyula Andrássy. The Hungarian Constitution was restored, and Franz Joseph was crowned as King of Hungary. The autonomy of the Kingdom was partly achieved.

There was also a Hungarian-Croatian Compromise of 1868, as Croatia, an already highly autonomous part of the Kingdom, broadened its constitutional freedom.

Hungarian politicians gained strong influence on the Empire's political life and successfully prevented the change of the status quo in favour of other ethnic groups, notably the Czechs and the Southern Slavs. By the turn of the century, the diverse political development of the two realms raised increasing doubts about the political framework of the Monarchy. Attempts to transform the dual monarchy to a trial state or a confederacy remained futile.

Besides the German-Magyar, Czech-Magyar conflicts about the future of the dual monarchy, ethnic problems escalated inside the Kingdom of Hungary. The intensifying Hungarian nationalism – intended to strengthen the integrity of the Kingdom – gradually alienated the non-Magyar population (see Magyarization). As a reaction, the already significant Romanian, Serbian and Slovak nationalism further escalated.

According to the census in 1910, the Magyar population made up approximately half of the population of the Kingdom (without Croatia). The percentages of the next 3 most numerous ethnicities were as follows: Romanians 16%, Slovaks 11%, Germans 10%.

In contrast to political problems, the era witnessed an impressive economic development. The formerly backward Kingdom of Hungary become a relatively modern, industrialized country by the turn of the century, although agriculture remained the dominant part of the economy. Many of the state institutions and the administrative system of modern Hungary were established during this period.

Reds and Whites (1918-1919)

In 1918, as a result of defeat in World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed. On October 31 1918, the success of the Aster Revolution in Budapest brought the liberal count Mihály Károlyi to power as Prime-Minister. The new government officially declared Hungary an independent republic in November, after the end of the war. On 22 November 1918 the Central Romanian Council of Romanians from Transylvania announced to the Hungarian government that it had assumed control of Transylvania. On 1 December 1918 the gathering of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) proclaimed union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania.

By February 1919 the government had lost all popular support, having failed on the domestic and military fronts. On March 21, after the Entente military representative demanded more territorial concessions from Hungary, Károlyi resigned. The Communist Party of Hungary came to power, led by Béla Kun, and proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

The Communists – "The Reds" – came to power largely thanks to being the only group with an organized fighting force, and they promised that Hungary would regain the lands it had lost (possibly with the help of the Soviet Red Army). The Communists also promised equality and social justice. Initially, Kun's regime achieved some impressive military successes: the Hungarian Red Army, under the lead of the genius strategist, Colonel Aurél Stromfeld, ousted Czechoslovak troops from disputed lands, proclaimed an ephemeral Slovak Soviet Republic, and planned to march against the Romanian army in Transylvania. In terms of domestic policy, the Communist government nationalized industrial and commercial enterprises, socialized housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions, and all landholdings of more than 400,000 square metres.

Still, the popular support of the Communists proved to be short lived. In the aftermath of a coup attempt, the government took a series of reprisals (called the Red Terror) by half-regular and half-militarist detachments (like the "Lenin boys"). A total of 590 people were executed without trial, which alienated much of the population. Land reform took land from the nobles but did not effectively distribute it amongst peasants. The Soviet Red Army was never able to aid the new Hungarian republic. Although it did not lose any battles, the Hungarian Red Army gave up land under pressure from the Entente. In the face of domestic backlash and an advancing Romanian force, Béla Kun and most of his comrades fled to Austria, while Budapest was occupied on August 6. All these events, and in particular the final military defeat, led to a deep feeling of dislike among the general population against the Soviet Union (which had not kept its promise to offer military assistance) and the Jews (since many members of Kun's government were Jewish, making it easy to blame the Jews for the government's mistakes).

The new fighting force in Hungary were the Conservative counter-revolutionaries – the "Whites". These, who had been organizing in Vienna and established a counter-government in Szeged, assumed power, led by István Bethlen, a Transylvanian aristocrat, and Miklós Horthy, the former commander in chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Starting in Western Hungary and spreading throughout the country, a White Terror began by other half-regular and half-militarist detachments (as the police power crashed, there were no serious national regular forces and authorities), and many Communists and other leftists were executed without trial. Radical Whites launched pogroms against the Jews, displayed as the cause of all the difficulties of Hungary. The leaving Romanian army pillaged the country – the estimated property damage of their activity was so much that the international peace conference in 1919 did not require Hungary to pay war redemption to Romania. On November 16, with the consent of Romanian forces, Horthy's army marched into Budapest. His government gradually restored security, stopped terror, and set up authorities, but thousands of sympathizers of the Károlyi and Kun regimes were imprisoned. Radical political movements were suppressed.

