The 'Treaty of Trianon' is the peace treaty concluded at the end of
World War I by the
Allies of World War I, on one side, and
Hungary, seen as a successor of
Austria-Hungary, on the other. It established the borders of Hungary and regulated its international situation. Hungary lost over two-thirds of its territory and about two-thirds of its inhabitants under the treaty.
[1] The principal beneficiaries of territorial adjustment were
Romania,
Czechoslovakia, and the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The treaty was signed on
June 4,
1920, at the
Grand Trianon Palace in
Versailles,
France.
Frontiers of Hungary
Hungary proclaimed its independence from
Austria on
November 16,
1918. 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:
★ Part of
Transylvania south of the
Mureş river and east of the
Someş river, which came under the control of
Romania (Ceasefire agreement of
Belgrade signed on
13 November 1918). On
December 1,
1918, the National Assembly of Romanians in Transylvania declared the union with the
Kingdom of Romania.
★ The
Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia crownland, which formed the
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs together with other South Slavic ex-Austro-Hungarian territories on
1 October 1918. Together with them all joined the Kingdom of Serbia to form the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on
1 December 1918.
★ Most of the
Baranya,
Bács-Bodrog,
Torontál,
Temes and
Krassó-Szörény counties according to the ceasefire agreement of
Belgrade 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 Serbia on
25 November 1918. The ceasefire had a character of temporary international border until the treaty. On
December 1,
1919, the National Assembly of Romanians in Banat voted union with the
Kingdom of Romania
★
Slovakia, which became part of
Czechoslovakia (status quo set by the
Czechoslovak legions and accepted by the Entente on
25 November 1918).
★ The city of
Fiume (Rijeka), which joined the
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, but was subsequently occupied by the Italian Army and became a matter of international dispute between the
Kingdom of Italy and the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
After the
Romanian Army advanced beyond this ceasefire 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
First Hungarian Republic resigned and the communists seized power. The
Hungarian Soviet Republic was formed and a new
Hungarian Red Army was rapidly set up. This army was initially successful against the
Czechoslovak Legions (see
Slovak Soviet Republic) and 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 ceasefire signed on
July 1 1919, the Hungarian Red Army left Slovakia by
July 4, as the Entente powers promised Hungary to invite a Hungarian delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference. However, instead of an invitation to the peace talks, the Romanian army attacked at the Tisza river on
20 July 1919 and the Hungarian Red Army rapidly 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 finalized without the presence of the Hungarians.
The final borders of Hungary were defined by the Treaty of Trianon signed on
4 June 1920. Beside the previously mentioned territories, they did not include:
★ the rest of
Transylvania together with former Eastern Hungary, which became part of
Romania;
★
Carpathian Ruthenia, which became part of
Czechoslovakia, pursuant to the
Treaty of Saint-Germain in
1919;
★ most of
Burgenland, which became part of
Austria, also pursuant to the Treaty of Saint-Germain; the district of
Sopron opted to remain with Hungary after a
plebiscite held in December
1921 (it was the only place where a
plebiscite was permitted in the decision);
★
Međimurje and
Prekmurje, 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 and
Szepes counties of the Kingdom of Hungary with
Polish majority population to
Poland.
Compared with the former Kingdom of Hungary, the population of post-Trianon Hungary was reduced from 20.8 million to 7 million and its land area decreased by 72%.
After 1918, Hungary did not have access to the
sea, which it had had directly through the
Rijeka coastline and indirectly through the
Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
With the help of Nazi Germany and Italy, Hungary
expanded its borders towards neighbouring countries at the outset of
World War II, under the
Munich Agreement (
1938), the two
Vienna Awards (
1938 and
1940), following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia (occupation of northern Carpathian Ruthenia and eastern Slovakia) and following German aggression against Yugoslavia. This territorial expansion was short-lived, since the post-war 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).
Consequences of the treaty
Demographic consequences
Distribution of nationalities within
Austria-Hungary, according to the 1910 census
According to the census of 1910, the largest ethnic group in the Kingdom of Hungary were the
Magyars (usually called "Hungarians" in English), who were approximately 48% of the entire population (or 54% of the population of the territory referred to as "Hungary proper", i.e., excluding
Croatia-Slavonia). The Kingdom of Hungary was not a
nation-state as were many Western European nations.
Some demographers believe that the 1910 census overstated the percentage of the Magyar population, arguing that there were different results in previous censuses of the Kingdom and subsequent censuses in the new states. Another problem with interpreting the census results is that the 1910 census did not record the respondents' ethnicity, but only
language (whether it was "native language" or "most frequently spoken language") and the religion, thus the presented census numbers of ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Hungary are actually the numbers of speakers of various languages, which may not correspond exactly to the ethnic composition.
