First Jelena Branković lost her father. Then before four months could pass, in 1459 at the age of 11, she was married to the son of the King of Bosnia. Stjepan Tomasević had not even met Jelena, but they were married on 1 April 1459. Given that Tomasević had been casting around the Balkans for …
For Croats I was a Serb and a unitarian from the beginning. To Serbs, a Frankist [radical Croatian nationalist] and Ustaša; to Ustaše a dangerous Marxist and communist; to Marxists a salon communist; to clergy and believers, the antichrist who should be nailed to a shameful pillar. For the bourgeoisie after the war I am …
Jelena of Serbia, described as “plain”, but also quiet and amiable by the nanny of the Romanov children whose friendship she shared, was not what the rest of Europe’s nobility pictured when told of someone demanding the release of the Tsar and his family. And yet, Jelena was the only member of the Royal Family …
The crises in the Balkans jumped one to the next as the 1800s turned into the 1900s. Royal assassinations turned into paradigm shifts, causing strikes against the status quo. No longer wanting to be a dependent satellite of Austria-Hungary, Serbia turned toward Russia and began attempting to diversify their economics. Sensing the threat to …
The Pig War was not actually a war, and the weapons that started it were purchased, not shot. Nevertheless, when the Austro-Hungarians decided to teach Serbia a lesson, it was triggered by Serbia’s decision to purchase weapons from outside the Habsburg sphere of influence. The weapons were French, not coincidentally a treaty-partner to the …
When Serbia, which had long been considered a satellite of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, began attempting to branch out their economic and trade relationships, Austria-Hungary reacted decisively in an attempt to quell any thoughts of an independent Slavic Balkans. The result, on 1 March 1906, was the Pig War of 1906-1908. The Pig War was not …
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 …
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 …
The provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary…Austria-Hungary reserves the right to maintain garrisons and to have military and trading roads over the whole area of that portion [the Sandjak of Novi Pazar] of the ancient Vilayet of Bosnia. The diplomatic coda to the Pig War of 1906-1908 became, like …
Very rarely is a shooting war in the Balkans about the subject which everyone claims was the Cassius Belli. Sometimes it is about a political slight related the the topic, but usually it’s about money. The same is true of economic wars. The Great European Imperial Spheres of Influence criss-crossed the Balkans, and frequently collided …
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