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Patterns of National Identity Development among the Balkan Orthodox Christians during the Nineteenth Century

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2013
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Markovich, Slobodan G.
Article (Published version)
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Abstract
The paper analyses the development of national identities among Balkan Orthodox Christians from the 1780s to 1914. It points to pre-modern political subsystems in which many Balkan Orthodox peasants lived in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Serbian and Greek uprisings/revolutions are analyzed in the context of the intellectual climate of the Enlightenment. Various modes of penetration of the ideas of the Age of Revolution are analyzed as well as the ways in which new concepts influenced proto-national identities of Serbs and Romans/Greeks. The author accepts Hobsbawm's concept of proto-national identities and identifies their ethno-religious identity as the main element of Balkan Christian Orthodox proto-nations. The role of the Orthodox Church in the formation of ethno-religious proto-national identity and in its development into national identity during the nineteenth century is analyzed in the cases of Serbs, Romans/ Greeks, Vlachs/Romanians and Bul...garians. Three of the four Balkan national movements fully developed their respective national identities through their own ethnic states, and the fourth (Bulgarian) developed partially through its ethnic state. All four analyzed identities reached the stage of mass nationalism by the time of the Balkan Wars. By the beginning of the twentieth century, only Macedonian Slavs kept their proto-national ethno-religious identity to a substantial degree. Various analyzed patterns indicate that nascent national identities coexisted with fluid and shifting protonational identities within the same religious background. Occasional supremacy of social over ethnic identities has also been identified. Ethnification of the Orthodox Church, in the period 1831-1872, is viewed as very important for the development of national movements of Balkan Orthodox Christians. A new three-stage model of national identity development among Balkan Orthodox Christians has been proposed. It is based on specific aspects in the development of these nations, including: the insufficient development of capitalist society, the emergence of ethnic states before nationalism developed in three out of four analyzed cases, and an inappropriate social structure with a bureaucratic class serving the same role as the middle class had in more developed European nationalisms. The three phases posed three different questions to Balkan Christian Orthodox national activists. Phase 1: Who are we?; Phase 2: What to do with our non-liberated compatriots; and Phase 3: Has the mission of national unification been fulfilled?.

Keywords:
the Balkans / national identity / proto-nationalism / Serbs / Greeks / Bulgarians / Romanians / Macedonian Slavs
Source:
Balcanica, 2013, XLIV, 209-254
Publisher:
  • Belgrade : Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Funding / projects:
  • History of Political Ideas and Institutions in the Balkans in the 19th and 20th Centuries (RS-177011)

