History of the Balkans

Chalcolithic civilization

Early cultures of the Balkans were predominantly agricultural. Archaeologists have identified several early culture-complexes, including the Cucuteni culture (4500 BC - 3500 BC), Vinča culture (5000 BC-3000 BC) and the Linearbandkeramic culture. A notable set of artifacts is the Tărtăria tablets, which appear to be inscribed with an early form of writing. Also deserving mention is the Butmir Culture, found on the outskirts of present day Sarajevo. Likely overrun by the Illyrians in the bronze age, the Butmir Culture developed unique ceramics. The discovery caused enough of a buzz in the archeological world that the International Congress of Archeology and Antrophology was held in Sarajevo in 1894.

Hallstatt

Indo-Europeanization

The first Greek tribe to arrive in Greece were probably the Achaeans, around 1800 BC, meeting a presumably non-Indo-European people whom they called Pelasgians.

Myceneans also arrive in about 1600 BC and they were one of the earliest Indo-European civilizations in the Balkans, only to decline with the arrival of the Dorian Greeks around 1100 BC (see: Greek Dark Ages).

There exist two theories on the origin of the Illyrian tribes. One associates them with the Hallstatt culture an Iron Age people coming into the Western Balkans after 2000 BC and the other considers the Illyrians autochthonous.

Around 1500 BC Thracians settle in the Balkans. The Thracians were an Indo-European people, inhabitants of Thrace and adjacent lands (present-day Romania, Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, European Turkey, eastern Serbia and Macedonia). They spoke the Thracian language.

The Phrygians seem to have settled in the southern Balkans at first, centuries later continuing their migration to settle in Asia Minor.

Various hypotheses

="Kurgan hypothesis"=

A modified form of Kurgan theory by JP Mallory, dating the migrations earlier to around 4000 BC and putting less insistence on their violent or quasi-military nature, is still widely held.

Colin Renfrew is the main propagator for a newer theory dating from 1987 according to which the Indo-Europeans were farmers in Asia Minor who expanded peacefully in South East Europe from around 7000 BC (wave of advance).

The Paleolithic Continuity Theory (PCT) suggests that the Indo-European languages originated in Europe and have existed there since the Paleolithic.

=Continuity in Balkans=

Classical antiquity

Odrysian empire

Dacian kingdom

Greek city-states and their colonies

The Greeks were among the first to establish a system of trade routes in the Balkans, and in order to facilitate trade with the natives, between 700 BC and 300 BC they founded several colonies on the Black Sea (Pontus Euxinus) coast and on the Danube.

Empire of Macedon

Illyrian kingdoms

The Roman conquests

The Balkans were conquered by the Romans during the empire's expansionist period, and remained part of it until the 3rd century AD. After that, invaders pushed south from outside the borders of Rome and gradually whittled away at its Balkan holdings.

Romanization

The Romanian (Vlach) people arose as the old Balkan populations were Romanized. Where this Romanization occurred is debated (in Dacia, or in Moesia; some even suggest the Illyrian province).

The extinct Dalmatian language was a product of Romanization in the province of Illyria and Dalmatia.

Christianity during the Daco-Roman era

Christianity first came to the area when Saint Paul and some of his followers traveled in the Balkans passing through Thracian populated areas. Saint Andrew also worked among the Dacians and Scythians, and had preached in Dobruja and Pontus Euxinus. In 46 AD, this teritory was conquered by the Romans and annexed to Moesia. In 106 AD the emperor Trajan invaded Dacia. Subsequently, missionaries, that consisted of colonists, Roman soldiers, and slaves came to Dacia to spread Christianity.

In the Third Century the number of Christians grew because the Goths, who came from north of the Danube, invaded the Roman-held Balkans. The Goths brought many Christian prisoners, captured in Asia Minor, to the Balkans which sped the expansion of Christianity.

When Emperor Constantine of Rome issued the Edict of Milan in 313, thus ending all Roman-sponsored persecution of Christianity, the area became a haven for Christians. Just twelve years later in 325, Constantine assembled the Council of Nicaea which made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. With this, the Roman temples that stood as a symbol to the "pagan" gods, were adapted and used as churches, such as at Porolissum and Densus in the Balkans.

see:

The Dark Ages and the Great Migrations

Nomadic peoples

Western Huns empire stretched in 434 AD from Central Europe to the Black Sea and from the Danube river to the Baltic. The Hunnish-Bulgar association existed throughout the period between 377-453 AD - the time of the Hunnish hegemony in Central Europe.

