Treaty of Trianon - The murder of a nation
On June 4, 1920, one hundred years ago, the Hungarian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference was forced to sign the punishing Treaty of Trianon, arguably the most severe of all the post-World War I settlements concluded at the conference. Led by the Big Four - the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy- those treaties were collectively designed to conclude the First World War and make the "world safe for democracy," according to President Woodrow Wilson.
The "peacemakers" instead concocted a hazardous brew. The ostensible "peace" turned out to be only an armistice as World War II erupted merely 20 years later. Tens of millions of civilians and members of the military died in that war; the Holocaust devasted the European Jewish community; a murderous Stalin occupied Central and Eastern Europe; and the world was thrust into a costly and dangerous Cold War. Supposedly in the name of national self-determination, Trianon dismembered the thousand-year-old Kingdom of Hungary, a self-contained, geographically and economically coherent and durable formation in the Carpathian Basin, boasting the longest lasting historical borders in Europe.
The resulting non-negotiable treaty cost Hungary over 70 percent of her territory and one-third or three million of her indigenous ethnic-Hungarian population. Add to this the loss of all her seaports and 90 percent of her vast natural resources, industry, railways, and other infrastructure.
No one can justify what’s happened to the Kingdom of Hungary - visual representation
Millions of Hungarians woke up one morning and saw borders arbitrarily redrawn around them without plebiscites, ignoring Wilson's lofty goal of national self-determination. The "absurd" treaty, as Wilson later referred to it, was never ratified by the United States; ignored a millennia of nation building and age-old cultural affiliations; created new and enlarged countries; and produced millions of new minorities who today struggle for survival of their ethnic identity. To this very day, Hungarian minorities have been subjected to discrimination, intolerance and violence. Schools in the successor states limit students from studying in their native Hungarian language; Hungarian church properties have been confiscated; and cemeteries and cultural monuments have been vandalized.
The "peacemakers" did insist that the new successor states, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, sign various international instruments that included provisions for the protection of minorities. But those promises are largely unkept.
Despite these promises and the fact that Romania obtained Transylvania from Hungary under Trianon - more territory than remained as Hungary -- Romania continues to ignore its obligations. Just recently in April, Romania's president incited animosity against its ethnic Hungarians by making inflammatory statements resulting in tensions between Hungary and Romania, two NATO allies. The Hungarian historical communities in Romania, particularly the Szeklers, are denied a range of rights that threatens their very cultural existence. Hungarians in Serbia, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine have all requested semi- autonomy by peaceful and democratic means. Such local governance would ensure democracy to beleaguered Hungarians, fulfill promises made to them one hundred years ago, and strengthen the democratic process by serving as a model of how majorities and minorities can work together to redress past wrongs.
A thousand years of nation building successfully delineated groups based on culture, religion, geography, and other attributes to create the countries with which we are so familiar. While some Western European nations would continue power struggles and princely battles and civil wars, Hungary, founded in 896, was a peaceful multi-ethnic state for over 1100 years and her borders were virtually unchanged.... Until 1920.
"The greatest catastrophe to have befallen Hungary since the battle of Mohacs in 1526," the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, was extremely harsh on Hungary and unjustifiably one-sided. The resulting "treaty" cost Hungary an unprecedented 2/3 of her territory, and 1/2 of her total population or 1/3 of her ethnic-Hungarian population. Add to this the loss of all her seaports, up to 90% of her vast natural resources, industry, railways, and other infrastructure. Millions of Hungarians saw borders arbitrarily redrawn around them, without plebiscites, ignoring President Wilson's lofty goal of national self-determination. The absurd treaty ignored a millenia of nation building and age-old cultural affiliations, created arbitrary borders and new countries, and created millions of new minorities who today struggle for survival of the ethnic identity. Western powers, primarily Britain and France, refused to re-visit the disaster they created at Versailles and led us into another great war. Two of the three newly created countries carved out of Hungarian territory no longer exist. The "Slovakia" (formerly Upper Hungary) part of Czechoslovakia split with the Czech Republic while "Yugoslavia" suffered from tragic civil war and the ravages of ethnic cleansing.
More than 3 million fellow Hungarian have been dismembered from the Kingdom of Hungary. This treaty is still in effect despite not all the countries exist anymore.
"Just get over it"
Many in Europe, especially those that caused this mess, prefer the status quo and are very uncomfortable with the treaty's implications today and refuse to tackle some very real current issues. They are quick to dismiss Trianon and recommend to those that call attention to its lingering affects to "get over it." In Communist Hungary, Trianon and the issue of mistreatment of Hungarians across the borders in the perfect "Socialist brotherhood of nations" was taboo. Decades of ignoring these issues has created a pressure cooker and feeds radicalism. They must be dealt with. Since 1989 and the fall of Communism, more attention has been paid to the Hungarian diaspora. Sadly, the affects of this dictat are felt strongly today throughout the region. Hungarian populations continue to decline significantly after forced removals such as the Benes Decrees and other pograms. Continued pressure and discriminative policies such as the 2009 Slovak Language Law, the Slovak Citizenship Act, which are being used to stop the use of Hungarian language and to strip Hungarians of their citizenship and status in Slovakia are today's reality. Violence and vandalism in Transcarpathia (Ukraine), and gerrymandering and other discriminatory practices in Romania and Serbia directed at ethnic Hungarian communities teach us that Trianon's effects are still felt strongly today. The American Hungarian Federation has been a long advocate of human and minority rights for all peoples of the Carpathian Basin. We call on all those who share a love for democracy and human rights to help these communities not just survive, but determine their own destinies and flourish in a Europe free from fear and discrimination.
