Contents
Introduction
The Geography
The Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire
Split Of Empires
Return Of The Byzantines
Second Return Of The Byzantines
The Rise Of The Ottomans
Concluding Remarks
Bitesize Edition
The region of the Balkans is often little known in the Western world, with the World Wars taking a prominent position in Western education. How many people know that World War One started in the Balkans? The entire process of World War One started with a rise in Balkan nationalism over a century before the start of World War One.
Including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and some regions of Greece and Turkey, the Balkans has a rich history. Many empires have risen from within the region, such as the Serbian and Bulgarian Empires, while some such as the Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans have come from afar to control the territory.
As we continue our work on the conflicts we see in the world today, we’ll eventually get to discussing the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. But we have to explain the events that got us there first, with many geopolitical tensions and issues rooted in the historical events. Today we start from the Roman Empire, covering until the start of the Ottoman Empire with the collapse of the Byzantines in 1453. There are lots of maps in this post detailing the differences in the geography of the Balkans over time which I hope aids the writing!
Introduction
As I continue the series on the hidden conflicts from around the world that exist today, we next head to the Balkans, and the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. As always, the history that brought us to the present plays a huge part in shaping the present and seeking to understand potential future scenarios. Hence, today we start with a journey into the history of the Balkans.
The Geography
The modern-day Balkans consist of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. Regions of Greece and Turkey can also be included, depending on beliefs about where borders should fall.
The region is so named due to the mountain range running through Bulgaria, the Balkan Mountains, which are believed to have be named by the First Bulgarian Empire of the 7th century. More on them soon! The region has the Adriatic Sea to its northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean in the South, and the Black Sea to the northeast. It also has close proximity to the two straits of the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus, and Dardanelles, both of which have been key security and trade advantages of previous empires centred on Istanbul, or Constantinople as it was known previously. Its natural harbour geography and its location as a link between Europe and Asia have ensured its strategic importance throughout history, and its defence has often been secured by holding the territory surrounding the city. This means the Balkans and modern day Turkey, both of which are reoccurring topics of discussion in this history.
Two of the historic empires, the Byzantine, and Ottomans, hold rich histories in the Balkans, which we’ll discuss today and over the next few weeks. Before we get to that, we’ll start our history with the rise of the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire
Much of the Balkans coincided with the Roman region of Illyricum, consisting of Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, and parts of Slovenia. Due to its access to the Adriatic Sea, the region was of vital importance to the Romans.
The Crisis of the Third Century between 235 and 285 saw the Roman Empire stretched politically and economically. The crisis started with the assassination of Emperor Severus Alexander, leading to a fight for power between many vying for the title of emperor. The Roman Empire was temporarily split into three states: The Gallic Empire, the Palmyrene Empire, and the Italian-based Roman Empire. Eventually, Emperor Aurelian of the Roman Empore ended the crisis, with the Aurelian-Zenobia War in 272 defeating the Palmyrene Empire, and the Battle of Chalons ending the Gallic Empire in 274. I don’t know about you, but Emperor Aurelien seems to be a pretty productive guy.
The region of Palmyrene coincided with regions of modern-day Turkey, the Western Middle East that sits on the Mediterranean Sea, and Egypt.
The Gallic Empire controlled the regions of Britain, France, Germany, and Spain, demonstrating the sheer power of the Roman Empire, to fight two wars in two years on either side of the European continent and to win both.
Over the following centuries the Thervings and Greuthungs of modern-day Ukrainian territory began to head into the Balkan Roman territory, seeking to escape the Huns of Central Asia. Eventually, all three tribes turned towards the Romans. The Thervingi and the Visigoths conquered the entire Balkans, before heading to Italy.
The Jirecek Line is referred to as the boundary in the Balkans that divided the split between the Latin and Greek influences in the Roman Empire up until the 4th century. It was the Greek-speaking side of this border where the Eastern Roman Empire continued to maintain power. This was the start of the Byzantine Empire.
It was 330 when Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire was born.
Red = Republic
Purple = Empire
Green = Eastern/Byzantine Empire
Blue = Western Empire
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire finally occurred in 476, as occurs when many empires collapse, the region experienced a period of instability. Tribes such as the Goths, Huns, and Slavics fought for influence and control of a region laid to waste by invasions against the Roman Empire.
But the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, continued to exist.
It was in the 6th century when the Byzantine Empire, the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire, managed to control parts of the Balkans and the former Western Roman Empire. They maintained some positions for several centuries, and less so for some other regions.
The 7th century saw the rise of several smaller empires to challenge the Byzantines. The first of which was the Bulgarian Empire.
Split of Empires
The First Bulgarian Empire existed between the 7th and 11th century. The Bulgarians secured Byzantine recognition to settle south of the Danube by defeating them in a battle led by Constantine ⅼV.
The Byzantine Empire still existed to the south, and the two partook in the Byzantine-Bulgarian wars.
The Bulgarians, especially under Simeon ⅼ were successful in their war efforts against the Byzantines. The Bulgarians reached as far as Constantinople, laying siege to the city in 923 and 924.
