Im not from Europe. Can someone explain what are the Balkans exactly and why there’s “beef” between them?
In: 2271
The Balkans is a region in southeastern Europe that includes countries such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.
The term “Balkans” is derived from a Turkish word meaning “mountain.” The region is characterized by its rugged and mountainous terrain, as well as its diverse cultural, religious, and linguistic heritage.
Historically, the Balkans have been a site of intense conflict and political instability. The region has been subject to invasion and conquest by various empires and nations over the centuries, including the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Nazi Germany. These invasions and occupations have contributed to longstanding tensions between different ethnic and religious groups in the region.
In the 1990s, the Balkans were the site of a series of devastating conflicts, including the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War. These wars were fought primarily along ethnic and religious lines and resulted in the displacement of millions of people and the deaths of tens of thousands.
Today, the Balkans remain a region of political and economic instability, and tensions between different ethnic and religious groups continue to simmer. However, there have also been efforts to promote reconciliation and cooperation between the different countries and communities in the region.
The Balkans is a region in southeastern Europe that includes countries such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.
The term “Balkans” is derived from a Turkish word meaning “mountain.” The region is characterized by its rugged and mountainous terrain, as well as its diverse cultural, religious, and linguistic heritage.
Historically, the Balkans have been a site of intense conflict and political instability. The region has been subject to invasion and conquest by various empires and nations over the centuries, including the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Nazi Germany. These invasions and occupations have contributed to longstanding tensions between different ethnic and religious groups in the region.
In the 1990s, the Balkans were the site of a series of devastating conflicts, including the Bosnian War and the Kosovo War. These wars were fought primarily along ethnic and religious lines and resulted in the displacement of millions of people and the deaths of tens of thousands.
Today, the Balkans remain a region of political and economic instability, and tensions between different ethnic and religious groups continue to simmer. However, there have also been efforts to promote reconciliation and cooperation between the different countries and communities in the region.
Long story short, the Balkans have spent all of history being some other country’s territory and so a national identity was hard to find.
They were Greek, Roman, Slavic, Bulgarian, Turkish, etc for so long they don’t know who they are as a people.
Also, you have two fun and competing religions in the area that have over a millennia of dislike towards each other so they continually have religious spats, most famously the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. You can’t be allowed to live in you believe in the wrong physically abusive, monotheistic God (or God who is three gods all in one).
Plus, the area is heavily mountainous in some places and thus made it harder to control and/or maintain a similar culture. So, 5 miles up the road you’re Albanian, but another 20 miles you’re Croat, etc.
And they all have either really great opinions of each other or they simply want the other ones to stay on their side of the fence.
And then you have to factor in Europe, which always played on their insecurities as a buffer against Ottoman Turkish expansionist policy (up to their collapse). So, they were always allowed autonomy but never economic independence.
So, the Balkans are a really poor area of the world caused by multiple millennia of being the site for exploitation, conquest, and proxy wars.
Or in Risk terminology, the Balkans were where the world powers got cards.
Long story short, the Balkans have spent all of history being some other country’s territory and so a national identity was hard to find.
They were Greek, Roman, Slavic, Bulgarian, Turkish, etc for so long they don’t know who they are as a people.
Also, you have two fun and competing religions in the area that have over a millennia of dislike towards each other so they continually have religious spats, most famously the genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. You can’t be allowed to live in you believe in the wrong physically abusive, monotheistic God (or God who is three gods all in one).
Plus, the area is heavily mountainous in some places and thus made it harder to control and/or maintain a similar culture. So, 5 miles up the road you’re Albanian, but another 20 miles you’re Croat, etc.
And they all have either really great opinions of each other or they simply want the other ones to stay on their side of the fence.
And then you have to factor in Europe, which always played on their insecurities as a buffer against Ottoman Turkish expansionist policy (up to their collapse). So, they were always allowed autonomy but never economic independence.
So, the Balkans are a really poor area of the world caused by multiple millennia of being the site for exploitation, conquest, and proxy wars.
Or in Risk terminology, the Balkans were where the world powers got cards.
Imagine you had black ants. Then imagine you had wood ants. And then little gray ants. And fire ants. And some more types of ants nobody ever heard of before.
Now imagine what happens when all those ants try to build ant hills in a limited space so they all end up directly overlapping and intruding on eachother’s perceived territory.
That’s the Balkans.
(Perhaps a bit too unserious comment for eli5, sorry if that’s the case)
Imagine you had black ants. Then imagine you had wood ants. And then little gray ants. And fire ants. And some more types of ants nobody ever heard of before.
Now imagine what happens when all those ants try to build ant hills in a limited space so they all end up directly overlapping and intruding on eachother’s perceived territory.
That’s the Balkans.
(Perhaps a bit too unserious comment for eli5, sorry if that’s the case)
I think a very simplified explanation for the beef is that different people/cultures are divided up between country borders that do not overlap neatly.
