TODAY – 95th anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement on June 4th 1920 which formally ended World War I. between most of the Allies and the Kingdom of Hungary. As a result, Hungary lost the 2/3 of its territories and people.
The treaty was actually a dictation, because Hungary was only invited for the signature of the document. It was signed at the Grand Trianon Palace in Version, France. All of the neighboring countries received territories from Hungary, even Austria, which was also a loser of the war.
Count Albert Apponyi arrived to the negotiations with later Prime Ministers István Bethlen and Pál Teleki. The latter presented his famous “Red map”, which marked the territories of Hungarian majority with red. However, the delegation was placed under house arrest, and they couldn’t participate in the conference. Apponyi could tell his famous plea after the closing of the negotiations. Finally, he signed the treaty on June 4 1920.
Romania received the biggest area from Hungary, 102.803 km2. It includes Transylvania, Partium and Bánát.
Czechoslovakia got the second largest territory, Upper Hungary, Transcarpathia (now it is owned by Ukraine) and Csallóküöz. The total area is more than 61 thousand km2.
The newly-formed (and short-lived) State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs obtained Srem, Drávaköz, Backa, Bánát and Muraköz, a total of 20.829 km2. Croatia (more than 42 thousand km2) was also the part of the Kingdom of Hungary until that.
It is interesting that even Austria received territory: Burgenland (4020 km2). Moreover, Poland also got a few settlements from Hungary.
This treaty result a quite homogenous state in the rest of Hungary, but 10% of the people still had another mother tongue than Hungarian (most of them spoke German).
Unfortunately, Trianon created several problems, and most of them afflicted the Hungarians remained across the borders.
Approximately 3.3 million Hungarians left outside Hungary.
Nowadays, 95 years after the treaty, there are several initiatives in connection with this tragedy. For example, on March 11, Szekely Freedom Day was held, which peacefully protested for the autonomy of Hungarian-speaking Székelys in Transylvania, Romania.
Photo: http://www.americanhungarianfederation.org
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Source: written by BA