The Balkans

The Balkans - A History Of
Bulgaria--Serbia--Greece--Rumania--Tur
key

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by Nevill Forbes, Arnold J. Toynbee, D. Mitrany, D.G. Hogarth This eBook is for the use
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Title: The Balkans A History Of Bulgaria--Serbia--Greece--Rumania--Turkey
Author: Nevill Forbes, Arnold J. Toynbee, D. Mitrany, D.G. Hogarth
Release Date: March 26, 2004 [EBook #11716]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE BALKANS
A HISTORY OF BULGARIA--SERBIA--GREECE--RUMANIA--TURKEY

THE BALKANS
A HISTORY OF BULGARIA--SERBIA--GREECE--RUMANIA--TURKEY
BY NEVILL FORBES, ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE, D. MITRANY, D.G. HOGARTH

PREFACE
The authors of this volume have not worked in conjunction. Widely separated, engaged
on other duties, and pressed for time, we have had no opportunity for interchange of
views. Each must be held responsible, therefore, for his own section alone. If there be any
discrepancies in our writings (it is not unlikely in so disputed a field of history) we can

only regret an unfortunate result of the circumstances. Owing to rapid change in the
relations of our country to the several Balkan peoples, the tone of a section written earlier
may differ from that of another written later. It may be well to state that the sections on
Serbia and Bulgaria were finished before the decisive Balkan developments of the past
two months. Those on Greece and Rumania represent only a little later stage of the
evolution. That on Turkey, compiled between one mission abroad and another, was the
latest to be finished.
If our sympathies are not all the same, or given equally to friends and foes, none of us
would find it possible to indite a Hymn of Hate about any Balkan people. Every one of
these peoples, on whatever side he be fighting to-day, has a past worthy of more than our
respect and interwoven in some intimate way with our history. That any one of them is
arrayed against us to-day is not to be laid entirely or chiefly at its own door. They are all
fine peoples who have not obtained their proper places in the sun. The best of the
Osmanli nation, the Anatolian peasantry, has yet to make its physical and moral qualities
felt under civilized conditions. As for the rest--the Serbs and the Bulgars, who have
enjoyed brief moments of barbaric glory in their past, have still to find themselves in that
future which shall be to the Slav. The Greeks, who were old when we were not as yet, are
younger now than we. They are as incalculable a factor in a political forecast as another
Chosen Race, the Jews. Their past is the world's glory: the present in the Near East is
theirs more than any people's: the future--despite the laws of corporate being and decline,
dare we say they will have no part in it? Of Rumania what are we to think? Her mixed
people has had the start of the Balkan Slavs in modern civilization, and evidently her
boundaries must grow wider yet. But the limits of her possible expansion are easier to set
than those of the rest.
We hope we have dealt fairly with all these peoples. Mediaeval history, whether of the
East or the West, is mostly a record of bloodshedding and cruelty; and the Middle Age
has been prolonged to our own time in most parts of the Balkans, and is not yet over in
some parts. There are certain things salutary to bear in mind when we think or speak of
any part of that country to-day. First, that less than two hundred years ago, England had
its highwaymen on all roads, and its smuggler dens and caravans, Scotland its caterans,
and Ireland its moonlighters. Second, that religious fervour has rarely mitigated and
generally increased our own savagery. Thirdly, that our own policy in Balkan matters has
been none too wise, especially of late. In permitting the Treaty of Bucarest three years
ago, we were parties to making much of the trouble that has ensued, and will ensue again.
If we have not been able to write about the Near East under existing circumstances
altogether _sine ira et studio_, we have tried to remember that each of its peoples has a
case.
D.G. HOGARTH.
_November_, 1915.

CONTENTS
BULGARIA AND SERBIA. By NEVILL FORBES.
1. Introductory 2. The Balkan Peninsula in Classical Times 400 B.C. - A.D. 500 3. The
Arrival of the Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula, A.D. 500-650
BULGARIA.
4. The Arrival of the Bulgars in the