The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

the representatives of Romania, Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbia-
Croatia-Slovenia, announced on December 1 of the previous year, handed a
joint memorandum to the Entente Powers, stating their territorial demands
against Hungary. In it, they objected against any possible request(s) for a
plebiscite from Hungary. [A plebiscite denied is a plebiscite taken-ed.] It is
important to note here that in February-March of 1919, the idea of annexing
Western Hungary to Austria had not even surfaced, although the Interim
Austrian National Assembly representatives of the Great-Germany direction
raised such claims in October of 1918. They were the ones who proposed the
Anschluss, or union with Germany and the National Council proclaimed it on
November 17. The peace treaty terms with Austria was handed to the Austrian
representatives on June 2, 1919 in Paris which defined the Hungarian-Austrian
border along the 1867 line, from the time of the Dual Monarchy (the
Lajta/Leitha River, peaks of the Rozália mountain range and the Lappincs
River, a line that served as a border for the previous millennia). This last was
not by accident because the Entente Powers knew very well that pre-1867,
Austria did not exist as an independent country and post-1867 only as the other
half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with Hungary.
In reaching what we today understand as statehood, Austria had taken a
unique road. For a millennia, the current country was merely a province – albeit
a central one – of the Habsburg Empire. Hence, Austria as a semi-independent
country came into being in 1867 with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise
(Augsleich). The Hungarian Kingdom, on the other hand, became an
independent country with the crowning of King Saint Stephen in 1001, almost
900 years before. The facts of the unique historical ‘statehood’ of present day
Austria are as follows: 976-1156 - estates of counts [frontier counts like those
of the Welsh Marches-ed.], 1156-1453 - dukedoms, 1490 – archdukedoms,
1521-1522 – perpetual provinces, 1564 – after the Habsburg family division
into three parts (Upper and Lower Austria; Tyrol; Styria and Carinthia), 1648 –
center of the Habsburg dynasty, 1804 – center of Habsburg empire. From 1867-
1918, a new state form in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, its western provinces
organized as an empire, 93 while its eastern allied country, Hungary, is a
kingdom. Its joint ruler at the time was Francis Joseph (1830-1916) who was
crowned Austrian emperor in 1848 and Hungarian king in 1867.
After the military collapse of the Dual Monarchy, the Anschluss movement
gained strength in the Fall of 1918, which had made attempts at union with
Germany in the 19 th century. The aspiration was supported by most Austrian
parties and associations because they had doubts about the viability of an
independent Austria shrunk to its oldest provinces. After the proclamation on
Nov. 12, 1918 of the German-Austrian Republic (Deutschösterreich) and the
announced intent of union with democratic Germany shortly after, Austria was
93 Ausztria. In: Magyar Nagylexikon. Főszerk/ed-in-chief: Élesztős, László. Volume II.
Budapest, 1994, pp. 659–665; Zöllner, Erich: Ausztria története [History of Austria].
Budapest, 1998.
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