History

The ancestors of the Hungarians lived in the same areas in Siberian forests and steppes as the ancestors of Ob-Ugric peoples. In there, they carried out crop and livestock farming, produced bronze items and reared horses.

In the 1000s BCE, the Hungarians began to migrate south to the steppes southeast of the Ural Mountains.

In the 400s–500s BCE, Hungarian tribes moved to an area to the west of the Urals, between the Urals and the Volga River, which is where some Hungarians also stayed. The region called Magna Hungaria existed in that area until 1241.

In the 700s, some Hungarians moved further to the area of today’s Donetsk, which was called Levedia. The area was part of the empire of a Turkic people called Khazars, and there were Bulgars and Alans living nearby, with Hungarians forming an alliance with these two.

In 830, part of the alliance moved to the area of today’s Hungary between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River (Etelköz region).

The Hungarians carried out many westward invasions, and in 894–‍900 the Hungarian alliance took possession of the Carpathian Basin, that is, the region that today is Hungary.

The settlement of the Hungarians in their present area was not entirely peaceful. The Hungarians fought for the area with its previous settlers and also conducted raiding expeditions among the surrounding peoples. In 1000, Stephen I, also known as Saint Stephen (Szent István) was crowned King of Hungary.

After Saint Stephen, the country was ruled by the Árpád dynasty of his descendants, under the rule of which the settlement became fairly fixed and agriculture became established. The country turned into feudal society the roots of which date back to the 900s Both during and after the Árpád dynasty, Hungary was attacked by Mongols as well as Turks. In the 1600s, the area of Hungary came under the Habsburg Empire. The area was divided into three and remained fragmented throughout the Habsburg rule.

In 1867, the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary was set up, providing Hungarians with relatively high powers in their country’s affairs. The dual monarchy and the Kingdom of Hungary were dissolved as a result of the First World War, and Hungary was declared a republic. After that, a communist-led Hungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed but was, however, rather short-lived. After the Second World War, however, Hungary remained under the Soviet sphere of influence, that is, behind the Iron Curtain. In 1956, there was an uprising in Hungary which was crushed by the Soviet military. In 1989, Hungary adopted a multiparty system and started to transition into a Western democracy.