Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Hungary lies within the Danube River's drainage basin and is dominated by great lowland plains. It has a population of over 9.5 million, consisting mostly of ethnic Hungarians (Magyars) and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian is the official language and among the few in Europe outside the Indo-European family. Budapest is the country's capital, largest city, and cultural and economic centre.
Before the establishment of the Hungarian state, the territory was settled by various groups, including Celts, Romans, Huns, Germanic peoples, Avars, and Slavs. Statehood began in the late ninth century with the Principality of Hungary, which became a medieval Christian kingdom under King Stephen I in 1000. After it was defeated by the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the kingdom was split into three regions for over 150 years until its reunion under Habsburg rule before the turn of the 18th century. Several uprisings against the Habsburgs precipitated the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the Compromise of 1867; Austria-Hungary remained a European great power until World War I. Hungary's modern borders were then established by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, which resulted in severe losses for the country, including 71% of its historical territory and the majority of its economy and population; a third of ethnic Hungarians were left outside the new borders.
Hungary endured turmoil in the early interwar period, culminating in the national-conservative regime of regent Miklós Horthy. Hungary joined the Axis powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. After a brief Soviet occupation, the Hungarian People's Republic was established in 1949 as a satellite state inside the Warsaw Pact. Subsequent political repression and economic stagnation led to the unsuccessful Hungarian Revolution of 1956, though communist rule softened in the following decades. During the Revolutions of 1989, Hungary peacefully transitioned into a democratic parliamentary republic. It joined the European Union (EU) in 2004 and the Schengen Area in 2007. Under the leadership of Viktor Orbán and Fidesz from 2010 to 2026, the country experienced democratic backsliding.
Hungary is a high-income economy with universal health care and tuition-free tertiary education. It has a long history of significant contributions to arts, music, literature, sports, and science and technology. As a popular tourist destination in Europe, Hungary had 24.5 million international visitors in 2019. Hungary is a member of numerous international organizations, including the Council of Europe, EU, NATO, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Visegrád Group.
Etymology
The "H" in the name of Hungary is most likely derived from historical associations with the Huns, who had settled Hungary prior to the Avars. The rest of the word comes from the Latinised form of Byzantine GreekOungroi (Οὔγγροι). The Greek name might be borrowed from Old Slavonicągrinŭ, in turn borrowed from Oghur-TurkicOnogur ('ten [tribes of the] Ogurs'). Onogur was the collective name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. Peter B. Golden also considers the suggestion of Árpád Berta that the name derives from Khazar Turkicongar (oŋ "right", oŋar- "to make something better, to put (it) right", oŋgar- "to make something better, to put (it) right", oŋaru "towards the right") "right wing". This points to the idea that the Magyar Union before the Conquest formed the "right wing" (western wing) of the Khazar military forces.
The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar ('Hungarian') and ország ('country'). The name "Magyar", which refers to the people of the country, more accurately reflects the name of the country in some other languages such as Turkish, Persian and other languages as Magyaristan or Land of Magyars or similar. The word magyar is taken from the name of the leading tribe of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes.
History
Before 895
The Roman Empire conquered the territory between the Alps and the area west of the Danube River from 16 to 15 BC, the Danube being the frontier of the empire. In 14 BC, Pannonia, the western part of the Carpathian Basin, which includes the west of today's Hungary, was recognised by emperor Augustus in the Res Gestae Divi Augusti as part of the Roman Empire. The area south-east of Pannonia was organised as the Roman province Moesia in 6 BC. An area east of the river Tisza became the Roman province of Dacia in 106 AD, which included today's east Hungary. It remained under Roman rule until 271.
From 235, the Roman Empire went through troubled times, caused by revolts, rivalry and rapid succession of emperors. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century under the stress of the migration of Germanic tribes and Carpian pressure. This period brought many invaders into Central Europe, beginning with the Hunnic Empire (c. 370–469). The most powerful ruler of the Hunnic Empire was Attila the Hun (434–453), who later became a central figure in Hungarian mythology. After the disintegration of the Hunnic Empire, the Gepids, an Eastern Germanic tribe, who had been vassalised by the Huns, established their own kingdom in the Carpathian Basin. Other groups which reached the Carpathian Basin during the Migration Period were the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, and Slavs.
In the 560s, the Avars founded the Avar Khaganate, a state that maintained supremacy in the region for more than two centuries. The Franks under Charlemagne defeated the Avars in a series of campaigns during the 790s. Between 804 and 829, the First Bulgarian Empire conquered the lands east of the Danube and took over the rule of the local Slavic tribes and remnants of the Avars. By the mid-9th century, the Balaton Principality, also known as Lower Pannonia, was established west of the Danube as part of the Frankish March of Pannonia.
Middle Ages (895–1526)
The foundation of the Hungarian state is connected to the Hungarian conquerors, who arrived from the Pontic-Caspian steppe as a confederation of seven tribes. The Hungarians arrived in the Carpathian Basin as a branch of a strong centralised steppe-empire under the leadership of Grand Prince Álmos and his son Árpád: founders of the Árpád dynasty, the Hungarian ruling dynasty and the Hungarian state. The Árpád dynasty claimed to be a direct descendant of Attila the Hun. The Hungarians took possession of the area in a pre-planned manner, with a long move-in between 862 and 895. The rising Hungary conducted successful fierce campaigns and raids, from Constantinople to as far as today's Spain. The Hungarians defeated three major East Frankish imperial armies between 907 and 910. A defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 signalled a provisory end to most campaigns on foreign territories, at least towards the west.