However, the Bulgarians didn’t completely defeat the Byzantines. Close to a century later, in 1014, the Byzantines highlighted the importance of geopolitical memory, and under Basil ⅼⅼ defeated the Bulgarians in the Battle of Kleidion. The Bulgarians surrendered to the Byzantines fully by 1018. The Byzantines didn’t forget, and lived to fight another day
Return of the Byzantines
The Byzantines, although fresh off their victory over the Bulgarians, were still weakened, and some predators smelled the blood in the water. The Pechenegs from the North and Seljuq Turks from Persia arose during this period, challenging the Byzantines.
The Battle of Manzikert of 1071 left the Byzantines clinging on for survival, suffering a decisive defeat by the Seljuq Turks. Internal conflicts and economic crises saw the empire continue to trend downhill.
The Komnenian dynasty brought a slight recovery for the Byzantine Empire, who ruled the empire from 1081 to 1185.
After the disaster of the Battle of Manzikert of 1076, the Byzantines launched a counterattack during the 12th century. The Byzantines, although regaining some territory in modern day Turkey, couldn’t recover central Anatolia.
This period also coincided with the rise of the Principality of Arbanon, credited as the first Albanian state to emerge in history. Led by the Progoni family and established in 1190, the region gained independence in 1204. The region was then led by the Despotate of Epirus, a Greek successor of the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade of 1202-1204 saw the Byzantines partition their empire under the command of the Crusader States.
This new region replacing the Byzantine Empire was referred to as the Latin Empire.
At the same time, we saw the rise of the Second Bulgarian Empire from the North, the successor of the First Bulgarian Empire. The Second Empire existed between 1185 and 1396.
It might seem at this time like the Byzantines were done for. A new empire has been constructed in its place after the Crusader States placed a catholic emperor as ruler in place of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Roman emperors of the past. However, the Byzantines weren’t down and out yet.
The Second Return of The Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire starting to sound like that character in your favourite series that survives against all odds, regardless of what gets thrown at them. For an empire to exist for over a thousand years, it does make sense they continued to exist, even when the odds seemed stacked against them.
In 1261, the Empire of Nicaea retook Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire returned. When partitioned in 1204, the Laskaris and Komnenos families had fled to Nicaea and Trebizond respectively. Being constantly at war with the Second Bulgarian Empire from above weakened the Latin Empire, allowing the Nicene Empire to recover Constantinople and reestablish the Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantines were still surrounded by enemies and were themselves in a weakened state. I know, they’ve sounded rather fragile for centuries, but truly, the writing was on the wall this time.
Conflict between the Byzantines and Ottomans, dubbed the Byzantine-Ottoman Wars, started in 1299.
The 14th century saw the Byzantine Civil War of 1321-1328 and the Byzantine Civil War of 1341-1347. The internal tensions were a key contributing factor to further Byzantine weakness. If an empire or state can’t control territory within its own sphere of influence, it cannot possibly wish to expand.
In 1346, the Serbian Empire emerged from the Kingdom of Serbia. It ended in 1371 after the Serbian state was broken up, following the death of Emperor Stefan Uroš V, who had no children.
With the Byzantines distracted and occupied with their civil wars, the Ottomans made gains in Anatolia, setting up their capital in Bursa, a city close to Constantinople. The existence of the Bulgarian Second Empire and the Serbian Empire also squeezed the Byzantines from the North. The Serbs expanded into Byzantine Macedonia in 1345 and Thessaly and Epirus in 1348. Throw in the Black Death, and between 1346 and 1349 almost half of the residents of Constantinople were killed by the pandemic. Population declines that severe are a key contributor to potential societal collapse.
The Fall of Gallipoli in 1354 was when the Ottomans crossed into Europe. The battered Byzantines were powerless to stop them. Many mark this as the point where the death of the Byzantine Empire was inevitable.
With the Ottoman Empire centred on Constantinople, its natural region of expansion would be into the Balkans. However, the Ottomans made moves into the Balkans before it established Constantinople as its centre.
The splitting of the Serbian Empire in 1371 was at the hands of the Ottomans in the Battle of Maritsa.
Ottoman invasions also saw the demise of the Second Bulgarian Empire. After the victory over Serbia, the Ottomans turned to Bulgaria. They conquered northern Thrace, the Rhodopes, Kostenets, Ihtiman, and Samokov. The Bulgarian monarch became an Ottoman vassal state, recovering some of the lost towns and starting a decade of relative peace. But the peace was, in the grand scheme of history, short lived. The 1380s saw the Ottomans begin raids into Bulgarian territory once again. In 1396, the Ottomans marched on Vidin, ending the Second Bulgarian Empire, and the Bulgarian state at the time.
The Byzantine Empire finally came to an end with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
Concluding Remarks
Next week, we’ll explore the period of rule under the Ottoman Empire, before seeing the rise in Balkan Nationalism in the 1800s, leading to the rise of independent states, the 20th century Balkan Wars, which served as a precursor to the Great War, also known as World War One.
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Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine%E2%80%93Bulgarian_wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Byzantine_Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_of_the_Byzantine_Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine%E2%80%93Ottoman_wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitio_terrarum_imperii_Romaniae
Just getting around to reading this; what a great intro to the series. I was vaguely familiar with the Byzantine Empire, but was always a bit confused as to how it differed from the Roman Empire; this made it so much clearer. Took a lot of notes, and really looking forward to part 2!