History of the Balkans
The Balkans and parts of this area may also be placed in Southeastern, Southern, Eastern Europe and Central Europe. The distinct identity and fragmentation of the Balkans owes much to its common and often turbulent history regarding centuries of Ottoman conquest and to its very mountainous geography.[1][2]
Prehistory
Mesolithic
First human settlement in Europe is
Neolithic
The "
Yamnaya steppe pastoralists apparently migrated into the Balkans about 3000 to 2500 BCE, and they soon admixed with the local populations, which resulted in a tapestry of various ancestry from which speakers of the Albanoid, Hellenic, and other Paleo-Balkan languages emerged.[5]
Bronze and Iron Age
At ca. 1000 BC,
Antiquity
Iron Age
After the period that followed the arrival of the Dorians, known as the
By the end of the 4th century BC,
The
Achaemenid Persian Empire (6th to 5th century BC)
Around 513 BC, as part of the military incursions ordered by
Following the
Although Persian rule in the Balkans was overthrown following the failure of Xerxes' invasion, the Macedonians and
Pre-Roman states (4th to 1st centuries BC)
But in 358 BC,
In the
Roman period
Starting in the 2nd century BC, the rising Roman Republic began annexing the Balkan area, transforming it into one of the Empire's most prosperous and stable regions. To this day, the Roman legacy is clearly visible in the numerous monuments and artifacts scattered throughout the Balkans, and most importantly in the Latin-based languages used by almost 25 million people in the area (the Eastern Romance languages). However, the Roman influence failed to dissolve Greek culture, which maintained a predominant status in the Eastern half of the Empire, and continued to be strong in the southern half of the Balkans.
Beginning in the 3rd century AD, Rome's frontiers in the Balkans were weakened because of internal political and economic disorders. During this time, the Balkans, especially Illyricum, grew to greater importance. It became one of the Empire's four prefectures, and many warriors, administrators and emperors arose from the region. Many rulers built their residences in the region.[17]
Though the situation had stabilized temporarily by the time of
By the end of the Empire the region had become a conduit for invaders to move westward, as well as the scene of treaties and complex political maneuvers by Romans, Goths and Huns, all seeking the best advantage for their peoples amid the shifting and disorderly final decades of Roman imperial power.
Rise of Christianity
In 106 AD the emperor
The
The
The primary claimed causes of the Schism were disputes over papal authority—the Pope claimed he held authority over the four Eastern
Early Middle Ages
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Greek-speaking, Eastern Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople. During most of its history it controlled provinces in the Balkans and Asia Minor. The Eastern Roman Emperor
The magnitude of influence and contribution the Byzantine Empire made to Europe and Christendom has only begun to be recognised recently. The Emperor Justinian I's formation of a new code of law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, served as a basis of subsequent development of legal codes. Byzantium played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy. Its rich historiographical tradition preserved ancient knowledge upon which splendid art, architecture, literature and technological achievements were built.[22]
This is embodied in the Byzantine version of Christianity, which spread Orthodoxy and eventually led to the creation of the so-called "Byzantine commonwealth" (a term coined by 20th-century historians) throughout Eastern Europe. Early Byzantine missionary work spread Orthodox Christianity to various Slavic peoples, amongst whom it still is a predominant religion. Jewish communities were also spread through the Balkans at this time, while the Jews were primarily Romaniotes.[22] In a sense of a Greek-influenced "Byzantine commonwealth", the Greek Christian culture and also the Romaniote culture have influenced the emerging cultures both the Christian and the Jewish cultures of the Balkans and of Eastern Europe.[23]
Throughout its history, its borders were ever fluctuating, often involved in multi-sided conflicts with not only the Arabs, Persians and Turks of the east, but also with its Christian neighbours- the Bulgarians, Serbs, Normans and the Crusaders, which all at one time or another conquered large amounts of its territory. By the end, the empire consisted of nothing but Constantinople and small holdings in mainland Greece, with all other territories in both the Balkans and Asia Minor gone. The conclusion was reached in 1453, when the city was successfully besieged by Mehmet II, bringing the Second Rome to an end.
