BALKAN PENINSULA. Since the early 19th century this name has been given to the most easterly of the three south ern prolongations of the European Continent. Balkan is a Turk ish word meaning mountain, and though in modern usage it is applied only to a particular mountain belt lying south of the Lower Danube, it was formerly regarded as a general name for a chain supposed to run from east to west across the peninsula. This hypothetical range was thought to be the boundary between the early maritime civilizations of the south and the bleaker, more difficult lands of the interior, with their "barbarian" peoples. The actual relief conditions are not so simple as was believed, but the fact that the conception of a Balkan peninsula, compar able to the Iberian and Italian ones, is of so recent a date is of great interest. The conception owes its origin and spread to two sets of facts. It has been shown by modern geographical research that the area possesses certain basal resemblances to the two more familiar peninsulas, particularly in its relations to the folded mountain chains of southern Europe and in its structural elements. But these resemblances depend upon fairly detailed points, mainly of interest to the physical geographer, and co exist with well-marked and obvious differences. The term Balkan peninsula would not have acquired its present familiarity to the general public, if it had connoted only certain structural features. During the I9th century, when geographers and geologists were acquiring new knowledge of the interior of the region, and coming to regard it as an entity, not as merely a background to Greece and Byzantium, great political changes were taking place within it. The peoples submerged by the Turkish advance began to organize themselves into national states, and, as the Turkish empire contracted, new names appeared on the map. The growth of the new states was accompanied by much turmoil, which had reflex effects outside the limits of the peninsula, however these be drawn ; but the essential point is that it drew general attention to the region. It became increasingly clear that all the older European states, if in varying degree, were interested in the delimiting of boundaries within it, and that thus the facts dis closed by detailed geographical study had more than purely tech nical importance.
One of the reasons why the notion of the entity of the peninsula was so slow in taking root was that no mountain barrier separates it from the Continental mainland, as Italy is separated by the Alps and the Iberian peninsula by the Pyrenees. There is thus no sharp break of continuity such as is experienced when the Alps are crossed and a new world is disclosed in Italy. The northern limit usually adopted is constituted by the line of the Danube, then the Save, then the small feeder of the latter called the Kulpa, from which an imaginary line is drawn to the port of Fiume. This limit has a certain justification, if not a complete one. The Danube-Save line is easily recognized on a map, and it serves for a period as a boundary to the Turkish empire and thus as the frontier of Christendom. For a time also the Save Kulpa-Fiume section, which has a certain air of unreality, did at least approximate to the frontier between Austria and the Turk. In point of fact, however, a geographically satisfactory f rontier in this north-western section is difficult to draw. Even the Danube-Save line, at least to the west of the Iron Gate of the Danube, has never been a limit so far as peoples are concerned; it bears now little relation to political frontiers. The first point about the Balkan peninsula is thus that on the north there is no real separation between it and Central Europe. This physical continuity is accentuated by the notable increase in width of the peninsula towards the north. Thus the distance in a straight line from the mouths of the Danube to Fiume is about 750m.; for the sake of comparison it may be noted that the line by which Spain is attached to the Continent measures only some 250m. from sea to sea, the Pyrenees being continuous throughout and leaving but a small gap at either end.
The second outstanding feature is the peculiar build, which causes the peninsula to fall into two very unequal and very dis similar parts. To the south a secondary peninsula, with an average width of only about 125m., is attached to the main one. Though both sections are highly mountainous, not only is this secondary peninsula of Greece much narrower, but it has a peculiarly dis sected coast-line, which brings sea influences within easy reach of almost every part. The broad, Continental northern section, on the other hand, is largely out of touch with the surrounding seas, not only because of its width, which makes places in the interior over 3oom. from the nearest coast, but on account of the nature of the shore-lines, and, in part, of the direction of the mountains. In climate, in vegetation, in possible crops, it differs profoundly from Greece. No less profound has been the effect of the actual remoteness from the sea routes so freely open to the peoples of the south. It is this division into two parts—one sharing to the full the life of Mediterranean peoples, the other cut off from it—rather than the absence of a definite northern limit, which made the European world so slow to recognize the existence of a Balkan peninsula. Till the peoples of the Conti nental segment awoke, the whole northern area tended to be re garded only as a broader equivalent of Alps or Pyrenees : the real peninsula was the Grecian one.
Structure and Relief.—As just stated, it is the presence within the peninsula of young f old-mountains which has led geographers to recognize it as essentially similar to the other Mediterranean peninsulas. Two separate series of these can be recognized, one, of transverse direction, lying to the east, and the other, which is longitudinal, in the west. The Transylvanian Alps swing round in a great curve, the Danube breaking through at the Iron Gate at the western apex of the curve, and are continued in the Balkan mountains, which have a roughly parallel direction. Breaking off steeply on the shores of the Black sea, the Balkans rise to a maximum height of nearly 8,000ft., and the most noted of their passes, the Shipka, has a summit level of well over 4,000 feet. At first sight it might seem as if the crest of these mountains should be taken as the northern limit of the peninsula, rather than the line of the Danube. But northwards they sink gradually to a chalky tableland, presenting a marked contrast to the alluvial plains of Walachia beyond the river, and the presence of this tableland means that the northern slopes up to the passes, rel atively high though these are, are gentle. The Balkans have indeed proved in practice much less of a barrier to human move ment than would appear from the map.
Just as the Balkans are a continuation of the Carpathian branch of the Alpine chain, so the main chain itself bends down the western side of the peninsula. From the Julian Alps north of Trieste a series of mountains runs in a south-easterly direction close to the coast and parallel with it. These, to which the gen eral name of Dinaric Alps may be given, rise to well over 8,000ft. in the peak of Durmitor ; but their significance as a barrier does not depend upon their height. They are characterized by the great development of massive limestones, particularly ex tensive in the area lying behind the peninsula of Istria. These limestone areas, called karst in German and carso in Italian, dis play to a very marked extent certain peculiar topographical fea tures, dependent on the effect of rain water on their constituent rocks. Thus the surface soil is very thin, bare rock being fre quently exposed; running water is usually absent at the surface, most of the rivers sinking, after a short course, into cavities of the rocks; caves and sinks are common, as well as elongated de pressions called locally polyen, or fields, because only in them as a rule is there sufficient depth of soil to permit of cultivation. The combination of these features makes the karst areas diffi cult to cross, because continuous river valleys to serve as natural routes are absent as a rule, and, where they occur, as in the case of the Narenta river, the stream tends to flow in steep-sided, canyon-like gorges which form a great obstacle to transverse movement. Further, not only do these lands form a barrier be tween the sea and the interior, but they can as a rule only support a scanty and scattered population, for the local resources are small.
