WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.899 Welcome to this deep dive. Glad to be here. I 00:00:02.899 --> 00:00:04.740 am I'm so glad you're joining us today because 00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:07.480 we are looking at a single historical event that 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:10.660 is just staggering in its scale. Truly staggering. 00:00:10.859 --> 00:00:12.500 We're talking about a geopolitical shockwave 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:15.820 that completely redrew the map of Europe. Right. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.480 It triggered this massive immediate economic 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.600 collapse, and honestly, it continues to fuel 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.260 intense political tensions well over a century 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:26.579 later. It really does. Today's source material 00:00:26.579 --> 00:00:29.539 is this extensive, incredibly detailed examination 00:00:29.539 --> 00:00:31.899 of the Treaty of Trinon. Yeah, and it is a lot 00:00:31.899 --> 00:00:34.899 to take in. It is. Our mission today is to break 00:00:34.899 --> 00:00:38.859 down exactly how the messy, chaotic end of the 00:00:38.859 --> 00:00:42.259 Austro -Hungarian Empire after World War I resulted 00:00:42.259 --> 00:00:44.799 in a treaty that completely dismantled the historic 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:47.200 Kingdom of Hungary. Right. OK, let's unpack this 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:48.899 way. Scratch that. I know we can't use that word. 00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:51.380 Let's just dive in. Because untangling a thousand 00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:54.079 -year -old, heavily integrated, multi -ethnic 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:56.880 kingdom is an absolute logistical nightmare. 00:00:57.240 --> 00:01:00.840 It is a total nightmare. And to really put yourself 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:03.840 in the mindset of the people living through this, 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:07.120 I want you to imagine your own country waking 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:09.599 up one day. Just a normal Tuesday. Right. Waking 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:12.159 up to find that it has suddenly lost over two 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:15.560 -thirds of its territory. Wow. Imagine that millions 00:01:15.560 --> 00:01:18.959 of your fellow citizens are now, without ever 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:21.480 moving from their homes, suddenly living in foreign 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:24.359 nations. Just the borders moving over them. Exactly. 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:27.180 That is the sheer scale of the disruption we're 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:29.879 talking about. Our goal today is to give you 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:33.200 a shortcut to understanding this massively complex 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:36.019 piece of history. We want to look past the endless 00:01:36.019 --> 00:01:39.480 lists of dates and focus on the human and geopolitical 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:41.840 realities that force these lines to be drawn. 00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:43.920 So let's jump right into the collapse. Let's 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.540 do it. It is the end of 1918. World War One is 00:01:46.540 --> 00:01:49.120 lost. Right. The Austro -Hungarian Empire is 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:51.079 fracturing along ethnic and political lines. 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:53.959 In Budapest, we see the Astor Revolution kick 00:01:53.959 --> 00:01:56.180 off. Named after the autumn flowers. Yeah, the 00:01:56.180 --> 00:01:58.400 flowers that deserting soldiers and protesters 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:00.439 pinned to their hats as they took to the streets. 