So there is one group of people, who feel they belong to that group, divided between two countries. This causes tension between the group and the country they feel left in, supported by the other country making them stronger.
For example. One part of the war in the 90s was between Bosnia and Serbia. There are Serbian people living in Bosnia who feel they should be a part of Serbia. And Serbia wanted to move their border across Bosnia to include these people. Which Bosnia did not want.
Now there are also Croatians living in Bosnia. And they wanted to be part of Croatia. And Croatia wanted to include these Croatians as well. Problem was, there are also Croatians living in Serbia. So Croatia wanted a bit of Bosnia and Serbia, which both didn’t want. So now you have three parties. You see where this is going.
Now multiply this to 6 countries who all have “their people” living in parts of the others which they all wanted to claim and you have this entire clusterfuck of overlapping claims.
Nobody was really in it to dominate the other group of people. But because of all the overlapping claims, there was no clear solution. And this entire situation, despite the wars, really hasn’t been resolved fully.
So this cultural tension remains relevant today, although no wars are being fought about these claims now.
Perhaps for a bit of US context. Imagine that California becomes independent but California also wants some parts of Mexico and some parts of Oregon. The US believes they should get a small part of California back but also wants that same piece of Mexico that California also claims. Meanwhile, Mexico thinks it should get some part of Texas. And in all that mess, San Francisco decides that it would rather just be independent from everyone else than deal with this nonsense apart from that piece of Chinatown, they can stay in the US while Chinatown itself just wants to stay Californian.. Yeah, good luck solving this puzzle while keeping everyone happy and without physically moving people to other places.
I think a very simplified explanation for the beef is that different people/cultures are divided up between country borders that do not overlap neatly.
So there is one group of people, who feel they belong to that group, divided between two countries. This causes tension between the group and the country they feel left in, supported by the other country making them stronger.
For example. One part of the war in the 90s was between Bosnia and Serbia. There are Serbian people living in Bosnia who feel they should be a part of Serbia. And Serbia wanted to move their border across Bosnia to include these people. Which Bosnia did not want.
Now there are also Croatians living in Bosnia. And they wanted to be part of Croatia. And Croatia wanted to include these Croatians as well. Problem was, there are also Croatians living in Serbia. So Croatia wanted a bit of Bosnia and Serbia, which both didn’t want. So now you have three parties. You see where this is going.
Now multiply this to 6 countries who all have “their people” living in parts of the others which they all wanted to claim and you have this entire clusterfuck of overlapping claims.
Nobody was really in it to dominate the other group of people. But because of all the overlapping claims, there was no clear solution. And this entire situation, despite the wars, really hasn’t been resolved fully.
So this cultural tension remains relevant today, although no wars are being fought about these claims now.
Perhaps for a bit of US context. Imagine that California becomes independent but California also wants some parts of Mexico and some parts of Oregon. The US believes they should get a small part of California back but also wants that same piece of Mexico that California also claims. Meanwhile, Mexico thinks it should get some part of Texas. And in all that mess, San Francisco decides that it would rather just be independent from everyone else than deal with this nonsense apart from that piece of Chinatown, they can stay in the US while Chinatown itself just wants to stay Californian.. Yeah, good luck solving this puzzle while keeping everyone happy and without physically moving people to other places.
The Balkan Peninsula has always been at the crossroads between various external powers. It’s a very rugged and mountainous peninsula, which creates geographic barriers (like the Dinaric Alps and the Balkan Mountains) that tend to foster cultural and political divisions.
The peninsula has experienced multiple demographic and political changes over the past 2000 years. First unified by the Romans, the Balkans would be fought over by the Roman Empire, multiple Bulgarian Empires, the Serbian Empire, Hungary, Venice, and other smaller powers for centuries. However, the peninsula would be almost completely conquered by the Ottoman Empire by around 1500. Throughout all of those conflicts and conquests, various ethnic groups settled in the Balkans and the religious makeup of the area became very diverse. The peninsula was religiously divided between Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and it was ethnically divided between Slavic groups, Greeks, Albanians, Turks, and various other smaller ethnic groups. They lived side-by-side and usually in peace, though ethnic and religious tensions were often present at least subconsciously.
Following the 1680s, the Ottoman Empire began to stagnate and eventually decline. They were weakened by frequent wars with Russia and Austria and by failure to reform and modernize. The rise of nationalism in the 19th Century inspired various Balkan groups to rebel and establish independent nation states. Balkan revolts were a frequent occurrence between 1804 and 1912. First Greece separated in 1830 after a 9-year independence war, then Serbia and Montenegro (officially) in 1878 with Russian support, and then Bulgaria (officially) in 1908. These countries then temporarily allied together in the First Balkan War in 1912 to drive the Ottomans out of the Balkans completely.
