Treaty of Trianon
Encyclopedia
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I
, between the Allies of World War I
and Hungary
(a successor state to Austria-Hungary
). The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from 325411 sqkm to 93073 sqkm. It also lost 64% of its total population, which was reduced from 20.9 million to 7.6 million, and 31% (3.3 out of 10.7 million) of its ethnic Hungarians, who suddenly found themselves living outside the newly defined borders of Hungary. Hungary lost five of its ten most populous cities and was deprived of direct access to the sea and of some of its most valuable natural resources. The military establishment of the country was reduced to an army of about 35,000, while its navy
ceased to exist.
The principal beneficiaries of territorial adjustment were Romania
, Czechoslovakia
, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In addition, the newly established state of Hungary had to pay war reparations to its neighbours. The Hungarian delegation signed the treaty under protest on 4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace
in Versailles
, France
. Hungary recovered
part of lost territories in 1938 - 1940 under Third Reich
auspices. It was later reduced to boundaries approximating those of 1920 by the peace treaties signed after World War II
at Paris, in 1947
.
The treaty was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on August 24, 1921.
Treaty of Trianon internationally guaranteed Hungarian borders.
Representatives of small nations living in former Austria-Hungary
and active in Congress of Opressed Nations regarded the treaty of Trianon for being an act of historical righteousness because the better future for their nations was “to be founded and durably assured on the firm basis of world democracy, real and sovereign government by the people, and an universal alliance of the nations vested with the authority of arbitration” while at the same time making a calls for putting an end to “the existing unbearable domination of one nation over the other” and making it possible “for nations to organize their relations to each other on the basis of equal rights and free conventions”. Furthermore, they believed the treaty would help toward new era of dependence on international law, the fraternity of nations, equal rights, and human liberty as well as aid civilization in the effort to free humanity from international violence.
The Hungarian government terminated its union with Austria on 31 October 1918, officially dissolving the Austro-Hungarian state. The de facto temporary borders of independent Hungary were defined by the ceasefire lines in November–December 1918. Compared with the former Kingdom of Hungary, these temporary borders did not include:
After the Romanian Army advanced beyond this cease-fire line, the Entente powers asked Hungary (Vix Note) to acknowledge the new Romanian territory gains by a new line set along the Tisza
river. Unable to reject these terms and unwilling to accept them, the leaders of the Hungarian Democratic Republic
resigned and the Communists seized power. In spite of the country being under Allied blockade, the Hungarian Soviet Republic
was formed and the Hungarian Red Army was rapidly set up. This army
was initially successful against the Czechoslovak Legions
due to having been implicitly aided with food and weapons by Italy; which made it possible for Hungary to reach nearly the former Galitian
(Polish) border, thus separating the Czechoslovak and Romanian troops from each other.
After a Hungarian-Czechoslovak cease-fire signed on 1 July 1919, the Hungarian Red Army left Upper Hungary
by 4 July, as the Entente powers promised Hungary to invite a Hungarian delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. In the end, this particular invitation was not issued. Béla Kun
, leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic
, then turned the Hungarian Red Army on the Romanian Army and attacked at the Tisza river
on 20 July 1919. After fierce fighting that lasted some five days, the Hungarian Red Army collapsed. The Royal Romanian Army marched into Budapest
on 4 August 1919.
The Hungarian state was restored by the Entente powers, helping Admiral Horthy
into power in November 1919. On 1 December 1919 the Hungarian delegation was officially invited to the Versailles Peace Conference; however the new borders of Hungary were nearly finalised without the presence of the Hungarians. During prior negotiations, the Hungarian party, along with the Austrian, advocated the American principle of self-determination: that the population of disputed territories should decide by free plebiscite to which country they wished to belong. This view did not prevail for long, as it was overlooked by the decisive French and British delegates. The Allies drafted the outline of the new frontiers with little or no regard to the historical, cultural, ethnic, geographic, economic and strategic aspects of the region. The Allies not only assumed without question that the minority peoples wanted to leave Hungary, but allowed the successor states to absorb large chunks of Hungarian-speaking territory. For instance, Romania gained all of Transylvania, which was home to 2,800,000 Romanians--but also contained a significant minority of 1,600,000 Magyars. Although the countries that were the main beneficiaries of the treaty partially noted the issues, the Hungarian delegates tried to draw attention to them. Their views were disregarded by the Allied representatives. As a result, problems created by the territorial boundaries contributed to regional destabilisation and the outbreak of World War II.
Most Hungarian settlements, consisting of more than 2 million Magyars, were situated in a typically 20–50 km wide strip along the new borders in foreign territory. More concentrated groups could be found in Czechoslovakia (Upper Hungary
), Serbia (Vojvodina
or Vajdaság
), and Romania (Transylvania
).
The final borders of Hungary were defined by the Treaty of Trianon signed on 4 June 1920. Beside exclusion of the previously mentioned territories, they did not include:
By the Treaty of Trianon, the cities of Pécs, Mohács, Baja and Szigetvár, which were under Yugoslav administration after November 1918, were assigned to Hungary. An arbitration committee in 1920 assigned small northern parts of the former Árva
and Szepes counties of the Kingdom of Hungary with Polish
majority population to Poland
. After 1918, Hungary did not have access to the sea
, which it had formerly had directly through the Rijeka
coastline and indirectly through Croatia-Slavonia.
With the help of Nazi Germany
and Fascist Italy, Hungary expanded its borders towards neighbouring countries at the outset of World War II
. This happened under the Munich Agreement
(1938), and the two Vienna Awards
(1939 and 1940), following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia (occupation of northern Carpathian Ruthenia and eastern Slovakia) and following the German Invasion of Yugoslavia
. This territorial expansion was short-lived, since the post-war Hungarian boundaries agreed on at the Treaty of Paris
in 1947 were nearly identical to those of 1920 (with three villages – Jarovce
, Rusovce
, and Čunovo
– transferred to Czechoslovakia).
. Within the borders of Hungary also lived numerous minorities: Romanians
, who made up 16.1% of the total population, Slovaks
(10.5%), Germans
(10.4%), Serbs
, Ruthenians
and others, which formed 8%. Therefore the kingdom was not a nation-state but a multiethnic realm.
The census of 1910 classified the residents of Hungary by language (whether it was "native language" or "most frequently spoken language") and religion, therefore it presents the number of speakers of the preferred languages, which may not correspond exactly to the ethnic composition. To make it more complex, in the multilingual kingdom there were territories with ethnically mixed population, where people spoke two or even three languages on native level. For example in Upper Hungary 18% of the Slovaks, 33% of the Hungarians and 65% of the Germans were bilingual. In addition, 21% of the Germans in the region spoke both Slovak and Hungarian beside German. These reasons are ground for debate about the accuracy of the census.
While several demographers (David W. Paul, Peter Hanak, Laszlo Katus) state that the outcome of the census is reasonably accurate, others believe that the 1910 census were manipulated by exaggerating the percentage of the Hungarian population, pointing to the discrepancy between an improbably high growth of the number of Hungarians and the decrease of other nationalities due to Magyarization
in the kingdom in the late 19th century. Some Slovak demographers (Jan Sveton, Julius Mesaros) dispute the result of every pre-war census. American historian Owen Johson accepts the numbers of the earlier censuses up to the 1900 one – according to which the proportion of the Hungarians were 51.4% –, however, he neglects the 1910 census as he thinks the changes since the last census are too big. It is also argued, that there were different results in previous censuses in the Kingdom of Hungary and subsequent censuses in the new states. Considering the size of discrepancies, some demographers are on the opinion that these censuses were somewhat biased in the favour of the respective ruling nation.
