Hungary has long been a citadel of Western thought in Central Europe. It was brought into being well-nigh full-panoplied, by a single act, when the Magyars, until then a people without fixed abode, entered the basin of the middle Danube, a place at that juncture as good as masterless, and made it their home. Magyar tribes established the Hungarian State in the Carpathian Basin in 896. Long after the fiered Attila, "The Scourge of God," ravaged Europe, the Magyar Chieftan Vajk converted to Christianity, established Hungary as a Christian power, and received his crown from the Pope.
The Carpathian Basin, in which Hungary lies, has been populated by successive peoples for hundreds of thousands of years. One such tribe was the nomadic Magyars, who reached the area as early as the mid-8th century. Known for their equestrian skills, the Magyars raided far and wide, until they were stopped by the Germans in 955. The defeat left the Magyar tribes 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, with a crown sent from Rome by the pope, and Hungary, the kingdom and the nation, was officially born.
Stephen ruthlessly set about consolidating royal authority by expropriating land, establishing a system of counties, and evangelising the countryside. By the time of his death in 1038, Hungary was a nascent Christian culture, increasingly westward-looking and multi-ethnic.
The next two and a half centuries - during the reign of the House of Árpád - tested the new kingdom to the limit. The period was marked by constant struggles between rival claimants to the throne, and land grabs by powerful neighbours. Hungary's descent into anarchy was arrested only after Andrew III, the Árpád's last in line, died in 1301.
After the death of Andrew III, Hungary flourished. A succession of able rulers, beginning with Charles Robert and culminating in the golden reign of Matthias Corvinus, made the country one of Europe's leading powers. However, the death of Matthias in 1490 resulted in another setback. His successor Vladislav was unable to maintain royal authority, funds were squandered, and retrograde laws reduced the peasantry to serfdom.
In 1526, Hungary's motley army was crushed by the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Mohács. The defeat marked the end of a relatively prosperous and independent Hungary, and sent the nation into a tailspin of partition, foreign domination and despair. Turkish occupation did little to improve the country, and resistance to their rule forced the Turks out in 1699.
The expulsion hardly created a free and independent Hungary. Instead, the country became a province of the Austrian Habsburg Empire. Thus began a period of enlightened absolutism. Hungary blossomed economically and culturally under the Habsburgs, but so did thoughts of nationalism.
In 1849, under the rebel leadership of Lajos Kossuth, Hungary declared full independence and the dethronement of the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs replied by quickly crushing the revolution and instigating a series of brutal reprisals. Hungary was again merged into the empire as a conquered province, and absolutism was reinstated. However, passive resistance among Hungarians and a couple of disastrous military defeats for the Habsburgs prompted negotiations between the two sides. The outcome was the Compromise of 1867, which created the Dual Monarchy of Austria the empire and Hungary the kingdom. This `Age of Dualism' set off an economic, cultural and intellectual rebirth in Hungary, but there were worrying signs that all was not well in the kingdom.
The Dual Monarchy entered WW I as an ally of Germany - with disastrous results - and was replaced by a republic immediately after the war. Hungarian Communists then seized power, but were overthrown five months later by troops from Romania. In 1920, the Allies drew up a postwar settlement under the Treaty of Trianon which drastically reduced Hungary's size. Hungary sought help from the fascist governments of Germany and Italy to get its land back, but found itself again on the losing side in WW II.
In 1947, rigged elections brought the Communists to power. Bitter feuding within the party started, and purges and Stalinesque show trials became the norm. The nation was further rocked by the 1956 uprising, an anti-Soviet revolution which left thousands dead. After reprisals - the worst in the country's history - and the consolidation of the regime, János Kádár began a programme of `goulash' (consumer-orientated) Communism. His reforms worked, and by the mid-1970s, Hungary was the most developed, most liberal and the richest nation in the region. However, the continuing spectre of unemployment, a soaring inflation rate and mounting debt meant Kádár was ousted in 1988.
After accelerating the collapse of Communism by dismantling the fence along its border with Austria, the nation became the Republic of Hungary in 1989. Hungary has since held free elections - the first in more than four decades. Despite initial success in curbing inflation and lowering interest rates, a host of economic problems has slowed the pace of development.
The first years of the 1990s have brought some successes: the country has preserved its solvency; the balance of trade is in the black, reserves of hard currency have increased; the country has attracted foreign capital in amounts significant by the standards of the region as a whole; inflation is on the way down; for our Eastern neighbours the forint, which is already semi-convertible, has become a currency much in demand; a significant amount of the country's trade has been re-directed from the East to West; and a number of steps have been taken towards European integration. In the meantime the domestic difficulties of the entire area are becoming more serious. In 1996, Hungary celebrated its 1100th anniversary. A new awareness of what it means to be Hungarian and a willingness to assert her interests seems to be building.
Hungary's central position and experience in welcoming travellers makes it the ideal place to enter Eastern Europe. The majority of travellers arrive in picturesque Budapest, which has a lively arts, cafe and music scene, and is host to a range of cultural and sporting festivals. To venture outside the capital is to travel through plains, resort-lined lakes, Baroque towns, and rustic villages. Hungary's other attractions include sampling its quality wines, `taking the waters' in a relaxing thermal spa, or bird-watching in some of the best spots in Europe. 
Budapest. Situated on both banks of the Danube, Budapest unites the colorful hills of Buda and the businesslike boulevards of Pest, forming the cultural, commercial, and intellectual heart of Hungary. In the vanguard of the Eastern Bloc move toward capitalism in the 1980s, Budapest now flourishes with cafes, restaurants, markets, and bars. Despite mass destruction during World War II and the uprising of 1956, the city's past lingers on, glimpsed here in a shadowy courtyard, there down a sunlit cobbled street. Many of the major sights are on Buda's Várhegy (Castle Hill), a long plateau of cobblestone streets, beautifully preserved Baroque, Gothic, and Renaissance houses, the Royal Palace, and the House of Parliament (shown at right). 
Hungarian art and architecture is laced with Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau influences. The country has one of the finest folk traditions in Europe, producing excellent examples of embroidery, pottery, ceiling and wall painting, and objects carved from wood or bone. Its musical contributions are just as rich, and range from the rhapsodies of Franz Liszt and the operas of Ferenc Erkel to Gypsy and folk music. Literature has been shaped by the monumental events of the nation's history, which have given rise to swashbuckling odes, stirring poems of independence, gritty tales of realism, and strident polemic. Soccer is far and away the favourite spectator sport, while chess is also popular.