What Is The Balkans And Where Is It Located

The Balkans are a group of countries in a part of southeast Europe called the Balkan peninsula

, between the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea. (A peninsula is a body of land that sticks out into the water.) All through history, countries have fought to get control of the Balkans, because so much of the trade between Europe and Asia passes through them. So many wars have started in the Balkans that they have been called "the powder keg of Europe." The Balkan peninsula is about 175,- 000 square miles in size, which is not much larger than the state of California, but more than 48,000,000 people live there-almost five times as many as live in California. The countries of the Balkan peninsula are: Yugoslavia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, and the part of Turkey that lies in Europe.

You can read more about each of these countries in separate articles. The Balkan people are of many different races and religions. The first people to settle in this part of Europe were the Albanians and the Greeks. Many other peoples followed-Slavs, Rumanians, Bulgarians, Turks, and others. They settled in different parts of the peninsula, and each race kept its own customs and beliefs. All of these groups wanted to be independent, and sometimes they fought other countries, and sometimes they fought each other, for the right to govern themselves. Most of the people are farmers. Many of them are poor, because much of the land is rocky and mountainous, and modern machinery cannot be used. Many of the people raise cattle, goats, and sheep. Most of the countries do not manufacture all the things they need. The Balkan peninsula is very mountainous, with many short rivers.

The famous Danube River flows from central Europe through the Balkans and then empties into the Black Sea. The Balkan mountains stretch from Yugoslavia to the Black Sea, and rise to about 7,800 feet in the central part. Many fierce battles have been fought in these mountains. Along the western border of the Balkans are the Dinaric Alps, which also have lofty peaks. These mountain ranges contain many valuable minerals, but most of them have not yet been mined. The people have neither the machines for mining, nor enough good rail roads and roads to carry the minerals away. It gets very cold in the winter in the mountains, but in the southern part of the peninsula the climate is warm, as it is in southern Italy. Five hundred years ago, the powerful Turks invaded the Balkan countries and gradually conquered them. The Balkan nations fought bravely, but they were not strong enough to drive out the Turks. For centuries afterward, the Turkish Empire controlled the Balkans. The Balkan people were unhappy and wanted to be free to rule themselves.

by: David Bunch

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