History of the Balkans

TheBalkansand parts of this area may also be placed inSoutheastern,Southern,Eastern EuropeandCentral Europe. The distinct identity and fragmentation of the Balkans owes much to its common and often turbulent history regarding centuries ofOttomanconquest and to its very mountainous geography.
First human settlement in Europe isIron Gates Mesolithic(11000 to 6000 BC), located inDanube River, in modernSerbiaandRomania. It has been described as "the first city in Europe",due to its permanency, organisation, as well as the sophistication of its architecture and construction techniques.
Archaeologistshave identified several early culture-complexes, including theCucuteni culture(4500 to 3500 BC),Starcevo culture(6500 to 4000 BC),Vinča culture(5500 to 3000 BC),Linear pottery culture(5500 to 4500 BC), andEzero culture(3300—2700 BC). TheEneolithicVarna cultureinBulgaria(4600–4200 BCradiocarbon dating) produced the world's earliest known gold treasure and had sophisticated beliefs about afterlife. A notable set of artifacts are theTărtăria tabletsfound inRomania, which appear to be inscribed withproto-writing.
The "Kurgan hypothesis" ofProto-Indo-European(PIE) origins assumes gradual expansion of the "Kurgan culture", around 5000 BC, until it encompassed the entirepontic steppe. Kurgan IV was identified with theYamna cultureof around 3000 BC.
Yamnaya steppe pastoralists apparently migrated into the Balkans about 3000 to 2500 BCE, and they soon admixed with the local populations, which resulted in a tapestry of various ancestry from which speakers of theAlbanoid,Hellenic, and otherPaleo-Balkan languagesemerged.
At ca. 1000 BC,Illyrian tribesappear in what is modern dayAlbaniaand all the way asideAdriatic Seain modern dayMontenegro,Kosovo,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Croatia, parts ofSerbiaandNorth Macedonia. TheThracianslived inThraceand adjacent lands (now mainlyBulgaria, but alsoRomania, northeasternGreece, EuropeanTurkey, easternSerbiaandNorth Macedonia), and theclosely relatedDacianslived in what is todayRomania. These three major tribal groups spokePaleo-Balkan languages,Indo-European languages. ThePhrygiansseem to have settled in the southern Balkans at first, centuries later continuing their migration to settle inAsia Minor, now extinct as a separate group and language.
After the period that followed the arrival of the Dorians, known as theGreek Dark Agesor theGeometric Period, theclassical Greek culturedeveloped in the southern Balkan peninsula, the Aegean islands and the western Asia Minor Greek colonies starting around the 9th or 8th century BC and peaking with the democracy that developed in 6th and 5th century BCAthens. Later,Hellenisticculturespread throughout theempirecreated byAlexander the Greatin the4th century BCE. TheGreekswere 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 a number of colonies on theBlack Sea(Pontus Euxinus) coast,Asia Minor,Dalmatia, Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) etc.
By the end of the 4th century BC,Greek languageandculturewere dominant not only in the Balkans but also around the whole Eastern Mediterranean. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians invaded the Balkans, and then proceed to the more fertile areas of Europe. Parts of theBalkansand more northern areas were ruled by theAchaemenid Persiansfor some time, includingThrace,Paeonia,Macedon, and mostBlack Seacoastal regions ofBulgaria,Romania,Ukraine, andRussia.However, the outcome of theGreco-Persian Warsresulted in the Achaemenids being forced to withdraw from most of their European territories.
TheThracianOdrysian kingdomwas the most important Thracianstateunion. It was founded c.470 BC after thePersiandefeat inGreece,had its capital atSeuthopolis, nearKazanlak,Stara ZagoraProvince, in centralBulgaria. Other tribal unions existed inDaciaat least as early as the beginning of the 2nd century BC under KingOroles. TheIllyrian tribeswere situated in the area corresponding to today's Adriatic coast. The nameIllyriiwas originally used to refer to a people occupying an area centered onLake Skadar, situated betweenAlbaniaandMontenegro(Illyrians proper). However, the term was subsequently used by theGreeksandRomansas a generic name for the different peoples within a well defined but much greater area.In the same way, the territory to the north of the kingdom of Macedon was occupied by thePaeonians, who were also ruled by kings.
Around 513 BC, as part of the military incursions ordered byDarius I, a huge Achaemenid army invaded theBalkansand triedto defeatthe WesternScythiansroaming to the north of theDanuberiver.SeveralThracian peoples, and nearly all of the other European regions bordering theBlack Sea(including parts of the modern-dayBulgaria,Romania,Ukraine, andRussia), were conquered by the Achaemenid army before it returned toAsia Minor.Darius's highly regarded commanderMegabazuswas responsible for fulfilling the conquest of the Balkans.The Achaemenid troops conqueredThrace, the coastal Greek cities, and thePaeonians.Eventually, in about 512–511 BC, theMacedoniankingAmyntas Iaccepted the Achaemenid domination and surrendered his country as a vassal state to theAchaemenid Persia.The multi-ethnic Achaemenid army possessed many soldiers from the Balkans. Moreover, many of the Macedonian and Persian elite intermarried. For instance, Megabazus' own son,Bubares, married Amyntas' daughter,Gygaea; and that supposedly ensured good relations between the Macedonian and Achaemenid rulers.
