The Balkans | Page 2

the Introduction of Christianity, 700-893 6.
The Rise and Fall of the First Bulgarian Empire, 893-972 7. The Rise
and Fall of 'Western Bulgaria' and the Greek Supremacy, 963-1186 8.
The Rise and Fall of the Second Bulgarian Empire, 1186-1258 9. The
Serbian Supremacy and the Final Collapse, 1258-1393 10. The Turkish
Dominion and the Emancipation, 1393-1878 11. The Aftermath, and
Prince Alexander of Battenberg, 1878-86 12. The Regeneration under
Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, 1886-1908 13. The Kingdom,
1908-13
SERBIA.
14. The Serbs under Foreign Supremacy, 650-1168 15. The Rise and
Fall of the Serbian Empire and the Extinction of Serbian Independence,
1168-1496 16. The Turkish Dominion, 1496-1796 17. The Liberation
of Serbia under Kara-George (1804-13) and Milo[)s] Obrenovi['c]
(1815-30): 1796-1830 18. The Throes of Regeneration: Independent
Serbia, 1830-1903 19. Serbia, Montenegro, and the Serbo-Croats in
Austria-Hungary, 1903-8 20. Serbia and Montenegro, and the two
Balkan Wars, 1908-13
GREECE. By ARNOLD J. TOYNBEE.
1. From Ancient to Modern Greece 2. The Awakening of the Nation 3.
The Consolidation of the State
RUMANIA: HER HISTORY AND POLITICS. By D. MITRANY
1. Introduction 2. Formation of the Rumanian Nation 3. The
Foundation and Development of the Rumanian Principalities 4. The
Phanariote Rule 5. Modern Period to 1866 6. Contemporary Period:
Internal Development 7. Contemporary Period: Foreign Affairs 8.

Rumania and the Present War
TURKEY. By D. G. HOGARTH
1. Origin of the Osmanlis 2. Expansion of the Osmanli Kingdom 3.
Heritage and Expansion of the Byzantine Empire 4. Shrinkage and
Retreat 5. Revival 6. Relapse 7. Revolution 8. The Balkan War 9. The
Future
INDEX
MAPS
The Balkan Peninsula: Ethnological The Balkan Peninsula The
Ottoman Empire

BULGARIA AND SERBIA

1
Introductory
The whole of what may be called the trunk or massif of the Balkan
peninsula, bounded on the north by the rivers Save and Danube, on the
west by the Adriatic, on the east by the Black Sea, and on the south by
a very irregular line running from Antivari (on the coast of the Adriatic)
and the lake of Scutari in the west, through lakes Okhrida and Prespa
(in Macedonia) to the outskirts of Salonika and thence to Midia on the
shores of the Black Sea, following the coast of the Aegean Sea some
miles inland, is preponderatingly inhabited by Slavs. These Slavs are
the Bulgarians in the east and centre, the Serbs and Croats (or Serbians
and Croatians or Serbo-Croats) in the west, and the Slovenes in the
extreme north-west, between Trieste and the Save; these nationalities
compose the southern branch of the Slavonic race. The other
inhabitants of the Balkan peninsula are, to the south of the Slavs, the

Albanians in the west, the Greeks in the centre and south, and the Turks
in the south-east, and, to the north, the Rumanians. All four of these
nationalities are to be found in varying quantities within the limits of
the Slav territory roughly outlined above, but greater numbers of them
are outside it; on the other hand, there are a considerable number of
Serbs living north of the rivers Save and Danube, in southern Hungary.
Details of the ethnic distribution and boundaries will of course be gone
into more fully later; meanwhile attention may be called to the
significant fact that the name of Macedonia, the heart of the Balkan
peninsula, has been long used by the French gastronomers to denote a
dish, the principal characteristic of which is that its component parts are
mixed up into quite inextricable confusion.
Of the three Slavonic nationalities already mentioned, the two first, the
Bulgarians and the Serbo-Croats, occupy a much greater space,
geographically and historically, than the third. The Slovenes, barely
one and a half million in number, inhabiting the Austrian provinces of
Carinthia and Carniola, have never been able to form a political state,
though, with the growth of Trieste as a great port and the persistent
efforts of Germany to make her influence if not her flag supreme on the
shores of the Adriatic, this small people has from its geographical
position and from its anti-German (and anti-Italian) attitude achieved
considerable notoriety and some importance.
Of the Bulgars and Serbs it may be said that at the present moment the
former control the eastern, and the latter, in alliance with the Greeks,
the western half of the peninsula. It has always been the ambition of
each of these three nationalities to dominate the whole, an ambition
which has caused endless waste of blood and money and untold misery.
If the question were to be settled purely on ethnical considerations,
Bulgaria would acquire the greater part of the interior of Macedonia,
the most numerous of the dozen nationalities of which is Bulgarian in
sentiment if not in origin, and would thus undoubtedly attain the
hegemony of the peninsula, while the