Kingdom of Hungary
On Christmas Day 1000, a man named Vajk stood before the people of Hungary and accepted baptism. He took the name Stephen I that day at the cathedral in Esztergom. This event marked the transition from a pagan Grand Principality to a Christian Kingdom. The Árpád dynasty led this new monarchy for three hundred years following his coronation. Before this moment, Hungarian leaders had raided Western Europe until Otto I stopped them at the Battle of Lechfeld. Stephen fought against Koppány near Veszprém with help from Bavarian forces. He established a Catholic state where the Church received powerful support from the crown. By the twelfth century, historians note that Hungary became an important European factor and part of the West.
In 1241, Mongol armies under Subutai destroyed the combined Hungarian and Cuman forces at the Battle of Mohi. Estimates suggest between five hundred thousand and one million people died during these invasions. Some sources claim fifteen to twenty-five percent of the population perished in the plains. Béla IV rebuilt the kingdom after the invasion by erecting numerous fortresses across the land. He earned the title Second Founder of the Homeland for these efforts. Andrew II issued the Golden Bull in 1222 to establish legal principles before the disaster struck. Charles I later introduced the forint currency to replace the silver denarius. Gold mines worked extensively under his rule brought prosperity back to the economy. The Order of Saint George founded in 1326 included the most important noblemen of the Kingdom as its first secular chivalric order.
On the 29th of August 1526, Suleiman the Magnificent led Ottoman forces to annihilate the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács. King Louis II drowned in the Csele Creek while trying to escape the slaughter. Pál Tomori also died in that battle. The central authority collapsed immediately leaving the country divided into three parts. Royal Hungary remained under Ferdinand I in the north and west. Ottoman Hungary controlled the Great Alföld region including south-eastern Transdanubia. The Eastern Hungarian Kingdom existed under John Zápolya until it became the Principality of Transylvania. A truce signed on the 1st of May 1547 required Habsburg rulers to pay thirty thousand gold florins annually to the Ottomans. Nikola IV Zrinski defended Szigetvár with only two thousand three hundred men against an army of one hundred fifty thousand soldiers from August 2nd to September 7th.
Francis II Rákóczi led a group of noblemen in a freedom fight known as Rákóczi's War for Independence between 1703 and 1711. His Kuruc troops utilized light cavalry and weapons like pistols and light sabres to defeat Austrian armies initially. János Bottyán decisively defeated the Austrian army at the Battle of Saint Gotthard in 1705. Ádám Balogh nearly captured Joseph I during these conflicts. The main reasons for the war included new higher taxes and a renewed Protestant movement. The Habsburgs finally defeated the main Hungarian army at the Battle of Trencsén in 1708. This conflict succeeded in keeping Hungary from becoming an integral part of the Habsburg Empire even though it was eventually suppressed. István Széchenyi later started the reform age by building the Széchenyi Chain Bridge which remains one of the greatest bridges in Hungary today.
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 transformed the monarchy into a dual state with equal status for Austria and Hungary. GNP per capita grew roughly 1.45 percent per year from 1870 to 1913 under this arrangement. This growth compared favorably to other European nations such as Britain or France. Francis Joseph I and Elisabeth were crowned at Matthias Church in Buda on the 8th of June 1867. The lands of the Hungarian Crown granted Transylvania full incorporation while maintaining distinct identity for Croatia-Slavonia. Technological change accelerated industrialization and urbanization throughout the empire's fifty-year existence. By the early twentieth century most of the Empire began to experience rapid economic growth. Obsolete medieval institutions continued to disappear during this capitalist era of production.
The Treaty of Trianon signed in 1920 ceded seventy-two percent of the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary to neighboring states. More than three million ethnic Hungarians found themselves separated from their motherland by these new borders. Miklós Horthy served as regent of Hungary from 1920 until 1944 representing the restored monarchy. Count Pál Teleki became Prime Minister in July 1920 and issued a numerus clausus law limiting university admission. István Bethlen dominated Hungarian politics between 1921 and 1931 forming a political machine through electoral manipulation. Gyula Gömbös changed policy toward closer cooperation with Germany after being appointed prime minister in 1932. The First Vienna Award returned southern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary on the 2nd of November 1938 covering an area of eleven thousand nine hundred twenty-seven square kilometers.
Hungary joined the Axis powers in 1941 declaring war on the Soviet Union on June 26 following Operation Barbarossa. German troops occupied Hungary on the 19th of March 1944 during Operation Margarethe due to duplicity in negotiations. Ferenc Szálasi led a fascist puppet government under the pro-German Arrow Cross after Horthy's token effort to disengage failed. The Red Army set up police organs to persecute class enemies after occupying the country in 1944. Communist Interior Minister László Rajk established the ÁVH secret police which suppressed opposition through torture and imprisonment. In 1946 the form of government was changed to a republic ending the monarchy that had existed since 1000. The Soviet Union pressed Mátyás Rákosi to take a line of more pronounced class struggle leading to a communist state lasting until 1956.
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Common questions
When did Stephen I become the first king of Hungary?
Stephen I became the first king of Hungary on Christmas Day 1000 when he accepted baptism and took his royal name at the cathedral in Esztergom. This event marked the transition from a pagan Grand Principality to a Christian Kingdom under the Árpád dynasty.
What happened during the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241?
Mongol armies under Subutai destroyed the combined Hungarian and Cuman forces at the Battle of Mohi in 1241, causing an estimated five hundred thousand to one million deaths. Béla IV rebuilt the kingdom after the invasion by erecting numerous fortresses across the land and earned the title Second Founder of the Homeland for these efforts.
How was the Kingdom of Hungary divided after the Battle of Mohács in 1526?
The central authority collapsed immediately after King Louis II drowned in the Csele Creek on the 29th of August 1526, leaving the country divided into three parts. Royal Hungary remained under Ferdinand I in the north and west while Ottoman Hungary controlled the Great Alföld region including south-eastern Transdanubia.
When did the Austro-Hungarian Compromise transform the monarchy into a dual state?
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise transformed the monarchy into a dual state with equal status for Austria and Hungary in 1867 when Francis Joseph I and Elisabeth were crowned at Matthias Church in Buda on the 8th of June 1867. GNP per capita grew roughly 1.45 percent per year from 1870 to 1913 under this arrangement.
What territory did Hungary lose according to the Treaty of Trianon signed in 1920?
The Treaty of Trianon signed in 1920 ceded seventy-two percent of the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary to neighboring states. More than three million ethnic Hungarians found themselves separated from their motherland by these new borders.
When did the Kingdom of Hungary officially end as a monarchy?
In 1946 the form of government was changed to a republic ending the monarchy that had existed since 1000. The Soviet Union pressed Mátyás Rákosi to take a line of more pronounced class struggle leading to a communist state lasting until 1956.