The People of Árpád
Tradition holds that Hungary was founded by seven Magyar (Hungarian) tribes who migrated from the Ural Mountains region near the border of Europe and Asia to present-day territory in the 8th century. These were led by seven leaders: Álmos, Előd, Ond, Kond, Tas, Huba, and Töhötöm. A couple of decades after arriving in the Danube lands, Árpád – Álmos’ eldest son – became prince and absolute leader of the tribes, who made a blood pact to symbolize an indivisible union.
Thus began the history of the Hungarian nation and the Árpád dynasty.
Saint Stephen and Christianity
Árpád’s great-great-grandson was Esteban I (1000 – 1038), son of Prince Géza. Stephen was born a pagan under the name Vajk and was later baptized with his Christian name. Esteban knew that if his nation wanted to survive, it must be recognized as a Christian kingdom and be under the tutelage of the Pope. Thus, he began his fight against paganism after being crowned King of Hungary in the year 1000. Esteban’s main adversary was a relative of his called Koppány, who wanted the Hungarian crown and repudiated Christianity. Finally he dies and Esteban orders that he be dismembered in four and that the parts of his body be sent to important cities as a sign of how “inconvenient” paganism could be.
A fervent defender of Christianity was the knight king Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary (1077 – 1095), whose cult flourished after his canonization in 1192. In his time Croatia and Dalmatia were annexed to Hungary, also consolidating the royal power and the internal situation. of the kingdom.
House of the Anjou and Sigismund
After the Hungarian royal family, the House of Árpad, disappeared in 1301, the Neapolitan prince Charles Robert of Anjou claimed the throne as the only maternal descendant of the Hungarian kings. Then began the Golden Age of the kingdom, being implemented numerous economic reforms. Hungary became the largest supplier of gold and silver in Europe in its time, and dominated its environment commercially and militarily. After the disappearance of the House of Anjou in 1387, Sigismund of Luxembourg he became a Hungarian king by way of marriage. As a Czech king and later a Germanic emperor, Sigismund gained more and more followers, and always concentrating on Hungary, he promoted Gothic art and architecture.
Matías Corvino and the Turks
As a country located in Europe according to BUSINESSCARRIERS, Hungary gradually became a large and independent kingdom, where culture would flourish and important economic progress would be made, especially by the hand of Mátyás (Matías Corvino), who conquered Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia, and later transferred the Hungarian court to Vienna. Thus, Matías was a figure of great relevance for the Renaissance in Hungary and the armed struggle against the Turks, who had been trying to repel for decades (for example, his father, the Hungarian Regent Juan Hunyadi, son of a nobleman from Wallachia, led countless campaigns against the Turks).
The battle of Mohács and the Turkish victory
The golden age ended with the Hungarian defeat of Mohács in 1526 and the Turkish occupation of Buda (today part of Budapest). On the death of Louis II in the battle of Mohács, the Hungarian nobility will elect Ferdinand of Habsburg, brother of Emperor Charles V, as king, thus linking Hungary for almost 400 years to the House of Habsburg.
In 1529 the Turkish offensive against Vienna failed. During the Ottoman domination of much of Hungary, it would be administered by some great families, and the revolts would be constant, as in Transylvania. At the end of the 17th century, the Habsburgs would reconquer Hungary (Budapest in 1686 and Transylvania in 1699). During the 18th and 19th centuries, Hungary was part of the territories administered by the Habsburgs (Austrian Empire from 1806).
The Habsburgs and their rule over Hungary
After the imperial victories of the late 17th century, Hungary and Transylvania became part of the Habsburg Empire, causing several conflicts between the powerful and independent-minded Magyar nobility and the centralist tendencies of Vienna.
In 1848, rebellions broke out throughout the empire, and in Hungary writers such as Sándor Petőfi took to the streets and led crowds against the Austrians. Soon a provisional government was established that was overthrown by Emperor Franz Joseph I with the support in Hungary of the minorities that were subject to the Hungarians (especially Croats and Romanians) and by Russian intervention. The rebellion failed, and between 1849 and 1866 a centralist and authoritarian policy was reintroduced.
Commitment
Following the Austrian defeat of 1866 against Prussia in the Seven Weeks War, Hungary would finally become, in 1867, an autonomous part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1902, a Hungarian delegation headed by Ferenc Deák was sent to Vienna, where the Compromise was signed (in Hungarian: Kiegyezés and in German: Ausgleich). In this treaty, Hungary was given its own political institutions, its own government and army, and the parliament would have its seat in Budapest. Hungary (territories of the Crown of Saint Stephen) became the 2nd entity of the new monarchy, with full independence except in military, foreign, monetary and customs matters. The kaiser became simultaneously the “apostolic king” of Hungary. Hungarian internal politics was characterized by betting on the Magyarization of minorities (Croats, Serbs, Slovaks, Ukrainians and Romanians), administrative centralization (only Croatia retained some autonomy) and the maintenance of a regime tending to authoritarianism (reduced census suffrage, discrimination against minorities, etc.). Unlike the Austrian part, Hungary remained essentially rural and agrarian under the rule of a numerous and powerful nobility who controlled much of the state’s resources.