Though all countries accepted the idea of nation-states as natural and universal, the people everywhere developed their own specific variety of nationalism.

The Balkans was the most serious source of nationalist tension in Europe. It presents a unique example of how the rebellious nationalists struggled to win back their long- lost independence.

The Balkans was a region of geographical and ethnic variations comprising modern-day Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatica, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro. The inhabitants belonging to the ethnic group were broadly known as the Slavs. A large part of the Balkans had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for a long time. Due to the strategic position of the Balkan region, imperial powers of Europe wanted to extend their control over the region.

So they competed with one another that resulted in intense conflict among these powers. The domination of other powers separated the people of the Balkans from each other who belonged to one ethnic group. The spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism in the Balkans together with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire made this region very explosive. The Balkan region, thus, became an area of intense conflicts leading to a series of wars in the region and finally the First World War.