immediate postwar problems

The period between the two great world wars was one of persistent crisis both in Europe and in the Balkans. In fact, only a few years of relative tranquility or prosperity were to be given the Balkan people between 1918 and 1940, when the area again became the scene of major military campaigns. The conflicts among the states and the internal social, political, economic, and national tensions were to be made more intense at the end of the 1920s by the effects of the Great Depression, the most severe period of economic crisis known to the Western world. In the immediate postwar period all of the Balkan states had to meet four major problems: (1) the continuation of the national struggles both within and among the nations; (2) the new economic problems caused in part by the war and the agrarian question; (3) the Bolshevik revolution and its effects on both international relations and the internal politics of the states; and (4) the necessity of read-justing international relations as a result of the removal of Ottoman-Turkish, German, Russian, and Habsburg great-power influence. After a brief review of these issues, we can turn to a discussion of the events in each state in the decade after the war.

The national issues

The peace settlements in no way settled the national conflicts in Eastern Europe; in fact, in many respects these were to become more tense and bitter.