Into The Balkans

I have now crossed into Croatia. This is my entry point into the Balkans, that part of south east Europe bordered by the Black Sea to the east and the Adriatic to the west. Of the ten countries that are generally accepted as making up the region, I will be passing through four: Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria - the location of the Balkan mountains from where the region gets its name - and finally, to end my trip, Romania.

The Balkans Today

Even in recent history the region has a reputation for conflict but the roots of this go back to the days of the great Empires. From the 18th to 20th centuries the area was on the fault lines at the convergence of three of these - the Russian, Ottoman and Austrian Empires - and as such a pawn in the political manoeuvrings behind maintaining the power balance in Europe. Competition between Empires and a rising nationalism in the cultures and countries of the region was one source of friction in the area. Add to this the subjugated countries vying for influence over each other as Empires declined and then throw in a pinch of 'Cross versus Crescent' religious acrimony and it is easy to see that many levels of instability have existed over hundreds of years. Not for nothing was the area known as 'the powder keg of Europe'. And while this phrase may have reached a prophetic zenith when Balkan geopolitics tumbled the world into war in 1914, unease in the region continues to this day; the Yugoslavian Wars of the 1990s and the latest rumblings from Serbia stem from this history. Indeed, the region is the source of two phrases, 'ethnic cleansing' and 'Balkanisation', that describe a darker side of the impact of conflict involving strong threads of ethnicity, culture, religion and historical grievances.

Balkan Region - 1812