Geopolitics and Markets Review – 6th May 2024

Between World Wars In The Balkans

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Buildup To WW2

3. Great Depression In The Balkans

4. Concluding Remarks

5. Other News

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Bitesize Edition

• After World War One, we emerged into a dramatically different world. In the Balkans, for a period, there were certainly growing pains in the transition left by the departing empires that existed there previously (Ottoman, Habsburg, Russian). But there was an optimistic view that the future would be better. Nations and cultures had been fighting for national representation for centuries, and this was finally occurring.

• Like most things in life, spanners are thrown into the works. The League of Nations was doomed to fail from the start, and the Great Depression cast the world into the economic unknown. As the Ottoman Empire was still relatively agriculturally based as a society prior to its collapse, the Balkans inherited this. Falling prices led to less income from agricultural products, and population growth began to rise in the Balkan states.

• The populist regimes of Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy were lurking close by the Balkans, and they were economically connected. The overall security of the Balkans was a large concern, however. The Balkan Entente saw the states attempt to secure their independence, but we all know World War Two was on the horizon. Let's see how the period prior to the Second World War unfolded in the Balkans.

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Introduction

In the aftermath of WWI, we saw the partition of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of Yugoslavia. The Balkans was the location of the start of World War One but emerged from the conflict with higher levels of autonomy free from influence from outside empires. This was in part due to the end of the Ottoman, Habsburg, and Russian Empires. The Turkish War of Independence saw Turkey emerge, and the Russian Revolution saw the formation of the Soviet Union. The end of the Habsburgs saw many European states emerge. It's from this point that we enter a new age in the Balkans.