, Romanianization
, Serbianisation
policy of the states. Besides this, an important factor was the Hungarian migration from the newly formed states to Hungary. According to the National Office for Refugees, their number were about 350,000 between 1918 and 1924. After World War II, the Czechoslovak government with the Beneš decrees
granted the forcible "population transfer
" (deportation
) in 1945–47 of about 2.6 million former Czechoslovak citizens of German and Hungarian ethnicity to Germany, Austria and Hungary.
According to the 1920 census 10.4% of the population spoke one of the minority languages as mother language:
The number of bilingual people was much higher, for example 1,398,729 people spoke German (17%), 399,176 people spoke Slovak (5%), 179,928 people spoke Croatian (2.2%) and 88,828 people spoke Romanian (1.1%). Hungarian was spoken by 96% of the total population and was the mother language of 89% of the people.
The percentage and the absolute number of all non-Hungarian nationalities decreased in the next decades, although the total population of the country increased. Bilingualism was also disappearing. The main reasons of this process were both spontaneous assimilation and the deliberate Magyarization
policy of the state. Minorities made up 8% of the total population in 1930 and 7% in 1941 (on the post-Trianon territory).
After World War II approximately 200,000 Germans were deported to Germany, according to the decree of the Potsdam Conference
. Under the forced exchange of population between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, approximately 73,000 Slovaks left Hungary and according to different estimations 120,500 or 45,000 Hungarians moved to present day Hungarian territory from Czechoslovakia. After these population movements Hungary became an almost ethnically homogeneous country with the exception of the Hungarian speaking Roma people.
Officially the treaty was intended to be a confirmation of the right of self-determination
for nations and of the concept of nation-state
s replacing the old multinational Austro-Hungarian empire. Although the treaty addressed some nationality issues, it also sparked new ones. While many ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Hungary
, such as Slovaks, Romanians
, Serbs and Croats, established or joined their nation-states, as many as a third of the Hungarian population lived in these annexed territories. As a result, a significant portion of ethnic Hungarians, lived outside the borders of the new Hungary.
So, while the areas that had been detached from Hungary had non-Hungarian majorities overall, there were also large areas with a majority of Hungarians, mostly near the newly created border. There have periodically been concerns about the treatment of these ethnic Hungarian communities in the neighbouring states. Areas with significant Hungarian populations included the Székely Land
in Eastern Transylvania, the area along the new Romanian-Hungarian border (cities of Arad
, Oradea
), the area north of the new Czechoslovakian-Hungarian border (Komárno
, Csallóköz), southern parts of Subcarpathia and northern parts of Vojvodina
.
The Allies rejected the idea of plebiscites in the disputed areas with the exception of the city of Sopron
, which voted to remain in Hungary. The Allies were indifferent as to the exact line of the new border between Austria and Hungary. Furthermore, ethnically diverse Transylvania, with an overall Romanian majority (53.8% - 1910 census data or 57.1% - 1919 census data or 57.3% - 1920 census data), was treated as a single entity at the peace negotiations and was assigned in its entirety to Romania. The option of partition along ethnic lines as an alternative was rejected.
Another reason why the victorious Allies decided to dissolve the Central-European superpower, Austria-Hungary, a strong German supporter and fast developing region, was to prevent Germany from acquiring substantial influence in the future. The Western powers' main priority was to prevent a resurgence of the German Reich and they therefore decided that her allies in the region, Austria
and Hungary
, should be "contained" by a ring of states friendly to the Allies, each of which would be bigger than either Austria or Hungary. Compared to the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, post-Trianon Hungary had 60% less population and its political and economic footprint in the region was significantly reduced. Hungary lost strategic military and economic infrastructure due to the concentric layout of the railway and road network which the borders bisected. In addition, the structure of its economy collapsed, because it had relied on other parts of the Kingdom. The country also lost access to the Mediterranean, having lost the important sea port of Rijeka (Fiume), and became landlocked, which had a negative effect on sea trading and strategic naval operations. Furthermore, many trading routes that went through the new borders from various parts of the old kingdom were abandoned.
With regard to the ethnic issues, the Western powers were aware of the problem posed by the presence of so many Hungarians (and Germans) living outside the new nation-states of Hungary and Austria. The Romanian delegation to Versailles feared in 1919 that the Allies were beginning to favour the partition of Transylvania along ethnic lines to reduce the potential exodus and Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu
even summoned British-born Queen Marie
to France to strengthen their case. The Romanians claimed that they had suffered a higher relative casualty rate in the war than either Britain or France and that the Western powers had a moral debt to repay. In absolute terms, Romanian troops had considerably fewer casualties than either Britain or France, however. The underlying reason for the decision was a secret pact between The Entente and Romania. In the Treaty of Bucharest (1916) Romania was promised Transylvania and territories to the east of river Tisza
, provided that she attacked Austria-Hungary
from the south-east, where defences were weak. However, after the Central Powers
had noticed the military manoeuvre, the attempt was quickly choked off and Bucharest fell in the same year.
By the time the victorious Allies arrived in France, the treaty was already settled, which made the outcome inevitable. At the heart of the dispute lay fundamentally different views on the nature of the Hungarian presence in the disputed territories.
For Hungarians, the outer territories were not seen as colonial territories, but rather part of the core national territory. The western powers and most non-Hungarians that lived in the Carpathian Basin saw the Hungarians as colonial-style rulers who had oppressed the Slavs and Romanians
since 1848, when they introduced laws that the language used in education and in local offices was to be Hungarian. For non-Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin it was a process of decolonisation rather than a punitive dismemberment. The Hungarians did not see it this way because the borders were not ethnically correct, with areas where there were Hungarian majorities outside the new borders. The French sided with their allies the Romanians who had a long policy of cultural ties to France since the country broke from the Ottoman Empire (due in part to the relative ease at which Romanians could learn French) although Clemenceau personally detested Bratianu. President Wilson
initially supported the outline of a more ethnically correct border based on the Coolidge Report, led by Harvard Professor A. C. Coolidge
, but later gave in, due to changing international politics and as a courtesy to other allies.
