(a) How did tension in the Balkan region lead to the First World War? Explain.

(i) The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variation comprising modern-day Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro whose inhabitants were broadly known as the Slavs.

(ii) A large part of the Balkans was under the control of the Ottoman Empire.

(iii) The spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism in the Balkans together with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire made this region very explosive.

(iv) All through the nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire had sought to strengthen itself through modernisation and internal reforms but with very little success.

(v) One by one, its European subject nationalities broke away from its control and declared independence.

(vi) The Balkan peoples based their claims for independence or political rights on nationality and used history to prove that they had once been independent but had subsequently been subjugated by foreign powers.

(vii) The Balkan states were fiercely jealous of each other and each hoped to gain more territory at the expense of the others.

(viii) Balkans also became the scene of big power rivalry among the European powers over trade and colonies as well as naval and military might.

(ix) Each power – Russia, Germany, England, Austro-Hungary – was keen on countering the hold of other powers over the Balkans, and extending its own control over the area. This led to a series of wars in the region and finally the First World War

(b) How was the British nation created? Explain.

(i) Prior to the eighteenth century there was no British nation.

(ii) The primary identities of the people who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones – such as English, Welsh, Scot or Irish.

(iii) All of these ethnic groups had their own cultural and political traditions.

(iv) But as the English nation steadily grew in wealth, importance and power, it was able to extend its influence over the other nations of the islands.

(v) The English parliament, which had seized power from the monarchy in $\displaystyle 1688$ at the end of a protracted conflict, was the instrument through which a nation-state, with England at its centre, came to be forged.

(vi) The Act of Union ($\displaystyle 1707$) between England and Scotland that resulted in the formation of the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain’ meant, in effect, that England was able to impose its influence on Scotland.

(vii) The British parliament was dominated by its English members.

(viii) The growth of a British identity meant that Scotland’s distinctive culture and political institutions were systematically suppressed.

(ix) The Catholic clans that inhabited the Scottish Highlands suffered terrible repression whenever they attempted to assert their independence.

(x) The Scottish Highlanders were forbidden to speak their Gaelic language or wear their national dress, and large numbers were forcibly driven out of their homeland.

(xi) Ireland suffered a similar fate. It was a country deeply divided between Catholics and Protestants.

(xii) The English helped the Protestants of Ireland to establish their dominance over a largely Catholic country.

(xiii) Catholic revolts against British dominance were suppressed.

(xiv) After a failed revolt led by Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen ($\displaystyle 1798$), Ireland was forcibly incorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.

(xv) A new ‘British nation’ was forged through the propagation of a dominant English culture.

(xvi) The symbols of the new Britain – the British flag (Union Jack), the national anthem (God Save Our Noble King), the English language – were actively promoted and the older nations survived only as subordinate partners in this union.