Lying on the banks of the Danube and the center of the fertile Hungarian plain, the cities of Buda and Pest were long centers of commerce. Merged into the single city of 'Budapest' to become the new Hungarian capital in 1873, the city flourished, quickly becoming one of the largest and most prosperous cities in Europe.

The vast Hungarian conquests of the Second World War only increased its prosperity, but the extermination of much of the city's Jews, the devastating war with Romania and Slovakia, and the economic crash of the 1950s, have recently plunged the city into jeopardy. Budapest reels under an iron fist, is torn between the joint threats of German and Italian encroachment, and faces increasing unrest as more and more people question the underpinnings of the government.