History of Hungary

Austria-Hungary collapsed after World War I, and the subsequent Treaty of Trianon in 1920 established Hungary's current borders, resulting in the loss of 72% of its historical territory, 58% of its population, and 32% of its ethnic Hungarians.

[7][9] Latin, Greek and Asiatic colonists settled on the decimated indigenous people, establishing Ulpia Traiana, Napoca (Cluj-Napoca), Apulum (Alba Iulia), Porolissum (Mirșid) and Potaissa (Turda) among others.

Under King Rugila, the nomads settled the Great Hungarian Plain,[13][15] pushing the border guarding peoples westward, but stopping them from reaching Italy in exchange for the transfer of Eastern Pannonia.

[16] The Pannonian provinces suffered from the Migration Period from 379 onwards, the settlement of the Goth-Alan-Hun ally caused repeated serious crises and devastations, the contemporaries described it as a state of siege, Pannonia became an invasion corridor both in the north and in the south.

[27] Under the expansionist policy of the Kingdom of the East Franks, (since the division of the Frankish Empire in 843[26]) the rudimentary Slavic polities couldn't develop, except one, the Principality of Moravia, which was able to expand into modern-day Western Slovakia.

[38] Attacks were led by gyula Árpád and kende Kurszán, the two highest-ranking leaders,[39] who left no mass graves behind them showing that the transition back to an Avar-like system was peaceful for the locals.

The local Avar population did not resist, and even became part of the Hungarians, the Moravians fled or assimilated, the modest Bulgarian sovereignty in South Transylvania did not become a political factor, only the East Frankish Empire had such military power that it could intervent in the formation of the new order.

[52] In 1195, Béla expanded the Hungarian kingdom southward and westward to Bosnia and Dalmatia and extended suzerainty over Serbia, a process that helped to break up the Byzantine Empire and diminish its influence in the Balkan region.

In 1224, he issued the Diploma Andreanum, which unified and ensured the special privileges of the Transylvanian Saxons.Andrew II was forced to accept the Golden Bull of 1222, which was the Hungarian equivalent of England's Magna Carta.

Sigismund summoned the Council of Constance that met between 1414 and 1418 to abolish the Avignon Papacy and end the Western Schism, which was resolved by the election of Pope Martin V. During his long reign, the royal castle of Buda became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages.

The army of the Holy League was over 74,000 men, including German, Croat, Dutch, Hungarian, English, Spanish,[citation needed] Czech, Italian, French, Burgundian, Danish and Swedish soldiers.

Joseph and his advisers skillfully manipulated the new nation's ethnic minorities, the Croatian, Serbian and Romanian peasantry, led by priests and officers firmly loyal to the Habsburgs, and induced them to rebel against the new government.

The Austrian marshall Julius Freiherr von Haynau then became governor of Hungary and on 6 October ordered the execution of 13 leaders of the Hungarian army as well as Prime Minister Batthyány; Kossuth escaped into exile.

To appease Hungarian separatists, the emperor made an equitable deal with Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 negotiated by Ferenc Deák, by which the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary came into existence.

These measures failed to stem popular discontent, especially when the Entente powers began awarding pieces of Hungary's medieval conquests to Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, giving priority to ethno-linguistic criteria over historical ones.

The communists came to power largely thanks to its organized fighting force (no other major political entity had one of its own), and they promised that Hungary would defend its territory without conscription, possibly with the help of the Soviet Red Army then advancing westwards.

In June 1919, led by its genius strategist Colonel Aurél Stromfeld, the Hungarian Red Army conducted the Northern Campaign, a successful offensive against Czechoslovak forces, recapturing Kassa, and even reaching the Polish border.

His government issued a numerus clausus law that limited the admission of nationalities to universities to their proportion in the population (in practice, this targeted the mostly Jews as "political insecure elements" ) and took initial steps towards fulfilling a promise of major land reform by dividing about 3,850 km2 from the largest estates into small holdings in order to quiet rural discontent.

Bethlen restored order to the country by giving the radical counter-revolutionaries payoffs and government jobs in exchange for ceasing their campaign of terror against Jews and leftists.In 1921, Bethlen made a deal with the Social Democrats and trade unions (called the Bethlen-Peyer Pact) to legalize their activities and free political prisoners in return for their pledge to refrain from spreading anti-Hungarian propaganda, calling political strikes, and attempting to organize the peasantry.

In 1932, Horthy appointed Gyula Gömbös as prime minister, who changed the course of Hungarian policy towards closer cooperation with Germany and started an effort to Magyarize the few remaining ethnic minorities in Hungary.

The Soviets originally planned for a piecemeal introduction of the communist regime in Hungary, therefore when they set up a provisional government in Debrecen on 21 December 1944, they were careful to include representatives of several moderate parties.

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.

Rajk and his fellow victims of the showcase trial of 1949 were cleared of all charges, and on 6 October 1956, the party authorized a reburial, which was attended by tens of thousands of people and became a silent demonstration against the crimes of the regime.

On 28 October, Nagy and a group of his supporters, including Kádár, Géza Losonczy, Antal Apró, Károly Kiss, Ferenc Münnich and Zoltán Szabó, managed to take control of the Hungarian Working People's Party.

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.

A central committee plenum in February 1989 endorsed in principle the multiparty political system and the characterisation 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.

The Antall/Boross coalition governments struggled to create a reasonably well-functioning parliamentary democracy in a market-economy, and to manage the related political, social and economic crises resulting from the collapse of the former Communist system.

In the May 1994 election, the Socialists won a plurality of votes and 54% of the seats (with the new Prime Minister, Gyula Horn) after a campaign focused largely on economic issues and the substantial decline in living standards since 1990.

After a disappointing result in the 1994 elections, Fidesz under the presidency of Viktor Orbán had changed its political position from liberal to national conservative,[119][120] adding "Hungarian Civic Party" (Magyar Polgári Párt) to its shortened name.

In terms of foreign policy, the Orbán administration continued to pursue Euro-Atlantic integration as its first priority but was a more vocal advocate of minority rights for ethnic Hungarians abroad than the previous government had been.