ABSTRACT

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part attempts to provide a more inclusive and critical account of how conspiracy theories emerged and developed across different historical periods and in various parts of the world. It discusses the impact of wartime, nationalism, extremist political movements and totalitarian regimes, which led to the fabrication and use of various conspiracy theories as political tools. The part explains the particular attraction of conspiracy theories in the Balkans, and why they persisted – not least because of the residual communist political culture and the outbreak of war in the 1990s. It aims to emphasise the fact that the prominence of conspiracy in Turkey is a legacy of that country’s particular history. Yet, historians usually consider that a recognisably modern form of conspiracy theory appeared during the early modern period at the earliest, and was a result of changes in political, social and cultural conditions.