ABSTRACT
The start of the First World War is rightly considered as a watershed in modern European and world history. It is often thought to mark the end of “the long nineteenth century” and the start of the “short twentieth century”—in Eric Hobsbawm’s expression, the “age of extremes.” The military conflict and the ensuing peace treaties destroyed four empires, created nine new states in Europe, and, with a few exceptions, changed the boundaries of the rest. The First World War changed everything in Hungary too. It shook the capitalist and liberal political orders to their foundations, by ending quick economic growth, destroying prosperity and undermining people’s trust in the political elite and their fear of the state. The exhilarating October Revolution of 1918 and the formation of Hungary’s first democratic government failed to reverse any of the negative economic and social trends that had set in during the military conflict.
