Balkan linguistic union

Balkan linguistic union or Balkan sprachbund is a name given to the similarities in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology found in the languages of the Balkans.

Middle Ages and the Early Modern period

The Balkans was a confluence of great powers, a buffer between occident and orient. Various wars, rebellions, invasions, and disputes between different ethnic groups were supported by at least one great power, with at least one other great power opposed.

Fourth Crusade in the Balkans

Eastern Roman Empire

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Main article: Byzantine Empire

The Eastern Roman Empire (also known as Romania) was the eastern half of the Roman empire after it was legally divided into two parts. The Western empire held some of the old Roman places, such as parts of Italy. The Eastern Roman Empire had its capital at Constantinople (formerly Byzantium or Byzantion), and its core territory was the south-eastern Balkan peninsula. During most of its history the Eastern Roman empire controlled many provinces in the Balkans and in Asia Minor. The Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian for a time reconquered and restored much of the territory once held by the unified Roman empire, from Spain and Italy, to Anatolia.

Unlike the Roman Empire, which met a famous if rather ill-defined death in the year 476 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire came to a much less famous but far more definitive conclusion at the hands of Mehmet II and the Ottoman Empire in the year 1453.

The Roman Empire collapsed from the inside when Rome was sacked, thus putting an end to the classical age. Its holdings would gradually be given over to various kings and chiefs. To this day, the dominions of the Roman Empire have never been fully reunified.

By contrast, the Eastern half of the empire, which gradually evolved into a medieval power which has often been called the Byzantine empire (and in which Greek eventually became the dominant language) was gradually whittled away over the years. Its nemesis was the Ottoman Empire, with which it shared a somewhat transitory boundary. Over time, it lost piece after piece of territory to invaders, and was actually invaded (and the capital sacked) by the crusaders at one point.

By the end, the empire consisted of nothing but Constantinople, with all other territories in both the Balkans and Asia Minor gone. The conclusion was reached in 1453, when the city was successfully sieged by Mehmed II, bringing to an end the age of Rome.

Ottoman Empire

Main article: Ottoman Empire

• Rise of the Ottoman Empire
• Fall of the Ottoman Empire

Ottomans

The Ottomans were one of the most powerful and influential civilizations of the modern period. The Ottoman Empire (1299 to 1923), created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia, persisted until the 20th century and did not end until after World War I when Turkey adopted a more European style secular government (under Kemal Atatürk). The Empire was at its height in the 16th century when it reached levels of artistry, cultural importance, and military dominance not seen for many years. The Empire began to crumble in the 19th century after a long slow decline facing new feelings of freedomism, along with the colonisation of some of its former territory by newer, more modern forces such as the French and British Empires.

The conquest and the resistance

Main article: Ottoman wars in Europe

The Ottoman conquest of the Balkans was characterised by centuries of bloody struggle for freedom and protracted periods of stalemate with the Habsburgs along the border in Hungary as well as anti-Turkish propaganda in Europe, and with the invasions from the east.

• In 1389 there was the battle between the Serbs and the Turks on the blackbird field, in which the Serb ruler Prince Lazar was defeated.

• Battle of Nicopolis: in 1394 Beyazid I is defeated by Mircea cel Batran

• 1443 Murad II is defeated at Snaim

• Vaslui in 1475 defeat of the Mehmet II by Stefan cel Mare

• In 1441 the victory of Semendria

• Battle of Varna

• Battle of Kosovo (1448) the christian coalition defeated by Ottomans. The Ottoman army numbers twice the number of Serbs. The Serbs kill twice their number before being beaten.

• The sieges of Kruja (1450, 1466, 1467)

• In 1493 the Croats suffer a major defeat in the battle on the Krbava field in Lika.

• On August 13, 1595, at Călugăreni , near the river of Neajlov , a Turkish army led by Sinan Pasha was defeated by Mihai The Brave .