It is now considered by some historians that one of the main reasons for the infamous cold relations between Hungary and Romania is Hungarian resentment at the Romanian intervention and destruction.

The Regency (1920 - 1944)

Further information: Hungary between the two world wars

In January 1920, Hungarian men and women cast the first secret ballots in the country's political history. The voting was not totally democratic, because the entire left-wing either boycotted or was excluded from the voting. A large right-wing majority was elected to a unicameral assembly. In March, the parliament annulled the Compromise of 1867, and it restored the Hungarian monarchy but postponed electing a king until civil disorder had subsided. Instead, Miklos Horthy was elected regent and was empowered, among other things, to appoint Hungary's prime minister, veto legislation, convene or dissolve the parliament, and command the armed forces.

Difference between the borders of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary and independent Hungary after the Treaty of Trianon.

Hungary's signing of the Treaty of Trianon on June 4, 1920, ratified the country's dismemberment. The territorial provisions of the treaty, which ensured continued discord between Hungary and its neighbors, required Hungary to surrender more than two-thirds of its pre-war lands. Nearly one-third of the 10 million ethnic Hungarians found themselves outside the diminished homeland. The country's ethnic composition was left almost homogeneous, Hungarians constituting about 90% of the population, Germans made up about 6%, and Slovaks, Croats, Romanians, Jews and Gypsies accounted for the remainder.

New international borders separated Hungary's industrial base from its sources of raw materials and its former markets for agricultural and industrial products. Hungary lost 84% of its timber resources, 43% of its arable land, and 83% of its iron ore. Because most of the country's pre-war industry was concentrated near Budapest, Hungary retained about 51% of its industrial population, 56% of its industry, 82% of its heavy industry, and 70% of its banks.

Horthy appointed Count Pál Teleki prime minister in July 1920. His right-wing government issued a numerus clausus law, limiting admission of "political insecure elements" (these were often Jews) to universities and, in order to quiet rural discontent, took initial steps toward fulfilling a promise of major land reform by dividing about 3,850 km² from the largest estates into smallholdings. Teleki's government resigned, however, after the former emperor, Charles IV, unsuccessfully attempted to retake Hungary's throne in March 1921. King Charles's return produced split parties between conservatives who favored a Habsburg restoration and nationalist right-wing radicals who supported election of a Hungarian king. Count István Bethlen, a non-affiliated right-wing member of the parliament, took advantage of this rift forming a new Party of Unity under his leadership. Horthy then appointed Bethlen prime minister. Charles IV died soon after he failed a third time to reclaim the throne in October 1921. (For more detail on Charles's attempts to retake the throne, see Karl I of Austria's conflict with Miklós Horthy.)

As prime minister, Bethlen dominated Hungarian politics between 1921 and 1931. He fashioned a political machine by amending the electoral law, providing jobs in the expanding bureaucracy to his supporters, and manipulating elections in rural areas. Bethlen restored order to the country by giving the radical counterrevolutionaries payoffs and government jobs in exchange for ceasing their campaign of terror against Jews and leftists. In 1921, he made a deal with the Social Democrats and trade unions (called Bethlen-Peyer Pact), agreeing, among other things, to legalize their activities and free political prisoners in return for their pledge to refrain from spreading anti-Hungarian propaganda, calling political strikes, and organizing the peasantry. Bethlen brought Hungary into the League of Nations in 1922 and out of international isolation by signing a treaty of friendship with Italy in 1927. The revision of the Treaty of Trianon rose to the top of Hungary's political agenda and the strategy employed by Bethlen consisted by strengthening the economy and building relations with stronger nations. Revision of the treaty had such a broad backing in Hungary that Bethlen used it, at least in part, to deflect criticism of his economic, social, and political policies.

