History Of The Balkans

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

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 .

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 Proto-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 .

The Indo-European invasion began around ).
There exist two theories on the origin of the Illyria n 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 Illyria ns autochthonous.
Around 1500 BC Thracians settle in the Balkans . The Thracians were inhabitants of Thrace and adjacent lands (present-day Romania , Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , European Turkey , eastern Serbia and Macedonia ). They spoke the Thracian Language , one of the Indo-European Languages .The Phrygians seem to have settled in the southern Balkans at first, centuries later continuing their migration to settle in Asia Minor .

ANTIQUITY

Early states

The Classical Greek Culture developed in the southern Balkan peninsula starting with the century and peaked with 5th Century BC Athens] Democracy. Hellenistic culture spread throughout the empire created by Alexander Macedon in the 4th Century BC . The Greeks were 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.

The other peoples of the Balkans organized themselves in large tribal unions, such as the Odrysian empire, created in the 5th Century BC . Other tribal unions existed in Dacia at least as early as the beginning of the 2nd Century BC under King Oroles . The Illyrian tribes, including Autariatae , Dassaretae , and Chelidones, were situated in the kingdom of Illyria, much of which corresponds to present-day Albania . Some non-Indo-European tribes continued to exist in the area.

In the Roman Empire

Starting in the 2nd Century BC the rising Roman Empire 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. However, the Roman influence failed to dissolve Greek culture, which gradually acquired a predominant status in the Eastern half of the Empire.

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.

Christianity

Christianity first came to the area when Saint Paul and some of his followers traveled in the Balkans passing through Thracian populated areas. He spread Christianity to the Illyrians in the modern-day Albanian city of Durrës. 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 Christian colonists, soldiers and slaves came to Dacia and 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.

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.

MIDDLE AGES

The Eastern Roman 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 retook 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 Western Roman Empire collapsed from 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 centuries 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 Fourth Crusade .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 siege by Mehmet II, bringing to an end the Eastern Rome.

Age of 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" - 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.''

=Cumans and Pecinegi

The whole of Patzinakia is divided into eight provinces with the same number of great princes. The provinces are these: the name of the first province is Irtim; of the second, Tzour; of the third, Gyla; of the fourth, Koulpei; of the fifth, Charaboi; of the sixth, Talmat; of the seventh, Chopon; of the eighth, Tzopon. At the time at which the Pechenegs were expelled from their country, their princes were, in the province of Irtim, Baitzas; in Tzour, Konel; in Gyla, Kourkoutai; in Koulpei, Ipaos; in Charaboi, Kaidoum; in the province of Talmat, Kostas; in Chopon, Giazis; in the province of Tzopon, Batas."
(Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, c. 950, translation by R. J. H. Jenkins)

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:

Stara Zagora

St.Athanasius

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 Iran ian 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 descendant, 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 Pamir ian, 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 Bulgar s 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 Bulgar s. 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 sovereignty 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.

's greatest territorial extent during the reign of Simeon the Great]]

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
Romania In The Dark Ages
External link:

The Vlach Connection and Further Reflections on Roman History

The Ottoman Empire

Main article: Ottoman Empire

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).

Ottoman rule over the Balkans was characterized 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 invasions from the east. Even before the conquest of Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire controlled much of Greece, Bulgaria and had Serbia and Wallachia as Vassals .The defeat in the 1456 Battle Of Belgrade stopped Ottoman expansion for a while, but by the middle 16th Century Serbia and Hungary were occupied, while Moldavia and Transylvania also became vassals. With the failed Siege Of Vienna in 1683 begins the prolonged agony of the Ottoman Empire, faced with the growing threat of Austria n and Russia n expansionism, the entangled interests of Britain and France and with the rise of national consciousness among its inhabitants.

NATIONAL AWAKENING IN THE BALKANS

Serbia

The 1804 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 making Serbia autonomous.

Greece

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 (Michael Liebel 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).

Romania

The Greek uprising was supported by the Wallachia n 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.
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.

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 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.

