The
Balkans (often referred to as the
Balkan Peninsula, although the Balkans is larger
than the peninsula itself) is a geopolitical and cultural region of
southeastern
Europe.
The region takes its
name from the Balkan
Mountains
, which run
through the centre of Bulgaria
into eastern
Serbia
.The region has a combined area of and a
population of about 55 million people.
" " comes from a
Turkish word
meaning "a chain of wooded mountains". The ancient
Greek name for the Balkan Peninsula was the
"Peninsula of
Haemus” ( ,
Chersónēsos tou
Haímou). The Balkans are also referred to as
Southeastern Europe.
Definitions and boundaries
The Balkan Peninsula
The Balkan Peninsula, as defined by
the Danube-Sava-Kupa line.
The Balkan
Peninsula may be defined as an area of southeastern Europe
surrounded by water on three sides: the Adriatic Sea
to the west, the Mediterranean Sea
(including the Ionian
and Aegean
seas) to the south and the Black Sea
to the east. Its northern boundary is often
given as the
Danube,
Sava
and
Kupa rivers.
Countries which are geographically fully located within the Balkan
peninsula:
Countries which are significantly located in the peninsula:
Countries which are located mostly outside the peninsula:
The Balkans
The term
"The Balkans" covers not only those countries which lie within the
boundaries of the "Balkan Peninsula", but may also include Croatia
, Slovenia
, and Romania
.
Slovenia, which was part of
Yugoslavia
from 1919 to 1991, lies north of the Danube-Sava line and therefore
outside the Peninsula, but prior to 1991 the whole of Yugoslavia
was considered to be part of the Balkans. The father of the term
"The Balkans"
August Zeune defined it
in 1808 to describe areas that remained under Turkish rule after
1699.
In most of the English-speaking world, the countries commonly
included in the Balkan region are:
Other countries sometimes included are:
Etymology and evolving meaning
The region
takes its name from the Stara Planina
mountain range in Bulgaria, commonly
known as the Balkan
Mountains (from the
Turkish meaning "a chain of wooded
mountains"). The name is still preserved in Central Asia where there exist the Balkan Mountains
and the Balkan Province
of Turkmenistan
. On a larger scale, the mountains are only one
part of a long continuous chain of mountains crossing the region in
the form of a reversed letter S, from the Carpathians
south to the Balkan range proper, before marching
away east into Anatolian
Turkey. On the west coast, an offshoot of the
Dinaric Alps follows the coast south
through Dalmatia and Albania
, crosses
Greece and continues into the sea in the form of various
islands.
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. English
traveler John Morritt introduced this term into the 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 “Balkan peninsula” was
created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808.
As time passed, the
term gradually obtained political connotations far from its initial
geographic meaning, arising from political changes from the late
1800s to the creation of post-World War
I Yugoslavia (initially the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
). Zeune's goal was to have a geographical
parallel term to the Italic and
Iberian
Peninsula
, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually
acquired political connotations are newer, and, to a large extent,
due to oscillating political circumstances.
The term Balkans is
generally used to describe areas that remained under Turkish rule
after 1699, namely: Bulgaria, Serbia (except for
Vojvodina
), Macedonia,
Thrace, Albania, Valahia, Moldavia, Epirus,
Bosnia and
Herzegovina
, Montenegro
(except for the Boka Bay and Budva), central Greece and the Peloponnese
. Vojvodina and Transylvania, it is
argued, do not belong to Balkans. After the split of
Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the
term 'Balkans' again received a negative meaning, even in casual
usage (see
Balkanization). Over the
last decade, in the wake of the former Yugoslav split, many
Slovenians and
Croatians have attempted to reject their label as
'Balkan nations'. This is in part due to the pejorative connotation
of the term 'Balkans' in the 1990s, and continuation of this
meaning until now.
Today, the term 'Southeast Europe' is
preferred or, in the case of Slovenia and Croatia, 'Central Europe' and
Greece has almost exclusively been regarded and referred to as a
'Southern European'
country.
Southeastern Europe
Because of the negative connotations of the term 'Balkan', writers
such as
Maria Todorova and Vesna
Goldsworthy have suggested the use of the term
Southeastern
Europe instead. The use of this term is slowly growing; a
European Union initiative of 1999 is
called the
Stability Pact for South
Eastern Europe, and the online newspaper
Balkan
Times renamed itself
Southeast European Times in
2003.
The use
of this term to mean the Balkan peninsula (and only that)
technically ignores the geographical presence of Romania, Moldova
, Ukraine
, and Ciscaucasus
, which are also located in the southeastern part of
the European continent.
