I decided to focus this blog post on exploring the
geographical implications of the history of conflict and cultural diversity in
the Balkans region. I began by reading the first half of a chapter about the
ancient geology of the Mediterranean region. Three distinct formations were
highlighted: mountain chains, depressions of land masses (which are now
sea-covered basins), and old massive resistant areas, which withstood the
mountain-making forces (ie the shifting of tectonic plates). These “resistive
land masses” make up the center of the Balkans area. They consist of ancient
rocks (especially limestone) and have stood above the sea for a prolonged
period of time, unlike the other land masses that became depressed under the
waters. The same tectonic forces that these land masses resisted are the forces
that caused great masses of sediment to be raised above sea level to form
mountain chains. The author of this novel actually had a very interesting way
of explaining these formations. He developed a metaphor to equate mountains as “Earth
waves,” which “broke” on the old resistive land masses, much like water waves
break and dash around projecting rocks in the ocean. However, the continued persistence
of these forces caused some of the land masses to rise up or sink down below
the sea. This metaphor can be seen in the figure below; the land masses tend to
have mountains curve around them.
These formations are what allowed for land to
sink and the Adriatic Sea to rush over, giving the Balkans its peninsular form.
The extensive mountain ranges in the Balkans area have forced most of the
traffic of the peninsula into a narrow passage that opens southward toward to
the Aegan Sea, and north to Central Europe. It is bounded to the West by Coastal
mountains, and to the East by the wooded central uplands (which represent the
old resistive Eastern landmass, aka the Central upland). Specifically, this
belt has its Northern entrance in present day Belgrade, through which the
Danube flows from North to South. The Southern gateway is Salonika on the
Aegan. (This is demonstrated in the images below).
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| Notice in both of these images how the mountains force this "narrow passage" that intruders must have come through (especially in the days when they only traveled on foot/on horses) |
It is up and down
this passage that the history of outside conquest of the Balkans has come, for
this area also possesses most of the fertile land of the region. Therefore,
when conquerors come, this land is taken from the native people there
beforehand, and they are forced up into the barren uplands. This is interesting
because those areas became a place for the native people of the Balkans to
escape to during the many invasions throughout their history. It was in these
uplands that distinct culture could be preserved in the face of so many
intruding forces; it was in these harsh lands that the natives developed their
resiliency, gaining strength until they could come back down to the plains to
drive out their once-conquerors (as was the case with the Ottoman Turks). I also mentioned in one of my previous blogs that the native Balkans people were able to preserve their culture in the face of outside Turkish forces for centuries during the Ottoman Empire because of the small villages where most native people lived (especially in the more barren areas), and where the Turks did not generally monitor explicitly. It
becomes obvious from just a little bit of investigation that the geology of the
Balkans area has had immense implications on the conflict—and cultural
resiliency—of the Balkans people.
Sources:
Google Maps
"Geographical Aspects of Balkans Problems" by Marion Newbigin
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