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Balkans

March 23, 2023

"Balkan" redirects here. For other uses, see Balkan (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with the Baltic states or the Baltic region in northeastern Europe.

The Balkans (/ˈbɔːlkənz/ BAWL-kənz), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions.[1][2][3] The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined.[4] The highest point of the Balkans is Musala, 2,925 metres (9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.

Balkans
Geographical map of the Balkan Peninsula
Geography
LocationSoutheastern Europe
Coordinates42°N 22°E / 42°N 22°E / 42; 22Coordinates: 42°N 22°E / 42°N 22°E / 42; 22
Area466,827–562,614 km2 (180,243–217,226 sq mi)[citation needed]
Highest elevation2,925 m (9596 ft)
Highest pointMusala (Bulgaria)
Administration
Demographics
Populationca. 60 million (45 million on the peninsula)[citation needed]
Location map of the Balkan Peninsula
Topographic map of the Balkan Peninsula

The concept of the Balkan Peninsula was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808,[5] who mistakenly considered the Balkan Mountains the dominant mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for Rumelia in the 19th century, the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire. It had a geopolitical rather than a geographical definition, which was further promoted during the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the early 20th century. The definition of the Balkan Peninsula's natural borders does not coincide with the technical definition of a peninsula; hence modern geographers reject the idea of a Balkan Peninsula, while historical scholars usually discuss the Balkans as a region. The term has acquired a stigmatized and pejorative meaning related to the process of Balkanization.[4][6] The alternative term used for the region is Southeast Europe.

Name

Etymology

The origin of the word Balkan is obscure; it may be related to Turkish bālk 'mud' (from Proto-Turkic *bal 'mud, clay; thick or gluey substance', cf. also Turkic bal 'honey'), and the Turkish suffix an 'swampy forest'[7] or Persian balā-khāna 'big high house'.[8] Related words are also found in other Turkic languages: Karakhanid balčɨq or balɨq, Turkish balčɨk, Tatar balčɨq, Middle Turkic balčɨq or palčɨq, Uzbek balčiq, Uighur balčuq, Azerbaijani palčɨg, Turkmen palčɨq, Khakassian palčax, Oyrat bal-qaš, Khalaj palčoq, Chuvash pɨlǯk, Yakut bɨlɨ̄k, Tuvinian balɣaš or malɣaš, Tofalar balxaš, Kazakh balšɨq or balqaš, Noghai balšɨq, Bashkir balsɨq, Karaim balčɨq, Salar palčɨx, Kumyk balčɨq.[9][10] It was used mainly during the time of the Ottoman Empire. In modern Turkish balkan means 'chain of wooded mountains'.[11][12]

Historical names and meaning

Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages

From classical antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains were called by the local Thracian[13] name Haemus.[14] According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has remained with his name. A reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus (Αἷμος) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge'.[15] A third possibility is that "Haemus" (Αἵμος) derives from the Greek word "haima" (αἷμα) meaning 'blood'. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon. Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name.[16]

Late Middle Ages and Ottoman period

The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, in which the Haemus Mountains are referred to as Balkan.[17] The first attested time the name "Balkan" was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter sent in 1490 to Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco, an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat.[18] The Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565.[8] There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, although other Turkic tribes had already settled in or were passing through the region.[8] There is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion.[8] The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its general meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊, but especially it was applied to the Haemus mountain.[19][20] The name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains)[21] and the Balkan Region of Turkmenistan. English traveler John Bacon Sawrey Morritt introduced this term into English literature at the end of the 18th century, and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The concept of the "Balkans" was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808,[22] who mistakenly considered it as the dominant central mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea.[23][24][4] During the 1820s, "Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers... Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term".[25] In European books printed until late 1800s it was also known as Illyrian Peninsula or Illyrische Halbinsel in German.[26]

Evolution of meaning in 19th and 20th century

The term was not commonly used in geographical literature until the mid-19th century because already then scientists like Carl Ritter warned that only the part South of the Balkan Mountains can be considered as a peninsula and considered it to be renamed as "Greek peninsula". Other prominent geographers who didn't agree with Zeune were Hermann Wagner, Theobald Fischer, Marion Newbigin, Albrecht Penck, while Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn in 1869 for the same territory used the term Südostereuropäische Halbinsel ("Southeasterneuropean peninsula"). Another reason it was not commonly accepted as the definition of then European Turkey had a similar land extent. However, after the Congress of Berlin (1878) there was a political need for a new term and gradually "the Balkans" was revitalized, but in the maps, the northern border was in Serbia and Montenegro without Greece (it only depicted the Ottoman occupied parts of Europe), while Yugoslavian maps also included Croatia and Bosnia. The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for European Turkey, the political borders of former Ottoman Empire provinces.[4][24][27]

The usage of the term changed in the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century when was embraced by Serbian geographers, most prominently by Jovan Cvijić.[23] It was done with political reasoning as affirmation for Serbian nationalism on the whole territory of the South Slavs, and also included anthropological and ethnological studies of the South Slavs through which were claimed various nationalistic and racialist theories.[dubious – discuss][23] Through such policies and Yugoslavian maps the term was elevated to the modern status of a geographical region.[dubious – discuss][24] The term acquired political nationalistic connotations far from its initial geographic meaning,[4] arising from political changes from the late 19th century to the creation of post–World War I Yugoslavia (initially the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918).[24] After the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term "Balkans" acquired a negative political meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, as well in worldwide casual usage for war conflicts and fragmentation of territory (see Balkanization).[23][24]

Southeast Europe

Main article: Southeast Europe

In part due to the historical and political connotations of the term "Balkans",[28] especially since the military conflicts of the 1990s in Yugoslavia in the western half of the region, the term "Southeast Europe" is becoming increasingly popular.[24][29] A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe. The online newspaper Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003.[citation needed]

Current

In other languages of the region, the region is known as:

  • Slavic languages:
  • Romance languages:
    • Aromanian: Peninsula Balcanicã or Balcani
    • Romanian: Peninsula Balcanică or Balcani
    • Italian: Penisola balcanica or Balcani
  • Other languages:
    • Albanian: Gadishulli Ballkanik and Siujdhesa e Ballkanit
    • Greek: Βαλκανική χερσόνησος, transliterated: Valkaniki chersonisos
    • Turkish: Balkan Yarımadası or Balkanlar

Definitions and boundaries

Balkan Peninsula

 
The Balkan states
  The Balkan Peninsula using the Danube–Sava–Soča border
  Political communities that are included in the Balkans[30]
  Political communities that are often included in the Balkans[30]

The Balkan Peninsula is bounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea (including the Ionian and Aegean seas) and the Sea of Marmara to the south and the Black Sea to the east. Its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers.[31][32][failed verification] The Balkan Peninsula has a combined area of about 470,000 km2 (181,000 sq mi) (slightly smaller than Spain). It is more or less identical to the region known as Southeast Europe.[33][34][35]

From 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria and some Dalmatian areas (like Zara, today's Zadar) that are within the general definition of the Balkan Peninsula. The current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, due to their definition of the Balkans that limits its western border to the Kupa River.[36]

Share of total area in brackets[37] within the Balkan Peninsula by country, by the Danube–Sava definition, with Bulgaria and Greece occupying almost the half of the territory of the Balkan Peninsula, with around 23% of the total area each.

Countries wholly within the Balkan Peninsula:

Countries mostly within the Balkan Peninsula:

Countries partially within the Balkan Peninsula:

Countries mostly outside the Balkan Peninsula:

Balkans

The term "the Balkans" is used more generally for the region; it includes states in the region, which may extend beyond the peninsula, and is not defined by the geography of the peninsula itself.

Historians state the Balkans comprise Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia.[44][45][46] Its total area is usually given as 666,700 km2 (257,400 sq mi)[a] and the population as 59,297,000 (est. 2002).[45] Italy, although having a small part of its territory on the Balkan Peninsula, is not included in the term "the Balkans".

The term Southeast Europe is also used for the region, with various definitions. Individual Balkan states can also be considered part of other regions, including Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe. Turkey, including its European territory, is generally included in Western Asia or the Middle East.

Note: a The area figure provided by the Encyclopædia Britannica includes Romania but excludes Greece. If Greece is included, the total area of the Balkans would be 790,011 km2.

Western Balkans

Further information: 2015 Western Balkans Summit, Vienna
 
Western Balkan countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. Croatia (yellow) joined the EU in 2013.

The Western Balkans is a political neologism coined to refer to Albania and the territory of the former Yugoslavia, except Slovenia, since the early 1990s.[e] The region of the Western Balkans, a coinage exclusively used in Pan-European parlance, roughly corresponds to the Dinaric Alps territory.

The institutions of the European Union have generally used the term Western Balkans to mean the Balkan area that includes countries that are not members of the European Union, while others refer to the geographical aspects.[d] Each of these countries aims to be part of the future enlargement of the European Union and reach democracy and transmission scores but, until then, they will be strongly connected with the pre-EU waiting program Central European Free Trade Agreement.[47] Croatia, considered part of the Western Balkans, joined the EU in July 2013.[48]

Criticism of the geographical definition

The term is criticized for having a geopolitical, rather than a geographical meaning and definition, as a multiethnic and political area in the southeastern part of Europe.[24] The geographical term of a peninsula defines that the water border must be longer than land, with the land side being the shortest in the triangle, but that is not the case with the Balkan Peninsula.[23][24] Both Eastern and Western water cathetus from Odesa to Cape Matapan (c. 1230–1350 km) and from Trieste to Cape Matapan (c. 1270–1285 km) are shorter than land cathetus from Trieste to Odessa (c. 1330–1365 km).[23][24] The land has a too wide line connected to the continent to be technically proclaimed as a peninsula - Szczecin (920 km) and Rostock (950 km) at the Baltic Sea are closer to Trieste than Odessa yet it is not considered as another European peninsula.[23] Since the late 19th and early 20th-century literature is not known where is exactly the northern border between the peninsula and the continent,[23][24] with an issue, whether the rivers are suitable for its definition.[4] In the studies the Balkans' natural borders, especially the northern border, are often avoided to be addressed, considered as a "fastidious problem" by André Blanc in Geography of the Balkans (1965), while John Lampe and Marvin Jackman in Balkan Economic History (1971) noted that "modern geographers seem agreed in rejecting the old idea of a Balkan Peninsula".[4] Another issue is the name because the Balkan Mountains which are mostly located in Northern Bulgaria are not dominating the region by length and area like the Dinaric Alps.[23] An eventual Balkan peninsula can be considered a territory South of the Balkan Mountains, with a possible name "Greek-Albanian Peninsula."[4][24] The term influenced the meaning of Southeast Europe which again is not properly defined by geographical factors yet historical borders of the Balkans.[24]

Croatian geographers and academics are highly critical of inclusion of Croatia within the broad geographical, social-political and historical context of the Balkans, while the neologism Western Balkans is perceived as a humiliation of Croatia by the European political powers.[23] According to M. S. Altić, the term has two different meanings, "geographical, ultimately undefined, and cultural, extremely negative, and recently strongly motivated by the contemporary political context".[24] In 2018, President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović stated that the use of the term "Western Balkans" should be avoided because it does not imply only a geographic area, but also negative connotations, and instead must be perceived as and called Southeast Europe because it is part of Europe.[49]

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek said of the definition,[50]

This very alibi confronts us with the first of many paradoxes concerning Balkan: its geographic delimitation was never precise. It is as if one can never receive a definitive answer to the question, "Where does it begin?" For Serbs, it begins down there in Kosovo or Bosnia, and they defend the Christian civilization against this Europe's Other. For Croats, it begins with the Orthodox, despotic, Byzantine Serbia, against which Croatia defends the values of democratic Western civilization. For Slovenes, it begins with Croatia, and we Slovenes are the last outpost of the peaceful Mitteleuropa. For Italians and Austrians, it begins with Slovenia, where the reign of the Slavic hordes starts. For Germans, Austria itself, on account of its historic connections, is already tainted by Balkanic corruption and inefficiency. For some arrogant Frenchmen, Germany is associated with the Balkanian Eastern savagery—up to the extreme case of some conservative anti-European-Union Englishmen for whom, in an implicit way, it is ultimately the whole of continental Europe itself that functions as a kind of Balkan Turkish global empire with Brussels as the new Constantinople, the capricious despotic center threatening English freedom and sovereignty. So Balkan is always the Other: it lies somewhere else, always a little bit more to the southeast, with the paradox that, when we reach the very bottom of the Balkan peninsula, we again magically escape Balkan. Greece is no longer Balkan proper, but the cradle of our Western civilization.

Nature and natural resources

 
Panorama of the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina). Its highest peak is Botev at a height of 2,376 m.
 
Sutjeska National Park contains Perućica, which is the largest primeval forest in the Balkans, and one of the last remaining in Europe.
 
View toward Rila, the highest mountain of the Balkans and Southeast Europe (2,925 m).
 
Lake Skadar is the largest lake in the Balkans and Southern Europe.

Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from the northwest to southeast. The main ranges are the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina in Bulgarian language), running from the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria to the border with Serbia, the Rila-Rhodope massif in southern Bulgaria, the Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro, the Korab-Šar mountains which spreads from Kosovo to Albania and North Macedonia, and the Pindus range, spanning from southern Albania into central Greece and the Albanian Alps, and the Alps at the northwestern border. The highest mountain of the region is Rila in Bulgaria, with Musala at 2,925 m, second being Mount Olympus in Greece, with Mytikas at 2,917 m, and Pirin mountain with Vihren, also in Bulgaria, being the third at 2915 m.[51][52] The karst field or polje is a common feature of the landscape.

