ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the economic development of East Central Europe and its social consequences from the eighteenth century to the present. As shown in other parts of this book, the historical geography of East Central Europe is a topic which is elusive, difficult, and value-laden, and any decision for one or another ordering is to a degree arbitrary. This chapter covers mainly the territories corresponding to present-day Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and the former Yugoslavia. Only when relevant, it touches also the eastern parts of the pre-1795 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but it does not treat the lands corresponding to present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia itself in any systematic way.