Barbarian incursions
Coinciding with the decline of the Roman Empire, many "barbarian" tribes passed through the Balkans, most of whom did not leave any lasting state. During these "Dark Ages", Eastern Europe, like Western Europe, regressed culturally and economically, although enclaves of prosperity and culture persisted along the coastal towns of the Adriatic and the major Greek cities in the south.[24] As the Byzantine Empire withdrew its borders more and more, in an attempt to consolidate its waning power, vast areas were de-urbanised, roads abandoned and native populations may have withdrawn to isolated areas such as mountains and forests.[24]
The first such barbarian tribe to enter the Balkans were the Goths. From northern East Germany, via Scythia, they pushed southwards into the Roman Balkans following the threat of the Huns. These Goths were eventually granted lands inside the Byzantine realm (south of the Danube), as foederati (allies). However, after a period of famine, the proto-Visigoths rebelled and defeated the emperor in 378. The Visigoths subsequently sacked Rome in 410, and in an attempt to deal with them, they were granted lands in France.
The
In the meantime, the Ostrogoths freed themselves from Hunnish domination in 454 AD and became foedorati as well. The Ostrogoths too migrated westwards, commissioned by the Byzantines, and established a state in Italy. In the second half of the 5th- and first of the 6th century, new Germanic barbarian tribes entered the Balkans. The Gepids, having lived in Dacia in the 3rd century with the Goths, settled Pannonia and eventually conquered Singidunum (Belgrade) and Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica), establishing a short-lived kingdom in the 6th century. The Lombards entered Pannonia in 550s, defeated the Gepids and absorbed them. In 569 they moved into northern Italy, establishing their own kingdom at the expense of the Ostrogoths.
Migration Period
The
The
The
After suffering a defeat at the hands of Bulgars and Slavs, the
The
First Bulgarian Empire
In the 7th century, the First Bulgarian Empire was established by Khan Asparuh. It greatly increased in strength in the coming centuries stretching from Dnieper to Budapest and the Mediterranean. Bulgaria dominated the Balkans for the next four centuries and was instrumental in the adoption of Christianity in the region and among other Slavs. Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I the Great, following the cultural and political course of his father Boris I, ordered the creation of the Bulgarian Alphabet, which was later spread by missionaries to the north reaching modern Russia.
Principality of Arbanon
Arbanon was ruled by the native
High Middle Ages
Republic of Venice
The Uprising of Asen and Peter was a revolt of Bulgarians and Vlachs[30][31] living in Moesia and the Balkan Mountains, then the theme of Paristrion of the Byzantine Empire, caused by a tax increase. It began on 26 October 1185, the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki, and ended with the restoration of Bulgaria with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire, ruled by the Asen dynasty.
In building its maritime commercial empire, the
Venice carved out a sphere of influence in the Aegean known as the
Late Middle Ages
Serbian Empire
In 1346, The
Ottoman invasion
In the 14th century,
The Ottoman conquest of
Adriatic region
From the 14th century, Venice controlled most of the maritime commerce of the Balkans with important colonial possessions on the Adriatic and Aegean coasts. Venice's long decline started in the 15th century, when it first made an unsuccessful attempt to hold
Early modern period
Ottoman Empire
Much of the Balkans was under Ottoman rule throughout the Early modern period. Ottoman rule was long, lasting from the 14th century up until the early 20th in some territories. The Ottoman Empire was religiously, linguistically and ethnically diverse, and, at times, a much more tolerant place for religious practices when compared to other parts of the world.[33][34] The different groups in the empire were organised along confessional lines, in the so-called the Millet system. Among the Orthodox Christians of the empire (the Rum Millet) a common identity was forged based on a shared sense of time defined by the ecclesiastical calendar, saint's days and feasts.[35]
The social structure of the Balkans in the late 18th century was complex. The Ottoman rulers exercised control chiefly in indirect ways.[36] In Albania and Montenegro, for example, local leaders paid nominal tribute to the Empire and otherwise had little contact. The Republic of Ragusa paid an annual tribute but otherwise was free to pursue its rivalry with the Republic of Venice. The two Romance-speaking principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia had their own nobility, but were ruled by Greek families chosen by the Sultan. In Greece, the elite comprised clergymen and scholars, but there was scarcely any Greek aristocracy.[37]