In places the limestone mountains rise steeply from the shore of the Adriatic, but a certain amount of subsidence has occurred, with the result that numerous islands fringe the coast. Because the mountain folds run parallel to the shore, the islands tend to be elongated in the direction of the coast-line, and the straits and inlets tend to have the same direction. The islands are usually fertile and there is often a strip of productive land f ring ing the inlets. Water is also easy to obtain, for the streams which were lost on the heights above emerge as full-grown rivers where the rocky hills descend in cliffs to the sea margin, or springs even bubble up on the sea-floor itself. In contrast to the dry and barren lands above, therefore, there is a possibility of cultivation and settlement on the shore. But the coastal areas are too narrow, the difficulties of communicating with the interior too great, to have allowed for the rise of indigenous civilizations here. The scattered towns on this Dalmatian coast represent islets of ancient but alien culture, and have scarcely influenced the interior of the peninsula at all. They themselves arose as colonies, as offshoots, that is to say, of areas enjoying much greater advantages.
The Dinaric Alps may be said to extend to the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Drin. Here the coast changes in direction, trending almost north-to-south, and the mountain belt thins out and draws back from the coast, so that the Albanian lowland in tervenes between it and the sea. This strip, which extends south to Valona, shows another contrast to the Dalmatian area further north in that a considerable number of permanent rivers flow from the mountains across the lowland to the sea; here, then, access to the interior becomes at least relatively easy. Another peculiarity is the proximity to south-eastern Italy. Valona is some 8om. distant from Brindisi, the actual Strait of Otranto being only about Som. wide. The combination of this nearness to an area of old civilization and of natural routes to the hinterland is of great significance.
Valona, with the adjacent sheltering peninsula ending in Cape Linguetta, marks the beginning of a new change. The coast re assumes a south-easterly direction, the fold-mountains become more conspicuous as the Pindus range, which extends throughout the whole of Greece. In the Peloponnesus the mountains tend to acquire a north-to-south direction, finally swinging round to a west-to-east one in Crete.
According to current views of the mechanics of 'mountain folding, a crust-block of old and hard rocks is always present, which receives the pressure of the thrust causing the folding. While the younger and softer rocks on its margins buckle up under the stress, it, by hypothesis, can only respond by faulting, with the sinking of certain segments and the uplift of others. Such a crust-block is present in the Balkan peninsula, forming its central core. This has a roughly triangular shape, the apex reaching the Danube east of Belgrade and the broad base ap proaching the shore of the Aegean sea. That sea is believed to overlie a former extension of the crust-block which has sunk beneath its waters. The numerous Greek islands represent f rag ments of the surface of this lost land, which have remained above sea-level when the remainder sank. The narrow straits of the Bosporus and Dardanelles are also regarded as flooded parts of the courses of rivers which crossed the old land.
The central core of the peninsula, though it has retained a po sition above sea-level, has been greatly modified as a result of the formation of the fold-mountains on its margins. The nar rowed northern region, constricted between the Dinaric Alps and the curve of the Balkans, is a broken hilly country traversed by a continuous longitudinal depression through which the River Morava flows on its way to the Danube. South of Nish, however, and extending to the Gulf of Salonika is a region of great struc tural complexity, which seems to have received the full force of the thrust. Faults are innumerable, and closed basins alternate with short and steep highland belts. The basins tend to be elongated in a longitudinal direction. Many have formerly been lakes, and since they are floored with fertile soil, they are fitted to become centres of population ; but their isolation from each other has had very important human effects.
As contrasted with this fractured and much subdivided region the south-eastern part of the triangle, that lying between the Balkans and the Aegean, shows relative simplicity. Here the core reaches its greatest height (over 9,5ooft. in the Rila Dagh), and here also is the broadest unbroken mass of elevated ground. The general name of Rhodope Dagh may be given to the whole block, though the separate parts have local names. The Rhodope Up land is separated from the Balkan mountains by a considerable lowland, the Rumelian plain, watered by the River Maritsa. This is one of the most considerable tracts of lowland within the pen insula and is continued, beyond the Maritsa, into an undulating tract extending to the shores of the Sea of Marmara. There is also an interrupted belt of plain between the Rhodope and the Aegean, the total result being to make the south-eastern part of the peninsula much less continuously hilly than the north-west, where lowlands are virtually absent.
A map with orographical colouring shows an almost continuous area of high ground on the west, continued into the Grecian peninsula, which is almost wholly mountainous. In the north west the way in which the high ground within the peninsula passes into the Alps proper means that the Danubian plains have no natural, easy exit to the Adriatic. But, owing to the presence of the broad Gulf of Quarnero, the mountain belt thins out behind the town of Fiume at its head. Beyond this narrowed section lies a tract of undulating country, mostly outside the peninsula as usually defined, for it extends beyond the Save-Kulpa line. This area is a continuation of the plains of the Danube, and, where the rivers Drave and Save converge towards one another, it in cludes a considerable area of true plain. Though the mountain belt which separates it from the Adriatic is neither wide nor lofty—it does not rise much above s,000f t. ; yet on account of its karstic nature it forms a very effective barrier. The chief elements of the belt are the Kapella and Velebit mountains, both remarkably waterless and barren. The mainland shore of the Gulf of Quarnero is also inhospitable. This whole area, formerly the kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, is therefore from the physical standpoint a transition region between Central Europe and the Balkan peninsula. It has little direct relation to the Adriatic, though economic and political causes led to Hungary making great efforts to develop Fiume as a grain port during the later 19th century. The western mountain section is well fitted to serve as a strategic frontier, and did mark the limit of the Turk ish advance; but the fact that much of the boundary is formed by the Save river is important. A river line can be organized as a military frontier by a strong state, but it is not a natural barrier to the migration of peoples. In the past, Croatia-Slavonia has been politically, economically and culturally attached to Central Europe, but by its inhabitants it belongs to the Balkan peninsula. North-west of Croatia-Slavonia, in the region where the Dinaric Alps in the larger sense pass into the Julian Alps, lies the former Austrian Crownland of Carniola, a karst area, again lying out side the peninsula proper, but having a considerable Balkan ele ment in its population.
