The Balkans are in southern Europe. The Balkan Peninsula in
southeastern Europe is located between the Adriatic and Black Seas. The
natural landscapes of the region are mixed landscapes with many high
mountain ranges, as well as dense forests, plains and rivers.
Some strict geographic descriptions define the Balkan Peninsula as the
lands south of the Sava in Serbia and the Danube below Belgrade.
However, the description of the peninsula is not an appropriate division
when considering the historical-administrative and cultural division.
Slovenia is sometimes considered part of the Balkans, but more often
considered part of Central Europe. Greece occupies the southern tip of
the Balkan Peninsula; however, most of Greece's main tourist
destinations lie on its islands, which, along with a shared culture,
separate it from the Balkans. And the most southeast of the Balkan
Peninsula is Eastern Thrace - the European part of Turkey.
Albania
Bulgaria
Bosnia and Herzegovina
North Macedonia
Moldova
Romania
Serbia
Croatia
Montenegro
Kosovo
Pridnestrovian
Moldavian Republic
The term "Balkan Peninsula" was coined by the geographer Johann August Zeune in 1808. He adopted the idea of ancient geographers that the Balkan Mountains extend over the entire south-eastern European region from the Slovenian Alps to the Black Sea and have a similarly formative significance for the entire region as the Apennines for the Italian Peninsula. However, this turned out to be wrong. After the untenability of this assumption was recognized, the terms "Balkan Peninsula" or "Hemus Peninsula" met with increasing criticism. In 1893, the geographer Theobald Fischer suggested replacing the term "Balkan Peninsula" with "Southeastern European Peninsula". His proposal was only partially successful.
The term Balkan countries summarizes several countries whose
commonality consists in the fact that their current territories were for
centuries in the field of tension between Austria, Russia and the
Ottoman Empire. The resulting frequent territorial changes and
relocations or expulsions made the state appear as a representative of
changing foreign rulers who could not expect loyalty.
Almost 66
million people live together in the southeastern European states of
Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia,
Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia (Fischer
Weltalmanach 2010). In addition, there are eight to ten million
inhabitants of the European part of Turkey, so in total there are about
75 million people living on the Balkan Peninsula.
The term "Balkan" is often used pejoratively in Western Europe with
regard to connotations such as fragmentation, conflict-prone nature
("powder keg of Europe"), backwardness, corruption and excessive
emotionality. Metternich said that the Balkans begin at the Rennweg in
Wien-Landstraße. Bismarck is said to have said that the Balkans are "not
worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier". Winston Churchill
described the Balkans, when it was in the hands of the Third Reich after
the German Balkan campaign, as "Europe's soft underbelly".
"Balkan states" are equated with chaos, violence, corruption,
backwardness and brutality and contrasted with "civilized" Europe. This
connotation also occurs regularly in the border areas of the region, for
example in Croatia and Romania. In the core region itself, the term is
used with fewer reservations. Thus, in 1909 a federative Balkan Republic
was created by the Social Democratic parties there, and in 1934 a Balkan
Pact was created between Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia for the purpose
of securing power.
As a value-neutral term, the (geographically
not quite congruent) term South-Eastern Europe is becoming more and more
popular, not least for these reasons. In some of the so-called Balkan
countries, however, the term Balkan is sometimes a very positive term:
in Bulgaria, for example, Balkan is part of the name of many companies
and tourist facilities, whereby Balkan often refers to the Balkan
Mountains here, and Bulgarians maintain a fairly positive relationship
with their "Balkan identity". One reason for this is probably the fact
that the Balkan Mountains served for centuries as a refuge for various
Bulgarian freedom fighters, such as the Heiducken in the fight against
Ottoman rule. The more recent term "Western Balkans", which is mainly
used in the context of the European Union, includes the successor states
of Yugoslavia without Slovenia, but supplemented by Albania.
The
situation is different in Croatia, Hungary or Slovenia: as former
members of Austria-Hungary, many citizens of these states with a
traditionally Catholic majority feel connected to the so-called Central
European cultural circle and distance themselves from the Balkans. For
the most part, Romania, about half of whose area belonged to
Austria-Hungary and is also represented in the Balkan region, at least
by the northern Dobruja, also distances itself from the geographical
term. Greece is also mostly counted among southern Europe. Nevertheless,
Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova as well as
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania,
Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey participate in the Balkan Games, an annual
sports competition (mainly athletics).
The open coasts to the east and the patency of the north have always
made the Balkans an important bridge between Asia and Europe, but also
the scene of conflicts, wars and ethnic unrest time and again.
Numerous historical states played a significant role in the culture and
history of this region. These included the Roman and Byzantine Empires,
as well as later the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Venice and
Austria-Hungary. Due to the widespread Orthodox faith there, Russia also
often regarded the Balkans as its area of influence, while pursuing
territorial interests as well as other countries mentioned.
