The BalkansBAWL-kənz, also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographic area in Southeast Europe with various definitions and meanings, including geopolitical and historical. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria from the Serbian–Bulgarian border to the Black Sea coast. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish Straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala, 2,925 metres (9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.
The Treaty of Berlin was signed on 13 July 1878. In the aftermath of the Russian victory against the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, the major powers restructured the map of the Balkan region. They reversed some of the extreme gains claimed by Russia in the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano, but the Ottomans lost their major holdings in Europe. It was one of three major peace agreements in the period after the 1815 Congress of Vienna. It was the final act of the Congress of Berlin and included Great Britain and Ireland, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Germany's Otto von Bismarck was the chairman and dominant personality.
Eastern Rumelia was an autonomous territory in the Ottoman Empire, created in 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin and de facto ended in 1885, when it was united with the principality of Bulgaria, also under Ottoman suzerainty. It continued to be an Ottoman province de jure until 1908, when Bulgaria declared independence.
Sir Noel Robert Malcolm, is an English political journalist, historian and academic. A King's Scholar at Eton College, Malcolm read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge and received his Doctorate in History from Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a Fellow and College Lecturer of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before becoming a political and foreign affairs journalist with The Spectator and the Daily Telegraph.
The Western (Bulgarian) Outlands is a term used by Bulgarians to describe several regions located in southeastern Serbia.
Leften Stavros Stavrianos was a Greek-Canadian historian. His most influential books are considered to be A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century and The Balkans since 1453. He was one of the very first historians to challenge Orientalist views of the Ottoman Empire.
The Battle of Maritsa, or Battle of Chernomen took place at the Maritsa River near the village of Chernomen on 26 September 1371 between Ottoman forces commanded by Lala Shahin Pasha and Evrenos, and Serbian forces commanded by King Vukašin Mrnjavčević and his brother Despot Jovan Uglješa, who also wanted to get revenge after the First Battle of Maritsa.
The Principality of Serbia was a semi-independent state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation was negotiated first through an unwritten agreement between Miloš Obrenović, leader of the Second Serbian Uprising, and Ottoman official Marashli Pasha. It was followed by the series of legal documents published by the Porte in 1828, 1829 and finally, 1830 — the Hatt-i Sharif. Its de facto independence ensued in 1867, following the expulsion of all Ottoman troops from the country; its independence was recognized internationally in 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin. In 1882 the country was elevated to the status of kingdom.
The Bled agreement was an agreement signed on the 1 August 1947 in Bled, PR Slovenia, FPR Yugoslavia. It was signed by Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian leader, and Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav leader, which paved the way for future unification between the states in a new Balkan Federative Republic. It also foresaw the unification of Vardar Macedonia and Pirin Macedonia and the return of Western Outlands to Bulgaria. The agreement abolished visas and allowed for a customs union. It was also the first time that Bulgaria recognized ethnic Macedonians and the Macedonian language.
Traian Stoianovich was an American historian and a professor of history at Rutgers University. He specialized in the history of the Balkans. Born Trajan Stojanović in Gradešnica, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, his family moved to Rochester, New York, where he was brought up. At a time when it was difficult for working-class people and immigrants to achieve higher education, he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester. After serving in the United States Army during World War II (1942–45), he took a masters degree at New York University and received a doctorate from Université de Paris in 1952, where he became a major figure in the internationally influential Annales School of history. His doctoral mentor was Fernand Braudel.
Louis Sauveur, Marquis de Villeneuve was French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1728 to 1741. He was instrumental in pushing the Ottoman Empire to war with the Russian Empire, in the Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739). He was also put in charge of negotiating the peace to this war, managing to impose unfavourable conditions on the Austrians, as a result, the 1739 Peace of Belgrade was extremely favourable to the Ottomans, thanks to Villeneuve's intervention.
Stavrianos Vistiaris, was a Greek poet born in the village of Maliçan, in modern Sarande District, a region of Albania that Greeks refer to as Northern Epirus.
Gabriel-Joseph de Lavergne, comte de Guilleragues (1628–1684), was a French politician of the 17th century.
Eastern Party is a concept that has long been used by mainstream historians to define the reaction of a section of the population in the Third World countries against Westernization and the import of Western values in their societies. Rather than a specific political party, the term refers to a current in the public opinion of the said countries opposed to a "Western Party" of modernizers, who tend to accept Westernization as an inevitable phenomenon, which finally benefits the overall progress of Third World societies. Particularly in the history of Greece and Byzantium, this concept has been largely used by noted historians like Arnold J. Toynbee, Leften Stavrianos, Alexander Vasiliev and Nicolae Iorga, at the beginning of the 20th century and later by Dimitri Kitsikis.
The kodjabashis were local Christian notables in parts of the Ottoman Balkans, most often referring to Ottoman Greece and especially the Peloponnese. They were also known in Greek as proestoi or prokritoi or demogerontes. In some places they were elected, but, especially in the Peloponnese, they soon became a hereditary oligarchy, who exercised considerable influence and held posts in the Ottoman administration.
Mariovo and Prilep rebellion was a Christian uprising in Ottoman Macedonia that took place in 1564–65. Leaders included Dimitri(ja) Stale from Satoka, priest Dimitri(ja) from Gradešnica, Matjo Nikola from Belište, Stojan Pejo and priest Jako from Staravina.
The National Council was a legislative assembly convened during the Axis occupation of Greece in May 1944, following elections organized by the National Liberation Front (EAM). Between 1.5 and 1.8 million Greeks voted in these elections, which were also the first elections Greek women were allowed to vote in. The ca. 208 members of the Council convened in the village of Koryschades, its first session lasting from 14 to 27 May. Following the Lebanon conference and the establishment of a national unity government comprising EAM and the Greek government in exile, its role was diminished, and shortly after the liberation of Greece, on 5 November, it was dissolved.
The concept and term "National Awakening" is used by many historians, intellectuals and lay authors to refer to the revival of the Greek national self-conscious, or modern Greek nationalism, which paved the way to the Greek Revolution of 1821. Whereas most authors do not define the exact time-frame of this period, it is generally agreed that this awakening occurred in the 18th century.
Maps and Politics: A Review of the Ethnographic Cartography of Macedonia is a book written by British academic Henry Robert Wilkinson and published in 1951 by the University of Liverpool Press. It is a detailed study of 216 ethnographic maps of the region of Macedonia dating from 1730 until 1949. The book deals with the politicisation of Macedonia's geography during the era of nationalism. It explores the development of theories based on ethnography and claims made on a national basis in relation to the region. The study looks at ethnographers and their classification and distribution of local peoples in maps, their historical context, the criteria used for compiling maps and their quality, the role that either personal views or geopolitical considerations played in favouring one group over another, and knowledge of the region.