By 1006, Stephen consolidated his power and started sweeping reforms to convert Hungary into a Western-style feudal state. The country switched to using Latin for administration purposes, and until as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of administration. King Saint Ladislaus completed the work of King Saint Stephen, consolidating the Hungarian state's power and strengthening Christianity. His charismatic personality, strategic leadership, and military talents resulted in the termination of internal power struggles and foreign military threats. The wife of the Croatian king Demetrius Zvonimir was Ladislaus's sister. At Helen's request, Ladislaus intervened in the conflict and invaded Croatia in 1091. The Kingdom of Croatia entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1102 with the coronation of King Coloman as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in 1102 in Biograd.
One of the most powerful and wealthiest kings of the Árpád dynasty was Béla III, who disposed of the equivalent of 23 tonnes of silver per year, according to a contemporary income register. This exceeded the income of the French king (estimated at 17 tonnes) and was double the receipts of the English Crown. Andrew II issued the Diploma Andreanum which secured the special privileges of the Transylvanian Saxons and is considered the first autonomy law in the world. He led the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1217, setting up the largest royal army in the history of Crusades. His Golden Bull of 1222 was the first constitution in Continental Europe. The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the parliament (parlamentum publicum).
In 1241–1242, the kingdom received a major blow with the Mongol (Tatar) invasion. Up to half of Hungary's population of 2 million were victims of the invasion. King Béla IV let Cumans and Jassic people, who were fleeing the Mongols, into the country. Over the centuries, they were fully assimilated. After the Mongols retreated, King Béla ordered the construction of hundreds of stone castles and fortifications, to defend against a possible second Mongol invasion. The Mongols returned to Hungary in 1285, but the newly built stone-castle systems and new tactics (using a higher proportion of heavily armed knights) stopped them. The invading Mongol force was defeated near Pest by the royal army of King Ladislaus IV. As with later invasions, it was repelled handily, the Mongols losing much of their invading force.
Age of elected kings
The Kingdom of Hungary reached one of its greatest extents during the Árpádian kings, yet royal power was weakened at the end of their rule in 1301. After a destructive period of interregnum (1301–1308), the first Angevin king, Charles I of Hungary – a bilineal descendant of the Árpád dynasty – successfully restored royal power and defeated oligarch rivals, the so-called "little kings". The second Angevin Hungarian king, Louis the Great (1342–1382), led many successful military campaigns from Lithuania to southern Italy (Kingdom of Naples) and was also King of Poland from 1370. After King Louis died without a male heir, the country was stabilised only when Sigismund of Luxembourg (1387–1437) succeeded to the throne, who in 1433 also became Holy Roman Emperor.
The first Hungarian Bible translation was completed in 1439. For half a year in 1437, there was an antifeudal and anticlerical peasant revolt in Transylvania which was strongly influenced by Hussite ideas. From a small noble family in Transylvania, John Hunyadi grew to become one of the country's most powerful lords, thanks to his capabilities as a mercenary commander. He was elected governor, then regent. He was a successful crusader against the Ottoman Turks, one of his greatest victories being the siege of Belgrade in 1456.
The last strong king of medieval Hungary was the Renaissance king Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490), son of John Hunyadi. His election was the first time that a member of the nobility mounted the Hungarian royal throne without a dynastic background. He was a successful military leader and an enlightened patron of the arts and learning. His library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana, was Europe's greatest collection of historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century, and second only in size to the Vatican Library. Items from the Bibliotheca Corviniana were inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2005. The serfs and common people considered him a just ruler because he protected them from excessive demands and other abuses by the magnates. Under his rule, in 1479, the Hungarian army destroyed the Ottoman and Wallachian troops at the Battle of Breadfield. Abroad, he defeated the Polish and German imperial armies of Frederick at Breslau (Wrocław). Matthias' mercenary standing army, the Black Army of Hungary, was an unusually large army for its time, and it conquered Vienna as well as parts of Austria and Bohemia.
King Matthias died without lawful sons, and the Hungarian magnates procured the accession of the Pole Vladislaus II (1490–1516), supposedly because of his weak influence on Hungarian aristocracy. Hungary's international role declined, its political stability was shaken, and social progress was deadlocked. In 1514, the weakened old King Vladislaus II faced a major peasant rebellion led by György Dózsa, which was ruthlessly crushed by the nobles, led by John Zápolya. The resulting degradation of order paved the way for Ottoman preeminence. In 1521, the strongest Hungarian fortress in the South, Nándorfehérvár (today's Belgrade, Serbia), fell to the Turks. The early appearance of Protestantism further worsened internal relations in the country.
Ottoman wars (1526–1699)
After some 150 years of wars with the Hungarians and other states, the Ottomans gained a decisive victory over the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, where King Louis II died while fleeing. Amid political chaos, the divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously, John Zápolya and Ferdinand I of the Habsburg dynasty. With the conquest of Buda by the Turks in 1541, Hungary was divided into three parts and remained so until the end of the 17th century. The north-western part, termed as Royal Hungary, was annexed by the Habsburgs, who ruled as kings of Hungary. The eastern part of the kingdom became independent as the Principality of Transylvania, under Ottoman (and later Habsburg) suzerainty. The remaining central area, including the capital Buda, was known as the Pashalik of Buda.