00:02:00.780 --> 00:02:03.849 Right, right. This popular uprising sweeps a 00:02:03.849 --> 00:02:07.310 progressive, pacifist, oistocrat named Mihaly 00:02:07.310 --> 00:02:09.610 Karolyi into power as prime minister. And he 00:02:09.610 --> 00:02:12.729 inherits a total disaster. He does. Karolyi looks 00:02:12.729 --> 00:02:15.509 at this chaotic, crumbling empire and decides 00:02:15.509 --> 00:02:18.330 to make a massive geopolitical gamble. A really 00:02:18.330 --> 00:02:20.969 risky one. He believes that if Hungary transforms 00:02:20.969 --> 00:02:23.810 instantly into a peaceful, liberal democracy, 00:02:24.530 --> 00:02:26.629 the victorious allies will treat them fairly 00:02:26.629 --> 00:02:29.389 at the negotiating table. Which is... He's heavily 00:02:29.389 --> 00:02:31.479 leaning on U .S. President Woodrow... Wilson's 00:02:31.479 --> 00:02:34.979 14 points, which pushed for a just peace without 00:02:34.979 --> 00:02:37.860 punitive annexation. Right. The idealism was 00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:40.280 strong. And in a move that still baffles military 00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:43.319 historians, Karolyi's government actually orders 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:45.860 the unilateral self -disarmament of the entire 00:02:45.860 --> 00:02:48.659 Hungarian army. Yeah. Over a million soldiers 00:02:48.659 --> 00:02:50.780 are essentially told to lay down their weapons 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:53.699 and go home. What's fascinating here is the devastating 00:02:53.699 --> 00:02:57.120 real -world consequence of this pure idealism. 00:02:57.240 --> 00:03:00.389 It cannot be overstated. No, it can't. Karolyi 00:03:00.389 --> 00:03:02.969 genuinely wanted to prove to the world that Hungary 00:03:02.969 --> 00:03:05.689 was a new democratic nation that shouldn't be 00:03:05.689 --> 00:03:08.069 punished for the sins of the old Habsburg Empire. 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:11.430 But by completely disarming, he created a massive 00:03:11.430 --> 00:03:13.469 power vacuum. Doesn't left the door wide open. 00:03:13.629 --> 00:03:16.069 Hungary's neighbors, specifically Romania, the 00:03:16.069 --> 00:03:18.729 newly formed Czechoslovakia and Serbia saw an 00:03:18.729 --> 00:03:21.289 undefended frontier and simply marched right 00:03:21.289 --> 00:03:25.490 in. Wow. They occupied huge historically Hungarian 00:03:25.490 --> 00:03:28.840 regions without firing a shot. But wait, relying 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:31.360 entirely on Wilson's 14 points in the middle 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:34.460 of a collapsing empire seems incredibly naive, 00:03:34.759 --> 00:03:38.879 even for an idealist. Was Carolee purely acting 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:41.800 out of some utopian pacifism or was his government 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:44.000 just physically incapable of keeping an army 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.280 of over a million men fed, paid and organized 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:50.360 at that point? Well, it is a bit of both. But 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:52.800 the idealism was the blinding factor. OK. The 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:54.909 state apparatus was certainly failing. Supply 00:03:54.909 --> 00:03:57.289 lines were shattered and soldiers were exhausted 00:03:57.289 --> 00:04:00.349 and mutinous. Standard end of war chaos. Exactly. 00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:02.610 But a more pragmatic leader would have attempted 00:04:02.610 --> 00:04:04.909 to salvage a defensive force to hold the borders 00:04:04.909 --> 00:04:06.889 pending an armistice. Right, just hold the line. 00:04:07.129 --> 00:04:10.050 But Carolee proactively dismantled his leverage. 00:04:10.379 --> 00:04:13.819 It is a harsh historical lesson that good intentions 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:16.959 and democratic ideals do not survive geopolitical 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:19.879 realities when you are surrounded by rival nations 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:21.800 who are actively looking to expand their own 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:24.040 borders. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:27.360 Looking through the data from November 1918, 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:30.420 it's wild to see that the loss of the war and 00:04:30.420 --> 00:04:32.680 these encroaching foreign armies didn't just 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:35.800 mean a loss of land. It brought a completely 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:39.220 unexpected, highly immediate crisis into the 00:04:39.220 --> 00:04:43.490 mix. Ah, yes, the coal crisis. By the time Caroli 00:04:43.490 --> 00:04:45.889 takes over, the old imperial trade networks had 00:04:45.889 --> 00:04:48.610 utterly collapsed. This meant a sudden, complete 00:04:48.610 --> 00:04:50.829 stop to coal imports from the mines in Silesia. 