The Most Controversial Peace Treaty after WW1 - Treaty of Trianon 1920 (Documentary)

this episode of the great war is sponsored by curiosity street if you go to curiosity stream comm slash the Great War you can sign up to curiosity stream for just $19.99 for one year and if you do you'll also get access to nebula where you can see current episodes of the Great War ad free there'll be more information in the video description below and at the end of this video it's June 1920 and at the Trianon palace near Versailles the forth of the peace treaties that would bring an end to the Great War has been signed this time it's Hungary's turned to make peace with the Allies on allied terms [Music] [Applause] hi I'm Jesse Alexander and welcome to the Great War where we are still filming in our emergency lockdown studio here in my living room now none of the treaties that brought an end to the Great War in 1919 and 1920 are considered uncontroversial but many consider that the most controversial of them all was the Treaty of Trianon which brought peace between Hungary and the Allies and redrew the map of Central Europe and it still stirs passions in the region up until this day it was signed 100 years ago in June 1920 so let's take a look at how the old kingdom of Hungary was divided up to help create new States and strengthen old neighbors the end of the Great War in November 1918 also saw the breakup of the austro-hungarian Empire long before any of the peace treaties had been negotiated and signed now the kingdom of Hungary was about half of the austro-hungarian Empire and the Emperor Franz Joseph also functioned as the king of Hungary now in the post armistice revolutionary mood of fall 1918 Hungary declared itself a republic but so did many of the other component parts of the Empire and conflict soon arose about where the borders would actually lie the austro-hungarian Empire is well known for having been a multilingual and multi-ethnic state and the Kingdom of Hungary was diverse as well in fact the 1910 census indicated that fifty four point four percent of the population was ethnic Hungarian or magyar the rest of the population included groups like the german-speaking Austrians in the West the Slovaks in the North the ruthenians in the Northeast the Romanians in the East and South Slavs in the south some parts of the country there were majorities of non Hungarian speakers when the Empire collapsed and new states began to form they also laid claim to many of these Reid these tensions led to instability and violence throughout 1919 there was a Bolshevik Revolution in Hungary and there were several border wars with the neighbors in particular with Romania and the allies supported Hungary's neighbors during these conflicts so when the fighting drew to a close at the end of 1919 the demarcation and actual lines of control largely correspond to the claims of its neighbors this put large Hungarian speaking minorities under the control of Czechoslovakia Romania and Yugoslavia but in their point of view in the words of historian Margaret Macmillan in the heady atmosphere of 1919 it was madness not to grab as much as possible if you want to learn more about Hungary and its neighbors in 1919 we did two episodes on this topic last year and you can find them in our video archive now all this chaos in 1919 was going on at the same time as the peace conference in Paris which was supposed to be deciding on the borders and preparing a peace treaty but because of the violence and the revolution no peace treaty could be signed but that didn't stop the various Allied delegations in Paris from making decisions about Central Europe finally by the end of 1919 Admiral miklós horthy had established control in Hungary and became regent of a new kingdom of Hungary that didn't actually have a king and his government only controlled part of the pre 1918 borders so after two revolutions and defeat in wars at the hands of its allied supported neighbors Hungary had seen some measure of stability returned under miklós horthy but at the cost of the white terror a program violence against leftist political opponents and Jews and much of the country was under the control of those neighbours Czechoslovakia was a new state and by early 1920 was in control of Slovakia also called Upper Hungary Yugoslavia was also a new state and had control of Croatia and parts of the south of the country Romania was not a new country but nonetheless had control of Transylvania and several other provinces in the east Hungary's neighbors wanted to keep the territory that they had gained in an eventual peace treaty and they argued under several premises at the peace conference one of them was ethnic self-determination based on the fact that many members of their ethnic groups lived in the territories that they now controlled they also brought the argument of Hungarian oppression mostly based around the policy of my cure ization which depending on your point of view was either a policy that promoted the Hungarian language or imposed they were also critical of the social system in the old Hungarian Kingdom where the vast majority of the land owning aristocracy was made up of