Western Balkans
The Western Balkan states according to
the European Union
European Union institutions and
member states define the "Western Balkans" as Albania and the
constituent republics of the former Yugoslavia, minus Slovenia. The
European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development uses "Western Balkans" to
refer to the above states, minus Croatia.
Regional organizations
See also the
Black Sea
Regional organizations
Nature and natural resources
Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from
north-west to south-east.
The main ranges are the Dinaric Alps in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia,
the Šar
massif which spreads from Albania to Republic of
Macedonia and the Pindus
range,
spanning from southern Albania into central Greece.
In
Bulgaria there are ranges running from east to west: the Balkan
mountains
and the Rhodope
mountains at the border with Greece. The highest mountain
of the region is Rila
in Bulgaria, with Musala
at 2925 m,
with Mount
Olympus
in Greece, the throne of Zeus, being second at 2919
m and Vihren
in Bulgaria
being the third at 2914 m.
On the coasts the climate is
Mediterranean, in the inland it is
moderate
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.
During the centuries many woods have been cut down and replaced
with bush. In the southern part and on the coast there is evergreen
vegetation. In the 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 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
olives and
grapes flourish.
Resources of energy are scarce. There are some deposits of
coal, especially in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and
Bosnia.
Lignite deposits are widespread in
Greece.
Petroleum is most notably present
in Romania, although scarce reserves exist in Greece, Serbia,
Albania and Croatia.
Natural gas
deposits are scarce. Hydropower stations are largely used in
energetics.
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
250
The Balkans at the end of the 19th
century
The Balkan region was the first area of Europe to experience the
arrival of
farming cultures in the
Neolithic era.
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 Pannonia and Central
Europe.
The identity of the Balkans is dominated by its geographical
position; historically the area was known as a crossroads of
various cultures. It has been a juncture between the
Latin and
Greek bodies
of the
Roman Empire, the destination of
a massive influx of pagan
Slavs, an area where
Orthodox and
Catholic Christianity met, as well as the meeting
point between
Islam and
Christianity.
In pre-classical and
classical
antiquity, this region was home to
Greeks,
Illyrians,
Paeonians,
Thracians,
Dacians and other ancient groups. Later the
Roman Empire conquered most of the
region and spread Roman culture and the
Latin
language but significant parts still remained under
classical Greek influence. During the
Middle Ages, the Balkans became the
stage for a series of wars between the
Byzantine,
Bulgarian and
Serbian Empires.
Possibly the historical event that left the biggest mark on the
collective memories of the peoples of the Balkans was the expansion
and later fall of the
Ottoman Empire.
By the
end of the 16th century, it had become the controlling force in the
region, although it was centered around Anatolia. Many people in the Balkans and Carpathians
place their greatest folk heroes in the era of
either the onslaught or the retreat of the Ottoman Empire.
As examples, for
Croats,
Nikola Šubić Zrinski and
Petar Kružić; for
Serbs,
Miloš
Obilić and
Tzar Lazar;
for
Albanians,
Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg; for
ethnic Macedonians,
Nikola Karev; for
Bosniaks,
Husein Gradaščević; and
for
Bulgarians,
Vasil Levski,
Georgi Sava Rakovski and
Hristo Botev.
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 has been the least developed part of
Europe.
The Balkan nations began to regain their independence in the 19th
century (Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro), and in 1912–1913 a
Balkan League reduced Turkey's
territory to its present extent in the
First Balkan War.
The First World War was sparked in 1914 by the
assassination in Sarajevo
(the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina) of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria. The Ottoman empire was one of the three most
important parties of the Central powers. An important contribution
towards the entente victory took place in the region, after Greece
joined the war in 1917, with the capitulation of Bulgaria and the
Ottoman empire, which led to the swift capitulation of
Austria-Hungary.
The Greek success against the Axis forces during World War II, and
the subsequent Albanian, Greek and Serb resistance, changed the
course of the war and gave the allies a decisive step towards
victory .
After the Second
World War, the Soviet
Union
and communism played a
very important role in the Balkans. During the
Cold War, most of the countries in the Balkans were
ruled by Soviet-supported communist governments. Greece remained
the only non Soviet country, but was also the only country in
Europe to which the cold war turned 'hot' due to the
Greek Civil War.
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 joining many third world countries in the Non-Aligned Movement.
Albania
on the other hand gravitated toward Communist
China
, later adopting an isolationist position.
The only
non-communist countries were Greece
and
Turkey
, which were
(and still are) part of NATO
.
In the
1990s, the region was gravely affected by armed conflict in the former Yugoslav
republics, resulting in intervention by NATO
forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and
Macedonia
. The status of Kosovo
and ethnic
Albanians in general is still mostly
unresolved.
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
USA
.
