Hungary is a landlocked country, which is located in Central Europe. It is surrounded by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia. The country's capital and largest city is Budapest. Hungary comprises the largest thermal lake in the world, which is Lake Heviz. Hungarian is the official language of Hungary.

Romans were called the region Pannonia. After Rome fell under the Germanic tribes migration & Carpian's pressure, the Migration Period continued bringing many invaders. Firstly the Huns people came. Here the Huns built up a strong empire under Attila. The name of the country Hungary comes from their name.

After the Hunnish rule faded, the other Germanic tribes came, who were Lombords & Gepids. They ruled in Pannonia for about a century. During that time the Slavic people also came. But in the 560s the Avars came at Pannonia, they strongly removed Lombards, Gepids and Slavic tribes and ruled there for about two centuries. In the 9th century, the Franks under Charlemagne from the west and the Buglers from the southeast finally managed to overthrow the Avars. Soon after the Franks went back and the Slavonic kingdom of Great Moravia and the Balaton,controlled much of Pannonia until the end of the century. At last the Magyars arrived at Hungary in 9th century. Tradition holds that Arpad, who led the Magyars into the Pannonian plains after 895, founded the country of the Magyars.

The kingdom of Hungary was established in 1000 by king St Stephen I. Stephen was a direct arises of Arpad. His wife was Gisella, who was the daughter of Henry II. Stephen became the king of Hungary in 997, after his father Prince Geza. Stephen was a Christian king, so he developed Christian religion in Hungary. At that time, Hungary became a patrimonial kingdom where the majority of the lands were the private property of the ruler. At last, Hungarian history & politics developed in close association with that of Poland & Bohemia, driven by the interventions of various Popes & Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. Between 1241-1242, Hungary was devastated it was suffering great loss of life at the hands of Mongol armies.

Gradually, Hungary turned into an independent kingdom. In 1308, during the rule of the Angevins, Hungary extended its power over Wallachia & M'oldavia. During 1458 to 1490, king Matthias Corvinus ruled over Hungary. Under his rule Hungary became an important artistic & cultural center of Europe. But in 1526, the Ottoman defeated the Magyars in the battle of Mohaes and Conquered Hungary. The old kingdom of Hungary divided into three parts: - one third of Hungary was under Ottoman rule, one third territory was incorporated by Austria and the last third in the East, remained independent. At the end of the 17th century, Austria conquered their territories from the Ottoman Empire. After the final retreat of the Turks, Straggle started between the Hungarian kings & the Habsburg kings for the protection of noblemen's rights.

Due to the victories against Austria by the French Italian coalition and Prussia, Hungary would manage to become an autonomous part of the Austro-Hungarian Republic was proclaimed. In March 1919 the communists took power and in April, Bela kun proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. In 4th June 1920 the treaty of Training was signed for fixing Hungary's borders. According to this treaty, Hungary lost its 71% of territory, 66% of its population and with the new borders about one-third of the Major population minorities in the neighboring countries.

In the 1930s and alliance made with Nazi Germany, in the hope of revising the territorial losses that had followed World War I. Hungary then assisted the German occupation the Banat right afterward and final entered World War II in 1941, fighting against the Soviet Union in 1944. Hungary passed a series of anti-semitic laws throughout the 1920s and thirties. After the collapse of Nazi Germany, Hungary became a part of Soviet area of influence and was appropriated into a communist state.

Hungary had a rich folk culture, in which folktales, art and music were included. Following the Hungarian conversion to Christianity in the 10th century, pagan & Eastern cultural elements were replaced by Western cultural & social patterns. During the 15th century Italian artists and scholars introduced the humanistic Renaissance into Hungarian culture. In the 16th century, Latin took place of Hungarian.

Hungary becomes successful to get strong economic growth as one of the newest members of the European Union. Together with Slovenia & the Czech Republic, Hungary provides one of the highest standard of living among Eastern European countries. Hungary's total GDP is 162,289 million $ and its per capita GDP is 16627 $. The private sector accounts for over 80% of GDP. Hungary gets approximately one third of all foreign direct investment. Foreign ownership of and investment in Hungarian firms are widespread since 1989, the foreign direct investment is more than US 23$ billion. Hungarian sovereign debt was upgraded in 2000 to the second-highest rate. Inflation and unemployment have declined substantially.

Hungarian is the official language of Hungary. It is also called Magyar. It is member of the Ugric branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. Some other languages like Turkish, German, Latin, French & some Slavic languages, have affected it. Due to the country's large number of tourists, mostly Hungarians learn to speak foreign languages. German is the most popular foreign language spoken in Hungary. Today, many young people in Hungary began learning English.