Other transient incursions were made by Goths, Gepids, Onogur, Avars. At one point the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths were Christians, but Arians. Ulfilas was the apostle to the Goths and he translated the Bible from Greek into the Gothic language, fragments have survived and are known as the Codex Argenteus. One hypotesis is that toghether with the above christianised people, the romanic population was also christianised.The creed of Ulfilas, as appended to a letter praising him written by his foster-son and pupil the Scythian Auxentius of Durostorum (modern Silistra) on the Danube, who became bishop of Milan, was a clear statement of central Arian tenets.
It is very possible that the Gothic Alphabet of Wulfila to be basis for the creation of the Cyrillic Alphabet.(On May, 24th-26th 2003 the Balkan Media Academy organized in the Wulfila-House in Simeonovo, near Sofia an international seminar "The Gothic Alphabet of Wulfila (Ulphilas) - basis for the creation of the Cyrillic Alphabet" Main lecturers: Acad.Dr. Rossen Milev, Dr. Valentin Hristov)
Goths history in Balkans is subject of controvercy. Some consider that Getae are the same with goths.
Jacob Grimm stoutly maintained that Getae and Daci (Dacians) were identical with Goths and Danes
"Spread over the plentiful space from the Danube to the neighborhood of the Scythian Black Sea, do there inhabit fierce and barbarous nations, which are said to have burst forth in manifold variety like a swarm of bees from a honeycomb or a sword from a sheath, as is the barbarian custom, from the island of Scania, surrounded in different directions by the ocean. For indeed there is there a tract for the very many people of Alania, and the extremely well-supplied region of Dacia, and the very extensive passage of Greece. Dacia is the middle-most of these. Protected by very high alps in the manner of a crown and after the fashion of a city. With Mars' forewarning, raging warlike peoples inhabit those tortuous bends of extensive size, namely the Getae, also known as Goths" - [From chapter 2, second paragraph in Gesta Normannorum by the chronicler Dudo of St.Quentin's]
The most known book regarding the Goths is an ancient book: Jordanes, THE ORIGIN AND DEEDS OF THE GOTHS, XI, 69

Traces of the migrating people

Inscripions on a sword belonging to the goths in today Bulgaria ‘I do not wait Time, I am Time itself ‘

The Turkic Avars, subjugate the Slavs, in the 6th century, from the area spanning modern-day southern Poland. During 6th and 7th centuries together with the Slavs invaded the Eastern Roman Empire, settling in what is now Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the surrounding lands.

Slavs

Two major historical theories address the issue of the original homeland of Slavs:

At the time of the Slavic migration, the western, south-western region of the Balkan peninsula (Dalmatia, Illyria) was occupied mostly by Romanized Illyrians, with unromanized groups perhaps remaining in the interior.
Slavic mythology

Croats and Serbs

The Slavic tribes called the Croats and the Serbs are recorded to have migrated southwards from areas of today's southeastern Poland into the Dinaric Alps between 610 and 641.

The names "Croat" and "Serb" are not of Slavic origin. Similar names have been found along the path of the migration of the Alans, a tribe of Iranian origin. According to various modern theories based mainly on philological and etymological evidence, these nomadic warriors probably subdued groups of Slavs and became their ruling caste or merged into them, with the resulting group retaining the Iranian name. During the Hunnic invasion in 375 AD, a group calling themselves the "White Croats" (as opposed to the Red Croats, who remained on the Don) retreated northwest over the Carpathians. There the White Croats intermingled with the Slavs of the central Slavic regions and adopted their language.

The migration of these tribes was triggered by the expansion of the Avar kingdom. After the decline of Avar power (after 627) the coastal city-states were nominally under Byzantine suzerainty, while the hinterland was ruled by the Croats in the northwest and the Serbs in the southeast.

In the 10th century, several Croatian dukes rose in prominence, forming the medieval Croatian state. They conquered surrounding districts, including Dalmatia; this fact was attested by Venetian contestation. In 1091, the Croatian ruling dynasty lost its last descendent, and after a decade of instability, Ladislaus I of Hungary and Coloman of Hungary occupied the whole of Croatia.

