Balkanization

The breakup or division of a region or nation-state into smaller political, ethnic, or religious units, often who share strong mutual animosities. The term derives from the frequent disruption and modification of boundaries in the shatterbelt of southeastern Europe. It is an expression of territoriality and is often a violent process. Balkanization of a region may be brought on by devolution and centrifugal forces, and has been a common phenomenon in the aftermath of imperialism. This is because the colonial powers ignored for the most part the multiple expressions of cultural identity in the administrative regions they created and did not promote the concept of a unified identity among the groups living in those regions. Indeed, in many cases the formation of such an identity was actively discouraged by colonial policy. Trends toward balkanization have been evident in Eurasia and Africa in recent decades, as states that gained independence in the post–World War II era struggled to solidify both their territorial integrity and their national identity.

The potential consequences of balkanization may be seen in the term’s origin. “Balkanization” was first popularized as a geopolitical concept in the late 19th century. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, the major European powers established a series of independent or semi-independent states in the region of the Balkan Peninsula, all carved from lands previously controlled by the Ottoman Empire. These included the Kingdoms of Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro, as well as a Bulgarian state that was semi-independent. For the next several decades, the region was beset by almost constant political conflict and border changes. The states either fought one another in limited regional conflicts, as in the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885; banded together to fight the Ottoman state in the form of the Balkan League in the first Balkan War (1912); or fought a region-wide war among themselves over territory, as in the second Balkan War (1913). Ultimately, the tensions in the region and the resultant alliances would serve as the spark for World War I, only a year after the second Balkan War concluded. Balkanization came to signify the disintegration of any region into smaller states that are plagued by seemingly intractable territorial and ethnic rivalries. Ironically, after almost 70 years as a unitary state, the balkanization of the Yugoslav state in the 1990s presented a modern reminder of both the origin and the consequences of the term.