Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
The Kingdom of Hungary (Hungarian: Magyar Királyság), referred to retrospectively as the Regency and the Horthy era, existed as a country from 1920 to 1946[a] under the rule of Miklós Horthy, Regent of Hungary, who officially represented the Hungarian monarchy. In reality there was no king, and attempts by King Charles IV to return to the throne shortly before his death were prevented by Horthy. Hungary under Horthy was characterized by its conservative, nationalist, and fiercely anti-communist character. The government was based on an unstable alliance of conservatives and right-wingers. Foreign policy was characterized by revisionism — the total or partial revision of the Treaty of Trianon, which had seen Hungary lose over 70% of its historic territory along with over three million Hungarians, who mostly lived in the border territories outside the new borders of the kingdom, in the Kingdom of Romania and the newly created states of Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (in greatly enlarged Romania there also remained a significant Hungarian population in Székely Land). Republican Austria, the successor of the former other half of the dual monarchy also received some minor territory from Hungary. Thus the post-1918 Kingdom can be described as a rump state. Hungary's interwar politics were dominated by a focus on the territorial losses suffered from this treaty, with the resentment continuing until the present.
This article is about the Kingdom of Hungary from 1920 to 1946. For the general article, see Kingdom of Hungary.
Kingdom of HungaryMagyar Királyság (Hungarian)
Rusyn[1][2] (in Subcarpathia)
- Roman Catholicism (55%)
- Calvinism (19%)
- Eastern Orthodoxy (11.6%)
- Lutheranism (5%)
- Judaism (4.9%)
- Eastern Catholicism (3.8%)
- Others (0.7%)
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy under an authoritarian regency (1920–1944)
Unitary Hungarist totalitarian state (1944–1945)
Unitary transitional coalition government (1945–1946)
Vacant[note 1]
29 February 1920
4 June 1920
26 March 1921
21 October 1921
2 November 1938
14 March 1939
30 August 1940
11 April 1941
27 June 1941
19 March 1944
16 October 1944
1 February 1946
92,833 km2 (35,843 sq mi)
93,073 km2 (35,936 sq mi)
172,149 km2 (66,467 sq mi)
7,980,143
8,688,319
14,669,100
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right (from 1941)
Nazi Germany's influence in Hungary has led some historians to conclude that the country increasingly became a client state after 1938.[7] The Kingdom of Hungary was an Axis Power during World War II, intent on regaining Hungarian-majority territory that had been lost in the Treaty of Trianon, which it mostly did in early 1941 after the First and Second Vienna Awards and after joining the German invasion of Yugoslavia. By 1944, following heavy setbacks for the Axis, Horthy's government negotiated secretly with the Allies, and also considered leaving the war. Because of this Hungary was occupied by Germany and Horthy was deposed. The extremist Arrow Cross Party's leader Ferenc Szálasi established a new Nazi-backed government, effectively turning Hungary into a German-occupied puppet state.
After World War II, the country fell within the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. It changed its name to the Hungarian State[8] (Hungarian: Magyar Állam) and the Second Hungarian Republic was soon thereafter proclaimed in 1946, succeeded by the communist Hungarian People's Republic in 1949.
Historical assessment[edit]
There has been some debate as to what extent the Hungarian state of the 1930s and '40s can be classified as fascist. According to Richard Griffiths, the regime's increasing economic dependence on Germany, its passage of antisemitic legislation and its participation in exterminating local Jews all place it within the realm of international fascism.[31]
