Közgazdaság- és Regionális Tudományi Kutatóközpont Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Kiváló Kutatóhely

Structural and administrative implications of the Trianon Peace Treaty, 1920 – Zoltán Hajdú

The study is an edited version of a presentation held on 16 October 2019 at the conference
“Trianon 100 – Consequences of the Treaty in the context of statistical analyses”

World War I re-organised European power and territorial relations. The victors (Entente member countries) emerged from the war with significant territorial gains, while the losers (Central Powers) suffered considerable losses and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was dissolved. The political-territorial powerstructure of the Monarchy was extremelycomplex. The aim of this study is to presenthow state and territorial administrations were reorganized in the newly independent Hungary. The dissolution of the Monarchy led to the dismantling of the multi-ethnic and quasi-federal state of historical Hungary. While the Hungarian government recognised the secession of Croatia-Slavonia, it firmly opposed the detachment of other territories; notwith-standing, by the end of December 1918, various nationalities (Slovaks, Romanians, Serbs) had formed quasi-blocks in Hungaryand proclaimed their secession. Hungarybecame a sovereign state after losing the majority of the territory of the Kingdom ofHungary (71.4%) and 63.5% of its population. Defeat in the war was the major factor behind the country's disintegration that neither the civil democratic revolution and transformation nor the bloody internal proletarian dictatorship were able to reverse. The Trianon Peace Treatysimply sanctioned the changes that had alreadytaken place through international treaties and international law. The territorial administrative division of the new Hungary was completelydistorted due to the truncated cross-border counties. The 1923 territorial correction was no more than an attempt to merge the truncated counties and county fragments. This study is based primarily on cartographic analysis.

Keywords: World War I, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Kingdom of Hungary, territorial disintegration, multi-ethnic successor states, Trianon Peace Treaty, public administration in the Kingdom of Hungary, distorted territorial division