In the 12th century, Serbian dukes, starting with Stefan Nemanja, established control over several southern districts. The Serbian state expanded to the north and the south, reaching a peak under Stefan Dušan in the 14th century, when it was extended even further southward, into Epirus and Thessaly.

In the meantime, the dukes of Bosnia started building up their state in the 13th century, as did the dukes of Herzegovina. They developed independently from the Catholic Croats and Magyars to the northwest and the Orthodox Serbs to the southeast, even supporting their own Bosnian Church. The strongest Bosnian monarch was Tvrtko Kotromanić at the turn of the 14th century, who expanded his state westward to include all of Herzegovina and most of the Dalmatian coast.

Serbia eventually succumbed to the Ottoman Empire following a defeat in the Battle of Kosovo. Bosnia and Herzegovina followed half a century later, and another century later, most of Croatia was occupied by Turkish forces as well.

The Croats, Serbs and other southern Slavs speak South Slavic languages. There is particular controversy with regard to their modern-day languages where there is fragmentation that conflicts with genetic linguistics. See Serbo-Croatian language and differences in official languages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia for details.

Magyars

The Bulgars and Magyars shared a long-lasting relationship in Khazaria, either by alliance or rivalry.

There is some controversy about Szeklers (in English, Secui in Romanian). There is a theory about two Magyar migrations, one before Árpád and one which resulted in Szeklers and Arpad migration. There are theories suggesting Avar, Gepid, Scythian, or Hunnish ancestry.

Bulgars and Bulgarians

As from the beginning of the 9th century, the fledgling Bulgarian state started to play a more and more important role in the European Southeast. After defeating the Avars in 804, Khan Krum added to Bulgaria Transylvania, eastern Panonia, Backa and Srem. His descendants, Omurtag, Malamir and Presian, continued the Bulgarian territorial expansion southward conquering the inland parts of Thrace and Macedonia. The addition of these territories strengthened additionally the Slavic element in the Bulgar state and helped the assimilation of the Bulgars by the Slavs. By the middle of the 9th century, the Bulgars and the Slavs had already to a large extent coalesced to one people — the Bulgarians — through mixed marriages (even in the royal dynasty, Omurtag was not already married to a Slavic woman but also gave two of his sons Slavic names) and as a result of the laws of Khan Krum and the abolition of the autonomy of the Slavic tribes undertaken by Omurtag. The process of coalescence was additionally strengthened by the en masse conversion to Christianity under Boris I Michael (864). At the end of the 9th century Bulgars and Slavs lived as Bulgarians in most of Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia and spoke a Slavic language with a minor admixture of Bulgar words.

In 893 the vernacular of the Bulgarian Slavs was adopted as the official language of the Bulgarian state and church. The following years saw the brilliant military victories of Simeon the Great against the Byzantines which resulted in an additional territorial expansion and the recognition of the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and of the title of Tsar for Simeon's successor, Peter I. The state got weakened, however, in the middle of the 9th century as a result of barbaric raids from the north and the Bogomil heresy. After an assault by the Rus' in 969, eastern Bulgaria and the capital of Preslav became subdued by Byzantine Emperor John Tzimisces in 972. The Bulgarians managed to maintain an independent state in the west for some time due to the efforts of Samuil who even managed to recover eastern Bulgaria and conquer Serbia in the 990s. A defeat at Kleidion in 1014, however, precipateted the fall of the whole of Bulgaria under Byzantine rule in 1018.

The Bulgarian state was restored by a revolt of the Asenides in Moesia in 1185. Thrace and Macedonia were reconquered by Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II and throughout the first half of the 13th century Bulgaria was again the most powerful state in Southeastern Europe. The Tatar raids and the series of mediocre rulers after Ivan Asen II, however, reduced Bulgaria to a narrow strip of land between the Balkan mountains and the Danube at the end of the 13th century. The royal dynasties of Terter and Shishman managed to restore some of the former might of the Bulgarians in the first half of the 14th century. The raids of the Ottoman Turks since the 1350s cut, however, short the Bulgarian territorial expansion; by 1396 the whole of Bulgaria was overrun by the Ottomans.