Following theIonian Revolt, the Persian authority in the Balkans was restored byMardoniusin 492.This not only included the re-subjugation of Thrace, but also the full subordinate inclusion ofMacedoninto the Persian Empire.The Persian invasion led indirectly to Macedonia's rise in power and Persia had some common interests in the Balkans; with Persian aid, the Macedonians stood to gain much at the expense of some Balkan tribes such as the Paeonians and Greeks. All in all, the Macedonians were "willing and usefulPersianallies."Macedonian soldiers fought against Athens andSpartain Xerxes' army.
Although Persian rule in the Balkans was overthrown following the failure of Xerxes' invasion, the Macedonians andThraciansborrowed heavily from the Achaemenid Persians their tradition in culture and economy in the 5th- to mid-4th centuries.Some artifacts, excavated atSindosandVerginamay be considered as influenced by Asian practices, or even imported fromPersiain the late sixth and early fifth centuries.
Bardylis, aDardanianchieftain, created a kingdom which turned Illyria into a formidable local power in the 4th century BC. The main cities of this kingdom wereScodra(present-dayShkodra,Albania) andRhizon(present-dayRisan,Montenegro). In 359 BC, KingPerdiccas III of Macedonwas killed by attacking Illyrians.
But in 358 BC,Philip II of Macedon, father ofAlexander the Great, defeated the Illyrians and assumed control of their territory as far asLake Ohrid(present-dayNorth Macedonia). Alexander himself routed the forces of the Illyrian chieftainCleitusin 335 BC, and Illyrian tribal leaders and soldiers accompanied Alexander on his conquest of Persia. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, the Greek states started fighting among themselves again, while up north independent Illyrian polities arose again. In 312 BC,King GlaukiasseizedEpidamnus. By the end of the 3rd century BC, anIllyrian kingdombased in Scodra controlled parts of northernAlbania, and littoralMontenegro. UnderQueen Teuta, Illyrians attacked Roman merchant vessels plying the Adriatic Sea and gaveRomean excuse to invade the Balkans.
In theIllyrian Warsof 229 BC and 219 BC, Rome overran the Illyrian settlements in theNeretvariver valley and suppressed the piracy that had made the Adriatic unsafe. In 180 BC, the Dalmatians declared themselves independent of the Illyrianking Gentius, who kept his capital at Scodra. The Romans defeated Gentius, the last king of Illyria, at Scodra in 168 BCand captured him, bringing him to Rome in 165 BC. Four client-republics were set up, which were in fact ruled by Rome. Later, the region was directly governed by Rome and organized as aprovince, with Scodra as its capital. Also, in 168 BC, by taking advantage of the constant Greek civil wars, the Romans defeated Perseus, the last King of Macedonia and with their allies in southern Greece, they became overlords of the region. The territories were split to Macedonia, Achaia and Epirus.
Starting in the 2nd century BC, the risingRoman Republicbegan 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 (theEastern Romance languages). However, the Roman influence failed to dissolve Greek culture, which maintained a predominant status in the Eastern half of the Empire, and continued to be strong in the southern half of the Balkans.
Beginning in the 3rd century AD, Rome's frontiers in the Balkans were weakened because of internalpolitical and economic disorders. During this time, the Balkans, especiallyIllyricum, grew to greater importance. It became one of the Empire's four prefectures, and many warriors, administrators and emperors arose from the region. Many rulers built their residences in the region.
Though the situation had stabilized temporarily by the time ofConstantine, waves of non-Roman peoples, most prominently theThervings,GreuthungsandHuns, began to cross into the territory, first (in the case of the Thervingi) 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, Thervingi underFritigernand laterVisigothsunderAlaric Ieventually conquered and laid wastethe 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.
Christianityfirst came to the area whenPaul the Apostleand some of his followers traveled in the Balkans passing throughThracian, Illyrian and Greek populated areas. He spread Christianity to the Greeks at Beroia, Thessaloniki, Athens, Corinth and Dyrrachium.Andrewalso worked among the Thracians, Dacians and Scythians, and had preached inDobrujaandPontus Euxinus. In 46 AD, this territory was conquered by the Romans and annexed toMoesia.
In 106 AD the emperorTrajaninvaded Dacia. Subsequently, Christian colonists, soldiers and slaves came to Dacia and spread Christianity.
TheEdict of Serdica, also called Edict of Toleration by EmperorGalerius,was issued in 311 inSerdica(today Sofia, Bulgaria) by theRoman emperorGalerius, officially ending theDiocletianic persecutionofChristianityin the East.In the 3rd century the number of Christians grew. When Emperor Constantine of Rome issued theEdict of Milanin 313, thus ending all Roman-sponsored persecution of Christianity, the area became a haven for Christians. Just twelve years later in 325, Constantine assembled theFirst Council of Nicaea. In 391, Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of Rome.
TheEast-West Schism, known also as the Great Schism (though this latter term sometimes refers to the laterWestern Schism), was the event that divided Christianity intoWestern Catholicismand GreekEastern Orthodoxy, following the dividing line of the Empire in Western Latin-speaking and Eastern Greek-speaking parts. Though normally dated to 1054, whenPopeLeo IXandPatriarch of ConstantinopleMichael I Cerulariusexcommunicatedeach other, the East-West Schism was actually the result of an extended period of estrangement between the two Churches.
The primary claimed causes of the Schism were disputes over papal authority—the Pope claimed he held authority over the four Easternpatriarchs, while the patriarchs claimed that the Pope was merely a first among equals—and over the insertion of thefilioque clauseinto theNicene Creed. Most serious (and real) cause of course, was the competition for power between the old and the new capitals of the Roman Empire (Rome andConstantinople).