To the south of the Velebit mountains a narrow strip of coast line, with the mountain crest behind, forms Dalmatia. But the real Dalmatia is an interrupted series of maritime towns, Zara, Sebenico, Trau, Spalato and Ragusa being among the most im portant. For the reasons already noted these towns have little connection with the interior; their Roman antiquities, the Vene tian lion which still decorates some of their old buildings, are visible indications that their position on the shore of the peninsula has had little effect on the life of their inhabitants.
The actual mountain belt, from the borders of Croatia-Slavonia to the confines of Greece, is divided among a series of separate units, forming, in order from north to south, Bosnia, Hercegovina, Montenegro and Albania. In Bosnia the limestone rocks of the coastal area give place to others, including sandstones, which at once allow of the development of deeper soils and of a more normal drainage system. The numerous rivers drain to the Save, and Bosnia can be reached from that river, and thus from the Danubian plains, with relative ease. Other route-lines connect it with the interior of the peninsula. Hercegovina is a karstic area, with only one important river, the Narenta, which flows to the Adriatic. But though a light railway connects Ragusa to Mostar, the capital of Hercegovina, and that city to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, access to the Adriatic is difficult. Montenegro has a narrow strip of coast-line, but is essentially a mountain eyrie, a refuge which withstood invasion in the past as much perhaps because of its worthlessness as of the difficulty of conquest.
Albania, with its malarious lowland and its mountainous hin terland, is a region of much interest. As already seen, it affords the possibility of routes to the interior, and might thus be sup posed to be a prize worth having. But the inhabitants, who are mountaineers with little interest in the sea or in sea traffic, have preserved a striking measure of individuality since very early times. The through routes which traverse their lands have never been of great value to them, and their territory is not particularly productive. The strongly manifested individuality of the Albanians has prevented the growth of an indigenous political system and encouraged alien control. Twenty years of experiment in self government proved insufficient to develop a stable organization, and in 1939 the country came once more under foreign rule.
Broadly then we may say that the whole of the western moun tain belt is a region of povgrty and aloofness. There is no unity among the different parts, no area to act as a focal point about which a natural crystallization could take place; it is not here that the origin of Balkan problems is to be sought.
We come next to the western part of the crust-block, with its marked contrast between the northern section, draining to the Danube mainly by the Morava, and its complex southern section, draining to the Gulf of Salonika by the Vardar. West of the Morava the country is undulating and lowlands fringe the south bank of the Save. The Western Morava also, a tributary entering the main stream from the west, helps to define a block of land which affords possibilities of settlement. This was the nucleus of the Serbia of the 19th century, with Belgrade, at the junction of Save and Danube, as its capital. East of the Morava the surface is more elevated, the rocks of the crust-block abutting upon those of the Balkan mountains. The complex southern region is Macedonia, with its jumble of peoples, its long history of turmoil and disorder.
Thrace, a name used loosely for the area east of the Mesta river, is functionally the passage way between the southern edge of the crust-block and the sea. The Rhodope upland is continued eastwards, beyond the gap through which the River Maritsa has cut its way, into the Istranja mountains, which descend steeply to the shores of the Black sea. Between this up land tract and the Sea of Marmara on the one hand and the Aegean on the other, is a considerable belt of low-lying land. Adrianople, on the Maritsa after it breaks through the narrow neck connecting the Rhodope and the Istranja, is the natural centre of this eastern part of Thrace. Further west the coastal lowland is narrowed by the nearness of the Rhodope to the Aegean, and is also interrupted by prolongations of the upland, particularly on the right bank of the Lower Maritsa. This nar rowed strip affords a land route from Asia Minor to peninsular Greece; to Macedonia and so to the north and north-west ; to Albania and so to the Adriatic coast. With the loss of Adrianople and almost the whole of Thrace to Greece, Turkey in Europe is reduced to the city of Constantinople and a triangular belt of land in its rear, extending from the Istranja mountains and the Black sea to the Sea of Marmara. This area is mostly steppe-like and of no great productivity.
There remains for consideration Bulgaria, which presents some points of great interest. Post-war Bulgaria has as its northern frontier the Danube, save that where the river takes its great bend to the north, the frontier leaves it, and runs slightly south of east to the Black sea, the steppe-like Dobruja being included in Rumania. Southwards Bulgaria extends to the Rhodope crest, and is thus nearly bisected by the Balkan mountains. Sofia, the capital, lies in a small basin between the Balkan mountains and a north-westerly prolongation of the Rhodope, the basin being drained by the River Isker, which breaks through the Balkans to enter the Danube. South of the Balkan chain, and separated from it by a longitudinal depression, lies a parallel upland, the Anti Balkans. The intervening depression is watered by the River Tunja, which seems to be making for the Black sea near the port of Burgas, but turns instead sharply south, breaks through the western end of the Istranja, and joins the Maritsa at Adrianople. The Upper Maritsa, on which stands Philippopolis, flows through the wider depression which we have called the Rumelian plain. These two fertile lowlands, with their bounding uplands, form Eastern Rumelia, not united politically to North Bulgaria till 1885. Geographically the important point is that this region, with southern Macedonia, formed the granary of Turkey in Europe, as it did of the earlier Eastern Empire. The Maritsa depression shows certain analogies to the valley of Andalusia in Spain, both in its position between fold-mountains and a crust-block, and in its value to an alien invader. The first Turkish capital Adrianople, is on the margin of the productive belt, but Con stantinople is outside it.
Greece within its peninsula, Serbia in the Morava region, Bul garia astride the Balkan mountains, all became independent states while Turkey still held Thrace, Macedonia, Albania and, at least nominally, a large part of the north-west. That the progressive contraction of Turkish territory led to such bitter and prolonged conflict was largely due to the nature of the routes within the Continental section of the peninsula, and particularly to the difficult access of both Bulgaria and Serbia to open water. Thus the natural route-lines demand careful consideration.