00:04:51.009 --> 00:04:53.060 Right. At one point in November, Hungary was 00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:55.959 down to exactly two days of national coal stocks. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.000 Two days. Just two days to power an entire nation. 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:02.199 Coal was the absolute lifeblood of the 1918 economy. 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:04.540 Yeah. It heated the homes of millions of people 00:05:04.540 --> 00:05:07.319 facing a bitter central European winter. And 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:09.779 it was cold. Very cold around the factories. 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:12.579 And crucially, it powered the locomotive network. 00:05:12.620 --> 00:05:15.579 Right, the trains. The new nation of Czechoslovakia, 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:18.360 along with the Allied command, recognized this 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:21.910 massive vulnerability immediately. and they weaponized 00:05:21.910 --> 00:05:25.709 it. They enacted a strict blockade on coal shipments 00:05:25.709 --> 00:05:29.230 into Hungary. The rail network was entirely paralyzed. 00:05:29.509 --> 00:05:32.069 So trains are just sitting there? Exactly. Food 00:05:32.069 --> 00:05:33.790 couldn't get from the countryside to the cities 00:05:33.790 --> 00:05:36.589 and Hungarians were literally freezing in their 00:05:36.589 --> 00:05:39.930 homes. To get that blockade lifted and get the 00:05:39.930 --> 00:05:42.029 coal flowing again, the Hungarian government 00:05:42.029 --> 00:05:44.250 was forced into a desperate corner. They had 00:05:44.250 --> 00:05:48.459 no choice. None. They had to agree to allow Czechoslovak 00:05:48.459 --> 00:05:51.459 troops to advance even further into their territory 00:05:51.459 --> 00:05:54.319 I mean think about modern energy crises today 00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:57.660 for a second Think about how a lack of basic 00:05:57.660 --> 00:06:00.819 resources heating fuel can completely dictate 00:06:00.819 --> 00:06:03.180 a country's diplomatic and military strategy. 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:06.120 It's a direct parallel. Hungary was literally 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:09.060 trading its historic land just to keep its citizens 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:11.480 from freezing to death in the dark. Exactly. 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:14.220 How does a government possibly survive that level 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:16.579 of domestic humiliation? It doesn't. That level 00:06:16.579 --> 00:06:19.360 of desperation destroys any semblance of political 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:25.449 stability. rapidly loses the support of the public. 00:06:25.709 --> 00:06:27.750 Because they can't deliver. Right. They couldn't 00:06:27.750 --> 00:06:29.769 protect the historical borders from invasion. 00:06:30.009 --> 00:06:31.889 They couldn't keep the heat on in the capital. 00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:35.110 The population feels entirely betrayed by the 00:06:35.110 --> 00:06:38.089 promises of Western democracy, which paves the 00:06:38.089 --> 00:06:41.110 way for a radical, violent shift in leadership. 00:06:41.269 --> 00:06:44.870 And that shift arrives in March 1919. A very 00:06:44.870 --> 00:06:47.870 quick pivot. Carolee's government collapses and 00:06:47.870 --> 00:06:50.689 a communist coup d 'etat led by Bella Kuhn takes 00:06:50.689 --> 00:06:53.529 over. Right. Establishing the Hungarian Soviet 00:06:53.529 --> 00:06:57.110 Republic. So now, right in the middle of a destabilized 00:06:57.110 --> 00:07:00.129 Europe, you have this militant communist rump 00:07:00.129 --> 00:07:03.310 state trying to assume total control. And Kuhn's 00:07:03.310 --> 00:07:05.649 government was incredibly chaotic. I can't imagine. 00:07:05.670 --> 00:07:07.750 It was almost immediately unpopular, especially 00:07:07.750 --> 00:07:10.449 outside of Budapest. Why is that? Well, the communists 00:07:10.449 --> 00:07:12.730 declared the nationalization of the large aristocratic 00:07:12.730 --> 00:07:15.170 estates. OK, which sounds appealing to the working 00:07:15.170 --> 00:07:17.889 class. It does. But they didn't actually distribute 00:07:17.889 --> 00:07:20.750 that land to the peasant farmer. Oh, big mistake. 