The Balkans since 1453
Author: Leften Stavros Stavrianos
Edition: 2, illustrated
Diterbitkan oleh C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2000
ISBN 1850655510, 9781850655510
970 pages
First published in 1958, The Balkans since 1453 is recognized as one of the most important critical accounts of Balkan history. In it, Stavrianos synthesizes fundamental information and describes the development of the Balkans, its people, and its nascent nation-states in a manner essential to a reasoned understanding both of Greek history, and the importance of the Balkans in European and world history.
As Greeks, we celebrate our heritage: the Golden Age of Athens and the Greek city states; Alexander the Great and his conquest of Persia and spread of Hellenism; Byzantium, which though Roman at its inception, was transmuted by a synthesis of Greek Orthodoxy and Hellenism; Greek Orthodoxy, the faith that sustained Hellenism through the Ottoman subjugation; the day, March 25 th , that commemorates the war of independence and creation of the first modern Greek state; and, OXI, Premier Metaxas’ response to Mussolini in 1940, when the Italians sought to occupy Greek territory. These, all, deserve celebration.
However an appreciation of Greek history can be much richer when it is considered in the context of the history of the Balkans, where late nineteenth and twentieth century conflicts followed two thousand years of migration and settlement by disparate peoples. The result was an eventual consolidation of ethnic groups and the formation of national states. All this transpired under Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman rule, strongly influenced by the Eastern Orthodox faith, and subject to pressures exerted by actions of the powerful states of Europe.
As Greeks, we celebrate our heritage: the Golden Age of Athens and the Greek city states; Alexander the Great and his conquest of Persia and spread of Hellenism; Byzantium, which though Roman at its inception, was transmuted by a synthesis of Greek Orthodoxy and Hellenism; Greek Orthodoxy, the faith that sustained Hellenism through the Ottoman subjugation; the day, March 25 th , that commemorates the war of independence and creation of the first modern Greek state; and, OXI, Premier Metaxas’ response to Mussolini in 1940, when the Italians sought to occupy Greek territory. These, all, deserve celebration.
However an appreciation of Greek history can be much richer when it is considered in the context of the history of the Balkans, where late nineteenth and twentieth century conflicts followed two thousand years of migration and settlement by disparate peoples. The result was an eventual consolidation of ethnic groups and the formation of national states. All this transpired under Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman rule, strongly influenced by the Eastern Orthodox faith, and subject to pressures exerted by actions of the powerful states of Europe.
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