Balkanization is the splitting of a country, or a large group, into smaller pieces that stand apart — often with bad feeling between them. Writers use it to show they do not like what is happening: the new pieces are not a happy family; they are small, rival, and hard to hold together. The word looks back at the Balkans in southeast Europe, where borders moved again and again and wars tore people apart. You will see it in politics, history, and news. People also stretch it: a company, a school, even the internet can be called balkanized when it breaks into camps that barely talk. Though actually, that looser use can annoy people who hear a real place and real blood in the word. British spelling sometimes uses an s: Balkanisation.