Since
this area finally fell under Ottoman rule in the 15th century, the
south-eastern European internal border between the
Hungarian-Venetian-dominated Catholic area and the Balkans, politically
and religiously oriented towards Constantinople, also strengthened. More
than half of the inhabitants of all Balkan countries adhere to one of
the Orthodox churches. However, in the west of the Balkan Peninsula,
Roman Catholic Christianity dominates.
There are also many
Muslims living between Catholics and Orthodox, mainly Slavic, Albanian
and Turkish Muslims, a total of about a quarter of all the inhabitants
of the peninsula. Among Muslims, Sufi brotherhoods are very common. The
largest brotherhoods are the Halvetiyye and Bektaschiyye. In addition,
the Qādirīya, Rifai and Naqshbandīya also have many Tekkes on the Balkan
Peninsula. The Qādirīya Order spread from Anatolia in the 17th century,
where it was founded in the 15th century by the poet and mystic Eşref
Rumi (d. 1469) was introduced.
During the Second World War and
the Holocaust, Jews were persecuted and murdered in the Balkans, with
the exception of Bulgaria and Albania. The few survivors emigrated to
the newly proclaimed State of Israel in 1948. Apart from Turkey, no
Balkan country still has a significant Jewish–Sephardic or
Jewish–Ashkenazi minority today.
The peninsula has an area of about 500,000 square kilometers,
including the offshore islands. It is bordered to the west by the
Adriatic Sea, to the southwest by the Ionian Sea, to the southeast by
the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara, and to the east by the Black Sea.
To the north, towards the interior of the European continent, there
is no geographically distinct boundary line. As a rule, the Danube and
Sava rivers are taken as the northern border of the Balkan Peninsula.
There are different opinions regarding the demarcation in the extreme
northwest and on the lower reaches of the Danube. Thus, either the Kupa
(German: Kulpa), or the Una (both tributaries of the Sava) is considered
the northwest border. In the first case, central Croatia or the area of
the former Croatian military border with the Balkans is counted, in the
second case it is not. Another common definition sees the Gulf of
Trieste and the Ljubljana Valley as the northwest boundary of the Balkan
Peninsula, which then runs over the Sava and Danube to the Black Sea.
The Kupa River forms the natural border between Slovenia and Croatia
in the southeast, the Sava separates Croatia and Bosnia, and the Danube,
the second largest European river (after the Volga), forms a natural
border between Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania.
Sometimes Wallachia
and Moldova are also added to the Balkan concept (whereby there is an
overlap between the geographical and the historical-political Balkan
concept). Rarely, the direct air-line between Trieste and Odessa is also
used as a demarcation.
The Balkan Peninsula has a pronounced relief and, due to the existing
mountain obstacles, has only a few natural transport routes. Only the
strategically outstanding Morava-Vardar furrow runs through the central
Balkan Peninsula between the Aegean Sea and the Danube in its entirety.
Parallel to the southwest coast of the mountainous peninsula, the
Dinaric Mountains form a largely karstified, difficult-to-access
mountain wall, which represents both a striking climatic and cultural
divide with the Mediterranean region.
A juxtaposition of high
mountains and basin landscapes characterizes the interior of the Balkan
Peninsula. The basins are created either as Poljen (Croatian, Serbian,
Bosnian and Slovenian for "field") in the karst (for example Middle
Dalmatian-Herzegovinian Poljenstufe) or tectonic depressions such as in
Kosovo (Rrafsh i Dukagjinit / Metochien, Amselfeld), North Macedonia
(basins of Skopje, Kumanovo, Bitola and Tetovo) as well as the
lake-rich, Pelagonian basins (Ohrid, Prespa, Dojran and Ioannina).
Plains are formed in the Albanian lowlands, the Slavonian (Sava)
lowlands, as well as the vast alluvial areas of the Danube. As an
ancient cultural region, the cities were mostly founded in
geographically favored places of the coasts and rivers. The ancient
urban culture originated from the political-geographical and cultural
conditions of Greece and was systematically spread by the Romans to the
other areas of the Balkan Peninsula. An urban renewal outside the
continuity of the commercial seaside towns takes place after the
migration of peoples, but only with the emergence of the Ottomans, who
were able to systematically integrate the central areas of the Balkan
Peninsula in particular into their economic system.
The Balkan Peninsula is a pronounced mountainous region. Young Alpine mountains stretch from northwest to southeast (Dinaric-Hellenidic mountain arc) and belong to the fold mountain belt surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Crystalline masses, which are geologically older and composed of impermeable granites and shales as well as limestones, are formed by the Rhodopes as well as Pirin, Rila and the Balkan Mountains. The highest peaks are found in the Rila (Musala 2925 m), Olympus (Mytikas 2917 m) and Pirin (Wichren 2911 m). The heavily karstified Dinarids (Jezerca 2694 m) and Hellenids (in Pindos: Smolikas 2637 m) are present on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and thus form pronounced climatic and cultural sheds.
