The Historian R.W. Seton-Watson and His 1923 Visit to Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Romania
The Historian R.W. Seton-Watson and His 1923 Visit toYugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Romania

Summary/Abstract: The British historian and publicist, Robert William Seton-Watson (1879-1951), rendered important services to the cause of the nationalities of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy ever since the first two decades of the 20th century, including during the Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920).During the 1920s, Seton visited the three states repeatedly: in April-June 1923 (including Austria); the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (and Austria) in May-June 1925, Romania and Czechoslovakia in June 1927 and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Romania and Czechoslovakia in June-August 1929. His visits were determined by the desire to learn at the very scene of events about the political happenings taking place in the three states in the first years after the war.Seton continued to follow the evolution of events in the three successor states during the next years. The events in Skupština in June 1928, when a Serbian parliamentarian shot Radić dead and wounded two other Croatian parliamentarians, horrified Seton-Watson. As far as Romania is concerned, the winning of the elections, in 1928, by the National-Peasant Party brought great hopes for the future of this country, but they were dashed by the failure of the national-peasant governments, carried out against the background of the world economic crisis. Only Czechoslovakia maintained a democratic regime, being, however, also undermined by internal contradictions between Czechs and Slovaks and by the centrifugal tendencies of the Sudeten Germans.

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