Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
Kingdom of Hungary Magyar Királyság (Hungarian) | ||
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1920–1946 | ||
Motto: Ethnic groups (1941)[3] | ||
Religion (1941)[3] | List
| |
regency (1920–1944)Hungarist totalitarian state (1944–1945)transitional coalition government (1945–1946) | ||
King | ||
• 1920–1946 | Vacant[note 1] | |
Head of state | ||
• 1920–1944 | Miklós Horthy[note 2] | |
• 1944–1945 | Ferenc Szálasi[note 3] | |
• 1945–1946 | High National Council[note 4] | |
Prime minister | ||
• 1920 (first) | Károly Huszár | |
• 1945–1946 (last) | Zoltán Tildy | |
Legislature | German occupation | 19 March 1944 |
16 October 1944 | ||
1 February 1946 | ||
Area | ||
1920[4] | 92,833 km2 (35,843 sq mi) | |
1930[5] | 93,073 km2 (35,936 sq mi) | |
1941[6] | 172,149 km2 (66,467 sq mi) | |
Population | ||
• 1920[4] | 7,980,143 | |
• 1930[5] | 8,688,319 | |
• 1941[6] | 14,669,100 | |
Currency | Hungarian korona (1920–1927) Hungarian pengő (1927–1946) | |
Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) | |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) | |
[note 5] | ||
Driving side | right (from 1941) | |
The Kingdom of Hungary (Hungarian: Magyar Királyság), referred to retrospectively as the Regency and the Horthy era, existed as a country from 1920 to 1946[a] under the rule of Miklós Horthy, Regent of Hungary, who officially represented the Hungarian monarchy. In reality there was no king, and attempts by King Charles IV to return to the throne shortly before his death were prevented by Horthy. Hungary under Horthy was characterized by its conservative, nationalist, and fiercely anti-communist character. The government was based on an unstable alliance of conservatives and right-wingers. Foreign policy was characterized by revisionism — the total or partial revision of the Treaty of Trianon, which had seen Hungary lose over 70% of its historic territory along with over three million Hungarians, who mostly lived in the border territories outside the new borders of the kingdom, in the Kingdom of Romania and the newly created states of Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (in greatly enlarged Romania there also remained a significant Hungarian population in Székely Land). Republican Austria, the successor of the former other half of the dual monarchy also received some minor territory from Hungary. Thus the post-1918 Kingdom can be described as a rump state. Hungary's interwar politics were dominated by a focus on the territorial losses suffered from this treaty, with the resentment continuing until the present.
After World War II, the country fell within the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. It changed its name to the Hungarian State[8] (Hungarian: Magyar Állam) and the Second Hungarian Republic was soon thereafter proclaimed in 1946, succeeded by the communist Hungarian People's Republic in 1949.
Formation
Upon the dissolution and break-up of
After the collapse of a short-lived Communist regime, according to historian István Deák:
- Between 1919 and 1944 Hungary was a rightist country. Forged out of a counter-revolutionary heritage, its governments advocated a "nationalist Christian" policy; they extolled heroism, faith, and unity; they despised the French Revolution, and they spurned the liberal and socialist ideologies of the 19th century. The governments saw Hungary as a bulwark against bolshevism and bolshevism's instruments: socialism, cosmopolitanism, and Freemasonry. They perpetrated the rule of a small clique of aristocrats, civil servants, and army officers, and surrounded with adulation the head of the state, the counterrevolutionary Admiral Horthy.[9]
Regency
On 29 February 1920, a coalition of right-wing political forces united and returned Hungary to being a constitutional monarchy. However, it was obvious that the Allies would not accept any return of the Habsburgs. Earlier, Archduke Joseph August had declared himself regent, but he stood down after two weeks when the Allies refused to recognize him.
It was thus decided to choose a regent to represent the monarchy until a settlement could be reached. Miklós Horthy, the last commanding admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, was chosen for this position on 1 March. Sándor Simonyi-Semadam was the first Prime Minister of Horthy's regency.
In 1921 Charles returned in Hungary and tried to retake its throne, even trying to march on Budapest with some rebel troops in October 1921; however, his attempts failed as much of the Royal Hungarian Army remained loyal to Horthy and thus Charles was arrested and exiled to Madeira.
On 6 November 1921 the Diet of Hungary passed a law nullifying the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, dethroning Charles IV and abolishing the House of Habsburg's rights to the throne of Hungary. Hungary was a kingdom without royalty. With civil unrest too great to select a new king, it was decided to confirm Horthy as Regent of Hungary. He remained in that powerful president-like status until he was overthrown in 1944.[10]
Government
Horthy's rule as Regent possessed characteristics such that it could be construed a dictatorship. As a counterpoint, his powers were a continuation of the constitutional powers of the King of Hungary, adopted earlier during the federation with the Austrian Empire.[11] As Regent, Horthy had the power to adjourn or dissolve the Hungarian Diet (parliament) at his own discretion; he appointed the Hungarian Prime Minister.[12]
The succession after Horthy's death or resignation was never officially established; presumably the Hungarian Parliament would have selected a new regent, or possibly attempted to restore the Habsburgs under Crown Prince Otto. In January 1942, Parliament appointed Horthy's eldest son István as Deputy Regent and expected successor. Whether this represents an attempt to gradually re-establish monarchy in Hungary is unclear; at any rate, István was killed in an airplane crash in August that year, and a new Deputy Regent was not appointed.
