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Historical Dictionary |
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Narratives : History of Eastern Europe http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narreeurope.html |
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The foundation of Constantinople as a fortified capital city on the
Bosphorus in 330 was to have an impact lasting into the 20th
century. Defended against the land side by a triple ring of walls, surrounded on three sides by water, any enemy intending to
take the city had to control both the land and the sea, in order to effectively impose a siege. The Byzantinians had a secret
weapon - Greek Fire. Constantinople, with the exception of the
episode of the Latin Empire, held out for over 1100 years, until
the Ottoman Conquest in 1453. The Byzantinian Empire, in contrast to its predecessor, the Roman Empire, was christian, her economy thus not based on the exploitation of slave labour. At first a monetary economy, her state revenue based on taxation - excessive taxation after the costly wars and construction projects of Emperor Justinian (527-565). Italy, much of the Balkans peninsula, Syria and Egypt were lost to invaders in part because the overtaxed population sympathized with the conquerors, in part because the Empire could no longer afford to finance an effective defense. In the 8th century, the remnant of the Byzantine Empire was reorganized along feudal lines; villages in border areas were settled by warrior farmers. The Empire went through internal strife over the issue of icons and iconoclasm. In the 9th to 11th centuries, the Byzantine Empire recovered territory - Crete, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Antioch, briefly even Damascus. In the 9th century, Patriarch of Constantinople Photius pursued a policy of sending missionaries; the Bulgarians were converted 865, the Old Slavonic church liturgy developed, as was the Glagolithic script. The Russians converted to Orthodox Christianity in 988. The crushing defeat the Byzantinians were handed by the Seljuk Turks in the Battle of Mantzikert marks the beginning of a new crisis. Anatolia, a stronghold ever since the establishment of the Byzantine Empire, now was defenseless, most of it taken by the Seljuks. They seemed such a threat, that Emperor Alexius I. Comnenus asked Pope Urban V. to send military aid - the first crusade (1095-1099). The fourth crusade conquered Constantinople and transformed the Byzantine into the Latin Empire. The latter was an instable unit. The crusaders were interested in securing personal fiefs, the first Latin Emperor died within a year. The policy of trying to force Catholicism on an Orthodox population did not make the new government popular. Many outlying territories became independent. Bulgaria had seceded already in 1185/1186, Serbia became independent, Byzantine breakaway states emerged in Epirus, Nicaea, Trebizond. The Seljuk Turks (they not unified either) benefitted from the situation. In 1261, Michael Palaeologus, de facto ruler of Nicaea, retook Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire, onl\y a shadow of what it used to be in 1204. The Byzantine Empire quickly declined, ruling over little territory outside city walls before the Ottoman Turks launched the final attack in 1453. Following the 4th crusadem the Balkans peninsula was politically fragmentized; in the 14th century, under King Stephen Dusan, Serbia temporarily seemed to arise as a new dominant power. Then the Ottoman Turks appeared as a force in SE Europe. they quickly established their domination over SE Europe, taking Constantinople in 1453, the last christian outposts on mainland Greece around 1540; in 1526 they crushed the Hungarian army. Until 1683, the Balkans peninsula enjoyed political stability under Ottoman rule - the millet system, the boy levy, the per capita tax were part of political reality. From 1683 onward, the Ottoman Empire experienced a gradual, long decline, ending in its dissolution in 1924. In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was referred to as the "Sick Man of Europe". The Tanzimat Reforms, implemented by a liberal administration, were unable to prevent further deterioration, caused in part by predatory attacks on the Empire by foreign enemies. The spread of the ideology of nationalism was particularly dangerous to the Ottoman Empire, which represented an ethnic kaleidoscope. Greece and Serbia were the first regions (next to Montenegro) to gain autonomy/independence. Moldavia and Walachia, merging into Romania, followed; the Bulgarian Rebellion of 1876 was regarded as threatening to the existence of the Ottoman state. The Ottoman Empire, gradually losing territory, survived politically, because Britain was unwilling to see Russia take control of the Straits (Anglo-Russian Rivalry), and during the Crimean War 1853-1856 had shown here resolve. The