The Full Wiki

More info on Hungary

Hungary: Wikis
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Did you know ...


More interesting facts on Hungary

Include this on your site/blog:





























































Encyclopedia

Updated live from Wikipedia, last check: June 03, 2012 04:45 UTC (47 seconds ago)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the European country. For other uses, see Hungary (disambiguation).
Republic of Hungary
Magyar Köztársaság
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: none
Historically Latin: Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate ("With the help of God for Homeland and Freedom") or Regnum Mariae Patronae Hungariae ("Kingdom of Mary, the Patron of Hungary"[1]
Anthem: Himnusz ("Isten, áldd meg a magyart")
"Hymn" or "Anthem" ("God, bless the Hungarians")
Location of  Hungary  (dark green)

– on the European continent  (green & dark grey)
– in the European Union  (green)  —  [Legend]
Capital
(and largest city)		 Budapest
47°26′N 19°15′E / 47.433°N 19.25°E / 47.433; 19.25
Official language(s) Hungarian; Hungarian Sign Language
Ethnic groups  95% Magyar, 2% Roma, 3% other minority groups
Demonym Hungarian
Government Parliamentary republic
 -  President László Sólyom
 -  Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai
 -  Speaker of the National Assembly Béla Katona
Foundation
 -  Foundation of Hungary 896 
 -  Recognized as Christian Kingdom - First king: Stephen I of Hungary December 1000 
 -  Currently 3rd Republic October 23, 1989 
EU accession May 1, 2004
Area
 -  Total 93,030 km2 (109th)
35,919 sq mi 
 -  Water (%) 0.74%
Population
 -  2009 July estimate 10,020,000[2] (83rd)
 -  2001 census 10,198,315 
 -  Density 107.7/km2 (94th)
279.0/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2009 estimate
 -  Total $186.054 billion[3] (51st (2008))
 -  Per capita $18,548[3] (44th (2009))
GDP (nominal) 2009 estimate
 -  Total $124.241 billion.[3] (52nd (2008))
 -  Per capita $12,386[3] (46th (2009))
Gini (2008) 24.96 (low) (3rd)
HDI (2007) ▲ 0.879 (high) (43rd)
Currency Forint (HUF)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 -  Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Date formats yyyy.mm.dd,
yyyy.mm.dd (CE)
Drives on the right
Internet TLD .hu1
Calling code 36
1 Also .eu as part of the European Union.
Hungary en-us-Hungary.ogg /ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (help·info) (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ]  ( listen)), officially the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság About this sound listen (help·info)), is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of EU, NATO, OECD, V4 and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, which is part of the Finno-Ugric family, thus one of the four official languages of the European Union that are not of Indo-European origin.[note 1]
Following a Celtic (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (9 BC – c. 430) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian ruler Árpád, whose great-grandson Stephen I of Hungary was crowned with a crown sent from Rome by the pope in 1000. The Kingdom of Hungary lasted for 946 years,[note 2] and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centers of the Western world. The Battle of Mohács resulted in Ottoman occupation, followed by an integration into the Habsburg Monarchy, and later constituting half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy. A great power until the end of World War I, Hungary lost over 70% of its territory, along with one third of its population of Hungarian ethnicity,[4] under the Treaty of Trianon,[5] the terms of which have been considered excessively harsh by many in Hungary.[6] The kingdom was succeeded by a Communist era (1947–1989) during which Hungary gained widespread international attention regarding the Revolution of 1956 and the seminal move of opening its border with Austria in 1989, thus accelerating the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. The present form of government is a parliamentary republic (since 1989). Today, Hungary is a high-income economy,[7] and a regional leader regarding certain markers.[8][9][10][11]
Hungary is ranked 20th globally (out of 194 countries) on International Living's Quality of Life index (2010)[12] and 6th in an environmental protection index by GW/CAN.[13] Until recently, it was also listed as one of the 15 most popular tourist destinations in the world.[14][15] The country is home to the largest thermal water cave system[16] and the second largest thermal lake in the world (Lake Hévíz), the largest lake in Central Europe (Lake Balaton), and the largest natural grasslands in Europe (Hortobágy).

Contents

History

Before 895 AD

The treasure of Nagyszentmiklós illustrating the Álmos legend from the Hungarian mythology: Emese's dream of the Turul bird
From 9 BC to the end of the 4th century, Pannonia was part of the Roman Empire on a part of later Hungary's area. In the final stages of the expansion of the Roman empire, the Carpathian Basin fell for a while into the sphere of the Mediterranean, yet Greco-Roman civilization, its town centers, paved roads, and written sources were all part of the advances which the Migration of Peoples ended.
Among the first to arrive were the Huns, who built up a powerful empire under Attila the Hun. Attila was regarded as an ancestral ruler of the Hungarians, however, this claim is rejected today by most scholars. After Hunnish rule faded away, the Germanic Ostrogoths and then the Lombards came to Pannonia, and the Gepids had a presence in the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin for about 100 years. In the 560s the Avars founded the Avar Khaganate,[17] a state which maintained supremacy in the region for more than two centuries and had the military power to launch attacks against all its neighbours. The Avar Khaganate was weakened by constant wars and outside pressure and finally the Avars' 250 year rule ended when the Khaganate was conquered by the Franks under Charlemagne in the West and the Bulgarians under Krum in the East. Neither of these two nor others were able to create a lasting state in the region, and in the late 9th century the land was inhabited only by a sparse population of Slavs.[18]
It was King Arnulf I of Bavaria who invited the Hungarians to occupy Svatopluk's lands east of the Danube.[19] In 894, while Simeon I of Bulgaria attacked the Byzantine Empire, Svatopluk challenged Arnulf by invading Pannonia.[19] Both Arnulf and Leo VI the Wise sought help from the Hungarians who were well placed to attack the Bulgarians and the Moravians from the rear.[19] Arnulf maintained the alliance with the Hungarians until his death in 899.[19]
The freshly unified Magyars (Hungarians)[20] led by Árpád settled in the Carpathian Basin starting in 895.[18][21] According to linguists they are thought to have originated in an ancient Finno-Ugric population that originally inhabited the forested area between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains,[22] although the genetic relation of Hungarians to Finno-Ugric peoples is excluded. The force lead by Árpád contained seven Magyar, one Kabar, and other smaller tribes.[18]

Medieval Hungary (895–1526)

Hungarian raids in the 10th century. Most European nations were praying for mercy: "Sagittis hungarorum libera nos Domine" - "Lord save us from the arrows of Hungarians"
Detail of the cyclorama, Arrival of the Hungarians by Árpád Feszty, depicting the arrival to the Carpathian Basin in 895.
Main articles: History of Hungary, Pannonian basin before Hungary, Hungarian prehistory, and Pannonia
First Hungarian coin, by Duke Géza circa the end of 970s.
The Old Hungarian script, the so-called "Rovás alphabet"
Main articles: Árpád dynasty, Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages, and History of the Székely people
Hungary is one of the oldest countries in Europe, settled in 896, before France and Germany became separate entities, and before the unification of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Árpád was the Magyar leader whom sources name as the single leader who unified the Magyar tribes via the "Covenant of Blood" (Hungarian: vérszerződés) forged one nation, thereafter known as the Hungarian nation[23] and led the new nation to the Carpathian Basin in the 9th century.[23] After an early seminomad Hungarian state, the Principality of Hungary was formed in this territory, the nation's military power allowed the Hungarians to conduct successful fierce campaigns and raids from Constantinople as far as today's Spain.[24] A later defeat at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 signaled an end to most campaigns on foreign territories. The ruling prince (Hungarian: fejedelem) Géza of the Árpád dynasty, who was the ruler of only some of the united territory, but the nominal overlord of all seven Magyar tribes, intended to integrate Hungary into Christian Western Europe.[25] and the first Roman Catholic bishopric was established under his reign. Géza chose his first-born son (Vajk the later King Stephen I of Hungary) to be his successor. This was contrary to the then-dominant tradition of the succession of the eldest surviving member of the ruling family. (See: agnatic seniority) By ancestral right prince Koppány, - as the oldest member of the dynasty - should have claimed the throne, but the fight in the chief prince's family started after Géza's death, in 997. Duke Koppány took up arms, and many people in Transdanubia joined him. The rebels represented the old faith and order, tribal independence and pagan belief. Stephen won a decisive victory over his uncle Koppány in a large scale battle at Veszprém, and had him executed, thus firming Christian fate and ensuring the survival and prosperity of Hungary.

The Patrimonial Kingdom

Main articles: Stephen I of Hungary, Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary), and Doctrine of the Holy Crown
Hungary in the 11th century
The Holy Crown of Hungary, the key symbol of Hungary
Romanesque church of Pécs
Gothic Church of Our Lady in Buda
King Stephen I of Hungary, patron saint of Kings (from the Chronicon Hungariae Pictum)
Reliquary, Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary (c.1040–1095)
King Béla's III tomb
Andrew II in the Holy Land (After he defeated Sultan of Egypt)
Golden Bull of 1222
Early renaissance Castle of Diósgyőr, which was one of the favourite rural hunting castles of Angevin kings

Hungary was recognized as a Catholic Apostolic Kingdom under Saint Stephen I, the son of Géza[26] and thus a descendant of Árpád.
Applying to Pope Sylvester II, Stephen received the insignia of royalty (including the Holy Crown of Hungary, currently kept in the Hungarian Parliament) from the papacy. He was crowned in December 1000, in the capital, Esztergom. The papacy conferred on him the right to have the cross carried before him, with full administrative authority over bishoprics and churches. By 1006, Stephen had consolidated his power, eliminating all rivals who either wanted to follow the old pagan traditions or wanted an alliance with the Eastern Christian Byzantine Empire. Then he started sweeping reforms to convert Hungary into a western feudal state, it has been asserted that the Christianisation was forced.[27] Stephen established a network of 10 episcopal and 2 archiepiscopal sees, and ordered the building of monasteries, churches and cathedrals. The country switched to using the Latin language and alphabet under Stephen, and until as late as 1844, Latin remained the official language of Hungary. Previously Hungarian had been written with the Old Hungarian script, a runic script. Stephen followed the Frankish administrative model: The country was divided into counties (Hungarian: megye), each under a royal official called an ispán or count (Latin: comes) — later főispán (lord lieutenant or prefect) (Latin: supremus comes). This official represented the king’s authority, administered its population, and collected the taxes that formed the national revenue. Each ispán maintained at his fortified headquarters (castrum or vár) an armed force of freemen.
What emerged was a strong kingdom[28] that withstood attacks from German kings and Emperors, and nomadic tribes following the Hungarians from the East, integrating some of the latter into the population (along with Germans invited to Transylvania and the northern part of the kingdom, especially after the 13th century Battle of Mohi), and conquering Croatia in 1091.[29][30][31]
After the Great Schism (The East-West Schism /formally in 1054/, between Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.) Hungary determined itself as the Easternmost bastion of Western civilization. The Orthodox powers regarded Hungary as the main obstacle in their desire to introduce Orthodoxy into the Western World. However every such Eastern effort has been halted at the gates of Hungary.[32]
Important members of the Árpád dynasty
King Coloman (Kálmán), the "Book-lover" (1095–1116)
One of Coloman's most famous laws was half a millennium ahead of its time: De strigis vero quae non sunt, nulla amplius quaestio fiat (As for witches, they really do not exist; no further investigations or trials are to be held).
Béla III (1172–1192)
Béla III was the most powerful and wealthiest member of the dynasty: Béla disposed of the equivalent of 23 tonnes of pure silver per year. This exceeded the income of the French king (estimated at 17 tonnes) and was double the receipts of the English Crown.[33] He forced back the Byzantine domain in the Balkan region.
Andrew II of Hungary (1205–1235)
In 1224, Andrew issued the Diploma Andreanum which unified and secured the special privileges of the Transylvanian Saxons. It is considered the first Autonomy law in the world.[34]
He led the Fifth Crusade to the Holy Land in 1217. He set up the largest royal army in the history of Crusades (20,000 knights and 12,000 castle-garrisons). The Golden Bull of 1222 was the first constitution in Continental Europe. It limited the king's power. The Golden Bull — the Hungarian equivalent of England’s Magna Carta — to which every Hungarian king thereafter had to swear, had a twofold purpose: to reaffirm the rights of the lesser nobles of the old and new classes of royal servants (servientes regis) against both the crown and the magnates, and to defend the rights of the whole nation against the crown by restricting certain powers of the crown and legalizing refusal to obey its unlawful/unconstitutional commands (the ius resistendi). The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the parliament, or Diet. Hungary became the first country where the parliament had supremacy over the crown. The most important legal ideology and legislative guideline was the Doctrine of the Holy Crown.
Important points of the Doctrine: The sovereignty belongs to the noble nation (the Holy Crown). The members of the Holy Crown are the citizens of the Crown's lands. None can reach full power in the kingdom. The nation shares political power with the ruler. "Politically minority opinions cannot rule over majority". (Which meant: The Doctrine was opposed to tyranny and oligarchy).
The Mongol attacks, consequences and reaction
Main article: Mongol invasion of Europe
In 1241–1242, the kingdom received a major blow with the Mongol (Tatar) Invasion: after the defeat of the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohi,[35] Béla IV of Hungary fled, and a large part of the population died[36] in the ensuing destruction leading later to the invitation of settlers, largely from Germany. Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary's then population of 2,000,000 were victims of the Mongol invasion.[37] Only castles, strongly fortified cities and abbeys could withstand the assault.
During the Russian campaign, the Mongols drove some 40,000 Cumans, a nomadic tribe of pagan Kipchaks, west of the Carpathian Mountains.[38] There, the Cumans appealed to King Béla IV of Hungary for protection.[39] The Iranian Jassic people came to Hungary together with the Cumans after they were defeated by the Mongols. Cumans constituted perhaps up to 7-8% of the population of Hungary in the second half of the 13th century.[40] Over the centuries they were fully assimilated into the Hungarian population, and their language disappeared, but they preserved their identity and their regional autonomy until 1876.[41]
As a consequence, 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 1286, but the new 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 Ladislaus IV of Hungary. As with later invasions, it was repelled handily, the Mongols losing much of their invading force.
These castles proved to be very important later in the long struggle with the Ottoman Empire. However the cost of building them indebted the Hungarian King to the major feudal landlords again, so the royal power reclaimed by Béla IV after his father Andrew II significantly weakened it. The countries of Balkan region and the territory of Russian states fell under Ottoman/Mongolian rule very rapidly, due to the lack of the network of stone/brick castles and fortresses in these countries.

Age of elected Kings

King Charles' last battle against the oligarchy, Rozgony (1312).
King Louis the Great
“The Hungarian Cannon,named after the Hungarian engineer Orban who cast the gun for the Ottoman besiegers of Constantinople.It was the world's biggest cannon until the second half of the 19th century.These types of cannons appeared in Siege of (Belgrade) too
Lands, countries kingdoms under Louis' control)
Gothic-renaissance Hunyad Castle in Transylvania.
Count John Hunyadi - One of the greatest warlords in Hungarian history, Matthias Corvinus's father
Main articles: Ottoman–Hungarian Wars, Louis the Great, Emperor Sigismund, Order of the Dragon, and John Hunyadi
Árpád's direct descendants in the male line ruled the country until 1301. During the reigns of the Árpád dynasty, the Kingdom of Hungary reached its greatest extent, yet royal power was weakened as the major landlords (the Barons) greatly increased their influence. The most powerful landlords started to use royal prerogatives (coinage, customs, their own independent diplomacy, declaration of wars against foreign monarchs). After the destructive period of interregnum (1301–1308), the first Angevin king, Charles I of Hungary (reigned 1308–1342) - a descendant of the Árpád dynasty in the female line - successfully restored royal power, and defeated oligarch rivals, the so called "little kings". His new fiscal, customs and monetary policies proved successful during his reign. One of the primary sources of his power was the wealth derived from the gold mines of eastern and northern Hungary. Eventually production reached the remarkable figure of 3,000 lb. (1350 kg) of gold annually - one third of the total production of the world as then known, and five times as much as that of any other European state.[42][43] Charles also sealed an alliance with the Polish king Casimir. After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the renaissance appeared.[44]
The second Hungarian king in the Angevin line, Louis the Great (reigned 1342–1382) extended his rule as far as the Adriatic Sea, and occupied the Kingdom of Naples several times. During his reign lived the most famous epic hero of Hungarian literature and warfare, the king's Champion: Nicolas Toldi. Louis had become popular in Poland because of his campaign against the Tatars and pagan Lithuanians. Two successful wars (1357–1358, 1378–1381) against Venice annexed Dalmatia and Ragusa and more territories on the Adriatic Sea. Venice also had to raise the Angevin flag in St. Mark's Square on holy days. Some Balkan states (Vallachia, Moldova, Serbia, Bosnia) became his vassals. Louis I established a university in Pécs in 1367 (by papal accordance). The Ottoman Turks confronted the Balkan vassal states ever more often. In 1366 and 1377, Louis led successful campaigns against the Ottomans (Battle of Nicapoli in 1366). From the death of Casimir III of Poland in 1370, he was also king of Poland. He retained his strong influence in the political life of Italian Peninsula for the rest of his life.
King Louis died without a male heir, and after years of anarchy the country was stabilized only when Sigismund (reigned 1387–1437), a prince of the Luxembourg line, succeeded to the throne by marrying the daughter of Louis the Great, Queen Mary. It was not for entirely selfless reasons that one of the leagues of barons helped him to power: Sigismund had to pay for the support of the lords by transferring a sizeable part of the royal properties. For some years, the baron's council governed the country in the name of the Holy Crown; the king was imprisoned for a short time. The restoration of the authority of the central administration took decades. In 1404 Sigismund introduced the Placetum Regnum. According to this decree, Papal bulls and messages could not be pronounced in Hungary without the consent of the king. Sigismund summoned the Council of Constance (1414–1418) to abolish the Avignon Papacy and the Papal Schism of the Catholic Church, which was resolved by the election of a new pope. In 1433 he even became Holy Roman Emperor. During his long reign the Royal castle of Buda became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. The first Hungarian Bible translation was completed in 1439. For a half year in 1437, there was an antifeudal and anticlerical peasant revolt in Transylvania which was strongly influenced by Hussite ideas. (See: Budai Nagy Antal Revolt)
From a small noble family in Transylvania, John Hunyadi grew to become one of the country's most powerful lords, thanks to his outstanding capabilities as a mercenary commander. In 1446, the parliament elected the great general John Hunyadi governor (1446–1453), then regent (1453–1456). He was a successful crusader against the Ottoman Turks, one of his greatest victories being the Siege of Belgrade in 1456. Hunyadi defended the city against the onslaught of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. During the siege, Pope Callixtus III ordered the bells of every European church to be rung every day at noon, as a call for believers to pray for the defenders of the city. However, in many countries, (like England and Spanish kingdoms), the news of the victory arrived before the order, and the ringing of the church bells at noon was transformed into a commemoration of the victory. The Popes didn't withdraw the order, and Catholic (and the older Protestant) churches still ring the noon bell in the Christian world to this day.[45]

Age of early absolutism

Matthias Corvinus, the Renaissance king
Western conquests of Matthias Corvinus
Main article: Matthias Corvinus
The last strong king was the Renaissance king Matthias Corvinus (king 1458–1490). Matthias was the son of John Hunyadi. András Hess set up a printing press in Buda in 1472, which was very unique at that time in Europe. This was the first time in the history of the Hungarian kingdom that a member of the nobility, without dynastic ancestry and relationship, mounted the royal throne. A true Renaissance prince, a successful military leader and administrator, an outstanding linguist, a learned astrologer, and an enlightened patron of the arts and learning.[46] Although Matthias regularly convened the Diet and expanded the lesser nobles' powers in the counties, he exercised absolute rule over Hungary by means of a huge secular bureaucracy. He set out to build a great empire, expanding southward and northwest, while he also implemented internal reforms. The serfs and common people considered him a just ruler because he protected them from excessive demands from and other abuses by the magnates.[47] Like his father, Matthias desired to strengthen the Kingdom of Hungary to the point where it became the foremost regional power and overlord, strong enough to push back the Ottomans; to that end he deemed it necessary to conquer much of the Holy Roman Empire.[citation needed] In 1479, under the leadership of Pál Kinizsi, 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). Hungarian power was confirmed by the Treaty of Olomouc (1479). His mercenary standing army, the Black Army of Hungary was an unusually large army for its time, and it conquered parts of Austria, Vienna (1485) and parts of Bohemia. The king died without a legal successor. 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 which mainly contained Bibles and religious material. His renaissance library is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[48]

Decline of Hungary (1490-1526)

Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia, the 20 years old king, who died at Battle of Mohács.
Dózsa's peasant war
The battle of Mohács, by Bertalan Székely
Main articles: Dozsa Rebellion and Battle of Mohács
By the early 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had become the second most populous state in the world; this enabled the creation of the largest armies of the era.
The Hungarian magnates, who did not want another heavy-handed king, procured the accession of Vladislaus II (reigned 1490–1516), king of Bohemia because of his notorious weakness: he was known as King Dobže, or Dobzse in Hungarian orthography (king "okay") from his habit of accepting without question every petition and document laid before him.[46] Under his reign the central power began to experience severe financial difficulties, mostly because of the enlargement of feudal lands at his expense. The magnates also dismantled the national administration systems and bureaucracy throughout the country. The country's defenses sagged as border guards and castle garrisons went unpaid, fortresses fell into disrepair, and initiatives to increase taxes to reinforce defenses were stifled.[49] Hungary's international role declined, its political stability 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 János Szapolyai. The resulting degradation of order paved the way for Ottoman pre-eminence. In 1521, the strongest Hungarian fortress in the South, Nándorfehérvár (modern Belgrade) fell to the Turks. The strongest nobles were so busy oppressing the peasants and quarrelling with gentry class in the parliament, that they failed to heed the agonized calls of king Louis II against the Turks. The early appearance of protestantism further worsened internal relations in the anarchical country. In 1526, the Hungarian army was crushed at the Battle of Mohács by the Ottomans. The childless young king Louis II, and the leader of the Hungarian army, Pál Tomori died on the battlefield.
Through the centuries Hungary kept its old constitution, which granted special freedoms or rights to the nobility, the free royal towns such as Buda, Kassa (Košice), Pozsony (Bratislava), and Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca) and groups such as the Jassic people and the Transylvanian Saxons.

Ottoman wars 1526–1699

Main articles: Ottoman Hungary, Principality of Transylvania, Ottoman–Habsburg wars, Wesselényi conspiracy, Edict of Turda, and Battle of Saint Gotthard (1664)
Hungary around 1550
"Women of Eger"
The largest expansion of Turks (1683)
Turkish attack on a river fortress (Szigetvár 1566)
Siege of a town (Érsekújvár, 1663)
The siege of united Christian forces in Buda, 1686
After some 150 years of wars with the Hungarians and other states, the Ottomans conquered parts of Hungary, and continued their expansion until 1556. The Ottomans gained a decisive victory over the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. The next decades were characterised by political chaos; the divided Hungarian nobility elected two kings simultaneously, 'Szapolyai János' (1526–1540) and Ferdinand Habsburg (1527–1540), whose feud for the throne further weakened the kingdom. With the conquest of Buda in 1541 by the Turks, Hungary was divided into three parts. Even with a decisive 1552 victory over the Ottomans at the Siege of Eger, which raised the hopes of the Hungarians, the country remained divided until the end of the 17th century. The north-western part (see map) termed as Royal Hungary was annexed by the Habsburgs who ruled as Kings of Hungary. The eastern part of the kingdom (Partium and Transylvania), in turn, became independent as the Principality of Transylvania, under Ottoman (and later Habsburg) suzerainty. The remaining central area (mostly present-day Hungary), including the capital of Buda was known as the Pashalik of Buda. A large part of the area became devastated by permanent warfare. Most smaller settlements disappeared.

Pozsony (today Bratislava) became the new capital (1536–1784), coronation town (1563–1830) and seat of the Diet (1536–1848) of Hungary. Nagyszombat (today Trnava) in turn, became the religious center in 1541. After the middle of the 16th century and the beginning of the Counter Reformation of Habsburgs, the strife between the Protestant Hungarians and the Catholic Habsburgs became increasingly violent.[50] The Turks were indifferent to the Christian religion of their subjects and the Habsburg counter-reformation measures could not reach this area. As a result, the majority of the population of the area became Protestant (Calvinist)[citation needed].

In 1558 the Transylvanian Diet of Turda declared free practice of both the Catholic and Lutheran religions, but prohibited Calvinism. Ten years later, in 1568, the Diet extended this freedom, declaring that "It is not allowed to anybody to intimidate anybody with captivity or expelling for his religion". Four religions were declared as accepted (recepta) religions, while Orthodox Christianity was "tolerated" (though the building of stone Orthodox churches was forbidden). Hungary entered the Thirty Years' War, Royal (Habsburg) Hungary joined the catholic side, until Transylvania joined the Protestant side.
There were a series of other successful and unsuccessful anti-Habsburg /i.e. anti-Austrian/ (requiring equal rights and freedom for all Christian religions) uprisings between 1604 and 1711, the uprisings were usually organized from Transylvania.
In 1686, two years after the unsuccessful siege of Buda, a renewed European campaign was started to enter the Hungarian capital. This time, the Holy League's army was twice a large, containing over 74,000 men, including German, Croat, Dutch, Hungarian, English, Spanish, Czech, Italian, French, Burgundian, Danish and Swedish soldiers, along with other Europeans as volunteers, artilleryman, and officers; with this force, the Christian forces reconquered Buda. The second Battle of Mohács (1687) and Battle of Zenta (1697) were crushing defeats for the Turks, in the next few years, all of the former Hungarian lands, except areas near Temesvár (Timişoara), were taken from the Turks. In the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz these territorial changes were officially recognized, and in 1718 the entire Kingdom of Hungary was removed from Ottoman rule. The constrained Habsburg Counter-Reformation efforts in the seventeenth century reconverted the majority of the kingdom to Catholicism. The Hungarian aristocracy successfully preserved its former positions in the political and economic sphere.

Ethnic aftermath of Ottoman wars

As a consequence of the prolonged constant warfare between Hungarians and Ottoman Turks, population growth was stunted and the network of medieval settlements with their urbanized bourgeois inhabitants perished. The 150 years of Turkish wars fundamentally changed the ethnic composition of Hungary. As a result of demographic losses including deportations and massacres, the number of ethnic Hungarians in existence at the end of the Turkish period was substantially diminished.[51]
The Hungarian people (the vast majority of Hungarian lowborn people hated[citation needed] the Habsburg monarchs) were considered rebellious by Habsburg Monarchs. After the "liberation" of Hungary from the Turks, The Austrian — Habsburg government settled large groups of Serbs and other Slavs in the south, allowed mass Vlach (Romanian) immigration into Transylvania and settled Germans in various areas, but not a single Hungarian person was allowed to settle or re-settle in the south of the Great Plain.[52]

History of Hungary 1700–1919

Main articles: History of Hungary 1700–1919, István Széchenyi, Austria–Hungary, Lajos Kossuth, and Hungarian Revolution of 1848
Ferenc Rákóczi
BME, The oldest University of Technology in the World, founded in 1782
Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Buda and Pest, Until 1848, the bridge was the world's biggest suspension bridge(1839–1848) in its era. It was a technological experiment too.
The greatest Hungarian István Széchenyi, as said by Lajos Kossuth.
Statue of Lajos Kossuth in the United States Capitol
Artist Mihály Zichy's rendition of poet Sándor Petőfi reciting the Nemzeti dal to a crowd on March 15, 1848
Map of the counties in the Kingdom of Hungary 19th century
Between 1703 and 1711 there was a large-scale uprising led by Francis II Rákóczi, who after the dethronement of the Habsburgs in 1707 at the Diet of Ónód, took power provisionally as the "Ruling Prince" of Hungary for the wartime period, but refused the Hungarian Crown and the title "King". After 8 years of war with the Habsburg Empire the Hungarian Kuruc army lost the last main battle at Battle of Trencin (Trencsény) (1711); however, they also had successful actions, for example when Ádám Balogh almost captured the Austrian Emperor with Kuruc troops. When Austrians defeated the uprising in 1711, Rákóczi was in Poland. He later fled to France, finally Turkey, and lived to the end of his life (1735) in nearby Rodosto. Ladislas Ignace de Bercheny who was the son of Miklós Bercsényi immigrated to France and created the first French hussar regiment. Afterwards, to make further armed resistance impossible, the Austrians blew up Hungarian castles (most of the castles on the border between the now-reclaimed territories occupied earlier by the Ottomans and Royal Hungary), and allowed peasants to use the stones from most of the others as building material. In this century lived one of the most famous Hungarian Hussars named Michael de Kovats who created the US cavalry in the American Revolutionary War. He has a statue now in Charleston.

The Period of Reforms (1825–1848)

During the Napoleonic Wars and afterwards, the Hungarian Diet had not convened for decades.[citation needed] In the 1820s, the Emperor was forced to convene the Diet, and thus a Reform Period (Hungarian: reformkor) began. Nevertheless, its progress was slow, because the nobles insisted on retaining their privileges (no taxation, exclusive voting rights, etc.). Therefore the achievements were mostly of national character (e.g. introduction of Hungarian as one of the official languages of the country, instead of the former Latin).
Count István Széchenyi, one of the most prominent statesmen of the country recognized the urgent need of modernization and his message got through. The Hungarian Parliament was reconvened in 1825 to handle financial needs. A liberal party emerged in the Diet. The party focused on providing for the peasantry. Lajos Kossuth - famous journalist at the time - emerged as leader of the lower gentry in the Parliament. Habsburg monarchs tried to preclude[citation needed] the industrialisation of the country. A remarkable upswing started as the nation concentrated its forces on modernisation even though the Habsburg monarchs obstructed all important liberal laws about the human civil and political rights and economic reforms. Many reformers (like Lajos Kossuth, Mihály Táncsics) were imprisoned by the authorities.

Revolution and War of Independence

Main article: Hungarian Revolution of 1848
On March 15, 1848, mass demonstrations in Pest and Buda enabled Hungarian reformists to push through a list of 12 demands. Faced with revolution both at home and in Vienna, Austria first had to accept Hungarian demands. Later, under governor and president Lajos Kossuth and the first Prime Minister, Lajos Batthyány, the House of Habsburg was dethroned and the form of government was changed to create the first Republic of Hungary. After the Austrian revolution was suppressed, emperor Franz Joseph replaced his epileptic uncle Ferdinand I as Emperor. The Habsburg Ruler and his advisors skillfully manipulated the Croatian, Serbian and Romanian peasantry, led by priests and officers firmly loyal to the Habsburgs, and induced them to rebel against the Hungarian government. The Hungarians were supported by the vast majority of the Slovak, German and Rusyn nationalities and by all the Jews of the kingdom, as well as by a large number of Polish, Austrian and Italian volunteers.[53] In July 1849 the Hungarian Parliament proclaimed and enacted the first laws of ethnic and minority rights in the world. Many members of the nationalities gained coveted the highest positions within the Hungarian Army, like General János Damjanich, an ethnic Serb who became a Hungarian national hero through his command of the 3rd Hungarian Army Corps. Initially, the Hungarian forces (Honvédség) defeated Austrian armies. To counter the successes of the Hungarian revolutionary army, Franz Joseph asked for help from the "Gendarme of Europe," Czar Nicholas I, whose Russian armies invaded Hungary. The huge army of the Russian Empire and the Austrian forces proved too powerful for the Hungarian army, and General Artúr Görgey surrendered in August 1849. Julius Jacob von Haynau, the leader of the Austrian army, then became governor of Hungary for a few months, ordered the execution of the 13 Martyrs of Arad, leaders of the Hungarian army, as well as Prime Minister Batthyány in October 1849. Lajos Kossuth escaped into exile. Following the war of 1848 – 1849, the whole country was in "passive resistance". Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen was appointed governor of the Kingdom of Hungary, and this time was remembered for Germanization pursued with the help of Czech officers.[citation needed]

Austria–Hungary (1867–1918)

Heroes' Square in Budapest
Cutaway Drawing of Millennium Underground in Budapest (1894–1896) which was the first underground in Continental Europe
Automobile from 1904 (produced in Hungary) Between 1900 and 1918, there were 10 automotive factories in Hungary
King Charles IV of Hungary, with Zita and their child: Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg. Coronation portrait Budapest, 1916
Because of external and internal problems, reforms seemed inevitable to secure the integrity of the Habsburg Empire. Major military defeats of Austria, like the Battle of Königgrätz (1866), forced the Emperor to concede internal reforms. To appease Hungarian separatism, the Emperor made a deal with Hungary, negotiated by Ferenc Deák, called the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, by which the dual Monarchy of Austria–Hungary came into existence. The two realms were governed separately by two parliaments from two capital cities, with a common monarch and common external and military policies. Economically, the empire was a customs union. The first prime minister of Hungary after the Compromise was Count Gyula Andrássy. The old Hungarian Constitution was restored, and Franz Joseph was crowned as King of Hungary.
Austria-Hungary was geographically the second largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire (239,977 sq. m in 1905 [54]), and the third most populous (after Russia and the German Empire).
The era witnessed an impressive economic development. The formerly backward Hungarian economy became relatively modern and industrialized by the turn of the century, although agriculture remained dominant until 1890. In 1873, the old capital Buda and Óbuda(Ancient Buda) were officially merged with the third city, Pest, thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. The dynamic Pest grew into the country's administrative, political, economic, trade and cultural hub. Technological change accelerated industrialization and urbanization. The GNP per capita grew roughly 1.45% per year from 1870 to 1913. That level of growth compared very favorably to that of other European nations such as Britain (1.00%), France (1.06%), and Germany (1.51%). Many of the state institutions and the modern administrative system of Hungary were established during this period.
Because of various reasons including migration of millions[citation needed], the census in 1910 (excluding Croatia) recorded the following distribution of population: Hungarian 54.5%, Romanian 16.1%, Slovak 10.7%, and German 10.4%. The largest religious denomination was the Roman Catholic (49.3%), followed by the Calvinist (14.3%), Greek Orthodox (12.8%) /Romanians Serbians Ruthenians), Greek Catholic (11.0%), Lutheran (7.1%), and Jewish (5.0%) religions. In 1910, 6.37% of the population were eligible to vote in elections through census.[55]

World War I

Main article: Hungary in World War I
Hungarian built dreadnought class battleship SMS Szent Istvan at Pula (military dock)
A submarine from the U-27 series.
After the Assassination in Sarajevo the Hungarian prime minister, István Tisza and his cabinet (sole in Europe) tried to avoid the breaking out and escalating of a war in Europe, but his diplomatic attempts remained unsuccessful.
Austria–Hungary drafted 9 million (fighting forces: 7,8 million) soldiers in World War I (4 million from the Kingdom of Hungary). In World War I Austria–Hungary was fighting on the side of Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey. The Central Powers conquered Serbia. Romania proclaimed war. The Central Powers conquered Southern Romania and the Romanian capital Bucharest. On November 1916 Emperor Franz Joseph died, the new monarch Charles IV sympathized with the pacifists. With great difficulty, the Central powers stopped and repelled the attacks of the Russian Empire. The Eastern front of the Allied (Entente) Powers completely collapsed. The Austro-Hungarian Empire then withdrew from all defeated countries. On the Italian front, the Austro-Hungarian army could not make more successful progress against Italy after January 1918. Despite great Eastern successes, Germany suffered complete defeat in the more determinant Western front. By 1918, the economic situation had deteriorated (strikes in factories were organized by leftist and pacifist movements), and uprisings in the army had become commonplace. In the capital cities (Vienna and Budapest), the Austrian and the Hungarian leftist liberal movements (the maverick parties) and their leader politicians supported and strengthened the separatism of ethnic minorities. Austria-Hungary signed general armistice in Padua on 3 November 1918. In October 1918, the personal union with Austria was dissolved.

Between the two world wars (1918–1941)

Main articles: Treaty of Trianon, Hungarian Soviet Republic, and Hungarian Communist Party, Béla Kun, Hungarian Revolutionary War, Hungary between the two world wars, Hungarian interwar economy, First Vienna Award, and Second Vienna Award
World War I Memorial in Solt, Hungary

The first Republic of Hungary

In 1918, as a political result of German defeat on the Western front in World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy collapsed. French troops landed in Greece to rearm the defeated Romania, Serbia and the newly formed Czech state. Despite the general armistice agreement, the Balkanian French army organized new campaigns against Hungary with the help of Czech, Romanian, and Serbian governments.
On October 31, 1918, the success of the Aster Revolution in Budapest brought the left liberal count Mihály Károlyi to power as Prime-Minister. Roving soldiers assassinated István Tisza.[56] Károlyi was a devotee of Entente from the beginning of the World War. By a notion of Woodrow Wilson's pacifism, Károlyi ordered the full disarmament of Hungarian Army. Hungary remained without national defense in the darkest hour of its history. On 5 November 1918 Serbian Army with French involvement attacked Southern parts of the country, on 8 November Czech Army invaded Northern part of Hungary (present-day Slovakia), on 12 November Romanian Army started to attack the Eastern (Transylvanian) parts of Hungary. The First Republic was proclaimed on 16 November 1918 with Károlyi being named as president. The Károlyi government pronounced illegal all armed associations and proposals which wanted to defend the integrity of the country. The Károlyi government also dissolved the gendarme and police, the lack of police force caused big problems in the country. By February 1919 the government had lost all popular support, having failed on domestic and military fronts. On March 21, after the Entente military representative demanded more and more territorial concessions from Hungary, Károlyi resigned. Károlyi (with a new Czechoslovakian passport and Czechoslovak diplomatic help) moved to Paris.

The Hungarian Soviet Republic

The multiethnic nature of Budapest in 1919: The Heroes Square of Budapest in red. The Communists wanted to destroy all Hungarian historical monuments, statues and national symbols.
The Communist Party of Hungary, led by Béla Kun, came to power and proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The Communists also promised equality and social justice. The Communists – "The Reds" – came to power largely thanks to being the only group with an organized fighting force, and they promised that Hungary would defend its territory without conscription. (possibly with the help of the Soviet Red Army). Hence: the Red Army of Hungary was a little voluntary army (53,000 men). Most soldiers of the Red Army were armed factory workers from Budapest. In terms of domestic policy, the Communist government nationalized industrial and commercial enterprises, socialized housing, transport, banking, medicine, cultural institutions, and all landholdings of more than 400,000 square metres. The support of the Communists proved to be short lived in Budapest. The Soviet Red Army was never able to aid the new Hungarian republic. Despite the great military successes against Czechoslovakian army, the communist leaders gave back all recaptured lands. That attitude demoralized the voluntary army. The Hungarian Red Army was dissolved before it could successfully complete its campaigns. The Communists had never been popular in country towns and countryside. In the aftermath of a coup attempt, the government took a series of actions called the Red Terror, murdering several hundred people (mostly intellectuals), which alienated much of the population. In the face of domestic backlash and an advancing Romanian force, Béla Kun and most of his comrades fled to Austria, while Budapest was occupied on August 6. Kun and his followers illegally took along numerous art treasures and the gold stocks of the National Bank.[57] All these events, and in particular the final military defeat, led to a deep feeling of dislike among the general population against the Soviet Union (which had not kept its promise to offer military assistance) and the Jews (since most members of Kun's government were Jewish).

The restored Kingdom of Hungary

Trianon memorial, Békéscsaba.
The new fighting force in Hungary were the Conservative Royalists counter-revolutionaries – the "Whites". These, who had been organizing in Vienna and established a counter-government in Szeged, assumed power, led by István Bethlen, a Transylvanian aristocrat, and rear-admiral Miklós Horthy, the former commander in chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Starting in Western Hungary and spreading throughout the country, a White Terror began by other half-regular and half-militarist detachments (as the police power crashed, there were no serious national regular forces and authorities), and many Communists and other leftists were tortured and executed without trial. The leaving Romanian army pillaged the country: livestock, machinery and agricultural products were carried to Romania in hundreds of freight cars.[58][59] The estimated property damage of their activity was so much that the international peace conference in 1919 did not require Hungary to pay war redemption to Romania.[citation needed] On November 16, with the consent of Romanian forces, Horthy's army marched into Budapest. His government gradually restored security police and gendarmee, stopped terror, and set up authorities, but thousands of supporters of the leftist-liberal Károlyi and communist Kun regimes were imprisoned (for "High treason" and "anti-Hungarian actions"). But radical rightist political movements were suppressed too. In March, the parliament restored the Hungarian monarchy but postponed electing a king until civil disorder had subsided. Instead, Miklos Horthy was elected Regent and was empowered, among other things, to appoint Hungary's Prime Minister, veto legislation, convene or dissolve the parliament, and command the armed forces.
The Treaty of Trianon: Hungary lost 72% of its territory, and lost its sea ports in Croatia, 3,425,000 ethnic Hungarians found themselves separated from their motherland. Hungary lost 8 of its 10 biggest Hungarian cities.[60][61]
Hungary's signing of the Treaty of Trianon on June 4, 1920, ratified the country's dismemberment. The territorial provisions of the treaty, which ensured continued discord between Hungary and its neighbors, required Hungary to surrender more than two-thirds of its pre-war lands. However, nearly one-third of the 10 million ethnic Hungarians found themselves outside the diminished homeland. The country's ethnic composition was left almost homogeneous, Hungarians constituting about 90% of the population, Germans made up about 6%, and Slovaks, Croats, Romanians, Jews and Gypsies accounted for the remainder.[citation needed]
New international borders separated Hungary's industrial base from its sources of raw materials and its former markets for agricultural and industrial products. Hungary lost 84% of its timber resources, 43% of its arable land, and 83% of its iron ore. Furthermore, post-Trianon Hungary possessed 90% of the engineering and printing industry of the Kingdom, while only 11% of timber and 16% iron was retained. In addition, 61% of arable land, 74% of public road, 65% of canals, 62% of railroads, 64% of hard surface roads, 83% of pig iron output, 55% of industrial plants, 100% of gold, silver, copper, mercury and salt mines, and 67% of credit and banking institutions of the former Kingdom of Hungary lay within the territory of Hungary's neighbors.[62][63][64]
Because most of the country's pre-war industry was concentrated near Budapest, Hungary retained about 51% of its industrial population, 56% of its industry. Horthy appointed Count Pál Teleki as Prime Minister in July 1920. 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 toward fulfilling a promise of major land reform by dividing about 3,850 km2 from the largest estates into smallholdings. Teleki's government resigned, however, after, Charles IV, unsuccessfully attempted to retake Hungary's throne in March 1921. King Charles's return produced split parties between conservatives who favored a Habsburg restoration and nationalist right-wing radicals who supported election of a Hungarian king. Count István Bethlen, a non-affiliated right-wing member of the parliament, took advantage of this rift forming a new Party of Unity under his leadership. Horthy then appointed Bethlen prime minister. Charles IV died soon after he failed a second time to reclaim the throne in October 1921. (For more detail on Charles's attempts to retake the throne, see Charles IV of Hungary's conflict with Miklós Horthy.)
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya , Regent of Hungary
As prime minister, Bethlen dominated Hungarian politics between 1921 and 1931. 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. In 1921, he made a deal with the Social Democrats and trade unions (called Bethlen-Peyer Pact), agreeing, among other things, to legalize their activities and free political prisoners in return for their pledge to refrain from spreading anti-Hungarian propaganda, calling political strikes, and organizing the peasantry. Bethlen brought Hungary into the League of Nations in 1922 and out of international isolation by signing a treaty of friendship with Italy in 1927. 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. Revision of the treaty had such a broad backing in Hungary that Bethlen used it, at least in part, to deflect criticism of his economic, social, and political policies. The Great Depression induced a drop in the standard of living and the political mood of the country shifted further toward the right. In 1932 Horthy appointed a new prime-minister, Gyula Gömbös, that changed the course of Hungarian policy towards closer cooperation with Germany. Gömbös signed a trade agreement with Germany that drew Hungary's economy out of depression but made Hungary dependent on the German economy for both raw materials and markets. Adolf Hitler appealed to Hungarian desires for territorial revisionism, while extreme right wing organizations, like the Arrow Cross party, increasingly embraced Nazi policies, including those related to Jews. The government passed the First Jewish Law in 1938. The law established a quote system to limit Jewish involvement in the Hungarian economy.
Pm. Imrédy's (a Jewish descendant) attempts to improve Hungary's diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom initially made him very unpopular with Germany and Italy. In light of Germany's Anschluss with Austria in March, he realized that he could not afford to alienate Germany and Italy for long; in the autumn of 1938 his foreign policy became very much pro-German and pro-Italian.[65] Intent on amassing a base of power in Hungarian right wing politics, Imrédy began to suppress political rivals, so the increasingly influential Arrow Cross Party was harassed, and eventually banned by Imrédy's administration. As Imrédy drifted further to the right, he proposed that the government be reorganized along totalitarian lines and drafted a harsher Second Jewish Law. The Parliament under the new government of Pál Teleki approved the Second Jewish Law in 1939, which greatly restricted Jewish involvement in the economy, culture, and society and, significantly, defined Jews by race instead of religion. This definition altered the status of those who had formerly converted from Judaism to Christianity.
Regions that belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920)
Croatia-Slavonia

Hungary in World War II (1941–1945)

Main articles: Hungary during World War II, First Army (Hungary), Hungarian Second Army, Arrow Cross Party, Hungarian Gold Train, Battle of Debrecen, Hungarian Volunteers in the Winter War, Raoul Wallenberg, and Soviet occupation of Hungary
The Germans and Italians granted to Hungary part of southern Czechoslovakia and Subcarpathia in the First Vienna Treaty of 1938, and then northern Transylvania in the Second Vienna Treaty of 1940.
In 1941 Hungary participated in its first military manoeuvres as part of the Axis. Thus the Hungarian army was part of the invasion of Yugoslavia, gaining some more territory. On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union under Operation Barbarossa; Hungary joined the German effort and declared war on the Soviet Union on June 26, and formally entered World War II on the side of the Axis. In late 1941, the Hungarian troops on the Eastern Front experienced success at the Battle of Uman. By 1943, after the Hungarian Second Army suffered extremely heavy losses at the River Don, the Hungarian government sought to negotiate a surrender with the Allies. On March 19, 1944, as a result of this duplicity, German troops occupied Hungary in what was known as Operation Margarethe. By then it was clear that Hungarian politics was suppressed by Hitler's intent to hold the country in war on the side of the Nazi Third Reich because of its strategic location. On October 15, 1944, Miklós Horthy made a token effort to disengage Hungary from the war. This time the Germans launched Operation Panzerfaust and Horthy was replaced by a puppet government under the pro-German Prime Minister Ferenc Szálasi. Szálasi and his pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party remained loyal to the Germans until the end of the war. In late 1944, Hungarian troops on the Eastern Front again experienced success at the Battle of Debrecen, but this was followed immediately by the Soviet invasion of Hungary and the Battle of Budapest. During the German occupation in May-June 1944, the Arrow Cross Party and Hungarian police deported nearly 440,000 Jews, mostly to Auschwitz.[66] The Swedish Diplomat Raoul Wallenberg managed to save a considerable number of Hungarian Jews by giving them Swedish passports, but when the soviets arrived he was arrested as a spy and disappeared.[67] Hundreds of Hungarian people were also executed by the Arrow Cross Party for sheltering Jews.
The war left Hungary devastated destroying over 60% of the economy and causing huge loss of life. Many Hungarians, including women and children, were brutally raped, murdered and executed or deported for slave labour by Czechslovaks, Russian Red Army troops, Yugoslavs (mostly Serbian partisans and regular units), and the Romanian so-called "Munteanu Guard" paramilitary units — by the end of the war approximately 500,000-650,000 people.
On February 13, 1945, the Hungarian capital city surrendered unconditionally. On May 8, 1945, World War II in Europe officially ended. By the agreement between the Czechoslovakian president Edvard Beneš and Joseph Stalin the wild expulsions of Slovaks from Hungary and Magyars from Czechoslovakia started. 250,000 ethnic Germans were also transferred to Germany pursuant to article XIII of the Potsdam Protocol of 2 August 1945.[68]

Communist era (1947–1989)

Main article: People's Republic of Hungary
Main article: Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Communist Statue Park
Vandalised fallen head of a statue of Joseph Stalin during the revolution
Following the fall of Nazi Germany, Soviet troops occupied all of the country and through their influence Hungary gradually became a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union. Many of the communist leaders of 1919 returned from Moscow. After 1948, Communist leader Mátyás Rákosi established Stalinist rule in the country complete with forced collectivization and planned economy. Mátyás Rákosi now attempted to impose authoritarian rule on Hungary. An estimated 2,000 people were executed and over 100,000 were imprisoned. Approximately 350,000 officials and intellectuals were purged from 1948 to 1956[69] Many people (freethinkers democrats) were secretly arrested and taken to inland or foreign concentration camps without any judicial sentence. (the deportation of some 600,000 Hungarians to Soviet labour camps after the Second World War and the death of at least 200,000 in captivity).[70] Hungary experienced one of the harshest dictatorships in Europe.
Rákosi had difficulty managing the economy and the people of Hungary saw living standards fall. His government became increasingly unpopular, and when Joseph Stalin died in 1953, Mátyás Rákosi was replaced as prime minister by Imre Nagy. However, he retained his position as general secretary of the Hungarian Workers Party and over the next three years the two men became involved in a bitter struggle for power.
As Hungary's new leader, Imre Nagy removed state control of the mass media and encouraged public discussion on political and economic reform. This included a promise to increase the production and distribution of consumer goods. Nagy also released anti-communists from prison and talked about holding free elections and withdrawing Hungary from the Warsaw Pact. Nagy was removed by Soviets. Rákosi did manage to secure the appointment of his puppet and close friend, Ernő Gerő, as his successor.
The rule of the Rákosi government was nearly unbearable for Hungary's war-torn citizens. This led to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and Hungary's temporary withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. The multi-party system was restored by Nagy. Soviets and Hungarian political police(AVH) shot at peaceful demonstrators, many demonstrators died throughout the country, which made the events irreversible. Spontaneous revolutionary militias arose and heavy street fights started against the Soviet Army and the fearful communist secret police (AVH) in Budapest. The roughly 3,000-strong Hungarian resistance fought Soviet tanks using Molotov cocktails (in the narrow streets of Budapest) and machine-pistols. The immense Soviet preponderance suffered heavy losses, by 30 October most Soviet troops had withdrawn from Budapest to garrisons in the Hungarian countryside. The Soviet Union sent new armies to Hungary. On 4 November 1956, the Soviets retaliated massively with military force, sending in over 150,000 troops and 2,500 tanks.[71] During the Hungarian Uprising an estimated 20,000 people were killed, nearly all during the Soviet intervention. Nearly a quarter of a million people left the country during the brief time that the borders were open in 1956.[72]

Kádár Era (1956-1988)

János Kádár (who was the appointed leader by the Soviets) reorganized the communist party as the puppet of the Soviets. Once he was in power, Kádár led an attack against revolutionaries. 21,600 mavericks (democrats, liberals, reformist communists alike) were imprisoned, 13,000 interned, and 400 killed. Imre Nagy, the legal Prime Minister of the country was condemned to death. From the 1960s through the late 1980s, Hungary was often satirically referred to as "the happiest barrack" within the Eastern bloc. As a result of the relatively high standard of living, and less restricted travel rights than those in force elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc, Hungary was generally considered one of the better countries in which to live in Eastern Europe during the Cold War. (See also Goulash Communism for a discussion of the Hungarian variety of socialism.) This was under the autocratic rule of its controversial communist leader, János Kádár. It was the so called Kádár era (1956–1988). The last Soviet soldier left the country in 1991 thus ending Soviet military presence in Hungary. With the Soviet Union gone the transition to a market economy began.

The Third Hungarian Republic (1989–present)

See also: 2006 protests in Hungary
Choose, please! - A 1990 political poster by Fidesz, depicting Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker performing a traditional and widely known communist-style kiss-greeting (archive photo, above) and a kissing contemporary young couple (below).
Former U.S. president George W. Bush speaks from Gellért Hill during the commemoration of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, June 22, 2006)
"From this spot you could see tens of thousands of students and workers and other Hungarians marching through the streets. They called for an end to dictatorship, to censorship, and to the secret police. They called for free elections, a free press, and the release of political prisoners. These Hungarian patriots tore down the statue of Josef Stalin, and defied an empire to proclaim their liberty."
—George W. Bush, Former President of the United States
In June 1987 Károly Grósz took over as premier. In January 1988 all restrictions were lifted on foreign travel. In March demonstrations for democracy and civil rights brought 15,000 onto the streets. In May, after Kádár's forced retirement, Grósz was named party secretary general. Under Grósz, Hungary began moving towards full democracy, change accelerated under the impetus of other party reformers such as Imre Pozsgay and Rezső Nyers. Also in June 1988, 30,000 demonstrated against Romania's communist Regime plans to demolish Transylvanian villages.
In February, 1989 the Communist Party's Central Committee, responding to 'public dissatisfaction', announced it would permit a multi-party system in Hungary and hold free elections. In March, for the first time in decades, the government declared the anniversary of the 1848 Revolution a national holiday. Opposition demonstrations filled the streets of Budapest with more than 75,000 marchers. Grósz met Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow, who condoned Hungary's moves toward a multi-party system and promised that the USSR would not interfere in Hungary's internal affairs. In May, Hungary began taking down its barbed wire fence along the Austrian border – the first tear in the Iron Curtain. June brought the reburial of Prime Minister Nagy, executed after the 1956 Revolution, drawing a crowd of 250,000 at the Heroes' Square. The last speaker, 26-year-old Viktor Orbán publicly called for Soviet troops to leave Hungary. In July U.S. President George Bush visited Hungary. In September Foreign Minister Gyula Horn announced that East German refugees in Hungary would not be repatriated but would instead be allowed to go to the West. The resulting exodus shook East Germany and hastened the fall of the Berlin Wall. On October 23, Mátyás Szűrös declared Hungary a republic.
At a party congress in October 1989 the Communists agreed to give up their monopoly on power, paving the way for free elections in March 1990. The party's name was changed from the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party to simply the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) and a new programme advocating social democracy and a free-market economy was adopted. This was not enough to shake off the stigma of four decades of autocratic rule, however, and the 1990 election was won by the centre-right Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), which advocated a gradual transition towards capitalism. The liberal Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), which had called for much faster change, came second and the Socialist Party trailed far behind. As Gorbachev looked on, Hungary changed political systems with scarcely a murmur and the last Soviet troops left Hungary in June 1991.
In coalition with two smaller parties, the MDF provided Hungary with sound government during its hard transition to a full market economy. József Antall, the first democratically elected prime minister of Hungary, died in December 1993 and was replaced by the Interior Minister Péter Boross.
Protesters in Budapest
The economic changes of the early 1990s resulted in declining living standards for most people in Hungary. In 1991 most state subsidies were removed, leading to a severe recession exacerbated by the fiscal austerity necessary to reduce inflation and stimulate investment. This made life difficult for many Hungarians, and in the May 1994 elections the Hungarian Socialist Party led by former Communists won an absolute majority in parliament. This in no way implied a return to the past, and party leader Gyula Horn was quick to point out that it was his party that had initiated the whole reform process in the first place (as foreign minister in 1989 Horn played a key role in opening Hungary's border with Austria). All three main political parties advocate economic liberalisation and closer ties with the West. In March 1996, Horn was re-elected as Socialist Party leader and confirmed that he would push ahead with the party's economic stabilisation programme.
In 1997 in a national referendum 85% voted in favour of Hungary joining the NATO. A year later the European Union began negotiations with Hungary on full membership. In 1999 Hungary joined NATO. Hungary voted in favour of joining the EU, and joined in 2004.

Science

Rubik's cube
As of 2009, 13 Hungarians (who were born in Hungary) had received a Nobel prize, more than China, India, Australia or Spain.[73] Further eight Nobel prize laureates of Hungarian origin on both sides were born outside of Hungary.
The world's first institution of technology was founded in Selmecbánya, Hungarian Kingdom (today Slovakia) in 1735. Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) is considered the oldest institution of technology in the world, which has university rank and structure. The legal predecessor of the university was founded in 1782 by Emperor Joseph II.
Hungary is famous for its excellent mathematics education which has trained numerous outstanding scientists. Famous Hungarian mathematicians include János Bolyai, designer of modern geometry (non-Euclidean geometry) in 1831. Paul Erdős, famed for publishing in over forty languages and whose Erdős numbers are still tracked;[74] and John von Neumann, Quantum Theory, Game theory a pioneer of digital computing and a key mathematician in the Manhattan Project. Many Hungarian scientists, including Erdős, von Neumann, Leo Szilard, and Edward Teller immigrated to the United States. The other cause of scientist emigration was the Treaty of Trianon, that "little Hungary" amputated by the Trianon treaty was unable to support the large-scale costly scientific researches, therefore some Hungarian scientists made their most famous contributions in the United States.

Most famous Hungarian inventions

Old times

Steel spring (medieval), coach (medieval) and coach suspension. The English word "coach" came from the Hungarian kocsi, a wagon from the village of Kocs, Hungary,[75] the noiseless match (János Irinyi)

Modern times

First electric motor (1827) and first electrical generator (Ányos Jedlik). David Schwarz invented and designed the first flyable rigid airship (aluminium-made), later he sold his patent for German Graf Zeppelin. Ottó Bláthy, Miksa Déri and Károly Zipernowsky invented the transformer in 1885.[76][76] (Ottó Bláthy) invented the Turbogenerator and Wattmeter, Telephone exchange (Tivadar Puskás), Ford Model T and assembly line (therefore he is the inventor of industrial mass production) József Galamb, Tungsten electric bulb (1904) (Sándor Just) and the krypton electric bulb (Imre Bródy), Electronic Television and camera-tube (1926) and Plasma TV (1936) (Kálmán Tihanyi), Vitamin C and the first artificial vitamin Albert Szent-Györgyi, mathematical tools to study fluid flow and mathematical background of supersonic flight and inventor of swept-back wings "father of Supersonic Flight" (Theodore Kármán), ramjet propulsion Albert Fonó, Turboprop propulsion by (György Jendrassik), (Leó Szilárd): (nuclear chain reaction (therefore he was the first who realized the feasibility of an "atomic bomb". In August 1939, Szilard approached his old friend and collaborator Albert Einstein and convinced him to sign the Einstein–Szilárd letter, lending the weight of Einstein's fame to the proposal. The letter led directly to the establishment of research into nuclear fission by the U.S. government and ultimately to the creation of the Manhattan Project. Szilárd, with Enrico Fermi, patented the nuclear reactor). Other notable Hungarian inventions include holography (Dennis Gabor), the ballpoint pen (László Bíró), thermonuclear fusion and the theory of the hydrogen bomb (Edward Teller), and the BASIC programming language (John Kemeny, with Thomas E. Kurtz), Low level laser therapy or "light therapy" (Endre Mester), artificial blood (István Horváth), Rubik's cube (Ernő Rubik).[74]
Róbert Bárány, winner of the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1914.
Charles Simonyi, software architect of early Excel
George de Hevesy, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1943.
Edward Teller, "The father of the hydrogen bomb."
Hungarian or Hungarian-Born Nobel Laureates      Flag of Hungary
Lénárd Fülöp (1905) · Bárány Róbert (1914) · Zsigmondy Richárd (1925) · Szent-Györgyi Albert (1937) · Hevesy György (1943) · Békésy György (1961) · Wigner Jenő (1963) · Gábor Dénes (1971) · Polányi János (1986) · Elie Wiesel (1986) · Harsányi János (1994) · Oláh György (1994) · Kertész Imre (2002) · Avram Hershko (2004) ·

Politics

Main article: Politics of Hungary
Hungarian Parliament in Budapest
The President of the Republic, elected by the members of the National Assembly every five years, has a largely ceremonial role, but he is nominally the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and his powers include the nomination of the Prime Minister who is to be elected by a majority of the votes of the Members of Parliament, based on the recommendation made by the President of the Republic.
By the Hungarian Constitution, based on the post-WWII Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Prime Minister has a leading role in the executive branch as he selects Cabinet ministers and has the exclusive right to dismiss them (similarly to the competences of the German federal chancellor). Each cabinet nominee appears before one or more parliamentary committees in consultative open hearings, survive a vote by the Parliament and must be formally approved by the president.
The unicameral, 386-member National Assembly (Országgyűlés) is the highest organ of state authority and initiates and approves legislation sponsored by the Prime Minister. Its members are elected for a four year term. 176 members are elected in single-seat constituencies, 152 by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies, and 58 so-called compensation seats are distributed based on the number of votes "lost" (i.e., the votes that did not produce a seat) in either the single-seat or the multi-seat constituencies. The election threshold is 5%, but it only applies to the multi-seat constituencies and the compensation seats, not the single-seat constituencies.
An 11-member Constitutional Court has power to challenge legislation on grounds of unconstitutionality.

Regions, counties, subregions and cities

Main articles: Counties of Hungary, Regions of Hungary, and Subregions of Hungary
See also List of historic counties of Hungary
Regions of Hungary with their regional centres
Administratively, Hungary is divided into 19 counties. In addition, the capital city (főváros), Budapest, is independent of any county government. The counties and the capital are the 20 NUTS third-level units of Hungary.
The counties are further subdivided into 173 subregions (kistérségek), and Budapest is its own subregion. Since 1996, the counties and City of Budapest have been grouped into 7 regions for statistical and development purposes. These seven regions constitute NUTS' second-level units of Hungary.
There are also 23 towns with county rights (singular megyei jogú város), sometimes known as "urban counties" in English (although there is no such term in Hungarian). The local authorities of these towns have extended powers, but these towns belong to the territory of the respective county instead of being independent territorial units.

Counties (County Capital)

Regions

Largest cities


 Rank City County Population Metropolitan area
view • talk • edit
1 Budapest Pest 1,712,210 2,503,205
2 Debrecen Hajdú-Bihar 206,225 237,888
3 Miskolc Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén 170,234 216,470
4 Szeged Csongrád 169,030 201,307
5 Pécs Baranya 156,974 179,215
6 Győr Győr-Moson-Sopron 130,476 182,776
7 Nyiregyháza Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg 117,597 -
8 Kecskemét Bács-Kiskun 111,428 -
9 Székesfehérvár Fejér 102,035 -
10 Szombathely Vas 79,513 -
11 Szolnok Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok 74,885 -
12 Tatabánya Komárom-Esztergom 70,333 -
13 Kaposvár Somogy 67,633 -
14 Békéscsaba Békés 64,787 -
15 Érd Pest 63,669 -
16 Veszprém Veszprém 63,405 -
17 Zalaegerszeg Zala 61,774 -
18 Sopron Győr-Moson-Sopron 59,036 -
19 Eger Heves 56,429 -
20 Nagykanizsa Zala 50,540 -

Economy

Main article: Economy of Hungary
Hungary held its first multi-party elections in 1990, following four decades of Communist rule, and has succeeded in transforming its centrally planned economy into a market economy. Both foreign ownership of and foreign investment in Hungarian firms are widespread. The governing coalition, comprising the Hungarian Socialist Party and the liberal Alliance of Free Democrats, prevailed in the April 2006 general election. Hungary needs to reduce government spending and further reform its economy in order to meet the 2012–2013 target date for accession to the euro zone.
Hungary has continued to demonstrate economic growth as one of the newest member countries of the European Union (since 2004). The private sector accounts for over 80% of GDP. Hungary gets nearly one third of all foreign direct investment flowing into Central Europe, with cumulative foreign direct investment totaling more than US$185 billion since 1989. It enjoys strong trade, fiscal, monetary, investment, business, and labor freedoms. The top income tax rate is fairly high, but corporate taxes are low. Inflation is low, it was on the rise in the past few years, but it is now starting to regulate. Investment in Hungary is easy, although it is subject to government licensing in security-sensitive areas. Foreign capital enjoys virtually the same protections and privileges as domestic capital. The rule of law is strong, a professional judiciary protects property rights, and the level of corruption is low.
Highest value banknote of the Hungarian Forint (obverse)
Hungarian National Bank
Planned general government net lending 2005-2010.
The Hungarian economy is a medium-sized, structurally, politically, and institutionally open economy in Central Europe and is part of the EU single market. Like most Eastern European economies, it experienced market liberalisation in the early 1990s as part of a transition away from communism. Today, Hungary is a full member of OECD and the World Trade Organization. OECD was the first international organization to accept Hungary as a full member in 1996, after six years of successful cooperation.

History of the Hungarian Economy

Hungarian economy prior to the transition

The Hungarian economy prior to World War II was primarily oriented toward agriculture and small-scale manufacturing. Hungary's strategic position in Europe and its relative high lack of natural resources also have dictated a traditional reliance on foreign trade. For instance, its largest car manufacturer, Magomobil (maker of the Magosix), produced a total of a few thousand units.[77] In the early 1950s, the communist government forced rapid industrialization after the standard Stalinist pattern in an effort to encourage a more self-sufficient economy. Most economic activity was conducted by state-owned enterprises or cooperatives and state farms. In 1968, Stalinist self-sufficiency was replaced by the "New Economic Mechanism," which reopened Hungary to foreign trade, gave limited freedom to the workings of the market, and allowed a limited number of small businesses to operate in the services sector.
Although Hungary enjoyed one of the most liberal and economically advanced economies of the former Eastern bloc, both agriculture and industry began to suffer from a lack of investment in the 1970s, and Hungary's net foreign debt rose significantly—from $1 billion in 1973 to $15 billion in 1993—due largely to consumer subsidies and unprofitable state enterprises. In the face of economic stagnation, Hungary opted to try further liberalization by passing a joint venture law, instating an income tax, and joining the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. By 1988, Hungary had developed a two-tier banking system and had enacted significant corporate legislation which paved the way for the ambitious market-oriented reforms of the post-communist years.