For Hungarian public opinion, the realisation of the loss of most of the country's territory and significant numbers of ethnic Hungarians was followed by a lingering bitterness because they would have preferred to maintain the integrity of the territory for mainly economic and strategic reasons, and claimed that they were ready to give the minorities a great deal of autonomy. Indeed, most Hungarians regarded the treaty as an insult to the nation's honour. The Hungarian attitude towards Trianon was summed up in the phrases Nem, nem, soha! ("No, no, never!") and Mindent vissza! ("Return everything!" or "Everything back!") The perceived humiliation of the treaty became a dominant theme in inter-war Hungarian politics, analogous with the German reaction to the Treaty of Versailles
. The outcome of the Treaty of Trianon is to this day remembered in Hungary as the Trianon trauma. All official flags in Hungary were lowered until 1938, when they were raised by one-third after southern Slovakia, with an 84% Hungarian population (i.e. 550,000 Hungarians) was "recovered" following the Munich Conference and Vienna Awards
by which arbiters of Nazi Germany
and Fascist Italy
sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary
on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon
. The Hungarian irredentism fuelled not only the revisionist inter-war Hungarian foreign policy
but became a source of regional tension after the Cold War
too.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was one economic unit
with autarkic characteristics
during its golden age
and therefore achieved rapid growth
, especially in the early 20th century when GNP
grew by 1.76%. (That level of growth compared very favourably to that of other European nations such as Britain (1.00%), France (1.06%), and Germany (1.51%).) There was also a division of labour
present throughout the empire: that is, in the Austrian Empire manufacturing industries were highly advanced, while in the Kingdom of Hungary an agroindustrial economy had emerged. By the late 19th century economic growth of the eastern regions consistently surpassed that of western, thus discrepancies eventually began to diminish. The key success of fast development was specialisation
of each region in fields that they were best.
Hungary was the main supplier of wheat, rye, barley and other various goods in the empire and these comprised a large portion of the empire's exports. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic (Kingdom of Bohemia) owned 75% of the whole industrial capacity of formal Austria-Hungary. This clearly shows that the various parts of the formal monarchy were economically interdependent. To further illustrate this point, post-Trianon Hungary produced 500% more agricultural goods than it needed for itself and mills around Budapest
were one of the largest ones in Europe at the time; now forced to operate at 20% level. As a consequence of the treaty, all the competitive
industries of the formal empire were compelled to close doors, as great capacity was met by negligible demand owing to economic barriers presented in the form of the new borders.
Furthermore, post-Trianon Hungary possessed 90% of the engineering and printing industry of the Kingdom, while only 11% of timber
and 16% iron
was retained. In addition, 61% of arable land
, 74% of public road, 65% of canals, 62% of railroads, 64% of hard surface roads, 83% of pig iron
output, 55% of industrial plants, and most of all, 67% of credit and banking institutions of the former Kingdom of Hungary lay within the territory of Hungary's neighbours. New borders also bisected transport links - in the Kingdom of Hungary the road and railway network had a radial structure, with Budapest
in the centre. Many roads and railways, running along the new borders and interlinking radial transport lines, ended up in different, highly introvert countries. Hence, much of the rail cargo traffic of the emergent states was virtually paralysed.
These factors all combined created staggering imbalances in the artificially separated, core economic regions of the formal Monarchy.
The disseminating economic chaos had been also noted in the Coolidge Report as a very serious potential aftermath of the treaty. In spite of this fact, the warning was not taken into account during the negotiations. Thus, the resulting uneasiness and despondency of the concerned population was later one of the main antecedents of World War II
. Unemployment
levels in Austria, as well as in Hungary, were dangerously high, and industrial output dropped by 65%. What happened to Austria in industry
happened to Hungary in agriculture
where production of grain declined by more than 70%. Austria, especially the imperial capital Vienna
, was a leading investor
of development projects throughout the empire with more than 2.2 billion crown capital. This sum sunk to a mere 8.6 million crowns after the treaty took effect and resulted in a starving of capital in other regions of the former empire.
The disintegration of the multi-national state conversely impacted neighbouring countries, too: In Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria a fifth to a third of the rural population could find no work, and industry was in no position to absorb them.
In comparison, by 1921 the new Czechoslovak state reached 75% of its pre war production owing to their favourable position among the victors, thus greater access to international rehabilitation resources.
With the creation of customs barriers
and fragmented protective economies
, the economic growth
and outlook in the region sharply declined; which in the end culminated in a deep recession
. It proved to be immensely challenging for the successor states to successfully transform their economies to adapt to the new circumstances. All the formal districts of Austria-Hungary
used to rely on each other's export
s for growth and welfare
; by contrast, 5 years after the treaty, traffic of goods between the countries dropped to less than 5% of its former value. This could be put down to the introduction of aggressive nationalistic policies by local political leaders.
The drastic shift in economic climate forced the countries to re-evaluate their situation and to promote industries where they had fallen short. Austria and Czechoslovakia subsidised the mill, sugar and brewing industries, Hungary attempted to increase the efficiency of iron, steel, glass and chemical industries
. The stated objective was that all countries should become self sufficient. This tendency, however, lead to uniform economies and competitive economic advantage of long well-established industries and research fields
evaporated. The lack of specialisation adversely affected the whole Danube-Carpathian region caused a distinct setback of growth and development compared to the West as well as high financial
vulnerability and instability.
Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia had to assume part of the financial obligations of the former Kingdom of Hungary on account of the parts of its territory under their sovereignty.
Conditions were similar to those imposed on Germany
by the Treaty of Versailles
. After the war, the Hungarian navy, air force and army was disbanded. The army was to be restricted to 35,000 men and there was to be no conscription. Heavy artillery, tanks and air force were prohibited to maintain. Further provisions stated that in Hungary, no railway would be built with more than one track (even going so far as to remove one of the two tracks on one of the lines), due to the fact that at that time railways held a substantial strategical importance economically as well as military.
Hungary also renounced all privileges in territories outside Europe that belonged to the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
Articles 54–60 of the Treaty required Hungary to recognise various rights of national minorities within its borders.
Articles 61-66 stated that all former citizens of the Kingdom of Hungary living outside the new frontiers of Hungary were to ipso facto
lose their Hungarian nationality in one year.
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, between the Allies of World War I
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
(a successor state to Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
). The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from 325411 sqkm to 93073 sqkm. It also lost 64% of its total population, which was reduced from 20.9 million to 7.6 million, and 31% (3.3 out of 10.7 million) of its ethnic Hungarians, who suddenly found themselves living outside the newly defined borders of Hungary. Hungary lost five of its ten most populous cities and was deprived of direct access to the sea and of some of its most valuable natural resources. The military establishment of the country was reduced to an army of about 35,000, while its navy
Austro-Hungarian Navy
The Austro-Hungarian Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Its official name in German was Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine , abbreviated as k.u.k. Kriegsmarine....
ceased to exist.
The principal beneficiaries of territorial adjustment were Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938)
The First Czechoslovak Republic , refers to the first Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938. The state was commonly called Czechoslovakia . It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia...
, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In addition, the newly established state of Hungary had to pay war reparations to its neighbours. The Hungarian delegation signed the treaty under protest on 4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace
Grand Trianon
The Grand Trianon was built in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles at the request of Louis XIV, as a retreat for the King and his maîtresse en titre of the time, the marquise de Montespan, and as a place where the King and invited guests could take light meals away from the strict...
in Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Hungary recovered
Vienna Awards
The Vienna Awards are two arbitral awards by which arbiters of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon...
part of lost territories in 1938 - 1940 under Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
auspices. It was later reduced to boundaries approximating those of 1920 by the peace treaties signed after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
at Paris, in 1947
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...
.
The treaty was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on August 24, 1921.
Treaty of Trianon internationally guaranteed Hungarian borders.