dissolution of the European possessions of the Ottoman Empire in the two Balkan Wars 1912-1913 and 1913 were part of a Balkan nationalist frenzy, in which the Balkan states (entities of secondary to tertiary importance in the Concert of Europe) expanded their territory, often taking in large ethnic minorities - such as the largely Albanian Kosovo acquired by Serbia, or the city of Salonica acquired by Greece, which, before the war, had a Greek population segment of 4 %. The assassination of Austrian Archduke and heir Franz Ferdinand on June 28th 1914 by Serb patriot and secret agent Gavrilo Princip lead to WW I, and afterward, to a reorganization of the map, with Serbia (SHS) and Romania emerging as the big winners. The Balkans states continued to be political entities of secondary importance in the concert of Europe, states with domestic problems. The assassination of a Croat member of SHS parliament resulted in the King dissolving parliament and imposing royal dictatorship; the country was renamed Yugoslavia. In Bulgaria, pm Alexander Stambulov was assassinated in 1923. Greece changed from monarchy to republic to monarchy. In WW II, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary became unwilling allies of Nazi Germany; Yugoslavia and Greece were occupied in a brief campaign in 1941 (after Italy had failed to defeat the Greeks in 1940). The Balkans was of some importance because of the Romanian oil, and of the partizans in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia, After WW II, the Balkans was partitioned in Russian and British zones of influence; in the Russian zone, People's Democracies were established; in Greece, Britain supported the ultimately victorious democratic side in the Greek Civil War. Yugoslavia became a People's Democracy, but remained outside the sphere of Soviet control. The Cold War actually returned stability to the Balkans peinisula. With the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism in 1989, instability returned, most notably in Yugoslavia, which disintegrated and experienced bloody civil war, with ethnic cleansing in parts of Croatia, in Bosnia-Hercegovina (1992-1996) and the Kosovo (1996-1999). Recorded history of the Russian state begins with Rurik taking control of Novgorod in 862; his son Oleg conquered Kiev in 882, establishing Kievan Rus as a pagan state with a Varangian nobility and a Slavic populace. In 988, Orthodox christianity was introduced. The Varangians assimilated into the Slavic culture. In 1240, Kiev was conquered by the Kipchak Tatars which established the Khanate of the Golden Horde. Kievan Rus disintegrated into numerous principalities, dependent on the Golden Horde, the most important ones the Republic of Novgorod and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy. In the 14th century the Khanate of the Golden Horde declined; the Grand Duchies of Lithuania and of Muscovy expanded, competing for Russian territory. The west - modern Belarus and Ukraine) came under Lithuanian rule, and would remain so for centuries to come. In the 15th century, the Khanate of the Golden Horde disintegrated, while Muscovy became a major force. In 1547, Ivan IV., Grand Duke of Muscovy, was crowned Czar of all the Russias. He campaigned against Livonia, Lithuania, conquered Kazan and Astrakhan (and saw Crimean Tatars raid as far as Moscow). Following his death, Russia went through the Time of Troubles, which was ended when Michael Romanov was crowned Czar in 1613, beginning the Romanov Dynasty. His descendant Peter the Great (1689-1725) began a drastic policy of Westernization (construction of St. Petersburg 1702, establishment of a modern navy and army), continued by Catherine the Great, an enlightened absolute ruler (education reform, colonization of Ukrainian plains). Russian rulers implemented reforms following the model of western European economies and states, but, except for establishing an autocracy and supporting a privileged nobility, failed to implement social reforms. The mass of the Russians were serfs, accustomed to being told what to do, illiterate. The 19th and 20th century saw Russia experience economic and social developments - the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, rapid population increase, without the government having a concept how to deal with these phenomena. Only after being defeated in the Crimean War did Russia liberate her serfs. The construction of schools resulted in a rise of the literacy rate, but the dissatisfaction among peasants and the urban intelligentsia alike remained high. Russia denied her people a representative assembly until 1905, when the Duma was established. Among the intelligentsia, the Nihilists won many followers; one of them assassinated Czar Alexander II. in 1881. The government tried to distract the dissatisfied masses; anti-Semitic pogroms were launched; a Russification policy was pursued in ethnically non-Russian areas to appease