Belgrade lies where the two inland waterways of the Danube and the Save meet. The Danube is continuously navigable, despite the partial interruption of the Iron Gate, downstream to the Black sea, as well as upstream. The Save, though not a first class waterway, can be used by steamers up to the Kulpa con fluence. Apart from the rivers a number of land-routes converge on Belgrade. Communication is easy northward across the plains to Budapest and so to north-western Europe ; the Save valley allows access westward to Zagreb and so to Fiume, or by Ljubl jana to Trieste and North Italy. Finally the Morava valley gives an admirable line of entrance to the interior of the peninsula.
Salonika is the only good port on the north coast of the Aegean, and is the best exit to open water for the whole of the interior, Fiume being somewhat remote, and neither the other Adriatic ports nor the Black sea ones being of much value. Its political allocation has been complicated by the fact that two major land routes and some minor ones converge upon it. The first group consists of the meridianal furrow indicated by the direction of the Morava and Vardar rivers, and the route from Constanti nople by the Thracian lowland.
The Morava-Vardar furrow is followed by the railway from Belgrade to Salonika by way of Nish and Skoplje (Uskub). But though the headstreams of the two rivers, despite their contrary direction, actually anastomose in wet weather, it must not be assumed that a continuous valley line extends from the Danube to the Gulf of Salonika. The Morava, upstream from Nish, the Vardar, downstream from Skoplje, both pass through gorges offering considerable resistance to through communication in pre railway days. The Morava gorge at Varanje could be avoided by taking off from the river and entering the basin called the Kosovo Polye, north-west of Skoplje. It is worth noting in this connec tion that the gorge was the Serbian frontier at one stage in the development of that state—a clear indication of the break in the furrow here. Again, the Vardar gorge can be avoided by taking off from the river and following a belt of low ground which leads by Shtip and Strumnitsa to the valley of the Struma river. By this route it is possible to reach either Salonika or the Aegean coast further east, beyond the remarkable Chalcidice peninsula. Here lie the possible port of Orphano and the somewhat more important one of Kavala. But the Struma river rises not far from Sofia, giving that town a line of access to Salonika, or to the Aegean coast at Orphano or Kavala. A railway, indeed, con nects Sofia with the line from Constantinople to Salonika, and thus with the latter port.
The fact that Salonika is politically Greek, and not attached either to Yugoslavia, despite the presence of the Morava-Vardar furrow, or to Bulgaria, despite the relative nearness of Sofia, is explicable rather by the strength of a cultural and historical tradition than by purely physical facts. It is an Aegean port of much importance in the modern world, and to the Greeks the idea that control of Aegean trade is their national right is one that admits of no argument. Part of its basis is of course the geographical fact that their somewhat barren land could not support them unless supplemented by the sea trade for which they have always shown natural aptitude.
One other minor land-route which leads to Salonika may be mentioned. As its Latin name of Via Egnatia indicates, it had historical significance, and though it is not followed throughout by a railway, nor even by a continuous road in the European sense, it may in the future reacquire value as a thoroughfare. It connects the small port of Durazzo (Roman, Dyrrachium, modern Albanian, Durres) by Okhrida and Monastir to Salonika and so to Constantinople. It thus renders possible a traverse of the peninsula from west to east, and was used for this purpose in Roman times. Its existence, combined with Italian presence in Albania, is an element in the Greek desire to hold Salonika. Monastir has also a connection with Valona, and is itself on a rail way line forming a western loop of the main Skoplje-Salonika line.
Constantinople, with a superb natural position where the water way from the Black to the Aegean sea crosses the land route from Asia Minor to the Balkan peninsula, is connected to Belgrade by a diagonal furrow, certainly as important as the north-to south one from Belgrade to Salonika. The route follows the Morava valley to Nish, then ascends the Nishava tributary and crosses a pass to the basin of Sofia. From this basin by another pass it reaches the Maritsa valley, and follows this past Philippop olis and Adrianople, till the valley of Ergene tributary enables it to turn east to Constantinople.
Bulgaria, with a line running eastwards from Philippopolis to the Black sea port of Burgas connected across the Balkans to the Danubian tableland route from Sofia to Varna, has a fairly well developed railway net. The fact that there is no coastal line run ning from Varna to Constantinople should be noted.
Though the three great routes cross one another within the peninsula, no notable centres, ancient or modern, stand at the points of intersection. The absence of such internal focal points is but a further indication of the minor importance of local traffic, associated with the fact that no great contrasts exist in the products of the different territories. Just as the external states tend to seek to advance into the peninsula by the line of the highways, so each of the units within seeks to hold as much as possible of the main route or routes passing through its lands, both in order to obtain an uninterrupted exit and entrance for its commerce, and to share in the profits of the through traffic.
Of the five separate political units, Greece has been far the most successful in expanding so as to obtain access to all the main routes. The pushing of the Greek frontier into Macedonia and Thrace gives the State hold of the greater part of that section of the west-to-east route which is important because traversed by a railway ; Greece also holds a part of the meridianal furrow, thus cutting off Yugoslavia from the Aegean, and a part of the diagonal furrow, thus cutting off Bulgaria similarly from the Aegean. At the same time this division of the highways into parts held by the different states affords a certain security against external penetration, and gives a possibility of internal adjust ments. The Belgrade-Constantinople railway passes through the territories of Yugoslavia, of Bulgaria, of Greece and of Turkey; the Belgrade-Salonika one, prolonged from Salonika to Athens, is divided between Yugoslavia and Greece ; the potential Durazzo Constantinople one crosses territory belonging to Albania, Yugo slavia, Greece and Turkey. This gives a certain hope for the future, for it suggests that the five states may learn that they have common interests; in the immediate past the antagonisms rising out of the growth of national consciousness in each have too often been fomented from outside, and the first lesson the Balkan peoples have to learn is the need of living at peace with each other. That Yugoslavia has a free zone at the port of Salonika, and that Greece is linked to the railway system of the rest of Europe only by a line which passes through Yugoslav territory are notable facts; they indicate that the well-being of each state is bound up with that of the others.
Climate.—Next to the relief and the presence of the great highways, the factor which has most deeply influenced human life within the peninsula is the climate, acting mainly through its effect on natural vegetation and cultivated crops. Of the climatic types represented in Europe generally, two, the Mediterranean and the Central European, occur here in pronounced form, but there are also variants and transitional types. The outstanding peculiarity, however, is that the perfectly typical Mediterranean climate has a very limited extension, as compared with the Cen tral European type, which prevails through the greater part of the broad northern section of the peninsula, and even extends into the centre of the northern part of the Greek section. While, therefore, five major climatic regions can be recognized, by far the largest of these is that which is in reality but an extension of the greater region lying to the north. In other words, no notable difference in climate separates the peninsula proper from the adjacent Danubian lands.
