Europe's Third World: the European Periphery in the Interwar YearsAshgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006 - 217 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. 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. |
Contents
Peripheral Europe Before 1914 | 17 |
Peripheral Europe in the Interwar Setting | 39 |
The Balkan States | 68 |
The Baltic States | 94 |
Spain and Portugal | 127 |
Greece Turkey and Albania | 144 |
Development Stalled? | 171 |
184 | |
202 | |
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Europe's Third World: The European Periphery in the Interwar Years Derek H. Aldcroft Limited preview - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
50 per cent accounted agrarian sector agricultural products Albania backward Balkan countries Baltic became Berend and Ranki Britain budgetary Bulgaria cereals Crampton currency debt service decade declined defence deficits dependent depression Despite domestic early Eastern Europe enterprises especially estimates Estonia ethnic European peripheral exchange control fact farming fiscal forces foreign capital Germany gold Greece Greek growth half hectares Hungary 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