In 2004

In 2004, when the European Union officially requested the Member States to write their own official history, I read the terribly falsified history that was written about Hungary. In my disgust and anger I sent to Brussels the following short history of Hungary that I wrote to correct the falsifications. What they did with it, whether they accepted or rejected it, only God knows.

Hungary’s history goes back much further than we are led to believe. As early as 1830, Sir John Bowring wrote that the Hungarian language originated “in an age too remote to be defined or even discovered.”[1] More recently, in 1988, Professor Grover Krantz wrote that Hungarian was the most ancient European language[2]. Mario Alinei, an Italian professor, shows its relationship to Etruscan and there are many other theories which connect the Hungarians to the Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and other ancient peoples in Europe.

The officially accepted theory of the origin of the Hungarians is the Finno-Ugric hypothesis, which states that the Magyars were descendants of the northern Ostyak and Vogul tribes who lived in Siberia and were related to the Finns, that they entered the Carpathian Basin in AD. 896 and that they conquered the Slavs who were living there. More recent research has revealed that the Magyars were related to the Huns and Avars, who had established their empires in the Carpathian Basin in the fourth and sixth centuries.. When the Magyars entered the Carpathian Basin in AD 896, they found a population who spoke their language and who were related to them. The proofs of the relationship between the Magyars and the ancient populace of the Carpathian Basin are the geographical names, particularly the names of the rivers.

The Magyars are often presented as wild horsemen, but in fact, they were related to the Scythians, Parthians and Sarmatians and had a level of civilization superior to the rest of Europe at that time, in addition to their superior horsemanship. They had their own runic script and a very advanced military organization, based on the decimal system. Their campaigns against the West in the tenth century were undertaken at the request of the German princes who needed their help against Otto the Great, and although they are presented as “robbing campaigns” by many historians, they were not such because the Magyars went to reclaim the treasures, which Charlemagne had stolen during his wars against the Avars. These wars were also intended to restore the balance of power in Europe.

IMPORTANT DATES IN MODERN HUNGARIAN HISTORY

A.D. 890 (circa) Before they entered the Carpathian Basin, the Magyars became a unified nation by undertaking a blood union and electing Prince Álmos, (priest-king) as their leader.

892 Prince Árpád, son of Álmos, made an alliance with Arnulf, the King of the Eastern Franks.

896 The Hungarian Homecoming and the second Blood Union with the Avar princes who had survived the wars of Charlemagne, at Pusztaszer in the Carpathian Basin. [3] The terms of this Blood Union were the first unwritten constitution in Europe.

907 Battle of Pozsony against the unified army of the Germans. This was a glorious victory for the Magyars although the sons of Árpád all died in the battle, except the youngest, Zolta (Zsolt). Árpád was wounded and died later of his injuries.

948 Bulcsu and Tormas, Magyar princes, became Christian and made an alliance with Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

955 The Magyars suffered a great loss to Otto the Great at Lechfeld. Bulcsu and Lehel were hanged on the cathedral at Augsburg. Botond, whom western historians never mention, was the leader of the third Magyar army and he took revenge on the Germans for the deaths of Bulcsu and Lehel. The Magyar strength remained superior and the German army surrendered. The Germans suffered their greatest losses in the battles which followed.[4]

973 The Peace Treaty of Quedlinburg, negotiated by the twelve delegates of Prince Géza and Otto the Great. Amadée Thierry writes about an international coup.[5] At Quedlinburg, only the Magyars made concessions. The Germans made none. The Magyars gave up all their traditions. The agreement stated that the Magyars were to withdraw their guards from the marchlands and open their borders to missionaries and anybody who wished to enter the country. They were to allow churches to be built, parishes to be established and in Hungarian territory there were to be no restrictions placed in the way of the spreading and practicing of Christianity. Prince Géza was to marry Adelhaid and promise to give positions, land and titles to her ten thousand German bodyguards.

1000 Prince Vajk was converted to Christianity and took the name István (Stephen). He became King Stephen I. and was later canonized.

1236 Brother Julian returned from Dentumagyaria,[6] former home of the Magyars north of the Caucasus, where he had gone to search for Magyars who had remained outside the Carpathian Basin. He brought news that the Tatars were coming to attack Europe.

1241 The Hungarians were defeated by the Tatars at the Battle of Mohi. Hungary became depopulated after the Tatar invasions, so King Béla IV. allowed the first Wallachians (Vlachs) to settle in Havasalföld (later called Wallachia) and the Lower Danube territory.

1278 King László Kun helped Rudolf Hapsburg to his throne by defeating the Bohemian

1301 The death of the last king of the Árpád dynasty, Endre III. This dynasty gave twelve saints to the Roman Catholic Church.

1389 The first incursion of the Turks of the Hungarian territory. King Zsigmond established a university at Óbuda.

1456 János Hunyadi’s victory over the Turks at Nándorfehérvár (now Belgrade). Pope Callixtus III. ordered the noontime bells to be rung across the world in memory of this victory.