The Mediterranean climate is of peculiar interest because it is so closely linked to a particular type of culture showing a very delicate adaptation to local conditions. Though it is not quite true to say that this culture originated in the Balkan peninsula, Crete, which belongs to the region, was of great importance as one of the seats of its early development.
Three essential features differentiate the Mediterranean cli mate : the winters are warm in relation to latitude, and the greater part of the rain falls during that period ; the summers are hot and dry, and one or more months may be practically rainless; throughout the year the skies are clear and there is abundant sunshine, for the winter rains come in heavy showers of short duration. Before these characteristic features can develop, there must be at once shelter from land influences and full exposure to sea ones. Further there must be no great elevation above sea level, because with increasing height the winter temperatures become lower, the skies are cloudier, and rains occur in summer as well as in winter. The characteristic marked periodicity of rainfall and small temperature range thus become modified, and the wild plants and crops which are a response to these disappear. These conditions mean that the typical climate is best developed on coastal lowlands, particularly on islands and in narrow pen insulas penetrated by long sea-inlets. Two regions within the peninsula show typical Mediterranean climate, but are regarded as distinct from one another because latitude and position bring about differences in the distribution of the rainfall throughout the year, without affecting its marked periodicity.
One of these is made up by the Greek islands, the Peloponnesus, the margins of the northern part of the Greek peninsula, and a narrow strip on the coast of Albania. Even within the region so defined, however, elevation above sea-level, as in the mountains, or an upland girdle, as in the plain of Thessaly, may produce local modifications. We may take Athens and Corfu as repre sentative stations within this region. Athens, on the eastern side of a peninsula, Largely sheltered from rain-bearing winds, has a much smaller total rainfall than the island station of Corfu, which faces the wet winds of winter; but despite the difference in the amount of rain in the two places, its distribution is closely similar. At both stations winter temperatures, so far as monthly averages are concerned, do not fall below This means that a certain amount of growth of hardy plants, such as grasses, can continue throughout the winter, for about 43° is regarded as the limit below which growth becomes impossible for plants of the temperate belt. Summer temperatures range from 78° to 81° (July averages), which permits of the ripening of sub-tropical fruits. At Athens July and August are practically rainless, and only about 23% of the total fall occurs in the period April to September, so that more than three-quarters of the total falls in the cooler half of the year. More than one-third falls in the two rainy months of November and December. Corfu has a rainfall four times as great as that of Athens, and though only July can be described as practically rainless, only about 2o% of the total rainfall occurs in the period April to September. High sum mer temperatures which cannot be used for crops like cotton and sugar cane because of the summer drought, but are well suited for the ripening and drying of fruits; warm winters which permit sonic crops to make vegetative growth then, stimulated by the heavy showers : these are the outstanding features.
A narrow strip along the coast of Dalmatia is regarded as forming a second major region. We may take Ragusa as a typical station, bearing in mind, however, that it is the most southerly of the important towns of Dalmatia. The winter temperatures here are closely similar to those experienced in the Greek region, much of Dalmatia being remarkable for its mild winter climate. The summers are not quite so hot as at Athens or Corfu, but the real distinguishing feature is the less marked periodicity of the rain fall. There is now no rainless month, though July continues to be the driest period of the year. Over 3o% of the total rainfall occurs during the period April to September, so that summer drought is far less marked; oranges can be grown without irriga tion water, and their co-existence with the olive is a distinguish ing feature. Not only, however, is the strip with this typical Mediterranean climate very narrow, but changes occur with some rapidity towards the north. Except where, as at Spalato, the form of the coast-line gives shelter, the more northerly places are often exposed to the blast of the bora, or cold northerly wind of winter, which is at once a danger to shipping and excludes the more deli cate Mediterranean fruit-trees. When Trieste is reached on this eastern Adriatic coast, the somewhat cold winters (January av erage below and the fact that the period April to September shows rather more than half the total amount of rain, with a rainfall maximum in October and a secondary one in June, mark the transition from the Mediterranean climate to the Central European one. The northerly Dalmatian towns and the coast of Croatia show stages of the transition. On the whole, it is easier to exaggerate than to under-estimate the significance of this second, or Dalmatian, climatic region. Ragusa, both in its climate and in its natural vegetation, is typically Mediterranean, but a very short journey from the coast brings the traveller into an area of quite different character.
Southern and Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace fall into a third region, characterized by notable modifications of the Mediterranean climate. Salonika may be selected as a represent ative station. The winters are cold for the latitude (average Jan uary temperature 40), because of the bitterly cold northerly winds which blow down the Vardar valley, and this feature is accentuated as the coast is left. But the summers are hot, and the range of temperature between summer and winter is greater than at any of the stations already discussed. There is no rain less month, and though July is still the driest period, and Novem ber and December the wettest months, there is a much more even distribution of rain throughout the year, the six colder months having very little more rain than the six warmer ones. The colder winters, especially where there is exposure to wind, again limit the distribution of the more delicate Mediterranean f ruit-trees, and growth even of hardy plants is checked during winter. On the other hand the high summer temperatures and the fairly heavy summer rainfall, with the possibility of irrigation from the mountain snows, make it possible to grow crops demanding both heat and moisture, but indifferent to winter cold because of their annual nature. Among such are cotton, rice, tobacco, maize, opium poppy; all introducing a different note into the landscape.
