Balkans

1835, "of or pertaining to the Balkans" (q.v.) or to the mountain range that runs across them.

1914, "to divide into small and mutually hostile groups," as was the political condition of the Balkans; it is said to have been coined by English editor James Louis Garvin, but A.J. Toynbee (1922) credited it to "German Socialists" describing the results of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Either way, the reference is to the political situation in the Balkans c. 1878-1913, when the European section of the Ottoman Empire melted into small, warring nations. Balkanized and Balkanization both also are from 1920.