Bulgaria

The social and cultural events of the Bulgarian National Revival moved parallel to important political changes. Bulgarian aid to the Russians in the Russo-Turkish wars of 1806-12 and 1828-29 did nothing to loosen Ottoman control. Then the Ottoman Empire ruthlessly quelled major uprisings 1835-1837 (north-western Bulgaria ), 1841 (in Nis), 1850 (in Vidin), and some minor ones 1835 ("Velchova zavera") 1841-42 (in Braila), 1856 (Turnovo and north-west Bulgaria "Dimitrakieva buna"), 1862 ("Hadzhistavreva buna"), as well as the many organized from abroad revolutionary ''chetas'' during the 1860s. Those uprisings still bore the disorganized qualities of the ''hajduti'', but they established a tradition of insurrection for the next generation.

In late spring 1850, a delayed reaction to revolutionary events in central Europe occurred in the north-western part of Bulgaria. Bulgarian peasants had all the time been opposed to the feudal oppression which, as practiced by the Ottoman regime, involved a direct robbery disguised as tributes levied by Turkish feudal lords. Bulgaria's first young intelligentsia strove to make Bulgarian peasants correlate the demand for abolition of primitive feudal oppression with the claim for autonomy for the Bulgars. It was too early at that time, in confrontation with the still prevailing Ottoman power, to envision the full freedom for Bulgaria.
After the Hungarian revolution had fallen, several thousand revolutionaries began arriving by August 21, 1849 in t he Turkish city and fortress of Vidyn in northwestern Bulgaria. There came almost a thousand Poles, several hundred Italians, and less than a hundred Germans. Among the revolutionaries were Lajos Kossuth, Josef Bem, and other Hungarian and Polish generals. On October 30, 1849, they began moving to another Turkish fortress, Shumla (today's Shumen). Contacts with interned soldiers of the Hungarian revolution, prominent politicians and generals among them, their independent and critical attitude to Turkish authorities, a possibility to communicate with the Poles due to language affinities, all encouraged Bulgarian leaders.
In 1849,in an area between the western part of the Balkan mountains and the Danube, preparations for an uprising commenced. Although appearing later as spontaneous, the uprising had been carefully planned and prepared. At the beginning of 1850, peasant representatives gathered in the Rakovitsa monastery and set the date of June 1, 1850 as the first day of fighting. Military leaders were appointed. The program of demands put forth to the Turkish authorities sought consent to the sale of land to individual villages and abolition of Bulgarian peasants' tributes to the Muslim feudal lords. All the Hattisherif decisions and generally all the Tanzimat acts were to be fully implemented. The initial fights of the Bulgarian uprising took place between May 27 and June 8, 1850, but the principal actions, as planned, were carried out between June 1-12, 1850. About a thousand-strong peasant party, without firearms, led by Captain Kriztio, took the town of Lom. Soon, however, a battle with a well-armed Turkish detachment broke out near the town. The insurgents lost, Kriztio was killed, but the Bulgars did not scatter and, led by Ivan Kulin, set forth toward Belogradchik. Further four hundred volunteers joined them en route. About three thousand insurgents commanded by Petko Marinov marched toward Vidyn to block the fortress. The regular Turkish army, however, defeated the insurrectionaries after a two-hour battle; the Bulgarian forces split up into smaller groups and scattered in various directions. The longest operation of the Bulgarian forces took place near the town of Belogradchik. Several thousand volunteers who had only two-hundred guns between themselves blocked the town for ten days. When the regular Turkish troops, reinforced by bashibosouks, arrived from Vidyn, a whole-day battle ensued. The insurgents retreated to the mountains, some moving to Serbia; the Turks did not dare to pursue them. The Bulgarian uprising involved a total of ten thousand Bulgarian peasants, about seven hundred being killed in combat. Appeals for help to Russia whose army was stationed in Wallachia, on the other bank of the Danube, was unsuccessful, since the tsar's army would never support the fight for peoples' freedom. The Serbian duchy also failed to assist the insurgents significantly. For their part, the Turks began a bloody vengeance. About three thousand peasants, mostly women and children, were slain. All Bulgars were killed in Belogradchik. Although the peasants sent a delegation to Istanbul to deliver the "Islozhene", the terror did not abate. Europe, however, witnessed the aftermath of the insurrection with a growing outrage. Bulgarian activists prepared a lengthy memorial in French and passed it to foreign diplomats. Diplomatic pressure on the Sublime Porte resulted in concessions. Principles of land management and the tax system were changed, families of the murdered Bulgarians were paid compensations. Although their effort ended with a defeat, the insurgents of northwestern Bulgaria won a partial victory as the agrarian relationships in the country changed. All that stimulated Bulgarians' political identity and agitation for independence. The Vidyn uprising of 1850 was a delayed echo of the European revolutions of the two preceding years.

