Why the Balkans Are So Poor
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- čas přidán 30. 03. 2024
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Description: If you've ever looked at a GDP map of Europe, you've most likely noticed that the continent is divided into 2 sections, where its eastern part is substantially poorer & less developed. In this video we go over why that's the case. We cover the history of the Balkans, Western Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and subsequent Cold War & the effects after the fall of the Berlin wall on the Balkan peninsula.
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#balkans #romania #communism
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Hi
Yo.❤
Reason no. 1 Russia! Russia is a creep who devour future of any human being.
your videos are cool
4:13 "Seeked" is actually not a word. The past tense for "seek" and the past participle as well is "sought". So "Britain sought..."
"If we don't have infrastructure, the enemy can't conquer it." - The Balkans
The fact that this has unironically been my country's main war strategy for the entirety of the middle ages...
whe belgians use the same strategy. make your roads so shit they become part of the defense
@@xxx_these.flightless.wings_xxxsome states here in usa have that same philosophy… be so shit ass not worth conquering… so dependent on the union
@pablo4yu
For real some of the deep south states, especially seem to think failing to develop himself with around money is some kind of flex because of all the extra aid it gets them like they’re scoring some kind of victory on the tax man from Washington. Brothers no, it is not a flex that you need three times per capita as much economic aid from DC as New York does! This is the equivalent of thinking, being in remedial classes as a flex because now the teachers have to teach you so much more.
Which country?@@xxx_these.flightless.wings_xxx
Poor?
I dunno man, as a Serbian myself, I'm living pretty comfortably here in Vienna.
Can approve as a Albanian living in London.
As a croat living in vienna as well i agree with you.
Feh bunch of Economic Migrants... Well guess what boyos I'm a Serbo-Croatian living in Canada because according to Bosnia and Herzegovina I don't exist.... because Yugoslavia doesn't exist....
Me as a Romanian too in a Franconian city
Any of y'all wanna help a balkaner move? XD
1. Byzantine's heavy taxes
2. Ottoman's heavy taxes
3. The Ottoman became an underdeveloped country in the 1700s-1800s
4. World Wars
5. Communism
6. Corrupted governments
7. Civil wars
Note: Anatolia was poorer than the Balkans due to the Ottoman's low interest to Anatolia so they rebelled several times (Especially the Celali rebellion) and when the Ottomans lose the Balkans, they fucked up.
"Communism" actually improved things A LOT
Socialism you mean
Ok after 18th century ottoman was sh!t but before that ottoman saved balkans
@@isimsizoyuncular30orj 전혀. 오스만이 발칸반도를 구했다는 근거는 뭐임?
@@isimsizoyuncular30orj Saved us from what? The renaissance?
Regarding Ceausescu's projects. I agree that the House of Parliament is a gigantic waste of money with very little benefits , but the Black Sea-Danube channel is actually useful and has strategic advantages. Allow me to list a few:
1. Creating a secondary access channel to the Black Sea. This has both a strategic and economic benefits. First, Constanta is Romania's largest port and any goods that arrived there, would've had to be transported via trucks across the country. The only way to sail inwards would've been via the Chilia channel, which was adjacent to the USSR. Using the Chilia channel imposed taxes on Romanian commercial ships and, in case of a war, would've blocked the trading route completely.
2. Irrigation. The water flowing through the channel is used to irrigate nearby crops and is also used to cool down the nuclear reactor at Cernavoda, which is responsible for 20% of the country's electricity production.
Overall, it's pretty useful. It might've cost a lot to build but, now that we have it, we can profit from it.
Under Ceausescu Romania’s real term GDP increased 3.5x. Since 1989, Romania’s real term GDP is just 70% higher nowadays.
@@davidstrelec2000 Uh, what the fuck are you on about? Romania's GDP back then was around 41 billion. Now, it's over 300 billion. How is that 70% growth??
@@carcotasu081 Ever heard of hyper-inflation and currency devaluation ?
Actually this '41 billion' takes inflation into account, if it wasn't taken then the gdp would have been way lower, you have no clue what you're talking about sir.@konstantinkelekhsaev302
@@konstantinkelekhsaev302 Uh, yeah, do you? Both of those issues happened in the 90's, which led to economic/GDP collapse. But it doesn't invalidate my post at all.
When in doubt blame the Turks.
💀
To my Turkified ex relatives and neighbours Merhaba
They've brought it on themselves.
Balkans under turk control was actually deserving of respect.
@@just_a_turtle_chad Yeah right Osman gone Carry on
Idk why I'm watching this, I live in fucking Africa
Im sorry to hear that
R.I.P
are you Walter Black?
Balkans never stole from Africa so that's something
My sincere condolences
A thief asking a beggar why is he so poor. That's the whole analogy. They had no colonies, they didn't enslave anyone, rob anyone, etc.
There are rich countries which were never colonist or slavers.. so calm down, beggar 😁
Sounds like coping to me.
Greek Orthodox had Wallachia , Moldova 25 / 30 % of lands .
Turkey appointed Greek rulers in there for 200 years .
They stolen for themselves then for Turkish.
