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Travel to Hungary — Unbiased reviews and great
deals from TripAdvisorHungary
| Republic of Hungary National
name: Magyar Köztársaság President:
László Sólyom (2005) Prime
Minister: Ferenc Gyurcsány (2004)
Current government officials
Land area: 35,653 sq mi (92,341 sq km);
total area: 35,919 sq mi (93,030 sq km) Population (2007 est.): 9,956,108 (growth
rate: –0.3%); birth rate: 9.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 8.2/1000;
life expectancy: 72.9; density per sq mi: 279
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Budapest, 2,597,000 (metro. area), 1,769,500
(city proper) Other large cities:
Debrecen, 210,500; Miskolc, 182,600; Szeged, 173,200; Pécs,
163,900 Monetary unit: Forint
Languages:
Magyar (Hungarian) 94%, other 6%
Ethnicity/race:
Hungarian 92.3%, Roma 1.9%, other or unknown
5.8% (2001)
Religions:
Roman Catholic 52%, Calvinist 16%, Lutheran 3%,
Greek Catholic 3%, other Christian 1%, unaffiliated 15% (2001) Literacy rate: 99.4% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$191.3 billion; per capita $19,000. Real growth rate: 1.3%.
Inflation: 7.9%. Unemployment: 7.3%. Arable land:
50%. Agriculture: wheat, corn, sunflower seed, potatoes,
sugar beets; pigs, cattle, poultry, dairy products. Labor force:
4.19 million; agriculture 5.5%, industry 33.3%, services 61.2%
(2003). Industries: mining, metallurgy, construction materials,
processed foods, textiles, chemicals (especially pharmaceuticals),
motor vehicles. Natural resources: bauxite, coal, natural gas,
fertile soils, arable land. Exports: $85.73 billion f.o.b.
(2007 est.): machinery and equipment 61.1%, other manufactures 28.7%,
food products 6.5%, raw materials 2%, fuels and electricity 1.6%
(2003). Imports: $85.99 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery
and equipment 51.6%, other manufactures 35.7%, fuels and electricity
7.7%, food products 3.1%, raw materials 2.0% (2003). Major trading
partners: Germany, Austria, France, Italy, UK, Romania, Poland,
Russia, Netherlands (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 3.35 million (2006); mobile cellular: 9.965 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 17, FM 57, shortwave 3 (1998).
Television broadcast stations: 35 (plus 161 low-power
repeaters) (1995). Internet hosts: 2.313 million (2007).
Internet users: 3.5 million (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 8,057 km
(2006). Highways: total: 159,568 km; paved: 70,050 km
(including 533 km of expressways); unpaved: 89,518 km (2006).
Waterways: 1,622 km (most on Danube River) (2007). Ports and
harbors: Budapest, Dunaujvaros, Gyor-Gonyu, Csepel, Baja, Mohacs
(2003). Airports: 46 (2007). International disputes: in 2004, Hungary
amended the status law extending special social and cultural benefits
and voted down a referendum to extend dual citizenship to ethnic
Hungarians living in neighboring states, which have objected to such
measures; consultations continue in 2006 between Slovakia and Hungary
over Hungary's completion of its portion the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros
hydroelectric dam project along the Danube; as a member state that
forms part of the EU's external border, Hungary must implement the
strict Schengen border rules.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
This central European country is the size of Indiana. Most of Hungary
is a fertile, rolling plain lying east of the Danube River and drained by
the Danube and Tisza rivers. In the extreme northwest is the Little
Hungarian Plain. South of that area is Lake Balaton (250 sq mi; 648 sq
km).
Government
Parliamentary democracy.
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.
See also Encyclopedia: Hungary.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Hungary
Hungarian Central Statistical Office portal.ksh.hu/portal/page?_pageid=38,119919_dad=portal_schema=PORTAL .
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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