CHAPTER 3 - The Making of Eastern Europe (I)—The Social and Historical Background

Abstract

This chapter discusses the social and historical background in the making of Eastern Europe. Diverse though they are, the peoples of Eastern Europe share a common experience. Many of them have had the compensating experience of subjugating others; many have done both at once, or in rapid succession, switching roles rapidly as wars and conquests have rolled almost ceaselessly over this area from the beginning of recorded history until own time. The cutting off communities from each other, they weakened the cohesion of already weak peoples and created a vacuum that attracted the unwelcome attentions of major powers. Outside intervention has been a constant fact of political life in Eastern Europe. Religion was more than a matter of theological conviction in most of these countries; it became a symbol of national identity. The social structure of the Eastern European countries also contributed to the general backwardness.