Betty Denzer, age 16, of Cleveland, Ohio, for her question:
WHERE ARE THE BALKANS?
The Balkans are a group of countries that cover a peninsula in the southeastern corner of Europe. The countries are named after the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
The word Balkan means mountain in Turkish. The area has often been called the Powder Keg of Europe because so many wars have started there.
The Balkan Peninsula includes Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, the European part of Turkey and most of Yugoslavia. It covers about 213,000 square miles.
The Danube and Sava rivers form the northern boundary of the Balkan Peninsula. The Black Sea borders it on the east. The southern boundary is formed by the Sea of Marmada, the Dardanelles Channel and the Aegean Sea. The Adriatic and Ionian seas lie on the west.
Romania is not a geographic part of the peninsula. However, it is often considered a Balkan country because of its close association with the region in history and politics.
Much of the peninsula is covered by mountains. The Balkan Mountains rise on the eastern border of Yugoslavia and extend eastward through central Bulgaria. Other mountain ranges include the Albanian Alps, the Dinaric Alps in western Yugoslavia, the Pindus Mountains of central Greece and the Rhodope Mountains of southern Bulgaria.
Mining and forestry are important industries in these mountain areas. The Danube River is the chief commercial waterway in the Balkans.
About 75 million people live in the Balkan countries. Principal nationalities include Albanians, Greeks, Romanians, Slavs and Turks. Most of the people belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church but there are many Roman Catholics and some Muslims. Most of the people are farmers.
The Roman Empire held the peninsula for more than 500 years, beginning about 148 B.C. The Slavs came into the region in the A.D. 500s. By the late 1300s, the Ottoman Empire held most of the peninsula. Spurred by feelings of nationalism, the Balkan peoples started to seek independence from the Turks in the 1800s.
World War I started in the Balkan Peninsula. Bulgaria and Turkey were the only Balkan countries on the side of Germany and Austria Hungary in World War I. France became a leading ally of the Balkans during the war.
Germany and Italy became influential in the peninsula in the 1930s.
World War II saw Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania join Germany and Italy. Bulgaria occupied the Yugoslav part of Macedonia and a part of northern Greece. Germany and Italy occupied the rest of Greece and Yugoslavia. Albania was occupied by Italy and later by Germany. Turkey remained neutral during most of the war. Until October, 1944, Germany and Italy controlled most of the peninsula.
After World War II, all the Balkan countries except Greece and Turkey fell under Communist domination.
The first Balkan Pact, signed in 1953 by Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia, provided for cooperation in security and defense measures. The Second Balkan Pact, signed by the three countries in 1954, reaffirmed and extended the 1953 pact.