Transition to a market economy

[citation needed]
Duna Tower
After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet satellites had to transition from a one-party, centrally planned economy to a market economy with a multi-party political system. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc countries suffered a significant loss in both markets for goods, and subsidizing from the Soviet Union. Hungary, for example, "lost nearly 70% of its export markets in Eastern and Central Europe." The loss of external markets in Hungary coupled with the loss of Soviet subsidizing left "800,000 unemployed people because all the unprofitable and unsalvageable factories had been closed."[78] Another form of Soviet subsidizing that greatly affected Hungary after the fall of communism was the loss of social welfare programs. Because of the lack of subsidizing and a need to reduce expenditures, many social programs in Hungary had to be cut in an attempt to lower spending. As a result, many people in Hungary suffered incredible hardships during the transition to a market economy. Following privatization and tax reductions on Hungarian businesses, unemployment suddenly rose to 12% in 1991 (it was 1,7% in 1990 ), gradually decreasing till 2001. Economic growth, after a fall in 1991 to -11,9%, gradually grew until the end of the 1990s at an average annual rate of 4,2%. With the stabilization of the new market economy, Hungary has experienced growth in foreign investment with a "cumulative foreign direct investment totaling more than $60 billion since 1989."[79]
Megyeri Bridge
The Antall government of 1990–94 began market reforms with price and trade liberation measures, a revamped tax system, and a nascent market-based banking system. By 1994, however, the costs of government overspending and hesitant privatization had become clearly visible. Cuts in consumer subsidies led to increases in the price of food, medicine, transportation services, and energy. Reduced exports to the former Soviet bloc and shrinking industrial output contributed to a sharp decline in GDP. Unemployment rose rapidly to about 12% in 1993. The external debt burden, one of the highest in Europe, reached 250% of annual export earnings, while the budget and current account deficits approached 10% of GDP. The devaluation of the currency (in order to support exports), without effective stabilization measures, such as indexation of wages, provoked an extremely high inflation rate, that in 1991 reached 35% and slightly decreased till 1994, growing again in 1995. In March 1995, the government of Prime Minister Gyula Horn implemented an austerity program, coupled with aggressive privatization of state-owned enterprises and an export-promoting exchange raw regime, to reduce indebtedness, cut the current account deficit, and shrink public spending. By the end of 1997 the consolidated public sector deficit decreased to 4.6% of GDP—with public sector spending falling from 62% of GDP to below 50%—the current account deficit was reduced to 2% of GDP, and government debt was paid down to 94% of annual export earnings.
The Government of Hungary no longer requires IMF financial assistance and has repaid all of its debt to the fund. Consequently, Hungary enjoys favorable borrowing terms. Hungary's sovereign foreign currency debt issuance carries investment-grade ratings from all major credit-rating agencies, although recently the country was downgraded by Moody's, S&P and remains on negative outlook at Fitch. In 1995 Hungary's currency, the Forint (HUF), became convertible for all current account transactions, and subsequent to OECD membership in 1996, for almost all capital account transactions as well. Since 1995, Hungary has pegged the forint against a basket of currencies (in which the U.S. dollar is 30%), and the central rate against the basket is devalued at a preannounced rate, originally set at 0.8% per month, the Forint is now an entirely free-floating currency. The government privatization program ended on schedule in 1998: 80% of GDP is now produced by the private sector, and foreign owners control 70% of financial institutions, 66% of industry, 90% of telecommunications, and 50% of the trading sector.
Kőröshegy-Viaduct
After Hungary's GDP declined about 18% from 1990 to 1993 and grew only 1%–1.5% up to 1996, strong export performance has propelled GDP growth to 4.4% in 1997, with other macroeconomic indicators similarly improving. These successes allowed the government to concentrate in 1996 and 1997 on major structural reforms such as the implementation of a fully funded pension system (partly modelled after Chile's pension system but enclosing major modifications), reform of higher education, and the creation of a national treasury. Remaining economic challenges include reducing fiscal deficits and inflation, maintaining stable external balances, and completing structural reforms of the tax system, health care, and local government financing. Recently, the overriding goal of Hungarian economic policy has been to prepare the country for entry into the European Union, which it joined in late 2004.
Hungarian Police HQ (Police Palace)
Prior to the change of regime in 1989, 65% of Hungary's trade was with Comecon countries. By the end of 1997, Hungary had shifted much of its trade to the West. Trade with EU countries and the OECD now comprises over 70% and 80% of the total, respectively. Germany is Hungary's single most important trading partner. The U.S. has become Hungary's sixth-largest export market, while Hungary is ranked as the 72d largest export market for the U.S. Bilateral trade between the two countries increased 46% in 1997 to more than $1 billion. The U.S. has extended to Hungary most-favored-nation status, the Generalized System of Preferences, Overseas Private Investment Corporation insurance, and access to the Export-Import Bank.
With about $18 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) since 1989, Hungary has attracted over one-third of all FDI in central and eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union. Of this, about $6 billion came from American companies. Foreign capital is attracted by skilled and relatively inexpensive labor, tax incentives, modern infrastructure, and a good telecommunications system.
By 2006 Hungary’s economic outlook had deteriorated. Wage growth had kept up with other nations in the region; however, this growth has largely been driven by increased government spending. This has resulted in the budget deficit ballooning to over 10% of GDP and inflation rates predicted to exceed 6%. This prompted Nouriel Roubini, a White House economist in the Clinton administration, to state that "Hungary is an accident waiting to happen."[80]

Hungarian economy today

In 2006 Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány was reelected on a platform promising economic “reform without austerity.” However, after the elections in April 2006, the Socialist coalition under Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany unveiled a package of austerity measures which were designed to reduce the budget deficit to 3% of GDP by 2008.
Hungary, as a member state of the European Union may seek to adopt the common European currency, the Euro. To achieve this, Hungary would need to fulfill the Maastricht criteria.
In foreign investments, Hungary has seen a shift from lower-value textile and food industry to investment in luxury vehicle production, renewable energy systems, high-end tourism, and information technology.
The fulfillment of the Maastricht criteria
Convergence criteria Obligation to adopt 4 Target date Euro coins design
Country 1 Inflation rate² Government finances ERM II membership Interest rate ³ set by the country recommended by the Commission
annual government deficit to GDP gross government debt to GDP
Reference value 5 max 3.2% max. 3% max. 60% min. 2 years max 6.5% NA NA NA NA
 Hungary 5.1% 4% 76.9% 0 years 7.0% yes 2014–2015 NA in progress
1 Current EU member states that have not yet adopted the Euro, candidates and official potential candidates.
² No more than 1.5% higher than the 3 best-performing EU member states.
³ No more than 2% higher than the 3 best-performing EU member states.
4 Formal obligation for Euro adoption in the country EU Treaty of Accession or the Framework for membership negotiations.
5 Values from May 2008 report.[81] To be updated each year.
The austerity measures introduced by the government are in part an attempt to fulfill the Maastricht-criteria.
The austerity measures include a 2% rise in social security contributions, half of which is paid by employees, and a large increase in the minimum rate of sales tax (levied on food and basic services) from 15 to 20%. While it was widely recognised that something needed to be done, investors have levelled criticism at the program for emphasizing tax increases as opposed to spending cuts.[citation needed]
The Hungarian Central Statistical Office reported a decrease in real wages in the first five months of 2007. Gross average income rose by 7%, while net average income increased by 1%. When adjusted for inflation, this corresponded to a 7% decline compared with real wages a year before. The drop was due mainly to the 2006 austerity package; however, state measures to combat the black economy may also have had an impact on pay developments.
Hungary's low employment rate remains a key structural handicap to achieving higher living standards. The government introduced useful measures in the key areas, namely early retirement, disability and old pensions.

2008–2009 Financial Crisis

Hungary, which joined the European Union in 2004, has been hit hard by the late-2000s recession because of its heavy dependence on foreign capital to finance its economy and has one of the biggest public deficits in the EU.[82][83]
On 10 October 2008, the Forint dropped by 10%.[84] Many loans are made in Euro or Swiss Francs in Hungary.
On 27 October 2008, Hungary reached an agreement with the IMF and EU for a rescue package worth about US$20 billion.[85]
Total government spending is high. Many state-owned enterprises have not been privatized. Business licensing is a problem, as regulations are not applied consistently.[86] According to the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, Hungary's economy was 67.2 percent "free" in 2008,[86] which makes it the world's 43rd-freest economy. Its overall score is 1 percent lower than last year, partially reflecting new methodological detail. Hungary is ranked 25th out of 41 countries in the European region, and its overall score is slightly lower than the regional average.[86]
Magyar Suzuki plant in Esztergom, Hungary has over 6000 employees. (As of 2007)
The Hungarian sovereign debt's credit rating is BBB+ as of October 2008. However Standard & Poor's may downgrade Hungary's BBB+ sovereign credit rating because of mounting financial-sector funding pressures and their potential to raise general government debt materially from its current level of 67% of GDP (October 2008). Foreign investors' trust in the Hungarian economy has declined, as they deem that the stringency measures planned in the second half of 2006 are not satisfactory; their focus being mainly on increasing the income side rather than curbing government spendings.[citation needed] Economic reform measures such as health care reform, tax reform, and local government financing are being addressed by the present government.
General government net lending was 9.2% in 2006, instead of estimated 10.1% (but still the largest in Europe) because of the austerity program of the government, and was 5.5% in 2007, and recent estimates of the government says 4% in 2008.[citation needed]
Audi TT sports car manufactured by Audi in Győr.
Because of the large austerity program, the real growth of the incomes was negative in 2007 at -5.5%, and the estimates say 1% increase in 2008. The GDP growth was only 1.4% in 2007, much lower than in 2006 because of the decreased government spending; in first quarter of 2008 the GDP growth was 1.7%, slightly stronger than last quarter of 2007 (0.9%). During the second quarter in 2008, the GDP growth was 2.0% annual, and because of the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on the Hungarian forint and on the bank system, the 3rd quarter growth was slowed to 0.8% annual.[87] The estimates for 2009 are 1-1.5% decline.[88]
The 2008 financial crisis hit Hungary mainly in October 2008. When the Forint declined quickly against the euro, the Hungarian National Bank raised interest rates from 3.0% to 11.5% on 22 October. As the Hungarian Government asked financial rescue package worth $25.1 billion from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and the World Bank, promising to IMF that recalculate the 2009 budget, as Hungary's GDP declines 1.0%, and slow down government spending, for example, stop the wage increase for state workers.[89] This way, the budget gap decline to 2.6% down from 5.5% of GDP in 2007 and will meet Maastricht criteria. In this circumstances, more and more economists estimate, that Hungary can join the ERM II, which gives the possibility that Hungary can adopt the euro 2 years after joining the ERM-II monetary system.
Historical currencies of Hungary     Flag of Hungary
Currency Forint
1867–1892		 Korona
1892–1918		 Korona
1919–1926		 Pengő
1927–1946		 Adópengő
1946		 Forint
1946–present
Coins coins coins coins - coins
Paper money paper money paper money paper money paper money paper money paper money

Geography

Main article: Geography of Hungary
See also: List of national parks of Hungary

Landscape

Topographic map of Hungary
Hills in Baranya county
Sunset by Lake Balaton
Valley of Zagyva River, Western Mátra Mounts
Slightly more than one half of Hungary's landscape consists of flat to rolling plains of the Pannonian Basin: the most important plain regions include the Little Hungarian Plain in the west, and the Great Hungarian Plain in the southeast. The highest elevation above sea level on the latter is only 183 metres (600 ft).
Transdanubia is a primarily hilly region with a terrain varied by low mountains. These include the very eastern stretch of the Alps, Alpokalja, in the west of the country, the Transdanubian Medium Mountains, in the central region of Transdanubia, and the Mecsek Mountains and Villány Mountains in the south. The highest point of the area is the Írott-kő in the Alps, at 882 metres (2,894 ft).
The highest mountains of the country are located in the Carpathians: these lie in the northern parts, in a wide band along the Slovakian border (highest point: the Kékes at 1,014 m/3,327 ft).
Hungary is divided in two by its main waterway, the Danube (Duna); other large rivers include the Tisza and Dráva, while Transdanubia contains Lake Balaton, a major body of water. The largest thermal lake in the world, Lake Hévíz (Hévíz Spa), is located in Hungary. The second largest lake in the Pannonian Basin is the artificial Lake Tisza (Tisza-tó).
Phytogeographically, Hungary belongs to the Central European province of the Circumboreal Region within the Boreal Kingdom. According to the WWF, the territory of Hungary belongs to the ecoregion of Pannonian mixed forests.

Climate

Hungary has a Continental climate,[90] with hot summers with low overall humidity levels but frequent rainshowers and frigid to cold snowy winters. Average annual temperature is 9.7 °C (49.5 °F). Temperature extremes are about 42 °C (107.6 °F) in the summer and −29 °C (−20.2 °F) in the winter. Average temperature in the summer is 27 °C (80.6 °F) to 35 °C (95 °F) and in the winter it is 0 °C (32 °F) to −15 °C (5.0 °F). The average yearly rainfall is approximately 600 mm (23.6 in). A small, southern region of the country near Pécs enjoys a reputation for a Mediterranean climate, but in reality it is only slightly warmer than the rest of the country and still receives snow during the winter.

Military

Main article: Military of Hungary
Hungarian Ground Forces welcome the President of the United States. Mounted hussars can be seen along the top.
Hungarian Air Force Saab JAS 39 Gripens
The Military of Hungary, or "Hungarian Armed Forces" currently has two branches, the "Hungarian Ground Force" and the "Hungarian Air Force." The Hungarian Ground Force (or Army) is known as the "Corps of Homeland Defenders" (Honvédség). This term was originally used to refer to the revolutionary army established by Lajos Kossuth and the National Defence Committee of the Revolutionary Hungarian Diet in September 1848 during the Hungarian Revolution. The term Honvédség is the name of the military of Hungary since 1848 referring to its purpose (véd in Honvéd) of defending the country. The Hungarian Army is called Magyar Honvédség. The rank equal to a Private is a Honvéd. The Hungarian Air Force is the air force branch of the Hungarian Army.
Hungary is a contributor of military troops to Eufor
Black Army of Hungary: The Black Army (Black Legion or Host) - named after their black armor panoply - is in historigraphy the common name given to the excellent quality of diverse and polyglot military forces serving under the reign of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. It is recognized as the first standing continental European fighting force not under conscription and with regular pay since the Roman Empire. Hungary's Black Army traditionally encompasses the years from 1458 to 1490.
Hussar: A type of irregular light horsemen was already well established by the 15th century in medieval Hungary. Hussar refers to a number of types of light cavalry created in Hungary[91] in the 15th century and used throughout Europe and even in America since the 18th century. Some modern military units retain the title 'hussar' for reasons of tradition.

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of Hungary, Roma minority of Hungary, Germans of Hungary, and Jews of Hungary
Budapest
Ethnic composition of Hungary
(census 2001)
Hungarian
  
 94.4%
Roma
  
 2.02%
German
  
 1.18%
Slovak
  
 0.38%
Other
  
 2.02%
For 95% of the population, the mother language is Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric language unrelated to any neighboring language and distantly related to Khanty, Mansi, Finnish and Estonian. The main Minority group are the Roma (2.1% - 3.0%). Other groups include: Germans (1.2%), Slovaks (0.4%), Croats and Bunjevcis(0.2%), Romanians (0.1%), Ukrainians (0.1%), and Serbs (0.1%).[92]
For historical reasons (see Treaty of Trianon), significant Hungarian minority populations can be found in the surrounding countries, most of them in Romania (in Transylvania), Slovakia, Serbia (in Vojvodina). Sizable minorities live also in Ukraine (in Transcarpathia), Croatia (mainly Slavonia) and Austria (in Burgenland). Slovenia is also host to a number of ethnic Hungarians, and Hungarian language has an official status in parts of the Prekmurje region. Today, more than two million ethnic Hungarians live in nearby countries.[93]
Ethnographic map of Hungary, 1910. (Hungarians in red)

Ethnic Germans

The largest wave of German-speaking immigrants into Hungary occurred after the Treaty of Karlowitz. Between 1700 and 1750, German-speaking settlers immigrated to the regions of Pannonia, Banat, and Bačka, which had been depopulated by the Ottoman wars. Prior to World War II, approximately 1.5 million Danube Swabians lived in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia.[94] In 2001, 62,105 people declared to be German in Hungary.[95]

Religion in Hungary

Religious affiliation in Hungary (2001)[96]
Denominations Population  % of total
Christianity 7,584,115 74.4
Catholicism 5,558,901 54.5
Roman Catholics 5,289,521 51.9
Greek Catholics 268,935 2.6
Protestantism 1,985,576 19.5
Calvinists 1,622,796 15.9
Lutherans 304,705 3.0
Baptists 17,705 0.2
Unitarians 6,541 0.1
Other Protestants 33,829 0.3
Orthodox Christianity 15,298 0.1
Other Christians 24,340 0.2
Judaism 12,871 0.1
Other religions 13,567 0.1
Total religions 7,610,553 74.6
No religion 1,483,369 14.5
Did not wish to answer 1,034,767 10.1
Unknown 69,566 0.7
total 10,198,315 100.00

Religious history

Religions in Hungary
St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest
The majority of Hungarian people became Christian in the 10th century. Hungary's first king, Saint Stephen I, took up Western Christianity, although his mother, Sarolt, was baptized in the eastern rite. Hungary remained predominantly Catholic until the 16th century, when the Reformation took place and, as a result, first Lutheranism, then soon afterwards Calvinism became the religion of almost the entire population. In the second half of the 16th century, however, Jesuits led a successful campaign of counterreformation among the Hungarians. The Jesuits founded educational institutions, including Péter Pázmány Catholic University, the oldest university that still exists in Hungary, but organized so-called missions too in order to promote popular piety. By the 17th century, Hungary had once again become predominantly Catholic. Some of the eastern parts of the country, however, especially around Debrecen ("the Calvinist Rome"), still have significant Protestant communities. Orthodox Christianity in Hungary has been the religion mainly of some national minorities in the country, notably, Romanians, Rusyns, Ukrainians, and Serbs.
Hungary has been the home of a sizable Armenian community as well. They still worship according to the Armenian Rite, but they have reunited with the Catholic Church (Armenian Catholics) under the primacy of the Pope. According to the same pattern, a significant number of Orthodox Christians became re-united with the rest of the Catholic world (Greek Catholics).
Faith Church, one of Europe's largest pentecostal churches is also located in Hungary. Faith Church accepts the results and spiritual, moral values of both early Christianity and the Reformation, as well as other revival movements serving the progress of the Christian faith. Based on the 1% tax designation to churches, Faith Church is the fourth most supported church in Hungary. The weekly Sunday service of the Church is regularly broadcast in live television.

Jewish Hungarians

Main article: History of the Jews in Hungary
Hungary has historically been home to a significant Jewish community, especially since the 19th century when many Jews, persecuted in Russia, found refuge in the Kingdom of Hungary. Most Jewish people live in the downtown of Budapest, especially in district VI. The largest synagogue in Europe is located in Budapest. The census of January 1941 found that 6.2% of the population, i.e. 846,000 people, were considered Jewish according to the racial laws of that time. From this number, 725,000 were Jewish by religion.[97] Some Hungarian Jews were able to escape the Holocaust during World War II, although many were either deported to concentration camps or murdered by the Hungarian Arrow Cross fascists.
Fine Art Museum, Budapest

Culture

Main article: Culture of Hungary

Architecture

See also: List of Hungarian architects
Hungary is home to the largest synagogue in Europe (Great Synagogue), the largest medicinal bath in Europe (Széchenyi Medicinal Bath), the one of the largest basilicas in Europe (Esztergom Basilica), the second largest territorial abbey in the world (Pannonhalma Archabbey), and the largest Early Christian Necropolis outside Italy (Pécs).

Hungarian Art Nouveau
Lánchíd bridge in Budapest
Etnographical museum, Budapest
The buildings display two noticeable styles, those of Historicism and Art Nouveau, or rather several variants of Art Nouveau. In contrast to Historicism, Hungarian Art Nouveau is based on the national architectural characteristics. Taking the eastern origins of the Hungarians into account, Ödön Lechner (1845–1914), the most important figure in Hungarian Art Nouveau, was initially inspired by Indian and Syrian architecture, and later by traditional Hungarian decorative designs. In this way, he created an original synthesis of architectural styles. By applying them to three-dimensional architectural elements, he produced a version of Art Nouveau that was specific to Hungary. Turning away from the style of Lechner, yet taking inspiration from his approach, the group of 'Young People' (Fiatalok), which included Károly Kós and Dezsö Zrumeczky, were to use the characteristic structures and forms of traditional Hungarian architecture to achieve the same end. Besides the two principal styles, the town also displays local versions of trends originating from other European countries. The Sezession from Vienna, the German Jugendstil, Art Nouveau from Belgium and France, and the influence of English and Finnish architecture are all reflected in the buildings constructed at the turn of the century. Béla Lajta initially adopted Lechner's style, subsequently drawing his inspiration from English and Finnish trends; after developing an interest in the Egyptian style, he finally arrived at modern architecture. Aladár Árkay took almost the same route. István Medgyaszay developed his own style, which differed from Lechner's, using stylised traditional motifs to create decorative designs in concrete. In the sphere of applied arts, those chiefly responsible for promoting the spread of Art Nouveau were the School and Museum of Decorative Arts, which opened in 1896.

Music

Main article: Music of Hungary
Béla Bartók, the second prominent Hungarian composer.
Ferenc Liszt
The music of Hungary consists mainly of traditional Hungarian folk music and music by prominent composers such as Liszt, Dohnányi, Bartók, Kodály, and Rózsa. Hungarian traditional music tends to have a strong dactylic rhythm, as the language is invariably stressed on the first syllable of each word. Hungary also has a number of internationally renowned composers of contemporary classical music, György Ligeti, György Kurtág, Péter Eötvös and Zoltán Jeney among them. One of the greatest Hungarian composers, Béla Bartók was also among the most significant musicians of the 20th century. His music was invigorated by the themes, modes, and rhythmic patterns of the Hungarian and neighboring folk music traditions he studied, which he synthesized with influences from his contemporaries into his own distinctive style.
Hungary has made many contributions to the fields of folk, popular and classical music. Hungarian folk music is a prominent part of the national identity and continues to play a major part in Hungarian music. Hungarian folk music has been significant in former country parts that belong - since the 1920 Treaty of Trianon - to neighboring countries such as Romania, Slovakia, southern Poland and especially in southern Slovakia and the Transylvania: both regions have significant numbers of Hungarians.
Broughton claims that Hungary's "infectious sound has been surprisingly influential on neighboring countries (thanks perhaps to the common Austro-Hungarian history) and it's not uncommon to hear Hungarian-sounding tunes in Romania, Slovakia and southern Poland".[98] It is also strong in the Szabolcs-Szatmár area and in the southwest part of Transdanubia, near the border with Croatia. The Busójárás carnival in Mohács is a major Hungarian folk music event, formerly featuring the long-established and well-regarded Bogyiszló orchestra.[99]
Hungarian classical music has long been an "experiment, made from Hungarian antedecents and on Hungarian soil, to create a conscious musical culture [using the] musical world of the folk song".[100] Although the Hungarian upper class has long had cultural and political connections with the rest of Europe, leading to an influx of European musical ideas, the rural peasants maintained their own traditions such that by the end of the 19th century Hungarian composers could draw on rural peasant music to (re)create a Hungarian classical style.[101] For example, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, two of Hungary's most famous composers, are known for using folk themes in their music. Bartók collected folk songs from across Eastern Europe, including Romania and Slovakia, whilst Kodály was more interested in creating a distinctively Hungarian musical style.
During the era of Communist rule in Hungary (1944–1989) a Song Committee scoured and censored popular music for traces of subversion and ideological impurity. Since then, however, the Hungarian music industry has begun to recover, producing successful performers in the fields of jazz such as trumpeter Rudolf Tomsits, pianist-composer Károly Binder and, in a modernized form of Hungarian folk, Ferenc Sebő and Márta Sebestyén. The three giants of Hungarian rock, Illés, Metró and Omega, remain very popular, especially Omega, which has followings in Germany and beyond as well as in Hungary. Older veteran underground bands such as Beatrice from the 1980s also remain popular.

Art

Main article: Hungarian art

Literature

Main article: Hungarian literature
Hungarian art
Jozsef Borsos Portrait of Kristóf Hegedűs 1844.jpg
List of Hungarian painters
List of Hungarian sculptors
Hungarian National Gallery
Museum of Fine Arts
Present-day regions in Europe where the Hungarian language is spoken.
The oldest survivng Hungarian (and Finno-Ugric) poem, Old Hungarian Laments of Mary
Chronicon Pictum
In the earliest times Hungarian language was written in a runic-like script (although it was not used for literature purposes in the modern interpretation). The country switched to the Latin alphabet after being Christianized under the reign of Stephen I of Hungary (1000–1038).
The oldest remained written record in Hungarian language is a fragment in the founding document of the Abbey of Tihany (1055) which contains several Hungarian terms, among them the words feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea, "up the military road to Fehérvár" The rest of the document was written in Latin.
The oldest remained complete text in Hungarian language is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer (Halotti beszéd és könyörgés) (1192–1195), a translation of a Latin sermon.
The oldest remained poem in Hungarian is the Old Hungarian Laments of Mary (Ómagyar Mária-siralom), also a (not very strict) translation from Latin, from the 13th century. It is also the oldest surviving Finno-Ugric poem.
Among the first chronicles about Hungarian history were Gesta Hungarorum ("Deeds of the Hungarians") by the unknown author usually called Anonymus, and Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum ("Deeds of the Huns and the Hungarians") by Simon Kézai. Both are in Latin. These chronicles mix history with legends, so historically they are not always authentic. Another chronicle is the Képes krónika (Illustrated Chronicle), which was written for Louis the Great.
Renaissance literature flourished under the reign of King Matthias (1458–1490). Janus Pannonius, although he wrote in Latin, counts as one of the most important persons in Hungarian literature, being the only significant Hungarian Humanist poet of the period. The first printing house was also founded during Matthias' reign, by András Hess, in Buda. The first book printed in Hungary was the Chronica Hungarorum. The most important poets of the period was Bálint Balassi (1554–1594) and Miklós Zrínyi (1620–1664). Balassi's poetry shows Mediaeval influences, his poems can be divided into three sections: love poems, war poems and religious poems. Zrínyi's most significant work, the epic Szigeti veszedelem ("Peril of Sziget", written in 1648/49) is written in a fashion similar to the Iliad, and recounts the heroic Battle of Szigetvár, where his great-grandfather died while defending the castle of Szigetvár. Among the religious literary works the most important is the Bible translation by Gáspár Károli (The second Hungarian Bible translation in the history), the Protestant pastor of Gönc, in 1590. The translation is called the Bible of Vizsoly, after the town where it was first published. (See Hungarian Bible translations for more details.)
The Hungarian enlightenment took place about fifty years after the French enlightenment. The first enlightened writers were Maria Theresia's bodyguards (György Bessenyei, János Batsányi and others). The greatest poets of the time were Mihály Csokonai Vitéz and Dániel Berzsenyi. The greatest figure of the language reform was Ferenc Kazinczy. The Hungarian language became feasible for all type of scientific explanations from this time, and furthermore many new words were coined for describing new inventions.
Hungarian literature has recently gained some renown outside the borders of Hungary (mostly through translations into German, French and English). Some modern Hungarian authors have become increasingly popular in Germany and Italy especially Sándor Márai, Péter Esterházy, Péter Nádas and Imre Kertész. The latter is a contemporary Jewish writer who survived the Holocaust and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2002. The older classics of Hungarian literature and Hungarian poetry have remained almost totally unknown outside Hungary. János Arany, a famous nineteenth century Hungarian poet is still much loved in Hungary (especially his collection of Ballads), among several other "true classics" like Sándor Petőfi, the poet of the Revolution of 1848, Endre Ady, Mihály Babits, Dezső Kosztolányi, Attila József and János Pilinszky. Other well-known Hungarian authors are Ferenc Móra, Géza Gárdonyi, Zsigmond Móricz, Gyula Illyés, Albert Wass and Magda Szabó.

Comics

Main article: Hungarian comics

Cuisine

Main article: Cuisine of Hungary
A nicely prepared Hortobágyi palacsinta served in Sopron
Dobos Cake
The Hungarian cuisine is a prominent feature of the Hungarian culture, just as much like the art of hospitality. Traditional dishes such as the world famous Goulash (gulyás stew or gulyás soup). Dishes are often flavoured with paprika (ground red peppers), a Hungarian innovation.[102] Thick, heavy Hungarian sour cream called tejföl is often used to soften the dishes flavour. The famous Hungarian hot river fish soup called Fisherman's soup or halászlé is usually a rich mixture of several kinds of poached fish. Other dishes are Chicken Paprikash, Foie gras made of goose liver, pörkölt stew, vadas, (game stew with vegetable gravy and dumplings), trout with almonds and salty and sweet dumplings, like túrós csusza, (dumplings with fresh quark cheese and thick sour cream). Desserts include the iconic Dobos Cake, Strudels (rétes), filled with apple, cherry, poppy seed or cheese, Gundel pancake, plum dumplings (szilvás gombóc), somlói dumplings, dessert soups like chilled Sour cherry soup and sweet chestnut puree, gesztenyepüré (cooked chestnuts mashed with sugar and rum and split into crumbs, topped with whipped cream). Perec and kifli are widely popular pastries.
The csárda is the most distinctive type of Hungarian inn, an old-style tavern offering traditional cuisine and beverages. Borozó usually denotes a cozy old-fashioned wine tavern, pince is a beer or wine cellar and a söröző is a pub offering draught beer and sometimes meals. The bisztró is an inexpensive restaurant often with self-service. The büfé is the cheapest place, although one may have to eat standing at a counter. Pastries, cakes and coffee are served at the confectionery called cukrászda, while an eszpresszó is a cafeteria.
Drinks
Main articles: Hungarian wine and Hungarian beer
A cold bottle of Unicum
Tokaji, "Wine of Kings, King of Wines" ("Vinum Regum, Rex Vinorum")—Louis XIV of France
Pálinka: is a fruit brandy, distilled from fruit grown in the orchards situated on the Great Hungarian Plain. It is a spirit native to Hungary and comes in a variety of flavours including apricot (barack) and cherry (cseresznye). However, plum (szilva) is the most popular flavour.
Beer: Beer goes well with many traditional Hungarian dishes. The five main Hungarian brands are: Borsodi, Soproni, Arany Ászok, Kõbányai, and Dreher.
Wine: As Hugh Johnson says in The History of Wine, the territory of Hungary is ideal for wine-making. Since the fall of communism there has been a renaissance of Hungarian wine-making. The choice of good wine is widening from year to year. The country can be divided to six wine regions: North-Transdanubia, Lake Balaton, South-Pannónia, Duna-region or Alföld, Upper-Hungary and Tokaj-Hegyalja. Hungarian wine regions offer a great variety of style: the main products of the country are elegant and full-bodied dry whites with good acidity, although complex sweet whites (Tokaj), elegant (Eger) and full-bodied robust reds (Villány and Szekszárd). The main varieties are: Olaszrizling, Hárslevelű, Furmint, Pinot gris or Szürkebarát, Chardonnay (whites), Kékfrankos (or Blaufrankisch in German), Kadarka, Portugieser, Zweigelt, Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc and Merlot. The most famous wines from Hungary are Tokaji Aszú and Egri Bikavér.
Tokaji: Tokaji, meaning "of Tokaj", or "from Tokaj" in Hungarian, is used to label wines from the wine region of Tokaj-Hegyalja in Hungary. Tokaji wine has received accolades from numerous great writers and composers including Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert and Goethe; Joseph Haydn's favorite wine was a Tokaji. Louis XV and Frederick the Great tried to outdo one another in the excellence of the vintages they stocked when they treated guests like Voltaire to some Tokaji. Napoleon III, the last Emperor of the French, ordered 30–40 barrels of Tokaji for the Court every year. Gustav III, King of Sweden, never had any other wine to drink. In Russia, customers included Peter the Great and Empress Elizabeth of Russia.
Zwack Unicum: For over 150 years, a blend of 40 Hungarian herbs has been used to create the liqueur Unicum. Unicum is a bitter, dark-coloured liqueur that can be drunk as an apéritif or after a meal, thus helping the digestion. The recipe is held secret by the Zwack family.

Spa culture

Rudas Baths is a thermal and medicinal bath that was first built in 1550
Széchenyi Medicinal Bath
Hungary is a land of thermal water. A passion for spa culture and Hungarian history have been connected from the very beginning. It has been shown that Hungarian spa culture is multicultural. The basis of this claim is architecture: Hungarian spas feature Roman, Greek, Turkish, and northern country architectural elements.[citation needed] Because of an advantageous geographical location thermal water can be found with good quality and in great quantities on over 80% of Hungary's territory. The Romans heralded the first age of spa in Hungary, the remains of their bath complexes are still to be seen in Óbuda, to this day. The spa culture was revived during the Turkish Invasion who used the thermal springs of Buda for the construction of a number of bathhouses, some of which are still functioning (Király Baths, Rudas Baths). In the 19th century the advancement in deep drilling and medical science provided the springboard for a further leap in bathing culture. Grand spas such as Gellért Baths, Lukács Baths, Margaret Island, and Széchenyi Medicinal Bath are a reflection of this resurgence in popularity. Approximately 1,500 thermal springs can be found in Hungary. About half of these are used for bathing. The spa culture has a nearly 2,000 year history in Budapest. Budapest has the richest supply of thermal water among the capitals of the world. The amount of thermal water used in Budapest is roughly equal to two million bath tubs per day.[citation needed] There are approximately 450 public baths in Hungary. Nowadays the trend shows that bath operators are modernizing their facilities and expanding the services offered. A total of 50 of the 160 public baths are qualified as spas throughout the country. Services are offered for healing purposes. These spas provide every type of balneal and physical therapy. Throughout history bathing and spa tourism has always played an important role in Hungary.[citation needed]
The thermal lake of Hévíz
Lake Hévíz
The thermal lake of Hévíz is the largest biologically active, natural thermal lake of the world.[citation needed] The oldest and most well-known bath of Hungary, in accordance with records from the Roman era, has a history of 2000 years. The Hévíz treatment, in its present sense, also dates back more than 200 years. The 4.4 ha lake is fed by its spring rushing up at a depth of 38 m (124.67 ft), containing sulphur, radium and minerals. Because of the high water output of the spring, the water of the lake is completely changed within 48 hours. The water of the Hévíz Lake is equally rich in dissolved substances and gases, combining the favourable effects of naturally carbonated medicinal waters and those containing sulphur, calcium, magnesium, hydrogen-carbonate, as well as those with a slightly radioactive content. The medicinal mud, which covers the bed of the lake in a thick layer, deserves special attention. The Hévíz mud, which is unique of its kind, contains both organic and inorganic substances and the radium-salts and reduced sulphuric solutions in it represent special medicinal factors. The medicinal water and mud originating from the several then thousand year-old Pannonian Sea, together with the complex physiotherapeutic treatments, are suitable for treating all kinds of rheumatic and locomotory diseases.[citation needed] The temperature of the water is 23-25 C in winter and 33-36 C in summer.

Folk art

Folk dance

Romanesque Church in village Ócsa
Ugrós (Jumping dances): Old style dances dating back to the Middle Ages. Solo or couple dances accompanied by old style music, shepherd and other solo man's dances from Transylvania, and marching dances along with remnants of medieval weapon dances belong in this group.
Karikázó: a circle dance performed by women only accompanied by singing of folksongs.
Csárdás: New style dances developed in the 18-19th centuries is the Hungarian name for the national dances, with Hungarian embroidered costumes and energetic music. From the men's intricate bootslapping dances to the ancient women's circle dances, Csárdás demonstrates the infectious exuberance of the Hungarian folk dancing still celebrated in the villages.
Verbunkos: a solo man's dance evolved from the recruiting performances of the Austro-Hungarian army.
The Legényes: is a men's solo dance done by the ethnic Hungarian people living in the Kalotaszeg region of Transylvania. Although usually danced by young men, it can be also danced by older men. The dance is performed freestyle usually by one dancer at a time in front of the band. Women participate in the dance by standing in lines to the side and sing/shout verses while the men dance. Each lad does a number of points (dance phrases) typically 4 to 8 without repetition. Each point consists of 4 parts, each lasting 4 counts. The first part is usually the same for everyone (there are only a few variations).

Embroidery

Woman's folk Costume
It was in the beginning of the eighteenth century that the present style of Hungarian folk art took shape, incorporating both Renaissance and Baroque elements, depending on the area, as well as Persian Sassanide influences. Flowers and leaves, sometimes a bird or a spiral ornament, are the principal decorative themes. The most frequent ornament is a flower with a centerpiece resembling the eye of a peacock's feather. Nearly all the manifestations of folk art practiced elsewhere in Europe also flourished among the Magyar peasantry at one time or another, their ceramics and textile being the most highly developed of all. The finest achievements in their textile arts are the embroideries which vary from region to region. Those of Kalotaszeg in Transylvania are charming products of Oriental design, sewn chiefly in a single color - red, blue, or black. Soft in line, the embroideries are applied on altar cloths, pillow cases and sheets. In Hungary proper Sárköz in Transdanubia and the Matyóföld in the Great Hungarian Plain produce the finest embroideries. In the Sárköz region the women's caps show black and white designs as delicate as lace and give evidence of the people's wonderfully subtle artistic feeling. The embroidery motifs applied to women's wear have also been transposed to tablecloths and runners suitable for modern use as wall decorations.

Black pottery

These vessels, made of black clay, reflect more than three hundred years of traditional Transdanubian folk patterns and shapes. No two are precisely alike, since all work is done by hand, including both the shaping and the decorating. The imprints are made by the thumb or a finger of the ceramist who makes the piece.

Herend Porcelain

Herend Porcelain's "kinai" pattern
Main article: Herend Porcelain
Founded in 1826, Herend Porcelain is one of the world's largest ceramic factories, specializing in luxury hand painted and gilded porcelain. In the mid-19th century it was purveyor to the Habsburg Dynasty and aristocratic customers throughout Europe. Many of its classic patterns are still in production. After the fall of communism in Hungary the factory was privatised and is now 75% owned by its management and workers, exporting to over 60 countries of the world.[103]

Hungarian public holidays and special events

Fixed public holidays

Date English Name Local Name Remarks
January 1 New Year's Day Újév  
March 15 National Day Nemzeti ünnep Márciusi ifjak ("March youths"), memorial day of the 1848 Revolution. There are usually speeches and music pieces performed; several people wear a cockade with the national colours (red, white and green).
Moveable Easter Sunday Húsvétvasárnap Good Friday work-free for Protestants
Moveable Easter Monday Húsvéthétfő Men visit women and ask for permission for sprinkling by reciting a little Easter poem, they sprinkle them with some perfume (or sometimes a bucket of cold water in the countryside), and they get eggs (mostly of chocolate) in exchange. Children get chocolate bunnies and eggs (from the Bunny), and sometimes fruits, nuts etc. as well. They sometimes have to look for these presents in the garden or in their room. (Living bunnies are not infrequent, either.) Mothers often prepare ham, eggs, and sweetbreads for dinner.
May 1 Labour day;
anniversary of the accession to the EU		 A munka ünnepe The countries of the EU are represented with special programmes, bridges are decorated and exhibitions are arranged.
Moveable Pentecost Sunday Pünkösdvasárnap Sunday, 50 days after Easter
Moveable Pentecost Monday Pünkösdhétfő Monday after Pentecost
August 20 Saint Stephen Day Szent István ünnepe St. Stephen's Day, Foundation of State, "the day of the new bread" as well. St. Stephen of Hungary (Szent István király in Hungarian) (ca. 975 – August 15, 1038), was the first king of Hungary.
Celebrated with a half-hour fireworks on the bank of the Danube in the evening, attended by several hundreds of thousands of people.
October 23 National Day Nemzeti ünnep The day of the Republic (since 1989), 1956 Revolution memorial day. Celebrated with speeches and exhibitions.
November 1 All Saints Day, Day of the Dead Mindenszentek, Halottak napja It is a day to remember the lost ones. On this day people generally visit all their lost relatives' graves which they decorate with flowers.
December 24 evening,
December 25		 Christmas "Szenteste", Karácsony People buy (or make) presents for their relatives and friends in the preceding couple of weeks (so this period is the absolute boom of the year for most stores). Public transport stops operating at about 4 p.m. Families reunite and people prepare their (labelled) presents under the Christmas tree. It is made of a fir which is decorated by one or two people in the family so nobody else can see it before they signal with a little bell for the rest to come in. The family sings Christmas songs together and everyone unwraps their presents.
On 25th and the 26th, people usually visit their relatives (e.g. aunts, uncles and grandparents) and exchange presents.
December 26 Second Day of Christmas Karácsony másnapja  

Holidays not endorsed by the state

Date English Name Local Name Remarks
December 6 Santa Claus, Saint Nicholas Day Mikulás, Télapó Children get various chocolate pieces from the Santa Claus by morning. If they were bad, they might get (birch) rods exclusively or beside their presents.
December 31 New Year's Eve Szilveszter Young people go partying until morning. Streets are noisy with paper trumpets, hoots and champagne cracks; people often wear masks and throw petards. Those who stay home usually watch the comedies made for this occasion; at midnight they drink champagne and wish each other good luck for the new year. National television channels broadcast the orchestral and choral national anthem at midnight, and then the speech of the current President. After midnight they often use fireworks. With these finished, further comedies and various movies follow. The next day streets are as empty as ever, and people sleep long (or sleep themselves sober).
Moveable Carnival Farsang A six day regional carnival, originally celebrated by the Šokci (ethnic-Croatians) living in the town of Mohács. Traditions include folk music, masquerading, parades and dancing.

Hungarian domestic animals

Magyar Vizsla
White Puli
There are special Hungarian breeds of domestic animals which are seen as national symbols in Hungary, and there are "gene banks"[citation needed] to ensure their survival, especially in national parks.
  • Long-horn Hungarian Grey Cattle- Hungarian breed, traditionally kept in the open full year. Nowadays they are raised for infant food because of the natural, healthy meat.
  • Magyar Vizsla - one of the oldest hunting dogs of the world. The ancestors of this dog came into the Carpathian Basin with the nomadic Hungarian tribes.
  • Hungarian Puli - small shepherd dog
  • Hungarian Komondor - large shepherd dog, was brought to Hungary a thousand years ago by nomadic Magyars.
  • Hungarian Kuvasz - large shepherd dog.
  • Hungarian Pumi - small shepherd dog.
  • Magyar Agár (Hungarian Greyhound) is already known in the 8th century, it is as old as the Vizsla.
  • Transylvanian Bloodhound - Hungarian hound.
  • Hungarian Mudi shepherd dog.
  • Hungarian thoroughbred horses - a mid-19th century mixture of the best Arab and English race horse characteristics.
  • Mangalica, a breed of pigs, characterised by their long curly hair and relatively fatty meat which makes them ideal for making sausages and salami.
Dogs originating from Hungary
Hungary

Special events

Pécs is the European Capital of Culture in 2010.
Hungary's most outstanding annual events include the Budapest Spring Festival (mid-March to mid-April), Hortobágy Equestrian Days (late June), Sopron Early Music Days (late June), Festival in Budapest (late June), Miskolc Opera Festival (late June), Miskolc Kalálka International Folk Festival (July), Győr Summer Festival (late June), Győr Summer Cultural Festival (late June to late July), Pannon Festival in Pécs (July and August), Szentendre Summer Festival (July), Kőszeg Street Theatre Festival (late July), Savaria International Dance Competition in Szombathely (July), Debrecen Jazz Days (July), Szeged Open Air Festival (mid-July to August), Diáksziget (shorter: "Sziget" or "Sziget Festival", Student Island or Pepsi Island) north of Budapest (August), Eger Wine Harvest Festival (September), and Budapest Autumn Arts Festival (mid-September to mid-October).
St Stephen's Day (August 20) is celebrated with sporting events, parades and fireworks nationwide. On the same day there is a Floral Festival in Debrecen and a Bridge Fair in nearby Hortobágy. Formula 1 car races are held in early August at the Hungaroring near Mogyoród, 18 km northeast of Budapest.

Budapest Spring Festival

Budapest, Opera House
Designed to fit the needs of Budapest's cultural heritage and its requirements as a modern Central European centre, this metropolitan festival was instituted in 1981. By presenting and disseminating cultural assets it boosts the city's image and encourages dynamic development of its cultural tourism. This "festival of festivals", traditionally covering a range of artistic fields, presents a series of homogeneous artistic activities to which international professional symposia are linked. The Budapest Spring Festival takes place in the last two weeks of March. Its main emphasis is on those symphony orchestra concerts, opera and ballet performances which will appeal to the widest audience, but the program also includes open-air events and an Operetta Festival. The performances take place in the capital's most important concert halls and theatres, and often near historic monuments. Over the years a number of regional towns have been included in the Budapest Spring Festival - Debrecen, Gödöllő, Győr, Kaposvár, Kecskemét, Sopron, Szentendre and Szombathely - and thus it has more or less expanded into a national festival. The list of events always includes renowned foreign guests as well as distinguished artists and groups from the Hungarian musical life. Highlights include classical concerts, productions at the Opera House, open air events, the Operetta Festival, the Dance House Convention, the Dance Panorama, and what are considered to be the real treat, the exhibitions.

Haydn Festival in Eszterháza

Palace of Eszterháza
Haydn at Eszterháza: During its first quarter century, the palace was the primary home of the celebrated composer Joseph Haydn, who wrote the majority of his symphonies for the Prince's orchestra. Starting in 1768, the theater was a major venue for opera, often with more than a hundred performances per year. The palace was geographically isolated, a factor which led to loneliness and tedium among the musicians. This is seen in some of Haydn's letters, as well as in the famous tale of the Farewell Symphony
The basic aim of the festival is to evoke the musical paradise that Eszterháza was in Haydn's time, within the original walls, with the help of period instruments and performing practice. The programmes focus mainly on the works composed during the Eszterháza period of Haydn's creative life, and among these, on compositions belonging to the most important genres (symphonies, string quartets, keyboard sonatas and trios). In addition, however, the concert programmes regularly include works by the "unknown Haydn" (baryton pieces, rarely heard church compositions, wind divertimenti, etc.). The festival aims to provide opportunities for the world's most outstanding Haydn performers to meet here, to gain inspiration from the atmosphere and acoustics of the place, and to inspire one another through shared music-making. The majority of the performers play only compositions by Joseph Haydn, but also in exceptional cases other works closely connected, either directly or through their composers, with Haydn, Eszterháza or the family of the Esterházy princes - such as, for example, the string quartets dedicated to Haydn by Mozart, and certain pieces by Michael Haydn (the composer's younger brother), Luigi Tomasini (leader of the Eszterháza orchestra) and others. The venue for most of the concerts is the enchantingly beautiful ceremonial hall of the palace, which has superb acoustics. Some of the more intimate, solistic performances are given in the sala terrena, the central hall of the original, smaller, Renaissance hunting palace. Some concerts of church music take place in one or other of the churches in the nearby villages.

Győr Summer Festival

Győr centre
This festival is held annually, from the second week in June to the second week in July. The Győr Summer International Cultural Festival, which displays Győr's cultural heritage, has a history of over three decades. The list of events, which covers a wide range of genres, is based on a series of separate activities. Every year, for a month in June and July, the Baroque decorations of the city centre, its atmospheric courtyards and the banks of the Rába river are home to the International Ballet Festival, the International Puppet and Street Theatre Convention, the International Folk Dancing and Folk Music Festival, and the International Handcraft Fair and Exhibition. In addition to the performances of the hosts - the Győr Ballet, the Győr National Theatre, and the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra - visitors can also see those of the visiting theatre companies and musical groups.

Sport

See also: Golden Team
Only seven countries (USA, USSR, UK, France, Italy, China and Germany) have won more Summer Olympic gold medals than Hungary. Hungary has the most Olympic gold medals per capita. At the all time total medal count for Olympic Games, Hungary reaches the 9th rank out of 211 participating nations, with a total of 465 medals. See All-time Olympic Games medal table (2008 data)
One of the most famous Hungarians is the footballer Ferenc Puskás (1927–2006). He scored 84 goals in 85 internationals for Hungary, and 511 goals in 533 matches in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues. Puskás played the 1954 World Cup final against West Germany. In 1958, after the Hungarian Revolution, he emigrated to Spain where he played in the legendary Real Madrid team that also included Alfredo Di Stéfano, and Francisco Gento.
Hungarians are also known for their prowess at water sports, mainly swimming, water polo (See: Water polo at the Summer Olympics) (in which they have defeated the Soviet team in 1956) and canoeing (they have won multiple medals); this can be said to be surprising at first, since Hungary is landlocked. On the other hand, the presence of two major rivers (the Duna and the Tisza) and a major lake (Balaton) give excellent opportunities to practice these sports. Some of the world's best sabre fencing athletes have historically hailed from Hungary. The Hungarian national ice hockey team have also qualified for their first IIHF World Championship in more than seventy years.
The Hungarian national football team represents Hungary in international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. It has a rich and proud pedigree in the game and a rightful place in football annals as one of the first original footballing nations in continental Europe and an innovator in the sport in the 1950s. In recent times the team's strength has diminished greatly, failing to qualify for any major tournament since 1986. However they hold the record for going the most number of consecutive games unbeaten, 32.
Hungarian football is best known for one of the most formidable and influential sides in football history, which revolutionized the play of the game. Centered around the dynamic and potent quartet of strikers Ferenc Puskás, Sándor Kocsis, attacking half-back József Bozsik and withdrawn striker Nándor Hidegkuti, the "Aranycsapat" (Hung. lit Golden Team) of the "Magnificent Magyars", captivated the football world with an exciting brand of play drawn from new tactical nuances and amassed, barring the 1954 World Cup Final, a remarkable record of 43 victories, 7 ties, and no defeats from the 15th of June 1952 to the end of its historic unbeaten run on February 18, 1956. Hungary has the unique distinction of posting the highest ever Elo football rating of 2173 points in June (1954) along with the second highest with 2153 (1956); surpassing that of Brazil, England, Argentina and Germany in all-time competition.
Puskás Ferenc Stadium
Ferenc Puskás
The Hungarians were runners-up twice in the World Cup, losing to Italy 4–2 in 1938 and 3–2 to West Germany in 1954, despite beating them 8–3 earlier in the competition. The team, built around the legendary Ferenc Puskás, led early 2–0 in that match, but ended up 3–2 losers in a game the Germans subsequently christened "The Miracle of Bern". Two highly controversial calls surround this final game: firstly when Puskas apparently equalized the match in the 89th minute only to have the goal disallowed for offside, the second being a blatant foul on Kocsis in the penalty area which would have given Hungary a penalty in the final minute.
Hungary has won gold at the Olympic three times, in 1952, 1964, and 1968. The under-23 team, which was the age limit for Olympic teams, won the UEFA U-23 Championship in 1974. Since the 1976 reshuffle by UEFA, the under-23s are now classified with the under-21s.
The match between Austria and Hungary in Vienna in 1902 was the first international match played between two non-British European countries.
Hungary was the first team from outside the United Kingdom and Ireland to beat England at home, famously winning 6–3 at Wembley on November 25, 1953. This victory had worldwide significance as it effectively ended England's 90 year old mythical reign since the creation of association football in 1863 against all sides outside the United Kingdom and Ireland. They beat England 7–1, this time in Budapest a year later, in 1954. This still ranks as England's record defeat.
Hungary holds the longest consecutive run of matches unbeaten with 33 international games between 14 May 1950 and 4 July 1954, when they lost the World Cup final to Germany. Argentina and Spain jointly hold the second longest string of 31 unbeaten matches (Argentina from 1991 to 1993 and Spain from 1994 to 1998).
Budapest Sports Arena
Hungary remained a force in European football for two to three decades after the era of the "Magnificent Magyars". Reaching the quarter-finals of both 1962 and 1966 World Cups, Hungary was blessed with a dazzling array of talent including Ferenc Sipos, Lajos Tichy, Ferenc Bene, Flórián Albert, János Farkas, Gyula Rákosi, Zoltán Varga, János Göröcs, Károly Sándor and Máté Fenyvesi. They also reached the semi-finals of the European Championship in 1964 and 1972.
Returning to the World Cup in 1978 and 1982, Hungary did not reach the same heights but nonetheless performed respectably—indeed, the talents of László Fazekas, Tibor Nyilasi and László Kiss inspired Hungary to a 10–1 win over El Salvador in 1982, which remains a World Cup record. The 1986 World Cup is seen by many fans as the final confirmation of Hungary's decline. Expectations were very high, but poor performances in defeats to the Soviet Union and France were a bitter blow, despite the presence of talent like Lajos Détári. Since then, Hungary has continued to produce fine individual talent- notably Béla Illés and Krisztián Lisztes　– but further success as a team has eluded them.
Most recently, in Euro 2004 qualifiers, Hungary found themselves within sight of qualification with two games remaining, but was scuppered by defeats to Latvia and Poland.
Today, Hungary are a lesser force and haven't qualified for a World Cup since 1986, or for the European Championship finals since 1972.

Miscellaneous

Hungarian folk art, including dances, music, cross stitchings, embroideries, costumes, potteries, wood carvings, basket wavings, porcelains etc. has a long and rich history which play a significant role in local folk traditions and customs.

Transport

Main article: Transport in Hungary
Freedom bridge, Budapest
Republic of Hungary is located in the central part of the Pannonian Vale, and is a landlocked country, which is conducive to the development of all forms of traffic.
Hungary has developed road, railway, air and water traffic. Budapest, the capital of the state, to the measures is an important node in the public transport network, to say that "all roads lead to Budapest".

Railways

Main article: Hungarian State Railways
Keleti Railway Station, Budapest
Train entering the Keleti Railway Station
  • Total: 7,606 km
    • Broad gauge: 36 km 1,524 mm (5 ft)  gauge
    • Standard gauge: 7,394 km 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) gauge (2,270 km electrified; 1,236 km double track)
    • narrow gauge: 176 km 760 mm (2 ft 5+7⁄8 in) gauge (1998)
Note: Hungary and Austria jointly manage the cross-border standard-gauge railway between Győr–Sopron–Ebenfurt (GySEV/ROeEE), a distance of about 101 km in Hungary and 65 km in Austria.
In Budapest, the three main railway stations are the Eastern (Keleti), Western (Nyugati) and Southern (Déli), with other outlying stations like Kelenföld. Of the three, the Southern is the most modern but the Eastern and the Western are more decorative and architecturally interesting.
Other important railway stations countrywide include Szolnok (the most important railway intersection outside Budapest), Tiszai Railway Station in Miskolc and the stations of Pécs, Győr, Szeged and Székesfehérvár.
Four Hungarian cities (Budapest, Debrecen, Miskolc, Szeged and Pécs is becoming the fifth) have tram network.
The only city with an underground railway system is Budapest with its Metro.
In Budapest there is also a suburban rail service in and around the city, operated under the name HÉV.

Motorways

M0 motorway
Motorways (Hungarian: Autópálya) : M0 - M1 - M15 - M2 - M3 - M30 - M35 - M5 - M6 - M7 - M70
  • Total: 188,490 km
    • Paved: 81,950 km (including 1013 km of motorways, 2007)
    • Unpaved: 106,523 km (1998 est.)
New motorway sections are being added to the existing network, that already connects many major economically important cities to the Capital City.

Ports and Harbours

The most important port is Budapest, the capital. Other important ones include Dunaújváros and Baja.
Budapest International Airport

Airports

Main article: List of airports in Hungary
There are 43-45 airports in Hungary, including smaller, unpaved ones too. (1999 est.) The five international ones are Budapest-Ferihegy, Debrecen Airport, Sármellék Airport (also called FlyBalaton for its proximity to Lake Balaton, Hungary's number one tourist attraction), Győr-Pér and Pécs-Pogány. MALÉV Hungarian Airlines operates flights to over 60, mostly European cities.

Metro

Main article: Budapest Metro
Line 2, Budapest Metro
Budapest Metro
The Budapest Metro (Hungarian: Budapesti metró) is the metro system in the Hungarian capital Budapest. It is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world, and its iconic Line 1 (dating from 1896) was declared a World Heritage Site in 2002.
It consists of three lines, each designated by a number and a colour. Metro Line 4 is currently under construction; the first section is to begin operation in 2011. A fifth line has also been included in medium to long-term plans. The Budapest Metro trains start running at 4:30 in the morning, and the last train leaves at 11:10 p.m. from the terminus. The rush hours are between 6 and 8 a.m. and between 2 and 5 p.m. on workdays, when trains run every two or three minutes. Early morning and night trains run every 10 or 15 minutes. On Christmas Eve (December 24) trains usually run only until about 3:00 in the afternoon, and may also stop running early on other holidays, as advertised beforehand. Service time may be extended on New Year's Eve.

International Rankings

Organization Survey Ranking
Institute for Economics and Peace [4] Global Peace Index[104] 27 out of 144
United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index 43 out of 182
Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 46 out of 180
World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 58 out of 133
International Living Magazine Quality of Life 20 out of 194

See also

Hungary portal
Austria-Hungary portal
Lists

References

Notes

  1. ^ The other three being Estonian, Finnish and Maltese
  2. ^ The form of government was at times changed, or ambigious causing short interruptions
  1. ^ European State Mottos
  2. ^ Hungarian Central Statistical Office. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
  3. ^ a b c d "Hungary". International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2006&ey=2009&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=944&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=&pr.x=64&pr.y=1. Retrieved 2009-10-01. 
  4. ^ "The plain facts - History". MTI. http://english.mti.hu/default.asp?cat=36&menu=6. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  5. ^ "East on the Danube: Hungary's Tragic Century". The New York Times. 2003-08-09. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E3D91531F93AA3575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  6. ^ "Hungary". Encarta. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761559741_11/Hungary.html#p68. Retrieved 2008-11-12. 
  7. ^ World Bank Country Classification, 2007
  8. ^ "Index - Belföld - A magyar kamasz iszik, dohányzik és könnyen teherbe esik". Index.hu. http://index.hu/belfold/2009/09/16/a_magyar_kamasz_iszik_dohanyzik_es_konnyen_teherbe_esik/. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  9. ^ "PowerPoint bemutató" (PDF). http://www.amcham.hu/events/2008/20060326ICEG/Panel%201/Presentation_Retfalvi.pdf. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  10. ^ "Index - Világméretű influenzajárvány jöhet". Index.hu. http://index.hu/tudomany/bulvar081015/. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  11. ^ http://www.itdh.com/engine.aspx?page=Itdh_Priority_Sectors_Logistics
  12. ^ http://hvg.hu/gazdasag/20100107_vilag_eletminoseg_rangsor_2010
  13. ^ http://www.caboodle.hu/nc/news/news_archive/single_page/article/11/hungary_rank-1/
  14. ^ "Index - Miért menjünk Magyarországra? Miért menjünk Szlovákiába?". Index.hu. http://index.hu/gazdasag/vilag/szmturizm07/. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  15. ^ http://www.mth.gov.hu/download.php?ctag=download&docID=185
  16. ^ "Search - Global Edition - The New York Times". International Herald Tribune. 2009-03-29. http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/11/18/europe/OUKWD-UK-HUNGARY-CAVE.php. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  17. ^ "The Avar Khaganate". Allempires.com. 2007-05-31. http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=The_Avar_Khaganate. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  18. ^ a b c A Country Study: Hungary. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+hu0013). Retrieved 2009-03-06. 
  19. ^ a b c d Engel, Pál; Andrew Ayton, Tamás Pálosfalvi (2005). Andrew Ayton. ed. The realm of St. Stephen: a history of medieval Hungary, 895-1526. I.B.Tauris. p. 12. http://books.google.com/books?id=vEJNBqanT_8C&pg=PA10&dq=svatopluk+moravia&lr=&ei=f6izSvyVI4G0yQTWlNixAw#v=onepage&q=svatopluk%20moravia&f=false. 
  20. ^ Encyclopedia Americana (2000). 24.. 370: Grolier Incorporated. 
  21. ^ "Magyar (Hungarian) migration, 9th century". Eliznik.org.uk. http://www.eliznik.org.uk/EastEurope/History/migration-map/hungarian-migration.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  22. ^ Origins and Language. Source: U.S. Library of Congress.
  23. ^ a b "Stephen Sisa: The Spirit of Hungary - 1 Who Are the Magyars?". Hungarian-history.hu. http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/hunspir/hsp05.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  24. ^ Stephen Wyley (2001-05-30). "The Magyars of Hungary". Geocities.com. http://www.geocities.com/egfrothos/magyars/magyars.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  25. ^ "http://www.babylon.com/definition/G%C3%A9za/English". Babylon. http://www.babylon.com/definition/Géza/English. Retrieved 2008-11-20. 
  26. ^ Asia Travel Europe. "Hungaria Travel Information | Asia Travel Europe". Asiatravel.com. http://www.asiatravel.com/europe/hungaria/travelinfo.html. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  27. ^ "Hunmagyar.Org - The Controversy On The Origins And Early History Of The Hungarians". Hunmagyar.org. http://www.hunmagyar.org/tor/controve.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  28. ^ "Welcome to Cambridge Szeged website:: www.cambridge-szeged-society.org.uk". Cambridge-szeged-society.org.uk. http://www.cambridge-szeged-society.org.uk/history_library.html. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  29. ^ "Marko Marelic: The Byzantine and Slavic worlds". http://www.korcula.net/history/mmarelic/byzant.htm. 
  30. ^ "Hungary in American History Textbooks". http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/hunyadi/hu02.htm. 
  31. ^ "Hungary, facts and history in breef". http://erwin.bernhardt.net.nz/hungary/hungaryfacts.html. 
  32. ^ http://www.hungarianhistory.com/lib/csapo/csapo08.htm
  33. ^ A concise history of Hungary - Google Books. Books.google.co.uk. http://books.google.co.uk/books?ct=result&id=y0g4YEp7ZrsC&dq=%22B%C3%A9la+III%22+annual+revenue&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&sig=ACfU3U2STdXJyC_RFJp9Ipb3Rw4SmsrWww&q=ladis#PPA28,M1. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  34. ^ http://www.hungarianhistory.com/lib/autonomy/komlossy.pdf
  35. ^ "The Daco-Roman Legend". Hungarianhistory.com. http://www.hungarianhistory.com/lib/kos/kos05.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  36. ^ http://www.kulugyminiszterium.hu/NR/rdonlyres/C9FDF041-86A7-4B20-8B73-94C568E448E5/0/Culture_en.pdf
  37. ^ The Mongol invasion: the last Arpad kings, Encyclopaedia Britannica
  38. ^ Autonomies in Europe and Hungary. (PDF). By Józsa Hévizi.
  39. ^ Mongol Invasions: Battle of Liegnitz, HistoryNet
  40. ^ "At the gate of Christendom: Jews, Muslims, and "pagans" in medieval Hungary ". Nóra Berend (2001). p.72. ISBN 0521651859
  41. ^ cs. "National and historical symbols of Hungary". Nemzetijelkepek.hu. http://www.nemzetijelkepek.hu/onkormanyzat-jaszbereny_en.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  42. ^ "Hungary - History". Nationsencyclopedia.com. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Hungary-HISTORY.html. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  43. ^ "C. A. Macartney: Hungary - A Short History". Mek.oszk.hu. http://mek.oszk.hu/02000/02086/02086.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  44. ^ "the influences of the florentine renaissance in hungary". Fondazione-delbianco.org. http://www.fondazione-delbianco.org/inglese/relaz00_01/mester.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  45. ^ "Hungary". Lenti.eu. http://www.lenti.eu/hungary_en.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  46. ^ a b "Hungary - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/276730/Hungary#tab=active~checked%2Citems~checked&title=Hungary%20--%20Britannica%20Online%20Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  47. ^ "Hungary - Renaissance And Reformation". Countrystudies.us. http://countrystudies.us/hungary/9.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  48. ^ "Hungary - The Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection: UNESCO-CI". Portal.unesco.org. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=15976&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  49. ^ "About.com: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/hutoc.html". Geography.about.com. http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/hutoc.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  50. ^ http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=212344
  51. ^ "The changing facets of Hungarian nationalism - Nationalism Reexamined | Social Research | Find Articles at BNET". Findarticles.com. 2009-06-02. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2267/is_n1_v63/ai_18501094/. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  52. ^ "Ch7-1" (PDF). http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/unmaking/part1-7.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  53. ^ Géza Jeszenszky: From "Eastern Switzerland" to Ethnic Cleansing, address at Duquesne History Forum, November 17, 2000, The author is former Ambassador of Hungary to the United States and was Foreign Minister in 1990 – 1994.
  54. ^ "Austria-Hungary". 1911 Encyclopedia. LoveToKnow. http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Austria-Hungary. 
  55. ^ Vol. 3, p.825 in Magyarország Történelmi Kronológiája, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1982.
  56. ^ Library of Congress country study on Hungary
  57. ^ "FIND RED LEADERS' LOOT.; Bela Kun and Szamuely Hid Valuables They Had ... - Article Preview - The". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A05E4D91338EE32A25750C1A96E9C946896D6CF. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  58. ^ "Magyar Tudomány 2000. január". Epa.niif.hu. http://epa.niif.hu/00700/00775/00014/109-113.html. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  59. ^ Ignác Romsics: Magyarország története a XX. században, 2004, p. 134
  60. ^ Molnar, A Concise History of Hungary, p. 262 online
  61. ^ Richard C. Frucht, Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the People, Lands, and Culture p. 359-360 online
  62. ^ Flood-light on Europe: a guide to the next war By Felix Wittmer Published by C. Scribner's sons, 1937 Item notes: pt. 443 Original from Indiana University Digitized Nov 13, 2008 p. 114
  63. ^ History of the Hungarian Nation By Domokos G. Kosáry, Steven Béla Várdy, Danubian Research Center Published by Danubian Press, 1969 Original from the University of California Digitized Jun 19, 2008 p. 222
  64. ^ The European powers in the First World War: an encyclopedia By Spencer Tucker, Laura Matysek Wood, Justin D. Murphy Edition: illustrated Published by Taylor & Francis, 1996 ISBN 0815303998, 9780815303992 p.697 [1]
  65. ^ Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite John F. Montgomery, Hungary: The Unwilling Satellite. Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1947. Reprint: Simon Publications, 2002.
  66. ^ "United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Holocaust Encyclopedia". Ushmm.org. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10005458. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  67. ^ Alfred de Zayas "Raoul Wallenberg" in Dinah Shelton Encyclopedia of Genocide (Macmillan Reference 2005, vol. 3)
  68. ^ Alfred de Zayas "A Terrible Revenge" (Palgrave/Macmillan 2006)
  69. ^ "Granville/ frm" (PDF). http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2003/sample/granville%20chap.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  70. ^ "Hungary's 'forgotten' war victims". BBC News. 2009-11-07. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8347146.stm. Retrieved 2010-02-04. 
  71. ^ Findley, Carter V., and John Rothney. Twentieth Century World. sixth ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 278.
  72. ^ Hungary's 1956 brain drain. BBC News. October 23, 2006.
  73. ^ "Hungary Guide - Interesting facts about Hungary". Eupedia. 1994-04-19. http://www.eupedia.com/hungary/trivia.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  74. ^ a b The Contribution of Hungarians to Universal Culture (includes inventors), Embassy of the Republic of Hungary, Damascus, Syria, 2006.
  75. ^ "Definition "coach" in Collins English Dictionary & Thesaurus". Dictionary.reverso.net. http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-definitions/coach. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  76. ^ a b "IEC - Techline > Otto Blathy, Miksa Déri, Károly Zipernowsky". Iec.ch. http://www.iec.ch/cgi-bin/tl_to_htm.pl?section=technology&item=144. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  77. ^ Georgano, G. N. Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985)
  78. ^ "The Political and Economic Transition in Hungary" (PDF). http://www.koed.hu/medit/endre.pdf. 
  79. ^ "CIA - The World Factbook - Hungary". https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/hu.html. 
  80. ^ "Hungary faces enormous economic hurdles". USAToday. http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2006-06-22-hungary-usat_x.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
  81. ^ "Convergence Report May 2008" (PDF). http://www.ecb.int/pub/pdf/conrep/cr200805en.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  82. ^ "Hungary has surpassed worst part of financial crisis: PM". Eubusiness.com. 2009-07-20. http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1225823530.76. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  83. ^ Hungary’s Recession Deepens on Plunging Export Demand. Bloomberg.com. June 9, 2009.
  84. ^ "Accueil des actualités des marchés boursiers internationaux". Boursorama.com. http://www.boursorama.com/international/detail_actu_intern.phtml?news=5958539. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  85. ^ [2]
  86. ^ a b c Index of Economic Freedom
  87. ^ "Hungary's 2nd reading Q3 GDP growth +0.8 pct yr/yr". Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/12/09/afx5796616.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  88. ^ "GKI say's Hungary's GDP to contract 1-1.5pc in 2009". Realdeal.hu. 2008-12-08. http://www.realdeal.hu/20081208/gki-says-hungarys-gdp-to-contract-115pc-in-2009. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  89. ^ [3]
  90. ^ Andrew Speedy. "Hungary". Fao.org. http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/agpc/doc/Counprof/Hungary/hungary.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  91. ^ "Hussar". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.. 2008. http://britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/277525/hussar. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 
  92. ^ "Population Census 2001 – National and county data – Summary Data". Nepszamlalas.hu. http://www.nepszamlalas.hu/eng/volumes/06/00/tabeng/1/load01_10_0.html. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  93. ^ Hungary: Transit Country Between East and West. Migration Information Source. November 2003.
  94. ^ ""History of German Settlements in Southern Hungary" by Sue Clarkson". Feefhs.org. http://feefhs.org/BANAT/BHISTORY.HTML. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  95. ^ 18. Demographic data – Hungarian Central Statistical Office
  96. ^ "18. Demographic data – Hungarian Central Statistical Office". Nepszamlalas.hu. http://www.nepszamlalas.hu/eng/volumes/18/tables/load1_26.html. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  97. ^ Volume 3, p.979, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1982
  98. ^ Szalipszki, p. 12
    Refers to the country as "widely considered" to be a "home of music".
  99. ^ Broughton, pp. 159-167
  100. ^ Szabolcsi, The Specific Conditions of Hungarian Musical Development
    "Every experiment, made from Hungarian antedecents and on Hungarian soil, to create a conscious musical culture (music written by composers, as different from folk music), had instinctively or consciously striven to develop widely and universally the musical world of the folk song. Folk poetry and folk music were deeply embedded in the collective Hungarian people’s culture, and this unity did not cease to be effective even when it was given from and expression by individual creative artists, performers and poets."
  101. ^ "Szabolcsi". Mek.oszk.hu. http://mek.oszk.hu/02100/02172/html/index.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  102. ^ "Sulinet: Magyar növény-e a paprika?". Sulinet.hu. http://www.sulinet.hu/tart/fcikk/Kjc/0/23144/1. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  103. ^ "Herend Porcelain Manufactory Ltd". Herend.com. http://www.herend.com/. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 
  104. ^ "Vision of Humanity". Vision of Humanity. http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/home.php. Retrieved 2010-02-04. 