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 Organization and the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee , as well as the active envolvement of Vasil Levski in both organizations.
In 1875 several hundred bulgarians took a part in the September Uprising in the region of Stara Zagora and north-east Bulgaria.
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 .

1877-1878 War

In early

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.

1877

1878

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 .

Bosnia

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.

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.

Albania

Macedonian question

By the end of the nineteenth century the collapse of the Turkish Empire was well advanced and the national awakenings of Serbians, Roumanians, Greeks and Bulgarians led to establishment of their respective nation-states. However until the Congress of Berlin (13 Jun 1878) revised the terms of the Treaty Of San Stefano (3 Mar 1878),the Macedonian question did not exist, because it was simply part of the general Balkan question.
The Treaty of San Stefano established the ethnographic boundaries of the Bulgarian state based on
the recognized diocese of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the independent consensus which had been previously minuted at the Constantinople Conference of Ambassadors (Nov 1876).
The British, who had a secret alliance with Turkey, became alarmed by what they perceived as Russian expansionism, and after reaching a secret agreement with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in Vienna (6 Jun 1878) had the terms of the treaty dramatically altered by the Treaty of Berlin. Consequently the size of the Bulgarian state was considerably diminished, with Macedonia and parts of Thrace returned to Turkish rule. However in 1885 the Bulgarians of East Rumelia unified with the Bulgarian state, much to the annoyance of Serbia and Greece, and the anger of Russia which withdrew all its military advisers. Serbia sensing a weakened Bulgaria launched a full-scale attack but was convincingly defeated and its territory only saved by the intervention of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During that short Bulgarian-Serbian war thousands of Macedonians crossed into Bulgaria to bolster the Bulgarian armed forces.
In his text "Fifty Years in Constantinople", Dr George Washburn, director of Robert College and delegate at the Constantinople Conference of Ambassadors (1876), writes the following:
"The Treaty of San-Stefano was, of course a hard, one for Turkey, but it would have been better for England and for all the peoples of Europe and Turkey if it had been allowed to stand. Thus far the results have been the revolution of 1885, which resulted in the union of Bulgaria and East Roumelia, the war with Serbia, the insurrection in Macedonia and the province of Adrianople, and all the massacres and unspeakable horrors of the last thirty nine years in Macedonia, to say nothing of what Bulgaria has suffered from the intrigues of foreign Powers ever since the Treaty of Berlin. The awful massacres and persecutions from which the Armenians have suffered since 1886 have been equally the result of this Treaty."
Of course the suffering has continued through the Balkan Wars, WWI, WWII, all the inter-war periods and right up to the present day. All the millions of lives lost, and the millions who have endured torture, hardship and have forfeited the right to a decent life, can be directly attributed to English Foreign policy, and in particular Lord Beaconsfield's Treaty of Berlin.

