ABSTRACT
The First World War brought the collapse of the conservative monarchies in Europe and a victory for democracy and national self-determination. Poland recovered its independence as a result of a combination of many factors. Many traditional socio-economic and cultural features remained unchanged in interwar East Central Europe. All of East Central Europe faced the complex problem of reorientation of its foreign trade. To remedy the existing problems it was essential to change the structure of agriculture, modernize production methods, and relieve the rural overpopulation through land reform and industrialization. Interwar politics in the region were naturally affected by socio-economic and cultural structures and relationships. The protectorate was treated as an economic base and a reservoir of the German Reich, free from Allied bombings, its inhabitants exempted from military service. Most industries came under German control; some Slovak troops joined in the war against the Soviet Union; anti-Jewish measures resulted in the deportation and death of three-quarters of Slovak Jewry.
