From capitalism to socialism

Radoslav Selucký

pp. 154-173

in: Harald G. Skilling (ed), Czechoslovakia 1918–88, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1991

Abstract

Among the successor states created on the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, only Czechoslovakia was an industrially advanced nation. As some three quarters of the Empire's industrial capacity was located in the territory of Bohemia and Moravia, the new Czechoslovakia emerged, in 1918, among the ten most industrially developed countries of the world. Similarly, Czechoslovakia's agriculture was well-developed, intensive, and specialized in producing raw materials for food and light industries. In addition, the new republic had an excellent educational system and a highly skilled labour force.