Establishment of Independent States in the Balkans
19th and early 20th century
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
Arrival of Nationalism in the Balkans
* The Ideology
* Napoleon’s role
Local Circumstances conducive to its spread
* Millet cultural autonomy in the Ottoman Empire
* Preservation of the memory of historical past in the
Ottoman and Habsburg subject populations
* Economic Conditions
Rise of Trade
The Anarchy of the late 18th century
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century
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
The First National Revolutions
* The Serbian Revolution – the sanjak of
Belgrade – 1804 and 1815 (autonomy in 1830-33)
* The Principalities of Walachia and
Moldavia-1821
* The Greek rebellion – 1821
It was only after 1830 that these 3 were fully
autonomous and only Greece was fully sovereign
* The indeterminate status of Montenegro
Establishment of Independent States in the Balkans
19th and early 20th century
Principles of determining state territory
* Ethnic Rights
* Historical Principle
 The Eastern Crisis, Russo-Turkish War, the Congress of
Berlin
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* San Stefano
* The new principle – balance of power and compensation
The Habsburg Slavs and Romanians
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Establishment of Independent States in the Balkans
19th and early 20th century

The Remaining Borderlands
•
•
Ottoman Europe: Albanians, Slavs, Greeks
* the escalation of the Macedonian issue
Habsburg Territories: Slavs, Romanians
* the situation after the Ausgleich of 1867
* the birth of Yugoslavism
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century

Achievements of Statehood: Constitutional design
* All constitutional monarchies
- the battles between ambitious monarchs vs. domestic liberals
* Most with foreign monarchs
- Greece under Otto of Bavaria (Wittelsbach) and George I,
prince of Denmark (Oldenburg)
- Bulgaria under Alexander of Battenberg and Ferdinand of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- Romania under Carol I (Prince Karl of HohenzollernSigmaringen)
* Domestic Dynasties in Serbia and Monenegro
- Serbia under the Obrenović and Karadjordjević dynasties
- Montenegro under the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century

Achievements of Statehood: Parliamentary and Party Politics
* The two-party model of the 19th century (internal development
versus expansion)
- Greece -Liberals and Conservatives
- Bulgaria – Liberal and Conservative
- Romania – Liberals and Conservatives
- Serbia – Progressive and Radical Party
- Montenegro – Prince Nikola
* Suffrage- property based, extremely narrow with the exception
of Serbia after 1903
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century

Achievements of Statehood: Internal Development
* Economic Profile
-agricultural societies
- peasant societies
(Sources: Lampe and Jackson, 1982 “Balkan
Economic History,1550-1959” and Michael
Paliaret, 1997 “The Balkan Economies, 1800 –
1914”
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century
Gross Output of Selected Sectors, 1911-1913 - percentage share
Total
Romania
Per Capita
Bulgaria
Serbia
Romania
Bulgaria
Serbia
Large Scale Private Industry
18.5
10
8.0
18.4
9.8
8.3
Small Scale Private Industry
6.6
7.8
9.8
6.5
7.9
9.8
53.4
54.5
49.8
53.5
54.7
49.6
7.3
8.6
8.0
7.3
8.7
8.1
10.4
19
23.0
10.9
18.9
22.9
3.8
0.1
1.4
3.4
0.1
1.3
Agriculture
Forestry
Livestock Products
Mining and Oil
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century
Source:Koulouri “Teaching Modern Southeastern European History; the Balkan Wars”, data
is taken from Martin Mayer 1994 “Grundshulenin Sebien warend des 19. Jahrhunderts”
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century

Lacking Support for Agriculture
* would lead to peasant revolts, unrest and
emigration; creation of radical parties
*Bulgaria 1899 (BANU created); Romania –
1907; the Serbian Radical Party
*until 1911 around 100 thousand Bulgarians
and Romanians emigrated, 320 thousand Greeks,
many Montenegrians and less so Serbs
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century

Industrialization and Urban Development
* Creating transportation structure
-railroads from Constanta to Cernavoda; Varna to Russe;
the Constantinople-Vienna line
*Lack of sufficient capital, so constructed largely through foreign
loans; became too burdensome
* conservative monetary policy but unsound fiscal policy
* Tax breaks and reduced import duties for certain companies
*Leading sectors: textiles, food processing, and construction
materials
* Building the Capital Cities
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century

The expansion of the state
* administrative staff around 5% of labor force – among highest
number in Europe, and more than France
* state expansion of university education for its own employment
needs lead to a creation of a ‘class’ of highly educated but
underemployed or underpaid young people, as a result of which many
were subsequently radicalized
* this tendency of the state to be the most prestigous employer
persists to this very day; leads to pursuing of education only suitable
for state employment and to youth unemployment; on the other hand
those inside the system have vested interests not to change this state of
affairs
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century
Establishment of Independent States in the
Balkans 19th and early 20th century