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Hungary

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Countries; European
Countries

   SOS Children works in Hungary. For more information see SOS Children in
   Hungary
                       Magyar Köztársaság
   Republic of Hungary

   Flag of Hungary Coat of arms of Hungary
   Flag            Coat of arms
   Motto: none
   Historical: Regnum Mariae Patrona Hungariae (Latin)
   (English: "Kingdom of Mary the Patroness of Hungary")
   Anthem: Himnusz (Isten, áldd meg a magyart)
   "Hymn (God, bless the Hungarians)"
   Location of Hungary
   Capital
   (and largest city) Budapest
                      47°26′N 19°15′E
   Official languages Hungarian (Magyar)
   Government         Parliamentary  republic
    - President       László Sólyom
    - Prime minister  Ferenc Gyurcsány
      Independence
    - Independence    November 16, 1918 ^1
    - Recognised      10 September 1919 ^2
    Accession to EU   May 1, 2004
                                Area
    - Total           93,030 km² ( 109th)
                      35,919 sq mi
    - Water (%)       0.74%
                             Population
    - 2006 estimate   10,076,581 ( 79th)
    - 2001 census     10,198,315
    - Density         109/km² ( 92nd)
                      282/sq mi
       GDP ( PPP)     2006 estimate
    - Total           $169.875 billion ( 48th)
    - Per capita      $17,405 ( 40th)
      HDI  (2004)     0.869 (high) ( 35th)
        Currency      Forint ( HUF)
       Time zone      CET ( UTC+1)
    - Summer ( DST)   CEST ( UTC+2)
      Internet TLD    .hu (also .eu as part of the European Union)
      Calling code    +36
   ^1 From Austria-Hungary.

   ^2 Treaty of Saint-Germain.

   Hungary ( Hungarian: Magyarország; mɒɟɒrorsaːɡ; listen ), officially in
   English the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság listen , literally
   Hungarian Republic), is a landlocked country in Central Europe,
   bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and
   Slovenia. Hungary has been a member state of the European Union since
   May 1, 2004.

History

   The arrival of the Magyars at the Carpathian Basin
   Enlarge
   The arrival of the Magyars at the Carpathian Basin

   In the time of the Roman Empire, the region west of the Danube river
   was known as Pannonia. After the Western Roman Empire collapsed under
   the stress of the migration of Germanic tribes and Carpian pressure,
   the Migration Period continued bringing many invaders to Europe. Among
   the first to arrive were the Huns, who built up a powerful empire under
   Attila. It is presently believed that the origin of the name "Hungary"
   does not come from the Central Asian nomadic invaders called the Huns,
   but rather originated from a later, 7th century Turkic alliance called
   On-Ogour, which in Old Turkish meant "(the) Ten Arrows".

   After Hunnish rule faded, the Lombards and the Gepids ruled in Pannonia
   for about 100 years, during which the Slavic tribes began migrating
   into the region. In the 560s, the Slavs were supplanted by the Avars,
   who maintained their supremacy of the land for more than two centuries.
   The Franks under Charlemagne from the west and the Bulgars from the
   southeast managed to overthrow the Avars in the early 9th century.
   However, the Franks soon retreated, and the Slavonic kingdom of Great
   Moravia and the Balaton Principality assumed control of much of
   Pannonia until the end of the century. The Magyars migrated to Hungary
   in the late 9th century.

   Magyar tradition holds that the Country of the Magyars (Magyarország)
   was founded by Árpád, who led the Magyars into the Pannonian plain some
   time after 895. The "Ten Arrows" mentioned above referred to ten
   tribes, the alliance of which was the foundation of the army of the
   invading Magyars.

   The Kingdom of Hungary was established in 1000 by King Saint Stephen.
   Originally named Vajk, Stephen was a direct descendant of Árpád, and
   was baptised as a child. He married Giselle of Bavaria, the daughter of
   Henry II, Duke of Bavaria in 996, and after the death of his father
   Prince Géza in 997, he assumed the mantle of ruler and became the first
   Christian king of Hungary.