Both the west coast (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro, Albania, Greece) and the east coast of the Balkan Peninsula
(Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece) are heavily rugged and divided into
numerous islands and peninsulas. The richly structured coastal region of
Dalmatia is formed as a canal coast, the Greek Aegean coast as a Rias
coast, the coasts to the Black Sea and those in Albania are then formed
as lowland coasts.
Numerous more or less fertile basins in the
form of karst or poljen (Grahovo, Nikšić) lie between the mostly bare,
sparsely populated mountains in the Dinaric Karst. Only the striking
large tectonically arranged basins of Kosovo and the basins in North
Macedonia (Pelagonian Basin) with their large lakes of tertiary origin
(Lake Ohrid, Lake Prespa) form economically and geographically
significant habitats that are densely populated.
The hydrological systems drain to varying degrees into the adjacent
seas. A large part of the flowing waters belong to the catchment area of
the Black Sea. The Adriatic catchment area is poor in surface
watercourses (in the Dinarides only Cetina, Neretva and Morača), whereas
the Adriatic and Aegean rivers are drained by Drin, Nestos, Struma,
Vardar and Mariza. The most important of the numerous tributaries of the
Danube and Sava are Kupa, Bosna, Drina, Morava and Iskar.
Hydrologically belonging to three catchment areas, the Adriatic, Aegean
and Black Sea, the water–rich Danube tributaries, which – with the
exception of the lowland stream of the Sava - lead through gorges and
canyons (Drina, Tara, Iskar), are of particular importance. The
Carpathian breakthrough of the Danube in the Iron Gate was a significant
obstacle to navigation until the 20th century. The rivers draining to
the Adriatic are of secondary importance, with the exception of Neretva
and Morača, which break through the threshold of the High Dinarides in
deep canyons. The larger mountain river systems in Albania and Greece
(Drin, Vardar and Nestos) flow in the lower reaches through wide
alluvial lowlands.
The three largest lakes of the peninsula are
Lake Skadar (maximum size 570 km2), Lake Ohrid (362 km2) and Lake Prespa
(273 km2), all of which are located in the southwestern part of the
Balkans.
The Balkan Peninsula is located at the transition from the
Mediterranean to the continental climatic zone. Surrounded by the sea on
two sides, the oceanicity is rapidly decreasing from the coastal edge to
the inland due to the mountains exposed to the west wind zone on the
coast in the west of the peninsula. Thus, the climate is characterized
by a stronger continentality and snowy winters even at a shorter
distance from the sea coast.
The solar climates of the Balkan
Peninsula, which have changed more hygrically and ventilatorically due
to the mountain systems, are characterized by local, mesoscale and
macroscale wind systems that strongly modify the climate. These include
the lee waves caused by the topography, such as the cold Bora and the
warm Föhn, which are particularly effective in the mountains, as well as
the seasonal macroscale wind systems of the Košava, Meltemi and the
Scirocco caused by differences in the air pressure gradients.
The
mountains of the Balkans are divided climatically into humid-temperate,
submediterranean and Mediterranean, as well as subhumid-continental
types. Edaphic deviations of the general types occur in karst areas in
otherwise humid climates. In addition, karst mountains line up from the
Julian Alps to the Peloponnese. Thus, climatic and edaphic factors are
more combined than in the Alps, Pyrenees or Carpathians. Karst mountains
of the northwest are generally humid, in the southeast semihumid to
semiarid.
The vegetation of large ecosystems (phytogeographic territories
or vegetation belts) is ecologically, chorologically and
floristically very uniform in terms of development history. Due to
the relief and the relationships that result from the location,
especially to the seas, a vegetation division differentiated by the
climatic factors and the aspects of the natural space takes place
within these plant kingdoms.
Phytogeographically, the Balkan
Peninsula is initially a part of the Holarctic flora kingdom. It can
be further classified into circumboreal, Mediterranean and Pontic
regions. The circumboreal (or submediterranean) central Balkan
Peninsula can be further divided into two flora regions, which are
described as the Illyrian and Moesian flora region after the Roman
provinces Illyricum and Moesia. The Illyrian west is basophilic and
oceanic, the Moesian east is acidophilic and continental. The richly
indented Dalmatian coast, parts of southern Albania as well as the
coasts of Greece and the Peloponnese belong to the Mediterranean
flora region. The coast of Dalmatia belongs to the Adriatic province
of the Mediterranean vegetation zone. The Epirotic and Aegean coasts
with the Greek island groups are part of the eastern Mediterranean
flora region. A part of Thrace already belongs to the Pontic
vegetation zone. Thus, floristic principles are prescribed.
