How did nationalism cause unrest in the Balkans in the late 1800's?

Question

How did nationalism cause unrest in the Balkans in the late 1800's

Answer 1

The key to understanding the unrest in the 1800's is to understand the multi-ethnic nature of the Balkans. After the fall of Rome, the remaining eastern empire began to Hellenize (become Greek), however, from the 400's on, Europe (and especially the Balkans) saw waves of migrations from the east. The Balkans had migrations of Huns, Goths, Gepids, Avars, Cumans, Pechnegs, Croats, Serbs, Maygars, Bulgars, and Vlachs, all of whom either settled within the Byzantine Empire or fought it for control for the region.

When the Ottomans invaded Europe, they managed to take the whole of the Balkans over the years, and held onto it into the 1800's. During this time, they were generally unable to assimilate the population of the Balkans (those who did assimilate generally didn't stay home), so each ethnic group retained their heritage and memories of the struggles to hold off the Ottomans. As soon as the Empire grew weak, everyone in the region began to clamor for freedom from the Turks.

Unfortunately, various migrations over the years meant that the region was not ethnically concentrated - every area contained a significant minority of one or more other ethnicity. While each ethnicity wanted independence, they also wanted to unite the various areas that contained their people - even if that meant denying self-rule to other ethnicities (even ethnicities that may have a local majority. Because of this, the European powers sometimes asserted that the locals were not ready for self-governance, and thus would meddle in their affairs. The British heavily meddled in Greek affairs, Russia meddled with the Slavic countries, the Hapsburgs dominated the Serbs, Bosnians, and Croats after they managed to throw off the Turks.

Whenever a war would affect the borders of the region, all the other newly established countries would start another round of wanting to expand their borders as well - or regain lost territory (both at each other's expense, and from the Turks). The major powers, all of whom had interests in the region, would start to take sides, and posture and bluff. This led to even more tension - leading to several wars in the area and finally World War I.