Hungary

G

International Organizations

Hungary is a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe (CE), the Partnership for Peace (PFP), the Central European Initiative (CEI), the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the European Union (EU), and the United Nations (UN).

VI

History

The region comprising contemporary Hungary was part of the ancient Roman provinces of Dacia and Pannonia.

A

The Origins of Hungary

Situated on the periphery of the Roman Empire, these provinces were among the first to fall to the Germanic peoples that began to overrun the Roman dominions in the closing years of the 2nd century ad. The Germanic peoples were later driven from the region by the Huns. After the death of Attila the Hun, the Germans reoccupied the area, only to be expelled again, in the 5th century, by the Avars, an Asian people. With the decline of Avar power during the 8th century, the Moravians, a Slavic people, seized the northern and eastern portions of the region and, between 791 and 797, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, added the remainder of the region to his domains.

A century later, in 895 or 896, the Magyars, a Finno-Ugric people, seized control of Pannonia. Under the leadership of their semi-legendary chieftain Árpád, the invaders conquered Moravia, raided the Italian Peninsula, and made incursions into Germany. The Magyars ranged over central Europe for more than half a century after the death of Árpád in 907, and in 955 they devastated Burgundy. Later in 955 they were defeated by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, on the River Lech. After this defeat, the Magyars maintained friendlier relations with the Holy Roman Empire, with the result that Christianity and Western culture began to penetrate Hungary. Duke Géza was converted to Christianity in 975. His son Stephen I, the founder of the Árpád dynasty, received formal recognition as King of Hungary in 1001, when Pope Sylvester II granted him the title Apostolic Majesty, an appellation retained by Hungarian kings for more than nine centuries.

B

The Árpád Kings

With Stephen, who was canonized in 1083, a new era began for Hungary. Christianity became the official religion, paganism was suppressed, royal authority was centralized, and the country was divided into counties for administrative purposes. The non-Magyar sections of the population were treated as subject races and were forced to shoulder a disproportionate burden of toil and taxation for many centuries. After Stephen’s death a pagan reaction developed, and his immediate successors also had to contend with barbarian and German invasions. Ladislas I, renowned for his wise legislation, arranged an alliance with Pope Gregory VII. Thus strengthened, Hungary again became a powerful kingdom. Ladislas subjugated Croatia, Bosnia, and part of Transylvania; his successor, Koloman, obtained part of Dalmatia.

Royal authority in Hungary declined during the 12th century, chiefly because of internal strife instigated by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus. Seizing control of the Hungarian throne, he bestowed huge grants of the Crown lands on partisans among the native nobility, thereby providing foundations for the development of feudalism. Byzantine influence disappeared after the death of Manuel in 1180, but the barons retained their privileged status. King Andrew II attempted to re-establish a centralized regime. In 1222 he issued the Golden Bull, sometimes called the Hungarian Magna Carta, which extended various rights, including tax exemptions, to the nobility. Although the decree gained some adherents for the king among the weaker barons, it failed to reduce the power of the great landowners.

During the reign of Andrew’s successor Béla IV, Hungary was overrun by the Mongols. Most of the Mongols withdrew from the country in 1241, but weak leadership and further royal concessions to the barons accelerated the disintegration of the kingdom.

C

Beginnings of Foreign Influence

With the death of Andrew III in 1301 the Árpád line of kings became extinct. In 1308 Charles Robert of Anjou secured election as Charles I (of Hungary), thereby establishing the Angevin dynasty in Hungary. During his reign, which ended in 1342, Charles restored order, imposed limitations on the barons, and generally consolidated the realm. He also made a number of territorial acquisitions, including Bosnia and part of Serbia. Through his marriage to Elizabeth, the sister of Casimir III, King of Poland, he ensured the succession of his son Louis to the Polish crown.

The reign of Louis I lasted until 1382. By virtue of his Polish inheritance and of wars of conquest against Venice, Hungary became one of the largest realms of Europe. Louis instituted numerous administrative reforms, further curbed the power of the feudal lords, and promoted the development of commerce, science, and industry. In the closing years of his reign, however, the Ottoman Empire, advancing steadily northwards into the Balkan Peninsula, established their suzerainty in several of Hungary’s southern buffer provinces. Sigismund, who was crowned King in 1387, organized a crusade against the Turks, but was overwhelmingly defeated in 1396. Additional disasters followed, including defeats by the Venetians and costly struggles against the religious reformers known as the Hussites, whom, as Holy Roman Emperor, a post to which he was elevated in 1411, Sigismund persecuted relentlessly.

Hungary was again menaced by the Turks during the two-year reign of Sigismund’s Habsburg son-in-law and successor, Albert II. A bitter contest for the throne developed after Albert’s death in 1439, and Hungary was saved from extinction by the Turks chiefly through the capable military leadership of János Hunyadi. Acclaimed as the national hero of Hungary, Hunyadi crowned his career by breaking the Turkish siege of Belgrade in 1456.

Hunyadi’s son Matthias Corvinus was elected King in 1458, despite strong opposition from partisans of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III. The new monarch, probably the most able and enlightened ruler of his time, inaugurated various administrative reforms, created a standing army, and promoted the commercial and cultural development of the nation. A brilliant military leader, Matthias won control of Austria from the Habsburgs in the 1480s and moved his residence to Vienna. This and his other territorial acquisitions, which included Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, made Hungary for a time the strongest kingdom of central Europe.

After the death of Matthias in 1490, the feudal barons regained their former status. In consequence, Hungary was soon engulfed in factional strife, including a peasant rebellion.