Differences result from the mixture of the horo elements of
individual areas, which in turn depend on natural-spatial conditions
and the history of vegetation.
In particular, colline stages
are distinguished between east and west: Illyria is the center of
mesophilic beech forests, which dominate submontane to subalpine,
while in Moesia subalpine spruce forms boreal forests; the oaks in
the east (Quercus frainetto, Zerreiche [Q. cerris]) are replaced in
the west by humid oak-hornbeam forests (Quercus petrea, Carpinus
betulus). The Balkan region is enriched by many (tertiary) species
typical only for it, such as the Greek maple (Acer heldreichii), the
Serbian spruce (Picea omorika), the common horse chestnut (Aesculus
hippocastanum), Corylus colurna, Pinus peuce, Pinus heldreichii,
Ramonda serbica or the Neumayer pitcher fruit Amphoricarpos
neumayerianus.
Due to the pronounced relief, the diverse
topography and the resulting climatic diversity, as well as due to
the subtropical location and a concomitant (in comparison with the
rest of Europe higher) climatic advantage of the Earth's past, by
far the most diverse and species-rich vegetation of the European
continent has developed on the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan
Peninsula alone is home to over 160 species of woody plants and more
than 7000 cormophytes, of which 3000 are endemic species alone.
Already Turrill (1929) noted 6340 species on the Balkan Peninsula.
In comparison with the 10,500 species listed in the Flora Europaea
(1964-1993), the Balkan Peninsula thus plays a key role in the
European vegetation history and, as an endemic center, also ranks as
a biodiversity hotspot. The following conditions must be stated for
this:
a flora that contains many tertiary species that were
able to survive the ice Ages here;
paleoendemic relics;
Isolation of land masses, islands and mountain groups. Changes in
sea level. Fragmentation, isolation and migration of species,
formation of new habitats;
autonomous evolutionary centers close
to other flora regions;
Human influence through the destruction
and change of the natural land cover, the creation of new habitats
and the introduction of new species.
The genesis of the
Balkan flora occurred during tertiary, glacial and postglacial
phases. Today, ancient Mesozoic representatives no longer occur, as
in the floras of East Asia or Argentina. Nevertheless, the basic
stock of forest flora in particular has been known since the
Cretaceous, in particular the oaks (quercus), beeches (fagus),
chestnuts (Castanea), alders (alnus) and willows (Salix). The more
thermophilic tertiary flora was richer in tropical elements than
today, where only a small number of relict species (female hair fern
[Adiantum capillus-veneris]), genera (yams [Dioscorea]) and families
(Gesneraceae) have survived. Non-tropical tertiary forms, on the
other hand, are abundantly represented, such as plane trees
(Platanus), horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum), broad-leaved
(Scopolia), Sibiraea, Thelygonum, Serbian spruce (Picea omorika),
Pinus peuce, Forsythia europaea and the common lilac (Syringa
vulgaris). Due to the isolated position – the closest relatives are
mostly found in East Asia or the Near East – and the heterogeneous
phytogeographic genesis, all paleoendemic tertiary relics are
ecologically and horologically very differentiated representatives
of different vegetation geographical units. The evolution of the
Mediterranean mountain flora has also been taking place since the
Tertiary, independent of arcto-Alpine influences.
Greece, as
the most endemic sub-region, has 1100 endemic species. The endemism
is mainly due to the high specification of the Illyrian-Balkan
floricultural province. The comparatively higher biodiversity
compared to the Alps and Pyrenees, due to greater petrographic
heterogeneity than the Pyrenees and the embedding between flora
provinces against the Alps, makes the complex dinarides the
conspicuous endemic center with high species potential.
The
Illyrian province has four endemic genera: Petteria, Halacsya,
Haberlea, Jankaea. Endemics are Picea omorika (Serbia, Bosnia),
Pinus peuce (mountains between 41°-43° N), Primula deorum
(Bulgaria), Saxifraga ferdinandi-coburgii, Petteria ramentacea
(Dalmatia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, northern Albania), Oxytropis
prenja, Greek maple (Acer heldreichii), Forsythia europaea (northern
Albania, Kosovo) , Rock Moltkie (Moltkia petraea), Wulfenia
baldaccii (Montenegro, northern Albania), Haberlea rhodopensis
(Bulgaria, northeastern Greece), Ramonda serbica, Jankaea
heldreichii (Olympus), Neumayer pitcher fruit (Amphoricarpos
neumayerianus), Cicerbita pancicii, Lilium jankae and Dioscorea
balcanica (Montenegro, northern Albania). Relict species of the
Illyrian-Balkan province are the European hop beech (Ostrya
carpinifolia), Juglans regia, Syringa vulgaris, Tree hazel (Corylus
colurna), Common horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) etc.