The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

Incorporated with itself the whole of Macedonia and present Serbia, would unite all the Slav tribes in the Balkans and form a great and powerful Slav realm. But the military efficiency of the Mongolian Tuling caste of the Volgars soon evaporated, and the Bulgarian State perished as rapidly as it had arisen. But in its place the first Serbian State emerged in the south-western corner of the peninsula near the Adriatic coast. By a natural evolution the Serbian State spread eastward, following steadily in the wake of the retreating Bulgarian wave or Byzantine rule. The Serbian State was a pure Slav reaction against both of them, and although the Serbian reign and ascendency over the eastern provinces and Macedonia was only asserted later and by a Slower process, it was nevertheless firmer and lasted longer—in fact until the Turkish invasion —leaving behind it a deeply-rooted historical and national tradition which survived the five centuries of Turkish oppression.

Thus owing to the natural sources from which Sprang the Serbian and Bulgarian nations of to-day, it is most difficult to draw a clear and definite line of demarcation between them. Until this day they are as two neighbouring colours in the spectrum. On the outer limits you clearly see the difference of the tint, but towards the middle they are so mingled that the line of demarcation simply does not exist. Thus the purer Bulgarian type, and most distinguish-

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