February 23, 2007 Mapping and Imagining the Balkans  The Geographic Boundaries of the region: West Boundary: Adriatic and Ionian Seas South Boundary: Marmara and Aegean Seas East Boundary: Black Sea North Boundary: Not well defined Partially defined by Carpathian Mountains Danube, Sava, Drava and Prut Rivers and Julian Alps It is this not well defined northern boundary that opens the question of which countries belong to the Balkans

Mapping and Imagining the Balkans Map Balkan Line Relief Map of Balkans

Mapping and Imagining the Balkans  States included in the region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia

Mapping and Imagining the Balkans  The Origin of the Toponym The Turkish word Balkan, which means ‘wooded rolling hills’ It is still used as a generic name in Turkish and Bulgarian Popularized as a name for the mountain range that runs through the middle of Bulgaria by Western travelers and scholars in 18 th century and used interchangeably with the Hellenic name of the mountain – Haemus (in fact the Ottomans had different names for the different sections)  Naming the Peninsula – 1808 – a misnomer

Mapping and Imagining the Balkans  Designation of the region based on cultural, historical, geopolitical characteristics * The “Other” of Europe * The land, which is the bridge between Europe and Asia – the southeastern most part * The lands, which became a battleground and were dominated for several centuries by the two great empires – Ottoman and Habsburg (Austro-Hungarian after 1867) * The lands, which demarcate the boundaries of West and East Christianity and civilizations, and the boundaries between Christianity and Islam

Mapping and Imagining the Balkans  Map with the boundaries of the Empires  Map with the religious boundaries

Mapping and Imagining the Balkans  The “divisive”, “explosive”, “backward”, “untruthful” – the Dark Side of Europe  The Significance of Geography: * the Balkans the most mountainous peninsula in Europe (Carpathian, Dinaric and Albanian Alps, Šar, Pindus, Taigetos, Rila, Pirin, Rhodope – 70 percent of the peninsula is covered by mountains * difficult to integrate from within and unify politically * very little arable land (10% in Albania, 20% in Greece; up to 40% in the north) – cannot support dense populations and prevents early versions of centralized administration * mountains not rich in ore deposits – no starting points for industrialization * yet not high enough to prevent conquests from invading armies

Mapping and Imagining the Balkans  Map on Balkan Topography  Map on European Topography  Map on GDP per capita

Mapping and Imagining the Balkans  The Reinforcement of the pejorative name with the ethnic wars in Yugoslavia  The term “Balkanization”  The Internalization of the negative connotation of the term * Romania as a ‘Latin’ country * Greece as a ‘Mediterranean’ country * Croatia as a ‘Central European’ country * Yugoslavia as the elite country of the non-aligned world; only when the wars started in an attempt to distance themselves from personal guilt and embarrassment, the various states of Yugoslavia started calling the war the ‘Balkan’ war, implying that it is this Balkan identity and context to blame for this war