The Great Depression induced a drop in the standard of living and the political mood of the country shifted further toward the right. In 1932 Horthy appointed a new prime-minister, Gyula Gömbös, that changed the course of Hungarian policy towards closer cooperation with Germany and started an effort to magyarize the few remaining ethnic minorities in Hungary. Gömbös signed a trade agreement with Germany that drew Hungary's economy out of depression but made Hungary dependent on the German economy for both raw materials and markets. Hitler used promises of returning lost territories, and threats of military intervention and economic pressure to compel Hungarians into supporting Nazi policies, including those related to Jews. In 1935 Hungary's leading fascist party, Ferenc Szálasi's Arrow Cross, was founded. Gömbös' successor, Kálmán Darányi attempted to appease the Nazis and anti-Semites by passing the First Jewish Law, which set quotas limiting Jews to 20% of positions in several professions. The law failed to satisfy Hungary's anti-Semitic radicals, and the regent then appointed the anti-Nazi Béla Imrédy, who both banned the Arrow Cross and drafted a harsher Second Jewish Law. This inconsistent stance may have stemmed from the fear of Germany's March 1938 Anschluss with Austria being extended to Hungary. The new government of Pál Teleki approved the Second Jewish Law, which greatly restricted Jewish employment and defined Jews by race instead of religion. This definition altered the status of those who had formerly converted from Judaism to Christianity.

World War II

Hungary in 1920 and 1941

The first Vienna Award of 1938 returned parts of Czechoslovakia (Southern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia) with predominantly Hungarian population. In March 1939 however, Hungary occupied the rest of Sub-Carpathia. Hungary immediately recognized the German puppet state Slovakia led by Tiso but disagreement about the new common eastern border led to a localized armed conflict between the two countries on 23 March 1939. The so called Little War ended with gaining only the easternmost strip of Slovakia. The second Vienna Award returned the northern part of Transylvania in September 1940. There were atrocities on both sides during this transitional period. As a German-Italian mixed committee stated: "Romanians committed more robberies, Hungarians more assassinations". In October 1940 a reciprocity policy (especially in minority question) was initiated between Romania and Hungary and continued until the end of WWII. Dividing Transylvania between Romania and Hungary, Hitler was able to manipulate and control both of his future allies. On November 20 1940, under pressure from Germany, Teleki affiliated Hungary to the Tripartite Pact. In December, he also signed an ephemeral "Treaty of Eternal Friendship" with Yugoslavia. A few months later, Hitler asked Hungary to support his invasion of Yugoslavia and promised territory in exchange for cooperation. Unable to prevent Hungary's participation in the war alongside Germany, Teleki committed suicide. The right-wing radical László Bárdossy succeeded and in April 1941, after the German attack, Horthy dispatched the military forces to occupy former Hungarian lands in Yugoslavia, and Hungary eventually annexed sections of Vojvodina, Croatia and Slovenia.

Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya, Regent of Hungary

Hungary did not immediately participate in the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22 1941 and Hitler did not directly ask for Hungarian assistance. But many Hungarian officials argued for participation so as not to encourage Hitler into favouring Romania in the event of border revisions in Transylvania. Hungary eventually entered the war at the end of June, after the questionable Soviet bombing of Košice (Kassa). By December 1941, hopes of a quick victory over the Soviet Union had faded and by 1942 Hungary's troop contingent had increased to 150,000. Worried about Hungary's increasing reliance on Germany, Horthy removed Bárdossy and replaced him with Miklós Kállay, a veteran conservative of Bethlen's government. He continued Bárdossy's policy of supporting Germany against the Red Army, but he also began negotiations with the Western Allies. The Hungarian Army suffered terrible losses after a heavy Soviet breakthrough at the River Don, shortly after the fall of Stalingrad in January 1943. There were secret negotiations with the British and Americans, but no connection with the Soviets (as the Western Allies requested). Aware of Kállay's deceit and fearing that Hungary might conclude a separate peace, on March 1944, Hitler ordered Nazi troops to occupy Hungary and Döme Sztójay, a supporter of the Nazis, became the new prime minister. He governed with the aid of a Nazi military governor, Edmund Veesenmayer. Horthy was confined to a castle, in essence placed under house arrest.

