Problems Facing New States in Eastern and Central Europe Flashcards

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Name three new states created in Eastern and Central Europe after the First World War.

Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were three new states created.

They wanted national groups to rule themselves (self‑determination) and to break up the old empires like Austria‑Hungary.

Their borders included many minority groups, so lots of people still lived under foreign rule.

Around 3 million Germans lived in the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia and many did not want to be ruled by Czechs.

Different national groups were mixed together and each group claimed the same land as its own.

It was a strip of land giving Poland access to the sea but it split Germany in two, which many Germans hated.

They lost the large markets of the old empires, had few raw materials and relied on farming, so they stayed quite poor.

They had many small parties and little experience of democracy, so governments were weak and were often replaced by strong rulers or the army.

Germany and the USSR were much larger and wanted to change the borders, so the new states feared attack.

Tensions over minorities, borders and poverty made the region unstable and gave later leaders, such as Hitler, excuses to change the treaties.