(The Hungarian version of this blog post is available at the following link. Additionally, an extended Hungarian version of this post can be accessed at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Minority Studies journal: 'Regio'.)
Perhaps the most renowned ethnic map, the "Carte Rouge" was one of the most referenced Hungarian cartographic documents of the Paris Peace Conference. First published 100 years ago, this map came to fruition on the 21st of February in 1919. Hungary, as part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy lost the First World War in the latter part of 1918. From October of 1918 onwards, Hungarian representatives from various scientific disciplines expeditiously tried to organize the scientific background of the Hungarian territorial argumentations for the peace-negotiations. This period was one of the most intensive times of joint collaboration between the realms of science and politics. Pál Teleki (1879-1941), who was the contemporary chief secretary of the Hungarian Geographical Society led this uprise, along with other Hungarian geographers. Teleki edited various materials himself, which he began when he was recovering from the Spanish flu. From these, his best known work to date is the „Carte Rouge”, the „Ethnographical map of Hungary based on the density of population”, which he edited with the help of Ferenc Nopcsa (1877-1933). The reputation of the map was principally based on its career as per the peace-negotiations. Moreover, this map was the only map which the leading politicians of the entente-powers most definitely looked at. At the request of Lloyd George (1863-1945), British prime minister, Albert Apponyi (1846-1933), leader of the Hungarian delegation, showed a copy of the map to the members of the Supreme Council of the Paris Peace Conference following his speech.
Fig.1. Paul Teleki: The ethnographical map of Hungary based on the density of population, 1919. (first edition)
from the author's private collection