The Balkan region includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and European Turkey. It has a diverse population and rich natural resources, but has also faced violent historical events, including World War I and the collapse of Yugoslavia.
The Balkan region encompasses over 270,271.5 square miles (700,000 square km) across all of Southeastern Europe. By modern standards, the following countries are part of the region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and the European half of Turkey. Romania and Slovenia are sometimes included in the list, although they are not officially part of the Balkans. The area is named after the mountain range of the same name.
Both the classical Greek and Roman empires were part of the Balkans, as was later the Byzantine empire. In modern times, the region was the starting point for the First World War. When Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was killed by a Serb, Austria finally declared war on Serbia, which led to the Great War or WORLD WAR I.
Named after the Balkan mountains that run from Serbia to the Black Sea, the region is a rich environment encompassing everything from the Dinaric Alps in Slovenia to oak and beech forests further inland. Due to the climatic variety of the mountains, a visitor can find examples of both Mediterranean and continental climates, with constant snowfall but little rainfall. Summers are usually hot and dry. The natural resources of the area include the cultivation of vines and the production of wine, deposits of coal and lignite, the extraction of copper, manganese, zinc and bauxite.
The population of the Balkans is as diverse as its nature. Turks and Greeks make up the largest percentage of the region’s inhabitants, followed by Serbs and Bulgarians. All Balkan countries also have a number of nomadic minorities, including Roma (gypsies), Vlachs and Goranis.
The Balkans has faced a number of violent historical events, including religious prosecution during World War II, when the Greek Catholic Church was ordered to merge with the Romanian Orthodox Church and some minorities, including gypsies, were openly discriminated against. The collapse of the Yugoslav federation led to a decades-long war and numerous losses of civilian life. Ethnic cleansing forced many locals to flee the area in the 1990s.
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