00:07:21.290 --> 00:07:24.029 Massive. Instead, they kept them intact as state 00:07:24.029 --> 00:07:27.449 -run agricultural cooperatives. Right. This completely 00:07:27.449 --> 00:07:29.930 alienated the rural peasantry, who just wanted 00:07:29.930 --> 00:07:33.149 to own their own farms. Of course. To maintain 00:07:33.149 --> 00:07:35.850 control over an increasingly hostile countryside, 00:07:36.410 --> 00:07:39.769 Cunn's government relied on terror squads. Yeah, 00:07:39.990 --> 00:07:42.810 the Lennon boys. The most infamous were the Lennon 00:07:42.810 --> 00:07:46.430 boys, heavily armed, leather -clad enforcers 00:07:46.430 --> 00:07:49.149 who roamed the countryside in armored trains. 00:07:49.449 --> 00:07:51.589 Sounds like a movie villain. It really does. 00:07:51.949 --> 00:07:54.769 They inflicted a red terror to crush counterrevolutionaries 00:07:54.769 --> 00:07:57.069 and hoard grain for the cities. That sounds like 00:07:57.069 --> 00:07:59.860 a recipe for an immediate civil war. How did 00:07:59.860 --> 00:08:02.560 Kahn manage to stay in power even for a few months 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:05.180 with the peasantry actively resisting and foreign 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:07.560 armies already inside their borders? Because 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:10.000 Kahn managed to do one crucial thing that Carolee 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.399 refused to do. Which was? He built an army. He 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:16.120 rallied a Red Army, recruiting radicalized factory 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:19.100 workers from Budapest, but also enlisting a massive 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:21.420 number of former Imperial military officers. 00:08:21.579 --> 00:08:23.800 Wait, Imperial officers fighting for a communist 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:27.610 government? Exactly. These veteran officers despised 00:08:27.610 --> 00:08:31.310 communism, but they joined CUNS forces purely 00:08:31.310 --> 00:08:34.789 out of deep seated patriotism. Oh, I see. They 00:08:34.789 --> 00:08:37.629 saw the Red Army as the only remaining vehicle 00:08:37.629 --> 00:08:40.330 to fight back against the occupying Czechoslovakian 00:08:40.330 --> 00:08:43.250 Romanian forces and save the historic borders 00:08:43.250 --> 00:08:45.669 of Hungary. And incredibly, they actually had 00:08:45.669 --> 00:08:48.590 some military success at first. They did. They 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:50.929 launched a northern offensive and successfully 00:08:50.929 --> 00:08:53.009 pushed back the Czechoslovak troops. They're 00:08:53.009 --> 00:08:56.169 actually reclaiming territory. Right. But then 00:08:56.169 --> 00:08:58.909 the communist leadership completely shoots themselves 00:08:58.909 --> 00:09:01.389 in the foot geopolitically, right? They absolutely 00:09:01.389 --> 00:09:04.529 sabotage their own momentum. How so? This military 00:09:04.529 --> 00:09:08.149 push ultimately failed because of a massive internal 00:09:08.149 --> 00:09:10.950 ideological split. OK. Once the Red Army conquered 00:09:10.950 --> 00:09:13.750 those northern territories, the military officers 00:09:13.750 --> 00:09:16.029 expected them to be reintegrated into Hungary. 00:09:16.149 --> 00:09:19.049 Right. The patriotic goal. But instead. Kun's 00:09:19.049 --> 00:09:21.090 communist leadership declared the establishment 00:09:21.090 --> 00:09:23.669 of a Slovak Soviet Republic in the reclaimed 00:09:23.669 --> 00:09:26.029 land. You've got to be kidding me. Nope. They 00:09:26.029 --> 00:09:28.570 wanted to spread global international communism, 00:09:28.730 --> 00:09:30.970 not restore the borders of the Kingdom of Hungary. 00:09:31.230 --> 00:09:33.990 Wow. The moment the patriotic Hungarian military 00:09:33.990 --> 00:09:36.850 officers realized this, their support evaporated. 00:09:36.950 --> 00:09:40.210 I bet. The army's morale disintegrated. Seeing 00:09:40.210 --> 00:09:43.330 this weakness, a massive Romanian offensive broke 00:09:43.330 --> 00:09:45.809 through the eastern lines. Just a total collapse. 