Nice try, but Iceland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, to name a few, also had no colonies, they didn't enslave anyone, rob anyone, etc, and are rich countries
@@Joao-id4dn They're benefiting from trade with countries that did all those things.
The Balkans is genuinely my favorite region in all of Europe, and I've traveled throughout all regions on the continent besides the Nordic countries. I genuinely believe that Balkan people are the friendliest in Europe, and the cities felt a lot safer than quite a few in western Europe. And the food is incredibly underrated; I had the best tomatoes and bread in my life in North Macedonia, and burek is something I'd be tempted to eat daily if I had easy access to it. Not to mention that there is gorgeous mountain scenery in every Balkan country that rivals the Alps of Western Europe. I can't wait to return someday, and I hope that conditions will continue to improve so that the region may enjoy the same prosperity that much of the rest of the continent has enjoyed for centuries now.
It's beautiful to read something like this! Thanks!
SLAVA BALKANIJA!
@@lsadin2457
dont forget the Albanian and Greek ….. we are NOT slavics 🇽🇰🇦🇱🇬🇷
@@beratmaliqi5445 SUBHANAALLAH BALKANIJA!
@beratmaliqi5445 dna results proved at least half albania has same dna as slavic. Plus same faith same traditions and culture. So stop spreading false info
I dont understand why you call us poor. We are not. Here in greece for example, I know at least ten people with more than 15€.
Liar
💀
Lmao can't relate
-This comment was made by the Turkish gang
Invite me to your country
Γειά σου συμπατριώτη
They chose the wrong focus trees
or just played Empire Earth in reverse!
🗿
@@Agramschif you liked empire earth you may try out war selection.
They devved up manpower instead of production
we tried new meta build when everyone else updated their game several times
As a Serbian, I somehow can't help but love Balkan. Even though we don't have anything really good (not talking about history or places to see), its still home and I love it
We have a nature either is summer or winter our nature is unmatched
As a southamerican, I appreciate Balkan people for not pillaging our ancestor's riches
I think the problem was that we were too poor to do anything haha
@@nel5518 Everyone was poor, that's why we were fighting each other for resources.
If any of then-balkan states could reach south america (and with good ships and skilled crew), it would've been the ragusan republic(Ragusa was latin name for Dubrovnik). And luckily, they were more of the merchant sort rather than plunderers.
Not gonna lie, if we could have, we would have. It's just, as the femboy said, we were too busy being colonised by the Ottomans ourselves.
We would if we could
The governments money was blown off on crazy hamburgers.
Nah thats crazy.. 🍔
xd
I'm so proud of my country of origin Bosnia being shown in red on the corrpution map , beautiful.
@hunterthompson6737 If the map was honest, the whole planet would be deep red bro. 😅
“SKIBIDI TOILET IS TRYING TO KILL ME”
If every edgy kid who obsesses over the Balkans have one usd to eqch of the Balkan governments, south Eastern Europe would enter a new golden age
Bro why are you calling me out like this
if that happened they would collapse to 300 separate governments on purpose
No, it would just go to the new electric G wagons.
nah the politicians will just steal the money lol
@@NickResentrue
You're right on most counts, aside one. We're not worse off than Latin America anymore, nor compared to most of Asia, leaving aside some exceptions, such as Singapore, South Korea, Japan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. At least the EU Balkan countries actually are nowadays as per world standard on a spectrum from decent (Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia) to well off (Slovenia). Plus, there's also the matter of Russian and Austro-Hungarian imperialism, which also played a big part in keeping the Balkans down, which you didn't touch upon.
Romania is not balkan country
Important detail:
During the Otoman rule in the middle ages, nearly all Balkan states were almost slaves to this empire for hundreds of years. Not only that, but to simply exist most states had to pay what's called a tribute to the Otoman lords. These tributes were money, precious metals, and food supplies that the native populations desperately needed. Basically, the Otoman empire sucked dry most of those countries, so they never had the opportunity to develop like other free states that could invest everything back into their people. Moreover, most Balkan states weren't allowed to have big and developed militaries because their masters said so, therefore independence wasn't a characteristic of those times for us.
Such a bullshit! Ottomans didn't suck resources of Balkans as the west europeans did in Africa and Americas but indeed invested it. Even Voltaire accuses Turks being fool not to suck up the territories they controlled just like westerners themselves but to invest in. Those fabricated nonesonse were injected by western media to sow distrust via western schools, media in the late Ottoman era.
They also took boys as a tribute, to brainwash and turn into soldiers.
Well said.
Ottomans didn't suck Balkans dry their first establishments infrastructures were placed in the Balkan region. They didn't force people to convert or oppress locals. It was due to industrial era induced nationalism from the west europe. It was induced by them not for your favour but involve you in their sphere of influence. Just look at the 20th century. Independence isn't just a name on a sealed paper or a flag or a membership in some club. Who drives people to where? Who sows what among people? That's all matters.
@@AbuzerKadayif Not true. They are actually forced to take Islam faith.Taxes are free for Islam faith , etc...
