A History of Budapest

From Ancient Times to the Dawn of the 18th Century

The Carpathian Basin has been populated by successive peoples for hundreds of thousands of years. A blend of Celts, Romans, Huns, Mongols, Turks, Slovaks, Austrians, Germans and Russians, have all combined to create Hungary's national identity. Magyars, as Hungarians call themselves, are part of the Finno-Ugric group of peoples, which originated from western Siberia. It is believed that one group of Magyars established themselves on Csepel Island and Óbuda when Pest and Buda were no more than small, seperate villages. Known for their horse riding skills, the Magyars raided far and wide, until they were stopped by the Germans in 955. This and subsequent defeats left them in disarray, and later forced them into an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire. In the year 1000, the Magyar prince Stephen was crowned Christian King Stephen I, later canonized Saint Stephen, with a crown sent from Rome by the pope, and Hungary, the kingdom and the nation, was officially born.

The next two hundred fifty years were marked by constant battles between rival claimants to the throne, and land grabs by powerful neighbors. A castle was built at Buda and Pest was proclaimed a royal municipality. After the death in 1301 of Andrew III, Hungary flourished with a succession of able rulers, beginning with Charles Robert, his modestly named son Louis the Great, and then Sigismund of Luxembourg, who enlarged the Royal Palace, founded a university at Óbuda and erected the first pontoon bridge over the Danube. This period culminated in the reign of Matthias Corvinus, who made the country one of Europe's leading powers and brought Buda into the nation's focus for the first time. In 1526, however, his successor was crushed inside two hours by the invading Ottoman Turks. Buda was sacked and burned before the Turks returned and took it for good in 1541. It marked the end of a relatively prosperous and independent Hungary, sending the nation into a period of partition, foreign domination and despair. The Hungarians finally forced the Turks out in 1699.

Domination by Austria and the Birth of Budapest

The country became a province of the Austrian Hapsburg Empire and Hungary blossomed economically and culturally. Buda effectively became the German-speaking town of Ofen and by 1783 was the nation's administrative center. Pest later became an important commercial center while Buda remained a royal garrison town. In 1849, under the rebel leadership of Lajos Kossuth, Hungary declared full independence. The Habsburgs crushed the revolution and instigated a series of brutal reprisals.

However, passive resistance among Hungarians and a couple of disastrous military defeats for the Habsburgs eventually led to the Compromise of 1867, creating the Dual Monarchy of Austria the empire and Hungary the kingdom. Buda, Pest and Óbuda united to form Budapest in 1873. This “Age of Dualism” began an unprecedented economic, cultural and intellectual rebirth.

Independent Hungary

After the Austrian-Hungarian Empire was broken up after World War I, Hungary achieved independence, with Budapest as its capital. Hungary was an ally of the Axis Powers in World War II and suffered grievously for that decision. In a rigged election in 1947, the Communists took over and made Hungary a client state of the Soviet Union. A bloody revolt in 1956, centered in Budapest, was ruthlessly crushed by Soviet troops. However, with the rest of Eastern Europe, Hungary was liberated from Soviet domination. Today, quite ironically, Hungary is one of the newest members of NATO.