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 …
Comrades, today is the day when we should show our devotion to our viceroy by reacting and destroying the Ethiopians for three days. For three days I give you carte blanche to destroy and kill and do what you wan to the Ethiopians. —Federal Secretary Guido Cortese On 19 February, which is Yekatit 12 in the …
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 …
A swashbuckling history of pirates and slave traders, and a legend of Miguel Cervantes being held as a slave in the local tower are all part of the colorful background of the town of Ulcinj. And it is the descendants of those who were left behind after the slave trade ended that are the most …
As is emblematic of Balkan countries, when the Greek Prime Minister and head of the Fourth of August Regime, Ioannis Metaxas, died of septicemia from a throat abscess on 29 January 1940 there were whispers of a dark conspiracy of assassination. The whispers seemed to converge on the arrival of a British medic who …
In February 1979, Joe Biden – the future American president – attended the funeral of Edvard Kardelj in Yugoslavia. Kardelj, although scarcely remembered outside the former Yugoslavia, was a figure of enormous importance in his time. An early adopter of communism (at age 16 in 1926), he spent time in a Kingdom of Jugoslavia jail …
It was pretty much a requirement that politicians of a certain age in Yugoslavia have served as Partizans during World War II, and Džemal Bijedić was no exception to that rule. Raised by Muslim parents in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, by 1939 Bijedić had joined the League of Communists. He was arrested at least four …
When Enver Hoxha proclaimed The People’s Republic of Albania on 11 January 1946, no one was quite sure how the man had gotten himself into such a position. Hoxha was a communist, and he had fought as a Partisan during World War II. By March 1943, the former French teacher had been formally elected First …
In the end, the man who spent nine years denouncing colleagues in the Soviet Union, leading to hundreds of interrogations and at least 15 executions, was executed himself. It creates an interesting juxtaposition – the Imre Nagy of before the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and the Imre Nagy to led the short-lived government of the …
For faster login or register use your social account.
[fbl_login_button redirect="" hide_if_logged="" size="large" type="continue_with" show_face="true"]
