Northern Transylvania (; ) was the region of the Kingdom of Romania that during World War II, as a consequence of the August 1940 territorial agreement known as the Second Vienna Award, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. With an area of , the population was largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians.
In October 1944, Soviet and Romanian forces gained control of the territory, and by March 1945 Northern Transylvania returned to Romanian administration. After the war, this was confirmed by the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947.
Background
Transylvania has a varied history. Once part of the Kingdom of Dacia (82 BC–106 AD), in 106 AD, the Roman Empire conquered the territory, after the Roman legions withdrew in 271 AD, it was overrun by a succession of various tribes such as Carpi, Visigoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars, and Slavs, in the 9th century various parts came under the rule of the First Bulgarian Empire.
The Magyars conquered the Carpathian Basin at the end of the 9th century and for almost six hundred years, Transylvania was a voivodeship in the Kingdom of Hungary. After the Hungarian defeat at Battle of Mohács by the Ottomans in 1526, two rival kings claimed the Hungarian kingdom. The Eastern Hungarian Kingdom is the predecessor of the Principality of Transylvania, which was established by the Treaty of Speyer in 1570 and the Eastern Hungarian King became the first Prince of Transylvania. The Principality of Transylvania was a semi-independent state, and a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire under the rule of the local Hungarian nobility, it continued to be part of the Kingdom of Hungary in the sense of public law, John Sigismund's possessions belonged to the Holy Crown of Hungary, and was a symbol of the survival of Hungarian statehood. In 1690, it became part of the Habsburg monarchy as the Lands of the Hungarian Crown, and after 1848, and again from 1867 to 1918 it was reincorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved after World War I, in the wake of the expected territorial rearrangements, the dispute over Transylvania and former ethnic tensions escalated between Romania and Hungary. The elected representatives of the Romanian National Assembly proclaimed the Union with Romania on 1 December 1918, while the Hungarian General Assembly 22 December 1918 reaffirmed their loyalty to the Hungarian state. By 1919, as a result of the Hungarian–Romanian War, much of Eastern Hungary - including Transylvania - fell under Romanian control. Eventually on 4 June 1920 the Treaty of Trianon assigned Transylvania and further areas to the Kingdom of Romania.
Considered as a national tragedy having about 3,3 million Hungarians (32% of its ethnic Hungarians) outside the new borders, the loss of 71% of its historical territory, majority of its economy, Hungary sought for revision which in the 1930's culminated as a primary goal and significantly determined her international and external politics. After the successful revision regarding southern Czechoslovakia by the First Vienna Award in 1938 and the full recovery of Carpathian Ruthenia in 1939, the Hungarian Government prepared to resolve the Transylvanian question and initiated a mass mobilization near the Hungarian-Romanian border. At the early stage of World War II the Axis Powers were not interested in the outbreak of another armed conflicts in the wake of other ongoing military events, therefore they intervened to persuade the parties to enforce diplomatic solution to reduce tensions in order to prevent further escalation.
Second Vienna Award
In June 1940, Romania was forced (as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) to submit to a Soviet ultimatum and accept the annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Subsequently, Hungary attempted to regain Transylvania, which it had lost in the immediate aftermath of World War I. Germany and Italy pressured both Hungary and Romania to resolve the situation in a bilateral agreement. The two delegations met in Turnu Severin on 16 August, but the negotiations failed due to a demand for a territory from the Hungarian side and only an offer of population exchange from the Romanian side. To impede a Hungarian-Romanian war in their "hinterland", the Axis powers pressured both governments to accept their arbitration: the Second Vienna Award, signed on 30 August 1940.
Population
After World War I, the multiethnic Kingdom of Hungary was divided by the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, to form several new states, but Hungary noted that the new state borders did not follow ethnic boundaries. Hungarians were the majority in border regions outside the post-Trianon Hungarian borders in Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia. Deep within Romania, far from the Hungarian border, in the region of eastern Transylvania known as Székely Land, the Hungarian population found itself in the unusual situation of being an overwhelming majority. By the Second Vienna Award, the solution decided upon was to carve out a claw-shaped corridor with mixed population through northwestern Romania, which included a large Romanian-populated area, in order to incorporate this Hungarian-majority region into Hungary.