External links

Historical development of Hungary
← Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
(1867–1918)
Flag of Hungary.svg
 –
Hungary
Hungary Hungary topics
History Coat of arms of Hungary
Law
Politics
Geography
Economy
Military
Demographics
Culture
Portal
World Heritage Sites in Hungary
Central
Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue
borderFlag of Hungary
Transdanubia
Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs (Sopianae) · Fertő / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape1 · Millenary Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma and its Natural Environment
Great Plain
and North
Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst2 · Hortobágy National Park – the Puszta · Old Village of Hollókő and its Surroundings · Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landscape
1 Shared with Austria · 2 Shared with Slovakia

Travel guide

Up to date as of January 14, 2010

From Wikitravel

Parliament in Budapest
Location
Location
Flag
Flag of Hungary
Quick Facts
Capital Budapest
Government Parliamentary democracy
Currency Forint (HUF)
Area total: 93,030 km2
water: 690 km2
land: 92,340 km2
Population 10,049,000 (2008 est.)
Language Hungarian 98.2%, other 1.8%
Religion Roman Catholic 67.5%, Calvinist 20%, Lutheran 5%, atheist and other 7.5%
Electricity 230/50Hz (European Plug)
Calling Code +36
Internet TLD .hu
Time Zone UTC +1
Hungary (Magyarország) [1] is a country in Central Europe. Member of the European Union and the Schengen Border-less Europe Agreement. The country offers many diverse destinations: relatively low mountains in the north-west, the Great Plain in the east, lakes and rivers of all sorts (including Balaton - the largest lake in Central Europe), and many beautiful small villages and hidden gems of cities. Top this off with Hungary's great accessibility in the middle of Europe, a vivid culture and economy, and you get a destination absolutely not worth missing if you're in the region.

Understand

Following a Celtic (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (9 BC - c. 4th century) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late Ninth Century by the Magyar chieftain Árpád, whose great grandson István ascended to the throne with a crown sent from Rome in 1000. The Kingdom of Hungary existed with minor interruptions for more than 900 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centers of Europe. It was succeeded by a Communist era (1945-1989) during which Hungary gained widespread international attention regarding the Revolution of 1956 and the seminal move of opening its border with Austria in 1989, thus accelerating the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. The present form of government is Parliamentary Republic (1989-). Hungary's current goal is to become a developed country by IMF standards, already being considered "developed" by most traditional measures, including GDP and Human Development Index (world ranking 36th and rising).
Hungary is one of the 15 most popular tourist destinations in the world, with a capital regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world [2]. Despite its relatively small size, the country is home to numerous World Heritage Sites, UNESCO Biosphere reserves, the second largest thermal lake in the world (Lake Hévíz), the largest lake in Central Europe (Lake Balaton), and the largest natural grassland in Europe (Hortobágy). In terms of buildings, Hungary is home to the largest synagogue in Europe (Great Synagogue), the largest medicinal bath in Europe (Széchenyi Medicinal Bath), the third largest church in Europe (Esztergom Basilica), the second largest territorial abbey in the world (Pannonhalma Archabbey), the second largest Baroque castle in the world (Gödöllő), and the largest Early Christian Necropolis outside Italy (Pécs).
You can expect to find safe food and water, good safety and generally political stability.
Hungary doesn't attract terrorists and keeps drug and crime levels moderate.
Hungary has been ethnically diverse since its inception, and while over 90% of the population are ethnically Hungarian, pockets of ethnic and cultural Slovaks, Romanians, Germans and others dot the country. Due to the frequent border shifts in Eastern European history, over 2 million ethnic and cultural Hungarians live in bordering countries, as well.

Regions


Southern Great Plain
Northern
Great Plain
Lake Tisza
Northern Hungary
Northern
Great Plain
Great Plain
Western
Transdanubia
Central
Trans-
danubia
Southern
Transdanubia
Pest
Map of Hungary
Map of Hungary
  • Debrecen - the second largest city in the country
  • Eger - famous for its baroque buildings, castle and wines, especially Bull's Blood (Bikavér).
  • Esztergom - The first capital, the seat of Constitutional court and the Roman catholic Church of Hungary, home of the biggest church in Central Europe.
  • Kecskemét - a town famous for its vibrant music scene, plum brandy, and Art Nouveau architecture
  • Miskolc - with the unique cave bath in Miskolc-Tapolca, the third largest city in the coutry, located near the Bükk hills
  • Nyíregyháza - a small city with a busy water resort, museum village, and annual autumn festival
  • Pécs - a pleasant cultural centre and university town
  • Szeged - the sunniest city in Hungary
  • Székesfehérvár - Former royal seat, currently famous for its baroque architecture and museums
  • Szombathely - Former Roman colony, Centre of Western Danubia and county Vas
  • Aggtelek - beautiful caves with dripstones and stalagmites
  • Bükk - a section of the Carpathian Mountain range
  • Gödöllő a town east of Budapest most famous for its former royal palace.
  • Hollókő - a beautiful old preserved village
  • Lake Balaton - the major lake of Hungary and the biggest lake in Central Europe
  • Nyirtass
  • Tokaj - a famous wine town producing high quality white wines
  • Salgótarján a modern mining town situated in the hills with two castle ruins.
  • Siófok popular holiday resort at Lake Balaton.
  • Szentendre - picturesque town on the Danube just north of Budapest
  • Szépasszonyvölgy - another great place for wine tasting in Eger
  • Vác a small town on the Danube bend with several churches and lots of baroque architecture.

Climate

Temperatures in Hungary vary from -20°C to 39°C through the year. Distribution and frequency of rainfall are unpredictable due to the continental clime of the country. Heavy storms are frequent after hot summer days, and so do more days long still rainfalls in the Autumn. The western part of the country usually receives more rain than the eastern part, and severe droughts may occur in summertime. Weather conditions in the Great Plain can be especially harsh, with hot summers, cold winters, and scant rainfall.

Get in

Hungary is a member of the Schengen Agreement. For EU, EEA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) or Swiss citizens, an officially approved ID card (or a passport) is sufficient for entry. In no case will they need a visa for a stay of any length. Others will generally need a passport for entry.
There are no border controls between countries that have signed and implemented the treaty - the European Union (except Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the United Kingdom), Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Likewise, a visa granted for any Schengen member is valid in all other countries that have signed and implemented the treaty. But be careful: Not all EU members have signed the Schengen treaty, and not all Schengen members are part of the European Union.
Airports in Europe are thus divided into "Schengen" and "non-Schengen" sections, which effectively act like "domestic" and "international" sections elsewhere. If you are flying from outside Europe into one Schengen country and continuing to another, you will clear Immigration and Customs at the first country and then continue to your destination with no further checks. Travel between a Schengen member and a non-Schengen country will result in the normal border checks. Note that regardless of whether you travelling within the Schengen area or not, some airlines will still insist on seeing your ID card or passport.
Keep in mind that the counter begins once you enter any country in the Schengen Area and is not reset by leaving a specific Schengen country for another Schengen country, or vice-versa.
As of January 2010 only the citizens of the following non-EU/EEA/Swiss countries do not need a visa for entry into the Schengen Area; note that they must not stay longer than three months in half a year and must not work while in the EU: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Macedonia*, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro*, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Serbia*/**, Seychelles, Singapore, South Korea, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City, Venezuela, additionally persons holding British National (Overseas), Hong Kong SAR or Macau SAR passports.
Note that
  • while British subjects with the right of abode in the United Kingdom and British Overseas Territories citizens connected to Gibraltar are considered "United Kingdom nationals for European Union purposes" and therefore eligible for unlimited access to the Schengen Area,
  • British Overseas Territories citizens without the right of abode in the United Kingdom and British subjects without the right of abode in the United Kingdom as well as British Overseas citizens and British protected persons in general do require visas.
However, all British Overseas Territories citizens except those solely connected to the Cyprus Sovereign Base Areas are eligible for British citizenship and thereafter unlimited access to the Schengen Area.
Further note that
(*) Macedonian, Montenegrin and Serbian citizens need a biometric passport to enjoy visa-free travel and
(**) Serbian citizens with passports issued by the Serbian Coordination Directorate (Serbs residing in Kosovo) still do need a visa.
Citizens of Croatia can also enter the country by showing their identity card.

By plane

Hungary's international airports are Budapest Ferihegy Airport [3] in Budapest, Airport Debrecen [4] in Debrecen (non operating in winter 2008-2009) and FlyBalaton Airport [5] in Sármellék (non operating in winter 2008-2009). The Hungarian national carrier is Malév (Hungarian Airlines) [6]. There are also several low cost carriers operating to Budapest: for example Ryanair [7], Wizzair [8], Easyjet [9], Germanwings [10].
Air Europa [11] operates a daily fly from Madrid and is a good choice from Latin America with stop in Madrid.
See also: Get around:By train
There are direct connections to Hungary from:
You can search for international train connections at official schedule site [12] of MÁV, national train company.
See also: Get around:By car
To enter the country, ensure that your International Motor Insurance Card is valid for Hungary(H) along with the Vehicle Registration and a Power of Attorney from the owner if the car is not yours. The border guards are very strict about allowing cars through without these documents.
The Hungarian border control is very strict and thorough. They will not hesitate to conduct a full vehicle search if necessary.
Entry from non-Schengen countries can take quite a long time, in particular in the summer months on the weekends when EU-Nationals are returning north along the E75 corridor from Belgrade, Serbia. The wait lines to get through the border have been as long as 7 km with a wait time of up to 6 hours. Alternative border points in Hungary or Croatia can be used to by-pass.
When driving into Hungary, ensure that the border crossing on the route you choose allows the passage of foreigners. Also some smaller crossings close in the afternoon for the night. It is also required to buy a vignette for driving on highways. Domestic (Budapest) car hire: [13] and International car rental supplier: [14].

By bus

Several international bus lines go in or through Hungary. You can find timetables and book tickets on the homepage of Volánbusz [15], which is the national bus company and also the local Eurolines representation. On the southern border with Serbia you shouldn't be surprised when there in the bus a collection is being held for a donation to the border-guards, to let the bus pass faster.

By ship

It is possible to enter Hungary by international shipping lines on Danube (Duna) or Tisza rivers. There is a scheduled hydrofoil service on the Danube to and from Vienna and Bratislava daily between early April and early November operated by Mahart. [16]

Get around

By plane

Hungary presently has no regular domestic flights. As Budapest lies in the center of the country and pretty much any point can be reached within three hours by train or bus, there isn't much need for scheduled domestic flights.
However there are many opportunities for people with a valid pilot's license to rent a plane and explore by air.
  • A Pilot's Academy of Malev Flying Club [17] +36(20)565-6467, Dunakeszi. Lightweight gliders and other stuff.
Buying train tickets on-line in Hungarian
You can purchase domestic train tickets on the web, but only in Hungarian. It will certainly be a nightmare if you don't speak the language, but if you believe that it's worth the hassle, the following instructions will help you. 1. First of all, you have to register at MÁV's site [18]. 2. Click on the blue underlined 'Regisztráció' (registration) word at the bottom of the page. Type your e-mail address next to 'e-mail', choose a password, enter it next to 'Jelszó', then repeat your password next to 'Jelszó ismét' (repeat password). Tick the box below, and click on the orange 'Regisztráció' button. 3. Check your e-mail account; you should have received an e-mail from MÁV, containing a blue link. Click on it. 5. Return to MÁV's schedule page by clicking here [19]. 6. Wow, this section is in English! Use your common sense, select the train you need, then click on 'Tickets'. 7. On the next page type your e-mail address next to 'E-mail', enter your password chosen in step 2 next to 'Jelszó'. Click on the orange 'Bejelentkezés' (enter) button. 8. Almost done! On the next page, if you click on 'Jegy a kosárba' (add to basket), you will have one piece of full fare 2nd class ticket in your basket. Need more tickets? Click again on 'Jegy a kosárba'. Rather prefer a 1st class ticket? Tick '1. osztály' (1st class). Want to finally buy your tickets? Click on the orange 'Helyfoglalás és fizetés' or 'Fizetés' (proceed to payment) button (depending on which one you have). 8. At the bottom of the next page click on the orange 'Fizetés' (pay) button. 9. On the next page click on the orange 'Banki fizetés' (payment through bank server) button. 10. On the next page enter your bank card data: 'Tehelendő bankkártyaszám' (bank card number), 'Lejárati dátum' (date of expiry mmyy), Érvényesítési kód (authorisation code, the last three digits of the serial on the flip side of your card). Click on 'Elküld' (send data) button. 11. On the next page click on 'Elküld' (send data) button again. 12. After a few seconds a new page will appear, containing a huge 10-digit blue serial number. The number itself doesn't allow you to board the train. You will have to go to a major Hungarian railway station, find a pre-purchased ticket issuing machine (consult this page [20] about where to find the nearest), and input the serial number in order to get the tickets.
The Hungarian National Railway is MÁV [21] and GYSEV [22] (some lines in the west of the country). MÁV has online schedule and pricing site [23]. See boxed text about how to use its online booking system, available only in Hungarian.
The train network is star-shaped (hub-and-spoke), fanning out from the centre at Budapest. This is caused by history because half of the once complete train system went to the neighbor countries after World War I. If neither the starting or ending point is Budapest, expect to travel for a long time often with change in Budapest.
Intercity (IC) trains are the fastest, and they're up-to-date, well maintained and clean. They link the major cities with Budapest. Expect to pay about 550 Forints (= 2 EUR) extra fee independently from the distance for the manditory seat reservation (not in international ICs, ECs). In some cases the extra charge can be lower. Compared to the majority of Western European ticket prices, Hungary's IC trains are amongst the cheapest, with an excellent record of speed and comfort. In almost all cases they also have a restaurant car. At the weekends many students use these IC trains to commute between Budapest and other cities, so an early advance booking is recommended on Friday afternoons for the trains leaving Budapest and on Sunday evenings for trains towards Budapest. Working with a notebook is generally safe, unless it's heavy overcrowded.
Other train lines usually are not that fast, and not always cleaned up to the high standards (even in the 1st class), and often vandalised (mostly in Budapest region); however quality standards are improving. During summer trains linking Balaton to Budapest are sometimes overcrowded with the IC usually being sold out. The next choice is the gyorsvonat, or the old fast train. Pricing depends only on the distance and on the car class. Cash desks assume 2nd class by default for non-IC trains (at least in Budapest for English speakers), so if you didn't catch your IC, consider asking 1st class, paying small extra for much more comfort. When in the train, keep in mind that there are smoking and non-smoking cars--check a sign over a door inside a car.
Young people (under 26 years) may travel with 33% reduction at the weekends (Friday afternoon included). Children (under 6 years) and retired (citizens from EU countries over 65 years) can travel free except on InterCity trains where the extra fee (reservation) must be paid.
It is possible to buy Inter Rail pass for Hungary. Check whether buying tickets for each journey is cheaper.
How to check the domestic long-distance bus timetable
It's possible to plan your travel checking Volán’s online timetable[24]. It is available only in Hungarian, but easy to use: “honnan” means ‘from’, “hová” is ‘to’; write your departure date in format year/month/day after “mikor”; leave the other parameters alone and press “keresés”, ‘search’. The results appear on the next page. (“Autóbusz állomás” will mean ‘bus station’, “naponta” is ‘daily’, while “munkanapokon” is ‘on workdays’ ).
Hungary’s national bus network is operated by 28 state run companies, united in Volán Association [25].Connections are frequent, prices are identical to those on non-Intercity trains. Bus lines often are more complete than train lines, the speed is quite similar. Long-distance buses are clean and safe, but often subject to delays. Buy your ticket at the station ticket desk before boarding; if you do not take your bus at a main station, purchase a ticket from the driver. It is a good idea to reserve your tickets for national holidays, Friday and Sunday evenings beforehand. Online booking is available only in Hungarian [26]. See boxed text about how to check the timetable.

By boat

These are not used very often (since Hungary has limited amount of waterways). Although from April to October there is a good hydrofoil boat connection [27] between Vienna and Budapest.
There are some ferries on Danube and Tisza but their undetermined working hours make them non-recommended. You can trust the ferry on Lake Balaton, though, for a modest price.

By car

Most roads in Hungary are two lane apart from modern motorways. Main roads are mostly in good shape, however cracks, potholes and bumpy roads are common on minor roads and in major cities though they are constantly being repaired. Usually you can travel by using a map and the road signs.
Expressways are not free, but there are no other toll roads or tunnels. A vignette system is used, similar to that in neighboring Austria and Slovakia, but as of 2008 the vignette is stored electronically and checked for using gantries that read license plate numbers. You can purchase them in intervals of 4 days, 7 days, 1 month, or 1 year. The vignette is very important and it is a good idea to buy it even if you don't plan to use the highway. Control is automatic with videocameras and you will get a high ticket (70 000 HUF) automatically without any warning.
if you travel by normal roads the speed limit is 90 km/h between cities and 50 km/h inside, which slows you to the average around 60km/h. Roads often have high traffic (especially main roads like #8 to the west, #6 to the south and #4 to the east). On highways, travel is the same as in Germany, and on the inside lane it is very common to have someone speed by you.
When you cross the country from the west to the east (or vice versa), take into account that there are only a few bridges crossing the Danube outside Budapest. There are some ferries available though.
It is a legal requirement to drive with headlights on, even during the day -- a requirement that is becoming more common across the EU.
Hungary has a policy of zero tolerance for driving under the influence of alcohol. If you are caught driving even after only having a couple of units of alcohol you are most likely to be arrested.

Highways

There is a fast growing highway network in Hungary (1,480 km in total). Each highway starts at Budapest.
  • M0 - Motorway ring around Budapest. The north-western section is under construction, planned to be ready at the end of 2012.
  • M1 - connection to Győr, Austria and Slovakia (west)
  • M2 - connection to Vác, planned to reach the border to Slovakia by 2015 (north)
  • M3/M30/M35 - connection to Miskolc, Debrecen, planned to reach Nyíregyháza in 2007 (east)
  • M5 - connection to Serbia, via Kecskemét and Szeged (south-east)
  • M6/M56 - Connection to Dunaújváros, section to Pécs is planned to be ready in 2009 (south)
  • M7 - connection to Lake Balaton, Croatia and Slovenia (south-west)
Planned:
  • M4 - will provide connection to Romania via Szolnok by the year 2015 (east)
  • M44 - will provide connection between the M5 at Kecskemét and the Romanian border via Békéscsaba (east)
  • M8/M9 - will cross the country east-west by 2015
A single vignette is required to use all highways, except for M0 and short sections around major cities, which are free. Vignettes can be purchased online with bankcard on [28], at filling stations and at ÁAK (State Motorway Management Co.) offices. A 4-day vignette for a passenger car costs HUF 1520 (~EUR 6) during summertime. Vignettes are controlled automatically through a camera system. See [29] or [30] for details.

By taxi

Inspect the change that taxi drivers give you. Cabbies commonly rip off tourists by giving them change in outdated Romanian currency, which looks similar to Hungarian currency, but is worthless and cannot be redeemed.
See also: Budapest#By taxi.
See also: Hungarian phrasebook
Hungarians are rightly proud of their unique, complex, sophisticated, richly expressive language, Hungarian (Magyar pronounced "mahdyar"). It is a Uralic language most closely related to Mansi and Khanty of western Siberia. It is further sub-classified into the Finno-Ugric languages which include Finnish and Estonian; it is not at all related to any of its neighbours: the Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages belonging to the Indo-European language family. Although related to Finnish and Estonian, they are not mutually intelligible. Aside from Finnish, it is considered the most difficult "European" language for English speakers to learn with the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation being radically different. So it is not surprising that an English speaker visiting Hungary understands nothing from written or spoken Hungarian. Hungary did adopt the Roman alphabet after become a Catholic country in the middle ages, but most of the root words have nothing to do with Latin.
English-speakers tend to find most everything about the written language tough going, including a number of unusual sounds like gy (often pronounced like the d in "during" or as the j injury) and ű (vaguely like a long English e as in me with rounded lips), as well as agglutinative grammar that leads to fearsome-looking words like hozzáadottérték-adó (value-added tax) and viszontlátásra (goodbye). Also, the letters can very well be pronounced differently than in English: the "s" is always has an "sh" sound, the "sz" has the "s" sound, and the "c" is pronounced like the English "ts", to name a few. On the upside, it is written with the familiar Roman alphabet (if adorned with lots of accents), and--unlike English--it has almost total phonemic orthography. This means that if you learn how to pronounce the 30 letters of the alphabet and the digraphs, you will be able to pronounce almost every Hungarian word properly. Just one difference in pronunciation, vowel length, or stress can lead to misinterpretation or total misunderstanding. The stress always falls on the first syllable of any word, so all the goodies on top of the vowels are pronunciation cues, and not indicators of stress, as in Spanish. Diphthongs are almost-nonexistent in Hungarian (except adopted foreign words). Just one of many profound grammatical differences from most European languages is that Hungarian does not have, nor need to have the verb "to have" in the sense of possesion - the indicator of possesion is attached to the possesed noun and not the possesor, e.g. Kutya = dog, Kutyam = my dog, A kutyam van = I have a dog, or literaly "dog-my is". Hungarian has a very specific case system, both grammatical, locative, oblique, and the less productive; for example a noun used as the subject has no suffix, while when used as an direct object, the letter "t" is attached as a suffix, with a vowel if necessary. One simplifying aspect of Hungarian is that there is NO grammatical gender, even with the pronouns "he" or "she", which are both "ő", so one does not have to worry about the random Der, Die, Das sort of thing that occurs in German, "the" is simply "a". When writting their name or introducing themselves, they say their surname before their given name as they do in asian languages. And the list of differences goes on and on, such as the definite and indefinate conjugational system, vowel harmony, etc. Attempting anything beyond the very basics will gain you a great deal of respect since so few non-native Hungarians ever attempt to learn any of this small, seemingly difficult, but fascinating language.

Foreign languages

Since English is now obligatory in schools, if you address people in their twenties, possibly carrying a schoolbag, you stand a good chance that they will speak English well enough to help you out.
However, due to Hungary's history, the older generation had less access to foreign language tuition, so your chances are worse. A minority of Hungarians speaks Russian, which was obligatory in the Communist era (although most Hungarians are quite happy to forget it) so try it only as a last resort. German is understood in areas frequented by German tourists (mostly near lake Balaton and the west, around Sopron) and partly because of Hungary's historical ties to Austria and later with East Germany.
Basically, in Hungary, you will have a much better chance finding someone speaking a foreign language in larger cities, especially in those with universities such as Budapest, Szeged, Pécs, and Debrecen. In rural areas the chance is rather low.

See

Hungary has several World Heritage sites. These are:
  • Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue
  • Baroque town and castle of Eger.
  • Old Village of Hollókő and its Surroundings
  • Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst
  • Millenary Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma and its Natural Environment
  • Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta
  • Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs (Sopianae)
  • Fertő/Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape
  • Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landscape
Other major tourist destination is Lake Balaton, with winehills, thermal spa in Hévíz around.
There are also some amazing things to see.
  • Tiszavirágzás. In mid-June the Tisza produces swarms of mayflies which are likened to flowers. Once decimated by pollution, the population is rebounding. (They're famous for living only for 1-2 days.)

Do

Birdwatching
Hungary is an excellent destination for birdwatching (aka birding) holiday. There are wooded hills, vast fish-pond systems and grasslands, the puszta. Particularly good areas include the Kiskunsag and Hortobagy National Parks and the Aggtelek, Bukk and Zemplen Hills.
Horse riding
Vast areas of open countryside coupled with the long traditions of horsemanship make Hungary an ideal country for riding. Wide open plains in the south and forested hills in the north offer varied riding terrain.
See also: New Year holidays in Hungary.

Baths

Thermal waters abound in Hungary with over 1000 thermal springs in the country many of which have been turned into baths and spas. The most famous being the Szechenyi baths in Budapest. There are, however, hundreds of individual baths all around the country. The cave baths at Miskolc-Tapolca and the spa at Egerszalók are some nice examples.
See Budapest#Baths, Nyíregyháza#Do for details. More thermal bath and spa from Hungary: [31] [32]

Buy

Money

The unit of Hungarian currency is known as the Forint (HUF). The Hungarian "cent" (Fillér) is long since obsolete. Bills come in 20000, 10000, 5000, 2000, 1000, 500, 200(until November 2009) HUF denominations, coins are 200 (two colored, similar to €1), 100 (two colored, similar to €2), 50, 20, 10, 5 HUF. As of March 1, 2008, the 2 and 1 HUF coins have been withdrawn, too.
Euro is now accepted at most hotels and some of the restaurants and shops. Make sure you check the exchange rate though, sometimes even well known places (like McDonald's) will exchange at unrealistic rates. Forint is scheduled to disappear around 2012-2013, but no date is fixed yet.
You can use major credit cards (EuroCard, Visa) in major shops and larger restaurants, but never expect that without checking first. Small places cannot afford to handle cards. ATMs are available even in small cities, the coverage is good.

Money Exchange

There are 192 forints to the USD and 274 forints to the EUR (04 Sept 2009).
Exchange rates for EUR and USD are roughly the same within downtown (at least in Budapest and Eger). Rates may be much worse in airports and large train stations - so change exactly what you need to reach downtown. Official exchange offices always give a receipt and normally have a large glass between client and a cashier making all steps transparent for client.
Travellers report that unofficial money changers operating nearby an official money changing booth offer unfavourable rates--and recommend to use official exchange offices.
If you arrive to Budapest at late nights it is quite likely you won't be able to find any working bank or exchange office. In this case you may attempt to exchange your money with any random taxi driver. They will rip you off by 100-200 forints (around 1 EUR), but it's better than nothing. There is an ATM in the arrival hall at Budapest Ferihegy, and the rates for using ATMs with a card are often better than the bureau de change.
Adventurous locals in Budapest report they change EUR unofficially with Arabs on a train station, but they don't recommend it to unaccompanied travellers.

What to buy?

Apart from classical tourist souvenirs like postcards and trinkets, here are some things unique to Hungary or just hard to find elsewhere.
  • Cold-smoked sausages
  • Gundel set of cheese: aged in Gundel wines or with walnut pieces or seasonings. Most easily found in 350gr sets of three kinds in duty-free of Ferihegy Airport in Budapest (at least in Terminal 2), but is likely available in Gundel 1894 Food & Wine Cellar (see Pest#Eat). Keep in mind that shelf life for this cheese is only 2 months.
  • Wines: Tokaji, Egri Bikavér, red wine from Villány area etc.

Eat

Main courses in menu are normally 2500..3000HUF in touristy places in Budapest, 1500..1800HUF outside it, in towns like Eger and Szentendre (Jan 2007).
A lunch in Budapest is from 1000 to 8000 HUF per person, and half or third of that outside Budapest (Chinese fast food menu is around 500 HUF).
In restaurants, a service charge is frequently included into bill, 10% or even 12%, but this has to be clearly pointed out on the menu. If it's not mentioned, the place has no right to include a service charge in the bill.
Even if there's no service charge, unless the service was preposterous most Hungarians tend to leave a generous tip (10% minimum). Unlike in most western countries, tip is usually not left on the table, but rather the amount is specified to the waiting staff when you pay.
There were some places (mainly in downtown Pest) that tried to rip off drunk tourists at night by charging ridiculously high prices for drinks. Most of these places are closed now, but it's still a good idea to always check the prices on the menu before ordering.
In major cities and next to the highways you can find restaurants of the major international chains such as KFC, McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway and TGI Friday's.
A fancy serving of gulyás soup
A fancy serving of gulyás soup
Hungarians are quite proud of their cuisine (Magyar konyha), and most of the time not without a reason. Food are usually spicy (but not hot by general standards), and it's tasty rather than healthy — many dishes are prepared with lard or deep-fried. The national spice is paprika, made from ground sweet bell peppers and which actually has some flavor when fresh. The national dish is, of course, goulash, but Hungarians call the thick paprika-laden stew known as goulash elsewhere by the term pörkölt and reserve the term gulyás for a lighter paprika-flavored soup.
Less well known in the rest of the world are paprikás csirke, chicken in paprika sauce, and halászlé, paprika fish soup often made from carp.
Goose is also quite popular in Hungary. While tourists gorge on goose liver (libamáj), still cheap by Western standards, probably the most common dish is sült libacomb, roast goose leg. Stuffed (töltött) vegetables of all kinds are also popular, and Hungarian pancakes (palacsinta), both savoury and sweet, are a treat. Common snacks include kolbász, a Hungarianized version of the Polish kielbasa sausage, and lángos, deep-fried dough with a variety of toppings (mostly sour cream, cheese and/or garlic).
A Hungarian meal is almost always — even at breakfast — accompanied by Hungarian pickles called savanyúság, literally "sourness". These are often dubbed saláta on menus, so order a vitamin saláta if you want fresh veggies. Starch is most often served as potatoes, rice or dumplings (galuska' or nokedli), the primary Hungarian contribution in this field is an unusual type of small couscous-like pasta called tarhonya.
It is worth to visit a "Cukrászda" if you are in Hungary. These are very popular with delicious cakes and coffee. Try the traditional Krémes (with vanila cream), Eszterházy (lots of nuts) or Somlói Galuska.

Vegetarian food

Vegetarians and Vegans will have about as much ease eating out as in any other western country. Budapest is not a problem, as there is a wide variety of restaurants to choose from, but in an ordinary Hungarian restaurant the non-meat mains on the menu are pretty much limited to rántott sajt (fried cheese) and gombafejek rántva (fried mushrooms).
However, in recent years, Italian food has become a lot more popular, so as long as you don't mind a pasta heavy diet as a vegetarian you will find a wider choice.
If one self-caters from supermarkets or local shops and markets, however, the selection of fruits and vegetables is quite good, especially in summer.
There are plenty of vegetarian and vegan restaurants, and a lot's of healthfood stores that offer all sorts of vegetarian/vegan products (including cosmetics). Regular stores like Groby among other brands sell everything from vegan sausages to mayonaise. A good place to start is looking at Budaveg[33] and Happy Cow[34] for specific information.
Over all, apply the same rules as you do at home, and you should be well fed.
Hills, grape plantations and wine cellars near Villány, southern Hungary.
Hills, grape plantations and wine cellars near Villány, southern Hungary.
Hungary has several famous vine regions, most known are Villány, Eger, Badacsony, Tokaj, Szekszárd. Prices are reasonable.
  • Egri Bikavér (Bull's Blood of Eger) is a strong red Hungarian wine which supposedly saved a clever Hungarian girl from her fate with a Turkish sultan. During the time of the Turkish occupation, it is said a young girl was summoned to become a member of the local sultan's harem. Not wanting this fate for his daughter, her father gave her a bottle of Egri Bikavér to take to the sultan. He told her to tell the ruler it was bull's blood, and would make him invincible. The sultan, being Muslim, was unaccustomed to alcohol, and proceeded to pass out, leaving the daughter unharmed. There is another story connected to why Bull's Blood is called so, and it also comes from the Turkish era. According to that one, the defenders of the different castles used to drink this red wine. When they saw the color on the mouths of the Hungarians, they thought that it must have been from a bull, thus the name.
  • Tokaj is known for its sweet dessert wines (Tokaji aszú), which acquire their distinctive taste from grapes infected by the "noble rot" Botrytis cinerea. The favorite tipple of aristocracy, past fans of Tokaji include Louis XIV (who called Tokaj as "The king of the wines, the wine of the kings"), Beethoven, Napoleon III and Peter the Great — which is still reflected in the steep pricing of the best varieties. Almost uniquely among white wines, Tokaj keeps very well for long time.
If new to Hungarian wine, be aware that both champagne ("pezsgő") and wine, red or white, are quite likely to be sweet ("Édes"). If dry wine is your preference, look for the word "Száraz" on the label. When buying bottled wine, don't bother with types cheaper than 6-700 HUF, as these are usually very low quality (maybe not even produced from grapes). In wine cellars, however, high quality may be available at surprisingly low prices.

Liquor

In Hungarian, pálinka denotes strong brandy-like liquor distilled from fruit. Pálinka is a very social drink: just as the English drink tea, the Hungarians, especially in rural areas, will offer pálinka to guests upon arrival. The best-known varieties are barackpálinka, made from apricots, körtepálinka from pears, and szilvapálinka made from plums. Factory-made pálinka is widely available, but keep an eye out for homemade házipálinka. Pálinkas usually contain around or above 40% of alcohol, often more for the homemade ones. Pálinka bottles marked mézes will be heavily sweetened with honey.
Unicum is a strong digestif made from a secret mix of over 40 herbs. It comes in striking black bottles emblazoned with a red and white cross, and has a very strong and unusual taste. Unicum Next has a lighter, citrusy flavor, and is rather more palatable. Definitely worth trying, the bottle itself may also be used for decoration, and keeps very well for a long time.

Beer

Hungarian beer is quite average compared to other Central European countries like Germany and the Czech Republic as it has long been a wine culture. The most common beers are Dreher, Borsodi, Soproni and Arany Ászok, available in the styles világos (lager) and barna (brown). They cost about 200-300 Forints at a store and 400-600 at a bar.
Imported beers like Pilsner Urquell, Staropramen and Budweiser (the Czech variety) are widely available in bars and markets for not much more than the ubiquitous Hungarian brands.
When offering a toast with beer, be warned that most Hungarians will politely refuse. This is due to an old tradition due to remembering soldiers killed in the 1848 revolution, whereby it was decreed no Hungarian would toast with beer for 150 years. It's been so long, however, that most Hungarians no longer know the origins of this tradition or that they've been free to make toasts over beer for the past ten years.

Coffee

Cafe culture is alive and well in Hungary, although it may never recover the romance of its turn-of-the-century intellectual heyday. Unless asked, it's a good idea to specify what kind of coffee you prefer. The word kávé means the strong, espresso like coffee to most Hungarians, although American-style coffee (known as hosszú kávé in Hungarian, usually translated as "long coffee") is now also available at most places.

Tea

Tea houses are now getting popular in cities, especially among the young. There is a growing number of tea houses, mainly in Budapest and some bigger cities where people can buy several types of loose tea. As it is quite fashionable to spend time in a tea house, more and more people will be able to serve good tea even at home. The best teas to go for are the herbal and fruit varieties. In restaurants and cafes, lemon juice is frequently served in a small bottle. In traditional restaurants or cafes however, good teas are hard to find, as coffee and beverages are preferred.
When you ask for a black tea in a budget cafe, frequently Earl Grey is served instead--remember to specify if that does matter for you.

Mineral water

Widely available:
  • Theodora Kékkúti: distinctive mineral taste; available both still and sparkling
  • Parádi, sparkling only: neutral taste, strong smell.
It should be noted though that as it is the case of most European countries, in Hungary, it is safe to drink tap water anywhere, even 'remote' settings.

Sleep

Hostels

Prices vary greatly. For the cheapest room in a youth hostel in Budapest expect to pay between €10 and €12, but the normal rate in a hostel is €20-22 per person.

Farmhouses

Village Tourism is popular and very well developed in Hungary, and can be a remarkable experience. Start your research with 1Hungary [35], National Federation of Rural and Agrotourism [36] and Centre of Rural Tourism [37]. Near Budapest it is also possible to find rural houses to rent, for instance the Wild Grape Guesthouse [38], what makes a good combination to explore the capital and a National Park while staying at the same accommodation.

Camping

There are campgrounds available. See the city guides, including the Budapest guide.

Learn

Hungarian universities are open to all foreign students. Many European exchange students come through the EU's Erasmus program. There are quite a lot students from Asia and the Middle East as well, particularly because despite the high standard of education, fees are still considerably lower than in the more developed Western European countries. Interested should visit Study in Hungary [39] or University of Debrecen [40] websites.

Work

It could be very difficult for an individual to seek (legal) employment in Hungary because of the complexity, cost and time involved. Most foreign workers in Hungary have received their visas and other necessary documents through the company they are employed by. It is hoped, however, that since the joining of Hungary to the EU a reduction will follow in the amount of red tape involved.
Many students (usually on a gap year) work as second language teachers at one of Budapest's many language schools. Be advised that a qualification is required (ESL/TEFL/TESOL) and that experience is preferred.
An excellent option is to teach through the Central European Teaching Program [41]. For a reasonable placement fee they will take care of all your paperwork and set you up in a school in Hungary teaching English. Contracts are for one semester or a whole school year.

Stay safe

Watch your baggage and pockets on public transports. There is a danger of pickpockets. There are some reported cases when people got their baggage stolen while sleeping on the train, watch out for that. Generally, Hungary is rather quiet during the night compared to other European countries, and crime to tourists restricts to pickpocketing, and eventual cheating on prices and bills and taxi fares, see that section. Chances are slim, but Indian, South-American travellers might encounter hostility because of being misrecognized as the local gipsy minority, generally discriminated against in Hungary.

Stay healthy

Food and water is generally safe.
Private health care providers are good quality but limited in scope. Dentistry is cheaper here than in Western Europe (8-10000 HUF for an appointment and x-ray), and physiotherapy also (3000HUF for a half hour treatment), but check the price with the provider before you confirm the appointment. Outside Budapest you will need to speak Hungarian to communicate your needs clearly as fewer doctors will have good English or German.
Public health care is free for qualifying (insured) people, but varies in quality.
The country has joined the EU, so basic coverage is present for EU citizens, but check before entering the country how far are you insured and what you have to pay for. Do not expect at this time that the local doctor will know the EU rules, prepare to provide info.
The European Health Insurance Card is required from EU citizens applying for free treatment under this regulation; European health card for 1 June 2004 [42]
Pharmacies are everywhere, you may expect high prices, but very good pharmaceutical coverage. The only problem might be communicating with the pharmacist as most of them speak only Hungarian outside Budapest. Even some rusty Latin might come handy quite unexpectedly. For travellers from Eastern Europe, note that due to limited or abandoned trade of Hungary with Romania (as of Dec 2006), some of familiar medications are unavailable--so be prepared to find a substitute in advance.
  • The 1956 Revolution continues to be a sensitive subject with the right wing community and many of the elderly. You should also refrain from discussing the Treaty of Trianon (1920) with nationalists.
  • Open display of the Communist red star and hammer and sickle symbol, and --especially-- the Nazi swastika and SS symbols, and the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross, is prohibited by law. Make sure your clothing does not have these symbols on it, even if it's just a joke. You can be fined for it. One possible exception is displaying shirts and symbols with Josip Tito's, Yugoslavia's best-known leader, known in Hungary for straying from Stalin's path.
  • Members of the Gypsy community may find the traditional Hungarian label 'Cigány' (pron. 'tzigan') slightly offensive, preferring to be labeled as Roma.
  • As a rural tradition, Hungarians affectionately refer to themselves as "dancing with tears in our eyes" ("sírva vígad a magyar"), as in a bittersweet resignation to the perceived unluck in their long history. Avoid mocking Hungarian history and Hungarian patriotism.
  • Talking loudly is generally considered rude. You will notice how most Hungarians tend to keep their voices down in public places.
  • When entering a home, shoes should be taken off at most of the times. Do not worry that your feet will get dirty - the floors are just as clean as the walls - Hungarians are very neat and clean people.
  • Tipping is more widespread than in many Western countries (though in decline). Don't be offended if hairdressers or taxi drivers expect a tip from you.
  • Even if you meet someone of the opposite sex for the first time, it's not unusual to kiss each other on the cheeks instead of shaking hands as a greeting.
  • It's an old tradition (although nowadays not held by everyone) that Hungarians do not clink beer glasses or beer bottles. This is due to the legend that Austrians celebrated the execution of the 13 Hungarian Martyrs in 1849 by clinking their beer glasses, so Hungarians vowed not to clink with beer for 150 years. Obviously this time period has expired, but old habits die hard.
  • Passengers are often clap on flights (especially on flights of Hungarian carriers like Malev Hungarian Airlines or W!Zzair) immediately after landing as a sign of respect for the flight crew and cabin crew members serving them.
This is a usable article. It has information for getting in as well as some complete entries for restaurants and hotels. An adventurous person could use this article, but please plunge forward and help it grow!

1911 encyclopedia

Up to date as of January 14, 2010

From LoveToKnow 1911

.HUNGARY (Hungarian Magyarorszag), a country in the south-eastern pertion of central Europe, bounded E. by Austria (Bukovina) and Rumania; S. by Rumania, Servia, Bosnia and Austria (Dalmatia); W. by Austria (Istria, Carniola, Styria and Lower Austria); and N. by Austria (Moravia, Silesia and Galicia).^ Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Hungary and in central Europe, is a leading resort area.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]
  • Hungary - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC education.yahoo.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ It gained its independence in 1989 and soon attracted the largest amount of direct foreign investment in eastern and central Europe.
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 ^ Eastern and Central Europe and FSU Balkan : .
  • REENIC: Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC reenic.utexas.edu [Source type: Academic]

 It has an area of 125,402 sq. m., being thus about 4000 sq. m. larger than Great Britain and Ireland.
.Geography And Statistics The kingdom of Hungary (Magyarbiradolorn) is one of the two states which constitute the monarchy of Austria-Hungary, and occupies 51.8% of the total area of the monarchy.^ The compromise united two kingdoms under one head of state.
  • Austria-Hungary - MSN Encarta 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC encarta.msn.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ After the suppression of the 1848 revolt, led by Louis Kossuth, against Hapsburg rule, the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary was set up in 1867.
  • Hungary: History, Geography, Government, and Culture — FactMonster.com 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.factmonster.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ In 1241 the Mongols arrived in Hungary and swept through the country, burning it virtually to the ground and killing an estimated one-third to one-half of its two million people.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 Hungary, unlike Austria, presents a remarkable geographical unity. .It is almost exclusively continental, having only a short extent of seaboard on the Adriatic (a little less than loo m.^ By the end of 1995, almost all retail trade had been privatized and less than half of all economic output originated from state-owned enterprises.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]
  • Hungary - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC education.yahoo.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ However, the time spent by women in outside employment was not correspondingly shorter than that of men, averaging only 1.5 hours less than men.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Of this, a little less than one-third has come from U.S. companies.

 ). .Its land-frontiers are for the most part well defined by natural boundaries: on the N.W., N., E. and S.E. the Carpathian mountains; on the S. the Danube, Save and Unna.^ The 1956 Boundary Treaty in part states : "[O]n sectors where it runs over water, the frontier line shall vary with the changes brought about by natural causes in the median line of the bed of rivers, streams or canals or on the main navigable channels of navigable rivers.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The Ancient Christian Necropolis in Pecs What is now the region of Transdanubia in modern Hungary was once a part of the Roman Empire, with the Danube River forming its natural border.
  • The Coin & Currency Institute, Inc. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.coin-currency.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The Great Plain ( Nagyalföld ) stretches east from the Danube to the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, to the mountains of Transylvania in Romania, and south to the Fruska Gora range in Croatia.
  • Hungary Overview | Hungary Tour Guide | iExplore 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.iexplore.com [Source type: News]

 .On the W. they are not so clearly marked, being formed partly by low ranges of mountains and partly by the rivers March and Leitha.^ Buda and Pest, situated on the two banks, are great, one being mountainous with castles and old mansions, and the other being low with parks, restaurants and nightlife.
  • Hungary Travel Guide - Travel to Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.geckogo.com [Source type: General]

 .From the last-mentioned river are derived the terms Cisleithania and Transleithania, applied to Austria and Hungary respectively.^ Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1, remuneration derived by a resident of a Contracting State in respect of an employment exercised in the other Contracting State shall be taxable only in the first-mentioned State if: .
  • Republic of Hungary 16 September 2009 1:13 UTC www.revenue.ie [Source type: Original source]
Table of contents
1 General Division
2 Mountains
3 Plains
4 Rivers
5 Canals
6 Lakes and Marshes
7 Geology
8 Climate
9 Forests
10 Live Stock
11 Industrial Development
12 Commerce
13 Railways
14 Government
15 Administrative Divisions
16 Justice
17 Finance
18 Education
19 Authorities

General Division

.The kingdom of Hungary in its widest extent, or the " Realm of the Crown of St Stephen," comprises Hungary proper (Magyarorszdg), with which is included the former grand principality of Transylvania, and the province of Croatia-Slavonia.^ Hungary became a Christian kingdom under St Stephen in the year 1000.
  • Hungary country profile — EU Business News - EUbusiness.com 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.eubusiness.com [Source type: News]

 ^ The Kingdom of Hungary, or "Realm of the Crown of St. Stephen ", situated between 14º 25' and 26º 25' E. longitude, and between 44º 10' and 49º 35' N. latitude, includes, besides Hungary Proper and Transylvania, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and a territory known as the Military Frontier.
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Even though the kingdom of Hungary ceased to exist in 1918, the crown continues to hold deeply meaningful national significance.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .This province enjoys to a large extent autonomy, granted by the so-called compromise of 1868. The town and district of Fiume, though united with Hungary proper in respect of administration, possess a larger measure of autonomy than the other cities endowed with municipal rights.^ Eli Wiesel visited Hungary for the first time since he was deported from his home town in 1944, under Horthy's Hungarian administration, to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
  • Hungary Travel News - Topix 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.topix.com [Source type: News]

 ^ A Dec., 2004, referendum on granting citizenship to ethnic Hungarians in other countries passed, but it was not legally binding because less than 25% of the Hungarian electorate voted for it.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]
  • Hungary - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC education.yahoo.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The town of Sopiana¦­now the city of Pecs­was founded in the 1st century A.D. Thanks to its rapid development, when the province of Pannonia was divided up in 295, the town became the seat of the district of Valeria, and the administrative center for the entire province.
  • The Coin & Currency Institute, Inc. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.coin-currency.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Of the total area of the kingdom Hungary proper has 108,982 sq.^ Total area (sq km) .
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 ^ Total area (sq mi) .
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 ^ The total area is 125,430 square miles, of which 16,423 belong to the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 m. and .Croatia-Slavonia 16,420 sq.^ The total area is 125,430 square miles, of which 16,423 belong to the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 m. In the present article the kingdom is treated mainly as a whole, especially as regards statistics. .In some respects Hungary proper has been particularly dealt with, while special information regarding the other regions will be found under Croatia-Slavonia, Transylvania and Fiume.^ Some of the other notable cities in Hungary include Debrecen, Miskolc, Szeged, Pecs, Gyor and Nyiregyhaza.
  • Cheap Flights to Hungary, Hungary Flights, Cheap Hungary Flights (HU) – OneTravel 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.onetravel.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Jun 1920 By the Treaty of Trianon Hungary formally surrenders Fiume; cedes Croatia, Slavonia, Vojvodina, western Banat, Bosnia-Hercegovia, and Prekmurje-Medjimurje to the Yugoslav state; Transylvania and eastern Banat ceded to Romania; Carpatho-Ruthenia, Slovakia and Pressburg (Bratislava) are ceded to Czechoslovakia; Burgenland is ceded to Austria.

 ^ The Kingdom of Hungary, or "Realm of the Crown of St. Stephen ", situated between 14º 25' and 26º 25' E. longitude, and between 44º 10' and 49º 35' N. latitude, includes, besides Hungary Proper and Transylvania, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and a territory known as the Military Frontier.
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

Mountains

.Orographically Hungary is composed of an extensive central plain surrounded by high mountains.^ Farm Lator is specialist and host in the mountains, wetlands and plains of NE Hungary.
  • birding facts Birding Resources by the Fat Birder for Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.fatbirder.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Western Transdanubia Southern Transdanubia Central Transdanubia Central Hungary Northern Hungary Northern Great Plain Southern Great Plain .
  • Hungary - World Wizzy 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.worldwizzy.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 These mountains belong to the Carpathians and the Alps, which are separated by the valley of the Danube. .But by far the greater portion of the Hungarian highlands belongs to the Carpathian mountains, which begin, to the north, on the left bank of the Danube at Deveny near Pressburg (Pozsony), run in a north-easterly and easterly direction, sway round south-eastward and then westward in a vast irregular semicircle, and end near Orsova at the Iron Gates of the Danube, where they meet the Balkan mountains.^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ A spokesman for the Hungarian Banking Association said the body has not been consulted on the plans so far.
  • Hungary to tighten banking supervision -report By Reuters 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.forexpros.com [Source type: News]

 ^ The greater desire of both the Czechs and Slovaks was to obtain Hungarian territory on both sides of the Danube giving the new nation unilateral control of the river.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The greatest elevations are in the Tatra mountains of the north of Hungary proper, in the east and south of Transylvania (the Transylvanian Alps) and in the eastern portion of the Banat.^ Hungary borders on Slovakia in the north, on Ukraine in the northeast, on Romania in the east, on Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro in the south, and on Austria in the west.
  • Hungary - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC education.yahoo.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Szentes station broadcasts to the South East of Hungary.
  • DVB - Digital Video Broadcasting - Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.dvb.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Hungary (in Hungarian, Magyarorszg), republic, in central Europe, bordered on the north by Slovakia; on the north-east by Ukraine; on the east by Romania; on the south by Serbia (part of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro), Croatia, and Slovenia; and on the west by Austria.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The highest peak, the Gerlsdorf or Spitze or Gerlachfalva, situated in the Tatra group, has an altitude of 8700 ft. .The portion of Hungary situated on the right bank of the Danube is filled by the Alpine system, namely, the eastern outlying groups of the Alps.^ Hungary 's only nuclear power plant, located right outside of Paks, a town on the Danube in the center ...
  • Hungary Energy News - Energy Industry Today 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC energy.einnews.com [Source type: News]

 ^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ List of cities in Hungary List of Hungarians List of Hungarian rulers List of Hungarian writers List of colleges in Hungary List of universities in Hungary Common Hungarian surnames Eastern name order used in Hungarian personal names .
  • Hungary - World Wizzy 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.worldwizzy.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .These groups are the Leitha mountains, the Styrian highlands, the Lower Hungarian highlands, which are a continuation of the former, and the Bakony Forest.^ In March 1919 a group of Hungarian communists under a former Transylvanian journalist called Béla Kun seized power.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 .The Bakony Forest, which lies entirely within Hungarian territory, extend to the Danube in the neighbourhood of Budapest, the highest peak being KOroshegy (2320 ft.^ The greater desire of both the Czechs and Slovaks was to obtain Hungarian territory on both sides of the Danube giving the new nation unilateral control of the river.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ At the same time, we wish to inform the people of Hungary that we are going to request the Government of the Soviet Union to withdraw Soviet troops completely from the entire territory of the Hungarian Republic.

 ^ Bohemia and Slovakia were joined, incorporating Hungarian territories within the Slovak side of the Danube.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ). .The south-western portion of this range is specially called Bakony Forest, while the ramifications to the north-east are known as the Vertes group (1575 ft.^ Hungary borders on Slovakia in the north, on Ukraine in the northeast, on Romania in the east, on Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia and Montenegro in the south, and on Austria in the west.
  • Hungary - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC education.yahoo.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Hungary borders on Slovakia in the north, on Ukraine in the northeast, on Romania in the east, on Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia in the south, and on Austria in the west.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ Africa Antarctica Asia Caribbean Central America Europe Middle East North America Oceania South America .
  • Hungary Travel Guide - Travel to Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.geckogo.com [Source type: General]

 ), and the Pilis group (2476 ft.). .The Lower Hungarian highlands extend between the Danube, the Mur, and Lake Balaton, and attain in the ] Mesek hills near Mohacs and Pecs an altitude of 2200 ft.^ "Fly Balaton Airport at Sármellék (western end of Lake Balaton) is to be back in business from April, Hungarian business daily Napi Gazdaság reported on Friday.
  • The Budapest Sun Online - Daily News and Views from Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.budapestsun.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Hungary's principal rivers are the Danube and Tisza, and the largest lake is Balaton.

 ^ As a result, foreign visitors rarely ventured beyond this splendid city on the Danube River, except on a day trip to the Danube Bend or to Lake Balaton .
  • Hungary Travel Information and Travel Guide - Lonely Planet 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: General]

 .The province of Croatia-Slavonia belongs mostly to the Karst region, and is traversed by the Dinaric Alps.^ The total area is 125,430 square miles, of which 16,423 belong to the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

Plains

.The mountain systems enclose two extensive plains, the smaller of which, called the " Little Hungarian Alfdld " or " Pressburg Basin," covers an area of about 6000 sq.^ In the extreme northwest is the Little Hungarian Plain.
  • Hungary: History, Geography, Government, and Culture — FactMonster.com 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.factmonster.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Communication system: 4.5 The Hungarian communication system is excellent and covers all the area possible.
  • Hungary - Economic analysis of government's policies, investment climate and political risk. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.mkeever.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Covering an area of 35,934 square miles (93,030 square kilometers), the country is in the Carpathian Basin, surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, the Alps, and the Dinaric Alps.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 m., and lies to the west of the .Bakony and Matra ranges, which separate it from the " Pest Basin " or " Great Hungarian Alfold."^ The Conquest (895) The Hungarian tribes arrived to the Carpathian Basin with the last wave of the Great Migration at the end of the IXth century (see their route on this map).
  • HUNGARY - Hungarian Online Resources (Magyar Online Forr�s) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC hungaria.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Hungarian tribes arrived to the Carpathian Basin with the last wave of the Great Migration at the end of the IXth century (see their route on this map).
  • HUNGARY - Hungarian Online Resources (Magyar Online Forr�s) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC hungaria.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Great Alfold (Great Hungarian Plain), with fertile agriculture land, occupies nearly half of the country.
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 .This is the largest plain in Europe, and covers about 37,000 sq.^ Hungary still has the largest Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe (100,000-120,000).
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ The largest minority is the Roma, who make up about 5 percent of the population, numbering approximately 500,000.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 m., with an average elevation above sea-level of from 300 to 350 ft. .The Pest Basin extends over the greater portion of central and southern Hungary, and is traversed by the Theiss (Tisza) and its numerous tributaries.^ (HN, 2/24/99) 1541 Suleiman I annexed southern and central Hungary.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Aug 1541 - 26 Jan 1699 Hungary partitioned between Austria and Ottoman Empire , Austria rules neighboring border areas, southern and central Hungary under Ottoman rule; on 2 Sep 1686 Austrian forces occupy Buda and Pest.

 ^ Aug 1541 - 26 Jan 1699 Partitioned between Austria and Ottoman Empire , (Austria rules neighboring border areas, southern and central Hungary under Ottoman rule); on 2 Sep 1686 Austrian forces occupy Buda and Pest.

 .This immense tract of low land, though in some, parts covered with barren wastes of sand, alternating with marshes, presents in general a very rich and productive soil.^ Hungary has some limited natural resources (bauxite, coal, and natural gas), as well as fertile soils and arable land.
  • Hungary country profile — EU Business News - EUbusiness.com 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.eubusiness.com [Source type: News]

 ^ In 1338 a part of the Hungarian episcopate sent a memorial to the Apostolic See, in which, with some exaggeration, they presented an account of the encroachments of the king.
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ In 1338 a part of the Hungarian episcopate sent a memorial to the Apostolic See , in which, with some exaggeration, they presented an account of the encroachments of the king.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 The monotonous aspect of the Alfdld is in summer time varied by the deli-bdb, or Fata Morgana. Caverns. - The numerous caverns deserve a passing notice. The Aggtelek or Baradla cave, in the county of Gomor, is one of the largest in the world. In it various fossil mammalian remains have been found. The Fonacza cave, in the county of Bihar, has also yielded fossils. No less remarkable are the Okno, Vodi and Demenyfalva caverns in the county of Lipt6, the Veterani in the Banat and the ice cave at Dobsina in Gomor county. Of the many interesting caverns in Transylvania the most remarkable are the sulphurous Biidos in the county of Haromszek, the Almas to the south of Udvarhely and the brook-traversed rocky caverns of Csetate-Boli, Pestere and Ponor in the southern mountains of Hunyad county.

Rivers

.The greater part of Hungary is well provided with both rivers and springs, but some trachytic and limestone mountainous districts show a marked deficiency in this respect.^ The Ancient Christian Necropolis in Pecs What is now the region of Transdanubia in modern Hungary was once a part of the Roman Empire, with the Danube River forming its natural border.
  • The Coin & Currency Institute, Inc. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.coin-currency.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Since then, the city decided to build this memorial, which was consecrated by the Chief Rabbi of Hungary as a synagogue, making it both the first synagogue built in Hungary after the Holocaust as well as the smallest synagogue in the world.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ This shows that even though Hungary doesn`t have copyright laws in its constitution, it excepts and respects the idea of intellectual copyright.
  • Hungary - Economic analysis of government's policies, investment climate and political risk. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.mkeever.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The Matra group, e.g., is poorly supplied, while the outliers of the Vertes mountains towards the Danube are almost entirely wanting in streams, and have but few water sources.^ With my new bottle of water in hand, we regrouped and headed back to the car, weaving through groups of tourists streaming into the park.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ I then walked over towards St. Stephen's Basilica, a gorgeous, imposing church that dominates a wide square a few blocks east of the Danube.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 .A relative scarcity in running waters prevails in the whole region between the Danube and the Drave.^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Their penultimate migration brought them to what modern Hungarians call the Etelköz, the region between the Dnieper and lower Danube Rivers just north of the Black Sea.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 .The greatest proportionate deficiency, however, is observable in the arenaceous region between the Danube and Theiss, where for the most part only periodical floods occur.^ The Ancient Christian Necropolis in Pecs What is now the region of Transdanubia in modern Hungary was once a part of the Roman Empire, with the Danube River forming its natural border.
  • The Coin & Currency Institute, Inc. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.coin-currency.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ However, most observers agreed that in the 1980s males were still viewed as the head of most households, if only because of their generally higher incomes.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Their penultimate migration brought them to what modern Hungarians call the Etelköz, the region between the Dnieper and lower Danube Rivers just north of the Black Sea.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 .But in the north and east of the kingdom rivers are numerous.^ The southern boundary of the kingdom is the River Save, which separates it from Bosnia and Servia as far east as the Rumanian frontier, from which point the artificial boundary of Rumania continues along the south, turning north-east, and then north.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ [Credits : ZEFA] Central Budapest, looking north along the Danube River, with the Parliament Building on the east …[Credits : Jean S. Buldain/Berg & Assoc.
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 .Owing to its orographical configuration the river system of Hungary presents several characteristic features.^ Although Hungary was a monarchy for nearly 1,000 years, its constitutional system preceded by several centuries the establishment of Western-style governments in other European countries.

 ^ The Barrage system was to consist of a reservoir, two diversion canals, and two hydroelectric power plants located in present-day Slovakia and Hungary (Gabcikovo and Nagymoros respectively).
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The first consists in the parallelism in the course of its rivers, as the Danube and the Theiss, the Drave and the Save, the Waag with the Neutra and the Gran, &c.^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The second is the direction of the rivers, which converge towards the middle of the country, and are collected either mediately or immediately by the Danube.^ We also sat along a stone wall by the Danube, enjoying the view of the river as it flowed gracefully towards Budapest.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Directing water to river-side forests and side-arms of the Danube would prevent desiccation of these areas.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Only the Zsil, the Aluta and the Bodza or Buzeu pierce the Transylvanian Alps, and flow into the Danube outside Hungary.^ Hungary 's only nuclear power plant, located right outside of Paks, a town on the Danube in the center ...
  • Hungary Energy News - Energy Industry Today 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC energy.einnews.com [Source type: News]

 ^ Industry Sector: UTILities The Danube is the only major waterway linking Hungary with Northern Europe.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The European Commission has asked Slovakia to divert only a third of the Danube's flow and leave the remaining two-thirds of the water in the natural river bed.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Another characteristic feature is the uneven distribution of the navigable rivers, of which Upper Hungary and Transylvania are almost completely devoid.^ The main result of the triple political division of Hungary was the almost complete disappearance of public order and of the systematic conduct of affairs; another was the evident decline of Catholicism and the rapid advance of the Reformation .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The main result of the triple political division of Hungary was the almost complete disappearance of public order and of the systematic conduct of affairs; another was the evident decline of Catholicism and the rapid advance of the Reformation.
  • History of Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.historyofnations.net [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Besides Lutheranism , Calvinism also took root in Hungary at this time, and from 1547 were added the teachings of the Anabaptists , who won adherents in the western counties of upper Hungary and in Transylvania .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 But even the navigable rivers, owing to the direction of their course, are not available as a means of external communication. .The only river communication with foreign countries is furnished by the Danube, on the one hand towards Austria and Germany, and on the other towards the Black Sea, All the rivers belong to the watershed of the Danube, with the exception of the Poprad in the north, which as an affluent of the Dunajec flows into the Vistula, and of a few small streams near the Adriatic.^ Since the early 1990s, foreign The towns of Buda and Pest (shown in 1995), on opposite sides of the Danube River, joined to become Budapest in 1873.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Death to the former Soviet puppet dictator - now taking a 'cure' on the Russian Black Sea Riviera - whom the crowds blame for all the ills that have befallen their country in eleven years of Soviet puppet rule.

 ^ On the battlefield near this small town in Southern Transdanubia a relatively prosperous and independent medieval Hungary died, sending the nation into a tailspin of partition, foreign domination and despair that would be felt for centuries afterward.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 The Danube enters Hungary through the narrow defile called the Porta Hungarica at Deveny near Pressburg, and after a course of 585'.m. leaves it at Orsova by another narrow defile, the Iron Gate. Where it enters Hungary the Danube is 400 ft. above sea-level, and where it leaves it is 127 ft.; it has thus a fall within the country of 273 ft. .It forms several large islands, as the Great Schutt, called in Hungarian Czallokdz or the deceiving island, with an area of nearly 1000 sq.^ I consider it of great importance that a Government has been formed representing every shade and stratum of the Hungarian people that wants progress and socialism.

