What are the Balkans?
The Balkans region encompasses over 270,271.5 square miles (700,000 square km) across southeastern Europe. According to modern standards, the following countries are part of the region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and the European half of Turkey. Romania and Slovenia are sometimes included in the list, although they're not officially part of the Balkans. The area is so called after the mountain range of the same name.
Both the classic Greek and the Roman Empire were once part of the Balkans, as it later was the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, the region was the starting point for World War I. When Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was killed by a Serb, Austria eventually declared war on Serbia, which lead to the Great War or WWI.
Named after the Balkans Mountains that run from Serbia to the Black Sea, the region is a rich environment that includes everything from the Dinaric Alps in Slovenia to oak and beech woods inland. Because of the climate variety of the mountains, a visitor can find examples of both Mediterranean and Continental climate, with steady snowfall but low rainfall. Summers are usually warm and dry. The area's natural resources include grape growing and wine production, and deposits of coal and lignite, mining of copper, manganese, zinc and bauxite.
The population of the Balkans is as varied as its nature. Turks and Greeks make the largest percentage of the region's inhabitants, followed by Serbs and Bulgarians. All Balkan countries also have a certain number of nomad minorities, including Roma (Gypsy), Vlachs, and Gorani.
The Balkans have dealt with a series of historical violent events, including religious prosecution during World War II, when the Greek Catholic Church was ordered to merge with the Romanian Orthodox Church and certain minorities, including Gypsies, were openly discriminated. The collapse of the Yugoslav federation led to a decade long war and plentiful loss of civilian life. Ethnic cleansing forced many locals to flee the area during the 1990s.
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![Albania is included in the Balkans.]()
By: juan35mmAlbania is included in the Balkans. -
![The First World War essentially began when Austria declared war on Serbia.]()
By: lesniewskiThe First World War essentially began when Austria declared war on Serbia. -
![The Balkans contain many deposits of coal and lignite.]()
By: Jim ParkinThe Balkans contain many deposits of coal and lignite. -
![Romania and Slovenia are sometimes said to be included as part of the Balkans, though they are not officially.]()
By: Alex YeungRomania and Slovenia are sometimes said to be included as part of the Balkans, though they are not officially.
Discussion Comments
Croatia does have a little influence from its southern and eastern Balkan neighbors, but other than this Croatia is all together unquestionably more Central European and Mediterranean (the coast and islands) than anything else.
This Croatian anon maintains Croatia is part of the Balkans and there's nothing wrong with that.
Croatia is not in the Balkans and I don't know why so many people think it is. It is wrong and it will always be. Croatia has totally different culture and different way of life then the Balkans.
Soon the majority of population in Balkans will be Albanian.
It may be true that croatia was under the most elite austrian empire. However it still is in the balkan region. It is not fair to say that the balkan is ottoman, as all the balkans and germans fought against the turks/asia. The population of turks has increased tenfold in the last few decades. A lot of this, the turkish empire stole from surrounding balkan cultures. The original turks had a mongol look. Turks are mixed with white people: slavic, semitic, arab, greek, persian, etc.
The word gypsy or egypt is a british word for their arab colony. cisgan/zigan or Romany is an offensive word to romanian people. They are 15th century indians and being terrorist and dirty, backward, foreign people, they did not mix with white people like the jews from the middle east/through spain.
@anon128329: Don't be funny. Everything below the rivers Soča, Krka, Sava and Danube is Balkan, so that means most of Croatia is also in the Balkans.
It is also super discriminatory to refer to the Roma as Gypsies. This term that has been coined to refer to this group of people is not only disrespectful, rude, biased and ultra naive, it screams of the cross-cultural misunderstandings that exhibit our assumptions of other cultures on a global scale.
The term "Balkans" does not apply to Croatia. This term is used to describe the countries of south-east Europe that were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire until the end of the 20th century.
Croatia, on the other hand, just like Hungary, was liberated from the Ottomans in the late 17th century.
The "Balkan" states have a different culture than the one Croatia has. They are more similar to Turkish culture, while Croatia is a mixture of Central European and Italian-Mediterranean culture.
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