The Hungary Portal

Coat of arms of Hungary
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National anthem of Hungary

Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much 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 lies within the drainage basin of the Danube River and is dominated by great lowland plains. It has a population of 9.5 million, comprised mostly of ethnic Hungarians and a significant Romani minority. Hungarian is the official language, and among the few in Europe outside the Indo-European family. Budapest is the country's capital and largest city, and the dominant cultural and economic centre.

Prior to the foundation of the Hungarian state, various peoples settled in the territory of present-day Hungary, including the Celts, Romans, Huns, Germanic peoples, Avars and Slavs. Hungarian statehood is traced to the Principality of Hungary, which was established in the late ninth century by Álmos and his son Árpád through the conquest of the Carpathian Basin. King Stephen I ascended the throne in 1000 and converted his realm to a Christian kingdom. The medieval Kingdom of Hungary was a European power, reaching its height in the Late Middle Ages.

After a long period of Ottoman wars, Hungary’s forces were defeated at the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and its capital Buda was captured in 1541, opening a period of more than 150 years where the country was divided into three parts: Royal Hungary (loyal to the Habsburgs), Ottoman Hungary and the largely independent Principality of Transylvania. The Ottomans recognized the loss of Ottoman Hungary by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Most of Hungary was reunited and came under Habsburg rule by the turn of the 18th century.

Wars of independence against the Habsburgs in 1703–1711 and 1848–1849 resulted in a compromise that established the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1867, a major power in 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, majority of its economy, 58% of its population, and 32% of its ethnic Hungarians.

Reeling from the aftermath of the war, Hungary endured turmoil in the early interwar period, culminating in the nationalist conservative regime of de facto ruler Miklós Horthy. Hungary joined the Axis powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. It was occupied by the Soviet Union, which established the Hungarian People's Republic as a satellite state. Following the failed 1956 revolution, Hungary became comparatively freer but remained a repressed member of the Eastern Bloc. As part of the Revolutions of 1989, Hungary peacefully transitioned into a democratic parliamentary republic. It joined the European Union in 2004 and the Schengen Area since 2007. Since the election of Viktor Orbán in 2010, Hungary has undergone democratic backsliding and become an illiberal democracy and hybrid regime.

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 visitors in 2019. Hungary is a member of numerous international organisations, including the Council of Europe, European Union, NATO, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Visegrád Group. (Full article...)

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portrait of a middle aged man, clean shaven and bald
Solti by Allan Warren, 1975

Sir Georg Solti KBE (/ɔːr ˈʃɒlti/ JORJ SHOL-tee, Hungarian: [ˈʃolti]; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner, and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics, and being Jewish, he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House, he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. Prohibited from conducting there, he earned a living as a pianist.

After the war, Solti was appointed musical director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1946. In 1952, he moved to the Oper Frankfurt, where he remained in charge for nine years. He took West German citizenship in 1953. In 1961, he became musical director of the Covent Garden Opera Company, London. During his 10-year tenure, he introduced changes that raised standards to the highest international levels. Under his musical directorship, the status of the company was recognised with the grant of the title "the Royal Opera". He became an honorary citizen of the coastal holiday town of Castiglione della Pescaia, and a British citizen in 1972. (Full article...)

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Emblem of the Hungarian Defence Forces

The Hungarian Defence Forces (Hungarian: Magyar Honvédség, lit.'Hungarian Homeland-Guard', Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈmɒɟɒr ˈhonveːt͡ʃːeːg]) is the national defence force of Hungary. Since 2007, the Hungarian Armed Forces has been under a unified command structure. The Ministry of Defence maintains political and civil control over the army. A subordinate Joint Forces Command coordinates and commands the HDF corps. In 2020, the armed forces had 22,700 personnel on active duty. In 2019, military spending was $1.904 billion, about 1.22% of the country's GDP, well below the NATO target of 2%. In 2016, the government adopted a resolution in which it pledged to increase defence spending to 2.0% of GDP and the number of active personnel to 37,650 by 2026.

Military service is voluntary, though conscription may occur in wartime. In a significant move for modernization, Hungary decided in 2001 to buy 14 JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft for about €800 million. It also bought two used Airbus A319 and two Falcon 7X transport aircraft. Three C-17 III Globemaster transport aircraft are operating from Pápa Air Base under Hungarian nationality mark but are maintained by the NATO Heavy Airlift Wing (HAW). An intensive modernization program started in 2016 under the name "Zrínyi 2026". New helicopters, tanks, IFVs and artillery equipment were purchased beside others. Hungarian National Cyber Security Center was re-organized in 2016. (Full article...)

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Endre AdyJános AranyJózsef EötvösGyörgy FaludyBéla HamvasMór JókaiAttila JózsefFerenc KazinczyImre KertészJános KodolányiFerenc KölcseyImre MadáchSándor MáraiFerenc MolnárSándor PetőfiMiklós RadnótiMagda SzabóAntal SzerbMiklós VámosMihály Vörösmarty

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Gyula AndrássyLajos BatthyányGabriel BethlenStephen BocskayMatthias CorvinusFerenc DeákMiklós HorthyLajos KossuthFerenc NagyImre NagyBertalan SzemereIstván SzéchenyiMiklós WesselényiVilmos Nagy of Nagybaczon

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József BozsikKrisztina EgerszegiZoltán GeraDezső GyarmatiÁgnes KeletiPéter LékóCsaba MérőTibor NyilasiLászló PappJudit PolgárZsuzsa PolgárFerenc Puskás

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Nimród AntalMichael CurtizJohn GarfieldMiklós JancsóSir Alexander KordaPeter LorreBéla LugosiEmeric PressburgerMiklós RózsaAndy G. VajnaGábor Zsazsa

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The foreign relations between Croatia and Hungary are bound together by shared history, political development and geography. The two states established diplomatic relations on 18 January 1992 following the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the independence of Croatia.

In 1102 the previously independent Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Hungary entered personal union and the two were henceforth ruled by the same monarch. Following the Ottoman conquests and a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Croatian nobility elected the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I as the new king of Croatia. The Hungarian nobility was divided, but the Habsburgs annexed the Kingdom of Hungary, keeping Croatia and Hungary under a single crown. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 Croatia sided with the Austrians, so the Croatian Ban Josip Jelačić helped Austria to defeat the Hungarian forces in 1849, ushering in a period of Germanisation. By the 1860s the failure of this policy became apparent, leading to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and the creation of a personal union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. The issue of Croatia's status was resolved by the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868, when the kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia were united into the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. Following the breakup of Austria-Hungary after its defeat in World War I, the Croatian Parliament declared independence on 29 October 1918 and decided to join the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, ending Habsburg rule and the personal union with Hungary after 816 years. Through the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost Međimurje County and the southern part of Baranya to Croatia. With Croatia forming part of Yugoslavia after both World Wars, relations between the two states in the interwar period and Cold War have been defined by relations between Hungary and Yugoslavia. Both Croatia and Hungary collaborated with the Axis powers in World War II and came under post-war communist party rule. Following the revolutions of 1989 and breakup of Yugoslavia, Hungary recognised Croatian independence with the rest of the European Economic Community in 1992, and supported Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence. (Full article...)

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