The First US intervention in Serbian economic reconstruction and recovery

Aleksić, Vesna and Jerković, Sonja and Ilić, Saša (2014) The First US intervention in Serbian economic reconstruction and recovery. International review (3/4). pp. 9-26. ISSN 2217-9739

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Abstract

The paper analyses the suggestion of the United States of America on economic recovery and concrete economic aid to Serbia after the end of World War I. Upon the initiative of Mihailo Pupin, a great American scientist of Serbian origin, a special Technical Mission comprised mainly of telecommunication (telegraph and telephone), bridge, mining and railway engineers was sent to Serbia. It was believed that their knowledge and experience was most needed in heavily devastated Serbia. They were leading experts who had volunteered their services to the famous US 17th Engineers Railway Regiment for the duration of the World War I, and who remained in Europe for a certain period upon the War’s end. During their stay in the Kingdom that lasted less than a year, they crossed about 35 thousand kilometers on railways and river waterways and about 50 thousand kilometers by car. They conducted a complete review of the existing railway system and detailed analysis of several new projects aimed at linking the Danube Valley with Adriatic Coast. They wrote hundreds of pages of reports containing maps and suggestions on how to most efficiently reconstruct the old and construct the new railways. They personally expedited the reconstruction of the Belgrade-Thessaloniki railway. At the same time, they reviewed the mineral resources of the Kingdom and surrounding areas, with the exception of West Serbia, East Bosnia and Montenegro. The results of these analyses were compiled in more than fifty reports on each individual mine, containing numerous photographs, the analysis of the mine’s existing state and suggestions for further and faster development. The length of their brief stay in Serbia stands in stark contrast to the importance of the Mission’s impact on the county’s postwar recovery which is discussed as the principal topic of the paper.

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