On the Adriatic and Aegean coasts the climate is Mediterranean, on the Black Sea coast the climate is humid subtropical and oceanic, and inland it is humid continental. In the northern part of the peninsula and on the mountains, winters are frosty and snowy, while summers are hot and dry. In the southern part, winters are milder. The humid continental climate is predominant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, northern Croatia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, northern Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, and the interior of Albania and Serbia. Meanwhile, the other less common climates, the humid subtropical and oceanic climates, are seen on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey). The Mediterranean climate is seen on the Adriatic coasts of Albania, Croatia and Montenegro, as well as the Ionian coasts of Albania and Greece, in addition to the Aegean coasts of Greece and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey).[53]

Over the centuries forests have been cut down and replaced with bush. In the southern part and on the coast there is evergreen vegetation. Inland there are woods typical of Central Europe (oak and beech, and in the mountains, spruce, fir and pine). The tree line in the mountains lies at the height of 1800–2300 m. The land provides habitats for numerous endemic species, including extraordinarily abundant insects and reptiles that serve as food for a variety of birds of prey and rare vultures.

The soils are generally poor, except on the plains, where areas with natural grass, fertile soils and warm summers provide an opportunity for tillage. Elsewhere, land cultivation is mostly unsuccessful because of the mountains, hot summers and poor soils, although certain cultures such as olive and grape flourish.

Resources of energy are scarce, except in Kosovo, where considerable coal, lead, zinc, chromium and silver deposits are located.[54] Other deposits of coal, especially in Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, also exist. Lignite deposits are widespread in Greece. Petroleum scarce reserves exist in Greece, Serbia and Albania. Natural gas deposits are scarce. Hydropower is in wide use, from over 1,000 dams. The often relentless bora wind is also being harnessed for power generation.

Metal ores are more usual than other raw materials. Iron ore is rare, but in some countries there is a considerable amount of copper, zinc, tin, chromite, manganese, magnesite and bauxite. Some metals are exported.

History and geopolitical significance

Main article: History of the Balkans

Antiquity

 
Pula Arena, the only remaining Roman amphitheatre to have four side towers and with all three Roman architectural orders entirely preserved.
 
Apollonia ruins near Fier, Albania

The Balkan region was the first area in Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era. The Balkans have been inhabited since the Paleolithic and are the route by which farming from the Middle East spread to Europe during the Neolithic (7th millennium BC).[55][56] The practices of growing grain and raising livestock arrived in the Balkans from the Fertile Crescent by way of Anatolia and spread west and north into Central Europe, particularly through Pannonia. Two early culture-complexes have developed in the region, Starčevo culture and Vinča culture. The Balkans are also the location of the first advanced civilizations. Vinča culture developed a form of proto-writing before the Sumerians and Minoans, known as the Old European script, while the bulk of the symbols had been created in the period between 4500 and 4000 BC, with the ones on the Tărtăria clay tablets even dating back to around 5300 BC.[57]

The identity of the Balkans is dominated by its geographical position; historically the area was known as a crossroads of cultures. It has been a juncture between the Latin and Greek bodies of the Roman Empire, the destination of a massive influx of pagan Bulgars and Slavs, an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met,[58] as well as the meeting point between Islam and Christianity.

 
The Balkans in 850 AD

In pre-classical and classical antiquity, this region was home to Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, Dacians, and other ancient groups. The Achaemenid Persian Empire incorporated parts of the Balkans comprising Macedonia, Thrace, parts of present-day Bulgaria, and the Black Sea coastal region of Romania between the late sixth and the first half of the fifth-century BC into its territories.[59] Later the Roman Empire conquered the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language, but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence. The Romans considered the Rhodope Mountains to be the northern limit of the Peninsula of Haemus and the same limit applied approximately to the border between Greek and Latin use in the region (later called the Jireček Line).[60] However large spaces south of Jireček Line were and are inhabited by Vlachs (Aromanians), the Romance-speaking heirs of Roman Empire.[61][62] The Bulgars and Slavs arrived in the sixth-century and began assimilating and displacing already-assimilated (through Romanization and Hellenization) older inhabitants of the northern and central Balkans, forming the Bulgarian Empire.[63] During the Middle Ages, the Balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine Roman and the Bulgarian Empires. Prior to the Slavic landing, parts of the western peninsula have been home to the Proto-Albanians. Including cities like Nish, Shtip, Skopje and others. This can be proven through the development of the names, for example Naissos > Nish, Astibos > Shtip (compare lat. amicus > alb. mik), Scupi > Shkup all follow Albanian phonetic sound rules and have entered Slavic, demonstrating that Proto-Albanian was spoken prior to the Slavic invasion of the Balkans.[64][65][66][67]

Early modern period

By the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had become the controlling force in the region after expanding from Anatolia through Thrace to the Balkans. Many people in the Balkans place their greatest folk heroes in the era of either the onslaught or the retreat of the Ottoman Empire.[68] As examples, for Greeks, Constantine XI Palaiologos and Kolokotronis; and for Serbs, Miloš Obilić, Tsar Lazar and Karadjordje; for Albanians, George Kastrioti Skanderbeg; for ethnic Macedonians, Nikola Karev[69] and Goce Delčev;[69] for Bulgarians, Vasil Levski, Georgi Sava Rakovski and Hristo Botev and for Croats, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski.

 
Modern political history of the Balkans from 1796 onwards
 
Hagia Sophia, built in sixth century Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, later a mosque, then a museum, and now both a mosque and a museum

In the past several centuries, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in and around the Balkans and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans have been the least developed part of Europe. According to Halil İnalcık, "The population of the Balkans, according to one estimate, fell from a high of 8 million in the late 16th-century to only 3 million by the mid-eighteenth. This estimate is based on Ottoman documentary evidence."[70]

Most of the Balkan nation-states emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries as they gained independence from the Ottoman Empire or the Austro-Hungarian empire: Greece in 1821, Serbia, and Montenegro in 1878, Romania in 1881, Bulgaria in 1908 and Albania in 1912.

Recent history

 
Tsarevets, a medieval stronghold in the former capital of the Bulgarian Empire – Veliko Tarnovo
 
The 13th-century Church of St. John at Kaneo and the Ohrid Lake in North Macedonia. The lake and town were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.

World Wars

In 1912–1913 the First Balkan War broke out when the nation-states of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro united in an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the war, almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire were captured and partitioned among the allies. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albanian state. Bulgaria insisted on its status quo territorial integrity, divided and shared by the Great Powers next to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) in other boundaries and on the pre-war Bulgarian-Serbian agreement. Bulgaria was provoked by the backstage deals between its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on the allocation of the spoils at the end of the First Balkan War. At the time, Bulgaria was fighting at the main Thracian Front. Bulgaria marks the beginning of Second Balkan War when it attacked them. The Serbs and the Greeks repulsed single attacks, but when the Greek army invaded Bulgaria together with an unprovoked Romanian intervention in the back, Bulgaria collapsed. The Ottoman Empire used the opportunity to recapture Eastern Thrace, establishing its new western borders that still stand today as part of modern Turkey.

The World War I was sparked in the Balkans in 1914 when members of Young Bosnia, a revolutionary organization with predominantly Serb and pro-Yugoslav members, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo. That caused a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which—through the existing chains of alliances—led to the World War I. The Ottoman Empire soon joined the Central Powers becoming one of the three empires participating in that alliance. The next year Bulgaria joined the Central Powers attacking Serbia, which was successfully fighting Austro-Hungary to the north for a year. That led to Serbia's defeat and the intervention of the Entente in the Balkans which sent an expeditionary force to establish a new front, the third one of that war, which soon also became static. The participation of Greece in the war three years later, in 1918, on the part of the Entente finally altered the balance between the opponents leading to the collapse of the common German-Bulgarian front there, which caused the exit of Bulgaria from the war, and in turn, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ending the First World War.[71]

Between the two wars, in order to maintain the geopolitical status quo in the region after the end of World War I, the Balkan Pact, or Balkan Entente, was formed by a treaty between Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens.[72]

With the start of the World War II, all Balkan countries, with the exception of Greece, were allies of Nazi Germany, having bilateral military agreements or being part of the Axis Pact. Fascist Italy expanded the war in the Balkans by using its protectorate Albania to invade Greece. After repelling the attack, the Greeks counterattacked, invading Italy-held Albania and causing Nazi Germany's intervention in the Balkans to help its ally.[73] Days before the German invasion, a successful coup d'état in Belgrade by neutral military personnel seized power.[74]

Although the new government reaffirmed its intentions to fulfill its obligations as a member of the Axis,[75] Germany, with Bulgaria, invaded both Greece and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia immediately disintegrated when those loyal to the Serbian King and the Croatian units mutinied.[76] Greece resisted, but, after two months of fighting, collapsed and was occupied. The two countries were partitioned between the three Axis allies, Bulgaria, Germany and Italy, and the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of Italy and Germany.

During the occupation, the population suffered considerable hardship due to repression and starvation, to which the population reacted by creating a mass resistance movement.[77] Together with the early and extremely heavy winter of that year (which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths among the poorly fed population), the German invasion had disastrous effects in the timetable of the planned invasion in Russia causing a significant delay,[78] which had major consequences during the course of the war.[79]

Finally, at the end of 1944, the Soviets entered Romania and Bulgaria forcing the Germans out of the Balkans. They left behind a region largely ruined as a result of wartime exploitation.

Cold War

During the Cold War, most of the countries on the Balkans were governed by communist governments. Greece became the first battleground of the emerging Cold War. The Truman Doctrine was the US response to the civil war, which raged from 1944 to 1949. This civil war, unleashed by the Communist Party of Greece, backed by communist volunteers from neighboring countries (Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia), led to massive American assistance for the non-communist Greek government. With this backing, Greece managed to defeat the partisans and, ultimately, remained one of the two only non-communist countries in the region with Turkey.

However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria and instead sought closer relations with the West, later even spearheaded, together with India and Egypt the Non-Aligned Movement. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China, later adopting an isolationist position.

On 28 February 1953, Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia signed the treaty of Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation in Ankara to form the Balkan Pact of 1953. The treaty's aim was to deter Soviet expansion in the Balkans and eventual creation of a joint military staff for the three countries. When the pact was signed, Turkey and Greece were members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while Yugoslavia was a non-aligned communist state. With the Pact, Yugoslavia was able to indirectly associate itself with NATO. Though, it was planned for the pact to remain in force for 20 years, it dissolved in 1960.[80]

As the only non-communist countries, Greece and Turkey were (and still are) part of NATO composing the southeastern wing of the alliance.

Post–Cold War

In the 1990s, the transition of the regions' ex-Eastern bloc countries towards democratic free-market societies went peacefully. While in the non-aligned Yugoslavia, Wars between the former Yugoslav republics broke out after Slovenia and Croatia held free elections and their people voted for independence on their respective countries' referendums. Serbia, in turn, declared the dissolution of the union as unconstitutional and the Yugoslav People's Army unsuccessfully tried to maintain the status quo. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, which prompted the Croatian War of Independence in Croatia and the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The Yugoslav forces eventually withdrew from Slovenia in 1991 while the war in Croatia continued until late 1995. The two were followed by Macedonia and later Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Bosnia being the most affected by the fighting. The wars prompted the United Nations' intervention and NATO ground and air forces took action against Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and FR Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro).

 
State entities on the former territory of Yugoslavia, 2008

From the dissolution of Yugoslavia six stated achieved internationally recognized sovereignty: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia; all of them are traditionally included in the Balkans which is often a controversial matter of dispute. In 2008, while under UN administration, Kosovo declared independence (according to the official Serbian policy, Kosovo is still an internal autonomous region). In July 2010, the International Court of Justice, ruled that the declaration of independence was legal.[81] Most UN member states recognise Kosovo. After the end of the wars a revolution broke in Serbia and Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian communist leader (elected president between 1989 and 2000), was overthrown and handed for a trial to the International Criminal Tribunal for crimes against the International Humanitarian Law during the Yugoslav wars. Milošević died of a heart attack in 2006 before a verdict could have been released. Ιn 2001 an Albanian uprising in Macedonia (North Macedonia) forced the country to give local autonomy to the ethnic Albanians in the areas where they predominate.

With the dissolution of Yugoslavia, an issue emerged over the name under which the former (federated) republic of Macedonia would internationally be recognized, between the new country and Greece. Being the Macedonian part of Yugoslavia (see Vardar Macedonia), the federated republic under the Yugoslav identity had the name (Socialist) Republic of Macedonia on which it declared its sovereignty in 1991. Greece, having a large homonymous region (see Macedonia), opposed the usage of the name as an indication of a nationality and ethnicity. Thus dubbed Macedonia naming dispute was resolved under UN mediation in the June 2018 Prespa agreement was reached, which saw the country's renaming into North Macedonia in 2019.

Balkan countries control the direct land routes between Western Europe and South-West Asia (Asia Minor and the Middle East). Since 2000, all Balkan countries are friendly towards the EU and the US.[82]

Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981, while Slovenia is a member since 2004, Bulgaria and Romania are members since 2007, and Croatia is a member since 2013. In 2005, the European Union decided to start accession negotiations with candidate countries; Turkey, and North Macedonia were accepted as candidates for EU membership. In 2012, Montenegro started accession negotiations with the EU. In 2014, Albania is an official candidate for accession to the EU. In 2015, Serbia was expected to start accession negotiations with the EU, however this process has been stalled over the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by existing EU member states.[83]

Greece and Turkey have been NATO members since 1952. In March 2004, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia have become members of NATO. As of April 2009,[84] Albania and Croatia are members of NATO. Montenegro joined in June 2017.[85] The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.

Almost all other countries have expressed a desire to join the EU, NATO, or both at some point in the future.[86]

Politics and economy

 
View from Santorini in Greece. Tourism is an important part of the Greek economy.
 
Dubrovnik in Croatia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979
 
View towards Sveti Stefan in Montenegro. Tourism makes up a significant part of the Montenegrin economy.
 
View towards Piran in Slovenia. Tourism is a rapidly growing sector of the Slovenian economy.
 