A million or more Turks had settled in the Balkans, typically in smaller urban centers where they were garrison troops, civil servants, and craftsmen and merchants. There were also important communities of Jewish and Greek merchants. The Turks and Jews were not to be found in the countryside, so there was a very sharp social differentiation between the cities and their surrounding region in terms of language, religion and ethnicity. The Ottoman Empire collected taxes at about the 10% rate but there was no forced labor and the workers and peasants were not especially oppressed by the Empire. The Sultan favoured and protected the Orthodox clergy, primarily as a protection against the missionary zeal of Roman Catholics.[37]
Rise of nationalism in the Balkans
The rise of Nationalism under the Ottoman Empire caused the breakdown of millet concept. With the rise of national states and their histories, it is very hard to find reliable sources on the Ottoman concept of a nation and the centuries of the relations between House of Osman and the provinces, which turned into states. Unquestionably, understanding the Ottoman conception of nationhood helps us to understand what happened in the Balkans in the late Ottoman period.
- Bulgarian National Revival and National awakening of Bulgaria (18-19th century)
- Serbian Revolution (1804–1815/1817/1833)
- Greek War of Independence (1821–1832)
- Albanian National Awakening (1830-1912)
- Bosnian uprising(1831–1832)
Congress of Berlin
The
As a result, Ottoman holdings in Europe declined sharply; Bulgaria was established as an independent principality inside the Ottoman Empire, but was not allowed to keep all its previous territory. Bulgaria lost
The results were at first hailed as a great achievement in peacemaking and stabilization. However, most of the participants were not fully satisfied, and grievances regarding the results festered until they exploded into World War in 1914. Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece made gains, but far less than they thought they deserved. The Ottoman Empire, called at the time the "sick man of Europe," was humiliated and significantly weakened, rendering it more liable to domestic unrest and more vulnerable to attack. Although Russia had been victorious in the war that caused the conference, it was humiliated at Berlin, and resented its treatment.
In the long-run, tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary intensified, as did the nationality question in the Balkans. The congress was aimed at the revision of the Treaty of San Stefano and at keeping Constantinople in Ottoman hands. It effectively disavowed Russia's victory over the decaying Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. The Congress of Berlin returned to the Ottoman Empire territories that the previous treaty had given to the Principality of Bulgaria, most notably Macedonia, thus setting up a strong revanchist demand in Bulgaria that in 1912 was one of many causes of the First Balkan War.
20th century
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two wars that took place in the Balkans in 1912 and 1913. Four Balkan states defeated the Ottoman Empire in the first war; one of the four, Bulgaria, was defeated in the second war. The Ottoman Empire lost nearly all of its holdings in Europe. Austria-Hungary, although not a combatant, was weakened as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples.[40] The war set the stage for the Balkan crisis of 1914 and thus was a "prelude to the First World War."[41]
World War I
Coming of war in 1914
World War I was ignited from a spark in the Balkans, when a
Following the assassination, Austria-Hungary sent Serbia an ultimatum in July 1914 with several provisions largely designed to prevent Serbian compliance. When Serbia only partially fulfilled the terms of the ultimatum, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914.Many members of the Austro-Hungarian government, such as
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 they 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.
Fighting in 1914
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 12 August 1914.
The Serbians were set up in defensive positions against the Austro-Hungarians. The first attack came on 16 August, 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 (6 September to 11 November) and at Kolubara from 16 November to 15 December.