As we pass northwards from Salonika into the interior of the peninsula the change from this modified Mediterranean to the true Central European climate is rapid, and is accentuated by the relief. The general features of that climate are the cold winters, the temperatures then showing little relation to latitude, the warm summers, and a rainfall well distributed throughout the year, but with a tendency towards an early summer maximum. Skoplje, in a latitude somewhat lower than that of Ragusa, though in a more elevated position, has mean January temperatures well below freezing-point, and fully 18° lower than those of Ragusa. This means that there is a definite winter stop to agricultural activities, December, January and February being all too cold even for the growth of grass. On the other hand, despite its elevation, the summer temperatures at Skoplje are not more than a few degrees lower than those of Ragusa. The rainfall is fairly well distributed throughout the year, but May, June and October are the rainiest months, the maximum fall coming in May, when temperatures are already fairly high (over 62°). Belgrade, considerably further north, but less elevated than Skoplje, has a very similar tempera ture range, but November is already a winter month. June in stead of May is the rainiest month, and the summer rainy period lasts for the three months of May, June and July, again with a second rainfall maximum in October. Broadly speaking this cli mate, with summer heat and summer moisture coinciding, is one well suited to maize among cereals, while deciduous trees tend to form the natural plant-cover. The type, with local variations due to height above sea-level and degree of exposure, prevails throughout the greater part of the interior of the peninsula, which thus falls into a fourth or central major climatic region. The total rainfall shows a tendency to increase towards the north-west, in Bosnia and north-western Serbia; it diminishes towards the east.
As a fifth major region may be included Eastern Thrace and the lower grounds of Bulgaria. Over much of this region, especially in Thrace, the total rainfall is very small, giving the landscape a steppe-like appearance, and the winters are very cold, owing to exposure to winds from the Russian plain. But the Maritsa valley allows Mediterranean influences to penetrate into southern Bulgaria, where also the Balkans give a certain amount of shelter from the cold winds of winter. Parts of the valley plains of Bulgaria have in consequence much milder winters than northern Macedonia or Serbia, and as there is a tendency for the winters to be wetter than the summers, the climate is sometimes described as modified Mediterranean. The dry, sunny summers favour wheat rather than maize, and the vine is grown in sheltered places.
To this general division of the whole area into five climatic regions, of which the central one covers by far the greatest area, it may be added that the fact that so much of the surface is elevated introduces numerous modifications in detail. Because of the cold winters of the central area, much of the winter precipi tation falls as snow. No mountain within the peninsula rises in the strict sense above the snow-line, but the higher peaks of the Rhodope are only snow-free for about one month in the year, and even the Balkan mountains show some snow till July. This long persistence of parts of the winter snow-cover has much in fluence on the flow of streams, and thus on the possibility of the use of irrigation water.
What has been said as to the diversity of relief and climate leads one to expect that a great variety of cultural types would occur within the peninsula. Further, the great highways which penetrate it from outside, and the position as a bridge between the steppe-lands of Asia Minor and the similar steppes of central Hungary, and between the Mediterranean shores with their an cient civilization and the derivative civilization of the forest areas of Central Europe, have resulted in a great mingling of racial stocks. In some cases there is definite historical evidence of the entrance and establishment of such new stocks, as of the Slays, the Bulgars and the Turks. On the other hand, the com position of the population before the great historical migratory movements took place, is much more obscure. But from the purely geographical standpoint the problem of the ethnological origin of the different elements is of little importance. It is certain that a large amount of blending has taken place, and "race" names within the peninsula are used in a very loose sense, often to denote religious and national sympathies rather than physical characteristics. The real point of interest is that the cultures of the different groups show a fairly close relationship to the natural conditions in the areas which they respectively occupy, and the resultant variety emphasizes once again the complexity of the whole region.
Apart from alien elements, such as Armenians and Jews, six stocks seem to be represented in the peninsula, of whom five show national consciousness. These six are the Albanians; the Vlachs or nomadic shepherds ; the Greeks ; the Serbs, who form the main Slav element, the word Serb being used in a some what special sense to designate those South Slays who belong to the Orthodox Church and use the Cyrillic alphabet, as well as in a general sense to indicate the citizens of the former independent kingdom of Serbia and the marginal areas; the Bulgars; and the Turks.
The Albanians occupy that part of the western mountain belt and its margins which forms the transition region between the mainly limestone and karstic Dinaric Alps in the north, and the Pindus range to the south, and is characterized by the north-to south direction of the coast-line. The Albanians owe their in dividuality to the isolated character of their lands, though there is nothing improbable in the statement often made that they are the descendants of the ancient Illyrians, and thus truly indige nous. Their isolation also is a reality, despite the presence of the Via Egnatia and of towns of Roman origin on the coast, because the lowland is marshy and malarious. and much less fitted for settlement than the hill country behind, the real home of the Albanian peoples. As they are essentially mountaineers and pas toralists, agriculture plays, or has played in the past, a minor part in their activities, and as is almost always the case with hillmen, conquerors have found them difficult to subdue, but exceedingly useful as material for armies. An Albanian problem did not arise until the subdivision of the peninsula into a number of separate states gave frontier lines a new importance.
It is sometimes stated that the Vlachs are the descendants of the Romanized inhabitants of Dacia and some parts of the pen insula, scattered as the result of the barbarian invasions. In this case, however, perhaps more than in any other, the question of origin is of very minor geographical importance. What is im portant is that their mode of life shows a peculiarly delicate adjustment to the natural conditions, particularly climate and relief.
From what has been already said as to the winter temperatures in the Mediterranean belt, it is clear that the low grounds there can furnish grazing throughout the colder months, there being no winter check to growth. Similarly, because elevation brings sum mer rain even in areas where the low grounds have the typical summer drought, there will be summer pastures in the mountains, at heights and on slopes where practically all forms of cultivation are excluded. Again, within the central part of the peninsula, the higher mountains are too cold and have too prolonged a snow cover to permit of cultivation, but, as in the more familiar parts of the High Alps, will allow of summer grazing. It might be supposed that the low grounds in the Mediterranean area proper would be too valuable to be left in rough pasture. But in many cases, as notably in the Basin of Thessaly and parts of Macedonia and Western Thrace, there are considerable tracts too swampy and ill-drained to permit of cultivation. The pools and stagnant water serve as breeding places for mosquitoes, and these in many areas are heavily infected with the malarial parasite, so that such low-lying basins are veritable death-traps in the warmer season. Further, even where they have been drained, or have sufficiently effective natural drainage to permit of cereal cultivation, f allowed lands yield a large amount of herbage, and the sojourn of flocks is a means of restoring the fertility diminished by previous crop ping. Because of these conditions a particular type of pastoral nomadism can be practised, the name of transhumance being given to indicate its differences alike from the large-scale move ments carried on by the true Nomads of the Asiatic steppes, and the much more limited movements to progressively higher pastures in summer time practised by many pastoralists in hilly regions.