Golden Sands, a popular tourist destination on the Bulgarian coast.
 
Belgrade is a major industrial city and the capital of Serbia.

Currently, all of the states are republics, but until World War II all countries were monarchies. Most of the republics are parliamentary, excluding Romania and Bosnia which are semi-presidential. All the states have open market economies, most of which are in the upper-middle-income range ($4,000–12,000 p.c.), except Croatia, Romania, Greece, and Slovenia that have high income economies (over $12,000 p.c.), and are classified with very high HDI, along with Bulgaria, in contrast to the remaining states, which are classified with high HDI. The states from the former Eastern Bloc that formerly had planned economy system and Turkey mark gradual economic growth each year. The gross domestic product per capita is highest in Slovenia (over $29,000), followed by Greece (~$20,000), Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria (over $11,000), Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia (between $10,000 and $9,000), and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, North Macedonia (~$7,000) and Kosovo ($5,000).[87] The Gini coefficient, which indicates the level of difference by monetary welfare of the layers, is on the second level at the highest monetary equality in Albania, Bulgaria, and Serbia, on the third level in Greece, Montenegro and Romania, on the fourth level in North Macedonia, on the fifth level in Turkey, and the most unequal by Gini coefficient is Bosnia at the eighth level which is the penultimate level and one of the highest in the world. The unemployment is lowest in Romania and Bulgaria (around 5%), followed by Serbia and Albania (11–12%), Turkey, Greece, Bosnia, North Macedonia (13–16%), Montenegro (~18%), and Kosovo (~25%).[88]

  • On political, social and economic criteria the divisions are as follows:
    • Territories members of the European Union: Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Slovenia
    • Territories currently in negotiation process for EU membership: Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey
    • Territories with "potential candidates" status for EU membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo
  • On border control and trade criteria the divisions are as follows:
  • On currency criteria, the divisions are as follows:
    • Territories members of the Eurozone: Croatia,[89] Greece, Slovenia
    • Territories using the Euro without authorization by the EU: Kosovo, Montenegro
    • Territories using national currencies and are candidates for the Eurozone: Bulgaria (lev), Romania (leu)
    • Territories using national currencies: Albania (lek), Bosnia and Herzegovina (convertible mark), North Macedonia (denar), Serbia (dinar), Turkey (lira).
  • On military criteria the divisions are as follows:
  • On the recent political, social and economic criteria there are two groups of countries:
    • Former communist territories: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia
    • Capitalist and aligned to the West during the Cold War: Greece, Turkey
    • During the Cold War the Balkans were disputed between the two blocks. Greece and Turkey were members of NATO, Bulgaria and Romania of the Warsaw Pact, while Yugoslavia was a proponent of a third way and was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina kept an observer status within the organization.

Regional organizations
 
Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe
  members
  observers
  supporting partners
 
Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI)
  members
  observers
 
Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC)
  members
  observers

See also the Black Sea regional organizations

Statistics

Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo[a] Montenegro North Macedonia Romania Serbia Slovenia Turkey
Flag                        
Coat of arms                      
Capital Tirana Sarajevo Sofia Zagreb Athens Pristina Podgorica Skopje Bucharest Belgrade Ljubljana Ankara
Independence 28 November,
1912 		3 March,
1992 		5 October,
1908 		26 June,
1991 		25 March,
1821 		17 February,
2008 		3 June,
2006 		17 November,
1991 		9 May,
1878 		5 June,
2006 		25 June,
1991 		29 October,
1923
President Bajram Begaj Željka Cvijanović
Željko Komšić
Denis Bećirović 		Rumen Radev Zoran Milanović Katerina Sakellaropoulou Vjosa Osmani Milo Đukanović Stevo Pendarovski Klaus Iohannis Aleksandar Vučić Borut Pahor Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Prime Minister Edi Rama Borjana Krišto Galab Donev Andrej Plenković Kyriakos Mitsotakis Albin Kurti Dritan Abazović Dimitar Kovačevski Nicolae Ciucă Ana Brnabić Robert Golob Office abolished in 2018
Population (2019)[90]   2,862,427   3,502,550 (2018)   7,000,039   4,076,246   10,722,287   1,795,666   622,182   2,077,132   19,401,658   6,963,764[91]   2,080,908   82,003,882
Area 28,749 km2 51,197 km2 111,900 km2 56,594 km2 131,117 km2 10,908 km2 13,812 km2 25,713 km2 238,391 km2 77,474 km2[91] 20,273 km2 781,162 km2
Density 100/km2 69/km2 97/km2 74/km2 82/km2 159/km2 45/km2 81/km2 83/km2 91/km2 102/km2 101/km2
Water area (%) 4.7% 0.02% 2.22% 1.1% 0.99% 1.00% 2.61% 1.09% 2.97% 0.13% 0.6% 1.3%
GDP (nominal, 2019)[92]   $15.418 bln   $20.106 bln   $66.250 bln   $60.702 bln   $214.012 bln   $8.402 bln   $5.424 bln   $12.672 bln   $243.698 bln   $55.437 bln   $54.154 bln   $774.708 bln
GDP (PPP, 2018)[92]   $38.305 bln   $47.590 bln   $162.186 bln   $107.362 bln   $312.267 bln   $20.912 bln   $11.940 bln   $32.638 bln   $516.359 bln   $122.740 bln   $75.967 bln   $2,300 bln
GDP per capita (nominal, 2019)[92]   $5,373   $5,742   $9,518   $14,950   $19,974   $4,649   $8,704   $6,096   $12,483   $7,992   $26,170   $8,958
GDP per capita (PPP, 2018)[92]   $13,327   $13,583   $23,169   $26,256   $29,072   $11,664   $19,172   $15,715   $26,448   $17,552   $36,741   $28,044
Gini Index (2018)[93] 29.0 low (2012)[94] 33.0 medium (2011)[95]   39.6 medium   29.7 low   32.3 medium   29.0 low (2017)[96]   36.7 medium (2017)   31.9 medium   35.1 medium   35.6 medium   23.4 low   43.0 medium
HDI (2018)[97]   0.791 high   0.769 high   0.816 very high   0.837 very high   0.872 very high 0.739 high (2016)   0.816 very high   0.759 high   0.816 very high   0.799 high   0.902 very high   0.806 very high
IHDI (2018)[98]   0.705 high   0.658 medium   0.713 high   0.768 high   0.766 high   N/A   0.746 high   0.660 medium   0.725 high   0.710 high   0.858 very high   0.676 medium
Internet TLD .al .ba .bg .hr .gr Doesn't have .me .mk .ro .rs .si .tr
Calling code +355 +387 +359 +385 +30 +383[99] +382 +389 +40 +381 +386 +90

Demographics

The region is inhabited by Albanians, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Croats, Gorani, Greeks, Istro-Romanians, Macedonians, Megleno-Romanians, Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenes, Romanians, Turks, and other ethnic groups which present minorities in certain countries like the Romani and Ashkali.[45]

State Population (2018)[100] Density/km2 (2018)[101] Life expectancy (2018)[102]
  Albania 2,870,324 100 78.3 years
  Bosnia and Herzegovina 3,502,550 69 77.2 years
  Bulgaria 7,050,034 64 79.9 years
  Croatia 4,105,493 73 76.2 years
  Greece 10,768,193 82 80.1 years
  Kosovo 1,798,506 165 77.7 years
  Montenegro 622,359 45 76.4 years
  North Macedonia 2,075,301 81 76.2 years
  Romania 19,523,621 82 76.3 years
  Serbia 7,001,444 90 76.5 years
  Slovenia 2,066,880 102 80.3 years
  Turkey 11,929,013[103][c] 101 78.5 years

Religion

 
Map showing religious denominations

The region is a meeting point of Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Roman Catholic Christianity.[104] Eastern Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both the Balkan Peninsula and the Balkan region, The Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.[105] A variety of different traditions of each faith are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church. A part of the population in the Balkans defines itself as irreligious.

Islam has a significant history in the region where Muslims make up a large percentage of the population. A 2013 estimate placed the total Muslim population of the Balkans at around 8 million.[106] Islam is the largest religion in nations like Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo with significant minorities in Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro. Smaller populations of Muslims are also found in Romania, Serbia and Greece.[106]

 
Approximate distribution of religions in Albania
Territories in which the principal religion is Eastern Orthodoxy (with national churches in parentheses)[107] Religious minorities of these territories[107]
Bulgaria: 59% (Bulgarian Orthodox Church) Islam (8%) and undeclared (27%)
Greece: 81-90% (Greek Orthodox Church) Islam (2%), Catholicism, other and undeclared
Montenegro: 72% (Serbian Orthodox Church) Islam (19%), Catholicism (3%), other and undeclared (5%)
North Macedonia: 64% (Macedonian Orthodox Church) Islam (33%), Catholicism
Romania: 81% (Romanian Orthodox Church) Protestantism (6%), Catholicism (5%), other and undeclared (8%)
Serbia: 84% (Serbian Orthodox Church) Catholicism (5%), Islam (3%), Protestantism (1%), other and undeclared (6%)
Territories in which the principal religion is Catholicism[107] Religious minorities of these territories[107]
Croatia (86%) Eastern Orthodoxy (4%), Islam (1%), other and undeclared (7%)
Slovenia (57%) Islam (2%), Orthodox (2%), other and undeclared (36%)
Territories in which the principal religion is Islam[107] Religious minorities of these territories[107]
Albania (58%) Catholicism (10%), Orthodoxy (7%), other and undeclared (24%)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (51%) Orthodoxy (31%), Catholicism (15%), other and undeclared (4%)
Kosovo (95%) Catholicism (2%), Orthodoxy (2%), other and undeclared (1%)
Turkey (90-99%[107]) Orthodoxy, Irreligious (5%-10%)

The Jewish communities of the Balkans were some of the oldest in Europe and date back to ancient times. These communities were Sephardi Jews, except in Croatia and Slovenia, where the Jewish communities were mainly Ashkenazi Jews. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the small and close-knit Jewish community is 90% Sephardic, and Ladino is still spoken among the elderly. The Sephardi Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo has tombstones of a unique shape and inscribed in ancient Ladino.[108] Sephardi Jews used to have a large presence in the city of Thessaloniki, and by 1900, some 80,000, or more than half of the population, were Jews.[109] The Jewish communities in the Balkans suffered immensely during World War II, and the vast majority were killed during the Holocaust. An exception was the Bulgarian Jews, most of whom were saved by Boris III of Bulgaria, who resisted Adolf Hitler, opposing their deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Almost all of the few survivors have emigrated to the (then) newly founded state of Israel and elsewhere. Almost no Balkan country today has a significant Jewish minority.[when?][citation needed]

Languages

Main article: Languages of the Balkans
Further information: Balkan sprachbund
 
Ethnic map of the Balkans (1880)
 
Transhumance ways of the Romance-speaking Vlach shepherds in the past

The Balkan region today is a very diverse ethnolinguistic region, being home to multiple Slavic and Romance languages, as well as Albanian, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and others. Romani is spoken by a large portion of the Romanis living throughout the Balkan countries. Throughout history, many other ethnic groups with their own languages lived in the area, among them Thracians, Illyrians, Romans, Celts and various Germanic tribes. All of the aforementioned languages from the present and from the past belong to the wider Indo-European language family, with the exception of the Turkic languages (e.g., Turkish and Gagauz) and Hungarian.

State Most spoken language[110] Linguistic minorities[110]
  Albania 98% Albanian 2% other
  Bosnia and Herzegovina 53% Bosnian 31% Serbian (official), 15% Croatian (official), 2% other
  Bulgaria 86% Bulgarian 8% Turkish, 4% Romani, 1% other, 1% unspecified
  Croatia 96% Croatian 1% Serbian, 3% other
  Greece 99% Greek 1% other
  Kosovo 94% Albanian 2% Bosnian, 2% Serbian (official), 1% Turkish, 1% other
  Montenegro 43% Serbian 37% Montenegrin (official), 5% Albanian, 5% Bosnian, 5% other, 4% unspecified
  North Macedonia 67% Macedonian 25% Albanian (official), 4% Turkish, 2% Romani, 1% Serbian, 2% other
  Romania 85% Romanian 6% Hungarian, 1% Romani
  Serbia 88% Serbian 3% Hungarian, 2% Bosnian, 1% Romani, 3% other, 2% unspecified
  Slovenia 91% Slovene 5% Serbo-Croatian, 4% other
  Turkey 85% Turkish[111] 12% Kurdish, 3% other and unspecified[111]

Urbanization

Most of the states in the Balkans are predominantly urbanized, with the lowest number of urban population as % of the total population found in Kosovo at under 40%, Bosnia and Herzegovina at 40% and Slovenia at 50%.[112]

 
Panoramic view of Istanbul

A list of largest cities:

City Country Agglomeration City proper Year
Istanbul[b]   Turkey 10,097,862 10,097,862 2019[113]
Athens   Greece 3,753,783 664,046 2018[114]
Bucharest   Romania 2,272,163 1,887,485 2018[115]
Sofia   Bulgaria 1,995,950 1,313,595 2018[116]
Belgrade   Serbia 1,659,440 1,119,696 2018[117]
Zagreb   Croatia 1,113,111 792,875 2011[118]
Tekirdağ   Turkey 1,055,412 1,055,412 2019[119]
Thessaloniki   Greece 1,012,297 325,182 2018[114]
Tirana   Albania 800,986 418,495 2018[120]
Ljubljana   Slovenia 537,712 292,988 2018[121]
Skopje   North Macedonia 506,926 444,800 2018[122]
Constanța   Romania 425,916 283,872 2018[115]
Craiova   Romania 420,000 269,506 2018[115]
Edirne   Turkey 413,903 306,464 2019[123]
Sarajevo   Bosnia and Herzegovina 413,593 275,524 2018
Cluj-Napoca   Romania 411,379 324,576 2018[115]
Plovdiv   Bulgaria 396,092 411,567 2018[116]
Varna   Bulgaria 383,075 395,949 2018[116]
Iași   Romania 382,484 290,422 2018[115]
Brașov   Romania 369,896 253,200 2018[115]
Kırklareli   Turkey 361,836 259,302 2019[124]
Timișoara   Romania 356,443 319,279 2018[115]
Novi Sad   Serbia 341,625 277,522 2018[125]
Split   Croatia 325,600 161,312 2021[118]

b Only the European part of Istanbul is a part of the Balkans.[126] It is home to two-thirds of the city's 15,519,267 inhabitants.[113]

Time zones

The time zones in the Balkans are defined as the following:

  • Territories in the time zone of UTC+01:00: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia
  • Territories in the time zone of UTC+02:00: Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania
  • Territories in the time zone of UTC+03:00: Turkey

Culture

Historiography

See also: List of Slavic studies journals

See also

Notes

a.   ^ The political status of Kosovo is disputed. Having unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, Kosovo is formally recognised as an independent state by 101 out of 193 (52.3%) UN member states (with another 13 recognising it at some point but then withdrawing their recognition), while Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own territory.
b.   ^ As The World Factbook , regarding Turkey and Southeastern Europe; "that portion of Turkey west of the Bosphorus is geographically part of Europe."
c.   ^ The population only of European Turkey, that excludes the Anatolian Peninsula, which otherwise has a population of 75,627,384 and a density of 97.

