Effects of The First Balkan War on the History of Europe Essay

The Ottoman Empire at the time was near collapsing and continued to to fuel instability among subject nationalities in Europe and ambitions of Russia and Austria who would only profit from the fall. This goes to show the destabilization that touched all of Europe, leading into the instability of the continent before World War

One of the youngest nations of Europe, Yugoslavia was created after World War I as a homeland for several different rival ethnic groups. The country was put together mostly from remnants of the collapsed Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Demands for self-determination by Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and others were ignored. Yugoslavia thus became an uneasy association of peoples conditioned by centuries of ethnic and religious hatreds. World War II aggravated these rivalries, but Communist dictatorship after the war controlled them for 45 years. When the Communist system failed, the old rivalries reasserted themselves; and in the early 1990s the nation was rent by secessionist movements and civil war. Within several years these conflicts

All the Balkan states wanted to claim Albanian territories as their own but the European States had ideas of their own for the territories. Italy saw Albania as a “quinta sponda” (“Fifth shore”). It was an opportunity to further expand Italian imperialism in the East. Russia wanted the control of the Slavic people in the Balkans and with the Albanian lands that was more than achievable. The alliances of the European countries had already been formed and the problem appeared when it became clear that the two parties planned to divide the territories with their allies. However the most prominent threat in the Balkans was Serbia.

The second, the annexation of the two Turkish provinces Bosnia and Herzegovina. These had been administered by Austria since the Congress of Berlin, a treaty between Russia and Turkey which solved

Bosnia is located in what was once the country of Yugoslavia. The landscape is very scenic and majestic; the national parks and country side is a beautiful. Bosnia was a melting pot of ideologies both political and religious. The location and political role played a key in its direction. The political situation is also unique; it has a very close three way split between Serbs, Croats and Muslims. The population was 44% Muslim, 31%, the third largest was the Croats, and lastly at 8 % was all others. The Serbs are Orthodox Christians and support Serbia Bosnia’s neighbor to the east The Croats were Catholic and Bosnia neighbor to the north. The Capital Sarajevo

The focus of this thesis is the transition of Bosnia from socialist to capitalist economy, but in order to fully understand it, one must be familiar with some of the historical events particular to Bosnia. The single most important historical trend is certainly the Islamization of Bosnia. Although the Serbian people consider the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 to be the beginning of this process, only decades and centuries to come marked a significant increase in the number of Muslims in Bosnia. The primary source of information on population and especially changes in

One of the reasons led to World War One was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by a Serbian (Fromkin 121). Although multiple reasons have been affiliated to his assassination, most of those reasons revolve around upholding Serbia’s power. On the one hand, Austria-Hungary had planned to attack Serbia since it was at its weakest point due to the adverse effects of the Balkan War they had just undergone (Fromkin 122). On the other hand, Serbia was making an effort to regain control over Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was under the control of Austria-Hungary (Fromkin 122). Before the assassination of Franz, the Bosnia-Herzegovina crisis had heightened to a point where Austria intended to invade Serbia (Fromkin 74). It was evident that Serbia, through the assassination of Franz, was seeking to retain its independence and protect its regions from Austria-Hungary’s influence by intimidating

The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, most importantly the Battle of Kosovo, illustrates a time in history where ideas of Serbian identity and collective memories were created that would later be used by politicians to invoke nationalist sentiments (Bieber 2002: 98). As the Ottoman Empire grew it made its way through Asia Minor and into the Balkans, continually chipping away at a weakening Byzantine Empire (Vickers 1998: 11). One of the greatest battles in the Empire’s conquest was the Battle of Kosovo. On June 28, 1389 in Kosovo Polje, Serbs and Albanians stood side by side defending the Balkans from further Ottoman expansion (Vickers 1998: 16). It’s important to note that in this point in history ethnic Albanians and Serbs shared a common religion and lived in relative harmony. The battle was ultimately a draw but allowed the Turks to move forward with their conquest and roll back Serbian statehood (Vickers 1998: 16). Modern day Serbian and Nationalism draw on conjectures that Kosovo was predominantly Serb or Albanian before the Turkish invasion (Pavkovic 2000). Ottoman registers of land property in the early 15th century show an overwhelming Serb majority. There was in fact a steady migration of Serbs to Kosovo before the Turkish invasion, but that was soon to change (Vickers 1998: 18). With Ottoman rule came the building of mosques, the looting of monasteries, and increased taxes and military service for Christians. Albanians in Kosovo intermingled with the Turks and were gradually Islamized, while Serbs began leaving the region (Vickers 1998: 27). This led to the Albanian saying, “Where the sword is, there lies religion” (Vickers 1998: 25). The exodus of Serbs from the region, intent on retaining their Christianity,

When looking at the Balkan region, the desires of the significant countries involved in its affairs during the 19th and early 20th century must be considered. Germany, under the leadership of prominent and influential leaders such as Otto von Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm I, desired for a united German people. This would then subsequently have a drastic impact on their foreign policy, shown when Bismarck insulted the French in the making of the treaty for the Franco-Prussian War, leading to hatred for the Germans by the French. Serbia shared a similar desire as these German leaders, as they sought to unite the Southern Slavs under one country. Thus, they would consistently ask for territories containing these people and would be incensed against

The Ottoman Empire had rule over most of Eastern Europe. But by the late 1800's the Ottoman Empire was losing grounds. Which lead Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria to

First, the empire needed to reassert its authority, and crush rebellions within its lands. At this time, the Ottoman Empire was embroiled in the Russo-Turkish war. In 1878, The Ottoman Empire suffered its final defeat. Following the war, a nationalist group called the Albanian League arose in response to the proposed San Stefano Treaty. According to Sudetic,” The League’s initial goals were to stop the proposed San Stefano treaty and to gain autonomy for all Albanians within the Ottoman Empire” (April 1992). However, unifying Albania was not going to be a simple matter. The years of constant occupation by other people did not allow Albanians to develop a sense of

Known as Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, the Yugoslav Wars (also known as the Wars of Yugoslav Succession, the Yugoslav Civil War, or the War in the Balkans) were a series of wars fought in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Though the entire conflict can be divided up into four distinct wars, they are related due to their common origin and the presence of the same ethnoreligious groups in the multiple wars. These wars have become notorious due to the atrocious war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all sides.

What effects the Balkan region is its blood-soaked history, an ethnic jigsaw puzzle and, currently the “Mad Serb Disease.'; Like the Bosnian tragedy, Kosovo’s misfortune results equally from the dominant powers letting expediency rather than ethnicity determine the Balkan borders. Like the Bosnian muslims, Kosovar Albanians were lumped into the artificial Serb-dominated state called Yugoslavia – even though ethinicity, religion and geography bound them to Albania.

Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 13.3 (2011): 357-374. Taylor Francis Online. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.

The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. It is often analyzed by its sub-regions, including northern, western, eastern and southern European areas. Many of these areas are highly developed, but some are also currently experiencing economic, political and / or social problems. However, two particular nations in Balkans illustrates this paradox quite effectively. These two countries are Albania and Romania, and these are nations that have realized their potential in most ways, yet today they are facing significant economic and socio-political issues. The two nations are both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.