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Three Players in the Balkan Sandbox

The last thousand years of Balkan history is a tale of three powers pulling on the limbs of an infant, as in the Biblical parable of Solomon’s wisdom.  The Balkan baby is yanked first toward Austria, then toward Russia, and all the while the Ottoman Empire is pulling steadily on its legs.  The arguments between …

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We Must Stop the Bear!

The Balkans has always been a point of contention between the East and the West, and although the various incarnations of Hungary, Austria, and Austria-Hungary tended to dominate next to the advancing Ottoman Army, Russia was always nipping at the edges and creating leverage with the large number of Orthodox Slavs in Central Europe.  That …

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One Battle of Many

Prince Eugene of Savoy was relentless. With few exceptions he swept through the Balkans and set the Ottoman Empire, formerly the terrifying ascendent power galloping relentlessly through Europe, back on its heels. And so it was on 5 August 1716 when the Prince, with significantly fewer forces than those of the Ottoman Grand Vizier, managed …

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The Battle of Petrovaradin and a Tardy Death Warrant

The Vojvodina town of Petrovaradin, now part of Novi Sad, Serbia, was first settled in 4,500 BC during the Stone Age.  Since that time, it was the scene of battles between great and regional powers over a dozen times.  In a way, it exemplifies the fortunes of the Balkans themselves, caught between shifting alliances and …

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  • July 31, 2020
  • Serbia , Serbia , Serbia
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The Rabbi That Started It All

When Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain on 31 July 1492, they were welcomed with open arms into the Ottoman-ruled Balkans.  Thus the Balkans, and particularly Sarajevo, came to be populated with Sephardic Jews to the extent that at the height of the community’s population, 20% of Sarajevo was Jewish and 10% of …

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  • July 27, 2020
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One Man and a City History

After Eugene of Savoy sacked Sarajevo in 1697, the city had a very rough century-and-a-half.  Nearly all the wooden buildings had been burned to the ground and many of the stone buildings had suffered significant damage.  The city’s Catholic population had fled in fear of retribution, following the Austrian army which had specifically targeted Muslim …

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  • June 2, 2020
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The Little Man Who Burned a City

The oil portraits don’t really do him justice.  Prince Eugene of Savoy was short, even for the seventeenth century.  He had buck-teeth.  His nose overpowered his face, he looked sickly, and people remarked on how ugly he was. Also, his mother was booted from France for poisoning people.   Despite his appearance and rumors of participation …

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  • May 20, 2020
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A Great Big Hole in Defense

Werk IV, Pašino Brdo, Sarajevo When the Austro-Hungarians occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, they began a vast construction project of forts around the country, in particular around the city of Sarajevo.  The forts, constructed in the typically solid Austrian style, were meant to protect from the most likely invasion – a Serb army sweeping …

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