   St. Stephen I received his crown from Pope Silvester II in 1000. As a
   Christian king, he established the Hungarian Church with ten dioceses
   and the royal administration of the country that was divided into
   counties ( comitatus or vármegye). Hungary became a patrimonial kingdom
   where the majority of the land was the private property of the ruler.
   In 1083, he was canonized along with his son, Imre of Hungary.

   Initially, Hungarian history and politics developed in close
   association with that of Poland and Bohemia, driven by the
   interventions of various Popes and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
   Between 1241–1242, under King Béla IV. Hungary was devastated,
   suffering great loss of life at the hands of the Mongol ( Tatar) armies
   of Batu Khan who defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Muhi. Despite
   the victory, the Mongols did not occupy Hungary, but withdrew shortly
   after upon the news of the death of Ögedei Khan, leaving behind a
   country in ruins.

   Gradually Hungary, under the rule of the dynasty of the Árpáds and even
   before it (since the 9th century), joined the greater West European
   civilizations. Ruled by the Angevins since 1308, the Kingdom of Hungary
   slowly lost control over territories later called Wallachia ( 1330) and
   Moldavia ( 1359).

   János Hunyadi, the Regent of Hungary fought defensive wars against the
   invading Ottoman Empire. The custom of sounding the noon bell is
   closely related to an important battle against the Ottomans that took
   place on June 29, 1456, at Nándorfehérvár.

   His son, King Matthias Corvinus, ruled the Kingdom of Hungary from 1458
   to 1490. He strengthened Hungary and its government. Under his rule,
   Hungary became an important artistic and cultural centre of Europe
   during the Renaissance. Matthias, whose wife was Italian, imported
   artisans from Italy and France. Likewise, Hungarian culture influenced
   others, for example the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. King Matthias
   Corvinus was also successful in many battles against the Ottoman
   Empire.

   The forthcoming two centuries were dominated by the constant warfare
   against the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans gained a decisive victory over
   the Hungarian army at the battle of Mohács in 1526. The next decades
   were characterised by political chaos; the divided Hungarian nobility
   elected two kings simultaneously, Ferdinand Habsburg (1526-1540) and
   János Szapolyai (1526-1540), whose armed conflicts weakened the country
   further. After the conquest of Buda by the Ottomans in 1541, the
   Kingdom of Hungary came to be divided into three parts: one third of
   Hungary fell under Ottoman rule; one third (in the West) remained under
   Habsburg rule Kings of Hungary); the third part in the east (originally
   supporting János Szapolyai), remained independent (the Principality of
   Transylvania) and subsequendly become a semi independet, vassal state
   of the Ottoman Empire. It was only more than 150 years later, at the
   end of the 17th century, that Austria and its Christian allies regained
   the territories of the Kingdom from the Ottoman Empire.
              History of Hungary
   Ancient Hungary
   Pannonia
   Hungary before the Magyars
   The Middle Ages
   Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages
   Modern Times
   Ottoman Hungary
   Royal Hungary
   18th and 19th century (up to early 1919)
   Hungarian Soviet Republic
   Between the Two World Wars
   Communist Hungary
   People's Republic of Hungary
   Hungarian Revolution of 1956
   Modern Hungary
   Republic of Hungary

   After the final retreat of the Ottomans, struggle began between the
   Hungarian nation and the Habsburg kings for the protection of
   noblemen's rights (thus guarding the autonomy of Hungary). The fight
   against Austrian absolutism resulted in the unsuccessful popular
   freedom fight led by a Transylvanian nobleman, Ferenc II Rákóczi,
   between 1703 and 1711. The revolution and war of 1848–1849 eliminated
   serfdom and secured civil rights. The Austrians were finally able to
   prevail only with Russian help.