In July 1941, the Bárdossy government deported 18,000 Jews from Hungary, and six months later Hungarian troops, in reprisal for resistance activities, murdered 3,000 Serbian and Jewish hostages, near Novi Sad in Vojvodina. Hoping to win favour with Germany by persecuting Jews, Bardossy passed the "Third Jewish Law" in August 1941, which prohibited marriage and sexual intercourse with Jews. While Kallay was prime minister, the Jews endured economic and political repression, but the government protected them from the final solution. But when the Nazis occupied Hungary in March 1944, the deportation of the Jews to the German death camps located in occupied Poland began. The infamous SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann came to Hungary and oversaw large-scale deportations carried out by local authorities. In May and June of 1944, Hungarian police deported nearly 440,000 Jews in more than 145 trains, mostly to Auschwitz [3]. One third of the victims killed at Auschwitz were Hungarian. Ultimately, over 250,000 Hungarian Jews were killed during the Holocaust, as well as 50,000 Roma.[4]

In August 1944, Horthy replaced Sztójay with the anti-Fascist General Géza Lakatos. Under the Lakatos regime, acting Interior Minister Béla Horváth ordered Hungarian gendarmes to protect any Hungarian citizen from being deported. Horváth also insisted that Budapest's synagogues be re-opened, firing Budapest's Arrow Cross police chief, László Endre, who had closed them. In September, Soviet forces crossed the border, and on October 15 Horthy announced that Hungary had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. The army ignored his orders and the Germans forced him to abrogate the armistice, depose Lakatos government, and name the leader of the Arrow Cross Party, Ferenc Szálasi, as prime minister. Horthy abdicated, and soon Hungary became a battlefield. Szálasi promised greatness for Hungary and a prosperity for the peasants, but in reality Hungary was crumbling and its armies slowly surrendered, one by one. In cooperation with the Nazis, Szálasi restarted the deportations of Jews, now focusing on Budapest. A fascist reign of terror resulted in random massacres of Jews and other "suspicious" people. The retreating German army demolished the rail, road, and communications systems and the advancing Red Army found the country in a state of political chaos. The Red Army completed the encirclement of Budapest by December 26. On December 28 the newly founded Hungarian government officially declared war against Nazi Germany. The Red Army captured Budapest on February 16. In the next six weeks the Soviet Army routed out the Germans from western Hungary. Officially the Soviet operations in Hungary ended on April 4, 1945, as the last German troops were expelled.

Post-War Communist period

Main article: People's Republic of Hungary

Transition to Communism (1944-1949)

The Soviet Army occupied Hungary from September 1944 until April 1945. It took almost 2 months to conquer Budapest and almost the whole city was destroyed.

By signing the Peace Treaty of Paris, Hungary again lost all the territories that it gained between 1938 and 1941. Neither Western Allies nor the Soviet Union supported any change in Hungary's pre-1938 borders.

The Soviet Union itself annexed Sub-Carpathia, which is now part of Ukraine.

The Treaty of Peace with Hungary signed on 10 February 1947 declared that "The decisions of the Vienna Award of 2 November 1938 are declared null and void" and Hungarian boundaries were fixed along the former frontiers as they existed on 1 January 1938, except a minor loss of territory on the Czechoslovakian border. Half of the ethnic German minority (240,000 people) was deported to Germany in 1946-48, and there was a forced "exchange of population" between Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

The Soviets set up an alternative government in Debrecen on December 21, 1944 but did not capture Budapest until January 18, 1945. Soon afterwards, Zoltán Tildy became the provisional prime minister.

In elections held in November 1945, the Independent Smallholders' Party won 57% of the vote. The Hungarian Communist Party, now under the leadership of Mátyás Rákosi and Ernő Gerő, received support from only 17% of the population. The Soviet commander in Hungary, Marshal Voroshilov, refused to allow the Smallholders Party to form a government. Instead Voroshilov established a coalition government with the communists holding some of the key posts. The leader of the Smallholders, Zoltán Tildy, was named president and Ferenc Nagy prime minister. Mátyás Rákosi became deputy prime minister.

László Rajk became minister of the interior and in this post established the security police (ÁVH). In February 1947 the police began arresting leaders of the Smallholders Party and the National Peasant Party. Several prominent figures in both parties escaped abroad. Later Mátyás Rákosi boasted that he had dealt with his partners in the government, one by one, "cutting them off like slices of salami."

