Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Tracing the territorial changes in the Balkan Wars and WWI Map 1: Europe and the Balkans after the First Balkan

War -1912 Map 2: Europe and the Balkans after the Second

Balkan War – 1913 Europe and the Balkans at the end of WWI – 1920;

Greece occupies Izmir and Eastern Thrace Europe and the Balkans after the end of the Greek-

Turkish War

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Structural Changes and Exogenous Shocks to the Systems Territorial Acquisitions – Different Administrative and Political

Structures Demographic Changes

Ethnic and Religious Heterogeneity (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes)

Refugee Influx (Greece and Bulgaria) Universal Male Suffrage

Would make the politics more fragmented and radicalized The Economic Depression Ideological Shifts in Europe Power Politics in Europe In addition they had their own internal drives for modernization,

integration, and homogenization

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Internal Drive Remains the Same: Modernization

Political/Administrative Economic Social Cultural

National Integration Homogenization

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

But their environment is very different Structural Changes/Exogenous Shocks to

the Systems Territorial How to incorporate different and pre-existing

systems into the political systems? Invariably applied the centralized

administrative organization to the expanded and newly incorporated territories

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Most serious problem in Yugoslavia and Romania Transylvania, Besarabia and Bucovina voted to join Romania (the

Regat) with explicit conditions to preserve regional autonomy and elected councils; Romania quickly dismissed these conditions (exception government of Iuliu Maniu and the National Peasant Party 1929- 1933)

Conflicts about the political structure of Yugoslavia were never resolved; fear of Italian designs pushed the other South Slavs into the Kingdom and accepting the centralized Serbian version of the state, and immediately challenged it; territorial organization was based on 33 new provinces; most of the policy dimensions were centralized, yet the legal code of the country was not harmonized until 1929; territorial reorganization in 1929 – seemingly neutral yet it assured Serb majority in 6 out of the 9 administrative units – the banovine

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Bulgaria Problems created by influx of refugees and the legacy of its own

support for IMRO; the organization used the territory of southwest Bulgaria (Pirin Macedonia) as its base and refused to accept central authority – it was operating according to 18th century Ottoman traditions

Albania (similar problems to Montenegro) It was a newly established state and it just faced for the first time the

creation of a central administration; it had a history and tradition of local autonomy and insubordination to central authority; divisions between Ghegs and Tosks; Ahmed Zogolli/King Zog had to spend 50% of his budget just on the army and police in order to establish basic state authority and sovereignty (the Kanuni of Lekë Dukagjinit – Gjakmarrja)

Some autonomy for capitals (exception Belgrade)

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Structural Changes/Exogenous Shocks to the Systems Ethnic Profile

What to do with the ‘foreigners’ within How to integrate the refugees

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Constitutions from 19th century defined citizenship on the basis of Christianity (exception Montenegro)

All signatories of Minorities Treaties (1920 and 1924)(http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/dfat/treaties/)

Assimilation and Exclusion Romania

Suppression of cultural activities on Hungarians; educational system centralized and establishment only of Romanian schools; university of Cluj nationalized; relaxation only under Iuliu Maniu

Germans and Jews did not make special demands; large group of Jews left without citizenship (80000 out of the 700000); demands for quota system in universities; Jews ‘overrepresented’ in professions and urban middle class-bred resentment into the population – the only genuine anti-Semitic movement on the Balkans together with Thessaloniki

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Bulgaria Preserved the millet system for the legal system – Muslim affairs were

under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; absence of special efforts for integration

Balkan wars saw the first concerted efforts for Christianization of the Pomak Population (and renaming respectively)

Alexander Stamboliiski’s government implemented the Treaty of Neuilly and state funding for Turkish schools;

Radical shift in 1934 – suppression of cultural and educational rights Refugee Problem – the Macedonian Factor Considered Bulgarian; their social status created more challenges for