   Thanks to the victories against Austria by the French-Italian coalition
   (the Battle of Solferino, 1859) and Prussia ( Battle of Königgrätz,
   1866), Hungary would eventually, in 1867, manage to become an
   autonomous part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (see Ausgleich). Having
   achieved this, the Hungarian government made an effort to nationally
   unify the kingdom by Magyarisation of the various other nationalities.
   This lasted until the end of World War I, when the Austro-Hungarian
   empire collapsed. On November 16, 1918, an independent Hungarian
   Republic was proclaimed.

   Following World War I, Romania occupied Transylvania and Eastern
   Hungary, Czechoslovakia Upper Hungary. The joint Serb and French army
   occupied Southern Hungary. The Entente backed the subsequent
   annexations of these territories.

   In March 1919 the communists took power, and in April, Béla Kun
   proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. This government, like its
   predecessor, proved to be short-lived, despite some initial military
   successes against the Czechoslovak army.

   On 13 June the Peace Conference in Versailles ordered the evacuation of
   the northern territories by Hungary together with the evacuation of the
   Tiszántúl by Romania. Hungary fulfilled the request on 30 June but the
   Romanian army remained in the Tiszántúl.

   The ensuing war between Hungary and Romania led to the defeat of the
   Hungarian Soviet army. By August more than half of present-day Hungary,
   including Budapest, was placed under Romanian occupation, which lasted
   until November. Rightist military forces, led by the former
   Austro-Hungarian Admiral Miklós Horthy, entered Budapest in the wake of
   the Romanian army's departure and filled the vacuum of state power. In
   January 1920, elections were held for a unicameral assembly, and
   Admiral Horthy was subsequently elected Regent, thereby formally
   restoring Hungary to a kingdom, although there were no more Kings of
   Hungary, despite attempts by the former Habsburg king to return to
   power. Horthy continued to rule with autocratic powers until 1944.

   On June 4, 1920 the Treaty of Trianon was signed, fixing Hungary's
   borders. Compared with the pre-war Kingdom, Hungary lost 71% of its
   territory, 66% of its population, and with the new borders about
   one-third of the Magyar population became minorities in the
   neighbouring countries. Hungary also lost its only sea port in Fiume
   (today Rijeka). Therefore, Hungarian politics and culture of the
   interwar period were saturated with irredentism (the restoration of
   historical " Greater Hungary").

   Horthy made an alliance with Nazi Germany in the 1930s, in the hope of
   revising the territorial losses that had followed World War I. The
   alliance did lead to some territories being returned to Hungary in the
   two Vienna Awards. Hungary then assisted the German occupation of the
   Kingdom of Yugoslavia, occupying the Banat right afterwards, and
   finally entered World War II in 1941, fighting primarily against the
   Soviet Union. In October 1944, Hitler replaced Horthy with the
   Hungarian Nazi collaborator Ferenc Szálasi and his Arrow Cross Party in
   order to avert Hungary's defection to the Allied side, which was
   constantly threatened since the Allied invasion of Italy.

   Hungary was the first modern nation to pass distinctly anti-Semitic
   laws; the "numerus clausus" laws of the early 1920 were aimed at
   restricting the access of Jews to higher education. In the late 1930s,
   more specifically anti-Semitic laws followed. Some massacres of Jews by
   Hungarian forces took place in the early part of the Second World War,
   but Hungary initially resisted large scale deportation of its Jewish
   population. Ultimately, however, during the German occupation, the
   Arrow Cross Party and government authorities participated in the
   Holocaust: in May and June 1944, Hungarian police deported nearly
   440,000 Jews in more than 145 trains, mostly to Auschwitz . Ultimately,
   over 400,000 Jews in Hungary were killed during the Holocaust, as well
   as tens of thousands of Roma people. Hundreds of Hungarian people were
   also executed by the Arrow Cross Party for sheltering Jews, among them
   Sister Sara Salkahazi. Foreign heads of states and diplomates who
   helped save the lives of many include Pope Pius XII, Raoul Wallenberg,
   and Carl Lutz.

