The Consequences of the Border Change in the County of Csanad and Torontal (1918–1923)

Abstract

The peace treaty, that ended the First World War, brought about a great deal of territorial change for the two counties. Firstly, the Romanians and the Serbians had occupied them then this move was sanctioned in Trianon and after that a change in the order of local governance followed. Due to the territorial losses, the shrunken counties were merged together. (CsanadArad-Torontal). The renovation of public administration was finished in 1923 by resurrecting the old institutions (justice of the peace public servants, notaries, city councils etc..) and thus the organisational continuity was restored.
    The new borders were defined in the Treaty of Trianon but in the case of the divided communities they were not meant to be final since due to geographical, transport related issues or any other circumstance they could have been modified.
    They also raised important questions regarding the wealth law, since under the Romanian occupation tangible, intangible and cultural assets that once had belonged together were then pulled apart. The depreciation of the taken assets was accelerated by the case of reimbursing the damages caused by the occupation and the commune. The latter was important in terms of the conditions of the new public administration.
    We can highlight migration as the main social consequence of the territorial changes which was mainly driven by „optalas” the option to choose between citizenship and by double-owning („kettos-birtokossag”) where landowners owned lands in separate countries. The case of optalas followed directly from the the high level of minority residence in the two counties and the double owning („kettos-birtokossag”) was the problem of the residents who lived along the borderland because the new borders separated the landowner from his land on the other side of the line. The two phenomena were not connected by law but their subjects were usually connected socially.
In the last phase of the transition they appointed the Boundary Commission. Its HQ was in Szeged. Under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon, Szeged was obliged to help the work of the Entente but in the eyes of the public it was „ a destructive quest”.