During his first ten years, Horthy led increased repression of Hungarian minorities. In 1920, the
Social conditions in the kingdom did not improve as time passed, as a very small proportion of the population continued to control much of the country's wealth. Jews were continually pressured to assimilate into Hungarian mainstream culture. The desperate situation forced the Regent, Horthy, to accept the far-right politician Gyula Gömbös as Prime Minister. He pledged to retain the existing political system. Gömbös agreed to abandon his extreme antisemitism and allow some Jews into the government.
In power, Gömbös moved Hungary towards a one-party government like those of
In March 1944, responding to the advancing Soviet forces, Prime Minister
As the months went by, Horthy became increasingly appalled Sztójay's brutal methods and alarmed by the rapidly collapsing Eastern Front. In August 1944, he deposed the pro-German Prime Minister and installed a more balanced government led by Géza Lakatos, in an effort to engage with the Allies and avoid occupation by the Soviet Union. This did not sit well with Hitler and, in October, German forces overthrew Horthy and Lakatos and installed a puppet regime led by Ferenc Szálasi of the Arrow Cross Party. The Arrow Cross Party never abolished the Monarchy as a form of government, and Hungarian newspapers continued to refer to the country as the Kingdom of Hungary (Magyar Királyság), although Magyarország (Hungary) was used as an alternative.[19][20] From May to June 1944, Hungarian authorities rapidly rounded up and transported hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews to Nazi concentration camps, where most died.
After the fall of the Szálasi regime, a Soviet-backed government under Béla Miklós was nominally left in control of the entire country. A High National Council was appointed in January to assume the Regency, and included members of the Hungarian Communist Party, like Ernő Gerő, and later Mátyás Rákosi and László Rajk.
Economy
History of Hungary |
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Hungary portal |
Upon the kingdom's establishment soon after World War I, the country suffered from economic decline, budget deficits, and high inflation as a result of the loss of economically important territories under the Treaty of Trianon, including Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia.[21] The land losses of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920 caused Hungary to lose agricultural and industrial areas, making it dependent on exporting products from what agricultural land it had left to maintain its economy. Prime Minister István Bethlen's government dealt with the economic crisis by seeking large foreign loans, which allowed the country to achieve monetary stabilization in the early 1920s. He introduced a new currency in 1927, the pengő.[22] Industrial and farm production rose rapidly, and the country benefited from flourishing foreign trade during most of the 1920s.[21]
Following the start of the Great Depression in 1929, the prosperity rapidly collapsed in the country, especially in part due to the economic effects of the failure of the Österreichische Creditanstalt bank in Vienna, Austria.[23] From the mid-1930s to the 1940s, after relations improved with Germany, Hungary's economy benefited from trade. The Hungarian economy became dependent on that of Germany.
Foreign policy
Initially, despite a move towards
With a succession of increasingly nationalist Prime Ministers, Hungary steadily came to repent the Treaty of Trianon, and aligned itself with Europe's two fascist states,
World War II
After the successful revision policy Hungary sought further solutions to the remainder of its former territories and demanded the concession of Transylvanian territory from Romania. The Axis powers were not interested in opening a new conflict in Central Europe; both countries were facing strong diplomatic pressures to avoid any military operations. Finally both parties accepted the arbitration of Germany and Italy, known as the Second Vienna Award, and as a result Northern Transylvania was assigned to Hungary. Shortly afterward, the Kingdom of Hungary joined the Axis powers. Hitler demanded that the Hungarian government follow Germany's military and racial agenda to avoid potential conflict in the future. Antisemitism was already an established political cause by the far right in Hungary. In 1944, after the ousting of Horthy by Hitler and before the installation of the National-Socialist Arrow Cross Party, the Hungarian government readily aided Nazi Germany in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust, where most of them died.[citation needed]
In April 1941, Hungary let the
minorities, respectively.On 27 June 1941, László Bárdossy declared war on the Soviet Union. Fearing a potential turn of support to the Romanians, the Hungarian government sent armed forces to support the German war effort during Operation Barbarossa. This support cost the Hungarians dearly. The entire Royal Hungarian Army was lost during the Battle of Stalingrad.