Historian Keith Hitchins summarizes the situation created by the award: Far from settling matters, the Vienna Award had exacerbated relations between Romania and Hungary. It did not solve the nationality problem by separating all Magyars from all Romanians. Some 1,150,000 to 1,300,000 Romanians, or 48 percent to over 50 percent of the population of the ceded territory, depending upon whose statistics are used, remained north of the new frontier, while about 500,000 Magyars (other Hungarian estimates go as high as 800,000, Romanian as low as 363,000) continued to reside in the south.
The 1930 Romanian census registered for the region a population of 2,393,300. In 1941, the Hungarian authorities conducted a new census, which registered a total population of 2,578,100. Both censuses asked language and nationality separately.Károly Kocsis, Eszter Kocsisné Hodosi, Ethnic Geography of the Hungarian Minorities in the Carpathian Basin, Simon Publications LLC, 1998, p. 116 Major ethnic groups1930 Romanian census1941 Hungarian censusNationalityLanguageNationalityLanguageHungarian912,500 (38.13%)1,007,200 (42.08%)1,380,500 (53.55%)1,344,000 (52.13%)Romanian1,176,900 (49.17%)1,165,800 (48.71%)1,029,000 (39.91%)1,068,700 (41.45%)German68,300 (2.85%)59,700 (2.49%)44,600 (1.73%)47,300 (1.83%)Jewish (Yiddish language)138,800 (5.80%)99,600 (4.16%)47,400 (1.83%)48,500 (1.88%)Other96,800 (4.04%)61,000 (2.55%)76,600 (2.97%)69,600 (2.70%)Total2,393,3002,578,100 The dissimilar ratios were caused by a combination of complex factors such as migration, the assimilation of Jews, and bilingual speakers. Árpád E. Varga, nepes.htm Studies of the demographic history of Transylvania. According to Hungarian registrations, 100,000 Hungarian refugees had arrived in Hungary from South Transylvania by January 1941. By then, there were a total of 109,532 Romanian refugees from Northern Transylvania. A fall in the total population suggests that a further 40,000 to 50,000 Romanians moved from North Transylvania to South Transylvania, including refugees who were omitted from the official registration for various reasons. Additionally, Hungarian gains by assimilation were balanced by losses for other groups of native speakers, such as Jews.
Hungarian rule
Hungary held Northern Transylvania from September 1940 to October 1944. In 1940, ethnic disturbances between Hungarians and Romanians continued after some incidents following the entrance of the Hungarian Army, culminating in massacres at Treznea and Ip. In the first two weeks approximately 1000 Romanians perished. 68 years since the Dictate. Testimonies about the massacres in Ip and Traznea - article published in the newspaper Gardianul , edition from 02.09.2008
On 5 September 1940, five days after the Second Vienna Award, the first Hungarian military unit crossed the border at Sighetul Marmației. Two Hungarian armies entered the territory of annexed Transylvania: the first army (with a force of 208,000 soldiers) operated in the northeastern part of Transylvania, while the second army (with a staff of 102,000 soldiers) operated in the Oradea-Cluj area.
On the first day, the main occupied cities were Carei, Satu Mare, Sighetul Marmației, and Ocna Șugatag. Nine stages of progress were established, each over a distance of 40-80 kilometers. The last localities taken over, on 13 September 1940, were Sfântu Gheorghe and Târgu Secuiesc. Dan Grecu, fr / dgrecu / AdN.Htm Northern Transylvania during the Hungarian administration (Sept. 1940 - Oct. 1944) The advance of Hungarian units took place in peaceful conditions, with only a few scattered incidents with Romanian soldiers retreating to southern Transylvania. The Hungarian army was greeted enthusiastically by the majority of the Hungarian population, which was documented in detail in the 1940 films, with the parade of military units, as well as Horthy riding on a gray horse, marching through the main cities of Northern Transylvania. Images with Hungarian troops entering the city of Cluj on September 11, 1940
After some ethnic Hungarian groups considered unreliable or insecure were sacked/expelled from Southern Transylvania, the Hungarian officials also regularly expelled some Romanian groups from Northern Transylvania. Many Hungarians and Romanians either fled or chose to opt between the two countries. There was a mass exodus; over 100,000 people on both sides of the ethnic and political borders relocated. This continued until 1944.A történelem tanúi - Erdély - bevonulás 1940 p 56. - The witnesses of history - Transylvania - Entry 1940 p. 56. -