- Treaty of Trianon
Infobox Treaty
name = Treaty of Trianon
long_name = Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Hungary
image_width = 300px
caption = Signing the Treaty onJune 4 ,1920 .
type =
date_drafted =
date_signed = June 4, 1920
location_signed =Versailles , France
date_sealed =
date_effective = July 16, 1920
condition_effective =
date_expiration =
signatories = flagicon|France France
flagicon|Italy|1861 Italy
flagicon|Japan|alt Japan
flagicon|United Kingdom United Kingdom
flagicon|United States|1912United States
Collapsible list | title = Other Allied Powers
flagicon|BelgiumBelgium
flagicon|Republic of China|1912Republic of China
flagicon|CubaCuba
flagicon|Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia
flagicon|Greece|old Greece
flagicon|NicaraguaNicaragua
flagicon|PanamaPanama
flagicon|Poland Poland
flagicon|PortugalPortugal
flagicon|Romania Romania
flagicon|Thailand Siam
flagicon|Yugoslavia|kingdom Yugoslaviaflagicon|Hungary|civil Hungary
parties =
depositor = French Government
languages = French, English, Italian
website =
wikisource = Treaty of TrianonThe Treaty of Trianon is the peace treaty concluded at the end of
World War I by theAllies of World War I , on one side, andHungary , seen as a successor ofAustria-Hungary , on the other.cite book| last=Craig| first =G.A.| authorlink=| coauthors=| title=Europe since 1914| publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York| year=1966] cite book| last=Grenville| first =J.A.S.| authorlink=| coauthors=| title=The Major International Treaties 1914-1973. A history and guides with texts| publisher=Methnen London| year=1974] cite book| last=Lichtheim| first =G.|authorlink=|coauthors=| title=Europe in the Twentieth Century| publisher=Praeger, New York| year=1974] [http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Treaty_of_Trianon Text of the Treaty] ] It established the borders of Hungary and regulated its international situation. Hungary lost over two-thirds of its territory, about two-thirds of its inhabitants under the treaty and 3.3 million ethnic Hungarians.cite book| last=Macartney| first =C.A.|authorlink=|coauthors=| title=Hungary and her successors - The Treaty of Trianon and Its Consequences 1919-1937| publisher=Oxford University Press| year=1937] [cite web|title= East on the Danube: Hungary's Tragic Century|publisher="The New York Times"| url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E3D91531F93AA3575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|date=2003-08-09|accessdate=2008-03-15] The principal beneficiaries of territorial adjustment were Romania, Czechoslovakia, and theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . The treaty was signed on4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace inVersailles ,France .Borders of Hungary
The Hungarian government terminated the personal 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:
* Part ofTransylvania south of the Mureş river and east of the Someş river, which came under the control ofRomania (Ceasefire agreement ofBelgrade signed on13 November 1918 ). OnDecember 1 ,1918 , the National Assembly of Romanians in Transylvania declared the union with theKingdom of Romania .
* TheKingdom of Croatia-Slavonia crownland, which formed first aState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs with other South Slavic ex-Austro-Hungarian territories on1 October 1918 , then theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by joining also with the Kingdom of Serbia on1 December 1918 .
* Most of the Baranya,Bács-Bodrog ,Torontál ,Temes andKrassó-Szörény counties according to the ceasefire agreement ofBelgrade signed on13 November 1918 . TheGreat People's Assembly of Serbs, Croats, Bunyevs, Slovaks, Rusyns and other peoples from Banat, Bačka and Baranja declared union with theKingdom of Serbia on25 November 1918 . The ceasefire line had a character of temporary international border until the treaty. OnDecember 1 ,1918 , the National Assembly of Romanians in Banat voted union with theKingdom of Romania
*Slovakia , which became part ofCzechoslovakia (status quo set by theCzechoslovak legions and accepted by the Entente on25 November 1918 ). AfterwardsMilan Hodža Slovak politician discussed with Hungarian Minister of Defence,Albert Bartha about a temporary demarcation line which followed to the Slovak-Hungarian linguistic border much or little . That was signed on 6th December, in 1918.
* The city of Fiume (Rijeka), which joined theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs , but was subsequently occupied by the Italian Army and became a matter of international dispute between theKingdom of Italy and theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .After the
Romanian Army advanced beyond this ceasefire line, theEntente powers asked Hungary (Vix note) to acknowledge the new Romanian territory gains by a new line set along theTisza river. Unable to reject these terms and unwilling to accept them, the leaders of theHungarian Democratic Republic resigned and the communists seized power. TheHungarian Soviet Republic was formed and a newHungarian Red Army was rapidly set up. This army was initially successful against theCzechoslovak Legions (seeSlovak 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 onJuly 1 1919 , the Hungarian Red Army left Slovakia byJuly 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 on20 July 1919 and the Hungarian Red Army rapidly collapsed. The Royal Romanian Army marched intoBudapest on4 August 1919 .The Hungarian state was restored by the
Entente powers , helping Admiral Horthy into power in November 1919. On1 December 1919 the Hungarian delegation was officially invited to theVersailles 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 ofTransylvania together with former Eastern Hungary, which became part ofRomania ;
*Carpathian Ruthenia , which became part ofCzechoslovakia , pursuant to theTreaty of Saint-Germain in 1919;
* most ofBurgenland , which became part ofAustria , also pursuant to the Treaty of Saint-Germain; the district ofSopron opted to remain with Hungary after aplebiscite held in December 1921 (it was the only place where aplebiscite was permitted in the decision);
*Međimurje andPrekmurje , which became part of theKingdom 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 andSzepes counties of the Kingdom of Hungary with Polish majority population toPoland .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 theRijeka coastline and indirectly through theKingdom 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 theMunich Agreement (1938), the twoVienna 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 , andČunovo – transferred to Czechoslovakia).Consequences of the treaty
Demographic consequences
According to the census of 1910, the largest ethnic group in the Kingdom of Hungary were the Hungarians, 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 anation-state as were many Western European nations.Some demographers believe that the 1910 census overstated 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 in the kingdom in the late 19th century. cite journal|title=The Problem of Treaty Revision and the Hungarian Frontiers|journal=International Affairs|year=1933|first=Robert William|last=Seton-Watson|coauthors=|volume=12|issue=4|pages=481–503|id= |url=|format=|accessdate=2008-01-24 ] They also argue 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.Fact|date=February 2008
Although the territories of the former Kingdom of Hungary that were assigned by the treaty to neighbouring states had a majority of non-Hungarian population, they also included significant Hungarian minorities, numbering 3,318,000 in total, distributed as follows:
The number of Hungarians in the different areas based on census data of 1910.
