POLITIČKO-GEOGRAFSKE KARAKTERISTIKE, ZNAČAJ I PROBLEMI BALKANA S POSEBNIM OSVRTOM NA SRPSKI ETNIČKI PROSTOR
THE GEO-POLITICAL CHARACTERISTICS, SIGNIFICANCE AND PROBLEMS OF THE BALKANS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE ON THE ETHNIC TERRITORY OF THE SERBS

Summary/Abstract: The Balkan peninsula is situated in southeast Europe. Now, as before, it connects central and western Europe with the Near and Middle East. As a result of its geographic position and of military, political, cultural, economic and other events and processes, which have taken place in Europe and the Near East from antiquity to this day, this region has been subject to both favorable and unfavorable influences, such as migrations, the exchange of economic and cultural ideas and goods, as well as repeated wars, invasions and destruction. During the 19th c., in the process of the formation of nations and nation-states, the larger port of the Balkans was under foreign rule (Austria-Hungary and Turkey) preventing the formation of larger nations and states. The region remained non homogeneous and fragmented in terms of ethnic groups,states and politics which had a negative effect on political and legal stability and the life of the population.Serbs migrated to the Balkan peninsula with the other South Slavs and occupied the central part of the peninsula, including the important valley of the river Morava. Between the 15th and 19th c. further migrations, largely due to political factors (the advance of the Turks and the Turkish-Austrian wars), caused the Serbs to also inhabit the western part of the Balkan peninsula and central Pannonia. Before the Turkish invasion the Serbs had built a strong state and had reached an enviable cultural level. In the 19th c. they were among the first Balkan peoples to rebel against Turkish rule.Yugoslavia was formed as a state in 1918. The greatest human and material contribution to its formation was borne by the Serbs. Yugoslavia represented an acceptable solution in terms of state and politics for most of the South Slavs. It was also acceptable to the Serbs as it encompassed almost the entire Serbian ethnic region in southeast Europe. However, this state could not survive It was broken up in 1991 - 1992 by the forcible secession of Slovenia and Croatia and, later, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina which led to the outbreak of war in 1991 - 1992 in former Yugoslavia.

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