The trade wars of the 1930s: the struggle for market share and hegemony -- Italy, the powers and Eastern Europe, 1918-1939, Mussolini, prisoner of the Mediterranean -- France and Poland, 1918-1939. Poland: French or German satellite? -- The search for raw materials: Nazi Germany's imperialist plans for the exploitation of southeastern Europe in the inter-war period -- An euphoric dream: Grossraumwirtschaft, Lebensraum and British indecision before Nazi Germany's surge for world power -- British-German trade problems. Britain threatens a clearing. Schacht's last tape: his unsuccessful attempt to gain raw materials -- Trade rivalries in the 1930s. The Foreign Office debate on whether to keep Germany lean or fat. Britain abandons the southeastern trade -- Schizoid British views of Nazi Germany: German moderates or German radicals. "Will nasty Mr. Hyde eat poor Dr. Jekyll?" -- On the eve. German raw material shortages. "No butter, no eggs, but a new Reich Chancellery." British and French intimations of German collapse -- Germany as trading partner in southeastern Europe: exploiter or godsend? -- Germany seeks new markets and some old ones. The Czech-German trade struggle in southeastern Europe -- The second phase of Nazi attempts to dominate Eastern Europe -- The great power struggle for hegemony in southeastern Europe, 1935-1940. Erosion of the little entente and Balkan entente -- German encirclement fears. The British guarantee to Poland, Romania and Greece, March-April 1939. U.S. trade relations with Germany and Britain -- "Keeping the pot boiling" in Eastern Europe. Anglo-Romanian relations and the Leith-Ross trade mission to Romania in April 1939. Erosion of the Munich Settlement and German-British economic conflict in the Balkans -- The period of retarded German hegemony in southeastern Europe, October 1939-October 1940. The Polish campaign to Italy's attack on Greece -- Prince Paul, the man in the cage with the tiger. The March 27, 1941 Belgrade Coup, Prince Paul, the British and the Germans.