The city of Budapest was officially created on 17 November 1873 from a merger of the three neighboring cities of Pest, Buda and Óbuda. Smaller towns on the outskirts of the original city were amalgamated into Greater Budapest in 1950. The origins of Budapest can be traced to Celts who occupied the plains of Hungary in the 4th century BC. The area was later conquered by the Roman Empire, which established the fortress and town of Aquincum on the site of today's Budapest around AD 100. The Romans were expelled in the 5th century by the Huns, who were challenged by various tribes during the next several centuries. The Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin started at the end of the 9th century, and the Kingdom of Hungary was established at the end of the 11th century.
From around 1300 to the incorporation of 1873, Buda was the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary for five periods of less than a century each.
Prehistory and Roman era
The first town, built by Celts in the first century BC, occupied about 30 hectares along the slopes of Gellért Hill. Archaeological finds suggest that it may have been a densely populated settlement with a separate district of craftsmen (potteries and bronze foundries). It may have been a trading centre as well, as coins coming from different regions would indicate. The town was occupied by the Romans at the beginning of the Christian era. Its inhabitants moved to the Danube plains to a city retaining the Celtic name (Aquincum) in the first century AD. In AD 106, the city became the capital of the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior. The headquarters of the governor and significant military force were stationed here, and its population numbered about 20,000. It was frequently involved in wars on the border of the Roman Empire (formed by the Danube River).
Meanwhile, settlement in the area east of the Danube, which was not part of the Roman Empire, remained Germanic and Sarmatian in character.Nagy, Margit (2023). Das jüngerkaiserzeitliche Gräberfeld von Budapest-Rákoscsaba, Péceli út (2.–4. Jahrhundert). Ein grenznaher Fundort im Barbaricum gegenüber Aquincum [The Late Imperial cemetery of Budapest-Rákoscsaba, Péceli út (2nd-4th century). A site close to the border in Barbaricum opposite Aquincum] (volume 1, volume 2). Budapest, , especially vol. 1, pp. 15–24.
Middle Ages
The Romans pulled out of the Hungarian plains in the 5th century AD to be succeeded by the Huns after fierce warfare. Upon the fragmentation of the Huns that resulted from the death of Attila the Hun, Germanic tribes (such as the Lombards) and the Avars occupied the area during the second Age of Migrations. The Avar Khaganate dominated Pannonia between the 6th and 9th centuries.
From 829, Pannonia became part of Bulgaria following the collapse of the Avar Khaganate and a defeat of the forces of the Holy Roman Empire under Louis the Pious at the hands of a Bulgarian army under Omurtag. The Bulgarians built two frontier fortresses, Buda and Pest, on opposing sides of the Danube River.B. Dimitrov, Bulgarians- Civilizers of the slavs, p.48 While other tribes spread across the entire Carpathian basin, the clan of Árpád settled down on Csepel Island, a large island in the Danube, and formed a shelter for the settlers who started agricultural works in what is the south part of Budapest today. It was under the Árpád dynasty that Hungary became a Christian state, ruled first from Esztergom and later from Székesfehérvár.
After the Bulgarian–Hungarian Wars, Buda and Pest started to develop economically in the 12th century, largely due to the French, Walloon and German settlers who migrated there and worked and traded under royal protection along the banks of the Danube. Both towns were devastated during the Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241–42 and subsequently rebuilt by colonists from Germany, who renamed Buda "Ofen" ("furnace"), after its numerous lime kilns. The name for Pest, which has a Slavic origin, also means "furnace".
Renaissance
During the 14th century, the Angevin kings of Hungary (who were of French origin) established Buda as the royal seat of centralized power. They built a succession of palaces on the Várhegy (Castle Hill) and reached their zenith of power and prestige during the Renaissance under "Good King" Matthias Corvinus (Hunyadi Mátyás), who reigned from 1458 to 1490. Along with his Italian-born wife, Queen Beatrice of Naples, he presided over a golden age of prosperity and arts patronage.
Hungary's catastrophic defeat in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 against the Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent paved the way for the Ottoman occupation of Hungary. Suleiman's Siege of Buda (1541) was part of the Little War in Hungary between the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire. Three years after the Battle of Vienna in 1683, a pan-European multinational army besieged Buda Castle in the Battle of Buda (1686) for six weeks, finally recapturing it on the 12th attempt with heavy losses on both sides.
18th century
During the 18th century, under the rule of Charles VI, Maria Theresia and her son Joseph II, Budapest was an insignificant provincial town. Vienna controlled the foreign affairs, defense, tariffs, and other functions of the government of the kingdom of Hungary. A mostly formal Diet, customarily called together every three years in Pozsony (Bratislava), ruled what was called "Royal Hungary".
