Balkans

Peninsula of southeastern Europe, stretching into Slovenia between the Adriatic and Aegean seas, comprising Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, Romania, Serbia, and the part of Turkey in Europe. It is joined to the rest of Europe by an isthmus 1,200 km/750 mi wide between Rijeka, Croatia, on the west and the mouth of the Danube on the Black Sea to the east. The great ethnic diversity resulting from successive waves of invasion has made the Balkans a byword for political dissension, and the 1990s saw the break-up of Yugoslavia along ethnic lines. The term ‘Balkanize’ is used to refer to the division of an area into small warring states.

The Balkans' economy developed comparatively slowly until after World War II, largely because of the predominantly mountainous terrain, apart from the plains of the Save-Danube basin in the north. Political differences have remained strong, for example, the confrontation of Greece and Turkey over Cyprus, and the differing types of communism that prevailed until the early 1990s in the rest. Ethnic interfighting dominated the peninsula in the 1990s as first Slovenia and Croatia, and then Bosnia-Herzegovina, battled to win independence from the Serb-dominated Yugoslav federation. Tension remains in Bosnia-Herzegovina between Serbs, Muslims, and Croats. The formerly autonomous region of Kosovo, within Serbia, had its autonomy revoked in 1990, and escalating violence from 1997 by the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army led to an invasion of Kosovo by Serb troops. They withdrew in June 1999 after a bombing campaign by NATO force. Montenegro, the only republic remaining with Serbia in the Yugoslav federation, showed increasing signs of seeking independence from 1999.

The peninsula's main mountain ranges are the Dinaric Alps, the Balkans, the Rhodopi Mountains, and the Pindus. The region is largely agricultural, and fruits, grains and grazing are important. There is also a variety of mineral deposits, including iron ore, coal, manganese, lead, and zinc. The peoples of the Balkan Peninsula make up several ethnic groups. Linguistic and religious differences, however, are more distinct than those based on ethnicity.