Conclusions: Institutions, Geography, and Uncertainty

Abstract

In the 1930s the Czech geopolitician Jaromír Korčák believed that Central Europe, which he defined as the Central Danubian floodplain, was condemned to be geopolitically weak as a large chunk of its territory actually did not fit in with the rest of Central Europe (Korčák 1938: 45–7). He contended that Alföld, the great plain east of the Danube containing most of Hungary’s current territory, was geologically and morphologically different from the European plains which gave rise to other geopolitical centres in Europe. In this respect, Korčák saw Alföld as a part of the Asian steppes which could not sustain a sedentary life and whose nomads had disturbed European progress. As a result, Central Europe was too split and too unstable to create a geopolitical centre of its own.