History of the Balkans
(Redirected from The Balkans in classical antiquity)
Categories: Cleanup from May 2005 | Section stubs | History of Europe
The Balkans is an area of southeastern Europe situated at a major crossroads between mainland Europe and the Near East. The distinct identity and fragmentation of the Balkans owes much to its common and often violent history and to its very mountainous geography.
Early history
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 was one of the reasons the International Congress of Archeology and Anthropology was held in Sarajevo in 1894.
Hallstatt
6th - 5th BC
Indo-Europeanization
- Main article: Indo-European invasion of Europe
Proto-Indo-European The Indo-European invasion began around 2500 BC, by conquering the local agricultural cultures, using the advantage of more advanced weapons and the use of horses.
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"
The "Kurgan hypothesis" of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origins assumes gradual expansion of the "Kurgan culture" until it encompasses the entire pontic steppe, Kurgan IV being identified with the Yamna culture of around 3000 BC.
A modified form of Kurgan theory by J. P. 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
Despite the multiethnic nature of the Balkans, it seems that most inhabitants of the peninsula share common ancestors. Scientists feel that we will have a better picture of these ethnic trajectories within the next several years. The genetic marker M170 appears to have come from the Middle East to the Balkan region roughly 20,000 years ago. It seems today that this marker is unique to the Balkans area, though research suggests that about 80% of European genetic stock goes back to Paleolithic period.
Classical antiquity
Odrysian empire
- Main article: Odrysian empire
The Odrysian empire was a union of Thracian tribes that was probably the first state to encompass a large part of the Balkans. It endured between the 5th century BC and the 3rd century BC.
Dacian kingdom
- Main article: Dacia
A kingdom of Dacia was in existence at least as early as the beginning of the 2nd century BC under King Oroles.
Greek city-states and their colonies
- Main article: Colonies in antiquity
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
The Greek city-state of Macedonia spreading from the Danube to Egypt, Greece to Northwest India, which led to the creation of Hellenistic Culture.
Illyrian kingdoms
The Illyrian tribes, including Autariatae, Dassaretae, and Chelidones, were situated in the kingdom of Illyria, much of which corresponds to present-day Albania.
The Roman conquests
- Main article: The Balkans in the Roman period
The Balkans were conquered by the Romans during the empire's expansionist period. The regions and independent kingdoms of Thrace, Macedonia, Illyria and Dacia became Roman provinces. The province of Dacia was Rome's only foothold north of the Danube river.
Beginning in the 3rd century AD, Rome's frontiers in the Balkans were weakened because of political and economic disorders within the Empire. Though the situation had stabilized temporarily by the time of Constantine, waves of non-Roman peoples, most prominently the Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Huns, began to cross into the territory, first (in the case of the Visigoths) as refugees with imperial permission to take shelter from their foes the Huns, then later as invaders.
Turning on their hosts after decades of servitude and simmering hostility, Visigoths under Fritigern eventually conquered and laid waste the entire Balkan region before moving westward to invade Italy itself. 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.
The area remained part of the Roman Empire 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
Head of the colossal statue. Musei Capitolini, Rome
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 territory 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 also:
- Bulgarian Orthodox Church
- Romanian Orthodox Church
- Macedonian Orthodox Church
- Church of Greece
- Eastern Orthodoxy
- Albanian Orthodox Church
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 hypothesis is that together 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 controversy. 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
the Visigoths left traces primarily of their material culture, such as the great find at Sîntana de Mures in central Transylvania and the burial grounds at Spantov and Tîrgsor, south of the Carpathians on the Muntenian plain
- Vestiges of thе Goths in Bulgaria:
Beroe (today Stara Zagora) - the monastery "St.Athanasius" near Zlatna Livada, region of Chirpan - Kireka - Madara - Pliska - Preslav - Shumen - the early christian centre near Chan Krum - Veliko Tarnovo - Nicopolis ad Istrum - Storgosia ( today Pleven) - the fortress of Sadovez. The Goths lived in Transylvania for about a century (from the end of the 3rd to the end of the 4th century;) the Gepidae, another Old-Germanic people, for more than two centuries (from the early 5th century to the end of the 7th).