00:09:45.950 --> 00:09:49.509 By August 1919. The Red Army was routed. Kuhn 00:09:49.509 --> 00:09:51.909 fled the country and Romanian troops physically 00:09:51.909 --> 00:09:55.110 marched in and occupied Budapest itself. So Kuhn's 00:09:55.110 --> 00:09:58.690 government collapses and by August 1919, Romanian 00:09:58.690 --> 00:10:01.889 forces are literally looting the capital. Right. 00:10:01.990 --> 00:10:04.710 It's a period of total national humiliation. 00:10:05.450 --> 00:10:07.570 It isn't until the Romanian forces finally withdraw 00:10:07.570 --> 00:10:09.970 under allied pressure and a new conservative 00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:12.409 government stabilizes the country that Hungary 00:10:12.409 --> 00:10:15.230 can even think about diplomacy again. A very 00:10:15.230 --> 00:10:18.059 long, painful process. Brings us to the Paris 00:10:18.059 --> 00:10:21.200 Peace Conference in 1920. Finally. Hungary gets 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:24.039 to send a delegation led by the prominent aristocratic 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:26.840 statesman, Count Albert Apony, and they do not 00:10:26.840 --> 00:10:28.759 show up to Paris empty -handed. No, they do not. 00:10:28.860 --> 00:10:30.960 They bring what became known as the memoirs. 00:10:31.059 --> 00:10:33.500 This is a monumental defense. Prudely massive. 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:38.059 We're talking 346 documents, 4 ,000 pages of 00:10:38.059 --> 00:10:41.340 historical and economic arguments, and over 100 00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:44.399 heavily detailed ethnographical maps. Including 00:10:44.399 --> 00:10:47.580 the famous red map. Yes, Count Tilecki's red 00:10:47.580 --> 00:10:49.899 map, all designed to mathematically and historically 00:10:49.899 --> 00:10:52.360 prove why Hungary's borders should not be carved 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:54.720 up. It was a massive intellectual undertaking, 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:58.200 but it contained a fatal diplomatic flaw. And 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:01.120 what was that? The Hungarian arguments woven 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:03.679 throughout those 4 ,000 pages were fundamentally 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.240 contradictory. OK. In one breath, the delegation 00:11:07.240 --> 00:11:09.840 demanded the total preservation of their historic 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:12.600 thousand -year -old borders based on geographic 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:15.379 and economic unity. Right. Explicitly arguing 00:11:15.379 --> 00:11:17.720 that no votes were needed to justify their rule. 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:19.500 Makes sense from their perspective. But in the 00:11:19.500 --> 00:11:21.919 very next breath, realizing the allies were obsessed 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:24.039 with Wilson's concept of self -determination, 00:11:24.740 --> 00:11:27.860 they demanded Democratic plebiscites local referendums 00:11:27.860 --> 00:11:30.120 for the minority populations to choose their 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:32.120 own fate. Wait, you can't have it both ways. 00:11:32.419 --> 00:11:35.500 Exactly. You cannot argue both absolute historical 00:11:35.500 --> 00:11:38.159 right and democratic self -determination simultaneously 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.759 and expect the allied powers to take your defense 00:11:40.759 --> 00:11:43.360 seriously. It's the diplomatic equivalent of 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:45.960 saying, I never borrowed your car and besides 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:48.200 it was already dented when I took it. Spot on. 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:51.139 You completely destroy your own credibility by 00:11:51.139 --> 00:11:54.200 offering conflicting alibis. If we connect this 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:57.179 to the bigger picture compounding that error. 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:01.019 Counterpointy himself was a terrible choice for 00:12:01.019 --> 00:12:03.460 lead negotiator. Really? I thought he was highly 00:12:03.460 --> 00:12:05.720 respected. He was an incredibly respected elder 00:12:05.720 --> 00:12:09.179 statesman within Hungary, eloquent, and multilingual. 