Balkan Stereotypes

The Balkan Peninsula, popularly referred to as the Balkans, is a geographical and cultural region of Southeast Europe. The region has its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the east of Bulgaria to the very east of Serbia.

The first attested time the name “Balkan” was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter sent in 1490 to Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco, an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat. English traveler John Morritt introduced this term into the English literature at the end of the 18th century, and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The concept of the “Balkans” was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808. During the 1820s, “Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers… Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term.”

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term “Balkans” again received a negative meaning, even in casual usage (see Balkanization). Over the last decade, in the wake of the former Yugoslav split, many Slovenians and Croatians, as well as Serbs of Vojvodina (also Belgraders, western Serbs “Prečani” and Serbs from other regions) have attempted to reject their label as Balkan nations

Balkan Stereotypes

Slovenians – polite and clumsy.

Croats – aggressive and athletes.

Muslim Bosniaks – merchants and resellers.

Serbs – aggressive and like turbo-folk music.

Macedonians – usurp Greek’s history even though it not belong to them.

Kosovo Albanians – pastry cooks and have lot of children.

Montenegrins – sleepy and lazy.

This video explains better about the Balkan Stereotypes

text was sent by Srdjan Vekić