The Bronze Age saw the arrival of warlike tribes from the Balkans into the area know as Transdanubia, the Ice Age having created favourable conditions for agriculture and the domestication of animals.

Iron was introduced, the potters wheel and manufactured goods from Greece and the Celts in the 3rd century BC brought glassblowing, sculptures and jewellery, before the peoples being subdued by the Romans.

At the beginning of the Christian era, they moved in to create a buffer zone between the Empire and the Barbarians, conquering and eventually building amphitheatres and baths in and around Buda. The Romans were also responsible for the introduction of wine production, as the climate and fertile northern hills of the Danube region were ideally suited to this form of agriculture. Pannonia, as the Romans called it, was abandoned in the 4th Century, leaving its defence to the Vandals.

430 however, saw the invading Huns take over until Attila’s untimely death in 453 and the Ostrogoths occupying the region for the next 150 years, before they too were swept aside by the Avars, whose empire survived until the 8th Century.

The Magyars origins lie in the Finno Ugric  peoples who dwelt in the forests between the Baltic and the Urals. Mixing with the Bulgars north of the Caspian, having moved originally south, they had developed into tent dwelling nomadic herders, before the majority fled from the marauding Petchenegs in about 750.

830 having seen them as far west as the River Don, there is evidence that the seven Magyar tribes linked with the three Kavar tribes to form the Onogur, or “Ten Arrows”.

 

Forced still further westward, the seven Magyar chieftains elected as their leader, Arpad, pledging fealty with a blood oath to him and his heirs. Accompanied by smaller Kun tribes, the Onogur entered the Carpathian basin in 896 and began the “land taking”.

Six Magyar tribes settled west of the Danube, on the upper Tisza region, with the seventh taking the approaches to Transylvania.

The lower Tisza region and the northern fringes of the Plain went to the Kuns and Kavars.

The Magyars continued to raid for some 70 years, reaching as far as Constantinople, until a series of defeats led them to settle down.

Arpads great grandson, Prince Geza, established links with Bavaria and invited Christian missionaries to the emergent Hungary. His son Stephen applied to the Pope for recognition and on Christmas Day, 1000, was crowned as a Christian king. With help from Bishop Gellert, tribal religions were crushed, artisans and priests helped spread skills and religion, castles were built and rebellions crushed. On his death in 1038, Istvan was canonized and his crown is a National relic, along with his mummified hand.      

                      

 

Succession struggles raged after his death and the 16 kings who preceded Andrew the Second (1205-35) contributed little to the development of Hungary. There were however, no invasions and with help of German and Slovak immigrants, the population doubled to about 2 million by 1200.

Tragically for the nation, as Andrews son, Bela the Fourth, was trying to restore Royal authority, the Mongols invaded in 1241.

Many towns, complete villages, crops and animals were completely destroyed and Andrew faced another huge challenge of reconstruction when, on the untimely death of the Khan, the invaders left after a year. With the help of foreign settlers Bela achieved some success, but his son, Andrew the Third, dogged by feuding and dying heirless achieved little and this sadly marked the end of Arpads dynasty.

 
Foreign powers now saw an opportunity to stake a claim on the throne and for a while there were three competing kings, all duly crowned.

1447 saw the Turks poised to invade but for the actions of Janos Hunyadi, a Transylvanian warlord, who imposed a stunning series of defeats upon the marauders.

His son, Matyas, would be made king and is remembered as the Renaissance King for his statesmanship and intellectual talents. He taxed the nobles, created a standing “Black” army and made Hungary one of Europes leading powers.

His death and no legitimate heir, led the nobles to usurp their own king, Ulaszlo the second, who had allowed the Army to be disbanded and the taxing of Nobles to end. This led to seizure of common land and a peasants uprising of 1514, which was savagely repressed with over 70.000 peasants being killed.

The decline of Hungary was accelerated by incompetence and corruption and by 1520 the Turks were ready to march again. In August 1526, the battle of Mohacs saw the Magyars catastrophically defeated, its army, commanders and monarch destroyed.
 
After sacking Buda and the south, the Turks withdrew in 1526, to muster forces to invade their real goal, Vienna, only to return and remain for the next 160 years.

The real development of Buda and Pest did not begin in earnest until the 12th Century, as a result of settlement by French, German and Wallon artisans and traders, where progress was made under Royal protection. However, both towns being destroyed by the Monguls, the subsequent rebuilding did not occur until their departure. A large German population gave the name Buda, “Ofen”, referring to the lime kilns used in the rebuilding process and Pest, strangely, is a Slavic word for oven.

The 14th Century saw the Angevin kings of France on the throne, followed by Matyas, (1458-90) who ruled over a period of relative prosperity and growth.

Following the invasion of the Turks in 1526 and their occupation of 160 years, the country was plundered, allowed to fall into ruin and wine production ceased.

After the siege of Buda Castle, a pan European army, on its twelfth attempt, ousted the Turks and the Hapsburgs led a period of recovery and intensive growth, control coming from either Vienna or Bratislava during the second half of the 18th Century.

The early 19th Century saw reforms led by Count Szechenyi, whose vision of progress was embodied in the Chain Bridge, linking permanently for the first time, Buda and Pest.

March 1848 saw wide spread revolution across Europe, with Lajos Kossuth and Sandor Petofi plotting the downfall of the Hapsburgs. However the War of Independence ended in defeat for the Hungarians, the large Citadel on the Gellert hills housing large guns and armaments, trained on Pest.
                                                                      

1867 saw the Compromise, with a dual Monarchy, rapid expansion followed culminating in the Millennial building program of Hosok Ter.

New suburbs were created to house large populations of German and Jewish immigrants and by the beginning of the 20th Century, Café Society rivalled that of Paris and its culture that of Vienna.

                      

              
After defeat suffered in the First World War, Budapest experienced the Soviet ruled Republic of Councils and occupation by the Romanian army. Admiral Horthy, self appointed Regent for the exiled  Karl IV defected in1944, leaving the Nazi’s to stage a coup and put into power, the Arrow Cross movement.

They massacred thousands of Jews and blew up the Danube bridges to prevent a Soviet invasion. The six month siege of Budapest resulted in mass destruction of both Buda and Pest, allowing for more
reconstruction during the first post war government. 

              
As the communists gained power the torture chambers of the Arrow Cross were full again, until Imre Nagy’s moderate views gave hope to the people, leading to the uprising of 1956.

Bloodily put down, Budapest was now governed by Janos Kadar, who gradually revised the situation leading to the West seeing Hungary as the only acceptable Socialist state during the 1970’s.

 

 

Gorbachev’s free election concept allowed the Hungarians simply to vote the Communists out of power, a surprisingly straightforward, bloodless tactic, including simply cutting the wire between Austria and Hungary, that lead to what all refer to as “the Change”, resulting eventually in the advent of mass shopping malls and international company input.