Little Entente
As Little Entente the after is World War resulting political and military alliance system between Czechoslovakia , Yugoslavia and Romania indicated that existed from 1920 to 1938. It consisted of a series of bilateral defensive alliances between Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia in the interwar period . The aim of the alliances was to fend off the Hungarian, but also the Bulgarian and Italian demands for revision.
Origin and work
The alliance system was directed primarily against Hungary , which in the Trianon Peace Treaty in 1920 had to cede large areas to Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia, namely Slovakia (cf. Upper Hungary ) to Czechoslovakia, Transylvania to Romania and Croatia and Vojvodina to Yugoslavia . As a result, Hungary lost 59% of its territory and 68% of its population. This also brought about three million Hungarians who lived in the ceded areas under foreign rule. In spite of the provisions of the Treaty of Trianon, the government and population of Hungary retained the identity of their reduced state with the Kingdom of Hungary . Initially, the restoration of the territorial integrity of old Hungary was called for. After 1930, Hungary changed its revision policy and called for a border correction within the framework of the peoples' right to self-determination .
The pact system started with an alliance between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Edvard Beneš had already offered it to the Yugoslav government at the end of 1919. On August 14, 1920, the two-year defensive alliance was concluded. The contracting parties assured themselves support in the event of unprovoked attacks by Hungary. A military convention of August 1, 1921 regulated the measures envisaged in the event of an alliance. Czechoslovakia had also asked Romania to join, but it hesitated because of the Czech-Polish disputes over Teschen and only signed a preliminary protocol. In April 1921, Czechoslovakia and Romania finally formed an alliance. These treaties were intended to isolate Hungary internationally. This was followed in June 1921 by a pact between Romania and Yugoslavia, which was directed against Bulgaria .
With the rejection of the Versailles Treaty by the United States Senate , which did not want to be bound by a multilateral alliance system, France had lost its military backing from the United States , which returned to isolationist politics after the First World War . Above all, however, France had lost its Russian ally through the October Revolution . So French diplomacy saw itself compelled to create a replacement. The Little Entente was an important component of French security policy in Europe in order to maintain the state system that was newly created after the First World War. It should secure the status quo in the Danube region. This was also threatened by the German treaty revisionism, which was aimed at an annexation of German Austria to Germany. Poland had a special meaning for France because of its alliance treaty with Czechoslovakia (1924). However, it was not possible to integrate it into the alliance system of the Little Entente as an associated member.
The Little Entente was also directed against a restoration of the Habsburg monarchy . The first attempt at return of the ex-emperor Karl I was prevented on April 5th. The states of the Little Entente had given Hungary ultimatums, which were supported by Italy. The second attempt at restoration at the end of October 1921 also failed because of a threat of military intervention and an ultimatum from the Paris Ambassadors' Conference . Charles I was finally declared by the Hungarian National Assembly forfeited all rights to the St. Stephen's Crown .
Since 1922 regular conferences of the allies took place, at which not only military, but also mutual diplomatic support and cooperation in the fields of economy, finance and transport were discussed. In the period that followed, attempts were made to expand the alliance system to include the former war opponents. On February 17, 1924, the so-called Rome Pact between Yugoslavia and Italy for the peaceful settlement of the Rijeka conflict was concluded, on March 24, 1924 a treaty between the states of the Little Entente and Hungary, on September 16, 1926 an Italian-Romanian friendship treaty .
crisis
The Little Entente was not a stable union because of the rivalries between the participating states. Their military forces were set up defensively, which shook the credibility of the alliance pledges to the other countries. France's strengths were too weak to effectively support the allies in the east, and its financial strength was not strong enough to support the reconstruction in such a way that it would have resulted in a permanent bond. From the French point of view, the Little Entente was no substitute for Russia and no compensation for the distance between the USA and Great Britain. It even disrupted British activities in south-eastern Europe, which contributed to the estrangement between France and Great Britain.
Although the states of the Little Entente joined forces with a new organizational statute on February 16, 1933 because of the intensification of German foreign policy activities in the Danube region, encouraged by France, they began to disintegrate when the power constellations changed. As early as 1934, Hungary, Italy and Austria concluded a consultative pact , the Roman Protocols , which was directed against the Little Entente. Yugoslavia and Romania came closer to Germany in terms of foreign policy and united with Greece and Turkey in the Balkan Entente . With the smashing of the rest of the Czech Republic, the Little Entente also broke up.
See also
literature
- Magda Ádám: Towards self-destruction. The Little Entente 1920–1938. Corvina et al., Budapest et al. 1989, ISBN 963-13-2498-2 .
- Günter Reichert: The failure of the Little Entente. International relations in the Danube region from 1933 to 1938 (= publication of the Sudeten German Archive in Munich. 6, ZDB -ID 504307-4 ). Fides-Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 1971, (= at the same time: Bonn, University, dissertation, 1971).
Contemporary literature
- The little entente. Politics, economy, culture (= Prague press. Special supplement , May 31, 1933, ZDB -ID 84155-9 ). Prague Press, Prague 1933.
- Rudolf Ottow: The Little Entente. Hartmann, Greifswald 1935, (Greifswald, University, dissertation, 1935).
- Kamil Krofta : Czechoslovakia and the little entente in today's European politics. Exposé of the Foreign Minister. Presented on May 21, 1937 in the external committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate of the National Assembly (= Czechoslovak sources and documents. No. 22, ZDB -ID 84155-9 ). Orbis, Prague 1937.
- Jenő Horváth: The little entente. Contribution to the history of diplomacy. Danubia, Budapest et al. 1943.
Web links
- Newspaper article about Little Entente in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ^ Jörg K. Hoensch : History of Czechoslovakia . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1992, ISBN 3-17-011725-4 , p. 30 f.
- ^ Wilfried Loth : Geschichte Frankreichs im 20. Jahrhundert , Frankfurt 1992, ISBN 3-596-10860-8 , p. 65.
- ^ Jörg K. Hoensch: History of Hungary 1867-1983 . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1984, ISBN 3-17-008578-6 , p. 132.