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Further reading

  • Gray, Colin S. (1999). Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-8053-8.
  • Banac, Ivo (October 1992). "Historiography of the Countries of Eastern Europe: Yugoslavia". American Historical Review. 97 (4): 1084–1104. doi:10.2307/2165494. JSTOR 2165494.
  • Banac, Ivo (1984). The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-9493-2.
  • Goldstein, Ivo (1999). Croatia: A History. Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-2017-2.
  • Carter, Francis W., ed. (1977). An Historical Geography of the Balkans Academic Press.[ISBN missing]
  • Dvornik, Francis (1962). The Slavs in European History and Civilization Rutgers University Press.[ISBN missing]
  • Fine, John V. A., Jr. The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century [1983]; The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, [1987].[ISBN missing]
  • Forbes, Nevill (1915). The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Rumania, Turkey Clarendon Press, online
  • Jelavich, Barbara (1983a). History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521274586.
  • Jelavich, Barbara (1983b). History of the Balkans: Twentieth Century. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521274593.
  • Jelavich, Charles; Jelavich, Barbara, eds. (1963). The Balkans in Transition: Essays on the Development of Balkan Life and Politics Since the Eighteenth Century. University of California Press.
  • Kitsikis, Dimitri (2008). La montée du national-bolchevisme dans les Balkans. Le retour à la Serbie de 1830. Paris: Avatar.
  • Lampe, John R., and Marvin R. Jackson (1982). Balkan Economic History, 1550–1950: From Imperial Borderlands to Developing Nations Indiana University Press.[ISBN missing]
  • Király, Béla K., ed. (1984). East Central European Society in the Era of Revolutions, 1775–1856.[ISBN missing]
  • Komlos, John (1990). Economic Development in the Habsburg Monarchy and in the Successor States. East European Monographs No. 28. East European Monographs. ISBN 978-0-88033-177-7.
  • Mazower, Mark (2000). The Balkans: A Short History. Modern Library Chronicles. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-64087-5.
  • Schreiber, Gerhard; Stegemann, Bernd; Vogel, Detlef (1995). The Mediterranean, south-east Europe, and north Africa, 1939–1941. Germany and the 2nd World War. Vol. III. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-822884-4.
  • Stavrianos, L. S. (2000) [1958]. The Balkans since 1453. with Traian Stoianovich. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-9766-2. online free to borrow
  • Stoianovich, Traian (1994). Balkan Worlds: The First and Last Europe. Sources and Studies in World History. New York: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-1-56324-032-4.
  • Ware, Bishop Kallistos (Timothy) (29 April 1993). The Orthodox Church (new ed.). New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-014656-1.
  • Zametica, John (2017). Folly and malice: the Habsburg empire, the Balkans and the start of World War One London: Shepheard–Walwyn. 416 pp. ISBN 978-0856835131.

External links

  • Balkan Insight – Analysis from Balkans
  • Western Balkans Photo impression
  • Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015.