Inscriptions on a sword belonging to the goths in today Bulgaria ‘I do not wait Time, I am Time itself ‘
The 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
The Slavs, who had originated in areas spanning modern-day southern Poland, were subjugated by the Turkic Avars and together they invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries. Split into various tribal divisions, the influence of this first wave can chiefly be seen in the geographic terms bearing their name. The Serbs and Croats came in a second wave, invited by Emperor Heraclius to drive the Avars from Dalmatia.
Two major historical theories address the issue of the original homeland of Slavs:
- the autochthonic theory assumes that Slavs had lived north of the Carpathian Mountains since 1000 BC.
- the allochthonic theory assumes that the Slavs came there in the 5th or 6th century AD.
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 call from the Byzantine empire to drive away the Avars. The Croats and Serbs accepted the call and attacked the Avars, they where promised the land they are at today by the Byzantines for this favor. The Avars had started to aproach Konstantinople so Byzantine needed help driving them off. 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 Magyar leader Árpád is believed to have led the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin (and the Pannonian plain) in 896. When entering the Carpathian basin, the Magyars found a largely Slavic population there, such as the Bulgarians, Slovaks, Slovenians, Croats, etc., and minor remnants of the Avars (in the southwest).
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
The Bulgars (also Bolgars or proto-Bulgarians), a people of Central Asia, probably originally Pamirian, came to Europe in two waves, the first of which in the middle 5th century as a part of the Hunnish-Bulgar alliance. After the disintegration of the Hunnish empire the Bulgars dispersed mostly to Eastern Europe. At the end of the 5th century (probably in the years 480, 486, 488) they fought against the Ostgoths as allies of the Byzantine emperor Zenon. From 493 they started frequent attacks over the Balkan territories of the Eastern Roman Empire until the middle of the 6th century, when the two main Bulgar tribes (Kutriguri and Utiguri) started an internal war. In the end of the 6th century the Utiguri were conquered by the Avars, while the Kutriguri allied with them. At that time the second Bulgar wave commenced with the arrival of Asparuh's Bulgars. They had occupied the fertile planes of Ukraine for several centuries until the Khazars swept their confederation in the 660s and triggered their further migration. One part of them — under the leadership of Asparuh — headed southwest and settled in the 670s in present-day Bessarabia. In 680 AD they invaded Moesia and Dobrudja and formed a confederation with the local Slavic tribes who had migrated there a century earlier. After suffering a defeat at the hands of Bulgars and Slavs, the Byzantine Empire recognised the sovereignity of Asparuh's Khanate in a subsequent treaty signed in 681 AD. The same year is usually regarded as the year of the establishment of Bulgaria (see History of Bulgaria). A smaller group of Bulgars under Khan Kouber settled almost simultaneously in the Pelagonian plain in western Macedonia after spending some time in Panonia.
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, Bačka 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 (Romanians, Aromanians, Morlachs, Istro-Romanians)
"Vlach", "Wallach", "Vlakh" and other variations of the term date back in time nearly 2,000 years and refer to a variety of Latin-speaking peoples whose origin is ultimately the Roman Empire.
The maximum extent of the Roman Empire in southeastern Europe occurred after 106 AD when conquest of the Dacians extended the empire from modern Greece to Romania. By all accounts, the Latin-speaking people of the Roman Empire represented both a variety of indigenous people as well as colonists who came into the region. Under barbarian pressure, the Roman Legions retreated from Dacia (modern Romania) in 271-275. According to Romanian historians, Roman colonists and the Latinized Dacians retreated into the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania after the Roman Legions withdrew from the area. This view is supported to the extent that archeological evidence does indicate the presence of a Romanised population in Transylvania by at least the 8th Century.
By the late 4th Century the Roman Empire was plagued by internal problems and by the incursions of various barbarian tribes. By the 7th and 8th Centuries, the Roman Empire existed only south of the Danube River in the form of the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople. In this ethnically diverse closing area of the Roman Empire, Vlachs were recognized as those who spoke Latin, the official language of the Byzantine Empire used only in official documents, until the 6th Century when it was changed to the more popular Greek. These original Vlachs probably consisted of a variety of ethnic groups (most notably the Thracians and Macedonians) who shared the commonality of having been assimilated in language and culture of the Eastern Roman, later Byzantine Empire.
see also: Romanian language Paleo-Balkan languages External link:
Balkan linguistic union
Balkan linguistic union or Balkan sprachbund is a name given to the similarities in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology found in the languages of the Balkans.
Middle Ages and the Early Modern period
The Balkans was a confluence of great powers, a buffer between occident and orient. Various wars, rebellions, invasions, and disputes between different ethnic groups were supported by at least one great power, with at least one other great power opposed.
Genoa colonies in lower Danube
Braila
Cetatea de Floci
Vicina
Giurgiu
Its name derived from Saint Giorgio. It was first mentioned in Codex Latinus Parisinus, in 1395 during the Mircea cel Batran and was conquered by the Ottomans in 1420 as a way to control the Danube traffic.
Enisala
Enisala is situated between Babadag and Razelm. Builded in XII century by genovese,the archeology has proved that the place was inhabited from BC.
Fourth Crusade in the Balkans
Battle of Nicopolis
Eastern Roman Empire
[[1]]
- 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.
Unlike the western Roman Empire, which met a famous if rather ill-defined death in the year 476 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire came to a much less famous but far more definitive conclusion at the hands of Mehmet II and the Ottoman Empire in the year 1453.
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
- Main article: Ottoman Empire
Ottomans
The Ottomans were one of the most powerful and influential civilizations of the modern period. The Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1923), created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia, persisted until the 20th century and did not end until after World War I when Turkey adopted a more European style secular government (under Kemal Atatürk). The Empire was at its height in the 16th century when it reached levels of artistry, cultural importance, and military dominance not seen for many years. The Empire began to crumble in the 19th century after a long slow decline facing new feelings of nationalism and a desire for freedom, along with the colonisation of some of its former territory by newer, more modern forces such as the French and British Empires.
The conquest and the resistance
- Main article: Ottoman wars in Europe
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 the Serbs fight the Turks in the First Battle of Kosovo, in which the Serb ruler, Prince Lazar is defeated. The Serbs fall under indentured servitude of the Turks after this.
- Battle of Nicopolis: in 1394 Beyazid I defeat crusader alliance
- 1443 Murat II is defeated at Snaim
- Vaslui in 1475 defeat of the Mehmet II by Stefan cel Mare
- During the Second Battle of Kosovo the Christian coalition is defeated by the Ottomans. The Ottoman army numbers twice the number of Serbs. The Serbs kill twice their number before being beaten.
- On August 13, 1595, at Călugăreni, near the river of Neajlov, a Turkish army led by Sinan Pasha was defeated by Mihai The Brave.
See also:
- History of the Ottoman Empire
- History of Ottoman Albania
- Ottoman Greece
- Early Ottoman Sarajevo
- Late Ottoman Sarajevo
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
- Main article: Habsburg Monarchy or
- Main article: Austria-Hungary
The Habsburg Empire constituted a great region in Europe from the late Middle Ages until World War I. It was named after the Austrian royal family who ruled it and its capital city was Vienna. The Habsburg Empire grew to include what are today Hungary, the Czech lands, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and parts of Italy, Poland, and Romania. The Habsburg Empire (Austria-Hungary after 1867) became a major player in the Balkans. For many years the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs vied for control of the Balkans and chequing each others' expansion for many years. In the 19th century, as Ottoman power waned, the Habsburgs became more important, although at the same time the nation states of the area, Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia arose and became of force in their own right. Russia was also a factor in the Balkans, though they generally acted as an agent for other Slavic countries rather than as a direct occupier.
Rise of Independence
The Ottoman (Turkish) Empire was losing influence, status and territory throughout the 19th century, known as the 'sick man of Europe'; and the future division of the Ottoman empire was proving a source of great friction between the 'Great Powers'. It was a multi-national empire and the subject peoples of this Empire did not want their fate to be decided by other world powers as the Ottoman dynasty collapsed. Towards the end of the 19th century Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians and Magyars began to demand the right to set up their own independent states ruled by people of their own nationality, culture and religion.
