  Login Subscribe

Article Media Additional Info


Home  Geography & Travel  Physical Geography of Land

Balkans
 Print  Cite  Share  More

WRITTEN BY
John B. Allcock | See All Contributors
Former Head, Research Unit in South East European Studies, University of Bradford, England. Coeditor of Yugoslavia in Transition.
See Article History

Alternative Titles: Balkan Peninsula, Balkan States

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Countries and Capitals Quiz

U.S. State Capitals Quiz

World Capitals Quiz

Countries of the World Quiz

Balkans, also called Balkan Peninsula, easternmost of Europe’s three great southern peninsulas. There is not
universal agreement on the region’s components. 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. Moreover, for some observers, the term “Balkans” is
freighted with negative connotations associated with the region’s history of ethnic divisiveness and political upheaval.
Increasingly in the early 21st century, another pair of definitional terms has gained currency: South East (also styled
South-East, Southeast, South-Eastern, or Southeastern) Europe, which has been employed to describe the region in broad
terms (though, again, without universal agreement on its component states) and the Western Balkans, which are usually
said to comprise Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

Close Ad 


/
 Balkans
The Balkans.
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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). The Balkans are washed by the Adriatic Sea in the west, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, and the Black Sea in
the east. In the north, clear geographic delimitation of the Balkans becomes difficult because the Pannonian Basin of the
Great Alfold (Great Hungarian Plain) extends from central Europe into parts of Croatia, Serbia, and Romania.

Dubrovnik, Croatia, on the Adriatic Sea

The port city of Dubrovnik, Croatia, occupies a promontory jutting into the Adriatic Sea.
Image: © Aleksandar Sedlak/Dreamstime.com

Moldova—although located north of the Danube River, which is frequently cited as the region’s northeastern geographic
dividing line—is included in the Balkans under some definitions by virtue of its long-standing historical and cultural
connections with Romania. However, Moldova is politically and economically oriented more toward other onetime
Close Ad
republics of the former Soviet Union than it is to the Balkan states. More often than not, Slovenia is included as a member
of the Balkans because of its long historical ties with its neighbours to the southeast and because of its former
incorporation in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and federal Yugoslavia. Greece, because its northern regions
/
of Epirus and Macedonia are often considered parts of the Balkans, also appears on many lists of Balkan states, but it is
arguably better characterized as primarily a Mediterranean country. Turkey, too, is sometimes numbered among Balkan
countries, as a result of Anatolia’s presence on the peninsula, and the Ottoman Turks cast a long shadow of political
dominance over the region for centuries (earning it the sobriquet “Turkey in Europe” or “European Turkey”).

The word Balkan is Turkish and means “mountain,” and the peninsula is certainly dominated by this type of landform,
especially in the west. The Balkan Mountains lie east-west across Bulgaria, the Rhodope Mountains extend along the
Greek-Bulgarian border, and the Dinaric range extends down the Adriatic coast to Albania. By some definitions the
region’s northern boundary extends to the Julian Alps and the Carpathians. Among these ranges extensive areas of good
arable land are relatively scarce, though the valleys of the Danube, Sava, and Vardar rivers, eastern Bulgaria, parts of the
Aegean Sea coast, and especially the Danubian Plain are exceptions. The mountains have a significant impact on the
climate of the peninsula. The northern and central parts of the Balkans have a central European climate, characterized by
cold winters, warm summers, and well-distributed rainfall. The southern and coastal areas, however, have a
Mediterranean type of climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, relatively rainy winters.

Close Ad 

/
 

Shipka Pass
Shipka Pass in the Balkan Mountains, Bulgaria.
Image: Aleksandr Sergeyevich Sigachev

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.