   Following the fall of Nazi Germany, Hungary became part of the Soviet
   area of influence and was appropriated into a communist state following
   a short period of democracy in 1946-1947. After 1948, Communist leader
   Mátyás Rákosi established a Stalinist rule in the country, which was
   hardly bearable for the war-torn country. This led to the 1956
   Hungarian Revolution and an announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact
   which were met with a massive military intervention by the Soviet
   Union. Nearly a quarter of a million people left the country during the
   brief time that the borders were open in 1956. From the 1960s on to the
   late 1980s Hungary was sometimes satirically called " the happiest
   barrack" within the Eastern bloc, under the rule of late controversial
   communist leader János Kádár, who exercised autocratic rule during this
   period. In the late 1980s, Hungary led the movement to dissolve the
   Warsaw Pact and shifted toward multiparty democracy and a
   market-oriented economy. On October 23, 1989, Mátyás Szűrös declared
   the Third Hungarian Republic and became interim President of the
   Republic. The first Free elections were held in 1990. Following the
   collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Hungary developed closer ties
   with Western Europe, as well as with other Central European countries,
   becoming a member of the Visegrad Group in 1991, and joined NATO in
   1999 and the European Union on May 1, 2004.

Geography

   Map of Hungary
   Enlarge
   Map of Hungary

Landscape

   Hungary's landscape consists mostly of flat to rolling plains of the
   Carpathian Basin, with hills and lower mountains to the north along the
   Slovakian border (highest point: the Kékes at 3,327  ft; 1,014 m).
   Hungary is divided in two by its main waterway, the Danube (Duna);
   other large rivers include the Tisza and Dráva, while the western half
   contains Lake Balaton, a major body of water. The largest thermal lake
   in the world, Lake Hévíz ( Hévíz Spa), is located in Hungary. The
   second largest lake in the Carpathian Basin is Lake Theiss (Tisza-tó).

Climate

   Hungary has a continental climate, with cold, cloudy, humid winters and
   warm to hot summers. Average annual temperature is 9.7 ° C (49.5 ° F).
   Temperature extremes are about 38 °C (100 °F) in the summer and −29 °C
   (−20 °F) in the winter. Average temperature in the summer is 27 to 32
   °C (81 to 90 °F), and in the winter it is 0 to −15 °C (32 to 5 °F). The
   average yearly rainfall is approximately 600 millimetres (24  in). A
   small, southern region of the country near Pécs reputedly enjoys a
   Mediterranean climate however in reality is just a bit warmer than the
   rest of the country and still has snow in the winters.

Demographics

   Ethnic composition of Hungary
   Hungarian

                             93%
   Roma

                              5%
   German

                            1.2%
   Romanian

                            0.8%
   Slovak

                            0.4%
   other

                            0.6%

   For some 95% of the population, mostly Hungarians, the mother tongue is
   Hungarian, a Finno-Ugric language unrelated to any neighbouring
   language. Several ethnic minorities exist: Roma (5%), Germans (1.2%),
   Romanians (0.8%), Slovaks (0.4%), Croats (0.2%), Serbs (0.2%) and
   Ukrainians (0.1%).
     * Hungarians, 93%
     * Roma, 5% (other estimates up to 7%)
     * Germans, 1.2%
     * Romanians, 0.8%
     * Slovaks, 0.4%

   According to census data, the largest religion in Hungary is Roman
   Catholicism (50% of the population ), with a significant Calvinist
   minority (16% of the population) and smaller Lutheran (3%) and Greek
   Catholic (3%) minorities. However, these census figures are
   representative of religious affiliation rather than practice; an
   estimated 10-14% of Hungarians attend religious services at least once
   a week and fewer than 50% at least once a year, while 30% of Hungarians
   do not believe in God .

   For historical reasons, significant Hungarian minority populations can
   be found in the surrounding countries, notably in Ukraine (in
   Transcarpathia), Slovakia, Romania (in Transylvania), and Serbia (in
   Vojvodina), Austria (in Burgenland); Croatia (mainly Slavonia), and
   Slovenia are also host to a number of ethnic Magyars.

