The Balkans witnessed several bloody conflicts during the twentieth century. New nations emerged in 1913, after 500 years of Ottoman rule, only for them to go to war just weeks later. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914 sparked the series of events that led to the Great War. Most of the belligerents would be drawn into the region, while the post-war border changes created tensions.

Italian designs on the Balkans resulted in the occupation of Albania in March 1939, but it failed to take control of Greece over the winter of 1940-41. A German blitzkrieg quickly defeated both Yugoslavia and Greece in the spring of 1941, and the population of both countries then suffered terribly as the occupying forces encouraged collaboration and punished resistance.

The area was rife with guerrilla activity, as monarchists, nationalists and communists fought each other as often as the occupying troops. This, in turn, led to communism sweeping across most of the region in the post-war years, while Greece was taken over by a fascist regime.

Communism eventually ended, but ethnic troubles resulted in a ten-year conflict across Yugoslavia. It would be divided into Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, at the end of the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Chapter 1 The Balkans Wars: October 1912 to July 1913
• Chapter 2 The Great War: August 1914 to November 1918
• Chapter 3 Recovering from the War: December 1918 to October 1929
• Chapter 4 Another War on the Horizon: November 1929 to September 1939
• Chapter 5 The Invasion of Greece: October 1940 to April 1941
• Chapter 6 The Invasion of Yugoslavia: April 1941
• Chapter 7 Occupation of Albania and Greece: April 1939 to October 1944
• Chapter 8 Collaboration across the Balkans: May 1941 to May 1945
• Chapter 9 Resistance across Yugoslavia: May 1941 to May 1945
• Chapter 10 Post-war Extremism: April 1945 to March 1953
• Chapter 11 Communist and Fascist Rule: March 1953 to December 1991
• Chapter 12 The Balkans Conflict: June 1991 to June 1999
• Plate section