A Fragmented World: Cooperation, Conflict, and Conquest in Interwar Central East Europe

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Great War, national revolutions turned Central East Europe into a puzzle of independent nation-states. Two decades later, all those ”heirs” of the former multinational empires of the region hopelessly witnessed the collapse of the Versailles peace settlements, the misery of war, and thereafter successively experienced two different types of totalitarianism. From 1918 up to 1938 the region represented the most unstable part of the continent, a fragmented world dominated by deep insecurity, permanent suspicion, and exaggerated claims from all parts. The present paper focuses on the twisted road of the independent nation-states of Central East Europe from a promising future to a common tragedy. Its first aim is to find an answer to two basic questions: 1) why regional co-operation as a proper solution to all unresolved problems and tension was not accepted?, 2) are the historical actors of the region innocent victims of Nazi aggression, or the tragedy of the war is the final consequence of their political and economic deeds as well?