Editing Balkanization (section)

==Nations and societies==
[[File:Map Europe 1923-en.svg|thumb|right|250px|Map of territorial changes in Europe after [[World War I]] (as of 1923)]]
[[Image: Cold War border changes.png|thumb|250px|Changes in national boundaries after the end of the [[Cold War]] and the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] and [[breakup of Yugoslavia]]]]
{{See also|Greek Project|Eastern Question}}
The term (coined in the early 20th century in the aftermath of the collapse of the [[Ottoman Empire]]) refers to the division of the [[Balkan peninsula]], which was ruled almost entirely by the Ottoman Empire, into a number of smaller states between 1817 and 1912.{{sfn|Pringle|2016}} It came into common use{{sfn|Simic|2013|p=128}} in the immediate aftermath of the [[First World War]], with reference to the many new states that arose from the collapse of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]].