"Why Balkans are poor"
Guy from the balkans: in 1453...
it runs in the family
I'd blame it more on communism. There was an upward trend after gaining independence from the Ottomans, but the sudden shift to forced nationalization, all the things looted by invading Soviets and the extremely corrupt and hypocritical puppet governments set a very nasty tendency for things to go downhill. And then there's the fact that in some countries the regime fell peacefully and without punishment for the communist dictators, with some of the now Democratic governments comprising partially of people who upheld the tyranny before. Thus the culture of a corrupt elite lording over the people continues to this day.
@@TKOS96 you missed a part of story with WWII.
It was a lot of very bad meat grinding happening there.
@@TKOS96Iirc, only Romania didn't have peaceful transition(the causescus were shot), while others either died (like tito and hoxha) earlier or were quietly removed from power(zivkov).
@@randirboxMountains of it, unfortunately.
There is a direct correlation between femboy per capita and wealth per capita on that map. What comes first is the question.
They were richer and more prosperous under mighty Ottoman rule.
@@just_a_turtle_chadthe Christians under ottoman rule was nothing more than serf
What you think "Raya" is standing for?
The ottomans fucked those areas up @@just_a_turtle_chad
@@just_a_turtle_chad obvious bait is obvious. Next time, post stuff like this with a user like @MIGHTYPROUDTÜRKPATRIOT or something
The wealth.
Being originally from Western Europe and having lived and worked in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania it is pretty clear to me that Eastern Europe is moving forward rapidly, while the Western part is going down.
Great retelling of our dramatic history, brother! Balkans were, are and will be an "interesting place to live". In the end it is worth it.
Nice video, a little simplistic though, there's still a few points you missed:
1) Feuding Culture inherited from Ottoman Empire - unlike Western Europe which had a centralised government continuously for hundreds of years, the Balkans inherited a culture built on favours as their language and society did not standardise like Western Europe during the industrial revolution - making them far more susceptible to a culture of political corruption.
2) The areas colonised by the Austro-Hungarian Empire saw huge amounts of development of their territory. The Austro-Hungarians did more to develop Sarajevo in 20 years than the Ottomans in 400 years, despite treating Bosnia as a colony. It's the reason that Croatia and Slovenia fare so well relative to their neighbours, with Slovenia itself actually being quite a wealthy country and way above average by European standards.
3) The Greek Debt Crisis of 2008
4) The role of the Italians - the Italians caused a lot of problems in the Balkans and fucked a lot of things up - most notably in Albania and Greece, as part of their efforts to have a colonial empire.
5) The total destruction of infrastructure and theft of resources by the Nazis with Greece and Yugoslavia losing 70-90% of all their key infrastructure - they did not do the same to France, the Benelux and Norway.
99% of infrastructure for Greece plus a civil war until 1949
BTW there was a suggestion in some of Albania and Greece becoming a " double kingdom" like Austria - Hungary
🤓
Can you elaborate on the first point?
@@Pavlos_Charalambousto be honest that would have been a much better alternative to the constant albanian immigration in greece
Poland was destroyed more than Greece, but now is wealthier than Greece. So is Romania. Personally, I have come to the conclusion that the most important reason why a place has a specific GDP per capita, a specific economy, a specific way of doing things in 2024, is because the secret (from "ordinary" people) organization that governs all these countries wants it this way. For example, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain were also parts of the Ottoman Empire. Why are they so much wealthier than Greece, and the rest of balkan countries? Taiwan and Singapore and Hong Kong were once poorer than the Balkans. Why are they so wealthy now? Because this organization wants them to be. Japan the same.
I also notice, that in the past ~40 years every time the fertility of a country systematically increases within 3-4-5 years, an economic "crisis" "happens". The US, UK, Sweden, Iceland but even Greece all had increasing fertility rates when such a "crisis" hit them. So I have come to the conclusion that these crises are deliberately created by politicians (by borroing in ways that will increase taxation, unemployment etc.) to reduce the fertility rate somewhere. And I also observe, that it is only Israel that they allow to both have a high yearly economic growth, and a fertility rate higher than 2.1. And that does not seem very fair to me, does it.
So economic growth is 100.00% pre-determined in my opinion.
I am greek by the way in case anyone is currious. 😁
When they say let's go band for band in the Balkans they actually mean rubber bands bought at the 2 cent store and lasts 2 and a half hours.
Ah yes, the classic game of "Krvavih Novčića" (Bloody Coins).
1:02 - Bro, the Stronghold Crusader menu music when you said "Let's go back to the middle ages" is such a good throwback. I love that game.
This is extremely interesting, I love the analysis and comprehensive view. I would love to see a similar video discussing Hungary if possible. :)
1. The Ottomans.
2. The Communists.
3. Mountains.
4. Stephen the Goat whisperer.
War is only one reason.
@@Illyrian-warrior27 Saracens and Communists are the other two. Also Stephen the Goat Whisperer.
Unlimited wars,just see how many was in Serbia in 20 century .First Balkan war,Second Balkan war ,WWI,WWII,war in 90s,NATO bombings
@@dzonikg You are a Titoist?
