Balkans

The origin of the word Balkan is obscure; it may be related to Turkish {{lang|tr|bālk}} 'mud' (from Proto-Turkic *bal 'mud, clay; thick or gluey substance', cf. also Turkic bal 'honey'), and the Turkish suffix -an 'swampy forest'Current Trends in Altaic Linguistics; [https://www.academia.edu/5693478/European%20Balkan%20s%20Turkic%20bal%20yk%20and%20the%20problem%20of%20their%20original%20meanings European Balkan(s), Turkic bal(yk) and the Problem of Their Original Meanings], Marek Stachowski, Jagiellonian University, p. 618. or Persian bālā-khāna 'big high house'. It was used mainly during the time of the Ottoman Empire. In both Ottoman Turkish and modern Turkish, {{lang|tr|balkan}} means 'chain of wooded mountains'.{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/balkan.html |title=Balkan |encyclopedia=Encarta World English Dictionary |publisher=Microsoft Corporation |access-date=31 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070110000315/http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/balkan.html |archive-date=10 January 2007 |url-status=dead}}{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Büyük Türkçe Sözlük |title=balkan |publisher=Türk Dil Kurumu |url=http://www.tdkterim.gov.tr/bts/ |quote=Sarp ve ormanlık sıradağ |language=tr |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110825034714/http://www.tdkterim.gov.tr/bts/ |archive-date=25 August 2011}}{{Cite book |last=Kélékian |first=Diran |title=Dictionnaire Turc-Français |publisher=Mihran |year=1911 |pages=247 |language=fr |chapter=بالقان balqan |quote=Chaîne de montagnes couveres de forêts. Geogr. Le mont Hæmus; le Balkan.}}

From classical antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains were called by the local Thracian{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDoQAQAAMAAJ&q=hemus+thracian+name |title=Bulgaria |page=54 |work=Hemus – a Thracian name |publisher=Indiana University |year=1986}} name Haemus.{{cite book|title=Balkan Studies|date=1986|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UEJpAAAAMAAJ&q=thracian+sama+greek+haemus}} According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has remained with his name.Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.87–89 A reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus (Αἷμος) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge'.{{cite book |last1=Decev |first1=D |title=Balkan Studies |date=1986 |publisher=University of Michigan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UEJpAAAAMAAJ&q=thracian+sama+greek+haemus |access-date=20 June 2015}} A third possibility is that "Haemus" ({{lang|grc|Αἵμος}}) derives from the Greek word haima ({{lang|grc|αἷμα}}) meaning 'blood'. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon. Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains, giving them their name.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900870232069|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_2900870232069/page/20 20]|quote=Haemus bloody zeus typhon.|title=Gods and Heroes of the Greeks: The Library of Apollodorus|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|access-date=12 September 2014|isbn=978-0870232060|last1=Apollodorus|year=1976}}

The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, in which the Haemus Mountains are referred to as Balkan.{{cite book | title = Проиcхождение географического названия Балкан – Sixieme Congres international d'etudes du Sud-Est Europeen |language=fr | first= Ivan | last = Dobrev | publisher = Ed.de l'Académie bulgare des Sciences | year = 1989 | location = Sofia | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jxYZnQEACAAJ }} The first attested time the name "Balkan" was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria was in a letter sent in 1490 to Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco, an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat.{{cite book |last=Todorova |first=Maria |author-link=Maria Todorova |title=Imagining the Balkans |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19-538786-5 |page=22}} The Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, although other Turkic tribes had already settled in or were passing through the region.{{cite book | title = Imagining the Balkans | first=Maria N. | last =Todorova | publisher = Oxford University Press, Inc. | year = 1997 | location = New York | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-EuFwLQhvYMC&pg=PA27 | page=27| isbn=9780195087512 }} There is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its general meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊, but it was especially applied to the Haemus mountain.Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Editors: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online Reference Works.{{cite journal|url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/balkan-SIM_1152?s.num=309&s.start=300|title=Balkan – Brill Reference|website=Brillonline.com|date=2012-04-24|last1=Inalcık|first1=Halil}} The name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains){{cite web|url=http://land.worldcitydb.com/balkhan_mountains_3522246.html |title=Balkhan Mountains |work=World Land Features Database |publisher=Land.WorldCityDB.com |access-date=31 March 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228223148/http://land.worldcitydb.com/balkhan_mountains_3522246.html |archive-date=28 February 2008 |url-status=dead }} and the Balkan Region of Turkmenistan. The English traveler John Bacon Sawrey Morritt introduced this term into English literature at the end of the 18th century, and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The concept of the "Balkans" was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808,{{cite web|last=Pavic|first=Silvia|url=http://geography.about.com/library/misc/ucbalkans.htm|title=Some Thoughts About The Balkans|publisher=About, Inc.|date=22 November 2000|access-date=31 March 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080228230925/http://geography.about.com/library/misc/ucbalkans.htm| archive-date= 28 February 2008 | url-status=live}} who mistakenly considered it as the dominant central mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. During the 1820s, "Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers... Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term".{{Cite book |last=Todorova |first=Maria |title=Imagining the Balkans |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780195087512 |page=24}} In European books printed until late 1800s it was also known as Illyrian Peninsula or Illyrische Halbinsel in German.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5RhYAAAAcAAJ |title=Illyrische Halbinsel |year=1851}}

File:Balkan topo blank.jpg with the north-west demarcation Soča-Vipava-Postojna-Krka-Sava, i.e. the border between the Alps and the Dinaric Mountains]]The term was not commonly used in geographical literature until the mid-19th century because, already then, scientists like Carl Ritter warned that only the part south of the Balkan Mountains could be considered as a peninsula and considered it to be renamed as "Greek peninsula". Other prominent geographers who did not agree with Zeune were Hermann Wagner, Theobald Fischer, Marion Newbigin, and Albrecht Penck, while Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn, in 1869, for the same territory, used the term Südosteuropäische Halbinsel ('Southeastern European peninsula'). Another reason it was not commonly accepted as the definition of then European Turkey had a similar land extent.{{clarify|date=April 2025}} However, after the Congress of Berlin (1878) there was a political need for a new term and gradually "the Balkans" was revitalized, but in many maps, the northern border was in Serbia and Montenegro and Greece was not included (it only depicted the then Ottoman-occupied parts of Europe), while Yugoslavian maps also included Croatia and Bosnia. At the time, the Balkan Peninsula was also understood as a synonym for Rumelia or European Turkey, and, in its broadest sense, encompassed the borders of all former Ottoman provinces in Europe.{{cite journal |last=Vezenkov |first=Alexander |date=2006 |title=History against Geography: Should We Always Think of the Balkans As Part of Europe? |url=http://www.iwm.at/publications/5-junior-visiting-fellows-conferences/vol-xxi/alexander-vezenkov/ |journal=Junior Visiting Fellows' Conferences |volume=XXI |issue=4 |access-date=5 January 2018 |archive-date=24 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224123749/http://www.iwm.at/publications/5-junior-visiting-fellows-conferences/vol-xxi/alexander-vezenkov/ |url-status=dead }}

The usage of the term changed in the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when it was embraced by Serbian geographers, most prominently by Jovan Cvijić. It was done with political reasoning as affirmation for Serbian nationalism on the whole territory of the South Slavs, and also included anthropological and ethnological studies of the South Slavs through which were claimed various nationalistic and racialist theories. Through such policies and Yugoslavian maps the term was elevated to the modern status of a geographical region. The term acquired political nationalistic connotations far from its initial geographic meaning, arising from political changes from the late 19th century to the creation of post–World War I Yugoslavia (initially the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918). After the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans acquired a negative political meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, as well in worldwide casual usage for war conflicts and fragmentation of territory.

{{Main|Southeast Europe}}

In part due to the historical and political connotations of the term Balkans,{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/balkanize|title=Balkanize|publisher=merriam-webster.com}} especially since the military conflicts of the 1990s in Yugoslavia in the western half of the region, the term Southeast Europe is becoming increasingly popular.{{cite book |title=A history of Eastern Europe |last=Bideleux |first=Robert |author2=Ian Jeffries |year=2007 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-36627-4 |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PTB0gn_qwTcC}} A European Union (EU) initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe.