Representatives of small nations living in former Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
and active in Congress of Opressed Nations regarded the treaty of Trianon for being an act of historical righteousness because the better future for their nations was “to be founded and durably assured on the firm basis of world democracy, real and sovereign government by the people, and an universal alliance of the nations vested with the authority of arbitration” while at the same time making a calls for putting an end to “the existing unbearable domination of one nation over the other” and making it possible “for nations to organize their relations to each other on the basis of equal rights and free conventions”. Furthermore, they believed the treaty would help toward new era of dependence on international law, the fraternity of nations, equal rights, and human liberty as well as aid civilization in the effort to free humanity from international violence.
New borders of Hungary
- South Slavic lands. On 29 October 1918, the Kingdom of Croatia-SlavoniaKingdom of Croatia-SlavoniaThe Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia or Croatia Slavonia was an autonomous kingdom within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was part of the Hungarian Kingdom within the dual Austro-Hungarian state, being within the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen or Transleithania...
parliament, an autonomous kingdomMonarchyA monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
within the Transleithania, terminated the union with Kingdom of Hungary and on 30 October 1918 Hungarian diet adopted a motion declaring that the constitutional relations between two states have ended. After that CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
first formed a State of Slovenes, Croats and SerbsState of Slovenes, Croats and SerbsThe State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was a short-lived state formed from the southernmost parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after its dissolution at the end of the World War I by the resident population of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs...
with other South Slavic formerly Austro-Hungarian territories on 1 October 1918, then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by joining with the Kingdom of SerbiaKingdom of SerbiaThe Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
on 1 December 1918. - Part of TransylvaniaTransylvaniaTransylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
south of the MureşMures RiverThe Mureș is an approximately 761 km long river in Eastern Europe. It originates in the Hășmașu Mare Range in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, Romania, and joins the Tisza river at Szeged in southeastern Hungary....
river and east of the SomeşSomeş RiverThe river Someş flows through Romania and Hungary.It rises from two headstreams, the Someşul Mare, in the Rodna Mountains in Bistriţa-Năsăud County and the Someşul Mic in the Apuseni Mountains of Cluj County...
river, which came under the control of RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
(cease-fire agreement of BelgradeBelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
signed on 13 November 1918). On 1 December 1918, the National Assembly of Romanians in Transylvania declared unionUnion of Transylvania with RomaniaUnion of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia.The national holiday of Romania, the Great Union Day occurring on December 1, commemorates this event...
with the Kingdom of RomaniaKingdom of RomaniaThe Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
. - Most of the BaranyaBaranya (former county)Baranya is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in southern Hungary and northeastern Croatia . The capital of the county was Pécs.-Geography:Baranya county was located in Baranya region...
, Bács-BodrogBács-BodrogBács-Bodrog County was the administrative county of the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary from 18th century to 1918. Its territory is currently in northern Serbia and southern Hungary. The capital of the county was Zombor .-Name:The county was named after two older counties: Bács and Bodrog...
, TorontálTorontálTorontál was the name of administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary. Its territory is presently in northern Serbia , western Romania and southern Hungary...
, TemesTemesTemes was the name of an administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary. Its territory is currently in southwestern Romania and northern Serbia...
and Krassó-SzörényKrassó-SzörényKrassó-Szörény was the name of an administrative county of the historic Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently mostly located in south-western Romania, with one small part which is located in Serbia. The capital of the county was Lugoj...
counties, according to the ceasefire agreement of BelgradeBelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
signed on 13 November 1918. The Great People's Assembly of Serbs, Croats, Bunyevs, Slovaks, Rusyns and other peoples from Banat, Bačka and Baranja declared union with the Kingdom of SerbiaKingdom of SerbiaThe Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
on 25 November 1918. The ceasefire line had a character of temporary international border until the treaty. On 1 December 1918, the National Assembly of Romanians in Banat voted unionUnion of Transylvania with RomaniaUnion of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia.The national holiday of Romania, the Great Union Day occurring on December 1, commemorates this event...
with the Kingdom of RomaniaKingdom of RomaniaThe Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania... - Upper HungaryUpper HungaryUpper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
, which became part of CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
as SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
(status quo set by the Czechoslovak legionsCzechoslovak LegionsThe Czechoslovak Legions were volunteer armed forces composed predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I...
and accepted by the Entente on 25 November 1918). Afterwards the Slovak politician Milan HodžaMilan HodžaMilan Hodža was a prominent Slovak politician and journalist, serving from 1935 to 1938 as the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia and in December 1935 as the acting President of Czechoslovakia...
discussed with the Hungarian Minister of Defence, Albert BarthaAlbert BarthaAlbert Bartha de Nagyborosnyó was a Hungarian military officer and politician, who served as Minister of Defence twice: in 1918 and, almost thirty years later, between 1946 and 1947.-Works:...
, a temporary demarcation line which had not followed the Slovak-Hungarian linguistic border, and left more than 900.000 Hungarians in the newly formed Czechoslovakia. That was signed on 6 December, in 1918. - The city of FiumeRijekaRijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
(Rijeka) was occupied by the Italian Army. Its affiliation was a matter of international dispute between the Kingdom of ItalyKingdom of Italy (1861–1946)The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. - Croatian-populated territories in modern Međimurje. After the military victory of Croatian forces led by Slavko KvaternikSlavko KvaternikSlavko Kvaternik was a Croatian military commander and a collaborator with Nazi Germany. He was noted for military service in World War I, later as a deputy leader and founding member of the Croatian Ustaša movement in the 1930s who then became one of the leaders of the "Independent State of...
in Međimurje against Hungarian forces, this region voted in the Great Assembly of 9 January 1919 for separation from Hungary http://www.sabor.hr/Default.aspx?art=1768&sec=461 and entry into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
After the Romanian Army advanced beyond this cease-fire line, the Entente powers asked Hungary (Vix Note) to acknowledge the new Romanian territory gains by a new line set along the Tisza
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...
river. Unable to reject these terms and unwilling to accept them, the leaders of the Hungarian Democratic Republic
Hungarian Democratic Republic
The Hungarian People's Republic was an independent republic proclaimed after the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918...
resigned and the Communists seized power. In spite of the country being under Allied blockade, the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
was formed and the Hungarian Red Army was rapidly set up. This army
Slovak Soviet Republic
The Slovak Soviet Republic comprised a very short-lived communist state in south and eastern Slovakia from 16 June to 7 July 1919, with its capital in...
was initially successful against the Czechoslovak Legions
Czechoslovak Legions
The Czechoslovak Legions were volunteer armed forces composed predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I...
due to having been implicitly aided with food and weapons by Italy; which made it possible for Hungary to reach nearly the former Galitian
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria–Hungary from 1772 to 1918 .This historical region in eastern Central Europe is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine...
(Polish) border, thus separating the Czechoslovak and Romanian troops from each other.
After a Hungarian-Czechoslovak cease-fire signed on 1 July 1919, the Hungarian Red Army left Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
by 4 July, as the Entente powers promised Hungary to invite a Hungarian delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. In the end, this particular invitation was not issued. Béla Kun
Béla Kun
Béla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician and a Bolshevik Revolutionary who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...
, leader of the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
, then turned the Hungarian Red Army on the Romanian Army and attacked at the Tisza river
Hungarian-Romanian War of 1919
The seeds of the Hungarian–Romanian war of 1919 were planted when the union of Transylvania with Romania was proclaimed, on December 1, 1918. In late March 1919, the Bolsheviks came to power in Hungary, at which point its army attempted to retake Transylvania, commencing the war. By its final...
on 20 July 1919. After fierce fighting that lasted some five days, the Hungarian Red Army collapsed. The Royal Romanian Army marched into Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
on 4 August 1919.
