In the second half of the 19th century, “Balkan Peninsula” or simply “Balkan” was confirmed as a replacement for the term “European Turkey”.
In 1893 and again in 1909, the German geographer Theobald Fischer, intending to correct Zeune’s error, as well as to point out new and accurate geographical facts regarding the Balkan Mountains, proposed to call the peninsula Sudosteuropa (SE Europe). The term “Sudosteuropäische Halbinsel” (Peninsula in the SE of Europe) was introduced in 1863 by the well-known expert on the Balkans, scientist, and diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn, but his initiative did not succeed, although Wilhelm Müller, most vehemently independently of him, used both terms- The Balkan Peninsula and SE Europe – as synonyms. Miller also referred to the countries on the peninsula as the “Middle East”, considering them an apparently inseparable part of Europe, although he was aware of the habit of the inhabitants of the Balkans to refer to their trips to the West as “going to Europe”.
1715 De L’Isle Map of the Eastern Roman Empire under Constantine (Asia Minor, Black Sea, Balkans) – Geographicus, Guillaume Delisle, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
At the beginning of the 20th century, the term Balkans increasingly acquired a political connotation. It was so widespread that in 1918, the Serbian geographer Jovan Cvijić, although he himself was aware of the inaccuracy of the term, used it in his influential work on this peninsula. After 1918, the term “Balkan Peninsula” was contested for some time due to its geographical inadequacy and due to numerous prejudices related to it. In 1929, the geographer Otto Maul once again argued for the use of the term “Southeastern Europe”, considering it an adequate designation for this peninsula. In the words of Matthias Bernat, Südosteuropa was supposed to become “a neutral, non-political, non-ideological concept which, in addition, abolishes the existing historical-political dichotomy between the Danube Monarchy and the Ottoman Balkans, which had become irrelevant.” Südosteuropa became significant in the geopolitical views of the Nazis. a clearly defined place in their world order as Wirtschaftsraum Grossdeutschland Südost, “naturally determined economic and political encirclement” of the German Reich in the southeast.
The idea to replace the compromised category (the Balkans) with a neutral one (SE Europe) was accepted in the interwar period in the USA, and they use the terms Balkans and SE Europe as synonyms, emphasizing that “Balkans” and the derivative “Balkanization” have become derogatory terms.
It is very likely that in the post-war period the term SE Europe became undesirable due to misuse by the Nazis. On the other hand, even though the name was compromised, a certain number of German scientists continued to use it, but without the connotations it acquired in the interwar period.
The only difference in the interpretation of SE Europe and the Balkans can be found in the German language and literature and is a consequence of different criteria for definition, but even in that case the definition of these terms is neither comprehensive nor generally accepted. According to the broadest interpretation of the term SE Europe, given by Karl Kaiser and which is mainly based on a geographical approach, the boundaries of the region are defined by the Carpathian Mountains in the north, the Black Sea in the east, the Aegean Sea in the south, and the Ionian and Adriatic Seas in the west. SE Europe thus covers Slovakia (but not the Czech lands, even before the breakup of Czechoslovakia), Hungary, Romania, the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and the European part of Turkey. According to this interpretation, SE Europe is a comprehensive entity, and the Balkans is only its sub region. Definitions of SE Europe mostly diverge over the location of Hungary. In German reviews, Hungary is included in SE Europe, but omitted from the Balkans.
In the most general terms, the definition of the Balkans is determined by a series of geographical, political, historical, cultural, ethnic, religious, and economic criteria, and most often by their combination.
The standard approach of geographers distinguishes between a stricto sensu physical-geographical definition and a definition used for more practical purposes. The first accepts the undisputed eastern, southern, and western borders: the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean, the Mediterranean, the Ionian, and the Adriatic Sea. In the second approach, the history of Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, the former Yugoslavia, and Romania becomes the object of study.
Although, with all the nuances, it is necessary to specify that some regions are more “Balkan” than others (in an epistemological and not a moral sense), in this book the Balkan peoples will be considered Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Romanians, and all former Yugoslavs.
by Omer Merzić, MA
Dobra knjiga
