The wars of the Balkan Peninsula : their medieval origins / Alexandru Madgearu ; Martin Gordon, consulting editor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Madgearu, Alexandru.

Contributor:

Gordon, Martin

Madgearu, Alexandru.

Language:

English

Romanian

Subjects (All):

Ethnic relations.

Balkan Peninsula--History.

Balkan Peninsula.

History.

Balkan Peninsula--Ethnic relations--Political aspects.

Physical Description:

x, 233 pages : map ; 23 cm

Edition:

[Revised edition].

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2008.

Summary:

The Balkan Peninsula is often referred to as the "powder keg of Europe," but it is more accurately described as the "melting pot of Europe." In The Wars of the Balkan Peninsula: Their Medieval Origins, Alexandru Madgearu discusses the ethnic heterogeneity in modern-day Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia and traces its history. Madgearu examines the historical evolution that led to the genesis of several conflicts in the Balkans. The affected areas and associated events have transformed the Balkan Peninsula into an intricate ethnic mosaic, where no single group of people has the majority. The various ethnic and religious differences these groups possess have survived the many occupations of this land over the years, whether by the Roman, Byzantine, or Ottoman Empires, and then became manifest when the modern Balkan states were created. With the dissolution of the strong outside forces once dominating the area, the Balkan states-prompted by political propaganda and nationalist ideologies-then used history to support territorial claims, defend ethnic-cleansing actions, and justify conflicts with other countries. The Wars of the Balkan Peninsula argues that the current ethnic structure is the basis for the solution of the disputes between the Balkan states and that history should be used to explain, not legitimize, the conflicts.

Contents:

Past

The ethnic aspects

The slavization of the Balkan Peninsula

The expansion of the Albanians

The Vlachs (Aromanians) a people without state

Deportations and colonizations made by the Byzantine and Ottoman empires

The political aspects

The downfall and recovery of the Byzantine domination and the rise of Bulgaria

The small Slavic states from the central and western Balkans

The Byzantine offensive (ninth-eleventh centuries)

Pax Byzantina and the centrifugal trends in the eleventh-twelfth centuries

The inheritors of the Byzantine imperialism

The rise and the breaking up of great Serbia

The Ottoman conquest

Pax Ottomana

The religious aspects

The confrontation between Rome and Constantinople in the Balkans

The spreading of Islam in the Balkans: a new differentiation

The present. historical propaganda and the Balkan nationalist ideologies

Theories of ethnogenesis with political implications

The Greeks

The Albanians

The Bulgarians

The Serbs and the Croats

The Vlachs (Aromanians)

The legitimation of expansionism by the abuse of history

Kosovo- Serbian or Albanian ?

The historical Macedonia - the apple of discord among Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia.

Notes:

Rev. of: Originea medievală a focarelor de conflict din Peninsula Balcanică by Corint Publishing House in Romania in 2001.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-217) and indexes.

Related Work:

Madgearu, Alexandru. Originea medievală a focarelor de conflict din Peninsula Balcanică. English.

ISBN:

9780810858466

0810858460

OCLC:

144570965