ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN CENTRAL EUROPE
Prague, Train Station
Central and Eastern Europe was characterised by transition from a collection of agrarian societies under dynastic rule to modern industrialised societies within the European system of nations over the last two centuries. Western Europe achieved modern economic growth with mixed capitalist economic systems and high levels of integration into the world economy while the Russian Empire in the 19th century and its successor, the Soviet Union, in the 20th century experienced delayed economic development with weak or no capitalist institutions and feeble international economic links. As mentioned above the countries of Central Europe form the area “in-between”: Austria and Czechoslovakia before the Second World War followed the Western model, while Bulgaria and Romania stuck to the Russian model, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Poland opted for a mixture of those different ways.…