Europe's Third World: The European Periphery in the Interwar YearsRoutledge, 2016 M04 29 - 229 pages Economic historians have perennially addressed the intriguing question of comparative development, asking why some countries develop much faster and further than others. Focusing primarily on Europe between 1914 and 1939, this present volume explores the development of thirteen countries that could be said to be categorised as economically backward during this period: Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey and Yugoslavia. These countries are linked, not only in being geographically on Europe's periphery, but all shared high agrarian components and income levels much lower than those enjoyed in western European countries. The study shows that by 1918 many of these countries had structural characteristics which either relegated them to a low level of development or reflected their economic backwardness, characteristics that were not helped by the hostile economic climate of the interwar period. It explores, region by region, how their progress was checked by war and depression, and how the effects of political and social factors could also be a major impediment to sustained progress and modernisation. For example, in many cases political corruption and instability, deficient administrations, ethnic and religious diversity, agrarian structures and backwardness, population pressures, as well as international friction, were retarding factors. In all this study offers a fascinating insight into many areas of Europe that are often ignored by economists and historians. It demonstrates that these countries were by no means a lost cause, and that their post-war performances show the latent economic potential that most harboured. By providing an insight into the development of Europe's 'periphery' a much more rounded and complete picture of the continent as a whole is achieved. |
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Page 7
... Despite the exchange of populations following the war and the reduction in minority status by the peace treaty settlements, many of the Baltic and East European countries still had large minority populations. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ...
... Despite the exchange of populations following the war and the reduction in minority status by the peace treaty settlements, many of the Baltic and East European countries still had large minority populations. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ...
Page 9
... despite attempts by nationalist politicians to extend the practice of nostrification principally through increased state holdings. Some 50 per cent of the total Latvian stock capital was in foreign hands in 1925, while by the early ...
... despite attempts by nationalist politicians to extend the practice of nostrification principally through increased state holdings. Some 50 per cent of the total Latvian stock capital was in foreign hands in 1925, while by the early ...
Page 13
... despite their large agrarian interests is eloquent testimony to the failure of their agrarian systems to respond to the needs of rapidly growing populations. Another feature of the peripheral countries was their poor infrastructure ...
... despite their large agrarian interests is eloquent testimony to the failure of their agrarian systems to respond to the needs of rapidly growing populations. Another feature of the peripheral countries was their poor infrastructure ...
Page 14
... preponderating influence in fields of economic and financial activities, despite apparent assimilation in some cases, marked them out as targets for anti-Semitic behaviour on the part of the native residents 14 EUROPE'S THIRD WORLD.
... preponderating influence in fields of economic and financial activities, despite apparent assimilation in some cases, marked them out as targets for anti-Semitic behaviour on the part of the native residents 14 EUROPE'S THIRD WORLD.
Page 15
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Common terms and phrases
50 per cent accounted agrarian sector Albania backward Balkan countries Baltic became Berend and Ranki Britain budgetary Bulgaria cereals country’s Crampton currency decade declined defence deficits dependent depression Despite domestic early Eastern Europe economic enterprises especially estimates Estonia European peripheral exchange control fact farming fiscal forces foreign capital Germany gold Greece Greek growth half hectares Hungary Hungary’s important increased industrial development industrial production industrialisation inefficient inflation infrastructure interwar period Italy labour land reform Latvia League of Nations less Lithuania low level manufacturing military million modern modernisation nineteenth century Ottoman Empire output peasants pengös peripheral countries peripheral Europe Poland political population Portugal postwar prewar level primary problem raw materials reconstruction regime remained rise Romania Russian Serbia social South Slav Spain stabilisation structure territory textiles trade Treaty Treaty of Lausanne Turkey Western standards Yugoslavia