The Vlachs carry on no cultivation, not even of fodder crops ; they do not even store f odder for the cooler season, as this is unnecessary. The whole group moves with the flocks, not merely the herdsmen, and though there are habitations in both the sum mer and winter pastures, it is the mountain or summer village which seems to form the true home. Sheep are the chief animals reared, and it has to be noted as a subsidiary cause of the vertical movements that these animals are very intolerant of the summer heat in Mediterranean lowlands. Although the Pindus region is that in which the greatest number of Vlachs occurs, and which seems to be particularly suitable to their mode of life, they are fairly widely distributed throughout the south and south-east of the broader part of the peninsula, especially during the summer. season.
Out of their fundamental pastoral occupation there arise some interesting variants. Since they rear horses and donkeys to serve as pack animals during their movements, and are naturally well acquainted with paths and routes, they frequently act as carriers in the parts where modern means of transport are lacking. From this another occupation, that of peddling, develops by an easy transition. This again brings contact with village life which leads many to take the further step of adopting settled occupations, retail trading and innkeeping being favourites; their distinctive characteristics are then largely lost.
The fact that their numbers have been steadily diminishing for many years is apparently due mainly to this process of assimila tion, which turns them into "Greeks" or "Serbs" according to the dominant nationality in the area of settlement, rather than to an actual drop in numbers. Obviously also the demarcation of in ternal frontiers, with frontier posts and custom stations, must act as a check to their movements, while the spread of intensive agriculture in the lowlands of Mediterranean climate, with the draining of marshes and reclaiming of waste lands, is an even more serious interference with their characteristic mode of life. The absence of any national consciousness makes their submer gence in the general population easy, and culturally they may be said to be in process of disappearing with the disappearance of the conditions to which they were adapted.
The Greeks regard themselves as the descendants of the Classi cal Greeks, and though ethnologically this is more than doubtful, for much mingling of blood has occurred, the belief is of some importance as helping to give a sense of differentness from Serbs and Bulgars. Greek consciousness of nationality antedated the foundation of the Greek State, and, in marked contrast to the Bulgars, who were long submerged by the conquering Turk, the Greeks succeeded in maintaining themselves as a people. In this they resemble the Albanians, though the cause was very different in the two cases. Owing to their commercial aptitudes and mari time instincts they interpenetrated the Turkish State, and the Turks were constrained to tolerate them, for they could carry on occupations for which the overlords showed no capacity. It seems unnecessary to regard these specific attributes as "racial" in the ethnological sense, for they arose out of long adaptation to a particular and highly peculiar set of natural conditions, and there is little reason to think that the possibility of such an adaptation is limited to one stock. But it has to be noted that the Greek success in making themselves indispensable to the Turk is an element in the origin of those group hatreds which have been the scourge of the recent history of the peninsula; for the Greeks, like the Albanians, of ten appeared to the other peoples as agents of the Turkish oppressor.
So far as natural vegetation and modes of cultivation are con cerned, the Greek peninsula and islands do not differ notably from other Mediterranean lands. Except at considerable eleva tions high forest is absent, and is replaced by evergreen scrub. Cultivation is of the garden type with olive, vine, fig and other fruit-bearing trees predominating. The amount of land which can be put under cereal cultivation is small, and the goat is the main stock animal. Fishing is an important accessory occupation, and everywhere movement is easier by sea than overland. One result of the relative poverty of the land, the ease of communica tion by water, and the Greek instinct for trade, was that the Greeks were widely distributed both within the peninsula and outside it, particularly in Asia Minor but also on other Mediter ranean coasts. In 1913 it was believed that there were nearly as many Greeks outside the motherland as within it, and till their expulsion- from Asia Minor in the post-war period, they formed an important element in the population there. This Greek infiltration of lands within reach of the Aegean is one of the causes of the bitter conflicts for the possession of Macedonia and Thrace.
Serbs and Bulgars differ notably from the three groups already discussed and resemble each other in being mainly cultivating peasants, dwelling in lands suitable by climate and relief for self sufficing agriculture, with cereal production on a considerable scale, and the possibility of a surplus of cereals and agricultural produce generally. This meant that neither group could evade the Turk as Albanians, Vlachs and a proportion of the Greeks could do. They became the rayah, the toiling cattle of the con querors, and bore the burden of the conquest. The antagonism be tween them has its origin in the conditions under which national states arose, rather than in racial or cultural differences.
The Bulgars were in the direct line of the Turkish advance, and further, their lands, whether in Eastern Rumelia, as the Maritsa plains were called later, or in Thrace and Macedonia, afforded little opportunity for escape. Again, for the reasons already dis cussed, as well as because of the former extension of the Byzan tine empire, the lands they occupied were not only productive, but could yield a considerable variety of products. As an entity they disappeared for centuries, and, as we have seen, the begin ning of the Bulgarian State was in the area of relatively extreme climate north of the Balkan mountains.
In a sense the Serbs were more fortunate in that opportunities of escape presented themselves, to the north into the Danubian plains, and to the west and north-west into the mountain belt. At the same time the extent of the area over which the move ments could be carried on, and the diversity of the lands into which they brought the refugees, led to marked cultural differ entiation among the various groups, with the loss of community of feeling among them.
In addition to possibilities of escape from the peninsula there were certain areas within it where a measure of security could be obtained from the worst exactions of the oppressor. One of these was the barren, karstic area of Montenegro, which was, however, too poor to serve as a centre about which a new national grouping could form. Another was the region called by the Serbs the Shumadia. This is the platform sloping gently to the Save and the Danube, lying mainly between the lower Morava and the Drina, and in part cut off to the south by the highlands lying west of Nish. This region corresponds to the northern part of the central crust-block, and is crossed by the open valleys of streams draining to the Morava and the Save. A point of special impor tance is that the whole region was originally clothed with decid uous forest, oaks and beech predominating. The soils are gener ally fertile, having been enriched by the forest humus, there is a copious summer rainfall, and water is abundant, both in the f orm of springs and of streams, so that there is not the limitation of settlement to particular areas, so characteristic of the largely waterless karst regions.
In its essential features the area resembles the forest tracts which formerly covered much of Central Europe. But whereas in western Europe forest clearing began early, here the primaeval woods persisted in large part till the beginning of the i 9th century. This is in itself an indication that there was little settlement, and indeed occupation on any scale hardly began before the i8th century. Away from the highways of the Morava and the Drina there were large tracts of untouched woodlands, eminently suit able to serve as refuges for fugitives—Robin Hood bands ; it was from these that modern Serbia arose.
