Gemer in the Light of the 1919 Political Changes

Several concepts emerged in the years between 1918 and 1920 about the proportion of the division between Czechoslovakia and Hungary of one of the oldest medieval counties, the Gömör County. Czechoslovakia as an independent state recognized by the victorious powers, claimed sovereignty of the territories occupied by the Czecho-Slovak military units, whereas the Hungarian government took the view that the territory of Upper Hungary remains part of Hungary until the official “announcement of results” by the Paris Peace Conference. While Gömör did not become an active battleground during the world war, it did so for several months in the period of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The 1919 state border changes simultaneously resulted in territorial and administrational re-arrangement of the county, a decision which cut off district centres, routes to markets, transport paths, industrial areas, and caused that Gömör fell into the position of a peripheral county with disadvantaged economic situation, the aftereffects of which are felt up to now.