Although the territories of the former Kingdom of Hungary that were assigned by the treaty to neighbouring states had a majority of non-Magyar population, they also included significant Magyar minorities, numbering 3,318,000 in total, distributed as follows:
The number of Hungarians in the different areas based on census data of
1910.
★ In
Slovakia: 885,000 - 30%
★ In
Transylvania (
Romania): 1,662,000 - 32%
★ In
Vojvodina (
Serbia): 420,000 - 28%
★ In
Transcarpathia (
Ukraine): 183,000 - 30%
★ In
Croatia: 121,000 - 3.5%
★ In
Slovenia: 20,800 - 1.6%
★ In
Burgenland (
Austria): 26,200 - 9%
Population of mentioned territories based on census data of
1910:
★ In
Slovakia (
Czechoslovakia): 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 Ruthenia (
Czechoslovakia): 330,010 Ruthenians and 275,932 others (mostly Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, and Slovaks)
★ In
Transylvania (
Romania): 2,829,454 Romanians and 2,428,013 others (mostly Hungarians and Germans)
★ In
Vojvodina and
Croatia-Slavonia (
Yugoslavia): 2,756,000 Serbo-Croatians and 1,366,000 others (mostly Hungarians and Germans)
★ In
Burgenland (
Austria): 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:
★ 551,211 German (6.9%)
★ 141,882 Slovak (1.8%)
★ 23,760 Romanian (0.3%)
★ 36,858 Croatian (0.5%)
★ 17,131 Serb (0.2%)
★ 23,228 other Southern Slavic dialects, mainly Bunjevac and Šokac (0.3%) and some 7,000
Slovenes
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 Serbo-Croatian (2,2%) and 88,828 people spoke Romanian (1,1%). Magyar was spoken by 96% of the total population and was the mother language of 89%.
The percentage and the absolute number of all non-Magyar 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 spontaneous assimilation and the 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 WWII about 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. After these population movements Hungary became an ethnically almost homogeneous country except the rapidly growing number of
Roma people in the second half of the 20th century.
Political consequences
Bordermark on the Hungarian-Romanian border near
Csenger
Officially, the treaty was intended to be a confirmation of the concept of the right for
self-determination of nations and of the concept of
nation-states replacing old multinational empires.
From the point of view of most non-Hungarians that lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary, after centuries of foreign rule, most of the peoples of former Austria-Hungary (often called a 'dungeon of nations' by them) would finally achieve a right for self-determination and independence, and be united with other members of their nation. Over the previous fifty years, the Balkan nations had won their independence from the declining Ottoman Empire; now the victorious Allies saw their task as completing that same process further north following the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire.
On the other hand, Hungarians (and some non-Hungarian historians as well) claim that the real motive of the treaty was simply an attempt to dismantle a major power in
Central Europe. The Western powers' main priority was to prevent a resurgence of
Germany 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.
[2] Compared with the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, post-Trianon Hungary had 60% less population and its role in the region significantly weakened.
Many cities and regions that were ethnically diverse in the 19th century became for the most part monoglot (unilingual), or dominated by a single language and culture.
The Treaty and its consequences are debated in Central European politics to this day. The main controversy about the Treaty of Trianon concerns the borders of Hungary. While the majority of the areas that had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary but were not part of the independent country after the Treaty were inhabited by non-Hungarian nationalities, there were also many areas inhabited mainly by Hungarians which were not located within the borders of Hungary after the Treaty. Among Hungarians there has been clear doubt about the treatment
[3] [4] [5] [6] of these ethnic Hungarian communities in the neighboring states. Areas with significant Hungarian populations include the
Székelyföld in north-eastern Transylvania and some areas along the new Romanian-Hungarian border, southern parts of Slovakia (see:
Komárno), southern parts of Carpatho-Ukraine, northern parts of Vojvodina (see:
Ethnic groups of Vojvodina), etc.
The Western powers were aware of the problem posed by the presence of so many Hungarians (and Germans) living outside the core areas of the "new" nation-states of Hungary and Austria, although they assumed that the problem would solve itself over time as they expected (wrongly) that those ethnic Hungarians who were unhappy would gradually sell up and go to live in Hungary. The Romanian delegation to Versailles feared in 1919 that the Allies were beginning to favour the partition of Transylvania along ethnic lines in order to reduce the potential exodus and Prime Minister
Ion Bratianu even summoned British-born
Queen Marie to France to strengthen their case. The Romanians argued that they had suffered a higher casualty rate in the war than either Britain or France and that the Western powers had a moral debt to repay. Ethnically diverse Transylvania should therefore be assigned to Romania. In the end the Romanian view prevailed and the option of partition was rejected. Transylvania was treated as a single entity which, because it had a Romanian majority overall, was assigned in entirety to Romania. Furthermore the Allies rejected the idea of plebiscites in any of 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).