In the autumn, with many Austro-Hungarians tied up in heavy fighting with Serbia, Russia was able to make huge inroads into Austria-Hungary capturing
Yugoslav Committee, a political interest group formed by South Slavs from Austria-Hungary during World War I, aimed at joining the existing south Slavic nations in an independent state.[44] From this plan, a new kingdom eventually was 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.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, the most populous of the Balkan states with 7 million people sought to acquire Macedonia but when it tried it was defeated in 1913 in the Second Balkan War. In 1914 Bulgaria stayed neutral. However its leaders still hoped to acquire Macedonia, which was controlled by an ally, Serbia. In 1915 joining the Central Powers seemed the best route.[45] Bulgaria mobilized a very large army of 800,000 men, using equipment supplied by Germany. The Bulgarian-German-Austrian invasion of Serbia in 1915 was a quick victory, but by the end of 1915 Bulgaria was also fighting the British and French—as well as the Romanians in 1916 and the Greeks in 1917. Bulgaria was ill-prepared for a long war; absence of so many soldiers sharply reduced agricultural output. Much of its best food was smuggled out to feed lucrative black markets elsewhere.[46]
By 1918 the soldiers were not only short of basic equipment like boots but they were being fed mostly corn bread with a little meat. Germany increasingly was in control, and Bulgarian relations with its ally the Ottoman Empire soured. The Allied offensive in September 1918, which failed in 1916 & 1917 was successful at Dobro Pole. Troops mutinied and peasants revolted, demanding peace. By month's end Bulgaria signed an armistice, giving up its conquests and its military hardware. The Czar abdicated and Bulgaria's war was over. The peace treaty in 1919 stripped Bulgaria of its conquests, reduced its army to 20,000 men, and demanded reparations of £100 million.[46]
Consequences of World War I
The war had enormous repercussions for the Balkan peninsula. People across the area suffered serious economic dislocation, and the mass mobilization resulted in severe casualties, particularly in Serbia where over 1.5 million Serbs died, which was approx. ¼ of the total population and over half of the male population. In less-developed areas World War I was felt in different ways: requisitioning of draft animals, for example, caused severe problems in villages that were already suffering from the enlistment of young men, and many recently created trade connections were ruined.
The borders of many states were completely redrawn, and the new
Some important territorial changes include:
- The addition of Transylvania and Eastern Banat to Romania
- The incorporation of Serbia, Montenegro, Styria, most of Dalmatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovinainto the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
- Istria, Zadar, and Trieste became part of Italy,
Between World War I and World War II, in order to create nation-states the following population movements were seen:
- In the interwar period, almost 1.5 million Greeks were removed from Turkey; almost 700,000 Turks removed from Greece
- The 1919 Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine provided for the reciprocal emigration of ethnic minorities between Greece and Bulgaria. Between 92,000 and 102,000 Bulgarians were removed from Greece; 35,000 Greeks were removed from Bulgaria. Although no agreement on exchange of population between Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was ever reached because of the latter's adamant refusal to recognise any Bulgarian minority in its eastern regions, the number of refugees from Macedonia and Eastern Serbia to Bulgaria also exceeded 100,000. Between the two world wars, some 67,000 Turks emigrated from Bulgaria to Turkey on basis of bilateral agreements.
- Under the terms of 1940 Treaty of Craiova, 88,000 Romanians and Aromanians of Southern Dobruja were forced to move in Northern Dobruja and 65,000 Bulgarians of Northern Dobruja were forced to move in Southern Dobruja.
See also:
- Treaty of Trianon
- Little Entente
- League of Nations
- Aftermath of World War I
- Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) with an estimate of 250,000 casualties.[47]
World War II
World War II in the Balkans started from the Italian attempts to create an
After the fall of
With help from Italy, they succeeded in conquering Yugoslavia within two weeks. They then joined forces with Bulgaria and invaded Greece from the Yugoslavian side. Despite Greek resistance, the Germans took advantage of the Greek army's presence in Albania against the Italians to advance in Northern Greece and consequently conquer the entire country within 3 weeks, with the exception of Crete. However, even with the fierce Cretan resistance, which cost the Nazis the bulk of their elite paratrooper forces, the island capitulated after 11 days of fighting.
