Hungary (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ⓘ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning 93,030 square kilometres (35,920 sq mi) of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. Hungary has a population of 9.6 million, mostly ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian is the official language, and Budapest is the country's capital and largest city.
Prior to the foundation of the Hungarian state, various peoples settled in the territory of present-day Hungary, most notably the Celts, Romans, Huns, Germanic peoples, Avars and Slavs. The Principality of Hungary was established in the late 9th century by Álmos and his son Árpád through the conquest of the Carpathian Basin. King Stephen I ascended the throne in 1000, converting his realm to a Christian kingdom. The medieval Kingdom of Hungary was a European power, reaching its height in the 14th-15th century. After a long period of Ottoman wars, Hungary’s forces were defeated at the Battle of Mohács and its capital was captured in 1541, opening roughly a 150 years long period when the country was divided into three parts: Royal Hungary loyal to the Habsburgs, Ottoman Hungary and the largely independent Principality of Transylvania. The reunited Hungary came under Habsburg rule at the turn of the 18th century, fighting a war of independence in 1713–1711, and a war of independence in 1848–1849 until a compromise allowed the formation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1867, a major power into the early 20th century. Austria-Hungary collapsed after World War I, and the subsequent Treaty of Trianon in 1920 established Hungary's current borders, resulting in the loss of 71% of its historical territory, 58% of its population, and 32% of its ethnic Hungarians.
In the interwar period, after initial turmoil, Miklós Horthy ascended as a determining politician, representing the monarchy as regent in place of the Habsburgs. Hungary joined the Axis powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. As a result, the Hungarian People's Republic was established as a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Following the failed 1956 revolution, Hungary became a comparatively freer, though still repressed, member of the Eastern Bloc. In 1989, concurrently with the Revolutions of 1989, Hungary peacefully transitioned into a democratic parliamentary republic, joining the European Union in 2004 and being part of the Schengen Area since 2007.
Hungary is a high-income economy with universal health care and tuition-free secondary education. Hungary has a long history of significant contributions to arts, music, literature, sports, science and technology. It is a popular tourist destination in Europe, drawing 24.5 million international tourists in 2019. It is a member of numerous international organisations, including the Council of Europe, NATO, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Visegrád Group. (Full article...)
Joel Brand (Hungarian: Brand Jenő; 25 April 1906 – 13 July 1964) was a member of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee (Va'adat ha-Ezra ve-ha-Hatzala be-Budapest or Va'ada), an underground Zionist group in Budapest, Hungary, that smuggled Jews out of German-occupied Europe to the relative safety of Hungary, during the Holocaust. When Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944, Brand became known for his efforts to save the Jewish community from deportation to the Auschwitz concentration camp in occupied Poland and the gas chambers there.
In April 1944 Brand was approached by SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann, head of the German Reich Security Head Office department IV B4 (Jewish affairs), who had arrived in Budapest to organize the deportations. Eichmann proposed that Brand broker a deal between the SS and the United States or Britain, in which the Nazis would exchange one million Jews for 10,000 trucks for the Eastern front and large quantities of tea and other goods. It was the most ambitious of a series of proposals between the SS and Jewish leaders. Eichmann called it "Blut gegen Waren" ("blood for goods"). (Full article...)Béla Bartók – János Bihari – Ernő Dohnányi – Béni Egressy – Ferenc Erkel – Zoltán Kocsis – Zoltán Kodály – Franz Liszt - Eugene Ormandy - George Szell - András Schiff
Gyula Benczúr – Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka – Béla Czóbel – Árpád Feszty – Károly Lotz – Viktor Madarász – Mihály Munkácsy – József Rippl-Rónai – Pál Szinyei Merse – István Szőnyi – Victor Vasarely
Brassaï – Cornell Capa – Robert Capa – Lucien Hervé – André Kertész – László Moholy-Nagy – Martin Munkácsi
Béla H. Bánáthy – Zoltán Bay – Georg von Békésy – Farkas Bolyai – János Bolyai – Károly Bund – József Eötvös – Loránd Eötvös – Dennis Gabor – John Charles Harsanyi – George de Hevesy – Alexander Csoma de Kőrös – László Lovász – John von Neumann – George Andrew Olah – Ernő Rubik – Hans Selye – Ignaz Semmelweis – Charles Simonyi – János Szentágothai – Albert Szent-Györgyi – Leó Szilárd – Edward Teller – Eugene Wigner
Endre Ady – János Arany – József Eötvös – György Faludy – Béla Hamvas – Mór Jókai – Attila József – Ferenc Kazinczy – Imre Kertész – János Kodolányi – Ferenc Kölcsey – Imre Madách – Sándor Márai – Ferenc Molnár – Sándor Petőfi – Miklós Radnóti – Magda Szabó – Antal Szerb – Miklós Vámos – Mihály Vörösmarty
Gyula Andrássy – Lajos Batthyány – Gabriel Bethlen – Stephen Bocskay – Matthias Corvinus – Ferenc Deák – Miklós Horthy – Lajos Kossuth – Ferenc Nagy – Imre Nagy – Bertalan Szemere – István Széchenyi – Miklós Wesselényi – Vilmos Nagy of Nagybaczon
József Bozsik – Krisztina Egerszegi – Zoltán Gera – Dezső Gyarmati – Ágnes Keleti – Péter Lékó – Csaba Mérő – Tibor Nyilasi – László Papp – Judit Polgár – Zsuzsa Polgár – Ferenc Puskás
Nimród Antal – Michael Curtiz – John Garfield – Miklós Jancsó – Sir Alexander Korda – Peter Lorre – Béla Lugosi – Emeric Pressburger – Miklós Rózsa – Andy G. Vajna – Gábor Zsazsa
Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group of influential noblemen in his father's lifetime in 1214. His father, who strongly opposed Béla's coronation, refused to give him a province to rule until 1220. In this year, Béla was appointed Duke of Slavonia, also with jurisdiction in Croatia and Dalmatia. Around the same time, Béla married Maria, a daughter of Theodore I Laskaris, Emperor of Nicaea. From 1226, he governed Transylvania as duke. He supported Christian missions among the pagan Cumans who dwelled in the plains to the east of his province. Some Cuman chieftains acknowledged his suzerainty and he adopted the title of King of Cumania in 1233. King Andrew died on 21 September 1235 and Béla succeeded him. He attempted to restore royal authority, which had diminished under his father. For this purpose, he revised his predecessors' land grants and reclaimed former royal estates, causing discontent among the noblemen and the prelates.
The Mongols invaded Hungary and annihilated Béla's army in the Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241. He escaped from the battlefield, but a Mongol detachment chased him from town to town as far as Trogir on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Although he survived the invasion, the Mongols devastated the country before their unexpected withdrawal in March 1242. Béla introduced radical reforms in order to prepare his kingdom for a second Mongol invasion. He allowed the barons and the prelates to erect stone fortresses and to set up their private armed forces. He promoted the development of fortified towns. During his reign, thousands of colonists arrived from the Holy Roman Empire, Poland and other neighboring regions to settle in the depopulated lands. Béla's efforts to rebuild his devastated country won him the epithet of "second founder of the state" (Hungarian: második honalapító). (Full article...)Related projects:
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