ABSTRACT
Central and Eastern Europe were severely hit by the First World War. Most of the states in the region proved to be ill prepared for prolonged warfare, exhausted their resources and/or collapsed economically, militarily and politically. Human losses and material destruction were proportionally higher than in the rest of Europe. The decline of agricultural output was particularly severe and had pervasive consequences. The postwar recovery was sluggish, and in the mid-1920s the total output of seven major crops (wheat, rye, maize, oats, barley, sugar beet and potatoes) was significantly below the pre-1914 level, both in East Central Europe and in the Balkans. A similar pattern can be documented in the case of manufacturing, which, despite some war-stimulated success stories, declined to a greater extent than did agriculture. Additional problems were caused by inflation and by the required adjustment to the political rearrangements, which followed the demise of Austria-Hungary, the emergence of new nation-states and many border changes. Currency reforms, strict financial policies and measures to stimulate output were implemented in most countries, but recovery was slow, and the legacy of the Great War set the framework for the modest overall economic performance of Central and Eastern Europe during the entire interwar period.
