What were the sources of tension in the Balkans?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. The territories of the Balkans were caught in the tensions among three large empires: Austria, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. All three were seeking to gain the territories of the Balkans at the expense of one another and for different reasons. The Ottoman Empire had possession of these territories but was declining in power. Russia had both cultural affiliation with their Slavic counterparts and popular support in its empire for the Pan-Slavic ideology. Further, Russia feared being cut off from access to the Mediterranean, a potential disaster following destruction of its naval forces in the Russo-Japanese War. The Austria occupied a number of territories near its eastern border and had annexed Bosnia-Herzogovina in 1908, but it struggled with the various nationalist movements of component states in their empire. Several Ottoman territories had gained independence, including Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Albania. This served as an example for the remaining Balkan states to work more strongly toward their own independence. Religious loyalties added to the tensions because the people of the Balkans were Eastern Orthodox (except for Albania, which had large numbers of Roman Catholics and Muslims), whereas the Ottomans were Muslim. There were contested borders among all of the states. A series of Balkan Wars broke out in 1912 and 1913, but these were quickly suppressed. These roots of discord in the Balkans led Gavrilo Princeps to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which resulted in the initiation of World War I in 1914.