There were other, less significant catalysts for the Schism, including variance overliturgicalpractices and conflicting claims of jurisdiction.
The Byzantine Empire was the Greek-speaking,Eastern Roman Empireduring the Middle Ages, centered at its capital in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). During most of its history this Empire controlled provinces in the Balkans and in Asia Minor. Under the Eastern Roman EmperorJustinian I(r.527–565), the Byzantines for a time retook and restored much of the territory once held by the unified Roman Empire, from Spain and Italy via North Africa to Anatolia. Unlike theWestern 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 ofMehmet IIand theOttoman Empirein the year 1453. Its expert military and diplomatic power ensured inadvertently that Western Europe remained safe from many of the more devastating invasions from eastern peoples during a period when the still new and fragile Western Christian kingdoms might have had difficulty containing them.
The magnitude of influence and contribution which the Byzantine Empire made to Europe and to Christendom has only begun to be recognised recently.The Emperor Justinian I's formation of a new code of law, theCorpus Juris Civilisof 529 to 534, served as a basis of subsequent development of many European legal codes. Byzantium played an important role in the transmission of classical Greco-Roman knowledge to the Islamic world and toRenaissance Italy. Byzantium's rich historiographical tradition preserved ancient knowledge upon which splendid art, architecture, literature and technological achievements were built.
Byzantine culture is embodied in the Byzantine version of Christianity, which spread Orthodoxy and eventually led to the development of the so-called "Byzantine commonwealth" (a term coined by 20th-century historians) throughout Eastern Europe. Early Byzantine missionary-work spread Orthodox Christianity to various Slavic peoples, amongst several of which it still is a predominant religion. Jewish communities also spread through the Balkans at this time, while the Jews were primarilyRomaniotes.In a Greek-influenced "Byzantine commonwealth", the GreekChristian cultureand also the Romaniote culture influenced the emerging societies both of the Christian and of the Jewish communities of the Balkans and of Eastern Europe.
Throughout its history, Byzantium had fluctuating borders: the Empire often became involved in multi-sided conflicts with not only the Arabs, Persians and Turks of the east, but also with its Christian neighbours- theBulgarians, Serbs, Normans and the Crusaders, which each at one time or another conquered large amounts of its territory. By the end, the Empire consisted of nothing but Constantinople and small holdings in mainland Greece, with all other territories both in the Balkans and in Asia Minor gone. The conclusion came in 1453, when Mehmet II successfully besieged the city and brought theSecond Rometo an end.
Coinciding with the decline of the Roman Empire, many "barbarian" tribes entered or passed through the Balkans; most of them did not leave any lasting state. During these "Dark Ages", Eastern Europe, like Western Europe, regressed culturally and economically, although enclaves of prosperity and culture persisted in the coastal towns along the Adriatic and in the major Greek cities in the south.As the Byzantine Empire's borders shrank more and more, in an attempt to consolidate its waning power, vast areas were de-urbanised and roads abandoned; native populations may have withdrawn to isolated areas such as mountains and forests.
The first tribal barbarians to enter the Byzantine-era Balkans were theGoths. From northern East Germany, viaScythia, they pushed southwards into the Roman Balkans following the threat of theHuns. Roman Emperors eventually granted these Goths lands inside the Byzantine realm (south of the Danube), asfoederati(allies). However, after a period of famine, the proto-Visigothsrebelled anddefeatedthe Eastern Roman EmperorValensin 378. The Visigoths subsequently sacked Rome in 410, and in an attempt to deal with them, the Western Roman Emperor Honorius granted themlands in Gaul.
TheHuns, a confederation of a Turkic-Uralicruling core that subsequently incorporated various Germanic,Sarmatianand Slavic tribes, moved west into Europe, enteringPannoniain 400–410 AD. The Huns may have triggered the greatmigrationofGermanic peoplesinto western Europe.From their Pannonian base, the Huns subdued many peoples and carved out a sphere of terror extending from Germany and the Baltic to the Black Sea. With the death ofAttilain 454 AD, succession struggles led to the rapid collapse of Hun prestige and the subsequent fading of the Huns from European history.
TheOstrogothsfreed themselves from Hunnish domination in 454 AD and becamefoedoratias well. The Ostrogoths, commissioned by the Byzantines, migrated westwards and establisheda state in Italy.  In the second half of the 5th- and first half of the 6th-centuries, new Germanic barbarian tribes entered the Balkans. TheGepids, having lived in Dacia in the 3rd century with the Goths, settled Pannonia and eventually conqueredSingidunum(Belgrade) andSirmium(Sremska Mitrovica), establishing a short-lived kingdom in the 6th century. TheLombardsentered Pannonia in 550s, defeated the Gepids and absorbed them. In 569 the Lombards moved into northern Italy, establishing their own kingdom at the expense of the Ostrogoths.
TheSlavs, called by the Greco-Romans 'SklavenoiandAntes,migrated in successive wavesfrom the 6th century onwards. The Slavs migrated from Eastern and Central Europe, those settling in the Balkans and eventually became known asSouth Slavs. Most still remained subjects of the Roman Empire.
