Baják László Ihász István: The Hungarian National Museum History Exhibition Guide 4 - The short century of survival (1900-1990) (Budapest, 2008)

Room 16. From the Belle Epoch to the Collapse of the Monarchy (1900-1919). László Baják

Tungsram). Hungarian engineers invented the generator, the transformer, the accumulator and the modern tungsten lamp. By 1901, 14,000 km of telephone wires served long-distance communication and the ancestor of the radio, the Telefonhírmondó (the "telephone news speaker"), the invention of Tivadar Puskás, had operated since 1893. The use of the petrol engine also spread. In the autumn of 1900 Hungarian automobile drivers formed an automobile club in order to organise the first car race in 1901 and, two years later, Hungarian automobile manufacture. (The carburettor, another Hungarian invention and to this day an indispensable part of the petrol engine, was also born.) In 1909 the first Hungarian engine-propelled aeroplane took to the air at Rákosmező, Budapest. It was natural that economic progress should go hand in hand with deep social changes. The quickly rising population was rapidly becoming middle-class. The proportion of those living from agriculture dropped and a new industrial working class was born. In 1910, nearly one quarter of the country lived in 62 cities and towns. However, development was not even. In the 1910s Budapest, with its population of over one million, became Europe's sixth most important city and was in every respect a metropolis. The provincial towns could only slowly follow its example, their communities for the most part comprising the petit bourgeoisie. Among the villages, many settlements were excluded from any chance of social development, several of which were still dragging out a wretched life inherited from the unhealthy distribution of land. The proportion of large estates, mostly unpurchasable lands (e.g. entailed property) was high in Hungary. 0.1% of all landlords held 32.3% of all land. Uneven development had dire consequences from other aspects, too. The perimeter of the country, mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities, were also excluded from development, which caused its populations to become more attracted by the pan-Slav and irredentist propaganda of the neighbouring countries, Romania, Serbia and Russia and nationalistic propaganda in general. Later this was Glass popularising Ferenc Kossuth, leader of the Independence and '48 Party