Authors

Noriko Tsujikawa¹;  ¹ Kindai University, Japan

Discussion

     This paper reconsiders the process of implementation of the new international order in Central Europe after World War I, particularly focusing on the former territory of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1919 to 1921. 
   Hungary experienced a significant phase from early 1920 to late 1921, marked by key events such as the beginning of peace negotiations in January 1920, the signing of the Peace Treaty of Trianon in June, and its ratification under the warning by the former Entente in November. The Treaty's enactment in July 1921 caused disputes over the ownership of Pécs-Baranya and Burgenland, and the latter case led Regent Miklós Horthy to distance himself from the right-wing radicals, his initial supporters. 
     Throughout the interwar period, territorial revision was one of the most significant diplomatic issues for the Hungarian government, while the discourse space dominated by Hungarian language expanded beyond the borders set by Trianon. The situation in Slovakia around 1920 exemplifies this dynamic. During that period, Hungary once considered military support for Poland during the Soviet-Polish War, hoping that negotiations over territorial issues would become favourable to themselves. A military attempt led by Ágoston Stefan, who had previously participated in the Rusyn autonomous government in Transcarpathia during the revolutions of 1918-19, then had a connection with the Foreign Ministry of Hungary in Warsaw, aimed to regain control over Eastern Slovakia and Transcarpathia at the end of 1920. However, this effort ultimately failed. Documents indicate the Hungarian government had been supporting Hungarian irredentist activists in Slovakia since the autumn of 1919. In then Slovakia, where the communist party was gaining its popularity, the networks and sphere of activity of exiled Hungarian politicians and intellectuals extended beyond the borders defined by the Treaty of Trianon, which caused the Czechoslovakia authorities to ban Hungarian Newspaper of Vienna [Bécsi Magyar Újság] in November 1920, labelling as “Horthy-Communist publication”. These events all indicate that Hungary's integration into the international political system introduced by the Paris Peace Conference was not predetermined, and that it is necessary to consider some Hungarians’ actions in Slovakia labelled as “irredentist” by the Czechoslovakian authorities around 1920 as a complex of national consciousness, territorial belonging, and ideology.