The rediscovery of the Balkans in European thought and travel writing in the XIX century

At the end of the eighteenth century, the Balkan Peninsula was less known in Europe than its overseas colonies. This limited knowledge was directly reflected in geographical literature, where these territories were described merely as the European provinces of Turkey, while the naming of their rivers and mountains continued to rely on outdated Greco-Roman onomastics.

Although the intellectual movements of the Enlightenment and Classicism stimulated European interest in Greece as the cradle of ancient civilization, no systematic efforts had yet been undertaken to explore either Greece itself or the broader region. This situation did not result from European indifference toward the Balkans, nor from a denial of the region’s European past. Rather, it reflected the political and administrative realities that prevailed between the European powers and the Ottoman Empire. For more than three centuries, these territories had formed an integral part of the Ottoman Empire, which was often treated as a unified entity spanning both Europe and Asia (Goffman, 2002).

Moreover, the region had long served as a battleground between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, a condition that significantly hindered travel, knowledge, and exploration. The conclusion of the Austro-Turkish wars in the late seventeenth century and the subsequent peace treaties initiated a relatively stable period between the Sublime Porte and the European powers.

A century later, the year 1789 marked a decisive turning point in European history. The French Revolution and the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte—in Italy (1796) and Egypt (1798)—profoundly transformed the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds, both neighboring regions of the Balkans. Shortly thereafter, in 1797, France annexed the Ionian Islands from Venice through the Treaty of Campo Formio. This unexpected proximity to the Balkans had a dual effect on the political, social, and cultural development of the region. Revolutionary ideas—particularly nationalism and the concept of the nation-state—began to penetrate first the Ionian Islands and then adjacent territories.

Concepts such as “republic,” “constitution,” and “human rights” gradually entered the political vocabulary of the region, coinciding with a period in which the Balkans acquired increasing strategic importance for expanding European powers. France, followed by Britain and Russia, rapidly became key political and cultural actors in the region’s diplomatic landscape.

This renewed European engagement was further reinforced by the transformation of travel practices. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the traditional Grand Tour underwent a significant shift. Travel to France and Italy declined in favor of journeys to Greece, Albania, and Ottoman territories, which became increasingly fashionable. This direct contact not only facilitated a more detailed understanding of the region but also inspired influential intellectual movements such as Philhellenism, Pan Slavism and the Romantic fascination with the Orient.

At the same time, European political thought exhibited a complex interplay of attitudes, including Turkophilia and Slavophobia, alongside Turkophobia (often overlapping with Islamophobia) and Slavophilism. These tendencies were closely linked to the intersection of diplomatic travel and the geopolitical interests of the Great Powers. As a result, this new European engagement—mediated through travel—effectively “broke the unified character of the Oriental world” and laid the groundwork for the “rediscovery” of the Balkans (Todorova, 2009).

This rediscovery unfolded gradually and was accompanied by changes in terminology: from “European Turkey” in the early nineteenth century to the “Near East” by mid-century, and finally to the “Balkans” in the early twentieth century. The term “rediscovery” is appropriate insofar as these territories had long existed in Europe’s collective memory through their incorporation into the Roman and Byzantine Empires.

While this “discovery” occurred relatively late, it does not imply the absence of earlier accounts. On the contrary, many earlier reports—especially those produced by diplomats, intelligence agents, and political observers—were often more perceptive than later travel narratives (Goldsworthy, 1998). Nevertheless, the publication of travelogues marked a turning point, contributing to a broader recognition of the Balkans not only as a geographical entity but also as a cultural mosaic characterized by diverse peoples, religions, and traditions.

Travel writing became a highly productive literary genre. As Vesna Goldsworthy (1998) argues, it functioned as a means through which Britain, one of the most powerful nations of the time, appropriated the cultural resources of the Balkans to sustain its literary and entertainment industries. These writings are therefore essential for understanding European perceptions of the region.

Following the publication of Orientalism by Edward Said (1978), elements of Orientalist discourse were applied to Balkan studies, particularly in analyses of European travel writing. However, this approach was later challenged by Maria Todorova in “Imagining the Balkans”, who introduced the concept of “Balkanism.” This framework emphasizes that European representations of the Balkans were shaped less by direct colonial domination than by cultural perceptions and discursive constructions (Todorova, 2009).

In the case of Greece, this often manifested as a form of cultural colonialism, accompanied by a strong sense of European cultural superiority. Modern Greeks were frequently viewed as diminished heirs of their classical ancestors, while other Balkan populations—and their Ottoman rulers—were framed within a hierarchy of civilizational judgment (Said, 1978).

In this sense, travel can be understood as a form of symbolic colonialism, in which history and ideology, rather than territory, were appropriated and reinterpreted (Goldsworthy, 1998). Over time, however, travel writing also reflected shifting geopolitical priorities, particularly Britain’s support for the Ottoman Empire within the framework of the Eastern Question, aimed at countering Russian expansionism.

Moreover, travel literature contributed to the construction of Southeastern Europe in the British geographical imagination as a peripheral space marked by instability, violence, and cultural otherness (Goldsworthy, 1998).

The Albanian territories were among the earliest to attract European attention in the Western Balkans. While literary works such as Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812) by Lord Byron and the travel account A Journey through Albania (1813) by John Cam Hobhouse are often cited as foundational, British political awareness of the region predates them. As early as the first decade of the nineteenth century, the reports of William Martin Leake (1777–1860) provided detailed insights into Albanian territories.

For the British public of the time, the Western Balkans remained largely unknown. As Edward Gibbon observed in “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, the region was “as little known as the interior of America” (Gibbon, 1807/1995). Consequently, the accounts of these travelers played a crucial role in shaping European perceptions of the region and its people.

References:

1.      Gibbon, E. (1995). The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Penguin Books. (Original work published 1807)

2.      Goffman, D. (2002). The Ottoman Empire and early modern Europe. Cambridge University Press.

3.      Goldsworthy, V. (1998). Inventing Ruritania: The imperialism of the imagination. Yale University Press.

4.      Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.

5.      Todorova, M. (2009). Imagining the Balkans (Updated ed.). Oxford University Press.