Baranya Between the Two World Wars—Political Review

Abstract

With the end of World War I, new states were created in Europe that emerged on the ruins of once powerful empires. Certain issues have arisen between the new states related to the mutual division of border territories. One of these issues was the division of the territory of Baranya between the Kingdom of SHS and Hungary. The issue was settled by international arbitration at the Versailles Peace Conference. By the Treaty of Trianon, the territory of Baranya belonged to Hungary for the most part, with its smaller southern part included in the Kingdom of SHS. During the interwar period, Baranya was administratively part of the Bačka area until 1929, then it became a part of the Danube Banovina. The settlements of Baranya were divided between two sections of Batina and Darda. Baranya was on the outskirts of the new state, poorly connected to the administrative center in Novi Sad, with a majority of Hungarian and German populations who were not trusted by the authorities. This distrust was especially manifested against the Hungarian population as their home country acted revisionist, as it constantly demanded that the confiscated territories in Bačka, Baranya, and Banat be returned to them. As Serbs and Croats were not the majority population in Baranya’s electoral laws, this area was controlled so that deputies were always elected from the government list, or from among the candidates of a party in power. Baranya did not have a strong political figure who, through their influence, could achieve something more in the centralized state administration system. The main economic activity was agriculture, while industrial capacities were mainly oriented to food production. Agricultural production was dominated by the Belje state property, whose production facilities and land were located in Baranya. After the 1939 Cvetković-Maček agreement, the issue of joining Baranya to the newly created Banovina Croatia was opened.