@@krwnik8419 I am not fan off dictatoships(even Tito was not maybe real dictator),i am actually fan off Yugoslavia in 80s after Tito death,its just there was no nationalism to spoil everything
I started to become cognizant of the differentiation between Western Europe and the Balkans in terms of economic capacity, when I saw Germans, French and Scandinavian tourists strolling in the streets of Athens, with an acute sense of carefreeness and laxity, lacking the crazy nerve and the anxiety of the average Balkan guy who stresses out about his salary and taxes. This differentiation became much more omnipresent and glaring, when I started to converse with them and finding out that they have already travelled a large part of the world by the age of 22, and not only places like Budapest or Rome, where we plan to visit 5 months before. To sum up, I stridently believe that this is the most dreadful reality about the Balkans. It's not just that our countries are not nuclear superpowers, world-leading economies or energy rich countries, but it's the fact that the Balkan people will never get the chance to live a high quality life and will never travel the world with the same frequency and comfort, like the Westerners do. We will always be confined within our countries, forced to live with our families and making one compromise after the other, and when we do indeed abandon our countries, we'll do it as immigrants not as expats. Amazing video Janos, love from Greece.
Yeah true, but you also aren't at risk of starvation (Africa) or being kidnapped (LatAm).
You just compare with obv richer people. Most people in the west also compare themselves to the guy with the big house, fat car, when that isn't the reality for most. I traveled a fair bit but it took me many years of saving in low paid, dead end jobs. Nothing about it came easy to me, trust me.
I belong your region will improve a lot. Hang in there. Regards from Denmark
@@TheBarser Thanks, although I'm quite pessimistic about it.
@@Chris-se7qd Greece is awesome. And so much potential. I for sure will return
@@TheBarser For the time being, I prefer Denmark hahaha. I have some known Danes of mine, from traveling abroad, they're great. They were making jokes about Germany 😂
I still love how you use stronghold crusader sfx and music
"There are no poor countries. Only poor people. Countries are rich." - Michael Parenti
lovely said
As a hungarian I'm sure glad to see our 69th newest stadion while you can't even go to a hopsital without having to wait 10 months
You guys have no excuse. I understand UK medical system going belly up because they have so many immigrants on benefits. But you are next to Romania and we have that figured out.
Hey, im from Serbia we are also currently building mega stadium why do they love stadiums so much? I don't get jt?
@@adrianmilasthat's a rubbish excuse for the brits, they've always had immigrants, immigrants don't use the system if they absolutely have to, health system or any government system.
They are going belly up because they banished healthcare workers from central and eastern europe, they just don't have enough staff any more, and can't get any new staff because nobody wanna work for wages and hours foreigners did, so it's entirely and solely on them.
Young migrants aren't the problem, old immobile gammons whose arses somebody needs to wash every evening are.
You mofos still at home deserve everything you get, vote those assholes out. I have no faith in you anymore, I'm over here in Germany enjoying life.
My dude random question is does people like orban ? How the fuck do you guys see this and keep voting for him
The Balkans are poor compared to the handful of truly wealthy countries in Western Europe (Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco).
If I had a choice of living on an income of 3,000 Euros in Paris/Hamburg/Amsterdam/Brussels (team A) or on 2,000 Euros in Belgrade/Zagreb/Budapest/Sofia (team B) I would opt for team B with no hesitation whatsover.
With 1500€ in Athens you can have a pretty decent living in a very lay down " relax" manner
Wages are not 75% of Western wages, but 25-33%. Cheap living is not good from even cheaper wages.
I mean, sounds great until you wake up one morning to head to work and some cigani has decided he needs the wheels on your car more than you do.
Bro no one in balkans earns 2000€, most of us here live on 400-600€ and outside of big cities jobs are so hard to find because most places are filled with either some 60+ yr old boomers who worke there since highschool or kids of boss's friends, also good luck working as a bartender or waiter anywhere if you are not 10/10 supermodel or a woman, there are almost no oportunities for honest living so a lot of people especialy those who couldnt finish college or find job after it have to be "crafty" which basicaly means stealing wood or cooper, selling second hand goods like carts and nike shoes you aquired for cheep god knows where and working for chinese ba#tards who dump waste into our rivers
2000 € / month is much higher than what the average person earns in the cities you mentioned. Even highly sought after tech jobs pay 1000-1500 depending on seniority usually. 2000 puts you in the top 10% in Zagreb, probably in Belgrade too.
The prices of everything are the same or higher in Croatia compared to W Europe other than rent (like 30% lower) and services (like barbers, dry cleaners, etc.) even though that is is increasing rapidly too.
Thank you for the amazing videos.
The editing on this video is class
1 word: corruption
uggg you have the same level of political analysis as a 5 year old, corruption is always a symptom of high gov budgets
@@Mrlighthouse1000 Ugggh, I too resort to insults when I don't understand a joke.
As a government inspector I would proudly state that there is no corruption at all.
