Post by Emperor AAdmin on Mar 31, 2024 16:13:01 GMT -5
Why the Balkans Are So Poor
Description: If you've ever looked at a GDP map of Europe, you've most likely noticed that the continent is divided into 2 sections, where its eastern part is substantially poorer & less developed. In this video we go over why that's the case. We cover the history of the Balkans, Western Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and subsequent Cold War & the effects after the fall of the Berlin wall on the Balkan peninsula.
some replies
@euboean3079
4 hours ago
Nice video, a little simplistic though, there's still a few points you missed:
1) Feuding Culture inherited from Ottoman Empire - unlike Western Europe which had a centralised government continuously for hundreds of years, the Balkans inherited a culture built on favours as their language and society did not standardise like Western Europe during the industrial revolution - making them far more susceptible to a culture of political corruption.
2) The areas colonised by the Austro-Hungarian Empire saw huge amounts of development of their territory. The Austro-Hungarians did more to develop Sarajevo in 20 years than the Ottomans in 400 years, despite treating Bosnia as a colony. It's the reason that Croatia and Slovenia fare so well relative to their neighbours, with Slovenia itself actually being quite a wealthy country and way above average by European standards.
3) The Greek Debt Crisis of 2008
4) The role of the Italians - the Italians caused a lot of problems in the Balkans and fucked a lot of things up - most notably in Albania and Greece, as part of their efforts to have a colonial empire.
5) The total destruction of infrastructure and theft of resources by the Nazis with Greece and Yugoslavia losing 70-90% of all their key infrastructure - they did not do the same to France, the Benelux and Norway.
4 hours ago
Nice video, a little simplistic though, there's still a few points you missed:
1) Feuding Culture inherited from Ottoman Empire - unlike Western Europe which had a centralised government continuously for hundreds of years, the Balkans inherited a culture built on favours as their language and society did not standardise like Western Europe during the industrial revolution - making them far more susceptible to a culture of political corruption.
2) The areas colonised by the Austro-Hungarian Empire saw huge amounts of development of their territory. The Austro-Hungarians did more to develop Sarajevo in 20 years than the Ottomans in 400 years, despite treating Bosnia as a colony. It's the reason that Croatia and Slovenia fare so well relative to their neighbours, with Slovenia itself actually being quite a wealthy country and way above average by European standards.
3) The Greek Debt Crisis of 2008
4) The role of the Italians - the Italians caused a lot of problems in the Balkans and fucked a lot of things up - most notably in Albania and Greece, as part of their efforts to have a colonial empire.
5) The total destruction of infrastructure and theft of resources by the Nazis with Greece and Yugoslavia losing 70-90% of all their key infrastructure - they did not do the same to France, the Benelux and Norway.
@qowkdjxjqoo
3 hours ago
Every time i watch this channel, i am much more confident that the balkans is just european version of South America, and vice versa. It s ridiculously similar. If i describe where i live, could prety much be mistake as an average serbian city LMAO. Even the people are quite similar (im sure that i saw a guy exaclty how the man of this channel last week). Here are other similarities:
-Trash on the streets (not really much altought, just some minor cigarretes and papers)
-Relatively safe, but not compared to other regions ( not all of south america and the balkans, of course)
- Both are kinda the "crazy people and alcoholic hub" of theirs continents
-Delicious street food
-Racist old people, and some crazy young guys in the internet. (unfortunely)
- Historical crimes of war (despite some are quite old, especialy south america)
-They are not exaclty poor (there is no starvation and i dont have nothing to complaing), but are not wealthy in comparison with other countries (there are better and worst places in the world)
Conclusion:2 regions obscured in relation to their much more wealthier neighbours (USA and western europe).