00:12:09.419 --> 00:12:11.929 Right. But before the war, while serving as the 00:12:11.929 --> 00:12:14.889 minister of education, he was the primary architect 00:12:14.889 --> 00:12:18.029 of harsh majorization policies. Oh, boy. These 00:12:18.029 --> 00:12:20.549 were aggressive laws designed to suppress minority 00:12:20.549 --> 00:12:23.649 languages in state schools and forced the cultural 00:12:23.649 --> 00:12:26.389 assimilation of Slovaks, Romanians and Serbs 00:12:26.389 --> 00:12:29.230 into Hungarian culture. So he was the face of 00:12:29.230 --> 00:12:31.850 the oppression. Exactly. The opposing delegations 00:12:31.850 --> 00:12:34.490 in Paris, particularly the Czechoslovaks, were 00:12:34.490 --> 00:12:37.169 intimately familiar with this. They gleefully 00:12:37.169 --> 00:12:39.789 used Aponi's own track record against him. They 00:12:39.789 --> 00:12:42.190 presented his past educational policies to the 00:12:42.190 --> 00:12:45.610 allied leaders as undeniable proof that Hungary 00:12:45.610 --> 00:12:48.230 had been systematically oppressing its non -Hungarian 00:12:48.230 --> 00:12:50.809 minorities for decades. He practically handed 00:12:50.809 --> 00:12:53.649 them the evidence. Aponi was essentially signing 00:12:53.649 --> 00:12:56.690 his own diplomatic death warrant just by walking 00:12:56.690 --> 00:12:59.720 into the room. So they get to Versailles. O 'Pony's 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:02.080 defense completely fails to sway the Allies, 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:06.379 and the ink dries on the final treaty on June 00:13:06.379 --> 00:13:09.500 4th, 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace. Right. 00:13:09.899 --> 00:13:12.740 Just how brutal were the final terms imposed 00:13:12.740 --> 00:13:15.100 on the country? Staggering. They didn't just 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:18.490 lose the periphery. Hungary lost 72 % of its 00:13:18.490 --> 00:13:20.409 total territory. Let that sink in for a second. 00:13:21.009 --> 00:13:23.769 72%. And furthermore, they lost 64 % of their 00:13:23.769 --> 00:13:26.169 total population. Unbelievable. The military 00:13:26.169 --> 00:13:28.470 was strictly capped at a tiny, lightly armed 00:13:28.470 --> 00:13:32.029 mercenary force of 35 ,000 men. So no real defense. 00:13:32.190 --> 00:13:34.070 Right. Designed only for internal policing, not 00:13:34.070 --> 00:13:36.490 national defense. They lost all of their historic 00:13:36.490 --> 00:13:38.789 access to the Adriatic Sea. Wow. But the most 00:13:38.789 --> 00:13:40.529 devastating number, the one that leaves the deepest 00:13:40.529 --> 00:13:44.059 psychological scar, is the human cost. 3 .3 million 00:13:44.059 --> 00:13:46.899 ethnic, native -speaking Hungarians suddenly 00:13:46.899 --> 00:13:49.799 woke up to find themselves as minorities living 00:13:49.799 --> 00:13:52.480 outside their motherland in the newly formed 00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:55.600 or heavily expanded countries of Romania, Czechoslovakia, 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.259 and Yugoslavia. So what does this all mean? The 00:13:58.259 --> 00:14:00.940 psychological shock is immense, obviously, but 00:14:00.940 --> 00:14:03.799 the empire had functioned as a highly integrated 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:06.539 autarky for generations. A fully self -sustaining 00:14:06.539 --> 00:14:09.679 system. Exactly. When Trinen severed that, you 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:12.740 didn't just lose territory, you severed the industrial 00:14:12.740 --> 00:14:15.080 western regions from the agricultural eastern 00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:19.450 regions. What does a 72 % territorial loss actually 00:14:19.450 --> 00:14:22.169 do to a functioning economy overnight? It induces 00:14:22.169 --> 00:14:24.690 total systemic paralysis. I can imagine. Post 00:14:24.690 --> 00:14:27.490 -Tran Hungary retained roughly 90 % of the old 00:14:27.490 --> 00:14:29.389 empire's engineering and printing industries, 00:14:29.789 --> 00:14:32.090 but they suddenly retained only 11 % of its timber 00:14:32.090 --> 00:14:35.009 and just 16 % of its iron ore. So you have the 00:14:35.009 --> 00:14:37.429 factors but no materials. The factories weren't 00:14:37.429 --> 00:14:39.769 hungry, but the raw materials required to run 00:14:39.769 --> 00:14:41.710 them were suddenly locked behind hostile foreign 00:14:41.710 --> 00:14:44.289 borders with high export tariffs. That is a disaster. 00:14:44.649 --> 00:14:47.169 Furthermore, the entire transportation infrastructure 00:14:47.169 --> 00:14:49.909 was ruined. The railway network of the kingdom 00:14:49.909 --> 00:14:52.470 had been built like a massive spider web with 00:14:52.470 --> 00:14:55.429 Budapest at the dead center. Right. The new borders 00:14:55.429 --> 00:14:58.529 simply bisected those railways seemingly at random. 