Russian nationalists. Dissatisfaction remained high; the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 triggered the Russian Revolution of 1905, the establishment of the Duma and legalization of political parties the lasting consequence. Following the disastrous series of defeats in WW I, Russia experienced the February and October Revolutions of 1917, in the latter the Bolzheviks established their control over Moscow and Petrograd (St. Petersburg; soon to be Leningrad), in the Russian Civil War they defeated the Whites and established control over Russia, reconstituted as the RSFSR, a People's Republic with state-planned economy. In 1921 Lenin had to reintroduce a limited market economy (NEP). Stalin, between 1928 and 1953, was virtual dictator; he pursued a policy of massive industrialization, of enforced collectivization, and he persecuted political rivals, real and potential ones, individuals and groups, even resettling entire ethnic groups. The steel and arms industry Stalin had created enabled the USSR (est. 1922) to withstand the German invasion. Following WW II, the USSR was one of the two remaining superpowers; her influence was extended over the satellite states in Eastern Central Europe. Stalinist policies were extended to these states. In 1956 Nikita Khrushchev launched the Destalinization policy (Stalin had died in 1953); the USSR experienced a liberalization, and had major international successes (Sputnik 1957, Gagarin first man in space 1961; Soviet athletes were successful at the Olympic Games). The Hungarian rebellion against Russian occupation and communist rule in 1956 was quickly crushed. Khrushchev was a reformer, but, in the ongoing Cold War (Berlin Wall 1961, Cuban Missile Crisis 1962) had to make concessions to the hawks, and in 1964 was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev, who focussed on foreign policy and pursued a domestic no-change policy (1964-1982). He was followed by a quick succession of Gerontocrats, who again were succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991), a Communist who atrempted to genuinely reform the USSR. Free elections were held, the Ruble made convertible (which resulted in a drastic drop in the average Russian's standard of living), the satellite states were permitted to introduce multiparty democracies. An attempted coup d'etat by hardline communists failed; Gorbachev resigned late in 1991. He had no successor; the USSR disintegrated. |
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EXTERNAL FILES |
| REFERENCE |
Alexander Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire,
Vol.I : 324-1081, University of Wisconsin Press (1952) 1980, 374 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.5 V334h George Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State, Rutgers University Press 1986 (German original 1952), 623 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.5 O85h John Freely, Istanbul, the Imperial City. London : Penguin 1996; KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.618 F854i B. Raymond, P. Duffy, Historical Dictionary of Russia, Methuan : Scarecrow 1998, KMLA Lib.Sign. R 947.8 R268h Jan Zaprudnik, Historical Dictionary of Belarus, Methuen : Scarecrow 1998, KMLA Lib.Sign. R 947.8 Z35h John Channon, The Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia, London : Penguin 1995, KMLA Lib.Sign. R 947 C458p Melvin K. Wren, Course of Russian History, Waveland 1997, 617 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 947 W945 Charles E. Ziegler, The History of Russia, Greenwood 1999, 272 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 947 Z66t R.J. Crampton, A Concise History of Bulgaria, Cambridge : UP 1997, KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.7 S 817a Richard Clogg, A Concise History of Greece, 1992, KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.5 C643a Kurt W. Treptow e.a., Historical Dictionary of Romania, Methuen : Scarecrow 1996, 384 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. R 949.8 T795h Fred Singleton, A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples, Cambridge University Press (1985) 1999, KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.7 S617a Istvan Lazar (ed.), Transylvania - a Short History, Simons Publications 2001, 274 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 949.84 L431t Mark Dragoumis etc. (ed.), Historical Dictionary of Greece, Methuan : Scarecrow 1995, 278 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. R 949.5 V492b Metin Heper, Historical Dictionary of Turkey, Methuan : Scarecrow 2002, 343 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. R 956.1 H529h Douglas A. Howard, The History of Turkey, Greenwood 2001, 272 pages; KMLA Lib.Sign. 956.1 H848h Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History, NY University Press 1999, 492 pp., KMLA Lib. Sign. 949.71 M243k |
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