ABSTRACT
Foreign as well as domestic scholars or politicians often cite the claims in choosing sides on historical or contemporary issues. And more generally, the controversies have helped to preserve for the general public and public opinion the image of the region as a contentious, eternally divided region, making “Balkanization” a synonym for any regional disorder. Mountains have also long impeded the establishment of efficient state control and the creation of denser networks of communication, as is evident even today. Their natural divisions created uncertainty over premodern borders, languages, and populations. Conflicting interpretations of events from the nineteenth and especially the violent first half of the twentieth century often rest on alleged earlier divisions. Historical writing and popular perceptions of history in Southeastern Europe have indeed created the image of an inherently antagonistic past, overlooking the many similarities in historical development and shared legacies devoid of initial ethnic conflict.
