History of the Balkans in Maps

In the last years of the 10th century, as Christendom approached the end of the millenium, pessimists abounded. The pagan Magyars had swept into Europe with all the terror that the German-speaking people had long associated with the Huns. Their horses, a contemporary chronicle insisted, were so numerous that the dust from their hoofs darkened the sun for days thereafter. This terrible threat was not the only one. Pagan Norsemen, the so-called Vikings, terrorized northern Europe, colonizing large sections of England and Ireland, and plundering cities as far inland as Paris, Trier and Cologne. And to add to this horror, Moslem raids around the Mediterranean destroyed the last illusion of security. The unhappy condition can be illustrated by citing the plight of Burgundy, a state that seemed remarkably safe, far out of the mainstream. But between 920 and 970, Burgundy had been plundered and raped by Vikings, Magyars and Moslem invaders in turn.

But as the century entered its final decade, much of the worst had passed. The Magyars were soundly defeated by a revitalized German Kingdom at Lechfeld in 955. Retreating, the asiatic and pagan Magyars settled along the Danube, accepted Christianity and under St. Stephen were transformed into the Christian Kingdom of Hungary. The Holy Roman Empire, taking advantage of the Magyar defeat, turned South annexing all central Italy in 961, thus recreating Charlemagne's Empire.

The Balkans, however, remained a contested area. Magyar control of the major rivers of the north was counterbalanced by Bulgar power in the South. And in the Julian Alps which separated both of these powers from the Adriatic, the South Slavs now emerged as two separate entitites. The Serbs in the area of modern day Kosovo and the Croats further to the northwest.

One of the developments of this era was to continue to help divide the Balkans. The 10th century for all its horrors was also an age of intense religious missionary effort. The Balkans and Central Europe became Christianized, but from two competing sources -- from Rome and from Byzantium. In 870, the pagan Bulgars and Serbs adopted a Christianity of the Greek or Byzantine rite. In 879 the Croats accepted Roman Catholicism, followed by the Poles and Magyars in 998. Thus, in addition to all the other problems, religious divisions ran right through the Balkans. But even this division became more complicated in 1043, when elements of the original Illyrians broke with the Orthodox Church and converted to Catholicism. According to Byzantine usage, these could no longer be called Romans or Slavs, and for the first time are designated as Albanians.