1804 First Serbian Uprising and 1815 Second Serbian Uprising
First Serbian Uprising was an uprising at the beginning of the 19th century in which Serbs living in Belgrade Pashaluk in the Ottoman Empire, led by Karadjordje, managed to liberate the Pashaluk for a significant time, which eventually led to the creation of modern Serbia.Though ultimately unsuccessful, this first Serbian Uprising paved the way for the Second Serbian Uprising of 1815, which eventually succeeded in Serbia.
1821 revolt in Greece and Romania
- In 1821 the Greek revolution, striving to create an independent Greece, broke out on Romanian ground, supported by the princes of Moldavia and Muntenia.
- A secret Greek nationalist organisation called the Friendly Society (Filiki Eteria) was formed in Odessa during 1814. On March 25 (now Greek Independence Day) 1821 of the Julian Calendar/6 April, 1821 of the Gregorian Calendar the Orthodox Metropolitan Germanos of Patras proclaimed the national uprising. Simultaneous risings were planned across Greece, including in Macedonia, Crete and Cyprus. The revolt began in March 1821 when Alexandros Ypsilantis, the leader of the Etairists, crossed the Prut River into Turkish-held Moldavia with a small force of troops. With the initial advantage of surprise, and aided by Ottoman inefficiency, the Greeks succeeded in liberating the Peloponnese and some other areas. Saint Gregory V, the Patriarch of Constantinople was martyred by the Turks in 1821 in reaction to the Greek War of Independence.
On January 22, 1822, Korinth, the key to the isthmus, passed into the Greeks' hands, and only four fortresses--Nauplia, Patras, Koron, and Modhon--still held out within it against Greek investment. Not a Turk survived in the Peloponnesos beyond their walls, for the slaughter at Tripolitza was only the most terrible instance of what happened wherever a Muslim colony was found. In Peloponnesos, at any rate, the revolution had been grimly successful.
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 Ottomans 15000, Russia 10000 and Egypt 5000)
- Also in 1821 the uprising was supported by the Wallachian uprising of 1821.
The movement, which was started about the same time by the ennobled peasant, Tudor Vladimirescu, for the emancipation of the lower classes, soon acquired, therefore, an anti-Greek tendency. Vladimirescu was assassinated at the instigation of the Greeks; the latter were completely checked by the Turks, who, grown suspicious after the Greek rising and confronted with the energetic attitude of the Romanian nobility, consented in 1822 to the nomination of two native boyards, Jonitza Sturdza and Gregory Ghica, recommended by their countrymen, as princes of Moldavia and Wallachia. The iniquitous system of 'the throne to the highest bidder' had come to an end. The Phanariote regime in Romania (Wallachia and Modavia) ended after the uprising of 1821 Tudor Vladimirescu
- Relations between Greece and Turkey have been marked by mutual hostility ever since Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832.
See:
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
The Ottoman Sultans attempted to implement various economic reforms in the early 19th century in order to address the grave issues mostly caused by the border wars. The reforms, however, were usually met with resistance by the military captaincies of Bosnia. The most famous of these insurrections was the one by captain Husein Gradaščević in 1831. Gradaščević felt that giving autonomy to the eastern lands of Serbia, Greece and Albania would weaken the link between Bosnia and the Ottoman Empire. He raised a full-scale rebellion in the province, joined by thousands of native Bosnian soldiers who believed in captain's prudence and courage, calling him Zmaj od Bosne (the Bosnian dragon). Despite winning several notable victories, notably at the famous Kosovo polje, the rebels were eventually defeated in a battle near Sarajevo in 1832 after Gradaščević was betrayed by Herzegovinian nobility. Husein-kapetan was banned from ever entering the country again, and was eventually poisoned in Istanbul. Bosnia and Herzegovina would remain part of the Ottoman empire until 1878. Before it was formally occupied by Austria-Hungary, the region was de facto independent for several months.