The Hungarian Workers Party (formed by a merger of the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party) became the largest single party in the elections in 1947 and served in the coalition People's Independence Front government. The communists gradually gained control of the government and by 1948 the Social Democratic Party ceased to exist as an independent organization. Its leader, Béla Kovács was arrested and sent to Siberia. Other opposition leaders such as Anna Kéthly, Ferenc Nagy and István Szabó were imprisoned or sent into exile.

On 18 August, 1949, the Parliament passed the new constitution of Hungary (1949/XX.) modelled after the 1936 constitution of the Soviet Union. The name of the country changed to People's Republic of Hungary, "the country of the workers and peasants" where "every authority is held by the working people". Socialism was declared as the main goal of the nation. A new coat-of-arms were adopted with Communist symbols like the red star, hammer and scythe.

Stalinist era (1949-1956)

Mátyás Rákosi, the new leader of Hungary, demanded complete obedience from fellow members of the Hungarian Workers Party. His main rival for power was László Rajk, who was now foreign secretary. Rajk was arrested and at his trial in September 1949 he made a forced confession to be an agent of Miklós Horthy, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito and Western imperialism. He also admitted that he had taken part in a murder plot against Mátyás Rákosi and Ernő Gerő. Rajk was found guilty and executed. Despite their help to Rákosi to liquidate Rajk, János Kádár and other dissidents were also purged from the party during this period.

Mátyás Rákosi now attempted to impose authoritarian rule on Hungary. An estimated 2,000 people were executed and over 100,000 were imprisoned. These policies were opposed by some members of the Hungarian Workers Party and around 200,000 were expelled by Rákosi from the organization.

Rákosi rapidly expanded the education system in Hungary. This was an attempt to replace the educated class of the past by what Rákosi called a new "working intelligentsia". In addition to effects such as better education for the poor, more opportunities for working class children and increased literacy in general, this measure also included the dissemination of communist ideology in schools and universities. Also, as part of an effort to separate the Church from the State, religious instruction was denounced as propaganda and was gradually eliminated from schools.

Ironically, Cardinal József Mindszenty, who had bravely opposed the German Nazis and the Hungarian Fascists during the Second World War, was arrested in December, 1948, and accused of treason. After five weeks under arrest (which may have included torture), he confessed to the charges made against him and he was condemned to life imprisonment. The Protestant churches were also purged and their leaders were replaced by those willing to remain loyal to Rákosi's government.

The new Hungarian military hastily staged public, pre-arranged trials to purge "Nazi remnants and imperialist saboteurs". Several officers were sentenced to death and executed in 1951, including Lajos Toth, a 28 victory-scoring fighter ace of the WWII Royal Hungarian Air Force, who had voluntarily returned from US captivity to help revive Hungarian aviation. The victims were cleared posthumously following the fall of communism.

Rákosi had difficulty managing the economy and the people of Hungary saw living standards fall. His government became increasingly unpopular, and when Joseph Stalin died in 1953, Mátyás Rákosi was replaced as prime minister by Imre Nagy. However, he retained his position as general secretary of the Hungarian Workers Party and over the next three years the two men became involved in a bitter struggle for power.

As Hungary's new leader, Imre Nagy removed state control of the mass media and encouraged public discussion on political and economic reform. This included a promise to increase the production and distribution of consumer goods. Nagy also released anti-communists from prison and talked about holding free elections and withdrawing Hungary from the Warsaw Pact.

Mátyás Rákosi led the attacks on Nagy. On 9 March 1955, the Central Committee of the Hungarian Workers Party condemned Nagy for "rightist deviation". Hungarian newspapers joined the attacks and Nagy was accused of being responsible for the country's economic problems and on 18 April he was dismissed from his post by a unanimous vote of the National Assembly. Rákosi once again became the leader of Hungary.

Rákosi's power was undermined by a speech made by Nikita Khrushchev in February 1956. He denounced the policies of Joseph Stalin and his followers in Eastern Europe. He also claimed that the trial of László Rajk had been a "miscarriage of justice". On 18 July 1956, Rákosi was forced from power as a result of orders from the Soviet Union. However, he did manage to secure the appointment of his close friend, Ernő Gerő, as his successor.

On 3 October 1956, the Central Committee of the Hungarian Workers Party announced that it had decided that László Rajk, György Pálffy, Tibor Szőnyi and András Szalai had wrongly been convicted of treason in 1949. At the same time it was announced that Imre Nagy had been reinstated as a member of the party.

