Seeing the present in the past: Byzantium and the Balkans

The legacy of the Byzantine Empire in the Balkans stretches back for centuries. Today’s politics should remember that the thought of Balkan states as homogenous entities is not natural. This is simply a comparatively fresh thought that was realized through violence, population exchanges and expulsion at the turn of the 20th century. This process then continued well into the 1990s with the Yugoslav Wars.

The Byzantine Empire is the medieval successor to the ancient Roman Empire. Its origins are traditionally traced back to the time erstwhile the Roman Empire began to re-position its centre of power towards the east Mediterranean, adopted Constantinople as its capital, adopted Greek (rather than Latin) as its primary language, and Christianity as its authoritative religion. This all about happened in the period between the years 300 and 400.