*Puts some folded banknotes in the back pocket
bro wanted to say something instead of having something to say @@Mrlighthouse1000
Corruption is present in every country and every institution worldwide.
bulgaria mentioned 🗣🗣
ебаве то татарите
Bro ur killing me with these Stronghold songs cmoon
I don't know about Romania, but communism in Bulgaria was actually extremely successful. In fact the country is still surviving on the vapors from that era. The products were actually of a very high quality, not to mention some high-tech production in the semiconductor sphere. Note that Bulgaria actively participated in sending Gagarin to space (research into astronaut food and computers). Agriculture was booming as well as the oil and gas refining industry. Products were not generally exported because of the iron curtain. However, right after the fall of communism, for several years people much preferred buying local rather than western products due to much better quality and lower prices.
The government secretly went bankrupt 3 times, the USSR helped
Products were better everywhere in the past though
Back then when Bulgaria was based now a generic capitalst shithole 😢😢😢.
Same here . Economy went even more downhill with the downfall
Everything was based on Russian oil and gas. When the charity ended our economy crumbled. The integration into COMECON was higher than that of some individual Soviet republics. That is why our economic collapse was so bad that it was comparable only to that of Russia itself. The situation is similar today, only with Germany instead. If Germany tumbles we'll be sunk... again. Overreliance on a single market is just as bad as overreliance on a single good. The quality was also dubious and not that good, the Soviet market was always in heavy deficit and not at all pretentious in what it bought. There were entire industries that had been crated solely to serve the Soviet market, like canning - save for the needs of the army almost everything else was exported for the USSR. The electronics were indeed high quality for their time, the Russians were aghast at what they were seeing, their oil and gas money had built a better electronics industry comparable to low-end Japanese tech and it wasn't in Russia it was in a satellite state.
My ADHD mind loves the way you present history in your videos; quick, colorful and funny. I've learned more Eastern European history from this channel than I ever did in school. Thanks @LivingIronicallyinEurope, Keep em' coming!
True!
I don’t know if the word Serbia even showed up once in my entire high school curriculum. I know we don’t talk about Russia quickly two different times and I think that’s all we got about Eastern Europe.
@@Mortablunt but you have learned color of George Washington's pants?
Because of a thieving mentality .
All is about Alexander the Macedonian and the reason that he went concouring
the known and unknown World .
And the collapse of Macedonia after !
So , Balkan become peninsula of thieves !
Everybody wanted the peace of Macedonia !
Even today !so Alexander the Macedonia must have broth great treasure😅 !
We are not poor, we have so much to be grateful for.
They are not so poor other are too rich 😂
Little correction: witches were not burned in the middle ages but in the renaissance era. Common myth.
Here in Bulgaria, instead of a car loop at school we have Calvary loops where you can park your steed and go pick up your child from the pit of mud with the name of school
Can't agree enough, I am powering my 1995' computer with a car battery from the scrapyard, where I work for an African lord
Honestly all jokes aside. We in bosnia still do better than the majority of third world nations in the world, even the poorest people have large houses because of their ancestors, cities like sarajevo are modern and beautiful and even my small town has glass buildings, fast wifi, happy people in the streets, we do a lot better, honestly we would thrive a lot better if the different ethnicities just cooperated with each other instead of arguing and fightinga war(s?) with. We would have the same level of brotherhood and unity as in the golden yugo days, with a far better ideology and possibly even eu support. However, the future lies in the hands of the youth, who give up more and more on bosnia, and prefer starting to live and study abroad, i plan on moving back and working for a foreign company one day, if god allows it.
11:02 We are so popular, the English dictionary designed a word based on our daily activities
Babe wake up! New Living Ironically in Europe vid just dropped!
Love from Greece 🇬🇷♥️
u are turk and ur grandma is spanish gonzalia
@@rekamud6635WHAT EUDIWNDJWNDKSN
@@rekamud6635 do a dna test and you will change ur mind😂
@@rekamud6635 Okay cockroach
I am the 4th narrative.
At least the food is good, UK conquered the half world for spices, and still not able to use them
Even during the Ottoman era, the Balkans was the richest province compared to the east and south. European imperialism fucked it up.
it is true that europe destructed balkans
European countries hate balkans and they underestimate them daily.
Love Greece, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and rest!! Better poor and good hearted rather than rich and robbers.
It's ironic when you think how the Balkans were actually the wealthiest region of the Ottoman Empire comparing to others like Anatolia
It isn't, it just speaks volumes how much piece of [crap] the O.E was.
@@peterdenov4898then I just wonder why it took more then 600 yrs to destroy them when they were so shitty
@Yamasada03 partially true for the 100 yrs of the ottomans.But all the yrs before the ottomans were a powerful force
@@zegerman360 and that is an answer for why o.e. was poor- the war and army are expensive
@@zegerman360 because the United Kingdom and France did their best to maintain the empire on artificial life support for at least 200y.
There is little gold and oil and neither country had a colonial empire.The Ottoman wars hindered the development of all Balkan countries for centuries.
One of the best videos you made so far. Loved it!
8:55 I just came home riding the same type of bus an hour before watching this video, this should say more than enough about the state of the Balkans right now lol
I would still prefer living in the poorest zone of Europe than Central America
lol no you wouldn't
@@cadehoff8702 Yes I would.
@@IkeSan you'd rather live in rural Russia than Panama City? interesting
@@cadehoff8702 hell yeah any time!
Costa Rica is nice to live, I suppose.