1956 Revolution

Main article: Hungarian Revolution of 1956

On October 23 1956, a peaceful student demonstration in Budapest produced a list of 16 demands for reform and greater political freedom. As the students attempted to broadcast these demands, police made some arrests and tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas. When the students attempted to free those arrested, the police opened fire on the crowd, setting off a chain of events which lead to the Hungarian Revolution.

That night, commissioned officers and soldiers joined the students on the streets of Budapest. Stalin's statue was brought down and the protesters chanted "Russians go home", "Away with Gerő" and "Long Live Nagy". The Central Committee of the Hungarian Workers Party responded to these developments by requesting Soviet military intervention and deciding that Imre Nagy should become head of a new government. Soviet tanks entered Budapest at 2 a.m. on 24 October.

On October 25 Soviet tanks opened fire on protesters in Parliament Square. One journalist at the scene saw 12 dead bodies and estimated that 170 had been wounded. Shocked by these events the Central Committee of the Hungarian Workers Party forced Ernő Gerő to resign from office and replaced him with János Kádár.

Imre Nagy now went on Radio Kossuth and announced he had taken over the leadership of the Government as Chairman of the Council of Ministers." He also promised "the far-reaching democratization of Hungarian public life, the realisation of a Hungarian road to socialism in accord with our own national characteristics, and the realisation of our lofty national aim: the radical improvement of the workers' living conditions."

On October 28, Nagy and a group of his supporters, including János Kádár, Géza Losonczy, Antal Apró, Károly Kiss, Ferenc Münnich and Zoltán Szabó, managed to take control of the Hungarian Workers Party. At the same time revolutionary workers' councils and local national committees were formed all over Hungary.

The change of leadership in the party was reflected in the articles of the government newspaper, Szabad Nép (i.e. Free People). On 29 October the newspaper welcomed the new government and openly criticised Soviet attempts to influence the political situation in Hungary. This view was supported by Radio Miskolc that called for the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country.

On October 30, Imre Nagy announced that he was freeing Cardinal József Mindszenty and other political prisoners. He also informed the people that his government intends to abolish the one-party state. This was followed by statements of Zoltán Tildy, Anna Kéthly and Ferenc Farkas concerning the restitution of the Smallholders Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Petőfi (former Peasants) Party.

Nagy's most controversial decision took place on 1 November when he announced that Hungary intended to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact as well as proclaiming Hungarian neutrality he asked the United Nations to become involved in the country's dispute with the Soviet Union.

On 3rd November, Nagy announced details of his coalition government. It included communists (János Kádár, Georg Lukács, Géza Losonczy), three members of the Smallholders Party (Zoltán Tildy, Béla Kovács and István Szabó), three Social Democrats (Anna Kéthly, Gyula Keleman, Joseph Fischer), and two Petőfi Peasants (István Bibó and Ferenc Farkas). Pál Maléter was appointed minister of defence.

Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, became increasingly concerned about these developments and on November 4 1956 he sent the Red Army into Hungary. Soviet tanks immediately captured Hungary's airfields, highway junctions and bridges. Fighting took place all over the country but the Hungarian forces were quickly defeated.

During the Hungarian Uprising an estimated 20,000 people were killed, nearly all during the Soviet intervention. Imre Nagy was arrested and replaced by the Soviet loyalist, János Kádár. Nagy was imprisoned until being executed in 1958. Other government ministers or supporters who were either executed or died in captivity included Pál Maléter, Géza Losonczy, Attila Szigethy and Miklós Gimes.

Changes under Kádár

Once he was in power, Kádár led an attack against revolutionaries. 21,600 mavericks (democrats, liberals, reformist communists alike) were imprisoned, 13,000 interned, and 400 killed. But in the early 1960s, Kádár announced a new policy under the motto of "He who is not against us is with us." (this was a modification of Rákosi's statement 'He who is not with us is against us'). He declared a general amnesty, gradually curbed some of the excesses of the secret police, and introduced a relatively liberal cultural and economic course aimed at overcoming the post-1956 hostility toward him and his regime. In 1966, the Central Committee approved the "New Economic Mechanism," through which it sought to rebuild the economy, increase productivity, make Hungary more competitive in world markets, and create prosperity to ensure political stability. Over the next two decades of relative domestic quiet, Kádár's government responded alternately to pressures for minor political and economic reforms as well as to counter-pressures from reform opponents. By the early 1980s, it had achieved some lasting economic reforms and limited political liberalization and pursued a foreign policy which encouraged more trade with the West. Nevertheless, the New Economic Mechanism led to mounting foreign debt, incurred to shore up unprofitable industries. (See also the term Goulash Communism for a further discussion of this period in Hungarian history.)

