Treaty of Trianon (1920): The Peace That Divided Hungary

The Treaty of Trianon was the peace settlement imposed on Hungary by the victorious Allies after the First World War. Signed on 4 June 1920 in the Grand Trianon palace at Versailles, it stripped the historic Kingdom of Hungary of about two-thirds of its territory and left roughly 3 million ethnic Hungarians inside neighbouring states. No other peace treaty of 1919–1920 remains so central to a nation’s memory.

Background

Before 1914 the Kingdom of Hungary was one half of Austria-Hungary. It was a multi-ethnic state: in the 1910 census Hungarians made up only about half the population, alongside Romanians, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Germans, Ruthenians and others. As the Habsburg monarchy collapsed in late 1918, national councils of these peoples declared their wish to join Romania, the new Czechoslovakia and the new South Slav state.

Hungary itself went through a series of upheavals. The democratic government of Mihály Károlyi was replaced in March 1919 by the Hungarian Soviet Republic of Béla Kun, which fought the Czechoslovak and Romanian armies and collapsed in August 1919, when Romanian troops occupied Budapest. By the time a conservative government under Admiral Miklós Horthy, elected regent in March 1920, could negotiate, Hungary’s neighbours already controlled most of the disputed land.

The negotiations

The borders were drawn by expert committees at the Paris Peace Conference, which relied on ethnic maps but also weighed strategic, economic and railway considerations in favour of the Allies’ partners. Hungary was not invited until the terms had largely been decided.

The Hungarian delegation, led by the veteran statesman Count Albert Apponyi, received the draft in January 1920. On 16 January Apponyi addressed the Supreme Council, arguing in several languages for plebiscites and the historic unity of the kingdom. The Allies made almost no changes. The treaty was signed on 4 June by two lesser officials, the welfare minister Ágost Benárd and the envoy Alfréd Drasche-Lázár. Hungary’s parliament ratified it in November 1920, and it came into force on 26 July 1921.

Terms

The new Hungary covered about 93,000 square kilometres, compared with about 283,000 for the kingdom without Croatia-Slavonia, and had a population of around 7.6–8 million instead of more than 18 million. Romania received Transylvania and much of eastern Hungary, more than 100,000 square kilometres. Czechoslovakia took Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes gained Croatia-Slavonia, Vojvodina and neighbouring districts. Austria received Burgenland, though a plebiscite in December 1921 returned the town of Sopron to Hungary. The port of Fiume and small areas went to Italy and Poland.

Hungary’s army was limited to 35,000 volunteers, without heavy artillery, tanks or an air force, and the country was liable for reparations. Hungary lost its only sea access and much of its timber, mines and railways.

Consequences and legacy

The treaty left large Hungarian communities just across the new borders, especially in southern Slovakia, Transylvania and Vojvodina, while hundreds of thousands of refugees moved into the shrunken state. Revision of Trianon became the overriding goal of interwar Hungarian politics, summed up in the slogan “Nem, nem, soha!” (“No, no, never!”).

That goal drew Hungary towards Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The First and Second Vienna Awards of 1938 and 1940, after the Munich Agreement, and the occupation of Yugoslav territory in 1941 temporarily returned large areas to Hungary. After Hungary’s defeat in the Second World War, the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty restored the Trianon borders, with a small further loss to Czechoslovakia. The status of Hungarian minorities remains a recurring issue in relations with neighbouring states.

Myths and facts

Trianon’s figures are often misquoted. Hungary did lose about two-thirds of its territory and a majority of its population, but most of the people who left the state were not Hungarians: the transferred regions were home to majorities of Romanians, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats and others. The Hungarians left outside the new borders, roughly 3 million, were about a third of all ethnic Hungarians in the former kingdom.

It is also sometimes claimed that the borders were drawn purely to punish Hungary. Punishment and the interests of the Allies’ partners certainly played a part, as in the award of mainly Hungarian-populated strips along railway lines and rivers to Czechoslovakia and Romania. But much of the new map reflected the wishes of the non-Hungarian majorities, and the mixed pattern of settlement meant that no line could have separated every nationality.

Key people

• Albert Apponyi (1846–1933), veteran statesman who led the Hungarian peace delegation.
• Ágost Benárd and Alfréd Drasche-Lázár, the minister of welfare and the diplomat who signed the treaty for Hungary.
• Miklós Horthy (1868–1957), regent of Hungary from 1920 to 1944, whose government accepted the treaty.

Timeline

• 1918, 31 October: The Aster Revolution brings Mihály Károlyi to power.
• 1919, 21 March: The Hungarian Soviet Republic is proclaimed.
• 1919, 4 August: Romanian troops enter Budapest.
• 1920, 16 January: Apponyi addresses the Supreme Council in Paris.
• 1920, 1 March: Miklós Horthy is elected regent.
• 1920, 4 June: The treaty is signed at the Grand Trianon.
• 1921, 26 July: The treaty comes into force.
• 1947, 10 February: The Paris Peace Treaty restores the Trianon borders.

Why it matters

Trianon redrew the map of Central Europe and shaped Hungarian politics, identity and foreign policy for a century. It is a key example of how the post-war settlements applied national self-determination unevenly, creating new minorities even as they freed others.