See also:

• History of the Ottoman Empire
• History of Ottoman Albania
• Ottoman Greece
• Early Ottoman Sarajevo
• Late Ottoman Sarajevo

East-West Schism

The East-West Schism, known also as the Great Schism (though this latter term sometimes refers to the later Western Schism), was the event that divided Christianity into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Though normally dated to 1054, when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated each other, the East-West Schism was actually the result of an extended period of estrangement between the two Churches. The primary causes of the Schism were disputes over papal authority—the Pope claimed he held authority over the four Eastern patriarchs, while the patriarchs claimed that the Pope was merely a first among equals—and over the insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed. There were other, less significant catalysts for the Schism, including variance over liturgical practices and conflicting claims of jurisdiction

Habsburg Empire

Main article: Habsburg Monarchy or

Main article: Austria-Hungary

The Habsburg Empire constituted a great region in Europe from the late Middle Ages until World War I. It was named after the Austrian royal family who ruled it and its capital city was Vienna. The Habsburg Empire grew to include what are today Hungary, the Czech lands, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and parts of Italy, Poland, and Romania. The Habsburg Empire (Austria-Hungary after 1867) became a major player in the Balkans. For many years the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs vied for control of the Balkans and chequing each others' expansion for many years. In the 19th century, as Ottoman power waned, the Habsburgs became more important, although at the same time the nation states of the area, Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia arose and became of force in their own right. Russia was also a factor in the Balkans, though they generally acted as an agent for other Slavic countries rather than as a direct occupier.

Rise of Independence

The Ottoman (Turkish) Empire was losing influence, status and territory throughout the 19th century, known as the 'sick man of Europe'; and the future division of the Ottoman empire was proving a source of great friction between the 'Great Powers'. It was a multi-national empire and the subject peoples of this Empire did not want their fate to be decided by other world powers as the Ottoman dynasty collapsed. Towards the end of the 19th century Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians and Magyars began to demand the right to set up their own independent states ruled by people of their own nationality, culture and religion.

(some mention of the interference or interest of the 'Great Powers'?)

1804 First Serbian Uprising and 1815 Second Serbian Uprising

First Serbian Uprising was an uprising at the beginning of the 19th century in which Serbs living in Belgrade Pashaluk in the Ottoman Empire, led by Karadjordje, managed to liberate the Pashaluk for a significant time, which eventually led to the creation of modern Serbia.Though ultimately unsuccessful, this first Serbian Uprising paved the way for the Second Serbian Uprising of 1815, which eventually succeeded in Serbia.

1821 revolt

• In 1821 the Greek revolution, striving to create an independent Greece, broke out on Rumanian ground, supported by the princes of Moldavia and Muntenia.
• A secret Greek nationalist organisation called the Friendly Society (Filiki Eteria) was formed in Odessa during 1814. On March 25 (now Greek Independence Day ) 1821 of the Julian Calendar/6 April, 1821 of the Gregorian Calendar the Orthodox Metropolitan Germanos of Patras proclaimed the national uprising. Simultaneous risings were planned across Greece, including in Macedonia, Crete and Cyprus. The revolt began in March 1821 when Alexandros Ypsilantis, the leader of the Etairists, crossed the Prut River into Turkish-held Moldavia (Today Romania) 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 Moslem 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 Otomans 15000, Russia 10000 and Egipt 5000)

• Also in 1821 the upraising was supported by the Wallachian uprising of 1821 .

The movement, which was started about the same time by the ennobled peasant, Tudor Vladimirescu, for the emancipation of the lower classes, soon acquired, therefore, an anti-Greek tendency. Vladimirescu was assassinated at the instigation of the Greeks; the latter were completely checked by the Turks, who, grown suspicious after the Greek rising and confronted with the energetic attitude of the Rumanian nobility, consented in 1822 to the nomination of two native boyards, Jonitza Sturdza and Gregory Ghica, recommended by their countrymen, as princes of Moldavia and Wallachia. The iniquitous system of 'the throne to the highest bidder' had come to an end. The Phanariote regime in Romania (Wallachia and Modavia) ended after the uprising of 1821 Tudor Vladimirescu

• Relations between Greece and Turkey have been marked by mutual hostility ever since Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832.

See:

• Alexander Ypsilanti
• Filiki Eteria

1829 Adrianople peace

The 1829 Treaty of Adrianople (called also Treaty of Edirne), was settled between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Turkey gave Russia access to the mouths of the Danube and additional territory on the Black Sea, opened the Dardanelles to all commercial vessels, commerce is liberated for cereals,live stocks and wood, granted autonomy to Serbia, promised autonomy for Greece, and allowed Russia to occupy Moldavia and Walachia until Turkey had paid a large indemnity.