3 hours ago
Every time i watch this channel, i am much more confident that the balkans is just european version of South America, and vice versa. It s ridiculously similar. If i describe where i live, could prety much be mistake as an average serbian city LMAO. Even the people are quite similar (im sure that i saw a guy exaclty how the man of this channel last week). Here are other similarities:
-Trash on the streets (not really much altought, just some minor cigarretes and papers)
-Relatively safe, but not compared to other regions ( not all of south america and the balkans, of course)
- Both are kinda the "crazy people and alcoholic hub" of theirs continents
-Delicious street food
-Racist old people, and some crazy young guys in the internet. (unfortunely)
- Historical crimes of war (despite some are quite old, especialy south america)
-They are not exaclty poor (there is no starvation and i dont have nothing to complaing), but are not wealthy in comparison with other countries (there are better and worst places in the world)
Conclusion:2 regions obscured in relation to their much more wealthier neighbours (USA and western europe).
@rosskourtis9602
5 hours ago (edited)
In hindsight, the fall of the Christian Orthodox Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire was probably the worst thing for the region. After that, my Balkan brothers and sisters, we were unfortunately made the playthings of Turks, Russians, and the West.
@chris-se7qd
3 hours ago
I started to become cognizant of the differentiation between Western Europe and the Balkans in terms of economic capacity, when I saw Germans, French and Scandinavian tourists strolling in the streets of Athens, with an acute sense of carefreeness and laxity, lacking the crazy nerve and the anxiety of the average Balkan guy who stresses out about his salary and taxes. This differentiation became much more omnipresent and glaring, when I started to converse with them and finding out that they have already travelled a large part of the world by the age of 22, and not only places like Budapest or Rome, where we plan to visit 5 months before. To sum up, I stridently believe that this is the most dreadful reality about the Balkans. It's not just that our countries are not nuclear superpowers, world-leading economies or energy rich countries, but it's the fact that the Balkan people will never get the chance to live a high quality life and will never travel the world with the same frequency and comfort, like the Westerners do. We will always be confined within our countries, forced to live with our families and making one compromise after the other, and when we do indeed abandon our countries, we'll do it as immigrants not as expats. Amazing video Janos, love from Greece.
3 hours ago
I started to become cognizant of the differentiation between Western Europe and the Balkans in terms of economic capacity, when I saw Germans, French and Scandinavian tourists strolling in the streets of Athens, with an acute sense of carefreeness and laxity, lacking the crazy nerve and the anxiety of the average Balkan guy who stresses out about his salary and taxes. This differentiation became much more omnipresent and glaring, when I started to converse with them and finding out that they have already travelled a large part of the world by the age of 22, and not only places like Budapest or Rome, where we plan to visit 5 months before. To sum up, I stridently believe that this is the most dreadful reality about the Balkans. It's not just that our countries are not nuclear superpowers, world-leading economies or energy rich countries, but it's the fact that the Balkan people will never get the chance to live a high quality life and will never travel the world with the same frequency and comfort, like the Westerners do. We will always be confined within our countries, forced to live with our families and making one compromise after the other, and when we do indeed abandon our countries, we'll do it as immigrants not as expats. Amazing video Janos, love from Greece.
@krunomrki
1 hour ago (edited)
Mongols or Tatars were never in western Europe. The most western point of Mongol invasion and intrusion was Croatia; they came through Hungary and burned their way through Croatia to Adriatic sea (they were trying to capture king Bela IV , but he escaped to Adriatic islands and Mongol leaders had conference back in Asia). Yes, Croatia was for 300 years (from 15th to the first half of 18th century) the border between Christian Europe and Ottoman Empire( actually Osmanlic, according to the name of founder of dynasty: Osman and Ottoman is western adaptation of the name ). Two thirds of Croatia were under Ottoman occupation, but 1/3 never fall. Ottomans and there units of akindjiya and haramiye have slaughtered entire villages of ordinary peasants who were not soldiers nor trained for combat. And question is why? It was the tactics of "burn ground" and the goal was to force the feudal lords in their castles to choice: or join the Ottomans or go away (because the incomes of feudal lords