Balkans

The **Balkans** is a geographical region in Southeast Europe, which partially coincides with the Balkan Peninsula. It takes its name from the Balkan Mountains, which run through the center of Bulgaria.

## Definitions

Balkans comes from the Turkish language meaning “chain of wooded mountains” or 'swampy forest'.

## Geography

The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by water on three sides: the Black Sea to the east and branches of the Mediterranean Sea to the south and west (including the Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean and Marmara seas). The peninsula is bordered on the north by the Danube, Sava, and Krča rivers.

## History

Shortly before the Middle Ages in the 5th and 6th centuries AD, the Balkans were invaded by the Romans. The Romans were said not to be like other conquerors. They were said to be very powerful and robust. They won and spread the Roman culture through the Balkan peninsula. The Balkan peninsula was completely under Roman control by 100 AD.

## Member countries

Countries in the Balkan region are:

- Albania
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Greece (sometimes)
- Hungary (sometimes)
- Kosovo
- Montenegro
- Moldova (sometimes)
- North Macedonia
- Romania (sometimes)
- Serbia
- Slovenia (sometimes)
- European Turkey

## Related countries

Other countries that are not in the Balkan region but that are close to it and/or play or have played an important role in the region's politics, culture and history:

- Austria (see also Austrian Empire, Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria)
- Cyprus (see also Cyprus dispute)
- Italy (see Trieste and History of the Republic of Venice)

## Population composition by nationality and religion

The region's principal nationalities include:
- Albanians (5 million)
- Bosniaks (4.5 million)
- Bulgarians (6.6 million)
- Croats (4.5 million)
- Greeks (10.7 million)
- Hungarians (9.6 million)
- Kosovans (1.59 million)
- Macedonians (1.3 million)
- Moldovans (2.5 million)
- Montenegrins (0.3 million)
- Romanians (22 million)
- Serbs (8 million)
- Slovenes (2 million)
- Turks (80 million)
- others (Roma, Gorani, Pomak, Torbesh...)

The most common religions in the Balkans are Eastern Orthodox, Catholic Christianity and Sunni Islam. Many different specific kinds of each faith are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church with its own patriarch.

Eastern Orthodoxy is the principal religion in the following countries:
- Bulgaria (Bulgarian Orthodox Church)
- Greece (Greek Orthodox Church)
- Montenegro (Serbian Orthodox Church or uncanonical Montenegrin Orthodox Church)
- Moldova
- North Macedonia (Serbian Orthodox Church or uncanonical Macedonian Orthodox Church)
- Romania (Romanian Orthodox Church)
- Serbia (Serbian Orthodox Church)

Roman Catholicism is the principal religion in the following countries:
- Croatia
- Hungary
- Slovenia

Islam is the principal religion in the following countries:
- Albania
- Bosnia
- Kosovo
- Turkey/East Thrace

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a special case - 50% are Muslim Bosniaks, 31% are Serbian Orthodox, and 15% are Catholic Croats (therefore 46% are Christian). The remaining 4% adhere to other denominations of Christianity, other religions, or are irreligious. In Bulgaria, Dobruja in Romania, North Macedonia and West Thrace in Greece, a high Muslim Minority of different Ethinicity like Turks, Tatars, Torbesh, Pomak and Xoraxane Roma live there.

## Alternative nomenclature

From the 1990s onwards, in part due to the negative historical and political connotations of the term _Balkans_, especially since the wars and massacres of the 1990s in Yugoslavia in the western half of the region, the term Southeast Europe is becoming increasingly popular.

## References

- Banac, Ivo. _Historiography of the Countries of Eastern Europe: Yugoslavia_, _American Historical Review_, v 97 #4 (October 1992), 1084-1104.
- Banac, Ivo. _The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics_ Cornell University Press, [1984].
- 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
- Jelavich, Barbara. _History of the Balkans_, 2 vols. Cambridge University Press, [1983].
- Jelavich, Charles, and Jelavich, Barbara, eds. _The Balkans in Transition: Essays on the Development of Balkan Life and Politics since the Eighteenth Century_ University of California Press, 1963.
- Király, Béla K., ed. _East Central European Society in the Era of Revolutions, 1775-1856._ 1984
- Komlos, John, ed. _Economic Development in the Habsburg Monarchy and in the Successor States: Essays_ 1990.
- Mazower, Mark, _The Balkans: A Short History_, 2000
- Traian Stoianovich; _Balkan Worlds: The First and Last Europe_ 1994.

## Other websites

- South-East Europe Review
- BalkanBaby travel writing, analysis and photos from the Balkans
- Balkan History by Steven W. Sowards
- SEEurope.net  - news coverage on Southeastern Europe
- Southeast European Times
- The Centre for South East European Studies
- Balkans region: Oil and Gas Fact Sheet - United States Department of Energy Analysis Brief
- Balkans urged to curb trafficking - BBC
- News from Balkans