Propaganda at Home and in Exile (South East Europe)

This article explores the nature of propaganda in those South East European states and territories that participated in the First World War, specifically Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, along with Yugoslav separatists from the Austria-Hungary’s South Slavonic territories. During this period, propaganda essentially represented a continuation of pre-existing ideological narratives, often centred on vague, patriotic shared notions of ethno-national unity through territorial aggrandizement or secession. However, the widely differing war aims among regional parties resulted in these narratives becoming increasingly dominated by the war’s more immediate political contexts or specific domestic concerns. This growing divergence was accentuated by the diversity of wartime experiences, such as foreign occupation or internal division, among the belligerents. Nevertheless, a number of thematic similarities existed around narratives such as honour, sacrifice, and national defence.