At the Berlin Congress of 1878, the principal powers agreed that the Balkans would be comprised mainly of small States, rivals but weak and with a large ethnic spread, each of which to be dependent on one of these powers. This deliberate fragmentation, known as Balkanisation, would turn the region into a powder keg; the two Balkan Wars in the early years of the 20th century, followed by the initial theatre of the triggering of the First World War (the conclusion of which held the seeds of...