TheAvarswere a Turkic group (or possiblyMongol), possibly with a ruling core derived from theRouranthat escaped theGöktürks. They entered Central Europe in the 7th century AD, forcing the Lombards to flee to Italy. They continuously raided the Balkans, contributing to the general decline of the area that had begun centuries earlier. After their unsuccessful siege on Constantinople in 626, the Avars limited themselves to Central Europe. They ruled over the Western Slavs who already inhabited the region. By the 10th century, the Avar confederacy collapsed due to internal conflicts and to Frankish and Slavic attacks. The remnant Avars were subsequently absorbed by the Slavs and Magyars.
TheBulgars, a Turkic people ofCentral Asia, first appeared in a wave which commenced with the arrival ofAsparuh's Bulgars. Asparuh was one of the successors ofKubrat, the Great Khan ofOld Great Bulgariaon the pontic Steppe. The Bulgars had occupied the fertile plains ofUkrainefor several centuries until theKhazarsswept in to theirconfederationin 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-dayBessarabia. In 680 AD they invadedMoesiaandDobrudjaand 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, theByzantine Empirerecognised 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 ofBulgaria(seeHistory of Bulgaria). A smaller group of Bulgars under KhanKoubersettled almost simultaneously in the Pelagonian plain in westernMacedoniaafter spending some time inPannonia. Some Bulgars actually entered Europe earlier with the Huns. After the disintegration of theHunnic Empirethe Bulgars dispersed mostly to eastern Europe.
TheMagyars, led byÁrpád, were the leading clan in a ten-tribe confederacy. They settled at the end of the 9th century in theCarpathian Basin. There they encountered a predominantly Slavic populace and Avar remnants. The Magyars were a Uralic people, originating from west of the Ural Mountains. They learned the art of horseback warfare from Turkic people. They then migrated further west around 400 AD, settling in the Don-Dnieper area. Here they were subjects of theKhazar Khaganate. They were neighboured by the Bulgars and theAlans. They sided with three rebel Khazar tribes against the ruling factions. Their loss in this civil war, and ongoing battles with thePechenegs, probably served as the catalyst for them to move further west into Europe.
In the 7th century, theFirst Bulgarian Empirewas established byKhan Asparuh. It greatly increased in strength in the following centuries, stretching from the Dnieper to present-day Budapest and the Mediterranean.Bulgariadominated the Balkans for the next four centuries and was instrumental in theadoption of Christianityin the region and among other Slavs. Bulgarian TsarSimeon I the Great(r.897–923), following the cultural and political course of his fatherBoris I(r.852–889), ordered the creation of theBulgarian alphabet, which was later spread by missionaries to the north, reaching the lands of present-day Russia.
Arbanon, ruled by the nativeProgoni family, is officiallyviewed (ignoring the Illyrian tribe of theAbroi/Albanoi) as the firstAlbanianstate. It was founded 1190 in the lands ofKruja, to the east and northeast of Venetian territories.Progon's sons Gjin and Demetrius succeeded their father and managed to retain a considerable degree of autonomy from the Byzantine Empire. However,c.1216, Arbanon lost its great autonomy.
TheUprising of Asen and Peterwas a revolt ofBulgariansandVlachsliving inMoesiaand theBalkan Mountains, then thethemeofParistrionof theByzantine Empire, caused by a tax increase. It began on 26 October 1185, the feast day of St.Demetrius of Thessaloniki, and ended with the restoration of Bulgaria with the creation of theSecond Bulgarian Empire, ruled by theAsen dynasty.
In building its maritime commercial empire, theRepublic of Venicedominated the trade in salt,acquired control of most of the islands in theAegean, includingCyprusandCrete, and became a major "power" in theNear Eastand in all the Balkans. Venice seized a number of locations on the eastern shores of theAdriatic Seabefore 1200, partly for purely commercial reasons, but also because pirates based there were a menace to its trade. TheDogesince that time bore the titles ofDuke of DalmatiaandDuke of Istria. Venice became a fully imperial power following the Venetian-financedFourth Crusade, which in 1203 captured and in 1204sacked and conquered Constantinople, dividing theByzantine Empireintoseveral smaller statesand established theLatin Empire.
Venice carved out a sphere of influence in the Aegean known as theDuchy of the Archipelago, and gained control of the island of Crete. Weakened by constant warfare with Bulgaria and the unconquered sections of the empire, the Latin Empire eventually fell when Byzantines recaptured Constantinople under EmperorMichael VIII Palaiologosin 1261. The last Latin emperor,Baldwin II, went into exile, but the imperial title survived, withseveralpretenders to it until the 14th century.
In 1346, TheSerbian Empirewas established by KingStefan Dušan(Who was known by many as "Dušan the Mighty"). He was able to significantly expand the state. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the major power in the Balkans, and a multi-lingual empire that stretched from the Danube to the Gulf of Corinth, with its capital inSkopje. He also promoted the Serbian Archbishopric to theSerbian Patriarchate. Dušan enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known asDušan's Code, which was one of the most important literary works ofMedieval Serbia. He was crowned as Emperor and autocrat of the Serbs and Greeks (Romans). His son and successor,Uroš the Weak, lost most of the territory conquered by Dušan, hence his epithet. The Serbian Empire effectively ended with the death of Uroš V in 1371 and the break-up of the Serbian state.
