Where is balkans

Visa and Kirklareli joined the Ottoman lands in At the same year, Edirne became the capital. In , the Ottomans started the conquest of Macedonia.

Niche in and a large part of Sofia and Bulgaria in were included in the Ottoman borders. In , the Bulgarian Kingdom was abolished by defeating Tirnova. Due to the rapid progress of the Ottomans through the Balkans towards Europe, the Hungarian King Sigismund, who had feared, created a Crusader Army against the Turks by asking for help from the Pope and other European countries.

The Turks have progressed in Greece and Albania. In Thessaloniki joined the Ottoman lands. In , George Castriot, with some Albanian commanders, went through resistance in the country against the Ottomans.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian Commander achieved some small successes in Nis. The European states, believing that the Turks had fallen into a weak state, came back to the Ottomans with an army under the command of Hungarian King Ladislas I.

In , the Turkish Army broke down the Crusaders in Varna. In a second Crusader army again suffered a heavy defeat for the Ottoman Army. After the conquest of Istanbul in , the Ottomans continued their conquest of the Balkans. After the capture of Belgrade in , the entire Balkan Peninsula outside the coastal areas of Dalmatia and Montenegro was under the Ottoman rule in the Balkans. Finally, in the late 17th century, the progress and spread of the Turks in the Balkans ceased.

In , after the Treaty of Karlowitz, the Ottomans began to lose land in the peninsula. The subsequent policy of Tsarist Russia and Austria followed by the gradual weakening of the Ottoman Empire and the development of nationalist movements in Europe, the Balkan nations began to emerge as independent states.

As a result, Greece and Serbia in ; In Wallachia and Bogdan Principals became independent in and Bulgaria became independent in The Balkan Peninsula, one of the five major peninsulas of Europe, has important features with its geostrategic position extending to Central Europe and the Mediterranean.

Aside from ancient times, the central position of the Balkan Peninsula and the Ottoman Empire in the time of the Ottomans, which had a great place in the history of the Balkans, brought this critical geographical region to a region where the interests of England, Russia, Habsburg Empire, France, numerous interventions, rebellions and wars.

The main reason for the conflict is the accelerated growing activities of the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Serbia in the Balkans. Bulgaria, which did not find what it hoped for in the Treaty of Berlin in , began to pursue an effective policy in the Balkans after gaining its independence in In , Russia began to mediate and regulate between Bulgaria and Serbia to ensure that the interests of these two states would not conflict. The treaty of Russia with the Balkan States Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro, who wanted to put an end to the existence of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, agreed to intervene between Russia and Ottoman and to remove the Turks from the Balkans.

Battle of Tripoli also encouraged them. Albania has also gained its independence. The Bulgarian army began to threaten Istanbul, moving up to Catalca.

The armies of Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece have completely occupied Macedonia. Also, seeing other Balkan countries as a threat to itself, Albania has declared its independence. Moreover, the agreement, which ended the war between the parties, was signed in London in May According to the Treaty of London: Albania won its independence.

Greece took Crete Island. Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, and Bulgaria, which do not agree to take more territory of Bulgaria, and the Kingdom of Romania, which did not participate in the First Balkan War, united and fought against Bulgaria. Just like Slovenia, Montenegro too is recognized for being small, but at the same time incredible diverse.

Most people appreciate Montenegro for its Adriatic coast with spectacular beaches of white pebbles and azure waters, elegant Venetian towns of Kotor and Perast , extravagant places such is the ex-fishing-village-island-turned-into-a-luxurious-hotel at Sveti Stefan and of course the tourist mega-center of Budva.

But there is also another part of this Balkan country — the rugged mountains that scratch from the coast inland and provide amazing landscape full of hiking opportunities , crystal-clear lakes, divine rivers and incredible historical sites such are the Ostrog Monastery or the mausoleum of king Petar.

Those of you deciding to visit Montenegro , will quickly find out there is something for everyone in this tiny Balkan country just waiting to be discovered. Hurry up, before the secret gets out! Once the most influential of all the republics in the old Yugoslavia, Serbia found itself somewhat isolated after the gory war, especially after the horrific NATO bombing of its capital Belgrade in The international community forced the Serbian government to pull their military from the neighboring Kosovo which finally brought peace to the Balkans.

There are still tensions regarding the independence of Kosovo which Serbia is not recognizing, but in recent years this Balkan country started reconnecting with the world and is making big steps towards joining the European Union. Despite being an underdog when talking about traveling to the Balkans, visiting Serbia can be an authentic experience.

It is especially popular with young travelers, as Belgrade is often nicknamed the party capital of the Balkans and Exit festival in Novi Sad was named best of its kind in the whole of Europe. Welcome to the youngest country not only in the Balkans, but in the whole of Europe! Its status is still disputed and Kosovo is only recognized by a rough half of the UN member states. However, since its declaration of independence from Serbia in , this tiny country in the heart of the Balkan peninsula has come a long way and is developing rapidly, mainly due to the considerable support from the international community, especially the EU.

That said, Kosovo is definitely one of the most authentic and off-the-beaten-path places to visit in the Balkans. Until recently simply known as Macedonia , this small landlock country in the Balkan peninsula changed its name to North Macedonia in February after reaching an agreement with the neighboring Greece. In a nutshell: Macedonia is also the name of the Greek region boarding the state of North Macedonia and Greece was afraid their neighbors to the north might get unjustified territorial aspirations sometime in the future if the problem is not solved soon.

However, there is another diplomacy war going on with Bulgaria who claims that Macedonian language is just a dialect of the Bulgarian. Yes, it seems there is always something going on in the Balkans. During his rule, Albania was virtually cut from the rest of the world and influences of those politics are still very much visible today. Especially interesting are the numerous bunkers built by Hoxha and can be found all over the country.

Among the natural sights worth checking out is the gorgeous Ionian coastline and the three great Balkan lakes , all partly owned by Albania: Skadar , Ohrid and Prespa. It is worth noting that Albanians are not Slavic as most of the nations in the Balkans, and their language is much different that any other in the region.

Despite being part of the South Slavic family and speaking a very similar language than Macedonians, Bulgarians were not part of the Yugoslavia. Their genes are a mix of three ethnic elements which include Thracians a native ancient Balkan Indo-European culture , Slavs which migrated from North-East Europe into the Balkans in the 6th century and Bulgars a semi-nomadic conglomerate of tribes from Central Asia who arrived in the 7th century.

Their cultural influence on other Slavic nations is especially evident through the introduction of Cyrillic script developed in the time of the Bulgarian Empire before it fell under Byzantine and later Ottoman rule. Fun fact: the highest mountain of the Balkans Musala , m is located in Bulgaria. Despite sitting on the very south of the Balkan peninsula and being entirely part of this geographical concept, Greece is sometimes taken out of the group of the Balkan countries.

Nowadays, Greece with its ancient temples and numerous islands is a tourism powerhouse. Visitors from all over the world flock here to enjoy the turquoise waters of the Aegean and Ionian Sea , rent a private gulet for a week, or take a luxury cruise among the Greek islands.

Like most other Balkan states, Macedonia is a parliamentary representative democratic republic. The capital city is Skopje. Romania is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, and its capital city is Bucharest.

This country makes up the largest piece of the Balkan peninsula and boasts a population of about 21 million people. Eighty-three percent of people living in Romania are ethnic Romanians. There are several spoken languages in Romania but the official language is Romanian. Serbia is a parliamentary democracy and its capital city is Belgrade.

The official language is Serbian, a standardized variety of Serbo-Croatian. About 2. The official language is Slovene, known as Slovenian in English.

Slovenia's capital city is Ljubljana. Geographers and politicians divide the Balkan peninsula in a variety of ways due to a complicated history. The root cause of this is that a number of Balkan countries were once part of the former country of Yugoslavia , which formed at the end of World War II and separated into distinct countries in Some Balkan states are also considered "Slavic states" as they are typically defined as Slavic-speaking communities.

Maps of the Balkans often define the countries listed above as Balkan using a combination of geographic, political, social, and cultural factors. Other maps that use a strictly geographical approach include the entire Balkan Peninsula as Balkan.

These maps add the mainland of Greece as well as a small portion of Turkey that lies northwest of the Sea of Marmara as Balkan states. The Balkan Peninsula is rich in both water and mountains, making it a biodiverse and vibrant European destination. If you were to travel north of the Balkans, you would pass through Austria, Hungary, and Ukraine.

Italy shares a small border with Slovenia, a Balkan country, on the region's western edge. But perhaps even more so than water and location, mountains define the Balkans and make this land unique.

The word Balkan is Turkish for "mountains", so it's probably not surprising that the aptly-named peninsula is covered in mountain ranges.

These include:. These mountains play a big role in the region's climate. In the north, the weather is similar to that of central Europe, with warm summers and cold winters. In the south and along coastlines, the climate is more Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and rainy winters. Within the many mountain ranges of the Balkans are rivers large and small. These blue rivers are commonly noted for their beauty but they are also full of life and home to an impressive variety of freshwater animals.

The two major rivers in the Balkans are the Danube and Sava. There is a regional term often used when talking about the Balkan Peninsula and this is the Western Balkans.