The Balkan Problem - Brief Summart

Having seen the Balkan problem, it is now important to look at the rivalries of it’s neighbours. There were four main countries who wanted to control the Balkans, despite it being poor: Italy, Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia. Italy wanted it because she wanted to expand and control the Adriatic Sea and the land around it. Austria-Hungary was a patchwork country and was experiencing revolts from Slavs, so they wanted to expand into the Balkans and eliminate the threats, as a second reason, they wanted ports on the Mediterranean Sea for trade and defence. Germany wanted land purely for the safety of their railway that would stretch from Berlin to Baghdad for oil. Russia also wanted ports on the coast so that their navy had more freedom and trade would improve.

        The previous paragraph really proves how much rivalry was in the Balkans, but this one is to show how it helped in causing WWI. The main reason why it was a major cause was because Austria-Hungary was already hated by Serbia and it’s neighbouring countries, so if they knew about Hungary’s intention to attack and seize ports, it would make matters much worse. As a second reason, Austria’s allies were Germany and Italy who both wanted the Balkans and would gladly aid their ally if necessary which would bring two major powers into a small conflict. However, allied with Serbia was Russia who was also allied with France and Britain. This would bring them into the conflict too, turning it into a full scale war. This possible sequence of events would end with WWI as historians know it.

        This shows how simple rivalries, alliances and conflicts between the Balkans and it’s neighbours could slowly get worse as a problem and start a major war that causes more devastation than any other war. It shows how the rulers of the countries were overly envious of each other and would break out a war whenever a suitable reason or trigger is pulled.