Treaty of Trianon

Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Hungary
Arrival of the two Hungarian signatories, Ágost Benárd and Alfréd Drasche-Lázár, on 4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon in Versailles
Signed4 June 1920
LocationGrand Trianon, Versailles, France
Effective26 July 1921
Parties
Principal Allied and Associated Powers
Allied and Associated Powers
DepositaryFrench Government
LanguagesFrench, English, Italian
Full text
Treaty of Trianon at Wikisource
Paris Peace Conference
League of Nations
Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine
Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Sèvres
Others
Events leading to World War II
 1910s
 1920s
 1930s
President Mihály Károlyi's speech after the proclamation of the First Hungarian Republic on 16 November, 1918
film: Béla Linder's pacifist speech for military officers, and declaration of Hungarian self-disarmament on 2 November 1918.
Protest of the Transylvanian National Council against the occupation of Transylvania by Romania on 22 December 1918
Newsreel about Treaty of Trianon, 1920
Demographics of pre-WW1 Austrian Empire (red) and Kingdom of Hungary (green) in Europe

The Treaty of Trianon (French: Traité de Trianon; Hungarian: Trianoni békeszerződés; Italian: Trattato del Trianon; Romanian: Tratatul de la Trianon) often referred to as the Peace Dictate of Trianon[1][2][3][4][5] or Dictate of Trianon[6][7] in Hungary, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed on the one side by Hungary and, on the other, by the Allied and Associated Powers, in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It formally terminated the state of war issued from World War I between most of the Allies of World War I[a] and the Kingdom of Hungary.[8][9][10][11] The treaty is mostly famous due to the territorial changes induced on Hungary and recognizing its new international borders after the First World War.

Hungary, as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had been involved in the First World War since August 1914. After its allies – Bulgaria and later Turkey – signed armistices with the Entente, the political elite in Budapest opted to end the war as well. On 31 October 1918, the Budapest government declared independence of Hungary from Austria and immediately began peace talks with the Allies. Despite the end of hostilities, the Entente Allies – Hungary's neighbours – Czechoslovakia (which just declared its independence on 28 October 1918), Romania, and Yugoslavia put Hungary under an economic blockade. They deprived Hungary of importing food, fuel (coal and petrol) and other important goods. In an attempt to alleviate the economic crisis, succeeding Hungarian governments pleaded with the Entente to lift the blockade and restore regional trade.[12] First peace talks led to an armistice in Belgrade on 13 November 1918: Hungary undertook to demobilise its army and granted the Allies the right to occupy the south (Vojvodina and Croatia) and east of Hungary (south Transylvania) until a peace treaty was signed. In December 1918, Budapest allowed the Czechoslovak troops to occupy northern Hungary (Slovakia) as well. In exchange, Budapest hoped to reopen foreign trade and supply coal.[13]

In order to extend their zones of occupation in Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia moved their armies further into Hungary in April 1919, provoking a renewal of hostilities between these three countries. In June 1919, the Entente powers ordered Budapest, Prague, and Bucharest to cease fighting and accept new demarcation lines that would be guaranteed as the future borders of Hungary. Despite temporary military successes against the Czechs, Budapest accepted the offer and withdrew its army behind the demarcation line. Bucharest, however, ignored the Entente order and continued its offensive.  In early August 1919, the Romanian army entered Budapest and a new pro-Romanian government was installed in Hungary. This marked the end of hostilities between the Hungarians and the Romanians.

However, the Entente pressed the Romanians to leave Budapest in November 1919 and orchestrated formation of a new Hungarian coalition government. The new cabinet was invited to attend the Paris Peace Conference. In January 1920, it received the Allied proposal for a peace treaty. The treaty stipulated the legalization of the demarcation lines of 13 June 1919 as the new borders and guaranteed the end of the blockade and the restoration of free trade between the former Habsburg lands and the import of coal into Hungary. The government in Budapest and the Hungarian Parliament (opened in February 1920) accepted the peace terms. While it welcomed the restoration of peace and trade, it still formally protested against the cession of their former territories without plebiscites. The Peace Treaty was signed on 4 June 1920, ratified by Hungary on 16 November 1920 and came into force on 26 July 1921.

The post-1920 Hungary became a landlocked state that included 93,073 square kilometres (35,936 sq mi), 28% of the 325,411 square kilometres (125,642 sq mi) that had constituted the pre-war Kingdom of Hungary (the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy). The kingdom had a population of 7.6 million, 36% compared to the pre-war kingdom's population of 20.9 million.[citation needed] Though the areas that were allocated to neighbouring countries had a majority of non-Hungarians, in them lived 3.3 million Hungarians – 31% of the Hungarians – who then became minorities.[14][15][16][17] The treaty limited Hungary's army to 35,000 officers and men, and the Austro-Hungarian Navy ceased to exist. These decisions and their consequences have been the cause of deep resentment in Hungary ever since.[18]

The principal beneficiaries were the Kingdom of Romania, the Czechoslovak Republic, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and the First Austrian Republic. But it also led to international recognition of Hungary and of its sovereignty. The treaty canceled the Belgrade armistice, which gave right to the Allied powers to occupy Hungary. The treaty also granted Hungarian citizens abroad right of protection of their property from nationalization. Most importantly, it guaranteed the free trade between Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia (for 5 years), and obliged Czechoslovakia and Poland to supply coal to Hungary in "reasonable quantity". One of the main elements of the treaty was the doctrine of "self-determination of peoples", and it was an attempt to give the non-Hungarians their own national states.[19] In addition, Hungary had to pay war reparations to its neighbours.

The treaty was dictated by the Allies rather than negotiated, and the Hungarians faced an option to accept or reject its terms in full. The Hungarian delegation signed the treaty under protest, and agitation for its revision began immediately.[15][20]

The current boundaries of Hungary are for the most part the same as those defined by the Treaty of Trianon. Minor modifications occurred in 1921-1924 on the Hungarian-Austrian border and the transfer of three villages to Czechoslovakia in 1947.[21][22] However, the actual borders of Hungary stem out from the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, which cancelled the territorial aggrandizement of Hungary in 1938–1941. The Paris treaty of 1947 de-facto restored the Trianon borders of Hungary.

After World War I, despite the "self-determination of peoples" idea of the US President Wilson, the Allies refused to organise plebiscites in Hungary to draw its new borders. The Allies explained this decision in a cover letter, which accompanied the text of the Peace Treaty with Hungary. The letter, signed by the President of the Paris Peace Conference, Alexander Millerand, dated 6 May 1920, stated that the Entente Powers and their allies determined new borders of Hungary without plebiscites due to their belief that "a popular consultation ... would not produce significantly different results". At the same time, the letter suggested that the Council of the League of Nations might offer its mediation to rectify the new borders amicably if suggested by the delimitation commission.[23] The Hungarian diplomacy later appealed to the Millerand letter as a Great Powers promise of future territorial revisions in favour of Hungary.

Only one plebiscite was permitted (later known as the Sopron plebiscite) to settle disputed borders on the former territory of the Kingdom of Hungary,[24] settling a smaller territorial dispute between the First Austrian Republic and the Kingdom of Hungary, because some months earlier, the Rongyos Gárda launched a series of attacks to oust the Austrian forces that entered the area. During the Sopron plebiscite in late 1921, the polling stations were supervised by British, French, and Italian army officers of the Allied Powers.[25]


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