Volume I discusses the history of the major Balkan nationalities.

This volume concentrates on the Balkan wars and World War II, which both had their origins in the desire of nationalist circles to complete the territorial unification of their states. A substantial part of this book deals with the wartime experience, the establishment of the postwar regimes and their internal development to 1980 and the divergent paths followed by the five states (Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia) since 1945.