By early 1944, with
By October of the same year, the Hungarians were again caught trying to quit the war, and the Germans launched Operation Panzerfaust. They replaced Horthy with Arrow Cross leader Ferenc Szálasi. The Government of National Unity was proclaimed, and it continued the war on the side of the Axis. Szálasi did not replace Horthy as Regent, but was appointed as the "Leader of the Nation" ("Nemzetvezető") and Prime Minister of the new "Hungarist state".[26][27] Antisemitic persecution and pogroms increased during Szálasi's regime and his militias were singularly responsible of the murder of 10,000-15,000 Hungarian Jews.[28]
The new
Budapest capitulated in February 1945 and the so-called Government of National Unity, now in exile in Munich, was disbanded at the end of March 1945.[30]
Dissolution
Under
Historical assessment
There has been some debate as to what extent the Hungarian state of the 1930s and '40s can be classified as fascist. According to Richard Griffiths, the regime's increasing economic dependence on Germany, its passage of antisemitic legislation and its participation in exterminating local Jews all place it within the realm of international fascism.[31]
See also
- Hungary between the World Wars
- Hungary in World War II
- International relations (1919–1939) § Hungary
- Allied powers of World War II
- Axis powers of World War II
- Hungarian volunteers in the Winter War
Notes
- ^ The Allied powers generally did not recognize territorial evolutions of the Axis powers after the outbreak of World War II; however, this was not applied in all the cases after the end of the war. De jure, generally the Axis powers recognized the territorial evolutions of its powers. Special exceptions − also concerning non-belligerent parties − may have been possible.
Citations
- ^ "A m. kir. minisztérium 1939. évi 6.200. M. E. számú rendelete, a Magyar Szent Koronához visszatért kárpátaljai terület közigazgatásának ideiglenes rendezéséről" [Order No. 6.200/1939. M. E. of the Royal Hungarian Ministry on the provisional administration of the Subcarpathian territory returned to the Hungarian Holy Crown]. Magyarországi Rendeletek Tára (in Hungarian). 73. Budapest: Royal Hungarian Ministry of the Interior: 855. 1939.
- ISBN 80-8062-117-9.
- ^ a b c Fogarasi, Zoltán (1944). "A népesség anyanyelvi, nemzetiségi és vallási megoszlása törvényhatóságonkint 1941-ben" [Distribution of the population by mother tongue, ethnicity and religion in the municipalities of Hungary in 1941.]. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle (in Hungarian). 22 (1–3). Budapest: Royal Hungarian Central Statistical Office: 4, 13.
- ISBN 963-8318-70-8.
- ISBN 963-9015-02-4.
- ISBN 963-9556-13-0.
- ^ Seamus Dunn, T.G. Fraser. Europe and Ethnicity: The First World War and Contemporary Ethnic Conflict. Routledge, 1996. P97.
- ^ "Az ideiglenes nemzeti kormány 1945. évi 539. M. E. számú rendelete az államhatalom gyakorlásával kapcsolatos egyes kérdések rendezéséről" [Prime Ministerial Decree No. 539/1945 of the Provisional National Government on the Settlement of Certain Issues relating to the Exercise of State Authority]. Magyarországi Rendeletek Tára (in Hungarian). 79 (1). Budapest: Ministry of Interior of Hungary: 53–54. 8 March 1945.
- ^ István Deák, "Hungary" in Hans Roger and Egon Weber,eds., The European right: A historical profile (1963) p 364-407 quoting p. 364.
- ^ Thomas Sakmyster, Hungary's Admiral on Horseback (East European Monographs, 1994).
- ^ Sinor, Denis. 1959. History of Hungary, London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. Pp. 289
- ^ Sinor, p. 289
- ISBN 978-963-88538-6-8.
- ^ See: Numerus Clausus
- ^ "A Numerus Clausus módosítása - The modification of the Numerus Clausus law". regi.sofar.hu.
- ^ a b Romsics, Ignác. "Nyíltan vagy titkosan? A Horthy-rendszer választójoga". www.rubicon.hu. RUBICONLINE.
- ^ Kállay, Miklós (1954). Hungarian Premier: A Personal Account of a Nation's Struggle in the Second World War. Columbia University Press.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-11-067118-6.
- ^ Budapesti Közlöny, 17 October 1944
- ^ Hivatalos Közlöny, 27 January 1945
- ^ a b Signor, pp. 290
- ^ Signor, pp. 290.
- ^ Signor, pp. 291.
- ^ a b Sinor, pp. 291.
- ^ a b Sinor, pp. 291
- ISBN 963-9015-08-3.
- ^ Tarján M., Tamás. "Szálasi Ferenc születése". Rubicon (Hungarian Historical Information Dissemination) (in Hungarian).
- ISBN 978-0-8143-2561-2.
- ISBN 978-1-84603-324-7.
- ^ Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism, 1914-1945, Routledge, 1996, page 420
- ISBN 0-8264-7856-5
External links
- Media related to History of Hungary between the World Wars at Wikimedia Commons