L’Imaginaire spatial dans la formation des consciences collectives et des programmes politiques : les Balkans, un cas d’école

• Main Author: Nenad Fejic
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université des Antilles 2020-06-01
• Series: Études Caribéennes
• Subjects: Balkans; Balkanization; Ottoman Empire; public opinion; European chancelleries; orientalism
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/etudescaribeennes/13349

The concept of ‘Balkanization’, as well as the verb ‘to Balkanize’ have been adopted in the western political culture more than a century ago, without ever being questioned, neither on their origins, nor on the precise circumstances under which they have been adopted. The object of this paper is, first to underline that the Balkans have always been, from Late Antiquity, through the Middle Ages, until modern times, an area of contact and exchange between different cultures, religions and political systems. Then, special attention is drawn to the period of Ottoman rule in the Balkans, and the period of national revolutions in the 19t century. These national revolutions have been acclaimed by the Western public opinions. However, the Western governments did not share this enthusiasm because they feared for the future of the Ottoman Empire, and the perspective of its disintegration. Therefore, they often accused the young nations of disturbing the peaceful Ottoman rule. However, the Balkanization -i.e. the fragmentation of the Balkan Peninsula- was rather a consequence of the policy of great European powers in that region. These great powers, by pursuing their own selfish interests jeopardized, more than young Balkan nations the peace and security of South-Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th, and at the beginning of the 20th century.