The online newspaper Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

In other languages of the Balkans, the region or peninsula are known as:

• Slavic languages:
• Bulgarian and {{langx|mk|Балкански Полуостров}}, transliterated: {{lang|mk|Balkanski Poluostrov}}
• Bosnian, Montenegrin and {{langx|sr|Balkansko poluostrvo}} / {{lang|sr-cyrl|Балканско полуострво}}
• Bosnian and {{langx|hr|Balkanski poluotok}}
• {{langx|sl|Balkanski polotok}}
• Romance languages:
• {{langx|rup|Peninsula Balcanicã}} or {{lang|rup|Balcani}}
• {{langx|ro|Peninsula Balcanică}} or {{lang|ro|Balcani}}
• {{langx|it|Penisola balcanica}} or {{lang|it|Balcani}}
• Other languages:
• {{langx|sq|Gadishulli Ballkanik}} and {{lang|sq|Siujdhesa e Ballkanit}}
• {{langx|el|Βαλκανική χερσόνησος}}, transliterated: {{lang|el|Valkaniki chersonisos}}
• {{langx|hu|Balkán-félsziget}} or Balkán
• {{langx|tr|Balkan Yarımadası}} or Balkanlar

File:Balkan_Peninsula.svg-Sava-Kupa line]]

The Balkan Peninsula is bounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea (including the Ionian and Aegean seas) and the Sea of Marmara to the south and the Black Sea to the east. Its northern boundary is subject to varying interpretations, but is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers.{{sfn|Jelavich|1983a|p=1}} The Balkan Peninsula has a combined area of about {{convert|470000|km2|sqmi|sigfig=3|abbr=on}}. The peninsula is generally encompassed in the region known as Southeast Europe.{{cite book |last=Hajdú |first=Zoltán |year=2007 |title=Southeast-Europe: State Borders, Cross-border Relations, Spatial Structures |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ajvwx3OSE2AC |location=Pécs, Hungary |publisher=Hungarian Academy of Sciences |isbn=978-963-9052-65-9 |access-date=8 June 2015}}{{cite book |last=Lampe |first=John R. |year=2014 |title=Balkans Into Southeastern Europe, 1914–2014: A Century of War and Transition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tAMdBQAAQBAJ |location=London, United Kingdom |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-01907-3 |access-date=8 June 2015 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite book |editor=Švob-Ðokic, Nada |year=2001 |title=Redefining Cultural Identities: Southeastern Europe |url=http://www.culturelink.org/publics/joint/cultid04/Svob-Djokic_Redefining_Cultid_SE.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.culturelink.org/publics/joint/cultid04/Svob-Djokic_Redefining_Cultid_SE.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |location=Zagreb, Croatia |publisher=National and University Library in Zagreb |isbn=978-953-6096-22-0 |access-date=8 June 2015}}

Italy currently holds a small area around Trieste that is by some older definitions considered a part of the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the peninsula by Italian geographers, due to their definition limiting its western border to the Kupa River.Istituto Geografico De Agostini, L'Enciclopedia Geografica – Vol. I – Italia, 2004, Ed. De Agostini p. 78

The borders of the Balkans region are, due to a multitude contrasting definitions, widely disputed, with no universal agreement on its components. By most definitions, it fully encompasses Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (up to the Sava and Kupa rivers), mainland Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Northern Dobruja in Romania, Serbia (up to the Danube river) and East Thrace in Turkey. However, many definitions also include the remaining territories of Croatia, Romania and Serbia, and southern parts of Slovenia. Additionally, some definitions include Hungary and Moldova due to cultural and historical affiliations.{{Cite book |last=Todorova |first=Maria |title=Imagining the Balkans |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-508750-5 |location=New York |page=15}}{{Cite journal |last=Kolstø |first=Pål |date=2016-08-08 |title='Western Balkans' as the New Balkans: Regional Names as Tools for Stigmatisation and Exclusion |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09668136.2016.1219979 |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |language=en |volume=68 |issue=7 |pages=1245–1263 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2016.1219979 |issn=0966-8136}}{{Cite web |last=Djurdjevic |first=Maria |title=The Balkans: Past and Present of Cultural Pluralism |url=https://www.iemed.org/publication/the-balkans-past-and-present-of-cultural-pluralism/ |access-date=2024-11-01 |website=European Institute of the Mediterranean}}{{Cite web |date=2017-09-20 |title=Evidence on Beyond Brexit: the UK and the Balkans |url=https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/81047/html/ |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=UK Parliament}}{{Cite web |last=Detrez |first=Raymond |date=2001 |title=Colonialism in the Balkans |url=https://www.kakanien-revisited.at/beitr/theorie/RDetrez1.pdf |pages=1-2 |format=PDF}}{{Cite journal |last=Juhász |first=József |date=2015 |title=Hungary and the Balkans in the 20th Century — From the Hungarian Perspective |url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-4acf4d74-0230-4935-89ff-5cd70c155701 |journal=Prague Papers on the History of International Relations |language= |issue=1 |pages=114–119 |quote=After 1918, with the massive reduction of Hungary’s territory and influence, many Western observers held Hungary to be one of the nations of the Balkans. |via=CEJSH}}{{Cite web |date=2024-08-11 |title=Balkans |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Balkans |access-date=2024-08-22 |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |language=en |quote=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.}} The Province of Trieste in northeastern Italy, whilst by some definitions on the geographical peninsula, is generally excluded from the Balkans in a regional context.

The term Southeast Europe may also be applied to the region, with various interpretations, although Balkan countries may alternatively be placed in Southern, Central or Eastern Europe. Turkey, including East Thrace, is generally placed in West Asia or the Middle East.

{{Further|2015 Western Balkans Summit, Vienna|Strategy for the Western Balkans}}

File:Western Balkans.PNG, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. Croatia (yellow) joined the EU in 2013]]

The Western Balkans is a political neologism coined to refer to Albania and the territory of the former Yugoslavia, except Slovenia, since the early 1990s.{{ref label|furtherreading2|e}} The region of the Western Balkans, a coinage exclusively used in pan-European parlance, roughly corresponds to the Dinaric Alps territory.

The institutions of the EU have generally used the term Western Balkans to mean the Balkan area that includes countries that are not members of the EU, while others refer to the geographical aspects.{{ref label|furtherreading1|d}}

Each of these countries aims to be part of the future enlargement of the EU and reach democracy and transmission scores but, until then, they will be strongly connected with the pre-EU waiting programme Central European Free Trade Agreement.{{cite web |url=http://transatlantic.sais-jhu.edu/publications/books/Unfinished%20Business%20Pdf/ch01_Bieber.pdf |title=Perspectives on the Region |access-date=19 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904001128/http://transatlantic.sais-jhu.edu/publications/books/Unfinished%20Business%20Pdf/ch01_Bieber.pdf |archive-date=4 September 2013 |url-status=dead }} Croatia, considered part of the Western Balkans, joined the EU in July 2013.{{cite web|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/displayFtu.html?ftuId=FTU_6.5.2.html|title=Fact Sheets on the European Union:The Western Balkans|publisher=European Parliament|first=André|last=De Munter|date=December 2016|access-date=22 March 2017}}

The term is scrutinised for having a geopolitical, rather than a geographical meaning and definition, as a multiethnic and political area in the southeastern part of Europe. The geographical term of a peninsula defines that the sea border must be longer than the land border, with the land side being the shortest in the triangle, but that is not the case for the Balkan Peninsula. Both the eastern and western sea catheti from Odesa to Cape Matapan ({{circa|1230}}–1350 km) and from Trieste to Cape Matapan ({{circa|1270}}–1285 km) are shorter than the land cathetus from Trieste to Odesa ({{circa|1330}}–1365 km). The land has too long a land border to qualify as a peninsula – Szczecin (920 km) and Rostock (950 km) at the Baltic Sea are closer to Trieste than Odesa yet it is not considered as another European peninsula. Since the late 19th and early 20th century no exact northern border has been clear, with an issue, whether the rivers are usable for its definition. In studies the Balkans' natural borders, especially the northern border, are often avoided to be addressed, considered as a problème fastidieux (delicate problem) by André Blanc in Géographie des Balkans (1965),{{Cite book|first=André | last=Blanc | title=Géographie des Balkans | location=Paris | publisher=Presses universitaires de France | series=Que sais-je? | year=1965 | oclc=1244781736 | page=5}} while John Lampe and Marvin Jackman in Balkan Economic History (1971) noted that "modern geographers seem agreed in rejecting the old idea of a Balkan Peninsula". Another issue is the name: the Balkan Mountains, mostly in Northern Bulgaria, do not dominate the region by length and area as do the Dinaric Alps. An eventual Balkan peninsula can be considered a territory south of the Balkan Mountains, with a possible name "Greek-Albanian Peninsula". The term influenced the meaning of Southeast Europe which again is not properly defined by geographical factors.

Croatian geographers and academics are highly critical of inclusion of Croatia within the broad geographical, social-political and historical context of the Balkans, while the neologism Western Balkans is perceived as a humiliation of Croatia by the European political powers.{{cite magazine |last=Somek |first=Petra |date=29 October 2015 |title=Hrvatska nije na "zapadnom Balkanu" |trans-title=Croatia is not on "Western Balkans" |url=http://www.matica.hr/vijenac/565/hrvatska-nije-na-zapadnom-balkanu-24991/ |language=hr |magazine=Vijenac |location=Zagreb |publisher=Matica hrvatska |access-date=31 December 2018 |archive-date=31 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231194025/http://www.matica.hr/vijenac/565/hrvatska-nije-na-zapadnom-balkanu-24991/ |url-status=dead }} According to M. S. Altić, the term has two different meanings, "geographical, ultimately undefined, and cultural, extremely negative, and recently strongly motivated by the contemporary political context".{{cite journal |last=Altić |first=Mirela Slukan |date=2011 |title=Hrvatska kao zapadni Balkan – geografska stvarnost ili nametnuti identitet? |trans-title=Croatia as a Part of the Western Balkans – Geographical Reality or Enforced Identity? |language=hr |journal=Društvena Istraživanja |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=401–413 |doi=10.5559/di.20.2.06 |doi-access=free |issn=1330-0288 }} In 2018, President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović stated that the use of the term "Western Balkans" should be avoided because it does not imply only a geographic area, but also negative connotations, and instead must be perceived as and called Southeast Europe because it is part of Europe.{{cite news |date=27 September 2018 |title=Predsjednica objasnila zašto izbjegava izraz 'zapadni Balkan' |trans-title=The president explained why she avoids the term "Western Balkans" |url=https://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/predsjednica-objasnila-zasto-izbjegava-izraz-zapadni-balkan-1272691 |access-date=31 December 2018 |work=Večernji list |location=Zagreb |language=hr}}