March 23, 2023
balkans, balkan, redirects, here, other, uses, balkan, disambiguation, confused, with, baltic, states, baltic, region, northeastern, europe, ɔː, bawl, kənz, also, known, balkan, peninsula, geographical, area, southeastern, europe, with, various, geographical, . Balkan redirects here For other uses see Balkan disambiguation Not to be confused with the Baltic states or the Baltic region in northeastern Europe The Balkans ˈ b ɔː l k en z BAWL kenz also known as the Balkan Peninsula is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions 1 2 3 The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest the Ionian Sea in the southwest the Aegean Sea in the south the Turkish straits in the east and the Black Sea in the northeast The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined 4 The highest point of the Balkans is Musala 2 925 metres 9 596 ft in the Rila mountain range Bulgaria BalkansGeographical map of the Balkan PeninsulaGeographyLocationSoutheastern EuropeCoordinates42 N 22 E 42 N 22 E 42 22 Coordinates 42 N 22 E 42 N 22 E 42 22Area466 827 562 614 km2 180 243 217 226 sq mi citation needed Highest elevation2 925 m 9596 ft Highest pointMusala Bulgaria AdministrationSee belowDemographicsPopulationca 60 million 45 million on the peninsula citation needed Location map of the Balkan Peninsula Topographic map of the Balkan Peninsula The concept of the Balkan Peninsula was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808 5 who mistakenly considered the Balkan Mountains the dominant mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for Rumelia in the 19th century the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire It had a geopolitical rather than a geographical definition which was further promoted during the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the early 20th century The definition of the Balkan Peninsula s natural borders does not coincide with the technical definition of a peninsula hence modern geographers reject the idea of a Balkan Peninsula while historical scholars usually discuss the Balkans as a region The term has acquired a stigmatized and pejorative meaning related to the process of Balkanization 4 6 The alternative term used for the region is Southeast Europe Contents 1 Name 1 1 Etymology 1 2 Historical names and meaning 1 2 1 Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages 1 2 2 Late Middle Ages and Ottoman period 1 3 Evolution of meaning in 19th and 20th century 1 4 Southeast Europe 1 5 Current 2 Definitions and boundaries 2 1 Balkan Peninsula 2 2 Balkans 2 3 Western Balkans 2 4 Criticism of the geographical definition 3 Nature and natural resources 4 History and geopolitical significance 4 1 Antiquity 4 2 Early modern period 4 3 Recent history 4 3 1 World Wars 4 3 2 Cold War 4 3 3 Post Cold War 5 Politics and economy 5 1 Regional organizations 6 Statistics 7 Demographics 7 1 Religion 7 2 Languages 7 3 Urbanization 8 Time zones 9 Culture 10 Historiography 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External linksNameEtymology The origin of the word Balkan is obscure it may be related to Turkish balk mud from Proto Turkic bal mud clay thick or gluey substance cf also Turkic bal honey and the Turkish suffix an swampy forest 7 or Persian bala khana big high house 8 Related words are also found in other Turkic languages Karakhanid balcɨq or balɨq Turkish balcɨk Tatar balcɨq Middle Turkic balcɨq or palcɨq Uzbek balciq Uighur balcuq Azerbaijani palcɨg Turkmen palcɨq Khakassian palcax Oyrat bal qas Khalaj palcoq Chuvash pɨlǯk Yakut bɨlɨ k Tuvinian balɣas or malɣas Tofalar balxas Kazakh balsɨq or balqas Noghai balsɨq Bashkir balsɨq Karaim balcɨq Salar palcɨx Kumyk balcɨq 9 10 It was used mainly during the time of the Ottoman Empire In modern Turkish balkan means chain of wooded mountains 11 12 Historical names and meaning Classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages From classical antiquity through the Middle Ages the Balkan Mountains were called by the local Thracian 13 name Haemus 14 According to Greek mythology the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has remained with his name A reverse name scheme has also been suggested D Dechev considers that Haemus Aἷmos is derived from a Thracian word saimon mountain ridge 15 A third possibility is that Haemus Aἵmos derives from the Greek word haima aἷma meaning blood The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster titan Typhon Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon s blood fell on the mountains from which they got their name 16 Late Middle Ages and Ottoman period The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th century Arab map in which the Haemus Mountains are referred to as Balkan 17 The first attested time the name Balkan was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter sent in 1490 to Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco an Italian humanist writer and diplomat 18 The Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565 8 There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that although other Turkic tribes had already settled in or were passing through the region 8 There is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria however it is only an unscholarly assertion 8 The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its general meaning of mountain as in Kod j a Balkan Catal Balkan and Ungurus Balkani but especially it was applied to the Haemus mountain 19 20 The name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary Balkan Mountains 21 and the Balkan Region of Turkmenistan English traveler John Bacon Sawrey Morritt introduced this term into English literature at the end of the 18th century and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808 22 who mistakenly considered it as the dominant central mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea 23 24 4 During the 1820s Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy Balkan was the preferred term 25 In European books printed until late 1800s it was also known as Illyrian Peninsula or Illyrische Halbinsel in German 26 Evolution of meaning in 19th and 20th century The term was not commonly used in geographical literature until the mid 19th century because already then scientists like Carl Ritter warned that only the part South of the Balkan Mountains can be considered as a peninsula and considered it to be renamed as Greek peninsula Other prominent geographers who didn t agree with Zeune were Hermann Wagner Theobald Fischer Marion Newbigin Albrecht Penck while Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn in 1869 for the same territory used the term Sudostereuropaische Halbinsel Southeasterneuropean peninsula Another reason it was not commonly accepted as the definition of then European Turkey had a similar land extent However after the Congress of Berlin 1878 there was a political need for a new term and gradually the Balkans was revitalized but in the maps the northern border was in Serbia and Montenegro without Greece it only depicted the Ottoman occupied parts of Europe while Yugoslavian maps also included Croatia and Bosnia The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for European Turkey the political borders of former Ottoman Empire provinces 4 24 27 The usage of the term changed in the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century when was embraced by Serbian geographers most prominently by Jovan Cvijic 23 It was done with political reasoning as affirmation for Serbian nationalism on the whole territory of the South Slavs and also included anthropological and ethnological studies of the South Slavs through which were claimed various nationalistic and racialist theories dubious discuss 23 Through such policies and Yugoslavian maps the term was elevated to the modern status of a geographical region dubious discuss 24 The term acquired political nationalistic connotations far from its initial geographic meaning 4 arising from political changes from the late 19th century to the creation of post World War I Yugoslavia initially the Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes in 1918 24 After the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991 the term Balkans acquired a negative political meaning especially in Croatia and Slovenia as well in worldwide casual usage for war conflicts and fragmentation of territory see Balkanization 23 24 Southeast Europe Main article Southeast Europe In part due to the historical and political connotations of the term Balkans 28 especially since the military conflicts of the 1990s in Yugoslavia in the western half of the region the term Southeast Europe is becoming increasingly popular 24 29 A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe The online newspaper Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003 citation needed Current In other languages of the region the region is known as Slavic languages Bulgarian and Macedonian Balkanski Poluostrov transliterated Balkanski Poluostrov Bosnian Montenegrin and Serbian Balkansko poluostrvo Balkansko poluostrvo Bosnian and Croatian Balkanski poluotok Slovene Balkanski polotok Romance languages Aromanian Peninsula Balcanica or Balcani Romanian Peninsula Balcanică or Balcani Italian Penisola balcanica or Balcani Other languages Albanian Gadishulli Ballkanik and Siujdhesa e Ballkanit Greek Balkanikh xersonhsos transliterated Valkaniki chersonisos Turkish Balkan Yarimadasi or BalkanlarDefinitions and boundariesBalkan Peninsula The Balkan states The Balkan Peninsula using the Danube Sava Soca border Political communities that are included in the Balkans 30 Political communities that are often included in the Balkans 30 The Balkan Peninsula is bounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west the Mediterranean Sea including the Ionian and Aegean seas and the Sea of Marmara to the south and the Black Sea to the east Its northern boundary is often given as the Danube Sava and Kupa Rivers 31 32 failed verification The Balkan Peninsula has a combined area of about 470 000 km2 181 000 sq mi slightly smaller than Spain It is more or less identical to the region known as Southeast Europe 33 34 35 From 1920 until World War II Italy included Istria and some Dalmatian areas like Zara today s Zadar that are within the general definition of the Balkan Peninsula The current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula However the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers due to their definition of the Balkans that limits its western border to the Kupa River 36 Share of total area in brackets 37 within the Balkan Peninsula by country by the Danube Sava definition with Bulgaria and Greece occupying almost the half of the territory of the Balkan Peninsula with around 23 of the total area each Countries wholly within the Balkan Peninsula Albania 28 749 km2 100 of total land Bosnia and Herzegovina 51 180 km2 100 Bulgaria 110 993 6 km2 38 39 100 according to another sources 111 002 38 square kilometres 42 858 sq mi or 110 372 km2 40 100 Kosovo a 10 908 km2 100 Montenegro 13 810 km2 100 North Macedonia 25 713 km2 100 Countries mostly within the Balkan Peninsula Greece mainland 110 496 km2 83 7 according to another source 106 247 km2 41 80 5 including islands adjacent to the Balkan Peninsula 126 023 km2 95 5 citation needed Serbia Central Serbia 55 968 km2 63 2 excluding Kosovo 72 2 Countries partially within the Balkan Peninsula Croatia southern mainland 24 013 km2 42 4 42 43 Slovenia south western part 5 000 km2 24 7 citation needed Countries mostly outside the Balkan Peninsula Romania Northern Dobruja 11 000 km2 4 6 Turkey East Thrace b 23 764 km2 3 Italy Gorizia and Trieste 678 km2 0 2 Balkans The term the Balkans is used more generally for the region it includes states in the region which may extend beyond the peninsula and is not defined by the geography of the peninsula itself Historians state the Balkans comprise Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo Montenegro North Macedonia Romania Serbia and Slovenia 44 45 46 Its total area is usually given as 666 700 km2 257 400 sq mi a and the population as 59 297 000 est 2002 45 Italy although having a small part of its territory on the Balkan Peninsula is not included in the term the Balkans The term Southeast Europe is also used for the region with various definitions Individual Balkan states can also be considered part of other regions including Southern Europe Eastern Europe and Central Europe Turkey including its European territory is generally included in Western Asia or the Middle East Note a The area figure provided by the Encyclopaedia Britannica includes Romania but excludes Greece If Greece is included the total area of the Balkans would be 790 011 km2 Western Balkans Further information 2015 Western Balkans Summit Vienna Western Balkan countries Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Kosovo Montenegro North Macedonia and Serbia Croatia yellow joined the EU in 2013 The Western Balkans is a political neologism coined to refer to Albania and the territory of the former Yugoslavia except Slovenia since the early 1990s e The region of the Western Balkans a coinage exclusively used in Pan European parlance roughly corresponds to the Dinaric Alps territory The institutions of the European Union have generally used the term Western Balkans to mean the Balkan area that includes countries that are not members of the European Union while others refer to the geographical aspects d Each of these countries aims to be part of the future enlargement of the European Union and reach democracy and transmission scores but until then they will be strongly connected with the pre EU waiting program Central European Free Trade Agreement 47 Croatia considered part of the Western Balkans joined the EU in July 2013 48 Criticism of the geographical definition The term is criticized for having a geopolitical rather than a geographical meaning and definition as a multiethnic and political area in the southeastern part of Europe 24 The geographical term of a peninsula defines that the water border must be longer than land with the land side being the shortest in the triangle but that is not the case with the Balkan Peninsula 23 24 Both Eastern and Western water cathetus from Odesa to Cape Matapan c 1230 1350 km and from Trieste to Cape Matapan c 1270 1285 km are shorter than land cathetus from Trieste to Odessa c 1330 1365 km 23 24 The land has a too wide line connected to the continent to be technically proclaimed as a peninsula Szczecin 920 km and Rostock 950 km at the Baltic Sea are closer to Trieste than Odessa yet it is not considered as another European peninsula 23 Since the late 19th and early 20th century literature is not known where is exactly the northern border between the peninsula and the continent 23 24 with an issue whether the rivers are suitable for its definition 4 In the studies the Balkans natural borders especially the northern border are often avoided to be addressed considered as a fastidious problem by Andre Blanc in Geography of the Balkans 1965 while John Lampe and Marvin Jackman in Balkan Economic History 1971 noted that modern geographers seem agreed in rejecting the old idea of a Balkan Peninsula 4 Another issue is the name because the Balkan Mountains which are mostly located in Northern Bulgaria are not dominating the region by length and area like the Dinaric Alps 23 An eventual Balkan peninsula can be considered a territory South of the Balkan Mountains with a possible name Greek Albanian Peninsula 4 24 The term influenced the meaning of Southeast Europe which again is not properly defined by geographical factors yet historical borders of the Balkans 24 Croatian geographers and academics are highly critical of inclusion of Croatia within the broad geographical social political and historical context of the Balkans while the neologism Western Balkans is perceived as a humiliation of Croatia by the European political powers 23 According to M S Altic the term has two different meanings geographical ultimately undefined and cultural extremely negative and recently strongly motivated by the contemporary political context 24 In 2018 President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic stated that the use of the term Western Balkans should be avoided because it does not imply only a geographic area but also negative connotations and instead must be perceived as and called Southeast Europe because it is part of Europe 49 Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek said of the definition 50 This very alibi confronts us with the first of many paradoxes concerning Balkan its geographic delimitation was never precise It is as if one can never receive a definitive answer to the question Where does it begin For Serbs it begins down there in Kosovo or Bosnia and they defend the Christian civilization against this Europe s Other For Croats it begins with the Orthodox despotic Byzantine Serbia against which Croatia defends the values of democratic Western civilization For Slovenes it begins with Croatia and we Slovenes are the last outpost of the peaceful Mitteleuropa For Italians and Austrians it begins with Slovenia where the reign of the Slavic hordes starts For Germans Austria itself on account of its historic connections is already tainted by Balkanic corruption and inefficiency For some arrogant Frenchmen Germany is associated with the Balkanian Eastern savagery up to the extreme case of some conservative anti European Union Englishmen for whom in an implicit way it is ultimately the whole of continental Europe itself that functions as a kind of Balkan Turkish global empire with Brussels as the new Constantinople the capricious despotic center threatening English freedom and sovereignty So Balkan is always the Other it lies somewhere else always a little bit more to the southeast with the paradox that when we reach the very bottom of the Balkan peninsula we again magically escape Balkan Greece is no longer Balkan proper but the cradle of our Western civilization Nature and natural resources Panorama of the Balkan Mountains Stara Planina Its highest peak is Botev at a height of 2 376 m Sutjeska