In the 14th century,Ottoman rulewould extend over the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. SultanOrhancaptured the city ofBursain 1326 and would make it the new capital of theOttoman state. The fall of Bursa meant the loss of Byzantine control over NorthwesternAnatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387. TheOttoman victory at Kosovoin 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. The Empire controlled nearly all former Byzantine lands surrounding the city, but the Byzantines were temporarily relieved whenTimurinvaded Anatolia in theBattle of Ankarain 1402. The son ofMurad II,Mehmed the Conqueror, reorganized the state and the military, and demonstrated his martial prowess bycapturing Constantinopleon 29 May 1453, at the age of 21.
The Ottoman conquest ofConstantinoplein 1453 by Mehmed II cemented the status of the Empire as the preeminent power in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. After taking Constantinople, Mehmed met with the Orthodox patriarch,Gennadios. An agreement would later be worked out in which theEastern Orthodox Churchwould exchange their ability to maintain its autonomy and land and then accepted Ottoman authority. The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effectiveSultans. SultanSelim I(1512–1520) dramatically expanded the Empire's eastern and southern frontiers by defeatingShah IsmailofSafavidPersia, in theBattle of Chaldiran.
The League of Lezhë, also commonly referred to as the Albanian League, was a military and diplomatic alliance of the Albanian aristocracy, created in the city of Lezhë on 2 March 1444. The League of Lezhë is considered the first unified independent Albanian country in the Medieval age, with Skanderbeg as leader of the regional Albanian chieftains and nobles united against the Ottoman Empire. Skanderbeg was proclaimed "Chief of the League of the Albanian People". 
The League's forces had victories against the Ottomans at Torvioll (1444), Mokra (1445), Otonetë (1446), Oranik (1448), a loss at Svetigrad (1448) victory in Polog (1453), victory at Krujë (1450), Albulena (1457), Ohrid (1464), Mokra (1462) and many others.
Skanderbeg's first big victory against the Ottomans was at the Battle of Torvioll, and the news of the victory of the Albanians over the Turks spread very quickly in Europe. In the two years that followed, the Albanian-Tetan coalition won over the Ottomans. On May 14, 1450, the first siege of Kruja began, which the Ottomans had to end the following year without success. In 1451, Skanderbeg formed an alliance with the Kingdom of Naples for the time being; however, the Albanians received no help from there. In 1452, the Ottomans were defeated at Mokrra and Meçadi. After the fall of Constantinople, Albanians received financial aid from Naples and Venice as well as from the Pope. Until 1462, Skanderbeg's troops were able to defeat the Ottomans every year without significantly weakening their superiority. Every year, the sultan was able to send a new army without difficulty. Only in 1460 and 1463 did ceasefires interrupt the fighting. In 1462, Skanderbeg succeeded in taking the important city of Ohrid.
In 1466 the second siege of Kruje Castle was knocked down. However, the Ottomans founded the fortress Elbasan south in the valley of the Shkumbin and thus finally settled in Albania. In 1467 a third siege of Kruje failed.
By 1468, the 10,000-strong Skanderbeg army could withstand the Ottomans. The Albanians received financial support from Venice and from the kings of Hungary and Naples. After Skanderbeg died in 1468, the Lezha League began to disintegrate. Following the Venetians, the Northern Albanians in particular continued the fight against the Ottomans. When Shkodra, which until then had been dominated by the Venetians, was taken by the Ottomans in 1479, the resistance collapsed, and the entire Albanian settlement area was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.
From the 14th century, Venice controlled most of the maritime commerce of the Balkans with important colonial possessions on the Adriatic and Aegean coasts. Venice's long decline started in the 15th century, when it first made an unsuccessful attempt to holdThessalonicaagainst the Ottomans (1423–1430). She also sent ships to help defend Constantinople against the besieging Turks (1453). After the city fell to SultanMehmet II, he declared war on Venice. The war lasted thirty years and cost Venice many of the eastern Mediterranean possessions. Slowly the Republic of Venice lost nearly all possessions in the Balkans, maintaining in the 18th century only the Adriatic areas ofIstria,DalmatiaandAlbania Veneta. The Venetian island ofCorfuwas the only area of Greece never occupied by the Turks. In 1797Napoleonconquered Venice and caused the end of the Republic of Venice in the Balkans.
Much of the Balkans was under Ottoman rule throughout theEarly modern period. Ottoman rule was long, lasting from the 14th century up until the early 20th in some territories. The Ottoman Empire was religiously, linguistically and ethnically diverse, and, at times, a much more tolerant place for religious practices when compared to other parts of the world.The different groups in the empire were organised along confessional lines, in the so-called theMillet system. Among theOrthodoxChristians of the empire (theRum Millet) a common identity was forged based on a shared sense of time defined by the ecclesiastical calendar, saint's days and feasts.
The social structure of the Balkans in the late 18th century was complex. The Ottoman rulers exercised control chiefly in indirect ways.In Albania and Montenegro, for example, local leaders paid nominal tribute to the Empire and otherwise had little contact. TheRepublic of Ragusapaid an annual tribute but otherwise was free to pursue its rivalry with theRepublic of Venice. The two Romance-speaking principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia had their own nobility, but were ruled by Greek families chosen by the Sultan. In Greece, the elite comprised clergymen and scholars, but there was scarcely any Greek aristocracy.
A million or more Turks had settled in the Balkans, typically in smaller urban centers where they were garrison troops, civil servants, and craftsmen and merchants. There were also important communities of Jewish and Greek merchants. The Turks and Jews were not to be found in the countryside, so there was a very sharp social differentiation between the cities and their surrounding region in terms of language, religion and ethnicity. The Ottoman Empire collected taxes at about the 10% rate but there was no forced labor and the workers and peasants were not especially oppressed by the Empire.  The Sultan favoured and protected the Orthodox clergy, primarily as a protection against the missionary zeal of Roman Catholics.