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek said of the definition,{{cite journal |title=The Spectre of Balkan |author = Slavoj Zizek |journal= The Journal of the International Institute |volume = 6 |issue= 2 |date= Winter 1999 |hdl = 2027/spo.4750978.0006.202 }}

{{blockquote|This very alibi confronts us with the first of many paradoxes concerning Balkan: its geographic delimitation was never precise. It is as if one can never receive a definitive answer to the question, "Where does it begin?" For Serbs, it begins down there in Kosovo or Bosnia, and they defend the Christian civilization against this Europe's Other. For Croats, it begins with the Orthodox, despotic, Byzantine Serbia, against which Croatia defends the values of democratic Western civilization. For Slovenes, it begins with Croatia, and we Slovenes are the last outpost of the peaceful Mitteleuropa. For Italians and Austrians, it begins with Slovenia, where the reign of the Slavic hordes starts. For Germans, Austria itself, on account of its historic connections, is already tainted by Balkanic corruption and inefficiency. For some arrogant Frenchmen, Germany is associated with the Balkanian Eastern savagery—up to the extreme case of some conservative anti-European-Union Englishmen for whom, in an implicit way, it is ultimately the whole of continental Europe itself that functions as a kind of Balkan Turkish global empire with Brussels as the new Constantinople, the capricious despotic center threatening English freedom and sovereignty. So Balkan is always the Other: it lies somewhere else, always a little bit more to the southeast, with the paradox that, when we reach the very bottom of the Balkan peninsula, we again magically escape Balkan. Greece is no longer Balkan proper, but the cradle of our Western civilization.}}

File:Marichin cirkus IMG 1452.jpg, the highest mountain range of the Balkans and Southeast Europe (2,925 m)]]

File:NP001 nacionalni park sutjeska perucica.jpg contains Perućica, which is the largest primeval forest in the Balkans, and one of the last remaining in Europe]]

File:Lake Skadar, Montenegro 2.jpg is the largest lake in the Balkans and Southern Europe]]

Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from the northwest to southeast. The main ranges are the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina in Bulgarian language), running from the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria to the border with Serbia, the Rila-Rhodope massif in southern Bulgaria, the Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro, the Korab-Šar mountains which spreads from Kosovo to Albania and North Macedonia, and the Pindus range, spanning from southern Albania into central Greece and the Albanian Alps, and the Alps at the northwestern border. The highest mountain of the region is Rila in Bulgaria, with Musala at 2,925 m, second being Mount Olympus in Greece, with Mytikas at 2,917 m, and Pirin mountain with Vihren, also in Bulgaria, being the third at 2915 m.{{Cite web |title=Macedonia-Thrace |url=https://www.peakbagger.com/range.aspx?rid=363 |website=Peakbagger.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Mount-Olympus-mountain-Greece|title=Mount Olympus | mountain, Greece|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=20 February 2024 }} 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, northern Croatia, Bulgaria, Kosovo, northern Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, and the interior of Albania and Serbia. Meanwhile, the other less common climates, the humid subtropical and oceanic climates, are seen on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey). The Mediterranean climate is seen on the Adriatic coasts of Albania, Croatia and Montenegro, as well as the Ionian coasts of Albania and Greece, in addition to the Aegean coasts of Greece and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey).{{cite web | title=Balkans – Definition, Map, Countries, & Facts | website=Encyclopædia Britannica | date=2020-11-10 | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Balkans | access-date=2021-06-25}}

Over the centuries, forests 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 1,800–2,300 m. The land 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 olive and grape flourish.

Resources of energy are scarce, except in Kosovo, where considerable coal, lead, zinc, chromium and silver deposits are located.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/3524092.stm |title=Regions and territories: Kosovo |work=BBC News |date=20 November 2009 |access-date=17 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214231712/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/3524092.stm |archive-date=14 February 2009 |url-status=live }} Other deposits of coal, especially in Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, also exist. Lignite deposits are widespread in Greece. Petroleum scarce reserves exist in Greece, Serbia and Albania. Natural gas deposits are scarce. Hydropower is in wide use, from 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.

{{Main|History of the Balkans}}

File:Language border (Matzinger).png]]

File:The new old amphitheater in Pula Istria (19629095974).jpg, the only remaining Roman amphitheatre to have four side towers and with all three Roman architectural orders entirely preserved]]

File:Felix Romuliana, built in 298 AD by Emperor Galerius, Dacia Ripensis, Serbia (42905999032).jpg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site]]

The Balkan region was the first area in Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era. The Balkans have been inhabited since the Paleolithic and are the route by which farming from the Middle East spread to Europe during the Neolithic (7th millennium BC).{{Citation | last = Borza | first = EN | title = In the Shadow of Olympus: The Emergence of Macedon | page = 58 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=614pd07OtfQC&q=petralona+cave+oldest&pg=PA58 | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1992| isbn = 978-0691008806 }}{{Citation | last = Perlès | first = Catherine | title = The Early Neolithic in Greece: The First Farming Communities in Europe | page = 1 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LQQ3tx5_t7QC&q=sesklo | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2001| isbn = 9780521000277 }} 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 Central Europe, particularly through Pannonia. Two early culture-complexes have developed in the region, Starčevo culture and Vinča culture. The Balkans are also the location of the first advanced civilizations. Vinča culture developed a form of proto-writing before the Sumerians and Minoans, known as the Old European script, while the bulk of the symbols had been created in the period between 4500 and 4000 BC, with the ones on the Tărtăria clay tablets even dating back to around 5300 BC.{{cite book |last=Haarmann |first=Harald |title=Geschichte der Schrift |publisher=C.H. Beck |year=2002 |isbn=978-3-406-47998-4 |page=20 |language=de}}

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, 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.{{cite book |author=Goldstein, I. |title=Croatia: A History |url=https://archive.org/details/croatia00ivog |url-access=registration |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1999}}

Albanic, Hellenic, and other Palaeo-Balkan languages, had their formative core in the Balkans after the Indo-European migrations in the region.{{cite book|last=Friedman|first=Victor|title=The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact: Volume 1: Population Movement and Language Change|series=Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics|chapter=The Balkans|editor=Salikoko Mufwene, Anna Maria Escobar|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2022|isbn=9781009115773|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWB2EAAAQBAJ}}{{cite journal |author-last1= Lazaridis |author-first1= Iosif |author-last2= Alpaslan-Roodenberg |author-first2=Songül | display-authors = et al. | title = The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe | journal = Science | volume = 377 | issue = 6609 | date = 26 August 2022 |pages= eabm4247 | pmid = 36007055 | pmc = 10064553| doi = 10.1126/science.abm4247 | bibcode =|s2cid= 251843620 }} pp. 1, 10. In pre-classical and classical antiquity, this region was home to Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, Dacians, and other ancient groups. The Achaemenid Persian Empire incorporated parts of the Balkans comprising Macedonia, Thrace (parts of present-day eastern Bulgaria), and the Black Sea coastal region of Romania beginning in 512 BC.Joseph Roisman, Ian Worthington [https://books.google.com/books?id=QsJ183uUDkMC&pg=PA345 A Companion to Ancient Macedonia] pp. 135–138, 342–345 John Wiley & Sons, 2011 {{ISBN|978-1-4443-5163-7}} Following the Persian defeat in the Greco-Persian Wars in 479 BC, they abandoned all of their European territories, which regained their independence. During the reign of Philip II of Macedon (359-336 BC), Macedonia rose to become the most powerful state in the Balkans.{{cite book | last=King | first=C.J. | title=Ancient Macedonia | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-351-71032-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lJ0uDwAAQBAJ | language=es | access-date=2024-02-10 | page=24}} In the second century BC, the Roman Empire conquered the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language, but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence. The only Paleo-Balkan languages that survived are Albanian and Greek. 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 Jireček Line).{{Cite journal |jstor = 3063446|title = The Romans and the Greek Language|journal = The Classical Review|volume = 32|issue = 2|pages = 216–218|last1 = MacLeod|first1 = M. D.|year = 1982|doi = 10.1017/S0009840X00114982|s2cid = 161691285}} However large spaces south of Jireček Line were and are inhabited by Vlachs (Aromanians), the Romance-speaking heirs of Roman Empire.Kahl, Thede - "Istoria aromânilor", Editura Tritonic, București, 2006A.N. Haciu – "Aromânii. Comerț, industrie, arte, expansiune, civilizație", ediția I, 1936; ediția a II-a, Editura Cartea Armână, Constanța, 2003, 598 p.; {{ISBN|973-8299-25-X}}