 ^ People outside Hungary call it "goulash," but the Hungarians have several different names for it, including pörkölt and tokány .

 ^ Young liberals formed the Federation of Young Democrats (Fidesz); a core from the so-called Democratic Opposition formed the Association of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), and the neopopulist national opposition established the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF).

 m.; the St Andrew's or Szent-Endre island; the Csepel island; and the Margitta. island. .The principal tributaries of the Danube in Hungary, of which some are amongst the largest rivers in Europe, are, on the right, the Raab, Drave and Save, and, on the left, the Waag, Neutra, Gran, Eipel, Theiss (the principal affluent, which receives numerous tributaries), Temes and Cserna.^ Ice floes on the Danube, Hungary's largest river.

 ^ Hungary's principal rivers are the Danube and Tisza, and the largest lake is Balaton.

 ^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The total length of the river system of Hungary is about 8800 m., of which only about one-third is navigable, while of the navigable part only one-half is available for steamers.^ About half of Hungary's land is arable.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ Transportation: 4.0 Hungary has about 188,203 km highway, 7,875 km railways, 1,373 km navigable waterways, and in total 49 airports.
  • Hungary - Economic analysis of government's policies, investment climate and political risk. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.mkeever.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ In 1241 the Mongols arrived in Hungary and swept through the country, burning it virtually to the ground and killing an estimated one-third to one-half of its two million people.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 The Danube is navigable for steamers throughout the whole of its course in Hungary. .Regulating works have been undertaken to ward off the dangers of periodical inundations, which occur in the valley of the Danube and of the other great rivers, as the Theiss, the Drave and the Save.^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ My two favorite restaurants were converted boats that no longer cruise, but are still located on the Danube River with great views.
  • Budapest Hungary Travel Guide Tips 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.johnnyjet.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Not only would it harm all ecosystems that feed off the old river-bed, Hungarian critics charge water supplies to some ethnic Hungarian Danube villages will be cut off, while others would be flooded.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The beds of these rivers, as well as that of the Danube, are continually changing, forming morasses and pools, and rendering the country near their banks marshy, Notwithstanding the work already done, such as canalizing and regulating the rivers, the erection of dams, &c., the problems of preventing inundations, and of reclaiming the marshes, have not yet been satisfactorily solved.^ On the banks of the river Danube, facing Margaret Island on the Buda side of the Arpad Bridge, the distinguished Ramada ...
  • Hungary Hotels & Hotels in Hungary -- Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.lodging-world.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Ancient Christian Necropolis in Pecs What is now the region of Transdanubia in modern Hungary was once a part of the Roman Empire, with the Danube River forming its natural border.
  • The Coin & Currency Institute, Inc. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.coin-currency.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

Canals

Hungary is poorly supplied with canals. They are constructed not only as navigable waterways, but also to relieve the rivers from periodical overflow, and to drain the marshy districts. The most important canal is the Franz Josef canal between Becse and Bezdan, above Zombor. It is about 70 m. in length, and considerably shortens the passage between the Theiss and the Danube. A branch of this canal called Uj Csatorna or New Channel, extends from Kis-Sztapar, a few miles below Zombor, to Ujvidek, opposite Petervarad. The Bega canal runs from Temesvar to Nagy-Becskerek, and thence to Titel, where it flows into the Theiss. .The Versecz and the Berzava canal, which are connected with one another, drain the numerous marshes of the Banat, including the Alibunar marsh.^ Outside one of the houses I spotted a large wooden pole, with another pole connected to it on a hinge, like a medieval crane.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 The Berzava canal ends in the river Temes. .The Sio and the Kapos or Zichy canal between Lake Balaton and the Danube is joined by the Sat-viz canal, which drains the marshes south of Sopron.^ We met out first local guide, Lazlo, and on our first afternoon in Hungary, hiked the canal banks and the marsh habitat at the southeast corner of Lake Ferto.
  • birding facts Birding Resources by the Fat Birder for Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.fatbirder.com [Source type: General]

 .The Berettyo canal between the Koros and the Berettyo rivers, and the Kdrds canal along the White Kiirds were constructed in conjunction with the regulation of the Theiss, and for the drainage of the marshy region.^ Their penultimate migration brought them to what modern Hungarians call the Etelköz, the region between the Dnieper and lower Danube Rivers just north of the Black Sea.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Slovakia will also have the means to strangle Hungarian trade along the river if conflict does arise between the two countries.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

Lakes and Marshes

.Hungary has two large lakes, Balaton (q.v.^ On the other hand, the presence of two major rivers (the Duna and the Tisza ) and a major lake ( Balaton ) give excellent opportunities to practice those sports.
  • Hungary - World Wizzy 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.worldwizzy.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Hungary's principal rivers are the Danube and Tisza, and the largest lake is Balaton.

 ^ Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Hungary and in central Europe, is a leading resort area.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]
  • Hungary - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC education.yahoo.com [Source type: Original source]

 ) or .Platten-See, the largest lake of southern Europe, and Ferto or Neusiedler See.^ Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Hungary and in central Europe, is a leading resort area.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]
  • Hungary - Facts from the Encyclopedia - Yahoo! Education 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC education.yahoo.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Lake Balaton , in the Transdanubian highlands, is the largest lake in central Europe.
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 The Fertő lake lies in the counties of Moson and Sopron, not far from the town of Sopron, and is about 23 m. in length by 6 to 8 m. in breadth. .It is so shallow that it completely evaporated in 1865, but has filled again since 1870, at the same time changing its configuration.^ At the same time, we wish to inform the people of Hungary that we are going to request the Government of the Soviet Union to withdraw Soviet troops completely from the entire territory of the Hungarian Republic.

 It lies in the marshy district known as the Hansag, through which it is in communication with the Danube. In the neighbourhood of this lake are very good vineyards. Several other small lakes are found in the Hansag. The other lowland lakes, as, for instance, the Palics near Szabadka, and the Velencze in the county of Feller, are much smaller. In the deep hollows. between the peaks of the Carpathians are many small lakes, popularly called " eyes of the sea." In the puszta are numerous small lakes, named generally Feher To or White Lakes, because they evaporate in the summer leaving a white crust of soda on their bed. The vegetation around them contains plants characteristic of the sea shores. The largest of these lakes is the Feller TO situated to the north of Szeged.
.As already mentioned large tracts of land on the banks of the principal rivers are occupied by marshes.^ But in a bid to appease the lesser nobility, he handed them large tracts of land.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The government instituted a radical land reform and gradually nationalized mines, electric plants, heavy industries, and some large banks.

 Besides the Hansag, the other principal marshes are the Sari-et, which covers a considerable portion of the counties of Jasz-Kun-Szolnok, Bekes and Bihar; the Escedi Lap in the county of Szatmar; the Szernye near Munkacs, and the Alibunar in the county of Torontal. .Since the last half of the 19th century many thousands of acres have been reclaimed for agricultural purposes.^ So on the occasion of the death of Queen Elizabeth in the last century it was flown because it had been flown on such occasions ever since people could remember not because it suddenly came to somebody's mind.
  • Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC flagspot.net [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

Geology

.The hilly regions of Transylvania and of the northern part of Hungary consist of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic rocks and are closely connected, both in structure and origin, with the Carpathian chain.^ Specialising in bird tours in The Carpathians, covering Hungary, Slovakia and Transylvania...
  • birding facts Birding Resources by the Fat Birder for Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.fatbirder.com [Source type: General]

 ^ The Danube, the Chain Bridge, the houses of Parliament and the northern parts of the city .

 ^ Friends, family members, and close acquaintances who have not seen one another for a while greet and part from one another with pecks on both the left and right cheeks.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The great Hungarian plain is covered by Tertiary and Quaternary deposits, through which rise the Bakony-wald and the Mecsek ridge near Pecs (Funfkirchen).^ Some 43,000 square miles are occupied by the Great and the Little Hungarian Alföld, two great plains enclosed by the Alps and the Carpathians.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Duck, heron, crane, and stork are native to the country, and the Great Hungarian Plain, which is mostly steppe, is a resting spot for many migrating species.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ On the Great Hungarian Plain instead of villages, there was a loose network of huge agrotowns that were located far from one another, each with a population from 20,000 to 100,000.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .These are composed chiefly of Triassic beds, but Jurassic and Cretaceous beds take some share in their formation.^ Some touristic places take other currencies (US Dollar, German Mark), but these usually small souvenir-shops.
  • Hungary - Economic analysis of government's policies, investment climate and political risk. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.mkeever.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 Amongst the most interesting features of the Bakony-wald are the volcanic and the igneous rocks.
.The great plain itself is covered for the most part by loess and alluvium, but near its borders the Tertiary deposits rise to the surface.^ Heavy cancel: obliteration which spoils the appearance of the stamp by covering most its surface.
  • AskPhil -- Stamp Collecting starts here. 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.askphil.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 Eocene nummulitic beds occur, but the deposits are mostly of Miocene age. Five subdivisions may be recognised in the Miocene deposits, corresponding with five different stages in the evolution of southern Europe. .The first is the First Mediterranean stage of E. Suess, during which the Hungarian plain was covered by the sea, and the deposits were purely marine.^ After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the last few months of the First World War , the leader of the Independent Party, Mihaly Karolyi , gained control.

 The next is the Schlier, a peculiar blue-grey clay, widely spread over southern Europe, and contains extensive deposits of salt and gypsum. .During the formation of the Schlier the plain was covered by an inland sea or series of salt lakes, in which evaporation led to the concentration and finally to the deposition of the salts contained in the water.^ Add the potatoes, 1 more teaspoon of salt, and enough water to cover.

 .Towards the close of this period great earth movements took place and the gap between the Alps and the Carpathians was formed.^ Some 43,000 square miles are occupied by the Great and the Little Hungarian Alföld, two great plains enclosed by the Alps and the Carpathians.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The custom of sounding the noon bell is closely related to an important battle against the Ottomans that took place on June 29 , 1456 , at Nándorfehérvár .
  • Hungary - World Wizzy 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.worldwizzy.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Bistritz is described near the opening of the book as an old place close to the frontier between Hungary and the Austrian province of Bukovina .
  • Jewish Web Index - Make it easier for you to do your personal research 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC jewishwebindex.com [Source type: General]

 .The third period is represented by the Second Mediterranean stage of Suess,, during which the sea again entered the Hungarian plain and formed true marine deposits.^ I consider it of great importance that a Government has been formed representing every shade and stratum of the Hungarian people that wants progress and socialism.

 ^ During this period Protestantism entered Transylvania and soon gained ascendancy there.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .This was followed by the Sarmatian period, when Hungary was covered by extensive lagoons, the fauna being partly marine and partly brackish water.^ It was in this period that the Cistercians, Premonstratensians, and Knights of St. John settled in Hungary; in the thirteenth century these orders were followed by the Dominicans and Franciscans.
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ It was in this period that the Cistercians , Premonstratensians , and Knights of St. John settled in Hungary; in the thirteenth century these orders were followed by the Dominicans and Franciscans .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 Finally, in the Pontian period, the lagoons became gradually less and less salt, and the deposits are characterized especially by the abundance of shells. which live in brackish water, especially Congeria.

Climate

.Hungary has a continental climate cold in winter, hot in summer - but owing to the physical configuration of the country it varies considerably.^ Hungary has cold winters and hot summers; springs and autumns are short.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ Hungary has a continental climate , with cold, cloudy, humid winters and warm to hot summers.
  • Hungary - World Wizzy 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.worldwizzy.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .If Transylvania be excepted, three separate zones are roughly 'distinguishable: the " highland," comprising the counties in the vicinity of the Northern and Eastern Carpathians, where the winters are very severe and continue for half the year; the " intermediate " zone, embracing the country stretching northwards from the Drave and Mur, with the Little Hungarian Plain, and the region of the Upper Alfold, extending from Budapest to Nyiregyhaza and Sarospatak; and the " great lowland " zone, including the main portion of the Great Hungarian Plain, and the region of the lower Danube, where the heat during the summer months is almost tropical.^ Tourism continues to be a great Hungarian success.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Some three decades before the start of the Christian era the Romans conquered the area west and south of the Danube River and established the province of Pannonia - later divided into Upper (Superior) and Lower (Inferior) Pannonia.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 In Transylvania the climate bears the extreme characteristics peculiar to mountainous countries interspersed with valleys; whilst the climate of the districts bordering on the Adriatic is modified by the neighbourhood of the sea. The minimum of the temperature is attained in January and the maximum in July. The rainfall in Hungary, except in the mountainous regions, is small in comparison with that of Austria. .In these regions the greatest fall is during the summer, though in some years the autumn showers are heavier.^ After Hunnish rule faded, the Lombards and the Gepids ruled in Pannonia for about 100 years, during which the Slavic tribes began migrating into the region.
  • Hungary - World Wizzy 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.worldwizzy.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ By LARRY ROHTER Some of the musicians who played in ostracism during the last gray years of Communist rule gathered for a festival in New York.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 Hail storms are of frequent occurrence in the Carpathians. On the plains rain rarely falls during the heats of summer; and the showers though violent are generally of short duration, whilst the moisture is quickly evaporated owing to the aridity of the atmosphere. The vast sandy wastes mainly contribute to the dryness of the winds on the Great Hungarian Alfold. .Occasionally, the whole country suffers much from drought; but disastrous floods not unfrequently occur, particularly in the spring, when the beds of the rivers are inadequate to contain the increased volume of water caused by the rapid melting of the snows on the Carpathians.^ WWF posits that two thirds of river bed erosion has been caused by excavation from 1976 to 1989 for industrial projects including the construction of Gabcikovo.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ In fact, percolation and natural filtering that occurs in the uppermost layer of river bed will be affected, polluting surface and ground water.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The European Commission has asked Slovakia to divert only a third of the Danube's flow and leave the remaining two-thirds of the water in the natural river bed.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .On the whole Hungary is a healthy country, excepting in the marshy tracts, where intermittent fever and diphtheria sometimes occur with great virulence.^ Hungary's turn was in 1956, when for about two weeks the country attracted the attention of the whole world.
  • HUNGARY - Hungarian Online Resources (Magyar Online Forr�s) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC hungaria.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ (Historic Hungary is a term meaning the kingdom that occupied the whole Carpathian Basin since the Conquest, while the country within its current borders is usually referred to as Hungary of Trianon.
  • HUNGARY - Hungarian Online Resources (Magyar Online Forr�s) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC hungaria.org [Source type: Original source]
Feet
Mean Temperature
Rainfall
Stations.
above
Sea.
(Fahrenheit).
.- .4z,
.in
Inches.
Annual.
Jan.
July.
Selmeczbanya .
2037
46.2
27.9
6 4.8
79
35'29
Budapest. .
502
50.9
30.9
68.8
76
24.02
Keszthely .
436
5 2.5
30.0
71.4
78
26.67
Zagrab. .
534
5 2.3
34.3
7 0 '5
7 2
34.32
Fiume .
16
5 6.9
43.6
7 2 '7
75
70'39
Debreczen. .
423
50.2
28.6
70
79
22.26
Szeged.. .
312
51.6
31.1
71.1
80
25.58
Nagyszeben .
1 357
4 8.9
2 5.9
6 9.1
79
28'66
.The following table gives the mean temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall (including snow) at a series of meteorological stations during the years 1896-1900: Fauna.-The horned cattle of Hungary are amongst the finest in Europe, and large herds of swine are reared in the oak forests.^ Hungary's strategic position in Europe and its relative lack of natural resources also have dictated a traditional reliance on foreign trade.

 ^ Exports for Hungary to western and eastern trading partners are as follows: Table 1.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ By NICHOLAS KULISH Over the past year, at least seven Roma — long among Europe’s most oppressed minority groups — have been killed in Hungary.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 The wild animals are bears, wolves, foxes, lynxes, wild cats, badgers, otters, martens, stoats and weasels. Among the rodents there are hares, marmots, beavers, squirrels, rats and mice, the last in enormous swarms. Of the larger game the chamois and deer are specially noticeable. Among the birds are the vulture, eagle, falcon, buzzard, kite, lark, nightingale, heron, stork and bustard. Domestic and wild fowl are generally abundant. The rivers and lakes yield enormous quantities of fish, and leeches also are plentiful. .The Theiss, once better supplied with fish than any other river in Europe, has for many years fallen off in its productiveness.^ Not only would it harm all ecosystems that feed off the old river-bed, Hungarian critics charge water supplies to some ethnic Hungarian Danube villages will be cut off, while others would be flooded.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ It shares a more acute sense of the threat than many other European countries and is watching events in the Balkans, Ukraine, and Russia with great interest.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The largest drinking water supply in central Europe originates from the several hundred meter deep gravel sediment on the river bed.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The culture of the silkworm is chiefly carried on in the south, and in Croatia-Slavonia.
.Flora.-Almost every description of grain is found, especially wheat and maize, besides Turkish pepper or paprika, rape-seed, hemp and flax, beans, potatoes and root crops.^ The chief crops are wheat and maize.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Wheat, corn, sunflower seeds, potatoes, sugar beets, and grapes are the major crops.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 Fruits of various descriptions, and more particularly melons and stone fruits, are abundant. In the southern districts almonds, figs, rice and olives are grown. .Amongst the forest and other trees are the oak, which yields large quantities of galls, the beech, fir, pine, ash and alder, also the chestnut, walnut and filbert.^ Hungary is forested, mostly with oak, lime, beech, and other deciduous trees in the Transdanubian lands and mountains.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The vine is cultivated over the greater part of Hungary, the chief grape-growing districts being those of the Hegyalja (Tokaj), Sopron, and Ruszt, Merles, Somlyo (Schomlau), Bellye and Villany, Balaton, Neszmely, Visonta, Eger (Erlau) and Buda.^ The chief source of anxiety to the government of Hungary in Sigismund's reign was the growing power of the Turks .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Church in Hungary, in respect to organization, is divided into the three Archdioceses of Gran (Esztergom), Kalocsa, and Eger (Erlau).
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Republic of Hungary shall take an active part in establishing a European unity in order to achieve freedom, well-being and security for the peoples of Europe.

 .Hungary is one of the greatest wine-producing countries in Europe, and the quality of some of the vintages, especially that of Tokaj, is unsurpassed.^ Hungary is a landlocked country in the middle of Europe.

 ^ Hungary is a landlocked country in central Europe.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ In 1241 the Mongols arrived in Hungary and swept through the country, burning it virtually to the ground and killing an estimated one-third to one-half of its two million people.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 A great quantity of tobacco is also grown; it is wholly monopolized by the crown. .In Hungary proper and in Croatia and Slavonia there are many species of indigenous plants, which are unrepresented in Transylvania.^ The Kingdom of Hungary, or "Realm of the Crown of St. Stephen ", situated between 14º 25' and 26º 25' E. longitude, and between 44º 10' and 49º 35' N. latitude, includes, besides Hungary Proper and Transylvania, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and a territory known as the Military Frontier.
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Kingdom of Hungary, or "Realm of the Crown of St. Stephen", situated between 14º 25' and 26º 25' E. longitude, and between 44º 10' and 49º 35' N. latitude, includes, besides Hungary Proper and Transylvania , the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and a territory known as the Military Frontier.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Emperor Francis Joseph was crowned (1867) king of Hungary, which at that time also included Transylvania, Slovakia, Ruthenia, Croatia and Slovenia, and the Banat.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 Besides 12 species peculiar to the former grand-principality, 14 occur only there and in Siberia.
.Population.-Hungary had in 1900 a population of 19,254,559, equivalent to 153.7 inhabitants per square mile.^ Of a population of 19,254,559 (census of 1900) 51.5 per cent were Catholics.
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Of a population of 19,254,559 (census of 1900) 51.5 per cent were Catholics .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The country has an area of 35,919 square miles and a population of approximately 10 million.
  • Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The great Alfold and the western districts are the most densely populated parts, whereas the northern and eastern mountainous counties are sparsely inhabited.^ One thing is certain: Magyars are part of the Finno-Ugric group of peoples who inhabited the forests somewhere between the middle Volga River and the Ural Mountains in western Siberia as early as 4000 BC. .
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ His reign was coincident with a large part of the Great Western Schism , and the two great reforming Councils of Constance and Basle were held while he was on the throne.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ His reign was coincident with a large part of the Great Western Schism, and the two great reforming Councils of Constance and Basle were held while he was on the throne.
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 .As regards sex, for every 1000 men there were 1011 women in Hungary, and 998 women in CroatiaSlavonia.^ Article 66  [] (1) The Republic of Hungary shall ensure the equality of men and women in all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

 ^ Article 66 [Gender Equality, Mothers] (1) The Republic of Hungary shall ensure the equality of men and women in all civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
  • Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.dredf.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The excess of females over males is great in the western and northern counties, while in the eastern parts and in Croatia-Slavonia there is a slight preponderance of males.^ Alongside the major denominations, there are an increasing number of small sects, religious movements, and Eastern religious practices, along with a growing number of followers of proselytizing Western missionaries.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ His reign was coincident with a large part of the Great Western Schism , and the two great reforming Councils of Constance and Basle were held while he was on the throne.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ His reign was coincident with a large part of the Great Western Schism, and the two great reforming Councils of Constance and Basle were held while he was on the throne.
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]
1880.
1890.
1900.
Hungary proper. .
13,749,603
15,261,864
16,838,255
Croatia-Slavonia.. .
1,892,499
2,201,927
2,416,304
Total. .. .
15,642,102
1 7,4 6 3, 79 1
1 9, 2 54, 559
.The population of the country at the censuses of 1880, 1890 and 1900 was: From 1870 to 1880 there was little increase of population, owing to the great cholera epidemic of 1872-1873, and to many epidemic diseases among children towards the end of the period.^ (The population of Hungary is 10 million and there are almost 5 million living in other countries who declare themselves as Hungarians.
  • Hungary - Economic analysis of government's policies, investment climate and political risk. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.mkeever.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ As a result of this and other settlements, the Catholic population rapidly increased, so that in 1805 there were 5,105,381 Catholics to 1,983,366 Protestants .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Because of the large Magyar population in Slovakia, there is already tension between the two countries.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 More normal conditions having prevailed from 1880 to 1890. the yearly increase rose from 0.13% to 1.09%, declining in the decade1890-1900to 1.03.
.If compared with the first general census of the country, decreed by Joseph II.^ Joseph II and Leopold II - - - Francis I: the reform generation .
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 in 1785, the population of the kingdom shows an increase of nearly 108% during these 116 years. .Recent historical research has ascertained that the country was densely peopled in the 15th century.^ The site includes current and historical trade-related releases, international market research, trade opportunities, and country analysis and provides access to the National Trade Data Bank .
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Estimates, based on a census of the tax-paying peasantry in the years 1494 and 1495, give five millions of inhabitants, a very respectable number, which explains fully the predominant position of Hungary in the east of Europe at that epoch.^ Five years after Maria Theresa ascended the throne in 1740, the Hungarian nobility pledged their 'lives and blood' to her at the diet in Bratislava in exchange for tax exemptions on their land.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ A Hungarian taxpayer who operates his/her enterprise abroad has only had to pay 3% of the positive tax base.
  • Hungary - Economic analysis of government's policies, investment climate and political risk. 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.mkeever.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Visitors to Hungary do not appear to be targeted in the wave of race or ethnic-based violence associated with East and Central Europe.
  • Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC travel.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The disastrous invasion of the Turks, incessant civil wars and devastation by foreign armies and pestilence, caused a very heavy loss both of population and of prosperity. In 1715 and 1720, when the land was again free from Turkish hordes and peace was restored, the population did not exceed three millions. Then immigration began to fill the deserted plains once more, and by 1785 the population had trebled itself. .But as the immigrants were of very different foreign nationalities, the country became a collection of heterogeneous ethnical elements, amid which the ruling Magyar race formed only a minority.^ Compared with the pre-war Kingdom, Hungary lost 71% of its territory, 66% of its population, and with the new borders about one-third of the Magyar population became minorities in the neighbouring countries.
  • Hungary - World Wizzy 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.worldwizzy.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The laws of the Republic of Hungary shall ensure representation for the national and ethnic minorities living within the country.
  • Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.dredf.org [Source type: Original source]
  • ICL - ## 16 September 2009 1:13 UTC www.oefre.unibe.ch [Source type: Original source]

 ^ TRAFFIC SAFETY AND ROAD CONDITIONS: While in a foreign country, U.S. citizens may encounter road conditions that differ significantly from those in the United States.
  • Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC travel.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
.The most serious drain on the population is caused by emigration, due partly to the grinding poverty of the mass of the peasants, partly to the resentment of the subject races against the process of " Magyarization " to which they have long been subjected by the government.^ In their totality, the mistakes that I committed in the most important post of Party work have caused serious harm to our socialist development as a whole.

 ^ Consequently, the Magyars received their knowledge of Christianity partly from the Catholic population already existing in the country, and partly from the ecclesiastics whom they captured in their marauding expeditions.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The long, L-shaped building had a sizable courtyard, with a series of rooms used for various parts of the dyeing process.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 .This movement reached its height in 1900, when 178,170 people left the country; in 1906 the number had sunk to 169,202, of whom 47,920 were women.'^ Nearly a quarter of a million people left the country during the brief time that the borders were open in 1956.
  • Hungary - World Wizzy 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.worldwizzy.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Altogether, since 1896 Hungary has lost about a million of its inhabitants through this cause, a serious source of weakness in a sparsely populated country; in 1907 an attempt was made by the Hungarian parliament to restrict emigration by law.^ Hungary lost more than half its population, including some 3 million Hungarians.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Hungary has lost population since the early 1980s.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ In 1988 the country had about 10.6 million inhabitants.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The flow of emigration is mainly to the United States, and a certain number of the emigrants return (27,612 in 1906) bringing with them much wealth, and Americanized views which have a considerable effect on the political situation.^ Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department recommends that Americans avoid travel to a certain country because the situation is dangerous or unstable.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Establishment of American Legation in the United States, 1922.
  • Office of the Historian - Countries - Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.history.state.gov [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Relations with United States throughout postwar period; since late 1970s, these relations have warmed considerably and in late 1980s have blossomed.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .2 Of political importance also is the steady immigration of Magyar peasants and workmen into Croatia-Slavonia, where they become rapidly absorbed into the Croat population.^ The minority, or non-Magyar, population was small and included Germans, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Romanians, Jews, Gypsies, and Greeks.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ In response, Soviet political officers, backed by the occupying Soviet army, forced three other parties - the Communists, Social Democrats and National Peasants - into a coalition.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 From the Transylvanian counties there is an emigration to Rumania and the Balkan territories of 4000 or 5000 persons yearly.
.This great emigration movement is the more serious in view of the very slow increase of the population through excess of births over deaths.^ Because the overall population had begun to age, the mortality rate also increased during this period, but it was counterbalanced by the higher rate of live births.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The birth rate minus the death rate, implying the annual rate of population growth without regard for migration.

 .The birth-rate is indeed high (40.2 in 1897), but with the spread of culture it is tending to decline (38. 4 in 1902), and its effect is counteracted largely by the appalling death-rate, which exceeds that of any other European country except Russia.^ Subsequently, until the mid-1960s the birth rate declined, but the mortality rate was also low.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Great Rail Journeys also offer holidays by train to other European countries.
  • How to travel by train from London to Budapest & Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.seat61.com [Source type: General]

 ^ In the 1980s, the average educational attainments of Hungarians ranked in the middle, in comparison with those of citizens of other European countries.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
In this respect, however, matters are improving, the death-rate sinking from 33.1 per thousand in1881-1885to 28.1 per thousand in 1896-1900. The improvement, which is mainly due to better sanitation and the draining of the pestilential marshes, is most conspicuous in the case of Hungary proper, which shows the following figures: 33.3 per thousand in 1881-1885, and 27.8 per thousand in 1896-1900.
At the census of 1900 fifteen towns had more than 40,000 inhabitants, namely: Budapest, 732,322; Szeged, 100,270; Szabadka (Maria-Theresiopel), 81,464; Debreczen, 72,351; Pozsony (Pressburg), 61 ,537; Hodmezo-Vasarhely, 60,824; Zagrab (Agram), 61,002; Kecskemet, 56,786; Arad, 53,9 0 3; Temesvar, 53,033; Nagyvarad (Grosswardein), 47,018; Kolozsvar (Klausenburg), 46,670; Pecs (Fiinfkirchen), 42,252; Miskolcz, 40,833; Kassa, 35,856.
Census.
Towns.
Inhabitants.
Perceopulaof
Total Population.
1880
93
2,191,878
15.94
1890
106
2,700,852
17.81
1900
122
3,525,377
21.58
.The number and aggregate population of all towns and boroughs in Hungary proper having in 1890 more than 10,000 inhabitants was at the censuses of 1880, 1890 and 1900: Thus the relative increase of the population living in urban districts of more than io,000 inhabitants amounted in 1900 to nearly 4% of the total population.^ Yes, Hungary was living on credit more than the others.
  • Hungary on the ‘brink of ruin’ - World Blog - msnbc.com 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC worldblog.msnbc.msn.com [Source type: News]

 ^ But there is a difference: a true performer, Beáta brings more to her stage appearances than simply a live rendition of her albums.
  • The Budapest Sun Online - Daily News and Views from Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.budapestsun.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Hungary Delivery My daughter's wedding was just spectacular, and more than a few tears were shed.
  • Hungary Send Flowers to Hungary and Anywhere Around the World 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC hungary.flowers-worldwide.net [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 In Croatia-Slavonia only 5.62% of the population was concentrated in such towns in 1900.
.Races.-One of the prominent features of Hungary being the great complexity of the races residing in it (see map, " Distribution of ' See the table in Seton-Watson's Racial Problems in Hungary, Appendix xiii.^ A look at the table below describes Hungary's direction of trade as a share of 1992 exports and imports (see Table III-34-2).
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Slovakia runs a trade surplus now with Hungary (see Table 34-1).
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 p. 470, and Drage, Austria-Hungary, p. .289. Of the emigrants in 1906, 52,121 were Magyars, 32,904 Slovaks, 30,551 Germans, 20,859 Rumanians and 16 0 016 Croats.^ (MC, 2/20/02) 1973 Apr 16, Istvan Kertesz (b.1929), Hungarian-born German conductor, drowned.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The officially recognized minorities are Armenians, Bulgarians, Croats, Germans, Greeks, Poles, Romanians, Roma (Gypsy), Ruthenians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, and Ukrainians.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
2 Racial Problems, p. 202.
GEOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS]
Races," in the article Austria), the census returns of 1880, 1890 and 1900, exhibiting the numerical strength of the different nationalities, are of great interest. .Classifying the population according to the mother-tongue of each individual, there were, in the civil population of Hungary proper, including Fiume: The censuses show a decided tendency of change in favour of the dominating nationality, the Magyar, which reached an absolute majority in the decade 1890-1900. This is also shown by the data relating to the percentage of members of other Hungarian races speaking this language.^ Hungarian, also called Magyar, is the official language of Hungary.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Alcohol consumption worldwide ) flag history ( in Hungary, flag of ) history ( in Hungary, history of ) language ( in Hungarian language ) law ( in criminal law: Common law and code law ) agriculture .
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 ^ The Hungarian language is classified as a member of the Ugric branch of the Uralic languages; as such it is most closely related to the Ob-Ugric languages, Khanty and Mansi, which are spoken east of the Ural Mountains.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Thus in 1900 out of a total civil population of 8,132,740, whose mother-tongue is not Magyar, 1,365,764 could speak Magyar.^ A large number of the conspirators were Protestant ; thus it came about that the civil war that broke out after the discovery of the conspiracy soon became a religious war .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .This represents a percentage of 16.8, while in 1890 the percentage was only 13.8. In Croatia-Slavonia the language of instruction and administration being exclusively Croat, the other races tend to be absorbed in this nationality.^ The total area is 125,430 square miles, of which 16,423 belong to the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 The Magyars formed but 3 . 8%, the Germans 5.6% of the population according to the census of 1900.
.The various races of Hungary are distributed either in compact ethnographical groups, in larger or smaller colonies surrounded by other nationalities, or-e.g. in the Banat-so intermingled as to defy exact definition.'^ The country also contained smaller groups of Uniates (Catholics of the Eastern Rite), Greek Orthodox, various small Protestant sects, and Jews.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The National Bank of Hungary shall define the country's monetary policy in accordance with the provisions of specific other legislation.

 ^ In western Hungary, on the farther side of the Danube, larger or smaller centres of Lutheranism sprang up under the protection of the nobility and distinguished families .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The Magyars occupy almost exclusively the great central plain intersected by the Danube and the Theiss, being in an overwhelming majority in 19 counties (99'7% in Hajdu, east of the Theiss).^ The country's terrain consists largely of plains and hill country and is divided into three major geographic areas: the Great Plain, covering the central part of the country, the Transdanube in the west, and the Northern Hills along the northern border.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Some 43,000 square miles are occupied by the Great and the Little Hungarian Alföld, two great plains enclosed by the Alps and the Carpathians.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
  • Hungary - Catholic Encyclopedia - Catholic Online 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.catholic.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ [Credits : ZEFA] Central Budapest, looking north along the Danube River, with the Parliament Building on the east …[Credits : Jean S. Buldain/Berg & Assoc.
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 With these may be grouped the kindred population of the three Szekel counties of Transylvania. .In 14 other counties, on the linguistic frontier, they are either in a small majority or a considerable minority (61.6% in Szatmar, 18.9% in Torontal).^ There are small minorities of Gypsies, Germans, Serbs, and other groups.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 .The Germans differ from the other Hungarian races in that, save in the counties on the borders of Lower Austria and Styria, where they form a compact population in touch with their kin across the frontier, they are scattered in racial islets throughout the country.^ While demonstrations have occurred throughout the country, the most vocal demonstrations occurred at Budapest’s Kossuth Lajos Square, outside the Hungarian Parliament Building and very close to the U.S. Embassy.
  • Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC travel.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ They are endeavouring to loosen the close friendly relations between our nation, the Hungarian People's Republic, and other countries building socialism, especially between our country and the socialist Soviet Union.

 ^ When the Hungarians took possession of the country where they now live, they found a strong Slavonic Catholic Church already in existence in the western part, in Pannonia, where the Christian Faith had been spread partly by German and partly by Italian priests .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .Excluding the above counties these settlements form three groups: (I) central and northern Hungary, where they form considerable minorities in seven counties (25 i % in Szepes, 7% in Komarom); (2) the Swabians of southern Hungary, also fairly numerous in seven counties (35.5% in Baranya, 32. 9% in Temes, 10.5% in Arad); (3) the Saxons of Transylvania, in a considerable minority in five counties (42.7% in Nagy Khkiillo, 17.6% in Kis Kiikiillo).^ May: overprinted occupation stamps of Hungary for Arad region, Debrecen, Temesvar, Transylvania, 1919, June 14: stamps issued for regime of Bela Kun, Serbian occupation (Baranya, Temesvar, Banat), 1919, June 28: overprinted stamps issued for new republic, 1919, Nov.
  • AskPhil -- Stamp Collecting starts here. 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.askphil.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The Ausgleich (Compromise) of 1867 granted Hungary considerable autonomy over its internal affairs and control over its non-Magyar ethnic groups.
  • Office of the Historian - Countries - Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.history.state.gov [Source type: Original source]

 ^ (HN, 2/24/99) 1541 Suleiman I annexed southern and central Hungary.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The Germans are most numerous in the towns, and tend to become absorbed in the Magyar population.^ The minority, or non-Magyar, population was small and included Germans, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Romanians, Jews, Gypsies, and Greeks.
  • Map Zones : Hungary Map 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC kids.mapzones.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The Sla y s, the most numerous race after the Magyars, are divided into several groups: the Slovaks, mainly massed in the mountainous districts of northern Hungary; the Ruthenians, established mainly on the slopes of the Carpathians between Poprad and Maramaros Sziget; the Serbs, settled in the south of Hungary from the bend of the Danube eastwards across the Theiss into the Banat; the Croats, overwhelmingly preponderant in Croatia-Slavonia, with outlying settlements in the counties of Zala, Vas and Sopron along the Croatian and Styrian frontier.^ The capital is divided into districts.
  • Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.dredf.org [Source type: Original source]
  • ICL - ## 16 September 2009 1:13 UTC www.oefre.unibe.ch [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Arminius Vámbéry and his supporters hold to a Turkish origin of the Magyars, while Pál Hunfalvy and his followers place them in the Finno-Ugrian division of languages of a Ural-Altaic stem and look for the original home of the race in the region of the Ural mountains, or the district between the rivers Obi, Irtysh, Kama, and Volga.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Western Europe and Balkan Peninsula as well as between Ukraine and Mediterranean basin; the north-south flowing Duna (Danube) and Tisza Rivers divide the country into three large regions .
  • CIA - The World Factbook -- Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.umsl.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 Of these the Slovaks are the most important,, having an overwhelming majority in seven counties (94'7% in Arva, 66.1% in Saros), a bare ma j ority in three (Szepes, Bars and Poszody) and a considerable minority in five (40.6% in Gomor, 22.9% in Abauj-Torna). .The Ruthenians are not in a majority in any county, but in four they form a minority of from 36 to 46% (Maramaros, Bereg, Ugocsa, Ung) and in three others (Sáros, Zemplen, Szepes) a minority of from 8.2 to 19.7%.^ While the Government makes provisions for minority religions to engage in religious education in public schools, the four historic religions provide the majority of after-hours religious instruction.
  • Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The Serbs form considerable minorities in the counties of Torontal (31.2%), Bacs-Bodrog (19.0%) and Temes (21.4%). .Next to the Slav races in importance are the Rumanians (Vlachs), who are in an immense majority in ten of the eastern and south-eastern counties (90.2% in Fogaras), in eight others form from 30 to 60% of the population, and in two (Maramaros and Torontal) a respectable minority.'^ The candidate who receives a majority of two-thirds of the votes of the Members of Parliament in the first round of voting is elected President of the Republic.
  • Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.dredf.org [Source type: Original source]
  • ICL - ## 16 September 2009 1:13 UTC www.oefre.unibe.ch [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Those of the Cumans who lived apart from the others were soon converted, but the majority held to paganism and did not become Christians until the middle of the fourteenth century.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Slovakia was finally accepted on June 30, 1993 on the condition that it respected the rights of national minorities.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The Jews in 1900 numbered 851,378, not counting the very great number who have become Christians, who are reckoned as Magyars.^ From Germany came large numbers of priests , nobles, and knights , who settled in Hungary and aided Stephen in converting the country to Christianity .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Those of the Cumans who lived apart from the others were soon converted, but the majority held to paganism and did not become Christians until the middle of the fourteenth century.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Tourists who become victims of a crime in Hungary are strongly encouraged to call a 24-hour multilingual crime-reporting telephone number.
  • Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC travel.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Their importance is out of all proportion to their number, since they monopolize a large portion of the trade, are with the Germans the chief employers of labour, and control not only the finances but to a great extent the government and press of the country.^ When the Hungarian government took steps to withdraw from the war and protect its Jewish population, German troops occupied the country (Mar., 1944).
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ All persons who work have the right to an income that corresponds to the amount and quality of work they carry out.
  • Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.dredf.org [Source type: Original source]
  • ICL - ## 16 September 2009 1:13 UTC www.oefre.unibe.ch [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The only thing which doesn't seem clear is how he expects to pay for all these, especially since he doesn't anticipate a serious return to growth before 2013.

 .Owing to the improvidence of the Hungarian landowners and the poverty of the peasants the soil of the country is also gradually passing into their hands.3 The Gipsies, according to the special census of 1893, numbered 2 74,94 0. Of these, however, only 82,000 gave Romany as their language, while 104,000 described themselves as Magyars and 67,000 as Rumanians.^ A Dec., 2004, referendum on granting citizenship to ethnic Hungarians in other countries passed, but it was not legally binding because less than 25% of the Hungarian electorate voted for it.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ The Hungarian bishops protested against these laws and sent a memorial to the king requesting him not to sanction them; they were, however, unsuccessful.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ More than 560,000 people in Slovakia declare themselves to be of Hungarian nationality (10.8 of the population) compared to about 10,000 Slovaks living in Hungary.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 They are scattered in small colonies, especially in Gomor county and in Transylvania. .Only some 9000 are still nomads, while some 20,000 more are seminomads.^ He had saved more than 20,000 Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 Other races, wh i ch are not numerous, are Armenians, Greeks, Bulgars, Albanians and Italians.
.The ethnographical map of Hungary does much to explain the political problems of the country.^ It was also home to Hungary's open air ethnographic museum, featuring acre upon acre of historic buildings from around the country.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 .The central plains, which have the most fertile soil, and from the geographical conditions of the country form its centre of gravity, are occupied almost exclusively by the Magyars, the most numerous and the dominant race.^ First, the taxi drivers -- as in most Central European countries -- are crooks.
  • Budapest Hungary Travel Guide Tips 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.johnnyjet.com [Source type: General]

 ^ The Great Alfold (Great Hungarian Plain), with fertile agriculture land, occupies nearly half of the country.
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 .But all round these, as far as the frontiers, the country is inhabited by the other races, which, as a rule, occupy it in large, compact and uniform ethnographical groups.^ Kdr became premier and sought to win popular support for Communist rule and to improve Hungary's relations with Yugoslavia and other countries.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ Nothing would be more erroneous, however, than to consider these experiences of Yugoslavia applicable to all countries of Eastern Europe.

 ^ To these two opposing elements should be added the Ottoman power, which after the conquest of Buda (1541) ruled a large part of the land.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The only exception is formed by the Banat, where Magyars, Rumanians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Croats and Germans live mixed together.^ Louis also sought to bring about the conversion of the Slavonic peoples living to the south of Hungary, who held to the Greek Church , the Serbs, Wallachians, and Bulgarians .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ PEOPLE AND HISTORY Ethnic groups in Hungary include Magyar (nearly 90%), Romany, German, Serb, Slovak, and others.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The officially recognized minorities are Armenians, Bulgarians, Croats, Germans, Greeks, Poles, Romanians, Roma (Gypsy), Ruthenians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, and Ukrainians.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Another important fact is that these races are all in direct contact with kindred peoples living outside Hungary: the Rumanians in Transylvania and Banat with those in Rumania and Bukovina; the Serbs and Croats with those on the other bank of the Danube, the Save and the Unna; the Germans in western Hungary with those in Upper Austria and Styria; the Slovaks in northern Hungary with those in Moravia; and lastly the Ruthenians with the Ruthenians of Galicia, who occupy the opposite slopes of the Carpathians.^ Peoples of Austria-Hungary in 1914.
  • Hungary -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.britannica.com [Source type: Reference]

 ^ Those living in Hungary who claimed to be of Slovak origin were transferred to Slovakia.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The centrifugal forces within the Hungarian kingdom are thus increased by the attraction of kindred nationalities established beyond its borders, a fact which is of special importance in considering the vexed and difficult racial problem in Hungary.^ The 2008 global financial crisis led to a sharp drop in the value of the Hungarian currency in October, forcing Hungary to seek a €20 billion rescue package.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ Psychological problems, particularly depression, increased significantly between 1988 and 1996, and, although the number of suicides has been declining, Hungary continues to have the highest rate of suicide in the world.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ I consider it of great importance that a Government has been formed representing every shade and stratum of the Hungarian people that wants progress and socialism.
Hungary
Proper.
Croatia-
Slavonia.
By area in acres-
Arable land
29,714,382
13,370,540
Gardens. .. ... .
928,053
136,354
Meadows
7,075,888
1,099,451
Vineyards. .. .. .
482,801
65,475
Pastures
9,042,267
1,465,930
Forests
18,464,396
3,734,094
Marshes
199,685
7,921
By percentage of the total area-
Arable land
42.81
32.26
Gardens
1.34
I 31
Meadows
10.19
10 52
Vineyards
o 69
o 63
Pastures
13.03
11.03
Forests
26.60
35.74 -
Marshes
0.28
0.08
..
.Agriculture.-Hungary is pre-eminently an agricultural country and one of the principal wheat-growing regions of Europe.^ During the Communist era, Hungary was considered one of the most prosperous and open countries in Ea »» More Family...
  • Hungary Country Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.countryreports.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ In 1241 the Mongols arrived in Hungary and swept through the country, burning it virtually to the ground and killing an estimated one-third to one-half of its two million people.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Before World War II, Hungary was an agricultural country.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .At the census of 1900 nearly 69% of the total population of the country derived their income from agriculture, forestry, horticulture and other agricultural pursuits.^ Nearly 70 percent of its historical territory and 58 percent of its former population were ceded to neighboring countries.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ However, more than half the population does some agricultural work for household use and supplemental income.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The chief industry is agriculture (including forestry), which supports nearly 13,000,000 persons .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The agricultural census taken in 1895 shows the great progress made in agriculture by Hungary, manifested by the increase in arable lands and the growth of the average production.^ About half of Hungary's land is arable.
  • Hungary News - Breaking World Hungary News - The New York Times 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC topics.nytimes.com [Source type: News]

 ^ According to a census of this year, there were in Hungary 3570 male religious, including 191 hermits ; this number was made by law the maximum which was not to be exceeded.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ However, transportation costs will increase because Hungary will need new lorries and it will take much longer to transport products by ground.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The increase of the arable land has been effected partly by the reclamation of the marshes, but mostly by the transformation of large tracts of puszta (waste prairie land) into arable land.^ But in a bid to appease the lesser nobility, he handed them large tracts of land.
  • History of Hungary - Lonely Planet Travel Information 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.lonelyplanet.com [Source type: Original source]

 .This latter process is growing every year, and is coupled with great improvements in agricultural methods, such as more intensive cultivation, the use of the most modern implements and the application of scientific discoveries.^ Piles of old junk soon to be taken away by the local council make downtown life even more 'colourful' for a few weeks every year .

 .According to the agricultural census of 1895, the main varieties of land are distributed as follows: The remainder, such as barren terr tory, devastated vineyards, water and area of buildings, amounts to 5.1% of the total.^ According to the Hungarian census of 1900 the adherents of the different religions number as follows: .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
.The chief agricultural products of Hungary are wheat, rye, barley, oats and maize, the acreage and produce of which are shown in the following tables: Seton -Watson, op.^ The production of barley, corn, potatoes, wheat, sugar beets, and sunflower seeds, along with grapes and wine making, is important.
  • Culture of Hungary - History and ethnic relations, Urbanism,architecture, and the use of space, Food and economy 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.everyculture.com [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Exports for Hungary to western and eastern trading partners are as follows: Table 1.
  • Hungary Dam 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.american.edu [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Agriculture/forestry (2008 est., 3.4% of GDP): Products-- meat, corn, wheat, sunflower seeds, potatoes, sugar beets, dairy products.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 cit. pp. 1 73, 188, 252; Drage, Austria-. Hungary, pp. 280, 588; Gonnard, La Hongrie, p. 72.
Census.
Hungarians
(Magyars).
Germans
(Nemet).
Slovaks
(Tot).
Rumanians
(Oldh).
Ruthenians
(Ruthen).
Croatians
(Horvat).
Servians
(Szerb).
Others.
1880
6,404,070
1, 8 7 0 ,77 2
1, 8 55,45 1
2 ,4 0 3, 0 4 1
353,229
223,054
639,986
1890
7,357,936
1,990,084
1,896,665
2 ,5 8 9, 0 79
379,786
194,412
495, 1 33
259,893
1900
8 ,5 88, 8 34
1,980,423
1,991,402
2 ,7 8 4,7 26
423,159
188,552
1 434,641
329,837
i.e. in percentages of the total population:
1880
46.58
13.61
13'49
17'48
2.57
4.65
1.62
1890
48'53
13 12
12.51
17.08
2.50
1.28
3.27
1 71
1900
51.38
II.88
II.88
16.62
2.52
I 17
2.60
I
1.95
The colouring of ordinary ethnographical maps is necessarily somewhat misleading. When an attempt is made to represent in colour the actual distribution of the races (as in Dr Chavanne's Geographischer and statistischer Handatlas) the effect is that of occasional blotches of solid colour on a piece of shot silk.
2 The distribution of the races is analysed in greater detail in Mr Seton-Watson's Racial Problems, p. 3 seq.
Cereal.
Average per Annum.
1900
1907.
1881-85.
1886-90.
1891-95.
Wheat. .
6 ,4 8 3, 8 7 6
7, 01 4, 8 9 1
7,55 1 ,5 8 4
8, 1 4 2 ,3 0 3
8,773,440
Rye. .
2 ,475,3 01
2 ,7 2 7, 0 7 8
2 ,5 10, 0 93
2 ,54 6 ,73 8
2,529,350
Barley. .
2 ,4 20 ,393
2 ,49 1 ,4 22
2 ,4 0 7,4 6 9
2,485,117
2,885,160
Oats. .
2,460,080
2,546,582
2 ,339, 2 97
2 ,3 2 4,992
2,898,780
Maize .
4,567,186
4, 681 ,37 6
5, 222 ,538
5,4 6 9, 0 5 0
7,017,270
Cereal.
Average per Annum.
1900.
2907.
1881 - 85.
1886-90.
1891-95.
Wheat. .
99'8
121.3
144.9
137.3
128.5
Rye. .
41 8
42'1
46'5
39'2
38.0
Barley. .
46'2
43'7
53'6
49'7
51.0
Oats. .
53.9
52.3
64'9
63.6
43'7
Maize .
92.4
86.4
.118.0
121 7
158.7
.'[[[Geography And Statistics]] ' Area Acres in Hungary Proper.^ PROFILE OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of Hungary Geography Area: 93,030 sq.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Produce in Millions of Bushels. In Croatia-Slavonia no crop statistics were compiled before 1885. Subsequent returns for maize and wheat show an increase both in the area cultivated and quantity yielded.^ The chief crops are wheat and maize.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Public debt is expected to increase to 83% of GDP in 2009 before fiscal tightening returns it to more sustainable levels.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The total area is 125,430 square miles, of which 16,423 belong to the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 The former is the principal product of this province. Certain districts are distinguished for particular kinds of fruit, which form an important article of commerce both for inland consumption and for export. .The principal of these fruits are: apricots round Kecskemet, cherries round Koros, melons in the Alfold and plums in Croatia-Slavonia.^ The Eastern European brandy, made from fermented fruit pears, plums, apricots or grapes, has been produced in the region under different names.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The vineyards of Hungary, which have suffered greatly by the phylloxera since 1881, show since 1900 a tendency to recover ground, and their area is again slowly increasing.^ Since 1389 when Servia was conquered by the Osmanli power at the battle of Kosova (also called Amselfeld , "Field of the Blackbirds"), the Turks had slowly but steadily advanced against Hungary.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Hungary has been slowly modernizing and downsizing its armed forces since it left the Warsaw Pact in 1990.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

Forests

Of the productive area of Hungary 26.60% is occupied by forests, which for the most part cover the slopes of the Carpathians. .Nearly half of them belong to the state, and in them forestry has been carried out on a scientific basis since 1879. The exploitation of this great source of wealth is still hindered by want of proper means of communication, but in many parts of Transylvania it is now carried on successfully.^ The State Audit Office shall carry out its review and control activities bearing in mind the aspects of legality, expediency and efficiency.
  • Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.dredf.org [Source type: Original source]
  • ICL - ## 16 September 2009 1:13 UTC www.oefre.unibe.ch [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The State Audit Office shall present the Parliament with a report on the auditing activities it has carried out.
  • Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC www.dredf.org [Source type: Original source]
  • ICL - ## 16 September 2009 1:13 UTC www.oefre.unibe.ch [Source type: Original source]

 The forests are chiefly composed of oak, fir, pine, ash and alder.
Animal.
1884.
1895.
Horses .
1,749,302
1,972,930
Cattle .
4,879,334
5,829,483
Sheep. .
10 ,594, 86 7
7,5z6,783
Pigs .
4, 80 3,777
6,447,134

Live Stock

.The number of live stock in Hungary proper in two different years is shown in the following table: - In Croatia-Slavonia the live stock was numbered in 1895 at: horses, 309,098; cattle, 908,774; sheep, 595,898; pigs, 882,957. But the improved quality of the live stock is more worthy of notice than the growth in numbers.^ Such reductions could put Hungary on the path to join the Euro zone by 2012, two years later than its original target.

 ^ Hungary Delivery My daughter's wedding was just spectacular, and more than a few tears were shed.
  • Hungary Send Flowers to Hungary and Anywhere Around the World 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC hungary.flowers-worldwide.net [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Bilateral trade between the two countries has increased to more than $1 billion per year.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
.The small Magyar horse, once famous for its swiftness and endurance, was improved during the Turkish wars, so far as height and beauty were concerned, by being crossed with Arabs; but it degenerated after the 17th century as the result of injudicious crossbreeding.^ A turf war between Russian, Ukrainian, Romania, Turkish and Arab gangs had led to 140 bombings since 1991.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The breed has, however, been since improved by government action, the establishment of state studs supported since 1867 by annual parliamentary grants, and the importation especially of English stock. The largest of the studs is that at Mezohegyes (founded 1785) in the county of Csanad, the most extensive and remarkable of those " economies," model farms on a gigantic scale, which the government has established on its domains.' In 1905 it had 2224 horses, including 27 stallions and 422 blood mares. .The next most important stud is at Kisber (founded 1853), with 731 horses; others are at Babolna (founded 1798), with 802 horses, and Fogaras (founded 1874), with 400 horses.'^ In this region were founded their first towns, the most important of the country, namely, Gran , Székes-Fehérvar, and Buda.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .Besides these there are several large depots of state stallions, which are hired out or sold at moderate rates; but buyers have to guarantee not to export them without permission of the government.^ (Econ, 3/29/08, p.67) 2008 Apr 1, Hungary’s coalition partner pulled out of the government leaving the Socialists without a parliamentary majority.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .Large numbers of horses are exported annually, principally to Austria, Germany, Italy, France and Rumania.^ From Germany came large numbers of priests , nobles, and knights , who settled in Hungary and aided Stephen in converting the country to Christianity .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ (SS, 3/23/02) 1902 Jun 23, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy renewed the Triple Alliance for a 12 year duration.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Germany is Hungary's most important trading partner, followed by Italy and France.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
.Owing to its wide stretches of pasture-land Hungary is admirably suited for cattle-raising, and in the government " economies " the same care has been bestowed on improving the breed of horned beasts as in the case of horses.^ A sharp decline in the share of non-resident investors in the government securities market raised concerns that Hungary would be unable to meet its external financing requirements.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ At the same time, we wish to inform the people of Hungary that we are going to request the Government of the Soviet Union to withdraw Soviet troops completely from the entire territory of the Hungarian Republic.

 ^ The Magyars settled in the neighbourhood of the Danube, and especially in the district on the farther side, as best suited to their occupation, that of cattle-raising.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 The principal breeds are either native or Swiss (especially that of Simmenthal). The export trade in cattle is considerable, amounting in 1905 to 238,296 head of ' An admirable account of this " little world, which produces almost everything and is almost self-sufficient " is given by M. Gonnard in his Hongrie au XX me siecle, p. 159 seq.
2 lb. p. 349 seq.
oxen, .56,540 cows, 23,765 bulls and 19,643 breeding cattle, as well as a large number of carcases.^ There were stables of horses, as well as a series of large pens, each housing cows, goats, sheep and other farm fauna.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]
Sheep are not stocked so extensively as cattle, and are tending rapidly to decrease, a result due to the spread of intensive cultivation and the rise in value of the soil. They are not exported, but there is a considerable export trade in wool.
Pigs are reared in large quantities all over the country, but the principal centres for distribution are Debreczen, Gyula, Bares, Szeged and Budapest. They are exported in large numbers (408,000 in 1905), almost exclusively to Austria. There is also a considerable export trade in geese and eggs.
.Minerals.--Hungary is one of the richest countries in Europe as regards both the variety and the extent of its mineral wealth.^ The Lonely Planet range offers an in-depth guide for Hungary or a guide covering all the countries in Eastern Europe.
  • How to travel by train from London to Budapest & Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.seat61.com [Source type: General]

 ^ (AP, 8/19/04) 2004 Aug 25, Hungary chose Ferenc Gyurcsany (43), one of the nation’s richest businessmen, as the new premier.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Home > Countries & Regions > Eastern Europe & Central Asia > Hungary .

 .Its chief mineral products are coal, nitre, sulphur, alum, soda, saltpetre, gypsum, porcelain-earth, pipe-clay, asphalt, petroleum, marble and ores of gold, silver, mercury, copper, iron, lead, zinc, antimony, cobalt and arsenic.^ Mining (lignite, pig iron, coal, and gold being the chief items) in 1906 employed 72,290 persons and produced a revenue of 116,000,000 Kronen ($23,200,000).
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 The principal mining regions are Zsepes-Giimor in Upper Hungary, the Kremnitz-Schemnitz district, the Nagybanya district, the Transylvanian deposits and the Banat. Gold and silver are chiefly found in Transylvania, where their exploitation dates back to the Roman period, and are mined at Zalatna and Abrudbanya; rich deposits are also found in the Kremnitz-Schemnitz, and the Nagybanya districts. The average yearly yield of gold is about £100,000, and that of silver about the same amount. The sand of some of the rivers, as for instance the Maros, Szamos, Koros and Aranyos, is auriferous. .Coal is extensively mined in the region of Budapest-Oravicza, Nagybanya, Zalatna, at Brennberg near Sopron, at Salgo-Tarjan, Pecs, in the counties of Krasso-Szoreny, and of Esztergom, and in the valley of the river Zsil.^ Administrative regions: 19 counties plus capital region of Budapest.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 Iron is extracted in the counties of Zsepes, Giimor and Abauj-Torna. The production of coal and iron trebled during the period 1880-1900, amounting in 1900 to 6,600,000 tons, and 463,000 tons respectively. The principal salt-mines are in Transylvania at Torda, Parajd, Deesakna and Maros-Ujvar; and in Hungary at Szlatina, Ronazsek and Sugatag. The salt-mines are a state monopoly. .Hungary is the only country in Europe where the opal is found, namely at the famous mines of Vorosvagas in the county of Sáros, and at NagyMihaly in that of Zemplin.^ The Lonely Planet range offers an in-depth guide for Hungary or a guide covering all the countries in Eastern Europe.
  • How to travel by train from London to Budapest & Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.seat61.com [Source type: General]

 ^ In this region were founded their first towns, the most important of the country, namely, Gran , Székes-Fehérvar, and Buda.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Home > Countries & Regions > Eastern Europe & Central Asia > Hungary .

 Other precious stones found are chalcedony, garnet, jacinth, amethyst, carnelian, agate, rock-crystals, &c. Amber is found at Magura in Zsepes, while fine marble quarries are found in the counties of Esztergom, Komarom, Veszprem and Szepes. The value of the mining (except salt) and smelting production in Hungary amounted in 1900 to £4,500,000, while in 1877 the value was only £I,50o,000. The number of persons employed in mining and smelting works was (1900 census) 70,476.
Mineral Springs. - .Hungary possesses a great number of cold, and several hot mineral springs, some of them being greatly frequented.^ Stephen's victory was also followed by the coming of large numbers of German, French, and Italian ecclesiastics to Hungary, which greatly aided the spread of Christianity .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .Among the principal in Hungary proper except Transylvania are those of Budapest, Mehadia, Eger, Sztubnya (Turocz county), Szliacs (Zolyom county), Harkany (Baranya county), Pistyan (Nyitra county) and Trencsen-Teplitz, where there are hot springs.^ Besides Lutheranism , Calvinism also took root in Hungary at this time, and from 1547 were added the teachings of the Anabaptists , who won adherents in the western counties of upper Hungary and in Transylvania .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ There is also in Hungary proper an abbey which is equal in rank to the dioceses , the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma (Martinsberg).
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 Cold mineral springs are at Bartfa, with alkaline ferruginous waters; Czigelka, with iodate waters; Parad, with ferruginous and sulphate springs; Koritnicza or Korytnica, with strong iron springs; and the mineral springs of Budapest. .Among the principal health resorts of Hungary are Tatrafiired in the Tatra mountains, and Balatonfiired on the shores of Lake Balaton.^ Terrain: Mostly flat, with low mountains in the north and northeast and north of Lake Balaton.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

Industrial Development

.Efforts to create a native industry date only from 1867, and, considering the shortness of the time and other adverse factors, such as scarcity of capital, lack of means of communication, the development of industry in the neighbouring state of Austria, &c., the industry of Hungary has made great strides.^ The telecottage was described again and again as the soul of the community - the place where everyone came to spend time with their neighbors, plan events, participate in community activities and develop new programs.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Highly reactive: enclosure made with a vinyl compound will interact with the other material it contacts; this interaction will, over time, permanently damage material; from: Preservation and Storage Library of Victoria.
  • AskPhil -- Stamp Collecting starts here. 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.askphil.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Union between Austria and Hungary took place in 1867.

 .Much of this progress is due to the state, one of the principal aims of the Hungarian government being the creation of a large and independent native industry.^ The Hungarian Communist Party became the largest single party in the elections in 1947 and served in the coalition People's Independence Front government.

 ^ I consider it of great importance that a Government has been formed representing every shade and stratum of the Hungarian people that wants progress and socialism.

 ^ Communist Takeover The provisional government, dominated by the Hungarian communist party (MKP), was replaced in November 1945 after elections which gave majority control of a coalition government to the Independent Smallholders' Party.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .For this purpose legislation was promoted in 1867, 1881, 1890 and 1907. The principal facilities granted by the state are, exemption of taxation for a determined period of years, reduced railway fares for the goods manufactured, placing of government contracts, the grant of subsidies and loans and the foundation of industrial schools for the training of engineers and of skilled workmen.^ Greater fiscal discipline allowed the government to reduce its deficit to 3.4% of GDP by 2008, but decreasing government spending during this period also reduced domestic consumption and contributed to a decrease in Hungary's GDP growth.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The branches of industry which have received special encouragement are those whose products are in universal request, such as cotton and woollen goods, and those which are in the service of natural production. .In this category are the manufacture of agricultural machines, of tools and implements for agriculture, forestry and mining; such industries as depend for their raw material on the exploitation of the natural resources of the country, viz.^ The chief industry is agriculture (including forestry), which supports nearly 13,000,000 persons .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 those related to agriculture, forestry, mining, &c. .Lastly, encouragement is given to all branches of industry concerned with the manufacture of articles used in the more important Hungarian industries, i.e. machinery, or semi-manufactured goods which serve as raw material for those industries.^ In the early 1950s, the communist government forced rapid industrialization following the standard Stalinist pattern in an effort to encourage a more self-sufficient economy.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ All private industrial firms with more than 10 employees were nationalized.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Trade (2008): Exports ($95.0 billion)--machinery, vehicles, food, beverages, tobacco, crude materials, manufactured goods, fuels and electric energy.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 For the period 1890-1905, an average of 40 to 50 industrial establishments with an invested capital of £1,250,000 to £1,750,000 were founded yearly.
The principal industry of Hungary is flour-milling. The number of steam-mills, which in 1867 was about 150, rose to 1723 in 1895 and to 1845 in 1905. Between 3,000,000 and 3,200,000 tons of wheat-flour are produced annually. The principal steam-mills are at Budapest; large steam-mills are also established in many towns, while there are a great number of water-mills and some wind-mills.
GEOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS]
The products of these mills form the principal article of export of Hungary. Brewing and distilling, as other branches of industry connected with agriculture, are also greatly developed. .The sugar industry has made great strides, the amount of beetroot used having increased tenfold between 1880 and 1905. Other principal branches of industry are: tobacco manufactories, belonging to the state, tobacco being a government monopoly; iron foundries, mostly in the mining region; agricultural machinery and implements, notably at Budapest; leather manufactures; paper-mills, the largest at Fiume; glass (only the more common sort) and earthenwares; chemicals; wooden products; petroleum-refineries; woollen yarns and cloth manufactories, as well as several establishments of knitting and weaving.^ Bilateral trade between the two countries has increased to more than $1 billion per year.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Although Hungary was a monarchy for nearly 1,000 years, its constitutional system preceded by several centuries the establishment of Western-style governments in other European countries.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Hungary was especially helpful during the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords in the Balkans from 1995-2004, when its airbase at Taszar was used by coalition forces transiting the region.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The various industrial establishments are located in the larger towns, but principally at Budapest, the only real industrial town of Hungary.
.In 1900 the various industries of Hungary (including CroatiaSlavonia) employed 1,127,730 persons, or 12.8% of the earning population.^ Manufacturing industries employ 12.8 per cent of the wage-earning population.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Hungary lost more than half its population, including some 3 million Hungarians.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The chief industry is agriculture (including forestry), which supports nearly 13,000,000 persons .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 In 1890 the number of persons employed was 913,010. Including families and domestic servants, 2,605,000 persons or 13.5% of the total population were dependent on industries for their livelihood in Hungary in 1900.
Year.
Imports.
Exports.
1886 - 1890
37'3
37'5
1891-1895
43'7
44'1
1900
46'3
55'3
1907
66 o
64.7

Commerce

.Hungary forms together with Austria one customs and commercial territory, and the statistics for the foreign trade is given under Austria-Hungary.^ Ecclesiastical affairs are under the control of the Hungarian Ministry of Education and Public Worship, in which a separate department, having one of the higher church dignitaries at its head, has been formed.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Kingdom of Hungary was formed under Arpad by seven Magyar and three Khazar tribes.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Hungary's strategic position in Europe and its relative lack of natural resources dictated a traditional reliance on foreign trade.
  • Hungary (06/09) 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.state.gov [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The following table gives the foreign trade of Hungary only for a period of years in millions sterling: - Of the merchandise' entering the country, 75-80% comes from Austria, and exports go to the same country to the extent of 75%.^ It was in this period that the Cistercians , Premonstratensians , and Knights of St. John settled in Hungary; in the thirteenth century these orders were followed by the Dominicans and Franciscans .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ (SS, 3/23/02) 1902 Jun 23, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy renewed the Triple Alliance for a 12 year duration.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Stephen V reigned only two years (1270-72); he was followed by his son Ladislaus IV (1272-90) who, when he came to the throne, was still a minor.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 Next comes Germany with about 10% of the value of the total exports and 5% of that of imports. The neighbouring Balkan states - Rumania and Servia - follow, and the United Kingdom receives somewhat more than 2% of the exports, while supplying about 1.5% of the imports. The principal imports are: cotton goods, woollen manufactures; apparel, haberdashery and linen; silk manufactures; leather and leather goods. The exports, which show plainly the prevailing agricultural character of the country, are flour, wheat, cattle, beef, barley, pigs, wine in barrels, horses and maize.
With but a short stretch of sea-coast, and possessing only one important seaport, Fiume, the mercantile marine of Hungary is not very developed. It consisted in 1905 of 434 vessels with a tonnage of 91,784 tons and with crews of 2 359 persons. Of these 95 vessels with a tonnage of 89,161 tons were steamers. Fifty-four vessels with 84,844 tons and crews numbering 1168 persons were sea-going; 134 with 6587 tons were coasting-vessels, and 246 with 353 tons were fishing vessels.
At all the Hungarian ports in 1900 there entered 19,223 vessels of 2,223,302 tons; cleared 19,218 vessels of 2,226,733 tons. The tonnage of British steamers amounted to somewhat more than t i % of the total tonnage of steamers entered and cleared.