The rise ofNationalismunder the Ottoman Empire caused the breakdown ofmilletconcept. With the rise of national states and their histories, it is very hard to find reliable sources on the Ottoman concept of anationand the centuries of the relations between House of Osman and the provinces, which turned into states. Unquestionably, understanding the Ottoman conception of nationhood helps us to understand what happened in the Balkans in the late Ottoman period.
Serbian revolt in Herzegovinain 1875, which led toSerbian-Turkish Wars(1876-1878), and the bloody suppression of theApril Uprisingin Bulgaria, became occasion of the outbreak of theRusso-Turkish War(1877–1878) and theLiberation of Bulgariaand Serbia in 1878.
TheCongress of Berlin(13 June – 13 July 1878) was a meeting of the leading statesmen of Europe's Great Powers and theOttoman Empire. In the wake of theRussia's decisive victory in a war with Turkey, 1877–78, the urgent need was to stabilize and reorganize the Balkans, and set up new nations. German ChancellorOtto von Bismarck, who led the Congress, undertook to adjust boundaries to minimize the risks of major war, while recognizing the reduced power of the Ottoman Empire, and balance the distinct interests of the great powers.
As a result, Ottoman holdings in Europe declined sharply; Bulgaria was established as an independent principality inside the Ottoman Empire, but was not allowed to keep all its previous territory. Bulgaria lostEastern Rumelia, which was restored to the Turks under a special administration. Macedonia, and East and Western Thrace were returned outright to the Turks, who promised reform andNorthern Dobrudjabecame part of Romania, which achieved full independence but had to turn over part ofBessarabiato Russia.SerbiaandMontenegrofinally gained complete independence, but with smaller territories. TheHabsburgstook over Bosnia and Herzegovina, and effectively took control of theSanjak of Novi Pazar, in order to separate Serbia and Montenegro.
The results were at first hailed as a great achievement in peacemaking and stabilization.  However, most of the participants were not fully satisfied, and grievances regarding the results festered until they exploded into World War in 1914. Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece made gains, but far less than they thought they deserved. The Ottoman Empire, called at the time the "sick man of Europe," was humiliated and significantly weakened, rendering it more liable to domestic unrest and more vulnerable to attack.  Although Russia had been victorious in the war that caused the conference, it was humiliated at Berlin, and resented its treatment. The Habsburg Empire gained a great deal of territory, which angered theSouth Slavs, and led to decades of tensions inBosnia and Herzegovina. Bismarck became the target of hatred ofRussian nationalistsandPan-Slavists, and found that he had tiedGermanytoo closely to the Habsburg presence in the Balkans.
In the long-run, tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary intensified, as did the nationality question in the Balkans. The congress was aimed at the revision of theTreaty of San Stefanoand at keepingConstantinoplein Ottoman hands. It effectively disavowed Russia's victory over the decaying Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. The Congress of Berlin returned to the Ottoman Empire territories that the previous treaty had given to thePrincipality of Bulgaria, most notablyMacedonia, thus setting up a strong revanchist demand in Bulgaria that in 1912 was one of many causes of theFirst Balkan War.
The Balkan Wars were two wars that took place in the Balkans in 1912 and 1913. Four Balkan states defeated the Ottoman Empire in the first war; one of the four, Bulgaria, was defeated in the second war. The Ottoman Empire lost nearly all of its holdings in Europe. Austria-Hungary, although not a combatant, was weakened as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples.The war set the stage for the Balkan crisis of 1914 and thus was a "prelude to the First World War."
World War I was ignited from a spark in the Balkans, when aBosnian SerbnamedGavrilo Principassassinated theheirto the Austrian throne,Franz Ferdinand. Princip was a member of a Serbiansecret military societycalled theCrna Ruka(Serbianfor "Black Hand").Following the assassination, Austria-Hungary sent Serbia an ultimatum in July 1914 with several provisions largely designed to prevent Serbian compliance. When Serbia only partially fulfilled the terms of the ultimatum, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914.
Many members of the Austro-Hungarian government, such asConrad von Hötzendorfhad 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 strategies, 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 was the development in Germany giving the Dual-Monarchy a "blank cheque" to pursue a military strategy that ensured 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 they 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 theEntentepowers. (See:Schlieffen Plan) 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 theBattle of Cerbeginning on 12 August 1914.
The Serbians were set up in defensive positions against the Austro-Hungarians. The first attack came on 16 August, 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 (6 September to 11 November) and at Kolubara from 16 November to 15 December.
In the autumn, with many Austro-Hungarians tied up in heavy fighting with Serbia, Russia was able to make huge inroads into Austria-Hungary capturingGaliciaand 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 toCorfuwith Italian assistance and continued to fight against the central powers.
Yugoslav Committee, a political interest group formed by South Slavs from Austria-Hungary during World War I, aimed at joining the existing south Slavic nations in an independent state.From this plan, a new kingdom eventually was born: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians.
Montenegrodeclared war on 6 August 1914. Bulgaria, however, stood aside before eventually joining theCentral Powersin 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.
