‘Each Wagon of Coal Should Be Paid for with Territorial concessions.’ Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Coal Shortage in 1918–21

ABSTRACT Even a short breakdown in fuel supplies can have profound and dramatic consequences for modern economies. This paper explores a major coal shortage in Central Europe after WWI which shook local societies for two years. The dissolution of the Habsburg Empire in 1918 provides a narrower context to this study, while its immediate focus lies upon the development of diplomatic and economic relationships between Czechoslovakia – a WWI victor and an important coal exporter, and Hungary – a war losing state that was a net coal importer. This paper underlines the scale of the Hungarian reliance on fuels from Czechoslovakia, and suggests that this dependency was one of the chief arguments that motivated Budapest to cede Slovakia to Prague’s control and, more generally, to accept the peace terms proposed at the Paris conference. It is safe to conclude that economic considerations played a much greater, if not dominant, role in the adoption of the peace treaty of Trianon of 1920 in Hungary. Overall, the paper demonstrates that cross-border energy interdependence substantially influenced diplomatic relations in Central Europe immediately after WWI, privileging coal-exporting states over coal-importing states.