Railways

.Hungary is covered by a fairly extensive network of railways, although in the sparsely populated parts of the kingdom the high road is still the only means of communication.^ After his death a small part of the population that was still pagan broke out into revolt, but this rebellion was quickly suppressed by King Béla I (1060-63).
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 The first railway in Hungary was the line between Budapest and Vacz (Waitzen), 20 m. long, opened in 1846 (15th of July). .After the Compromise of 1867, the policy of the Hungarian government was to construct its own railways, and to take over the lines constructed and worked by private companies.'^ After you've booked, you can change or cancel your reservation in line with the hotel's own change and cancellation policy.
  • How to travel by train from London to Budapest & Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.seat61.com [Source type: General]

 In 1907 the total length of the Hungarian railways, in which over £145,000,000 had been invested, was 12,100 m., of which 5000 m. belonged to and were worked by the state, 5100 m. belonged to private companies but were worked by the state, and 2000 m. belonged to and were worked by private companies. .The passengers carried in 1907 numbered 107,171,000, the goods traffic was 61,483,000 tons; the traffic receipts for the year were £16,420,000. The corresponding figures for 1880 were as follows: passengers carried, 9,34 6, 00 0; goods carried, 11,225,000 tons; traffic receipts, £4,300,000. The so-called zone tariff, adopted for the first time in Europe by the Hungarian state railways, was inaugurated in 1889 for passengers and in 1891 for goods.^ About the middle of the ninth century, when the Byzantine writers first speak of the Hungarians, calling them "Turci", the Hungarians were in Lebedia, in the territory on the right bank of the Don.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ (Reuters, 9/2/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.96) 2006 Sep 19, Some 2,000-3,000 protesters stormed the headquarters of Hungarian state television and forced it off the air briefly in an explosion of anger.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ (MC, 11/30/01) 1939-1945 The Hungarian Gendarmerie carried out orders to round up Jews for Nazi death camps where some 550,000 perished.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The principle of this system is to offer cheap fares and relatively low tariffs for greater distances, and to promote, therefore, long-distance travelling.^ Savings fare = Special cheap fare, book in advance, limited availability, no refunds, no changes to travel plans.
  • How to travel by train from London to Budapest & Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.seat61.com [Source type: General]

 ^ European Rail is an experienced agency equipped with the German Railways reservation & ticketing system, so they have access to all the cheap fares for travel via Germany.
  • How to travel by train from London to Budapest & Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.seat61.com [Source type: General]

 The zone tariff has given a great impetus both to passenger and goods traffic in Hungary, and has been adopted on some of the Austrian railways.
1 Merchandise passing the boundaries is subject to declaration; the respective values are stated by a special commission of experts residing in Budapest.
2 The acquisition of the Austrian Staatsbahn in 1891 practically gave to the state the control of the whole railway net of Hungary. By 1900 all the main lines, except the Siidbahn and the KaschanOberbergar Bahn, were in its hands.
In 1907 the length of the navigable waterways of Hungary was 3200 m., of which 2450 m. were navigable by steamers. .Seaports. - On the Adriatic lies the port of Fiume (q.v.), the only direct outlet by sea for the produce of Hungary. Its commanding position at the head of the Gulf of Quarnero, and spacious new harbour works, as also its immediate connexions with both the Austrian and Hungarian railway systems, render it specially advantageous as a commercial port. As shipping stations, Buccari, Portore, Selce, Novi, Zengg, San Giorgio, Jablanac and Carlopago are of comparative insignificance. The whole of the short Hungarian seaboard is mountainous and subject to violent winds.

Government

.Hungary is a constitutional monarchy, its monarch bearing the title of king.^ After the death of the latter, who had the support of the Holy See , his son, Charles Robert, maintained the father's claims, and from 1295 assumed the title of King of Hungary.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The succession to the throne is hereditary in the order of primogeniture in the male line of the house of Habsburg-Lorraine; and failing this, in the female line.^ Charles VI was the last male descendant of the Hapsburgs, and he sought to have the succession to the throne secured to the female line; this was enacted by the Diet of 1723.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The king must be a member of the Roman Catholic Church.^ The king promised the correction of the abuses and, especially, to guard the interests of the Catholic Church , but he was too weak a man for energetic action.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The incorporated autonomy council was to represent the interests of Catholics , to administer the property of the Church , and to be the advisory council of the king in the appointment of church dignitaries.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The king of Hungary is also emperor of Austria, but beyond this personal union, and certain matters regulated by both governments jointly '(see' Austria-Hungary), the two states are independent of each other, having each its own constitution, legislature and administration.^ (WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A24) 1637 Ferdinand II Holy Roman emperor, king of Bohemia and king of Hungary, died.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ (CFA, '96, p.44)(AP, 4/10/97)(AP, 8/30/98) 1848 Mar 3, Lajos Kossuth made a speech demanding parliamentary government for Hungary and constitutional government for the rest of Austria.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ (Reuters, 3/15/07) 1848 Mar 23, Hungary proclaimed its independence of Austria.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The king is the head of the executive, the supreme commander of the armed forces of the nation, and shares the legislative power with the parliament.
.The constitution of Hungary is in many respects strikingly analogous to that of Great Britain, more especially in the fact that it is based on no written document but on immemorial prescription, confirmed or modified by a series of enactments, of which the earliest and most famous was the Golden Bull of Andrew III. (1222), the Magna Carta of Hungary.^ After the death of Andrew III a series of wars broke out over the succession.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ When he failed to observe these obligations , the nobles forced him to issue the Golden Bull (1222), the Magna Charta of Hungary.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ (CFA, '96, p.50)(HN, 7/28/98) 1914 Aug 12, Great Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The ancient constitution, often suspended and modified, based upon this charter, was reformed under the influence of Western Liberalism in 1848, the supremacy of the Magyar race, however, being secured by a somewhat narrow franchise. .Suspended after the collapse of the Hungarian revolt in 1849 for some eighteen years, the constitution was restored in 1867 under the terms of the Compromise (Ausgleich) with Austria, which established the actual organization of the country (see History, below).^ WebChron/EastEurope/Kossuth.html) 1848-1849 Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894) led a failed revolt for Hungarian independence.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Nov 4, Russian troops and tanks attacked Budapest and crushed the Hungarian revolt under Premier Imre Nagy.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]
.The legislative power is vested in the parliament (Orszaggyiiles), which consists of two houses: an upper house or the House of Magnates (Forendihdz), and a lower house or House of Representatives (KepviselOhdz). The House of Magnates is composed as follows: princes of the royal house who have attained their majority (16 in 1904); hereditary peers who pay at least £250 a year land tax (237 in 1904); high dignitaries of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches (42 in 1904); representatives of the Protestant confessions (13 in 1904); life peers appointed by the crown, not exceeding 50 in number, and life peers elected by the house itself (73 altogether in 1904); members ex officio consisting of state dignitaries and high judges (19 in 1904); and three delegates of Croatia-Slavonia.^ VII) excluded Catholic auxiliary bishops from membership, with the exception of the Auxiliary Bishops of Nándor-Fehérvár and Knin (Tinin) According to this law , the dignitaries of the Catholic Church , both of the Latin and Greek Rites, entitled to membership in the Upper House since that time are the prince-primate and the other archbishops and diocesan bishops , the Auxiliary Bishops of Nándor-Fehérvár and Knin, the Archabbot of Pannonhalma (Martinsberg), the Provost of Jászó ( Premonstratensian Order ), and the Prior of Auranien; the representatives of the Orthodox Greek Church are the Patriarch of Karlocza (Karlowitz), the Metropolitan of Gyula-Fehérvár (Karlsburg), and the diocesan bishops ; of the Protestant Churches , their highest clerical and lay dignitaries.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Uniat Greek Church in Croatia-Slavonia has 1 cathedral chapter with 14 regular canonries and 1 honorary canonry ; 1 provostship; 4 archdeaconries and 4 vice-archdeaconries; 24 mother-churches, 15 dependent churches with at least 50 souls ; 11 parish priests , 16 assistant priests and 6 priests otherwise employed; 17 ecclesiastical students; 3 priests retired from active work, and 1 priest outside the diocese.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ In 1883 a bill on the marriage of Catholics and Jews was laid before the Parliament but was twice rejected by the Upper House and finally withdrawn by the Government.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 .The House of Representatives consists of members elected, under the Electoral Law of 1874, by a complicated franchise based upon property, taxation, profession or official position, and ancestral privileges.3 The house consists of 453 members, of which 413 are deputies elected in Hungary and 43 delegates of Croatia-Slavonia sent by the parliament of that province.^ (SFC, 2/21/00, p.A12) 2000 Jun 6, Ferenc Madl (69), law professor, was elected president by the Parliament.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The members are elected for five years and receive payment for their services. The parliament is summoned annually by the king at Budapest. .The official language is Magyar, but the delegates of CroatiaSlavonia may use their own language.^ Switzerland; Latin name used since nation has four official languages.
  • AskPhil -- Stamp Collecting starts here. 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.askphil.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ Hole in stamp: may indicate a form of cancellation, or used on telegrams, or for official correspondence, etc.
  • AskPhil -- Stamp Collecting starts here. 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.askphil.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The Hungarian parliament has power to legislate on all matters concerning Hungary, but for Croatia-Slavonia only on matters which concern these provinces in common with Hungary.^ Fidesz won only 148 seats of the 386-member Parliament and planned to form a coalition with The Hungarian Democratic Forum (17 seats) and the Smallholders (48 seats).
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ "All of these buildings are replicas of famous Hungarian buildings that are now outside of Hungary, in territories lost after the first world war," Eva explained.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 The executive power is vested in a responsible cabinet, consisting of ten ministers, namely, the president of the council, the minister of the interior, of national defence, of education and public worship, of finance, The franchise is " probably the most illiberal in Europe." Servants, in the widest sense of the word, apprenticed workmen and agricultural labourers are carefully excluded. The result is that the working classes are wholly unrepresented in the parliament, only 6% of them, and 13% of the small trading class, possessing the franchise, which is only enjoyed by 6% of the entire population (see Seton-Watson, Racial Problems, 250, 251). For the question of franchise reform which played so great a part in the AustroHungarian crisis of1909-1910'see' History, below. - jEn.] [[[Geography And Statistics]] of agriculture, of industry and commerce, of justice, the minister for Croatia-Slavonia, and the minister ad latus or near the king's person. As regards local government, the country is divided into municipalities or counties, which possess a certain amount of self-government. .Hungary proper .is divided into sixty-three rural, and - including Fiume - twenty-six urban municipalities (see section on Administrative Divisions). These urban municipalities are towns which for their local government are independent of the counties in which they are situated, and have, therefore, a larger amount of municipal autonomy than the communes or the other towns.^ (AP, 7/1/02) 2002 Sep, Hungary’s governing coalition swept elections, winning the mayoral races in 17 of 23 big cities, including Budapest, and a majority in 15 of 19 county assemblies.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The city is planning to open a new town hall that will feature free municipal wi-fi, which they recently started offering at the telecottage.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 The administration of the municipalities is carried on by an official appointed by the king, aided by a representative body. The representative body is composed half of elected members, and half of citizens who pay the highest taxes. Since 1876 each municipality has a council of twenty members to exercise control over its administration.

Administrative Divisions

Since 1867 the administrative and political divisions of the lands belonging to the Hungarian crown have been in great measure remodelled. In 1868 Transylvania was definitely reunited to Hungary proper, and the town and district of Fiume declared autonomous. In 1873 part of the " Military Frontier " was united with Hungary proper and part with CroatiaSlavonia. .Hungary proper, according to ancient usage, was generally divided into four great divisions or circles, and Transylvania up to 1876 was regarded as the fifth.^ The Church in Hungary, in respect to organization, is divided into the three Archdioceses of Gran (Esztergom), Kalocsa, and Eger (Erlau).
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ The Reformed Church is divided into four districts; the Lutheran Church into five districts.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 In 1876 a general system of counties was introduced. .According to this division Hungary proper is divided into seven circles, of which Transylvania forms one.^ The Church in Hungary, in respect to organization, is divided into the three Archdioceses of Gran (Esztergom), Kalocsa, and Eger (Erlau).
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ Kingdom of Hungary was formed under Arpad by seven Magyar and three Khazar tribes.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The whole country is divided into the following counties: (a) The circle on the left bank of the Danube contains eleven counties: (1) Arva, (2) Bars, (3) Esztergom, (4) Hont, (5) Lipto, (6) Nograd, (7) Nyitra, (8) Pozsony (Pressburg), (9) Trencsen, (to) Turocz and (I I) Zolyom.^ The Ottoman Empire reached its peak with the Turks settled in Buda on the left bank of the Danube after failing in their siege of Vienna.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 ^ The Church in Hungary, in respect to organization, is divided into the three Archdioceses of Gran (Esztergom), Kalocsa, and Eger (Erlau).
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 ^ A veritable acropolis on the left bank of the Danube, it wasn't possible for the car to go all the way to the top.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]
(b) The circle on the right bank of the Danube contains eleven counties: Baranya, Fejer, Gyor, Kornai-0m, Moson, Somogy, Sopron, Tolna, Vas, Veszprem and Zala.
(c) The circle between the Danube and Theiss contains five counties: Bacs-Bodrog, Csongrad, Heves, Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok and Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun.
(d) The circle on the right bank of the Theiss contains eight counties: Abauj-Torna, Bereg, Borsod, Gomor-es Kis-Hont, Saros, Szepes, Ung, Zemplen.
.(e) The circle on the left bank of the Theiss contains eight counties: Bekes, Bihar, Hajdu, Maramaros, Szabolcs, Szatmar, Szilagy and Ugocsa.^ The country is drained by the Danube and its tributaries the Save and Drave, on the right bank, and, on the left, the Theiss, which in its turn receives the waters of the Maros.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
(f) The circle between the Theiss and the Maros contains five counties: Arad, Csanfid, Krasso-Szoreny, Temes and Torontal.
.(g) Transylvania contains fifteen counties: Also-Feher, BeszterczeNaszod, Brasso, Csik, Fogaras, Haromszek, Hunyad, Kis-Kiikiillo, Kolozs, Maros-Torda, Nagy-Kiikiillo, Szeben, Szolnok-Doboka, Torda-Aranyos and Udvarhely.^ The Orthodox Greek Church in Transylvania is governed by the Metropolitan of Nagy-Szeben (Hermannstadt), who has under him the Dioceses of Arad and Karánsebes.
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]
Fiume town and district forms a separate division.
Croatia-Slavonia is divided into eight counties: Belovar-Koros, Lika-Krbava, Modrus-Fiume, Pozsega, Szerem, Varasd, Verocze and Zagrab.
.Besides these sixty-three rural counties for Hungary, and eight for Croatia-Slavonia, Hungary has twenty-six urban counties or towns with municipal rights.^ Besides Lutheranism , Calvinism also took root in Hungary at this time, and from 1547 were added the teachings of the Anabaptists , who won adherents in the western counties of upper Hungary and in Transylvania .
  • CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hungary 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.newadvent.org [Source type: Original source]

 These are: Arad, Baja, Debreczen, Gyor, Hodmezo-Vasarhely, Kassa, Kecskemet, Kolozsvar, Komarom, Maros-Vasarhely, Nagyvarad, Pancsova, Pecs, Pozsony, Selmecz-es Belabanya, Sopron, Szabadka, Szatmar-Nemeti, Szeged, Szekesfehervar, Temesvar, Ujvidek, Versecz, Zombor, the town of Fiume, and Budapest, the capital of the county.
In Croatia-Slavonia there are four urban counties or towns with municipal rights namely: Eszek, Varasd, Zagrab and Zimony.

Justice

The judicial power is independent of the administrative power. The judicial authorities in Hungary are: (1) the district courts with single judges (458 in 1905); (2) the county courts with collegiate judgeships (76 in number); to these are attached 15 jury courts for press offences. These are courts of first instance. (3) Royal Tables (12 in number), which are courts of second instance, established at Budapest, Debreczen, Gyor, Kassa, Kolozsvar, Maros-Vasarhely, Nagyvarad, Pecs, Pressburg, Szeged, Temesvar and Zagrab. (4) The Royal Supreme Court at Budapest, and the Supreme Court of Justice, or Table of Septemvirs, at Zagrab, which are the highest judicial authorities. There are also a special commercial court at Budapest, a naval court at Fiume, and special army courts.

Finance

.After the revolution of1848-1849the Hungarian budget was amalgamated with the Austrian, and it was only after the Compromise of 1867 that Hungary received a separate budget.^ Jan 28, In Hungary official Imre Pozsgay described the 1956 Hungarian Revolution as a popular uprising, a startling contradiction of the official Communist view that the revolt was a counter-revolution.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 .The development of the Hungarian kingdom can be better appreciated by a comparison of the estimates for the year 1849 prepared by the Hungarian minister of finance, which shows a revenue of £1,335,000 and an expenditure of £5,166,000 (including £3,500,000 for warlike purposes), with the budget of 1905, which shows a revenue of £51,583,000, and an expenditure of about the same sum.^ The party was responsible for the deportation or execution of some 500,000 Hungarian Jews.
  • Timeline Hungary 25 September 2009 4:13 UTC timelines.ws [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 Owing to the amount spent on railways, the Fiume harbour works and other causes, the Hungarian budgets after 1867 showed big annual deficits, until in 1888 great reforms were introduced and the finances of the country were established on a more solid basis. During the years1891-1895the annual revenue was £42,100,000 and the expenditure £39,000,000; in 1900 the revenue and expenditure balanced themselves at £45,400,000. The following figures in later years are typical Revenue. Expenditure. 1 0 611, 200 £49,592,400 1908. .. 57, 8 9 6, 8 45 57,894,923 The ordinary revenue of the state is derived from direct and indirect taxation, monopolies, stamp dues, &c. In 1904 direct taxes amounted to £9,048,000, and the chief heads of direct taxes yielded as follows: ground tax, £2,317,000; trade tax, £1,879,000; income tax, £1,400,000; house tax, £1,000,000. Indirect taxes amounted in 1904 to £7,363,000, and the chief heads of indirect taxation yielded as follows: taxes on alcoholic drinks, £4,375,000; sugar tax, £1,292,000; petroleum tax, £418,000; meat tax, £375,000. The principal monopolies yielded as follows: salt monopoly, £1 0,000; tobacco monopoly, £2,850,000; lottery monopoly, £105,000. Other revenues yielded as follows: stamp taxes and dues, £3,632,000; state railways, £3,545,000; post and telegraphs, £710,000; state landed property and forests, £250,000.
The national debt of Hungary alone, excluding the debt incurred jointly by both members of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, was £192,175,000 at the end of 1903. The following table shows the growth of the total debt, due chiefly to expenditure on public works, in millions sterling: 1880.1890.1900.1905.
Per Cent. of Population.
Roman Catholics .
8, 1 9 8 ,497 or 48.69
Uniat Greeks 1.
1,841,272 or 10.93
Greek Orthodox .
2, 1 99, 1 95 or 13.06
Evangelicals
Augsburg confession, or Lutherans
1,258,860 or 7.48
Helvetian confession, or Calvinists
2,427,232 or 14.41
Unitarians .
68,551 or 0.41
Jews .
831,162 or 4.94
Others .
13,486 or 0.08
£83.6 '9 £192.8 £198.02 Religion. - There is in Hungary just as great a variety of religious confessions as there is of nationalities and of languages. None of them possesses an overwhelming majority, but perfect equality is granted to all religious creeds legally recognized. According to the census returns of 1900 in Hungary proper there were: - In many instances nationality and religious faith are conterminous. Thus the Servians are mostly Greek Orthodox; the Ruthenians are Uniat Greeks; the Rumanians are either Greek Orthodox or Greek Uniats; the Slovaks are Lutherans; the only other Lutherans are the Germans in Transylvania and in the Zsepes county. The Calvinists are composed mostly of Magyars, so that in the country the Lutherans are designated as the " German Church," and the Calvinists as the " Hungarian Church." The Unitarians are all Magyars. Only to the Roman Catholic Church belong several nationalities. The Roman Catholic Church has 4 archbishops; Esztergom (Gran), Kalocsa, Eger (Erlau) and Zagrab (Agram), and 17 diocesan bishops; to the latter must be added the chief abbot of Pannonhalma, who likewise enjoys episcopal rights. The primate is the archbishop of Esztergom, who also bears the title of prince, and whose special privilege it is to crown the sovereigns of Hungary. The Greek Uniat Church owns besides the archbishop of Esztergom the archbishop of Gyulafehervar (Carlsburg), or rather Balasfalva (i.e. " the city of Blasius "), and 6 bishops. The Armenian Uniat Church is partly under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic bishop of Transylvania, and partly under that of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Kalocsa. The Orthodox Eastern Church in Hungary is subject to the authority of the metropolitan of Carlowitz and the archbishop of Nagyszeben (Hermannstadt); under the former are the bishops of Bacs, Buda, Temesvar, Versecz and Pakracz, and under the latter the bishops of Arad and Karansebes. The two great Protestant communities are divided into ecclesiastical districts, five for each; the heads of these districts bear the title of superintendents. The Unitarians, chiefly resident in Transylvania, are under the authority of a bishop, whose see is Kolozsvar (Klausenburg). The Jewish communities are comprised in ecclesiastical districts, the head direction being at Budapest.

Education

.Although great improvements have been effected in the educational system of the country since 1867, Hungary is still backward in the matter of general education, as in 1900 only a little over 50% of the population could read and write.^ Simultaneously, the men handed Mátyás business cards so he could write www.andycarvin.com on them so they could check out my impressions of Hungary.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 Before 1867 public instruction was entirely in the hands of the clergy of the various confessions, as is still the case with the majority of the 1 i.e. Catholics of the Oriental rite in communion with Rome.
primary and secondary schools. One of the first measures of newly established Hungarian government was to provide supplementary schools of a non-denominational character. .By a law passed in 1868 attendance at school is obligatory on all children between the ages of 6 and 12 years.^ We also passed the ruins of a church that had been destroyed during WWII; all that was left of the building was its tower and the arch of the front door, with nothing left in between.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 The communes or parishes are bound to maintain elementary schools, and they are entitled to levy an additional tax of 5% on the state taxes for their maintenance. But the number of state-aided elementary schools is continually increasing, as the spread of the Magyar language to the other races through the medium of the elementary schools is one of the principal concerns of the Hungarian government, and is vigorously pursued.' In 1902 there were in Hungary 18,729 elementary schools with 32,020 teachers, attended by 2,573,377 pupils, figures which compare favourably with those of 1877, when there were 15,486 schools with 20,717 teachers, attended by 1,559,636 pupils. In about 61% of these schools the language used was exclusively Magyar, in about 6 20% it was mixed, and in the remainder some non-Magyar language was used. In 1902, 80.56% of the children of school age actually attended school. Since 1891 infant schools, for children between the ages of 3 and 6 years, have been maintained either by the communes or by the state.
.The public instruction of Hungary contains three other groups of educational institutions: middle or secondary schools, " high schools " and technical schools.^ We were followed by a group of at least 100 German high school students, whose tour guide directed them along by blowing a whistle every 10 seconds.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 The middle schools comprise classical schools (gymnasia) which are preparatory for the universities and other " high schools," and modern schools (Realschulen) preparatory for the technical schools. Their course of study is generally eight years, and they are maintained mostly by the state. The state-maintained gymnasia are mostly of recent foundation, but some schools maintained by the various churches have been in existence for three, or sometimes four, centuries. The number of middle schools in 1902 was 243 with 4705 teachers, attended by 71,788 pupils; in 1880 their number was 185, attended by 40,747 pupils.
.The high schools include the universities, of which Hungary possesses three, all maintained by the state: at Budapest (founded in 1635), at Kolozsvar (founded in 1872), and at Zagrab (founded in 1874).^ Inside the shop, we found a fine collection of crafts from all over Hungary, particularly wooden toys and ceramics.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 They have four faculties: of theology, law, philosophy and medicine. (The university at Zagrab is without a faculty of medicine.) There are besides ten high schools of law, called academies, which in 1900 were attended by 1569 pupils. The Polytechnicum in Budapest, founded in 1844, which contains four faculties and was attended in 1900 by 1772 pupils, is also considered a high school. .There were in Hungary in 1900 forty-nine high theological colleges, twenty-nine Roman Catholic; five Greek Uniat, four Greek Orthodox, ten Protestant and one Jewish.^ Currently, there are no Jews in Szentendre, but the city has promised it would donate a house to a rabbi if he would move to Szentendre and bring at least one Jewish family with him.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 Among special schools the principal mining schools are at Selmeczbanya, Nagyag and Felsobanya; the principal agricultural colleges at Debreczen and Kolozsvar; and there are a school of forestry at Selmeczbanya, military colleges at Budapest, Kassa, Deva and Zagrab, and a naval school at Fiume. There are besides an adequate number of training institutes for teachers, a great number of schools of commerce, several art schools - for design, painting, sculpture, music, &c. Most of these special schools are of recent origin, and are almost entirely maintained by the state or the communes.
The richest libraries in Hungary are the National Library at Budapest; the University Library, also at Budapest, and the library of the abbey of Pannonhalma. .Besides the museums mentioned in the article Budapest, several provincial towns contain interesting museums, namely, Pressburg, Temesvhr, Deva, Kolozsvar, Nagyszeben; further, the national museum at Zagram, the national (Szekler) museum at Maros-Vasarhely, and the Carpathian museum at Poprad should be mentioned.^ Mátyás suggested we go to the open air museum first, then the town itself, so we could be back in Budapest by late afternoon.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]
At the head of the learned and scientific societies stands the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1830; the Kisfaludy Society, the Petofi Society, and numerous societies of specialists, as the historical, geographical, &c., with their centre at Budapest. There are besides a number of learned societies in the various provinces for the fostering of special provincial or national aims. There are also a number of societies for the propagation of culture, both amongst the Hungarian and the non-Hungarian nationalities. Worth mentioning are also the two Carpathian societies: the Hungarian and the Transylvanian.
Bibliography. - F. Umlauft, Die Lander OsterreichUngarns in Wort and Bild (Vienna, 1879-1889, 15 vols., 12th volume, 1886, deals with Hungary), Die osterreichische Monarchie in Wort and Bild (Vienna 1888-1902, 24 vols., 7 vols. are devoted to Hungary), Die Volker ? sterreichUngarns (Teschen, 1881-1885, 12 vols.); A. Supan, " Osterreich-Ungarn " (Vienna, 1889, in Kirchhoff's Landerkunde von Europa, vol. ii.); Auerbach, Les Races et les nationalites en Autriche-Hongrie (Paris, 1897); Mayerhofer, ?sterreich-ungarisches Ortslexikon (Vienna, 1896); Hungary, Its People, Places and Politics. The Journey of the Eighty Club to Hungary in 1906 (London, 1907); R. W. Seton-Watson (" Scotus Viator "), Racial Problems in Hungary (London, 1908), a strong indictment of the racial policy of the Magyars, supported by exact references and many ' The methods pursued to this end are exposed in pitiless detail by Mr Seton-Watson in his chapter on the Education Laws of Hungary, in Racial Problems, 205.
documents, mainly concerned with the Slovaks; Rene Gonnard, La Hongrie au XX e siecle (Paris, 1908), an admirable description of the country and its people, mainly from the point of view of economic development and social conditions; Geoffrey Drage, Austria-Hungary (London, 1909), a very useful book of reference; P. Alden (editor), Hungary of To-day, by members of the Hungarian Government (London, 1909); see also " The Problem of Hungary " in the Edinburgh Review (No. 429) for July 1909. The various reports of the Central Statistical Office at Budapest contain all the necessary statistical data. A summary of them is annually published under the title Magyar statisztikai Evkonyo (Statistical Year-Book of Hungary). (0. BR.) II. History When Arpad, the semi-mythical founder of the Magyar monarchy, at the end of A.D. 895 led his savage hordes through the Vereczka pass into the regions of the Upper Ma ar Theiss, the land, now called Hungary, was, for the most conquest. part, in the possession of Sla y s or semi-Sla y s. From the Riesengebirge to the Vistula, and from the Moldau to the Drave, extended the shadowy empire of Moravia, founded by Moimir and Svatopluk (c. 850-890), which collapsed so completely at the first impact of the Magyars that, ten years after their arrival, not a trace of it remained. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats and Avars in the southern provinces were subdued with equal ease. Details are wanting, but the traditional decisive battle was fought at Alpar on the Theiss, whereupon the victors pressed on to Orsova, and the conquest was completed by Arpad about the year 906. This forcible intrusion of a nonAryan race altered the whole history of Europe; but its peculiar significance lay in the fact that it permanently divided the northern from the southern and the eastern from the western Sla y s. The inevitable consequence of this rupture was the Teutonizing of the western branch of the great Slav family, which, no longer able to stand alone, and cut off from both Rome and Constantinople, was forced, in self-defence, to take Christianity, and civilization along with it, from Germany.
During the following seventy years we know next to nothing of the internal history of the Magyars. Arpad died in 907, and his immediate successors, Zsolt (907-947) and Taksony (947-972), are little more than chronological landmarks. This was the period of those devastating raids which made the savage Magyar horsemen the scourge and the terror of Europe. We have an interesting description of their tactics from the pen of the emperor Leo VI., whose account of them is confirmed by the contemporary Russian annals. Trained riders, archers and javelin-throwers from infancy, they advanced to the attack in numerous companies following hard upon each other, avoiding close quarters, but wearing out their antagonists by the persistency of their onslaughts. Scarce a corner of Europe was safe from them. First (908-910) they ravaged Thuringia, Swabia and Bavaria, and defeated the Germans on the Lechfeld, whereupon the German king Henry I. bought them off for nine years, employing the respite in reorganizing his army and training cavalry, which henceforth became the principal military arm of the Empire. In 933 the war was resumed, and Henry, at the head of what was really the first national German army, defeated the Magyars at Gotha and at Ried (933). The only effect of these reverses was to divert them elsewhere. Already, in 926, they had crossed the Rhine and ravaged Lotharingia. In 934 and 942 they raided the Eastern Empire, and were bought off under the very walls of Constantinople. In 943 Taksony led them into Italy, when they penetrated as far as Otranto. In 955 they ravaged Burgundy. The same year the emperor Otto I. proclaimed them the enemies of God and humanity, refused to receive their ambassadors, and finally, at the famous battle of the Lechfeld, overwhelmed them on the very scene of their first victory, near Augsburg, which they were besieging (Aug. 10, 955). Only seven of the Magyars escaped, and these were sold as slaves on their return home.
The catastrophe of the Lechfeld convinced the leading Magyars of the necessity of accommodating themselves as far as possible to the Empire, especially in the matter of religion. Christianity had already begun to percolate Hungary. A large proportion of the captives of the Magyars had been settled all over the country to teach their conquerors the arts of peace, and close contact with this civilizing element was of itself an of enlightenment. The moral superiority of Christianity to paganism was speedily obvious. The only question was which form of Christianity were the Magyars to adopt, the Eastern or the Western? Constantinople was the first in the field. The splendour of the imperial city profoundly impressed all the northern barbarians, and the Magyars, during the 10th century, saw a great deal of the Greeks. One Transylvanian raider, Gyula, brought back with him from Constantinople a Greek monk, Hierothus (c. 950), who was consecrated " first bishop of Turkia." Simultaneously a brisk border trade was springing up between the Greeks and the Magyars, and the Greek chapmen brought with them their religion as well as their wares. Everything at first tended to favour the propaganda of the Greek Church. But ultimately political prevailed over religious considerations. Alarmed at the sudden revival of the Eastern Empire, which under the Macedonian dynasty extended once more to the Danube, and thus became the immediate neighbour of Hungary, Duke Geza, who succeeded Taksony in 972, shrewdly resolved to accept Christianity from the more distant and therefore less dangerous emperor of the West. Accordingly an embassy was sent to Otto II. at Quedlinburg in 973, and in 975 Geza and his whole family were baptized. During his reign, however, Hungarian Christianity did not extend much beyond the limits of his court. The nation at large was resolutely pagan, and Geza, for his own sake, was obliged to act warily. Moreover, by accepting Christianity from Germany, he ran the risk of imperilling the independence of Hungary. Hence his cautious, dilatory tactics: the encouragement of Italian propagandists, who were few, the discouragement of German propagandists, who were many. Geza, in short, regarded the whole matter from a statesman's point of view, and was content to leave the solution to time and his successor. That successor, Stephen I., was one of the great constructive statesmen of history. His long and stre.nuous reign (997 1038) resulted in the firm establishment of the Hungarian church and the Hungarian state. The great work may be said to have begun in iooi, when Pope Silvester II. recognized Magyar nationality by endowing the young Magyar prince with a kingly crown. .Less fortunate than his great exemplar, Charlemagne, Stephen had to depend entirely upon foreigners - men like the Saxon Asztrik 1 (c. 976-1010), the first Hungarian primate; the Lombard St Gellert (c. 977-1046); the Bosomanns, a German family, better known under the Magyarized form of their name Pazmany, and many others who came to Hungary in the suite of his enlightened consort Gisela of Bavaria.^ First, we met a local woman who was disabled in an accident; as she slowly recovered through many surgeries, she became a disability rights advocate.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ From there we had a fine view of Gellert Hill to the south, with a statue marking the spot where St. Gellert was thrown off a cliff by pagan Hungarians resistant to Christianity.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ "All of these buildings are replicas of famous Hungarian buildings that are now outside of Hungary, in territories lost after the first world war," Eva explained.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 .By these men Hungary was divided into dioceses, with a metropolitan see at Esztergom (Gran), a city originally founded by Geza, but richly embellished by Stephen, whose Italian architects built for him there the first Hungarian cathedral dedicated to St Adalbert.^ Since then, the city decided to build this memorial, which was consecrated by the Chief Rabbi of Hungary as a synagogue, making it both the first synagogue built in Hungary after the Holocaust as well as the smallest synagogue in the world.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Currently, there are no Jews in Szentendre, but the city has promised it would donate a house to a rabbi if he would move to Szentendre and bring at least one Jewish family with him.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ From there we had a fine view of Gellert Hill to the south, with a statue marking the spot where St. Gellert was thrown off a cliff by pagan Hungarians resistant to Christianity.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 Towns, most of them also the sees of bishops, now sprang up everywhere, including Szekesfehervar (Stuhlweissenburg), Veszprem, Pecs (Fiinfkirchen) and Gydr (Raab). Esztergom, Stephen's favourite residence, was the capital, and continued to be so for the next two centuries. But the Benedictines, whose settlement in Hungary dates from the establishment of their monastery at Pannonhalma (c. 1 ooi), were the chief pioneers. Every monastery erected in the Magyar wildernesses was not only a centre of religion, but a focus of civilization. The monks cleared the forests, cultivated the recovered land, and built villages for the colonists who flocked to them, teaching the people western methods of agriculture and western arts and handicrafts. But conversion, after all, was the chief aim of these devoted missionaries, and when some Venetian priests had invented a Latin alphabet for the Magyar language a great step had been taken towards its accomplishment.
The monks were soon followed by foreign husbandmen, artificers and handicraftsmen, who were encouraged to come to Hungary by reports of the abundance of good land there and 1 Ger. Ottrik, in religion Anastasius.
the promise of privileges. This immigration was also stimulated by the terrible condition of western Europe between 987 and 1060, when it was visited by an endless succession of bad harvests and epidemics. .2 Hungary, now better known to Europe, came to be regarded as a Promised Land, and, by the end of Stephen's reign, Catholics of all nationalities, Greeks, Pagans, Jews and Mahommedans were living securely together within her borders.^ "All of these buildings are replicas of famous Hungarian buildings that are now outside of Hungary, in territories lost after the first world war," Eva explained.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Approximately 250 Jews lived in Szentendre before the war; by the time it was over, they had all died or left.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 For, inexorable as Stephen ever was towards fanatical pagans, renegades and rebels, he was too good a statesman to inquire too closely into the private religious opinions of useful and quiet citizens.
In endeavouring, with the aid of the church, to establish his kingship on the Western model Stephen had the immense advantage of building on unencumbered ground, the greater part of the soil of the country being at his The absolute disposal. His authority, was absolute p 3'> too, > being tempered only by the shadowy right of the Magyar nation to meet in general assembly; and this authority he was careful not to compromise by any slavish imitation of that feudal polity by which in the West the royal power was becoming obscured. Although he broke off the Magyar tribal system, encouraged the private ownership of land, and even made grants of land on condition of military service - in order to secure an armed force independent of the national levy - he based his new principle of government, not on feudalism, but on the organization of the Frankish empire, which he adapted to suit the peculiar exigencies of his realm. .Of the institutions thus borrowed and adapted the most notable was the famous county system which still plays so conspicuous a part in Hungarian national life.^ Further along, in the Hungarian heritage room, were life-sized busts of famous Hungarian kings and national heroes.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 .Central and western Hungary (the south and north-east still being desolate) were divided into forty-six counties (varmegyek, Lat.^ It's just after 5:30pm and we're driving south through central Hungary to the village of Alsomócsolád (AHL-so-moch-o-lahd).
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 comitatus). At the head of each county was placed a count, or lord-lieutenant 3 (Foispan, Lat. comes), who nominated his subordinate officials: the castellan (vfrnagy), chief captain (hadnagy) and " hundredor " (szkzados, Lat. centurio) . The lord-lieutenant was nominated by the king, whom he was bound to follow to battle at the first summons. Two-thirds of the revenue of the county went into the royal treasury, the remaining third the lord-lieutenant retained for administrative purposes. .In the county system were included all the inhabitants of the country save two classes: the still numerous pagan clans, and those nobles who were attached to the king's person, from whom he selected his chief officers of state and the members of his council, of which we now hear for the first time.^ "All of these buildings are replicas of famous Hungarian buildings that are now outside of Hungary, in territories lost after the first world war," Eva explained.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]
It is significant for the whole future of Hungary that no effort was or could be made by Stephen to weld the heterogeneous races under his crown into a united nation. .The body politic consisted, after as before, of the king and the whole mass of Magyar freemen or nobles, descendants of Arpad's warriors, theoretically all equal in spite of growing inequalities of wealth and power, who constituted the populus; privileges were granted by the king to foreign immigrants in the cities, and the rights of nobility were granted to non-Magyars for special services; but, in general, the non-Magyars were ruled by the royal governors as subject races, forming - in contradistinction to the " nobles "- the mass of the peasants, the misera con/ribuens plebs upon whom until 1848 nearly the whole burden of taxation fell.^ Hobe & Bro.: Special Delivery firm serviced New York City; used a label, year unknown.
  • AskPhil -- Stamp Collecting starts here. 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.askphil.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

 The right, not often exercised, of the Magyar nobles to meet in general assembly and the elective character of the crown Stephen also did not venture to touch. .On the other hand, his example in manumitting most of his slaves, together with the precepts of the church, practically put an end to slavery in the course of the 13th century, the slaves becoming for the most part serfs, who differed from the free peasants only in the fact that they were attached to the soil (adscripti glebae). At this time all the conditions of life in Hungary were simple 2 At its worst, c. 1030-1033, cannibalism was common.^ The best of all, though, was a life-sized statue of none other than Michael Jackson.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Approximately 250 Jews lived in Szentendre before the war; by the time it was over, they had all died or left.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 ^ Part wine bar, part museum, the tasting house let you sample several dozen wines from all over Hungary.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]
The English title of lord-lieutenant is generally used as the best translation of Faispdn or comes (in this connexion). The title of count (grof) was assumed later (15th century) by those nobles who had succeeded, in spite of the Golden Bull, in making their authority over whole counties independent and hereditary. - [Ed.1 and primitive. The court itself was perambulatory. In summer the king dispensed justice in the open air, under a large tree. Only in the short winter months did he dwell in the house built for him at Esztergom by his Italian architects. The most valuable part of his property still consisted of flocks and herds, or the products of the labours of his serfs, a large proportion of whom were bee-keepers, hunters and fishers employed in and around the interminable virgin-forests of the rough-hewn young monarchy.
A troubled forty years (1038-1077) divides the age of St Stephen from the age of St Ladislaus. Of the six kings who reigned in Hungary during that period three died violent deaths, and the other three were fighting incessantly against foreign and domestic foes. In 1046, and again in 1061, two dangerous pagan risings shook the very foundations of the infant church and state; the western provinces were in constant danger from the attacks of the acquisitive emperors, and from the south and southeast two separate hordes of fierce barbarians (the Petchenegs in 1067-1068, and the Kumanians in 1071-1072) burst over the land. It was the general opinion abroad that the Magyars would either relapse into heathendom, or become the vassals of the Holy Roman Empire, and this opinion was reflected in the increasingly hostile attitude of the popes towards the Arpad kings. The political independence of Hungary was ultimately secured by the outbreak of the quarrel about investiture (1076), when L Geza I. (1074-1077) shrewdly applied to Pope Gregory VII. for assistance, and submitted to accept his kingdom from him as a fief of the Holy See. The immediate result of the papal alliance was to enable Hungary, under both Ladislaus and his capable successor Coloman [Kalman] (1095-1116), to hold her own against all her enemies, and extend her dominion abroad by conquering Croatia and a portion of the Dalmatian coast. As an incipient great power, she was beginning to feel the need of a seaboard.
In the internal administration both Ladislaus I. and Coloman approved themselves worthy followers of St Stephen. Ladislaus planted large Petcheneg colonies in Transylvania and the trans-Dravian provinces, and established military cordons along the constantly threatened south-eastern boundary, the germs of the future banates 1 (bansagok) which were to play such an important part in the national defence in the following century. Law and order were enforced with the utmost rigour. In that rough age crimes of violence predominated, and the king's justiciars regularly perambulated the land in search of offenders, and decimated every village which refused to surrender fugitive criminals. On the other hand, both the Jews and the "Ishmaelites " (Mahommedans) enjoyed complete civil and religious liberty in Hungary, where, indeed, they were too valuable to be persecuted. The Ishmaelites, the financial experts of the day, were the official mint-masters, treasurers and bankers. The clergy, the only other educated class, supplied the king with his lawyers, secretaries and ambassadors. .The Magyar clergy was still a married clergy, and their connubial privileges were solemnly confirmed by the synod of Szabolcs, presided over by the king, in 1092. So firmly rooted in the land was this practice, that Coloman, much as he needed the assistance of the Holy See in his foreign policy, was only with the utmost difficulty induced, in 1106, to bring the Hungarian church into line with the rest of the Catholic world by enforcing clerical celibacy.^ It was teaming with tourists crowding into every shop, along the public fountain, in line to visit the beautiful Serbian Blagovestenska Church.
  • Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth: Hungary Archives 28 January 2010 0:00 UTC www.andycarvin.com [Source type: General]

