Editing Hungary (section)

=== Between the World Wars (1918–1941) ===
{{Main|Hungary between the World Wars|Hungarian interwar economy|Treaty of Trianon}}{{More sources|subsection|date=April 2025}}[[File:Trianon consequences.png|left|thumb|With the [[Treaty of Trianon]], Hungary lost 72% of its territory, its sea ports, and 3,425,000 ethnic Hungarians.<ref>{{cite book|author=Miklós Molnár|title=A Concise History of Hungary|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00moln|url-access=registration|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66736-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00moln/page/262 262]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Western Europe: Challenge and Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVBB1a0rC70C&pg=RA1-PA360|year=1990|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-800-6|pages=359–360}}</ref>{{legend|#cd3318|Majority Hungarian areas (according to the 1910 census) detached from Hungary}}]]

Following the First World War, Hungary underwent a period of profound political upheaval, beginning with the [[Aster Revolution]] in 1918, which brought the social-democratic [[Mihály Károlyi]] to power as prime minister. The [[Royal Hungarian Honvéd|Hungarian Royal Honvéd army]] still had more than 1,400,000 soldiers<ref>{{cite book|author=Martin Kitchen|author-link=Martin Kitchen|title=Europe Between the Wars|publisher=[[Routledge]]|year=2014|page=190|isbn=9781317867531|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=36WsAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA190}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ignác Romsics|title=Dismantling of Historic Hungary: The Peace Treaty of Trianon, 1920 Issue 3 of CHSP Hungarian authors series East European monographs|publisher=Social Science Monographs|year=2002|page=62|isbn=9780880335058}}</ref> when Károlyi was installed. Károlyi yielded to U.S. President [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s demand for [[pacifism]] by ordering the disarmament of the Hungarian army.<ref name="Dixon 1986">Dixon J. C. [https://books.google.com/books?id=OKDRvNHdraoC&pg=PA34 ''Defeat and Disarmament, Allied Diplomacy and Politics of Military Affairs in Austria, 1918–1922'']. Associated University Presses 1986. p.&nbsp;34.</ref><ref name="Sharp 2008">Sharp A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NQodBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA156 ''The Versailles Settlement: Peacemaking after the First World War, 1919–1923'']{{Dead link|date=April 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Palgrave Macmillan 2008. p.&nbsp;156. {{ISBN|9781137069689}}</ref> Disarmament meant that Hungary was to remain without a national defence at a time of particular vulnerability. During the rule of Károlyi's pacifist cabinet, Hungary lost control over approximately 75% of its pre-war territories ({{Convert|325411|km2|sqmi}}) without a fight and was subject to foreign occupation. The [[Little Entente]], sensing an opportunity, invaded the country from three sides—[[Hungarian-Romanian War|Romania invaded Transylvania]], Czechoslovakia annexed [[Upper Hungary]] (today's Slovakia), and a joint [[Kingdom of Serbia|Serb]]-[[French Army|French]] coalition annexed [[Vojvodina]] and other southern regions. In March 1919, communists led by [[Béla Kun]] ousted the Károlyi government and proclaimed the [[Hungarian Soviet Republic]] (''Tanácsköztársaság''), followed by a thorough [[Red Terror (Hungary)|Red Terror]] campaign. Despite some successes on the Czechoslovak front, Kun's forces were ultimately unable to resist the Romanian invasion; by August 1919, Romanian troops occupied Budapest and ousted Kun.

[[File:Portraits de Miklós Horthy.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Miklós Horthy]], Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1944)]]

In November 1919, rightist forces led by former Austro-Hungarian admiral [[Miklós Horthy]] entered Budapest; exhausted by the war and its aftermath, the populace accepted Horthy's leadership. In January 1920, parliamentary elections were held, and Horthy was proclaimed regent of the reestablished [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Kingdom of Hungary]], inaugurating the so-called "Horthy era" (''Horthy-kor''). The new government worked quickly to normalise foreign relations while turning a blind eye to a [[White Terror (Hungary)|White Terror]] that swept through the countryside; extrajudicial killings of suspected communists and Jews lasted well into 1920. On 4 June 1920, the [[Treaty of Trianon]] established new borders for Hungary. The country lost 71% of its territory and 66% of its pre-war population, as well as many sources of raw materials and its sole port at [[Rijeka|Fiume]].<ref name="Macartney37">{{cite book|last=Macartney|first=C. A.|title=Hungary and her successors: The Treaty of Trianon and Its Consequences 1919–1937|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1937}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Richard|last=Bernstein|title=East on the Danube: Hungary's Tragic Century|work=The New York Times|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E3D91531F93AA3575BC0A9659C8B63&pagewanted=2|date=9 August 2003|access-date=15 March 2008}}</ref> Though the revision of the treaty quickly rose to the top of the national political agenda, the Horthy government was not willing to resort to military intervention to do so.

The initial years of the Horthy regime were preoccupied with putsch attempts by [[Charles IV of Hungary|Charles IV]], the Austro-Hungarian [[pretender]]; continued suppression of communists; and a migration crisis triggered by the Trianon territorial changes. The government's actions continued to drift right with the passage of [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] laws and, because of the continued isolation of the Little Entente, economic and then political gravitation towards [[Kingdom of Italy#Fascist regime (1922–1943)|Italy]] and [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]. The [[Great Depression]] further exacerbated the situation, and the popularity of fascist politicians increased, such as [[Gyula Gömbös]] and [[Ferenc Szálasi]], promising economic and social recovery. Horthy's nationalist agenda reached its apogee in 1938 and 1940, when the Nazis rewarded Hungary's staunchly pro-Germany foreign policy in the [[First Vienna Award|First]] and [[Second Vienna Award]]s, peacefully restoring ethnic-Hungarian-majority areas lost after Trianon. In 1939, Hungary regained further territory from Czechoslovakia [[Slovak–Hungarian War|through force]]. Hungary [[Tripartite Pact|formally joined]] the [[Axis powers]] on 20 November 1940 and in 1941 participated in the [[invasion of Yugoslavia]], gaining some of its former territories in the south.