The Hungarian border
How World War 1 led us here.
One of my dream trips is Eastern Europe by train, and the itinerary would include Budapest. So I’ve been reading quite a bit about Hungary lately (and watching YouTube tutorials about their language, which is…interesting — check out how “gy” is pronounced).
These days, people perceive Hungary as just another small Eastern European formerly Communist country with a right-wing problem (or, you know, goulash). But checking out people’s recommendations about Budapest (with its castle, grand coffee houses and the Esterhazy torte) reminded me that for a long time, Hungary was a great power, which peaked during their time in union with the Habsburg dynasty as Austria-Hungary.
Then of course they lost World War I and things went downhill from there. I’ll talk more about that in a minute, but what’s interesting is that the implications of their WW1 loss was connected to something I’d observed in — what else — tennis (my favourite sport).
I’m an invested enough tennis fan to read players’ biographies on their Wikipedia pages. That’s how I’d found out that these three players — Monica Seles, Laslo Djere, and Timea Bacsinszky — all share a common thread: they are all Hungarian by ethnicity, but none of them are Hungarian by nationality.
Seles and Djere both come from the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina. Seles represented Yugoslavia before she became an American citizen, while Djere plays for Serbia. Bacsinszky, meanwhile, was born in Switzerland and plays for that country. Her parents are Hungarian, but they were Hungarians who hail from Transylvania (a part of Romania).
I’ve always thought that was a bit strange, but didn’t think much of it (continental Europe is one big chunk of land anyway, it’s probably difficult to draw borders). But then a trip down a Wikipedia rabbit hole led me to the Treaty of Trianon. It’s an agreement that was signed by (or, rather, imposed upon) Hungary after they had lost WW1, one that had major consequences to the country’s destiny.
Austria-Hungary was a large multiethnic nation. After WW1, the winners (i.e. UK, France, and the US) supported the bid of Austria-Hungary’s minority ethnic groups to become their own countries (or join their countrymen). Thus, the Czechs and Slovaks joined to create Czechoslovakia; the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes came together as Yugoslavia; while the Romanians in Transylvania elected to join Romania.
But when the borders were redrawn, parts with a Hungarian majority were also chopped up and given to these other countries. In all, more than 3 million Hungarians (31%) suddenly found themselves to be residents in a foreign country.
Hungary was left with just 28% of its pre-war territory. It became a landlocked country (its seaports were located in what is now Croatia), its economy was massacred, and even things like roads and railways were paralyzed, because sections of them suddenly became part of another country.
That was the Allies’ plan all along. Austria-Hungary was a close friend of Germany, and by helping the minorities get their own states, the Allies gained loyalty, which helps with preventing outsized German influence in Central Europe.
Then of course the WW2 came (in which Hungary allied with Germany, again) and it was followed by the Cold War (in which Hungary allied with the Soviets). Russia, for one, is no longer what it was during its Empire days, but at least they’re still big and taken seriously by the West. Not Hungary.
And now, the man leading the country is right-wing Trump admirer Viktor Orban, making Hungary yet another part of Europe contending with rising nationalism and an anti-immigrant, anti-refugee stance (Austria is another). And indeed, part of Orban’s message is to restore Hungary to its former glory, regaining the status it had pre-WW1.
Is this a surprising development? Probably not, as one Hungarian contends.
“The cause of this anger is Europe’s failure to do anything to correct the terrible injustice that occurred at the end of World War I through the Treaty of Trianon, when this kingdom, over a thousand years old, was dismembered,” he says. “This occurred not because Hungary was on the wrong side in the war but because Central Europe was getting too strong and could no longer be dominated by the French and the British.”
It seems like for modern Hungarians (at least those on Reddit), the Treaty of Trianon and its consequences continue to be a delicate topic (understandably), though they also try to be realistic. “With my heart, the answer is ‘hell yes’, with my brain, the answer is ‘sorry heart, not possible, and even if it was possible, it would create an unacceptable disturbance in the area and wouldn’t be worth it’,” says this Hungarian, on whether redrawing the border to reunite all Hungarians is worth it.
But it’s definitely not something they’ll forget anytime soon.
“So what you have to keep in mind is that the trauma of Trianon has been continuously kept alive in Hungary for the past 100 years. It’s a very important topic of education and statues dedicated to it are still erected today,” says this Hungarian. “Personally I think this is an important factor in the general sadness/defeatist worldview of Hungarians.”