Vlachs

The Carps

Vlachs

Vlachia and Transilvania were under Bulgarian admistration for a period of time ended by the tataric invasion in Bulgaria, after which it became a separate state. Similar to the Goths invasions no major traces were left.

see also:
Romanian language Paleo-Balkan languages
External link:

Balkan linguistic union

Middle Ages and the Early Modern period

Fourth Crusade in the Balkans

Eastern Roman Empire

Main article: Byzantine Empire
The Eastern Roman Empire (also known as Romania) was the eastern half of the Roman empire after it was legally divided into two parts. The Western empire held some of the old Roman places, such as parts of Italy. The Eastern Roman Empire had its capital at Constantinople (formerly Byzantium or Byzantion), and its core territory was the south-eastern Balkan peninsula. During most of its history the Eastern Roman empire controlled many provinces in the Balkans and in Asia Minor. The Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian for a time reconquered and restored much of the territory once held by the unified Roman empire, from Spain and Italy, to Anatolia.

The Roman Empire collapsed from the inside when Rome was sacked, thus putting an end to the classical age. Its holdings would gradually be given over to various kings and chiefs. To this day, the dominions of the Roman Empire have never been fully reunified.

By contrast, the Eastern half of the empire, which gradually evolved into a medieval power which has often been called the Byzantine empire (and in which Greek eventually became the dominant language) was gradually whittled away over the years. Its nemesis was the Ottoman Empire, with which it shared a somewhat transitory boundary. Over time, it lost piece after piece of territory to invaders, and was actually invaded (and the capital sacked) by the crusaders at one point.

By the end, the empire consisted of nothing but Constantinople, with all other territories in both the Balkans and Asia Minor gone. The conclusion was reached in 1453, when the city was successfully sieged by Mehmed II, bringing to an end the age of Rome.

Ottoman Empire

Ottomans

The conquest and the resistance

The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans was characterised by centuries of bloody struggle for freedom and protracted periods of stalemate with the Habsburgs along the border in Hungary as well as anti-Turkish propaganda in Europe, and with the invasions from the east.

• In 1389 there was the battle between the Serbs and the Turks on the blackbird field, in which the Serb ruler Prince Lazar was defeated.

• Battle of Nicopolis: in 1394 Beyazid I is defeated by Mircea cel Batran

• 1443 Murad II is defeated at Snaim

• Vaslui in 1475 defeat of the Mehmet II by Stefan cel Mare

• In 1441 the victory of Semendria

• Battle of Varna

• Battle of Kosovo (1448) the christian coalition defeated by Ottomans. The Ottoman army numbers twice the number of Serbs. The Serbs kill twice their number before being beaten.

• The sieges of Kruja (1450, 1466, 1467)

• In 1493 the Croats suffer a major defeat in the battle on the Krbava field in Lika.

• On August 13, 1595, at Călugăreni, near the river of Neajlov, a Turkish army led by Sinan Pasha was defeated by Mihai The Brave.

East-West Schism

The East-West Schism, known also as the Great Schism (though this latter term sometimes refers to the later Western Schism), was the event that divided Christianity into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Though normally dated to 1054, when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated each other, the East-West Schism was actually the result of an extended period of estrangement between the two Churches. The primary causes of the Schism were disputes over papal authority—the Pope claimed he held authority over the four Eastern patriarchs, while the patriarchs claimed that the Pope was merely a first among equals—and over the insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed. There were other, less significant catalysts for the Schism, including variance over liturgical practices and conflicting claims of jurisdiction

Habsburg Empire

Rise of Independence

(some mention of the interference or interest of the 'Great Powers'?)

1804 First Serbian Uprising and 1815 Second Serbian Uprising

1821 revolt

In 1832 A Greco-Turkish settlement was finally determined by the European powers at a conference in London; they adopted a London protocol (February 3, 1830), declaring Greece an independent monarchical state under their protection. (Greece has lost 50000 people and Otomans 15000, Russia 10000 and Egipt 5000)

• Alexander Ypsilanti
• Filiki Eteria

  1829 Adrianople peace

  
  The 1829 Treaty of Adrianople (called also Treaty of Edirne), was settled between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Turkey gave Russia access to the mouths of the Danube and additional territory on the Black Sea, opened the Dardanelles to all commercial vessels, commerce is liberated for cereals,live stocks and wood, granted autonomy to Serbia, promised autonomy for Greece, and allowed Russia to occupy Moldavia and Walachia until Turkey had paid a large indemnity.
  