On 1 May the Balkan frontiers were once again reshuffled, with the creation of several puppet states, such as Croatia and Montenegro, the Albanian expansion into Greece and Yugoslavia, Bulgarian annexation of territories in the Greek North, creation of a Vlach state in the Greek mountains of Pindus and the annexation of all the Ionian and part of the Aegean islands into Italy.
With the end of the war, the changes of the ethnic composition reverted to their original conditions and the settlers returned to their homelands, mainly the ones settled in Greece. An Albanian population of the Greek North, the Cams, were forced to flee their lands because they collaborated with the Italians. Their numbers were about 18 000 in 1944.
Aftermath of World War II
On 7–9 January 1945 Yugoslav authorities killed several hundred of declared Bulgarians in Macedonia as collaborators, in an event known as the "Bloody Christmas".
The Greek Civil War was fought between 1944 and 1949 in Greece between the armed forces of the Greek government, supported at first by Britain and later by the United States, against the forces of the wartime resistance against the German occupation, whose leadership was controlled by the Communist Party of Greece. Its goal was the creation of a Communist Northern Greece. It was the first time in the Cold War that hostilities led to a proxy war. In 1949, the partisans were defeated by the government forces.
Cold War
During the
Religious persecutions took place in Bulgaria, directed against the Christian Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches as well as the Muslim, Jewish and others in the country. Antagonism between the communist state and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church eased somewhat after Todor Zhivkov became Bulgarian Communist Party leader in 1956 for "its historic role in helping preserve Bulgarian nationalism and culture".[49]: 66
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 a period of political and economic instability and tragic events. The same was the case in most of former Yugoslav republics.
Yugoslav wars
The collapse of the Yugoslav federation was due to various factors in various republics that comprised it. In Serbia and Montenegro, there were efforts of different factions of the old party elite to retain power under new conditions along, and an attempt to create Greater Serbia by keeping all Serbs in one state.[50] In Croatia and Slovenia, multi-party elections produced nationally inclined leadership that followed in the footsteps of their previous Communist predecessors and oriented itself towards capitalism and secession. Bosnia and Herzegovina was split between the conflicting interests of its Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, while Macedonia mostly tried to steer away from conflicting situations.
An outbreak of violence and aggression came as a consequence of unresolved national, political and economic questions. The conflicts caused the death of many civilians. The real start of the war was a military attack on Slovenia and Croatia taken by Serb-controlled JNA. Before the war, JNA had started accepting volunteers driven by ideology of Serbian nationalists keen to realise their nationalist goals.[51]
The Ten-Day War in Slovenia in June 1991 was short and with few casualties. However, the Croatian War of Independence in the latter half of 1991 brought many casualties and much damage on Croatian towns. As the war eventually subsided in Croatia, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina started in early 1992. Peace only came in 1995 after such events as the Srebrenica massacre, Operation Storm, Operation Mistral 2 and the Dayton Agreement, which provided for a temporary solution, but nothing was permanently resolved.
The economy suffered an enormous damage in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the affected parts of Croatia. The
The wars caused large population migrations, mostly involuntary. 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. Because it was a conflict fueled by
Initial upsets on
2000 to present
Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981. Greece is also an official member of the Eurozone, and the Western European Union. Slovenia and Cyprus have been EU members since 2004, and Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007. Croatia joined the EU in 2013. North Macedonia also received candidate status in 2005 under its then provisional name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, while the other Balkan countries have expressed a desire to join the EU but at some date in the future.
Greece has been a member of NATO since 1952. In 2004 Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia became members of NATO. Croatia and Albania joined NATO in 2009.
In 2006, Montenegro declared independence from the state of Serbia and Montenegro.
On 17 October 2007 Croatia became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2008–2009 term, while Bosnia and Herzegovina became a non-permanent member for the 2010–2011 period.
Kosovo unliterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. To this day, it is partially recognized country.