ethnic Hungarians whom the neighboring countries said had looked down on and Exploited the peasants lloyd-george even showed some sympathy for this view when he said there's been much talk of suppressing the revolution in Hungary I don't see why we should do that there are a few countries so much in need of a revolution this very day I had a conversation with someone who has visited Hungary and who knows it well he tells me that this country has the worst system of land holding in Europe the peasants there are as oppressed as they were in the Middle Ages but even amongst Hungary's neighbors there were conflicts about what to do with the territory that they claimed for example the Yugoslavs and Romanians both claimed parts of the province of Banat and amongst the Yugoslavs there were internal conflicts as well as Croatian delegate to the peace conference antithrombin told a French writer you're not going to compare I hope the crow at the Slovenes the Dalmatians whom centuries of artistic moral and intellectual communion with Austria Italy and Hungary have made pure Occidental's with these half-civilized Serbs the Balkan hybrids of Slavs and Turks but despite their disagreements Hungary's neighbors had reason to be optimistic about the outcome of the peace conference first off they had been invited there months before the Hungarians and were able to try to influence the Allies and they viewed themselves as allies of the victorious great powers it would be the victorious powers of Britain France and Italy who would decide the fate of Central Europe but even here they were not entirely in agreement on what to do one of the problems was that there was limited knowledge about the region especially in Britain and one of the first meetings lloyd-george had to ask whether the Serbs and Croats even spoke the same language which come to think of it is actually not that bad of a question now the British did want to limit German power in Europe and they wanted to reward Serbia for its contributions during the war but the region was not considered vital to British interests it was much more important to France who did have a very clear policy they wanted to create a ring of friendly new States in Eastern Europe that would replace Russia as an ally potentially against Germany and that would work as a bulwark against the spread of Bolshevism west from Russia and Romania was a linchpin of that system now the danger of the spread of Bolshevism seemed particularly acute in 1919 because of the revolution in Hungary and the attempted revolutions in Germany as well another fear that the French had was that if they made changes to what had already been decided for Hungary Germany might decide that it needed changes to the peace treaty as well the Italians were mostly focused on issues with Yugoslavia with whom they now shared a border Prime Minister Orlando feared a revival of the rivalry in that region even though the old enemy austria-hungary had been defeated to our hurt and embarrassment you Slavia will have taken the place of Austria and everything will be as unsatisfactory as before the Italians even covertly supported the Hungarian Soviet republic in its conflict with the Yugoslavs in spite of their disagreements the three Allied powers did share some similar impressions about Hungary as oppressive easy attic and backward a particularly passionate version of this view was given to the Hungarian delegation when they arrived in Paris by French General Pasha dispaly I know your history in your country you have oppressed those who are not magyar now you have the Czechs Slovaks Romanians Yugo Slavs as enemies I hold these people in the hollow of my hand I have only to make a sign and you will be destroyed now not all allied leaders felt as strongly as fresh air display but the Allies would definitely favour the view of Hungary's neighbors as the conference went on the Hungarians were only invited to the peace conference in December 1919 nearly a year after it began they arrived in Paris in January 1920 and a draft treaty had already been prepared without their input for Count Albert upon a and the rest of the Hungarian delegation the terms made for depressing reading most of the pre 1918 kingdom of Hungary would go to the neighboring countries and even some areas where Hungarian speakers were in the majority and that had been inside of the kingdom of Hungary for centuries when the draft terms of the peace treaty reached Hungary the reaction was one of general outrage the Hungarian press even published articles in English in order to try to reach allied ears and they published a map of Britain showing what it would look like if it were subject to similar terms as those that had been planned for Hungary the slogan taken up by opponents of the peace terms was simple no no never but it seemed that Hungarian opposition to the peace terms whether from the delegation in Paris or from the press back in Hungary would make little difference as there was no face-to-face negotiations allowed like with the other peace treaties there was a glimmer of hope for Hungarians to make their case to the peace conference because count a pony would be permitted