  1831 Bosnian Rebellion

1848 Revolution

The European revolution of 1848 eroded relations between the Serbs and their neighbors and between Hungarians and their neighbors. As part of their revolutionary program, the Hungarians threatened to Magyarize the Serbs in Vojvodina. Some Serbs there declared their independence from Hungary and proclaimed an autonomous Vojvodina; others rallied behind the Austrian-Croatian invasion of Hungary. The Serbs nearly declared war, but Russians and Turkish diplomacy restrained them.

See:

Russian defeat in Crimea: the Balkan implications

April Uprising

1877 War

The War

• On 4 April/ 16 April 1877, Romania and Russia signed a treaty at Bucharest under which Russian troops were allowed to pass through Romanian territory. About 120,000 soldiers were massed in the south of the country to defend against an eventual attack of the Ottoman forces from south of Danube. On 12 April/24 April 1877, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire and its troops entered Romania.
  In 1877, following the Russian-Romanian-Turkish war, Romania was recognized independent by Treaty of Berlin, 1878 and acquired Dobruja, though she was forced to surrender southern Bessarabia to Russia.
  

  Impact in the Balkans

See :Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78

After 1877, Magyar dominance faced challenges from the local majorities of Romanians in Transylvania and in the eastern Banat, of Slovaks in today's Slovakia, of Croats and Serbs in the crownlands of Croatia and of Dalmatia (today's Croatia), in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the provinces known as the Vojvodina (today's northern Serbia). The Romanians and the Serbs also looked to union with their fellow-nationalists in the newly-founded states of Romania (1877 - )and Serbia, respectively.

see : Austria-Hungary

Secularisation in Balkans

Romania

Orthodoxy

The Pig War

• The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in October, 1908, led to a controversy between the Dual Monarchy and Turkey. It also led to international complications which for several weeks early in 1909 threatened to end in a general European war. This was the Bosnian crisis.

Balkan Wars

First Balkan War

During the course of the Balkan wars the Balkan League (Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria) first conquered Ottoman-held Macedonia and most of Thrace and then fell out over the division of the spoils, Bulgaria suffering defeat at the hands of her former allies and losing much of what she had been promised in the initial partition scheme.

The wars were an important precursor to World War I, to the extent that Austria-Hungary took alarm at the great increase in Serbia's territory and regional status. This concern was shared by Germany, which saw Serbia as a satellite of Russia. Many Germans and also viewed Serbs as part of a sub-human race which threatened Germanic civilization; this view was later espoused by Adolf Hitler. Serbia's rise in power thus contributed to the two Central Powers' willingness to risk war following the assassination in Sarajevo of the Archduke Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914.

Tensions among the Balkan states over their rival aspirations in Macedonia subsided somewhat following intervention by the great Powers in the mid-1900s aimed at securing both fuller protection for the province's Christian majority and protection of the status quo. The question of Ottoman rule's viability revived, however, after the Young Turk revolution of July 1908 compelled the Sultan to restore the suspended Ottoman constitution.

Serbia looked to Kosovo and the south, Greeks officers secured the appointment of a sympathetic government which they hoped would resolve the Cretan issue in Greece's favour and reverse their defeat of 1897 and Bulgaria, which had secured Ottoman recognition of her independence in April 1909 and enjoyed the friendship of Russia, also looked to districts of Ottoman Thrace and north-eastern Macedonia for expansion. In March 1910, an Albanian insurrection broke out in Kosovo. In August 1910 Montenegro followed Bulgaria's precedent by becoming a kingdom.

Montenegro started the first Balkan war by declaring war against the Ottomans on October 8, 1912. The Greeks took Thessaloniki, then Albania, Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace fell to the allies and the Ottomans were pressed to maintain the defense of Constantinople. The Treaty of London ended the First Balkan War on May 30, 1913. But disputes over territory remained unresolved

Battles of the First Balkan War

Second Balkan War

Timeline of the Second Balkan War

• • • Second Balcanic WAR KIA:
    • **Turkey: 20,000-30,000
    • **Bulgaria: 18,000-20,000
    • **Serbia: 18.500-19,000
    • **Greece: 2,000-2,500
    • **Romania: 1,500-2,000