Since the 2008 economic crisis, the former Yugoslav countries began to cooperate on levels that were similar to those in Yugoslavia.[citation needed]
Overview of state histories
- Albania: The proto Albanians were likely a conglomerate of Illyrian tribes that resisted assimilation with later waves of migrations into the Balkans. The rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: The territory was divided between Croatia and Serbia in the Early Middle Ages. "Bosnia" itself was a Serbian polity according to the DAI. Bosnia, along with other territories, became part of Duklja in the 11th century. In time, Bosnia became separated under its own ruler. After 1101, Bosnia was detached from Duklja, and subsequently came under Hungarian suzerainty, as was the case with Croatia. Byzantine rule interrupted Hungarian rule, and under Byzantine suzerainty, the Banate of Bosnia came to existence. The later ban became a Hungarian nominal vassal. The Bosnian Church was a Christian church in Bosnia deemed heretical, which some rulers were adherents of. The rulers empowered themselves through trade with Ragusa, and gained lands from Serbia (Herzegovina). Bosnia reached its zenith under the rule of Tvrtko who took more lands, including parts of Dalmatia, and crowned himself as king in 1377. After the Ottoman conquest of Serbia, Bosnia followed. The Sanjak of Bosnia was established, and the local population was subject of Islamization during the following centuries by the Ottoman Empire which guaranteed more rights to Muslims. The ethnic tensions that arose in modern times stem from this religious division. Austria-Hungary took over Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 and annexed it in 1908. It was subsequently joined to Yugoslavia. After the Bosnian War, the state received international independence for the first time.
- Bulgaria: The Boyars continued to rule for the next three centuries. Bulgarian languagecontinued to be used as the official language north of the Danube until the 19th century.
- Croatia: Following the settlement of Slavs in the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia, Croat tribes established two duchies. They were surrounded by the Franks (and later Venetians) and Avars (and later Magyars), while Byzantines tried to maintain control of the Dalmatian coast. The Croatian War.
- Greece: The oldest civilization of The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throughout the ages and as a result the history of Greece is similarly elastic in what it includes.
- Montenegro: In the 10th century, there were three principalities on the territory of Montenegro: independence referendum held on 21 May 2006, Montenegro became independent.
- North Macedonia: North Macedonia officially celebrates 8 September 1991 as Yugoslavia.[54] The anniversary of the start of the Ilinden Uprising (St. Elijah's Day) on 2 August is also widely celebrated on an official level as the Day of the Republic.
- Serbia: Following the settlement of Slavs, the Serbs established several principalities, as described in the DAI. Serbia was elevated to a kingdom in 1217, and an empire in 1346. By the 16th century, the entire territory of modern-day Serbia was annexed by the Ottoman Empire, at times interrupted by the Habsburg Empire. In the early 19th century the Serbian Revolution re-established the Serbian state, pioneering in the abolition of feudalism in the Balkans. Serbia became the region's first constitutional monarchy, and subsequently expanded its territory in the wars. The former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina united with the Kingdom of Serbia in 1918. Following World War I, Serbia formed Yugoslavia with other South Slavic peoples which existed in several forms up until 2006, when the country retrieved its independence.
Cultural history
Albanian culture
Byzantine culture
Bulgarian culture
Serbian culture
Ottoman culture
Eastern Orthodoxy
See also
- History of Albania
- History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- History of Bulgaria
- History of Croatia
- History of Greece
- History of Kosovo
- History of North Macedonia
- History of Montenegro
- History of the Republic of Venice
- History of Romania
- History of Serbia
- History of Slovenia
- History of Turkey
- History of Yugoslavia
- History of Europe
- Historical regions of the Balkan Peninsula
- Rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire
- Foreign policy of the Russian Empire
- International relations (1814–1919)
- List of empires
- List of medieval great powers
- List of largest empires
- Cultural area
References
- ^ Jelavich 1983a, p. 1-3.
- ^ Mazower 2007
- S2CID 229390381.
- ISSN 0033-8222.
- S2CID 251843620.
- ISBN 978-0-631-19807-9,1996,page 39: "... the other hand, the beginnings of the Iron Age around 1000 BC is held to coincide with the formation of the historical Illyrian peoples. ..."