The Roma minority

   The real number of Roma in Hungary is a disputed question. In the 2001
   census only 190,000 people called themselves Roma, but experts and Roma
   organisations estimate that there are between 450,000 and 600,000 Roma
   living in Hungary . During World War II, 50,000 Roma were killed in
   Hungary. Since then, the size of the Roma population has increased
   rapidly. Today every fifth or sixth newborn Hungarian child belongs to
   the Roma minority. Estimates based on current demographic trends claim
   that in 2050 15-20 percent of the population (1.2 million people) will
   be Roma.

Politics

   The President of the Republic, elected by the parliament every 5 years,
   has a largely ceremonial role choosing the dates of the parliamentary
   elections. The prime minister selects cabinet ministers and has the
   exclusive right to dismiss them. Each cabinet nominee appears before
   one or more parliamentary committees in consultative open hearings and
   must be formally approved by the president.

   The unicameral, 386-member National Assembly (the Országgyűlés) is the
   highest organ of state authority and initiates and approves legislation
   sponsored by the prime minister. National parliamentary elections are
   held every 4 years (the next will be held probably in 2010). An
   11-member Constitutional Court has power to challenge legislation on
   grounds of unconstitutionality.

Administrative divisions

   Counties of Hungary
   Enlarge
   Counties of Hungary

   Hungary is subdivided administratively into 19 counties, but since the
   admission to the European Union, Hungary has been subdivided into 7
   euro-regions. In addition to these, there is one capital city
   (főváros): Budapest. There are also 23 so-called urban counties
   (singular megyei jogú város), These are:
   Urban counties Counties (County Capital) Euro-regions
     * Békéscsaba
     * Debrecen
     * Dunaújváros
     * Eger
     * Érd
     * Győr
     * Hódmezővásárhely
     * Kaposvár
     * Kecskemét
     * Miskolc
     * Nagykanizsa
     * Nyíregyháza
     * Pécs
     * Salgótarján
     * Sopron
     * Szeged
     * Székesfehérvár
     * Szekszárd
     * Szolnok
     * Szombathely
     * Tatabánya
     * Veszprém
     * Zalaegerszeg

     * Bács-Kiskun ( Kecskemét)
     * Baranya ( Pécs)
     * Békés ( Békéscsaba)
     * Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén ( Miskolc)
     * Csongrád ( Szeged)
     * Fejér ( Székesfehérvár)
     * Győr-Moson-Sopron ( Győr)
     * Hajdú-Bihar ( Debrecen)
     * Heves ( Eger)
     * Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok ( Szolnok)
     * Komárom-Esztergom ( Tatabánya)
     * Nógrád ( Salgótarján)
     * Pest (Budapest)
     * Somogy ( Kaposvár)
     * Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg ( Nyíregyháza)
     * Tolna ( Szekszárd)
     * Vas ( Szombathely)
     * Veszprém ( Veszprém)
     * Zala ( Zalaegerszeg)

     * Western Transdanubia
     * Southern Transdanubia
     * Central Transdanubia
     * Central Hungary
     * Northern Hungary
     * Northern Great Plain
     * Southern Great Plain

Economy

   Hungarian 100 Forint
   Enlarge
   Hungarian 100 Forint

   Hungary continues to demonstrate economic growth as one of the newest
   member countries of the European Union (since 2004). The private sector
   accounts for over 80% of GDP. Hungary gets nearly one third of all
   foreign direct investment flowing in to Central Europe. Foreign
   ownership of and investment in Hungarian firms are widespread, with
   cumulative foreign direct investment totalling more than US$23 billion
   since 1989. The Hungarian sovereign debt's credit rating is BBB+ as of
   July 2006, making Hungary the only other country in the EU apart from
   Poland not to enjoy an A grade score. Inflation and unemployment have
   been on the rise in the past few years, and they are expected to rise
   further. Foreign investors' trust in the Hungarian Economy has
   declined, as they deem that the stringency measures planned in the 2nd
   half of 2006 are not satisfactory, their focus being mainly on
   increasing the income side rather than curbing government spendings.
   Economic reform measures such as health care reform, tax reform, and
   local government financing have not yet been addressed by the present
   government.

