Hungary

Hungary, country in east-central Europe, bordered by Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and Austria. The capital is Budapest, where nearly 20% of the population lives.

Land

Hungary is basically a fertile plain, drained by the Danube River, which forms part of the border with Slovakia and then turns south through the country. The Dráva, which forms part of Hungary's border with Croatia, is the only other important river. Most of the country has black, very fertile soil. Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Europe (48 mi/77 km long), begins southwest of Budapest and extends southwest toward the Croatian border. The country is rich in game, including deer, fox, wild boar, and hare.

People

The official language is Hungarian. About two-thirds of the population is Roman Catholic, and one-third Calvinist.

Economy

Hungary was traditionally agricultural, but there has been significant industrialization since World War II. There are important electrical, chemical, food-processing and textile plants. Leading crops include corn, wheat, oats, rye, potatoes, sunflowers, and sugar beets. Apricots, grapes, paprika, and tobacco are also grown, and hogs, sheep, and cattle are raised.

History

The area that is now Hungary was conquered by the Magyars c.896 and Christianized in the 900s. A feudal system flourished until the Ottoman Turkish invasion defeated King Lewis II at Mohács (1526). Most of the country was divided between the Ottoman Empire and Austria, the west and north coming under Habsburg rule in 1687. A bid for independence led by Lajos Kossuth (1848) failed but led to the establishment of the Dual Monarchy (1867): the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I was crowned King of Hungary, and the Austro-Hungarian empire was born. That empire was destroyed in World War I, and an independent Hungarian state was proclaimed in 1918. A Communist revolution in 1919 was put down by Romanian intervention, and in 1920 Admiral Nicholas Horthy de Nagybanya, a right-wing dictator, came to power. Hungary was an ally of Nazi Germany during World War II. Occupied by the USSR (1945), it became a “people's republic” in 1949. An uprising against the repressive regime was crushed by Soviet intervention (1956), and a puppet government under János Kádar was setup. Kádar introduced cultural and economic reforms in the 1960s that temporarily improved Hungarians' living standards, but his refusal to introduce further reforms during the economic decline of the 1970s led to his replacement in 1988.The Communist regime collapsed in 1989 during the general upheaval that swept Eastern Europe. In 1997 Hungary was invited to join NATO. It also wanted entry into the European Union.