The Third Reich and Yugoslavia: An Economy of Fear, 1933-1941

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The Third Reich and Yugoslavia focuses on economic and political affairs between the Third Reich and Yugoslavia before Germany attacked in April 1941. It observes the relations between the two countries primarily from an economic perspective, with the political dimension forming a backdrop within which the economy operated. Perica Hadzi-Jovancic challenges the conventional scholarly wisdom which recognises economics as mainly being a tool of German foreign policy towards Yugoslavia. Instead, he successfully places economic dealings on both sides within the broader context of both the German economic and financial plans and policies of the 1930s, as well as the existing trading ties between the two countries as they had been developing since the 1920s. At the same time, through detailed analysis of unpublished archival material, Hadzi-Jovancic explores the shared political relations from a new perspective; one from which there is a much deeper understanding of Yugoslavias motives and the resulting implications for the other great powers and the wider regional framework. The book concludes that, contrary to the traditional view in historiography and despite the dependency of Yugoslavias foreign trade on the German market at the dawn of the Second World War, Yugoslavia maintained both its economic and political agency in the shadow of the Third Reich. It was only international political developments beyond Yugoslavias control in the years ahead that lead to a more receptive stance towards German demands.

Reviews

In this interesting book, Perica Hadzi-Jovancic challenges the narrative of German economic and diplomatic hegemony over Balkan countries in the 1930s by examining the disconnect between economic interests and diplomacy in Germanys dynamic relationship with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Emphasizing the agency and the limits thereof wielded by small states in a world of great powers, Hadzi-Jovancic argues for the need to reexamine concepts such as soft power and informal empire". * Mirna Zakic, Associate Professor of History, Ohio University, USA *
Based on deep archival research, this book offers a compelling and original account of Yugoslavia's efforts to come to terms with the growing power and aggression of Nazi Germany. Hadzi-Jovancic explores the political and economic tensions in Yugoslavian foreign policy and charts Belgrade's struggle to protect its freedom of manoeuvre in a world where options were narrowing with dizzying speed. * Christopher Clark, Regius Professor of History, University of Cambridge, UK *
Perica Hadzi-Jovancic turns the presumably dry matter of economic relations into a captivating story of a small nation trying to safeguard its interests at a time, when Nazi Germany was unravelling the precarious peace established in Europe after the Great War. Focusing on Yugoslavias foreign and economic policy vis--vis Germany and analysing their connection with a volatile international environment, this exhaustively researched book highlights the importance of Southeastern Europe for European matters in that period. It will instantly become a reference work. * Ulf Brunnbauer, Academic Director of the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Germany *

Author Bio

Perica Hadzi-Jovancic is an independent scholar who obtained his PhD in History at the University of Cambridge, UK.