Before the Magyars

After the Romans were forced to quit the region and their Empire buckled and fell under the strain of its own size, the lands that are now Hungary saw many different tribes fight, settle, fight, withdraw and settle again. These included the Huns, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Germaninc, Slavic and Avars. At the end of the 9th Century the Magyars migrated to the region under the leader Árpád, and it was these people who it is claimed form the basis of most of what is modern day Hungary.

Medieval Hungary

After the arrival and consolidation of lands, the ruling prince Géza of the House of Árpád set about bringing the different Magyar tribes together under him and making a state based on the Western Christian ones they bordered, with the dynasty passing down on a blood basis, not passing on to the oldest surviving tribe member. Consequently he named his son Vajk, or later Stephan I, as his successor. His son went on to force most of the people to convert to Christianity and defeated his remaining enemies in the Magyar tribes before expanding the empire to include modern day Slovakia, Croatia and Transylvania.

The Mongols and the end of the Árpád dynasty

The storm from the east hit Hungary in 1241 and the Hungarian army was defeated by the Mongols in the Battle of Muhi, forcing King King Béla IV to flee and resulting in large parts of the Hungarian population dying. Many villages and towns were destroyed with only the ones having strong fortifications surviving. With this in mind, the King ordered all the building of many castles and forts in towns with the hope of withstanding a second Mongol invasion. The invasion never came, but the immense cost of the building did and the King was much weakened in his position, resulting in the feudal landlords wrestling much power from his hands. The last of Árpád's decedents was thrown from power in 1301 and Hungary was never as big again.

Hungary in the 14th and 15th century

Hungary then came under the house of the 'Anjou' or Angevin, with the second King in this line Louis I the Great of Italian origin extending his rule from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea, whilst becoming the King of Poland after the death of Casimir III the Great and temporally occupying the Kingdom of Naples. The last of the powerful Kings, was the renaissance king Matthias Corvinus, who set out to take on the Ottomans in the South-East as there had been increasing incursions into Hungarian territory. There was much expansion to the south and to the east, whilst internal reforms helped to strengthen the Kingdom from within, The Black Army under his command was power and feared and even took Vienna in 1485.

The Ottomans

For over a century and half the Ottomans ruled parts of Hungary, and this started with the destruction of the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. Confused and weakened the nobles elected two different Kings 'Szapolyai János' (1526-1540) and Ferdinand Habsburg (1527-1540) who spent much time fighting each other, which meant that the Ottomans could exert even more control including taking territory all the way up until Buda. The country was divided and ruled as either provinces or as vassal states. The Western part fell under Hapsburg rule and much of the rest was under constant violent warfare, with peasants fleeing the countryside for hope of survival in larger cities. In 1686, Austrian-led forces retook Buda and slowly the rest of the old Hungarian Empire as the Ottomans retreated. The land was slowly rebuilt and resettled in an attempt to hold the area in the future under rule from Vienna; however in the time that followed there was much internal strife as people fought for freedom of religion and the Magyars implemented more nationalistic measures which the smaller minorities could not accept. Attempts to create a free Hungarian Empire were put down by the Austrians with help from the smaller ethnic groups and the Russian army. However rebellion continued, even if in a more passive sense and so the Compromise of 1867 led to the duel Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The defeat in World War One led to the end of this Compromise and Hungary existed as a separate entity once again.

Civil Struggles, the Regency and World War Two

Struggles took place after the Great War between the Communists (who briefly took power and managed to defeat the Czechoslovaks in the west and were ready to face to Romanians in the East) and the so called Whites, who managed to eventually wrestle power form the Communists, indulged in some anti-Semitic pogroms and restore some ‘order’ to the in-fighting country. The agreements with neighbours and new territories left about one third of ethnic Hungarians outside its new borders, something which still creates tensions today. The county under right wing rule, gradually drifted towards Germany with closer economic and political ties until the eventual rise to power of the fascists. Hungary officially joined the war in 1941, but after heavy defeats was looking to surrender by 1943, realising this the Germans occupied Hungary and installed a puppet government until the eventual surrender in Budapest in February 1945.

Communist and Modern Times

Soviet Troops stayed after liberating the country and Hungary became a socialist satellite state. Tough reforms led to the revolution in 1956 which was immediately suppressed. The country then became known as “the happiest barrack“ in the Eastern Bloc under the communist leader, János Kádár. The fall of communism led to the gradual transition to a market economy and the county we know today, which became a member of the Visegrad Group in 1991, joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.