Treaty of Trianon
Signed on 4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon palace near Versailles, the Treaty of Trianon was the peace settlement with Hungary and the most drastic territorial reduction imposed on any of the defeated powers. Hungary lost roughly two-thirds of its pre-war territory — Transylvania to Romania, Slovakia to Czechoslovakia, Croatia-Slavonia and the Vojvodina to the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and the Burgenland to Austria. Its population fell from 21 million to approximately 7.6 million, and some three million ethnic Magyars found themselves citizens of successor states. The Hungarian word 'Trianon' became synonymous with national catastrophe and humiliation. The regency of Miklós Horthy, which governed Hungary through most of the interwar period, organised its entire foreign policy around revision of the treaty — 'Nem, nem, soha' ('No, no, never') was the political slogan. The territorial grievances drove Hungary toward Mussolini's Italy and ultimately Nazi Germany in the 1930s, as Budapest sought any patron who might restore the lost lands. The treaty's harshness was disproportionate even by the punitive standards of the 1919-20 peace settlement and its political consequences outlasted the twentieth century.
- Year: 1920 CE
- Category: Political