The Bulgars and Slavs arrived in the sixth-century and began assimilating and displacing already-assimilated (through Romanization and Hellenization) older inhabitants of the northern and central Balkans.[https://books.google.com/books?id=f1F39vRlERAC&pg=PA125 Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle]. Mary Edith Durham (2007). p. 125. {{ISBN|1-4346-3426-4}} This migration brought about the formation of distinct ethnic groups amongst the South Slavs, which included the Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs and Slovenes.{{cite book | last=Curta | first=Florin | title=Chapter 5 Migrations—Real and Imagined: Croats, Serbs, and Bulgars (600–800) | chapter=Migrations—Real and Imagined: Croats, Serbs, and Bulgars (600–800) | publisher=Brill | date=2019-06-25 | url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789004395190/BP000013.xml | access-date=2023-11-23 | pages=65–77| doi=10.1163/9789004395190_006 | isbn=978-90-04-39519-0 | s2cid=203297381 }}{{cite journal | last=Stanoyevich | first=Milivoy S. | title=The Ethnography of the Yugo-Slavs | journal=Geographical Review | publisher=[American Geographical Society, Wiley] | volume=7 | issue=2 | year=1919 | issn=0016-7428 | jstor=207774 | pages=91–97 | doi=10.2307/207774 | bibcode=1919GeoRv...7...91S | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/207774 | access-date=2023-11-23}} Prior to the Slavic landing, parts of the western peninsula have been home to the Proto-Albanians. Including cities like Nish, Shtip, and Shkup. This can be proven through the development of the names, for example Naissos > Nish and Astibos > Shtip follow Albanian phonetic sound rules and have entered Slavic, indicating that Proto-Albanian was spoken prior to the Slavic invasion of the Balkans.{{Cite book |last=Matzinger |first=Joachim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/65166691 |title=Der altalbanische Text Mbsuame e krështerë (Dottrina cristiana) des Lekë Matrënga von 1592 : eine Einführung in die albanische Sprachwissenschaft |date=2006 |publisher=J.H. Röll |isbn=3-89754-117-3 |location=Dettelbach |oclc=65166691}}Geniş & Maynard 2009, p. 557Katičić, Radoslav (1976). Ancient Languages of the Balkans. Mouton. p. 186. ISBN 9789027933157. "On the other hand Niš from Ναϊσσός, Štip from Ἄστιβος, Šar from Scardus, and Ohrid from Lychnidus presuppose the sound development characteristic for Albanian".Curtis, Matthew Cowan (2012). Slavic-Albanian Language Contact, Convergence, and Coexistence (Thesis). The Ohio State University. p. 42. Proto-Albanian speakers were Christianized under the Latin sphere of influence, specifically in the 4th century CE, as shown by the basic Christian terms in Albanian, which are of Latin origin and entered Proto-Albanian before the Gheg–Tosk dialectal diversification.{{cite book|last=Malcolm|first=Noel|title=Kosovo: A Short History|year=1998|isbn=978-0-3304-1224-7|pp=36–38}}{{cite book|first1=Bernd J.|last1=Fischer|first2=Oliver Jens|last2=Schmitt|title=A Concise History of Albania|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2022|isbn=9781009254908|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KbqVEAAAQBAJ|p=16}}

File:Southeastern Europe Late Ninth Century.png

File:Hagia Sophia 81.JPG, built in the 6th century Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, later it became a mosque, then a museum, and now its both a mosque and a museum]]

File:Golubac Fortress (град Голубац).jpg, built in the 14th century to overlook the strategically important Iron Gates gorge, was one of the many Balkan fortresses built in the Middle Ages to resist invading forces]]

During the Early Middle Ages, The Byzantine Empire was the dominant state in the region, both military and culturally. Their cultural strength became particularly evident in the second half of the 9th century when the Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius managed to spread the Byzantine variant of Christianity to the majority of the Balkans inhabitants who were pagan beforehand. Initially, it was adopted by the Bulgarians and Serbs, with the Romanians joining a bit later.{{cite web | title=Roman Empire, Geography, Culture | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | date=1998-08-05 | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Balkans/In-the-Roman-Empire#ref43533 | access-date=2023-11-21}} The lack of Old Church Slavonic terms in Albanian Christian terminology shows that the missionary activities during the Christianization of the Slavs did not involve Albanian-speakers, indeed, the Christian belief among Albanians had survived through the centuries and already become an important cultural element in their ethnic identity.{{cite journal|last=Demiraj|first=Bardhyl|author-link=Bardhyl Demiraj|title=Rrënjë dhe degë të krishterimit ndër shqiptarë|journal=Hylli i Dritës|volume=2|place=Shkodër|year=2011|pages=58–78|language=Albanian|url=https://www.albanologie.uni-muenchen.de/downloads/publikationen-demiraj/rrenje-dhe-dege.pdf}} p. 71.

The emergence of the First Bulgarian Empire and the constant conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the First Bulgarian Empire significantly weakened the Byzantine control over the Balkans by the end of the 10th century. The Byzantines further lost power in the Balkans after the resurgence of the Bulgarians in the late 12th century, with the forming of their Second Bulgarian Empire.{{cite web | title=The Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars | website=Western Civilization | url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-herkimer-westerncivilization/chapter/the-byzantine-bulgarian-wars/ | access-date=2023-11-22}} After the collapse of the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine's Empire grip on power was prolonged by the inability of the Slavs to unite, which was caused by frequent infighting amongst themselves. Bulgaria in the first half of the 14th century was then overshadowed by the new rising regional power of Serbia, which was a result of Stefan Dušan rising up and conquering much of the Balkans to create the Serbian Empire. The Serbian and Byzantine empires continued to be the dominant forces in the region until the arrival of the Ottomans several decades later.{{cite web | title=Medieval, Orthodox, Balkan | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | date=1999-07-26 | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Bulgaria/The-second-Bulgarian-empire | access-date=2023-11-22}}

Ottoman expansion in the region began in the second half of the 14th century, as the Byzantine Empire continued to lose its grip on the region after several defeats to the Ottomans. In 1362, the Ottoman Turks conquered Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey). This was the start of their conquest of the Balkan Peninsula, which lasted for more than a century. Other states in the area starting falling like Serbia after the Siege of Smederevo in 1459, Bulgaria in 1396, Byzantine Empire in 1453, Bosnia in 1463, Herzegovina in 1482, and Montenegro in 1496. The conquest was made easier for the Ottomans due to existing divisions among the Orthodox peoples and by the even deeper rift that had existed at the time between the Eastern and Western Christians of Europe.{{cite web | title=Ottoman Empire, Southeastern Europe, Conflict | website=Encyclopedia Britannica | date=1998-08-05 | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Balkans/The-Ottomans | access-date=2023-11-21}}

The Albanians under Skanderbeg's leadership resisted the Ottomans for a time (1443–1468) by using guerilla warfare. Skanderbeg's achievements, in particular the Battle of Albulena and the First Siege of Krujë won him fame across Europe. The Ottomans eventually conquered the near entirety of the Balkans and reached central Europe by the early 16th century.{{cite book|author=Jean W Sedlar|title=East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1500|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3o5lrvuwOVwC&pg=PA393|year=1994|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-97291-6|pages=393–|quote=A rare example of successful Christian resistance to the Turks in the 15th century, although in a fairly remote part of Europe, was provided by Skanderbeg, the Albanian mountain chieftain who became the leader of a national revolt. For over a quarter-century until his death in 1468, he led the Albanians in surprisingly effective guerrilla warfare against the Turkish occupiers.}} Some smaller countries, such as Montenegro managed to retain some autonomy by managing their own internal affairs, since the territory was too mountainous to completely subdue.Stephen Clissold (1966). A short history of Yugoslavia from earliest times to 1966, chapter III Another small country that retained its independence, both de facto and de jure in this case, was the Adriatic trading hub of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik, Croatia).{{cite book | last=Birnbaum | first=Marianna D. | title=Chapter 6. In business with Ragusa | publisher=Central European University Press | date=2018-11-06 | isbn=978-615-5053-79-5 | url=https://books.openedition.org/ceup/2138?lang=en | access-date=2023-11-21}}

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.{{Cite journal|last=Wasti|first=Syed Tanvir|date=July 2004|title=The 1912–13 Balkan War and the Siege of Edirne|journal= Middle Eastern Studies|volume= 40| issue = 4|pages= 59–78|jstor=4289928|doi=10.1080/00263200410001700310|s2cid=145595992}} As examples, for Greeks, Constantine XI Palaiologos and Kolokotronis; and for Serbs, Miloš Obilić, Tsar Lazar and Karađorđe; for Albanians, George Kastrioti Skanderbeg; for ethnic Macedonians, Nikola KarevConsidered a Bulgarian in Bulgaria and Goce Delčev; for Bulgarians, Vasil Levski, Georgi Sava Rakovski and Hristo Botev and for Croats, Nikola Šubić Zrinjski.

In the past several centuries, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in and around the Balkans and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans have been the least developed part of Europe. According to Halil İnalcık, "The population of the Balkans, according to one estimate, fell from a high of 8 million in the late 16th-century to only 3 million by the mid-eighteenth. This estimate is based on Ottoman documentary evidence".[https://books.google.com/books?id=c00jmTrjzAoC&pg=PA652 An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire]. Suraiya Faroqhi, Donald Quataert (1997). Cambridge University Press. p. 652. {{ISBN|0-521-57455-2}}

Most of the Balkan nation-states emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries as they gained independence from the Ottoman or Habsburg empires: Greece in 1821, Serbia and Montenegro in 1878, Romania in 1881, Bulgaria in 1908 and Albania in 1912.