The victorious Allies arrived in France with a black-and-white view of the situation in central Europe which made the outcome inevitable. At the heart of the dispute lay fundamentally different views of the nature of the Hungarian presence in the disputed territories. For the Hungarians the whole of the Carpathian Basin was seen as "home" (including its parts mainly inhabited by non-Hungarians who saw this area as their own "home" as well). The western powers and the American press in particular (as well as most non-Hungarians that lived in the Carpathian Basin) saw the Hungarians as colonial-style rulers who had oppressed the Slavs and Romanians since 1867. There was therefore no difference between the Turks giving up Wallachia or Serbia in the late nineteenth century and Hungarians giving up Transylvania or Ruthenia.
[7] For
President Wilson (and for most non-Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin) it was a process of decolonisation rather than a punitive dismemberment (as Hungarians saw it).
7 British Prime Minister
David Lloyd-George was in favour of Irish independence from Britain and saw the claims of the "subject peoples" of the former Habsburg Empire in the same light. The French naturally sided with their "Latin brothers", the Romanians, although Clemenceau personally detested Bratianu.
7
It is important to note, that the
colonisation argument is of limited applicability in this case. First, colonised areas are economically underdeveloped compared to the colonizers. Within the areas corresponding to the Hungarian Kingdom there were not orders of magnitude of economic disparity that existed between the subjects of the
British Empire and
Great Britain, or between
France and
Algeria. Overall the disparity between Hungary as a whole, and Austria was greater.
Opposite to the opinion of most non-Hungarians from the Carpathian Basin, the Hungarians did not regard the outer parts of the former Kingdom of Hungary as colonial territories. For Hungarian public opinion the realisation that the Americans, British and French were all convinced that at least half of the Carpathian Basin rightfully belonged to the Slavs and Romanians was profoundly shocking. The hypocrisy of the accusation of colonisation by the world's greatest (and often cruelest) colonisers also contributed to a sense of injustice. Incredulity was followed by a lingering bitterness. 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. All official flags in Hungary were lowered until 1938 when they were raised by one third after southern Slovakia was "recovered" following the
Munich Conference. For Hungarian pupils in the 1930s each school-day began with a prayer calling for the reversal of the treaty.
Other consequences
Economically, 61% of
arable land, 88% of
timber, 62% of
railroads, 64% of hard surface roads, 83% of
pig iron output, 55% of industrial plants and 67% of credit and banking institutions of the former Kingdom of Hungary lay within the territory of Hungary's neighbours. 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.
Military considerations diverted the Treaty from the Wilson principles , making economic cooperation within the
Carpathian Basin more difficult. The borders 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 lay within the territory of Hungary's neighbours.
The military conditions were similar to those imposed on
Germany by the
Treaty of Versailles; the Hungarian army was to be restricted to 35,000 men and there was to be no conscription. Further provisions stated that in Hungary, no railway would be built with more than one track.
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 recognize various rights of national minorities within its borders.
See also
★
Treaty of Versailles
★
History of Hungary
★
History of Romania
★
History of Slovakia
★
History of Transylvania
References
1. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9073332/Treaty-of-Trianon
2. Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World, , Margaret, Macmillan, Random House, ,
3. http://hrw.org/reports/2005/serbia1005/7.htm
4. http://www.hhrf.org/egyutt/A-MERANO.HTM
5. http://www.fn.hu/cikk/00140000/141484/magyarveres_szlovakiaban.php
6. http://index.hu/politika/kulfold/vajda041218/
7. Gelardi, Julia. ''Born to Rule: Granddaughters of Victoria, Queens of Europe''. ISBN 0755313925
For 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.
For minorities in post-Trianon Hungary:
★ 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
For 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).
External links
★
Text of the Treaty
★
Hungarian Government Office for Hungarians Abroad
★
Map of Hungarian borders in November-December 1918
★
Links related to Treaty of Trianon (in Hungarian)
★
Oskar Krejčí:
''Geopolitics of the Central European Region. The view from Prague and Bratislava'' Bratislava: Veda, 2005. 494 pp. (Free download, in English)
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