Trianon Ignored—Again!

It gave me a heart-felt shock to note that the Democratic Party Platform (and, for that matter, the Republican Party Platform too) once again simply ignored Hungary’s right of access to the Adriatic—which that country had possessed until 1918. The Treaty of Trianon stripped the country of my birth of territory, mercilessly—especially lands where Hungarians were in a minority. The framers of the treaty wrong-headedly assumed that the mere speaking of a language should entitle a population to possess land—ignoring the time-honored right of conquest. Come to think of it, things do get confusing. Sometimes lands can be carved out of others by energetic immigrants—provided they have the backing of the United States and of world public opinion. At least one such comes to mind. If Hungary is lagging in its reconquista, it is due to lazy lobbying.

The map shows what we call Nagy Magyarország (Greater Hungary). The light green shows what remained. Note the tiny “separated territory” of Fiume in the lower left corner; it is also colored dark green; it had been governed by Hungary until 1918. The intervening larger region became the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs; it is colored grey to make Fiume stand out.

Alas. Our port then was Fiume, since then awkwardly renamed Rijek. Fiume on the Adriatic! It’s time to get back to lobbying; the 2016 election is just around the corner. As we say in Hungary, hold on to your gold korona, Greater Hungary will rise again.