Paramilitarism in the Balkans

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitar Tasić
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
World War ◽  
Building Projects ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Career Trajectories ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

This book is analysing the origins and manifestations of paramilitary violence in three neighbouring Balkan countries—Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Albania after the First World War. It shows the role of paramilitarism in internal as well as in external policies in all three above-mentioned states, and it focuses on the main actors and perpetrators of paramilitary violence, their social backgrounds, motivations and future career trajectories. It also places the region into the broader European context of booming paramilitarism that came as the result of first global conflict, dissolution of old empires, creation of nation-states and simultaneous revolutions. While paramilitarism in most of post-Great War European states was the product of violence of the First World War and brutalization which societies of both victorious and defeated countries went through, paramilitarism in the Balkans was closely connected with the already existing traditions originating from the period of armed struggle against the Ottoman rule, and state and nation building projects of the late 19th and early 20th century. Paramilitary traditions here were so strong that in all subsequent crises and military conflicts in the Balkans, i.e. the Second World War and Wars of Yugoslav Succession during the 1990’s, the legacy of paramilitarism remained alive and present. Among several features of paramilitarism in the Balkans 1917 - 1924 this book analyse strong inclination towards guerrilla warfare as the integral part of the warfare culture of the Balkans paramilitaries.

Origins

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-27
Author(s):  
Dmitar Tasić
Keyword(s):  
State Building ◽  
First World War ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
World War ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Balkan Wars ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

Chapter I presents the story of origins of modern Balkan paramilitaries which was shaped during the late 19th—early 20th century nation and state building processes in the Balkans. Existing traditions of guerrilla warfare were used during the struggle between Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia over Ottoman Macedonia when all three countries initiated sending of small armed bands to Macedonia in order to protect their own and intimidate rivals followers. It also describes appearance of Albanian national movement and how Balkan countries used their respective paramilitaries during the Balkan Wars 1912-1913 and the First World War. It also shows how during the Toplica uprising in 1917 against Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian occupation regimes in Serbia happened yet another bloody encounter of Serbian, Bulgarian and Albanian paramilitaries. Situation after the First World War was characterised by adjusting to new realities, by creation of new organizations and by arrival of non-Balkan actors—‘White’ Russians émigrés and former participants in Russian revolutions. Both groups brought their own experiences, visions and rivalries.

تطورات رومانيا الداخلية وسياستها الخارجية أبان الحرب العالمية الاولى حتى احتلال بخارست (آب 1914 – كانون الاول 1916)

لارك ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
فهد عويد عبد
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
World War ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Political Unity ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Balkan Region ◽  
First World

The Balkan region in general and Romania in particular have witnessed major political developments during the First World War. Suffice it to say that the first outbreak of war began from the Balkans, namely Sarajevo, and ended in the Balkans, where the last peace treaties were signed with the surrender of Bulgaria on September 29, 1918. Years of War The Balkans were generally a theater in which the armies of the belligerents demonstrated their military capabilities. Moreover, in the same period, both sides of the conflict (the Axis Powers or the Wafd States) were struggling to obtain the support of the Balkans, including Romania, Sugary, political and economic, both on military operations or planed Supply issues or control over trade routes, and on the other side of Romania was seeking for its part to take advantage of the chance of war to the maximum extent possible to achieve the national dream of achieving political unity.

A Bridge across the Rhine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Carrol
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Regional Population ◽  
First World ◽  
Dividing Line

This chapter introduces Alsace and contextualizes its interwar experience by tracing its longer history. Alsace was gradually incorporated into France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, annexed into Germany in 1871, and then returned to France in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War and the Alsatian Revolution. Across these years, transfers of Alsatian sovereignty led to movements of the border between France and Germany. This chapter discusses Alsatian experiences of these years, and suggests that their impact was to unify the regional population that was divided by confession, class, gender, and milieu. In doing so it considers the ways in which cross-border contact shaped Alsatian society, while evolving ideas about borders ensured that the boundary was increasingly described as a dividing line between nation states.

scholarly journals The Austro-Hungarian occupation regime in Serbia and its break-down in 1918

