The Balkan Wars from Perception to Remembrance

Abstract

The years 2012–13 marked the centennial of the Balkan Wars, which preceded the First World War and reshaped the map of Southeastern Europe. The states existing today in the area can hardly offer a satisfactory framework for exploring the history of the two Balkan Wars, which exerted a more profound impact on the region than even the Great War. And yet, in Southeastern Europe, scholars addressing and researching these first European wars of the twentieth century have mostly adopted a traditional military and/or political history perspective, firmly rooted in the respective national master narratives of the former belligerents. This volume challenges precisely these master narratives. In the face of the “memory boom” prompted by the recent centenaries, it combines contemporary perceptions and those of historical memory in light of the fact that the Balkan Wars have yet to find their appropriate place within the collective historical memory of twentieth-century warfare in Europe.