File:Balkans Animation 1800-2008.gif

In 1912–1913, the First Balkan War broke out when the nation-states of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro united in an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the war, almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire were captured and partitioned among the allies. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albanian state. Bulgaria insisted on its status quo territorial integrity, divided and shared by the Great Powers next to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) in other boundaries and on the pre-war Bulgarian-Serbian agreement. Bulgaria was provoked by the backstage deals between its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on the allocation of the spoils at the end of the First Balkan War. At the time, Bulgaria was fighting at the main Thracian Front. Bulgaria marks the beginning of Second Balkan War when it attacked them. The Serbs and the Greeks repulsed single attacks, but when the Greek army invaded Bulgaria together with an unprovoked Romanian intervention in the back, Bulgaria collapsed. The Ottoman Empire used the opportunity to recapture Eastern Thrace, establishing its new western borders that still stand today as part of modern Turkey.

World War I was sparked in the Balkans in 1914 when members of Young Bosnia, a revolutionary organization with predominantly Serb and pro-Yugoslav members, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo. That caused a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which—through the existing chains of alliances—led to the World War I. The Ottoman Empire soon joined the Central Powers becoming one of the three empires participating in that alliance. The next year Bulgaria joined the Central Powers attacking Serbia, which was successfully fighting Austria-Hungary to the north for a year. That led to Serbia's defeat and the intervention of the Entente in the Balkans which sent an expeditionary force to establish a new front, the third one of that war, which soon also became static. The participation of Greece in the war three years later, in 1918, on the part of the Entente finally altered the balance between the opponents leading to the collapse of the common German-Bulgarian front there, which caused the exit of Bulgaria from the war, and in turn, the end of World War I and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.Encyclopedia of World War I, Spencer Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts, p. 242

Between the two wars, in order to maintain the geopolitical status quo in the region after the end of World War I, the Balkan Pact, or Balkan Entente, was formed by a treaty between Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens.{{Cite web|title=Balkan Entente {{!}} Europe [1934]|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Balkan-Entente|access-date=2021-08-31|website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}

With the start of the World War II, all Balkan countries, with the exception of Greece, were allies of Nazi Germany, having bilateral military agreements or being part of the Axis Pact. Fascist Italy expanded the war in the Balkans by using its protectorate Albania to invade Greece. After repelling the attack, the Greeks counterattacked, invading Italy-held Albania and causing Nazi Germany's intervention in the Balkans to help its ally.Europe in Flames, J. Klam, 2002, p. 41 Days before the German invasion, a successful coup d'état in Belgrade by neutral military personnel seized power.Russia's life-saver, Albert Loren Weeks, 2004, p. 98

Although the new government reaffirmed its intentions to fulfill its obligations as a member of the Axis,{{sfn|Schreiber|Stegemann|Vogel|1995|p=484}} Germany, with Bulgaria, invaded both Greece and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia immediately disintegrated when those loyal to the Serbian King and the Croatian units mutinied.{{sfn|Schreiber|Stegemann|Vogel|1995|p=521}} Greece resisted, but, after two months of fighting, collapsed and was occupied. The two countries were partitioned between the three Axis allies, Bulgaria, Germany and Italy, and the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of Italy and Germany.

During the occupation, the population suffered considerable hardship due to repression and starvation, to which the population reacted by creating a mass resistance movement.Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, Mark Mazower, 1993 Together with the early and extremely heavy winter of that year (which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths among the poorly fed population), the German invasion had disastrous effects in the timetable of the planned invasion in Russia causing a significant delay,Hermann Goring: Hitler's Second-In-Command, Fred Ramen, 2002, p. 61 which had major consequences during the course of the war.The encyclopedia of codenames of World War II#Marita, Christopher Chant, 1986, pp. 125–126

Finally, at the end of 1944, the Soviets entered Romania and Bulgaria forcing the Germans out of the Balkans. They left behind a region largely ruined as a result of wartime exploitation.

During the Cold War, most of the countries on the Balkans were governed by communist governments. Greece became the first battleground of the emerging Cold War. The Truman Doctrine was the US response to the civil war, which raged from 1944 to 1949. This civil war, unleashed by the Communist Party of Greece, backed by communist volunteers from neighboring countries (Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia), led to massive American assistance for the non-communist Greek government. With this backing, Greece managed to defeat the partisans and, ultimately, remained one of the two only non-communist countries in the region with Turkey.

However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria and instead sought closer relations with the West, later even spearheaded, together with India and Egypt the Non-Aligned Movement. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China, later adopting an isolationist position.

On 28 February 1953, Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia signed the treaty of Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation in Ankara to form the Balkan Pact of 1953. The treaty's aim was to deter Soviet expansion in the Balkans and eventual creation of a joint military staff for the three countries. When the pact was signed, Turkey and Greece were members of the NATO, while Yugoslavia was a non-aligned communist state. With the Pact, Yugoslavia was able to indirectly associate itself with NATO. Though it was planned for the pact to remain in force for 20 years, it dissolved in 1960.{{cite web |title=Balkan Pact of 1953 |url=https://www.tarihiolaylar.com/tarihi-olaylar/balkan-pakti-1953-225 |access-date=5 September 2021 |archive-date=7 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407004128/https://www.tarihiolaylar.com/tarihi-olaylar/balkan-pakti-1953-225 |url-status=dead }}

As the only non-communist countries, Greece and Turkey were (and still are) part of NATO composing the southeastern wing of the alliance.

In the 1990s, the transition of the regions' ex-Eastern bloc countries towards democratic free-market societies went peacefully. While in the non-aligned Yugoslavia, Wars between the former Yugoslav republics broke out after Slovenia and Croatia held free elections and their people voted for independence on their respective countries' referendums. Serbia, in turn, declared the dissolution of the union as unconstitutional and the Yugoslav People's Army unsuccessfully tried to maintain the status quo. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, which prompted the Croatian War of Independence in Croatia and the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The Yugoslav forces eventually withdrew from Slovenia in 1991 while the war in Croatia continued until late 1995. The two were followed by Macedonia and later Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Bosnia being the most affected by the fighting. The wars prompted the United Nations' intervention and NATO ground and air forces took action against Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina and FR Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro).

File:Former Yugoslavia 2008.PNG, 2008]]

From the dissolution of Yugoslavia, six states achieved internationally recognized sovereignty: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia; all of them are traditionally included in the Balkans which is often a controversial matter of dispute. In 2008, while under UN administration, Kosovo declared independence (according to the official Serbian policy, Kosovo is still an internal autonomous region). In July 2010, the International Court of Justice, ruled that the declaration of independence was legal.{{cite news|title=Kosovo independence declaration deemed legal|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-serbia-kosovo-idUSTRE66L01720100722|access-date=16 February 2014|newspaper=Reuters|date=22 July 2010}} Most UN member states recognise Kosovo. After the end of the wars a revolution broke in Serbia and Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian communist leader (elected president between 1989 and 2000), was overthrown and handed for a trial to the International Criminal Tribunal for crimes against the International Humanitarian Law during the Yugoslav wars. Milošević died of a heart attack in 2006 before a verdict could have been released. Ιn 2001 an Albanian uprising in Macedonia (North Macedonia) forced the country to give local autonomy to the ethnic Albanians in the areas where they predominate.

With the dissolution of Yugoslavia, an issue emerged over the name under which the former (federated) republic of Macedonia would internationally be recognized, between the new country and Greece. Being the Macedonian part of Yugoslavia (see Vardar Macedonia), the federated republic under the Yugoslav identity had the name (Socialist) Republic of Macedonia on which it declared its sovereignty in 1991. Greece, having a large homonymous region (see Macedonia), opposed the usage of the name as an indication of a nationality and ethnicity. Thus dubbed Macedonia naming dispute was resolved under UN mediation in the June 2018 Prespa agreement was reached, which saw the country's renaming into North Macedonia in 2019.

Balkan countries control the direct land routes between Western Europe and South-West Asia (Asia Minor and the Middle East). Since 2000, all Balkan countries are friendly towards the EU and the US.{{Cite web|url=https://www.unodc.org/southeasterneurope/|title=UNODC South Eastern Europe|website=www.unodc.org|access-date=2019-06-17}}

Greece has been a member of the EU since 1981, while Slovenia is a member since 2004, Bulgaria and Romania are members since 2007, and Croatia is a member since 2013. In 2005, the EU decided to start accession negotiations with candidate countries; Turkey, and North Macedonia were accepted as candidates for EU membership. In 2012, Montenegro started accession negotiations with the EU. In 2014, Albania is an official candidate for accession to the EU. In 2015, Serbia was expected to start accession negotiations with the EU, however this process has been stalled over the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by existing EU member states.{{cite web|url=https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/politics/serbia-must-accept-kosovo-independence-to-join-eu-gabriel|title=Serbia must accept Kosovo independence to join EU – Gabriel|date=16 February 2018}}

Greece and Turkey have been NATO members since 1952. In March 2004, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia have become members of NATO. As of April 2009,[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_52902.htm Ceremony marks the accession of Albania to NATO], NATO – News, 7 April 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2009. Albania and Croatia are members of NATO. Montenegro joined in June 2017.{{cite web|url=https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2017/04/20/darmanovic-montenegro-becomes-eu-member-in-2022/|title=Darmanović: Montenegro becomes EU member in 2022 – European Western Balkans|first=EWB|last=Archives|date=20 April 2017}} The most recent member state to be added to NATO was North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.