National Park contains Perucica which is the largest primeval forest in the Balkans and one of the last remaining in Europe View toward Rila the highest mountain of the Balkans and Southeast Europe 2 925 m Lake Skadar is the largest lake in the Balkans and Southern Europe Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from the northwest to southeast The main ranges are the Balkan Mountains Stara Planina in Bulgarian language running from the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria to the border with Serbia the Rila Rhodope massif in southern Bulgaria the Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia and Montenegro the Korab Sar mountains which spreads from Kosovo to Albania and North Macedonia and the Pindus range spanning from southern Albania into central Greece and the Albanian Alps and the Alps at the northwestern border The highest mountain of the region is Rila in Bulgaria with Musala at 2 925 m second being Mount Olympus in Greece with Mytikas at 2 917 m and Pirin mountain with Vihren also in Bulgaria being the third at 2915 m 51 52 The karst field or polje is a common feature of the landscape On the Adriatic and Aegean coasts the climate is Mediterranean on the Black Sea coast the climate is humid subtropical and oceanic and inland it is humid continental In the northern part of the peninsula and on the mountains winters are frosty and snowy while summers are hot and dry In the southern part winters are milder The humid continental climate is predominant in Bosnia and Herzegovina northern Croatia Bulgaria Kosovo northern Montenegro the Republic of North Macedonia and the interior of Albania and Serbia Meanwhile the other less common climates the humid subtropical and oceanic climates are seen on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and Balkan Turkey European Turkey The Mediterranean climate is seen on the Adriatic coasts of Albania Croatia and Montenegro as well as the Ionian coasts of Albania and Greece in addition to the Aegean coasts of Greece and Balkan Turkey European Turkey 53 Over the centuries forests have been cut down and replaced with bush In the southern part and on the coast there is evergreen vegetation Inland there are woods typical of Central Europe oak and beech and in the mountains spruce fir and pine The tree line in the mountains lies at the height of 1800 2300 m The land provides habitats for numerous endemic species including extraordinarily abundant insects and reptiles that serve as food for a variety of birds of prey and rare vultures The soils are generally poor except on the plains where areas with natural grass fertile soils and warm summers provide an opportunity for tillage Elsewhere land cultivation is mostly unsuccessful because of the mountains hot summers and poor soils although certain cultures such as olive and grape flourish Resources of energy are scarce except in Kosovo where considerable coal lead zinc chromium and silver deposits are located 54 Other deposits of coal especially in Bulgaria Serbia and Bosnia also exist Lignite deposits are widespread in Greece Petroleum scarce reserves exist in Greece Serbia and Albania Natural gas deposits are scarce Hydropower is in wide use from over 1 000 dams The often relentless bora wind is also being harnessed for power generation Metal ores are more usual than other raw materials Iron ore is rare but in some countries there is a considerable amount of copper zinc tin chromite manganese magnesite and bauxite Some metals are exported History and geopolitical significanceMain article History of the Balkans Antiquity The Jirecek Line Pula Arena the only remaining Roman amphitheatre to have four side towers and with all three Roman architectural orders entirely preserved Remnants of the Felix Romuliana Imperial Palace a UNESCO World Heritage Site Apollonia ruins near Fier Albania The Balkan region was the first area in Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era The Balkans have been inhabited since the Paleolithic and are the route by which farming from the Middle East spread to Europe during the Neolithic 7th millennium BC 55 56 The practices of growing grain and raising livestock arrived in the Balkans from the Fertile Crescent by way of Anatolia and spread west and north into Central Europe particularly through Pannonia Two early culture complexes have developed in the region Starcevo culture and Vinca culture The Balkans are also the location of the first advanced civilizations Vinca culture developed a form of proto writing before the Sumerians and Minoans known as the Old European script while the bulk of the symbols had been created in the period between 4500 and 4000 BC with the ones on the Tărtăria clay tablets even dating back to around 5300 BC 57 The identity of the Balkans is dominated by its geographical position historically the area was known as a crossroads of cultures It has been a juncture between the Latin and Greek bodies of the Roman Empire the destination of a massive influx of pagan Bulgars and Slavs an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met 58 as well as the meeting point between Islam and Christianity The Balkans in 850 AD In pre classical and classical antiquity this region was home to Greeks Illyrians Paeonians Thracians Dacians and other ancient groups The Achaemenid Persian Empire incorporated parts of the Balkans comprising Macedonia Thrace parts of present day Bulgaria and the Black Sea coastal region of Romania between the late sixth and the first half of the fifth century BC into its territories 59 Later the Roman Empire conquered the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence The Romans considered the Rhodope Mountains to be the northern limit of the Peninsula of Haemus and the same limit applied approximately to the border between Greek and Latin use in the region later called the Jirecek Line 60 However large spaces south of Jirecek Line were and are inhabited by Vlachs Aromanians the Romance speaking heirs of Roman Empire 61 62 The Bulgars and Slavs arrived in the sixth century and began assimilating and displacing already assimilated through Romanization and Hellenization older inhabitants of the northern and central Balkans forming the Bulgarian Empire 63 During the Middle Ages the Balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine Roman and the Bulgarian Empires Prior to the Slavic landing parts of the western peninsula have been home to the Proto Albanians Including cities like Nish Shtip Skopje and others This can be proven through the development of the names for example Naissos gt Nish Astibos gt Shtip compare lat amicus gt alb mik Scupi gt Shkup all follow Albanian phonetic sound rules and have entered Slavic demonstrating that Proto Albanian was spoken prior to the Slavic invasion of the Balkans 64 65 66 67 Early modern period By the end of the 16th century the Ottoman Empire had become the controlling force in the region after expanding from Anatolia through Thrace to the Balkans Many people in the Balkans place their greatest folk heroes in the era of either the onslaught or the retreat of the Ottoman Empire 68 As examples for Greeks Constantine XI Palaiologos and Kolokotronis and for Serbs Milos Obilic Tsar Lazar and Karadjordje for Albanians George Kastrioti Skanderbeg for ethnic Macedonians Nikola Karev 69 and Goce Delcev 69 for Bulgarians Vasil Levski Georgi Sava Rakovski and Hristo Botev and for Croats Nikola Subic Zrinjski Modern political history of the Balkans from 1796 onwards Hagia Sophia built in sixth century Constantinople now Istanbul Turkey as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral later a mosque then a museum and now both a mosque and a museum In the past several centuries because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in and around the Balkans and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of economic advance reflecting the shift of Europe s commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic the Balkans have been the least developed part of Europe According to Halil Inalcik The population of the Balkans according to one estimate fell from a high of 8 million in the late 16th century to only 3 million by the mid eighteenth This estimate is based on Ottoman documentary evidence 70 Most of the Balkan nation states emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries as they gained independence from the Ottoman Empire or the Austro Hungarian empire Greece in 1821 Serbia and Montenegro in 1878 Romania in 1881 Bulgaria in 1908 and Albania in 1912 Recent history Tsarevets a medieval stronghold in the former capital of the Bulgarian Empire Veliko Tarnovo The 13th century Church of St John at Kaneo and the Ohrid Lake in North Macedonia The lake and town were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980 World Wars In 1912 1913 the First Balkan War broke out when the nation states of Bulgaria Serbia Greece and Montenegro united in an alliance against the Ottoman Empire As a result of the war almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire were captured and partitioned among the allies Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albanian state Bulgaria insisted on its status quo territorial integrity divided and shared by the Great Powers next to the Russo Turkish War 1877 78 in other boundaries and on the pre war Bulgarian Serbian agreement Bulgaria was provoked by the backstage deals between its former allies Serbia and Greece on the allocation of the spoils at the end of the First Balkan War At the time Bulgaria was fighting at the main Thracian Front Bulgaria marks the beginning of Second Balkan War when it attacked them The Serbs and the Greeks repulsed single attacks but when the Greek army invaded Bulgaria together with an unprovoked Romanian intervention in the back Bulgaria collapsed The Ottoman Empire used the opportunity to recapture Eastern Thrace establishing its new western borders that still stand today as part of modern Turkey The World War I was sparked in the Balkans in 1914 when members of Young Bosnia a revolutionary organization with predominantly Serb and pro Yugoslav members assassinated the Austro Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Bosnia and Herzegovina s capital Sarajevo That caused a war between Austria Hungary and Serbia which through the existing chains of alliances led to the World War I The Ottoman Empire soon joined the Central Powers becoming one of the three empires participating in that alliance The next year Bulgaria joined the Central Powers attacking Serbia which was successfully fighting Austro Hungary to the north for a year That led to Serbia s defeat and the intervention of the Entente in the Balkans which sent an expeditionary force to establish a new front the third one of that war which soon also became static The participation of Greece in the war three years later in 1918 on the part of the Entente finally altered the balance between the opponents leading to the collapse of the common German Bulgarian front there which caused the exit of Bulgaria from the war and in turn the collapse of the Austro Hungarian Empire ending the First World War 71 Between the two wars in order to maintain the geopolitical status quo in the region after the end of World War I the Balkan Pact or Balkan Entente was formed by a treaty between Greece Romania Turkey and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens 72 With the start of the World War II all Balkan countries with the exception of Greece were allies of Nazi Germany having bilateral military agreements or being part of the Axis Pact Fascist Italy expanded the war in the Balkans by using its protectorate Albania to invade Greece After repelling the attack the Greeks counterattacked invading Italy held Albania and causing Nazi Germany s intervention in the Balkans to help its ally 73 Days before the German invasion a successful coup d etat in Belgrade by neutral military personnel seized power 74 Although the new government reaffirmed its intentions to fulfill its obligations as a member of the Axis 75 Germany with Bulgaria invaded both Greece and Yugoslavia Yugoslavia immediately disintegrated when those loyal to the Serbian King and the Croatian units mutinied 76 Greece resisted but after two months of fighting collapsed and was occupied The two countries were partitioned between the three Axis allies Bulgaria Germany and Italy and the Independent State of Croatia a puppet state of Italy and Germany During the occupation the population suffered considerable hardship due to repression and starvation to which the population reacted by creating a mass resistance movement 77 Together with the early and extremely heavy winter of that year which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths among the poorly fed population the German invasion had disastrous effects in the timetable of the planned invasion in Russia causing a significant delay 78 which had major consequences during the course of the war 79 Finally at the end of 1944 the Soviets entered Romania and Bulgaria forcing the Germans out of the Balkans They left behind a region largely ruined as a result of wartime exploitation Cold War During the Cold War most of the countries on the Balkans were governed by communist governments Greece became the first battleground of the emerging Cold War The Truman Doctrine was the US response to the civil war which raged from 1944 to 1949 This civil war unleashed by the Communist Party of Greece backed by communist volunteers from neighboring countries Albania Bulgaria and Yugoslavia led to massive American assistance for the non communist Greek government With this backing Greece managed to defeat the partisans and ultimately remained one of the two only non communist countries in the region with Turkey However despite being under communist governments Yugoslavia 1948 and Albania 1961 fell out with the Soviet Union Yugoslavia led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito 1892 1980 first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria and instead sought closer relations with the West later even spearheaded together with India and Egypt the Non Aligned Movement Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China later adopting an isolationist position On 28 February 1953 Greece Turkey and Yugoslavia signed the treaty of Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation in Ankara to form the Balkan Pact of 1953 The treaty s aim was to deter Soviet expansion in the Balkans and eventual creation of a joint military staff for the three countries When the pact was signed Turkey and Greece were members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO while Yugoslavia was a non aligned communist state With the Pact Yugoslavia was able to indirectly associate itself with NATO Though it was planned for the pact to remain in force for 20 years it dissolved in 1960 80 As the only non communist countries Greece and Turkey were and still are part of NATO composing the southeastern wing of the alliance Post Cold War In the 1990s the transition of the regions ex Eastern bloc countries towards democratic free market societies went peacefully While in the non aligned Yugoslavia Wars between the former Yugoslav republics broke out after Slovenia and Croatia held free elections and their people voted for independence on their respective countries referendums Serbia in turn declared the dissolution of the union as unconstitutional and the Yugoslav People s Army unsuccessfully tried to maintain the status quo Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991 which prompted the Croatian War of Independence in Croatia and the Ten Day War in Slovenia The Yugoslav forces eventually withdrew from Slovenia in 1991 while the war in Croatia continued until late 1995 The two were followed by Macedonia and later Bosnia and Herzegovina with Bosnia being the most affected by the fighting The wars prompted the United Nations intervention and NATO ground and air forces took action against Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and FR Yugoslavia i e Serbia and Montenegro State entities on the former territory of Yugoslavia 2008 From the dissolution of Yugoslavia six stated achieved internationally recognized sovereignty Slovenia Croatia Bosnia and Herzegovina North Macedonia Montenegro and Serbia all of them are traditionally included in the Balkans which is often a controversial matter of dispute In 2008 while under UN administration Kosovo declared independence according to the official Serbian policy Kosovo is still an internal autonomous region In July 2010 the International Court of Justice ruled that the declaration of independence was legal 81 Most UN member states recognise Kosovo After the end of the wars a revolution broke in Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic the Serbian communist leader elected president between 1989 and 2000 was overthrown and handed for a trial to the International Criminal Tribunal for crimes against the International Humanitarian Law during the Yugoslav wars Milosevic died of a heart attack in 2006 before a verdict could have been released In 2001 an Albanian uprising in Macedonia North Macedonia forced the country to give local autonomy to the ethnic Albanians in the areas where they predominate With the dissolution of Yugoslavia an issue emerged over the name under which the former federated republic of Macedonia would internationally be recognized between the new country and Greece Being the Macedonian part of Yugoslavia see Vardar Macedonia the federated republic under the Yugoslav identity had the name Socialist Republic of Macedonia on which it declared its sovereignty in 1991 Greece having a large homonymous region see Macedonia opposed the usage of the name as an indication of a nationality and ethnicity Thus dubbed Macedonia naming dispute was resolved under UN mediation in the June 2018 Prespa agreement was reached which saw the country s renaming into North Macedonia in 2019 Balkan countries control the direct land routes between Western Europe and South West Asia Asia Minor and the Middle East Since 2000 all Balkan countries are friendly towards the EU and