 Coloman was especially remarkable as an administrative reformer, and Hungary, during his reign, is said to have been the best-governed state in Europe. He regulated and simplified the whole system of taxation, encouraged agriculture by differential duties in favour of the farmers, and promoted trade by a systematic improvement of the ways of communication. The Magna via Colomanni Regis was in use for centuries after his death. Another important reform was the law permitting the free disposal of landed estate, which gave the holders an increased interest in their property, and an inducement to improve it. During the reign of Coloman, moreover, the number of freemen was increased by the frequent manumission of serfs.
1 The ban is equivalent to the margrave, or count of the marches.
The lot of the slaves was also somewhat ameliorated by the law forbidding their exportation.
Throughout the greater part of the 12th century the chief impediment in the way of the external development of the Hungarian monarchy was the Eastern Empire, which, Rivalry under the first three princes of the Comnenian dynasty, dominated south-eastern Europe. During the earlier part of that period the Magyars competed on fairly Empire. equal terms with their imperial rivals for the possession of Dalmatia, Rascia (the original home of the Servians, situated between Bosnia, Dalmatia and Albania) and Rama or northern Bosnia (acquired by Hungary in 1135); but on the accession of Manuel Comnenus in 1143 the struggle became acute. As the grandson of St Ladislaus, Manuel had Hungarian blood in his veins; his court was the ready and constant refuge of the numerous Magyar malcontents, and he aimed not so much at the conquest as at the suzerainty of Hungary, by placing one of his Magyar kinsmen on the throne of St Stephen. He successfully supported the claims of no fewer than three pretenders to the Magyar throne, and finally made Bela III. (1173-1196) king of Hungary, on condition that he left him, Manuel, a free hand in Dalmatia. The intervention of the Greek emperors had important consequences for Hungary. Politically it increased the power of the nobility at the expense of the crown, every competing pretender naturally endeavouring to win adherents by distributing largesse in the shape of crown-lands. Ecclesiastically it weakened the influence of the Catholic Church in Hungary, the Greek Orthodox Church, which permitted a married clergy and did not impose the detested tithe (the principal cause of nearly every pagan revolt) attracting thousands of adherents even among the higher clergy. At one time, indeed, a Magyar archbishop and four or five bishops openly joined the Orthodox communion and willingly crowned Manuel's nominees despite the anathemas of their Catholic brethren.
The Eastern Empire ceased to be formidable on the death of Manuel (1080), and Hungary was free once more to pursue a policy of aggrandizement. In Dalmatia the Venetians III were too strong for her; but she helped materially to break up the Byzantine rule in the Balkan peninsula by assisting Stephen Nemanya to establish an independent Servian kingdom, originally under nominal Hungarian suzerainty. Bela endeavoured to strengthen his own monarchy by introducing the hereditary principle, crowning his infant son Emerich, as his successor during his own lifetime, a practice followed by most of the later Arpads; he also held a brilliant court on the Byzantine model, and replenished the treasury by his wise economies. Unfortunately the fruits of his diligence and foresight were dissipated by the follies of his two immediate successors, Emerich (1196-1204) and Andrew II., who weakened the Ar royal power in attempting to win support by lavish grants of the crown domains on the already over-influential magnates, a policy from which dates the supremacy of the semi-savage Magyar oligarchs, that insolent and self-seeking class which would obey no superior and trampled ruthlessly on every inferior. The most conspicuous event of Andrew's reign was the promulgation in 1222 of the so-called Golden Bull, which has aptly been called the Magna Carta of Hungary, and is in some of its provisions strikingly reminiscent of that signed seven years previously by the English king John.
The Golden Bull has been described as consecrating the humiliation of the crown by the great barons, whose usurpations it legalized; the more usually accepted view, however, is that it was directed not so much to weakening as to strengthening the crown by uniting its interests with those of the mass of the Magyar nobility, equally threatened by the encroachments of the great barons. 2 The preamble, indeed, speaks of the curtailment of the liberties of the nobles by the power of certain of the kings, and at the end the right of armed resistance to any attempt to infringe the charter is conceded to " the bishops and the higher and lower nobles " of the realm; but, for the rest, its contents clearly show that it was intended to strengthen the monarchy by ensuring " that the momentary folly Andrassy, Development of Hung. Const. Liberty (Eng. trans., p. 93); Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1. 26 seq., where its provisions are given in some detail.
or weakness of the king should not endanger the institution itself." This is especially clear from clause xvi., which decrees that the title and estates of the lords-lieutenant of counties should not be hereditary, thus attacking feudalism at its very roots, while clause xiv. provides for the degradation of any lord-lieutenant who should abuse his office. On the other hand, the principle of the exemption of all the nobles from taxation is confirmed, as well as their right to refuse military service abroad, the defence of the realm being their sole obligation. All nobles were also to have the right to appear at the court which was to be held once a year at Szekesfehervar, by the king, or in his absence by the palatine,' for the purpose of hearing causes. A clause also guarantees all nobles against arbitrary arrest and punishment at the instance of any powerful person.
This famous charter, which was amplified, under the influence of the clergy, in 1231, when its articles were placed under the guardianship of the archbishop of Esztergom (who was authorized to punish their violation by the king with excommunication), is generally regarded as the foundation of Hungarian constitutional liberty, though like Magna Carta it purported only to confirm immemorial rights; and as such it was expressly ratified as a whole in the coronation oaths of all the Habsburg kings from Ferdinand to Leopold I. Its actual effect in the period succeeding its issue was, however, practically nugatory; if indeed it did not actually give a new handle to the subversive claims of the powerful barons.
Bela IV. (1235-1270), the last man of genius whom the Arpads produced, did something to curb the aristocratic misrule which was to be one of the determining causes of the collapse Bela IV. of his dynasty. But he is best known as the regenerator of the realm after the cataclysm of1241-1242(see Bela Iv.). On his return from exile, after the subsidence of the Tatar deluge, he found his kingdom in ashes; and his two great remedies, wholesale immigration and castle-building, only sowed the seeds of fresh disasters. Thus the Kumanian colonists, mostly pagans, whom he settled in vast numbers on the waste lands, threatened to overwhelm the Christian population; while the numerous strongholds, which he encouraged his nobles to build as a protection against future Tatar invasions, subsequently became so many centres of disloyalty. To bind the Kumanian still more closely to his dynasty, Bela married his son Stephen V. V. (1270-1272) to a Kumanian girl, and during the r ein of her son Ladislaus IV.(1272-1290)the court g was certainly more pagan than Christian. Valiant and enterprising as both these princes were (Stephen successfully resisted the aggressions of the brilliant " golden King," Ottakar II. of Bohemia, and Ladislaus materially contributed to his utter overthrow at Durnkriit in 1278), neither of them was strong enough to make head against the disintegrating influences all around them. Stephen contrived to hold his own by adroitly contracting an alliance with the powerful Neapolitan Angevins who had the ear of the pope; but Ladislaus (q.v.) was so completely caught in the toils of the Kumanians, that the Holy See, the suzerain of Hungary, was forced to intervene to prevent the relapse of the kingdom into barbarism, and the unfortunate Ladislaus perished in the crusade that was preached against him. An attempt of a patriotic party to keep the last Arpad, Andrew III. 029° - 1301), on the throne was only temporarily successful, and after a horrible eight years' civil war (1301-1308) the crown of St Stephen finally passed into the capable hands of Charles Robert of Naples.
During the four hundred years of the Arpad dominion the nomadic Magyar race had established itself permanently in central Europe, adopted western Christianity and founded a national monarchy on the western model. Hastily and violently converted, driven like a wedge between the Eastern and the Western Empires, the young kingdom was exposed from the first to extraordinary perils. But, under the guidance of a 1 The full title of the palatine (Mag. nddor or nador-ispdn, Lat. palatinus) was comes palatii regni, the first palatine being Abu Samuel (c. 1041). By the Golden Bull the palatine acquired something of the quality of a responsible minister, as " intermediary between the crown and people, guardian of the nation's rights, and keeper of the king's conscience " (Knatchbull-Hugessen, i. 30).
series of eminent rulers, it successfully asserted itself alike against pagan reaction from within, and aggressive pressure from without, and, as it grew in strength and skill, expanded territorially at the expense of all its neighbours. These triumphs were achieved while the monarchy was absolute, and thus able to concentrate in its hands all the resources of the state, but towards the end of the period a political revolution began. The weakness and prodigality of the later Arpáds, the depopulation of the realm during the Tatar invasion, the infiltration of western feudalism and, finally, the endless civil discords of the 13th century, brought to the front a powerful and predacious class of barons who ultimately overshadowed the throne. The ancient county system was gradually absorbed by this new governing element. The ancient royal tenants became the feudatories of the great nobles, and fell naturally into two classes, the nobiles bene possessionati, and the nobiles unius sessionis, in other words the richer and the poorer gentry. We cannot trace the gradations of this political revolution, but we know that it met with determined opposition from the crown, which resulted in the utter destruction of the Arpads, who, while retaining to the last their splendid physical qualities, now exhibited unmistakeable signs of moral deterioration, partly due perhaps to their too frequent marriages with semi-Oriental Greeks and semi-savage Kumanians. On the other hand the great nobles were the only class who won for themselves a recognized political position. The tendency towards a representative system of government had begun, but the almost uninterrupted anarchy which marked the last thirty years of the Arpad rule was no favourable time for constitutional development. The kings were fighting for their lives, the great nobles were indistinguishable from brigands and the whole nation seemed to be relapsing into savagery.
HISTORY]
It was reserved for the two great princes of the house of Anjou, Charles I. (1310-1342) and Louis I. (1342-1382), to rebuild the Hungarian state, and lead the Magyars back to civilization. Both by character and education they were eminently fitted for the task, and all the circumstances were in their favour. They brought from their native Italy a thorough knowledge of the science of government as the middle ages understood it, and the decimation of the Hungarian magnates during the civil wars enabled them to re-create the noble hierarchy on a feudal basis, in which full allowance was made for Magyar idiosyncracies. Both these monarchs were absolute. The national assembly (Orszaggyiiles) was still summoned occasionally, but at very irregular intervals, the real business of the state being transacted in the royal council, where able men of the middle class, principally Italians, held confidential positions. The lesser gentry were protected against the tyranny of the magnates, encouraged to appear at court and taxed for military service by the royal treasury direct - so as to draw them closer to the crown. Scores of towns, too, owe their origin and enlargement to the care of the Angevin princes, who were lavish of privileges and charters, and saw to it that the high-roads were clear of robbers. Charles, moreover, was a born financier, and his reform of the currency and of the whole fiscal system greatly contributed to enrich both the merchant class and the treasury. Louis encouraged the cities to surround themselves with strong walls. He himself erected a whole cordon of forts round the flourishing mining towns of northern Hungary. He also appointed Hungarian consuls in foreign trade centres, and established a system of protective tariffs. More important in its ulterior consequences to Hungary was the law of 1351 which, while confirming the Golden Bull in general, abrogated the clause (iv.) by which the nobles had the right to alienate their lands. Henceforward their possessions were to descend directly and as of right to their brothers and their issue, whose claim was to be absolute. This " principle of aviticity " (osiseg, aviticum), which survived till 1848, was intended to preserve the large feudal estates as part of the new military system, but its ultimate effect was to hamper the development of the country by preventing the alienation, and therefore the mortgaging of lands, so long as any, however distant, scion of the original owning family survived.' Louis's efforts to increase the national wealth were also largely frustrated by the Black Death, which ravaged Hungary from 1347 to 1360, and again during 1380-1381, carrying off at least one-fourth of the population.
Externally Hungary, under the Angevin kings, occupied a commanding position. Both Charles and Louis were diplomatists as well as soldiers, and their foreign policy, largely based on family alliances, was almost invariably successful. Charles married Elizabeth, the sister of Casimir the Great of Poland, with whom he was connected by ties of close friendship, and Louis, by virtue of a compact made by his father thirty-one years previously, added the Polish crown to that of Hungary in 1370. Thus, during the last twelve years of his reign, the dominions of Louis the Great included the greater part of central Europe, from Pomerania to the Danube, and from the Adriatic to the steppes of the Dnieper.
The Angevins were less successful towards the south, where the first signs were appearing of that storm which ultimately swept away the Hungarian monarchy. In 1353 the Ottoman commercial greed of the Venetians, who refused to aid him with a fleet to cut off the Turks in Europe from the Turks in Asia Minor, nullified Louis' last practical endeavour to cope with a danger which from the first he had estimated at its true value.
Louis the Great left two infant daughters: Maria, who was to share the throne of Poland with her betrothed, Sigismund of Pomerania, and Hedwig, better known by her Polish name of Jadwiga, who was to reign over Hungary with her young bridegroom, William of Austria. This plan was upset by the queendowager Elizabeth, who determined to rule both kingdoms during the minority of her children. Maria, her favourite, with whom she refused to part, was crowned queen of Hungary a week after her father's death (Sept. 17, 1382). Two years later Jadwiga, reluctantly transferred to the Poles instead of her sister, was crowned queen of Poland at Cracow (Oct. 15, 1384) and subsequently compelled to marry Jagiello, grand-duke of Lithuania. In Hungary, meanwhile, impatience at the rule of women induced the great family of the Horvathys to offer the crown of St Stephen to Charles III. of Naples, who, despite the oath of loyalty he had sworn to his benefactor, Louis the Great, accepted the offer, landed in Dalmatia with a small Italian army, and, after occupying Buda, was crowned king of Hungary on the 31st of December, 1385, as Charles II. His reign lasted thirtyeight days. On the 7th of February, 1386, he was treacherously attacked in the queen-dowager's own apartments, at her instigation, and died of his injuries a few days later. But Elizabeth did not profit long by this atrocity. In July the same year, while on a pleasure trip with her daughter, she was captured by the Horvathys, and tortured to death in her daughter's presence. Maria herself would doubtless have shared the same fate, but for the speedy intervention of her fiancé, whom a diet, by the advice of the Venetians, had elected to rule the headless realm on the 31st of March 1387. He married Maria in June the same year, and she shared the sceptre with him till her sudden death by accident on the 17th of May 1395.
During the long reign of Sigismund (1387-1437) Hungary was brought face to face with the Turkish peril in its most threatening shape, and all the efforts of the king were directed Turkish Turks crossed the Hellespont from Asia Minor and p began that career of conquest which made them the terror of Europe for the next three centuries. In 1360 they conquered southern Bulgaria. In 1365 they transferred their capital from Brusa to Adrianople. In 1371 they overwhelmed the Servian tsar Vukashin at the battle of Taenarus and penetrated to the heart of old Servia. In 1380 they threatened Croatia and Dalmatia. Hungary herself was now directly menaced, and the very circumstances which had facilitated the advance of the Turks, enfeebled the potential resistance of the Magyars. The Arpad kings had succeeded in encircling their whole southern frontier with half a dozen military colonies or banates, comprising, roughly speaking, Little Walachia, 2 and the northern parts of Bulgaria, Servia and Bosnia. But during this period a redistribution of territory had occurred in these parts, which converted most of the old banates into semi-independent and violently anti-Magyar principalities. This was due partly to the excessive proselytizing energy of the Angevins, which provoked rebellion on the part of their Greek-Orthodox subjects, partly to the natural dynastic competition of the Servian and Bulgarian tsars, and partly to the emergence of a new nationality, called Walachia was regarded by the Magyars as part of the banate of Szoreny. The base of the very mixed and evershifting population in these parts were the Vlachs (Rumanians), perhaps the descendants of Trajan's colonists, who, under their voivode, Bazarad, led King Charles into an ambuscade from which he barely escaped with his life (Nov. 9-12, 1330). From this disaster are to be dated the beginnings of Walachia as an independent state. Moldavia, again, ever since the 11th century, had been claimed by the Magyars as forming, along with Bessarabia and the Bukowina, a portion of the semi-mythical Etelkdz, the original seat of the Magyars before they occupied modern Hungary. This desolate region was subsequently peopled by Vlachs, whom the religious persecutions of Louis the Great had driven thither from other parts of his domains, and, between 1350 and 1360, their voivode Bogdan threw off the Hungarian yoke altogether. In Bosnia the persistent attempts of the Magyar princes to root out the stubborn, crazy and poisonous sect of the Bogomils had alienated the originally amicable Bosnians, and in 1353 Louis was compelled to buy the friendship of their Bar Tvrtko by acknowledging him as king of Bosnia. Both Servia and Bulgaria were by this time split up into half a dozen principalities which, as much for religious as for political reasons, preferred paying tribute to the Turks to acknowledging the hegemony of Hungary. Thus, towards the end of his reign, Louis found himself cut off from the Greek emperor, his sole ally in the Balkans, by a chain of bitterly hostile Greek-Orthodox states, extending from the Black Sea to the Adriatic. The 1 Knatchbull-Hugessen, i. 41.
2 That is to say the western portion of Walachia, which lies between the Aluta and the Danube.
the Walachian. Previously to 1320, what is now Vlachs towards combating or averting it. However sorry a mans. figure Sigismund may have cut as emperor in Germany, as king of Hungary he claims our respect, and as king of Hungary he should be judged, for he ruled her, not unsuccessfully, for fifty years during one of the most difficult crises of her history, whereas his connexion with Germany was at best but casual and transient. 3 From the first he recognized that his chief duty was to drive the Turks from Europe, or, at least, keep them out of Hungary, and this noble ambition was the pivot of his whole policy. A domestic rebellion (1387-1395) prevented him at the outset from executing his design till 1396, and if the hopes of Christendom were shattered at Nicopolis, the failure was due to no fault of his, but to the haughty insubordination of the feudal levies. Again, his inaction during those memorable twelve years (1401-1413) when the Turkish empire, after the collapse at Angora (1402), seemed about to be swallowed up by " the great wolf " Tamerlane, was due entirely to the malice of the Holy See, which, enraged at his endeavours to maintain the independence of the Magyar church against papal aggression (the diet of 1404, on Sigismund's initiative, had declared bulls bestowing Magyar benefices on foreigners, without the royal consent, pernicious and illegal), saddled him with a fresh rebellion and two wars with Venice, resulting ultimately in the total loss of Dalmatia (c. 1430). Not till 1409 could Sigismund be said to be king in his own realm, yet in 1413 we find him traversing Europe in his endeavour to terminate the Great Schism, as the first step towards uniting Christendom once more against the Turk. Hence the council of Constance to depose three rival popes; hence the council of Basel to pacify the Hussites, and promote another anti-Moslem league. But by this time the Turkish 3 Though elected king of the Romans in 1411, he cannot be regarded as the legal emperor till his coronation at Rome in 1.423, and if he was titular king of Bohemia as early as 1419, he was not acknowledged as king by the Czechs themselves till 1436.
XIII. 29 a empire had been raised again from its ruins by Mahommed I. (1402-1421), and resumed its triumphal progress under Murad II. (1421-1451). Yet even now Sigismund, at the head of his Magyars, thrice (1422-1424, 1426-1427, and 1430-1431) encountered the Turks, not ingloriously, in the open field, till, recognizing that Hungary must thenceforth rely entirely on her own resources in any future struggle with Islam, he elaborately fortified the whole southern frontier, and converted the little fort of Nandorfehervar, later Belgrade, at the junction of the Danube and Save, into an enormous first-class fortress, which proved strong enough to repel all the attacks of the Turks for more than a century. It argued no ordinary foresight thus to recognize that Hungary's strategy in her contest with the Turks must be strictly defensive, and the wisdom of Sigismund was justified by the disasters which almost invariably overcame the later Magyar kings whenever they ventured upon aggressive warfare with the sultans.
A monarch so overburdened with cares was naturally always in need of money,' and thus obliged to lean heavily upon the support of the estates of the realm. The importance and influence of the diet increased proportionately. It met every year, sometimes twice a year, during Sigismund's reign, and was no longer, as in the days of Louis the Great, merely a consultative council, but a legislative body in partnership with the king. It was still, however, essentially an assembly of notables, lay and clerical, at which the gentry, though technically eligible, do not seem to have been directly represented. At Sigismund's first diet (1397) it was declared that the king might choose his counsellors where he listed, and at the diet of 1397 he invited the free and royal towns to send their deputies to the parliament. Subsequently this privilege was apparently erected into a statute, but how far it was acted upon we know not. Sigismund, more fortunate than the Polish kings, seems to have had little trouble with his diets. This was largely due to his friendly intimacy with the majority of the Magyar notables, from among whom he chose his chief counsellors. The estates loyally supported him against the attempted exactions of the popes, and do not seem to have objected to any of his reforms, chief among which was the army-reform project of 1435, to provide for the better defence of the land against the Turks. This measure obliged all the great dignitaries, and the principal towns also, according to their means, to maintain a banderium of five hundred horsemen, or a proportional part thereof, and hold it ready, at the first summons, thus supplying the crown with a standing army 76,875 strong. In addition to this, a reserve force called the telekkatonasag was recruited from among the lesser gentry according to their teleks or holdings, every thirty-three teleks being held responsible for a mounted and fully equipped archer. Moreover, river fleets, built by Genoese masters and manned by Servians, were constructed to patrol and defend the great rivers of Hungary, especially on the Turkish frontier. Much as he owed to them, however, Sigismund was no mere nobles' king. His care for the common people was sincere and constant, but his beneficial efforts in this direction were thwarted by the curious interaction of two totally dissimilar social factors, feudalism and Hussitism. In Sigismund's reign the feudal system, for the first time, became deeply rooted in Magyar soil, and it is a lamentable fact that in 15th-century Hungary it is to be seen at its very worst, especially in those wild tracts, and they were many, in which the king's writ could hardly be said to run. Simultaneously from. the west came the Hussite propagandists teaching that all men were equal, and that all property should be held in common. The suffering Magyar multitudes eagerly responded to these seductive teachings, and the result was a series of dangerous popular risings (the worst in 1433 and 1436) in which heresy and communism were inextricably intermingled. With the aid of inquisitors from Rome, the evil was literally burnt out, but not before provinces, especially in the south and 1 In 1412 he pawned the twenty-four Zips towns to Poland, and, .in 1411 he pledged his margraviate of Brandenburg to the Hohenzollerns.
south-east, had been utterly depopulated. They were repeopled by Vlachs.
Yet despite the interminable wars and rebellions which darken the history of Hungary in the reign of Sigismund, the country, on the whole, was progressing. Its ready response to the king's heavy demands for the purpose of the national defence points to the existence of a healthy and self-sacrificing public spirit, and the eagerness with which the youth of all classes now began to flock to the foreign universities is another satisfactory feature of the age. Between 1362 and 1450 no fewer than 4151 Magyar students frequented the university of Vienna, nearly as many went by preference to Prague, and this, too, despite the fact that there were now two universities in Hungary itself, the old foundation of Louis the Great at Pecs, and a new one established at Buda by Sigismund.
Like Louis the Great before him, Sigismund had failed to found a dynasty, but, fifteen years before his death, he had succeeded in providing his only daughter Elizabeth with a consort apparently well able to protect both her and her inheritance in the person of Albert V., duke of Austria. Albert, a sturdy soldier, who had given brilliant proofs of valour and generalship in the Hussite wars, was crowned king of Hungary at Szekesfehervar (Stuhlweissenburg) on the 1st of January 1438, elected king of the Romans at Frankfort on the 18th of March 1438, and crowned king of Bohemia at Prague on the 29th of June 1438. On returning to Buda in 1439, he at once plunged into a war with the Turks, who had, in the meantime, captured the important Servian fortress of Semendria and subjugated the greater part of Bosnia. But the king got no farther than Servia, and was carried off by dysentery (Oct. 27, 1 439), in the forty-second year of his age, in the course of the campaign.
Albert left behind him two infant daughters only, but his consort was big with child, and, in the event of that child proving to be an heir male, his father's will bequeathed to him the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, under the regency of his mother. Thus, with the succession uncertain, with the Turk at the very door, with the prospect, dismal at the best, of a long minority, the political outlook was both embarrassing and perilous. Obviously a warrior-king was preferable to a regimen of women and children, and the eyes of the wiser Magyars turned involuntarily towards Wladislaus III. of Poland, who, though only in his nineteenth year, was already renowned for his martial disposition. Wladislaus accepted the proffered throne from the Magyar delegates at Cracow on the 8th of March 1440; but in the meantime (Feb. 22) the queen-widow gave birth to a son who, six weeks later, as Ladislaus V. was crowned king of Hungary (May 15) at Szekesfehervar. On the 22nd of May the Polish monarch appeared at Buda, was unanimously elected king of Hungary under the title of Wladislaus I. (June 24) and crowned on the 17th of July. This duoregnum proved even more injurious to Hungary than the dreaded interregnum. Queen Elizabeth, aided by her kinsmen, the emperor Frederick III. and the counts of Cilli, flooded northern and western Hungary with Hussite mercenaries, one of whom, Jan Giszkra, she made her captain-general, while Wladislaus held the central and south-eastern parts of the realm. The resulting civil war was terminated only by the death of Elizabeth on the 13th of December 1443.
All this time the pressure of the Turks upon the southern provinces of Hungary had been continuous, but fortunately all their efforts had so far been frustrated by the valour and generalship of the ban of Szoreny, John Hunyadi, the fame of whose victories, notably in 1442 and 1443, encouraged the Holy See to place Hungary for the third time at the head of a general crusade against the infidel. The experienced diplomatist Cardinal Cesarini was accordingly sent to Hungary to reconcile Wladislaus with the emperor. The king, who had just returned from the famous " long campaign " of 1443, willingly accepted the leadership of the Christian League. At the diet of Buda, early in 1444, supplies were voted for the enterprise, and Wladislaus was on the point of quitting his camp at Szeged for the seat of war, when envoys from Sultan Murad arrived with the offer of a ten years' truce on such favourable conditions (they included the relinquishment of Servia, Walachia and Moldavia, and the payment of an indemnity) that Hunyadi persuaded the king to conclude (in July) a peace which gave him more than could reasonably be anticipated from the most successful campaign. Unfortunately, two days later, Cardinal Cesarini absolved the king from the oath whereby he had sworn to observe the peace of Szeged, and was thus mainly responsible for the catastrophe of Varna, when four months later (Nov. io) the young monarch and the flower of the Magyar chivalry were overwhelmed by fourfold odds on Turkish soil. (See Hunyadi, Janos; and WLADISLAUS III.) The next fourteen years form one of the most interesting and pregnant periods of Hungarian history. It marks the dawn of a public spirit as represented by the gentry, who, alarmed at the national peril and justly suspicious of the ruling magnates, unhesitatingly placed their destinies in the hands of Hunyadi, the one honest man who by sheer merit had risen within the last ten years from the humble position of a country squire to a leading position in the state. This feeling of confidence found due expression at the diet of 1446, which deliberately passing over the palatine Laszlo Garai elected Hunyadi governor of Hungary, and passed a whole series of popular measures intended to be remedial, e.g. the decree ordering the demolition of the new castles, most of them little better than robber-strongholds; the decree compelling the great officers of state to suspend their functions during the session of the diet; the decree declaring illegal the new fashion of forming confederations on the Polish model, all of which measures were obviously directed against the tyranny and the lawlessness of the oligarchy. Unfortunately this salutary legislation remained a dead letter. It was as much as the governor could do to save the state from destruction, let alone reform it. At this very time northern Hungary, including the wealthy mining towns, was in the possession of the Hussite mercenary Jan Giszkra, who held them nominally for the infant king Ladislaus V., still detained at Vienna by his kinsman the emperor. The western provinces were held by Frederick himself. Invaluable time was wasted in negotiating with these intruders before the governor could safely devote himself to the task of expelling the Turk from the southern provinces. He had to be content with armistices, reconciliations and matrimonial contracts, because the great dignitaries of the state, men like the palatine Laszlo Garai, Count Ulrich of Cilli, and the voivode of Transylvania, Mihaly Ujlaky, thwarted in every way the novas homo whom they hated and envied. From them, the official guardians of Hungary's safety, he received no help, either during his governorship (1446-1453), or when, in 1454, on the eve of his departure for his last and most glorious campaign, the diet commanded a levee en masse of the whole population in his support. At that critical hour it was at his own expense that Hunyadi fortified Belgrade, now the sole obstacle between Hungary and destruction, with the sole assistance of the Franciscan friar Giovanni da Capistrano, equipped the fleet and the army which relieved the beleaguered fortress and overthrew Mahommed II. But the nation at least was grateful, and after his death (Aug. 11, 1456) it freely transferred its allegiance to his family as represented by his two sons, Laszlo, now in his 23rd, and Matthias, now in his 16th year. The judicial murder of Laszlo Hu.iyadi (q.v.) by the enemies of his house (March 16, 1457) was therefore a stupid blunder as well as the foulest of crimes, and on the death of his chief assassin, Ladislaus V., six months later (Nov. 2 3, 1457), the diet which assembled on the banks of the Rakos, in defiance of the magnates and all foreign competitors, unanimously and enthusiastically elected Matthias Hunyadi king of Hungary (Ja n. 2 4, 1458).
In less than three years the young king had justified their confidence, and delivered his country from its worst embarrass ments. (See Matthias I., king of Hungary.) This prodigy was accomplished in the face of every conceivable obstacle. His first diet grudgingly granted him supplies and soldiers for the Turkish war, on condition that under no circumstances whatever should they henceforth be called upon to contribute towards the national defence, and he was practically deprived of the control of the banderia or mounted militia. It was with a small force of mercenaries, raised at his own expense, that the young king won his first Turkish victories, and expelled the Czechs from his northern and the Habsburgs from his western provinces. But his limited resources, and, above all, the proved incapacity of the militia in the field, compelled him instantly to take in hand the vital question of army reform. In the second year of his reign he undertook personally the gigantic task of providing Hungary with an army adequate to her various needs on the model of the best military science of the day. The landless younger sons of the gentry and the Servian and Vlach immigrants provided him with excellent and practically inexhaustible military material. The old feudal levies he put aside. Brave enough personally, as soldiers they were distinctly inferior both to the Janissaries and the Hussites, with both of whom Matthias had constantly to contend. It was a trained regular army in his pay and consequently at his disposal that he wanted. The nucleus of the new army he found in the Czech mercenaries, seasoned veterans who readily transferred their services to the best payer. This force, formed in 1459, was generally known as the Fekete Sereg, or "Black Brigade," from the colour of its armour. From 1465 the pick of the Magyars and Croatians were enlisted in the same way every year, till, towards the end of his reign, Matthias could count upon 20,000 horse and 8000 foot, besides 6000 black brigaders. The cavalry consisted of the famous Hussars, or light horse, of which he may be said to have been the creator, and the heavily armed mounted musketeers on the Czech-German model. The infantry, in like manner, was divided into light and heavy. This army was provided with a regular commissariat, cannon' and ballistic machines, and, being constantly on active service, was always in a high state of efficiency. The land forces were supported by a river fleet consisting (in 1479) of 360 vessels, mostly sloops and corvettes, manned by 2600 sailors, generally Croats, and carrying 10,000 soldiers. Eight large military stations were also built at the chief strategic points on the Danube, Save and Theiss. These armaments, which cost Matthias 1,000,000 florins per annum, equivalent to 200,00O, did not include the auxiliary troops of the hospodars of Walachia and Moldavia, or the feudal levies of the barons and prelates.
The army of Matthias was not only a military machine of first-rate efficiency, but an indispensable civilizing medium. It enabled the king to curb the lawlessness of the Magyar nobility, and explains why none of the numerous rebellions against him ever succeeded. Again and again, during his absence on the public service, the barons and prelates would assemble to compass his ruin or dispose of his crown, when, suddenly, " like a tempest," from the depths of Silesia or of Bosnia, he would himself appear among them, confounding and scattering them, often without resistance, always without bloodshed. He also frequently employed his soldiers in collecting the taxes from the estates of those magnates who refused to contribute to the public burdens, in protecting the towns from the depredations of the robber barons, or in convoying the caravans of the merchants. In fact, they were a police force as well as an army.
Despite the enormous expense of maintaining the army, Matthias, after the first ten years of his reign, was never in want of money. This miracle was achieved by tact and management. No Hungarian king had so little trouble with the turbulent diet as Matthias. By this time the gentry, as well as the barons and prelates, took part in the legislature. But attendance at the diet was regarded by the bulk of the poorer deputies as an intolerable burden, and they frequently agreed to grant the taxes for two or three years in advance, so as to be saved the expense 1 Some of these were of gigantic size, e.g. the Varga Mozsar, or great mortar, which sixty horses could scarce move from its place, and a ballistic machine invented by Matthias which could hurl stones of 3 cwt.
of attending every year. Moreover, to promote their own convenience, they readily allowed the king to assess as well as to collect the taxes, which consequently tended to become regular and permanent, while Matthias' reform of the treasury, which was now administered by specialists with separate functions, was economically of great benefit to the state. Yet Matthias never dispensed with the diet. During the thirty-two years of his reign he held at least fifteen diets,' at which no fewer than 450 statutes were passed. He re-codified the Hungarian common law; strictly defined the jurisdiction of the whole official hierarchy from the palatine to the humblest village judge; cheapened and accelerated legal procedure, and in an age when might was right did his utmost to protect the weak from the strong. There is not a single branch of the law which he did not simplify and amend, and the iron firmness with which he caused justice to be administered, irrespective of persons, if it exposed him to the charge of tyranny from the nobles, also won for him from the common people the epithet of " the Just." To Matthias is also due the credit of creating an efficient official class. Merit was with him the sole qualification for advancement. One of his best generals, Pal Kinizsy, was a miller's son, and his capable chancellor, Peter Varady, whom he made archbishop of Kalocsa, came of a family of small squires. For education so scholarly a monarch as Matthias naturally did what he could. He founded the university of Pressburg (Academia Istropolitana, 1467), revived the declining university of Pecs, and, at the time of his death, was meditating the establishment of a third university at Buda.
Unfortunately the civilizing efforts of Matthias made but little impression on society at large. The bulk of the Magyar nobility was still semi-barbaric. Immensely wealthy (it is estimated that most of the land, at this time, was in the hands of 25 great families, the Zapolyas alone holding an eighth of it), it was a point of honour with them to appear in public in costly raiment ablaze with silver, gold and precious stones, followed at every step by armies of retainers scarcely less gorgeous. At the same time their ignorance was profound. Many of the highest dignitaries of state did not know their alphabet. Signatures to documents of the period are rare; seals served instead of signatures, because most of the nobles were unable to sign their names. Learning, indeed, was often ridiculed as pedantry in a gentleman of good family.
The clergy, the chief official class, were naturally less ignorant than the gentry. Some of the prelates - notably Janos Csezmeczey, better known as Janus Pannonius (4331 47 2) - had a European reputation for learning. The primate Cardinal, Janos Vitez (1408-1472), at the beginning, and the primate, Cardinal Tamas Bakocz, at the end of the reign were men of eminent ability and the highest culture. But the moral tone of the Magyar church at this period was very low. The bishops prided themselves on being great statesmen, great scholars, great financiers, great diplomatists - anything, in fact, but good Christians. Most of them, except when actually celebrating mass, were indistinguishable alike in costume and conduct from the temporal magnates. Of twelve of them it is said that foreigners took them at first for independent temporal princes, so vast were their estates, so splendid their courts, so numerous their armed retainers. Under such guides as these the lower clergy erred deplorably, and drunkenness, gross immorality, brawling and manslaughter were common occurrences in the lives of the parish priests. The regular clergy were if possible worse than the secular, with the exception of the Paulicians, the sole religious order which steadily resisted the general corruption, of whose abbot, the saintly Gregory, was the personal friend of Matthias.
What little culture there was outside the court, the capital and the palaces of a few prelates, was to be found in the towns, most of them of German origin. Matthias laboured strenuously to develop and protect the towns, multiplied municipal charters, and materially improved the means of communication, especially in 1 We know actually of fifteen, but there may have been many more.
Transylvania. His Silesian and Austrian acquisitions were also very beneficial to trade, throwing open as they did the western markets to Hungarian produce. Wine and meat were the chief exports. The wines of Hungary were already renowned throughout Europe, and cattle breeding was conducted on a great scale. Of agricultural produce there was barely sufficient for home consumption, but the mining industries had reached a very high level of excellence, and iron, tin and copper were very largely exported from the northern counties to Danzig and other Baltic ports. So highly developed indeed were the Magyar methods of smelting, that Louis XI. of France took the Hungarian mining system as the model for his metallurgical reforms, and Hungarian master-miners were also in great demand at the court of Ivan the Terrible. Moreover, the keen artistic instincts of Matthias led him to embellish his cities as well as fortify them. Debreczen was practically rebuilt by him, and dates its prosperity from his reign. Breslau, his favourite town, he endowed with many fine public buildings. Buda he endeavoured to make the worthy capital of a great realm, and the palace which he built there was pronounced by the papal legates to be superior to any in Italy.
Politically Matthias raised Hungary to the rank of the greatest power in central Europe, her influence extending into Asia and Africa. Poland was restrained by his alliances with the Teutonic Knights and the tsardom of Muscovy, and his envoys appeared in Persia and in Egypt to combat the diplomacy of the Porte. He never, indeed, jeopardized the position of the Moslems in Europe as his father had done, and thus the peace of Szeged (1444), which regained the line of the Danube and drove the Turk behind the Balkans, must always be reckoned as the high-water mark of Hungary's Turkish triumphs. But Matthias at least taught the sultan to respect the territorial integrity of Hungary, and throughout his reign the Eastern Question, though often vexatious, was never acute. Only after his death did the Ottoman empire become a menace to Christendom. Besides, his hands were tied by the unappeasable enmity of the emperor and the emperor's allies, and he could never count upon any material help from the West against the East. The age of the crusades had gone. Throughout his reign the Czechs and the Germans were every whit as dangerous to Hungary as the Turks, and the political necessity which finally compelled Matthias to partition Austria and Bohemia, in order to secure Hungary, committed him to a policy of extreme circumspection. He has sometimes been blamed for not crushing his incurably disloyal and rebellious nobles, instead of cajoling them, after the example of his contemporary, Louis XI., who laid the foundations of the greatness of France on the ruin of the vassals. But Louis XI. had a relatively civilized and politically developed middle class behind him, whereas Matthias had not. It was as much as Matthias could do to keep the civic life of Hungary from expiring altogether, and nine-tenths of his burgesses were foreigners with no political interest in the country of their adoption. Never was any dominion so purely personal, and therefore so artificial as his. His astounding energy and resource curbed all his enemies during his lifetime, but they were content to wait patiently for his death, well aware that the collapse of his empire would immediately follow.
All that human foresight could devise for the consolidation and perpetuation of the newly established Hungarian empire had been done by Matthias in the last years of his reign.
HISTORY]
He had designated as his successor his natural son, g the highly gifted Janos (John) Corvinus, a youth of seventeen. He had raised him to princely rank, endowed him with property which made him the greatest territorial magnate in the kingdom, placed in his hands the sacred crown and half-a-dozen of the strongest fortresses, and won over to his cause the majority of the royal council. How Janos was cajoled out of an almost impregnable position, and gradually reduced to insignificance, is told elsewhere (see Corvinus, Janos). The nobles andrelates who detested the severe and strenuous [/. Matthian system, desired, as they expressed it, " a king whose beard they could hold in their fists," and they found a monarch after their own heart in Wladislaus Jagiello, since 1471 king of Bohemia, who as Wladislaus II. was elected unanimously king of Hungary on the 15th of July 1490. Wladislaus was the personification of helpless inertia. His Bohemian subjects had long since dubbed him " King All Right " because he said yes to everything. As king of Hungary he was, from first to last, the puppet of the Magyar oligarchs, who proceeded to abolish all the royal prerogatives and safeguards which had galled them under Matthias. By the compact of Farkashida (1490) Wladislaus not only confirmed all the Matthian privileges, but also repealed all the Matthian novelties, including the system of taxation which had enabled his predecessor to keep on foot an adequate national army. The virtual suppression of Wladislaus was completed at the diet of 1492, when " King All Right " consented to live on the receipts of the treasury, which were barely sufficient to maintain his court, and engaged never to impose any new taxes on his Magyar subjects. The dissolution of the standing army, including the Black Brigade, was the immediate result of these decrees. Thus, at the very time when the modernization of the means of national defence had become the first principle, in every other part of Europe, of the strongly centralized monarchies which were rising on the ruins of feudalism, the Hungarian magnates deliberately plunged their country back into the chaos of medievalism. The same diet which destroyed the national armaments and depleted the exchequer confirmed the disgraceful peace of Pressburg, concluded between Wladislaus and the emperor Maximilian on the 7th of November 1491, whereby Hungary retroceded all the Austrian conquests of Matthias, together with a long strip of Magyar territory, and paid a war indemnity equivalent to £200,000.
The thirty-six years which elapsed between the accession of Wladislaus II. and the battle of Mohacs is the most melancholy and discreditable period of Hungarian history. Like Poland two centuries later, Hungary had ceased to be a civilized autonomous state because her prelates and her magnates, uncontrolled by any higher authority, and too ignorant or corrupt to look beyond their own immediate interests, abandoned themselves to the exclusive enjoyment of their inordinate privileges, while openly repudiating their primal obligation of defending the state against extraneous enemies. During these miserable years everything like patriotism or public spirit seems to have died out of the hearts of the Hungarian aristocracy. The great officers of state acted habitually on the principle that might is right. Stephen Bathory, voivode of Transylvania and count of the Szeklers, for instance, ruled Transylvania like a Turkish pasha, and threatened to behead all who dared to complain of his exactions; " Stinking carrion," he said, was better than living Szeklers. Thousands of Transylvanian gentlemen emigrated to Turkey to get out of his reach. Other great nobles were at perpetual feud with the towns whose wealth they coveted. Thus the Zapolyas, in 1500 and again in 1507, burnt a large part of Brezn6banya and Beszterczebanya, two of the chief industrial towns of north Hungary. Kronstadt, now the sole flourishing trade centre in the kingdom, defended itself with hired mercenaries against the robber barons. Everywhere the civic communities were declining; even Buda and Pressburg were half in ruins. In their misery the cities frequently appealed for protection to the emperor and other foreign potentates, as no redress was attainable at home. Compared even with the contemporary Polish diet the Hungarian national assembly was a tumultuous mob. The diet of 1497 passed most of its time in constructing, and then battering to pieces with axes and hammers, a huge wooden image representing the ministers of the crown, who were corrupt enough, but immovable, since they regularly appeared at the diet with thousands of retainers armed to the teeth, and openly derided the reforming endeavours of the lower gentry, who perceived that something was seriously wrong, yet were powerless to remedy it. All that the gentry could do was to depress the lower orders, and this they did at every opportunity. Thus, many of the towns, notably Visegrad, were deprived of the charters granted to them by Matthias, and a whole series of anti-civic ordinances were passed. Noblemen dwelling within the walls of the towns were especially exempted from all civic burdens, while every burgess who bought an extra-mural estate was made to pay double for the privilege.' Every nobleman had the right to engage in trade toll-free, to the great detriment of their competitors the burgesses. The peasant class suffered most of all. In 1496 Varady, archbishop of Kalocsa, one of the few good prelates, declared that their lot was worse than that of brute beasts. The whole burden of taxation rested on their shoulders, and so ground down were they by ingeniously multiplied exactions, that thousands of them were reduced to literal beggary.
Yet, despite this inward rottenness, Hungary, for nearly twenty years after the death of Matthias, enjoyed an undeserved prestige abroad, due entirely to the reputation which that great monarch had won for her. Circumstances, indeed, were especially favourable. The emperor Maximilian was so absorbed by German affairs, that he could do her little harm, and under Bayezid II. and Selim I. the Turkish menace gave little anxiety to the court of Buda, Bayezid being no warrior, while Selim's energies were claimed exclusively by the East, so that he was glad to renew the triennial truce with Hungary as often as it expired. Hungary, therefore, for almost the first time in her history, was free to choose a foreign policy of her own, and had she been guided by a patriot, she might now have easily regained Dalmatia, and acquired besides a considerable sea-board. Unfortunately Tamas Bak6cz, her leading diplomatist from 1 499 to 1521, was as much an egotist as the other magnates, and he sacrificed the political interests of Hungary entirely to personal considerations. Primate of Hungary since 1497, he coveted the popedom - and the red hat as the first step thereto above all things, - and looked mainly to Venetian influence for both. He therefore supported Venice against her enemies, refused to enter the League of Cambray in 1508, and concluded a ten years' alliance with the Signoria, which obliged Hungary to defend Venetian territory without any equivalent gain. Less reprehensible, though equally self-seeking, were his dealings with the emperor, which aimed at a family alliance between the Jagiellos and the Habsburgs on the basis of a double marriage between the son and daughter of Wladislaus, Louis and Anne, and an Austrian archduke and archduchess; this was concluded by the family congress at Vienna, July 22, 1515, to which Sigismund I. of Poland, the brother of Wladislaus, acceded. The Hungarian diet frantically opposed every Austrian alliance as endangering the national independence, but to any unprejudiced observer a union with the house of Habsburg, even with the contingent probability of a Habsburg king, was infinitely preferable to the condition into which Hungary, under native aristocratic misrule, was swiftly drifting. The diet itself had become as much a nullity as the king, and its decrees were systematically disregarded. Still more pitiable was the condition of the court. The penury of Wladislaus II. was by this time so extreme, that he owed his very meals to the charity of his servants. The diet, indeed, voted him aids and subsidies, but the great nobles either forbade their collection within their estates, or confiscated the amount collected. Under the circumstances, we cannot wonder if the frontier fortresses fell to pieces, and the border troops, unpaid for years, took to brigandage.
The last reserves of the national wealth and strength were dissipated by the terrible peasant rising of GyOrgy Dozsa in 1514, of which the enslavement of the Hungarian peasantry was the immediate consequence. The " Savage Diet " which assembled on the 18th of October the same year, to punish the rebels and restore order, well deserved its name. Sixty-two of its seventy-one enactments were directed against the peasants, who were henceforth bound to the soil and committed absolutely into the hands of " their natural lords." To this vindictive legislation, which converted the labouring population into a sullenly hostile 1 It should be remembered that at this time one-third of the land belonged to the church, and the remainder was in the hands of less than a dozen great families who had also appropriated the royal domains.
force within the state, it is mainly due that a healthy political life in Hungary became henceforth impossible. The same The Tri- spirit of hostility to the peasantry breathed through partitum. the famous condification of the Hungarian customary law known as the Tripartitum, which, though never actually formally passed into law, continued until 1845 to be the only document defining the relations of king and people, of nobles and their peasants, and of Hungary and her dependent states.' Wladislaus II. died on the r3th of March 1516, two years after the " Savage Diet," the ferocity of whose decrees he had feebly endeavoured to mitigate, leaving his two Subjection kingdoms to his son Louis, a child of ten, who was by the pronounced of age in order that his foreignguardians, Turks. P g g the emperor Maximilian and Sigismund of Poland, might be dispensed with. The government remained in the hands of Cardinal Bakocz till his death in 1521, when the supreme authority at court was disputed between the lame palatine Istvan Bathory, and his rival, the eminent jurist and orator Istvan Verbdczy (q.v.), - both of them incompetent, unprincipled place-hunters, - while, in the background lurked Janos Zapolya (see John (Zapolya), King Of Hungary), voivode of Tran sylvania, patiently waiting till the death of the feeble and childless king (who, in 1522, married Maria of Austria) should open for him a way to the throne. Every one felt that a catastrophe was approaching. " Things cannot go on like this much longer," wrote the Venetian ambassador to his government. The war of each against all continued; no taxes could be collected; the holders of the royal domains refused to surrender them at the command of the diet; and the boy king had very often neither clothes to wear nor food to eat. The whole atmosphere of society was one of rapine and corruption, and only on the frontier a few self-sacrificing patriots like the ban-bishop, Peter Biriszlo, the last of Matthias's veterans, and his successor the saintly Pal Tomori, archbishop of Kalocsa, showed, in their ceaseless war against the predatory Turkish bands, that the ancient Magyar valour was not yet wholly extinct. But the number of the righteous men was too few to save the state. The first blow fell in 1521, when Sultan Suleiman appeared before the southern fortresses of Sabac and Belgrade, both of which fell into his hands during the course of the year. After this Venice openly declared that Hungary was no longer worth the saving. Yet the coup de grace was postponed for another five years, during which time Suleiman was occupied with the conquest of Egypt and the siege of Rhodes. The Magyars fancied they were safe from attack, because the final assault was suspended; and everything went on in the old haphazard way. Every obstacle was opposed to the collection of the taxes which had been voted to put the kingdom in a state of defence. " If this realm could be saved at the expense of three florins," exclaimed the papal envoy, Antonio Burgio, " there is not a man here willing to make the sacrifice." Only on the southern frontier did Archbishop Tomori painfully assemble a fresh army and fleet, and succeed, by incredible efforts, in constructing at Peterwardein, on the right bank of the Danube, a new fortress which served him as a refuge and sally post in his interminable guerilla war with the Turks.
In the spring of 1526 came the tidings that Sultan Suleiman had quitted Constantinople, at the head of a countless host, to conquer Hungary. On the 28th of July Peterwardein, after a valiant resistance, was blown into the air. The diet, which met at Buda in hot haste, proclaimed the young king 2 dictator, 1 The Opus tripartitum juris consuetudinarii regni Hungariae was drawn up by Verbbczy at the instance of the diet in 1507. It was approved by a committee of the diet and received the royal imprimatur in 1514, but was never published. In the constitutional history of Hungary the Tripartitum is of great importance as reasserting the fundamental equality of all the members of the populus (i.e. the whole body of the nobles) and, more especially, as defining the co-ordinate power of the king and " people " in legislation: i.e. the king may propose laws, but they had no force without the consent of the people, and vice versa. See Knatchbull-Hugessen, i. 64.
2 He was just twenty.
granted him unlimited subsidies which there was no time to collect, and ordered a levee en masse of the entire male population, which could not possibly assemble within the given time. Louis at once formed a camp at Tolna, whence he issued despairing summonses to the lieges, and, by the middle of August, some 25,000 ill-equipped gentlemen had gathered around him. With these he marched southwards to the plain of Mohacs, where, on the 29th of August, the Hungarians, after a two hours' fight, were annihilated, the king, both the archbishops, five bishops and 24,000 men perishing on the field. The sultan refused to believe that the pitiful array he had so easily overcome could be the national army of Hungary. Advancing with extreme caution, he occupied Buda on the 12th of September, but speedily returned to his own dominions, carrying off with him 105,000 captives, and an amount of spoil which filled the bazaars of the East for months to come. By the end of October the last Turkish regular had quitted Magyar soil, and, to use the words of a contemporary observer, one quarter of Hungary was as utterly destroyed as if a flood had passed over it.
The Turks had no sooner quitted the land than John Zapolya, voivode of Transylvania, assembled a diet at Tokaj (Oct. 14, 1526) at which the towns were represented as well as John the counties. The tone of the assembly being violently Zapolya anti-German, and John being the only conceivable elected national candidate, his election was a matter of course; King. but his misgivings were so great that it was not till the beginning of November that he very reluctantly allowed himself to be crowned at a second diet, held at Szekesfehervar. By this time a competitor had entered the field. This was the archduke Ferdinand, who claimed the Hungarian crown by right of inheritance in the name of his wife, Anne, sister of the late king. Ferdinand was elected (Dec. 16) by a scratch assembly consisting of deputies from Croatia and the towns Ferdinand of Pressburg and Sopron; but he speedily improved °fAustr;a g P Y P elected. his position in the course of 1527, by driving King John first from Buda and then from Hungary. In November the same year he was elected and crowned by a properly constituted diet at Szekesfehervar (Stuhlweissenburg). In 1529 Zapolya was reinstated in Buda by Suleiman the Magnificent in person, who, at this period, preferred setting up a rival to " the king of Vienna " to conquering Hungary outright. Thus the Magyars were saddled with two rival kings with equally valid titles, which proved an even worse disaster than the Mohacs catastrophe; for in most of the counties of the unhappy kingdom desperadoes of every description plundered the estates of the gentry, and oppressed the common people, under the pretext that they were fighting the battles of the contending monarchs. The determination of Ferdinand to partition Hungary rather than drive the Turks out, which he might easily have done after Suleiman's unsuccessful attempts on Vienna in 1529-1530, led to a prolongation of the struggle till the 24th of February 1538, when, by the secret peace of Nagyvarad, 3 Hungary was divided between the two competitors. By this treaty Ferdinand retained Croatia-Slavonia and the five western counties with Pressburg and Esztergom (Gran), while Zapolya kept the remaining two-thirds with the royal title. He was indeed the last national king of Hungary till modern times. His court at Buda was maintained according to the ancient traditions, and his gyiiles, at which 67 of the 73 counties were generally represented, was the true national diet, the phantom assembly occasionally convened at Pressburg by Ferdinand scarcely deserving the title. Indeed, Ferdinand regarded his narrow strip of Hungarian territory as simply a barrier behind which he could better defend the hereditary states. During the last six years (1534-1540) of John's reign, his kingdom, beneath the guidance of the Paulician monk, Frater Gyorgy, or George Martinuzzi, the last great statesman of old Hungary, enjoyed a stability and prosperity marvellous in the difficult circumstances of the period, Martinuzzi holding the balance exactly between the emperor and the Porte with 3 I was kept secret for some years for fear of Turkish intervention.
HISTORY]
Rival Kings. astounding diplomatic dexterity, and at the same time introducing several important domestic reforms. Zapolya died on the 18th of July 1540, whereupon the estates of Hungary elected his baby son John Sigismund king, in direct violation of the peace of Grosswardein which had formally acknowledged Ferdinand as John's successor, whether he left male issue or not. Ferdinand at once asserted his rights by force of arms, and attacked Buda in May 1541, despite the urgent remonstrances of Martinuzzi, who knew that the Turk would never suffer the emperor to reign at Buda. His fears were instantly justified. In August 1541, Suleiman, at the head of a vast army, invaded Hungary, and on the 30th of August, Buda was in his hands. During the six following years the sultan still further improved his position, capturing, amongst many other places, Pecs, and the primatial city of Esztergom; but, in 1547, the exigencies of the Persian war induced him to sell a truce of five years to Ferdinand for £100,000, on a uti possidetis basis, Ferdinand holding thirty-five counties (including Croatia and Slavonia) for which he was to pay an annual tribute of £60,000; John Sigismund retaining Transylvania and sixteen adjacent counties with the title of prince, while the rest of the land, comprising most of the central counties, was annexed to the Turkish empire. Thus the ancient kingdom was divided into three separate states with divergent aims and interests, a condition of things which, with frequent rearrangements, continued for more than 150 years.
A period of infinite confusion and extreme misery now ensued, of which only the salient points can here be noted. The attempts of the Habsburgs to conquer Transylvania drew down upon them two fresh Turkish invasions, the first in 1552, when the sultan's generals captured Temesvar and fifty-four lesser forts or fortresses, and the second in 1566, memorable as Suleiman's last descent upon Hungary, and also for the heroic defence of Szigetvar by Miklos Zrinyi, one of the classical sieges of history. The truce of Adrianople in 1568, nominally for eight years, but prolonged from time to time till 1593, finally suspended regular hostilities, and introduced the epoch known as " The Long Peace," though, throughout these twenty-five years, the guerilla warfare on the frontier never ceased for more than a few months at a time, and the relations between the Habsburgs and Transylvania were persistently hostile.
Probably no other country ever suffered so much from its rulers as Hungary suffered during the second half of the 16th century. This was due partly to political and partly to religious causes. To begin with, there can be no doubt that from 1558, when the German imperial crown was transferred from the Spanish to the Austrian branch of the Habsburg family, royal Hungary 1 was regarded by the emperors as an insignificant barrier province yielding far more trouble than profit. The visible signs of this contemptuous point of view were (1) the suspension of the august dignity of palatine, which, after the death of Tamas Nadasdy, " the great palatine," in 1562, was left vacant for many years; (2) the abolition or attenuation of all the ancient Hungarian court dignitaries; (3) the degradation of the capital, Pressburg, into a mere provincial town; and (4) the more and more openly expressed determination to govern Hungary from Vienna by means of foreigners, principally German or Czech. During the reign of Ferdinand, whose consort, Anne, was a Hungarian princess, things were at least tolerable; but under Maximilian (1564-1576) and Rudolph (1576-1612)1612) the antagonism of the Habsburgs towards their Magyar subjects was only too apparent. The diet, which had the power of the purse, could not be absolutely dispensed with; but it .was summoned as seldom as possible, the king often preferring to forego his subsidies rather than listen to the unanswerable remonstrances of the estates against the illegalities of his government. In the days of the semi-insane recluse Rudolph things went from bad to worse. The Magyar nobles were now systematically spoliated on trumped-up charges of treason; 1 In contradistinction to Turkish Hungary and Transylvanian Hungary.
hundreds of them were ruined. At last they either durst not attend the diet, or " sat like dumb dogs " during its session, allowing the king to alter and interpret the statutes at his good pleasure. Presently religious was superadded to political persecution.
The Reformation had at first produced little effect on Hungary. Except in the towns, mostly of German origin, it was generally detested, just because it came from Germany. The battle of Mohacs, however, severely shook the faith of the Hungarians. " Where are the old Magyar saints? Why do they not defend the realm against the Turks? " was the general cry. Moreover, the corrupt church had lost its hold on the affections of the people. Zapolya, a devout Catholic, is lauded by Archbishop Frangipan in 1533 for arresting the spread of the new doctrines, though he would not allow Martinuzzi to take the extreme step of burning perverts at the stake. These perverts were mostly to be found among nobles desirous of amassing church property, or among those of the clergy who clamoured for communion in both kinds. So long, however, as the old national kingdom survived, the majority of the people still clung to the old faith. Under Ferdinand the parochial clergy were tempted to become Lutherans by the prospect of matrimony, and, in reply to the remonstrances of their bishops, declared that they would rather give up their cures than their wives. In Transylvania matters were at first ordered more peaceably. In 1552 the new doctrines obtained complete recognition there, the diet of Torda (1557) going so far as to permit every one to worship in his own way so long as he did not molest his neighbour. Yet, in the following year, the whole of the property of the Catholic Church there was diverted to secular uses, and the Calvinists were simultaneously banished, though they regained complete tolerance in 1564, a privilege at the same time extended to the Unitarians, who were now very influential at court and converted Prince John Sigismund to their views. In Turkish Hungary all the confessions enjoyed liberty of worship, though the Catholics, as possible partisans of the " king of Vienna," were liked the least. It was only when the Jesuits obtained a footing both at Prague 2 and Klausenburg that persecution began, but then it was very violent. In Transylvania the princes of the Bathory family (1571-1604) were ardent disciples of the Jesuit fathers, and Sigismund Bathory in particular persecuted fiercely, his fury being especially directed against the queer judaizing sect known as the Sabbatarians, whose tenets were adopted by the Szeklers, the most savage of " the three nations " of Transylvania, many thousands of whom were, after a bloody struggle, forced to emigrate. In royal Hungary also the Jesuits were the chief persecutors. The extirpation of Protestantism was a deliberate prearranged programme, and as Protestantism was by this time identical with Magyarism 3 the extirpation of the one was tantamount to the extirpation of the other. The method generally adopted was to deprive the preachers in the towns of their churches by force, Italian mercenaries being preferably employed for the purpose. It was assumed that the Protestant nobles' jealousy of the burgesses would prevent them from interfering; but religious sympathy proved stronger than caste prejudice, and the diets protested against the persecution of their fellow citizens so vehemently that religious matters were withdrawn from their jurisdiction.
This persecution raged most fiercely towards the end of what is generally called " The Long War," which began in 1593, and lasted till 1606. It was a confused four-cornered struggle between the emperor and the Turks, the Turks and Transylvania, Michael of Moldavia and Y ?
Transylvania, and Transylvania and the emperor, desultory and languishing as regards the Turks (the one notable battle being Sigismund Bathory's brilliant victory over the 2 At first the Habsburgs held their court at Prague instead of at Vienna.
According to contemporary records the number of prelates and priests in the three parts of Hungary at the beginning of the 17th century was but 103, all told, and of the great families not above half a dozen still clung to Catholicism.
Partition of Hungary. Siege of Szigetvar. grand vizier in Walachia in 1595, when the Magyar army penetrated as far as Giurgevo), but very bitter as between the emperor and Transylvania, the principality being finally subdued by the imperial general, George Basta, in August 1604. A reign of terror ensued, during which the unfortunate principality was well-nigh ruined. Basta was authorized to Germanize and Catholicize without delay, and he began by dividing the property of most of the nobles among his officers, appropriating the lion's share himself. In royal Hungary the same object was aimed at by innumerable indictments against the richer landowners, indictments supported by false title-deeds and carried through by forged or purchased judgments of the courts. At last the estates of even the most devoted adherents of the Habsburgs were not safe, and some of them, like the wealthy Istvan Illeshazy (1540-1609), had to fly abroad to save their heads. Fortunately a peculiarly shameless attempt to blackmail Stephen Bocskay, a rich and powerful Transylvanian nobleman, converted a long Bocskay (q.v.), a quiet but resolute man, having once made up his mind to rebel, never paused till he had established satisfactory relations between the Austrian court and the Hungarians. The two great achievements of his brief reign (he was elected prince of Transylvania on the 5th of April 1605, and died on the 29th of December 1606) were the peace of Vienna (June 23, 1606) and the truce of Zsitvatorok (November 1606). By the peace of Vienna, Bocskay obtained religious liberty and political autonomy, the restoration of all confiscated estates, the repeal of all unrighteous judgments and a complete retrospective amnesty for all the Magyars in royal Hungary, besides his own recognition as independent sovereign prince of an enlarged' Transylvania. This treaty is remarkable as being the first constitutional compact between the ruling dynasty and the Hungarian nation. Almost equally important was the twenty years' truce of Zsitvatoriik, negotiated by Bocskay between the emperor and the sultan, which established for the first time a working equilibrium between the three parts of Hungary, with a distinct political preponderance in favour of Transylvania. Of the 5163 sq. m. of Hungarian territory, Transylvania now possessed 2082, Turkish Hungary 1859, and royal Hungary only 1222. The emperor, on the other hand, was freed from the humiliating annual tribute to the Porte on payment of a war indemnity of X400,000. The position of royal Hungary was still further improved when the popular and patriotic Archduke Matthias was elected king of Hungary on the 16th of November 1608. He had previously confirmed the treaty of Vienna, and the day after his election he appointed Illeshazy, now reinstated in all his possessions and dignities, palatine of Hungary.' In Transylvania, meantime, Gabriel Bathory had been elected (Nov. 1 1608) in place of the decrepit Sigismund Rákoczy, Bocskay's immediate successor.
For more than fifty years after the peace of Vienna the principality of Transylvania continued to be the bulwark of the liberties of the Magyars. It owed its ascendancy in to restore nearly a hundred churches to the sects and to acknowledge the sway of Rakoczy over the north Hungarian counties. Gabriel Bethlen and George I. Rakoczy also did much for education and civilization generally, and their era has justly been called the golden era of Transylvania. They lavished money on the embellishment of their capital, Gyulafehervar, which became a sort of Protestant Mecca, whither scholars and divines of every anti-Roman denomination flocked to bask in the favour of princes who were as liberal as they were pious. Yet both Bethlen and Rakoczy owed far more to favourable circumstances than to their own cunning. Their reigns synchronized with the Thirty Years' War, during which the emperors were never in a position seriously to withstand the attacks of the malcontent Magyars, the vast majority of whom were still Protestants, who naturally looked upon the Transylvanian princes as their protectors and joined them in thousands whenever they raided Moravia or Lower Austria, or threatened to advance upon Vienna. In all these risings no battle of importance was fought. Generally speaking, the Transylvanians had only to appear, to have their demands promptly complied with; for these marauders had to be bought off because the emperor had more pressing business elsewhere. Yet their military efficiency must have been small, for their allies the Swedes invariably allude to them as wild and ragged semi-barbarians.
Another fortunate accident which favoured the hegemony of Transylvania was the temporary collapse of Hungary's most formidable adversary, the Turk. From the peace of ZsitvatOrOk (1606) to the ninth year of the reign of Tork i ct. conf lict. George Rakoczy II., who succeeded his father in 1648, the Turkish empire, misruled by a series of incompetent sultans and distracted by internal dissensions, was unable to intervene in Hungarian politics. But in the autumn of 1656 a great statesman, Mahommed Kuprili, obtained the supreme control of affairs at Constantinople, and all Europe instantly felt the pressure of the Turk once more. It was George Rakoczy II. (q.v.) who gave the new grand vizier a pretext for interference. Against the advice of all his counsellors, and without the knowledge of the estates, Rakoczy, in 1657, plunged into the troubled sea of Polish politics, in the hope of winning the Polish throne, and not only failed miserably but overwhelmed Transylvania in his own ruin. Kuprili, who had forbidden the Polish enterprise, at once occupied Transylvania, and, in the course of the next five years, no fewer than four princes, three of whom died violent deaths, were forced to accept the kaftan and kalpag of investiture in the camp of the grand vizier. When, at the end of 1661, a more stable administration was set up with Michael Apaffy (1661-1690) as prince, Transylvania had descended to the rank of a feudatory of the Turkish empire. On the death of Mahommed Kuprili (Oct. 11, 1661) his son Fazil Ahmed succeeded him as grand vizier, and pursued his father's policy with equal genius and determination. In 1663 he invaded royal Hungary, with the intention of uniting all the Magyars against the emperor, but, the Magyars steadily refusing to attend any diet summoned under Turkish influence, his plan fell through, and his only notable military success was the capture of the fortress of Ersekujvar (Neuhausel). In the following year, thanks to the generalship and heroism of Miklos Zrinyi the younger (q.v.), Kuprili was still less successful. Zrinyi captured fortress after fortress, and interrupted the Turkish communications by destroying the famous bridge of Esseg, while Montecuculi defeated the grand vizier at the battle of St Gothard (Aug. 1, 1664). Yet, despite these reverses, Kuprili's superior diplomacy enabled him, at the peace of Vasvar (Aug. io, 1664) to obtain terms which should only have been conceded to a conqueror. The fortress of Ersekujvar and surrounding territory were now ceded to the Turks, with the result that royal Hungary was not only still further diminished, but its northern practically separated from its southern portion. On the other hand the treaty of Vasvar gave Hungary a respite from regular Turkish invasions for twenty years, though the border raiding continued uninterruptedly.
Of far more political importance than these fluctuating wars of Stephen suffering friend of the emperor into a national deliverer. Bocskay. Transyl. the first place to the abilities of the two princes who vanian Hegemony. ruled it from 1613 to 1648. The first and most famous of these rulers was Gabriel Bethlen (q.v.), who reigned from 1613 to 1629, perpetually thwarted all the efforts of the emperor to oppress or circumvent his Hungarian subjects, and won some reputation abroad by adroitly pretending to champion the Protestant cause. Three times he waged war on the emperor, twice he was proclaimed king of Hungary, and by the peace of Nikolsburg (Dec. 31, 1621) he obtained for the Protestants a confirmation of the treaty of Vienna, and for himself seven additional counties in northern Hungary besides other substantial advantages. Bethlen's successor, George I. Rakoczy, was equally successful. His principal achievement was the peace of Linz (Sept. 16, 1645), the last political triumph of Hungarian Protestantism, whereby the emperor was forced to confirm once more the oft-broken articles of the peace of Vienna, 1 The counties of Szatmar, Ugocsa and Bereg and the fortress of Tokaj were formally ceded to him.
2 He was the first Protestant palatine.
Peace of Vasvar.. invasion and conquest was the simultaneous Catholic reaction in Hungary. The movement may be said to have begun about 1601, when the great Jesuit preacher and controversialist, Peter Pazmany, first devoted himself to the task of reconverting his countrymen. Progress was necessarily retarded by the influence of the independent Protestant princes of Transylvania in the northern counties of Hungary. Even as late as 1622 the Protestants at the diet of Pressburg were strong enough to elect their candidate, Szaniszl6 Thurz6, palatine. But Thurzo was the last Protestant palatine, and, on his death, the Catholics, at the diet of Sopron (1625), where they dominated the Upper Chamber, and had a large minority in the Lower, were able to elect Count Miklos Esterhazy in Thurz6's stead. The Jesuit programme in Hungary was the same as it had been in Poland a generation earlier, and may be summed up thus: convert the great families and all the rest will follow. 1 Their success, due partly to their whole-hearted zeal, and partly to their superior educational system, was extraordinary; and they possessed the additional advantage of having in Pazmany a leader of commanding genius. During his primacy (1616-1637), when he had the whole influence of the court, and the sympathy and the assistance of the Catholic world behind him, he put the finishing touches to his life's labour by founding a great Catholic university at Nagyszombat (1635), and publishing a Hungarian translation of the Bible to counteract the influence of Gaspar Karoli's widely spread Protestant version. Pazmany was certainly the great civilizing factor of Hungary in the seventeenth century, and indirectly he did as much for the native language as for the native church. His successors had only to build on his foundations. One most striking instance of how completely he changed the current of the national mind may here be given. From 1526 to 1625 the usual jubilee pilgrimages from Hungary to Rome had entirely ceased. During his primacy they were revived, and in 1650, only seventeen years after his death, they were as numerous as ever they had been. Five years later there remained but four noble Protestant families in royal Hungary. The Catholicization of the land was complete.
Unfortunately the court of Vienna was not content with winning back the Magyars to the Church. The Habsburg kings were as jealous of the political as of the religious liberties of their Hungarian subjects. This was partly owing to the fact that national aspirations of any sort were contrary to the imperial system, which claimed to rule by right divine, and partly to an inveterate distrust of the Magyars, who were regarded at court as rebels by nature, and therefore as enemies far more troublesome than the Turks. The conduct of the Hungarian nobles in the past, indeed, somewhat justified this estimate, for the fall of the ancient monarchy was entirely due to their persistent disregard of authority, to their refusal to bear their share of the public burdens. They were now to suffer severely for their past misdoings, but unfortunately the innocent nation was forced to suffer with them. Throughout the latter part of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, the Hungarian gentry underwent a cruel discipline at the hands of their Habsburg kings. Their privileges were overridden, their petitions were disregarded, their diets were degraded into mere registries of the royal decrees. They were never fairly represented in the royal council, they were excluded as far as possible from commands in Hungarian regiments, and were treated, generally, as the members of an inferior and guilty race. This era of repression corresponds roughly with the reign of Leopold I. (1657-1705), who left the government of the country to two bigoted Magyar prelates, GyOrgy Szelepesenyi (1595-1685) and Lip&t (Leopold) Kollonich (1631-1707), whose domination represents the high-water mark of the antinational regimen. The stupid and abortive conspiracy of Peter Zrinyi and three other magnates, who were publicly executed (April 30, 1671), was followed by wholesale arrests and confisca 1 The jobbagyok, or under-tenants, had to follow the example of their lords; they were, by this time, mere serfs with no privileges either political or religious.
tions, and for a time the legal government of Hungary was superseded (Patent of March 3, 1673) by a committee of eight persons, four Magyars and four Germans, presided over by a German governor; but the most influential person in this committee was Bishop Kollonich, of whom it was said that, while Pazmany hated the heretic in the Magyar, Kollonich hated the Magyar in the heretic. A gigantic process against leading Protestant ministers for alleged conspiracy was the first act of this committee. It began at Pressburg in March 1674, when 236 of the ministers were " converted " or confessed to acts of rebellion. But the remaining 93 stood firm and were condemned to death, a punishment commuted to slavery in the Neapolitan galleys. Sweden, as one of the guarantors of the peace of Westphalia, and several north German states, protested against the injury thus done to their coreligionists. It was replied that Hungary was outside the operation of the treaty of Westphalia, and that the Protestants had been condemned not ex odio religionis but crimine rebellions. But a high-spirited nation cannot be extinguished by any number of patents and persecutions. So long as the Magyar people had any life left, it was bound to fight in self-defence, it was bound to produce " malcontents " resistance. who looked abroad for help to the enemies of the house of Habsburg. The first and most famous of the malcontent leaders was Count Imre Tokoli (q.v.). Between 1678 and 1682 Tokoli waged three wars with Leopold, and, in September 1682, was acknowledged both by the emperor and the sultan as prince of North Hungary as far as the river Garam, to the great relief of the Magyar Protestants. The success of Tokoli rekindled the martial ardour of the Turks, and a war party, under the grand vizier Kara Mustafa, determined to wrest from Leopold his twelve remaining Hungarian counties, gained the ascendancy at Constantinople in the course of 1682. Leopold, intent on the doings of his perennial rival Louis XIV., was 10th to engage in an eastern war even for the liberation of Hungary, which he regarded as of far less importance than a strip or two of German territory on the Rhine. But, stimulated by the representations of Pope Innocent XI., who, well aware of the internal weakness of the Turk, was bent upon forming a Holy League to drive them out of Europe, and alarmed, besides, by the danger of Vienna and the hereditary states, Leopold reluctantly contracted an alliance with John III. of Poland, and gave the command of the army which, mainly through the efforts of the pope he had been able to assemble, to Prince Charles of Lorraine. The war, which lasted for 16 years and put an end to the Turkish dominion in Hungary, began with the worldrenowned siege of Vienna (July 14 - Sept. 12, 1683). There is no need to recount the oft-told victories of Sobieski (see John Iii. Sobieski, King Of Poland). What is not quite so generally known is the fact that Leopold slackened at once and would have been quite content with the results of these earlier victories had not the pope stiffened his resistance by forming a Holy League between the Emperor, Poland, Venice, Muscovy and the papacy, with the avowed object of dealing the Turk the coup de grace (March 5, 1684). This statesmanlike persistence was rewarded by an uninterrupted series of triumphs, culminating in the recapture of Buda (1686) and Belgrade (1688), and the recovery of Bosnia (1689). But, in 1690, the third of the famous Kuprilis, Mustafa, brother of Fazil Ahmed, became grand vizier, and the Turk, still further encouraged by the death of Innocent XI., rallied once more. In the course of that year Kuprili regained Servia and Bulgaria, placed Tok611 on the throne of Transylvania, and on the 6th of October took Belgrade by assault. Once more the road to Vienna lay open, but the grand vizier wasted the remainder of the year in fortifying Belgrade, and on August 18th, 1691, he was defeated and slain at Slankamen by the margrave of Baden. For the next six years the war languished owing to the timidity of the emperor, the incompetence of his generals and the exhaustion of the Porte; but on the 11th of September 1697 Prince Eugene of Savoy routed the Turks at Zenta and on the 13th of November 1698 a peace-congress was opened at Karlowitz which resulted in the peace of that name (Jan. 26, 1699). Nominally a truce for 25 years on the uti possidetis basis, the peace of Karlowitz left in the emperor's hands the lying between the rivers Maros, Theiss, Danube and the mountains of Transylvania, the so-called TemeskOz, or about one-eleventh of the modern kingdom. The peace of Karlowitz marks the term of the Magyar's secular struggle with Mahommedanism and finally reunited her long-separated provinces beneath a common sceptre.
But the liberation of Hungary from the Turks brought no relief to the Hungarians. The ruthless suppression of the Magyar malcontents, in which there was little discrimination between the innocent and the guilty, had so crushed the spirit of the country that Leopold considered the time ripe for realizing a long-cherished ideal of the Habsburgs and changing Hungary from an elective into an hereditary monarchy. For this purpose a diet was assembled at Pressburg in the autumn of 1687. It was a mere rump, for wholesale executions had thinned its numbers and the reconquered countries were not represented in it. To this weakened and terrorized assembly the emperorking explained that he had the right to treat Hungary as a conquered country, but that he was prepared to confirm its constitutional liberties under three conditions: the inaugural diploma was to be in the form signed by Ferdinand I., the crown was to be declared hereditary in the house of Habsburg, and the 31st clause of the Golden Bull, authorizing armed resistance to unconstitutional acts of the sovereign, was to be abrogated. These conditions the diet had no choice but to accept, and, in October 1687, the elective monarchy of Hungary, which had been in existence for nearly seven hundred years, ceased to exist. The immediate effect of the peace of Karlowitz was thus only to strengthen despotism in Hungary. Kollonich, who had been created a cardinal in 1685, archbishop of Kalocsa in 1691 and archbishop of Esztergom (Gran) and primate of Hungary in 1695, was now at the head of affairs, and his plan was to germanize Hungary as speedily as possible by promoting a wholesale immigration into the recovered provinces, all of which were in a terrible state of dilapidation.' The border counties, now formed into a military zone, were planted exclusively with Croatian colonists as being more trustworthy defenders of the Hungarian frontier than the Hungarians themselves. Moreover, a neo-acquisita commissio was constituted to inquire into the title-deeds of the Magyar landowners in the old Turkish provinces, and hundreds of estates were transferred, on the flimsiest of pretexts, to naturalized foreigners. Transylvania since 1690 had been administered from Vienna, and though the farce of assembling a diet there was still kept up, even the promise of religious liberty, conceded to it on its surrender in 1687, was not kept. No wonder then if the whole country was now seething with discontent and only awaiting an opportunity to burst forth in open rebellion. This opportunity came when the emperor, involved in the War of the Spanish Succession, withdrew all his troops from Hungary except some 1600 men. In 1703 the malcontents found a leader in Francis Rakoczy II. (q.v.), who was elected prince by the Hungarian estates on the 6th of July 1704, and during the next six years gave the emperor Joseph I., who had succeeded Leopold in May 1705, considerable anxiety. Rakoczy had often as many as 100,000 men under him, and his bands penetrated as far as Moravia and even approached within a few miles of Vienna. But they were guerillas, not regulars; they had no good officers, no serviceable artillery, and very little money; and all the foreign powers to whom Rakoczy turned for assistance (excepting France, who fed them occasionally with paltry subsidies) would not commit themselves to a formal alliance with rebels who were defeated in every pitched battle they fought. On the other hand, if the Rakoczians were easily dispersed, they as quickly reassembled, and at one time they held all Transylvania and the greater part of Hungary.
1 E.g. in Esztergom, the primatial city, there were only two buildings still standing.
In the course of 1707 two Rakoczian diets even went so far as formally to depose the Habsburgs and form an interim government with Rakoczy at its head, till a national king could be legally elected. The Maritime Powers, too, fearful lest Louis XIV. should materially assist the Rak6czians and thus divert part of the emperor's forces at the very crisis of the War of the Spanish Succession, intervened, repeatedly and energetically, to bring about a compromise between the court and the insurgents, whose claims they considered to be just and fair. But the obstinate refusal of Joseph to admit that the Rakoczians were anything but rebels was always the insurmountable object in all such negotiations. But when, on the 7th of April 1711, Joseph died without issue, leaving the crown to his brother the Archduke Charles, then fighting the battles of the Allies in Spain, a peace-congress met at Szatmar on the 27th of April, and, two days later, an understanding was arrived at on the basis of a general amnesty, full religious liberty and the recognition of the inviolability of the ancient rights and privileges of the Magyars.
Thus the peace of Szatmar assured to the Hungarian nation all that it had won by former compacts with the Habsburgs; but whereas hitherto the Transylvanian principality had been the permanent guardian of all such compacts, and the authority of the reigning house had been counterpoised by the Turk, the effect and validity of the peace of Szatmar depended entirely upon the support it might derive from the nation itself. It was a fortunate thing for Hungary that the conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession introduced a new period, in which, at last, the interests of the dynasty and the nation were identical, thus rendering a reconciliation between them desirable. Moreover, the next century and a half was a period of domestic tranquillity, during which Hungary was able to repair the ruin of the long Turkish wars, nurse her material resources, and take the first steps in the direction of social and political reform. The first reforms, however, were dynastic rather than national. Thus, in 1715, King Charles III.2 persuaded the diet to consent to the establishment of a standing army, which - though the diet reserved the right to fix the number of recruits and vote the necessary subsidies from time to time - was placed under the control of the Austrian council of war. The same centralizing tendency was shown in the administrative and judicial reforms taken in hand by the diet of 1722. A Hungarian court chancery was now established at Vienna, while the government of Hungary proper was committed to a royal stadholdership at Pressburg. Both the chancery and the stadholdership were independent of the diet and responsible to the king alone, being, in fact, his executive instruments. It was this diet also which accepted the Pragmatic Sanction, first issued in 1713, by which the emperor Charles VI., in default of his leaving male heirs, settled the succession to his hereditary dominions on his daughter Maria Theresa and her heirs. By the laws of 1723, which gave effect to the resolution of the diet in favour of accepting the principle of female succession, the Habsburg king entered into a fresh contract with his Hungarian subjects, a contract which remained the basis of the relations of the crown and nation until 1848. On the one hand it was declared that the kingdom of Hungary was an integral part of the Habsburg dominions and inseparable from these so long as a male or female heir of the kings Charles, Joseph and Leopold should be found to succeed to them. On the other hand, Charles swore, on behalf of himself and his heirs, to preserve the Hungarian constitution intact, with all the rights, privileges, customs, laws, &c., of the kingdom and its dependencies. Moreover, in the event of the failure of a Habsburg heir, the diet reserved the right to revive the " ancient, approved and accepted custom and prerogative of the estates and orders in the matter of the election and coronation of their king." The reign of Charles III. is also memorable for two Turkish wars, the first of which, beginning in 1716, and made glorious by the victories of Prince Eugene and Janos Pallfy, was terminated by 2 Charles VI. as emperor.
whole of Hungary except Syrmia and the territory g Y p Y Y the peace of Passarowitz (July 21, 1718), by which the Temeskaz was also freed from the Turks, and Servia, Northern Bosnia and Little Walachia, all of them ancient conquests of Hungary, were Once more incorporated with the territories of the crown of St Stephen. The second war, though undertaken in league with Russia, proved unlucky, and, at the peace of Belgrade (Sept. 1, 1739), all the conquests of the peace of Passarowitz, including Belgrade itself, were lost, except the banat of Temesvár.
With Maria Theresa (1740-1780) began the age of enlightened despotism. Deeply grateful to the Magyars for their sacrifices and services during the War of the Austrian Succession, she dedicated her whole authority to the good of the nation, but she was very unwilling to share that authority with the people. Only in the first stormy years of her reign did she summon the diet; after 1764 she dispensed with it altogether. She did not fill up the dignity of palatine, vacant since the 26th of October 1765, and governed Hungary through her son-in-law, Albert of Saxe-Teschen. She did not attack the Hungarian constitution; she simply put it on one side. Her reforms were made not by statute, but by royal decree. Yet the nation patiently endured the mild yoke of the great queen, because it felt and knew that its welfare was safe in her motherly hands. Her greatest achievement lay in the direction of educational reform. She employed the proceeds of the vast sums coming to her from the confiscation of the property of the suppressed Jesuit order in founding schools and colleges all over Hungary. The kingdom was divided into ten educational districts for the purpose, with a university at Buda. Towards all her Magyars, especially the Catholics, she was ever most gracious; but the magnates, the Batthyanis, the Nadasdys, the Pallfys, the Andrassys, who had chased her enemies from Bohemia and routed them in Bavaria, enjoyed the lion's share of her benefactions. In fact, most of them became professional courtiers, and lived habitually at Vienna. She also attracted the gentry to her capital by forming a Magyar body-guard from the cadets of noble families. But she was good to all, not even forgetting the serfs. The drberi szabalyzat (feudal prescription) of 1767 restored to the peasants the right of transmigration and, in some respects, protected them against the exactions of their landlords.
Joseph II. (1780-1790) was as true to the principles of enlightened despotism and family politics as his mother; but II. he had none of the common sense which had led her Joseph to realize the limits of her power. Joseph was an idealist and a doctrinaire, whose dream was to build up his ideal body politic; the first step toward which was to be the amalgamation of all his dominions into a common state under an absolute sovereign (see Austria-Hungary; and Joseph Ii., Emperor). Unfortunately, the Hungarian constitution stood in the way of this political paradise, so Joseph resolved that the Hungarian constitution must be sacrificed. Refusing to be crowned, or even to take the usual oaths of observance, he simply announced his accession to the Hungarian counties, and then deliberately proceeded to break down all the ancient Magyar institutions. In 1784 the Language Edict made German the official language of the common state. The same year he ordered a census and a land-survey to be taken, to enable him to tax every one irrespective of birth or wealth. Protests came in from every quarter and a dangerous rebellion broke out in Transylvania; but opposition only made Joseph more obstinate, and he endeavoured to anticipate any further resistance by abolishing the ancient county assemblies and dividing the kingdom into two districts administered by German officials.
In taking this course Joseph made the capital mistake of neglecting the Machiavellian maxim that in changing the substance of cherished institutions the prince should be careful to preserve the semblance. In substance the county assemblies were worse than ineffective: mere turbulent gatherings of country squires and peasants, corrupt and prejudiced, representing nothing but their own pride of race and class; and to try and govern without them, or to administer in spite of them, may have been the only expedient possible to statesmen. But to the Magyars they were the immemorial strongholds of their liberties, the last defences of their constitution; and the attempt to suppress them, which made every county a centre of disaffection and resistance, was the action not of a statesman, but of a visionary. The failure of Joseph's " enlightened " policy in Hungary was inevitable in any case; it was hastened by the disastrous Turkish war of 1787-92, which withdrew Joseph altogether from domestic affairs; and on his death-bed (Feb. 22, 1790) he felt it to be his duty to annul all his principal reforms, so as to lighten the difficulties of his successor.
Leopold II. found the country on the verge of revolution; but the wisdom of the new monarch saved the situation and won back the Magyars. At the diet of1790-1791laws were passed not only confirming the royal prerogatives Leopold and the national liberties, but leaving the way open for 1792790- future developments. Hungary was declared to be a free, independent and unsubjected kingdom governed by its own laws and customs. The legislative functions were to be exercised by the king and the diet conjointly and by them alone. The diets were henceforth to be triennial, and every new king was to pledge himself to be crowned and issue his credentials 1 within six months of the death of his predecessor. Latin was still to be the official language, but Magyar was now introduced into the university and all the schools. Leopold's successor Francis I. (1792-1835) received a declaration of war from the French Legislative Assembly immediately on ascending the throne. For the next quarter of a century he, as the champion of legitimacy,was fighting the Revolution on countless battle-fields, and the fearful struggle only bound the Magyar nation closer to the Habsburg dynasty. Ignaz Jozsef Martinovics (1755-1795) and his associates, the Hungarian Jacobins, vainly attempted a revolutionary propaganda (1795), and Napoleon's mutilations of the ancient kingdom of St Stephen did not predispose the Hungarian gentry in his favour. Politically, indeed, the whole period was one of retrogression and stagnation. The frequent diets held in the earlier part of the reign occupied themselves with little else but war subsidies; after 1811 they ceased to be summoned. In the latter years of Francis I. the dark shadow of Metternich's policy of " stability " fell across the kingdom, and the forces of reactionary absolutism were everywhere supreme. But beneath the surface a strong popular current was beginning to run in a contrary direction. Hungarian society, not unaffected by western Liberalism, but without any direct help from abroad, was preparing for the future emancipation. Writers, savants, poets, artists, noble and plebeian, layman and cleric, without any previous concert, or obvious connexion, were working towards that ideal of political liberty which was to unite all the Magyars. Mihaly V6rosmartyo, Ferencz KOlcsey, Ferencz Kazinczy and his associates, to mention but a few of many great names, were, consciously or unconsciously, as the representatives of the renascent national literature, accomplishing a political mission, and their pens proved no less efficacious than the swords of their ancestors.
It was a direct attack upon the constitution which, to use the words of Istvan Szechenyi, first " startled the nation out of its sickly drowsiness." In 1823, when the reactionary powers were meditating joint action to suppress the - revolution in Spain, the government without consultin P ? g, g the diet, imposed a war-tax and called out the recruits.
The county assemblies instantly protested against this illegal act, and Francis I. was obliged, at the diet of 1823, to repudiate the action of his ministers. But the estates felt that the maintenance of their liberties demanded more substantial guarantees than the dead letter of ancient laws. Szechenyi, who had resided abroad and studied Western institutions, was the recognized leader of all those who wished to create a new Hungary out of the old. For years he and his friends educated public opinion by issuing innumerable pamphlets in which the new Liberalism was eloquently expounded. In particular Szechenyi insisted that the people must not look exclusively to the government, 1 Litterae credentiales, nearly equivalent to a coronation oath.
[HISTORY
or even to the diet, for the necessary reforms. Society itself must take the initiative by breaking down the barriers of class exclusiveness and reviving a healthy public spirit. The effect of this teaching was manifest at the diet of 1832, when the Liberals in the Lower Chamber had a large majority, prominent among whom were Francis Deák and Edon Betithy. In the Upper House, however, the magnates united with the government to form a conservative party obstinately opposed to any project of reform, which frustrated all the efforts of the Liberals.
The alarm of the government at the power and popularity of the Liberal party induced it, soon after the accession of the new king, the emperor Ferdinand I. (1835-1848), to attempt to crush the reform movement by arresting and imprisoning the most active agitators among them, Louis Kossuth and Miklos Wesselenyi. But the nation was no longer to be cowed. The diet of 1839 refused to proceed to business till the political prisoners had been released, and, while in the Lower Chamber the reforming majority was larger than ever, a Liberal party was now also formed in the Upper House under the brilliant leadership of Count Louis Batthyany and Baron Joseph EdtvOs. Two progressive measures of the highest importance were passed by this diet, one making Magyar the official language of Hungary, the other freeing the peasants' holdings from all feudal obligations.
The results of the diet of 1839 did not satisfy the advanced Liberals, while the opposition of the government and of the. Upper House still further embittered the general discontent. The chief exponent of this temper was the Pesti Hirlap, Hungary's first political newspaper, founded in 1841 by Kossuth, whose articles, advocating armed reprisals if necessary, inflamed the extremists but alienated Szechenyi, who openly attacked Kossuth's opinions. The polemic on both sides was violent; but, as usual, the extreme views prevailed, and on the assembling of the diet of 1843 Kossuth was more popular than ever, while the influence of Szechenyi had sensibly declined. The tone of this diet was passionate, and the government was fiercely attacked for interfering with the elections. Fresh triumphs were won by the Liberals. Magyar was now declared to be the language of the schools and the law-courts as well as of the legislature; mixed marriages were legalized; and official positions were thrown open to non-nobles.
The interval between the diet of 1843 and that of 1847 saw a complete disintegration and transformation of the various political parties. Szechenyi openly joined the government, while the moderate Liberals separated from the extremists and formed a new party, the Centralists. Immediately before the elections, however, Deak succeeded in reuniting all the Liberals on the common platform of " The Ten Points ": (1) Responsible ministries, (2) Popular representation, (3) The incorporation of Transylvania, (4) Right of public meeting, (6) Absolute religious liberty, (7) Universal equality before the law, (8) Universal taxation, (9) The abolition of the Aviticum, an obsolete and anomalous land-tenure, (io) The abolition of serfdom, with compensation to the landlords. The ensuing elections resulted in a complete victory of the Progressives. All efforts to bring about an understanding between the government and the opposition were fruitless. Kossuth demanded not merely the redress of actual grievances, but a reform which would make grievances impossible in the future. In the highest circles a dissolution of the diet now seemed to be the sole remedy; but, before it could be carried out, tidings of the February revolution in Paris reached Pressburg' (March 1 and on the 3rd g () 3 1848. of March Kossuth's motion for the appointment of an independent, responsible ministry was accepted by the Lower House. The moderates, alarmed not so much by the motion itself as by its tone, again tried to intervene; but on the 13th of March the Vienna revolution broke out, and the king, yielding to pressure or panic, appointed Count Louis Batthyany premier of the first Hungarian responsible ministry, which included Kossuth, Szechenyi and Deak. The Ten Points, or the March Laws as they were now called, were ' Up to 1848 the Hungarian diet was usually held at Pressburg.
then adopted by the legislature and received the royal assent (April io). Hungary had, to all intents and purposes, become an independent state bound to Austria only by the fact that the palatine chanced to be an Austrian archduke.
In the assertion of their national aspirations, confused as these were with the new democratic ideals, the Magyars had had the support of the German democrats who temporarily held the reins of power in Vienna. On the other hand, they were threatened by an ominous stirring of the subject races in Hungary itself. Croats, Vlachs, Serbs and Slovaks resented Magyar domination - a domination which had been carefully secured under the revolutionary constitution by a very narrow franchise, and out of the general chaos each race hoped to create for itself a separate national existence. The separatist movement was strongest in the south, where the Rumans were in touch with their kinsmen in Walachia and Moldavia, the Serbs with their brethren in Servia, and the Croats intent on reasserting the independence of the" Tri-une Kingdom." The attitude of the distracted imperial government towards these movements was at first openly suspicious and hostile.
The emperor and his ministers hoped that, having conceded the demands of the Magyars, they would receive the help of the Hungarian government in crushing the revolution elsewhere, a hope that seemed to be justified by the readiness with which Batthyany consented to send a contingent to the assistance of the imperialists in Italy. That the encouragement of the Slav aspirations was soon deliberately adopted as a weapon against the Hungarian government was due, partly to the speedy predominance at Pest of Kossuth and the extreme party of which he was the mouthpiece, but mainly to the calculated policy of Baron Jellachich, who on the 14th of April was appointed ban of Croatia. Jellachich, who as a soldier was devoted to the interests of the imperial house, realized that the best way to break the revolutionary power of the Magyars and Germans would be to encourage the Slav national ideas, which were equally hostile to both; to set up against the Dualism in favour at Pest and Vienna the federal system advocated by the Sla y s, and so to restore the traditional Habsburg principle of Divide et impera. This policy he pursued with masterly skill. His first acts on taking up his office were to repudiate the authority of the Hungarian diet, to replace the Maygar officials with ardent " Illyrians," and to proclaim martial law. Under pressure from the palatine of Batthyany an imperial edict was issued, on the 7th day of May, ordering the ban to desist from his separatist plans and take his orders from Pest. He not only refused to obey, but on the 5th of June convoked to Agram the Croatian national diet, of which the first act was to declare the independence of the Tri-une Kingdom. Once more, at the instance of Batthyany, the emperor intervened; and on the 10th an imperial edict stripped Jellachich of all his offices.
Meanwhile, however, Jellachich had himself started for Innsbruck, where he succeeded in persuading the emperor of the loyalty of his intentions, and whence, though not as yet formally reinstated, he was allowed to return to Croatia with practically unfettered discretion. The Hungarian government, in fact, had played into his hands. At a time when everything depended on the army, they had destroyed the main tie which bound the Austrian court to their interests by tampering with the relation of the Hungarian army to the crown. In May a national guard had been created, the disaffected troops being bribed by increased pay to desert their colours and join this; and on the 1st of June the garrison of Pest had taken an oath to the constitution. All hope of crushing revolutionary Vienna with Magyar aid was thus at an end, and Jellachich, who on the 10th issued a proclamation to the Croat regiments in Italy to remain with their colours and fight for the common fatherland, was free to carry out his policy of identifying the cause of the southern Sla y s with that of the imperial army. The alliance was cemented in July by a military demonstration, of which Jellachich was the hero, at Vienna; as the result of which the government mustered up courage to declare publicly that the basis of the Austrian state was " the recognition of the equal rights of all nationalities." This was the challenge which the Magyars were not slow to accept.
In the Hungarian diet, which met on the 2nd of July, the influence of the conservative cabinet was wholly overshadowed by that of Kossuth, whose inflammatory orations - directed against the disruptive designs of the Sla y s and the treachery of the Austrian government - precipitated the crisis. At his instance the diet not only refused to vote supplies for the troops of the ban of Croatia, but only consented to pass a motion for sending reinforcements to the army in Italy on condition that the anti-Magyar races in Hungary should be first disarmed. On the 1 ith, on his motion, a decree was passed by acclamation for a levy of 200,000 men and the raising of £4,500,000 for the defence of the independence of the country. Desultory fighting, in which Austrian officers with the tacit consent of the minister of war took part against the Magyars, had already broken out in the south. It was not, however, until the victory of Custozza (July 25) set free the army in Italy, that the Austrian government ventured on bolder measures. On the 4th of September, after weeks of fruitless negotiation, the king-emperor threw down the gauntlet by reinstating Jellachich in all his honours. Seven days later the ban declared open war on Hungary by crossing the Drave at the head of 36,000 Croatian troops (see Austria-Hungary: History). The immediate result was to place the extreme revolutionaries in power at Pest. Szechenyi had lost his reason some days before; Edtvds and Deak retired into private life; of the conservative ministers only Batthyány, to his undoing, consented to remain in office, though hardly in power. Kossuth alone was supreme.
The advance of Jellachich as far as Lake Balaton had not been checked, the Magyar troops, though - contrary to his expectation - none joined him, offering no opposition. The palatine, the Austrian Archduke Stephen, after fruitless attempts at negotiation, laid down his office on the 24th of September and left for Vienna. One more attempt at compromise was made, General Count Lamberg l being sent to take command of all the troops, Slav or Magyar, in Hungary, with a view to arranging an armistice. His mission, which was a slight to Jellachich, was conceived as a concession to the Magyars, and had the general approval of Batthyany. Unhappily, however, when Lamberg arrived in Pest, Batthyany had not yet returned; the diet, on Kossuth's motion, called on the army not to obey the new commander-in-chief, on the ground that his commission had not been countersigned by a minister at Pest. Next day, as he was crossing the bridge of Buda, Lamberg was dragged from his carriage by a frantic mob and torn to pieces. This made war inevitable; though Batthyany hurried to Vienna to try and arrange a settlement. Failing in this, he retired, and on the 2nd of October a royal proclamation, countersigned by his successor, Recssey, placed Hungary under martial law and appointed Jellachich viceroy and commander of all the forces. This proclamation, together with the order given to certain Viennese regiments to march to the assistance of Jellachich, who had been defeated at Pakozd on the 29th of September, led to the emeute (Oct. 3) which ended in the murder of the minister of war, Latour, and the second flight of the emperor to Innsbruck. The fortunes of the German revolutionaries in Vienna and the Magyar revolutionists in Pest were now closely bound up together; and when, on the 11th, Prince Windischgratz laid siege to Vienna, it was to Hungary that the democrats of the capital looked for relief. The despatch of a large force of militia to the assistance of the Viennese was, in fact, the first act of open rebellion of the Hungarians. They suffered a defeat at Schwechat on the 30th of October, which sealed the fate of the revolutionists in Vienna and thus precipitated a conflict a outrance in Hungary itself.
I Franz Phillip, Count von Lamberg (1791-1848), a field-marshal in the Austrian army, who had seen service in the campaigns of1814-1815in France, belonged to the Stockerau branch of the ancient countly family of Orteneck-Ottenstein. He was chosen for this particular mission as being himself a Hungarian magnate conversant with Hungarian affairs, but at the same time of the party devoted to the court.
In Austria the army was now supreme, and the appointment of Prince Felix Schwarzenberg as head of the government was a guarantee that its power would be used in a reactionary F sense without weakness or scruple. The Austrian diet was transferred on the i 5th of November to Kremsier, remote from revolutionary influences; and, though the government still thought it prudent to proclaim its constitutional principles, it also proclaimed its intention to preserve the unity of the monarchy. A still further step was taken when, on the 2nd of December, the emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favour of his nephew Francis Joseph. The new sovereign was a lad of eighteen, who for the present was likely to be the mere mouthpiece of Schwarzenberg's policy. Moreover, he was not bound by the constitutional obligations unwillingly accepted by his uncle. The Magyars at once took up the challenge. On the 7th the Hungarian diet formally refused to acknowledge the title of the new king, " as without the knowledge and consent of the diet no one could sit on the Hungarian throne," and called the nation to arms. Constitutionally, in the Magyar opinion, Ferdinand was still king of Hungary, and this gave to the revolt an excuse of legality. Actually, from this time until the collapse of the rising, Louis Kossuth was the ruler of Hungary.
The struggle opened with a series of Austrian successes. Prince Windischgratz, who had received orders to reduce Hungary by fire and sword, began his advance on the 15th of December; opened up the way to the capital by the victory of Mor (Oct. 30), and on the 5th of January 1849 occupied Pest, while the Hungarian government and diet retired behind the Theiss and established themselves at Debreczen. A last attempt at reconciliation, made by the more moderate members of the diet in Windischgratz's camp at Bieske (Jan. 3), had foundered on the uncompromising attitude of the Austrian commander, who demanded unconditional submission; whereupon the moderates, including Deak and Batthyany, retired into private life, leaving Kossuth to carry on the struggle with the support of the enthusiastic extremists who constituted the rump of the diet at Debreczen. The question now was: how far the military would subordinate itself to the civil element of the national government. The first symptom of dissonance was a proclamation by the commander of the Upper Danube division, Arthur Gdrgei, from his camp at Vacz (Jan. 5) emphasizing the fact that the national defence was purely constitutional, and menacing all who might be led astray from this standpoint by republican aspirations. Immediately after this proclamation Gdrgei disappeared with his army among the hills of Upper Hungary, and, despite the difficulties of a phenomenally severe winter and the constant pursuit of vastly superior forces, fought his way down to the valley of Hernad - and safety. This masterly winter-campaign first revealed Gdrgei's military genius, and the discipline of that terrible month of marching and counter-marching had hardened his recruits into veterans whom his country regarded with pride and his country's enemies with respect. Unfortunately his success caused some jealousy in official quarters, and when, in the middle of February 1849, a commander-in-chief was appointed to carry out Kossuth's plan of campaign, that vital appointment was given, not to the man who had made the army what it was, but to a foreigner, a Polish refugee, Count Henrik Dembinski, who, after fighting the bloody and indecisive battle of Ka olna (Feb. 26-2 Y P (26-27), was forced to retreat. Gdrgei was immediately appointed his successor, and the new generalissimo led the Honveds from victory to victory. Ably supported by Klapka and Damjanich he pressed forward irresistibly. Szolnok (March 5), Isaszeg (April 6), Vácz (April 10), and NagysarlS (April 19) were so many milestones in his triumphal progress. On the 25th of May the Hungarian capital was once more in the hands of the Hungarians.
Meanwhile, the earlier events of the war had so altered the political situation that any idea which the diet at Debreczen had cherished of a compromise with Austria was destroyed. The capture of Pest had confirmed the Austrian court in its policy of unification, which after the victory of Kapolna they thought it safe to proclaim. On the 7th of March the diet of Kremsier was dissolved, and immediately afterwards a proclama- tion tion was issued in the name of the emperor Francis Joseph establishing a united constitution for the whole empire, of which Hungary, cut up into half a dozen administrative districts, was henceforth to be little more than the largest of several subject provinces. The news of this manifesto, arriving as it did simultaneously with that of Gdrgei's successes, destroyed the last vestiges of a desire of the Hungarian revolutionists to compromise, and on the 14th of April, on the motion of Kossuth, the diet proclaimed the independence of Hungary, declared the house of Habsburg as false and perjured, for ever excluded from the throne, and elected Kossuth president of the Hungarian Republic. This was an execrable blunder in the circumstances, and the results were fatal to the national cause. Neither the government nor the army could accommodate itself to the new situation. From henceforth the military and civil authorities, as represented by Kossuth and Gdrgei, were hopelessly out of sympathy with each other, and the breach widened till all effective co-operation became impossible.
