1914-1918 - The Great War
The fruition of Magyar political desires led to an intensification of their nationalistic activities; and to preserve the Magyar ascendancy in Hungary, the other nationalities of that country were subjected to ruthless repression. Magyar was made the only language permissible in the schools and in official assemblies. Slavic and Roumanian journals and educational institutions were suppressed. Economic and industrial success was made possible only by cooperation with Magyar nationalism. Suffrage was not granted on terms of equality to Hungarian Slavs and Roumans; and by other public and private methods of violence, the policy of repression by the Magyar minority in Hungary became more brutal than even the policy of repression by the Gentian majority in Austria.
Naturally, the progress of Magyarization in Hungary was met by a program of Pan-Slavism, supported by Russia, the center of the Slavic race. Accordingly, when the Great War became imminent, the Hungarian government, in Magyar hands, rallied whole-heartedly to the support of Austria, as the victory of Russia would mean the ascendancy of the Slavs in Hungary and the downfall of the Magyars.
On June 28, 1914, a Bosnian Serb assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne. Within days AustriaHungary presented Serbia with an ultimatum that made war inevitable. Tisza initially opposed the ultimatum but changed his mind when Germany supported Austria-Hungary. By late August, all the great European powers were at war. Bands playing military music and patriotic demonstrators expecting a quick, easy victory took to Budapest's streets after the declaration of war. However, Hungary, was ill prepared to fight. The country's armaments were obsolete, and its industries were not prepared for a war economy. In 1915 and 1916, Hungary felt the full impact of the war. Inflation ran rampant, wages were frozen, food shortages developed, and the government banned export of grain even to Austria. Franz Joseph died in 1916, and Karl IV (1916-18) became Hungary's new king. Before being crowned, however, Karl insisted that Hungarians has expanded voting rights. Tisza resigned in response. By 1917 the Hungarian government was slowly losing domestic control in the face of mounting popular dissatisfaction caused by the war. Of the 3.6 million soldiers Hungary sent to war, 2.1 million became casualties. By late 1918, Hungary's farms and factories were producing only half of what they did in 1913, and the war-weary people had abandoned hope of victory.
http://mek.niif.hu/03400/03407/html/435.html">The 'Aster Revolution'
1918 - Aster Revolution
Military insurrections occurred in Vienna and Budapest 30 October 1918. The victory in Budapest of the liberal-democratic revolution - which became known as the 'Aster Revolution,' after the flowers sported by dissident soldiers. Chrysanthemum-waving crowds poured into the streets shouting their approval. The people and troops proclaimed a republic and a Soldiers and Officers' Council was set up at Vienna. The National Assembly adopted a Constitution in which there was no place left for the crown. The Austro-Hungarian Navy was handed over to the South Slav National Council and the Danube flotilla to the Hungarian Government. The Rumanian Deputies in the Austrian Parliament constituted a separate Rumanian National Assembly Oct. 19.
The Hungarian Cabinet, headed by Dr. Wekerle, and the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Baron Burlan, resigned Oct. 20. Count Albert Apponyl was appointed Hungarian Premier. Count Andrassy was appointed Austrian Foreign Minister. He resigned Nov. 2, and on that day a new Hungarian Ministry was formed, headed by Count Karolyi.
A resolution for the complete disunion of Hungary from Austria was introduced by Count Karolyi Oct. 20. A pacific revolution was accomplished at Budapest beginning Oct. 23. A Hungarian National Council and Hungarian Assembly were formed. Riots occurred later, and troops fired on the adherents of Karolyl, who asked Archduke Joseph to appoint him Premier. On Oct. 29 word was received of the formation of an Independent and anti-dynastic State, under the leadership of Count Karolyi, in agreement with the Czechs and South Slavs.
