Treaty of Trianon: Hungary lost its historic territories 101 years ago

June 4, 1920 – a dark day in Hungarian history. After the First World War, the victorious powers annexed 71.4 per cent of Hungary’s former territory. Out of a population of 18 million, barely 7.6 million people remained under Hungarian rule. The country lost much of its industry, with new borders cutting key infrastructure into pieces.

According to Blikk’s commemoration, the weather was bad in Versailles on June 4, 1920, but the Hungarian peace envoy – Ágost Benárd and Alfréd Drasche-Lázár – were even more sorrowful: they came to the city to sign the “peace of mourning”. They were greeted by the guards in front of Trianon Castle, yet they were admitted to the ceremony at a back entrance. They knew that after leaving, nothing would be the same again:

the territory of Hungary would shrink to a third of its size at the time, and its population would fall to less than half.

The ceremony lasted exactly 17 minutes, according to Est. The representatives of the Entente were sat behind a horseshoe-shaped table set with a gold-lined tablecloth. When they were all set, the maid called the Hungarian gentlemen. Benárd and Drasche-Lázár, according to a report in French newspaper Malin, approached the table “relaxed and without gloom”: they did not give the winners the pleasure of showing despair.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons by Agence Rol. Agence photographique

“I wanted to state with my entire behaviour that I did not attach any other importance to the signature forced on us. It was not a solemn act but an act forced upon me personally and primarily on my nation, thus a non-binding act of humiliation,” recalled Ágost Bernárd in 1930. 

“Under the large trees of the park, gilded by the mild rays of the sun, the Hungarian envoy returned to their cars,” the correspondent of the French newspaper, Malin, continued its report that day.

“Once again, they proceeded correctly, simply, with dignity – but there was certainly no reassurance in them thinking that Hungary would henceforth consist only of Hungarians.”

Read more about the Treaty of Trianon:

• 100th anniversary of Trianon: The memoir of the Hungarian delegation about signing the Treaty
• Trianon peace treaty 100: was there a chance to preserve Greater Hungary?
• Browse Hungary’s detailed ethnographic map made for the Treaty of Trianon online
• Quotes about the Treaty of Trianon by famous non-Hungarian people
• TODAY – 95th anniversary of the Treaty of Trianon

Source: www.blikk.hu