Serbian Geopolitics Nurtured Macedonism

In 1822 the Serbian folklorist and linguistic, Vuk Stefanovich Karadjich (1787-1864), published the first work containing grammatical facts about the Bulgarian language. His primary aim was to point out that the Bulgarian language existed, even though it was absent in the dictionaries published in Russia during the late 18th century and which were deemed to contain all languages known at that time. Interestingly Karadjich's analysis of the Bulgarian language was based on the Macedonian dialects.
Prior to formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870, there was a small, but influential group of Serbians, mainly politicians and some academics, who supported the concept of a "Greater Serbia". However, this was not the popular view and most Serbians saw Bulgarians as their Slav brothers and foresaw a close future relationship. For example in 1867 the Bulgarian emigrants in Bucharest had negotiated an agreement with the Serbians which included the following paramount clause:
"The Yugoslavian kingdom will be composed of Serbians and Bulgarians, the latter comprising the territories of Bulgaria, Thrace and Macedonia."
Ilija Garashanin (1812-1874) was a distinguished Serbian statesman and the main architect of Serbian state policy between 1843-1868. In 1844 he published a blueprint, known as "Nachertanije" (Outline), describing future Serbian territorial ambitions. A plan modelled directly on Dushan's medieval empire - that is including both Macedonia and Old Serbia. But, at the same time Garashanin also encouraged a diplomatic policy of strong support for Bulgarian revolutionary activity against the Turks.
In fact it was 1848 Garashanin who arranged for the Bosnian Croat, Stefan Verkovich (1821-1893), on the pretext of completing Karadjich's linguistic research, to tour Macedonia and covertly collect ethnographic data ultimately be used as support for long- term Serbian hegemony. However in 1860, when the Serbian Academic Society published Verkovich's first volume of "Folk Songs of the Macedonian Bulgarian" awarding him the Serbian "Uceno Druzestvo" (Scholar's Society), in his preface Verkovich said:
"I call these songs Bulgarian and not Slavic, because if someone today should ask the Macedonian Slav "what are you?" he would be immediately be told: "I am Bulgarian" and would call his language 'Bulgarian'."
Another champion of "Greater Serbia" was Professor Jovan Dragashevich who identified all Macedonians as latent Serbs. For example during the time of the First Bulgarian Legion in Belgrade (1862-4), acrimonious debate erupted between the Bulgarians and their Serbian hosts, over Dragashevich's "teachings" that Salonika was an integral part of "Old Serbia". It was also then that Georgi Rakvosky became conscious of increasing Serbian fanaticism and a desire by its politicians to annex Bulgaria both politically and culturally. These issues, together with settlement of the 1862 dispute between Serbia and Turkey, contributed to the expulsion of the Bulgarian Legion from Serbia.
Inspite of the close relationship between Serbians and Bulgarians, finance from the Serbian government for the "education" of the Macedonian Slavs was initiated in 1866. This led to the "Institute for Serbian Schools in Old Serbia and Macedonia" (1868), formed to coordinate both the building of schools and educational policy.
The Serbian Church had lent support to the Bulgarians in their struggle to establish the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870; Serbs in general rejoiced at the success of their southern Slav brothers. However when the limits of the Bulgarian Exarchate became defined in 1872, more Serbs began to reflect the long-term political implications. Moreover the Serbian Church had always considered itself heir to the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid, because of its past subordination to the Pech Patriarchate. Consequently the Serbian Church had requested in 1869 that Turkey only allow Serbian clergy to operate within Macedonia.
Milosh S Milojevich (1840-1897) was the first Serbian to publicly challenge the prevailing consensus concerning the Exarchate's boundaries and the ethnic composition of the Macedonian territories. In 1873 he presented a paper to the Serbian Scholar's Society which characterised the Slavic population of Macedonia as Serbian - a basic repetition of Garashanin's beliefs. Milojevich's thesis was severely criticised by two other Society members, Stoyan Novakovich (1842-1915) and Milan Kujundjich. The latter described Milojevich as:
"..a cheap, mischievous chauvinist, ignominiously condemned by his fellow countrymen for having committed an unfriendly act against a good neighbour."
Thus Milojevich's effort to publish a collection of 740 folk songs, gathered in Old Serbia and Macedonia, as examples of the Serbian language and culture, was rejected by the Serbian Scholars' Society as being flawed.
Nevertheless, Milojevich still found strong support and instituted a society (called by Hristo Botev the 'gang of blackguards') which sent money, books and teachers to Macedonia and parts of north- west Bulgaria. Editorials also appeared in Belgrade newspapers like "Istok", stating that the Exarchate was a chauvinistic institution intent on 'bulgarizing' the Serbs of Macedonian. In answer to such accusations many eminent Bulgarians, including Hristo Botev (1875) and Liuben Karavelov (1874), wrote scathing replies denouncing both the actions of Milojevich and his supporters as well as the Serbian government's surreptitious complicity.