On Oct. 30 the Hungarian Diet adopted a motion declaring that the constitutional relations between Hungary and Dalmatia, Slovenia, and Fiume had ceased to exist and that the relations between Croatia and Austria had been severed. On the night from October 30, to October 31, 1918, after much agitation lasting several months, a revolution broke out in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
Roving soldiers assassinated Istvan Tisza. Pressured by the popular uprising and the refusal of Hungarian troops to quell disturbances, King Karl was compelled to appoint the "Red Count," Mihaly Karolyi, a pro-Entente liberal and leader of the Party of Independence, to the post of prime minister. Karolyi formed a new cabinet, whose members were drawn from the new National Council, composed of representatives of the Party of Independence, the Social Democratic Party, and a group of bourgeoisie radicals.
Count Michael Karolyi demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities, and the opening of negotiations for the conclusion of a just and lasting peace. After suing for a separate peace, the new government dissolved the parliament, pronounced Hungary an independent republic with Karolyi as provisional president, and proclaimed universal suffrage and freedom of the press and assembly. Universal suffrage might destroy not only the hegemony of the Magyar nobility and gentry in whose hands political power was concentrated, but might, by admitting the non-Magyars to political equality with the Magyars, undermine the supremacy of the Magyars, for the Magyars were in a minority in Hungary, their ascendancy was based on a narrow and artificial franchise.
On Nov. 3 Count Karolyl proclaimed a republic in Hungary. Shortly afterwards a republican form of government was adopted by the Hungarian National Council bused on universal male and female suffrage, and Karolyi was elected temporary president. It was quite logical to have Kadrolyi head this movement, for he had been the leader of the party in the Hungarian Parliament opposed to the alliance with Germany, he had openly, and with considerable risk to his person, avowed his friendship for the Allies, and had been a radical democrat and pacifist. The government launched preparations for land reform and promised elections, but neither goal was carried out. On November 13, 1918, Karl IV surrendered his powers as king of Hungary; however, he did not abdicate, a technicality that made a return to the throne possible.
Had the Allies not unnecessarily opposed, humiliated, deceived and driven into despair the decent and orderly Karolyl Government, not to speak of having given it some well-deserved encouragement, most of the chaos, bloodshed, and suffering later prevailing in eastern Europe could have been avoided and Bolshevism would never have come to power in Hungary.
The Karolyi government's measures failed to stem popular discontent, especially when the Entente powers began distributing slices of Hungary's traditional territory to Romania, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. The new government and its supporters had pinned their hopes for maintaining Hungary's territorial integrity on abandoning Austria and Germany, securing a separate peace, and exploiting Karolyi's close connections in France.
On November 7, 1918, Count Michael Karolyi, with a staff of experts, went to Belgrad to conclude an armistice with the French general, Franchet d'Esperey, commander of the allied forces in the East. The general treated Karolyi, the head of a noble nation, as no gentleman would think (if treating a servant; he told him he held the fate of Hungary in the hollow of his hand and could destroy her by turning her neighbors loose on her (which they subsequently did); and replied to Karolyi's request to facilitate the importation of coal in order to keep the mills running with these historic woids: "What the hell do you want coal for? A hundred years ago you used windmills. Why can not you get along with them now?"
The armistice dictated by Gen. Franchet imposed very heavy obligations of an economic kind on Hungary. A very considerable part of her military supplies, rolling stock, river boats and live stock was to be handed over to the Allies. The Hungarian Army was to be reduced to five divisions of infantry and one division of cavalry. The territory south of the line of demarcation (which ran, roughly speaking, along the river Maros and continued southwestward on an artificial line across the Tisza and the Danube to the river Drave), viz; one-third of Hungary, was to be open to occupation by the allied or associated armies. The occupation was to be temporary, and the territorial questions were to be settled finally by the peace conference.
There was only one provision in the armistice not unfavorable to Hungary, and that was to the effect that the civil administration even of the occupied territories should remain in the hands of the Hungarian Government, thus assuring the continuance of the centralized system for the distribution of food, coal, and other necessaries of life. It is of importance to note that at that time Hungary had enough food to last until the next harvest: in fact, she had a little surplus which she was willing to give to Vienna or Prague in exchange of certain manufactures and coal. Although the Hungarians speedily fulfilled their obligations, this provision of the armistice was violated by the Allies and their associates from the very first, which is the principal cause of the famine, idleness and anarchy in Hungary.