Subscribe Now

Witness the juxtaposition of archaic and modern lifestyle practices in the Balkan countries
In Balkan Europe, living is a constant amalgam of the new world and the old, leading most Balkanites to religion as a hope for a better future.
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

See all videos for this article

Ethnic diversity is one of the region’s most characteristic social and political features. The most numerous of the groups is
the South Slavs, who form the majority of the population in Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Close Ad Croatia,
 Slovenia,
North Macedonia, and Montenegro. The Bulgarians, North Macedonians, and Slovenes speak their own Slavic languages,
while the Slavs of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro all speak dialects of Serbo-Croatian.
/
The peculiar nature identified with “Balkanization”—that is, fragmentation of ethnic groups—derives in part from the
compartmentalization brought about by the mountainous relief. But size is also an important determinant of the region’s
character, for its area is large enough to have provided important bases of occupation for the Byzantine and Turkish
civilizations. Subjection to Eastern imperial forces isolated most Balkan societies from Western developments for almost
two millennia and created feudal characteristics that persisted until World War I. After this war the viability of the
relatively new Balkan states was threatened by political instability, ethnic division, worldwide economic depression, and
the rise of the fascist states of Germany and Italy. After World War II, communism brought greater political stability to
the Balkans—but at the cost of individual freedom, social and economic problems connected with rapid industrialization,
and varying degrees of dominance by yet another outside power, the Soviet Union.

Explore the Balkans' natural resources and agriculture, mountainous interior, and rich cultural diversity
An introduction to the Balkan Peninsula.
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

See all videos for this article

At no point in history has it been easy to define the Balkans in any other than geographic terms (and, again, even that
approach can be problematic). At times the peninsula has been divided along north-south lines, and at other times the
divisions have been east-west; what constitutes the Balkans has varied with time as have the forces operating within the
area. There are, however, some features of Balkan history that have remained consistent. These include the fluidity of
ethnic groups, the inability of the peoples of the region to agree and cooperate among themselves, a tendency on the part
of political authority to devolve to local levels as soon as central power is weakened, the influence of foreign powers, and
the difficulty of introducing into the area concepts that have evolved in a different political and social context.

This article covers the history of the region as first defined above from antiquity to the early 21st century. An overview of
the region’s physical and human geography and of the history can be found in the article Europe.Close
ForAddiscussion 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.

Antiquity

Illyrians and Thracians

Archaeological evidence indicates that the Balkans were populated well before the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age;
about 10,000 years ago). At the dawn of recorded history, two Indo-European peoples dominated the area: the Illyrians
to the west and the Thracians to the east of the great historical divide defined by the Morava and Vardar river valleys. The
Thracians were advanced in metalworking and in horsemanship. They intermingled with the Greeks and gave them the
Dionysian and Orphean cults, which later became so important in classical Greek literature. The Illyrians were more
exclusive, their mountainous terrain keeping them separate from the Greeks and Thracians.

Thracian society was tribal in structure, with little inclination toward political cohesion. In what was to become a
persistent phenomenon in Balkan history, unity was brought about mostly by external pressure. The Persian invasions of
the 6th and 5th centuries BCE brought the Thracian tribes together in the Odrysian kingdom, which fell under
Macedonian influence in the 4th century BCE. The Illyrians, ethnically akin to the Thracians, originally inhabited a large
area from the Istrian peninsula to northern Greece and as far inland as the Morava River. During the 4th century BCE they
were pushed southward by Celtic invasions, and thereafter their territory did not extend much farther north than the Drin
River. Illyrian society, like that of the Thracians, was organized around tribal groups who often fought wars with one
another and with outsiders. Under the Celtic threat they established a coherent political entity, but this too was destroyed
by Macedonia. Thereafter the Illyrians were known mainly as pirates who disturbed the trade of many Greek settlements
on the Adriatic coast. The Romans were also affected and took police action, annexing much of Illyrian territory in the
early 3rd century BCE. An Illyrian kingdom based in modern-day Shkodër, Albania, remained an important factor until its
liquidation by Roman armies in 168 BCE.

LOAD NEXT PAGE

Inspire your inbox – Sign up for daily fun facts about this day in history, updates, and special offers.

Enter your email

Subscribe

By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Click here to view our Privacy Notice. Easy unsubscribe links are provided in every email.

Close Ad 

     
/
About Us & Legal Info Partner Program Contact Us Privacy Notice Terms of Use

©2021 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Close Ad 