* InSlovakia : 885,000 - 30%
* InTransylvania (Romania ): 1,662,000 - 32%
* InVojvodina (Serbia ): 420,000 - 28%
* In Transcarpathia (Ukraine ): 183,000 - 30%
* InCroatia : 121,000 - 3.5%
* InSlovenia : 20,800 - 1.6%
* InBurgenland (Austria ): 26,200 - 9%Population of mentioned territories based on census data of 1910:
* InSlovakia (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]
* InCarpathian Ruthenia (Czechoslovakia ): 330,010 Ruthenians and 275,932 others (mostly Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, and Slovaks)
* InTransylvania (Romania ): 2,829,454 Romanians and 2,428,013 others (mostly Hungarians and Germans)
* InVojvodina andCroatia-Slavonia (Yugoslavia ): 2,756,000 Serbo-Croatians and 1,366,000 others (mostly Hungarians and Germans)
* InBurgenland (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 7,000Slovenes 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%). Hungarian was spoken by 96% of the total population and was the mother language of 89%.
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 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 ofRoma people in the second half of the 20th century.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 ofnation-state s replacing old multinational empires.From the point of view of most non-Hungarians that lived in the former Kingdom of HungaryFact|date=May 2007, 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 (except, the Hungarians themselves). 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 ofGermany and they therefore decided that her allies in the region,Austria andHungary , should be "contained" by a ring of states friendly to the Allies, each of which would be bigger than either Austria or Hungary. [cite book
last =Macmillan
first =Margaret
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World
publisher =Random House
year =2003 ] 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 Fact|date=February 2007 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, and there have periodically been concerns about the treatment of these ethnic Hungarian communities in the neighboring states. [cite web|title=Assaults on Minorities in Vojvodina|publisher="Human Rights Watch"|url=http://hrw.org/reports/2005/serbia1005/7.htm|accessdate=2008-04-15] [cite web|title=Official Letter from Tom Lantos to Robert Fico|publisher="Congress of the United States, Committee on Foreign affairs"|url=http://www.hacusa.org/press/lantos_letter.pdf|date=2007-10-17|accessdate=2008-04-15|format=PDF] [cite web|title= U.S. lawmaker blames Slovak government for ethnically motivated attacks on Hungarians|publisher="International Herald Tribune"|url=http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/05/europe/EU_GEN_Hungary_US_Slovakia.php|date=2006-09-05|accessdate=2008-04-15 ] . Areas with significant Hungarian populations include the
Székely Land cite web|title=Kosovo’s Actions Hearten a Hungarian Enclave|publisher="The New York Times"|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/world/europe/07hungarians.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Szekler&st=nyt&oref=slogin|date=2008-04-07|accessdate=2008-04-08] in Eastern Transylvania and some areas along the new Romanian-Hungarian border, southern parts of Slovakia (see:Komárno , and mostly the south of Slovakia, like Csallóköz), 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 that those ethnic Hungarians who were unhappy would gradually sell up and go to live in Hungary, which did not turn out to be the case. 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 I. C. Brătianu 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 ofSopron , 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)Fact|date=June 2007 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 Serbia in the late nineteenth century and Hungarians giving up Transylvania or Ruthenia.Gelardi, Julia. "Born to Rule: Granddaughters of Victoria, Queens of Europe". ISBN 0755313925] For President Wilson (and for most non-Hungarians from the Carpathian BasinFact|date=May 2007) it was a process of decolonisation rather than a punitive dismemberment (as Hungarians saw it). The Hungarians saw it so, because, the borders where not ethnically correct, and territories with Hungarian majority were put outside the "mock borders". The 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.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. Hungarians also considered the accusations as hypocrite, which also contributed to a sense of injustice. Incredulity was followed by a lingering bitterness and, in Hungary, the loss is to this day known as the Trianon trauma. 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.Fact|date=September 2007Other consequences
Economically, 61% of
arable land , 88% oftimber , 62% ofrailroad s, 64% of hard surface roads, 83% ofpig 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 Fact|date=February 2007, 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 theTreaty 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 (even going so far as to remove one of the two tracks on one of the linesFact|date=October 2008).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.
ee also
*
Treaty of Versailles
*History of Hungary
*History of Romania
*History of Slovakia
*History of Transylvania
*History of Vojvodina
*History of Croatia
*History of Slovenia 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).
External links
* [http://www.hhrf.org/htmh/en/ Hungarian Government Office for Hungarians Abroad]
* [http://terkepek.adatbank.transindex.ro/kepek/netre/167.gifMap of Hungarian borders in November-December 1918]
* [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch42.html Murray N. Rothbard: But what about the Hungarians?]First World War treaties
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