Why Are The Balkans Europe's Powder Keg?

the balkans the balkans also known as the balkan peninsula are a geographic area in south east europe the region takes its name from the balkan mountains that stretch throughout the whole of bulgaria from the serbian bulgarian border to the black sea coast it is bordered by the adriatic sea in the northwest the ionian sea in the southwest the aegean sea in the south the turkish straits in the east and the black sea in the northeast while the northern border of the peninsula is variously defined the concept of the balkan peninsula was created by the german geographer august zoin in 1808 but the name dates further back the term of balkan peninsula was a synonym for romalia european turkey in the 19th century the former provinces of the ottoman empire in south east europe so it had a geopolitical definition rather than a geographical one the definition of the balkan peninsula's natural borders don't coincide with the technical definition of a peninsula and so modern geographers reject the idea of a balkan peninsula preferring instead to call it a region the term has acquired a stigmatized and negative meaning related to the process of vulcanization essentially meaning the dissolution and separation of a territory into many small parts at conflict with each other and i think it's from this term vulcanization which comes from the way the region is defined that we can understand why it's very often viewed as a powder keg region or the powder keg of europe the reason why the balkans have often separated into small conflicting parts is because there is a vast number of ethnic cultural and religious groups within the region and the opportunities of conflict between them were consequently a lot causing the area to be unstable and viewed as a powder keg where the smallest conflict could result in a war 20 years before the assassination of austrian archduke franz ferdinand which contributed to the beginning of world war 1 german chancellor bismarck had said if there is to ever be another war in europe it will come out of some darn silly thing in the balkans and he was right now don't get me wrong i don't think the balkans are to blame for world war 1 and they're certainly not to blame for other conflicts we've had in europe but the reality is they are often perceived as the most problematic and war-prone zone in europe at least during the 20th and a little bit of the 21st century so in this video i want to summarize the conflicts that the region has had the instability it has suffered and the problems at the root of these issues allowing us to understand why the area is the way it is and why that way of being throughout its history has earned it the title of europe's powder keg we can date back trouble in the balkans to a long time ago the region had always been of special strategic interest it controls routes that connect three continents europe asia and africa and they were a precious territory of several empires the romans byzantium the ottomans and wanted by their enemies and so continuous battles and wars were fought there throughout the course of history to gain control of the region and i think it's precisely in this strategic importance that one key answer lies a lot of the region's issues are because of the mix of cultures and religions and the presence of these different peoples is related to the strategic importance of the area the identity of the balkans is dominated by its geographical position historically the area was known as a crossroad of cultures it has been a juncture between the latin and greek bodies of the roman empire the destination of a massive influx of pagan bulgurs and slavs an area where orthodox and catholic christianity met as well as the meeting point between islam and christianity from antiquity to the middle ages different empires ruled it from the romans to the greeks the macedons the thracians the achaemenids with the bogors and slavs arriving in the sixth century from the northeast and then the ottomans coming after that during the middle ages for instance the balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the byzantine roman and the bulgarian empires by the end of the 16th century the ottoman empire had become the controlling force in the region after expanding from anatolia through trace to the balkans bringing muslim culture into the area they temporarily subjugated the locals and controlled the region but they didn't bring stability these locals weren't defeated easily and in some cases weren't defeated at all the ottomans faced a lot of problems with indigenous revolts all the time plus their neighboring empires and enemies wanting to control the peninsula as well austria-hungary was the biggest foe fighting many wars against the turks and the balkans some italian states also wanting the balkan coast went to war too like venice for instance and the russians wanted to assert their influence over the native slavic peoples and so supported their fights against the ottomans while also going into direct war with them in other places this resistance plus the emergence of the notion of nation states in europe plus other reasons that caused the loss of power of the ottomans led to the creation of balkan nation states during the 19th and early 20th centuries as they gained independence from the ottoman empire greece in 1821 serbia montenegro in 1878 romania in 1881 and bulgaria in 1908 a first balkan war immediately followed in 1912-13 where the newly formed balkan league consisting of bulgaria serbia greece and montenegro fought against the ottomans to assert their sovereignty the league won and one of the results was the creation of independent albania which angered serbia but bulgaria was also upset about the partition of macedon and so they declared war on their previous allies starting the second balkan war here we can see that the animosity of balkan nations was not only against foreign powers like the ottomans or the austrians but also against each other because of how different they were and how they wanted the same lands and so we arrive at more modern times where the powder keg label was actually given and somewhat more justified with the most identifiable moment and the most relatable to this title being the early part of the 20th century preceding world war one during this time there were a number of overlapping claims to territories and spheres of influence between the major european powers and the balkans were one of these important spheres with a lot of empires wanting to control it such as the russians the austrians the germans and to a lesser degree the ottomans the uk and the kingdom of italy plus like i just said in addition to the imperialistic ambitions and interests in the region there was still a growth in nationalism with the indigenous people of the region with the non-independent wanting independence and the already independent wanting the expansion of their sovereignty and area of rule as an example we have these maps of projected empires of greater romania greater bulgaria greater serbia or greater albania or even greater greece none of these could ever exist at the same time because in most cases they overlap in territory but despite all these issues it's