Transition to democracy

Hungary's transition to a Western-style democracy was one of the smoothest among the former Soviet bloc. By late 1988, activists within the party and bureaucracy and Budapest-based intellectuals were increasing pressure for change. Some of these became reform socialists, while others began movements which were to develop into parties. Young liberals formed the Federation of Young Democrats (Fidesz); a core from the so-called Democratic Opposition formed the Association of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), and the national opposition established the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF). Civic activism intensified to a level not seen since the 1956 revolution.

In 1988, Kádár was replaced as General Secretary of the Communist Party, and reform communist leader Imre Pozsgay was admitted to the Politburo. In 1989, the Parliament adopted a "democracy package," which included trade union pluralism; freedom of association, assembly, and the press; a new electoral law; and in October 1989 a radical revision of the constitution, among others. Since then, Hungary has tried to reform its economy and increase its connections with western Europe, hoping to become a member of the European Union as soon as possible. A Central Committee plenum in February 1989 endorsed in principle the multiparty political system and the characterization of the October 1956 revolution as a "popular uprising," in the words of Pozsgay, whose reform movement had been gathering strength as Communist Party membership declined dramatically. Kádár's major political rivals then cooperated to move the country gradually to democracy. The Soviet Union reduced its involvement by signing an agreement in April 1989 to withdraw Soviet forces by June 1991.

National unity culminated in June 1989 as the country reburied Imre Nagy, his associates, and, symbolically, all other victims of the 1956 revolution. A national round table, comprising representatives of the new parties and some recreated old parties -- such as the Smallholders and Social Democrats -- the Communist Party, and different social groups, met in the late summer of 1989 to discuss major changes to the Hungarian constitution in preparation for free elections and the transition to a fully free and democratic political system.

In October 1989, the communist party convened its last congress and re-established itself as the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP). In a historic session on October 16 - October 20, 1989, the Parliament adopted legislation providing for multiparty parliamentary elections and a direct presidential election. The legislation transformed Hungary from a People's Republic into the Republic of Hungary, guaranteed human and civil rights, and created an institutional structure that ensures separation of powers among the judicial, executive, and legislative branches of government. On the day of the 1956 Revolution, October 23, the Hungarian Republic was officially declared (by the provisional President of the Republic Mátyás Szűrös), replacing the Hungarian People's Republic. The revised constitution also championed the "values of bourgeois democracy and democratic socialism" and gave equal status to public and private property.

Free elections and a democratic Hungary

Map of Hungary today

The first free parliamentary election, held in May 1990, was a plebiscite of sorts on the communist past. The revitalized and reformed communists performed poorly despite having more than the usual advantages of an "incumbent" party. Populist, center-right, and liberal parties fared best, with the Democratic Forum (MDF) winning 43% of the vote and the Free Democrats (SZDSZ) capturing 24%. Under Prime Minister József Antall, the MDF formed a center-right coalition government with the Independent Smallholders' Party (FKGP) and the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) to command a 60% majority in the parliament. Parliamentary opposition parties included SZDSZ, the Socialists (MSZP), and the Alliance of Young Democrats (Fidesz). Péter Boross succeeded as Prime Minister after Antall died in December 1993. The Antall/Boross coalition governments achieved a reasonably well-functioning parliamentary democracy and laid the foundation for a free-market economy, and the massive worsening of living standards because of the free-market reforms led to a massive loss of support.