The Hungarian state was restored by the Entente powers, helping Admiral Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
into power in November 1919. On 1 December 1919 the Hungarian delegation was officially invited to the Versailles Peace Conference; however the new borders of Hungary were nearly finalised without the presence of the Hungarians. During prior negotiations, the Hungarian party, along with the Austrian, advocated the American principle of self-determination: that the population of disputed territories should decide by free plebiscite to which country they wished to belong. This view did not prevail for long, as it was overlooked by the decisive French and British delegates. The Allies drafted the outline of the new frontiers with little or no regard to the historical, cultural, ethnic, geographic, economic and strategic aspects of the region. The Allies not only assumed without question that the minority peoples wanted to leave Hungary, but allowed the successor states to absorb large chunks of Hungarian-speaking territory. For instance, Romania gained all of Transylvania, which was home to 2,800,000 Romanians--but also contained a significant minority of 1,600,000 Magyars. Although the countries that were the main beneficiaries of the treaty partially noted the issues, the Hungarian delegates tried to draw attention to them. Their views were disregarded by the Allied representatives. As a result, problems created by the territorial boundaries contributed to regional destabilisation and the outbreak of World War II.
Most Hungarian settlements, consisting of more than 2 million Magyars, were situated in a typically 20–50 km wide strip along the new borders in foreign territory. More concentrated groups could be found in Czechoslovakia (Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
), Serbia (Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
or Vajdaság
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
), and Romania (Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
).
The final borders of Hungary were defined by the Treaty of Trianon signed on 4 June 1920. Beside exclusion of the previously mentioned territories, they did not include:
- the rest of TransylvaniaTransylvaniaTransylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, which together with former Eastern Hungary became part of RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
; - Carpathian RutheniaCarpathian RutheniaCarpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
, which became part of CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, pursuant to the Treaty of Saint-GermainTreaty of Saint-GermainThe Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the new Republic of Austria on the other...
in 1919; - most of BurgenlandBurgenlandBurgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
, which became part of AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, also pursuant to the Treaty of Saint-Germain; the district of SopronSopronIn 1910 Sopron had 33,932 inhabitants . Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001 the city had 56,125 inhabitants...
opted to remain with Hungary after a plebiscite held in December 1921 (it was the only place where a plebiscite was held and factored in the decision); and - Međimurje and the 2/3 of the Slovene MarchSlovene March (Kingdom of Hungary)The Slovene March or Slovene krajina was the traditional denomination of the Slovene-speaking areas of the Vas and Zala County in the Kingdom of Hungary from the late 18th century until the Treaty of Trianon in 1919...
or Vendvidék (now PrekmurjePrekmurjePrekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...
), which became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
By the Treaty of Trianon, the cities of Pécs, Mohács, Baja and Szigetvár, which were under Yugoslav administration after November 1918, were assigned to Hungary. An arbitration committee in 1920 assigned small northern parts of the former Árva
Arva
Arva may refer to:* Arva, Ontario, a community located in Middlesex Centre, Ontario, Canada* Arva, a village in Valea Călugărească Commune, Prahova County, Romania* Arva, a village in Broşteni Commune, Vrancea County, Romania...
and Szepes counties of the Kingdom of Hungary with Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
majority population to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. After 1918, Hungary did not have access to the sea
Sea
A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...
, which it had formerly had directly through the Rijeka
Rijeka
Rijeka is the principal seaport and the third largest city in Croatia . It is located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 128,735 inhabitants...
coastline and indirectly through Croatia-Slavonia.
With the help of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Fascist Italy, Hungary expanded its borders towards neighbouring countries at the outset of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. This happened under the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
(1938), and the two Vienna Awards
Vienna Awards
The Vienna Awards are two arbitral awards by which arbiters of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon...
(1939 and 1940), following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia (occupation of northern Carpathian Ruthenia and eastern Slovakia) and following the German Invasion of Yugoslavia
Invasion of Yugoslavia
The Invasion of Yugoslavia , also known as the April War , was the Axis Powers' attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II...
. This territorial expansion was short-lived, since the post-war Hungarian boundaries agreed on at the Treaty of Paris
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...
in 1947 were nearly identical to those of 1920 (with three villages – Jarovce
Jarovce
Jarovce is a small borough of Bratislava, Slovakia.- History :The village was first mentioned in 1208 under the name Ban. During the Ottoman wars, many Croats settled here in the 16th century . They are still a strong minority...
, Rusovce
Rusovce
Rusovce castle")) is a borough in southern Bratislava on the right bank of the Danube river, close to the Hungarian border.- History :In the 1st century, there was a Roman settlement named Gerulata in today's Rusovce area. The first preserved written reference to the settlement is from 1208. It...
, and Čunovo
Cunovo
Čunovo is a small part of Bratislava, Slovakia, in the southern area near the Hungarian border. It is located close to the Gabčíkovo - Nagymaros Dams.- History :...
– transferred to Czechoslovakia).
Demographics
1910 census
The last census before the Treaty of Trianon was held in 1910, according to which the largest ethnic group in the Kingdom of Hungary were the Hungarians who were approximately 48% of the entire population, and 54% of the population of the territory referred to as "Hungary proper", i.e. excluding Croatia-SlavoniaKingdom of Croatia-Slavonia
The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia or Croatia Slavonia was an autonomous kingdom within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was part of the Hungarian Kingdom within the dual Austro-Hungarian state, being within the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen or Transleithania...
. Within the borders of Hungary also lived numerous minorities: Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, who made up 16.1% of the total population, Slovaks
Slovaks
The Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...
(10.5%), Germans
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
(10.4%), Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, Ruthenians
Ruthenians
The name Ruthenian |Rus']]) is a culturally loaded term and has different meanings according to the context in which it is used. Initially, it was the ethnonym used for the East Slavic peoples who lived in Rus'. Later it was used predominantly for Ukrainians...
and others, which formed 8%. Therefore the kingdom was not a nation-state but a multiethnic realm.
The census of 1910 classified the residents of Hungary by language (whether it was "native language" or "most frequently spoken language") and religion, therefore it presents the number of speakers of the preferred languages, which may not correspond exactly to the ethnic composition. To make it more complex, in the multilingual kingdom there were territories with ethnically mixed population, where people spoke two or even three languages on native level. For example in Upper Hungary 18% of the Slovaks, 33% of the Hungarians and 65% of the Germans were bilingual. In addition, 21% of the Germans in the region spoke both Slovak and Hungarian beside German. These reasons are ground for debate about the accuracy of the census.
While several demographers (David W. Paul, Peter Hanak, Laszlo Katus) state that the outcome of the census is reasonably accurate, others believe that the 1910 census were manipulated by exaggerating the percentage of the Hungarian population, pointing to the discrepancy between an improbably high growth of the number of Hungarians and the decrease of other nationalities due to Magyarization
Magyarization
Magyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...
in the kingdom in the late 19th century. Some Slovak demographers (Jan Sveton, Julius Mesaros) dispute the result of every pre-war census. American historian Owen Johson accepts the numbers of the earlier censuses up to the 1900 one – according to which the proportion of the Hungarians were 51.4% –, however, he neglects the 1910 census as he thinks the changes since the last census are too big. It is also argued, that there were different results in previous censuses in the Kingdom of Hungary and subsequent censuses in the new states. Considering the size of discrepancies, some demographers are on the opinion that these censuses were somewhat biased in the favour of the respective ruling nation.
