Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Corvinus Library of Hungarian History (
www.hungarianhistory.com
) is a font of all
knowledge and an excellent first step in exploring the nation's past; the links to related
topics - from language to painting - are endless.
The Dual Monarchy
Following the War of Independence, Hungary was again merged into the Habsburg empire
as a conquered province. But disastrous military defeats for the Habsburgs by the French in
1859 and the Prussians in 1866 pushed Franz Joseph to the negotiating table under the lead-
ership of liberal reformer Ferenc Deák.
The result was the Compromise of 1867, which fundamentally restructured the Habsburg
monarchy and created the Dual Monarchy of Austria (the empire) and Hungary (the king-
dom) - a federated state with two parliaments and two capitals: Vienna and Budapest. This
'Age of Dualism' would carry on until 1918 and spark an economic, cultural and intellectual
rebirth in Budapest, culminating with the momentous six-month exhibition in 1896 celebrat-
ing the millennium of the Magyar arrival in the Carpathian Basin.
But all was not well in the kingdom. The working class, based almost entirely in Bud-
apest, had almost no rights and the situation in the countryside was almost as dire as it had
been in the Middle Ages. Despite a new law enacted in 1868 to protect their rights, minorit-
ies under Hungarian control (Czechs, Slovaks, Croats and Romanians) were under increased
pressure to 'Magyarise' and many viewed their new rulers as oppressors.
WWI & the Republic of Councils
On 28 July 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and entered WWI allied with the
German Empire. The result of this action was disastrous, with widespread destruction and
hundreds of thousands killed on the Russian and Italian fronts. At the armistice in 1918, the
fate of the Dual Monarchy - and Hungary as a multinational kingdom - was decided and the
terms spelled out by the Treaty of Trianon less than two years later.
A new republic was set up in Budapest five days after the armistice was signed, but it
would not last long. Rampant inflation, mass unemployment, the occupation and dismem-
berment of 'Greater Hungary' and the victory of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia all com-
bined to radicalise much of the Budapest working class.
In March 1919 a group of Hungarian Communists led by a Transylvanian former journal-
ist called Béla Kun seized power. The so-called Republic of Councils (Tanácsköztársaság)
set out to nationalise industry and private property and build a fairer society, but Kun's fail-
ure to regain the 'lost territories' brought mass opposition and the government unleashed a