1848 Revolution
In the Austrian Empire -- Germans, Czechs, Italians, Poles, Serbs, Croats, Slovaks, Romanians, and Hungarians, pushed for self-determination. On the meeting of the peoples of the Empire that was held in Bratislava (then Pressburg), many nationalities including Serbs pleaded for the acknowledgement of their nation, education in their language, and their separate region. Lajos Kossuth, the leader of Hungary, told them that "the only nation that exists in the Hungarian Kingdom is the Magyar nation" and that "the rebels should be punished by sword". The frustration of revolutionary impulses throughout the empire led to increased national tensions in the next 25 years.
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
The Crimean War was provoked by Russian tsar Nicholas I's continuing pressure on the dying Ottoman Empire, and by Russia's claims to be the protector of the Orthodox Christian subjects of the Ottoman sultan. Britain and France became involved in order to block Russian expansion and prevent Russians from acquiring control of the Turkish Straits and eastern Mediterranean. Russia was defeated in the Crimean War (1853-1856). The peace Congress in Paris (February-March 1856) decided that Wallachia and Moldavia, which had been under Ottoman suverainty, were now placed under the collective guarantee of the seven powers that signed the Paris peace treaty. These powers then declared that local assemblies be convened to decide on the future organisation of the two principalities. The Treaty of Paris also stipulated: the retrocession to Moldavia of Southern Bessarabia, which had been annexed in 1812 by Russia (the Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail counties); freedom of sailing on the Danube; the establishment of the European Commission of the Danube; the neutral status of the Black Sea. The result was the union of Wallachia and Moldavia. see also:
Desire of Independence
G.S. Rakovski,Etienne Caradgea et Hagi Dimitar
April uprising
The rise of nationalism in the Balkans found its expression in Bulgaria in the Bulgarian revival movement. Unlike Greece and Serbia, the nationalist movement in Bulgaria did not concentrate initially on armed resistance against the Ottomans but on peaceful struggle for cultural and religious autonomy, the result of which was the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate on February 28, 1870. A large-scale armed struggle movement started to develop as late as the beginning of the 1870s with the establishment of the Internal Revolutionary Organisation and the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee, as well as the active envolvement of Vasil Levski in both organisations. The struggle reached its peak with the April Uprising which broke out in April, 1876 in several Bulgarian districts in Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. The barbaric suppression of the uprising led to the Conference of Constantinople and eventually to the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78, which led to establishment of an autonomous Bulgarian principality north of the Balkan mountains.
1877 War
The War
In early 1877, Russia came to the rescue of beleaguered Serbian and Russian volunteer forces when it went to war with the Ottoman Empire. Within one year, Russian troops were nearing Constantinople, and the Ottomans surrendered. Russia's nationalist diplomats and generals persuaded Alexander II to press the Ottomans into signing the Treaty of San Stefano in March 1878, creating an enlarged, independent Bulgaria that stretched into the south-western Balkans. When Britain threatened to declare war over the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, an exhausted Russia backed down. At the Congress of Berlin in July 1878, Russia agreed to the creation of a smaller Bulgaria. See: Russian history, 1855-1892
- 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
In February 1878 the Russian army had almost reached Constantinople, but disturbed the city might fall, the British sent a fleet to warn off the Russians. The presence of the British fleet combined with the fact that the Russians had suffered such enormous losses (by some estimates about 200,000 men) caused Russia to settle for the Treaty of San Stefano (March 3), by which Turkey recognized the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria. Alarmed by the extension of Russian power into the Balkans and apprehensive of the eventual fall of Constantinople to the Russians, the Great Powers modified the provisions of the treaty in the Congress of Berlin.
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
The law of monastery estates, secularizing monastic assets (1863). Probably more than a quarter of Romania's farmland was controlled by untaxed Greek Orthodox "Dedicated Monasteries," which supported Greek monks in shrines like Mount Athos and Jerusalem but were a substantial drain on state revenues. Cuza got his parliament's backing to expropriate these lands, with the backing of the parliament. He offered compensation to the Greek Orthodox Church, but the Patriarch refused to negotiate. This was a mistake: after several years, the Romanian government withdrew its offer and no compensation was ever paid. State revenues thereby increased without adding any domestic tax burden.