Almost all other countries have expressed a desire to join the EU, NATO, or both at some point in the future.{{cite news | title=The Western Balkans – Fact Sheets on the European Union | website=European Parliament | url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/168/the-western-balkans | access-date=2021-06-25}}

{{Update|date=September 2021}}

File:Sveti Stefan (06).jpg in Montenegro, tourism makes up a significant portion of the Montenegrin economy{{cite web | title=Tourism | website=International Trade Administration | date=2022-08-06 | url=https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/montenegro-tourism-0 | access-date=2023-11-23}}]]

File:Belgrade iz balona.jpg in Serbia, which is the capital of Serbia and a major industrial city that accounts for a large component of the Serbian economy{{cite web | last=Ralev | first=Radomir | title=Moody's completes periodic review of three Serbian cities | website=SeeNews | date=2021-11-03 | url=https://seenews.com/news/moodys-completes-periodic-review-of-three-serbian-cities-759653 | access-date=2023-11-23}}]]

File:Pargapanorama.jpg in Greece, tourism plays a crucial role in the Greek economy{{cite web | title=For a Sustainable Tourism Industry | website=Ελληνική Δημοκρατία - Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών | date=2023-11-23 | url=https://www.mfa.gr/usa/en/about-greece/tourism/for-sustainable-tourism-industry.html | access-date=2023-11-23}}]]

File:Historical peninsula and modern skyline of Istanbul.jpg.]]

File:Вишеградска ћуприја са Андрићградом 2.jpg and Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Bosnia and Herzegovina, tourism is a rapidly growing sector of the Bosnian economy{{cite web | title=FACT SHEET: Developing Sustainable Tourism (Turizam) in Bosnia and Herzegovina | website=U.S. Agency for International Development | date=2023-03-10 | url=https://www.usaid.gov/bosnia-and-herzegovina/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-developing-sustainable-tourism-turizam-bosnia-and-herzegovina#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20the%20country%20had,and%20hampered%20the%20sector%27s%20development. | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330020537/https://www.usaid.gov/bosnia-and-herzegovina/fact-sheets/fact-sheet-developing-sustainable-tourism-turizam-bosnia-and-herzegovina#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20the%20country%20had,and%20hampered%20the%20sector%27s%20development. | url-status=dead | archive-date=30 March 2023 | access-date=2023-11-24}}]]

File:Dubrovnik june 2011..JPG in Croatia, tourism contributes substantially to the Croatian economy{{cite web | title=OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2022 | website=OECD iLibrary | url=https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/98e4b3dd-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/98e4b3dd-en#:~:text=Tourism%20plays%20a%20major%20role,of%20employment%20fall%20to%205.9%25. | access-date=2023-11-23}}]]

Currently, all of the states are republics, but until World War II all countries were monarchies. Most of the republics are parliamentary, excluding Romania and Bosnia which are semi-presidential. All the states have open market economies, most of which are in the upper-middle-income range ($4,000–12,000 p.c.), except Croatia, Romania, Greece, and Slovenia that have high income economies (over $12,000 p.c.), and are classified with very high HDI, along with Bulgaria, in contrast to the remaining states, which are classified with high HDI. The states from the former Eastern Bloc that formerly had planned economy system and Turkey mark gradual economic growth each year. The gross domestic product per capita is highest in Slovenia (over $29,000), followed by Croatia{{cite web | url=https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2023/April/weo-report?c=960,&s=NGDPD,PPPGDP,NGDPDPC,PPPPC,&sy=2021&ey=2028&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1 | title=Report for Selected Countries and Subjects | author=IMF}} and Greece (~$20,000), Romania, Bulgaria (over $11,000), Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia (between $10,000 and $9,000), and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, North Macedonia (~$7,000) and Kosovo ($5,000).{{Cite web |title=GDP per capita (current US$) |url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=World Bank Open Data}} The Gini coefficient, which indicates the level of difference by monetary welfare of the layers, is on the second level at the highest monetary equality in Albania, Bulgaria, and Serbia, on the third level in Greece, Montenegro and Romania, on the fourth level in North Macedonia, on the fifth level in Turkey, and the most unequal by Gini coefficient is Bosnia at the eighth level which is the penultimate level and one of the highest in the world. The unemployment is lowest in Romania and Bulgaria (around 5%), followed by Serbia and Albania (11–12%), Turkey, Greece, Bosnia, North Macedonia (13–16%), Montenegro (~18%), and Kosovo (~25%).{{Cite web |title=Unemployment, total (% of total labor force) (modeled ILO estimate) |url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS?view=chart |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=World Bank Open Data}}

As nations in the Western Balkans opened up to private investment in the 1990s, newly created enterprises (mostly SMEs) fueled regional economic development by facilitating the transition from a massive state-owned structure to a market economy.{{Cite book |doi=10.2867/828282 |url=https://www.eib.org/en/publications/20230344-the-impact-of-the-eibs-intermediated-lending-to-businesses-in-the-western-balkans |title=The impact of the EIB's intermediated lending to businesses in the Western Balkans |date=2023-12-18 |publisher=European Investment Bank |isbn=978-92-861-5651-9 |language=EN |doi-access=free |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240214205204/https://www.eib.org/en/publications/20230344-the-impact-of-the-eibs-intermediated-lending-to-businesses-in-the-western-balkans |archive-date= Feb 14, 2024 |author1=European Investment Bank. }}{{Cite web |title=The Western Balkans in Transition |url=https://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication15155_en.pdf |work=Occasional Paper |publisher=European Commission |date=May 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231227121631/https://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication15155_en.pdf |archive-date= Dec 27, 2023 }} SMEs now account for 99% of all active businesses, up to 81% of total value created, and 72% of total employment in the Western Balkans.

The Western Balkans are mostly bank-based economies, with bank credit serving as the primary source of external capital for all enterprises, including SMEs. Despite this, the region's bank credit supply is limited and undeveloped. A recent analysis from the European Investment Bank estimated the funding deficit to be at US$2.8 billion, or around 2.5% of nominal GDP.

In most Western Balkan markets, international banks have a market share of 70% to 90%.{{Cite web |title=Economic Growth in the Western Balkans To Accelerate in 2024, Albeit Slowly and Unevenly |url=https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/10/19/economic-growth-in-the-western-balkans-to-accelerate-in-2024-albeit-slowly-and-unevenly |date=October 19, 2023 |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=World Bank |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231227121631/https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/10/19/economic-growth-in-the-western-balkans-to-accelerate-in-2024-albeit-slowly-and-unevenly|archive-date= 2023-12-27 }} At the end of 2023, the macroeconomic environment in the Western Balkans indicates that risks are increasing, threatening to worsen the financial imbalance. Recent survey findings give conflicting data on enterprises' funding circumstances. While supply has fallen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and interest rate increasers, it has showed progressive recovery.{{Cite web |title=Western Balkans Regular Economic Report – No. 22: Beyond the Crises |date=Fall 2022 |publisher=World Bank |url=https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099010110192229651/pdf/P17947808ec26c001094ac004a1b5d70a2a.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231227121631/https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099010110192229651/pdf/P17947808ec26c001094ac004a1b5d70a2a.pdf |archive-date= Dec 27, 2023 }}

===Regional organizations===

{| style="width:500px"

|-

|File:Southeast European Cooperation Process Map.svg (SEECP) member states]] || File:SP for SEE members.png {{legend|#ff7f40|members}}{{legend|#00ff00|observers}} {{legend|#007fff|supporting partners}}]]

|-

|File:SECI members.png (SECI) {{legend|#ff7f40|members}} {{legend|#00ff00|observers}}]] || File:BSEC members.png (BSEC) {{legend|#ff7f40|members}} {{legend|#00ff00|observers}}]]

|}

See also the Black Sea regional organizations

The region is inhabited by Albanians, Aromanians, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Croats, Gorani, Greeks, Istro-Romanians, Macedonians, Hungarians, Megleno-Romanians, Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenes, Romanians, Turks, and other ethnic groups which present minorities in certain countries like the Romani and Ashkali.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Balkans |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/50325/Balkans |access-date=2019-08-21 |quote=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... 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)... For discussion 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.}}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:95%"

|-

! State !! Population (2023){{cite web|url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TPS00001/default/table?lang=en|title=Eurostat – Tables, Graphs and Maps Interface (TGM) table|work=europa.eu}}!! Density/km2 (2018){{Cite web|url=http://statisticstimes.com/demographics/countries-by-population-density.php|title=Countries by Population Density 2019 |website=statisticstimes.com}}!! Life expectancy (2018){{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html|work=CIA: The World Factbook|title=Country Comparison: Life Expectancy at Birth|access-date=20 January 2016|archive-date=29 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229134543/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html|url-status=dead}}

|-

|{{flagu|Albania}}

|2,761,785

|100

|78.3 years

|-

|{{flagu|Bosnia and Herzegovina}}

|3,502,550

|69

|77.2 years

|-

|{{flagu|Bulgaria}}

|6,447,710

|64

|79.9 years

|-

|{{flagu|Croatia}}

|3,850,894

|73

|78.2 years

|-

|{{flagu|Greece}}

|10,394,055

|82

|80.1 years

|-

|{{flagu|Kosovo}}

|1,798,188

|165

|77.7 years

|-

|{{flagu|Montenegro}}

|616,695

|45

|76.4 years

|-

|{{flagu|North Macedonia}}

|1,829,954

|81

|76.2 years

|-

|{{flagu|Romania}}

|19,051,562

|82

|76.3 years

|-

|{{flagu|Serbia}}

|6,664,449

|90

|76.5 years

|-

|{{flagu|Slovenia}}

|2,116,792

|102

|80.3 years

|-

|{{flagu|Turkey}}

| 11,929,013{{cite web |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/turkey/|title=Turkey's Population |access-date=10 December 2020}}{{ref label|European Turkey|c}}

|101

|78.5 years

|}

File:AtlBalkrelig.jpg

The region is a meeting point of Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Roman Catholic Christianity.{{cite book | first=Robin |last=Okey | title=Taming Balkan Nationalism | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2007}} Eastern Orthodoxy is the majority religion in both the Balkan Peninsula and the Balkan region, The Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=8}} A variety of different traditions of each faith are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church. A part of the population in the Balkans defines itself as irreligious.