In May 1994, the socialists came back to win a plurality of votes and 54% of the seats after an election campaign focused largely on economic issues and the substantial decline in living standards since 1990. A heavy turnout of voters swept away the right-of-center coalition but soundly rejected extremists on both right and left. The MSZP, whose politics was as much determined by the socialism of PM Gyula Horn and a large part of the base, as by the economic focus of its technocrats (educated with a Western orientation in seventies-eighties) and ex-cadre entrepreneur supporters, and its liberal coalition partner SzDSz continued economic reforms and privatization, adopting a painful policy of fiscal austerity (the "Bokros plan") in 1995. The government pursued a foreign policy of integration with Euro-Atlantic institutions and reconciliation with neighboring countries. But neither an invitation to join NATO nor improving economic indicators guaranteed the governing parties' re-election; dissatisfaction with the pace and style of economic recovery, rising crime, the attempt to re-start the unpopular program of building a dam in the Danube, and cases of government corruption convinced voters to propel center-right parties into power following national elections in May 1998. The Federation of Young Democrats (renamed Fidesz-Hungarian Civil Party (MPP) in 1995) captured a plurality of parliamentary seats and forged a coalition with the Smallholders and the Democratic Forum. The new government, headed by 35-year-old Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, promised to stimulate faster growth, curb inflation, and lower taxes. Although the Orbán administration also pledged continuity in foreign policy, and has continued to pursue Euro-Atlantic integration as its first priority, it has been a more vocal advocate of minority rights for ethnic Hungarians abroad than the previous government. In 2002 it was decided that Hungary, together with 9 other countries was to join the European Union on 1 January, 2004.

However, Fidesz lost the next election in April 2002, in which the MSZP and its liberal ally SzDSz 51% won over Fidesz and its ally MDF 48% in a very fierce fight showing a loss of trust in Fidesz due to professed corruption problems, a style seen as arrogant by parts of the population, and lack of communication between the government and the other parties and some strategically bad connections to extreme right-wing parties during the election campaign, while also showing the doubt and memories of already mentioned problems with the socialist party's last government.

On April 12 2003 Hungary voted for joining the European Union, where 83% of the votes said "Yes" to EU (45% of the population voted). Since the EU already accepted Hungary as a possible member, the 4 leading political parties (MSZP, Fidesz, SZDSZ and MDF) agreed to establish the required prerequisites and policies and to work together to prepare the country for the accession with the least possible harm to the economy and people while maximising the positive effects on the country. On 2004-05-01, Hungary became a member of the EU.

In the elections of April 2006, Hungary decided to keep its government in place for the first time in the history of the Third Hungarian Republic. The left-wing strengthened its positions, with the coalition of the Social Democrats (MSZP) and the Liberals (SZDSZ) reaching 54 percent of the votes, gaining 210 seats as opposed to the previous 198. Surprise elements were the rise in votes for the smaller parties SZDSZ and MDF, and the largest conservative party Fidesz (joining forces with one of the Christian Democrat parties for the elections) winning a considerably lower number, 164 of the altogether 386 seats, while most polls showed a head-to-head competition and an almost equal amount of seats won by the two large parties. Many analysts have pointed to Fidesz's largely negative political campaign, its conflicts with MDF (which refused to ally with Fidesz because, among others, of differences in basic principles and a number of alleged blackmail incidents ), as well as the content of public speeches of some of its candidates (such as deputy prime minister nominee István Mikola referring to young Hungarians as "hordes made up of single people" ) as probable causes of the party's loss of voters especially in the second round where, according to the Tárki institute, Fidesz lost as much as ten percent of its voters. The new Parliament assembled in late May 2006, and the new government was formed in June 2006.

See also

• List of Hungarian rulers
• Heads of state of Hungary
• List of Prime Ministers of Hungary
• Aftermath of World War I
• Timeline of liberal and radical parties in Hungary
• Hungary before the Magyars
• Music history of Hungary
• Collectivisation in Hungary
• History of the Jews in Hungary

External links

• History of Hungary: Primary Documents
• Hungarian Maps and Shields
• Hungarian History
• Borders in the region between 1000-1995
• Hungarian Genealogical Resources

Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica (1–5)

• Emese saga : Hungarian prehistory from the beginnings to King St. Stephen (1038)
• The Vazul-line : Kings of the Árpád dynasty after St. Stephen (1038-1301)
• Knight kings : The Anjou- and Sigismund age in Hungary (1301-1437)
• Pannonian Renaissance : The Hunyadis and the Jagello age (1437-1526)
• Cross and crescent : The Turkish age in Hungary (1526-1699)
• (The English translations of volumes 6 to 9 are in preparation.)