SEHI2006 Successors to the Habsburgs: East-Central Europe, 1914-1945

Summative Assessment

2 x 2,500 word essays (25%)

3 Hour Examination (75%)

Formative Assessment

Oral Presentations plus feedback

Module Outline

This course investigates the problems caused by the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the creation of new states in East-Central Europe (Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia). These Habsburg ‘successor’ states were burdened with nationality problems as complex as those of the former Empire and were constantly under threat of territorial revision. In addition, these states lacked strong traditions of representative government and faced serious social and economic problems which were further aggravated by the onset of the Depression. They thus fell easy prey to authoritarian solutions and looked for support to the Great Powers who in turn sought to influence events within these countries. The history of these states thus tends to follow a similar pattern: a brief experiment with democracy after the First World War followed by the imposition of authoritarian rule; competition between authoritarian rulers and fascist movements in the 1930s; competition with one another in foreign policy; German occupation; war and communist takeover. Weekly seminars will be structured around both individual ‘country histories’ and themes common to all the ‘successor’ states, together with a study of the interaction between these states and the Great Powers.

Indicative Texts

• R J Crampton, Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, 1994
• A Polonsky, The Little Dictators: the History of Eastern Europe since 1918, 1975
• J Rothschild, East-Central Europe between the Two World Wars, 1974
• H Seton-Watson, Eastern Europe between the Wars, 1945

Please note: This outline is accurate at the time of publication. Minor amendments may be made prior to the start of the academic year.