1458 – 1490 King Mátyás Hunyadi’s court was the center of scholarship and humanism in Europe. His Corvina Library was without equal at that time.

1473 The first Hungarian book, printed with the Gutenberg method. Prior to this, the Magyar Runic script on wooden tablets lent itself to printing and was practiced for centuries.

1517 István Werbőczy printed the Tripartitum (Triple Code, the legal codification of the prevailing feudal system.)

1526 The Battle of Mohács, where the Hungarians were defeated by the Turks and King Lajos II. was killed by his own Czech bodyguard. This was the beginning of the 150 years of Turkish occupation of Hungary.

1541 The Turks captured the Castle of Buda by intrigue. Hungary was split into three parts. The Hapsburgs governed the western part of the country. The central area was ruled by the Turks and, in the southeast, the Principality of Transylvania was for a long time the citadel of the Hungarian culture.

1557 The first declaration in the world, of Freedom of Religion, in Torda, Transylvania (now Romania). This was codified in 1568, at the Diet of Torda.

1635 The establishment of the University of Nagyszombat (now Trnava in Slovakia), founded by Péter Pázmány.

1643 On the advice of Geleui, Prince György Rákoczi took upon himself the task of propagating the acceptance of the Roman origins of the Wallachians. Therefore, in 1648, the catechism was translated into Wallachian by István Fogarassy, a Hungarian, according to the Heidelberg catechism, and published in the Wallachian language. In the same year, Fogarassy translated the New Testament into Wallachian and Prince Ferenc Rákóczi I. published it.

1686 Buda was recaptured from the Turks. (The Turks, similar to the Tatars, could only advance in Europe to the territory of Hungary. Here they were faced by obstacles they could not overcome.) After the liberation of Buda, the Hapsburgs did not allow the Hungarians to resettle in the territories freed from the Turks. Instead they settled people from all the European nationalities, primarily Serbs, Slavs and Germans.

1687 The Diet of 1687 agreed to accept the hereditary male succession of the Hapsburg dynasty and abolished the clause of the Golden Bull of 1222 that gave the nobles the right to resist the king’s unconstitutional decrees.

1691 The Diploma Leopoldinum reunited Transylvania with Hungary. Under the leadership of the Patriarch of Ipek, 90,000 Serbs found refuge in Hungary.

1700 Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II., leader of the Hungarian freedom fight against the Austrian oppression, was imprisoned in Bécsújhely.

1703 Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II. escaped from prison and fled to Poland. With the help of the Poles, he began the Hungarian Freedom Fight against the Hapsburgs.

1706 The National Assembly at Ónód withdrew from the Hapsburg dynasty the right to the Hungarian throne.

1711 The Peace Treaty of Szatmár. Rákóczi’s freedom fighters laid down their arms in front of the Habsburgs in Nagymajtény (now Moftinu Mare in Romania).

1758 The Hungarian Kings received the title of Apostolic Kings. Hungary was the only apostolic kingdom in Europe.

1792 The Hungarian language became an official subject in the Secondary Schools. This was the first time during the Hapsburg rule of Hungary that the Hungarian language was introduced in the public schools.

1823 Ferenc Kölcsey wrote the National Anthem. In 1844, Ferenc Erkel put it to music and it was sung for the first time in 1848 and sung on all national holidays thereafter.

1825 Count István Széchenyi established the Hungarian Academy of Science. Széchenyi launched a political and economic transformation of the country and encouraged the use of the Hungarian language and culture.

1837 Lajos Kossuth, leader of the Reform Movement and later head of the Hungarian government, was condemned to 4 years in prison.

1847 The New Testament was published in the Serb language by a Hungarian, Kopitár. The Austrians encouraged the anti-Hungarian feelings among the Serbs and, when the Hungarian Revolution broke out against the Austrian oppression in 1848, the Serbs sent 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers to fight on the Austrian side against the Hungarians. The Serbs were defeated by the Hungarians in 1849.

1848 The Hungarian Revolution broke out against the Hapsburgs, under the leadership of Lajos Kossuth. The first Hungarian Ministry, independent of Austria, was established. The Hungarians were successful in passing a law giving freedom to the serfs in the Carpathian Basin, no matter what their ethnic origin, Hungarian, Romanian, Serb, Slovak etc. The serfs in Old Romania did not receive their freedom until many years later.

1849 The National Assembly at Debrecen dethroned the Hapsburg house from the Hungarian throne. The Hungarian army laid down their arms in front of the Russian army at Világos (now Şiria in Romania). Thirteen Hungarian generals were executed in Arad. Kossuth went into exile in Turkey.

1867 The Compromise between Austria and Hungary was signed and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was established.

1872 Buda and Pest were united as Budapest and recognized as the capital of Hungary.

1878 Berlin Conference. On the suggestion of Count Gyula Andrássy, the Wallachians received the name “Rumanians”.

1914 Archduke Franz-Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by the Serb, Gavrilo Princip, in Sarajevo, on the orders of Dragutin Dimitrievic. Hungary, as partner in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, was forced to take part in World War I., despite the protestations of Prime Minister István Tisza.

