Hungary

The Magyars were the last in a series of "barbarian" invaders from the eastern steppes, including Huns and Avars, who occupied the Pannonian plains of eastern Europe. (Unlike most of the continent, their language isn't Indo-European.) Together with the vikings and corsairs, their raiders did much to undermine 9th-century western Europe, but were eventually routed by Holy Roman Emperor Otto II in the Battle of Lechfeld ("field of corpses") in 955. Their leaders accepted Christianity, and ruled the Grand Principality of Hungary in the 10th century, which became the Kingdom of Hungary with the accession of the sainted Stephen I. The House of Arpad ruled the kingdom for the next three centuries, followed by five mostly foreign dynasties in rapid succession.

In 1526 the Hungarians were routed by the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Mohacs, and King Louis II was killed. During the 16th and 17th centuries Hungary was divided between the Ottoman Empire, which controlled the eastern two-thirds of its territory, and the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire, which dominated the west. In 1699 Austria finally defeated the Turks, who ceded the rest of Hungary in the Treaty of Karlowitz.

Nationalism became an important force within Habsburg Hungary in the age of revolutions. In 1848 Lajos Kossuth led a rebellion that was only suppressed by Russian force. But after being defeated by Prussia, the Habsburgs agreed to the Compromise of 1867, under which Hungary received autonomy within what was renamed the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yet similar rebelliousness was growing among Hungary's own minority groups. World War I resulted in an explosion.

By 1918 the great Austro-Hungarian armies were annihilated, leading to chaos. (Bela Kun actually maintained a communist regime in Hungary for a few months in 1919!) Austria and Hungary became separate nations, and Hungary lost half its land area to the Little Entente: northern Slovakia joined the new republic of Czechoslovakia, southeastern Transylvania was annexed by Romania, and southwestern Croatia and Vojvodina were absorbed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. From 1924 Hungary was ruled by a conservative regent, Admiral Miklos Horthy. (Hungary was now landlocked, with no need for a navy.)

Hungary's World War II alliance with the Third Reich proved disastrous, leading to a 1945 Soviet occupation and the installation of a communist regime. Widespread discontent led to a 1956 rebellion suppressed by Russian force (like in 1848), producing thousands of refugees. But new leader Janos Kadar developed a compromise system nicknamed "goulash communism" over the next 32 years. Shortly after his retirement the communist regime was overthrown. Democratic Hungary joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. Viktor Orban's right-wing government, in power since 1910, has aroused controversy with its defiance of the EU and liberal tolerance.

For background reading, you can try Miklos Molnar's A Concise History of Hungary.

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