Eastern and Transylvanian territories re-annexed to the Hungarian Holy Crown
A Magyar Szent Koronához visszacsatolt keleti és erdélyi terület[1]
Territory of Hungary

Flag Coat of arms
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Northern Transylvania
Government Military, later civil administration
Historical era World War II
 •  Second Vienna Award 30 August 1940
 •  Occupation 5–13 September 1940
 •  Military administration 11 September 1940[2]
 •  Annexation 8 October 1940[3]
 •  Civil administration 26 November 1940[2]
 •  Battle for Transylvania 26 August – 25 October 1944
 •  Paris Peace Treaty 10 February 1947
 •  1940 [4] 43,104 km2 (16,643 sq mi)
 •  1940 [5] 2,577,260 
Density 59.8 /km2  (154.9 /sq mi)
Political subdivisions Counties[6]
Today part of  Romania

Northern Transylvania (Romanian: Transilvania de Nord, Hungarian: Észak-Erdély) was the region of the Kingdom of Romania that during World War II, as a consequence of the territorial agreement known as the Second Vienna Award, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. With an area of 43,104 km2 (16,643 sq mi),[4] the population was largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians. After World War II, the Paris Peace Treaties returned Northern Transylvania to Romania.



Romania in 1940 with Northern Transylvania highlighted in yellow
Romania's territorial losses in the summer of 1940


The Magyars conquered much of Central Europe at the end of the 9th century and for almost six hundred years, Transylvania had been a voivodeship in the Kingdom of Hungary. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, and the Hungarian defeat by the Ottomans, Transylvania became a semi-independent principality (Principality of Transylvania) under native Hungarian rule but owing suzerainty to the Ottoman empire, then a province (Principality/Grand Principality of Transylvania) of the Habsburg Monarchy/Austrian Empire as being Land of the Hungarian Crown, and after 1848, again from 1867 to 1918 incorporated to the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The dual monarchy dissolved after World War I.

The ethnic Romanians, who formed the majority population of Transylvania, elected representatives who proclaimed the Union with Romania, on 1 December 1918. The Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia was adopted by the Deputies of the Romanians from Transylvania, supported one month later by the vote of the Deputies of the Saxons from Transylvania, and in 1920 the Treaty of Trianon assigned Transylvania to the Kingdom of Romania.

In June 1940, after Romania was forced (as a consequence of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) to settle a claim to Soviet Union over Bessarabian and Bukovinian territories, Hungary attempted to regain Transylvania, which it had lost in World War I. Germany and Italy pressured both Hungary and Romania to resolve the situation in a bilateral agreement. The two delegation met in Turnu Severin but the negotiations failed due to a demand for a 60,000 square kilometres territory on Hungarian side and only a population exchange on Romanian side. To impede a Hungarian-Romanian war in their "hinterland", the Axis powers pressured both governments to accept their arbitration: the Second Vienna Award.

Historian Keith Hitchins (Hitchins 1994) summarizes the situation created by the award:

Far from settling matters, the Vienna Award had exacerbated relations between Romania and Hungary. It did not solve the nationality problem by separating all Magyars from all Romanians. Some 1,150,000 to 1,300,000 Romanians, or 48 per cent to over 50 per cent of the population of the ceded territory, depending upon whose statistics are used, remained north of the new frontier, while about 500,000 Magyars (other Hungarian estimates go as high as 800,000, Romanian as low as 363,000) continued to reside in the south.

The Hungarian population was in the unusual situation of being an overwhelming majority in an area of southeastern Transylvania, deep within Romania and far from the Hungarian border, and not simply only in certain areas next to the Hungarian border as in the case of Slovakia and Vojvodina. The solution decided upon was to gouge a claw-shaped corridor through northwestern Romania, including a large Romanian-populated area, in order to incorporate this Hungarian-majority area within Hungary.

Population of Northern Transylvania, as per 1930 Romanian census:[7]

Ethnic map
County Population Romanians Hungarians Germans Jews Others
Bihor (only the ceded part) 305,548 136,351 130,127 2,101 20,420 16,549
Ciuc 145,806 20,976 120,627 439 2,383 1,381
Cluj (only the ceded part) 256,651 141,607 85,284 2,669 16,057 11,034
Maramureș 161,575 93,207 11,174 3,239 33,828 20,127
Mureș (only the ceded part) 269,738 115,773 121,282 11,271 9,848 11,564
Năsăud 145,574 103,897 7,488 21,211 6,450 6,528
Odorhei (only the ceded part) 121,984 5,430 112,375 454 1,250 2,475
Sălaj 343,347 192,821 107,662 16,010 13,380 13,474
Satu Mare 294,875 178,523 74,191 9,530 23,967 8,664
Someș 219,355 169,942 33,870 351 10,546 4,646
Trei Scaune (only the ceded part) 127,769 17,505 105,834 760 707 2,963
Târnava Mică and Târnava Mare (only the ceded parts) 2,931 401 1,642 659 49 180
Total Northern Transylvania 2,395,153 1,176,433 911,556 68,694 138,885 99,585
Procente 100 % 49,11 % 38,05 % 2,86 % 5,79 % 4,15 %
Miklós Horthy's entrance in Szatmárnémeti (present-day Satu Mare) in the autumn of 1940
Demonstration in Bucharest's Palace Square celebrating Northern Transylvania's return, March 1945

