Introduction to Balkan States
Balkan States, or Balkans, the countries occupying the Balkan Peninsula in southern Europe. They consist of Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, the European part of Turkey, Greece, and the Republic of Macedonia. Adjoining the peninsula are the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, and several arms of the Mediterranean, including the Aegean, Ionian, and Adriatic seas. The Balkans have an area of roughly 305,000 square miles (790,000 km2)—somewhat more than that of Texas.
Mountains ranging up to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) high and rough, hilly lands make up most of the terrain. (The word Balkan stems from a Turkish word meaning “mountain.") Lowlands and plains lie mainly along the coasts and in the valleys of the major rivers, which include the Danube, Sava, Morava, Vardar, and Maritsa. Climate varies from a continental type with hot summers and cold winters in the north to the mild Mediterranean type in the south.
The Balkans have been the least developed and most impoverished part of Europe for centuries. Only since World War II have most of the Balkan nations begun to industrialize and to modernize their agricultural methods.
The main ethnic groups in the Balkans are the Slavs (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Bulgarians); Romanians; Turks; Albanians; and Greeks. The Greeks and Albanians are the oldest groups. Some of the people belong to the Eastern Orthodox faith, some are Roman Catholics, and some are Muslims. The population of the Balkan Peninsula in 1985 was about 72,500,000.
History
Ancient PeriodArcheological discoveries in Greece and Serbia and Montenegro indicate that the Balkans were the site of prehistoric cultures as ancient as those of the Middle East. The original inhabitants were displaced or absorbed by Indo-European peoples who migrated into the peninsula from about 2000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. The most southerly groups—the Achaeans, who developed the Mycenaean civilization, and the Dorians, who destroyed it—came to be known as Greeks. The groups settling farther north included the Illyrians, Macedonians, and Thracians.
The civilizations of Crete, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Phoenicia influenced the growth of Hellenic (Greek) civilization, which by the fifth century B.C. outshone all others. Culture in the northern regions remained primitive. However, through the conquests of Alexander the Great, a Macedonian, in the fourth century B.C., Hellenistic culture (that is, a culture based on that of Greece) spread over most of the ancient world.
The settled areas of the Balkans were disturbed many times by the migrations and invasions of nomadic peoples, known to the established peoples as “barbarians.” The first of these were the Celts, or Gauls, who in 279 B.C. ravaged Macedonia and occupied Thrace.
To the west, Rome was becoming a major power. The Romans were frequently drawn into wars in the Balkans and in the second century B.C. gradually annexed all the region west and south of the Danube. Although Rome later took territory north of the Danube, the movement of barbarian peoples made it impossible to hold. Nevertheless, the Romans' language (Latin) took hold in this region and is the basis of modern Romanian. In the third century A.D. the Goths, a Germanic people, after repeated incursions were permitted to settle in Romania. The Visigoths, a branch of the Goths, later crossed the Danube to escape from the Huns, invaders from Asia.
In 395 A.D. the Roman Empire was divided. The Balkans, except for the northwestern part of the region, fell in the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire.
Medieval PeriodThe Goths and Huns moved on to the west, and for some 200 years the Byzantine Empire was able to defend its Danube frontier. To the north there were new intruders—the warlike Avars and Bulgars from Asia and the peaceful South Slavs fleeing before them. In the sixth century the Slavs began crossing into Byzantium, followed in the seventh by the Bulgars.
The Slavs soon settled throughout the central area of the peninsula. The Greeks retreated to the coastal areas and the south, and the Albanians (Illyrians) to the mountains in the west. The Slavs in the northeast were subjugated by the Bulgars and became known as Bulgarians. The other major Slavic groups were the Slovenes and the Croats in the northwest and the Serbs adjacent to the Bulgarians. The Slovenes and Croats were converted to Christianity by the Roman Catholic Church, the Serbs and Bulgarians by the Eastern Orthodox. The Bosnians, in the border area between the two spheres, were the object of intense religious rivalry, with both churches making converts among the population.
The various Slavic groups battled each other and the Byzantine Empire for control of the region. The Slovenes soon were conquered by Germanic invaders. A Bulgarian empire flourished in the 9th and 10th centuries and was then subjugated by Byzantium. Croatia, a sovereign domain in the 10th century, was conquered by Hungary, a Magyar kingdom that also annexed most of Romania. The principality of Montenegro was founded by Serbs in the 11th century. Serbia itself was subject to the Byzantine emperor.
The Crusades, which began in 1096, brought Roman Catholic armies from western Europe marching across the Eastern Orthodox countries of the Balkans on their way to the Holy Land. Antagonism between Crusaders and native populations grew steadily. In 1204 the Fourth Crusade, bound originally for Egypt, instead captured Constantinople (Istanbul) and took over much of the Byzantine Empire, which was renamed the Latin Empire (for the Latin rite of the Roman church). Crusader states were set up in Greece and at the head of the Aegean Sea, and the city-state of Venice occupied several ports on the Adriatic Sea.
With the fall of Byzantium, a second Bulgarian empire was founded and Serbia became an independent kingdom. The Byzantine Empire was reestablished in 1261 but it lacked its former strength. Serbia entered on a period of expansion and by the mid-1300's had created a great empire. Bosnia, expanding in the same period, annexed neighboring Herzegovina. Hungary expanded southward.
In 1354 the Ottoman Turks, who had already conquered most of Asia Minor, crossed into the Balkans. The Byzantine Empire fell to them in 1453, and by the early 16th century virtually the entire peninsula had been conquered.
Modern PeriodAfter its great era of conquest and expansion, the Ottoman Empire gradually declined in vigor. Austria and Russia were both bent on territorial gain, and the Venetians wanted to reestablish their trade routes. The Ottomans were frequently at war with one or more of these powers and by 1700 had begun to lose territory in the Balkans. Wars continuing during the 18th and 19th centuries resulted in further losses. Greece was the first to gain independence, in 1832, and by the end of the century most of the other Balkan countries had won their independence also.
The two Balkan Wars, 1912–13, eliminated Turkish rule in Europe except in the region around Constantinople. The Austro-Hungarian Empire held territory in the northwest, but Russia had failed to penetrate the Balkans. Resentment against Austria was the cause of the incident that precipitated World War I, which brought to an end the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A new nation, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, was created; it was later renamed Yugoslavia.
The Balkan Entente, led by France, was organized in 1934 in an effort to prevent German penetration into the Balkans. Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey were members. Aggressive German trade policies and diplomatic efforts during the 1930's, however, shattered the entente, and during World War II Bulgaria and Romania joined the Axis powers. (Albania had been annexed by Italy in 1939.) In 1941 the Germans invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. The Germans were driven out of Greece by the British in 1944 and Yugoslavia by the Russians in 1944-45. Communist governments were formed in Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania. These governments fell from power during 1990-91.
During the early 1990's the Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence and civil war erupted. By its end in 1995, Serbia and Montenegro had formed a new Yugoslav state, and the other Yugoslav republics had achieved independence.
In 1998, ethnic Albanians in the Serb province of Kosovo formed a small army to rebel against Serbian rule. Yugoslavia responded harshly, sending army forces into the province, where they killed thousands of Albanian civilians and forced hundreds of thousands to flee. The brutal campaign was stopped after NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) bombardment in the spring of 1999.