Meanwhile the humiliating defeats of the imperial army and the course of events in Hungary had compelled the court of Vienna to accept the assistance which the emperor Nicholas I. of Russia had proffered in the loftiest spirit of the Holy Alliance. The Austro-Russian R alliance was announced at the beginning of May, and before the end of the month the common plan of campaign had been arranged. The Austrian commander-in-chief, Count Haynau, was to attack Hungary from the west, the Russian, Prince Paskevich, from the north, gradually environing the kingdom, and then advancing to end the business by one decisive blow in the mid-Theissian counties. They had at their disposal 375,000 men, to which the Magyars could only oppose 160,000. The Magyars, too, were now more than ever divided among themselves, no plan of campaign had yet been drawn up, no commander-in-chief appointed to replace Gdrgei, whom Kossuth had deposed. Haynau's first victories (June 20-28) put an end to their indecisions. On the 2nd of July the Hungarian government abandoned Pest and transferred its capital first to Szeged and finally to Arad. The Russians were by this time well on their way to the Theiss, and the terrible girdle which was to throttle the liberties of Hungary was all but completed. Kossuth again appointed as commander-inchief the brave but inefficient Dembinski, who was utterly routed at Temesvar (Aug. 9) by Haynau. This was the last great battle of the War of Independence. The final catastrophe was now unavoidable. On the 13th of August Gdrgei, who had been appointed dictator by the panic-stricken government two days before, surrendered the remnant of his hardly pressed army to the Russian General Riidiger at Világos. The other army corps and all the fortresses followed his example, Komarom, heroically defended by Klapka, being the last to capitulate (Sept. 27). Kossuth and his associates, who had quitted Arad on the 10th of August, took refuge in Turkish territory. By the end of the month Paskevich could write to the Emperor Nicholas: " Hungary lies at the feet of your Imperial Majesty." From October 1849 to July 1850 Hungary was governed by martial law administered by " the butcher " Haynau. This was a period of military tribunals, dragooning, wholesale T Bach confiscation 'and all manner of brutalities.' From System." 1851 to 1860 pure terrorism was succeeded by the " Bach System," which derives its name from the imperial minister of the interior, Baron Alexander von Bach. The Bach System did not recognize historical Hungary. It ' The crowning atrocities, which the Magyars have never wholly forgiven, were the shooting and hanging of the " Arad Martyrs " and the execution of Batthyany. On October 6, 1849, thirteen generals who had taken part in the war, including Damjanics and Counts Vecsey and Leiningen, were hanged or shot at Arad. On the same day Count Louis Batthyany, who had taken no part in the war and had done his utmost to restrain his countrymen within the bounds of legality, was shot at Pest.
postulated the existence of one common indivisible state of which mutilated Hungary 2 formed an important section. The supreme government was entrusted to an imperial council responsible to the emperor alone. The counties were administered by imperial officials, Germans, Czechs and Galicians, who did not understand the Magyar tongue. German was the official language. But though reaction was the motive power of this new machinery of government, it could not do away with many of the practical and obvious improvements of 1848, and it was not blind to some of the indispensable requirements of a. modern state. The material welfare of the nation was certainly promoted by it. Modern roads were made, the first railways were laid down, the regulation of the river Theiss was taken in hand, a new and better scheme of finance was inaugurated. But the whole system, so to speak, hung in the air. It took no root in the soil. The Magyar nation stood aloof from it. It was plain that at the first revolutionary blast from without, or the first insurrectionary outburst from within, the " Bach System would vanish like a mirage.
Meanwhile the new Austrian empire had failed to stand the test of international complications. The Crimean War had isolated it in Europe. The Italian war of 1859 had The revealed its essential instability. It was felt at court that some concessions were now due to the subject nationalities. Hence the October Diploma (Oct. 20, 1860. 1860) which proposed to prop up the crazy common state with the shadow of a constitution and to grant some measure of local autonomy to Hungary, subject always to the supervision of the imperial council (Reichsrath). 3 This project was favoured by the Magyar conservative magnates who had never broken with the court, but was steadily opposed by the Liberal leader Ferencz Deal(whose upright and tenacious character made him at this crisis the oracle and the buttress of the national cause. Deak's standpoint was as simple as it was unchangeable. He demanded the re-establishment of the constitution of 1848 in its entirety, the whole constitution and nothing but the constitution.
The October Diploma was followed by the February Patent (Feb. 26, 1861), which proposed to convert the Reichsrath into a constitutional representative assembly, with two chambers, to which all the provinces of the empire February were to send deputies. The project, elaborated by Anton von Schmerling, was submitted to a Hungarian 1861. diet which assembled at Pest on the 2nd of April 1861. After long and violent debates, the diet, on the 8th of August, unanimously adopted an address to the crown, drawn up by Deak, praying for the restoration of the political and territorial integrity of Hungary, for the public coronation of the king with all its accompaniments, and the full restitution of the fundamental laws. The executive retorted by dissolving the diet on the 21st of August and levying the taxes by military execution. The so-called Provisorium had begun.
But the politicians of Vienna had neither the power nor the time to realize their intentions. The question of Italian unity had no sooner been settled than the question of The German unity arose, and fresh international difficulties Austro- once more inclined the Austrian government towards moderation and concession. In the beginning of June ar of 1865, Francis Joseph came to Buda; on the 26th a 1866. provisional Hungarian government was formed, on the 10th of September the February constitution was suspended, and on the 14th of December a diet was summoned to Buda-Pest. The great majority of the nation naturally desired a composition with its ruler and with Austria, and this general desire was unerringly interpreted and directed by Deak, who carried two-thirds of the deputies along with him. The session was interrupted by the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War, but not before a 2 Transylvania, Croatio-Slavonia with Fiume and the Temes Banat were separated from the kingdom and provided with local governments.
3 This Reichsrath was a purely consultative body, the ultimate control of all important affairs being reserved to the emperor. Its representative element consisted of loo members elected by the provinces.
parties had not come about naturally, was an additional difficulty. Broadly speaking, there have been in Hungary since 1867 two parties: those who accept the compromise with Austria, and affirm that under it Hungary, so far from having surrendered any of her rights, has acquired an influence which she previously did not actually possess, and secondly, those who see in the compromise an abandonment of the essentials of independence and aim at the restoration of the conditions established in 1848. Within this broad division, however, have appeared from time to time political groups in bewildering variety, each adopting a party designation according to the exigencies of the moment, but each basing its programme on one or other of the theoretical foundations above mentioned. Thus, at the outset, the most heterogeneous elements were to be found both on the Left and Right. The Extreme Left was infected by the fanaticism of Kossuth, who condemned the compromise and refused to take the benefit of the amnesty, while the prelates and magnates who had originally opposed the compromise were now to be found by the side of Deal(and Andrassy. The Deak party preserved its majority at the elections of 1869, but the Left Centre and Extreme Left returned to the diet considerably reinforced. The outbreak of the FrancoGerman War of 1870 turned the attention of the Magyars to assy. foreign affairs. Andrassy never rendered a greater service to his country than when he prevented the imperial chancellor and joint foreign minister, Count Beust,' from intervening in favour of France. On the retirement of Beust in 1871, Andrassy was appointed his successor, the first instance, since Hungary came beneath the dominion of the Habsburgs, of an Hungarian statesman being entrusted with the conduct of foreign affairs. But, however gratifying such an elevation might be, it was distinctly prejudicial, at first, to Hungary's domestic affairs, for no one else at this time, in Hungary, possessed either the prestige or the popularity of Andrassy. Within the next five years ministry followed ministry in rapid succession. A hopeless political confusion ensued. Few measures could be passed. The finances fell into disorder. The national credit was so seriously impaired abroad that foreign loans could only be obtained at ruinous rates of interest. During this period Peak had almost entirely withdrawn from public life. His last great speech was delivered on the 28th of June 1873, and he died on the 29th of January 1876. Fortunately, in Kalman Tisza, the leader of the Liberal From the first, Tisza was exposed to the violent attacks of the opposition, which embraced, not only the party of Independence, champions of the principles of 1848, but the so-called National party, led by the brilliant orator Count Albert Apponyi, which aimed at much the same ends but looked upon the Compromise of 1867 as a convenient substructure on which to build up the Magyar state. Neither could forgive Tisza for repudiating his earlier Radical policy, the so-called Bihar Programme (March 6, 1868), which went far beyond the Compromise in the direction of independence, and both attacked him with a violence which his unyielding temper, and the ruthless methods by which he always knew how to secure victory, tended ever to fan into fury. Yet Tisza's aim also was to convert the old polyglot Hungarian kingdom into a homogeneous Magyar state, and the methods which he employed - notably the enforced magyarization of the subject races, which formed part of the reformed educational system introduced by him - certainly did not err on the side of moderation. 2 Whatever view may be held of Tisza's policy in this respect, or of the corrupt methods by which he maintained his party in power, 3 there can be no doubt that during his long tenure of office - which practically amounted to a dictatorship - he did much to promote the astonishing progress of his country, which ran a risk of being stifled in the strife of factions. Himself a Calvinist, he succeeded in putting an end to the old quarrel of Catholic and Protestant and uniting them in a common enthusiasm for a race ideal; nominally a Liberal, he trampled on every Liberal principle in order to secure the means for governing with a firm hand; and if the political corruption of modern Hungary is largely his work, 4 to him also belongs the credit for the measures which have placed the country on a sound economic basis and the statesmanlike temper which made Hungary a power in the affairs of Europe. In this latter respect Tisza rendered substantial aid to the joint minister for foreign affairs by repressing the anti-Russian ardour of the Magyars on the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, and by supporting Andrassy's execution of the mandate from the Berlin Congress to Austria-Hungary for the occupation of Bosnia, against which the Hungarian opposition agitated for reasons ostensibly financial. Tisza's policy on both these occasions increased his unpopularity in Hungary, but in the highest circles at Vienna he was now regarded as indispensable.
The following nine years mark the financial and commercial rehabilitation of Hungary, the establishment of a vast and original railway system which won the admiration of Europe, the liberation and expansion of her over-sea trade, the conversion of her national debt under the most favourable conditions and the consequent equilibrium of her finances. These benefits the nation owed for the most part to Gabor Baross, Hungary's greatest finance minister, who entered the cabinet in 1886 and greatly strengthened it. But the opposition, while unable to deny the recuperation of Hungary, shut their eyes to everything but Tisza's " tyranny, " and their attacks were never so savage and unscrupulous as during the session of 1889, when threats of a revolution were uttered by the opposition leaders and the premier could only enter or leave the House under police protection. The tragic death of the crown prince Rudolph hushed for a time the strife of tongues, and in the meantime Tisza brought into the ministry Ders6 Szilagyi, the most powerful debater in the House, and Sandor Wekerle, whose solid talents had hitherto been hidden beneath the bushel of an under-secretaryship. But in 1890, during the debates on the Kossuth Repatriation Bill, the attacks on the premier were renewed, and on the 13th of March he placed his resignation in the king's hands.
The withdrawal of Tisza scarcely changed the situation, but the period of brief ministries now began. Tisza's successor, 2 See for this Mr Seton-Watson's Racial Problems of Hungary, passim. 3 Ibid. p. 168.
4 Especially the Electoral Law of 1874, which established a very unequal distribution of electoral areas, a highly complicated franchise, and voting by public declaration, thus making it easy for the government to intimidate the electors and generally to gerrymander the elections.
committee had been formed to draft the new constitution. The peace of Prague (Aug. 20, 1866), excluding Austria from Italy and Germany, made the fate of the Habsburg monarchy absolutely dependent upon a compromise with the Magyars. (For the Compromise or Ausgleich, see Austria-Hungary: History.) On the 7th of November 1866, the diet reassembled. On the 17th of February 1867 a responsible inde pendent ministry was formed under Count Gyula 'p y y ' of 1867. Andrassy. On the 29th of May the new constitution was adopted by 209 votes to 89. Practically it was an amplification of the March Laws of 1848. The coronation took place on the 8th of June, on which occasion the king solemnly declared that he wished " a veil to be drawn over the past." The usual coronation gifts he devoted to the benefit of the Honved invalids who had fought in the War of Independence. The reconciliation between monarch and people was assured.
Hungary was now a free and independent modern state; but the very completeness and suddenness of her constitutional victory made it impossible for the strongly flowing current of political life to keep within due bounds. The circumstance that the formation of political Tisza. (Szabadelmii i.e. " F r ee Principle " party, left p ) p y? behind him a statesman of the first rank, who for the next eighteen years was to rule Hungary uninterruptedly.
[HISTORY
Beust was the only " imperial chancellor " in Austro-Hungarian history; even Metternich bore only the title of " chancellor "; and Andrassy, who succeeded Beust, styled himself " minister of the imperial and royal household and for foreign affairs." Count Gyula Szapary, formerly minister of agriculture, held office for eighteen months, and was succeeded (Nov. 21, 1892) by Wekerle. Wekerle, essentially a business man, had taken office for the express purpose of equilibrating the finances, but the religious question aroused by the encroachments of the Catholic clergy, and notably their insistence on the baptism of the children of mixed marriages, had by this time (1893-1894) excluded all others, and the government were forced to postpone their financial programme to its consideration. The Obligatory Civil Marriage Bill, the State Registries Bill and the Religion of Children of Mixed Marriages Bill, were finally adopted on the 21st of June 1894, after fierce debates and a ministerial interregnum of ten days (June 10-20); but on the 25th of December, Wekerle, who no longer possessed the king's confidence,' resigned a second time, and was succeeded by Baron Dersb (Desiderius) Banffy. The various parties meanwhile had split up into some half a dozen sub-sections; but the expected fusion of the party of independence and the government fell through, and the barren struggle continued till the celebration of the millennium of the foundation of the monarchy produced for some months a lull in politics. Subsequently, Banffy still further exasperated the opposition by exercising undue influence during the elections of 1896. The majority he obtained on this occasion enabled him, however, to carry through the Army Education Bill, which tended to magyarize the Hungarian portion of the joint army; and another period of comparative calm ensued, during which Banffy attempted to adjust various outstanding financial and economical differences with Austria. But in November 1898, on the occasion of the renewal of the commercial convention with Austria, the attack on the ministry was renewed with unprecedented virulence, obstruction being systematically practised with the object of goading the government into committing illegalities, till Banffy, finding the situation impossible, resigned on the 17th of February 1899. His successor, Kalman Szell, obtained an immense but artificial Szell , majority by a fresh fusion of parties, and the minority pledged itself to grant an indemnity for the extra parliamentary financial decrees rendered necessary by Hungary's understanding with Austria, as well as to cease from obstruction. As a result of this compromise the budget of 1899 was passedlin little more than a month, and the commercial and tariff treaty with Austria were renewed till 1903.2 But the government had to pay for this complacency with a so-called " pactum," which bound its hands in several directions, much to the profit of the opposition during the " pure " elections of 1901. On the reassembling of the diet, Count Albert Apponyi was elected speaker, and the minority seemed disposed to let the government try to govern. But the proposed raising of the contingent of recruits by 15,000 men (Oct. 1902) once more brought up the question of the common army, the parliament refusing to pass the bill, except in return for the introduction of the Hungarian national flag into the Hungarian regiments and the substitution of Magyar for German in the words of command. The king refusing to yield an inch of his rights under clause ii. of Law XII. of the Compromise of 1867, the opposition once more took to obstruction, and on the 1st of May 1903 Szell was forced to resign.
Every one now looked to the crown to extract the nation from an ex-lex, or extra-constitutional situation, but when the king, passing over the ordinary party-leaders, appointed as premier Count Karoly Khuen-Hedervary, who had made himself impossible as ban of Croatia, there was general amazement and indignation. The fact was that 1903. the king, weary of the tactics of a minority which for years had terrorized every majority and prevented the government from exercising its proper constitutional functions, had resolved to show the Magyars that he was prepared to rule unconstitu 1 The Austrian court resented especially the decree proclaiming national mourning for Louis Kossuth, though no minister was present at the funeral.
z Subsequently extended till 1907.
tionally rather than imperil the stability of the Dual Monarchy by allowing any tampering with the joint army. In an ordinance on the army word of command, promulgated on the 16th of September, he reaffirmed the inalienable character of the powers of the crown over the joint army and the necessity for maintaining German as the common military language. This was followed by the fall of Khuen-Hedervary (September 29), and a quarrel a outrance between crown and parliament seemed unavoidable. The Liberal party, however, realized the abyss towards which they were hurrying the country, and united their efforts to come to a constitutional understanding with the king. The problem was to keep the army an Hungarian army without infringing on the prerogative of the king as commander-in-chief, for, unconstitutional as the new ordinance might be, it could not constitutionally be set aside without the royal assent. The king; met them half way by inviting the majority to appoint a committee to settle the army question provisionally, and a committee was formed, which included Szell, Apponyi, Count Istvan Tisza. and other experienced statesmen.
A programme approved of by all the members of the committee was drawn up, and on the 3rd of November 1903, Count Istvan Tisza was appointed minister president to carry it out. Thus, out of respect for the wishes of the nation, the king had voluntarily thrown open to public discussion the hitherto strictly closed and jealously guarded domain of the army. Tisza, a statesman of singular probity and tenacity, seemed to be the one person capable of carrying out the programme of the king and the majority. The irreconcilable minority, recognizing this, exhausted all the resources of " technical obstruction " in order to reduce the government to impotence, a task made easy by the absurd standing-rules of the House which enabled any single member to block a measure. These tactics soon rendered legislation impossible, and a modification of the rule of procedure became absolutely necessary if any business at all was to be done. The Modification of the Standing-orders Bill was accordingly introduced by the deputy Gabor Daniel (Nov. 18, 1904); but the opposition, to which the National party had attached itself, denounced it as " a gagging order " inspired at Vienna, and shouted it down so vehemently that 'no debate could be held; whereupon the president declared the bill carried and adjourned the House till the 13th of December 1904. This was at once followed by an anti-ministerial fusion of the extremists of all parties, including seceders from the government (known as the T C Constitutional party); and when the diet reassembled, the opposition broke into the House by force and wrecked all the furniture, so that a session was physically impossible (Jan. 5, 1905). Tisza now appealed to the country, but was utterly defeated. The opposition thereupon proceeded to annul the Lex Daniel (April 7) and stubbornly to clamour for the adoption of the Magyar word of command in the Hungarian part of the common army. To this demand the king as stubbornly refused to accede; 3 and as the result of the consequent dead-lock, Tisza, who had courageously continued in office at the king's request, after every other leading politician had refused to form a ministry, was finally dismissed on the 17th of June. (R. N. B.; W. A. P.) Long negotiations between the crown and the leaders of the Coalition having failed to give any promise of a ;modus vivendi, the king-emperor at last determined to appoint an o The question involves rather complex issues. Apart from the question of constitutional right, the Magyars objected to German as the medium of military education as increasing the difficulty of magyarizing the subordinate races of Hungary (see KnatchbullHugessen, ii. 296). On the other hand the Austrians pointed out that not only would failure to understand each other's language cause fatal confusion on a battlefield, but also tend to disintegrate the forces even in peace time. They also laid stress on the fact that Magyar was not, any more than German, the language of many Hungarian regiments, consisting as these did mainly of Slovaks, Vlachs, Serbs and Croats. In resisting the Magyar word of command, then, the king-emperor was able to appeal to the antiMagyar feeling of the other Hungarian races. (W. A. P.) 1906. extra-parliamentary ministry, and on the 21st of June Baron Fejervary, an officer in the royal bodyguard, was nominated minister president with a cabinet consisting of little- Fejervary known permanent officials. Instead of presenting the Go vern- usual programme, the new premier read to the arliament. P g P P ment a royal autograph letter stating the reasons which had actuated the king in taking this course, and giving as the task of the new ministry the continuance of negotiations with the Coalition on the basis of the exclusion of the language question. The parliament was at the same time prorogued. A period followed of arbitrary government on the one hand and of stubborn passive resistance on the other. Three times the parliament was again prorogued - from the 15th of September to the 10th of October, from this date to the 19th of December, and from this yet again to the 1st of March 1906 - in spite of the protests of both Houses. To the repressive measures of the government - press censorship, curtailment of the right of public meeting, dismissal of recalcitrant officials, and dragooning of disaffected county assemblies and municipalities - the Magyar nation opposed a sturdy refusal to pay taxes, to supply recruits or to carry on the machinery of administration.
Had this attitude represented the temper of the whole Hungarian people, it would have been impossible for the crown to have coped with it. But the Coalition represented, in fact, not the mass of the people, but only a small dominant minority,' and for years past this minority had neglected the social and economic needs of the mass of the people in the eager pursuit of party advantage and the effort to impose, by coercion and corruption failing other means, the Magyar language and Magyar culture on the non-Magyar races. In this supreme crisis, then, it is not surprising that the masses listened with sullen indifference to the fiery eloquence of the Coalition leaders. Moreover, by refusing the royal terms, the Coalition had forced the crown into an alliance with the extreme democratic elements in the state. Universal suffrage had already been adopted in the Cis-leithan half of the monarchy; it was an obvious policy to propose it for Hungary also, and thus, by an appeal to the non-Magyar Kristoffy's majority, to reduce the irreconcilable Magyar minority Universal to reason. Universal suffrage, then, was the first and Suffrage most important of the proposals put forward by Mr proposal. Joszef Kristoffy, the minister of the interior, in the programme issued by him on the 26th of November 1905. Other proposals were: the maintenance of the system of the joint army as established in 1867, but with the concession that all Hungarian recruits were to receive their education in Magyar; the maintenance till 1917 of the actual customs convention with Austria; a reform of the land laws, with a view to assisting the poorer proprietors; complete religious equality; universal and compulsory primary education.
The issue of a programme so liberal, and notably the inclusion in it of the idea of universal suffrage, entirely checkmated the opposition parties. Their official organs, indeed, continued to fulminate against the " unconstitutional " government, but the enthusiasm with which the programme had been received in the country showed the Coalition leaders the danger of their position, and henceforth, though they continued their denunciations of Austria, they entered into secret negotiations with the king-emperor, in order, by coming to terms with him, to ward off the fatal consequences of Kristoffy's proposals.
On the 19th of February 1906 the parliament was dissolved, without writs being issued for a new election, a fact accepted by the country with an equanimity highly disconcerting The agreement with the crown which had made this course possible included the postponement of the military questions that had evoked the crisis, and the acceptance of the principle of Universal Suffrage by the Coalition leaders, who announced that their main tasks would be to repair the mischief wrought by the " unconstitutional " Fejervary cabinet, and then to introduce a measure of franchise reform so wide that it would be possible to ascertain the will of the whole people on the questions at issue between themselves and the crown. 3 In the general elections that followed the Liberal party was practically wiped out, its leader, Count Istvan Tisza, retiring into private life.
For two years and a half the Coalition ministry continued in office without showing any signs that they intended to carry out the most important item of their programme. The Andrassy's old abuses continued: the muzzling of the press in the universal interests of Magyar nationalism, the imprisonment Suffrage of non-Magyar deputies for " incitement against Bill. Magyar nationality," the persecution of Socialists and of the subordinate races. That this condition of things could not be allowed to continue was, indeed, recognized by all parties; the fundamental difference of opinion was as to the method by which it was to be ended. The dominant Magyar parties were committed to the principle of franchise reform; but they were determined that this reform should be of such a nature as not to imperil their own hegemony. What this would mean was pointed out by Mr Kristoffy in an address delivered at Budapest on the 14th of March 1907. " If the work of social reform," he said, " is scamped by a measure calculated to falsify the essence of reform, the struggle will be continued in the Chamber until full electoral liberty is attained. Till then there can be no social peace in Hungary." 4 The postponement of the question was, indeed, already producing ugly symptoms of popular indignation. On the 10th of October 1907 there was a great and orderly demonstration at Budapest, organized by the socialists, in favour of reform. About ioo,000 people assembled, and a deputation handed to Mr Justh, the president of the Chamber, a monster petition in favour of universal suffrage. The reception it met with was not calculated to encourage constitutional methods. The Socialist deputy, Mr Mezbffy, who wished to move an interpellation on the question, was howled down by the Independents with shouts of " Away with him! Down with him! "b Four days later, in answer to a question by the same deputy, Count Andrassy said that the Franchise Bill would be introduced shortly, but that it would be of such a nature that "the Magyar State idea would remain intact and suffer no diminution." 6 Yet more than a year was to pass before the promised bill was introduced, and meanwhile the feeling in the country had grown more intense, culminating in serious riots at Budapest on the 13th of March 1908.
At last (November 11, 1908) Count Andrassy introduced the long-promised bill. How far it was from satisfying the demands of the Hungarian peoples was at once apparent. It granted, manhood suffrage, it is true, but hedged with so many qualifying conditions and complicated with so elaborate a system of plural voting as to make its effect nugatory. Every male Hungarian citizen, able to read and write, was to receive the vote at the beginning of his twenty-fifth year, subject to a residential qualification of twelve months. Illiterate citizens were to choose one elector for every ten of their number. All electors not having the qualifications for the plural franchise were to have one vote. Electors who, e.g., had passed four standards of a secondary school, or paid 16s. 8d. in direct taxation, were to have two votes. Electors who had passed five standards, or who paid £4, 3s. 4d. in direct taxes, were to have three votes. Voting was to be public, as before, on the ground, according to the Preamble, that " the secret ballot protects electors in dependent positions only in so far as they break their promises under the veil of secrecy." It was at once seen that this elaborate scheme was intended 3 Seton-Watson, Racial Problems, p. 194.
4 The Times, March 14, 1907.
' Ibid. October 11, 1907.6 Ibid. October 15, 1907.
Coalition to patriots. Meanwhile the negotiations continued, Ministry, s o secretly that when, on the 9th of April, the appoint- 1906. Y, 9 P ?, PP ment of a Coalition cabinet 2 under Dr Sandor Wekerle was announced, the world was taken completely by surprise.
' Of the 16,000,000 inhabitants of Hungary barely a half were Magyar; and the franchise was possessed by only 800,000, of whom the Magyars formed the overwhelming majority.
2 The cabinet consisted of Dr Wekerle (premier and finance), Ferencz Kossuth (commerce), Count Gyula Andrassy (interior), 'Count Albert Apponyi (education), Davanyi (agriculture), Polonyi ((justice) and Count Aladar Zichy (court).
[HISTORY
to preserve " the Magyar State idea intact." Its result, had it passed, would have been to strengthen the representation of the Magyar and German elements, to reduce that of the Slovaks, and almost to destroy that of the Rumans and other non-Magyar races whose educational status was low. 1 On the other hand, according to the Neue Freie Presse, it would have increased the number of electors from some million odd to 2,600,000, and the number of votes to 4,000,000; incidentally it would have largely increased the working-class representation.
This proposal was at once recognized by public opinion - to use the language of the Journal des Debats (May 21, 1909) - as " an instrument of domination " rather than as an attempt to carry out the spirit of the compact under which the Coalition goyernment had been summoned to power. It was not, indeed, simply a reactionary or undemocratic measure; it was, as The Times correspondent pointed out, " a measure sui generis, designed to defeat the objects of the universal suffrage movement that compelled the Coalition to take office in April 1906, and framed in accordance with Magyar needs as understood by one of the foremost Magyar noblemen." Under this bill culture was to be the gate to a share in political power, and in Hungary culture must necessarily be Magyar.
Plainly, this bill was not destined to settle the Hungarian problem, and other questions soon arose which showed that the crisis, so far from being near a settlement, was destined i t was clear that the Coalition Ministry was falling y g to to become more acute than ever. In December 1908 pieces. Those ministers who belonged to the constitutional and popular parties, i.e. the Liberals and Clericals, desired to maintain the compact with the crown; their colleagues of the Independence party were eager to advance the cause they have at heart by pressing on the question of a separate Hungarian bank. So early as March 1908 Mr Hallo had laid a formal proposal before the House that the charter of the AustroHungarian bank, which was to expire on the 31st of December 19 10, should not be renewed; that negotiations should be opened with the Austrian government with a view to a convention between the banks of Austria and Hungary; and that, in the event of these negotiations failing, an entirely separate Hungarian bank should be established. The Balkan crisis threw this question into the background during the winter; but, with the settlement of the international questions raised by the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it once more came to the front. The ministry was divided on the issue, Count Andrassy opposing and Mr Ferencz Kossuth supporting the proposal for a separate bank. Finally, the prime minister, Dr Wekerle, mainly owing to the pressure put upon him by Mr Justh, the president of the Chamber, yielded to the importunity of the Independence party, and, in the name of the Hungarian government, laid the proposals for a separate bank before the king-emperor and the Austrian government.
The result was a foregone conclusion. The conference at Vienna revealed the irreconcilable difference within the ministry; but it revealed also something more - the determination of the emperor Francis Joseph, if pressed beyond the limits of his patience, to appeal again to the non-Magyar Hungarians against the Magyar chauvinists. He admitted that under the Compromise of 1867 Hungary might have a separate bank, while urging the expediency of such an arrangement from the point of view of the international position of the Dual Monarchy. But he pointed out also that the question of a separate bank did not actually figure in the act of 1867, and that it could not be introduced into it, more especially since the capital article of the ministerial programme, i.e. electoral reform, was not realized, nor near being realized. On the 27th of April, in consequence of this rebuff, Dr Wekerle tendered his resignation, but consented to hold office pending the completion of the difficult task of forming another government.
This task was destined to prove one of almost insuperable difficulty. Had the issues involved been purely Hungarian and 1 The Times, September 27, 1908.
constitutional, the natural course would have been for the king to have sent for Mr Kossuth, who commanded the strongest party in the parliament, and to have entrusted him with the formation of a government. But the issues involved affected the stability of the Dual Monarchy and its position in Europe; and neither the king-emperor nor his Austrian advisers, their position strengthened by the success of Baron Aehrenthal's diplomatic victory in the Balkans, were prepared to make any substantial concessions to the party of Independence. In these circumstances the king sent for Dr Laszlo Lukacs, once finance - minister in the Fejervary cabinet, whose task was, acting as a. homo regius apart from parties, to construct a government out of any elements that might be persuaded to co-operate with him. But Lukacs had no choice but to apply in the first instance to Mr Kossuth and his friends, and these, suspecting an intention of crushing their party by entrapping them into unpopular engagements, rejected his overtures. Nothing now remained but for the king to request Dr Wekerle to remain " for the present " in office with his colleagues, thus postponing the settlement of the crisis (July 4).
This procrastinating policy played into the hands of the extremists; for supplies had not been voted, and the question of the credits for the expenditure incurred in connexion with the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, increasingly urgent, placed a powerful weapon in the hands of the Magyars, and made it certain that in the autumn the crisis would assume an even more acute form. By the middle of September affairs had again reached an impasse. On the 14th Dr Wekerle, at the ministerial conference assembled at Vienna for the purpose of discussing the estimates to be laid before the delegations, announced that the dissensions among his colleagues made the continuance of the Coalition government impossible. The burning points of controversy were the magyarization of the Hungarian regiments and the question of the separate state bank. On the first of these Wekerle, Andrassy and Apponyi were prepared to accept moderate concessions; as to the second, they were opposed to the question being raised at all. Kossuth and Justh, on the other hand, competitors for the leadership of the Independence party, declared themselves not prepared to accept anything short of the full rights of the Magyars in those matters. The matter was urgent; for parliament was to meet on the 28th, and it was important that a new cabinet, acceptable to it, should be appointed before that date, or that the Houses should be prorogued pending such appointment; otherwise the delegations would be postponed and no credits would be voted for the cost of the new Austro-Hungarian " Dreadnoughts " and of the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the event, neither of these courses proved possible, and on the 28th Dr Wekerle once more announced his resignation to the parliament. The prime minister was not, however, as yet to be relieved of an impossible responsibility. After a period of wavering Mr Kossuth had consented to shelve for the time the question of the separate bank, and on the strength of this Dr Wekerle advised the crown to entrust to him the formation of a government. The position thus created raised a twofold question: Would the crown accept? In that event, would he be able to carry his party with him in support of his modified programme? The answer to the first question, in effect, depended on that given by events to the second; and this was not long in declaring itself. The plan, concerted by Kossuth and Apponyi, with the approval of Baron Aehrenthal, was to carry on a modified coalition government with the aid of the Andrassy Liberals, the National party, the Clerical People's party 2 and the Independence party, on a basis of suffrage reform with plural franchise, the 2 The People's party first emerged during the elections of 1896, when it contested 98 seats. Its object was to resist the anti-clerical tendencies of the Liberals, and for this purpose it appealed to the " nationalities " against the dominant Magyar parties, the due enforcement of the Law of Equal Rights of Nationalities (1868) forming a main item of its programme. Its leader, Count Ziely, in a speech of Jan. 1, 1897, declared it to be neither national, nor Liberal, nor Christian to oppress the nationalities. See Seton-Watson, p. 185.
prolongation of the charter of the joint bank, and certain concessions to Magyar demands in the matter of the army. It was soon clear, however, that in this Kossuth would not carry his party with him. A trial of strength took place between him and Mr de Justh, the champion of the extreme demands in the matter of Hungarian financial and economic autonomy; on the 7th of November rival banquets were held, one at Mako, Justh's constituency, over which he presided, one at Budapest with Kossuth in the chair; the attendance at each foreshadowed the outcome of the general meeting of the party held at Budapest on the 11th, when Kossuth found himself in a minority of 46. The Independence party was now split into two groups: the " Independence and 1848 party," and the " Independence, 1848 and Kossuth party." On the 12th Mr de Justh resigned the presidency of the Lower House and sought re-election, so as to test the relative strength of parties. He was defeated by a combination of the Kossuthists, Andrássy Liberals and Clerical People's party, the 30 Croatian deputies, whose vote might have turned the election, abstaining on Dr Wekerle promising them to deliver Croatia from the oppressive rule of the ban, Baron Rauch. A majority was thus secured for the Kossuthist programme of compromise, but a majority so obviously precarious that the king-emperor, influenced also - it was rumoured - by the views of the heirapparent, in an interview with Count Andrassy and Mr Kossuth on the 15th, refused to make any concessions to the Magyar national demands. Hereupon Kossuth publicly declared (Nov. 22) to a deputation of his constituents from Czegled that he himself was in favour of an independent bank, but that the king opposed it, and that in the event of no concessions being made he would join the opposition.
How desperate the situation had now become was shown by the fact that on the 27th the king sent for Count Tisza, on the recommendation of the very Coalition ministry which had been formed to overthrow him. This also proved abortive, and affairs rapidly tended to revert to the ex-lex situation. On the 23rd of December Dr Lukacs was again sent for. On the previous day the Hungarian parliament had adopted a proposal in favour of an address to the crown asking for a separate state bank. Against this Dr Wekerle had protested, as opposed to general Hungarian opinion and ruinous to the national credit, pointing out that whenever it was a question of raising a loan, the maintenance of the financial community between Hungary and Austria was always postulated as a preliminary condition. Point was given to this argument by the fact that the premier had just concluded the preliminaries for the negotiation of a loan of £20,000,000 in France, and that the money - which could not be raised in the Austrian market, already glutted with Hungarian securities - was urgently needed to pay for the Hungarian share in the expenses of the annexation policy, for public works (notably the new railway scheme), and for the redemption in 1910 of treasury bonds. It was hoped that, in the circumstances, Dr Lukacs, a financier of experience, might be able to come to terms with Mr de Justh, on the basis of dropping the bank question for the time, or, failing that, to patch together out of the rival parties some sort of a working majority.
On the 28th the Hungarian parliament adjourned sine die, pending the settlement of the crisis, without having voted the estimates for 1910, and without there being any prospect of a meeting of the delegations. On the two following days Dr Lukacs and Mr de Justh had audiences of the king, but without result; and on the 31st Hungary once more entered on a period of extra-constitutional government.
After much negotiation a new cabinet was finally constituted on the 17th of January 1910. At its head was Count Khuen Hedervary, who in addition to the premiership, was minister of the interior, minister for Croatia, and Go minister in waiting on the crown. Other ministers were Mr Károly de Hieronymi (commerce), Dr Lukacs (finance), Ferencz de Szekely (justice, education, public worship), Bela Serenyi (agriculture) and General Hazay (national defence). The two main items in the published programme of the new government were the introduction of universal suffrage and - even more revolutionary from the Magyar point of view - the substitution of state-appointed for elected officials in the counties. The real programme was to secure, by hook or by crook, a majority at the pools. Meanwhile, the immediate necessities of the government were provided for by the issue through Messrs Rothschild of £2,000,000 fresh treasury bills. These were to be redeemed in December 1910, together with the £9,000,000 worth issued in 1909, out of the £20,000,000 loan agreed on in principle with the French government; but in view of the opposition in Paris to the idea of advancing money to a member of the Triple Alliance, it was doubtful whether the loan would ever be floated. The overwhelming victory of the government in June at the polls, produced a lull in a crisis which at the beginning of the year had threatened the stability of the Dual Monarchy and the peace of Europe; but, in view of the methods by which the victory had been won, not the most sanguine could assert that the crisis was overpassed. Its deep underlying causes can only be understood in the light of the whole of Hungarian history. It is easy to denounce the dominant Magyar classes as a selfish oligarchy, and to criticize the methods by which they have sought to maintain their power. But a nation that for a thousand years had maintained its individuality in the midst of hostile and rival races could not be expected to allow itself without a struggle to be sacrificed to the force of mere numbers, and the less so if it were justified in its claim that it stood for a higher ideal of culture and civilization. The Magyars had certainly done much to justify their claim to a special measure of enlightenment. In their efforts to establish Hungarian independence on the firm basis of national efficiency they had succeeded in changing their country from one of very backward economic conditions into one which promised to be in a position to hold its own on equal terms with any in the world. (W. A. P.) Bibliography. - (a) Sources. The earliest important collection of sources of Hungarian history was Johann Georg Schrandtner's Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum (4th ed., Vienna, 1766-1768). The Codex diplomaticus of Gyorgy Fejer (40 vols., Buda, 1829-1844), though full of errors, remains an inexhaustible storehouse of materials. In 1849 Stephen Ladislaus Endlicher (1804-1849), better known as a botanist than as a historian, published a collection of documents, Rerum hungaricarum monumenta Arpadiana. This was followed by Gustav Wenzel's Codex diplomaticus arpadianus continuens (12 vols., Pest, 1857) and A. Theiner's Vet. monumenta hist. Hungariam sacram illustrantia (2 vols., Rome, 1859, &c.). Later collections are Documents of the Angevin Period, ed. by G. Wenzel and Imre Nagy (8 vols., ib. 1874-1876); Diplomatic Records of the Time of King Matthias (Mag. and Lat.), ed. by Ivan Nagy (ib. 1875-1878); National Documents (Mag. and Lat.), ed. by Farkas Deal(and others (Pest, 1878-1891); Monumenta Vaticana historiam regni Hungariae illustrantia (8 vols., Budapest, 1885-1891), a valuable collection of materials from the Vatican archives, edited under the auspices of the Hungarian bishops; Principal Sources for the Magyar Conquest (Mag.), by Gyula Pauler and Sandor Szilagyi (ib. 1900). Numerous documents have also been issued in the various publications of the Hungarian Academy and the Hungarian Historical Society. Of these the most important is the Monumenta Hungariae Historica, published by the Academy. This falls into three main groups: Diplomata (30 vols.); Scriptores (40 vols.); Monumenta Comitialia (records of the Hungarian and Transylvanian diets, 12 vols. and 21 vols.). With these are associated the Turkish-Hungarian Records (9 vols.), Turkish Historians (2 vols. pubd.), and the Archives of the Hungarian subordinate countries (2 vols. pubd.).
On the sources see Hendrik Marczali, Ungarns Geschichtsquellen im Zeitalter des Arpdden (Berlin, 1882); Kaindl, Studien zu den ungarischen Geschichtsquellen (Vienna, 1894-1902); and, for a general appreciation, Mangold, Pragmatic History of the Hungarians (in Mag., 5th ed., Budapest, 1907).
[LANGUAGE AN13.
(b) Works: The modern literature of Hungary is very rich in historical monographs, of which a long list will be found in the Subject Index of the London Library. Here it is only possible to give some of the more important general histories, together with such special works as are most readily accessible to English readers. Of the earlier Hungarian historians two are still of some value: Katona, Hist. critica regum Hungariae (42 vols., Pest, 1 7791 810), and Pray, Annales regum Hungariae (5 vols., Vienna, 1764-1770). Of modern histories written in Magyar the most imposing is the History of the Hungarian Nation (to vols., Budapest, 1898), issued to commemorate the celebration of the millennium of the foundation of the monarchy, by Sandor Szilagyi and numerous collaborators. Of importance, too, is Ignacz Acsady's History of the Magyar Empire (2 vols., Budapest, 1904), though its author is too often ultra-chauvinistic in tone.
To those who do not read Magyar the following books on the general history of Hungary may be recommended: Armin Vambery, Hungary in Ancient and Modern Times (London, 1897); R. Chelard, La Hongrie millenaire (Paris, 1896); Mor Gelleri, Aus der Vergangenheit and Gegenwart des tausendjahrigen Ungarn (Budapest, 1896); Jozsef Jekelfalussy, The Millennium of Hungary (Budapest, 1897) E. Sayous, Histoire generale des Hongrois (2 vols., Budapest, 1st ed., 1876, 2nd ed., ib. 1900); Janos Majlath, Geschichte der Magyaren (5 vols., 3rd ed., Regensburg, 1852-1853)-somewhat out of date (it first appeared in 1828), but useful for those who like a little more detail; Count Julius Andrassy, The Development of Hungarian Constitutional Liberty, translated by C. Arthur and Ilona Ginever (London, 1908), containing an interesting comparison with English constitutional development; C. M. Knatchbull-Hugessen, The Political Evolution of the Hungarian Nation (2 vols., London, 1908), strongly Magyar in sympathy; R. W. Seton-Watson (Scotus Viator), Racial Problems in Hungary (London, 1908), a strong criticism of the Magyar attitude towards the Slav subject races, especially the Slovaks, with documents and a full bibliography.
(c) Constitutional: Anton von Virozsil, Das Staatsrecht des Konigreichs Ungarn (3 vols., Pest, 1865); S. Rado-Rothfeld, Die ungarische Verfassung (Berlin, 1898) and, based on this, A. de Bertha, La Constitution Hongroise (Paris, 1898), both supporting the policy of Magyarization; Akos von Timon, Ungarische Verfassungsand Rechtsgeschichte (Berlin, 1904); Knatchbull-Hugessen, op. cit. (d) Biographical: In Magyar, the great serial entitled Hungarian Historical Biographies (Budapest, 1884, &c.), edited by Sandor Szilagyi, is a collection of lives of famous Hungarian men and women from the earliest times by many scholars of note, finely illustrated.
For works on special periods see the separate articles on the sovereigns and other notabilities of Hungary. For works on the Compromise of 1867 and the relations of Austria and Hungary generally, see the bibliography to the article Austria-Hungary.
III. Language The Magyar or Hungarian language belongs to the northern or Finno-Ugric (q.v.) division of the Ural-Altaic family, and forms, along with Ostiak and Vogul, the Ugric branch of that division. The affinity existing between the Magyar and the Finnic languages, first noticed by John Amos Comenius (Komensky) in the middle of the 17th century,' and later by Olav Rudbeck, 2 Leibnitz, 3 Strahlenberg, 4 Eccard, Sajnovics,5 and others, was proved " grammatically " by Samuel Gyarmathi in his work entitled A f initas linguae Hungaricae cum linguis Finnicae originis grammatice demonstrate (Gottingen, 1799). The Uralian travels of Anthony Reguly (1843-1845), and the philological labours of Paul Hunfalvy and Joseph Budenz, may be said to have established it, and no doubt has been thrown on it by recent research, though most authorities regard the Magyars as of mixed origin physically and combining Turkish with Finno-Ugric elements.
Although for nearly a thousand years established in Europe and subjected to Aryan influences, the Magyar has yet retained its essential Ural-Altaic or Turanian features. The grammatical forms are expressed, as in Turkish, by means of affixes modulated according to the high or low vowel power of the root or chief syllables of the word to which they are appended-the former being represented by e, o, S, ii, i l l, the latter by a, d, o, 6, u, it; the sounds e, i, i are regarded as neutral. In some respects the value of the consonants varies from that usual in the Latin alphabet. S is pronounced as sh in English, the sound of simple s being represented by sz. C or cz is pronounced as English ts; cs as English ch; ds as English j; zs as French j; gy as dy. Among the striking peculiarities of the language are the definite and indefinite forms of the active verb, e.g. ldtom, " I see " (definite, viz. " him," " her," " the man," &c.), ldtok, " I see " (indefinite); the insertion of the causative, frequentative, diminutive and potential syllables after the root of the verb, e.g. ver, " he beats "; veret, " he causes to beat "; vereget, " he beats repeatedly "; verint, " he beats a little "; verhet, " he can beat "; the mode of expressing possession by the tenses of the irregular verb lenni, " to be " (viz. van, " is "; vannak, " are "; volt, " was"; lesz, 1 See Hunfalvy's " Die ungarische Sprachwissenschaft," Literarische Berichte aus Ungarn, pp. 80-87 (Budapest, 1877).
2 Specimen usus linguae Gothicae in eruendis atque illustrandis obscurissimis quibusdam Sacrae Scripturae locis; addita analogia linguae Gothicae cum Sinica, necnon Finnicae cum Ungarica (Upsala, 1717). 3 Hunfalvy, p. 81. Id. pp. 82-86.
6 Demonstratio Idioma Ungarorum et Lapponum idem esse (Copenhagen und Tyrnau, 1770).
" will be," &c.), with the object and its possessive affixes, e.g. nekem vannak kOnyveim, literally, " to me are books-my " = " I have books "; neki volt konyve, " to him was book-his "=" he had a book." Other characteristic features are the use of the singular substantive after numerals, and adjectives of quantity, e.g. ket ember, literally, " two man "; sok szo, " many word," &c.; the position of the Christian name and title after the family name, e.g. Olmosy Kdroly tandr ur, " Mr Professor Charles (lmosy "; and the possessive forms of the nouns, which are varied according to the number and person of the possessor and the number of the object in the following way: tollam, " my pen "; tollaim, " my pens "; tollad, " thy pen tollaid, thy pens tollunk, our pen tollaink, our pens," &c. There is no gender, not even a distinction between " he," " she," and " it," in the personal pronouns, and the declension is less developed than in Finnish. But there is a wealth of verbal derivatives, the vocabulary is copious, and the intonation harmonious. Logical in its derivatives and in its grammatical structure, the Magyar language is, moreover, copious in idiomatic expressions, rich in its store of words, and almost musical in its harmonious intonation. It is, therefore, admirably adapted for both literary and rhetorical purposes.
The first Hungarian grammar known is the Grammatica HungaroLatina of John Erdosi alias Sylvester Pannonius, printed at SarvarUjsziget in 1539. Others are the posthumous treatises of Nicholas Revai (Pest, 1809); the Magyar nyelvmester of Samuel Gyarmathi, published at Klausenburg in 1 794; and grammars by J. Farkas (9th ed., Vienna, 1816), Mailath (2nd ed., Pest, 1832), Kis (Vienna, 1834), Marton (8th ed., Vienna, 1836), Maurice Ballagi or (in German) Bloch (5th ed., Pest, 1869), Topler (Pest, 1854), Riedl (Vienna, 1858), Schuster (Pest, 1866), Charles Ballagi (Pest, 1868), Remele (Pest and Vienna, 1869), Roder (Budapest, 1875), Fiihrer (Budapest, 1878), Ney (loth ed., Budapest, 1879), C. E. de Ujfalvy (Paris, 1876), S. Wekey (London, 1852), J. Csink (London, 1853), Ballantik (Budapest, 1881); Singer (London, 1882).
The earliest lexicon is that of Gabriel (Mizser) Pesti alias Pestinus Pannonius, Nomenclatura sex linguarum, Latinae, Italicae, Gallicae, Bohemicae, Ungaricae et Germanicae (Vienna, 1538), which was several times reprinted. The Vocabula Hungarica of Bernardino Baldi (1583), the original MS. of which is in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples, contains 2899 Hungarian words with renderings in Latin or Italian. s In the Dictionarium undecim linguarum of Calepinus (Basel, 1590) are found also Polish, Hungarian and English words and phrases. This work continued to be reissued until 1682. The Lexicon Latina-Hungaricum of Albert Molnar first appeared at Nuremberg in 1604, and with the addition of Greek was reprinted till 1708. Of modern Hungarian dictionaries the best is that of the Academy of Sciences, containing 110,784 articles in 6 vols., by Czuczor and Fogarasi (Pest, 1862-1874). The next best native dictionary is that of Maurice Ballagi, A Magyar nyelv teljes szotdra, (Pest, 1868-1873). In addition to the above may be mentioned the work of Kresznerics, where the words are arranged according to the roots (Buda, 1831-1832); the Etymologisches Worterbuch. .. aus chinesischen Wurzeln, of Podhorszky (Paris, 1877); Lexicon linguae Hungaricae aevi antiquioris, by Szarvas Gabor and Simonyi Zsigmond (1889); and " Magyar-Ugor Ssszehasonlito szotar " Hungarian Ugrian Comparative Dictionary, by Bydenz (Budapest, 1872-1879). Other and more general dictionaries for German scholars are those of Marton, Lexicon trilingue Latino-Hungarico-Germanicum (Vienna, 1818-1823), A. F. Richter (Vienna, 1836), E. Farkas (Pest, 1848-1851), Fogarasi (4th ed., Pest, 1860), Loos (Pest, 1869) and M. Ballagi (Budapest, 3rd ed., 1872-1874). There are, moreover, HungarianFrench dictionaries by Kiss and Karady (Pest and Leipzig, 18 441848) and Babos and Mole (Pest, 1865), and English-Hungarian dictionaries by Dallos (Pest, 1860) and Bizonfy (Budapest, 1886).
(C. EL.) IV. Literature The Catholic ecclesiastics who settled in Hungary during the 1 1th century, and who found their way into the chief offices of the state, were mainly instrumental in establishing Latin as the predominant language of the court, the higher schools and public worship, and of eventually introducing it into the administration. Having thus become the tongue of the educated and privileged classes, Latin continued to monopolize the chief fields of literature until the revival of the native language at the close of the 18th century.
Amongst the earliest Latin works that claim attention are the " Chronicle " (Gesta Hungarorum), by the " anonymous notary " of King Bela, probably Bela II. (see Podhradczky, 7 Bela kirdly nevtelen jegyzoje, Buda, 1861, p. 48), which describes the early ages of See Count Geza Kuun's " Lettere Ungheresi," La Rivista Europea, anno vi., vol. ii. fasc. 3, pp. 561-562 (Florence, 1875).
7 So also Jambor (A Magyar Irod. Tort., Pest, 1864, p. 104). Kdrnyei, Imre and others incline to the belief that it was Bela I. and that consequently the " anonymous notary " belongs: rather to the I Ith than to the 12th century.
Hungarian history, and may be assigned to the middle of the 12th century; the Carmen Miserabile of Rogerius; the Liber Cronicorum of Simon Kezai, belonging to the end of the 13th century, Early the so-called " Chronicon Budense," Cronica Hungarorum, printed at Buda in 1473 (Eichhorn, Geschichte der Litteratur, ii. 319); and the Chronicon Rerum Hungaricarum of John Thuroczi. l An extraordinary stimulus was given to literary enterprise by King Matthias Corvinus, who attracted both foreign and native scholars to his court. Foremost amongst the Italians was Antonio Bonfini, whose work, Rerum Hungaricarum Decades IV., comprising Hungarian history from the earliest times to the death of King Matthias, was published with a continuation by Sambucus (Basel, 1568). 2 Marzio Galeotti, the king's chief librarian, wrote an historical account of his reign. The most distinguished of the native scholars was John Cesinge, alias Janus Pannonius, who composed Latin epigrams, panegyrics and epic poems. The best edition of his works was published by Count S. Teleki at Utrecht in 1784.
As there are no traces of literary productions in the native or Magyar dialect before the 12th century, the early condition of the language is concealed from the philologist. It is, however, known that the Hungarians had their own martial songs, and that their princes kept lyre and lute who sang festal odes in praise of the national relics. playersg p heroes. In the 11th century Christian teachers introduced the use of the Roman letters, but the employment of the Latin language was not formally decreed until 1114 (see Bowring, Poetry of the Magyars, Introd. xix.). It appears, moreover, that up to that date public business was transacted in period, Hungarian, for the decrees of King Coloman the Learned (1095-1114) were translated from that language into Latin.
Among the literary relics of the 12th century are the Latiatuc " or Halotti Beszed funeral discourse and prayer in Hungarian, to which Dobrentei in his Regi Magyar Nyelvemlekek assigns as a probable date the year 1171 (others, however, 1182 or 1183). From the Margit-Legenda, or " Legend of St Margaret," composed in the early part of the 14th century, 3 it is evident that from time to time the native language continued to be employed as a means of religious edification. Under the kings of the house of Anjou, the Magyar became the language of the court. That it was used also in official documents and ordinances is shown by copies of formularies of oaths, the import of which proves beyond a doubt that the originals belonged 1301- to the reigns of Louis I. and Sigismond; by a statute of the 1437. town of Sajo-St-Peter (1403) relating to the wine trade; by the testament of Kazzai-Karacson (1413); and by other relics of this period published by Dobrentei in vol. ii. of the R. M. Nyelvemlekek. To the early part of the 15th century may be assigned also the legends of " St Francis " and of " St Ursula," and possibly the original of the Enek Pannonia megvitelerol, an historical " Song about the Conquest of Pannonia." But not until the dawn of the Reformation did Magyar begin in any sense to replace Latin for literary purposes. The period placed by Hungarian authors between 1 437 and 1530 marks the first development of Magyar literature.
About the year 1437 two Hussite monks named Minas and Balint (i.e. Thomas and Valentine) adapted from older sources a large portion of the Bible for the use of the Hungarian refugees in Moldavia. To these monks the first extant Magyar version of part of the Scriptures (the Vienna or Revai Codex') is directly assigned by Dobrentei, but the exact date either of this copy or of the original translation cannot be ascertained. With approximate certainty may be ascribed also to Tamas and Balint the original of the still extant transcript, by George Nemeti, of the Four Gospels, the Jciszay or Munich Codex (finished at Tatros in Moldavia in 1466). Amongst other important codices are the Jorddnszky Codex (1516-1519), an incomplete copy of the translation of the Bible made by Ladislaus Batori, who died about 1456; and the Dobrentei or Gyulafehervdr Codex (1508), containing a version of the Psalter, Song of Solomon, and the liturgical epistles and gospels, copied by Bartholomew Halabori from an earlier translation (KSrnyei, A Magyar nemzeti irodalomtortenet vdzlata, 1861, p. 30). Other relics belonging to this period are the oath which John Hunyady took when elected governor of Hungary (1446); a few verses sung by the children of Pest at the coronation of his son Matthias (1458); 1 An example of this work, printed on vellum in Gothic letter (Augsburg, 1488), and formerly belonging to the library of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, may be seen in the British Museum. Of the three first-mentioned chronicles Hungarian translations by Charles Szabo appeared at Budapest in 1860, 1861 and 1862.
2 Both this and the later editions of Frankfort (1581), Cologne (1690) and Pressburg (1744) are represented in the British Museum.
The only copy existing at the present time appears to have been transcribed at the beginning of the 16th century. Both this and the Halotti Beszed (Pray Codex) are preserved in the National Museum at Budapest.
4 This codex contains Ruth, the lesser prophets, and part of the Apocrypha. According to Toldy, it is copied from an earlier one of the 14th century.
the Siralomenek Both Jdnos veszedelmen (Elegy upon John Both), written by a certain " Gregor," as the initial letters of the verses show, and during the reign of the above-mentioned monarch; and the Emlekdal Mdtyds kindly haldldra (Memorial Song on the Death of King Matthias, 1490). To these may be added the rhapsody 6 on the taking of " Szabacs " (1476); the Katalin-Legenda, a metrical " Legend of St Catherine of Alexandria," extending to over 4000 lines: and the Fedddenek (Upbraiding Song), by Francis Apathi.
In the next literary period (1530-1606) several translations of the Scriptures are recorded. Among these there are - versions of the Epistles of St Paul, by Benedict Komjati (Cracow, 1 533); of the Four Gospels, by Gabriel (Mizser) Pesti Vienna, 1536); of the New Testament, by John Erdosi (Ujsziget, 1541; 2nd ed., Vienna, 1574 6), and by Thomas 060> Felegyhazi (1586); and the translations of the Bible, by Caspar Heltai (Klausenburg, 1551-1565), and by Caspar Karoli (Vizsoly, near Goncz, 1589-1590). The last, considered the best, was corrected and re-edited by Albert Molnar at Hanau in 1608.7 Heltai published also (1571) a translation, improved from that by Blasius Veres (1565), of the Tripartitum of VerbOczy, and Chronika (1575) adapted from the Decades of Bonfini. Karadi in 1569 brought to light the earliest national drama, Balassi Menyhert. Among the native poets, mostly mere rhyming chroniclers of the 1 6th century, were Csanadi, Tinodi, Nagy-Baczai, Bogâti, Ilosvay, Istvanfi, GOrgei, Temesvari and Valkai. Of these the best and most prolific writer was Tinodi. Szekely wrote in prose, with verse introduction, a " Chronicle of the World " under the title of Cronica ez vildgnac yeles dolgairol (Cracow, 1559). Csaktornya and Kakony imitated the ancient classical poets, and ErdOsi introduced the hexameter. Andrew Farkas and the homilist Peter Melius (Juhasz) attempted didactic verse; and Batizi busied himself with sacred song and Biblical history. During the latter part of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th two poets of a higher order appeared in Valentine Balassa, the earliest Magyar lyrical writer, and his contemporary John Rimay, whose poems are of a contemplative and pleasing character.
The melancholy state of the country consequent upon the persecutions of Rudolph I., Ferdinand II. and Leopold I., as also the continual encroachment of Germanizing influences under 17th the Habsburgs, were unfavourable to the development of the national literature during the next literary period, dating from the Peace of Vienna (1606) to that of Szatmar (1711). A few names were, however, distinguished in 1711 theology, philology and poetry. In 1626 a Hungarian 1711). version of the Vulgate was published at Vienna by the Jesuit George Kaldi, 8 and another complete translation of the Scriptures, the so-called Komdromi Biblia (Komorn Bible) was made in 1685 by the Protestant George Csipkes, though it was not published till 1717 at Leiden, twenty-nine years after his death., On behalf of the Catholics the Jesuit Peter Pazman, eventually primate, Nicholas Eszterhazy, Sambas, Balasfi and others were the authors of various works of a polemical nature. Especially famous was the Hodaegus, kalauz of Pazman, which first appeared at Pozsony (Pressburg) in 1613. Among the Protestants who exerted themselves in theological and controversial writings were Nemeti, Alvinczy, Alexander Felvinczy, Martonfalvi and Melotai, who was attached to the court of Bethlen Gabor. Telkibanyai wrote on " English Puritanism " (1654). The Calvinist Albert Molnar, already mentioned, was more remarkable for his philological than for his theological labours. Parispapai compiled an Hungarian-Latin Dictionary, Dictionarium magyar es dedk nyelven (Locse, 1708), and Apaczai-Csere, a Magyar Encyclopaedia (Utrecht, 1653). John Szalardi, Paul Lisznyai, Gregory Petho, John Kemeny and Benjamin Szilagyi, which last, however, wrote in Latin, were the authors of various historical works. In polite literature the heroic poem Zrinyidsz (1651), descriptive of the fall of Sziget, by Nicholas Zrinyi, grandson of the defender of that fortress, marks a new era in Hungarian poetry. Of a far inferior character was the monotonous Mohdcsi veszedelem (Disaster of Mohacs),in 13 cantos, produced two years afterwards at Vienna by Baron Liszti. The lyric and epic poems of Stephen GyongyOsi, who sang the deeds of Maria Szechy, the heroine of Murany, Murdnyi Venus (Kassa, 1664), are samples rather of a general improvement in the style than of the purity of the language. As a didactic and elegiac poet Stephen Kohari is much esteemed. More fluent but not less gloomy are the sacred lyrics of Nyeki-Veres first published in 1636 under the Latin title of Tintinnabulum Tripudiantium. The songs and proverbs of Peter Beniczky, who lived in the early part of the 17th century, are not without merit, and have been several times reprinted. From the appearance of the first extant printed Magyar First made known by Coloman Thaly (1871) from a discovery by MM. E. Nagy and D. Veghelyi in the archives of the Csicsery family, in the county of Ung.
One of the only seven perfect copies extant of the Vienna (1574) edition is in the British Museum library.
7 A copy, with the autograph of the editor, is in the British Museum.
8 A copy is in the British Museum library.
9 There are two copies of this edition in the British Museum library.
work 1 at Cracow in 1531 to the end of the period just treated, more than 1800 publications in the native language are known.2 The period comprised between the peace of Szatmar (1711) and the year 1772 is far more barren in literary results than even that which preceded it. The exhaustion of the nation from its protracted civil and foreign wars, the extinction of the decline (1711court of the Transylvanian princes where the native 1772). language had been cherished, and the prevalent use of Latin in the schools, public transactions and county courts, all combined to bring about a complete neglect of the Magyar language and literature. Among the few prose writers of distinction were Andrew Spangar, whose " Hungarian Bookstore," Magyar Konyvtdr (Kassa, 1738), is said to be the earliest work of the kind in the Magyar dialect; George Baranyi, who translated the New Testament (Lauba, 1 754); the historians Michael Cserei and Matthew Bel, which last, however, wrote chiefly in Latin; and Peter Bod, who besides his theological treatises compiled a history of Hungarian literature under the title Magyar Athends (Szeben, 1766). But the most celebrated writer of this period was the Jesuit Francis Faludi, the translator, through the Italian, of William Darrell's works. On account of the classic purity of his style in prose, Faludi was known as the " Magyar Cicero." Not only as a philosophic and didactic writer, but also as a lyric and dramatic poet he surpassed all his contemporaries. Another pleasing lyric poet of this period was Ladislaus Amade, the naturalness and genuine sentiment of whose lightly running verses are suggestive of the love songs of Italian authors. Of considerable merit are also the sacred lyrical melodies of Paul Radai in his Lelki hodolds (Spiritual Homage), published at Debreczen in 1715. Among the didactic poets may be mentioned Lewis Nagy, George Kalmar, John Illey and Paul Bertalanfi, especially noted for his rhymed " Life of St Stephen, first Hungarian king," DicsOseges Sz. Istvdn elso magyar kirdlynak elete (Vienna, 1751).
The next three literary periods stand in special relationship to one another, and are sometimes regarded as the same. The first two, marking respectively the progress of the " Regeneration of the Native Literature " (1772-1807) and the " Revival of the Language " (1807-1830), were introductory to and preparatory for the third or " Academy," period, which began about 1830.
In consequence of the general neglect of the Magyar language during the reigns of Maria Theresa and her successor Joseph II., Regenera- the more important prose productions of the latter part of of the the 18th century, as for instance the historical works of tion George Pray, Stephen Katona, John Engel and Ignatius literature (1772Fessler, were written either in Latin or in German. The 1807). reaction in favour of the native literature manifested itself at first chiefly in the creation of various schools of poetry. Foremost among these stood the so-called " French " school, founded by George Bessenyei, the author of several dramatic pieces, and of an imitation of Pope's " Essay on Man," under the title of Az embernek probdja (Vienna, 1772). Bessenyei introduced the use of rhymed alexandrines in place of the monotonous Zrinian measure. Other writers of the same school were Laurence Orczy and Abraham Barcsay, whose works have a striking resemblance to each other, and were published together by Revai (1789). The songs and elegies of the short-lived Paul Anyos, edited by Bacsanyi in 1798, show great depth of feeling. Versifiers and adapters from the French appeared also in Counts Adam and Joseph Teleki, Alexander Baroczi and Joseph Peczeli, known also as the translator of Young's " Night Thoughts." The chief representatives of the strictly " classical " school, which adopted the ancient Greek and Latin authors as its models, were David Baroti Szabo, Nicholas Revai, Joseph Rajnis and Benedict Virag. Among the most noteworthy works of Bared are the Uj mertekre vett kulomb versek (Kassa, 1777), comprising hexameter verses, Horatian odes, distichs, epistles and epigrams; the Paraszti Majorsag (Kassa, 1779-1780), an hexameter version of Vaniere's Praedium rusticum; and an abridged version of "Paradise Lost," contained in the Koltemenyes munkaji (Komarom, 1802). Baroti, moreover, published (1810-1813) a translation of Virgil's Aeneid and Eclogues. Of Baroti's purely linguistic works the best known are his Ortographia es Prosodia (Komarom, 1800); and the Kisded Szotdr (Kassa, 2784 and 1792) or " Small Lexicon " of rare Hungarian words. As a philologist Baroti was far surpassed by Nicholas Revai, but as a poet he may be considered superior to Rajnis, translator of Virgil's Bucolics and Georgics, and author of the Magyar Helikonra vezeto kalauz (Guide to the Magyar Helicon, 1781). The " classical " school reached its highest state of culture under Virag, whose poetical works, consisting chiefly of Horatian odes and epistles, on account of the perfection of their style, obtained for him the name of the " Magyar Horace." The Poetai Munkai (Poetical Works) of Virag were published at Pest in 1799, and again in 1822. Of his prose works the most important is the Magyar Szdzadok or " Pragmatic History of Hungary " (Buda, 1808 and 1816). Valyi-Nagy, the first Magyar 1 The earliest, styled " Song on the Discovery of the right hand of the Holy King Stephen," and printed at Nuremberg by Anton Koburger in 1484, is lost.
See Chas. Szabo's Regi Magyar Konyvtdr (Budapest, 1879). Cf. also Lit. Ber. aus Ungarn for 1879, Bd. iii. Heft 2, pp. 433-434.
translator of Homer, belongs rather to the " popular " than the " classical " school. His translation of the Iliad appeared at Sarospatak in 1821. The establishment of the " national " or popular " school is attributable chiefly to Andrew Dugonics, though his earliest works, Troia veszedelme (1774) and Ulysses (1780), indicate a classical bias. His national romances, however, and especially Etelka (Pozsony, 1787) and Az arany pereczek (Pest and Pozsony, 1790), attracted public attention, and were soon adapted for the stage. The most valuable of his productions is his collection of " Hungarian Proverbs and Famous Sayings," which appeared in 1820 at Szeged, under the title of Magyar peldabeszedek es jeles monddsok. The most noteworthy follower of Dugonics was Adam Horvath, author of the epic poems Hunniasz (Gyor, 1787) and Rudolphiasz (Vienna, 1817). Joseph Gvadanyi's tripartite work Falusi notdrius (Village Notary), published between 1790 and 1796, as also his Ronto Pal es gr. Benyowsky torteneteik (Adventures of Paul Ronto and Count Benyowski), are humorous and readable, but careless in style. As writers of didactic poetry may be mentioned John Endrody, Caspar Gobol, Joseph Takacs and Barbara Molnar, the earliest distinguished Magyar poetess.
Of a more general character, and combining the merits of the above schools, are the works of the authors who constituted the socalled "Debreczen Class," which boasts the names of the naturalist and philologist John Foldi, compiler of a considerable part of the Debreczeni magyar grammatica; Michael Fazekas, author of Ludas Matyi (Vienna, 1817), an epic poem, in 4 cantos; and Joseph Kovacs. Other precursors of the modern school were the poet and philologist Francis Verseghy, whose works extend to nearly forty volumes; the gifted didactic prose writer, Joseph 'Carman; the metrical rhymster, Gideon Raday; the lyric poets, Ssentjebi Szabo, Janos Bacsanyi, and the short-lived Gabriel Dayka, whose posthumous " Verses " were published in 1813 by Kazinczy. Still more celebrated were Mihaly Csokonai and Alexander Kisfaludy (q.v.). The first volume of Alexander Kisfaludy's Himfy, a series of short lyrics of a descriptive and reflective nature, appeared at Buda in 1801, under the title of Kesergo szerelem (Unhappy Love), and was received with great enthusiasm; nor was the success of the second volume Boldog szerelem (Happy Love), which appeared in 1807, inferior. The Regek, or " Tales of the Past," were published at Buda from 1807 to 1808, and still further increased Kisfaludy's fame; but in his dramatic works he was not equally successful. Journalistic literature in the native language begins with the Magyar Hirmondo (Harbinger) started by Matthias Rath at Pozsony in 1780. Among the magazines the most important was the Magyar Muzeum, established at Kassa (Kaschau) in 1788 by Baroti, Kazinczy and Bacsanyi. The Orpheus (1790) was the special work of Kazinczy, and the Urania (1794) of 'Carman and of Pajor.
LITERATURE]
Closely connected with the preceding period is that of the " Revival of the Language " (1807-1830), with which the name of Francis Kazinczy (q.v.) is especially associated. To him it was Revival left to perfect that work of restoration begun by Baroti t th and amplified by Revai. Poetry and belles lettres still o e continued to occupy the chief place in the native literature, la8nguage 1 but under Kazinczy and his immediate followers Berzsenyi, 807- Kolcsey, Fay and others, a correctness of style and ex- 1830). cellence of taste hitherto unknown soon became apparent. Kazinczy, in his efforts to accommodate the national language to the demands of an improved civilization, availed himself of the treasures of European literature, but thereby incurred the opposition of those who were prejudiced by a too biased feeling of nationality. The opinions of his enemies were ventilated in a lampoon styled Mondolat. Daniel Berzsenyi, whose odes are among the finest in the Hungarian language, was the correspondent of Kazinczy, and like him a victim of the attacks of the Mondolat. But the fervent patriotism, elevated style, and glowing diction of Berzsenyi soon caused him to be recognized as a truly national bard. A too frequent allusion to Greek mythological names is a defect sometimes observable in his writings. His collective works were published at Buda by Dobrentei in 1842. Those of John Kis, the friend of Berzsenyi, cover a wide range of subjects, and comprise, besides original poetry, many translations from the Greek, Latin, French, German and English, among which last may be mentioned renderings from Blair, Pope and Thomson, and notably his translation, published at Vienna in 1791, of Lowth's " Choice of Hercules." The style of Kis is unaffected and easy. As a sonnet writer none stands higher than Paul Szemere, known also for his rendering of Korner's drama Zrinyi (1818), and his contributions to the Elet es Literatura (Life and Literature). The articles of Francis Kolcsey in the same periodical are among the finest specimens of Hungarian aesthetical criticism. The lyric poems of Kolcsey can hardly be surpassed, whilst his orations, and markedly the Emlek beszed Kazinczy felett (Commemorative Speech on Kazinczy), exhibit not only his own powers, but the singular excellence of the Magyar language as an oratorical medium. Andrew Fay, sometimes styled the " Hungarian Aesop," is chiefly remembered for his Eredeti Mesek (Original Fables). The dramatic works of Charles Kisfaludy, brother of Alexander, won him enthusiastic recognition as a regenerator of the drama. His plays bear a distinctive national character, the subjects of most of them referring to the golden era of the country. His genuine simplicity as a lyrical writer is shown by the fact that several of his shorter pieces have passed into popular song. As the earliest Magyarizer of Servian folk-song, Michael Vitkovics did valuable service. Not without interest to Englishmen is the name of Gabriel Dobrentei (q.v.), the translator of Shakespeare's Macbeth, represented at Pozsony in 1825. An historical poem of a somewhat philosophical nature was produced in 1814 by Andreas Horvath under the title of Zircz emlekezete (Reminiscence of Zircz); but his Arpdd, in 12 books, finished in 1830, and published at Pest in the following year, is a great national epic. Among other poets of this period were Alois Szentmiklossy, George Gaal, Emil Buczy, Joseph Szász, Ladislaus Toth and Joseph Katona, author of the much-extolled historical drama Bank Ban.' Izidore Guzmics, the translator of Theocritus into Magyar hexameters, is chiefly noted for his prose writings on ecclesiastical and philosophical subjects. As authors of special works on philosophy, we find Samuel Koteles, John Imre, Joseph Ruszek, Daniel Ercsei and Paul Sarvari; as a theologian and Hebraist John Somossy; as an historian and philologist Stephen Horvath, who endeavoured to trace the Magyar descent from the earliest historic times; as writers on jurisprudence Alexander Kovy and Paul Szlemenics. For an account of the historian George Fejer, the laborious compiler of the Codex Diplomaticus, see Fejer.
The establishment of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences 2 (17th November 1830) marks the commencement of a new period, in Academy the first eighteen years of which gigantic exertions were made as regards the literary and intellectual life of the period, nation. The language, nursed by the academy, developed 1840- rapidly, and showed its capacity for giving expression to 1880. almost every form of scientific knowledge.' By offering rewards for the best original dramatic productions, the academy provided that the national theatre should not suffer from a lack of classical dramas. During the earlier part of its existence the Hungarian academy devoted itself mainly to the scientific development of the language and philological research. Since its reorganization in 1869 the academy has, however, paid equal attention to the various departments of history, archaeology, national economy and the physical sciences. The encouragement of polite literature was more especially the object of the Kisfaludy Society, founded in 1836.4 Polite literature had received a great impulse in the preceding period (1807-1830), but after the formation of the academy and the Kisfaludy society it advanced with accelerated speed towards the point attained by other nations. Foremost among epic poets, though not equally successful as a dramatist, was Mihaly Vorbsmarty (q.v.), who, belonging also to the close of the last period, combines great power of imagination with elegance of language. Generally less varied and romantic, though easier in style, are the heroic poems Augsburgi iitkozet (Battle of Augsburg) and Aradi gyules (Diet of Arad) of Gregory Czuczor, who was, moreover, very felicitous as an epigrammatist. Martin Debreczeni was chiefly famed for his Kiovi csata (Battle of Kieff), published at Pest in 1854 after his death by Count Emetic Miko. The laborious John Garay in his Szent Ldszlo shows considerable ability as an epic poet, but his greatestmerit was rather as a romancist and ballad writer, as shown by the, " Pen Sketches " or Tollrajzok (1845), and his legendary series Arpddok (1847). Joseph Bajza was a lyricist of a somewhat melancholy cast, but his Borenek (Wine Song), Sohajtds (Sigh), Ebreszto (Awakening) and Apotheosis are much admired. He is known further as the translator of F. C. Dahlmann's Geschichte der englischen 1 The subject is similar to that of Grillparzer's tragedy, Ein treuer Diener seines Herrn. It was founded in 1825 through the generosity of Count Szechenyi, who devoted his whole income for one year (60,000 florins) to the purpose. It was soon supported by contributions from all quarters except from the government.
Among the earlier publications of the academy were the Tudomdnytdr (Treasury of Sciences, 1834-1844), with its supplement Literatura; the KUlfoldi jdtPkszin (Foreign Theatres); the Magyar nyelv rendszere (System of the Hungarian language, 1846; 2nd ed., 1847); various dictionaries of scientific, mathematical, philosophical and legal terms; a Hungarian - German dictionary (1835-1838), and a Glossary of Provincialisms (1838). The Nagy-Szotdr (Great Dictionary), begun by Czuczor and Fogarasi in 1845, was not issued till 1862-1874. Among the regular organs of the academy are the Transactions (from 1840), in some 60 vols., and the Annuals. 4 Among its earlier productions were the Nemzeti konyvtdr (National Library), published 1843-1847, and continued in 1852 under the title Ujabb Nemzeti konyvtdr, a repository of works by celebrated authors; the KUlfoldi Regenytdr (Treasury of Foreign Romances), consisting of translations; and some valuable collections of proverbs, folk-songs, traditions and fables. Of the many later publications of the Kisfaludy society the most important as regards English literature is the Shakspere Minden Munkdi (Complete Works of Shakespeare), in 19 vols. (1864-1878), to which a supplementary vol., Shakspere Pdlydja (1880), containing a critical account of the life and writings of Shakespeare, has been added by Professor A. Greguss. Translations from Moliere, Racine, Corneille, Calderon and Moreto have also been issued by the Kisfaludy society. The Evlapok uj folyama, or " New Series of Annuals," from 1860 (Budapest, 1868, &c.), is a chrestomathy of prize orations, and translations and original pieces, both in poetry and prose.
Revolution. As generally able writers of lyrical poetry during the earlier part of this period may be mentioned among others Francis Csaszar, Joseph Szekacs and Andrew Kunoss-also Lewis Szakal and Alexander Vachott, whose songs and romances are of an artless and simple character, and the sacred lyricist Bela Tarkanyi. As an original but rather heavy lyric and didactic poet we may mention Peter Vajda, who was, moreover, the translator of Bulwer's " Night and Morning." Of a more distinctly national tendency are the lyrics of John Kriza b and John Erdelyi, but the reputation of the latter was more especially due to his collections of folk-lore made on behalf of the Kisfaludy society. More popular than any of the preceding, and well known in England through Sir John Bowring's translation, are the charming lyrics of Alexander Petofi (q.v.), the " Burns " of Hungary. His poems, which embody the national genius, have passed into the very life of the people; particularly is he happy in the pieces descriptive of rural life. Among lyricists were: Coloman Toth, who is also the author of several epic and dramatic pieces; John Vajda, whose Kisebb Koltemenyek (Minor Poems), published by the Kisfaludy society in 1872, are partly written in the mode of Heine, and are of a pleasing but melancholy character; Joseph Levay, known also as the translator of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, Taming of the Shrew and Henry I V.; and Paul Gyulai, who, not only as a faultless lyric and epic poet, but as an impartial critical writer, is highly esteemed, and whose Romhdnyi is justly prized as one of the best Magyar poems that has appeared in modern times. To these may be added the names of Charles Berecz, Joseph Zalar, Samuel Nyilas, Joseph Vida, Lewis Tolnai, the sentimental Ladislaus Szelestey, and the talented painter Zoltan Balogh, whose romantic poem Alpdri was published in 1871 by the Kisfaludy society. The lyrics of Anthony Varady (1875, 1877) are somewhat dull and unequal in tone; both he and Baron Ivor Kaas, author of Az itelet napja (Day of Judgment, 1876), have shown skill rather in the art of dramatic verse. The poems of Count Geza Zichy and Victor Dalmady, those of the latter published at Budapest in 1876, are mostly written on subjects, of a domestic nature, but are conceived in a patriotic spirit. Emil Abranyi adopts a rather romantic style, but his Nagypentek (Good Friday) is an excellent descriptive sketch. Alexander Endrddy, author of Tilcsok dalok (Cricket Songs, 1876), is a glowing writer, with great power of conception, but his metaphors, following rapidly one upon the other,. become often confused. Joseph Kiss in 1876 brought out a few lyric and epic poems of considerable merit. The Mesek of Augustus Greguss (1878), a collection of verse " Fables," belonging to the school of Gay, partake more of a didactic than lyrical nature. This feature is noticeable also in the Koltemenyek (1873) of Ladislaus Torkos and the Modern Mesa (1874) of Ladislaus Nevy. The Salamon (1878) of Charles Szasz (b. 1829) was rewarded with the prize of the academy. The subject, taken from the age of Hungarian chivalry, is artistically worked out from medieval legends, and gives an excellent description of the times of St Ladislaus of Hungary. Charles Szasz is generally better known as a metrical translator than as an original poet. He is the Magyarizer of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, Othello, Macbeth, Henry VIII., Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet and Tempest, as also of some of the best pieces of Burns, Moore, Byron, Shelley, Milton, Beranger, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Goethe and others. A translator from Byron and Pope appeared also in Maurice Lukacs.6 Unitarian bishop of Transylvania, author of Vadrozsdk, or " Wild Roses " (1863), a collection of Szekler folk-songs, ballads and sayings.
6 Besides the various translators from the English, as for instance William Gyori, Augustus Greguss, Ladislaus Arany, Sigismond Acs, Stephen Fejes and Eugene Rakosy, who, like those already incidentally mentioned, assisted in the Kisfaludy society's version of Shakespeare's complete works, metrical translations from foreign languages were successfully made by Emil Abranyi, Dr Ignatius Barna, Anthony Varady, Andrew Szabo, Charles Berczy, Julius Greguss, Lewis Doczi, Bela Eredi, Emeric Gaspar and many others. A Magyar version, by Ferdinand Barna, of the Kalewala was published at Pest in 1871. Faithful renderings by Lewis Szeberenyi, Theodore Lehoczky and Michael Fincicky of the popular poetry of the Slavic nationalities appeared in vols. i. and ii. of the Hazai nep kOlteszet tdra (Treasury of the Country's Popular Song), commenced in 1866, under the auspices of the Kisfaludy society. In vol. iii. Rumanian folksongs were Magyarized by George Ember, Julian;Grozescu and Joseph Vulcanu, under the title Roman nepdalok (Budapest, 1877). The Rozsdk (Zombor, 1875) is a translation by Eugene Pavlovits from the Servian of Jovan Jovanovits. Both the last-mentioned works are interesting from an ethnographical point of view. We may here note that for foreigners unacquainted with Hungarian there are, besides several special versions of Petofi and of Arany, numerous anthologies of Magyar poetry in German, by Count Majlath (1825), J. Fenyery and F. Toldy (1828), G. Steinacker (1840, 1875), G. Stier (1850), K. M. Kertbeny (1854, 1860), A. Dux (1854), Count Pongracz (1859-1861), A. M. Riedl (1860), J. Nordheim (1872), G. M. Henning (1874), A. von der Heide (1879) and others. Selections have also been published in English by Sir John Bowring (1830), S. Wekey in his grammar (1852) and E. D. Butler (1877), and in French by H. Desbordes-Valmore and C. E. de Ujfalvy (1873).
Meanwhile dramatic literature found many champions, of whom the most energetic was Edward Szigligeti, proprie Joseph Szathmary, who enriched the Hungarian stage with more than a hundred pieces. Of these the most popular are comedies and serio-comic national dramas. A less prolific but more classical writer appeared in Charles Obernyik, whose George Brankovics is, next to Katona's Bank Bdn, one of the best historical tragedies in the language. Several of the already mentioned lyric and epic poets were occasional writers also for the drama. To these we may add the gifted but unfortunate Sigismund Czak6, Lewis Dobsa, Joseph Szigeti, Ignatius Nagy, Joseph Szenvey (a translator from Schiller), Joseph Gaal, Charles Hugo, Lawrence Toth (the Magyarizer of the School for Scandal), Emeric Vahot, Alois Degre (equally famous as a novelist), Stephen Toldy and Lewis Doczi, author of the popular prize drama Csok (The Kiss). Az ember tragoedidja (The Tragedy of Man), by Emeric Madach (1861), is a dramatic poem of a philosophical and contemplative character, and is not intended for the stage. Among successful dramatic pieces may be mentioned the Falu rossza (Village Scamp) of Edward Toth (1875), which represents the life of the Hungarian peasantry, and shows both poetic sentiment and dramatic skill; A szerelem harcza (Combat of Love), by Count Geza Zichy; Iskdriot (1876) and the prize tragedy Tamora (1879), by Anthony Varady; Janus (1877), by Gregory Csiky; and the dramatized romance Szep Mikhal (Handsome Michal), by Maurus Jokai (1877). The principal merit of this author's drama Milton (1876) consists in its brilliance of language. The Szerelem iskoldja (School of Love), by Eugene Rakosy, although in some parts exquisitely worded, did not meet with the applause accorded to his Ripacsos Pista Dolmdnya (1874). The Grof Dormandi Kalmdn(Count Coloman Dormandi) of Bela Beresenyi (1877) is a social tragedy of the French school. Among the most recent writers of comedy we single out Arpad Berczik for his A hdzasilok (The Matchmakers);Ignatius Sulyovsky for his Noi diplomatia (Female Diplomacy); and the above-mentioned Gregory Csiky for his Ellenallhatatlan (The Irresistible), produced on the stage in 1878. As popular plays the Sdrga csiko (Bay Foal) and A giros bugyelldris (The Red Purse), by Francis Csepreghy, have their own special merit, and were often represented in 1878 and 1879 at Budapest and elsewhere.
Original romance writing, which may be said to have commenced with Dugonics and Kaman at the close of the 18th, and to have found a representative in Francis Verseghy at the beginning of the 19th century, was afterwards revived by Fay in his Belteky hdz (1832), and by the contributors to certain literary magazines, especially the Aurora, an almanack conducted by Charles Kisfaludy, 1821-1830, and continued by Joseph Bajza to 1837. Almost simultaneously with the rise of the Kisfaludy society, works of fiction assumed a more vigorous tone, and began to present just claims for literary recognition. Far from adopting the levity of style too often observable in French romances, the Magyar novels, although enlivened by touches of humour, have generally rather a serious historical or political bearing. Especially is this the case with Nicholas Josika's Abafi (1836), A csehek Magyarorszagon (The Bohemians in Hungary), and Az utolso Bdtori (The Last of the Bathoris), published in 1847. In these, as in many other of the romances of Josika, a high moral standard is aimed at. The same may be said of Baron Joseph Eotvos's Karthausi (1839) and Falu Jegyzije (Village Notary), published in 1845, and translated into English (1850) by O. Wenckstern (see EOTVOs). The Arvizonyv or " Inundation Book," edited by Eotvos (1839-1841), is a collection of narratives and poems by the most celebrated authors of the time. Of the novels produced by Baron Sigismond Kemeny the Gyulai Pal (1847), in 5 vols., is, from its historical character, the most important. His Ferj es no (Husband and Wife) appeared in 1853 (latest ed.,1878), the Rajongok (Fanatics), in 4 vols., in 1858-1859. The graphic descriptions of Hungarian life in the middle and lower classes by Lewis Kuthy won for him temporary renown; but his style, though flowery, is careless. Another popular writer of great originality was Joseph Radakovics alias Vas-Gereben. The romances of Baron Frederick Podmaniczky are simpler, and rather of a narrative than colloquial character. The fertile writer Paul Kovacs excels more particularly in humorous narration. Fay's singular powers in this direction were well shown by his Jdvor orvos es Bakator Ambrus szolgdja (Doctor Javor and his servant Ambrose Bakator), brought out at Pest in 1855. The Beszelyek (Tales)] of Ladislaus Beiithy were produced in the same year, his Pusztdk fia (Son of the Pusztas) in 1857. Pleasing humorous sketches are contained also in Ignatius Nagy's Beszelyek (1843) and " Caricatures " or Torzkepek (1844); in Caspar Bernat's Fresko kepek (1847-1850); in Gustavus Lauka's Vida, and his A jo regi vilag (The Good Old World), published respectively in 1857 and 1863; and in Alexander Balazs's Beszelyei (1855) and TiikOrdarabok (1865). Among authors of other historical or humorous romances and tales which have appeared from time to time are Francis Marton alias Lewis Abonyi, Joseph Gaal, Paul Gyulai, William GyOri, Lazarus Horvath, the short-lived Joseph Irinyi, translator of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Francis Ney, Albert ' D affy, Alexander Vachott and his brother Emeric (Vahot), Charles Szathmary, Desider Margittay, Victor Vajda, Joseph Bodon, Atala Kisfaludy and John Kratky. But by far the most prolific and talented novelist that Hungary can boast of is Maurus Jokai (q.v.), whose power of imagination and brilliancy of style, no less than his true representations of Hungarian life and character, have earned for him a European reputation. Of the novels produced by other authors between 1870 and 1880, we may mention A hol az ember kezdodik (Where the Man Begins), by Edward Kavassy (1871), in which he severely lashes the idling Magyar nobility; Az en ismeroseim (My Acquaintances), bi Lewis Tolnai (1871); and Anatol, by Stephen Toldy (1872); the versified romances Deli babok hOse (Hero of the Fata Morgana), generally ascribed to Ladislaus Arany, but anonymously published, A szerelem hOse (Hero of Love), by John Vajda (1873), and Talalkozdsok (Rencounters) by the same (1877), and A Tiinderov (The Fairy Zone), by John Bulla (1876), all four interesting as specimens of narrative poetry; Kalozdy Bela (1875), a tale of Hungarian provincial life, by Zoltan Beothy, a pleasing writer who possesses a fund of humour, and appears to follow the best English models; Edith tortenete (History of Edith), by Joseph Prem (1876); Nyomorusag iskoldja (School of Misery), by the prolific author Arnold Vertesi (1878); Tilkolt szerelem (Secret Love), by Cornelius Abranyi (1879), a social-political romance of some merit; and Uj idOk, avult emberek (Modern Times, Men of the Past), by L. Veka (1879). In the Itthon (At Home), by Alois Degre (1877), the tale is made the medium for a satirical attack upon official corruption and Hungarian national vanity; and in the Almok dlmodoja (Dreamer of Dreams), by John Asboth (1878), other national defects are aimed at. A rosz szomszed (The Bad Neighbour), by Charles Vadnay (1878), is a felicitous representation of the power of love. The Az utolso Bebek (The Last of the Bebeks), by the late Charles Petery, is a work rich in poetic invention, but meagre in historical matter. The reverse is the case with the Lajos pap (Priest Lewis), by Charles Vajkay (1879), the secne of which is placed at Pest, in the beginning of the 14th century. In this romance the interest of the narrative is weakened by a superabundance of historical and archaeological detail.
As regards works of a scientific character, the Magyars until recently were confessedly behindhand as compared with many other European nations. Indeed, before the foundation of the Hungarian academy in 1830, but few such works claiming general recognition had been published in the native language. Even in 1847 astronomy, physics, logic and other subjects of the kind had to be taught in several of the lyceums through the medium of Latin. The violent political commotions of the next few years allowed but little opportunity for the prosecution of serious studies; the subsequent quieter state of the country, and gradual re-establishment of the language as a means of education, were, however, more favourable to the development of scientific knowledge.
In the department of philosophy, besides several writers of dissertations bearing an imitative, didactic or polemical character, Hungary could boast a few authors of independent and original thought. Of these one of the most notable is Cyril Horvath, whose treatises published in the organs of the academy display a rare freedom and comprehensiveness of imagination. John Hetenyi and Gustavus Szontagh must be rather regarded as adopters and developers of the ethical teaching of Samuel Koteles in the previous period. Hyacinth Ronay in his Mutatvdny (Representation) and Jellemisme (Characteristics) endeavoured to popularize psychological studies. The philosophical labours of the already mentioned John Erdelyi and of Augustus Greguss won for them well-deserved recognition, the latter especially being famous for his aesthetical productions, in which he appears to follow out the principles of Vischer. The Tanulmanyok (Studies) of Greguss were brought out at Pest in 1872. The reputation of John Szilasy, John Varga, Fidelius Beely and Francis Ney arose rather from their works bearing on the subject of education than from their contributions to philosophy.
The labours of Stephen Horvath in the preceding period had prepared the way for future workers in the field of historical literature. Specially meritorious among these are Michael Horvath, Ladislaus Szalay, Paul Jaszay and Count Joseph Teleki. The Magyarok tortenete (History of the Magyars), in 4 vols., first published at Papa (1842-1846), and afterwards in 6 vols. at Pest (1860-1863), and in 8 vols. (1871-1873), is the most famous of Michael Horvath's numerous historical productions. Ladislaus Szalay's Magyarorszdg tortenete (History of Hungary), vols. i.-iv. (Leipzig, 1852-1854), vols. v.-vi. (Pest, 1856-1861), 2nd ed., i.-v. (1861-1866), is a most comprehensive work, showing more particularly the progress of Hungarian legislative development in past times. His style is elevated and concise, but somewhat difficult. Magyar history is indebted to Paul Jaszay for his careful working out of certain special periods, as, for instance, in his A Magyar nemzet napjai a legregibb idOtOl az arany bullaig (Days of the Hungarian nation from the earliest times to the date of the Golden Bull). Count Joseph Teleki is famed chiefly for his Hunyadiak kora Magyarorszdgon (The Times of the Hunyadys in Hungary), vols. i.-vi. (Pest, 1852-1863), x.-xii. (1853-1857), the result of thirty years' labour and research. In particular departments of historical literature we find George Bartal, author of Commentariorum. libri XV., torn. i.-iii. (Pozsony, 1847), John Czech, Gustavus Wenczel, Frederick Pesty and Paul Szlemenics as writers on legal history; Joseph Bajza, who in 1845 commenced a History of the World; Alexander Szilagyi, some of whose works, like those of Ladislaus KOvary, bear on the past of Transylvania, others on the Hungarian revolution of 1848-1849; Charles L, nyi and John Pauer, authors of treatises on Roman Catholic ecclesiastical history; John Szombathi, Emeric Revesz and Balogh, writers on Protestant church history; William Fraknoi, biographer of Cardinal Pazman, and historian of the Hungarian diets; and Anthony Gevay, Aaron Sziladi, Joseph Podhradczky, Charles Szabo, John Jerney and Francis Salamon, who have investigated and elucidated many special historical subjects. For the medieval history of Hungary the Mdtydskori diplomatikai emlekek (Diplomatic Memorials of the Time of Matthias Corvinus), issued by the academy under the joint editorship of Ivan Nagy and Baron Albert Nyary, affords interesting material. As a masterly production based on extensive investigation, we note the Wesselenyi Ferencz. .. osszeeskfivese (The Secret Plot of Francis Wesselenyi, 1664-1671), by Julius Pauler (1876). Among the many historians of Magyar literature Francis Toldy alias Schedel holds the foremost place. As compilers of useful manuals may be mentioned also Joseph Szvorenyi, Zoltan Betithy, Alexander Imre, Paul Jambor, Ladislaus Nevy, John Kornyei and Joseph Szinnyei, junior. For philological and ethnographical research into the origin and growth of the language none excels Paul Hunfalvy. He is, moreover, the warm advocate of the theory of its Ugrio-Finnic origin, as established by the Uralian traveller Anthony Reguly, the result of whose labours Hunfalvy published in 1864, under the title A Vogul fold es nep (The Vogul Land and People). Between 1862 and 1866 valuable philological studies bearing on the same subject were published by Joseph Budenz in the Nyelvtudomdnyi kozlemenyek (Philological Transactions). This periodical, issued by the academy, has during the last decade (1870-1880) contained also comparative studies, by Arminius Vambery and Gabriel Balint, of the Magyar, TurkishTatar and Mongolian dialects.
As compilers and authors of works in various scientific branches allied to history, may be particularly mentioned-in statistics and geography, Alexius Fenyes, Emeric Palugyay, Alexander Konek, John Hunfalvy, Charles Galgoczy, Charles Keleti, Leo Beothy, Joseph Korosi, Charles Ballagi and Paul Kiraly, and, as regards Transylvania, Ladislaus Kovary; in travel, Arminius Vambery, Ignatius Goldziher, Ladislaus Magyar, John Xantus, John Jerney, Count Andrassy, Ladislaus Podmaniczky, Paul Hunfalvy; in astronomy, Nicholas Konkoly; in archaeology, Bishop Arnold Ipolyi, Florian Romer, Emeric Henszlmann, John Erdy, Baron Albert Nyary, Francis Pulszky and Francis Kiss; in Hungarian mythology, Bishop Ipolyi, Anthony Csengery,' and Arpad Kerekgyarto; in numismatics, John Erdy and Jacob Rupp; and in jurisprudence, Augustus Karvassy, Theodore Pauler, Gustavus Wenczel, Emeric Csacsk6, John Fogarasi and Ignatius Frank. After 1867 great activity was displayed in history and its allied branches, owing to the direct encouragement given by the Hungarian Historical Society, and by the historical, archaeological, and statistical committees of the academy.
Notwithstanding the exertions of Paul Bugat to arouse an interest in the natural sciences by the establishment in 1841 of the " Hungarian Royal Natural Science Association," no general activity was manifested in this department of knowledge, so far as the native literature was concerned, until 1860, when the academy organized a special committee for the advancement of mathematical and natural science.' The principal contributors to the " Transactions " of this section of the academy were--for anatomy and physiology, Coloman Balogh, Eugene Jendrassik, Joseph Lenhossek and Lewis Thanhoffer; for zoology, John Frivaldszky, John Kriesch and Theodore Margo; for botany, Frederick Hazslinszky, Lewis Juranyi and Julius Klein; for mineralogy and geology, Joseph Szabo, Max Hantken, Joseph Krenner, Anthony Koch and Charles Hoffman; for physics, Baron Lorando Eotviis, Coloman Szily and Joseph Sztoczek; for chemistry, Charles Than and Vincent Wartha; for meteorology, Guido Schenzl. As good text-books, for which the so-called " Ladies' Prize " was awarded by the academy, we may mention the Termeszettan (Physics) and Termeszettani foldrajz (Physical Geography) of Julius Greguss.
Almost simultaneously with the formation of the above-mentioned committee of the academy, the " Natural Science Association " showed signs of renewed animation, and soon advanced with rapid strides in the same direction, but with a more popular aim than the academy. Between 1868 and 1878 the number of its members increased from some 600 to about 5000. After 1872, in addition to its regular organs, it issued Hungarian translations of several popular scientific English works, as, for instance, Darwin's Origin of Species; Huxley's Lessons in Physiology; Lubbock's Prehistoric Times; Proctor's Other Worlds than Ours; Tyndall's Heat as a Mode of Motion, &c. Versions were also made of Cotta's Geologie der Gegenwart and Helmholtz's Populcire Vorlesungen. As important original monographs we note-Az drapoly a Fiumei obolben (Ebb and Flow in the Gulf of Fiume), by Emil Stahlberger (1874); Magyarorszdg pokfaundja (The Arachnida of Hungary), by Otto Hermann (1876-1878); Magyarorszdg vaskovei es vastermenyei (The Iron Ores and 1 The translator of Macaulay.
2 See, however, J. Szinnyei & Son's Bibliotheca Hungarica historiae. naturalis et matheseos, 1472-1875 (Budapest, 1878), where the number of Magyar works bearing on the natural sciences and mathematics printed from the earliest date to the end of 1875 is stated to be 3811, of which 106 are referred to periodicals.
Iron Products of Hungary), by Anthony Kerpely (1877); Magyarorszdg nevezetesebb dohdnyfajainak chemiai. .. megvizsgdlasa (Chemical Examination of the most famous Tobaccos of Hungary), by Dr Thomas Kosutany (1877). (E. D. Bu.) The number of Magyar writers has since 1880 increased to an extent hardly expected by the reading public in Hungary itself. In 1830 there were only 10 Magyar periodical publications; in 1880 we find 368; in 1885 their lit number rose to 494; in 1890 to 636; and at the beginning of 1895 no fewer than 806 periodical publica tions, written in the Hungarian language, appeared in Hungary. Since that time (1895) the number of periodical as well as of non-periodical literary works has been constantly rising, although, as in all countries with a literature of rather recent origin, the periodical publications are, in proportion to the whole of the output, far more numerous than the non-periodical. 3 This remarkable increase in the quantity of literary work was, on the whole, accompanied by a fair advance in literary quality.
In lyrical poetry, among the poets who first came to the fore in the 'sixties several were active after 1880, such as Joseph Komocsy (d. 1894), whose Szerelem Konyve (" Book of Love ") has become a popular classic; Victor Dalmady, who published in the 'nineties his Hazafias Koltemenyek (Patriotic Poems); and Ladislas Arany, son of the great John. Among the prominent lyrists whose works, although partly published before 1880, belong largely to the later period, the following deserve special mention: The poetry of Emil Abra.nyi (born 1850) is filled with the ideas and ideals of Victor Hugo. Abranyi excels also as a translator, more particularly of Byron. Julius Reviczky (1855-1899) also inclined to the Occidental rather than to the specifically Magyar type of poets; his lyrics are highly finished, aristocratic and pessimistic (Pan halala, " The Death of Pan "). Count Geza Zichy (b. 1849) published his lyrical poems in 1892. Joseph Kiss (b. 1843) is especially felicitous in ballads taken from village and Jewish life, and in love-songs; Alexander Endrodi (b. 1850), one of the most gifted modern lyrical poets of Hungary, has the charm of tenderness and delicacy together with that of a peculiar and original style, his Kurucz notcik being so far his most successful attempt at romantic lyrics. Louis Bartok (b. 1, 851) is a remarkable satirist and epigrammatist (Kdrpdti emlekek). Odon Jakab (b. 1850) leans towards the poetic manner of Tompa, with perhaps a greater power of expression than the author of the Virdgregek (" Flower-fables "); Jakab wrote Hangok az ifjusdgbol (" Sounds of Youth "), Nydr (" Summer "), both collections of lyrical poems. Louis Posa (b. 1850) has made a sphere of his own in his charming poems for and about children, Edes anydm (" My dear Mother "). In Andor Kozma (b. 1860), author of A tegnap es a ma (" Yesterday and To-day," 1889), Versek (Poems, 1893), &c., there is undoubted power of genuine satire and deep humour. Michael Szabolcska (b. 1864), author of Hangulatok (" Moods," 1894), showed great promise; Julius Vargha (b. 1853) cultivates the nepies or folk-poetry as represented by Hungary's two greatest poets, Pet6fi and Arany; Vargha has also published excellent translations of Schiller and Goethe. Perhaps scarcely less remarkable are the modern Magyar lyrists, such as, of the older set, John Bulla (b. 1843), J. D. Temerdek, Gustavus Csengey (b. 1842), Paul Koroda (b. 1854), E. Julius Kovacs (b. 1839, Poems, 1892), Ladislas Inczedi, Julius Nogradi Pap, Julius Szavay (b. 1860), John Dengi (b. 1853); among the juniors, Anton Rack, (also an excellent translator), Louis Palagyi (Magdnyos u'ton, " On Lonely Way," &c.), Geza Gardonyi (b. 1863, Aprilis, 1894), Zoltan Pap, Eugen Heltai (Ignotus), Julius Rudnyanszky (b. 1860, Szerelem, " Love ";, " Summer "), Julius, Zemplenyi, Julius Szentessy, Emil Makai (b. 1870), Cornelius Gaspar, Julius Varsanyi (b. 1863, Mulandosdg, " The Unstableness of Things "), Alexander Luby (Vergodes, " Striving "), Eugen V. Szaszvarosi, Endre Szabo (b. 1849), political satirist. In the most recent lyrics of. Hungary there is a growing tendency to socialistic poetry, to the " poetry of misery " (A nyomor kolteszete). In epic poetry Josef Kiss's Jehova is the most popular work. Amongst rhymed novels-novels in verse formthe best is the Delibdbok h ise (" The Hero of Mirages "), in which Ladislas Arany tells, in brilliantly humorous and captivating fashion, the story of a young Magyar nobleman who, at first full of great ideals and aspirations, finally ends as a commonplace country squire.
Among Hungarian novels we may distinguish four dominant genres or tendencies. The first is represented almost exclusively by Maurus Jokai (q.v.). To the school so perfectly represented by 3 This will appear even more striking by a consideration of the number of periodical publications published in Hungary in languages other than Magyar. Thus, while of German periodicals ap p earing in Hungary there were in 1871 only 85, they increased in 1880 to 114, in 1885 to 141; and they were, at the beginning of 1895, still 128, in spite of the constant spread of that process of Magyarization which has, since 1880, considerably changed the linguistic habits of the people of Hungary.
[LI TERATURE
Jokai belong Arpád Kupa (A napszdmosok, " The Labourers "; Kepselt kirdlyok, " Imaginary Kings "); Robert Tabori (Nagy jdtek, " Great Game "; A negyveneves ferfiu, " The Man at Forty "); and Julius Werner (Kendi Imre hdzassdga, " The Wedding of Emericus Kendi "; Olga; Megvirrad meg valaha, " Dawn will come in the End "). The second class of Hungarian modern novelists is led by the well-known Koloman Mikszath, a poet endowed with originality, a charming naiveté, and a freshness of observation from life. A close observer of the multifarious low life of Hungary, Mikszath has, in his short stories, given a delightful yet instructive picture of all the minor varied phases of the peasant life of the Sla y s, the Palocok, the Saxons, the town artisan. Amongst his numerous works may be mentioned A jó paloczok (" The Good Paloczok," Slav peasants); Egy vdlasztds Magyarorszdgon (" An Election in Hungary "); Pipacsok a buzdban (" ` Wild Poppies in the Wheatfield "); A tekintetes vdrmegye (" The Worshipful County "); Ne okoskodj Pista (" Don't reason, Pista "); Szent Peter esernysje (" St Peter's Umbrella," translated from the original into English by Miss B. W. Worswick), &c. Mikszath has had considerable influence upon other writers. Such are Victor Rakosi (Sipulus tdredi, " The y Essas of Sipulus "; Rejtett feszkek, " Hidden Nests "); Stephen Mora (A J tyankfiai, " Our Compatriots "); Alexius Benedek, the author of numerous distinctly sympathetic and truly Magyar tales, fables and novels, one of the most gifted and deserving literary workers of modern Hungary (Huszar Anna, " Anna Huszar "; Egy szalmaozvegy levelei, " Letters of a grass widow "; A sziv konyve, " The Book of the Heart "; Katalin, " Catherine "; Csendes ordk, " Quiet Hours "; Testamentum es hat level, " Last Will and Six Letters," translated into German by Dr W. Schunwald, &c.); Geza Gardonyi (several novels containing the adventures, observations, &c., of Mr Gabriel Gore; A kekszemii Davidkdne, " Blue-eyed Mrs Davidka "; A Kdtsa, scenes from gipsy life); Charles Murai (Vig tortenetek, " Jolly Stories "; Bandi, a collection of short tales); Stephen Barsony (Csend, " Silence "; A Kameleon-ledny, " The Chamaeleon Girl, and other Stories "; Erd3n-mez5n, " In Wood and Field "). The third class of Magyar novelists comprises those cosmopolitan writers who take their method of work, their inspiration and even many of their subjects from foreign authors, chiefly French, German, Russian and also Norwegian. A people with an intense national sentiment, such as the Hungarians, do not as a rule incline towards permanent admiration of foreign-born or imported literary styles; and accordingly the work of this class of novelists has frequently met with very severe criticism on the part of various Magyar critics. Yet it can scarcely be denied that several of the " foreign " novelists have contributed a wholesome, if not quite Magyar, element of form or thought to literary narrative style in Hungary. Probably the foremost among them is Sigismund Justh, who died prematurely in the midst of his painful attempt at reconciling French " realistic " modes of thought with what he conceived to be Magyar simplicity (A puszta konyve, " The Book of the Puszta," prairie of Hungary; A Peitz legenddja, " The Legend of Money "; Gdnyo Julcsa, " Juliet Ganyo "; Fuimus). Other novelists belonging to this school are: Desiderius Malonyai (Az utolso, " The Last "; Judith konyve, " The Book of Judith "; Tanulmdnyfejek, "Typical Heads "); Julius Pekar (Dodo fohadnagy problemai, " Lieutenant Dodo's Problems "; Az aranykesztyus kisasszony, " The Maid with the Golden Gloves "; A szoborszep asszony, " The Lady as Beautiful as a Statue "; Az esztendo legenddja, " The Legend of the Year "); Thomas Kobor (Aszfalt, " Asphalt "; 0 akarta, " He Wanted It "; A csillagok fele, " Towards the Stars "); Stephen Szomahazy (Huszonnegy Ora, " Twenty-four Hours "; A Clairette Keringd, " The Clairette Valse "; Pdratlan szerddk, " Incomparable Wednesdays "; Nydri felhok, " Clouds of Summer "); Zoltan Thury (Ullrich fdhadnagy es egyeb tortenetek, " Lieutenant Ullrich and other Tales "; Urak es parasztok, " Gentlemen and Peasants "); also Desiderius Szomory, Odon Gero, Arpad Abonyi, Koloman Szanto, Edward Sas, Julius Vertesi, Tibor Denes, Akos Pinter, the Misses Janka and Stephanie Wohl, Mrs Sigismund Gyarmathy and others. In the fourth class may be grouped such of the latest Hungarian novelists as have tried, and on the whole succeeded, in clothing their ideas and characters in a style peculiar to themselves. Besides Stephen Petelei (Jetti, a name - "Henrietta " - Felhok, " Clouds ") and Zoltan Ambrus (Pokhdlo Kisasszony, " Miss Cobweb "; Gyanu, " Suspicion") must be mentioned especially Francis Herczeg, who has published a number of very interesting studies of Hungarian social life (Simon Zsuzsa, " Susanna Simon "; Fenn es lenn, " Above and Below "; Egy ledny tortenete, " The History of a Girl "; Idegenete kozott, " Amongst Strangers "); Alexander Brody, who brings a delicate yet resolute analysis to unfold the mysterious and fascinating inner life of persons suffering from overwrought nerves or overstrung mind (A kitlelkil asszony, " The Double-Souled Lady "; Don Quixote kisasszony, " Miss Don Quixote "; Faust orvos, " Faust the Physician "; Tiinder Ilona, Rejtelmek, "Mysteries"; Az eziest kecske, " The Silver Goat "); and Edward Kabos, whose sombre and powerful genius has already produced works, not popular by any means, but full of great promise. In him we may trace the influence of Nietzsche's philosophy (Koldusok, " Beggars "; Vdndorok, " Wanderers "). To this list we must add the short but incomparable feuilletons (tdrezalevelek) of Dr Adolf Agai (writing under the nom de plume of Porz6), whose influence on the formation of modern Hungarian literary prose is hardly less important than the unique esprit and charm of his writings.
Dramatic literature, liberally supported by the king and the government, and aided by magnificent theatres in the capital and also in the provinces (the finest provincial theatre is in Kolozsvar, in Transylvania), has developed remarkably. The Hungarians have the genuine dramatic gift in abundance; they have, moreover, actors and actresses of the first rank. In the modern drama three great and clearly differentiated groups may be distinguished. First the neoromantic group, whose chief representatives are Eugen Rakosi, Louis Doczi (b. 1845), who, in addition to Csok (" The Kiss "), has written Utolso szerelem (" Last Love "), Szechy Maria (" Maria Szechy "), Vegyes Pdrok (" Mixed Couples "). In these and other dramatic writings, more remarkable perhaps for poetic than for stage effects, Doczi still maintains his brilliancy of diction and the delicacy of his poetic touch. To the same school belong Louis Bartok, Anton Varadi and Alexander Somlo. The next group of Hungarian dramatists is dominated by the master spirit of Gregor Csiky. Among Csiky's most promising disciples is Francis Herczeg (already mentioned as a novelist), author of the successful society comedy, A Gyurkovics lednyok (" The Misses Gyurkovics "), Hdrom test&r C' Three Guardsmen "), Honty hdza (" The House of Honty "). Arpad Berczik's Nezd meg az anyjdt (" Look at her Mother "), A protekczio (" Patronizing "), also followed on the lines of Csiky. The third group of dramatic writers take their subjects, surroundings and diction from the folk-life of the villages (nepszinmu, " folkdrama "). The greatest of these dramatists has so far been Edward Toth (Toloncz, " The Ousted Pauper "). Amongst his numerous followers, who have, however, sometimes vulgarized their figures and plots, may be mentioned Tihamer Almasi (Milimdri, A Miniszterelnok bdlja, " The Ball of the Premier ") and Alexander Somlo.
In philosophy there has been a remarkable increase of activity, partly assimilative or eclectic and partly original. Peter Bihari and Maurice Kai-man have in various writings spread the ideas of Herbart. After the school of Comte, yet to a large extent original, is the Az ember es vildga (" Man and his World ") of Charles Bohm, who in 1881 started a philosophical review (Magyar Filozofiai Szemle), subsequently edited by Joseph Bokor, a vigorous thinker. Realism, more particularly of the Wundt type, is represented by Emericus Pauer, Az ethikai determinismus (" Ethical Determinism "), and Eugen Posch (Az idorb'l, " On Time "). On a Thomistic basis John Kiss edits a philosophical review (BOlcseleti Folyoirat); on similar lines have been working Akos Mihalyfi, Repassy, Augustin Lubrich and others. Neo-Hegelianism is cultivated by Eugen Schmitt, efficiently assisted by Joseph Alexander Simon (Az egyseges es redlis termeszet filozofia alapvonalai, " Outlines of a Uniform and Realistic Philosophy of Nature "). F. Medveczky (formerly a German author under the name of Fr. von Barenbach) espouses Neo-Kantism (Tdrsadalmi elmeletek es eszmenyek, 1887, " Social Theories and Ideals "). The Hungarian scholar Samuel Brassai published, in 1896, Az igazi pozitiv filozofia (" The True Positive Philosophy "). Amongst the ablest and most zealous students of the history of philosophy are Bernhard Alexander, under whose editorship, aided by Joseph Banoczi, a series of the works of the world's great thinkers has appeared; Andrew Domanovszky, author of an elaborate History of Philosophy; Julius Gyomlai, translator of Plato; Eugen Peterfy, likewise translator of philosophical works, &c.
Juristic literature has been stimulated by the activity in positive legislation. On 1st January 1900 a new criminal code, thoroughly modern in spirit, was put in force; and in 1901 a Civil Code Bill, to replace the old Hungarian customary system, was introduced. Among the newer writers on common and commercial law may be mentioned Wenczal, Zlinsky, ZsgOd, Gustave Schwarz, Alexander Plosz, Francis Nagy and Neumann; on constitutional law, Korbuly, Boncz, Stephen Kiss, Ernest Nagy, Kmety, Arthur Balogh, Ferdinandy, Bela Grunwald, Julius Andrassy and Emeric Ha j nik; on administration, George Fesiis, Kmety and Csiky; on finance, Mariska, Exner and Laszlo. Among the later writers on statistics, moreover, have been Konek, Keleti, Lang, Foldes, Jekelfalussy, Vorgha, Korbsy, Rath and Vizaknai.
On subjects of politics, amongst the more important works are the various monographs of Gustavus Beksics on the Dualism of AustriaHungary, on the " New Foundations of Magyar Politics " (A magyar politika uj alapjai, 1899), on the Rumanian question, &c.; the writings of Emericus Balint, Akos Beothy, Victor Concha (systematic politics), L. Ecsery, Geza Ferdinandy (historical and systematic politics), Arpad Zigany, Bela Foldes (political economy), Julius Mandello (political economy), Alexander Matlekovics (Hungary's administrative service; Allamhdztartds, 3 vols.), J. Polya (agrarian politics), M. Somogyi (sociology), and the late Augustus Pulszky In history there has been great activity. The millennial festivities in 1896 gave rise to the publication of what was then the most extensive history of the Hungarian nation (A magyar nemzet tortenete, 1895-1901), ten large and splendidly illustrated volumes, edited by Alexander Szilagyi, with the collaboration of the best specialists of modern Hungary, Robert Frohlich, B. Kuzsinszky, Geza Nagy, H. Marczali, Anton Por, Schonherr, V. Fraknoi, Arpad Karolyi, David Angyal, Coloman Thaly, Geza Ballagi.
Literary criticism is actively pursued. Among the more authoritative writers Paul Gyulai and Zsolt Beothy represent the conservative school; younger critics, like Bela Lazar, Alexander Hevesi, H. Lenkei, Zoltan Ferenczy, Aladar Ballagi, Ladislas Negyessy, have shown themselves somewhat too ready to follow the latest Norwegian or Parisian sensation.