to make a presentation before the Allied powers and he was a well respected aristocrat in Europe at the time and earned the nickname the grand old man of Central Europe his speech in fact would become central to the Hungarian effort to try to revise the peace terms and keep as much as they could of the pre 1918 border a pony spoke an excellent English and French and very good Italian and he made several arguments for the Hungarian cause one of them was that the pre 1918 kingdom of Hungary was a united and ethnically diverse country that had a good track record of social and economic relations of different groups living within its borders he also argued that Hungary existed with an economic system based on regional specializations and that the proposed borders would break the system to the economic detriment of all countries in Central Europe and that it could only function as an organized unit he also discussed ethnicity and insisted that self-determination ought to apply to Hungarians as well although he didn't win himself many friends when he referred to the neighboring countries under whom there were now Hungarian minorities living as uncivilized he also tried to make the argument that many of the non Hungarian groups that had previously lived in the pre 1918 Kingdom did not really support the new states that were making claims on their behalf upon his proposed solution was for plebiscites to be held in the disputed regions so the people could vote on which state they wanted to join and he promised that hungry would accept the result no matter what he also proposed as with model for a larger Hungary where there would be regional autonomy for minority groups he summed up his case to the peace conference with these words we refer to President Wilson's eloquently formulated and excellent principle by which no part of the population of any state can be placed like cattle under the jurisdiction of a foreign government without its permission we demand plebiscites in those areas of our country that you wish to take from us I declare that we will accept the results of the plebiscites no matter what they might be the Hungarian delegation had prepared hundreds of memoranda documents and maps to support their cause in particular the ethnographic captor who's made a big impression on some of the Allied delegates but other allied delegates had by this time in the conference grown suspicious of the political use of maps each one of the Central European nationalities had its own bagful of statistical and cartographical tricks when statistics failed youths was made of maps in color upon his speech actually went over quite well with the Allied leaders Orlando was said to have been visibly moved Lloyd George was observed to have been keenly listening and Hungarian reports even described him also as quote surprisingly polite the Romanian Yugoslav and Czechoslovak delegations were now concerned about the partially positive result - upon his speech Czechoslovak Foreign Minister advert Bennish contacted Belgrade and Bucharest in order to form a united front this resulted in a joint memorandum from these three countries to the Allies in which they renewed their claims of Hungarian oppression of minorities reminded the Allies of a ponies role in the Magyars ation policy and claimed that any change to the peace terms would be as a betrayal of their alliance with the untaught came also also remained critical of the Hungarian position claiming that during the war Hungary had supported German militarism to the detriment of France and he wanted at all costs to avoid givin the Germans any reason to question the Treaty of Versailles if concessions were made now to Hungary lloyd-george did have some hesitations the Allies wanted to avoid the Hungarians feeling enmity towards them forever but exactly that will occur as a result of a brusque refusal of Hungarian claims without considering them some of the other British leaders though opposed making any concessions and again the region was not considered particularly important to British interests the Foreign Press was also relatively unsympathetic to the Hungarian cause and pointed to the white terror directed at leftist political opposition and the Jewish community in Hungary as a sign that any plebiscites might not be fair in the first place perhaps most importantly in a diplomatic and bureaucratic sense there was little interest in opening up the peace terms again the difficult work of drafting them had already been done over the course of the previous month and other treaties had already been signed also the support of the Yugoslavs the Romanians and the czechoslovaks had been achieved at great effort and the Allies did not want to risk that now as one historian described it what ultimately weighed against Hungary was sheer inertia a Hungarian government report also concluded that their cause was essentially lost the situation is very bad hope for substantial improvements is very slight eventually some very minor concessions were made by the Allies but these were essentially insignificant in May 1920 the Hungarian government briefly considered rejecting the terms of the treaty but then decided