The Balkans: An Overview of the Region's History and Geography - Essay Sample

Introduction

The Balkans, which is also called the Balkan peninsula, is an area in south-east Europe. The region gains its name from the Balkan Mountains that cut through entire Bulgaria from the coast of the black sea to the border between Serbia and Bulgaria (Shafer, 1989). This concept of the Balkan was initially created by the Zeune August. Zeune is a renown German geographer who incorrectly considered the Balkan Mountains the vastest mountain system in South-Eastern Europe.

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When the Paris treaty was signed in the year 1856, the Crimean war ended, and the great powers assumed they had achieved harmony by imposing critical reforms to the Sultan. However, despite all the fanfare and promises give by these reforms, most of them were never put to practice. For many years after the Treaty, the situation in the Balkans appeared calm, but in reality, it was like a bomb ready to explode. This later caused a lot of unrest between Turkey and Russia (Sabrosky, 1975. 16). More then a treaty of San-Stefano was signed between the Ottoman Empire and Russia signifying an end to the prolonged war. Britain and Austria Hungary however later started pushing for significant revision of the San Stefano treaty. This move was since it appeared that Russia had been placed in a dominant position against turkey. To further show seriousness in their push, the British fleet then marched within Russian forces firing range. Once again, the entire Balkans was filled with immense tension as each side waited reluctantly for the other to take action.

It was here that Bismarck; a German chancellor took the leading in working on a peaceful solution to the issues between England and Russia. He listened and talked with both sides to get different ideas. Andrassy, an Austrian minister, proposed a conference in Habsburg which was refuted by Russia due to the location (Rapp, and Reischies, 2005). Finally, Gorchakov, the Russian foreign minister suggested Berlin and all powers agreed. In the meantime, the major parties, Russia, England, and Austria-Hungary continued with their military operations till around May.

This section covers one the failure of the Congress of Berlin in addressing the demands of the Balkan nations and Russia. In particular, it sheds light on decisions made and why they are viewed as a failure (Yavuz and Sluglett, 2011) Also, the section links the choices to the occurrence of the Global war of 1914.

During the Congress of Berlin, decisions made had different consequences. All the parties well received some of the decisions and others led to chaos. Some of the decisions include denying Russia its power and means to extend its naval powers. The checks and balances system is also another result that led to failure. Another major decision is the lack of issue of independence to Albania (Mason, 2014). The decision by the Congress of Berlin to deny Russian empire the opportunity to lead the Balkans was also a failure that would contribute to the world war.

In the 19th century, the Ottoman empire was in a terminal decline, and as such, it retreated to the Balkans, where it had once conquered fully. However, the empire still maintained control on a god section of the Balkans. The Balkan populations were mainly made up Slavs, many of whom wanted the creation of the Pan-Slavism. This ideology was very harsh to the Ottoman Turks but much supported the Russian reign in the Balkans. Besides, the Russians considered themselves the guardians of the Christian Slavs against the brutal Ottoman Muslims. Later in 1876, the Balkans revolted against the Ottoman, and this resulted in a fatal loss of civilian life (MacKenzie, 1979. 1). Russia then responded by intervening on behalf of their Balkan Slavs and fought from 1877-1878 with the support of Greece, Montenegro and Serbia. Russia later defeated Turks and made an agreement aimed at ensuring Turks confinement in small territories of Balkans region.

This outcome alarmed all the other powers in the European region. The victory by Russia in the Balkans made the Austria-Hungarian and the German empire to worry that the war would create more Slavic nationalism which would likely lead to the downfall of their empires. The Governments in London and Paris were reluctantly happy about the victory since they feared Russia would lead to it dominating the Balkans (Coleman, 1938. 207). As a result, during the Congress of Berlin, all the European powers targeted to take away Russia's control of the Balkans. The decision to receive the Balkans from Russia was made making the Germans and British satisfied. The demand by Russia to establish a strong empire for the Balkans was denied, and ,it was a failure that contributed to the world war of 1914.

The failure of Russia's' Balkan policy arose from the San Stefano treaty. Russia could not find a balance for the new free Balkan states. Moreover, most of the states felt that their independence was a product of their efforts not entirely the Russians. The efforts to build peace in the Congress of Berlin came up with the checks and the balance system (Hall, 2002). The system echeloned mainly that massive power duality which would form high power resistance against any attempt to step out of the system thus acting to check the lesser powers (Fassbender, Peters, Peter, and Hogger, 2012). The top level of the order was made up of the major European empires which were in charge of defining the main interests of the entire region. Austro-Hungarian was given control over the Bosnia Herzegovina whereas Bulgaria was left under the complete influence of Russia. The whole exercise was done to instill duality, which made a balance through which the lesser states may choose bandwagoning sides.

