Why are more than a million Hungarians very sad today, while Romanians celebrate?

1 December is Romania’s most important national day, during which they celebrate the ‘reunification’ with Transylvania, where even today more than a million Hungarians live. But why is 1 December so important, and why is it a sad anniversary for Hungarians living there?

Hungary was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire during WWI. That meant Hungarian soldiers fought shoulder to shoulder with their Austrian, Czech, Slovakian, Romanian, and Serbian allies (the empire’s nationalities) against Serbia, Romania, Russia and Italy. Interestingly, Hungary’s prime minister, István Tisza, was against going to war against Serbia after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Tisza knew that a world war could bring them to the brink of destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

He was correct. After the lost war, all nationalities decided to leave the dualist monarchy. Some had to create or recreate their countries after hundreds of years of union like Croatia, the Czechs or the Slovaks. Meanwhile, others could join their home country, like the Serbs or the Romanians.

Transylvania, the Tiszántúl, the Partium and the Banat that Romania claimed from Hungary were at least multiethnic in 1918 autumn. Millions of Romanians lived in these regions but were not in a majority, only in a few towns and lots of villages, mainly on the border of Transylvania, the Banat and Partium.

Of course, nobody was interested in creating borders following the ethnic maps. In Versailles, the French were given the power to decide about Central Europe’s fate, and wanted strong allies in this region. Therefore, they created a big and strong Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia alongside Poland.

French decided about Hungary’s fate

However, they did not inform the newly-formed Hungarian government led by Count Mihály Károlyi. Károlyi wanted peace, but he also wanted to preserve the old borders of the Hungarian Kingdom. He disbanded the army and hoped the new world order would follow US President Wilson’s idea about a Commonwealth. As a result, Hungarian troops did not withstand the conquering Romanian army in Transylvania until the end of November 1918.

Furthermore, since they hoped territorial autonomy would be enough for Romanians (Serbians, Ruthenians, Slovakians), the Hungarian government supported the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) of the Romanians. For example, Hungarian State Railways (MÁV) trains carried the partakers.

There, Romanian delegates voted for the reunification of Romania with Transylvania, Partium, Banat and even the Tiszántúl. On the other hand, they granted autonomy to the Hungarians (and Germans) living in the new ‘Romanian Empire’.

Such assemblies might be celebrated by a nation but rarely played a decisive part in history. In short, Paris decided Romania’s and Hungary’s fate not Alba Iulia. That is clear from the fact that on 22 December, there was a similar assembly for the Hungarians in Kolozsvár (Cluj Napoca), where Hungarians voted for remaining in Hungary. Nobody cared.

Romanians did not keep their promises

The French decided in Versailles that Romania may get Transylvania, the Banat and Partium. However, Bucharest could not extend its rule to the Tiszántúl. As a result, Szeged and Debrecen or Nyíregyháza remained part of Hungary.

However, Romanians believe that their great national assembly played an important part in 1918. That is why they celebrate it while most Hungarians remain home on this day because they have nothing to celebrate. They did not receive territorial or any other kind of autonomy because nobody ever kept their promises made in Alba Iulia. Instead, they constantly fight to be able to use their mother tongue and cultural institutions, and preserve their education system.

Romania had not become a home for most Hungarians living there.

And why do Romanians think what happened was a reunification? In Romanian history, the Romanians are the descendants of the Romans conquering Dacia in the 2nd century AD. Therefore, they believe they were in Transylvania earlier than the Hungarians, who arrived ‘just’ in the 9th century.

Scholars do not accept the Romanian explanation of that story. They believe Romanians came from somewhere in the Balkans in the 12th and 13th centuries. The first written sources from the Transylvanian Romanians are from the 13th century, following the Mongol invasion.

Read also:

• Romanians outperform Hungarians, only the Bulgarians live worse than us – Read more HERE
• 100th anniversary: the loss of Transylvania – Details in THIS article

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