Treaty of Trianon
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The Treaty of Trianon was a peace treaty between the Allied and Associated Powers and Hungary signed on June 4, 1920, at the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles, France. The Treaty regulated the situation of the states that replaced the former Kingdom of Hungary, part of pre-war Austria-Hungary, after World War I. The winning parties of the Treaty included the "Allied Powers" (United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan) and the smaller "Associated Powers" (such as the main beneficiaries of the post-war territorial changes: Romania, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and Czechoslovakia). The losing party was Hungary alone, since Austria-Hungary had by this time disintegrated.
Contents |
[edit] Frontiers of Hungary
| History of Hungary |
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| Ancient Hungary |
| Pannonia |
| Hungary before the Magyars |
| The Middle Ages |
| Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages |
| Modern Hungary |
| Ottoman Hungary |
| Principality of Transylvania |
| Royal Hungary |
| 1700 to 1919 |
| Revolutions of 1848 in Hungary |
| Austria-Hungary |
| Hungarian Soviet Republic |
| Between the Two World Wars |
| Second World War |
| Communist Hungary |
| People's Republic of Hungary |
| Hungarian Revolution of 1956 |
| Modern Hungary |
| Republic of Hungary |
| Other Topics |
| Military history of Hungary |
| History of the Jews in Hungary |
| Music history of Hungary |
| History of Transylvania |
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 Maros river and east of the Szamos 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.
- Croatia-Slavonia, Vojvodina, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which joined the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, along with the cities of Pécs, Mohács, Baja and Szigetvár (Ceasefire agreement of Belgrade signed on 13 November 1918). Since the official international recognition of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1919, the ceasefire line had a character of temporary international border until the signing of the Treaty.
- 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 became a subject of dispute between 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 comitee 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 the former Kingdom had had through the Croatian coast and the port of Fiume for over 800 years.
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 with those of 1920 (with a minor loss of three villages ceded to Czechoslovakia).
[edit] Consequences of the treaty
[edit] Demographic consequences
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[citation needed] 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 the "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)
[edit] 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.
[edit] Political consequences
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 one point of view, after centuries of foreign rule, most of the peoples of former Austria-Hungary would finally achieve a right for self-determination and independence, and be united with other members of their nation. On the other hand, some claim that the real motive of the treaty was simply an attempt to dismantle a major power in Central Europe.[1] (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[citation needed] 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 independent Hungary 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, and there have periodically been concerns about the treatment 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. No plebiscites were held in any of these areas with the exception of the city of Sopron, which voted to remain in Hungary.
[edit] 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 borders of other countries. 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[citation needed], 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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).
[edit] 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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