Csanád vármegye idegen megszállásának diplomáciai háttere

Abstract

In connection with the study of the military and political collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the end of the First World War, several authors have recently discussed in detail the issues raised by the status of the Banat, related Serbian and Romanian aspirations, and the movements of the French forces that occupied and held military control over the region, as well as analysing the French diplomatic steps behind these movements. The future fate of the Banat proved to be a serious source of conflict, with the possibility of armed clashes between the Serbs and the Romanians. The French wanted to prevent armed conflict between their allies with a north-south demarcation line separating the opposing parties and by occupying strategic points, such as Szeged and Arad, until the peace conference decided on the final status of the area. In theory, the line between Szeged and Arad, practically the route of the River Mureş, marked the northern border of the area in question. However, it is not widely known that the Serbs, in competition with the Romanians, claimed not only the area to the south of the Mureş, but also the areas of southern Csanád to the north of the river, right up to Mezőhegyes, and to this end, military action was taken and diplomatic efforts were made at the Paris Peace Conference in March 1919. All this inevitably concealed the possibility of a Serbian-Romanian armed conflict over the possession of this territory, which required the repeated intervention of the French and which was embodied by the French military occupation of Makó, the seat of Csanád county, for almost two months from 27 April to 16 June 1919. This was followed by the Romanian military occupation, which lasted for a good nine months. Our study seeks to review the background and steps of this process, which have not been sufficiently elucidated in the historical literature to date.