THE ISSUE OF BORDER REVISIONS BY THE KINGDOM OF HUNGARY IN THE 1920S AND 1930S: DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY CONTEXT
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Abstract
The article analyzes key aspects of the domestic and foreign policy of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s in the context of territorial revisionism. It is noted that the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Trianon of June 4, 1920, under which the country lost two-thirds of its territory and population mainly to its neighbors–Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia–played a key role in bringing the issue of land return to the motherland. This sharp weakening led to the development of an internal theory of the desired territorial integrity of the country within the framework of the medieval concept of the «State of St. Stephen» – a multi- ethnic country, dominant in the Carpathian basin. At the same time, due to the lack of economic and military capabilities to implement this idea, the country was forced to rely on Germany as another party interested in revising the Versailles-Washington system. Hungary's attempts to raise the issue of the need to revise borders were noted among other influential countries in Europe and North America. However, these efforts had little significant result: France, Great Britain, and the United States generally perceived Hungarian revisionism as counteracting the development of economic relations in Eastern Europe, while Poland and Italy, which themselves sought territorial revision, did not have sufficient geopolitical weight as alternatives to the Third Reich. This leads to the conclusion that for Hungarian politicians, there was no alternative to a pro-German vector in the context of border revision, which allowed the leaders of the Third Reich to gradually draw the country into the orbit of the Axis powers and force it to participate in World War II. Defeat in the war only confirmed the terms of the Treaty of Trianon.
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Hungary, Germany, Little Entente, Subcarpathian Rus, Treaty of Trianon, Eastern Europe, revisionism, border revision
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