Even a short breakdown in fuel supplies can have profound and dramatic  consequences  for  modern  economies.  This  paper explores  a  major  coal  shortage  in  Central  Europe  after  WWI which shook local societies for two years. The dissolution of the Habsburg  Empire  in  1918  provides  a  narrower  context  to  this study,  while  its  immediate  focus  lies  upon  the  development  of diplomatic  and  economic  relationships  between Czechoslovakia – a  WWI  victor and an  important coal exporter, and Hungary – a war losing state that was a net coal importer. This paper underlines the scale of the Hungarian reliance on fuels from Czechoslovakia, and suggests that this dependency was one of the chief arguments that motivated Budapest to cede Slovakia to  Prague’s  control  and,  more  generally,  to  accept  the  peace terms  proposed  at  the  Paris  conference.  It  is  safe  to  conclude that  economic  considerations  played  a  much  greater,  if  not dominant, role in the adoption of the peace treaty of Trianon of 1920  in  Hungary.  Overall,  the  paper  demonstrates  that  cross- border  energy  interdependence  substantially  influenced  diplo-matic relations in Central Europe immediately after WWI, privile-ging coal-exporting states over coal-importing states.

Shooting societies organized by town citizens (burghers) were considered the traditional guardians of many autonomous settlements in Central Europe from the Middle Ages up to the late nineteenth century. In seeking to identify the causes of their decline in late Habsburg Hungary, this article draws attention to a variety of modernizing drives that undermined the stability of burgher marksmanship. One was the emerging Hungarian nation-state, which hindered the development of paramilitary citizen groups by limiting local self-governance and freedom of association. Another was the modern appeal to ethnic homogenization in the form of Magyarization. It aroused hostility towards the burgher riflemen because of their frequent use of the German language and loyalty to the Habsburgs, and not to the Magyar nation. Although the surviving burgher shooting societies had espoused Magyar nationalism by the early 1900s, they nonetheless maintained their elitism, excluding the growing urban populations from membership. At the same time, the burgher riflemen failed to engage sufficiently actively in rifle training to secure the support of the Defence Ministry and the radical Magyar nationalists. Instead, they remained traditional venues for socializing and networking for the increasingly isolated ennobled petty bourgeoisie. This created a situation where the burgher marksmen became marginal players not only in urban political life but also in Hungary's rapidly developing paramilitary culture. The story of the decline of the burgher shooting societies sheds new light on the ambiguities of modernization, but also demonstrates the weakness of societal militarization in pre-1914 Central Europe.

Tento článek zkoumá diplomatické a hospodářské vztahy v 1918-20 rr. mezi Československem - vítězným státem první světové války a významným vývozcem uhlí - a Maďarskem - státem, který válku prohrál a byl čistým dovozcem uhlí. Příspěvek zdůrazňuje rozsah maďarské závislosti na palivech z Československa a naznačuje, že tato závislost byla jedním z hlavních argumentů, které motivovaly Budapešť k postoupení Slovenska pod kontrolu Prahy a obecněji k přijetí mírových podmínek navržených na Pařížské konferenci. Dochází k závěru, že při přijímání nových hranic mezi Maďarskem a Československem ze strany maďarského politického vedení hrály mnohem větší, ne-li dominantní roli ekonomické důvody. 

Drawing on statistical and press data, the article analyses the dynamics and socio-political context of violence on the part of the Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie on the eve of the Great War. It attempts to establish the political context of the formation of the Gendarmerie in Hungary in 1881, to identify situations in which its officers engaged in physical violence, and to trace the dynamics of its development up to 1914. The Gendarmerie, formed in 1881 primarily from ethnic Magyars, was the largest law enforcement body at the direct disposal of the Hungarian government. Its personnel rose from 5,500 in the mid-1880s to 12,000 by 1914. During this time, its law enforcement responsibilities extended beyond the countryside to towns and cities. Gendarmes were regularly called upon by the authorities to suppress mass demonstrations and strikes, and to organise parliamentary elections and conduct political investigations. Official reports indicate that violence peaked in the late 1880s, mid-1890s, and 1905–1910. The Transdanubian region was the most dangerous zone for the gendarmerie, but the quietest were Felvidék and Transylvania. The death toll at the hands of the gendarmes remains unknown, but the royal gendarmerie reported using weapons around hundred times a year. The article suggests that the violence and relative impunity of the gendarmes undermined public confidence in the government.

