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

governed by a National Council made up of Under-Secretaries, presided over
by the Social Democrat Karl Renner, also in favor of union. In the Austrian
elections held in February 1920, the Social Democratic Party won, elevating
Renner to the post of Chancellor, a post he filled until June 1920.
At the Paris Peace Conference, Austria – same as Hungary – was not able to
state its case, could only outline its views. The Austrian government took a
position strictly on ethnic grounds but soon had to realize that it had to give up
all claim to the Sudetenland to the newly created Czechoslovakia. In part
because the Entente Powers have promised it a long time ago to a future
Czechoslovak state, partly because it had never been historically an Austrian
province, and finally, it would be impossible to attach it to Austria due to its
geographic location. The continued retention of South Tyrol was also a loss due
to British-French pledges to Italy. Austria’s territorial ambitions were only
promising in two areas: the zone around Klagenfurt, and the Western Hungary
strip, the former Borderland, populated mainly by Germans, it is true – but not
Austrians.
How was Austria, on the same losing side in the war as Hungary, able to
emerge from its defeat with territorial gains? The answer is surprising from
several points of view. “For a long time, an attitude of empire was prevalent
and it occurred to no one to identify the various provinces of the empire with
Austria. This view of empire, however, allowed a latent sense of Austrian
consciousness to lurk. No matter how much they spoke of ‘German’
imperialism on the Entente side when talking of Vienna, the reality was
Vienna’s dynastic imperialism, with little to do with Austrian nationalistic
imperialism. At the collapse of the Empire, the dynastic stand-point was pushed
aside and replaced by a country, mostly civil but in the long term, oriented
towards nationalism. This orientation, however, was only latent, not realized.
(…) Among the foreign policy moves of the Austrian Republic, these
conditions are clearly evident.” 94
It follows from this then, that the newly created German-Austria Republic
was, in some ways, more sheltered from the small but eager countries – Czech
and Slovak, Romanian, Serb – who finished on the victorious side with the
Entente Powers, than Hungary. Their hunger for territory and its attendant
military , economic, trade and financial benefits knew no bounds. Their desire
for an even more unfair border for Hungary is well documented, one that would
have seen vast areas of purely Hungarian populated areas torn from the country.
The Czechoslovak demand, as noted before, laid claim to Northern Hungary
along the line from Dévény (Devin), along the Danube, then Vác – Gyöngyös –
Miskolc – Tokaj – Sátoraljaújhely – Csap – Verecke Pass. It would have
included the coal deposits of Salgótarján, the industries around Borsod and a
large part of the Tokaj vineyards. It would have contained a part of Sub-
Carpathia from Verecke along the Ung River to the upper Tisza River. The
94 Ormos, Mária: Padovától Trianonig 1918–1920 [From Padua to Trianon 1918-1920].
Budapest, 1983, p. 150.
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