The western part of the territory laid open to occupation was invaded in November 1918 by the Serbian Army, which was followed in the eastern part by the Roumanian Army in December 1918. The Roumanians were somewhat late, because at the moment of the armistice they had hardly any army worth speaking of. Their first soldiers arriving in Hungary were very badly equipped, many of them wearing straw hats in December and low moccasins instead of shoes or boots. But they were not bashful at all about helping themselves to the military stores in Hungary, and soon looked spick and span.
The first tiling the occupying armies did was to annex the occupied territories, remove all the Hungarian officials who refused to take the oath of allegiance to ihe ruler of the invaders, denationalize the Hungarian schools, and discharge the Hungarian professors and teachers who could or would not teach in the language of the invaders. Exactly the same procedure was followed later by the Czechs who, under the pretext of "occupying strategically important points," overran and forn ally annexed northern Hungary. Of course, all this was contrary not only to the law of tutiuns, but also to the specific provisions of the armistice: nevertheless, the Allic* approved of it and paid no attention to Karolyi's frantic notes of protest.
Karolyi was a pacifist who was opposed to armed resistance, taking the ground that tho occupation of Hungary was only temporary and the Allies would in the end right the wrong. The Entente, however, chose to consider Hungary a partner in the defeated Dual Monarchy and dashed the Hungarians' hopes with the delivery of each new diplomatic note demanding surrender of more land. On March 19, 1919, the French head of the Entente mission in Budapest handed Karolyi a note delineating final postwar boundaries, which were unacceptable to all Hungarians. Karolyi resigned and turned power over to a coalition of Social Democrats and Communists, who promised that Soviet Russia would help Hungary restore its original borders. Although the Social Democrats held a majority in the coalition, the communists under Bela Kun immediately seized control and announced the establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Bela Kun thought differently and organized a "Red" Army with which he tried to regain some of the territory illegally taken away from Hungary during the armistice.
"http://books.google.com/books?id=LFxEAAAAIAAJ">Memoirs of the war of independence in Hungary
Since the defeat at Mohacs in 1526 there has been no real Hungarian army, for the Hotived is not a true army but a militia. Kossuth raised a revolutionary force in 1848, but the beginning of the Hungarian army (that is, the Hungarian half of the Common army) was made in 1867, when the Emperor-King was constitutionally authorised to organise and command the army from both halves of his monarchy. It is necessary to appreciate this, because the Hungarian claim to a separate and individual army is thus shewn to be without historical foundation. The common army, with its Austrian and Hungarian regiments, is a fundamental principle of the dualist system, and is, in fact, essential to the union of the two countries.
The Hungarian regiments, and the troops on the military frontier, were, before March, 1848, under the direction of the Vienna Hofkriegsrath. The kingdom of Hungary, with Transylvania, Croatia, and Sclavonia, furnished a contingent of fifteen regiments of the line (each regiment consisting of three battalions or eighteen companies), of twelve regiments of hussars (of four divisions ' and eight escadrons each), and of five battalions of grenadiers (of six companies each battalion). The territories of the military frontier, which, de jure, are a province of the Hungarian crown, and which extend from Dalmatia to Bukovina, and which (with the exception of the four Transylvania frontier regiments) form a large and homogenous extent of territory with several districts, are divided into eighteen regiments and battalions of Csaikists. These territories furnished, in time of peace, a contingent of thirty-seven battalions, while in time of war their peculiar constitution facilitated a considerable increase of their force.
The Hungarian regiments which formerly made part of the Austrian army were the following:
I. INFANTRY REGIMENTS OF THE LINE.
In March, 1848, bearing the name of Alexander of Russia.
19th.-Prince Charles Schwarzenberg.
31st.-Count Leiningen Westerburg.