The Russo-Turkish war of 1878 had a number of dire consequences for Serbian nationalistic goals. Because of its support for Russia, Turkey closed all Serbian schools within Macedonia. The Treaty of San Stefano in 1878 demonstrated to Serbian politicians that there existed a strong and general acceptance that Macedonia was populated by Bulgarians. Later in 1881 Serbian hopes to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina had to be abandoned, which meant redirecting its quest for an outlet to the Aegean - via Macedonia. These setbacks led Serbia to instigate the Serbo-Bulgarian war of 1885, which ended in its convincing defeat. Thus to accomplish, what it had failed to do militarily, Serbia now pursued two separate tactics to enhance its future claims to Macedonia. The first was based on proving directly that Macedonia was actually populated by Serbs not Bulgarians; the second involved fostering nascent Macedonian separatism (Macedonism) as a counter to Bulgarian influence.
In the late 1880s several Serbian academics, particularly Dragashevich, Milojko Veselinovich and Stojan Protich rationalised the seeming contradiction of the Macedonian population's non- Serbian identity as follows. First, the term "bulgar" within Macedonia was in fact a generic term meaning a "common person", and as such had no ethnographic meaning. The term "bulgar" had thus been misinterpreted by both the Greeks and European travellers to signify national affiliation, thus leading to the erroneous conclusion that the people had a Bulgarian self- identity. Second, after formation of the Serbian state, the Turkish authorities were anti-Serbian, therefore most Serbs preferred to call themselves "bulgars" to escape persecution. Third, in the post Exarchate era, propaganda forced people to identify themselves as "bulgars" so that the necessary signatures would be available to establish a Bulgarian Church - that is the Exarchate had become an "institution for the Bulgarization of the Serbs".
Spiridon Gopchevich, a Serbian diplomat and Milojevich adherent, made a brief to Macedonia in 1889 and on his return published an ethnographic map which characterising the Macedonian population right up to Nevrokop, Salonica and the Grammos mountains, as Serbian. The renown scholar, Vatroslav Yagich (1838-1923), editor of "Archiv fur Slavische Philologie" (1875-1923) made the following comment on Gopochevich's study -
"...to attack the tendentiously uncritical arguments of Gopochevich is unnecessary; his work condemns itself. It is a pity about the good paper and fine printing, the two most admirable aspects of the book."
Nevertheless, Gopochevich's study was accepted, endorsed and promoted by the Serbian government as further vindication of their position on the Macedonian Question.
While previously Stoyan Novakovich had criticised the chauvinistic policies of individuals like Milojevich, times had changed and now as an eminent Serbian statesman he felt it his duty to support Serbian claims to the Macedonian territories. Therefore initially Novakovich attempted to show that Slavic dialects of Macedonia were not part of the Bulgarian language but actually part of the Serbian language. However because his study was dismissed by noted academics of the period, including Yagich, Miletic, Oblak and Derzhavin, he realised that this strategy could not succeed. Subsequently Novakovich advanced a thesis that in the late 9th century Macedonia had three ethnic Slavic groups - Bulgarian, Serbian and "Slovene" - and that these divisions still persisted and were identifiable in the present population. He outlined his theory in "First Foundations of Slavic Literature Amongst the Balkan Slavs", a 300 page monograph published in 1893 by the Serbian Academy of Sciences. What Novakovich had produced was a blueprint for "de-Bulgarization" of the Macedonian Slavs by their "Macedonianization", if direct "Serbianization" could not be readily effected. The intent is explicitly confirmed by Novakovich's well known (and quoted) dispatch to the Serbian Minister of Education in 1888:
"Since the Bulgarian idea, as it is well known to all, is deeply rooted in Macedonia, I think it is almost impossible to shake it completely by opposing it merely with the Serbian idea. This idea, we fear, would be incapable, as opposition pure and simple, of suppressing the Bulgarian idea. That is why the Serbian idea will need an ally that could stand in direct opposition to the Bulgarianism and would contain in itself the elements which could attract the people and their feelings and thus sever them from Bulgarianism. This ally I see in the Macedonism or to a certain extent in our nursing the Macedonian dialect and Macedonian separatism."
Novakovich's ideas were later amplified and extended, first by Iovan Cvijich, and later by Alexander Belitch. It is important to state that the theory of the three Slavic groups, propounded by Novakovich, Cvijich and Belitch was considered unsubstantiated by the available evidence; a position held by most academics including both Yagich and Niederle.
During the 1880s Novakovich effected several important plans to expand the concept of "Macedonism" (Macedonian Separatism) amongst the Macedonian population. Although the Novakovich's strategy can only be described as a failure, its formulation and intent leads to some important historic cnclusions regarding the national consciousness (within that era) of the Macedonian people.
