Claim: Hungarian economy became unviable as a result of the Trianon peace treaty.
Rebuttal: Hungarian economy rebounded surprisingly fast in the 1920s, which fact discredits this claim in itself.
In detail:
As the research of Béla Tomka demonstrates, the literature on the effects of the Trianon peace treaty on Hungary has so far been rather biassed. Most authors start out from the wrong premise, namely that economic growth depends on natural resources, and Hungary lost a disproportionate part of these.
However, during the so-called Bethlen-era consolidation in the 1920s and 30s the Hungarian economy performed a remarkable restructuring and rebounded from the losses. A key component of this restructuring was the development of less resource-dependent sectors, such as the textile, chemical or electronic industry. The raw materials and energy needed for this remained accessible because they could be bought like previously – often from the very same companies as before, regardless of the fact that they now functioned in a neighbouring country. Also, the peace treaty severed the economically underdeveloped regions from the central, more developed remaining ones, thus in post-Trianon Hungary there was a higher proportion of trained workforce, industry, capital, education and research and development – in short, all that really matters for development.
References:
- Romsics Ignác: Magyarország története a XX. században. Budapest, 2002, Osiris.
- Tomka Béla: Az első világháború és a trianoni béke gazdasági hatásai Magyarországon. In: Bódy Zsombor (szerk. ): Háborúból békébe: a magyar társadalom 1918 után. Budapest, 2018, MTA.
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