Trianon, Treaty of

Trianon, Treaty of, 1920, agreement following World War I in which the Allies disposed of Hungarian territories. The internal chaos in Hungary that followed the dissolution (1918) of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy delayed the signing of a peace treaty with the Allies of World War I (excluding the United States and Russia, who did not sign it). The treaty, signed on June 4, 1920, at the Grand Trianon Palace at Versailles, France, reduced the size and population of Hungary by about two thirds, divesting it of virtually all areas that were not purely Magyar. Romania received Transylvania, part of the adjoining plain, and part of the Banat, including Timisoara. Czechoslovakia was confirmed in possession of Slovakia and Ruthenia. Yugoslavia (then the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) obtained Croatia, Slavonia, and the western section of the Banat. Austria was awarded the Burgenland, but the city of Sopron and its vicinity were returned to Hungary after a plebiscite (1921). Thus, Hungary was deprived of access to the sea and of some of its most valuable natural resources. The military establishment of the country was reduced to an army of 35,000. The Hungarian delegation signed the treaty under protest. Hungarian agitation for revision began immediately and was supported by the majority of the more than 3 million Magyars transferred to Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. Although Hungary recovered part of its lost territories in 1939–40, it lost these and was reduced to boundaries approximating those of 1920 by the peace treaty signed in 1947 at Paris.

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