Nationalism, imperialism and the Balkans

Detail

After 1871 — nationalism changes its face

• Before 1871, nationalism in Europe was tied to liberal-democratic ideas — freedom of the individual, equality before law, constitutions, and the right of each people to have its own nation-state.
• After 1871, that idealism fades. Nationalism becomes a narrow creed with limited ends.
• Nationalist groups turn intolerant of each other.
• They are ready for war rather than for debate.

• Each group wants gain only for itself, not liberty for all peoples.

• The Great Powers now use nationalism as a tool. They back the nationalism of subject peoples in rival empires — not to free them, but to serve their own imperialist aims (land, trade routes, prestige).

• So the same idea that once united people for liberty is now bent into a cause of rivalry and war.

Why the Balkans became the danger spot

• The Balkans were the most serious source of tension after 1871.
• What the region covers today: Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro.
• The region is a mountainous, geographically rough area with many different ethnic groups living side by side.
• The people were broadly called Slavs (a large group of related peoples of eastern and south-eastern Europe).
• A very large part of the Balkans was under the Ottoman Empire (the Turkish empire, ruled from Istanbul).

The disintegrating Ottoman Empire

• The Ottoman Empire tried to modernise and reform itself to stay strong — but the reforms failed.
• As the empire weakened, it began to fall apart ("disintegrate"). Its European provinces started slipping away.
• One by one, the nationalities broke away and declared themselves independent.
• Their key weapon was history: each group claimed it was only taking back its 'long-lost independence' — a freedom it said had been stolen by foreign rulers long ago.
• How the break-up actually happened (external detail):
• The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878), dominated by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, recognised the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, though with much smaller territory than they had been promised earlier at the Treaty of San Stefano (3 March 1878). [3]
• The same Congress allowed Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina, plus the strategic district of Novi Pazar — so one empire simply replaced another in Slav lands. [3]

Rival claims — neighbours turning on neighbours

• The new Balkan states were deeply jealous of one another.
• Each claimed the same pieces of land, because each said "this was once ours by history".
• Boundaries kept being redrawn by force, so the map was never settled.
• External detail — the claims turn into war:
• First Balkan War (1912–13): the Balkan League — Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro — fought the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman collapse was so complete that an armistice came on 3 December 1912. [2]
• By the peace signed at London on 30 May 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost almost all its remaining European territory, including all of Macedonia and Albania. [2]
• Second Balkan War (1913): the winners fell out over the spoils, mainly Macedonia. Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece; Romania joined against Bulgaria. [2]
• Treaty of Bucharest, 10 August 1913: Bulgaria got only a small part of Macedonia and a strip of Aegean coast with the port of Dedeağaç (Alexandroúpolis); Serbia took northern and central Macedonia, Greece took southern Macedonia, Romania took southern Dobruja. [2]
• This is the scaffold's point in hard facts: jealous neighbours, wars within five years of each other, no lasting settlement.

The Great Powers move in

• The Balkans became a scene of big-power rivalry. The contenders were Russia, Germany, England and Austro-Hungary.
• What they were fighting over:
• Trade and control of routes and ports.
• Colonies and spheres of influence.

• Naval and military might — each wanted a bigger fleet and army than the rest.

• Each power used the "freedom" of small Balkan nationalities as a cover for its own expansion.

• Result: a series of wars in the region, and finally the First World War.
• External detail — the final spark: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were shot dead at Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist linked to the secret society the Black Hand, which wanted to end Austro-Hungarian rule in the Balkans and unite the South Slav peoples. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia a month later, pulling in the alliance systems. [4]
• The verdict to remember: nationalism, aligned with imperialism, led Europe to disaster in 1914.

The idea travels out of Europe

• The nation-state idea did not stay in Europe. It spread to colonised countries.
• There, people built anti-imperial nationalist movements against their foreign rulers.
• Their unity was forged in confrontation with imperialism — that is, the fight against the common foreign ruler is what made many different groups feel like one people.
• European nationalism was nowhere exactly repeated — each colony's movement grew out of its own conditions.
• But one thing became universal: the nation-state came to be accepted as the natural and normal form of political life everywhere in the world.

Prelims Hooks

• After 1871, European nationalism turned into a narrow creed with limited ends; Great Powers used subject peoples' nationalism for imperialist aims.
• The Balkans was the most serious source of tension in Europe after 1871; its people were broadly called Slavs.
• Balkan territory today = Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro.
• The Balkans were largely under the Ottoman Empire, whose modernising reforms failed.
• Balkan nationalities justified rebellion by claiming their 'long-lost independence' using history.
• The four rival powers in the Balkans: Russia, Germany, England, Austro-Hungary.
• Congress of Berlin (June–July 1878) recognised independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro; allowed Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina. [3]
• First Balkan War 1912–13: Balkan League = Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro vs the Ottoman Empire; Treaty of London, 30 May 1913. [2]
• Treaty of Bucharest, 10 August 1913 ended the Second Balkan War; Romania got southern Dobruja, Greece southern Macedonia, Serbia northern and central Macedonia. [2]
• 28 June 1914 — Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo. [4]

Mains Points

• From liberty to rivalry: Trace how nationalism after 1871 shed its liberal-democratic content and hardened into an aggressive creed. Use this to argue that nationalism has no fixed political character — it takes the shape of the forces that carry it.
• Nationalism as an instrument of imperialism: The Great Powers did not oppose Balkan nationalism; they sponsored it selectively. Berlin 1878 handed Bosnia-Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary even while recognising Serbian and Romanian independence [3] — freedom for some Slavs, new subjection for others. Good evidence that "self-determination" was applied by the powers only where it suited them.
• Why 1914 began in the Balkans: Combine three layers — a disintegrating Ottoman Empire, mutually jealous successor states with overlapping historical claims (Balkan Wars 1912–13) [2], and four Great Powers competing over trade, colonies and naval strength. The Sarajevo assassination [4] was the trigger, not the cause.
• The idea's global afterlife: Link Europe to the colonies. Anti-imperial nationalism in Asia and Africa (including India) drew unity from the shared struggle against a foreign ruler rather than from a shared language or ethnicity — so it was never a copy of the European model, yet it made the nation-state the universal political form.