Balkan Nationalism as WWI cause

Balkan Nationalism “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind,”- Albert Einstein. Over the course of humanity’s march out of the East and into the west, the Balkan Peninsula has been a crossroads of political, cultural, and artistic developments. The Balkans, much like the other regions of Europe during the turn of the twentieth century, were experiencing strong nationalistic ideologies. Nationalism in this scenario would be defined as the desire …

…the war, but only to the extent that it was just catalyst of the war. The arms race, imperialism, and alliances had Europe set up for a large and complex war before Balkan tension became serious. Balkan nationalism began the war with the assassination of Franze Ferdinand, but it was the condition which Europe was in that projected the war. Militarism, alliances, and imperialism poured the gas over Europe, and Balkan nationalism lit the match.