American writer and political activist, Laura Capon Fermi, in her book, Illustrious Immigrants examines “the mystery of Hungarian talent”. She wonders how Hungary, a tiny country could send to America “an amazing number of outstanding men in all intellectual fields, scientific, scholarly, literary, and artistic: how did she do it?”

The red pepper, now called Hungarian paprika, was brought to Hungary in the sixteenth century by Ottomans. The Hungarian Nobel laureate chemist, Albert Szent-Györgyi, discovered ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) by extracting it from paprika in 1928. Oddly enough, he was not interested in vitamins “but the chemistry of cellular metabolism”.

Thirteen Hungarians have received Nobel prizes for their brilliant contributions in physics, medicine, chemistry, economics and literature. The country has quite a few famous inventions under its belt including the ball point pen, the safety match, Rubik’s Cube, first atomic reactor, hydrogen bomb and digital computing.

Film producer William Fox (the founder of Fox Studios), Adolph Zukor (the founder of Paramount Pictures) and József Pulitzer (after whom the Pulitzer Prize is named) were also Hungarians who moved to and thrived in the United States of America.

Landlocked in Central Europe, Hungary shares borders with Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. It has a unique political, cultural and religious history. The Hungarian people speak a Uralic language which is not related to any other major European language; hence, not part of the Indo-European group of languages.

The country is smaller than Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in size (about 93,030 kilometres square) and has a population less than that of Lahore (about 10 million).

The majestic Danube, the longest river in the European Union, flows through the magnificent capital city of Budapest which is the cultural, political, industrial, commercial and administrative hub of the country. Four fifth of the Hungarian population lives in Budapest, the second fastest developing urban economy in Europe. Historically, Budapest was two cities of Pest and Buda located at the opposite banks of the Danube.

The resilience of Hungarian people amazes historians. They are “proud to have been the only people to establish a long-lasting state in the Carpathian Basin.” They used to be nomadic tribes who settled in Eastern Europe and have successfully maintained their identity as a nation. The year 1000 is seen as the foundation of the Hungarian state when St Stephen the King was crowned by Pope Sylvester II.

By 12th century, Hungarians were a regional power reaching their cultural and political height but then had to suffer Mongol and Ottoman invasions in the thirteenth and sixteenth and seventeenth centuries respectively.

The Hungarians slowly slipped under the Austrian Hapsburgs from 1620. The 1848 revolution was for more civic and democratic society. After the Kingdom of Germany fought a war with neighbouring Austrian Empire in 1866, Hungary and Austria formed a dual monarchy called Austro-Hungarian Empire to collectively defend themselves. The coalition lasted until World War I. Despite being fighters over their long history, Hungary has produced brilliant scientists, philanthropes, scholars and philosophers who shaped the world for the better.

During the Mongol invasion, only a “few fortified places and the impenetrable swamps and forests escaped their ravages”. The Mongolian invasion taught the Hungarians to build fortified cities for defence and today there are hundreds of mesmerising architectural wonders built along the banks of the Danube River. The tallest among them are the Hungarian Parliament (completed in 1902) and the adjacent St Stephen’s Basilica (completed in 1906), named in honour of St. Stephen I, the first King of Hungary.

Close to these buildings is the Royal Palace, the seat of the crown since 1300s till the end of monarchy in early 20th century. The palace is now a World Heritage Site. The Metro Line 1 is another World Heritage Site, the second oldest underground line in the world which is completely functional since 1896. The Danube river is also the seat of the illustrious Hungarian Academy of Sciences that has produced world renowned scientists.

Only three decades ago, Hungary was facing high inflation and unemployment after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Russian rule over Hungary began after it signed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The communist rule ended in March 1990 with the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

Historically a Catholic country, but officially declared “atheist” during the Soviet rule, after the communist “regime change”, Hungarians had hoped that liberal democracy would bring socioeconomic changes like that of Western Europe. However, the fundamental change in political and economic structures did not bring a good experience and sent the country into high inflation and unemployment. The country was near bankruptcy in early years of 2000.

In 2010, the Fidesz or Hungarian Civic Alliance formed the government and adopted the constitution which holds “that human existence is based on human dignity”. It values diversity of “religious traditions of our country” and looks at marriage as “union between a man and a woman”. It also holds that “family and the nation constitute the principal framework of our coexistence, and that our fundamental cohesive values are fidelity, faith and love” and encourages “the commitment to have children”.

The new nationalist approach respects democracy while honouring its history and culture. The Fidesz again won general elections in 2014. In his inaugural speech, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban set the agendas for his government as economic development at home in line with ever transforming financial global market, protecting family life, and democratic governance with a nationalistic approach.

Hungary is now economically vibrant and helping other developing countries. Despite its small size, Hungary is providing extensive economic and technological assistance to developing countries in Asia and Africa. In Pakistan alone, it has invested $2 billion in the energy sector in the last 20 years. About 14 percent of all Pakistani energy need is provided by the MOL (Magyar OLaj- ésGázipariRészvénytársaság), a Hungarian energy giant. The country is also providing 200 scholarships annually to Pakistani students for higher education in Hungarian institutes at a cost of $ 2 million.