important for us to know that the balkans were not the major issue at stake in the first world war and were merely the catalyst that led to the breaking point of that war the explosion if you will was the previously mentioned assassination of the austrian archduke in sarajevo austria-hungary then issued an ultimatum to serbia intended to provoke it to war through extreme demands but the serbian government surprised them and accepted all the conditions of the ultimatum except for one condition number six which demanded the inclusion of austria-hungary in serbia's judicial inquiry into the assassination serbia indicated that this would be unconstitutional and a violation of their sovereignty and so the austro-hungarians decided to invade with german support the austro-serbian war through a chain of alliances led to a full out world war the ottoman empire soon joined the central powers becoming one of the three empires participating in that alliance and the next year bulgaria joined them as well attacking serbia which was successfully fighting austria-hungary to the north for a year and that attack led to serbia's defeat the participation of greece in the war came three years later with them joining the antons and this sort of switched the balance of power contributing to the defeat of central powers and ending the first world war after the war a new idea emerged of uniting port of the balkans under one state yugoslavia the preliminary kingdom was formed in 1918 and came to include slovenia bosnia serbia the region of kosovo montenegro croatia and north macedonia now here is what is fascinating the idea of a united balkans or west balkans wasn't new at all sure the necessity to unite in order to resist against the austrians or ottomans was recent but the idea was not in the year of 375 a.d the roman empire had a prefecture called elitikum and it occupied roughly the area of yugoslavia although stretching into greece and albania and even further north and in 1918 the idea was picked up again as a way to unite all slavic people of the region which according to this all shared a common inheritance and descendants as illyrians it was also maybe an attempt to pacify the region by creating a single national identity if all people are united under one big nation and territory there won't be a bunch of them fighting over the same land just because they're slightly different in terms of culture however there were still territorial divisions and problems inside that one country sort of as member states if you will and so there was still some animosity and an example of that is kosovo who wanted the same level of autonomy as the other countries and this contributed to the eventual dissolution of the union throughout world war ii most of the balkans were on the side of the axis at first however greece resisted romania also switched sides near the end serbia revolted and throughout all the countries there were strong resistance movements who refused germany and italy's rule and were determined to regain sovereignty then came the cold war where yugoslavia stopped being a kingdom an idea was put forward at one point to create a larger union including bulgaria and if it had happened it could have paved the way to a fully united balkan region but it never came to be in the 1990s as the cold war ended yugoslavia began falling apart and doing so through a series of wars the yugoslav wars were a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts wars of independence and insurgencies fought in the former yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001 which led to the breakup of the yugoslav state there were at least six of them the ten-day war in slovenia the croatian war of independence the bosnian war the codes of war an insurgency in the preservo valley and another one in the republic of macedonia and at this point other countries in the balkans had somewhat stabilized greece had its territory consolidated as did albania bulgaria and romania and as yugoslavia dissolved after these wars came to an end so did the former member states north macedonia bosnia and herzegovina croatia and slovenia which isn't really a balkan country but was part of yugoslavia so we can include it here but serbia montenegro and the region of kosovo stay together some more time eventually montenegro separated itself and became independent and then the conflict between kosovo and serbia started up with the ethnic albanians of the area wanting either sovereignty or unity with albania separation wasn't peaceful at all and many awful things happened but today the two regions are at least coexisting and not in an all-out open conflict anymore and with this we arrive at today 2020 right now there is no war in the balkans and no expectance of one but the last one was pretty recent in 1999 and its basis was the difference in cultures between the serbs and kosovo wars this confirms what we've seen all throughout history and this video the balkans are usually regarded as a powder keg region where the tiniest conflict can lead to all-out war and this is mainly because of two reasons the strategic importance of the region and the desire that many empires have had throughout time to control it leading to wars in and for control of the region and also the fact that it is home to many different cultures nationalities and religions which settled there because it changed hands so many times in early history some with very different characteristics which also in some cases claim the same territories these differences and mutual claims lead to internal conflicts between them rather than becoming a melting pot all around it became a mosaic where each title is different and wants to fight the next style for the fact that they are different and taking up space that the first tile thinks is theirs but at least now we seem to have entered a period of more peaceful coexistence and we know this is possible because the eastern part of the peninsula in bulgaria and romania or even in greece and albania has been peaceful for a while so despite having this powder keg label and despite it making sense given the history we should have hope that all these balkan countries have finally found a way of peacefully coexisting and realize that what brings them together is bigger than what sets them apart they are the heirs of the romans the byzantines the slavs the bulgars the illyrians and the ottomans and so many more and even if one region is more influenced by one type of culture than the other they should view that as cultural wealth and not a reason for conflict thanks so much for watching this video if you have any additional information or just any opinions leave a comment below and subscribe if you want to catch future videos i will see you next time for more general knowledge

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 555,521

Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist, balkans, why are the balkans so unstable, serbia, montenegro, kosovo, bosnia herzegovina, slovenia, albania, greece, turkey, ottomans, romania, moldova, bulgaria, why are the balkans europe's powder keg, yugoslavia, kingdom of yugoslavia, sarajevo

Id: 38UGGZIoBtY

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 21 2020