The Balkans

The abstracted term "The Balkans" covers those countries which lie within the boundaries of the
Balkan Peninsula.
[18]
Before 1991, the whole of Yugoslavia was considered to be part of the
Balkans.
[21]
The term "The Balkans" is sometimes used to describe only the areas in the Balkan
peninsula: Moesia, Macedonia, Thrace, Kosovo, umadija, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia,
Thessaly, Epirus, Peloponnese and others, but more often it includes the rest of former
Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia) and Romania,
[18]
namely the provinces of Vojvodina,
Slavonia, Banat, Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and others. Italy as a totality is generally
accepted as part of Western Europe and the Apennines. The term "the Balkans" was coined by
August Zeune in 1808.
Broadly interpreted, the term Balkans comprise the following territories:
[22]

Albania (28,748 km
2
)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (51,197 km
2
)
Bulgaria (110,993 km
2
)
Croatia (56,594 km
2
)
Greece (131,990 km
2
)
Kosovo (10,887 km
2
)
Macedonia (25,713 km
2
)
Montenegro (13,812 km
2
)
Romania (238,391 km
2
)
Slovenia (20,273 km
2
)
Serbia (88,361 km
2
)
Turkey (23,764 km
2
)
Western Balkans
European Union institutions and member states defined the "Western Balkans" as the Southeast
European area that includes countries that are not members of the European Union ( Serbia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania or Albania plus the
former Yugoslavia, minus Croatia and Slovenia).
[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]
Today, the Western
Balkans is more of a political than a geographic designation for the region of Southeast Europe
that is not in the European Union. Each country has as its aim to join the EU and reach
democracy and transmission scores (except those to have already done so, i.e. Croatia since 2013
and Slovenia since 2004), but until then they will be strongly connected with the pre-EU waiting
program CEFTA.
[30]

Nature and natural resources

Panorama of Stara Planina. Its highest peak is Botev at a height of 2,376 m.

View toward Rila, the highest mountain in the Balkans which reaches 2925 m
Golubac Fortress in Serbia, guarding the Danubian frontier of the Balkans
Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from north-west to south-east. The main
ranges are the Balkan mountains, running from the Black Sea Coast in Bulgaria to its border with
Serbia, the Rhodope mountains in southern Bulgaria and northern Greece, the Dinaric Alps in
Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, the ar massif which spreads from
Albania to Macedonia, and the Pindus range, spanning from southern Albania into central
Greece and the Albanian Alps. The highest mountain of the region is Rila in Bulgaria, with
Musala at 2925 m, Mount Olympus in Greece, the throne of Zeus, being second at 2917 m and
Vihren in Bulgaria being the third at 2914 m. 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, Bulgaria, northern Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, northern Montenegro,
the interior of Albania, Romania, Serbia and most of Slovenia, while the other, less common
climates, the humid subtropical and oceanic climates, are seen on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria
and Turkey; and the Mediterranean climate is seen on the coast of Albania, southern Croatia,
Greece, southern Montenegro, the coast of Slovenia and the Aegean coast of Turkey.
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. 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 18002300 m. The landscape 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 olives and grapes flourish.
Resources of energy are scarce, except in the territory of Kosovo, where considerable coal, lead,
zinc, chromium, silver deposits are located.
[31]
Other deposits of coal, especially in Romania,
Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia also exist. 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 is in wide use, with 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.
The time zones are situated as follows:
Territories in the time zone of UTC+01:00: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia
Territories in the time zone of UTC+02:00: Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Turkey
History and geopolitical significance

The Jireek Line

Apollonia ruins near Fier, Albania.

Ruins of the Roman-era palace Felix Romuliana, UNESCO, Serbia.
Main article: History of the Balkans
Antiquity
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 cultures. It has been a juncture between the Latin and Greek bodies of
the Roman Empire,
[citation needed]
the destination of a massive influx of pagan Bulgars and 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. 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 Jireek Line).
[32]
The Bulgars
and Slavs arrived in the 6th century and began assimilating and displacing already-assimilated
(through Romanization and Hellenization) older inhabitants of the northern and central Balkans,
forming the Bulgarian Empire.
[33]
During the Middle Ages, the Balkans became the stage for a
series of wars between the Byzantine Roman and the Bulgarian Empires.
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.
[citation needed]
As examples, for Croats, Nikola ubi Zrinski and Petar Krui; for
Greeks, Constantine XI Palaiologos and Kolokotronis; and for Serbs, Milo Obili and Tzar
Lazar; for Montenegrins, ura I Bali and Ivan Crnojevi; for Albanians, George Kastrioti
Skanderbeg; for ethnic Macedonians, Nikola Karev
[34]
and Goce Delev;
[34]
and for Bulgarians,
Vasil Levski, Georgi Sava Rako