DOI: 10.2298/BALC1344209M

ISSN: 0350-7653

[ Google Scholar ]
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_4364
URI
https://dais.sanu.ac.rs/123456789/4364
Collections
  • Balcanica - Annual of the Institute for Balkan Studies
Institution/Community
Балканолошки институт САНУ / Institute for Balkan Studies SASA
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Markovich, Slobodan G.
PY  - 2013
UR  - https://dais.sanu.ac.rs/123456789/4364
AB  - The paper analyses the development of national identities among Balkan Orthodox Christians from the 1780s to 1914. It points to pre-modern political subsystems in which many Balkan Orthodox peasants lived in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Serbian and Greek uprisings/revolutions are analyzed in the context of the intellectual climate of the Enlightenment. Various modes of penetration of the ideas of the Age of Revolution are analyzed as well as the ways in which new concepts influenced proto-national identities of Serbs and Romans/Greeks. The author accepts Hobsbawm's concept of proto-national identities and identifies their ethno-religious identity as the main element of Balkan Christian Orthodox proto-nations. The role of the Orthodox Church in the formation of ethno-religious proto-national identity and in its development into national identity during the nineteenth century is analyzed in the cases of Serbs, Romans/ Greeks, Vlachs/Romanians and Bulgarians. Three of the four Balkan national movements fully developed their respective national identities through their own ethnic states, and the fourth (Bulgarian) developed partially through its ethnic state. All four analyzed identities reached the stage of mass nationalism by the time of the Balkan Wars. By the beginning of the twentieth century, only Macedonian Slavs kept their proto-national ethno-religious identity to a substantial degree. Various analyzed patterns indicate that nascent national identities coexisted with fluid and shifting protonational identities within the same religious background. Occasional supremacy of social over ethnic identities has also been identified. Ethnification of the Orthodox Church, in the period 1831-1872, is viewed as very important for the development of national movements of Balkan Orthodox Christians. A new three-stage model of national identity development among Balkan Orthodox Christians has been proposed. It is based on specific aspects in the development of these nations, including: the insufficient development of capitalist society, the emergence of ethnic states before nationalism developed in three out of four analyzed cases, and an inappropriate social structure with a bureaucratic class serving the same role as the middle class had in more developed European nationalisms. The three phases posed three different questions to Balkan Christian Orthodox national activists. Phase 1: Who are we?; Phase 2: What to do with our non-liberated compatriots; and Phase 3: Has the mission of national unification been fulfilled?.
PB  - Belgrade : Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
T2  - Balcanica
T1  - Patterns of National Identity Development among the Balkan Orthodox Christians during the Nineteenth Century
SP  - 209
EP  - 254
IS  - XLIV
DO  - 10.2298/BALC1344209M
UR  - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_4364
ER  - 
@article{
author = "Markovich, Slobodan G.",
year = "2013",
abstract = "The paper analyses the development of national identities among Balkan Orthodox Christians from the 1780s to 1914. It points to pre-modern political subsystems in which many Balkan Orthodox peasants lived in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Serbian and Greek uprisings/revolutions are analyzed in the context of the intellectual climate of the Enlightenment. Various modes of penetration of the ideas of the Age of Revolution are analyzed as well as the ways in which new concepts influenced proto-national identities of Serbs and Romans/Greeks. The author accepts Hobsbawm's concept of proto-national identities and identifies their ethno-religious identity as the main element of Balkan Christian Orthodox proto-nations. The role of the Orthodox Church in the formation of ethno-religious proto-national identity and in its development into national identity during the nineteenth century is analyzed in the cases of Serbs, Romans/ Greeks, Vlachs/Romanians and Bulgarians. Three of the four Balkan national movements fully developed their respective national identities through their own ethnic states, and the fourth (Bulgarian) developed partially through its ethnic state. All four analyzed identities reached the stage of mass nationalism by the time of the Balkan Wars. By the beginning of the twentieth century, only Macedonian Slavs kept their proto-national ethno-religious identity to a substantial degree. Various analyzed patterns indicate that nascent national identities coexisted with fluid and shifting protonational identities within the same religious background. Occasional supremacy of social over ethnic identities has also been identified. Ethnification of the Orthodox Church, in the period 1831-1872, is viewed as very important for the development of national movements of Balkan Orthodox Christians. A new three-stage model of national identity development among Balkan Orthodox Christians has been proposed. It is based on specific aspects in the development of these nations, including: the insufficient development of capitalist society, the emergence of ethnic states before nationalism developed in three out of four analyzed cases, and an inappropriate social structure with a bureaucratic class serving the same role as the middle class had in more developed European nationalisms. The three phases posed three different questions to Balkan Christian Orthodox national activists. Phase 1: Who are we?; Phase 2: What to do with our non-liberated compatriots; and Phase 3: Has the mission of national unification been fulfilled?.",
publisher = "Belgrade : Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts",
journal = "Balcanica",
title = "Patterns of National Identity Development among the Balkan Orthodox Christians during the Nineteenth Century",
pages = "209-254",
number = "XLIV",
doi = "10.2298/BALC1344209M",
url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_4364"
}
Markovich, S. G.. (2013). Patterns of National Identity Development among the Balkan Orthodox Christians during the Nineteenth Century. in Balcanica
Belgrade : Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.(XLIV), 209-254.
https://doi.org/10.2298/BALC1344209M
https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_4364
Markovich SG. Patterns of National Identity Development among the Balkan Orthodox Christians during the Nineteenth Century. in Balcanica. 2013;(XLIV):209-254.
doi:10.2298/BALC1344209M
https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_4364 .
Markovich, Slobodan G., "Patterns of National Identity Development among the Balkan Orthodox Christians during the Nineteenth Century" in Balcanica, no. XLIV (2013):209-254,
https://doi.org/10.2298/BALC1344209M .,
https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_dais_4364 .

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