PREFACE: This is the first attempt which has been made to present English readers with a concise account of the history of the four Balkan States. Yet the Balkan Peninsula has been in modern times what the Low Countries were in the Middle Ages-the cockpit of Europe. It is there that the eternal Eastern question has its origin; it is there too that the West and the East, the Cross and the Crescent, meet............ Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900"s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.