Abstract This paper looks at the nature and long duration of Ottoman rule in the Balkans. The writer reviews the deep and long lasting effects on the nations which today make up the Balkan Peninsula. The first part examines how during the first several centuries of Ottoman rule, its legacy was conducive to the maintenance of order, prosperity and ethnic and religious toleration. The second part explores how certain facets of Ottoman policy and practice, also contributed to the stunting of the area's political, economic and intellectual growth.
From the Paper "The term Balkans, which means in Turkish 'chain of wooded mountains,' refers to the southeastern peninsula of Europe, the largely mountainous lands which lie between the Adriatic Sea on the west, the plains of Central Europe to the north, the steppes of Russia/Ukraine to the east, the Black Sea and Asia Minor to the southeast and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It contains the modern nations of Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania and all of the nations which have emerged from the breakup in the 1990s of the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia."
