Balkan Peninsula, peninsula in southeastern Europe, bounded on the east by the Black and Aegean seas, on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the west by the Adriatic and Ionian seas. It comprises the countries of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), Albania, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and European Turkey. The northern boundary is geographically defined as the Sava River ; the lower Danube River from the point, at Belgrade in Serbia, where the Sava joins it; and a line drawn arbitrarily from the upper Sava to the Adriatic near Rijeka, Croatia. This boundary is easily recognizable on a map and, with a few exceptions, encompasses the countries generally defined as Balkan states, but it has no physiographical justification. It is historically justifiable because the region so defined (together with Romania and excluding Montenegro, Dalmatia, and the Ionian Islands) constituted most of the European territory of the Ottoman Empire from the late 15th to the 19th century.
Balkan history is characterized by military and political strife. Because the peninsula is politically and economically important as part of the land bridge between Europe and Asia and the overland route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, it was subjugated for centuries by a series of conquerors. Conflict between Balkan peoples and nations has been common, and the Balkans have played a key role in European power struggles. The Balkans once were Roman provinces and the peninsula remained part of the Byzantine Empire until the late Middle Ages, when the Ottoman Turks invaded and gradually took control of almost the entire peninsula.
In the 19th century, one Balkan nation after another developed strong nationalist movements and won independence from the Turks. The various small Balkan countries emerged from the revolt against Turkish rule as autonomous nations. The Balkan struggle for liberation was at different times joined by the Russian and Austrian empires, which had designs of their own on Balkan territories.
At the end of the 19th century the Balkan countries were Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro, and the Austrian provinces Bosnia and Herzegovina. The following years were marked by chronic friction and intrigue; in 1912 the Balkan Wars began, and two years later World War I broke out.
After World War I ended in 1918, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the provinces of Croatia, Slavonia, and Carniola united with Serbia and Montenegro to form the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia ("Land of the South Slavs"). As a consequence of the Balkan Wars and World War I, European Turkey had for all practical purposes ceased to exist.
Between the two world wars, political leaders tried to prevent the Balkan countries from again becoming the "powder keg of Europe." A Balkan entente was signed by Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece, and Romania in 1934, but the international friction and open rifts that preceded World War II (1939-1945) were not lessened. Turkey and Greece resisted the infiltration of the Axis powers, but the influence of Italy and Germany was strong in the other Balkan countries. In April 1939, Italy seized Albania. In October 1940, after the outbreak of World War II, Italy invaded Greece but was thrown back into Albania, while the Germans swept through Romania and Bulgaria. Yugoslavia and Greece fell to the Germans early in 1941 despite stubborn resistance, which continued throughout the war. Bulgaria and Romania officially joined the Axis, but Yugoslavia and Greece established Allied governments-in-exile, which were replaced at the end of the war by provisional governments and finally by the kingdom of Greece and the republic of Yugoslavia. Albanian Resistance forces set up a provisional government that gained control after German withdrawal from the Balkans and proclaimed Albania the People's Republic of Albania. Upon the defeat of the Axis, a republic was also established in Bulgaria. In 1991 and 1992, four Yugoslav republics- Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia-declared their independence from Yugoslavia. Serbia and Montenegro then announced the formation of a new state, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Europa de Sud-Est, sau Peninsula Balcanica, se intinde de la Marea Neagra si Egee in Est, si pana la Marile Adriatica si Ionica in Vest, de la Marea Mediterana in Sud si pana la Muntii Carpati in Nord. Tarile care fac parte din acesata arie sunt Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia si Hertegovina, Macedonia, Republica Federala Iugoslavia (Serbia si Muntenegru), Albania, Bulgaria, Grecia, Romania si Turcia Europeana.
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