History and Geography

The 1990s dilemma in Bosnia is the latest in a long line of conflicts in the Balkans.  This region has become notorious for its instability and constantly changing political map.  Even in the days of the Roman Empire, the Balkans served as a crossroads between Catholic and Orthodox parts of the Empire.  It was the middle ground between Christians and Muslims in the Crusades.  Then we all know how World War I went down.  Even in the Cold War, the Iron Curtain split straight through the Balkan Peninsula.  That brings us up to the conflicts of recent decades.  It’s too easy, though, just to say that the Balkans are a point of conflict just because they are the Balkans, and that’s because while there is definitely a trend of conflict in the region, there is not a consistent cause for these conflicts.  It’s not enough to say that there’s a bunch of conflicting ethnic groups, since the events of the area have revolved around everything from ethnicity to religion to politics over hundreds of years.  So it is intriguing to explore the possible reason for all of these inherently different types of conflicts happening in the same place.

I think a major contributing factor to the constant conflicts in the Balkans is the geography of the peninsula.  If you’re going to divide the world up into pieces, the Balkans don’t really fit into the puzzle any way you slice it.  You want to divide Western and Eastern Europe?  Sure, England and France are in the West while Russia and Ukraine are in the East, but the Balkans don’t obviously fit into either category.  They’re also wedged between Europe and Asia, and wedged between the Mediterranean and Black Sea.  Another major geographical characteristic of the region is a lack of natural resources; the area is mountainous and lacks a lot of good farmland.  This could be the reason that the Balkan nations have found themselves surrounded by big power blocks.  The Greeks and Macedonians expanded south through the seas rather than north through the mountains.  The Romans expanded east rather than north in the same manner.  Then you have the Christian Europeans whose land path to Jerusalem is impeded by the Balkans.  So there are a number of geographical characteristics that might explain why so many major powers seem to form around the Balkans rather than in the Balkans.  And when you have lots of major powers forming around one area…there you go.