rs of people converted to Islam, notably from minority population groups such as the Albanians. Thus a substantial Muslim population was added to the pre-existing mix.
The Ottoman advance into Europe (which the battle of Kosovo, of such emotive importance to the Serbs, was an unsuccessful attempt to check) reached its high water mark with the two unsuccessful sieges of Vienna, in 1529 and 1683. Following the failure of the second siege, the Ottomans were gradually but steadily rolled back, and the northeastern Balkans fell into the hands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. By the mid-19th century the Turkish presence had vanished, the Balkans being either absorbed by the Austro-Hungarians or partitioned into independent states.
Here, however, is where the Balkans problem in its modern form began to take form. The 19th century saw the growth of the ideology of nationalism, with its emphasis on self-determination of peoples, a concept defined largely in ethnic and linguistic terms. In fac
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