The Society of St Sava (founded in 1886) was the chief organ for dissemination of Serbian propaganda on the Macedonian Question and Novakovich was intricately involved behind its agenda and policies. During the same year four members of a secret Macedonian committee in Sofia, went to Belgrade to secure support for their proposed actions in Macedonia. Their plans included the restoration of the Ohrida Diocese, publication of a newspaper "Macedonian Voice" in Istanbul, opening schools where teachers used the "Macedonian" language, and to have all educational literature printed in the Macedonian dialect. Shortly thereafter Novakovich took up his appointment as Serbian consul in Istanbul, where he met with two members of the Macedonian committee to initiate the plan. Although this was only partially successful, Serbian schools were opened in Macedonia, and books were printed in the Macedonian dialect. The latter were based on an increasing Serbian language content as the educational standard increased. However in 1898 when asked with respect to the reprinting of these texts in the Macedonian dialect, Novakovich recommended only the Serbian language should be used - the anticipated attraction of the Macedonian dialect had not eventuated.
The Society of St Sava also offered well-paid scholarships to Macedonians in the hope they could ultimately be turned against the Bulgarian idea. Between 1888 and 1889 quite a number of Macedonians accepted these scholarships and went to Belgrade. They soon became aware of the obvious underlying reasons behind the program however, especially when they were forbidden to possess "Bulgarian" literature. Subsequently some 30 to 40 students left Belgrade to continue their education elsewhere, mostly Sofia. Among that group were some later very well-known figures - Dame Gruev, Petar Pop Arsov and Krste Misirkov. It must be considered more than coincidental that two of the latter individuals (PPA, and especially KM) shortly thereafter proffered views on the Macedonian Question that in essence supported the covert intent of Novakovich's theory. However it was during Novakovich's appointment as consul at St Petersburg that the staunchest and most dogmatic advocate of "Macedonism", Dimitur Chupovski, arose. Again we note that Chupovski and his small group of followers were directly supported by the St Sava Society and had an almost identical agenda to that of the four Macedonians that met with Novakovich in Belgrade during 1886. It did not matter to Novakovich that "Macedonism" was also essentially anti-Serbian, as long as it opposed or slowed the spread of Bulgarian influence within Macedonia.
An important historic issue is the reaction to both Serbian propaganda and Macedonism within Macedonia itself. First, it is known that one of the main reasons for the establishment of IMRO by Dame Gruev in 1893 was to block the spread of Serbian influence into Macedonia, less it hinder the ultimate unification of the Bulgarian people. Thus although IMRO's short-term goal was autonomy, its long-term goal was unification, as had occurred with East Rumelia. There can be no doubt IMRO was a Bulgarian organization, protecting the Bulgarian national interest against the Serbs. Several other organizations also formed within Macedonia (1897) to oppose Serbian propaganda - the Revolutionary Brotherhood and the Charitable Brotherhood - the latter to specifically undermine Serbian schools, a strategy in which it was quite successful. Even earlier (1891), Gyorche Petrov, later a famous IMRO committee member, was so concerned by the obvious Serbian schemes that he spent his time exclusively on ethnographic research in Skopje to ensure the availability of indisputable evidence to support the "Bulgarian" character of the Macedonian population.
As for "Macedonism", the memoirs of Hristo Shaldev which discuss Dimitur Chupovski, plainly show how few adherents this concept had in 1903. We also have to accept that Krste Misirkov only promoted the concept of "Macedonism" when he felt the Bulgarian position in Macedonia was irrevocably lost - as in 1903 after Ilinden (when he wrote "On Macedonian Matters") and after WWI. At all other times he was a staunch advocate of the Bulgarian character of Macedonia. Misirkov's pro-Macedonism arguments were resurrected and re-packaged by the Comintern in 1934 as evidence for a "Macedonian Nation". Novakovich did not live to see the success of the strategy he first devised in the middle 1880s - a plan which undoubtedly has prevented the historic reunion of the Bulgarian people. Dame Gruev and IMRO were correct in their assessment of the danger of Serbian influence.
In his memoirs (finished 18 Aug 1947) Hristo Shaldev speaks for all Macedonian patriots when he writes:
"I am saddened that I cannot spend the remaining years of my life in Gumendje, and at the same time I am indignant that the youngest generation of Vardar Macedonia has disavowed both the achievements and self-determination of their fathers, grand-fathers and great-grand-fathers and has been misled by the Serbian theories of Professors Novakovich, Cvijich and Belich."

Balkan Wars

First Balkan War

See Also: 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. The Bulgarian 2nd Army, commanded by General Vladimir Vazov, began its siege of Adrianople ( Edirne ) on the 15th of November and managed to capture the previously unseizeble fortress on 26th March. During this battle the Bulgarians bombarded the city and so became the first nation , which used air-planes as a weapon. 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

See Also: 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 Black Hand . 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 '') 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 Yugoslavia, 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.

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