the US 82 Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981 while Slovenia is a member since 2004 Bulgaria and Romania are members since 2007 and Croatia is a member since 2013 In 2005 the European Union decided to start accession negotiations with candidate countries Turkey and North Macedonia were accepted as candidates for EU membership In 2012 Montenegro started accession negotiations with the EU In 2014 Albania is an official candidate for accession to the EU In 2015 Serbia was expected to start accession negotiations with the EU however this process has been stalled over the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by existing EU member states 83 Greece and Turkey have been NATO members since 1952 In March 2004 Bulgaria Romania and Slovenia have become members of NATO As of April 2009 84 Albania and Croatia are members of NATO Montenegro joined in June 2017 85 The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020 Almost all other countries have expressed a desire to join the EU NATO or both at some point in the future 86 Politics and economyThis article relies largely or entirely on a single source Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources Find sources Balkans news newspapers books scholar JSTOR September 2022 This article needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information September 2021 View from Santorini in Greece Tourism is an important part of the Greek economy Dubrovnik in Croatia a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979 View towards Sveti Stefan in Montenegro Tourism makes up a significant part of the Montenegrin economy View towards Piran in Slovenia Tourism is a rapidly growing sector of the Slovenian economy Golden Sands a popular tourist destination on the Bulgarian coast Belgrade is a major industrial city and the capital of Serbia The Stari Most in Mostar a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2005 Currently all of the states are republics but until World War II all countries were monarchies Most of the republics are parliamentary excluding Romania and Bosnia which are semi presidential All the states have open market economies most of which are in the upper middle income range 4 000 12 000 p c except Croatia Romania Greece and Slovenia that have high income economies over 12 000 p c and are classified with very high HDI along with Bulgaria in contrast to the remaining states which are classified with high HDI The states from the former Eastern Bloc that formerly had planned economy system and Turkey mark gradual economic growth each year The gross domestic product per capita is highest in Slovenia over 29 000 followed by Greece 20 000 Croatia Romania Bulgaria over 11 000 Turkey Montenegro Serbia between 10 000 and 9 000 and Bosnia and Herzegovina Albania North Macedonia 7 000 and Kosovo 5 000 87 The Gini coefficient which indicates the level of difference by monetary welfare of the layers is on the second level at the highest monetary equality in Albania Bulgaria and Serbia on the third level in Greece Montenegro and Romania on the fourth level in North Macedonia on the fifth level in Turkey and the most unequal by Gini coefficient is Bosnia at the eighth level which is the penultimate level and one of the highest in the world The unemployment is lowest in Romania and Bulgaria around 5 followed by Serbia and Albania 11 12 Turkey Greece Bosnia North Macedonia 13 16 Montenegro 18 and Kosovo 25 88 On political social and economic criteria the divisions are as follows Territories members of the European Union Bulgaria Croatia Greece Romania Slovenia Territories currently in negotiation process for EU membership Albania North Macedonia Montenegro Serbia Turkey Territories with potential candidates status for EU membership Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo On border control and trade criteria the divisions are as follows Territories in the Schengen Area Croatia 89 Greece Slovenia Territories that are legally bound to join the Schengen Area Bulgaria Romania Territories in a customs union with the EU Turkey Territories members of the Central European Free Trade Agreement Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo Montenegro North Macedonia Serbia On currency criteria the divisions are as follows Territories members of the Eurozone Croatia 89 Greece Slovenia Territories using the Euro without authorization by the EU Kosovo Montenegro Territories using national currencies and are candidates for the Eurozone Bulgaria lev Romania leu Territories using national currencies Albania lek Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark North Macedonia denar Serbia dinar Turkey lira On military criteria the divisions are as follows Member territories of NATO Albania Bulgaria Croatia Greece Montenegro North Macedonia Romania Slovenia Turkey Member territories of the Partnership for Peace with Individual Partnership Action Plan and Membership Action Plan for joining NATO Bosnia and Herzegovina Member territories of the Partnership for Peace Serbia On the recent political social and economic criteria there are two groups of countries Former communist territories Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Kosovo Montenegro North Macedonia Romania Serbia Slovenia Capitalist and aligned to the West during the Cold War Greece Turkey During the Cold War the Balkans were disputed between the two blocks Greece and Turkey were members of NATO Bulgaria and Romania of the Warsaw Pact while Yugoslavia was a proponent of a third way and was a founding member of the Non Aligned Movement After the dissolution of Yugoslavia Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina kept an observer status within the organization Regional organizations Southeast European Cooperation Process SEECP member states Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe members observers supporting partners Southeast European Cooperative Initiative SECI members observers Black Sea Economic Cooperation BSEC members observersSee also the Black Sea regional organizationsStatisticsAlbania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo a Montenegro North Macedonia Romania Serbia Slovenia TurkeyFlag Coat of arms Capital Tirana Sarajevo Sofia Zagreb Athens Pristina Podgorica Skopje Bucharest Belgrade Ljubljana AnkaraIndependence 28 November 1912 3 March 1992 5 October 1908 26 June 1991 25 March 1821 17 February 2008 3 June 2006 17 November 1991 9 May 1878 5 June 2006 25 June 1991 29 October 1923President Bajram Begaj Zeljka Cvijanovic Zeljko Komsic Denis Becirovic Rumen Radev Zoran Milanovic Katerina Sakellaropoulou Vjosa Osmani Milo Đukanovic Stevo Pendarovski Klaus Iohannis Aleksandar Vucic Borut Pahor Recep Tayyip ErdoganPrime Minister Edi Rama Borjana Kristo Galab Donev Andrej Plenkovic Kyriakos Mitsotakis Albin Kurti Dritan Abazovic Dimitar Kovacevski Nicolae Ciucă Ana Brnabic Robert Golob Office abolished in 2018Population 2019 90 2 862 427 3 502 550 2018 7 000 039 4 076 246 10 722 287 1 795 666 622 182 2 077 132 19 401 658 6 963 764 91 2 080 908 82 003 882Area 28 749 km2 51 197 km2 111 900 km2 56 594 km2 131 117 km2 10 908 km2 13 812 km2 25 713 km2 238 391 km2 77 474 km2 91 20 273 km2 781 162 km2Density 100 km2 69 km2 97 km2 74 km2 82 km2 159 km2 45 km2 81 km2 83 km2 91 km2 102 km2 101 km2Water area 4 7 0 02 2 22 1 1 0 99 1 00 2 61 1 09 2 97 0 13 0 6 1 3 GDP nominal 2019 92 15 418 bln 20 106 bln 66 250 bln 60 702 bln 214 012 bln 8 402 bln 5 424 bln 12 672 bln 243 698 bln 55 437 bln 54 154 bln 774 708 blnGDP PPP 2018 92 38 305 bln 47 590 bln 162 186 bln 107 362 bln 312 267 bln 20 912 bln 11 940 bln 32 638 bln 516 359 bln 122 740 bln 75 967 bln 2 300 blnGDP per capita nominal 2019 92 5 373 5 742 9 518 14 950 19 974 4 649 8 704 6 096 12 483 7 992 26 170 8 958GDP per capita PPP 2018 92 13 327 13 583 23 169 26 256 29 072 11 664 19 172 15 715 26 448 17 552 36 741 28 044Gini Index 2018 93 29 0 low 2012 94 33 0 medium 2011 95 39 6 medium 29 7 low 32 3 medium 29 0 low 2017 96 36 7 medium 2017 31 9 medium 35 1 medium 35 6 medium 23 4 low 43 0 mediumHDI 2018 97 0 791 high 0 769 high 0 816 very high 0 837 very high 0 872 very high 0 739 high 2016 0 816 very high 0 759 high 0 816 very high 0 799 high 0 902 very high 0 806 very highIHDI 2018 98 0 705 high 0 658 medium 0 713 high 0 768 high 0 766 high N A 0 746 high 0 660 medium 0 725 high 0 710 high 0 858 very high 0 676 mediumInternet TLD al ba bg hr gr Doesn t have me mk ro rs si trCalling code 355 387 359 385 30 383 99 382 389 40 381 386 90DemographicsThe region is inhabited by Albanians Aromanians Bulgarians Bosniaks Croats Gorani Greeks Istro Romanians Macedonians Megleno Romanians Montenegrins Serbs Slovenes Romanians Turks and other ethnic groups which present minorities in certain countries like the Romani and Ashkali 45 State Population 2018 100 Density km2 2018 101 Life expectancy 2018 102 Albania 2 870 324 100 78 3 years Bosnia and Herzegovina 3 502 550 69 77 2 years Bulgaria 7 050 034 64 79 9 years Croatia 4 105 493 73 76 2 years Greece 10 768 193 82 80 1 years Kosovo 1 798 506 165 77 7 years Montenegro 622 359 45 76 4 years North Macedonia 2 075 301 81 76 2 years Romania 19 523 621 82 76 3 years Serbia 7 001 444 90 76 5 years Slovenia 2 066 880 102 80 3 years Turkey 11 929 013 103 c 101 78 5 yearsReligion Map showing religious denominations The region is a meeting point of Orthodox Christianity Islam and Roman Catholic Christianity 104 Eastern Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both the Balkan Peninsula and the Balkan region The Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe 105 A variety of different traditions of each faith are practiced with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church A part of the population in the Balkans defines itself as irreligious Islam has a significant history in the region where Muslims make up a large percentage of the population A 2013 estimate placed the total Muslim population of the Balkans at around 8 million 106 Islam is the largest religion in nations like Albania Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo with significant minorities in Bulgaria North Macedonia and Montenegro Smaller populations of Muslims are also found in Romania Serbia and Greece 106 Approximate distribution of religions in Albania Territories in which the principal religion is Eastern Orthodoxy with national churches in parentheses 107 Religious minorities of these territories 107 Bulgaria 59 Bulgarian Orthodox Church Islam 8 and undeclared 27 Greece 81 90 Greek Orthodox Church Islam 2 Catholicism other and undeclaredMontenegro 72 Serbian Orthodox Church Islam 19 Catholicism 3 other and undeclared 5 North Macedonia 64 Macedonian Orthodox Church Islam 33 CatholicismRomania 81 Romanian Orthodox Church Protestantism 6 Catholicism 5 other and undeclared 8 Serbia 84 Serbian Orthodox Church Catholicism 5 Islam 3 Protestantism 1 other and undeclared 6 Territories in which the principal religion is Catholicism 107 Religious minorities of these territories 107 Croatia 86 Eastern Orthodoxy 4 Islam 1 other and undeclared 7 Slovenia 57 Islam 2 Orthodox 2 other and undeclared 36 Territories in which the principal religion is Islam 107 Religious minorities of these territories 107 Albania 58 Catholicism 10 Orthodoxy 7 other and undeclared 24 Bosnia and Herzegovina 51 Orthodoxy 31 Catholicism 15 other and undeclared 4 Kosovo 95 Catholicism 2 Orthodoxy 2 other and undeclared 1 Turkey 90 99 107 Orthodoxy Irreligious 5 10 The Jewish communities of the Balkans were some of the oldest in Europe and date back to ancient times These communities were Sephardi Jews except in Croatia and Slovenia where the Jewish communities were mainly Ashkenazi Jews In Bosnia and Herzegovina the small and close knit Jewish community is 90 Sephardic and Ladino is still spoken among the elderly The Sephardi Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo has tombstones of a unique shape and inscribed in ancient Ladino 108 Sephardi Jews used to have a large presence in the city of Thessaloniki and by 1900 some 80 000 or more than half of the population were Jews 109 The Jewish communities in the Balkans suffered immensely during World War II and the vast majority were killed during the Holocaust An exception was the Bulgarian Jews most of whom were saved by Boris III of Bulgaria who resisted Adolf Hitler opposing their deportation to Nazi concentration camps Almost all of the few survivors have emigrated to the then newly founded state of Israel and elsewhere Almost no Balkan country today has a significant Jewish minority when citation needed Languages Main article Languages of the Balkans Further information Balkan sprachbund Ethnic map of the Balkans 1880 Transhumance ways of the Romance speaking Vlach shepherds in the past The Balkan region today is a very diverse ethnolinguistic region being home to multiple Slavic and Romance languages as well as Albanian Greek Turkish Hungarian and others Romani is spoken by a large portion of the Romanis living throughout the Balkan countries Throughout history many other ethnic groups with their own languages lived in the area among them Thracians Illyrians Romans Celts and various Germanic tribes All of the aforementioned languages from the present and from the past belong to the wider Indo European language family with the exception of the Turkic languages e g Turkish and Gagauz and Hungarian State Most spoken language 110 Linguistic minorities 110 Albania 98 Albanian 2 other Bosnia and Herzegovina 53 Bosnian 31 Serbian official 15 Croatian official 2 other Bulgaria 86 Bulgarian 8 Turkish 4 Romani 1 other 1 unspecified Croatia 96 Croatian 1 Serbian 3 other Greece 99 Greek 1 other Kosovo 94 Albanian 2 Bosnian 2 Serbian official 1 Turkish 1 other Montenegro 43 Serbian 37 Montenegrin official 5 Albanian 5 Bosnian 5 other 4 unspecified North Macedonia 67 Macedonian 25 Albanian official 4 Turkish 2 Romani 1 Serbian 2 other Romania 85 Romanian 6 Hungarian 1 Romani Serbia 88 Serbian 3 Hungarian 2 Bosnian 1 Romani 3 other 2 unspecified Slovenia 91 Slovene 5 Serbo Croatian 4 other Turkey 85 Turkish 111 12 Kurdish 3 other and unspecified 111 Urbanization Most of the states in the Balkans are predominantly urbanized with the lowest number of urban population as of the total population found in Kosovo at under 40 Bosnia and Herzegovina at 40 and Slovenia at 50 112 Panoramic view of Istanbul A list of largest cities City Country Agglomeration City proper YearIstanbul b Turkey 10 097 862 10 097 862 2019 113 Athens Greece 3 753 783 664 046 2018 114 Bucharest Romania 2 272 163 1 887 485 2018 115 Sofia Bulgaria 1 995 950 1 313 595 2018 116 Belgrade Serbia 1 659 440 1 119 696 2018 117 Zagreb Croatia 1 113 111 792 875 2011 118 Tekirdag Turkey 1 055 412 1 055 412 2019 119 Thessaloniki Greece 1 012 297 325 182 2018 114 Tirana Albania 800 986 418 495 2018 120 Ljubljana Slovenia 537 712 292 988 2018 121 Skopje North Macedonia 506 926 444 800 2018 122 Constanța Romania 425 916 283 872 2018 115 Craiova Romania 420 000 269 506 2018 115 Edirne Turkey 413 903 306 464 2019 123 Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina 413 593 275 524 2018Cluj Napoca Romania 411 379 324 576 2018 115 Plovdiv Bulgaria 396 092 411 567 2018 116 Varna Bulgaria 383 075 395 949 2018 116 Iași Romania 382 484 290 422 2018 115 Brașov Romania 369 896 253 200 2018 115 Kirklareli Turkey 361 836 259 302 2019 124 Timișoara Romania 356 443 319 279 2018 115 Novi Sad Serbia 341 625 277 522 2018 125 Split Croatia 325 600 161 312 2021 118 b Only the European part of Istanbul is a part of the Balkans 126 It is home to two thirds of the city s 15 519 267 inhabitants 113 Time zonesThe time zones in the Balkans are defined as the following Territories in the time zone of UTC 01 00 Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia Kosovo Montenegro North Macedonia Serbia and Slovenia Territories in the time zone of UTC 02 00 Bulgaria Greece and Romania Territories in the time zone of UTC 03 00 TurkeyCultureCuisine of the Balkans Balkan music Balkan Athletics Championships Balkan Athletics Indoor Championships Imagining the BalkansHistoriographySee also List of Slavic studies journalsSee alsoBalkan Insight Balkan Universities Network Balkanization History of the Balkans Balkan Wars Yugoslav Wars Languages of the Balkans Balkan sprachbund Balkan musicNotesa The political status of Kosovo is disputed Having unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 Kosovo is formally recognised as an independent state by 101 out of 193 52 3 UN member states with another 13 recognising it at some point but then withdrawing their recognition while Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own territory b As The World Factbook cites regarding Turkey and Southeastern Europe that portion of Turkey west of the Bosphorus is geographically part of Europe c The population only of European Turkey that excludes the Anatolian Peninsula which otherwise has a population of 75 627 384 and a density of 97 d See 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 e See 24 135 129 130 136 137 131 132 133 134 References Gray Colin S Sloan Geoffrey 2014 Geopolitics Geography and Strategy ISBN 9781135265021 Retrieved 10 November 2014 Balkans Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 13 December 2017 Richard T Schaefer 2008 Encyclopedia of Race Ethnicity and Society Sage p 129 ISBN 978 1 4129 2694 2 a b c d e f g h Alexander Vezenkov 2017 Entangled Geographies of the Balkans The Boundaries of the Region and the Limits of the Discipline In Roumen Dontchev Daskalov Tchavdar Marinov ed Entangled Histories of the Balkans Volume Four Concepts Approaches and Self Representations Brill pp 115 256 ISBN 978 90 04 33782 4 Olga M Tomic 2006 Balkan Sprachbund Morpho Syntactic Features Springer Science amp Business Media p 35 ISBN 978 1 4020 4488 5 Robert Bideleux Ian Jeffries 2007 The Balkans A Post Communist History Routledge pp 1 3 ISBN 978 1 134 58328 7 Current Trends in Altaic Linguistics European Balkan s Turkic bal yk and the Problem of Their Original Meanings Marek Stachowski Jagiellonian University p 618 a b c d Todorova Maria N 1997 Imagining the Balkans New York Oxford University Press Inc p 27 ISBN 