ABSTRACT
The sudden collapse of communism throughout Central Europe in 1989 marked a clear turning-point in the course that events had taken in the region since the end of the Second World War. The weight of history, both of the recent communist past and that of the pre-Second World War period, is likely to be critical in determining the possibility of any return to Europe and the establishment of the liberal democracy and market economies with which it has been associated. Among the resurgent traditions of Central Europe and the themes of the region's history that have surfaced during the relatively brief post-communist period, the most important has been that of nationalism and the growing emphasis placed on ethnic identity. The weight of history lies, in this sense, as much on regional and international relations as it does on domestic affairs. Other legacies of the pre-war period direct attention more to internal minorities than to international relations.
