The Balkans

This is the first attempt which has been made to present English readers with a concise account of the history of the four Balkan States. Yet the Balkan Peninsula has been in modern times what the Low Countries were in the Middle Ages—the cockpit of Europe. It is there that the eternal Eastern question has its origin; it is there too that the W est and the East, the Cross and the Crescent, meet. But it is impossible to understand the great problems, which still await solution in South-eastern Europe and are once more pressing themselves upon the attention of all thoughtful men, without some knowledge of Balkan history. The mutual jealousies of Bulgarian and Seib, the struggle of various races for supremacy in Macedonia, the alternate friendship and enmity of the Russian and the Turk are all facts, which have their root deep down in the past annals of the Balkan lands. Pew persons in Western Europe remember what has never been forgotten in the Peninsula, that there was a time when the Servian and Bulgarian Empires were great their respective rulers governed with the ■: n 1 title -A Czar a vast realm, which is still the aw ;.f when: patriots. Perusal of the following - thtabha convince the reader, that the only 'on.: aMeinen: of the mutually conflicting claims of h ;M: -rate-, which periodically endanger the j ■-f Evwww, B a Balkan Confederation, such as Met;W 1 by the kite M. Tricoupis. ho r mow -eene 1 to render the publication of;h. o k ,:;ti: Marly appropriate in the present yean hh; Bicentenary to the reigning dynasty of Monte0, g‘ an 1 the Hungarian Millenary are both largely view: with Hainan history, and both occur in live factare taken from all the principal foreign ' rM oi; ike various countries and from my personal w v wye ot the Balkan Peninsula. I am specially inaehte i to FLH. Prince Nicholas of Montenegro a v km portrait or Irnnweli; to Mr. R. J. Kennedy, v MG., British M?/gh d'affaires at Cetinje, for much a-sistar.ee; and to Mr. Hagberg Wright, of the Lwiden Library. Dacia Before the Roman Conquest (106 a.d.) 1-18 The Getce, or Dacians—Their wars with the Macedonian kings—First contact with the Romans—Bcerebistes and Cotiso—Decebalus and Domitian—Trajan’s two Dacian campaigns—His column at Rome—Manners and customs of the Dacians. The Romans in Roumania (a.d. 106-274) 19-25 Extent of the new province—Amalgamation of the colonists and natives — Origin of modern Roumanians — Their language derived from Latin—Gothic invasions—Evacuation of the province by the Romans—“Aurelian’s Dacia ! —Influence of the Roman occupation. Greeks"—Borii—[ulm Asen II.—Greatness of hulgaiiaRapid decline under his ucees ors—The Terterij dynasty «—The Sismans r,f Addin—Battle of AXlbuzd: the supremacy of Servia—John Alexander: his divided realm— Pir-t appearance of the Turks—Capture of Trnovo—The last of the C/ars—Society under the Empire. Bulgaria uxder the Turks (1398-1878).194-214 Organisation of the country—Condition of the Christians — The Voniiks —The church under Greek influence—Spiritual tvrarmv of the Phanariotes—Brigandage: Pasvanoglu— The Russian in Bulgaria: 1810 and 1829—Turkish reforms—The first Bulgarian school—The Church question— The Bulgarian atrocities—The war of 1877—Bulgaria free. The Union under Prince Alexander (1878086 ).215-232 The Russian interregnum—The Bulgarian Constitution— Prince Alexander—The coup d'etat of 1881 —Friction with Russia—Union of the two Bulgarias—Fury of the Czar— The Servian AAhir—The Battle of Slivnitza and its results— Kidnapping of the Prince—His return and abdication.

Republished by Liber Copia LLC for convenient study and reference on any device.