Excerpt from Geographical Aspects of Balkan Problems: In Their Relation to the Great European War This little book is intended, as its title suggests, to summarize those geographical facts which made the Balkan Peninsula the potential storm-centre Of Europe, for long years before the summer sky' was rent by the lightning - flash which destroyed for ever the Old Europe, and changed in a moment all the familiar fabric of our daily life. The facts herein set forth do not seem to have been previ ously collected and correlated in an English book, and some Of them are not easy of access. At the same time, there can be little doubt that an ao quaintance with them, and with their political and social bearings, is of great importance in forming a judgment on desirable frontier changes in the region. Primarily, indeed, the book was begun with the desire to beguile for one non-combatant the gloom of the Winter of Waiting by the carry ing through of a self-imposed task which gave at least the illusion of usefulness. But it is hoped that this motive was not wholly illusory, and that the book may be found helpful to those who are striving to use their detachment from the actual field of battle to increase that knowledge. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.