Bulgaria; settled first in Sofia and Pirin Macedonia; entrenched terrorism; created problems for the de-nationalization of foreign politics; provided a firm base for Communist parties; IMRO finally destroyed in 1934

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Greece Turkish minority had legally codified rights but was subject to

neglect and abuse; schools were not supported and kept open; land of Turkish people expropriated for settling refugees; some relaxation 1930-1933 but then again repression during the regime of Ioannins Metaxas

Even worse for Slav Macedonians; no language or ethnicity right Refugee problem was of larger magnitude than in Bulgaria –

Greece received several packages of financial help from the League of Nations for resettling them; used as a tool of Hellenization of Macedonia and Western Thrace; poor and never really reimbursed; social dislocation; further exacerbated ideological splits in Greece; as in Bulgaria they proved to be good pool for recruitment for the Communist party;

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Yugoslavia Neither Assimilation, nor creation of common

Yugoslav identity Serbs dominant in State Administration and Army;

unequal participation; since 1929 only Yugoslavia-wide parties allowed

No unified educational system; textbooks followed ‘ethnic’ histories in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia; no reference to the common state; changed only after 1929

Thorough assimilation and repession in Macedonia and Kosovo

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Structural Changes and Exogenous Shocks to the Systems Legacies of the War and Mass Conscription

Universal male suffrage Political Sphere open to wider participation Stage open for mass parties Agrarian and Communist Parties Party fragmentation and unstable governments Romania – 26 cabinets; Albania-19; Bulgaria-9; Greece – 22; Yugoslavia-18 Elections in the 1920s before the establishment of Royal dictatorships: Bulgaria-8;

Romania -11; Greece – 7; Albania-2 This fragmented political sphere in the end served for the consolidation of power of

the central executive authority over the state Unsurprisingly all of them slid into Royal Dictatorships in the 1930s (Albania in

1928; Yugoslavia in 1929; Bulgaria in 1935; Romania formally in 1938 but since 1933; Greece under General Ioannis Metaxas in 1936); weakened parties and precedent of pervasive control through Ministries of the Interior

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Drive still to establish unified economic space and modernized economy

Structural Changes and Exogenous Shocks to the System War Shocks and Economic Depression Mass conscription – rising demands for land redistribution and

solving the peasant problems Land redistribution was implemented very quickly in all countries;

had most significance in Romania and parts of Yugoslavia (Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina); served refugee settlement in Greece and Bulgaria; not accomplished in Albania – majority under 5 hectares –very small holdings

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Land redistribution did not solve the problem of peasant poverty and agricultural boom

GDP per capita of the region was 20-30 percent of the British figure (Greece’s was 45); these countries are ranked at the bottom of 24 European countries ranked for 1929

Economies still dominated by agriculture – 70-80% Pre-war export levels of agricultural products recovered only in 1929

and then the Depression reversed that General productivity was very low; American and Canadian grain

products entered Western Europe during the war and stayed there; Balkan countries had to diversify out of grain production; investment into import of modern equipment was lacking (Bulgaria exception); establishment of cooperatives but mostly access to credit –Buulgarian Agricultural Bank

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

Rising protection measures – both for agriculture and industry But industry still remained very small -10%; Greece’s increased to

18%; Yugoslavia’s thanks to the incorporation of Croatia and Slovenia increased to 19% too; Romania’s industry was oil-based; employment in the public sector was still larger than in industry

Capital flows and investment were gravely missing; no state loans as in the pre-war period; investment by Britain was restricted to mining sector, where it dominated ownership; Albania’s capital flows dominated by Italy with political conditions

Monetary policy helped stability but as everywhere in Europe exchange rates were overvalued and this further hindered recovery, exports and growth

Political and Economic Integration, 1920s and 1930s

National Management of the Economies Central Agencies for Subsidizing Agricultural

production and export (established precedent and organization for the future Communist regimes); led to further overproduction and deficits

Industry was growing faster; no state ownership but involvement through credit flows; the national banks assumed a larger role

Integration into the German economic zone