ABSTRACT
The Balkan peninsula is characterized both by geographical unity and a unity imposed by history. The word 'Balkanization' is often used to mean fragmentation and turbulence, but historians of the peninsula. The Romans conquered most of the Balkans, but did not settle except along the Adriatic coast and the Danube. By the beginning of the sixth century, there were two urban linguistic areas: Roman north and west, Greek south and east. The Habsburg Monarchy had not made much use of the growing trade with the Ottoman Empire to dominate the borderlands, let alone to penetrate the Balkans economically. The Ottoman Empire was the largest Muslim state. The Ottoman Empire relied ever more on imported manufactures as domestic production could no longer meet state and urban demands. Thus merchant activity outside Ottoman regulations, became important than had ever been intended in original Ottoman Islamic conceptions and ethics. The traditional Ottoman social structure fell apart at the end of the eighteenth century.
