Hungarian population plummets after Trianon Peace Treaty
Today marks the 103rd anniversary of the Peace Treaty of Trianon, a significant event in Hungarian history that saw the nation lose two-thirds of its territory following the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I. Despite President Wilson’s principles, 3.3 million Hungarians became citizens of hostile successor states like Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. As a result, the rate of Hungarians has steadily decreased in every region separated from the motherland.
Hungary was not even invited to the peace conference of Versailles, and Count Albert Apponyi’s speech expressing Hungary’s concerns about the separation of millions of Hungarians in 1920 went unheard. Since the US delegation left early and London allowed Paris to define the European order, there was little help for Hungary despite international sympathy.
Over the next century, hundreds of thousands of Hungarians were forced to flee their ancestral lands due to Trianon and subsequent peace treaties. The successor states granted these communities individual and collective rights on paper but aimed to assimilate them in practice. Mass murders in Délvidék and attempts at deportation in Czechoslovakia made matters worse.
The fall of communism saw the Hungarian government provide dual citizenship for Hungarians living abroad, the right to vote, and funding for development, education, and culture. However, the number of Hungarians living in the Carpathian Basin has continued to decline, with the Hungarian communities abroad experiencing negative discrimination and facing difficulties getting high-level education in their native language. As a result, they have been continuing to leave and, in some cases, generations later, have little connection to their Hungarian heritage.