9780195087512 Oxford English Dictionary 2013 s v Proto Turkic bal in Babel International Etymological Database Project Balkan Encarta World English Dictionary Microsoft Corporation Archived from the original on 10 January 2007 Retrieved 31 March 2008 balkan Buyuk Turkce Sozluk in Turkish Turk Dil Kurumu Archived from the original on 25 August 2011 Sarp ve ormanlik siradag Bulgaria Hemus a Thracian name Indiana University 1986 p 54 Balkan Studies 1986 Decev D 1986 Balkan Studies University of Michigan Retrieved 20 June 2015 Apollodorus 1976 Gods and Heroes of the Greeks The Library of Apollodorus Univ of Massachusetts Press p 20 ISBN 978 0870232060 Retrieved 12 September 2014 Haemus bloody zeus typhon Dobrev Ivan 1989 Proichozhdenie geograficheskogo nazvaniya Balkan Sixieme Congres international d etudes du Sud Est Europeen in French Sofia Ed de l Academie bulgare des Sciences Todorova Maria 2009 Imagining the Balkans Oxford University Press US p 22 ISBN 978 0 19 538786 5 Encyclopaedia of Islam Second Edition Editors P Bearman Th Bianquis C E Bosworth E van Donzel and W P Heinrichs Brill Online Reference Works Inalcik Halil 24 April 2012 Balkan Brill Reference Brillonline com Balkhan Mountains World Land Features Database Land WorldCityDB com Archived from the original on 28 February 2008 Retrieved 31 March 2008 Pavic Silvia 22 November 2000 Some Thoughts About The Balkans About Inc Archived from the original on 28 February 2008 Retrieved 31 March 2008 a b c d e f g h i j Somek Petra 29 October 2015 Hrvatska nije na zapadnom Balkanu Croatia is not on Western Balkans Vijenac in Croatian Zagreb Matica hrvatska Retrieved 31 December 2018 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Altic Mirela Slukan 2011 Hrvatska kao zapadni Balkan geografska stvarnost ili nametnuti identitet Croatia as a Part of the Western Balkans Geographical Reality or Enforced Identity Drustvena Istrazivanja in Croatian 20 2 401 413 doi 10 5559 di 20 2 06 Maria Todorova Gutgsell Imagining the Balkans Oxford University Press 2009 ISBN 0 19 972838 0 p 24 Illyrische Halbinsel 1851 Vezenkov Alexander 2006 History against Geography Should We Always Think of the Balkans As Part of Europe Junior Visiting Fellows Conferences XXI 4 Archived from the original on 24 December 2017 Retrieved 5 January 2018 Balkanize merriam webster com Bideleux Robert Ian Jeffries 2007 A history of Eastern Europe Taylor amp Francis p 37 ISBN 978 0 415 36627 4 a b Discover the countries that make up the Balkans Encyclopaedia Britannica 29 April 2021 Retrieved 25 June 2021 Jelavich 1983a p 1 britannica com Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 12 September 2014 Hajdu Zoltan 2007 Southeast Europe State Borders Cross border Relations Spatial Structures Pecs Hungary Hungarian Academy of Sciences ISBN 978 963 9052 65 9 Retrieved 8 June 2015 Lampe John R 2014 Balkans Into Southeastern Europe 1914 2014 A Century of War and Transition London United Kingdom Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978 1 137 01907 3 Retrieved 8 June 2015 Svob Dokic Nada ed 2001 Redefining Cultural Identities Southeastern Europe PDF Zagreb Croatia National and University Library in Zagreb ISBN 978 953 6096 22 0 Archived PDF from the original on 9 October 2022 Retrieved 8 June 2015 Istituto Geografico De Agostini L Enciclopedia Geografica Vol I Italia 2004 Ed De Agostini p 78 Field Listing Area CIA The World Factbook Archived from the original on 31 January 2014 Retrieved 20 January 2016 a b Penin Rumen 2007 Prirodna geografiya na Blgariya Natural Geography of Bulgaria in Bulgarian Bulvest 2000 p 18 ISBN 978 954 18 0546 6 Country comparison Area The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency Archived from the original on 22 November 2018 Retrieved 4 December 2011 UN Data Bulgaria Treves Tullio Pineschi Laura 1997 The Law of the Sea ISBN 978 9041103260 Proleksis encyclopedia Retrieved 22 July 2018 Geographical horizon Scientific and Professional magazine of the Croatian Geographical Society article On the north border and confine of the Balkan Peninsula No1 2008 year LIV ISSN 0016 7266 pp 30 33 The standard scholarly histories of the Balkans include Romania Barbara Jelavich History of the Balkans 2 vol 1983 L S Stavrianos The Balkans since 1453 2000 John R Lampe Balkan Economic History 1550 1950 From Imperial Borderlands to Developing Nations Indiana University Press 1982 Andrew Baruch Wachtel The Balkans in World History New Oxford World History 2008 Stevan K Pavlowitch A History of the Balkans 1804 1945 Routledge 2014 a b c Balkans Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 21 August 2019 The Balkans are usually characterized as comprising Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Kosovo Montenegro North Macedonia Romania Serbia and Slovenia with all or part of each of those countries located within the peninsula Portions of Greece and Turkey are also located within the geographic region generally defined as the Balkan Peninsula and many descriptions of the Balkans include those countries too Some define the region in cultural and historical terms and others geographically though there are even different interpretations among historians and geographers Generally the Balkans are bordered on the northwest by Italy on the north by Hungary on the north and northeast by Moldova and Ukraine and on the south by Greece and Turkey or the Aegean Sea depending on how the region is defined For discussion of physical and human geography along with the history of individual countries in the region see Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo North Macedonia Moldova Montenegro Romania Serbia Slovenia and Turkey Area 257 400 square miles 666 700 square km Pop 2002 est 59 297 000 According to an earlier version of the Britannica cited in Crampton The Balkans Since the Second World War the Balkans comprise the territory of the states of Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Greece Macedonia Moldova Romania Slovenia and Yugoslavia Montenegro and Serbia and also the European portion of Turkey noting that Turkey is not a Balkan state and that the inclusion of Slovenia and the Transylvanian part of Romania in the region is dubious Perspectives on the Region PDF Archived from the original PDF on 4 September 2013 Retrieved 19 July 2013 De Munter Andre December 2016 Fact Sheets on the European Union The Western Balkans European Parliament Retrieved 22 March 2017 Predsjednica objasnila zasto izbjegava izraz zapadni Balkan The presidents explained why it avoids the term Western Balkans Vecernji list in Croatian Zagreb 27 September 2018 Retrieved 31 December 2018 Slavoj Zizek Winter 1999 The Spectre of Balkan The Journal of the International Institute 6 2 hdl 2027 spo 4750978 0006 202 Macedonia Thrace Peakbagger com www peakbagger com Mount Olympus mountain Greece Encyclopaedia Britannica Balkans Definition Map Countries amp Facts Encyclopaedia Britannica 10 November 2020 Retrieved 25 June 2021 Regions and territories Kosovo BBC News 20 November 2009 Archived from the original on 14 February 2009 Retrieved 17 April 2010 Borza EN 1992 In the Shadow of Olympus The Emergence of Macedon Princeton University Press p 58 ISBN 978 0691008806 Perles Catherine 2001 The Early Neolithic in Greece The First Farming Communities in Europe Cambridge University Press p 1 ISBN 9780521000277 Haarmann Harald 2002 Geschichte der Schrift in German C H Beck p 20 ISBN 978 3 406 47998 4 Goldstein I 1999 Croatia A History McGill Queen s University Press Joseph Roisman Ian Worthington A Companion to Ancient Macedonia pp 135 138 342 345 John Wiley amp Sons 2011 ISBN 978 1 4443 5163 7 MacLeod M D 1982 The Romans and the Greek Language The Classical Review 32 2 216 218 doi 10 1017 S0009840X00114982 JSTOR 3063446 S2CID 161691285 Kahl Thede Istoria aromanilor Editura Tritonic București 2006 A N Haciu Aromanii Comerț industrie arte expansiune civilizație ediția I 1936 ediția a II a Editura Cartea Armană Constanța 2003 598 p ISBN 973 8299 25 X Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle Mary Edith Durham 2007 p 125 ISBN 1 4346 3426 4 Matzinger Joachim 2006 Der altalbanische Text Mbsuame e kreshtere Dottrina cristiana des Leke Matrenga von 1592 eine Einfuhrung in die albanische Sprachwissenschaft Dettelbach J H Roll ISBN 3 89754 117 3 OCLC 65166691 Genis amp Maynard 2009 p 557 Katicic Radoslav 1976 Ancient Languages of the Balkans Mouton p 186 ISBN 9789027933157 On the other hand Nis from Naissos Stip from Ἄstibos Sar from Scardus and Ohrid from Lychnidus presuppose the sound development characteristic for Albanian Curtis Matthew Cowan 2012 Slavic Albanian Language Contact Convergence and Coexistence Thesis The Ohio State University p 42 Wasti Syed Tanvir July 2004 The 1912 13 Balkan War and the Siege of Edirne Middle Eastern Studies 40 4 59 78 doi 10 1080 00263200410001700310 JSTOR 4289928 S2CID 145595992 a b Considered a Bulgarian in Bulgaria An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire Suraiya Faroqhi Donald Quataert 1997 Cambridge University Press p 652 ISBN 0 521 57455 2 Encyclopedia of World War I Spencer Tucker Priscilla Mary Roberts p 242 Balkan Entente Europe 1934 Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved 31 August 2021 Europe in Flames J Klam 2002 p 41 Russia s life saver Albert Loren Weeks 2004 p 98 Schreiber Stegemann amp Vogel 1995 p 484 Schreiber Stegemann amp Vogel 1995 p 521 Inside Hitler s Greece The Experience of Occupation Mark Mazower 1993 Hermann Goring Hitler s Second In Command Fred Ramen 2002 p 61 The encyclopedia of codenames of World War II Marita Christopher Chant 1986 pp 125 126 Balkan Pact of 1953 Retrieved 5 September 2021 Kosovo independence declaration deemed legal Reuters 22 July 2010 Retrieved 16 February 2014 UNODC South Eastern Europe www unodc org Retrieved 17 June 2019 Serbia must accept Kosovo independence to join EU Gabriel 16 February 2018 Ceremony marks the accession of Albania to NATO NATO News 7 April 2009 Retrieved 18 April 2009 Archives EWB 20 April 2017 Darmanovic Montenegro becomes EU member in 2022 European Western Balkans The Western Balkans Fact Sheets on the European Union European Parliament Retrieved 25 June 2021 GDP per capita current US Data data worldbank org Retrieved 19 August 2022 Unemployment total of total labor force modeled ILO estimate Data data worldbank org Retrieved 19 August 2022 a b Croatia begins new euro and Schengen zone era BBC News 2 January 2023 Population on 1 January ec europa eu eurostat Eurostat Retrieved 21 December 2019 a b Without Kosovo and Metohija a b c d World Economic Outlook Database October 2019 IMF org International Monetary Fund Retrieved 21 December 2019 Gini coefficient of equivalised disposable income EU SILC survey ec europa eu eurostat Eurostat Retrieved 21 December 2019 GINI index World Bank estimate data worldbank org World Bank Retrieved 21 December 2019 GINI index World Bank estimate Bosnia and Herzegovina data worldbank org World Bank Retrieved 21 December 2019 GINI index World Bank estimate Kosovo data worldbank org World Bank Retrieved 21 December 2019 Human Development Index HDI hdr undp org HDRO Human Development Report Office United Nations Development Programme Retrieved 11 December 2019 Inequality adjusted HDI IHDI hdr undp org UNDP Retrieved 22 May 2020 As Kosovo Eurostat Tables Graphs and Maps Interface TGM table europa eu Countries by Population Density 2019 statisticstimes com Country Comparison Life Expectancy at Birth CIA The World Factbook Archived from the original on 29 December 2018 Retrieved 20 January 2016 Turkey s Population Retrieved 10 December 2020 Okey Robin 2007 Taming Balkan Nationalism Oxford University Press Ware 1993 p 8 a b Clayer Nathalie Bougarel Xavier 2017 Europe s Balkan Muslims A New History Hurst Publishers pp 2 4 ISBN 978 1 84904 659 6 a b c d e f g Field Listing Religions CIA Archived from the original on 16 October 2020 Retrieved 23 February 2019 European Jewish Congress Bosnia Herzegovina Accessed 15 July 2008 Jones Sam 30 July 2020 Thessaloniki s Jews We can t let this be forgotten if it s forgotten it will die The Guardian a b Field Listings Languages CIA Archived from the original on 20 April 2019 Retrieved 30 November 2020 a b Turkiye nin yuzde 85 i anadilim Turkce diyor Milliyet com tr Retrieved 25 June 2021 Data Urban population of total The World Bank 1960 2016 a b Istanbul Population Retrieved 1 December 2020 a b Greece Regions and Agglomerations Retrieved 9 November 2015 a b c d e f g Romania Counties and Major Cities Retrieved 9 November 2015 a b c Bulgaria Major Cities Retrieved 9 November 2015 Statistical Officeof the Republic of Serbia Archived 14 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine p 32 a b Croatia Counties and Major Cities Retrieved 9 November 2015 Tekirdag Population Retrieved 30 November 2020 Albania Prefectures and Major Cities Population Statistics in Maps and Charts citypopulation de Osebna izkaznica RRA LUR rralur si Macedonia Retrieved 9 November 2015 Edirne Population Retrieved 30 November 2020 Kirklareli Population Retrieved 1 December 2020 Serbia Regions Districts and Major Cities Archived from the original on 8 November 2015 Retrieved 9 November 2015 Crampton 2014 The Balkans Since the Second World War ISBN 978 1317891161 Federal Ministry for Europe Integration and Foreign Affairs Western Balkans Summit Retrieved 11 August 2015 Western Balkans Trade European Commission europa eu a b Zoltan Hajdu ed 2007 The European integration and regional policy of the West Balkans Southeast Europe state borders cross border relations spatial structures Ivan Illes Zoltan Raffay Centre for Regional Studies p 141 ISBN 978 963 9052 65 9 Retrieved 18 October 2014 a b European Economic and Social Committee Western Balkans European Economic and Social Committee Archived from the original on 6 October 2014 Retrieved 12 September 2014 a b Austrian Foreign Miniistry The Western Balkans A Priority of Austrian Foreign Policy a b WBIF Western Balkans Investment Framework Stakeholders Archived from the original on 6 October 2014 Retrieved 12 September 2014 a b European Commission Trade Countries and regions Western Balkans Retrieved 12 September 2014 a b Western Balkans Enhancing the European Perspective PDF Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council 5 March 2008 Archived PDF from the original on 9 April 2008 Retrieved 8 April 2008 Pond Elizabeth 2006 Endgame in the Balkans Regime Change European Style Washington D C Brookings Institution p 5 ISBN 978 0 8157 7160 9 western balkans minus slovenia European Union External Action EU relations with the Western Balkans Retrieved 12 September 2014 Redaktion PT DLR Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany Western Balkan Countries Archived from the original on 6 October 2014 Retrieved 12 September 2014 Further readingGray Colin S 1999 Geopolitics Geography and Strategy London Routledge ISBN 978 0 7146 8053 8 Banac Ivo October 1992 Historiography of the Countries of Eastern Europe Yugoslavia American Historical Review 97 4 1084 1104 doi 10 2307 2165494 JSTOR 2165494 Banac Ivo 1984 The National Question in Yugoslavia Origins History Politics Ithaca NY Cornell University Press ISBN 978 0 8014 9493 2 Goldstein Ivo 1999 Croatia A History Montreal Quebec McGill Queen s University Press ISBN 978 0 7735 2017 2 Carter Francis W ed 1977 An Historical Geography of the Balkans Academic Press ISBN missing Dvornik Francis 1962 The Slavs in European History and Civilization Rutgers University Press ISBN missing Fine John V A Jr The Early Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century 1983 The Late Medieval Balkans A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press 1987 ISBN missing Forbes Nevill 1915 The Balkans A History of Bulgaria Serbia Greece Rumania Turkey Clarendon Press online Jelavich Barbara 1983a History of the Balkans Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Vol 1 Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521274586 Jelavich Barbara 1983b History of the Balkans Twentieth Century Vol 2 Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0521274593 Jelavich Charles Jelavich Barbara eds 1963 The Balkans in Transition Essays on the Development of Balkan Life and Politics Since the Eighteenth Century University of California Press Kitsikis Dimitri 2008 La montee du national bolchevisme dans les Balkans Le retour a la Serbie de 1830 Paris Avatar Lampe John R and Marvin R Jackson 1982 Balkan Economic History 1550 1950 From Imperial Borderlands to Developing Nations Indiana University Press ISBN missing Kiraly Bela K ed 1984 East Central European Society in the Era of Revolutions 1775 1856 ISBN missing Komlos John 1990 Economic Development in the Habsburg Monarchy and in the Successor States East European Monographs No 28 East European Monographs ISBN 978 0 88033 177 7 Mazower Mark 2000 The Balkans A Short History Modern Library Chronicles New York Random House ISBN 978 0 679 64087 5 Schreiber Gerhard Stegemann Bernd Vogel Detlef 1995 The Mediterranean south east Europe and north Africa 1939 1941 Germany and the 2nd World War Vol III Clarendon Press ISBN 978 0 19 822884 4 Stavrianos L S 2000 1958 The Balkans since 1453 with Traian Stoianovich New York NYU Press ISBN 978 0 8147 9766 2 online free to borrow Stoianovich Traian 1994 Balkan Worlds The First and Last Europe Sources and Studies in World History New York M E Sharpe ISBN 978 1 56324 032 4 Ware Bishop Kallistos Timothy 29 April 1993 The Orthodox Church new ed New York Penguin Books ISBN 978 0 14 014656 1 Zametica John 2017 Folly and malice the Habsburg empire the Balkans and the start of World War One London Shepheard Walwyn 416 pp ISBN 978 0856835131 External linksBalkans at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Travel information from Wikivoyage Balkan Insight Analysis from Balkans Balkanalysis in depth research on Balkan geopolitics Western Balkans Photo impression Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe 17th 21st Centuries Eds G Demeter P Peykovska 2015 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Balkans amp oldid 1145896366, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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