Hungary’s history in the 20th century is very complicated, and Hungary still wrestles with how to acknowledge and remember it. They were on the “wrong side” in both World War I and World War II, but Hungary struggles to reconcile with this fact. Let us take a look at Hungary’s history during these important parts of world history and how they remember these facts today.
Hungary, as a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was closely involved in World War I’s beginning. The start of World War I is a story similar to the Hungarian revolutions; Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country south of Hungary, was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878 and then formally annexed in 1908. Resistance against the Austro-Hungarian Empire grew in Bosnia for six years and finally culminated in the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo. This left the Habsburg Empire without an heir.
The Habsburg Empire invaded Serbia, who they blamed for the violence that led to the assassination. Austria-Hungary joined forces with the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire to fight the Allies (France, the United States, Italy, Japan, Russia and the UK).