The system established by the Congress of Berlin used three properties i.e. bipolarity, unipolarity and multipolarity. The highest level, bipolar, consisted of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian duality. The Ottoman Empire stood, having regained Macedonia, were at the middle unipolarity level (Randeraad, 2011. 58). The lowest level constituted of the Balkan states had multipolar properties. The level meant that individual interests of any of the Balkan countries subdued common interests.

Though it took long to implement most decisions made at the Congress of Berlin, the check and balances system, once settled, started to reduce the tension in the region. Both Romania and Serbia ended up inclining their decisions to those of Austria-Hungary. The Balkans had sought their freedom since the San Stefano Treaty, and this move by the system was an evident failure. The small states had no power to take any individual action (Gelber, 1960. 235). This decision then was a way that the European powers used to force the lesser states into bandwagoning and thus loss of freedom. The decision to deny Russians demand to keep the pressure on Serbia Romania and Montenegro was also a significant failure. This came with deteriorated inter-relationships with Russia. Russia lost many of the advantages it reaped from the previous san Stefano treaty. The Congress did not address Russia's demands.

The check and balance system implementation was later achieved, and it eased the tension and anxiety that the people had. In 1880, a treaty of cooperation was secretly signed between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. Again in 1883, an alliance treaty was signed between Austria-Hungary and Romania. These treaties were mainly to establish Austria-Hungarian support or the two small states (Weeks, 1979. 1055). Also, it served to create a stable balance with Bulgaria, which was then under Russia. Both Russia and Austria-Hungary had no personal challenges; they were both however, eager to practice hegemony in their regions.

Positive mood stemmed out of the association of the two states in tackling the issues in the Balkans. In 1882, the collaboration between the two nations resulted in the creation of the Second Three Emperors League. This association between Russia and the Austria-Hungary working in a consensus led to the circumstances in which the checking agent became the Ottoman Empire (Braun, 1997. 58) The focus of Russia's foreign policy then changed from the Balkans. However, this withdrawal came with adverse effects since the small states demanded their territorial identity. This was the reason for war in 1885 which was later resolved.

Later from the year 1890, there was a negative feeling against the Austria-Hungarian rule. This is because it dominated the Balkan's political setups. This was mainly due to the unopposed interference of the Austria -Hungary which superseded the small states. Another reason was the policies of the Sultan Abdulhamit. He took advantage of the weaknesses of the countries of Balkan that did not have a military power to march together.

Even though the Russian and the Austria-Hungary duality and the European power concerts favoured stability for Balkans, there was a brewing tension within the region. By the beginning of the early 1890s, the Balkan states started claiming Macedonia and complaining about the corrupt and inefficient Ottoman's leadership (Medlicott, 2013). The uproar was further inflamed by the Sultan, Abdulhamit, who had continuously resisted any form of advice by the great powers.

Between the year 1903 and 1908, many events took place that aided in the fall of the check and balance system and thus leading to chaos. Unlike the crises that had arisen from the Ottoman hegemony decomposition, these occurrences affected the mood of the duality, which had created balance by introducing band-wagoning. In 1904, a coup was plotted and carried out by the ultra-nationalist army officers. The Pro-Austro-Hungarian dynasty was then taken down and given to the pro-Russian Karageorvich. Austria-Hungary responded with boycotting the exports from Serbia (Gibson, 2004. 243). However, Serbia later found new partners, such as the United States. This initiated the so-called pig war which lasted to 1906 after which Serbia established freedom from the Austria-Hungary supremacy.

Austria-Hungary then as an approach of necessity, started looking for ways to bar Bulgaria's ambitions. The step was aimed at making Bulgaria opt to bandwagon with the great state. The efforts failed to lead to form of a coalition against Serbia. Meanwhile, in 1905, Russia could not stand in by Serbia as balance since it had suffered a significant defeat after being caught up in the Russo-Japanese war. In 1908, the Young Turk Revolution occurred, and an unexpected incidence led to the downfall of Sultan Abdulhamit in Austria-Hungary. This revolution was welcomed both internationally and domestically since the new reign promised a new constitution that would erase the corrupt Ottoman rule in the Balkan provinces (Isci, 2014. 191). The law would also logically benefit the Bosnia Herzegovina which was being controlled by the Austria-Hungarian while it belonged to the Ottoman Empire. However, the then newly appointed Foreign minister of Austria-Hungary was not ready to let Bosnia Herzegovina. He immediately started plans to annex the state.

The consequences and results of the year 1908 may in one way or another vary but altogether had started commenced the end of the check and balanc...