00:14:58.909 --> 00:15:00.950 Trade routes were cut off. Domestic commerce 00:15:00.950 --> 00:15:04.320 was paralyzed and it triggered. massive, immediate 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:06.820 unemployment as industry simply ran out of raw 00:15:06.820 --> 00:15:09.480 materials and shut their doors. Here we have 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:11.820 to pause and ensure we're giving a fully balanced 00:15:11.820 --> 00:15:13.559 view of the source material. Very important. 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:16.179 Because how this treaty is remembered depends 00:15:16.179 --> 00:15:19.460 entirely on who you ask. For the Hungarians, 00:15:19.779 --> 00:15:23.179 the Treaty of Trinon was a dictated peace forced 00:15:23.179 --> 00:15:26.100 upon them, not a negotiated settlement. It was 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:29.059 viewed as a punitive, deeply unjust dismemberment 00:15:29.059 --> 00:15:32.059 of a historic kingdom. It birthed a collective 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:34.799 national trauma summed up by the fierce interwar 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:37.940 rallying cry, no, no, never. But we have to look 00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:39.820 at the opposing view to understand the modern 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:42.620 reality of the region. For the Romanians, the 00:15:42.620 --> 00:15:45.179 Slovaks, and the Serbs, the Treaty of Trinon 00:15:45.179 --> 00:15:47.639 was not a tragedy. It was a long overdue act 00:15:47.639 --> 00:15:49.960 of decolonization. A completely different lens. 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:53.279 It was a moment of profound national liberation. 00:15:53.899 --> 00:15:56.899 For decades, they had felt economically and culturally 00:15:56.899 --> 00:16:00.139 suppressed by a Hungarian ruling class that forced 00:16:00.139 --> 00:16:02.679 its language upon their schools and marginalized 00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:05.120 them politically. Right, going back to Aponi's 00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:07.899 policies. Exactly. From their perspective, the 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:10.159 treaty was simply writing centuries of historical 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:12.879 wrongs and finally allowing them the right to 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.340 self -determination in their own lands. We aren't 00:16:15.340 --> 00:16:17.759 here to arbitrate who is right. But it is vital 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:20.259 to see how the exact same borders drawn on a 00:16:20.259 --> 00:16:23.100 map can be viewed as either a catastrophic tragedy 00:16:23.100 --> 00:16:26.720 or a glorious triumph, depending entirely on 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:28.840 what your native language happens to be. But 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:31.080 surely the allies in Paris knew they were leaving 00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:34.000 millions of ethnic Hungarians completely stranded. 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:36.480 Did they just view it as the unavoidable cost 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:39.139 of dismantling an empire? In many ways, yes. 00:16:39.399 --> 00:16:42.399 The allied priority was creating strong, strategically 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:45.059 viable, buffer states in central Europe. To contain 00:16:45.059 --> 00:16:48.259 Germany? To contain both a future resurgent Germany 00:16:48.259 --> 00:16:50.879 and the spread of Russian Bolshevism. Ah, right. 00:16:50.980 --> 00:16:54.220 If drawing a defensible border for Czechoslovakia 00:16:54.220 --> 00:16:56.840 meant absorbing a few hundred thousand Hungarians 00:16:56.840 --> 00:16:59.539 along the Danube River, the allies considered 00:16:59.539 --> 00:17:03.580 that an acceptable strategic compromise. Geopolitics 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:05.960 consistently trumped ethnic boundaries. Which 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:08.140 brings us to the lingering question. How does 00:17:08.140 --> 00:17:11.609 a treaty signed in a French palace in 1920 continue 00:17:11.609 --> 00:17:14.130 to shape the world today. Because the legacy 00:17:14.130 --> 00:17:17.259 of Trinon didn't end when the ink dried. Exactly. 