1919 The Hungarian Soviet Republic was established. An opposition government was formed in Szeged.

1920 The Dictated Peace Treaty was signed at Trianon, dismembering Hungary. The territory of historic Hungary, excluding Croatia and Slavonia, covered 282,870 square kilometers. At the Treaty of Trianon, historic Hungary was divided into seven parts which were given to the surrounding nations. Romania received Transylvania and the Partium, 103,000 square kilometers, with 5.24 million residents. This territory alone is bigger than mutilated Hungary, which retained 92,963 square kilometers with 7,615,117 citizens. Yugoslavia received 21,000 square kilometers, with 1.6 million citizens. Czechoslovakia received 3.5 million citizens, the entire Hungarian territory of Felvidék (Slovakia) which reached as far south as the Danube, with many ancient Hungarian castles and cities, 63,000 square kilometers. It also received the Hungarian territory of KárpátaljaXE "Kárpátalja" (also called Ruthenia, Sub-Carpathia and Carpatho-Ukraine) and the Hungarian territory of Máramaros which bordered Romania. Austria, which dictated the Hungarian foreign policy, received 4,000 square kilometers, and 292,000 citizens; Poland, 589 square kilometers and 23,662 people; and Italy received the only Hungarian harbor, FiumeXE "Fiume", which the Hungarians had just completed, an area of 21 square kilometers, with 46,806 citizens.[7] Admiral Miklós Horthy was elected to be Governor of Hungary.

1939 Kárpátalja (Carpathian-Ukraine) was returned to Hungary. Hungary withdrew from the League of Nations.

1941 Part of Délvidék (now Yugoslavia) was returned to Hungary. Count Pál Teleki committed suicide because he was unable to prevent Hungary from becoming involved in World War II.

1944 On December 24, the Soviets surrounded Budapest. The siege lasted 52 days. The Hungarians and Germans fought to the end. Only 11 Hungarians were able to cut through the Soviet troops. This is remembered as the Soviet “liberation” of Budapest.

1947 Peace Treaty of Paris which re-instituted the borders decided upon at Trianon and more territory was taken away from Hungary and given to Czechoslovakia.

1948 New Constitution (illegally, under Soviet pressure) established Hungary as a republic.

1956 Hungarian Revolution against the Soviets. United Nations failed to intervene.

1989 Fall of Communism after the Hungarians allowed the East Germans to cross the border to Austria.

1. Donát Bánki (1859-1922) invented the carburetor for the internal combustion engine.

7. Dénes Gábor (1900-1979) invented the holograph for reading bar-codes in business transactions.

10. Todor Karmán (1881-1963), the administrator of the Guggenheim Aeronautics Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, designed the heavy bombers, the B36, B47 and the B52, which we know helped America to win World War II. Professor Karmán is also credited with the development of the Atlas, Titan and Minuteman rockets.

12. Jenő Wigner (1902-1995) developed the atom reactor to use the atomic energy.

13. Ede Teller (1908-2002) was the developer of a defense system against the rockets.

16. Otto Titus Bláthy (1860-1939), inventor of transformator induction calculator.

5. Antal Doráti – 1985 –Member of the Social Responsibility Organization that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985

1. Ignác Semmelweis (1818-1865), discoverer of the procedure for the prevention of puerperal fever.

In Olympic history, Hungary ranks sixth out of one hundred countries in medal standings.

In the 1936 Olympic Games, Hungary ranked third after Germany and the United States. In the 1952 Olympics, she ranked third after the United States and the Soviet Union. In the 1956 Olympics, Hungary ranked fourth after the Soviet Union, the United States and Australia. In the 1968 Olympics, she ranked fourth after the United States, the Soviet Union and Japan.

[1] Bowring, Sir John: Poetry of the Magyars, 1830

[2] Kranz, Grover: Geographical Development of European Languages, Peter Lang, 1988, p. 10-11

[3] Laszlo Gyula: Kettős honfoglalás, Budapest, 1978

[4] Anonymus – a nameless Hungarian writer of the twelfth century.

[5] Thierry, Amadée: Atilla Mondák, p. 99

[6] Long before the Magyars entered the Carpathian Basin, they lived in a territory which they called “Dentumoger” (Dentumagyaria), which was also the name of the Magyars at that time. The name of their leading group was “Megyer”. Some historians called them “Dentumoger” which means “the Magyars who live at the foot of the Don Mountain”. The Subareans and the Hurrites were the original inhabitants of this territory. Bulcsu and Tormas, descendants of Árpád, when they visited Constantine Porphyrogenitus and became Christian, told him that the name of their people was “Sabartoi-Asphaloi”. They were originally called Subareans, whom historians have identified as the Huns.

[7] Raffay, Ernõ: Magyar Tragédia, Trianon 75 éve, BudapestXE "Budapest", 1996, pp.194 -195.