Crazy Europeans (America & Hungary)
12 December 1941
America was eating hamburgers while he was making plans for his fight against Japan. Going to war had become inevitable, he thought, after the Japanese navy had attacked his Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor only four days earlier.
While he was still chewing on one of the hamburgers, his telephone started to ring. He picked it up and shouted "Mmmf?" into the receiver.
"Erm … hello?", a female voice said. "Is this America I'm speaking to?"
America swallowed his bite. "Yes, it's me", he said in his typically loud voice. "Who's there?"
"This is the Kingdom of Hungary. I'm calling you on behalf of my boss in order to declare war on you."
America sighed. Another one. The German Empire had phoned him only the day before for just the same reason. "All right", he said, "then tell your king…"
"I don't have a king", Hungary interrupted him.
"But didn't you just say you were a kingdom?"
"Yes, but my boss is His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, Admiral Horthy."
"Your boss is an admiral? So your fleet will support Japan in his fight against…"
"No", Hungary interrupted him once more. "I don't have a fleet. I don't even have a coast, so why would I have a fleet?"
"But you just said…" America sighed again. "Very well. So you certainly have territorial claims against one of our allies, don't you?" There didn't seem to be many European countries who didn't fight over territory, after all.
"Oh, I do have territorial claims, but not against any of your allies", Hungary explained. "My main territorial claims are against Romania."
"So you will also fight against Romania?"
"Of course not!", Hungary replied indignantly. "Why would I do that? I'm allied to Vlad, after all!"
America felt a massive headache approaching. "Do I get this right?", he asked her. "You're a kingdom without a king whose boss is an admiral without a fleet in a country without seaport? And you declare war against me, even though your main territorial claims are against one of your allies?"
"Yes", Hungary confirmed, "that's about right."
"Are you frickin' crazy?!"
"No", Hungary said cheerfully, "just European!"
America seriously wondered if that didn't amount to the same thing, sometimes.
—
Notes:
Miklós Horthy (1868-1957) became Admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy during World War I, but Austria had to render its navy to the newly founded Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ("Kingdom of SHS") on 31 October 1818. On that same day, the Kingdom of Hungary declared its exit from the real union with the Austrian Empire. Subsequently, King Charles IV of Hungary (Charles I of Austria, 1887-1922, Emperor 1916-1918) withdrew from government in Hungary on 13 November 1918. For a short time, Hungary was a republic (see my story "Autumn Roses"), but Horthy reintroduced monarchy as early as 1 March 1920 after his election as regent (kormányzó) by the Hungarian National Council.
A regent usually acts in place of a king during a vacancy of a throne, but after Charles IV had tried in vain to become King of Hungary again, the Hungarian parliament decided to dethrone the House of Habsburg on 6 November 1921. This meant Hungary officially remained a kingdom but didn't have a king any more. As early as then, the Hungarian witticism came into being that the Hungarians had an admiral without a fleet as head of state who ruled a country without a coast which was a kingdom without a king. The basis for this bizarre situation was the revisionist principle of legal continuity (jogfolytonosság): Hungary advocated the legal position that it could only continue to claim the territories it had to convey away in the Treaty of Trianon (4 June 1920) if the legal situation of the time before 1918 formally persisted.