For decades now, one of the most important sources of international tension in Europe has been the situation in the Balkans.

The Ottoman Empire, long regarded as the sick man of Europe, is crumbling. Everyone sees that.

The Empire has only held its European territories this long by treating its mostly

Christian subjects with a brutality that shocks the rest of Europe. But as bad as Ottoman oppression

was, this is a case where the only thing worse than the disease is the cure. Fears abound that, were the empire actually evicted from the Balkans,

the resulting turmoil could trigger a general war in Europe.

And indeed, that is exactly what is going to happen.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music Welcome to the history of the 20th century. Episode 65

The Panther Leap

We are back in the Balkans this week

to pick up where we left off all the way back in episode 51.

As you may recall from that episode, something close to a coup had broken out in Constantinople.

The so-called young Turks, many of whom were army officers in command of the low-grade guerrilla

war the empire was fighting against its rest of Balkan subjects

and were getting pretty sick of it, forced the Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II,

to reinstate the Constitution of 1876 and call elections.

The idea being to grant democratic powers and minority rights to the peoples of the empire,

especially those very unhappy Balkan provinces,

not to mention the very unhappy Arabs, the very unhappy Armenians, and so on.

So instead of fighting guerrilla wars forever, Sultan,

how about if we just go ahead and grant these people some rights?

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