Hungarians outside the new borders
Although the territories of the former Kingdom of Hungary that were assigned by the treaty to neighbouring states in total had a majority of non-Hungarian population, they also included areas of Hungarian majority (even areas with over 80–90% Hungarians) and significant Hungarian minorities, numbering 3,318,000 in total. After the treaty, the percentage and the absolute number of all Hungarian nationalities decreased in the next decades. The main reasons of this process were spontaneous assimilation and SlovakizationSlovakization
Slovakization or Slovakisation is a term used to describe a cultural change in which ethnically non-Slovak people are made to become Slovak. The process can be named as 'accelerated assimilation'....
, Romanianization
Romanianization
Romanianization or Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th century...
, Serbianisation
Serbianisation
Serbianisation or Serbification or Serbisation is the spread of Serbian culture, people, or politics, either by integration or assimilation.-Serbianisation:...
policy of the states. Besides this, an important factor was the Hungarian migration from the newly formed states to Hungary. According to the National Office for Refugees, their number were about 350,000 between 1918 and 1924. After World War II, the Czechoslovak government with the Beneš decrees
Beneš decrees
Decrees of the President of the Republic , more commonly known as the Beneš decrees, were a series of laws that were drafted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in the absence of the Czechoslovak parliament during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in World War II and issued by President...
granted the forcible "population transfer
Population transfer
Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
" (deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
) in 1945–47 of about 2.6 million former Czechoslovak citizens of German and Hungarian ethnicity to Germany, Austria and Hungary.
Distribution of the Hungarian population in the Kingdom of Hungary
The number of Hungarians in the different areas based on the census data of 1910. The present day location of each area is given in parenthesis.- In Upper HungaryUpper HungaryUpper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
(SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
): 885,000 - 30% - In TransylvaniaTransylvaniaTransylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
(RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
): 1,662,948 - 31.6% - In VojvodinaVojvodinaVojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
(SerbiaSerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
): 420,000 - 28% - In TranscarpathiaZakarpattia OblastThe Zakarpattia Oblast is an administrative oblast located in southwestern Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Uzhhorod...
(UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
): 183,000 - 30% - In CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
: 121,000 - 3.5% - In Slovene MarchSlovene March (Kingdom of Hungary)The Slovene March or Slovene krajina was the traditional denomination of the Slovene-speaking areas of the Vas and Zala County in the Kingdom of Hungary from the late 18th century until the Treaty of Trianon in 1919...
(today PrekmurjePrekmurjePrekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...
, SloveniaSloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
): 14,065 - 15% - In BurgenlandBurgenlandBurgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
(AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
): 26,200 - 9%
Distribution of the non-Hungarian population in the Kingdom of Hungary
Slovaks, Romanians, Ruthenians, Serbs, Croats and Germans, who represented the majority of the populations of the above-mentioned territories based on 1910 census data:- In Upper HungaryUpper HungaryUpper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
(SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
): 1,687,977 Slovaks and 1,233,454 others (mostly Hungarians - 886,044, Germans, Ruthenians and Roma) [according to the 1921 census, however, there were 1,941,942 Slovaks and 1,058,928 others] - In Carpathian RutheniaCarpathian RutheniaCarpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
(CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
): 330,010 Ruthenians and 275,932 others (mostly Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, and Slovaks) - In TransylvaniaTransylvaniaTransylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
(RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
): 2,831,222 Romanians (53.8%) and 2,431,273 others (mostly Hungarians - 1,662,948 (31.6%) and Germans - 563,087 (10.7%)). The 1919 and 1920 Transylvanian censuses indicate a greater percentage of Romanians (57.1%/57.3%) and a smaller Hungarian minority (26.5%/25.5%) - In VojvodinaVojvodinaVojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
and Croatia-Slavonia (YugoslaviaYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
): 2,756,000 Croats and Serbs and 1,366,000 others (mostly Hungarians and Germans) - In Slovene MarchSlovene March (Kingdom of Hungary)The Slovene March or Slovene krajina was the traditional denomination of the Slovene-speaking areas of the Vas and Zala County in the Kingdom of Hungary from the late 18th century until the Treaty of Trianon in 1919...
(today PrekmurjePrekmurjePrekmurje is a geographically, linguistically, culturally and ethnically defined region settled by Slovenes and lying between the Mur River in Slovenia and the Rába Valley in the most western part of Hungary...
, SloveniaSloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
): 74,199 Slovenes (80%), 14,065 Hungarians (15,2%), 2,540 Germans (2,7%) - In BurgenlandBurgenlandBurgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
(AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
): 217,072 Germans and 69,858 others (mainly Croatian and Hungarian)
Minorities in post-Trianon Hungary
On the other hand, a considerable number of other nationalities remained within the frontiers of the new Hungary:According to the 1920 census 10.4% of the population spoke one of the minority languages as mother language:
- 551,212 German (6.9%)
- 141,882 Slovak (1.8%)
- 23,760 Romanian (0.3%)
- 36,858 Croatian (0.5%)
- 23,228 Bunjevac and Šokac (0.3%)
- 17,131 Serb (0.2%)
- 7,000 Slovenes (0,08%)
The number of bilingual people was much higher, for example 1,398,729 people spoke German (17%), 399,176 people spoke Slovak (5%), 179,928 people spoke Croatian (2.2%) and 88,828 people spoke Romanian (1.1%). Hungarian was spoken by 96% of the total population and was the mother language of 89% of the people.
The percentage and the absolute number of all non-Hungarian nationalities decreased in the next decades, although the total population of the country increased. Bilingualism was also disappearing. The main reasons of this process were both spontaneous assimilation and the deliberate Magyarization
Magyarization
Magyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...
policy of the state. Minorities made up 8% of the total population in 1930 and 7% in 1941 (on the post-Trianon territory).
After World War II approximately 200,000 Germans were deported to Germany, according to the decree of the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
. Under the forced exchange of population between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, approximately 73,000 Slovaks left Hungary and according to different estimations 120,500 or 45,000 Hungarians moved to present day Hungarian territory from Czechoslovakia. After these population movements Hungary became an almost ethnically homogeneous country with the exception of the Hungarian speaking Roma people.
Political consequences
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
for nations and of the concept of nation-state
Nation-state
The nation state is a state that self-identifies as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity...
s replacing the old multinational Austro-Hungarian empire. Although the treaty addressed some nationality issues, it also sparked new ones. While many ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
, such as Slovaks, Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, Serbs and Croats, established or joined their nation-states, as many as a third of the Hungarian population lived in these annexed territories. As a result, a significant portion of ethnic Hungarians, lived outside the borders of the new Hungary.
So, while the areas that had been detached from Hungary had non-Hungarian majorities overall, there were also large areas with a majority of Hungarians, mostly near the newly created border. There have periodically been concerns about the treatment of these ethnic Hungarian communities in the neighbouring states. Areas with significant Hungarian populations included the Székely Land
Székely Land
The Székely Land or Szekler Land refers to the territories inhabited mainly by the Székely, a Hungarian-speaking ethnic group from eastern Transylvania...
in Eastern Transylvania, the area along the new Romanian-Hungarian border (cities of Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
, Oradea
Oradea
Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...