that this would be both futile and dangerous Hungary would sign the treaty was signed on June 4th 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles the ceremony only took 15 minutes but the treaty would affect millions for generations to come so let's have a closer look at the actual terms the treaty was based on the model of the Treaty of Versailles which meant that there was a war guilt clause which obligated Hungary to pay war reparations to its neighbors there would also be limitations on the military the army was reduced to 35,000 men and weapons like tanks warships and aircraft were forbidden and the danube fleet would be confiscated Hungary's neighbors would also be permitted to make claims on cultural and artistic artifacts from his museums and collections and they would also be allowed to receive capital shares in Hungarian companies but of course it was the question of borders that was the most important at the time and remains the most controversial to this day Romania received the provinces of Transylvania Mara Moorish krishana and East bonnet Czechoslovakia received Slovakia also known as upper Hungary and Carpathian Ruthenia Yugoslavia received croatia slavonia and West bonnet Poland received a part of the selfish region and Italy would administer the city of Rome a on the Adriatic coasts the New Republic of Austria would receive the province of borderland even though the main city shop run would soon vote to return to Hungary the new Hungarian state would be less than one-third the size of the pre 1918 kingdom of Hungary and had 7 million people as opposed to 20 million there would be three million ethnic Hungarians living in neighboring countries forming large minorities in Czechoslovakia Romania and Yugoslavia the these minorities would vary according to time and place but eventually some 400,000 of them would return to Hungary as refugees the new Hungary was left with an agriculture heavy economy but little industry these were dramatic changes to the geography of Central Europe which French Prime Minister and president of the peace conference Alexandre Miran addressed in a special covering letter that was attached to the treaty the nationality situation in Central Europe is such that it is not possible to make political frontiers fully agree with ethnic frontiers as a result of this the powers although not without regret had to decide to leave certain areas with ethnic Hungarian or magyar population under the sovereignty of other states in spite of this it is impossible to take up such a position and claim that it would be better not to change the original state of territory the continuation of a situation even if it is a thousand years old is not justified if it is against justice this letter also rejected Hungarian calls for plebiscites but did open up the possibility of future border adjustments by the D limitations Commission many Hungarians interpreted this as a sign that the terms of the treaty might not be permanent and even though it was only a covering letter when the government ratified the treaty they incorporated that letter into the law but the treaty was not meant to be temporary and Hungary's borders today largely mirror those of Triana although there were some temporary changes during World War two Trianon is often seen as a national trauma in Hungary and in the 1920s Hungarian politics revolved around the question of revising the terms of the treaty there was much bitterness against Hungary's neighbors and some even went as far as to blame the Hungarian Soviet republic and the Jews for Hungary's predicament a sort of stab-in-the-back myth nearly all political groups in Hungary opposed the treaty and the country came to see itself as an isolated victim in the century since the treaty was signed some have seen it as the harshest of all the post-world War one treaties but in 1920 that's not how the leaders of Czechoslovakia Romania and Yugoslavia saw the treaty for them it represented the creation or the reunification of their states and the rectification of centuries of historical wrongs by the summer of 1920 the tension between the countries who supported the new emerging order from the peace treaties and those who opposed it like Hungary and Germany was still fresh but it would not be over anytime soon thanks again to curiosity stream for sponsoring this episode curiosity stream is a documentary 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where you'll find a link to our patreon page if you want to support that coño I'm Jesse Alexander and this is the great war 1920 a production of real time history and the only YouTube History Channel that oppresses its uncivilized neighbors you

Channel: The Great War

Views: 959,618

Keywords: History, World War 1, WW1, First World War, Documentary, Documentary Series, The Great War, Indy Neidell, 1919, Interwar Period, 1920s, Educational, Russian Civil War, Revolution, Interbelum, Paris Peace Conference, Treaty of Trianon, Peace, Hungary, Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Budapest, Allies, Central Powers

Id: HEoZMe8MSPM

Length: 25min 46sec (1546 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 13 2020