As I read through the various articles and histories of the Balkans, I couldn't help but reminisce on my earlier years as a tenth grade high school student, sitting in AP World History, ready to claw my eyes out. I always thought to myself, "When will I EVER use this? I'm in America, not Europe." But now, I look back on that class and yearn to regain the knowledge that I had so ignorantly disregarded. Now more than ever, I see how pertinent it is to know what other countries have had to endure to achieve the positions that they currently have. Granted, I am no historian and clearly never planned on becoming one, but I am intrigued by what factors contribute to a country's current identity. Is it their language? Food? Music? All of these cultural aspects without a doubt contribute to how a country defines their self. But, one underlying theme that ties all of these traits together can be summarized in one single word: history. This fact especially holds true for the Balkans region. As this area's rich past developed, it brought along a multitude of different cultural practices, different perceptions, and unfortunately, different conflicts.
To further emphasize my ignorance, I must first state that prior to embarking on this Balkans journey, I was unaware that the Balkans was a region, not a country (I promise I didn't bribe Chaffee to let me be a PS, ya'll). But in all seriousness, I never knew that the region was so divided and had such contrasting beliefs until I read about it myself. When I did some more research on Balkan history, I came to realize how these cultural "fault lines" in Europe emerged and what exactly contributed to their permanence in the region today.
Initially, the Balkans were under the rule of the Byzantine Empire which ruled from Constantinople. They were a united people and were passionate about their cultural beliefs. It wasn't until the Byzantine Empire started to weaken that independent Slavic states began to emerge. This is where we can see the beginnings of the Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian kingdoms. There were various conflicts over land ownership, which has had modern repercussions as well. Around the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks took over, and the Balkan people came under the complete control of the Turkish Sultan. After they had control, the Turks renames Constantinople "Istanbul." If I may briefly interject, I must say that a move like THAT would have totally got me fired up. Here is this city that really was the only thing holding together all of these divisive beliefs, and the Turks swoop in and completely strip it of its significance. I personally feel like that was a large contributing factor to the finality of the Balkan area splitting up. After this, many Balkan natives began getting persecuted for their beliefs and practices due to the new authority.
Luckily, all hope was not lost, because as the Romantic movement began in the 19th century, people started to investigate their nations' individual identities, thus leading to a massive push in nationalism and desire for national states. It also helped that the Ottoman Empire was progressively growing weaker.
After reading more and more about this separation, I became aware that the separation of the Balkans region is viewed as being an upsetting time in history, However, I hope this is not offensive for me to state, but I feel that this is a time in history that should be regarded as one of the greatest, boldest times ever. Here are groups of individuals who are each passionate about their own beliefs and what their nation should represent, and they are pushing toward their goal with full-force. Things like that in our society today are celebrated, not regretted. These individual nations rose up and took on an empire much more powerful than their own and were able to come out victorious. While there may be conflict in the region today, I do feel like this particular point in history (pre-WWI) can teach us extremely important lessons that can even be applied to our time here at Tech. If you see something you want, regardless of what other people may think or say, believe wholeheartedly than you are capable, and do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment