[8] The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács in 1526 continuously until 1918 and also played a key role in the liberation wars against the Ottoman Empire.

The Hungarians, led by Árpád (who might have been either their sacred ruler or kende) or their military leader or gyula, settled the Carpathian Basin in 895 and established the Principality of Hungary (896–1000).

The nature of the relationship varied through time, Croatia retained a large degree of internal autonomy overall, while the real power rested in the hands of the local nobility.

[26] Also, one of the greatest Hungarian jurists and statesmen of the 16th century, István Werbőczy in his work Tripartitum treats Croatia as a kingdom separate to Hungary.

Especially Arabic and Byzantine travelers from this time praised the richness country, the dense pastures, the nicely cultivated lands, the plentiful animals in waters and forests.

[29][30] He implemented considerable economic reforms and defeated the remaining nobility who were in opposition to royal rule, led by Máté Csák III.

The forint was introduced as a currency, replacing the denars, and soon after Charles's reforms were implemented, the economy of the Kingdom started to prosper again, having fallen into a parlous state following the Mongol invasion.

Louis also waged wars against the Serbian Empire and the Golden Horde, restoring the Hungarian monarchs' authority over territories along the frontiers which had been lost during the previous decades.

Losing popularity among the Hungarian nobility, Sigismund soon became victim of an attempt against his rule, and Ladislaus of Anjou-Durazzo (the son of the murdered King of Naples Charles II of Hungary) was called in and crowned.

He had to deal with the Hussite movement, a religious reformist group that was born in Bohemia, and he presided at the Council of Constance, where the theologist founder Jan Hus, was judged.

[citation needed] Matthias died without legitimate heir, and was thus succeeded by Vladislaus II Jagiellon (1490–1516), the son of Casimir IV of Poland.

Due to previous agreements that the Habsburgs would take the Hungarian throne if Louis died without heirs, Ferdinand was elected king by a rump diet in December 1526.

Although the borders shifted frequently during this period, the three parts can be identified, more or less, as follows: On 29 February 1528, King John I of Hungary received the support of the Ottoman Sultan.

[35] After reaching Belgrade and met with John II Sigismund Zápolya on 27 June, Suleiman I learned that a Croatian-Hungarian nobleman, Nikola IV Zrinski, Ban of Croatia, accomplished an attack on an Ottoman military camp at Siklós.

In 1644 the Winter Campaign by Miklós Zrínyi burnt the crucial Suleiman Bridge of Osijek in eastern Slavonia, interrupting a Turkish supply line in Hungary.

Due to the adverse balance of forces, the political situation in Europe and internal conflicts the freedom fight was eventually suppressed, but it succeeded in keeping Hungary from becoming an integral part of the Habsburg Empire, and its constitution was kept, even though it was only a formality.

Each of the two states comprising Austria-Hungary exercised considerable independence, with certain institutions, notably the reigning house, defence, foreign affairs, and finances for common expenditures, remaining under joint management.

[48] After the pullout of occupation forces of Romania in 1920 the country went into civil conflict, with Hungarian anti-communists and monarchists purging the nation of communists and others by whom they felt threatened.

Selection of the new King was delayed due to civil infighting, and a regent was appointed to represent the monarchy, former Austro-Hungarian navy admiral Miklós Horthy.

The main beneficiaries were Romania, the newly formed states of Czechoslovakia, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but Austria, Poland and Italy also gained smaller territories.

The areas that were allocated to neighbouring countries in total (and each of them separately) possessed a majority of non-Hungarian population, but more than 3.3 million ethnic Hungarians were left outside the new borders of Hungary.

view this as contrary to the terms laid out by US President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points,[citation needed] which were intended to honour the ethnic makeup of the territories.

His 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 towards fulfilling a promise of major land reform by dividing about 3,850 km2 from the largest estates into smallholdings.

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.

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.

The Germans launched Operation Panzerfaust and Horthy's regime was replaced by a fascist puppet government under the pro-German Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi, thus effectively ending the possibility for independent actions in the war.

[58] After the Red Army set up police organs to persecute "class enemies", the Soviets assumed that the impoverished Hungarian populace would support the Communists in the coming elections.

[60] Soviet intervention, however, resulted in a government that disregarded Tildy, placed communists in important ministries, and imposed restrictive and repressive measures, including banning the victorious Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party.

Communist Interior Minister László Rajk established the ÁVH secret police, which suppressed political opposition through intimidation, false accusations, imprisonment and torture.