The United States never ratified this treaty. At the time President Wilson said: “The proposal to dismember Hungary is absurd” and later Sir Winston Churchill said: “Ancient poets and theologians could not imagine such suffering, which Trianon brought to the innocent.” Others warned that a weakened, dismembered Hungary would lead to a weak, fragmented Central Europe unable to resist Soviet expansionism.
Visual representation for the Americans what it would mean for them if the same happen to them. Would you accept this peace?
Visual representation what the Treaty of Trianon means. Georges Clemanceau called it as a peace treaty but would the French accept it?
Last but not least here to stand quotes from European leaders, journalists, presidents, prime ministers, politicans of the time;
Francesco Nitti, Prime Minister of Italy, September 1924:
“No country was perished more viciously in Trianon than Hungary. But this country is dwelled by spiritually strong people, who won’t be resigned to the demolition of their country. Hungary’s dismembering is so dishonourable that no one takes responsibility for it. Everybody acts like they don’t know about it, everybody is in coy silence. The reference to the right of nations’ self-determination is only an untrue formula… they misused their victory in the most vicious way… There’s no French, English or Italian who would accept the conditions forced to Hungary for their own nation…”
Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 8 years, 1925:
“This treaty is no work of statesmen, but the result of severe and fatal deceptions.”
Vladimir Iljic Lenin:
“The treaty was forced down their throat, but this is a usurious treaty, the treaty of murderers and butchers… unprecedented, predacious treaty… this is no treaty, these are conditions that scampsmen dictate with knives in their hands to unprotected victims.”
Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the U.K., in his speech on the 7th of October, 1929:
“The whole documentation that we received from our allies at the peace talk, was deceitful and untrue. We came to a decision on false principles”
Arthur Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the U.K.:
“The result of the Treaty of Trianon in Europe is not peace, but the fear of another war.”
André Tardieu, Prime Minister of France for three cycles, in his book titled La paix:
“The reason why there couldn’t be a plebiscite held in Upper Hungary torn from the motherland is that in this case Czechoslovakia wouldn’t have been formed due to the non-content of the population”
Tomás Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia:
“We had to choose between the formation of Czechoslovakia or a plebiscite.”
Father Andrej Hlinka, the leader of the biggest Slovakian party, the Slovakian Populist Party, 4th of June, 1925:
“Let the memory of the Hungarian homeland flicker in our spirits as we never suffered so much under the thousand years of Hungarian rule than under the six years of Czech rule.”
Lord Viscount Rothermere, the publisher and editor in chief of Daily Mail, in his article ‘Hungary’s Place in the Sun’ on the 21st of June, 1927:
“I lost two sons in the war. They sacrificed their lives for noble ideas but not so that people would do so unjustly with a glorious nation. There won’t be peace in Europe until the cunning and insensible Treaty of Trianon is revised.”
Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of the U.K.:
“Europe stopped existing on the day of the Treaty of Trianon.”
Lord Newton, member of the House of Lords, U.K.:
“Except for Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, whole Europe starts to realize the injustices of the Treaty of Trianon. It’s high time to put Hungary’s fate to rights wisely and peacefully.”
Lord Sydeman, member of the House of Lords, U.K.:
“I was shocked by the fact that the only party, who wasn’t responsible for the World War, could have been treated so cruelly as the consequence of some kind of influence. Maybe the truth will once be revealed.”
Edgar Wallace, English writer:
“I am a firm believer of all actions that free Hungary from the unbearable burden of injustice that the country has to withstand.”
Pozzi, French specialist, who was present at the discussions:
“Pasic, Masaryk and Bratinau, but especially Wilson and Clemenceau played a game that will once be the shame of world history.”
“The politicians deciding about Europe’s fate knew as much about Hungary’s geography and history as a 10-year-old pupil whose access into the upper school is denied … Among them the president of the United States, Wilson, had the biggest prestige despite the fact that he frequently contradicted his own arguments, mixed Slovakians with Slovenians and showed clear signs of mental alienation. This sick Wilson was easily influenced by Masaryk…”
A Scandinavian reporter about Albert Apponyi’s speech defending Hungary:
“Apponyi talked with such rhetorical master-strokes, so lightly, elaborately and precisely in his two hour long speech in English, French and Italian that no one has ever done before in the world, that no parliament has ever heard. He defended his homeland with such touching words that many delegates couldn’t mask their emotions…”
Winston Churcill, Prime Minister of the U.K., in the House of Commons:
“Those who are not to reconsider the prejudice of Trianon are preparing a new European war.”
Sir Winston Churchill was a remarkable statesman and he could see that injustice and could foresee the soon to happen consequances of this and other territory dismemberments across Europe which will lead to the WW2.
Read more about it here.
If you thought that the European shambles cannot get any worse especially in the 21st century then I have a bad news for everyone, a political disgrace;
NATO-allies: Romania made the saddest day of the Hungarians a national holiday!
The Chamber of Deputies, which is the lower house of the Romanian parliament, accepted yesterday a bill that made June 4, the anniversary of the Peace Treaty of Trianon, a national holiday in Romania. The treaty separated 2/3rd of the former Hungarian territories and made more than 3 million Hungarians into citizens of hostile neighbouring countries. Their language, education and cultural rights are still not respected, and their economic development is hindered by all means possible.
Read more about it here.
Today, Hungary has marked National Cohesion day in remembrance of the dire consequences the Trianon Peace Treaty, signed 100 years ago on 4 June 1920 following Austro-Hungary’s defeat in the First World War. Under the diktat, Hungary was stripped of two-thirds of its territory and one-third of its population, with millions of ethnic Hungarians suddenly finding themselves in the situation of persecuted minorities in the successor states.
If you want to learn more about this injustice and read about the history that led to the treaty of Trianon, you can find more information here.
Your sincerely
To/Minimal
A proud Hungarian citizen