Before the arbitration, in 1940, according to the Romanian estimates, in Northern Transylvania there were 1,304,903 Romanians (50,2%) and 978,074 (37,1%) Hungarians.[7] One year later, after the arbitration, according to the Hungarian census, the population of Northern Transylvania has dissimilar ratios, it counted 53.5% Hungarians and 39.1% Romanians.[8] Hungary held Northern Transylvania from 1940 to 1944. In 1940 ethnic disturbances between Hungarians and Romanians continued after some incidents following the entrance of the Hungarian Military, culminating in massacres at Treznea and Ip. After some ethnic Hungarians groups considered unreliable or insecure were sacked/expelled from Southern-Transylvania, the Hungarian officials also regularly expelled some Romanian groups from Northern-Transylvania. Also many Hungarian and Romanians fled or chose to opt between the two countries. There was a mass exodus; over 100,000 people on both sides of the ethnic and political borders relocated. This continued until 1944.[9] On March 19, 1944, following the occupation of Hungary by the Nazi Germany army through Operation Margarethe, Northern Transylvania came under German military occupation. Like Jews living in Hungary, most of the Jews in Northern Transylvania (about 150,000) were sent to concentration camps during World War II, a move that was facilitated by local military and civilians.

After King Michael's Coup, Romania left the Axis and joined the Allies. Thus, the Romanian army fought Nazi Germany and its allies in Romania - regaining Northern Transylvania - and further on, in German occupied Hungary and in Slovakia and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (e.g. Budapest Offensive & Siege of Budapest and Prague Offensive).

The Second Vienna Award was voided by the Allied Commission through The Armistice Agreement with Romania (September 12, 1944) whose Article 19 stipulated the following: "The Allied Governments regard the decision of the Vienna award regarding Transylvania as void and are agreed that Transylvania the greater part thereof) should be returned to Romania, subject to confirmation at the peace settlement, and the Soviet Government agrees that Soviet forces shall take part for this purpose in joint military operations with Romania against Germany and Hungary."

The territory was occupied by the Allied forces by late October 1944.[10] However, due to the activities of Romanian paramilitary forces, the Soviets expelled the Romanian administration from Northern Transylvania in November 1944 and did not allow them to return until March 1945.[10]



Countryside landscape, Sălaj County

Northern Transylvania is a diverse region, both in terms of landscape and population. It contains both largely rural areas (such as Bistrița-Năsăud County [11]) as well as major cities, such as Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Târgu Mureș, Baia Mare and Satu Mare. Centers of Hungarian culture, such as Miercurea Ciuc and Sfântu Gheorghe, are also part of the region. An important tourist destination is Maramureș County, an area known for its beautiful rural scenery, local small woodwork, including wooden churches, its craftwork industry, and its original rural architecture.

See alsoEdit


  1. ^ Csilléry, Edit (2012). "Észak–Erdély polgári közigazgatása (1940–1944)" [The civil administration of Northern Transylvania (1940–1944)]. Limes: Tudományos Szemle (in Hungarian). Tatabánya: Komárom-Esztergom Megyei Önkormányzat Levéltára. 25 (2): 98. 
  3. ^ "1940. évi XXVI. törvénycikk a román uralom alól felszabadult keleti és erdélyi országrésznek a Magyar Szent Koronához visszacsatolásáról és az országgal egyesítéséről" [Law XXVI of 1940 on the reunification of the eastern and Transylvanian parts liberated from Romanian rule with the country under the Hungarian Holy Crown]. Ezer év törvényei (in Hungarian). 
  4. ^ a b Thirring, Lajos (1940). "A visszacsatolt keleti terület. Terület és népesség." [The re-annexed eastern territory. Territory and population.]. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle (in Hungarian). Budapest: Magyar Királyi Központi Statisztikai Hivatal. 18 (8–9): 663. 
  5. ^ Fogarasi, Zoltán (1944). "A népesség anyanyelvi, nemzetiségi és vallási megoszlása törvényhatóságonkint 1941-ben." [Distribution of the population by mother tongue, ethnicity and religion in the municipalities of Hungary in 1941.]. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle (in Hungarian). Budapest: Magyar Királyi Központi Statisztikai Hivatal. 22 (1–3): 4. 
  6. ^ "A visszacsatolt keleti terület. Közigazgatás." [The re-annexed eastern territory. Administration.]. Magyar Statisztikai Szemle (in Hungarian). Budapest: Magyar Királyi Központi Statisztikai Hivatal. 18 (8–9): 660. 1940. 
  7. ^ a b Charles Upson Clark (1941). Racial Aspects of Romania's Case. Caxton Press. 
  9. ^ A történelem tanúi - Erdély - bevonulás 1940 p 56. - The witnesses of history - Transylvania - Entry 1940 p. 56. - ISBN 978-963-251-473-4
  10. ^ a b Rogers Brubaker, Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town, Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 80
  11. ^ http://www.ecoduri.com/recensamantul-populatiei/Bistrita-Nasaud.php

External linksEdit

  • Hitchins, Keith (1994), Romania: 1866-1947, Oxford History of Modern Europe, Oxford University Press .
  • Map