Poor is a relative term. Maybe by EU standards. I wonder what Somalia has to say about it. It can be much, much worse. With a Romanian salary I've lived like a king in south east Asia for two months.
He adresses that in the video this is mainly to show why the balkans are poorer than the EU
Beeinng poor in Serbia means you drive used BMW imported from Germany
@@danielryan6604Ok? Just goes to show how colonisation and exploitation of others does wonders for one's own economy.
Ce tari in mod specific?Tailanda,Vietnam,Filipine?
Great video explaning a lot of stuff. Odlican video dobio sam neke nove perspektive na celu situaciju na Balkanu! Hvala :)
Germany:
- destroyed during ww1, rebuild, destroyed ww2, rebuild and becomes economical powerhouse again
- internal locus of control culture: belief that one's own actions, decisions, and efforts primarily determine the outcomes of one's life
Balkans:
- elect corrupt leaders
- not so ideal work culture (why work when we all die anyway)
- external locus of control culture: belief that external factors, such as luck or Turkish rule from more than a century ago primarily determine the outcomes of one's life
The same thing happens in Brazil, the population blames Portuguese colonization or the USA. Out of 5698 municipalities, only 5 have a sewage and basic sanitation system for 100% of the population.
The fact that you use stronghold crusader references and music fulfills my hard. My dad used to play this game so much when I was young and I used to watch him and with time I did as well. Still enjoying it to this day, but never seen someone that has played it or knows about it.
A cousin played it too(with the usual "spam farms, find mercs, hire horse archers and assassins, win" tactic).
Well I know about it and it was one of the first video games that I played,and still play.
Love the Stronghold Crusader!
Fulfills your hard what?
As a comedic writer, I can say that the joke about roads and breast cancer patients is Grade A dark comedy. In all seriousness the part about the industrial revolution being caused by the need to process raw materials more efficently was really enlightening.
There are many factors that led to the industrial revolution not just one, as the Spain also had an abundance of raw materials during their golden age but had no industrial revolution.
Well done thumbnail overview of the Balkans, both past and present.
These days, more and more Americans are retiring to the Balkans. This, at least, is the impression one gets from the multitude of videos by Americans and Canadians who've done so.
1 word: communism
Nah, thats like 10% of the thing.
The ottomans are atleast 60% responsible for making us a bunch of backward morons
Yup
good old Tito
3 words: Gypsies and Albanians 🤢🤮🇦🇱
Why are we poor then? (Im greek)
That was both entertaining and informative. It was jammed full of facts but still entertaining. I really like that you ended on a positive note.
He did it the slav way.
Thanks for the video!
Quite like the map of Balkans with a World of Warcraft style, you DIY it or there are soft for that 😮?
I feel like I've said this before on one of your videos, but even Croatia was held from keeping up with the rest of the world by the Hungarian elite. They saw the power of the nobility decline in Western Europe and throttled industrialization to preserve their status. Meanwhile Austrians in their half of the monarchy did their best to modernize, but they were still hindered by nationalisms and lack of colonies. The result is still visible today, where Slovenia and Czechia have a decently functioning economy, while Slovakia and Croatia are much less urbanized.
In Croatia some of the most economically advanced regions were historically ruled by Italy.
In hindsight, the fall of the Christian Orthodox Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire was probably the worst thing for the region. After that, my Balkan brothers and sisters, we were unfortunately made the playthings of Turks, Russians, and the West.
not the West, but Germany/Austria
@@abygorsonabor7982 lol you mean turks. austrians germans know how to build infastructure, western poland was much more developed than eastern russian parts
you can thank the venetians and the crusaders for that!
yeah, the byzantines (romans) at the very least built stuff and tried to develop regions
@@TheGhostofCarlSchmitt I prefer to just call them westerners. First they destroy the Empire that would've been good to us, more less, then they attack us after the turks have already weakened us.
If western Europe is so wealthy, whjy Croatia richer than Portugal? than a former empire :))
Portugal is a wannabee Balkan nation. Whenever you look at statestics they fit into Balkan, its kinda funny
I think that Croatia recently surpassed Portugal and Greece. 💞
And we had brutal invasion 5 years long war and destroyed land. The war ended not even 30 years ago in 1995. But we have achieved so much. 😊
@@magdalenabuljan7219 agreed, Croatia seems like a nice place
@@TheBarserThank you😊
Because some nations are better than others and the ignorance towards Balkan nations is insane
Some of the countries in balkans are rich and not poor, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia are rich I’ve been their in those places and they are very nice and wealthy
i like how the line goes right between Poland A+Warsaw and B
To get a better idea of what "mismanagement" means regarding the communist regimes at that time - Bulgaria had three secret bankrupts under Todor Jivkov. The first two times the USSR covered the costs. The third time was the last, because the Russian went out of cash too.
Its typical for socialists, before they went to rule, they were in prison. Most of the comunists were ex-prisoners - killers, rapists, robbery and so on.....
And they were working for even bigger mass criminals, off-shore.
Anyone asks anything about the Old World.
Someone answers: "Well back in the Permian Era....."
Better than obsession with Civil war or 9/11.