00:17:17.740 --> 00:17:20.279 That deep bitterness, that collective trauma 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:23.380 in Hungary over the lost lands and the separated 00:17:23.380 --> 00:17:27.059 3 .3 million ethnic Hungarians became the absolute 00:17:27.059 --> 00:17:29.380 center of their foreign policy for the next two 00:17:29.380 --> 00:17:31.460 decades. It consumed them. It ultimately led 00:17:31.460 --> 00:17:33.960 directly to Hungary's disastrous decision to 00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:36.700 align with Nazi Germany and join the Axis powers 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:39.819 in World War Two entirely based on promises from 00:17:39.819 --> 00:17:42.480 Hitler that those lost territories would be returned 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:44.619 to them. This raises an important question about 00:17:44.619 --> 00:17:47.369 historical consequences. which of course resulted 00:17:47.369 --> 00:17:49.890 in another catastrophic military defeat and a 00:17:49.890 --> 00:17:52.230 return to the Trinon borders. Right. But incredibly, 00:17:52.690 --> 00:17:55.430 the shadow of Trinon reaches right up into contemporary 00:17:55.430 --> 00:17:58.890 European politics. Yeah. Modern Hungarian politics 00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:01.509 are still heavily shaped by this specific event. 00:18:02.150 --> 00:18:03.930 The source material highlights that in 2011, 00:18:04.130 --> 00:18:05.970 the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban 00:18:05.970 --> 00:18:09.150 passed highly controversial laws. Very controversial. 00:18:09.319 --> 00:18:11.740 specifically granting citizenship and voting 00:18:11.740 --> 00:18:14.599 rights to extraterritorial ethnic Hungarians, 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:17.160 the descendants of those very people left on 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:19.980 the outside of the borders drawn at Trinen. It 00:18:19.980 --> 00:18:22.799 remains a deeply emotional, highly mobilizing 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:26.460 political issue over a century later. It proves 00:18:26.460 --> 00:18:28.900 that history is never safely confined to the 00:18:28.900 --> 00:18:31.970 past. It is an active ingredient. in today's 00:18:31.970 --> 00:18:34.089 geopolitics. Well, we are going to wrap it up 00:18:34.089 --> 00:18:36.130 there. Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:18:36.130 --> 00:18:38.549 deep dive into the Treaty of Trinon. It's been 00:18:38.549 --> 00:18:40.750 a fascinating journey. We've seen how a chaotic 00:18:40.750 --> 00:18:44.029 mix of a collapsing empire, lost wars, freezing 00:18:44.029 --> 00:18:47.009 coal shortages and completely contradictory diplomacy 00:18:47.009 --> 00:18:50.230 resulted in a geopolitical shockwave that shattered 00:18:50.230 --> 00:18:52.410 a kingdom and still ripples through the politics 00:18:52.410 --> 00:18:54.430 of Central Europe today. And before we go, I 00:18:54.430 --> 00:18:56.309 want to leave you with a fascinating concept 00:18:56.309 --> 00:18:58.569 to mull over on your own that builds on everything 00:18:58.569 --> 00:19:01.490 we've discussed today. Oh, I like this. Sociologists 00:19:01.490 --> 00:19:03.529 and geographers often talk about the concept 00:19:03.529 --> 00:19:06.250 of phantom borders, even though the lines of 00:19:06.250 --> 00:19:08.309 the Old Kingdom of Hungary were officially erased 00:19:08.309 --> 00:19:11.079 over a century ago. they haven't truly vanished. 00:19:11.500 --> 00:19:14.180 Oh, so? If you look at modern European maps detailing 00:19:14.180 --> 00:19:17.119 railway density, agricultural development, or 00:19:17.119 --> 00:19:19.200 even contemporary voting patterns in modern -day 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:22.339 Romania and Slovakia, the ghost of that old trion 00:19:22.339 --> 00:19:24.619 and border perfectly outlines itself in the data. 00:19:24.819 --> 00:19:27.660 That is wild. I invite you to consider, in a 00:19:27.660 --> 00:19:29.759 world where cultures and infrastructure are so 00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:32.619 deeply rooted, can a treaty drawn up in a palace 00:19:32.619 --> 00:19:35.380 hundreds of miles away ever truly erase a border? 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:37.740 Or does it just push that border beneath the 00:19:37.740 --> 00:19:39.819 surface of the data? waiting to be found.