1831 Bosnian Rebellion

The Ottoman Sultans attempted to implement various economic reforms in the early 19th century in order to address the grave issues mostly caused by the border wars. The reforms, however, were usually met with resistance by the military captaincies of Bosnia. The most famous of these insurrections was the one by captain Husein Gradaščević in 1831. Gradaščević felt that giving autonomy to the eastern lands of Serbia, Greece and Albania would weaken the link between Bosnia and the Ottoman Empire. He raised a full-scale rebellion in the province, joined by thousands of native Bosnian soldiers who believed in captain's prudence and courage, calling him Zmaj od Bosne (the Bosnian dragon). Despite winning several notable victories, notably at the famous Kosovo polje, the rebels were eventually defeated in a battle near Sarajevo in 1832 after Gradaščević was betrayed by Herzegovinian nobility. Husein-kapetan was banned from ever entering the country again, and was eventually poisoned in Istanbul. Bosnia and Herzegovina would remain part of the Ottoman empire until 1878. Before it was formally occupied by Austria-Hungary, the region was de facto independent for several months.

1848 Revolution

In the Austrian Empire -- Germans, Czechs, Italians, Poles, Serbs, Croats, Slovaks, Romanians, and Hungarians, pushed for self-determination. On the meeting of the peoples of the Empire that was held in Bratislava (then Pressburg), many nationalities including Serbs pleaded for the acknowledgement of their nation, education in their language, and their separate region. Lajos Kossuth, the leader of Hungary, told them that "the only nation that exists in the Hungarian Kingdom is the Magyar nation" and that "the rebels should be punished by sword". The frustration of revolutionary impulses throughout the empire led to increased national tensions in the next 25 years.

The European revolution of 1848 eroded relations between the Serbs and their neighbors and between Hungarians and their neighbors. As part of their revolutionary program, the Hungarians threatened to Magyarize the Serbs in Vojvodina. Some Serbs there declared their independence from Hungary and proclaimed an autonomous Vojvodina; others rallied behind the Austrian-Croatian invasion of Hungary. The Serbs nearly declared war, but Russians and Turkish diplomacy restrained them.

See:

• The Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
• Nicolae Balcescu
• Lajos Kossuth
• Avram Iancu

Russian defeat in Crimea: the Balkan implications

The Crimean War was provoked by Russian tsar Nicholas I's continuing pressure on the dying Ottoman Empire, and by Russia's claims to be the protector of the Orthodox Christian subjects of the Ottoman sultan. Britain and France became involved in order to block Russian expansion and prevent Russians from acquiring control of the Turkish Straits and eastern Mediterranean. Russia was defeated in the Crimean War (1853-1856). The peace Congress in Paris (February-March 1856) decided that Wallachia and Moldavia, which had been under Ottoman suzerainty, were now placed under the collective guarantee of the seven powers that signed the Paris peace treaty. These powers then declared that local assemblies be convened to decide on the future organisation of the two principalities. The Treaty of Paris also stipulated: the retrocession to Moldavia of Southern Bessarabia, which had been annexed in 1812 by Russia (the Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail counties); freedom of sailing on the Danube; the establishment of the European Commission of the Danube; the neutral status of the Black Sea. The result was the union of Wallachia and Moldavia. see also:

• Crimean War

April Uprising

The rise of nationalism in the Balkans found its expression in Bulgaria in the Bulgarian revival movement. Unlike Greece and Serbia, the nationalist movement in Bulgaria did not concentrate initially on armed resistance against the Ottomans but on peaceful struggle for cultural and religious autonomy, the result of which was the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate on February 28, 1870. A large-scale armed struggle movement started to develop as late as the beginning of the 1870s with the establishment of the Internal Revolutionary Organisation and the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee in and the active envolvement of Vasil Levski in both organisations. The struggle reached its peak with the April Uprising which broke out in April, 1876) in several Bulgarian districts in Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. The barbaric suppression of the uprising led to the Conference of Constantinople and eventually to the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78, which led to the liberation of one part of Bulgaria.