- ^ The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 1: The Prehistory of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Aegean World, Tenth to Eighth Centuries BC by John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, N. G. L. Hammond, and E. Sollberger,1982,page 53,"... Yet we cannot identify the Thracians at that remote period, because we do not know for certain whether the Thracian and Illyrian tribes had separated by then. It is safer to speak of Proto-Thracians from whom there developed in the Iron Age ..."
- ^ ISBN 0-19-860641-9,"page 1515,"The Thracians were subdued by the Persians by 516"
- ISBN 144435163X
- ISBN 9780191605048. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
- ^ The Illyrians. John Wilkes
- ^ ISBN 9781444351637. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
- ISBN 978-1930053564p 239
- ^ "Persian influence on Greece (2)". Retrieved 17 December 2014.
- ^ Herodotus VI, 44
- ISBN 144435163X
- ^ The Serbs, Chapter 1 -Ancient Heritage, S M Cirkovic
- ISBN 9781134625529.
- ISBN 9781451407853.
- ISBN 9781317458395.
- ISBN 978-1-60520-122-1.
- ^ a b Laurentiu, R. At Europe's Borders: Medieval Towns in the Romanian Principalities, pp. 109, 219. 2010
- ^ R. Bonfil et al., Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures, p. 127-ff. 2011
- ^ a b Hupchick 2004, p. ?.
- ^ David Christian-A history of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia, p.280
- ISBN 954-427-663-7.
- ISBN 0-521-81539-8.
- ISBN 9789543270392.
- ISBN 9786190204244
- ISBN 0-472-08260-4, p. 12
- ISBN 0-299-80926-9, p. 442.
- ^ Richard Cowen, The importance of salt Archived 2009-02-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Gail Warrander, Verena Knau, Kosovo, 2nd: The Bradt Travel Guide.
- ^ Edoardo Corradi, Rethinking Islamized Balkans, Balkan Social Science Review, vol. 8, December 2016, p. 121 – 139.
- ^ Kitromilides, Paschalis M. 1996. "’Balkan mentality’: history, legend, imagination", in: Nations and Nationalism, 2 (2), pp. 163–191.
- ^ Franklin L. Ford, Europe: 1780–1830 (1970) pp 39–41
- ^ a b Ford, Europe: 1780–1830 (1970) pp 39–41
- ^ A.J.P. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe: 1848–1918 (1954) pp 228–54
- ^ Jerome L. Blum, et al. The European World: A History (1970) p 841
- ISBN 9780062199225.
- ^ Richard C. Hall, The Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War (2000)
- ^ "Black Hand | secret Serbian society". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
- ^ "Black Hand | Definition, History, & Facts".
- ^ Norka Machiedo Mladinić (June 2007). "Prilog proučavanju djelovanja Ivana Meštrovića u Jugoslavenskom odboru" (PDF). Journal of Contemporary History (in Croatian). Vol. 39, no. 1. Zagreb, Croatia: Croatian Institute of History. Retrieved 2012-02-27.
- ^ Tucker, The European powers in the First World War (1996). pp 149–52
- ^ a b Richard C. Hall, "Bulgaria in the First World War," Historian, (Summer 2011) 73#2 pp 300–315 online
- ^ "Secondary Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century" Archived May 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Ethnic Cleansing and the Normative Transformation of International Society Archived March 19, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Department of State Bulletin. Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public Affairs. 1986.
- ^ Ethnic cleansed Great Serbia
- ^ "Institute for War and Peace Reporting". Archived from the original on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2013-09-27.
- ^ Ziemann 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7614-7902-4. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
Greece was home to the earliest European civilizations, the Minoan civilization of Crete, which developed around 2000 BC, and the Mycenaean civilization on the Greek mainland, which emerged about 400 years later. The ancient Minoan
- ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
Sources and further reading
- Secondary sources
- Calic, Marie-Janine. The Great Cauldron: A History of Southeastern Europe (2019) excerpt
- Carter, Francis W., ed. An historical geography of the Balkans (Academic Press, 1977).
- Castellan, Georges (1992). History of the Balkans: From Mohammed the Conqueror to Stalin. East European Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-222-4.
- ISBN 0-472-08149-7.