Balcanica ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 107-133
Author(s):  
Dimitrije Djordjevic
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Great War ◽  
First World

This paper discusses the occupation of Serbia during the First World War by Austro-Hungarian forces. The first partial occupation was short-lived as the Serbian army repelled the aggressors after the Battle of Kolubara in late 1914, but the second one lasted from fall 1915 until the end of the Great War. The Austro-Hungarian occupation zone in Serbia covered the largest share of Serbia?s territory and it was organised in the shape of the Military Governorate on the pattern of Austro-Hungarian occupation of part of Poland. The invaders did not reach a clear decision as to what to do with Serbian territory in post-war period and that gave rise to considerable frictions between Austro-Hungarian and German interests in the Balkans, then between Austrian and Hungarian interests and, finally, between military and civilian authorities within Military Governorate. Throughout the occupation Serbia was exposed to ruthless economic exploitation and her population suffered much both from devastation and from large-scale repression (including deportations, internments and denationalisation) on the part of the occupation regime.

scholarly journals Bulgarian crimes against civilians in occupied Serbia during the First World War

Balcanica ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 357-390
Author(s):  
Milovan Pisarri
Keyword(s):  
War Crimes ◽  
First World War ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
World War ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Great War ◽  
First World

Since sufferings of civilian populations during the First World War in Europe, especially war crimes perpetrated against civilians, have - unlike the political and military history of the Great War - only recently become an object of scholarly interest, there still are considerable gaps in our knowledge, the Balkans being a salient example. Therefore, suggesting a methodology that involves a comparative approach, the use of all available sources, cooperation among scholars from different countries and attention to the historical background, the paper seeks to open some questions and start filling lacunae in our knowledge of the war crimes perpetrated against Serb civilians as part of the policy of Bulgarization in the portions of Serbia under Bulgarian military occupation.

The Nationalization of the Masses

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger D. Markwick ◽  
Nicholas Doumanis
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Masses ◽  
First World

Europe was a continent of nation states by the mid-twentieth century. But it was not always thus. The patchwork quilt of nation states and the nationalism that coloured them in were forged by massive social and political shifts that had been gathering momentum since the late nineteenth century. Viewing nations and nationalism as constructs of modern, global capitalism, often legitimated by national mythologies old and new, this chapter surveys the forces at work: from above and below, from centre and periphery. The First World War raised nationalism to white heat, and as multi-ethnic empires faltered, myriad subaltern nationalisms erupted, demanding ‘self-determination’, the watchword of the post-war peace settlements. But the war also unleashed internationalist class challenges to belligerent nationalism, culminating in the 1917 Russian Revolution. Thereafter, European nationalism assumed its most truculent guise: fascism and military dictatorships warring against class in the name of ethnic, national, and biological purity.

scholarly journals German propaganda in the Balkans during the First World War

Balcanica ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 69-78
Author(s):  
Stratos Dordanas
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Commercial Networks ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Publishing Groups ◽  
First World

Immediately after the outbreak of the First World War Germany mobilized hu?man resources from all fields and put up all the necessary funds to counter British and French propaganda. In a very short period of time, it was in a position to organize its own propaganda networks abroad, to a large extent, by using the respective commercial networks and the pre-war enterprises operating in various countries. It was the neutral countries around the world that were among the primary targets of German propaganda. In the Balkans particular effort was made to create a favourable climate for the Central Powers and prevail over the adverse British and French influence. With the assistance of commercial circles and the appropriation of large sums of money, newspapers, journalists and publishing groups were bought off, information offices set up, agents recruited, politi?cal parties and politicians bribed, and pro-German parties founded. The aim was to influ?ence public opinion, promote the German version of war developments, and manipulate political leaders to give up their stance of neutrality and make the decision for their coun?try to take part in the war on the side of Germany. However, even though Berlin focused its attention on the Balkans where the major propaganda networks were organized, the propaganda campaigns proved to be essentially ineffective. Following Bulgaria?s entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers and the destruction of Serbia, first Romania and then Greece joined the Entente, finding themselves on the winning side at the war?s end.

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