05:28 i appreciate this heroes of might and magic III reference. brings me good childhood memories
I have no clue of anything of this is accurate. But this video is entertaining as f. You are a true memelord. Extra points for Lotr clip and Homm3 conflux music.
Every time i watch this channel, i am much more confident that the balkans is just european version of South America, and vice versa. It s ridiculously similar. If i describe where i live, could prety much be mistake as an average serbian city LMAO. Even the people are quite similar (im sure that i saw a guy exaclty how the man of this channel last week). Here are other similarities:
-Trash on the streets (not really much altought, just some minor cigarretes and papers)
-Relatively safe, but not compared to other regions ( not all of south america and the balkans, of course)
- Both are kinda the "crazy people and alcoholic hub" of theirs continents
-Delicious street food
-Racist old people, and some crazy young guys in the internet. (unfortunely)
- Historical crimes of war (despite some are quite old, especialy south america)
-They are not exaclty poor (there is no starvation and i dont have nothing to complaing), but are not wealthy in comparison with other countries (there are better and worst places in the world)
Conclusion:2 regions obscured in relation to their much more wealthier neighbours (USA and western europe).
From what I saw some parts of US look like actual landfills, even some parts of some of the biggest cities. Also, US is 131st on Global Peace Index list. Way lower than all of the balkan countires and some of South American countries.
Me in juarez mexico💀😭
So true, you could probably say the same about the Caribbean and North America
When Greece was threaten to been thrown out of EU their was a series of memes in Greece depicting a cartoon like Greek map moving to Latin America or asking " can I join you guys?" 😄
All jokes aside the not exactly wealthy not exactly poor - you can live a comfy life but not become rich part
The historical burden part
Delicious street food and crazy boomers are especially true for Greece
I'm mexican and at one point of my life I got very interested towards balkan history later on I discovered that my fascination may come by thia very same reason. So I'm glad you noticed too!
Interesting cultural/historic information + unique and funny editting = I enjoy watching these videos!
Enjoyed the video game references. Must have taken a ton of work!
Super super original video, and educational!!! Amazing job!!!
The severity of poverty is linked to the time spent under Ottoman rule
A very nice video, we would like to see more like this. As a Romanian, I would like to see a video of the Romanian anticommunists resistance or about the romanians "haiduci".
Anyway, thank you for all the videos about the Romania and the Balkans in general. You are the one that promotes us in other countries. Thank you!
Iirc, croatians and serbs also had "hajduci" (tho they served more as raiders rather than resistance fighters).
That said, if both could be covered at same time and compare the two, I'd love to see it.
Why? Because we have friends like England, Germany, France, US, Vatican...
It's sad how many communities got wiped out in WW1 and WW2. I find it bizarre that new borders were drawn up and Hungary lost all that land.
AAAA THANK YOU FOR HAVING A PLAGUE TALE CLIP AAAA
I have to push back on the current situation though. The EU is sucking the able population from the Balkan countries that have joined it, and since not so long ago, from other non-EU Balkan countries as well, leaving only non-sovereign husks of former countries behind - basically provinces that have nothing to say about anything. If you think that is a good trend, then I have a news flash for you. It is very, very bad.
Hey lads, found the serb
I know more than enough people from Western European countries who wanna go somewhere else and quite a few Balkan people who have considered other options and don't see a point in leaving here, all of which way more than "able". There's a global demographic crisis that stands between the EU and any plans they may have for anything and it's not going anywhere. It would take serious alchemy and necromancy for anyone to unfuck our world as a whole so it's safe to say the EU cannot do it.
They can't possibly siphon enough citizens to fix their demographic anything because there isn't anything significant they're capable of offering that would clean out the competent population from anywhere. You will see an uptick of people leaving but nothing decisive. Plus, it's not just the quality folk who leave.
@@felipecastanha9161 you ignorant simpleton lol
@@felipecastanha9161found the amerifat gunt slurper
Iron curtain 2 it is.
5:28 Heroes 3? In 2024? Based
5:07 Truly a certified Slazac moment right there!
Compared to Western Europe, compared to the rest of the World, Balkans are quite rich, free, safe, developed, especially Croatia, Romania, Greece. Slovenia is basically western.
They’re defiantly more developed than most balkans nations but compared to most western nations they’re on the lower income side
@@stupidstudiosproductions2179lower income doesnt mean lower quality of life.
West is falling anyways, the east will rise
That's true which goes to show you just how much worse it can get lol.
Nah
@@naoufalhitmi Other than Canada, US few arab countries and Japan, S. Korea and city states like Hong Kong and Singapore, which are richer than balkans?
They are so poor in the Balkans because it should all be Hungarian land then they all would be thriving
As it should be
@@LivingIronicallyinEurope yes as it should be and everyone must agree
Hungarian freakin rockstars. There is only one path... back to Hungaria!
Austro-Hungarian
meanwhile shitty bread is fucking 700 forint
thats why they're so friendly and interesting people from my experience
The heroes of might and magic 3 reference 🔥
Love from East Greece 🇹🇷
Shut up wannabe
In Hungary's case it probably has something to do with all the stadiums our Prime Minister builds for several billion Euros, all taken out of public funding
You should take a page out of our book, here in Bulgaria we build hotels with EU farming money, works great.