Ethnic exchange and expulsions

The Balkans in modern times

World War I in the Balkans

Many members of the Austro-Hungarian government, such as Conrad von Hötzendorf had hoped to provoke a war with Serbia for several years. They had a couple of motives. In part they feared the power of Serbia and its ability to sow dissent and disruption in the empire's "south-Slav" provinces under the banner of a "greater Slav state." Another hope was that they could annex Serbian territories in order to change the ethnic composition of the empire. With more slavs in the Empire, some in the German dominated half of the government, hoped to balance the power of the Magyar dominated Hungarian government. Until 1914 more peaceful elements had been able to argue against these military stategies, either through strategic considerations or political ones. However, Franz Ferdinand, a leading advocate of a peaceful solution had been removed from the scene, and more hawkish elements were able to prevail. Another factor in this were developments in Germany which gave the Dual-Monarchy a "blank cheque" to pursue a military strategy assured of Germany's backing.

Austro-Hungarian planning for operations against Serbia was not extensive and they ran into many logistical difficulties in mobilizing the army and beginning operations against the Serbs. They encountered problems with train schedules and mobilization schedules which conflicted with agricultural cycles in some areas. When operations began in early August Austria-Hungary was unable to crush the Serbian armies as many within the monarchy had predicted. One difficulty for the Austro-Hungarians was that the had to divert many divisions north to counter advancing Russian armies. Planning for operations against Serbia had not accounted for possible Russian intervention, which the Austro-Hungarian army had assumed would be countered by Germany. However, the German army had long planned on attacking France before turning to Russia given a war with the Entente powers. (See: Schlieffen Plan) Poor communication between the two governments led to this catastrophic oversight.

As a result Austria-Hungary's war effort was damaged almost beyond redemption within a couple of months of the war beginning. The Serb army, which was coming up from the south of the country, met the Austrian army at the Battle of Cer beginning on August 12, 1914.

The Serbians were set up in defensive positions against the Austro-Hungarians. The first attack came on August 16th, between parts of the 21st Austro-Hungarian division and parts of the Serbian Combined division. In harsh night-time fighting, the battle ebbed and flowed, until the Serbian line was rallied under the leadership of Stepa Stepanovic. Three days later the Austrians retreated across the Danube, having suffered 21,000 casualties against 16,000 Serbian casualties. This marked the first Allied victory of the war. The Austrians had not achieved their main goal of eliminating Serbia. In the next couple of months the two armies fought large battles at Drina (September 6 to November 11) and at Kolubara from November 16 to December 15.

In the autumn, with many Austro-Hungarians tied up in heavy with Serbia, Russia was able to make huge inroads into Austria-Hungary capturing Galicia and destroying much of the Empire's fighting ability. It wasn't until October 1915 with a lot of German, Bulgarian, and Turkish assistance that Serbia was finally occupied, although the weakened Serbian army retreated to Corfu with Italian assistance and continued to fight against the central powers.

The Serbian Army also penetrated the Serbo-Croatian speaking lands of Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia etc. The Serbian prime minister announced that Serbia would fight for the unification of all slavs in a single state. From this plan, a new kingdom would eventually be born: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians.

Montenegro declared war on 6 August 1914. Bulgaria, however, stood aside before eventually joining the Central Powers in 1915, and Romania joined the Allies in 1916.
In 1916 the Allies sent their ill-fated expedition to Gallipoli in the Dardanelles, and in the autumn of 1916 they established themselves in Salonika, establishing front. However, their armies did not move from front until near end of the war, when they marched up north to free territories under rule of Central Powers.

(more will be added later)

Consequences of World War I

The borders of many states were completely redrawn, and the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later Yugolsavia, was created. Both Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were formally dissolved. As a result the balance of power, economic relations, and ethnic divisions were completely altered.