1877 War

The War

In early 1877, Russia came to the rescue of beleaguered Serbian and Russian volunteer forces when it went to war with the Ottoman Empire. Within one year, Russian troops were nearing Constantinople, and the Ottomans surrendered. Russia's nationalist diplomats and generals persuaded Alexander II to press the Ottomans into signing the Treaty of San Stefano in March 1878, creating an enlarged, independent Bulgaria that stretched into the south-western Balkans. When Britain threatened to declare war over the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, an exhausted Russia backed down. At the Congress of Berlin in July 1878, Russia agreed to the creation of a smaller Bulgaria. See: Russian history, 1855-1892

• On 4 April/ 16 April 1877, Romania and Russia signed a treaty at Bucharest under which Russian troops were allowed to pass through Romanian territory. About 120,000 soldiers were massed in the south of the country to defend against an eventual attack of the Ottoman forces from south of Danube. On 12 April/24 April 1877, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire and its troops entered Romania.

In 1877, following the Russian-Romanian-Turkish war, Romania was recognized independent by Treaty of Berlin, 1878 and acquired Dobruja, though she was forced to surrender southern Bessarabia to Russia.

Impact in the Balkans

In February 1878 the Russian army had almost reached Constantinople, but disturbed the city might fall, the British sent a fleet to warn off the Russians. The presence of the British fleet combined with the fact that the Russians had suffered such enormous losses (by some estimates about 200,000 men) caused Russia to settle for the Treaty of San Stefano (March 3), by which Turkey recognized the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria. Alarmed by the extension of Russian power into the Balkans and apprehensive of the eventual fall of Constantinople to the Russians, the Great Powers modified the provisions of the treaty in the Congress of Berlin.

See :Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78

After 1877, Magyar dominance faced challenges from the local majorities of Romanians in Transylvania and in the eastern Banat, of Slovaks in today's Slovakia, of Croats and Serbs in the crownlands of Croatia and of Dalmatia (today's Croatia), in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the provinces known as the Vojvodina (today's northern Serbia). The Romanians and the Serbs also looked to union with their fellow-nationalists in the newly-founded states of Romania (1877 - )and Serbia, respectively.

see : Austria-Hungary

Secularisation in Balkans

Romania

The law of monastery estates, secularizing monastic assets (1863). Probably more than a quarter of Romania's farmland was controlled by untaxed Greek Orthodox "Dedicated Monasteries," which supported Greek monks in shrines like Mount Athos and Jerusalem but were a substantial drain on state revenues. Cuza got his parliament's backing to expropriate these lands, with the backing of the parliament. He offered compensation to the Greek Orthodox Church, but the Patriarch refused to negotiate. This was a mistake: after several years, the Romanian government withdrew its offer and no compensation was ever paid. State revenues thereby increased without adding any domestic tax burden.

Orthodoxy

In hierarchical Christian churches, especially Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, autocephaly is the status of a hierarchical church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. In 1922 August, the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople recognized the Autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church. An independent Bulgarian Church was established in 1870 but was almost immediately declared schismatic by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The schism was lifted and its patriarchal dignity was restored as late as 1945. 1879 the Patriarchate of Constantinople recognized the Serbian church as autocephalous The Romanian Orthodox Church has been fully Autocephalous since 1885. The Church of Greece, has been autocephalous since 1833. In July 17, 1967 the Holy Synod proclaimed the Macedonian Orthodox Church as autocephalous. No other Orthodox Church has, however, recognised its autocephaly as yet.

The Pig War

Main Article: Bosnian crisis

• The means adopted by the governments of Vienna and Budapest to nullify the plans of Serbian expansion were generally to maintain the political emiettement of the Serb race, the isolation of one group from another, the virtually enforced emigration of Slavs on a large scale and their substitution by German colonists, and the encouragement of rivalry and discord between Roman Catholic Croat and Orthodox Serb. No railways were allowed to be built in Dalmatia, communication between Agram and any other parts of the monarchy except Fiume or Budapest was rendered almost impossible; Bosnia and Hercegovina were shut off into a watertight compartment and endowed with a national flag composed of the inspiring colours of brown and buff.It was made impossible for Serbs to visit Montenegro or for Montenegrins to visit Serbia except via Fiume, entailing the bestowal of several pounds on the Hungarian state steamers and railways.

(The Balkans by Forbes and Hogarth and Mitrany and Toynbee [2]

• The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in October, 1908, led to a controversy between the Dual Monarchy and Turkey. It also led to international complications which for several weeks early in 1909 threatened to end in a general European war. This was the Bosnian crisis.

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