Greece has been a
member of the European Union since
1981; Slovenia and Cyprus
since
2004. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. In 2005, the European
Union decided to start accession negotiations with candidate
countries; Croatia, Turkey, and
Macedonia were accepted as candidates for European Union
membership. As of April 2009, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovenia are also members of NATO.
Bosnia and
Herzegovina and what was then Serbia and Montenegro started
negotiations with the EU over the Stabilisation and Accession
Agreements, although shortly after they started, negotiations with
Serbia and Montenegro were suspended for lack of co-operation with
the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia
.
All other countries have expressed a desire to join the EU but at
some date in the future.
The Balkans today is a very diverse ethno-linguistic region, being
home to multiple
Slavic,
Romance, and
Turkic languages, as well as
Greek,
Albanian and others. Through its history
many other ethnic groups with their own languages lived in the
area, among them
Thracians,
Illyrians,
Romans,
Pechenegs,
Cumans,
Avars,
Celts and
various
Germanic tribes-folk.
Demographics
Ethnic composition map of the Balkans by E.
Stanford of 1878 during the Russo-Turkish war, when the state
of Bulgaria was created.
Upon it the Congress of Berlin determined its decision
The region's countries ordered by population are:
- Greece (11,257,285)
- Turkey (9,799,745
European part)
- Bulgaria
(7,928,901)
- Serbia (5,466,009 in
Central Serbia.)
- Bosnia and
Herzegovina (4,613,414)
- Croatia (4,489,409 if
all of Croatia is considered to be included in the Balkans)
- Albania (3,639,453)
- Kosovo
(2,180,686)(UN-approved Census not yet undertaken)
- Macedonia
(2,048,619)
- Slovenia (2,038,733 if
all of Slovenia is considered to be included in the Balkans)
- Romania (971,643 in
Dobruja)
- Montenegro
(672,180)
The region's principal religions are
Christianity (
Eastern Orthodox and
Roman Catholic) and
Islam. A variety of different traditions of each faith
are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having
its own national church.
Eastern Orthodoxy is the principal
religion in the following countries:
Roman Catholicism is the principal
religion in the following countries:
- Croatia (87.83% Catholics (3 897 332); according to 2001 census
official data)
- Slovenia (57.80% Catholics (1 135 626); according to 2002
census official data)
Islam is the principal religion in the
following countries:
- Kosovo (relative/partial majority)
- Albania (principal religious group)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (relative/partial majority)
- Turkey (absolute majority)
The following countries have significant minority religious groups
of the following denominations:
- Albania: Orthodoxy,
Catholicism
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: Eastern Orthodoxy (see Orthodoxy in Bosnia and
Herzegovina), Catholicism
- Bulgaria: Islam
- Croatia: Orthodoxy
- Greece: Islam
- Macedonia: Islam
- Montenegro: Islam
- Serbia: Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism
- Romania: Catholicism, Protestantism
Jewish communities of the Balkans
The Jewish communities of the Balkans were some of the oldest in
Europe and date back to ancient times as well as having received a
large influx of
Sephardic Jews and later
Ashkenazi Jews.
In Slovenia, there were Jewish immigrants
dating back to Roman times pre-dating the 6th Century settlement of
the region by the Slavic peoples.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the tiny 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, inscribed in
ancient Ladino. However the Jewish communities in the
Balkans suffered immensely during
World War
II and the vast majority were killed in the
Holocaust.
Most of the remainder emigrated to Israel
and
elsewhere.
See also
Notes
- britannica.com; encarta.msn.com ( Archived
2009-10-31); The Columbia Encyclopedia.
- Ceremony marks the accession of Albania and Croatia
to NATO, NATO - News, 7 April 2009, retrieved 2009-04-18
- Census 2002
- CIA World Factbook
- Statistical office of Kosovo
- State Statistical Office, Republic of Macedonia
- Statistical Office of the Republic of
Slovenia
- The 2002-census counted 715,151 persons in the Constanţa
County and 256,492 persons in the Tulcea County
- CIA World Factbook
- Jews of Yugoslavia 1941–1945 Victims of Genocide and Freedom
Fighters, Jasa Romano
- European Jewish Congress - Bosnia-Herzegovina
[Accessed July 15, 2008].
Sources
- Carter, Francis W., ed. An Historical Geography of the
Balkans Academic Press, 1977.
- Dvornik, Francis. The Slavs in European History and
Civilization Rutgers University Press, 1962.
- 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].
- John R. Lampe and Marvin R. Jackson; Balkan Economic
History, 1550–1950: From Imperial Borderlands to Developing
Nations Indiana University Press, 1982
- Király, Béla K., ed. East Central European Society in the
Era of Revolutions, 1775–1856. 1984
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