Some important territorial changes include:

• the addition of Transylvania to Romania
• The incorporation of Serbia, Montenegro, Slavonia, Croatia, Vojvodina, Carniola, part of Styria, most of Dalmatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
• Istria, Zadar, and Trieste became part of Italy,

See also:

World War II in Balkans

Consequences of World War II

Balkans during the Cold War

During the Cold War, most of the countries in the Balkans were ruled by Soviet-supported communist governments.
The nationalism was not dead after WWII. Yugoslavia was not an isolate case of ethnic tension. For exemple: beginning in 1984, the Communist government led by Todor Zhivkov began implementing a policy of forced assimilation of the ethnic Turkish minority. Ethnic Turks were required to change their names to Bulgarian equivalents. Those who refused to assimilate lost their jobs and were denied access to education. At the same time, Mosques were closed and Moslem practices as regards burial and circumcision were prohibited - those who disobeyed were imprisoned. In 1989, a Turkish dissident movement was formed to resist these assimilationist measures. The Bulgarian government responded with violence and mass expulsions of the activists. In this repressive environment, over 300,000 ethnic Turks fled to neighboring Turkey. as in http://www.ippu.purdue.edu/failed_states/2000/papers/jacksonpreece.html" class="external">ETHNIC CLEANSING AND THE NORMATIVE TRANSFORMATION OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY
However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria, and instead sought closer relations with the West, later even joining many third world countries in the Non-Aligned Movement. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China, later adopting an isolationist position.

The only non-communist countries were Greece and Turkey, which were (and still are) part of NATO.

Religious prosecutions

Post-Communism

The late 1980s and the early 1990s brought the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. As westernization spread through the Balkans, many reforms were carried out that led to implementation of market economy and to privatization, among other capitalist reforms.

In Albania, Bulgaria and Romania the changes in political and economic system were accompanied by general tumult and tragic events. To this day, most of the former Yugoslav republics, except for Slovenia and Croatia, live in relative poverty.

Yugoslav wars

Main article: Yugoslav wars

The ten-days war in Slovenia in June 1991 was short and with few casualties. However, the war in Croatia in the latter half of 1991 brought many casualties and much damage. As the situation calmed down in Croatia, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) started in early 1992. Peace would only come in 1995 after such events as the Dayton Agreement. However, nothing has been permanently resolved. The borders are fluid, ready for a force to change them.

The economy suffered an enormous damage in all of BiH and in the affected parts of Croatia. However, under US sanctions, Yugoslavia suffered the greatest economic hardship. Also many large historical cities were devastated, for example Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, Mostar, Šibenik and others.

The wars caused large migrations of population. With the exception of its former republics of Slovenia and Macedonia, the settlement and the national composition of population in all parts of Yugoslavia changed drastically, due to war, but also political pressure and threats.

Initial upsets on Kosovo did not escalate into a war until 1999 when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) was illegaly and cowardly bombarded by over 30 members of NATO for several months and Kosovo made a protectorate of international peacekeeping troops. To this day it remains a Serb ghetto.

=Ethnic cleansing=

The phenomenon of "ethnic cleansing" was first seen in Croatia but soon spread to Bosnia. Since the Bosniaks had no immediate refuge, they were arguably hardest hit by the ethnic violence. United Nations tried to create safe areas for the Bosniak populations of eastern Bosnia but in cases such as the Srebrenica massacre, the peacekeeping troops failed to protect the safe areas resulting in the massacre of thousands of Bosniaks.

The textbook example of this new phenomenon was the forced exodus, under threat of massacre, of half a million Serbs from Croatia, especially the Krajina region, in 1995.

The Dayton Accords nominally ended the current war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, fixating the borders between the two warring parties roughly to the ones established by the autumn of 1995. One immediate result of the population transfer following the peace deal was a sharp decline in ethnic violence in the region. See Washington Post Balkan Report for a summary of the conflict, and FAS analysis of former Yugoslavia for population ethnic distribution maps.

A number of commanders and politicians, notably Croatia's former president Franjo Tudjman and Bosnia's Alija Izetbegovic, have escaped being put on trial by the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for a variety of war crimes, including deportations and genocide.

Current state and perspectives

Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981. Slovenia and Cyprus since 2004. Bulgaria and Romania are set to become members in 2007. Croatia is also expected to become part of these organizations, however due to lack of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in a manhunt for fugitive general Ante Gotovina, in March 2005 its entrance has been postponed. Turkey initially applied in 1963 and as of 2004 accesion negotiations have not yet begun, although some customs agreements have been signed. In 2004 Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia also became members of NATO.

All other Balkan countries have expressed a desire to join the EU but at some date in the future.

Reference

See also

• History of Europe
• Historical regions of the Balkan Peninsula

  External Links

  OrthodoxWiki