- ISBN 0-472-08260-4.
- Forbes, Nevill, et al. The Balkans : a history of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Rumania, Turkey (1915) summary histories by scholars online free
- Gerolymatos, André (2002). The Balkan wars: conquest, revolution, and retribution from the Ottoman era to the twentieth century and beyond. Basic Books. OCLC 49323460.
- Glenny, Misha (2012). The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-2011. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-101-61099-2.
- Hall, Richard C. ed. War in the Balkans: An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia (2014)
- Hatzopoulos, Pavlos. Balkans Beyond Nationalism and Identity: International Relations and Ideology (IB Tauris, 2007).
- Hupchick, Dennis P. (2004) [2002]. The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6417-5.
- Hösch, Edgar (1972). The Balkans: a short history from Greek times to the present day. Crane, Russak. ISBN 978-0-8448-0072-1.
- Jeffries, Ian, and Robert Bideleux. The Balkans: A Post-Communist History (2007).
- ISBN 9780521274586.
- Jelavich, Barbara. History of the Balkans, Vol. 1: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (1983)
- ISBN 9780521274593.
- Mazower, Mark (2007). The Balkans: A Short History. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-43196-7.
- McCarthy, Justin (2010). Population History of the Middle East and the Balkans. Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-61719-105-3.
- ISBN 978-0-521-43991-6.
- Pavlowitch, Stevan K. (2014). A History of the Balkans 1804-1945. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-90016-0.
- Pavlowitch, Stevan K. Serbia: The history of an idea. (NYU Press, 2002).
- Pavlowitch, Stevan K. The improbable survivor: Yugoslavia and its problems, 1918-1988 (1988). online free to borrow
- Pavlowitch, Stevan K. Tito—Yugoslavia's great dictator : a reassessment (1992) online free to borrow
- Schevill, Ferdinand. The History of the Balkan Peninsula; From the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1966)
- Stanković, Vlada, ed. (2016). The Balkans and the Byzantine World before and after the Captures of Constantinople, 1204 and 1453. Lexington Books. ISBN 978-1-4985-1326-5.
- Stavrianos, L.S. The Balkans Since 1453 (1958), major scholarly history; online free to borrow
- Sumner, B. H. Russia and the Balkans 1870-1880 (1937)
- Wachtel, Andrew Baruch (2008). The Balkans in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-988273-1.
- Ziemann, Daniel (2016). Das Erste bulgarische Reich. Eine frühmittelalterliche Großmacht zwischen Byzanz und Abendland [The First Bulgarian Empire. An early medieval great power between Byzantium and the Occident] (PDF). Online handbook on the history of South-East Europe. Volume I: Rule and politics in Southeastern Europe until 1800 (in German). Regensburg: Institute for East and Southeast European Studies of the Leibniz Association.
Historiography and memory
- Cornelissen, Christoph, and Arndt Weinrich, eds. Writing the Great War - The Historiography of World War I from 1918 to the Present (2020) free download; full coverage for Serbia and major countries.
- Fikret Adanir and Suraiya Faroqhi. The Ottomans and the Balkans: A Discussion of Historiography (2002) online
- Bracewell, Wendy, and Alex Drace-Francis, eds. Balkan Departures: Travel Writing from Southeastern Europe (2010) online
- Fleming, Katherine Elisabeth. "Orientalism, the Balkans, and Balkan historiography." American historical review 105.4 (2000): 1218-1233. online
- Kitromilides, Paschalis. Enlightenment, Nationalism, Orthodoxy: Studies in the Culture and Political Thought of South-eastern Europe (Aldershot, 1994).
- Tapon, Francis (2012). The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us. WanderLearn Press. ISBN 9780976581222.
- Todorova, Maria. Imagining the Balkans (1997). excerpt
- Uzelac, Aleksandar. "The Ottoman Conquest of the Balkans. Interpretations and Research Debates." Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 71#2 (2018), p. 245+. online
Primary sources
- ISBN 9780884020219.
- Scholz, Bernhard Walter, ed. (1970). Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472061860.