Bulgaria, the most populous of the Balkan states with 7 million people sought to acquire Macedonia but when it tried it was defeated in 1913 in theSecond Balkan War. In 1914 Bulgaria stayed neutral.  However its leaders still hoped to acquire Macedonia, which was controlled by an ally, Serbia. In 1915 joining the Central Powers seemed the best route.Bulgaria mobilized a very large army of 800,000 men, using equipment supplied by Germany. The Bulgarian-German-Austrian invasion of Serbia in 1915 was a quick victory, but by the end of 1915 Bulgaria was also fighting the British and French—as well as the Romanians in 1916 and the Greeks in 1917.  Bulgaria was ill-prepared for a long war; absence of so many soldiers sharply reduced agricultural output. Much of its best food was smuggled out to feed lucrative black markets elsewhere.
By 1918 the soldiers were not only short of basic equipment like boots but they were being fed mostly corn bread with a little meat.  Germany increasingly was in control, and Bulgarian relations with its ally the Ottoman Empire soured. The Allied offensive in September 1918, which failed in 1916 & 1917 was successful at Dobro Pole. Troops mutinied and peasantsrevolted, demanding peace. By month's end Bulgaria signed an armistice, giving up its conquests and its military hardware.The Czarabdicated and Bulgaria's war was over.  Thepeace treaty in 1919stripped Bulgaria of its conquests, reduced its army to 20,000 men, and demanded reparations of £100 million.
The war had enormous repercussions for the Balkan peninsula. People across the area suffered serious economic dislocation, and the mass mobilization resulted in severe casualties, particularly in Serbia where over 1.5 million Serbs died, which was approx. ¼ of the total population and over half of the male population. 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 newKingdom 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:
Between World War I and World War II, in order to create nation-states the following population movements were seen:
See also:
World War II in the Balkans started from the Italian attempts to create anItalian empire. They invaded Albania in 1939 and annexed after just a week to theKingdom of Italy. Then demanded Greece to surrender in October 1940. However, the defiance of the Greek prime minister Metaxas on 28 October 1940, started the Greco-Italian war. After seven months of hard fighting, with some of the first Allied victories and the Italians losing nearly one third of Albania, Germany intervened to save its ally. In 1941, it invaded Yugoslavia with the forces they later used against the Soviet Union.
After the fall ofSarajevoon 16 April 1941 to Nazi Germany, the Yugoslav provinces of Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina were recreated as fascist satellite states,Nezavisna Država Hrvatska(NDH, theIndependent State of Croatia). Croat-nationalist,Ante Pavelićwas appointed leader. The Nazis effectively created theHandschardivision and collaborated withUstašein order to combat theYugoslav Partisans.
With help from Italy, they succeeded in conquering Yugoslavia within two weeks. They then joined forces with Bulgaria and invaded Greece from the Yugoslavian side. Despite Greek resistance, the Germans took advantage of the Greek army's presence in Albania against the Italians to advance in Northern Greece and consequently conquer the entire country within 3 weeks, with the exception of Crete. However, even with the fierce Cretan resistance, which cost the Nazis the bulk of their elite paratrooper forces, the island capitulated after 11 days of fighting.
On 1 May the Balkan frontiers were once again reshuffled, with the creation of several puppet states, such as Croatia and Montenegro, the Albanian expansion into Greece and Yugoslavia, Bulgarian annexation of territories in the Greek North, creation of a Vlach state in the Greek mountains of Pindus and the annexation of all the Ionian and part of the Aegean islands into Italy.
With the end of the war, the changes of the ethnic composition reverted to their original conditions and the settlers returned to their homelands, mainly the ones settled in Greece. An Albanian population of the Greek North, the Cams, wereforced to flee their landsbecause they collaborated with the Italians. Their numbers were about 18 000 in 1944.
On 7–9 January 1945 Yugoslav authorities killed several hundred of declared Bulgarians in Macedonia as collaborators, in an event known as the "Bloody Christmas".
TheGreek Civil Warwas fought between 1944 and 1949 in Greece between the armed forces of the Greek government, supported at first by Britain and later by the United States, against the forces of the wartime resistance against the German occupation, whose leadership was controlled by theCommunist Party of Greece. Its goal was the creation of a Communist Northern Greece. It was the first time in the Cold War that hostilities led to a proxy war. In 1949, the partisans were defeated by the government forces.
During theCold War, most of the countries in the Balkans were ruled by Soviet-supportedcommunistgovernments.
The nationalism was not dead after World War II. Yugoslavia was not an isolated case of ethnic tension. For example: in Bulgaria, beginning in 1984, the Communist government led by Todor Zhivkov began implementing a policy offorced assimilationof the ethnic Turkish minority. Ethnic Turks were required to change their names to Bulgarian equivalents, or to leave the country. In 1989, a Turkish dissident movement was formed to resist these assimilationist measures. The Bulgarian government responded with violence and mass expulsions of the activists. In this repressive environment, over 300,000 ethnic Turks fled to neighboring Turkey.However, despite being under communist governments,Yugoslavia(1948) andAlbania(1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. After World War 2, communist plans of merging Albania and Bulgaria into Yugoslavia were created, but later nullified when Albania broke all relations with Yugoslavia, due to Tito breaking from the USSR. MarshalJosip Broz Tito(1892–1980), later rejected the idea of merging withBulgaria, and instead sought closer relations with theWest, later even creating theNon-Aligned Movement, which brought them closer ties withthird worldcountries. Albania on the other hand gravitated towardCommunist China, later adopting anisolationistposition.
The only non-communist countries were Greece andTurkey, which were (and still are) part ofNATO.
