Describe the explosive conditions prevailed in Balkans after 1871 in European. [CBSE 2018]

Describe the explosive conditions prevailed in Balkans after 1871 in European. [CBSE 2018]

Ans. The most serious source of nationalist tension in Europe after 1871 was the area called the Balkans.

The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variation comprising modern-day Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro whose inhabitants were broadly known as the Slaves.

A large part of the Balkans was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. The spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism in the Balkans together with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire made this region very explosive.

All through the nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire had sought to strengthen itself through modernisation and internal reforms but with very little success. One by one, its European subject nationalities broke away from its control and declared independence. The Balkan people based their claims for independence or political rights on nationality and used history to prove that they had once been independent but had subsequently been subjugated by foreign powers.

Hence, the rebellious nationalities in the Balkans thought to their struggles as attempts to win back their long-lost independence.