Small Town Sleeper

Archive for the ‘Balkans’ Category

By the beginning of this century, the Turks had become much less powerful. In 1911, the Turks and Italians went to war. The Balkan countries saw this as a good opportunity to drive the Turks out of Europe. Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro formed a secret alliance. (These last two countries are now part of Yugoslavia.) They declared war on Turkey in 1912, and the first Balkan War began. The four Balkan countries attacked the Turks at various points and defeated them. Bigger European countries tried to get the Balkan nations and Turkey to sign a peace treaty, but Turkey refused, and so the fighting started again. Turkey was defeated in several more battles, and finally, in May, 1913, a peace treaty was signed.

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.