Bacs-Kiskun

Bács-Kiskun exists because the Treaty of Trianon failed to kill it. In 1920, Allied powers sliced the historic Bács-Bodrog county like a specimen under glass—85% went to Yugoslavia, including Subotica and Novi Sad, leaving Hungary with a northern stump around Baja. In 1950, communist planners sutured this remnant to the Kiskunság (Little Cumania), the pastoral lands between the Danube and Tisza rivers. The resulting county became Hungary's largest by area—8,445 square kilometers of flat interfluve where two great rivers run parallel without meeting, creating a geological accident that for 8,000 years attracted settlers seeking fertile ground without catastrophic floods.

Neolithic farmers arrived around 6000 BCE, planting emmer and einkorn wheat in loess deposited by Ice Age winds. King Stephen I established the Archdiocese of Kalocsa along the Danube around 1010, making this an ecclesiastical power center. But the defining moment came in 1239, when the Cumans—nomadic Turkic pastoralists fleeing Mongol expansion—asked for and received asylum in Hungary. King Béla IV settled them in the depopulated interfluve as border guards. They brought felt tents, vast horse herds, and a way of life older than agriculture itself. Two years later, the Mongols they were fleeing swept across the plain themselves, leaving mass graves and emptied villages. The name "Kiskun" preserves the Cuman memory; their pastoral economy dominated until the 16th century, surviving even the Ottoman occupation (1541-1699) that froze the region outside Hungary's county system.

When Habsburg forces reclaimed the territory, the pastoral economy began its death. Cumans who once followed seasonal migrations settled permanently in Kecskemét, Kiskunfélegyháza, and Kiskunhalas. By 1800, vast grazing commons had become private orchards. The sandy soils between the rivers—useless for wheat—proved perfect for stone fruits. Bács-Kiskun became the orchard of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with apricots, peaches, and cherries flowing to Vienna. The 1867 Compromise brought rail lines; Kecskemét's pálinka distilleries turned surplus fruit into spirits that outlasted the empire. Then came Trianon's amputation in 1920, followed by communist collectivization after 1945, which consolidated orchards into state farms but kept the fruit monoculture intact.

Hungary's 2004 EU accession triggered the latest transformation. Mercedes-Benz opened its Kecskemét plant in 2012—€800 million investment employing 4,500 workers building compact cars for Western markets. The plant will begin producing the A-Class in the second quarter of 2026, relocated from Germany as part of Mercedes' eastward production shift. Nissin Foods doubled instant noodle capacity with a HUF 40 billion expansion. The M44 expressway extension in April 2025 connected Kecskemét directly to the M5, cutting Budapest transit time. Yet agriculture persists: Kecskemét remains known as the "orchard of Hungary," with apricot, peach, and cherry production alongside Kalocsa's paprika supplying European spice markets. The county that Stalin's bureaucrats assembled from Trianon's leftovers now juggles three identities—fruit basket, manufacturing hub, and reminder that borders drawn in Versailles still shape where factories open a century later.

By 2026, Bács-Kiskun confronts a question evolutionary biologists recognize: Can an organism cobbled together from disparate parts develop coherent function? Labor shortages hit both harvests and assembly lines. Young people leave for Budapest or Vienna. The county that once transitioned from pastoral nomadism to settled agriculture, then from subsistence to export crops, now attempts another shift—from agricultural hinterland to industrial corridor—while maintaining the orchards that constitute its identity and the Trianon trauma that defines its shape.