Authorities

The best authorities on Magyar literature are: F. Toldy, A Magyar nemzeti irodalom tortenete a legregibb idoktol a jelenkorig (Pest, 1864-1865; 3rd ed., 1872); S. Imre, A Magyar irodalom es nyelv rovid tortenete (Debreczen, 1865; 4th ed., 1878); J. Szvorenyi, Magyar irodalmi szemelvenyek (Pest, 1867), and A Magyar irodalmi tanulmdnyok kezikonyve (Pest, 1868); P. Jambor, A Magyar irodalom tortenete (Pest, 1864); J. Kornyei, A Magyar nemzeti irodalomtiirtenet vdzlata (Pest, 1861; 3rd ed., 1874); A. Lonkay, A Magyar irodalom ismertetese (Budkn, 1855; 3rd ed., Pest, 1864); J. Ferencz, Magyar irodalom es tudomdnyosscig tortenete (Pest, 1854); J. Ferencz es J. Danielik, Magyar Ira. EletrajzGyiitemeny (2 vols., Pest, 1856-1858); and the literary histories of L. Nevy, Z. BeOthy and B. Erodi. One of the most useful monographs on " Magyar Literary History Writing " is that of J. Szinnyei, j unior, A Magyar Irodalomtortenet-Irds ismertetese (Budapest, 1878). For information as to the most recent literature see A. Dux, Aus Ungarn (Leipzig, 1880) Zsolt Beothy, A Magy. nemz. irod. tort.; S. Bodnar, A magy. irod. tort.; Bela Lazar, A tegnap, a ma, es a holnap (Budapest, 1896-1900); Joseph Szinnyel, Magy. irok elete es munkdi (an extensive biographical dictionary of Hungarian authors); Irodalom torteneti Kozlemenyek (a periodical edited by Aron Szilady, for the history of literature); Emil Reich, Hungarian Literature (London, 1898). (E. RE.*)


Wiktionary

Up to date as of January 14, 2010

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents

English

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Wikipedia-logo.png
Wikipedia has an article on:
Singular
Hungary
Plural
-
Hungary
  1. Country in Europe. Official name: Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság).

Related terms

Translations

the country

See also


Citable sentences

Up to date as of December 07, 2010

Here are sentences from other pages on Hungary, which are similar to those in the above article.








Got something to say? Make a comment.
Your name
Your email address
Message
Please enter the solution to case below
45-15=