The Balkans | Page 2

Balkan Peninsula, 600-700 5. The Early Years of

Bulgaria and the Introduction of Christianity, 700-893 6. The Rise and Fall of the First
Bulgarian Empire, 893-972 7. The Rise and Fall of 'Western Bulgaria' and the Greek
Supremacy, 963-1186 8. The Rise and Fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire, 1186-1258 9.
The Serbian Supremacy and the Final Collapse, 1258-1393 10. The Turkish Dominion
and the Emancipation, 1393-1878 11. The Aftermath, and Prince Alexander of
Battenberg, 1878-86 12. The Regeneration under Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg,
1886-1908 13. The Kingdom, 1908-13
SERBIA.
14. The Serbs under Foreign Supremacy, 650-1168 15. The Rise and Fall of the Serbian
Empire and the Extinction of Serbian Independence, 1168-1496 16. The Turkish
Dominion, 1496-1796 17. The Liberation of Serbia under Kara-George (1804-13) and
Milo[)s] Obrenovi['c] (1815-30): 1796-1830 18. The Throes of Regeneration:
Independent Serbia, 1830-1903 19. Serbia, Montenegro, and the Serbo-Croats in
Austria-Hungary, 1903-8 20. Serbia and Montenegro, and the two Balkan Wars, 1908-13
GREECE. By ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE.
1. From Ancient to Modern Greece 2. The Awakening of the Nation 3. The Consolidation
of the State
RUMANIA: HER HISTORY AND POLITICS. By D. MITRANY
1. Introduction 2. Formation of the Rumanian Nation 3. The Foundation and
Development of the Rumanian Principalities 4. The Phanariote Rule 5. Modern Period to
1866 6. Contemporary Period: Internal Development 7. Contemporary Period: Foreign
Affairs 8. Rumania and the Present War
TURKEY. By D. G. HOGARTH
1. Origin of the Osmanlis 2. Expansion of the Osmanli Kingdom 3. Heritage and
Expansion of the Byzantine Empire 4. Shrinkage and Retreat 5. Revival 6. Relapse 7.
Revolution 8. The Balkan War 9. The Future
INDEX
MAPS
The Balkan Peninsula: Ethnological The Balkan Peninsula The Ottoman Empire

BULGARIA AND SERBIA

1
Introductory
The whole of what may be called the trunk or massif of the Balkan peninsula, bounded on
the north by the rivers Save and Danube, on the west by the Adriatic, on the east by the
Black Sea, and on the south by a very irregular line running from Antivari (on the coast
of the Adriatic) and the lake of Scutari in the west, through lakes Okhrida and Prespa (in
Macedonia) to the outskirts of Salonika and thence to Midia on the shores of the Black
Sea, following the coast of the Aegean Sea some miles inland, is preponderatingly
inhabited by Slavs. These Slavs are the Bulgarians in the east and centre, the Serbs and
Croats (or Serbians and Croatians or Serbo-Croats) in the west, and the Slovenes in the
extreme north-west, between Trieste and the Save; these nationalities compose the
southern branch of the Slavonic race. The other inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula are,
to the south of the Slavs, the Albanians in the west, the Greeks in the centre and south,

and the Turks in the south-east, and, to the north, the Rumanians. All four of these
nationalities are to be found in varying quantities within the limits of the Slav territory
roughly outlined above, but greater numbers of them are outside it; on the other hand,
there are a considerable number of Serbs living north of the rivers Save and Danube, in
southern Hungary. Details of the ethnic distribution and boundaries will of course be
gone into more fully later; meanwhile attention may be called to the significant fact that
the name of Macedonia, the heart of the Balkan peninsula, has been long used by the
French gastronomers to denote a dish, the principal characteristic of which is that its
component parts are mixed up into quite inextricable confusion.
Of the three Slavonic nationalities already mentioned, the two first, the Bulgarians and
the Serbo-Croats, occupy a much greater space, geographically and historically, than the
third. The Slovenes, barely one and a half million in number, inhabiting the Austrian
provinces of Carinthia and Carniola, have never been able to form a political state,
though, with the growth of Trieste as a great port and the persistent efforts of Germany to
make her influence if not her flag supreme on the shores of the Adriatic, this small people
has from its geographical position and from its anti-German (and anti-Italian) attitude
achieved considerable notoriety and some importance.
Of the Bulgars and Serbs it may be said that at the present moment the former control the
eastern, and the latter, in alliance with the Greeks, the western half of the peninsula. It has
always been the ambition of each of these three nationalities to dominate the whole, an
ambition which has caused endless waste of blood and money and untold misery. If the
question were to be settled purely on ethnical considerations, Bulgaria would acquire the
greater part of the interior of Macedonia, the most numerous of the dozen nationalities of
which is Bulgarian in sentiment if not in origin, and would