   The Hungarian government has expressed a desire to adopt the euro
   currency in 2010. However, foreign analysts widely criticised that date
   as highly unrealistic given the current shape of the economy in
   relation to the Maastricht criteria; their assessments suggest that a
   date of 2013-2014 for Euro adoption is more realistic. Some analysts
   even go as far as to suggest that Romania and Bulgaria, who will join
   the EU in 2007, might beat Hungary to euro adoption.

Culture

   Franz Liszt, prominent Hungarian composer
   Enlarge
   Franz Liszt, prominent Hungarian composer

   The Music of Hungary consists mainly of traditional Hungarian folk
   music and music by prominent composers such as Franz Liszt, Béla Bartók
   and Zoltán Kodály. Hungarian traditional music tends to have a strong
   dactylic rhythm, just as the language is invariably stressed on the
   first syllable of each word.

   Hungarian cuisine is also a prominent feature of Hungarian culture,
   with traditional dishes such as goulash (gulyás or gulyásleves) a main
   feature of the Hungarian diet. Dishes are often flavoured with paprika
   (also Hungarian for pepper). Stews are often to be found with typical
   elements such as pork or beef, for example as used in pörkölt.

   Hungary is famous for its excellent mathematics education which has
   trained numerous outstanding scientists. Famous Hungarian
   mathematicians include Paul Erdős who is famous for publishing in over
   forty languages and whose Erdős numbers are still tracked, János (John)
   Bolyai designer of non-Euclidian geometry or "absolute geometry" in
   1831, John von Neumann one of the pioneers in digital computing, Eugene
   Wigner, and many others. Erdős, von Neumann, and Wigner, like other
   Hungarian Jewish scientists, fled rising anti-Semitism in Europe, and
   made their most famous contributions in the United States.

   Hungarians are very proud of their inventions. These include the
   noiseless match (from János Irínyi), Rubik's cube, the krypton electric
   bulb [from Imre Bródy (1891-1944)], and the aforementioned
   non-Euclidian geometry. A number of other important inventions,
   including holography, the ballpoint pen (invented by Bíró, who gave his
   name to the invention), the theory of the hydrogen bomb, and the BASIC
   programming language, were invented by Hungarians who fled the country
   prior to World War II.
   Ferenc Kölcsey, author of the Hungarian National Anthem
   Enlarge
   Ferenc Kölcsey, author of the Hungarian National Anthem

   Hungarian literature has recently gained some renown outside the
   borders of Hungary (mostly through translations into German, French and
   English). Some modern Hungarian authors became increasingly popular in
   Germany and Italy especially Sándor Márai, Péter Esterházy, Péter Nádas
   and Imre Kertész. The later is a contemporary Jewish writer who
   survived the Holocaust and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2002.

   The older classics of Hungarian literature and Hungarian poetry
   remained almost totally unknown outside Hungary. János Arany, a famous
   19th century Hungarian poet is still much loved in Hungary (especially
   his collection of Ballads), among several other "true classics" like
   Sándor Petőfi, the poet of the Revolution of 1848, Endre Ady, Mihály
   Babits, Dezső Kosztolányi, Attila József and János Pilinszky. Other
   well-known Hungarian authors are Zsigmond Móricz, Gyula Illyés, Albert
   Wass and Magda Szabó.

   Hungarians are also known for their prowess at water sports, mainly
   swimming, water polo and canoeing; this can be said to be surprising at
   first, due to Hungary being landlocked. On the other hand, the presence
   of two major rivers (the Duna and the Tisza) and a major lake (
   Balaton) give excellent opportunities to practice those sports.

Neighbouring countries

   Flag of Austria  Austria Flag of Slovakia  Slovakia Flag of Ukraine
   Ukraine
   Flag of Slovenia  Slovenia North
   West    Flag of Hungary  Hungary     East
   South
   Flag of Croatia  Croatia Flag of Serbia  Serbia Flag of Romania
   Romania
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary"
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