Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)
STUDIES - Tamás Magyarics: The (Re) creation of the Relations between the US and the Successor States in Central Europe after the First World War
Slovakia —both politically and economically. 2 3 The circumstances were quite favorable for them to carry out their ideas. The country was in many respects the best-equipped one of all the Central European nations. She inherited a large part of the industry of the Monarchy, "including 90 % of the linen industry, 85 % of the silk, hemp, jute and glass industries, and 80 % of the cotton industry." 2 4 From 1924 on, a recovery set in which proved to be more stable than that in most of the countries in the area. Among its causes we may detect the fact that this recovery was not so closely connected with foreign loans as in, for instance, Austria. However, the total Czech indebtedness to the U.S. was $ 91,879,671.03 in the early 1920s, i.e. Czechoslovakia ranked seventh in the list of the European countries as regards indebtedness to the U.S. 2 5 This huge amount of debt made it necessary for the Czechs to appoint a commission to negotiate a general refunding of the indebtedness of Czechoslovakia to the U.S. 2 6, and, in consequence of the quite rigid American interpretation of the separation of economic and politicals goals in the case of the Central European countries, objection was raised by the State Department to private loans to Czechoslovakia pending settlement of Czech debts to the U.S. in 1925. 27 The problem was created by the same reasons that would ultimately contribute to the depression at the end of the decade. In 1920 the Czech imports from the U.S. totaled 4,111 million Czech crowns, while the exports were as low as 544 million. By 1921 the gap between the two sides had even no Benes said that "the Czechs had fought not for political freedom —for this they had enjoyed to a certain extent even before the war —but for their economic independence ...", quoted in Frederick Hertz, The Economic Problem of the Danubian States (London: Victor Gollancz, 1947) 65. 2 4 C. A. Macartney and A. W. Palmer, Independent Eastern Europe (London: Macmillan and Co., 1960) 156—7. or The data are taken from Samuel Flagg Bemis, The United States as a World Power. A Diplomatic History, 1900—1950 (New York: Henry Hold and Co., 1950) 236. 2 6 Papers, 1923, Vol. 1, 876—80. 2 7 Papers, 1925, Vol. 2, 39—45. 83
