Hungary

Hungary sits in Central Europe, entirely surrounded by land. It covers much of the Carpathian Basin, with Slovakia to its north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the southwest, and Austria to the west. The country lies within the Danube River’s drainage basin and is mostly made up of vast lowland plains. Its population exceeds 9.5 million, composed mainly of ethnic Hungarians, known as Magyars, along with a sizable Romani minority. The official language is Hungarian, one of the few in Europe that does not belong to the Indo-European family. Budapest serves as the capital, the largest city, and the nation’s hub for culture and economy.

Various peoples settled the area before the Hungarian state formed, including Celts, Romans, Huns, Germanic tribes, Avars, and Slavs. Statehood began in the late 800s with the Principality of Hungary, which became a medieval Christian kingdom under King Stephen I in the year 1000. After the Ottoman Empire defeated Hungary at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the kingdom split into three parts for over 150 years, until it reunited under Habsburg rule just before the 1700s. Several revolts against the Habsburgs led to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy through the Compromise of 1867; Austria-Hungary remained a major European power until World War I. Hungary’s modern borders were set by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, which caused severe losses—71 percent of its historic territory, most of its economy and population, and left a third of ethnic Hungarians outside the new borders.

The early interwar period brought turmoil, ending with the national-conservative regime of regent Miklós Horthy. Hungary joined the Axis powers during World War II and suffered heavy damage and casualties. After a brief Soviet occupation, the Hungarian People’s Republic was established in 1949 as a satellite state within the Warsaw Pact. Political repression and economic stagnation sparked the unsuccessful Hungarian Revolution of 1956, though communist rule softened in later decades. During the Revolutions of 1989, Hungary peacefully transitioned to a democratic parliamentary republic. It joined the European Union in 2004 and the Schengen Area in 2007. Under Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party, from 2010 to 2026, the country experienced democratic backsliding.

Hungary has a high-income economy, with universal health care and free tuition for higher education. It boasts a long history of major contributions to arts, music, literature, sports, and science and technology. A popular European tourist destination, Hungary welcomed 24.5 million international visitors in 2019. The country is a member of many international organizations, including the Council of Europe, the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Visegrád Group.

The “H” in the name Hungary likely comes from historical ties to the Huns, who settled the area before the Avars. The rest of the word derives from the Latinized form of Byzantine Greek. The Greek name may have been borrowed from Old Slavonic, which in turn came from Oghur-Turkic Onogur (“ten [tribes of the] Ogurs”). Onogur was the collective name for tribes that later joined the Bulgar confederacy ruling eastern Hungary after the Avars. Scholar Peter B. Golden also notes Árpád Berta’s suggestion that the name comes from Khazar Turkic words meaning “right wing,” pointing to the idea that the Magyar Union before the Conquest formed the western wing of the Khazar military forces.

The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, from magyar (“Hungarian”) and ország (“country”). The name Magyar, referring to the people, more accurately reflects the country’s name in some languages, such as Turkish and Persian, where it appears as Magyaristan or Land of Magyars. The word magyar comes from the leading tribe among the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes.

The Roman Empire conquered the area between the Alps and the land west of the Danube from 16 to 15 BC, with the Danube as its frontier. In 14 BC, Emperor Augustus recognized Pannonia—the western Carpathian Basin, including western Hungary—as part of the Roman Empire in his Res Gestae Divi Augusti. The area southeast of Pannonia became the province of Moesia in 6 BC. Land east of the Tisza River became the province of Dacia in 106 AD, covering eastern Hungary, and remained under Roman rule until 271.

From 235, the Roman Empire faced turmoil from revolts, rivalries, and rapid imperial succession. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century under pressure from migrating Germanic tribes and the Carpians. This period brought many invaders into Central Europe, starting with the Hunnic Empire (until 469). Its most powerful ruler was Attila the Hun (434–453), later a key figure in Hungarian mythology. After the Hunnic Empire fell, the Gepids—an Eastern Germanic tribe once vassalized by the Huns—established their own kingdom in the Carpathian Basin. Other groups arriving during the Migration Period included Goths, Vandals, Lombards, and Slavs. In the 560s, the Avars founded the Avar Khaganate, a state that dominated the region for over two centuries. The Franks later defeated them.