Feb. 24, 2007
The Republic of Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.
The capital is Budapest. Other important cities include Debrecen, Gyor, Miskolc, Pecs, and Szeged.
Hungary's terrain is mostly flat with some hills and low mountains. The main rivers are the Danube and Tisza.
The climate is temperate with warm summers and cold winters.
hungary Info
Environment
A significant percentage of Hungary is covered with forests and woodlands. Trees include ash, beech, oak and fir. A variety of protected wildflowers can be found among the country's indigenous plants. Examples are the yellow wood violet and lady's slipper orchid.
Cave systems in Hungary include the Aggtelek Karst (Aggtelek National Park), on UNESCO's World Heritage List, and the Baradla Cave System. The Baradla Caves and related wetlands are listed in the Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance. Lake Balaton, Hungary's largest lake, is also on the Ramsar's Convention of Wetlands List.
Other National Parks are Hortobagy National Park, on the World Heritage List, Bukk National Park, the Danube-Drava National Park, Kiskunsag National Park and Ferto-Hansag National Park.
Wildlife includes the Mangalica pig, Lipica horses, cattle, wolves and various types of sheep. Hungary is an important staging point on the flight path of migratory birds.
Architecture
Hungary has many castles, palaces, manor houses and monuments. The following are of particular note and are on the UNESCO World Heritage List: the Banks of the Daube and the Buda Castle Quarter, the Millenary Benedictine Monastery of Pannonhalma, the Early Christian Necropolis of Pecs (Sopianae), and Holloko, a traditional Hungarian village.
Imre Makovecz is Hungary's most famous twentieth century architect. Makovecz, a household name in Hungary, gained international recognition in 1992 with the pavilion for the Seville Expo.
Population
The population of Hungary was estimated at 9,981,334 in 2006.
Languages
Hungarian is the official language.
Religion
Over half of the people are Roman Catholic; around sixteen percent are Calvinist and three percent Lutheran.
Food
Traditional Hungarian cuisine includes soups, sausages, smoked meat and pickles. Well known Hungarian meals are Hungarian goulash, chicken paprika and stuffed cabbage.
Main meals consist of meat - chicken, goose, pork, beef, veal - or freshwater fish, with vegetables such as beets, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, potatoes and peppers. Hungarian dumplings and noodles are also popular. Important ingredients in Hungarian recipes are paprika, garlic and sour cream.
Cakes, strudels, fruit soups, and pastas with curd cheese and sour cream are popular desserts. Fruits and nuts grown are apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, almonds and hazelnuts.
Traditional alcoholic drinks produced in Hungary are red and white wine, beer, apricot brandy and various fruit schnapps. Non alcoholic drinks include fruit juices, cola and coffee.
Hungary History
History
By 14 B.C.,
western Hungary
was part of the Roman Empire's provinces of Pannonia and Dacia. The area east of the Danube was never part of the Roman Empire and was largely occupied by various Germanic and Asiatic peoples. In 896 all of Hungary was invaded by the Magyars, who founded a kingdom. Christianity was accepted during the reign of Stephen I (St. Stephen), 977–1038. A devastating invasion by the Mongols killed half of Hungary's population in 1241. The peak of Hungary's great period of medieval power came during the reign of Louis I the Great (1342–1382), whose dominions touched the Baltic, Black, and Mediterranean seas. War with the Turks broke out in 1389, and for more than 100 years the Turks advanced through the Balkans. When the Turks smashed a Hungarian army in 1526, western and northern Hungary accepted Hapsburg rule to escape Turkish occupation. Transylvania became independent under Hungarian princes. Intermittent war with the Turks was waged until a peace treaty was signed in 1699.
After the
suppression
of the 1848 revolt, led by Louis Kossuth, against Hapsburg rule, the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary was set up in 1867. The dual monarchy was defeated, along with the other Central Powers, in World War I. After a short-lived republic in 1918, the chaotic Communist rule of 1919 under Béla Kun ended with the Romanians occupying Budapest on Aug. 4, 1919. When the Romanians left, Adm. Nicholas Horthy entered the capital with a national army. The Treaty of Trianon of June 4, 1920, by which the Allies parceled out Hungarian territories, cost Hungary 68% of its land and 58% of its population.
In
World War II
, Hungary allied with Germany, which aided the country in recovering lost territories. Following the German invasion of Russia on June 22, 1941, Hungary joined the attack against the Soviet Union, but withdrew in defeat from the eastern front by May 1943. Germany occupied the country for the remainder of the war and set up a puppet government. Hungarian Jews and Gypsies were sent to death camps. The German regime was driven out by the Soviets in 1944–1945.
By the
Treaty of Paris
(1947), Hungary had to give up all territory it had acquired since 1937 and to pay $300 million in reparations to the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. In 1948, the Communist Party, with the support of Soviet troops, seized control. Hungary was proclaimed a People's Republic and one-party state in 1949. Industry was nationalized, the land collectivized into state farms, and the opposition terrorized by the secret police. The terror, modeled after that of the USSR, reached its height with the trial and life imprisonment of József Cardinal Mindszenty, the leader of Hungary's Roman Catholics, in 1948. On Oct. 23, 1956, an anti-Communist revolution broke out in Budapest. To cope with it, the Communists set up a coalition government and called former prime minister Imre Nagy back to head the government. But he and most of his ministers sympathized with the anti-Communist opposition, and he declared Hungary a neutral power, withdrawing from the Warsaw Treaty and appealing to the United Nations for help. One of his ministers, János Kádár, established a counterregime and asked the USSR to send in military power. Soviet troops and tanks suppressed the revolution in bloody fighting after 190,000 people had fled the country. Under Kádár (1956–1988), Communist Hungary maintained more liberal policies in the economic and cultural spheres, and Hungary became the most liberal of the Soviet-bloc nations of eastern Europe. Continuing his program of national reconciliation, Kádár emptied prisons, reformed the secret police, and eased travel restrictions.
In 1989
, Hungary's Communists abandoned their monopoly on power voluntarily, and the constitution was amended in Oct. 1989 to allow for a multiparty state. The last Soviet troops left Hungary in June 1991, thereby ending almost 47 years of military presence. The transition to a market economy proved difficult. In April 1999, Hungary became part of NATO, and in May 2004, it joined the EU. In 2006, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány was reelected on a platform promising economic “reform without austerity.” In September, a tape was leaked to the media on which Prime Minister Gyurcsany admited that he blatantly lied about the state of the economy to win reelection. Antigovernment demonstrators rioted and demanded his resignation.