19th century
In the first decades of the following century, Pest became the center of the Reform movement led by Count Széchenyi, whose vision of progress was embodied in the construction of the Lánchíd (Chain Bridge). This became the first permanent bridge between Buda and Pest, which had until then, relied strictly on pontoon bridges or barges and ferries.
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was part of the Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. With the leadership of Lajos Kossuth (1802–94) and the "people's rights-liberals" dominated parliament, Sándor Petőfi (1823–49), also a renowned poet, and his fellow revolutionaries began to plot the downfall of the Habsburgs in Budapest at the Café Pilvax (which exists to this day in central Pest). From here, they planned and mobilized crowds on the streets of Pest, leading to the steps of the National Museum where Petőfi recited his moving "National Poem" which roused up the crowds and gave a push start of emotions to the people, creating passion for the revolution, similar to the French revolution before. After the civil war of fighting for independence ended in defeat for the Hungarians, Habsburg repression was epitomized by the newly built Citadella on top of Gellért Hill, built to frighten the citizens with its cannons and large garrison of soldiers overlooking the entire city.
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 made allowance for the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, known in German as k.u.k. (based on German for "Emperor and King"). The twin cities underwent rapid growth and expansion, and finally formally merged. In 1870, under Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy, the Metropolitan Board of Public Works (modeled on the London Metropolitan Board of Works) was created to develop more stringent standards for construction and a long-term plan for the city. While competing with Vienna, the country's resources were concentrated in Budapest (e.g. through tax breaks) Its favourable transport-geographical position was reinforced by the radially built road and rail network. Conscious urban development began with the establishment of the Metropolitan Council of Public Works. The Council was composed of aristocrats - Gyula Andrássy and Baron Frigyes Podmaniczky - who planned and proportioned the inner area of Budapest, creating large ring roads and boulevards. The rapid pace of construction resulted in a unified eclectic style for the city centre. Districts with different functions were separated: business, residential and industrial districts were created. Pest was extensively rebuilt based on the model of Paris, with the main artery: Nagykörút (Great Boulevard) and Andrássy Avenue which lead to Heroes' Square and a great park with fountains and lakes. Budapest's millennial anniversary celebrations of the settlement of the Magyars in the region in 1896 brought a fresh rush of construction and development, including the opening of the first line of the Budapest Metro under Andrassy Avenue. The Heroes' Square and Vajdahunyad Castle, located at end of Andrássy Avenue are just two perfect examples of the monumental scale and style that influenced the period. New suburbs were created to make room and house the rapidly growing and financially expanding population, which by now was predominantly Magyar, although there developed a sizable German as well as a Jewish community due to immigration to the city. In texts from around that period, Budapest was commonly rendered as "Buda-Pesth" (or "Budapesth") in English.
By the end of the 19th century, Budapest had become one of the cultural centers of Europe. It also became one of the most important centres of the Aromanian diaspora during the 19th century along with Vienna, with the Aromanian population of both cities being one of the first ones to develop a strictly Aromanian identity.
20th century
At the beginning of the 20th century the cultural efflorescence and sparkling energy of abundance and well-being of Budapest rivaled that of Vienna and its café society that of Paris, a belle époque extinguished by World War I. In the aftermath of World War I which had led to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, half of the Hungarian population was cut away from Hungary by the Treaty of Trianon and made part of surrounding nations. In 1918–19, Budapest was shaken by two revolutions: the Aster Revolution brought about the Hungarian Democratic Republic, which was followed by the Hungarian Soviet Republic, a short-lived Communist regime led by Béla Kun, followed by two years of White Terror. The Hungarian–Romanian War of 1919 ended with the Romanian occupation of parts of Hungary proper, including Budapest in August 1919, and the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary, led by Miklós Horthy, the self-appointed regent for the exiled King Karl IV (see the conflict of Charles IV with Miklós Horthy). His domain and regency was characterized by gala balls as well as hunger marches by the poor, of nationalism and anti-Semitism by inheritance, again inherited by joining the wrong side (the Nazis), who promised the sweet reward of re-joining of the Hungarian nation as a whole in the post-Trianon era. Yet Horthy was considered a moderate compared to the fascist Arrow Cross Party, whose power grew as World War II raged across Europe.
Anticipating and knowing about Horthy's communication with the Allies and possible defection from the Axis alliance in 1944, the Nazis staged “Operation Panzerfaust”, a coup against Horthy, and installed an Arrow Cross government under Ferenc Szálasi to make allowance for the unobstructed massacre of the Jews of Budapest.