), the area north of the new Czechoslovakian-Hungarian border (Komárno
Komárno
Komárno is a town in Slovakia at the confluence of the Danube and the Váh rivers. Komárno was formed from part of a historical town in Hungary situated on both banks of the Danube. Following World War I, the border of the newly created Czechoslovakia cut the historical, unified town in half,...
, Csallóköz), southern parts of Subcarpathia and northern parts of Vojvodina
Ethnic groups of Vojvodina
There are many ethnic groups in Vojvodina.-Serbs:*Serbs – Serbs constitute an absolute majority of people in Vojvodina. According to the 2002 census, there were 1,321,807 Serbs in Vojvodina or 65.05% of the population...
.
The Allies rejected the idea of plebiscites in the disputed areas with the exception of the city of Sopron
Sopron
In 1910 Sopron had 33,932 inhabitants . Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001 the city had 56,125 inhabitants...
, which voted to remain in Hungary. The Allies were indifferent as to the exact line of the new border between Austria and Hungary. Furthermore, ethnically diverse Transylvania, with an overall Romanian majority (53.8% - 1910 census data or 57.1% - 1919 census data or 57.3% - 1920 census data), was treated as a single entity at the peace negotiations and was assigned in its entirety to Romania. The option of partition along ethnic lines as an alternative was rejected.
Another reason why the victorious Allies decided to dissolve the Central-European superpower, Austria-Hungary, a strong German supporter and fast developing region, was to prevent Germany from acquiring substantial influence in the future. The Western powers' main priority was to prevent a resurgence of the German Reich and they therefore decided that her allies in the region, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, should be "contained" by a ring of states friendly to the Allies, each of which would be bigger than either Austria or Hungary. Compared to the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, post-Trianon Hungary had 60% less population and its political and economic footprint in the region was significantly reduced. Hungary lost strategic military and economic infrastructure due to the concentric layout of the railway and road network which the borders bisected. In addition, the structure of its economy collapsed, because it had relied on other parts of the Kingdom. The country also lost access to the Mediterranean, having lost the important sea port of Rijeka (Fiume), and became landlocked, which had a negative effect on sea trading and strategic naval operations. Furthermore, many trading routes that went through the new borders from various parts of the old kingdom were abandoned.
With regard to the ethnic issues, the Western powers were aware of the problem posed by the presence of so many Hungarians (and Germans) living outside the new nation-states of Hungary and Austria. The Romanian delegation to Versailles feared in 1919 that the Allies were beginning to favour the partition of Transylvania along ethnic lines to reduce the potential exodus and Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
even summoned British-born Queen Marie
Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
to France to strengthen their case. The Romanians claimed that they had suffered a higher relative casualty rate in the war than either Britain or France and that the Western powers had a moral debt to repay. In absolute terms, Romanian troops had considerably fewer casualties than either Britain or France, however. The underlying reason for the decision was a secret pact between The Entente and Romania. In the Treaty of Bucharest (1916) Romania was promised Transylvania and territories to the east of river Tisza
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...
, provided that she attacked Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
from the south-east, where defences were weak. However, after the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
had noticed the military manoeuvre, the attempt was quickly choked off and Bucharest fell in the same year.
For Hungarians, the outer territories were not seen as colonial territories, but rather part of the core national territory. The western powers and most non-Hungarians that lived in the Carpathian Basin saw the Hungarians as colonial-style rulers who had oppressed the Slavs and Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
since 1848, when they introduced laws that the language used in education and in local offices was to be Hungarian. For non-Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin it was a process of decolonisation rather than a punitive dismemberment. The Hungarians did not see it this way because the borders were not ethnically correct, with areas where there were Hungarian majorities outside the new borders. The French sided with their allies the Romanians who had a long policy of cultural ties to France since the country broke from the Ottoman Empire (due in part to the relative ease at which Romanians could learn French) although Clemenceau personally detested Bratianu. President Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
initially supported the outline of a more ethnically correct border based on the Coolidge Report, led by Harvard Professor A. C. Coolidge
Archibald Cary Coolidge
Archibald Cary Coolidge was an American educator. He was a Professor of History at Harvard College from 1908 and the first Director of the Harvard University Library from 1910 until his death...
, but later gave in, due to changing international politics and as a courtesy to other allies.
For Hungarian public opinion, the realisation of the loss of most of the country's territory and significant numbers of ethnic Hungarians was followed by a lingering bitterness because they would have preferred to maintain the integrity of the territory for mainly economic and strategic reasons, and claimed that they were ready to give the minorities a great deal of autonomy. Indeed, most Hungarians regarded the treaty as an insult to the nation's honour. The Hungarian attitude towards Trianon was summed up in the phrases Nem, nem, soha! ("No, no, never!") and Mindent vissza! ("Return everything!" or "Everything back!") The perceived humiliation of the treaty became a dominant theme in inter-war Hungarian politics, analogous with the German reaction to the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
. The outcome of the Treaty of Trianon is to this day remembered in Hungary as the Trianon trauma. All official flags in Hungary were lowered until 1938, when they were raised by one-third after southern Slovakia, with an 84% Hungarian population (i.e. 550,000 Hungarians) was "recovered" following the Munich Conference and Vienna Awards
Vienna Awards
The Vienna Awards are two arbitral awards by which arbiters of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon...
by which arbiters of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Fascist Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
sought to enforce peacefully the claims of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
on territory it had lost in 1920 when it signed the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
. The Hungarian irredentism fuelled not only the revisionist inter-war Hungarian foreign policy
Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
The Kingdom of Hungary also known as the Regency, existed from 1920 to 1946 and was a de facto country under Regent Miklós Horthy. Horthy officially represented the abdicated Hungarian monarchy of Charles IV, Apostolic King of Hungary...
but became a source of regional tension after the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
too.
Economic consequences
Economic and monetary union
An economic and monetary union is a type of trade bloc which is composed of an economic union with a monetary union. It is to be distinguished from a mere monetary union , which does not involve a common market. This is the fifth stage of economic integration...
with autarkic characteristics
Autarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
during its golden age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
and therefore achieved rapid growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, especially in the early 20th century when GNP
GNP
Gross National Product is the market value of all products and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the residents of a country...
grew by 1.76%. (That level of growth compared very favourably to that of other European nations such as Britain (1.00%), France (1.06%), and Germany (1.51%).) There was also a division of labour
Division of labour
Division of labour is the specialisation of cooperative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and likeroles. Historically an increasingly complex division of labour is closely associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and of the complexity of industrialisation...
present throughout the empire: that is, in the Austrian Empire manufacturing industries were highly advanced, while in the Kingdom of Hungary an agroindustrial economy had emerged. By the late 19th century economic growth of the eastern regions consistently surpassed that of western, thus discrepancies eventually began to diminish. The key success of fast development was specialisation
Division of labour
Division of labour is the specialisation of cooperative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and likeroles. Historically an increasingly complex division of labour is closely associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and of the complexity of industrialisation...
of each region in fields that they were best.
