Founding a Balkan State

Founding a Balkan State
Author: Robert Clegg Austin
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2012-09-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442699744

Founding a Balkan State examines the pivotal period in Albanian history when the country's fundamental goals and directions were most hotly contested. In 1920, liberal Albanian leaders – led by the US-educated Bishop Fan S. Noli – began working to introduce democracy to the country, hoping that it would lead to modernization, prosperity, and overturning the legacy of five hundred years of Ottoman rule. In 1924, these leaders mounted a successful revolution; by 1925, however, their forces were in retreat. Albania soon slid into dictatorship under Ahmed Bey Zogu – first as president, then as self-proclaimed king. Founding a Balkan State provides the only comprehensive assessment in English of these events. Robert C. Austin first delves into the country's weak domestic and international position both before and after the First World War, then assesses the internal and external challenges posed to its state- and nation-building efforts. Austin shrewdly demonstrates how the missed opportunities of Albania's political transition affected the course of Balkan history for decades to come.

War in the Balkans

War in the Balkans
Author: Richard C. Hall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2014-10-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1610690311

This authoritative reference follows the history of conflicts in the Balkan Peninsula from the 19th century through the present day. The Balkan Peninsula, which consists of Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and the former Yugoslavia, resides in the southeastern part of the European continent. Its strategic location as well as its long and bloody history of conflict have helped to define the Balkans' role in global affairs. This singular reference focuses on the events, individuals, organizations, and ideas that have made this region an international player and shaped warfare there for hundreds of years. Historian and author Richard C. Hall traces the sociopolitical history of the area, starting with the early internal conflicts as the Balkan states attempted to break away from the Ottoman Empire to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that ignited World War I to the Yugoslav Wars that erupted in the 1990s and the subsequent war crimes still being investigated today. Additional coverage focuses on how these countries continue to play an important role in global affairs and international politics.

History of the Balkans: Volume 2

History of the Balkans: Volume 2
Author: Barbara Jelavich
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 492
Release: 1983-07-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521274593

This volume concentrates on the Balkan wars and World War II, focusing particularly on Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia since 1945.

Kazantzakis, Volume 2

Kazantzakis, Volume 2
Author: Peter Bien
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 635
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1400824427

Putting Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis's vast output into the context of his lifelong spiritual quest and the turbulent politics of twentieth-century Greece, Peter Bien argues that Kazantzakis was a deeply flawed genius--not always artistically successful, but a remarkable figure by any standard. This is the second and final volume of Bien's definitive and monumental biography of Kazantzakis (1883-1957). It covers his life after 1938, the period in which he wrote Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, the novels that brought him his greatest fame. A demonically productive novelist, poet, playwright, travel writer, autobiographer, and translator, Kazantzakis was one of the most important Greek writers of the twentieth century and the only one to achieve international recognition as a novelist. But Kazantzakis's writings were just one aspect of an obsessive struggle with religious, political, and intellectual problems. In the 1940s and 1950s, a period that included the Greek civil war and its aftermath, Kazantzakis continued this engagement with undiminished energy, despite every obstacle, producing in his final years novels that have become world classics.

Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy, 1904-1914

Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy, 1904-1914
Author: Milan Vego
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136713379

This unique and comprehensive account describes the interplay of internal and external factors in the emergence of the Austro-Hungarian Navy from a coastal defence force in 1904 to a respectable battle force capable of the joint operations with other Triple Alliance fleets in the Mediterranean by the eve of World War I. By 1914 the Austro-Hungarian Navy was the sixth largest navy in the world and the quality of its officers and men was widely recognised by most European naval observers at the time. The book describes the relationships between naval leaders, the heir to the throne Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and the Parliament in shaping the dual Monarchy's naval policy. It also shows how the changes in foreign policy in Italy and underlying animosities between Rome and Vienna led to a naval race in the Adriatic that eventually bolstered Germany's naval position in respect to Great Britain in the North Sea.

Nations without States

Nations without States
Author: James B. Minahan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 720
Release: 1996-01-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0313034788

Russians are suppressing the Chechen; Ibo nationalism may yet tear Nigeria apart. With the end of the Cold War, any of the world's stateless peoples could be in tomorrow's headlines. This book provides an essential guide to the stateless nations suppressed or ignored during the Cold War. In more than 200 national surveys, the volume highlights the historical, political, social, economic, and diplomatic evolution of many of the currently emerging nations without states. Including nations from all continents—from the Chechen in Eastern Europe, to the Ibo in Africa, and the Quebeckers in North America—the book addresses the current nationalist resurgence by focusing on the most basic element of any nationalism, the nation itself. The book provides the only source of concise information on stateless nations. Each entry includes the nation's name and alternative names, population statistics, information on major languages and religions, geographical information, independence declarations, information on the national flag, a brief sketch of the primary national group or groups, and a profile of the nation's history and national development to the present. A chronological appendix of declarations of independence helps to set the waves of nationalism in an historical context. A second appendix provides a geographic listing, by region and nation, of national organizations.

The Ottoman Empire and Its Successors, 1801-1927

The Ottoman Empire and Its Successors, 1801-1927
Author: William Miller
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 636
Release: 2012-10-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136260463

First Published in 1966.The aim of this series is to sketch the history of Modern Europe, with that of its chief colonies and conquests, from about the end of the fifteenth century down to the present time. The series is intended for the use of all persons anxious to u1lderstand the nature of existing political conditions. The present work has been based, wherever possible, upon the original documents, and is the result of many years' study of the Eastern Question.