Banned maps of the Trianon Peace Conference on display in Paris

It took more than a hundred years for the scientific world to see the maps produced in Paris for the negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Trianon. In his presentation, a researcher from the Institute of Hungarian Research highlighted that the Hungarian experts had created more than sixty maps, of which only Count Pál Teleki's map was displayed during the public session of the conference.

Éva Harangozó's summary of the lecture given by János Jeney, research fellow at the Centre for Ethnographic Geography and Geoinformatics, at the International Geographical Congress in Paris, is published in Magyar Nemzet.

"At a prestigious international conference, the researcher of the Institute of Hungarian Research presented the original maps prepared in connection with the Trianon Peace Dictate. At the International Geographical Congress in Paris, organised by the International Geographical Union, János Jeney, expert at the Institute's Research Centre for Population Geography and Geoinformatics, told our newspaper that the first such congress was held in Paris in 1922, a hundred years ago, where Hungarians were unable to attend.

The researcher, who gave a lecture on the republication of the maps of the Hungarian peace mission after the First World War, said in response to a question from Magyar Nemzet:

At the conference, he presented maps showing the ethnic structure of Hungary and the number of Hungarians stranded outside the country's borders. He detailed the changes made to these maps in the years following the conference. The series of maps was prepared for the Hungarian delegation, including those produced by the Hungarian Geographical Institute. One of them consists of 54 map sections, while most of them were printed on a single map sheet. The researcher pointed out that they were not allowed to be presented at the peace conference 102 years ago.

János Jeney, research fellow at the Research Centre for Population Geography and Geoinformatics

János Jeney pointed out that Albert Apponyi could only present Pál Teleki's red map in his famous speech in January 1920. As is known, in the autumn of 1918 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned the already internationally renowned geographer, the Secretary General of the Geographical Society and later Prime Minister, Count Teleki Pal, to draw up a map of the geographical, ethnic, economic and political conditions of the Carpathian Basin. This was drawn on a single sheet, based on a map produced by Zsigmond Bátky and Károly Kogutowicz, which depicted the country on 54 separate sheets at a scale of 1:200 000. The latter was completed in 1918, while the red map was produced in February 1919.

In preparation for the peace conference, Hungarian experts produced more than sixty maps, of which only the one prepared by Count Teleki Pál was viewed during the public part of the conference. János Jeney presented seven of these maps and their reprints in Paris.

The researcher also explained that after the entry into force of the peace treaty, several publications appeared on the injustice of the peace treaty. Among these were maps showing how many Hungarians were torn apart by the new borders. He added that today the maps produced for the peace negotiations are more widely known than those published after the war.

János Jeney noted that the reception of his presentation had been surprisingly positive. The President of the Conference stressed that the lecture was of great value in providing insight into a part of European history that had been little known. There was a foreign researcher who stated that he did not know that the post-war negotiations had created such a large number of minorities in the Carpathian Basin and thanked the researcher for the information he provided.

The Institute of Hungarian Research has already republished three of the above-mentioned maps, and an interactive edition has also been prepared, which is available on the Institute's website (it can also be accessed directly at Trianon.térkép.mki.gov.hu