were coming from the work of peasants, and if there is no peasants, there is no incomes). So, the result of Ottomanic conquest and the result of almost permanent war was large scale changes in populations. Serbia was entirely in 16th century under Ottomans, so they didn't have so big demographic loses like Croatia. And that was also reason why Croatia today has the shape of horse shoe: the modern borders of Croatia were established as a result of wars against Ottomans: Viennise war (1683-1699) and of wars in first half of 18th century between Rep. of Venice and Ottoman Empire. Since then the borders between Croatia and Bosna and Hercegovina were not change except in small details. So, we can say that modern Croatian borders towards east are older than USA. And borders towards north (Hungary) and to the north-west (Slovenia) didn't change much from early middle ages and from the time of Croatian dynasty in 11th century. Before the Ottoman wars, Croatia held regions in what is today western Bosna. Much of Croatian population escaped in front of Ottoman violence during 16th century: some to the border region between modern Austria and Hungary (Burgenland), others from Dalmatia to Italy across Adriatic to Molise in region of Marche and even today they speak Croatian archaic language, especially Croats in Austrian Burgenland. ... And I have to correct you in one fact: the real beginning of end of Ottoman conquest was not the battle at Vienna in 1683, but the battle at Sisak in 1593. From that year Ottoman power is more in defence than in offence. And the year 1683 was the beginning of liberation war of Croatia from Ottoman Empire (it was sort of our version of reconquista). But the regions in modern Bosna were never returned to Croatia. Under Ottomans the other population was brought to the empty regions of Bosna: the orthodox Vlasi or Vlahi which started to declare them selves as Srbi (Serbs) under influence of Serbian orthodox Church. That is how "Serbians" spread into Bosna and in some regions in Croatia.
1 hour ago (edited)
Mongols or Tatars were never in western Europe. The most western point of Mongol invasion and intrusion was Croatia; they came through Hungary and burned their way through Croatia to Adriatic sea (they were trying to capture king Bela IV , but he escaped to Adriatic islands and Mongol leaders had conference back in Asia). Yes, Croatia was for 300 years (from 15th to the first half of 18th century) the border between Christian Europe and Ottoman Empire( actually Osmanlic, according to the name of founder of dynasty: Osman and Ottoman is western adaptation of the name ). Two thirds of Croatia were under Ottoman occupation, but 1/3 never fall. Ottomans and there units of akindjiya and haramiye have slaughtered entire villages of ordinary peasants who were not soldiers nor trained for combat. And question is why? It was the tactics of "burn ground" and the goal was to force the feudal lords in their castles to choice: or join the Ottomans or go away (because the incomes of feudal lords were coming from the work of peasants, and if there is no peasants, there is no incomes). So, the result of Ottomanic conquest and the result of almost permanent war was large scale changes in populations. Serbia was entirely in 16th century under Ottomans, so they didn't have so big demographic loses like Croatia. And that was also reason why Croatia today has the shape of horse shoe: the modern borders of Croatia were established as a result of wars against Ottomans: Viennise war (1683-1699) and of wars in first half of 18th century between Rep. of Venice and Ottoman Empire. Since then the borders between Croatia and Bosna and Hercegovina were not change except in small details. So, we can say that modern Croatian borders towards east are older than USA. And borders towards north (Hungary) and to the north-west (Slovenia) didn't change much from early middle ages and from the time of Croatian dynasty in 11th century. Before the Ottoman wars, Croatia held regions in what is today western Bosna. Much of Croatian population escaped in front of Ottoman violence during 16th century: some to the border region between modern Austria and Hungary (Burgenland), others from Dalmatia to Italy across Adriatic to Molise in region of Marche and even today they speak Croatian archaic language, especially Croats in Austrian Burgenland. ... And I have to correct you in one fact: the real beginning of end of Ottoman conquest was not the battle at Vienna in 1683, but the battle at Sisak in 1593. From that year Ottoman power is more in defence than in offence. And the year 1683 was the beginning of liberation war of Croatia from Ottoman Empire (it was sort of our version of reconquista). But the regions in modern Bosna were never returned to Croatia. Under Ottomans the other population was brought to the empty regions of Bosna: the orthodox Vlasi or Vlahi which started to declare them selves as Srbi (Serbs) under influence of Serbian orthodox Church. That is how "Serbians" spread into Bosna and in some regions in Croatia.