Are you sure your minister is not Vucic?
@@mrsneakyburt6305 Any particular case? Any undeniable proof?
@@plamenpetrov2014 You can google around a bit and find some info , but mostly I've got the info from one of my mothers friends who's a politician, basically when we where traveling by the Black Sea coast we constantly ran into abandoned unfinished hotels, which he explained where mostly built by money not meant for it, ofc not all of them where built by EU money but sadly corrupt politicians and the mafia have many ways to make money from the EU not reach its intended group, they try to fund hotels with "donated" money and then they take the profit from the hotels themselves.
It's kinda accurate imo, great job, keep up the good work!
Also don't forget that the Ottomans had a system that made the ruling elite exploit the conquered lands as much as humanly possible.
I think its because they're Balkans
Not wrong
9:35 Ayo where you got that Yugoslavia meme image? 0-0
5:07 Didn't think I would find Slazac here 💀 I love that guy
Mongols or Tatars were never in western Europe. The most western point of Mongol invasion and intrusion was Croatia; they came through Hungary and burned their way through Croatia to Adriatic sea (they were trying to capture king Bela IV , but he escaped to Adriatic islands and Mongol leaders had conference back in Asia). Yes, Croatia was for 300 years (from 15th to the first half of 18th century) the border between Christian Europe and Ottoman Empire( actually Osmanlic, according to the name of founder of dynasty: Osman and Ottoman is western adaptation of the name ). Two thirds of Croatia were under Ottoman occupation, but 1/3 never fall. Ottomans and there units of akindjiya and haramiye have slaughtered entire villages of ordinary peasants who were not soldiers nor trained for combat. And question is why? It was the tactics of "burn ground" and the goal was to force the feudal lords in their castles to choice: or join the Ottomans or go away (because the incomes of feudal lords were coming from the work of peasants, and if there is no peasants, there is no incomes). So, the result of Ottomanic conquest and the result of almost permanent war was large scale changes in populations. Serbia was entirely in 16th century under Ottomans, so they didn't have so big demographic loses like Croatia. And that was also reason why Croatia today has the shape of horse shoe: the modern borders of Croatia were established as a result of wars against Ottomans: Viennise war (1683-1699) and of wars in first half of 18th century between Rep. of Venice and Ottoman Empire. Since then the borders between Croatia and Bosna and Hercegovina were not change except in small details. So, we can say that modern Croatian borders towards east are older than USA. And borders towards north (Hungary) and to the north-west (Slovenia) didn't change much from early middle ages and from the time of Croatian dynasty in 11th century. Before the Ottoman wars, Croatia held regions in what is today western Bosna. Much of Croatian population escaped in front of Ottoman violence during 16th century: some to the border region between modern Austria and Hungary (Burgenland), others from Dalmatia to Italy across Adriatic to Molise in region of Marche and even today they speak Croatian archaic language, especially Croats in Austrian Burgenland. ... And I have to correct you in one fact: the real beginning of end of Ottoman conquest was not the battle at Vienna in 1683, but the battle at Sisak in 1593. From that year Ottoman power is more in defence than in offence. And the year 1683 was the beginning of liberation war of Croatia from Ottoman Empire (it was sort of our version of reconquista). But the regions in modern Bosna were never returned to Croatia. Under Ottomans the other population was brought to the empty regions of Bosna: the orthodox Vlasi or Vlahi which started to declare them selves as Srbi (Serbs) under influence of Serbian orthodox Church. That is how "Serbians" spread into Bosna and in some regions in Croatia.
Croatia never existed prior to 1991 what the hell you talking about?
@@lordnicholasbuzanthefearle2155 you are or very young or very ignorant ... perhaps both ... even from 1945 to 1990 there was Socialist Republic of Croatia ... in Federation of Jugoslavija
The Mongols were in Silesia!
@@maikotter9945 Yes, in Polish: Šląsk, in Croatian: Šlezija or Šleska, in English: Silesia. and city Legnica, it has almost the same geographic longitude as Croatia; only Istra and Kvarner islands are little bit most to the west than the most western part of Poland.
Another reasons that led to the current day economical dichotomy in Europe, is that after WW2 and the destruction that it brought , the western part which got under the wing of USA, had access to a capital injection of biblical proportions from Uncle Sam through the Marshall plan. It also didn’t helped much that after the collapse of the USSR, the newly “democratic” countries, arguably were slowly over the course of the 90’s turned into colonies by the big boys on the playground. Colonies which are used for the extraction of cheap natural and human resources.
Perfectly put. A lot of people like to justify poverty by just saying "well, no empire" while somehow forgetting empires are the bad guys for anyone not nestled in their core, benefiting from extractionist policies
It appears that geography is the Balkans’ worst enemy.
Nope, it's communism
In the villages of Greece most roads electricity,running water, and yes toilets were made from 1967-1974 during the dictatorshipm. Until then Greece was still recovering..war after war and then civil wars from the revolution against the turks in 1821
Finest music and meme choices were made here!