The Balkans is an area in southeastern Europe, which has always been a center of conflicts, misunderstandings, revolutions, and, what is more important, a melting pot of many cultures and religions. Though constant broadcasts bring us news of new quarrels from the area inhabited by nearly fifty five million people, a few educated scholars know why the place is continuously agonizing with constant military, economic, and political contractions. “The Balkans” by Mark Mazower gives us a detailed overview of the culture, history, and life style of the inhabitants of this area. Analyzing the facts, data, and maps provided by the historian, we are able to better understand the complicated past of the Balkans and the struggle of its people. In this paper, I am going to describe the lifestyles of people living in the Balkans at the time of the rule of Ottoman Empire over southeastern Europe, examine the changes that were incorporated in politics, religion, and economics, and try to underline its positive and negative consequences.

Starting with the very first chapter of “The Balkans” the author writes about the changes in the lifestyles of the people inhabiting the region at that time. The most essential modification occurred in trade, as far as foreign trade with European states was much despised by the Ottoman Empire. Nonetheless, native merchants, along with the Turks, exported luxury goods like cotton, spices, tobacco, and furs, and also imported certain products that were not manufactured in their homeland. As time went by, the Balkans started trading with France and Great Britain, importing great amount of manufactured goods, resulting from the push of the industrial revolution. It is vital to realize that the Ottoman Empire changed the whole nature of trade in the region. The vast expansion of the Ottoman trade with the Western Christian countries combined with the immense gap between the import and the export, forced the merchants, representing the rich members of the Balkan society, to cease their business activities. In addition, the ruling body of the Ottoman Empire was not willing to create new wealthy class in the society, and provided trading authorizations for Greeks, Armenians, and other non-Muslim representatives. The negative impacts of all these trading machinations can be best summarized as the following: the local wealthy merchants were leaving the area; new rich leaders were penetrating the governmental branches of the state, but were not interested in the progress and financial growth of the Balkans; the short-term profits of the trading expansion did not benefit the local economics, and, in fact, boosted the economies of the trading partners of the West, bringing the local inhabitants to poverty.

The second chapter of Mazower’s historical narrative is devoted to religious and political conflict that aroused in the Balkans, due to the difference of the Ottomans values and beliefs. Therefore, we are able to state that the lifestyle of people that originally inhabited the Balkans was altered, as a result of the failure of the Ottoman state leadership. There is no doubt that Turks were not interested in the profits of the local peasants, who were the key stone of the Balkan economy. According to Mazower, farming was extremely difficult to be adapted to the harsh weather conditions and absence of flat farming lands. Most farms were located in the mountainous or wooden areas, which, under no circumstances, were able to provide extra crops for export. In addition, the Ottoman landlords took a part of the crop for themselves, leaving the peasants with nothing, and not providing them with anything, other than what had been raised by the farmers. Combined with the Ottoman dept to the Western states, the Ottoman Empire was lead into bankruptcy, which affected the locals in the first place. Poor leadership of the Turks played a negative role in the development of the Balkan states and did not let the local inhabitants to prosper. However, there were certain privileges that the peasants acquired during the Ottoman rule. This is mainly due to the Islamic principle of governing the southeastern states that were conquered. The Ottoman governance brought peace to Serbs, Bulgars, and other Balkan nations that used to be in the constant state of war conflict. This was mainly the result of religious toleration of Turks towards Christians and Jews, and the unification of all religions under the name of the true God. Moreover, the taxes levied on the peasantry were much lower than the ones of the Balkan kingdoms.