Anka Obrenović, who was also called Ana, was self-confident and fearless. She loved her last name and luxury. Because of her love of Viennese fashion, she was nicknamed “Anka Pomodarka”. She was killed in 1868 in the Topčider forest during the assassination of Mihailo Obrenović, and it is little known that she tried to protect …
Rebellions against the Ottoman Empire were not solely the province of the Christian Ottoman subjects. On 29 March 1831 an army of Bosnian subjects, 1/3 of them Christian, marched toward the Ottoman headquarters in Travnik. At its head was the son of a Bosnian noble family, the Captain of Gradačac, Husein Gradaščević, the Dragon of …
The history of the Balkans is rife with the arguments of other nations playing out amongst the Slavic nations of south-west Europe. Nowhere is this illustrated better than through the events of the 1800s. As Russia became increasingly able to turn away from the endless wars of the Caucasus, the Balkans of the retreating …
The best way to explain a thing tends to be the simplest – and the rise of memes have presented history with an unprecedented opportunity to get to the “truthiness” of historical situations. Thus we can explain the four hundred+ year rivalry between Austria and Russia in the Balkans this way: Of course, the …
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 …
When King Cetshwayo died on 8 February 1884, the circumstances were suspicious. Officially his death was due to a heart attack, but not even the British representatives who observed his autopsy could agree on whether or not the last independent king of the Zulu had been poisoned. Cetshwayo’s life was remarkable in many ways. His …
At break of day a signal of three smacks of a whip called them to work, when each betook himself with his spade to the plantation, where they worked almost naked in the heat of the sun. Their food was bruised or boiled maize or bread made of cassava root, their clothing a single piece …
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 – 1878 marked the end of the Ottoman domination of the Balkans, and set off the dominoes which would change the religious and political balance of power throughout Europe. The Turks won the Crimean War against Russia in 1856, but the cost of victory was so high that it set …
Bulgaria celebrates its independence on 22 September, which was the date that (now) Tsar Ferdinand issued his proclamation in the old Bulgaria capital of Tarnovo. To much of the rest of the world, the date was already 5 October – but the truth is that the actual date mattered far less than the momentous events …
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