Home > Places > Europe > Southern Europe >

Balkans

Region of southeast Europe, between the Adriatic and Aegean seas, mostly coextensive with the Balkan Peninsula

Places index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

The Balkans, also known as the Balkan Peninsula, or Southeast Europe is a geographic area in Europe with various definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbian-Bulgarian border to the Black Sea. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea on the northwest, the Ionian Sea on the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south and southeast and the Black Sea on the east and northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala, 2,925 meters, in the Rila mountain range.

Geographical type: Peninsula

Latitude: 42° N — Longitude: 22° E

Area: 666,700 km²

Notable Places

Albania - Territory in southeast Europe on the Adriatic Sea, ruled since 1992 by the Republika e Shqipërisë
Bulgaria - Territory in southeast Europe, ruled since 1991 by the Republic of Bulgaria
Greece - Territory in southeast Europe, ruled since 1975 by the Elliniki Dhimokratia
Romania - Territory in southeast Europe, ruled since 1991 by the Statul Român
Serbia - Territory in southeastern Europe, ruled since 2006 by the Republika Srbija
Turkey - Territory in southwest Asia and southeast Europe, ruled since 1923 by the Türkiye Cumhuriyeti

Other Places

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Territory in south central Europe, ruled since 1995 by Republika Srpska, the Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine and the Brčko Distrikt
- Economic Freedom of the World
- English Wikipedia
Croatia - Territory in southern Europe, ruled since 1991 by the Republika Hrvatska
- Economic Freedom of the World
- English Wikipedia
Kosovo - Territory in southeastern Europe, nominally ruled since 2008 by the Republika e Kosovës, but also claimed by the Republika Srbija
- Encyclopædia Britannica
Macedonia, North - Territory in southeast Europe, ruled since 1991 by the Republika Makedonija
- Economic Freedom of the World
- English Wikipedia
Montenegro - Territory in the western Balkan Peninsula, ruled since 2006 by the Crna Gora
- Economic Freedom of the World
Yugoslavia - Territory in northwest of the Balkan peninsula, ruled by kings between the two World Wars and later a republic until 1992
- English Wikipedia

Articles

NATO's Balkans Disaster and Wilsonian Warmongering, Part 2, by Doug Bandow, Freedom Daily, Aug 1999
Considers possible justifications for war vis-à-vis NATO's involvement in the conflict between Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and the Kosovo Liberation Army

Let the Western Europeans sort out the problems of the Balkans ..., if they believe doing so to be worth the cost. To paraphrase ... Bismarck, the Balkans are not worth the bones of a single healthy American rifleman ... Fear of a broader conflict was ... the same argument used to justify Western intervention in Bosnia. Yet the Yugoslavian civil war, running from Slovenia through Bosnia, lasted longer than World War I without expanding beyond Yugoslavia. Even if the conflict in Kosovo had spilled over into Albania and Macedonia, no major power would have joined in, in stark contrast to [WWI].

Related Topics: Europe, Russia, Serbia, War

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Balkans" as of 7 Nov 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.