History paper by Mathey, Éva
University of Debrecen

Popular Revisionist Expectations Toward the United States in Post-Trianon Hungary

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The dismemberment of the Kingdom of Hungary after the First World War and the subsequent Treaty of Trianon came as a shock for the Hungarians. The treaty, which the Allies dictated and not negotiated with Hungary, was considered unjust and its revision became a number-one concern for interwar Hungarian society, regardless of class and status of individuals.
Mainly defined by a set of traditional images of America as the land of freedom, democracy and fair play and the image of the United States as arbiter mundi, and at the same time based on significant political, historical and ideological tenets (i.e. the question of dismemberment, Wilson and the Fourteen Points, US boundary proposals for Hungary at the Paris Peace conference, American refusal to sign the Treaty of Trianon) Hungarians fed high expectations toward the United States relative to the revision of the Treaty of Trianon.
Beyond semi-official campaigns directed toward the United States, there were many examples of popular (or private) contributions to the revisionist cause. In the abundant Trianon literature one can find many pamphlets, open letters, brochures, newspaper articles and even book-length accounts by members of the Hungarian or the Hungarian-American intelligentsia, with most tenuous connections to Hungarian governmental circles or influential political groups. These popular utterances addressed either the American people in general, or one particular segment of the American public and political life in particular, such as, for example, American educators, the US Congress and its members, or even the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. The proposed paper intends to analyze these forms of popular revisionism toward the US and illuminate the desperation of contemporary Hungary to win any and all support for the revision of the Treaty of Trianon.



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