CHAPTER THREE:
NATIONALISM IN THE BALKANS
BALKAN
DIVERSITY
The Balkans is the region
of Southeastern Europe that encompasses countries such as Greece, Serbia,
and Albania.
It is a highly diverse region containing several different
language groups, cultures and religions - in other words, several different
"nations" of people. As a crossroads territory, the historical
experience in the Balkans was traditionally cosmopolitan blending and interactions
and exchange between several diverse cultures; this region also experienced at
times, ugly and violent episodes of hatred and atrocities between the diverse
communities.
In the late 1300's,
the Islamic Ottoman Empire moved into this predominantly Christian
region, transplanting through force and repression the culture and religion of
Islam - so yet another religion and culture was added to this already
complex region. For the next 500 years, the Balkans region was under the brutal
and repressive Muslim rule of the Ottoman Turks. In regions such as Albania and Bosnia, Islam took deep root. In
other areas, such as Serbia,
Greece and Macedonia, Orthodox
Christianity remained the dominant religion. In Croatia
and Slovenia,
Catholicism was the dominant religion. In those regions with dominantly
Christian communities, a deep, abiding hatred of Ottoman Turks and any who
converted to the conqueror's Islamic religion took root. These tensions
were long term legacies of Ottoman rule in this region.
COMPETING
AMBITIONS
In the 19th
century, two factors led to a surge of violence and instability in the Balkans.
First, the Ottoman Empire was clearly in decline
(as was discussed in Unit 7). Economically vulnerable and with a
non-industrialized military and navy, the Ottoman Empire
was at the mercy of British and French powers, visibly weakened. The
second contributing factor was the continued spread and force of nationalism.
Balkan peoples, who long resented and hated the Ottoman domination, now saw the
opportunity to challenge their oppressor, and in nationalism, had the emotional
force and vocabulary to inspire the common people to rise up. (see map of control)
Greece, Serbia, Albania, and other
"nations" all fought long wars of independence; most achieved
independence by the end of the 1800's.
However, as inspiring as
such victories were in the name of liberty and autonomy, the fact is Ottoman
decline and independence movements created a destabilizing power vacuum in
the Balkan region. There were several different visions of what
should replace Ottoman power. (see map of
region) The small, newly-independent states of Serbia and Greece obviously wanted to retain
their independence, and in fact desired to expand. Greece
and Serbia
both drew on deep and emotional memories of ancient "national"
glories; these images fueled 20th century ambitions to assert
regional power. There were a series of Balkan crises/wars in the early
1900's as these small new states jockeyed for territory and economic
dominance. Complicating Balkan power struggles were internal disputes
between hostile national/religious groups. Trying to draw lines of
"nation-state" in such a complicated region was impossible;
nationalist movements led to tension, confusion, and unending violence in the
Balkans at the beginning of the 20th century - and this is still the case in
this region today!
The major powers in Europe were also hungry for Balkan territory.
Austria-Hungary and Russia both saw Ottoman decline as basically leaving this
territory "open" for another great power to move in. Austria wanted to continue its centuries-long
move down the Balkan peninsula and Russia
desperately wanted greater Balkan influence and access to the Mediterranean
Sea (and warm water ports for year-round trade.)
Thus, you have a recipe for
disaster - several powers were vying for control of the same territory. A
number of wars erupted between small Balkan powers, and there was competition
between Russia and Austria as well
as tensions between Balkan states and these intruding great powers. The decline
and collapse of Ottoman power in the Balkans, destroyed by wars of nationalist
independence, left a huge question mark over this region. It was in this
setting of competition, confusion and instability that the spark was struck that
would ignite the Great War.
AUSTRIA VS. SERBIA
The deepest and ugliest rivalry
to emerge in the Balkans, intensifying in the late 1800's and early 1900's, was
between Austria and Serbia. The
Serbs, newly independent, demonstrated an emotional and passionate nationalism
fed by frustration borne of 500 years under Ottoman control, and a strong
desire to create a "greater" Christian based Serbian state. Serbs
deeply resented Austrian ambitions and deeper movement into the Balkan peninsula. These two powers came into directly
competition over Bosnia-Herzegovina. This territory, held by the Ottoman
sultans until 1907, was made up of Muslim Bosnians, Catholic Croats, and
Orthodox Christian Serbs.
Serbia claimed Bosnia
should be part of Greater Serbian state, because of the large numbers of
Bosnian Serbs, and based on a (disputed) historical claim to ancient Serbian
control in this region. (Recognize, these were the same claims that
prompted Serbian aggression in this region in the 1990's - the break up of
Yugoslavia after the end of the Cold War raised many of the same issues
of borders and state divisions in the Balkans as did the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire in this region in the 19th century.) In the late 1800's and
early 1900's, however, Austria
used its military power and status as a great power to lay claim to this
territory as the Ottoman Empire faded.
In 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia -
Herzegovina. The Serbs in Serbia and the Serbs in Bosnia
responded with nationalist outrage and hatred. The region of Bosnia remained an extremely tense territory in
the Austrian empire, and Serbians viewed Austria as the mortal enemy of
Serbian greatness. (see
in depth essay) In 1914, this tension erupted into the Third Balkan
War - which escalated almost overnight into the Great War, also known as World
War I. We expand on this in Unit 10.
(see angry
statement from Serbian nationalist group)
Nationalism severely
disrupted existing borders and power relations in Europe.
Diplomatic relations in Europe and the globe
were increasingly tense and unstable due in part to German and Italian
aggression, and a contested power vacuum in the Balkans. Nationalism also
had another critical effect in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - it
broke down the diplomatic system that had sustained regional peace for almost
90 years. We will look at this outcome in our final chapter. The
end result of all of these forces was a devastating world war.
INTERESTING
WEB SITES
TWENTY FIVE LECTURES ON BALKAN
HISTORY
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