Changes

The later Arpad Dynasty was consumed with internal conflict and was victim of the Mongol invasion of 1241, which led to the termination of the dynasty in 1301; but the political foundations the Arpad kings put in place persisted until World War II. The Kingdom of Hungary began as little more than a warrior coalition of Magyar nomads, but over the course of the tenth century it evolved into a legitimate European dynasty. The early Arpad princes and kings laid the foundations of the Hungarian state by cultivating good relations with their powerful Western and Orthodox neighbors and by becoming active members of the Roman Catholic Church. The Magyars’ brutality helped them win their land, yet it was their political acumen that mad made them members of the European community.