The Balkans have long been a mystery to me. I’ve been here twice now and I’m still confused. We’ve had multiple on-board lectures, listened to local guides, talked with local families. Each has presented the situation here from his/her own point of view. More confusion – it was like trying to figure out what the picture is in a jigsaw puzzle when you only have a few of the pieces. So, I went to my good friend Wikipedia to try to figure this out.
Here’s what I’ve figured out:
Here’s what I’ve figured out:
- The Balkans are generally considered to include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and the European part of Turkey.
- Some of the Balkans were under the Ottoman Empire (Muslim) and others the Austro-Hungarian empire (Catholic or Eastern Orthodox), and thus historical enemies.
- Most of the Balkan nation-states emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries as the Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungarian empires crumbled.
- In 1912-1913 the First Balkan War broke out when Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro united in the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the war, territories were captured and partitioned among the allies.
- During the Cold War, most of the countries on the Balkans were governed by communist governments. The much loved Tito united several of these countries as Yugoslavia, which means “South Slavs”.
- In the 1990s, the transition of the regions' ex-Communist countries towards democratic free-market societies went peacefully with the exception of Yugoslavia. Wars between the former Yugoslav republics broke out after Slovenia and Croatia held free elections and their people voted for independence. Serbia declared the dissolution of the union unconstitutional and the Yugoslavian army tried to maintain status quo. A ten-day War occurred in in Slovenia. And the Croatian War of Independence continued until 1995. The long lasting wars resulted in a United Nations intervention and NATO.
- Six sovereign republics: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia emerged from the former Yugoslavia.
- Currently all of the states are republics, but until World War II all except Turkey were monarchies. Most of the republics are parliamentary, excluding Romania and Bosnia which are semi-presidential. All the states have open market economies most of which are in the $4000-12,000 annual income range.
- Because of frequent wars that were fought in the Balkans and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream, the Balkans continue to be the least developed part of Europe.
- As is often the case, religion plays a part in this history. The region's principal religions are Christianity (Eastern Orthodox, Catholic) and Islam (Sunni). Eastern Orthodoxy is the major religion in: Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Croatia and Slovenia are primarily Catholic. Sunni Islam is the primary religion in Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Kosovo and Turkey.
Novi Sad, Serbia, from the Fortress