Religious persecutions took place in Bulgaria, directed against the Christian Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches as well as the Muslim, Jewish and others in the country. Antagonism between the communist state and theBulgarian Orthodox Churcheased somewhat afterTodor ZhivkovbecameBulgarian Communist Partyleader in 1956 for "its historic role in helping preserve Bulgarian nationalism and culture".
The late 1980s and the early 1990s brought the collapse ofCommunisminEastern Europe. As westernization spread through the Balkans, many reforms were carried out that led to implementation ofmarket economyand toprivatization, among othercapitalistreforms.
InAlbania,BulgariaandRomaniathe changes in political and economic system were accompanied by a period of political and economic instability and tragic events. The same was the case in most of former Yugoslav republics.
The collapse of theYugoslav federationwas due to various factors in various republics that comprised it. In Serbia and Montenegro, there were efforts of different factions of the old party elite to retain power under new conditions along, and an attempt to createGreater Serbiaby keeping all Serbs in one state.In Croatia and Slovenia, multi-party elections produced nationally inclined leadership that followed in the footsteps of their previous Communist predecessors and oriented itself towards capitalism and secession. Bosnia and Herzegovina was split between the conflicting interests of its Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks, while Macedonia mostly tried to steer away from conflicting situations.
An outbreak of violence and aggression came as a consequence of unresolved national, political and economic questions. The conflicts caused the death of many civilians. The real start of the war was a military attack onSloveniaandCroatiataken by Serb-controlledJNA. Before the war, JNA had started accepting volunteers driven by ideology of Serbian nationalists keen to realise their nationalist goals.
TheTen-Day WarinSloveniain June 1991 was short and with few casualties. However, theCroatian War of Independencein the latter half of 1991 brought many casualties and much damage on Croatian towns. As the war eventually subsided in Croatia, the war inBosnia and Herzegovinastarted in early 1992. Peace only came in 1995 after such events as theSrebrenica massacre,Operation Storm,Operation Mistral 2and theDayton Agreement, which provided for a temporary solution, but nothing was permanently resolved.
The economy suffered an enormous damage in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the affected parts of Croatia. TheFederal Republic of Yugoslaviaalso suffered an economic hardship under internationally imposed economic sanctions. Also many large historical cities were devastated by the wars, for exampleSarajevo,Dubrovnik,Zadar,Mostar,Šibenikand others.
The wars caused large population migrations, mostly involuntary. With the exception of its former republics of Slovenia and Macedonia, the settlement and the national composition of population in all parts of Yugoslavia changed drastically, due to war, but also political pressure and threats. Because it was a conflict fueled byethnic nationalism, people of minority ethnicities generally fled towards regions where their ethnicity was in a majority. Since theBosniakshad no immediate refuge, they were arguably hardest hit by the ethnic violence. The United Nations tried to createsafe areasfor the Bosniak populations of eastern Bosnia but in cases such as theSrebrenica massacre, the peacekeeping troops (Dutch forces) failed to protect thesafe areasresulting in the massacre of thousands. TheDayton Accordsended the war in Bosnia, fixating the borders between the warring parties roughly to the ones established by the autumn of 1995. One immediate result of population transfers following the peace deal was a sharp decline in ethnic violence in the region. A number of commanders and politicians, notably Serbia's former presidentSlobodan Milošević, were put on trial by theUnited Nations'International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslaviafor a variety ofwar crimes—including deportations and genocide that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. Croatia's former presidentFranjo Tuđmanand Bosnia'sAlija Izetbegovićdied before any alleged accusations were leveled at them at the ICTY.Slobodan Miloševićdied before his trial could be concluded.
Initial upsets onKosovodid not escalate into a war until 1999 when theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia(SerbiaandMontenegro) was bombarded byNATOfor 78 days with Kosovo being made a protectorate of international peacekeeping troops. A massive and systematic deportationof ethnicAlbanianstook place during theKosovo Warof 1999, with over one million Albanians (out of a population of about 1.8 million) forced to fleeKosovo. This was quickly reversed from the aftermath.
Greece has been a member of theEuropean Unionsince 1981. Greece is also an official member of theEurozone, and theWestern European Union.SloveniaandCyprushave been EU members since 2004, andBulgariaandRomaniajoined the EU in 2007. Croatia joined the EU in 2013.North Macedoniaalso received candidate status in 2005 under its then provisional nameFormer Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, while the other Balkan countries have expressed a desire to join the EU but at some date in the future.
Greece has been a member ofNATOsince 1952. In 2004Bulgaria,RomaniaandSloveniabecame members ofNATO. Croatia and Albania joined NATO in 2009.
In 2006,Montenegrodeclared independencefrom the state ofSerbia and Montenegro.
On 17 October 2007Croatiabecame a non-permanent member of theUnited Nations Security Councilfor the 2008–2009 term, whileBosnia and Herzegovinabecame a non-permanent member for the 2010–2011 period.
Kosovounilaterallydeclared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. To this day, it is partially recognized country.
Since the 2008 economic crisis, the former Yugoslav countries began to cooperate on levels that were similar to those in Yugoslavia.
The2021 Balkan non-papersare published, The first non-paper called for the "peaceful dissolution" ofBosnia and Herzegovinawith theannexationofRepublika Srpskaand great parts ofHerzegovinaandCentral Bosniainto aGreater SerbiaandGreater Croatia, leaving a smallBosniakstate in what is central and western Bosnia.