32nd.-Archduke of Este.
33rd.-Count Gyulay.
34th.-Prince of Prussia.
37th.-Michael, Grand Duke of Russia.
39th.-Don Miguel.
48th.-Archduke Ernest.
51st.-Archduke Charles Ferdinand.
52nd.-Archduke Francis Charles.
53rd.-Archduke Leopold.
60th.-Prince of Wasa.
61st.-Baron Rukawina.
62nd.-Chavalier de Turszki.
The recruits for the 2nd, 19th, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 37th, 39th, 48th, 52nd, 60th, and 62nd regiments, were furnished by Hungary; those of the 31st and 51st regiments came from Transylvania. The 53rd regiment was supplied by Croatia and Sclavonia, and the 61st by Hungary and Transylvania. Each of these regiments consisted of three battalions. Attached to each, was one division of grenadiers (of two companies), who, in their aggregate, constituted the above-mentioned five battalions of grenadiers, of three divisions and six companies each. The battalions of grenadiers were named after their commanders.
n. THE BORDER REGIMENTS AND BATTALIONS.
The frontier of Banalv Warasdin, and Karlstadt, stood under the command of the Central Board at Agram. It was divided :
a. IN THE KARLSTADT BORDER DISTRICT.
Number of Regiment. Name. Residence of the Staff.
1st Borderers . . Likka Gospich.
2nd Ottocha. . . . Ottochair.
3rd Ogulin .... Ogulin.
4th Szluin .... Karlstadt.
b. THE WAEASDIN BORDER DISTRICT.
No. 5, Border regiment of Warasdin Kreutz.
No. 6, Border regiment of St. George.
The residence of the staff of these two regiments was at Bellovar.
C. THE BANAT BORDER DISTRICT.
1st Banal border regiment No. 10. Staff at Glina. 2nd " ,, 11. " Petrinia.
HI. THE SCLAVONIAN AND SYRMIAN FRONTIER.
With its Central Board in Peterwarasdin. It was subdivided into
a. THE SCLAVONIAN BORDER DISTRICT.
Brood regiment, No. 7. Staff at Vinkowicze. Gradiska regiment, 8. ,, New Gradiska.
b. THE SYRMIAN BORDER DISTRICT.
Peterwarasdin borderers, No. 9. Staff at Mitrovitz.
d. THE CSARKIST BATTALION.
With a flotilla on the Danube and its staff at Titel.
IV. THE BANAT FRONTIER.
Under the Central Board at Temeshvar. It consisted of
German-Banat borderers, No. 12. Staff at Panesova.
Wallach-Banat " 13. " Karansebes.
Illyrian-Banat " 14. " Weiszkirchen.
V. THE TRANSYLVANIAN FRONTIER.
Under the Central Board at Herrmannstadt. This frontier formed no districts, but stood in connexion with the administration of Transylvania. It formed
Staff at Istreg. Szekler borderers, No. 14, Csik Szereda.
2nd " " 15, Kezdi Vasarhely.
1st " Wallachian borderers, 16, Orlat.
2nd " " " 17, Naszod.
1st Szekler border hussars, 11, Sepsi St.Gyorgy.
VI. THE CAVALRY.
The Hungarian cavalry force consisted formerly of the following twelve regiments of hussars :
No. 1, Emperor Ferdinand.
2, " King of Hanover.
3, " Archduke d'Este.
4, " Alexander Cesarewitsh.
5, " Count Radetzky.
6, " King of Wurtemberg.
7, " Prince Reuss Kosteritz.
8, " Prince Coburg Cohary.
9, " Emperor of Russia.
10, " King of Prussia.
11, " Szekler borderers.
12, " Palatinal hussars.
The 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 12th regiments, were recruited from Hungary; the 2nd and 11th from Transylvania; and the 7th from Hungary, Croatia, and Sclavonia.
When the troops in Hungary were placed under the direction of the Hungarian War Office, we had (besides the border regiments) the following troops in Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, and Sclavonia.
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