- a country in central Europe; population 9,905,600 (est. 2009);
official language, Hungarian; capital, Budapest. Hungarian name
Magyarország. Hungary was conquered by the Habsburgs in the 17th
century, becoming an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire in 1867. Following the collapse of the empire in 1918,
Hungary became an independent kingdom. After participation in
the Second World War on the Axis side, Hungary was occupied by
the Soviet Union, and became a communist state. A liberal reform
movement was crushed by Soviet troops in 1956, but the communist
system was abandoned in 1989, and the first multiparty elections
were held in 1990. Hungary joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in
2004 from medieval Latin Hungaria (see also Hungarian)