Hungary question for uni-project
 

Hello, I am a 22 year Dutch student working om a project about Hungary. Our statement for this is: <BR>"Is hungary Western and why (or why not)"? <BR>What do you think?? <BR>I think everybody can answer this question because it's about what you know as well as personal opinions/images. <BR>Thank you!! <BR> <BR>

Yeah I think Hungary is Western. Personally it's culture is more Western than eastern. It was a partner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire a very rich and wesern Empire in Central Europe. Hungary has been western Christian for 1000 years. The only things that made it look eastern were the 40 years of communism. But the effects are wearing off fast, and Hungary is getting back it's name. So yes I thik Hungary is very western

With all due respect to the previous poster. The 40 years of communist rule didn't make Hungary "eastern" it made it oppressed, poor and gray. <BR>Hungary was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for 150 years. [This is EAST.] It is THIS gives that the Hungarian culture a different flavor than, say, Vienna or Prague. Hungary is very much "mittel europe" a blend of east AND west. [And then there is that language.....] <BR>

I asked my wife, from Budapest, she said;"Kozep"--central. But compared to what? To answer this question, you have to know some Hungarians,read and speak some of the language. <BR> Hungary is culturally closer to the West. Not all of Hungary was under the Ottomans. The Turks were a foreign power and an alien one. Hungary become Christian long before the Turks arrived. Once the Habsburgs arrived, the slant went Western again. The principal language was German until the middle of the last century. The religion was not Muslim. <BR>The question is also a political one. The Hungarians were under Russian control for too long. But they did'nt attapt the Russian morality. <BR> Look also, at where most Hungarians want to travel to, and what they themselves feel. <BR>

Goodness, the question is huge. <BR> <BR>Have you read a history of Hungary, or failing that a history of central Europe ? <BR>I suppose that you'll have much more fun if you to get sound information from a reliable source, not the top-of-the-head views of people like me. <BR> <BR>A few questions. Was Hungary in the Roman Empire ? Is her church the western one (Catholic) or the eastern (Orthodox) ? Is she now in Nato or in the European Union ? Has she a democracy, with the rule of law ? <BR> <BR>And a few points that may not turn up in books. Hungary under the great king Mathias Corvinus (you might like to look him up), was closely tied into the European Renaissance, and scholars and sculptors came straight over from Italy to teach and work -- the Renaissance reached her before it did us in England, and perhaps before you in Holland. She spend 150 years cut off from Christendom by Turkish occupation, but the moment the Turks left she became a major part of the Hapsburg empire, and of the Enlightement. She sheltered Jan Commenius (again you could look him up), and the great Count Esterhazy had Haydn on his staff (you know his music: it's beautiful). Haydn may be seen as Austrian, but Kodaly and Liszt are Hungarian, and exciting. Hungary was herself an imperial power. After about 1860 it was the Hungarian parliament, not that in Vienna, that made laws for Bohemia, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Transylvania, and for a time Lombardy and Serbia. <BR> <BR>Hungary was early into the industrial revolution: the first metro line on the continent was in Budapest (it runs to this day), and Hungary had big works for steel products. She was early, too, in the agricultural revolution, and leading noblemen went to Holland and England to study English farming and bring back ideas and equipment. <BR> <BR>Several Hungarians went to Hollywood in the glory days: any history of the cinema will tell you of them. Even under the Warsaw Pact Hungary developed more capitalist firms than any Pact neighbour, and my landlady in Budapest one summer told me that she had had many East Germans visiting her before the Wall came down, as she said Hungary was the most "Western" country within the Pact. As a result of "Goulash socialism" Hungary opened her border to Austria. Literally, in 1989 they tore down the barbed wire and rolled it up. It was through that open frontier that the East Getrmans walked, in whole families, throughout the lovely summer of 1989, and so helped to pull down the East German government. <BR> <BR>Please write to me if your reading leads you into questions you cannot answer. <BR> <BR>Ben Haines, London <BR> <BR>

I just wanted to second Ben's suggestion about research, rather than just polling people over the internet. My husband is a history professor, and I can guarantee that isn't what he has in mind when he assigns a question like yours. Good luck.