Hungary was the main supplier of wheat, rye, barley and other various goods in the empire and these comprised a large portion of the empire's exports. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic (Kingdom of Bohemia) owned 75% of the whole industrial capacity of formal Austria-Hungary. This clearly shows that the various parts of the formal monarchy were economically interdependent. To further illustrate this point, post-Trianon Hungary produced 500% more agricultural goods than it needed for itself and mills around Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
were one of the largest ones in Europe at the time; now forced to operate at 20% level. As a consequence of the treaty, all the competitive
Competitiveness
Competitiveness is a comparative concept of the ability and performance of a firm, sub-sector or country to sell and supply goods and/or services in a given market...
industries of the formal empire were compelled to close doors, as great capacity was met by negligible demand owing to economic barriers presented in the form of the new borders.
Furthermore, post-Trianon Hungary possessed 90% of the engineering and printing industry of the Kingdom, while only 11% of timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
and 16% iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
was retained. In addition, 61% of arable land
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
, 74% of public road, 65% of canals, 62% of railroads, 64% of hard surface roads, 83% of pig iron
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...
output, 55% of industrial plants, and most of all, 67% of credit and banking institutions of the former Kingdom of Hungary lay within the territory of Hungary's neighbours. New borders also bisected transport links - in the Kingdom of Hungary the road and railway network had a radial structure, with Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in the centre. Many roads and railways, running along the new borders and interlinking radial transport lines, ended up in different, highly introvert countries. Hence, much of the rail cargo traffic of the emergent states was virtually paralysed.
These factors all combined created staggering imbalances in the artificially separated, core economic regions of the formal Monarchy.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
levels in Austria, as well as in Hungary, were dangerously high, and industrial output dropped by 65%. What happened to Austria in industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
happened to Hungary in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
where production of grain declined by more than 70%. Austria, especially the imperial capital Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, was a leading investor
Investment
Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...
of development projects throughout the empire with more than 2.2 billion crown capital. This sum sunk to a mere 8.6 million crowns after the treaty took effect and resulted in a starving of capital in other regions of the former empire.
The disintegration of the multi-national state conversely impacted neighbouring countries, too: In Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria a fifth to a third of the rural population could find no work, and industry was in no position to absorb them.
In comparison, by 1921 the new Czechoslovak state reached 75% of its pre war production owing to their favourable position among the victors, thus greater access to international rehabilitation resources.
With the creation of customs barriers
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
and fragmented protective economies
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
, the economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
and outlook in the region sharply declined; which in the end culminated in a deep recession
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
. It proved to be immensely challenging for the successor states to successfully transform their economies to adapt to the new circumstances. All the formal districts of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
used to rely on each other's export
Export
The term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...
s for growth and welfare
Welfare
Welfare refers to a broad discourse which may hold certain implications regarding the provision of a minimal level of wellbeing and social support for all citizens without the stigma of charity. This is termed "social solidarity"...
; by contrast, 5 years after the treaty, traffic of goods between the countries dropped to less than 5% of its former value. This could be put down to the introduction of aggressive nationalistic policies by local political leaders.
The drastic shift in economic climate forced the countries to re-evaluate their situation and to promote industries where they had fallen short. Austria and Czechoslovakia subsidised the mill, sugar and brewing industries, Hungary attempted to increase the efficiency of iron, steel, glass and chemical industries
Chemical industry
The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Central to the modern world economy, it converts raw materials into more than 70,000 different products.-Products:...
. The stated objective was that all countries should become self sufficient. This tendency, however, lead to uniform economies and competitive economic advantage of long well-established industries and research fields
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
evaporated. The lack of specialisation adversely affected the whole Danube-Carpathian region caused a distinct setback of growth and development compared to the West as well as high financial
FINANCIAL
FINANCIAL is the weekly English-language newspaper with offices in Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine. Published by Intelligence Group LLC, FINANCIAL is focused on opinion leaders and top business decision-makers; It's about world’s largest companies, investing, careers, and small business. It is...
vulnerability and instability.
Miscellaneous consequences
Conditions were similar to those imposed on Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
by the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
. After the war, the Hungarian navy, air force and army was disbanded. The army was to be restricted to 35,000 men and there was to be no conscription. Heavy artillery, tanks and air force were prohibited to maintain. Further provisions stated that in Hungary, no railway would be built with more than one track (even going so far as to remove one of the two tracks on one of the lines), due to the fact that at that time railways held a substantial strategical importance economically as well as military.
Hungary also renounced all privileges in territories outside Europe that belonged to the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
Articles 54–60 of the Treaty required Hungary to recognise various rights of national minorities within its borders.
Articles 61-66 stated that all former citizens of the Kingdom of Hungary living outside the new frontiers of Hungary were to ipso facto
Ipso facto
Ipso facto is a Latin phrase, directly translated as "by the fact itself," which means that a certain phenomenon is a direct consequence, a resultant effect, of the action in question, instead of being brought about by a subsequent action such as the verdict of a tribunal. It is a term of art used...
lose their Hungarian nationality in one year.
See also
- Treaty of VersaillesTreaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
- Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
- Banat RepublicBanat RepublicThe Banat Republic was a short-lived state proclaimed in Timişoara on November 1, 1918, the day after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Recognized only by Hungary, the republic was invaded by the army of neighboring Serbia on November 15...
- Hungarian Soviet RepublicHungarian Soviet RepublicThe Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
- Republic of PrekmurjeRepublic of PrekmurjeThe Republic of Prekmurje or Mura Republica was an unrecognized state in Prekmurje, an area traditionally known in Hungarian as Vendvidék ...
- Serbian-Hungarian Baranya-Baja Republic
- Slovak Soviet RepublicSlovak Soviet RepublicThe Slovak Soviet Republic comprised a very short-lived communist state in south and eastern Slovakia from 16 June to 7 July 1919, with its capital in...
Further reading
- Dupcsik Csaba-Répárszky Ildikó (2006). Történelem IV középiskolások számára. Műszaki Kiadó (Wolters Kluwer csoport). ISBN 963 16 2945 7
Lingering effects of the Treaty on the geo-politics of Hungary and the successor states
- Ernest A. Rockwell: Trianon Politics, 1994–1995, thesis, Central Missouri State University, 1995.
Minorities in post-Trianon Hungary literature
- József Kovacsics: Magyarország történeti demográfiája : Magyarország népessége a honfoglalástól 1949-ig, Budapest : Közgazd. és Jogi Kiadó ; 1963 Budapest Kossuth Ny.
- Lajos Thirring: Az 1869-1980. évi népszámlálások története és jellemzői [kész. a Központi Statisztikai Hivatal Népesedésstatisztikai Főosztályán], Bp. : SKV, 1983
Events preceding the Treaty and for minorities in the post-Trianon successor states
- Ernő Raffay: Magyar tragédia: Trianon 75 éve. Püski kiadó (1996)
- Vitéz Károly Kollányi: Kárpáti trilógia. Kráter Műhely Egyesület (2002)
- Macartney, Carlile Aylmer October Fifteenth - A History of Modern Hungary 1929-1945. Edinburgh University Press (1956)
- Juhász Gyula: Magyarország Külpolitikája 1919-1945. Kossuth Könyvkiado, Budapest (1969).
- General H.H. Bandholtz: "An Undiplomatic Diary". Columbia University (1933)