Orthodoxy
In hierarchical Christian churches, especially Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, autocephaly is the status of a hierarchical church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. In 1922 August, the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople recognized the Autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church. An independent Bulgarian Church was established in 1870 but was almost immediately declared schismatic by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The schism was lifted and its patriarchal dignity was restored as late as 1945. 1879 the Patriarchate of Constantinople recognized the Serbian church as autocephalous The Romanian Orthodox Church has been fully Autocephalous since 1885. The Church of Greece, has been autocephalous since 1833. In July 17, 1967 the Holy Synod proclaimed the Macedonian Orthodox Church as autocephalous. No other Orthodox Church has, however, recognised its autocephaly as yet.
The Pig War
Main Article: Bosnian crisis
- The means adopted by the governments of Vienna and Budapest to nullify the plans of Serbian expansion were generally to maintain the political emiettement of the Serb race, the isolation of one group from another, the virtually enforced emigration of Slavs on a large scale and their substitution by German colonists, and the encouragement of rivalry and discord between Roman Catholic Croat and Orthodox Serb. No railways were allowed to be built in Dalmatia, communication between Agram (Zagreb) and any other parts of the monarchy except Fiume or Budapest was rendered almost impossible; Bosnia and Hercegovina were shut off into a watertight compartment and endowed with a national flag composed of the inspiring colours of brown and buff.It was made impossible for Serbs to visit Montenegro or for Montenegrins to visit Serbia except via Fiume (Rijeka), entailing the bestowal of several pounds on the Hungarian state steamers and railways.
(The Balkans by Forbes and Hogarth and Mitrany and Toynbee [2]
- 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
Main article: Balkan Wars
First Balkan War
- Main article: First Balkan War
For more info please use the main article; October 8, 1912 the First Balkan War began when Montenegro declared war against Ottoman Empire - pre-empting a warning from Russia and Austria-Hungary. Among other battles, the Greek army defeated the Ottoman Empire in the Central Macedonia Battle of Giannitsa, October 19th. Albania declared independence on November 28, 1912. On December 2, the Balkan League signed an armistice with Turkey ending the war. Turkey withdrew to the Enos-Media Line. An initial peace was concluded at the Treaty of London in May 1913. By the time of the Armistice, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece had overrun Albania.
Second Balkan War
- Main article: Second Balkan War
Please use the main for more information; At the Treaty of London, Austria-Hungary and Italy strongly supported the creation of an independent Albania. In light of this, Serbia and Greece sought compensation from the Macedonian territories that had been overrun by Bulgaria. Bulgaria unsuccessfully attempted to resist this by force of arms. Defeated by Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, and Romania in the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria signed an Armistice on July 31, 1913. At the Treaty of Bucharest in August 1913, the final territorial adjustments were made.
The Balkans in modern times
World War I in the Balkans
World War I (then known as the Great War) started when a Serb man called Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand. Princip was a member of a Serbian militant group called the Young Bosnia. Following the assassination, Austria-Hungary sent Serbia an ultimatum in July 1914, which Serbia mostly followed but it was made so that Serbia could never really accept it in whole. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July, 1914.
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 war had enormous repurcussions for the Balkan peninsula.People across the area suffered serious economic dislocation, and the mass mobilization resulted in severe casualties, particularly in Serbia. 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 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,
Between WWI and WWII, in order to create nation-states the following population movements were seen:
- in the interwar period, 1.5 million Greeks were cleansed from Turkey; 400,000 Turks cleansed 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 cleansed from Greece; 35,000 Greeks were cleansed from Bulgaria, 67,000 Turks cleansed from Bulgaria
- 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. as in "Secondary Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century"
World War II in Balkans
Consequences of World War II
- Yalta Conference
- Western betrayal
- Operation Keelhaul
- Greek Civil War - The Greek Civil War was a war fought between 1944 and 1949 in Greece. On one side were the armed forces of the Greek government, supported at first by Britain and later by the United States. On the other side were the forces of the wartime resistance against the German occupation, whose leadership was controlled by the Communist Party of Greece.
- After World War II, when the cession of the Cadrilater by Romania to Bulgaria was confirmed, 110,000 Romanians were compelled to move north of the border, while 65,000 Bulgarians living in southeastern Romania shared an opposite fate (See Ethnic Cleansing and the Normative Transformation of International Society, a study by Purdue University).
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 Muslim 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 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.