Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
Kingdom of Hungary Magyar Királyság | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920–1946 | |||||||||
| Motto: Regnum Mariae Patrona Hungariae (Latin) ("Kingdom of Mary, the Patron of Hungary") | |||||||||
| Anthem: Himnusz (English: "Hymn") | |||||||||
The Kingdom of Hungary in 1942 | |||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Budapest | ||||||||
| Official languages | Hungarian | ||||||||
| Recognized regional languages | Rusyn (in Subcarpathia) | ||||||||
| Spoken | Romanian • German • Slovak • Croatian • Serbian • Yiddish • Slovenian • Romani | ||||||||
| Ethnic groups (1941) | |||||||||
| Religion (1941) | List
| ||||||||
| Demonym | Hungarian | ||||||||
| Government |
| ||||||||
| King | |||||||||
• 1920–1946 | Vacant | ||||||||
| Head of state | |||||||||
• 1920–1944 | Miklós Horthy | ||||||||
• 1944–1945 | Ferenc Szálasi | ||||||||
• 1945–1946 | High National Council | ||||||||
| Prime minister | |||||||||
• 1920 (first) | Károly Huszár | ||||||||
• 1945–1946 (last) | Zoltán Tildy | ||||||||
| Legislature | Diet | ||||||||
• Upper | Felsőház | ||||||||
• Lower | Képviselőház | ||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar · World War II | ||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| 1920 | 92,833 km2 (35,843 sq mi) | ||||||||
| 1930 | 93,073 km2 (35,936 sq mi) | ||||||||
| 1941 | 172,149 km2 (66,467 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1920 | 7,980,143 | ||||||||
• 1930 | 8,688,319 | ||||||||
• 1941 | 14,669,100 | ||||||||
| Currency | Hungarian korona (1920–1927) Hungarian pengő (1927–1946) | ||||||||
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) | ||||||||
• Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | |||||||||
The Kingdom of Hungary, referred to retrospectively as the Regency, the Horthy era, the Horthy regime, and Horthyist Hungary, was the Hungarian state under a monarchy from 1920 to 1946 under the rule of Miklós Horthy for most of its existence, who officially represented the Hungarian monarchy after a period of revolutions and the counter-revolution as the Regent of Hungary. 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.
Horthy came to power after suppressing the Hungarian Soviet Republic during the period of White Terror, installing an authoritarian political system relying on the traditional economic elites and bureaucracy. Hungary under Horthy was characterized by its conservative, nationalist, and fiercely anti-communist character; some historians have described this system as para-fascist. The government was based on an unstable alliance of conservatives and right-wingers; while conservatism was predominant in the 1920s, afterwards Horthy manoeuvered between conservatives and the far right with fascist leanings. 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 in Transylvania 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. After a period of international isolation in the 1920s, it began maintaining ties with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
Nazi Germany's influence in Hungary has led some historians to conclude that the country increasingly became a client state after 1938. 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. As the Soviet Union reached Hungary, its anti-fascist parties found it possible to create a counter-government which sided with the Soviet Union in the last months of the war and began progressive reforms and the transition towards a republic.
After World War II, the country fell within the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. It changed its name to the Hungarian State (Hungarian: Magyar Állam) and the Second Hungarian Republic was soon thereafter proclaimed in 1946, succeeded by the communist Hungarian People's Republic in 1949.