This article deals with the social-political tensions in late Habsburg Hungary by exploring the coercive conduct of the Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie from its creation in 1881 up to the First World War. Through an analysis of narrative and statistical primary sources, the paper shows how the gendarmerie protected the dualist system from the perceived threats of nationalist and labour movements. It attempts to establish the situations in which the gendarmes resorted to physical aggression, how its dynamic changed over time, and the regions where the levels of force exercised by the gendarmerie were higher. Altogether, it argues that widespread physical violence was a central feature of social-political conflicts in pre-WW1 Hungary, with the gendarmes playing a crucial role. 

Cet article traite des tensions socio-politiques dans la Hongrie de la fin des Habsbourg en explorant des pratiques répressives de la gendarmerie royale hongroise de sa création en 1881 jusqu’à la Première Guerre mondiale. Une analyse qualitative et statistique de sources primaires montre comment la gendarmerie a protégé la double monarchie contre les menaces perçues des mouvements nationalistes et ouvriers. Cet article cherche à identifier les situations où les gendarmes ont eu recours aux violences physiques, les régions où les violences étaient les plus fortes et comment elles ont évolué au cours du temps. Il défend que le recours aux violences physiques, notamment sous l’action des gendarmes royaux, est une caractéristique clé des conflits socio-politiques dans la Hongrie de la Belle Époque.

The region between the Baltic and the Black Sea was marked by a set of crises and conflicts in the 1920s and 1930s, demonstrating the diplomatic, military, economic or cultural engagement of France, Germany, Russia, Britain, Italy and Japan in this highly volatile region, and critically damaging the fragile post-Versailles political arrangement. The editors, in naming this region as "Middle Europe" seek to revive the symbolic geography of the time and accentuate its position, situated between Big Powers and two World Wars.The ten case studies in this book combine traditional diplomatic history with a broader emphasis on the geopolitical aspects of Big-Power rivalry to understand the interwar period. The essays claim that the European Big Powers played a key role in regional affairs by keeping the local conflicts and national movements under control and by exploiting the region's natural resources and military dependencies, while at the same time strengthening their prestige through cultural penetration and the cultivation of client networks.The authors, however, want to avoid the simplistic view that the Big Powers fully dominated the lesser players on the European stage. The relationship was indeed hierarchical, but the essays also reveal how the "small states" manipulated Big-Power disagreements, highlighting the limits of the latters' leverage throughout the 1920s and the 1930s.

This book provides an overview of the various forms and trajectories of Great Power policy towards Central Europe between 1914 and 1945. This involves the  analyses  of  diplomatic,  military,  economic  and  cultural  perspectives  of Germany, Russia, Britain, and the USA towards Hungary, Poland, the Baltic States,  Czechoslovakia  and  Romania.  The  contributions  of  established,  as well  as  emerging,  historians  from  different  parts  of  Europe  enriches  the English  language  scholarship  on  the  history  of  the  international  relations  of the region. The volume is designed to be accessible and informative to both historians and wider audiences.

This paper defines the main objectives, stages, and the dynamics of the secret cooperation of the democratic Hungarian opposition, hostile to the Horthy regime, with the government of Czechoslovakia in 1919-1932. It focuses on the Prague's contacts with Hungary's Octobrists, social democrats (active both within the country and in exile) and liberals. The paper covers mostly the period of the so-called consolidation of the Horthy regime, carried out under the leadership of Prime Minister István Bethlen. Our research concludes that the struggle of the democratic opposition against the Horthy-Bethlen regime was consistently encouraged by Czechoslovak political and diplomatic circles. The collaboration between anti-Horthyist groups and Prague was particularly intense in 1919–1921 and in 1930–1931. Our study utilises hitherto unknown documents from archives in Prague and Budapest, to re-evaluate the causes of interwar tensions between Hungary and Czechoslovakia — beyond their disputes over borders and disagreements over the treatment of minorities.

This paper investigates the Great War experience and social identities of the young Catholic priest from Austria-Hungary, Dr. Jozef Tiso. Born in 1887, Tiso became President of the Nazi-Germany-allied Slovakia in 1939-1945, and was executed by the Czechoslovak justice in 1947. This study mainly uses (and compares) Tiso’s diary, written during his service in the Habsburg army at the Austro-Russian front in 1914, and his 1946 affidavit to the Czechoslovak investigators. Exploring his manyfolder identity, we challenge the two dominant views that, before 1918, Tiso felt himself either a Slovak nationalist or a Magyar nationalist. We conclude that the social identity of Jozef Tiso in WWI consisted of two main categories: Catholic priest and Austro-Hungarian patriot. These categories coexisted and intertwined with those of Slovak sympathizer and Hungarian citizen.