However, these new nation states often had conflicting territorial claims since multiple ethnic groups regularly inhabited the same areas. Some groups had disputed national identities (like Macedonians and Bosnians) and would have their territory claimed by other groups. Some groups were regarded as outsiders by their new rulers and experienced discrimination and persecution. Many ethnic groups, some of whom now lived in the same countries, had historical and religious rivalries. These nationalist quarrels would be the driving force behind a series of conflicts throughout the 20th Century.
Bulgaria fought against Serbia and Greece over territorial claims during the Second Balkan War and WWI, ultimately losing both wars. After WWI, Serbia and Montenegro united with the Slavic lands under Austrian rule (Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina) to form Yugoslavia. Greece fought and lost a war with Turkey over control of certain Greek-majority areas. Greece and Yugoslavia were then invaded and occupied by the Axis powers during WWII. Occupied Yugoslavia would experience a brutal ethnic and ideological conflict, with Communist partisans fighting against Axis forces, monarchist Chetniks, and Axis collaborators to eventually liberate the country. Both Yugoslavia and Bulgaria would then be under Communist rule throughout the Cold War while Greece joined NATO. The Yugoslav government tried to bury all of the WWII-era ethnic tensions and promote unity among the South Slavs, but tensions quickly re-emerged at the end of the Cold War. The country soon split apart, and the resulting Yugoslav Wars (particularly the Bosnian War) have given the Balkans an unstable and violent reputation.
The situation has since calmed down and become relatively stable, with no armed conflict since 2001, but ethnic tensions continue to varying degrees even today. Much of the drama is over past atrocities committed by various groups (mainly during WWII and the Yugoslav Wars), territorial disputes of the past and present, conflicting interpretations of their history, and various other nationalist talking points (such as the Macedonian name dispute and the existence of a Serbo-Croatian language).
The Balkan Peninsula has always been at the crossroads between various external powers. It’s a very rugged and mountainous peninsula, which creates geographic barriers (like the Dinaric Alps and the Balkan Mountains) that tend to foster cultural and political divisions.
The peninsula has experienced multiple demographic and political changes over the past 2000 years. First unified by the Romans, the Balkans would be fought over by the Roman Empire, multiple Bulgarian Empires, the Serbian Empire, Hungary, Venice, and other smaller powers for centuries. However, the peninsula would be almost completely conquered by the Ottoman Empire by around 1500. Throughout all of those conflicts and conquests, various ethnic groups settled in the Balkans and the religious makeup of the area became very diverse. The peninsula was religiously divided between Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Jews, and it was ethnically divided between Slavic groups, Greeks, Albanians, Turks, and various other smaller ethnic groups. They lived side-by-side and usually in peace, though ethnic and religious tensions were often present at least subconsciously.
Following the 1680s, the Ottoman Empire began to stagnate and eventually decline. They were weakened by frequent wars with Russia and Austria and by failure to reform and modernize. The rise of nationalism in the 19th Century inspired various Balkan groups to rebel and establish independent nation states. Balkan revolts were a frequent occurrence between 1804 and 1912. First Greece separated in 1830 after a 9-year independence war, then Serbia and Montenegro (officially) in 1878 with Russian support, and then Bulgaria (officially) in 1908. These countries then temporarily allied together in the First Balkan War in 1912 to drive the Ottomans out of the Balkans completely.
However, these new nation states often had conflicting territorial claims since multiple ethnic groups regularly inhabited the same areas. Some groups had disputed national identities (like Macedonians and Bosnians) and would have their territory claimed by other groups. Some groups were regarded as outsiders by their new rulers and experienced discrimination and persecution. Many ethnic groups, some of whom now lived in the same countries, had historical and religious rivalries. These nationalist quarrels would be the driving force behind a series of conflicts throughout the 20th Century.
Bulgaria fought against Serbia and Greece over territorial claims during the Second Balkan War and WWI, ultimately losing both wars. After WWI, Serbia and Montenegro united with the Slavic lands under Austrian rule (Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina) to form Yugoslavia. Greece fought and lost a war with Turkey over control of certain Greek-majority areas. Greece and Yugoslavia were then invaded and occupied by the Axis powers during WWII. Occupied Yugoslavia would experience a brutal ethnic and ideological conflict, with Communist partisans fighting against Axis forces, monarchist Chetniks, and Axis collaborators to eventually liberate the country. Both Yugoslavia and Bulgaria would then be under Communist rule throughout the Cold War while Greece joined NATO. The Yugoslav government tried to bury all of the WWII-era ethnic tensions and promote unity among the South Slavs, but tensions quickly re-emerged at the end of the Cold War. The country soon split apart, and the resulting Yugoslav Wars (particularly the Bosnian War) have given the Balkans an unstable and violent reputation.
The situation has since calmed down and become relatively stable, with no armed conflict since 2001, but ethnic tensions continue to varying degrees even today. Much of the drama is over past atrocities committed by various groups (mainly during WWII and the Yugoslav Wars), territorial disputes of the past and present, conflicting interpretations of their history, and various other nationalist talking points (such as the Macedonian name dispute and the existence of a Serbo-Croatian language).
Latest Answers