Islam has a significant history in the region where Muslims make up a large percentage of the population. A 2013 estimate placed the total Muslim population of the Balkans at around eight million.{{Cite book |last1=Clayer |first1=Nathalie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSlBjwEACAAJ |title=Europe's Balkan Muslims: A New History |last2=Bougarel |first2=Xavier |date=2017 |publisher=Hurst Publishers |isbn=978-1-84904-659-6 |pages=2–4}} Islam is the largest religion in nations like Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo with significant minorities in Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro. Smaller populations of Muslims are also found in Romania, Serbia and Greece.

File:Albania confessional map with regions circa 1900.PNG]]

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"

|-

!Territories in which the principal religion is Eastern Orthodoxy (with national churches in parentheses){{cite web|title=Field Listing: Religions|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/fields/401.html|publisher=CIA|access-date=23 February 2019|archive-date=16 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016203251/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/fields/401.html|url-status=dead}}

! Religious minorities of these territories

|-

| Bulgaria: 59% (Bulgarian Orthodox Church)

| Islam (8%) and undeclared (27%)

|-

| Greece: 81–90% (Greek Orthodox Church)

| Islam (2%), Catholicism, other and undeclared

|-

| Montenegro: 72% (Serbian Orthodox Church)

| Islam (19%), Catholicism (3%), other and undeclared (5%)

|-

| North Macedonia: 64% (Macedonian Orthodox Church)

| Islam (33%), Catholicism

|-

| Romania: 81% (Romanian Orthodox Church)

| Protestantism (6%), Catholicism (5%), other and undeclared (8%)

|-

| Serbia: 84% (Serbian Orthodox Church)

| Catholicism (5%), Islam (3%), Protestantism (1%), other and undeclared (6%)

|-

! Territories in which the principal religion is Catholicism

! Religious minorities of these territories

|-

| Croatia (86%)

| Eastern Orthodoxy (4%), Islam (1%), other and undeclared (7%)

|-

| Slovenia (57%)

| Islam (2%), Orthodox (2%), other and undeclared (36%)

|-

! Territories in which the principal religion is Islam

! Religious minorities of these territories

|-

| Albania (58%)

| Catholicism (10%), Orthodoxy (7%), other and undeclared (24%)

|-

| Bosnia and Herzegovina (51%)

| Orthodoxy (31%), Catholicism (15%), other and undeclared (4%)

|-

| Kosovo (95%)

| Catholicism (2%), Orthodoxy (2%), other and undeclared (1%)

|-

| Turkey (90–99%)

| Orthodoxy, Irreligious (5%–10%)

|-

|}

The Jewish communities of the Balkans were some of the oldest in Europe and date back to ancient times. These communities were Sephardi Jews, except in Croatia and Slovenia, where the Jewish communities were mainly Ashkenazi Jews. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the small and close-knit Jewish community is 90% Sephardic, and Ladino is still spoken among the elderly. The Sephardi Jewish cemetery in Sarajevo has tombstones of a unique shape and inscribed in ancient Ladino.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090126185330/http://www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=59 European Jewish Congress – Bosnia-Herzegovina], Accessed 15 July 2008. Sephardi Jews used to have a large presence in the city of Thessaloniki, and by 1900, some 80,000, or more than half of the population, were Jews.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/30/thessalonikis-jews-we-cant-let-this-be-forgotten-if-its-forgotten-it-will-die|title=Thessaloniki's Jews: 'We can't let this be forgotten; if it's forgotten, it will die'|last=Jones|first=Sam|date=30 July 2020|work=The Guardian}} The Jewish communities in the Balkans suffered immensely during World War II, and the vast majority were killed during the Holocaust. An exception were the Bulgarian Jews who Boris III of Bulgaria sent to forced labor camps instead of Nazi concentration camps. Almost all of the few survivors have emigrated to the (then) newly founded state of Israel and elsewhere.{{cite web |title=Bulgaria |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/bulgaria |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |access-date=13 July 2023}} Almost no Balkan country today has a significant Jewish minority.

{{Main|Languages of the Balkans}}

{{Further|Balkan sprachbund}}

File:Ernst-Ravenstein-Balkans-Ethnic-Map-1880.jpg

File:Balkans ethnic map (1992).jpg

File:Transhumance ways of the Vlachs.jpeg ways of the Romance-speaking Vlach shepherds in the past]]

The Balkan region today is a very diverse ethnolinguistic region, being home to multiple Slavic and Romance languages, as well as Albanian, Greek, Turkish, Hungarian and others. Romani is spoken by a large portion of the Romanis living throughout the Balkan countries. Throughout history, many other ethnic groups with their own languages lived in the area, among them Thracians, Illyrians, Romans, Celts and various Germanic tribes. All of the aforementioned languages from the present and from the past belong to the wider Indo-European language family, with the exception of the Turkic languages (e.g., Turkish and Gagauz) and Hungarian.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"

|-

! State !!Most spoken language{{cite web|title=Field Listings: Languages|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/402.html|publisher=CIA|access-date=30 November 2020|archive-date=20 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420180739/https://www.cia.gov/Library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/402.html|url-status=dead}}

! Linguistic minorities

|-

|{{flagu|Albania}}

| 98% Albanian

| 2% other

|-

|{{flagu|Bosnia and Herzegovina}}

| 53% Bosnian

| 31% Serbian (official), 15% Croatian (official), 2% other

|-

|{{flagu|Bulgaria}}

| 86% Bulgarian

| 8% Turkish, 4% Romani, 1% other, 1% unspecified

|-

|{{flagu|Croatia}}

| 96% Croatian

| 1% Serbian, 3% other

|-

|{{flagu|Greece}}

| 99% Greek

| 1% other

|-

|{{flagu|Kosovo}}

| 94% Albanian

| 2% Bosnian, 2% Serbian (official), 1% Turkish, 1% other

|-

|{{flagu|Montenegro}}

| 43% Serbian

| 37% Montenegrin (official), 5% Albanian, 5% Bosnian, 5% other, 4% unspecified

|-

|{{flagu|North Macedonia}}

| 67% Macedonian

| 25% Albanian (official), 4% Turkish, 2% Romani, 1% Serbian, 2% other

|-

|{{flagu|Romania}}

| 85% Romanian

| 6% Hungarian, 1% Romani

|-

|{{flagu|Serbia}}

| 88% Serbian

| 3% Hungarian, 2% Bosnian, 1% Romani, 3% other, 2% unspecified

|-

|{{flagu|Slovenia}}

| 91% Slovene

| 5% Serbo-Croatian, 4% other

|-

|{{flagu|Turkey}}

| 85% Turkish{{cite web|url=http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2007/03/22/guncel/agun.html |title=Türkiye'nin yüzde 85'i 'anadilim Türkçe' diyor|publisher=Milliyet.com.tr|access-date=25 June 2021}}

| 12% Kurdish, 3% other and unspecified

|-

|}

Most of the states in the Balkans are predominantly urbanized, with the lowest number of urban population as % of the total population found in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 49%, Kosovo at 50% and Slovenia at 55%.{{Cite web |title=World Bank Open Data |url=https://data.worldbank.org/ |access-date=2023-06-17 |website=World Bank Open Data}}{{Cite web |title=Urbanization in Kosovo: Building inclusive & sustainable cities |url=https://unhabitat.org/kosovo#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20the%20total,for%20Spatial%20Planning,%202018). |access-date=2023-06-17 |website=unhabitat.org}}

{{wide image|Istanbul panorama and skyline.jpg|750px|Panoramic view of Istanbul}}

A list of largest cities:

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! City !! Country !!data-sort-type="number"| Agglomeration !!data-sort-type="number"| City proper !! Year

|-

| Istanbul{{ref label|reference name B|b|b}} || {{TUR}} || 10,097,862 || 10,097,862 || 2019{{cite web |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/turkey/istanbul/|title=Istanbul Population |access-date=1 December 2020}}

|-

| Athens || {{GRE}} || 3,753,783 || 664,046 || 2018{{cite web |url=http://www.citypopulation.de/Greece-Agglo.html|title=Greece: Regions and Agglomerations |access-date=9 November 2015}}

|-

| Bucharest || {{ROU}} ||2,272,163 || 1,887,485 || 2018{{cite web |url=http://www.citypopulation.de/Romania.html|title=Romania: Counties and Major Cities |access-date=9 November 2015}}

|-

| Sofia || {{BUL}} || 1,995,950 || 1,313,595 || 2018{{cite web |url=http://www.citypopulation.de/Bulgaria-Cities.html|title=Bulgaria: Major Cities|access-date=9 November 2015}}

|-

| Belgrade || {{SRB}} || 1,659,440 || 1,119,696 || 2018[http://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/Popis2011/Knjiga20.pdf Statistical Officeof the Republic of Serbia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714191241/http://pod2.stat.gov.rs/ObjavljenePublikacije/Popis2011/Knjiga20.pdf |date=14 July 2014 }} p. 32

|-

| Zagreb || {{CRO}} || 1,217,150 || 767,131 || 2021{{cite web|url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/croatia/cities/ |title=Croatia: Counties and Major Cities |access-date=7 November 2023}}

|-

|Tekirdağ

|{{TUR}}

|1,055,412

|1,055,412

|2019{{cite web |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/turkey/tekirdag/|title=Tekirdağ Population |access-date=30 November 2020}}

|-

| Thessaloniki || {{GRE}} ||1,012,297 || 325,182 || 2018

|-

| Tirana || {{ALB}} || 912,000 || 418,495 || 2018{{cite web|url=https://citypopulation.de/Albania-Cities.html|title=Albania: Prefectures and Major Cities – Population Statistics in Maps and Charts|website=citypopulation.de}}

|-

| Ljubljana || {{SLO}} || 537,712 || 292,988 || 2018{{cite web|url=http://www.rralur.si/sl/regija/osebna-izkaznica|title=Osebna izkaznica – RRA LUR|work=rralur.si|date=24 February 2020 }}

|-

| Skopje || {{NMK}} || 506,926 || 444,800 || 2018{{cite web |url=http://www.citypopulation.de/Macedonia.html|title=Macedonia|access-date=9 November 2015}}

|-

| Constanța || {{ROU}} || 425,916 || 283,872 || 2018

|-

| Craiova || {{ROU}} || 420,000 ||269,506 || 2018

|-

|Edirne

|{{TUR}}

|413,903

|306,464

|2019{{cite web |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/turkey/edirne/|title=Edirne Population |access-date=30 November 2020}}

|-

| Sarajevo || {{BIH}} || 413,593 || 275,524 || 2018

|-

| Cluj-Napoca || {{ROU}} || 411,379 || 324,576 || 2018

|-

| Plovdiv || {{BUL}} || 396,092 || 411,567 || 2018

|-

| Varna || {{BUL}} || 383,075 || 395,949 || 2018

|-

| Iași || {{ROU}} || 382,484 || 290,422 || 2018

|-

| Brașov || {{ROU}} || 369,896 ||253,200 || 2018

|-

|Kırklareli

|{{TUR}}

|361,836

|259,302

|2019{{cite web |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/en/turkey/admin/TR213__k%C4%B1rklareli/|title=Kırklareli Population |access-date=1 December 2020}}

|-

| Timișoara || {{ROU}} || 356,443 || 319,279 || 2018

|-

| Novi Sad || {{SRB}} || 341,625 || 277,522 || 2018{{cite web|url=http://www.citypopulation.de/Serbia-Cities.html |title=Serbia: Regions, Districts and Major Cities |access-date=9 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151108005723/http://www.citypopulation.de/Serbia-Cities.html |archive-date=8 November 2015}}

|-

|Split

|{{CRO}}

|325,600

|161,312

|2021

|}

{{note label|reference name B|b|b}}Only the European part of Istanbul is a part of the Balkans.{{cite book|last1=Crampton|title=The Balkans Since the Second World War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9AFBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT14|isbn=978-1317891161|year=2014|publisher=Routledge }} It is home to two-thirds of the city's 15,519,267 inhabitants.

The time zones in the Balkans are defined as the following:

• Territories in the time zone of UTC+01:00: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia
• Territories in the time zone of UTC+02:00: Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania
• Territories in the time zone of UTC+03:00: Turkey

• Cuisine of the Balkans
• Balkan music
• Balkan Athletics Championships
• Balkan Athletics Indoor Championships
• Imagining the Balkans

{{See also|List of Slavic studies journals}}

{{colbegin}}

• Balkan Insight
• Balkan Universities Network
• History of the Balkans
• Balkan Wars
• Yugoslav Wars
• Languages of the Balkans
• Balkan sprachbund
• Balkan music

{{colend}}

{{reflist|group=note}}

{| style="margin-left:13px; line-height:150%"

|align="right" valign="top"|b.  

|{{note|location}}As The World Factbook [https://web.archive.org/web/20210110073821/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/turkey cites], regarding Turkey and Southeastern Europe; "that portion of Turkey west of the Bosphorus is geographically part of Europe".

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{| style="margin-left:13px; line-height:150%"

|align="right" valign="top"|c.  

|{{note|European Turkey}}The population only of European Turkey, that excludes the Anatolian Peninsula, which otherwise has a population of 75,627,384 and a density of 97.

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{| style="margin-left:13px; line-height:150%"

|align="right" valign="top"|d.  

|{{note|furtherreading1}}See:{{cite web |url=http://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/european-foreign-policy/foreign-policy/western-balkans-summit/|title=Western Balkans Summit|access-date=11 August 2015 |author=Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs|author-link=Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs}}{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/regions/western-balkans/|title=Western Balkans – Trade – European Commission|work=europa.eu}}{{cite book|editor=Zoltan Hajdu|others=Ivan Illes, Zoltan Raffay|title=Southeast-Europe: state borders, cross-border relations, spatial structures|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ajvwx3OSE2AC&pg=PA141|access-date=18 October 2014|year=2007|publisher=Centre for Regional Studies|isbn=978-963-9052-65-9|page=141|chapter=The European integration and regional policy of the West Balkans}}{{cite web|url=http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=portal.en.western-balkans|title=European Economic and Social Committee – Western Balkans|work=European Economic and Social Committee|access-date=12 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006203429/http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=portal.en.western-balkans|archive-date=6 October 2014|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web |title=Austrian Foreign Ministry – The Western Balkans – A Priority of Austrian Foreign Policy |url=http://www.bmeia.gv.at/en/foreign-ministry/foreign-policy/europe/western-balkans.html}}{{cite web|url=http://www.wbif.eu/Stakeholders|title=WBIF – Western Balkans Investment Framework – Stakeholders|access-date=12 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006122624/http://www.wbif.eu/Stakeholders|archive-date=6 October 2014|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/regions/western-balkans/|title=European Commission – Trade – Countries and regions – Western Balkans|access-date=12 September 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/balkans_communication/western_balkans_communication_050308_en.pdf|title=Western Balkans: Enhancing the European Perspective|publisher=Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council|date=5 March 2008|access-date=8 April 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080409004701/http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/balkans_communication/western_balkans_communication_050308_en.pdf| archive-date= 9 April 2008|url-status=live}}

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{| style="margin-left:13px; line-height:150%"

|align="right" valign="top"|e.  

|{{note|furtherreading2}}See:{{cite book|title=Endgame in the Balkans: Regime Change, European Style|first=Elizabeth|last=Pond|publisher=Brookings Institution|location=Washington, D.C.|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/endgameinbalkans00eliz/page/5 5]|isbn=978-0-8157-7160-9|url=https://archive.org/details/endgameinbalkans00eliz|url-access=registration|quote=western balkans minus slovenia.}}{{cite web|url=http://eeas.europa.eu/western_balkans/index_en.htm|title=European Union External Action – EU relations with the Western Balkans|access-date=12 September 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.internationales-buero.de/en/2114.php|title=Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany – Western Balkan Countries|author=Redaktion: PT-DLR|access-date=12 September 2014|archive-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006141017/http://www.internationales-buero.de/en/2114.php|url-status=dead}}

|}

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{{Sister project links|auto=1|wikt=Balkans|s=1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Balkan Peninsula}}

• [http://www.balkaninsight.com/ Balkan Insight – Analysis from Balkans]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060617145859/http://balkanalysis.com/ Balkanalysis, in-depth research on Balkan geopolitics]
• [https://www.facebook.com/WesternBalkans Western Balkans Photo impression]
• [https://www.academia.edu/18698805/Shared_Pasts_in_Central_and_Southeast_Europe_17th_21st_Centuries_Hungarian_and_Bulgarian_Approaches._Eds._G%C3%A1bor_Demeter_Penka_Peykovska._Sofia-Budapest_2015_440_p/ Shared Pasts in Central and Southeast Europe, 17th–21st Centuries]. Eds. G. Demeter, P. Peykovska. 2015.

{{Balkan Countries}}

{{Countries of Europe}}

{{Europe topics (small)|state=autocollapse}}

{{Music of Southeastern Europe (the Balkans)}}

{{Regions of the world}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Geography of Europe

Category:Peninsulas of Europe

Category:Regions of Europe

Category:Southeastern Europe

Category:Turkish toponyms