Social Conflicts, Changing Identities and Everyday Strategies of Survival in Macedonia on the Eve of the Collapse of Ottoman Central Power (1903-1912)
Social Conflicts, Changing Identities and Everyday Strategies of Survival in Macedonia on the Eve of the Collapse of Ottoman Central Power (1903-1912)

Summary/Abstract: Social Conflicts, Changing Identities and Everyday Strategies of Survival in Macedonia on the Eve of the Collapse of Ottoman Central Power (1903-1912). Part 2 / This article is the second part of an investigation, analyzing the destabilizing factors in Ottoman Macedonia; the first part has been published in Hungarian Historical Review (2014/3) and focused on the relation between paramilitary forces and the civil society, and also dealt with the function and territorial and ethnic pattern of everyday violence – clashes that did not involve paramilitary activity – based on the theory of “Gewaltmärkte” (markets of coercion). This part also investigates certain social tensions and dividing lines in Ottoman Macedonia partly driven by ethnic and religious conflicts, partly by economic considerations and personal decisions. The worsening of the economic situation as a motivating factor of destabilization, the failures of the central power to tackle these problems were also analyzed based on the archives of Central State Archives (Sofia) and HHStA in Vienna; such as the attempts and strategies of different local ethnic communities to get into an advantageous bargaining position either with central power or with a neighboring small states.

• Details
• Contents