It may be noted that the early home of the Slav peoples, so far as is known, was similar wooded land on the outer slopes of the Carpathians, and the Slays have generally shown a preference for this type of country. It allows of mixed agriculture, and affords a considerable variety of resources, both natural and produced by human effort. Further, the Slav patriarchal organization, the zadruga or family group, makes colonization of such lands rela tively easy. One of the social effects of the Turkish conquest was the strengthening, or even perhaps the re-birth, of this kind of organization. It had been largely lost during the pre-Turkish period when a great Serbia existed, but with the loss of the natural leaders there was something like a return to more primitive con ditions. Small groups established themselves in the forest, grew by accretion of fresh refugees, and ultimately coalesced to form a peasant state.
The type of culture was a reflection of the conditions existing in the temperate deciduous forest belt wherever it occurs. Clear ings in the forest were made to allow of cereal production, and the arduous nature of the task made additions to the man power of the group welcome. The climate is only moderately suited f or wheat, but the hardier cereals, such as barley, rye and oats, do well, and maize, introduced from America, proves to be exceed ingly well suited to the climate, with its combination of summer warmth and summer moisture. It is still the main bread plant of the Serbs. As in North America, also, the fact that maize is a pioneer's crop, not needing the care and labour of wheat pro duction, and easily grown on roughly cleared land, was of great importance. The uncleared forest, with its wealth of nuts, par ticularly acorns and beech mast, made it possible to rear hardy breeds of pigs on a great scale, though, as in Europe generally, this primitive method has long since given place to stall feeding, maize being largely used for the purpose. Cattle could also be pastured in the lighter parts of the forest, though here, in marked contrast to the Pindus region, fodder had to be stored for the cold winters. Though in places the vine can be grown, its place is taken largely by hardier fruit-bearing trees, especially the plum (prune). It should be noted that there is a certain analogy be tween the products of the two plants. In both the fruits can be eaten fresh, or preserved by drying for winter use or export, or fermented to yield alcoholic drinks, plum brandy replacing wine. With the more recent growth of sugar beet, plum preserves are also made on a considerable scale in Serbia.
In addition to such possibilities of varied food production, the Shumadia yielded abundant wood for house-building and fuel, while the wild animal life gave a certain amount of food, as well as furs and skins. As against such advantages, the conditions which made the rise of an independent Serbia possible checked social development, so that the Serbs of Serbia remained prim itive and backward as compared with the Croats and Slovenes, who had fuller cultural contacts with more advanced peoples ; to some extent this was also true of the extra-peninsular Serbs in the Banat region. Further, the fact that Serbian agriculture arose as it were de novo, makes it less advanced than that of Bulgaria, where there was a pre-existing Byzantine tradition.
Outside of Serbia the Dalmatian Serbs, technically Croats because they are Catholics and use the Latin alphabet, tended to acquire the Mediterranean type of culture, their crop plants being very different from those of the interior, and influences from the adjacent Italian peninsula being strong. In Bosnia, which in its climate, its forests, and its cultivated plants is very similar to Serbia, development was checked by the more intense Turkish control, due to the easy access from the Save and from Macedonia. Many of the original Slav landowners here adopted the religion of the Turkish conquerors in order to keep their lands, and became indistinguishable from Turks. The peasants were practically serfs, and not only under direct Turkish rule, but under the Austrian protectorate, and of ter the Austrian annexa tion, agriculture was in a very backward state. The taxes paid in kind both to the landowner and to the sultan, as well as to the tax-farmer, were so crushing that no stimulus to increase pro duction existed.
In northern Macedonia there was a certain blending of Serbs and Bulgars, though it is generally believed that the population of Macedonia is mainly Bulgar in origin. Here the conditions were even worse than in Turkish Bosnia, the peasants being merely "cattle." The diversity of relief and climate, the multi plicity of contacts in all directions, combined with the nearness to the Turkish centre, made the development of a definite national spirit impossible. Even before the Balkan wars of 1912-13, all three neighbouring States, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, were endeavouring to "assimilate" the Macedonians. Those wars, fol lowed by the World War, excluded Bulgaria from the district politically, but the social contacts between Bulgaria and Mace donia remain strong.
Of the sixth element in the peninsula, the conquering Turk, it is not necessary to say much. True Osmali Turks, as distinct from Muslim Bulgars, Albanians and Serbs, were probably never numerous. Within the peninsula they suffered from the demoral ization which seems always to occur when a ruling class is sep arated by racial stock, religion and tradition from the producers of raw material. They became parasitic on the peasant culti vators, and both parties suffered in consequence.
The Separate States.—It thus appears that within the Balkan peninsula there are three focal regions, each with a certain topo graphical, climatic and cultural individuality, fitting them to be come political units, with which the names of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece are associated. But all three are marginal as regards the peninsula as a whole, and are linked to each other and to the neighbouring, extra-peninsular lands by areas of transition, whose political destiny has been the sport of historical accident. Serbia is now merged in the much larger and culturally heterogeneous State of Yugoslavia, or the Serb-Croat-Slovene State, which in addition to extensive territories outside the peninsula includes within it Bosnia, Hercegovina, Montenegro, Dalmatia and part of Macedonia. Greece has been enlarged by the addition of parts of Macedonia and a large part of Thrace. Despite the diversity of its lands, however, it is more homogeneous than Yugoslavia, for there have always been two strands in its social polity, made up by the gardener-cultivators of its limited fertile tracts, and the traders and seafarers who have found the homeland in the nar rower sense too small for their energies. Before the World War Bulgaria, among purely Balkan states, seemed to offer the best prospects for economic advancements; but the loss of territory to her neighbours proved a serious handicap. Albania after two decades of more or less independent existence once again fell under foreign domination ; and the new Turkish state has pre ferred to emphasize its Asiatic rather than its European affinities. The last few years have, however, seen a general improvement in political relations between the various states.
The great Slavonic immigration began in the 3rd century A.D. and continued through the following four centuries. At the start of this movement the Byzantine empire was in actual or nominal possession of all the regions south of the Danube ; the greater part of the native Thraco-Illyrian population of the interior had been romanized and spoke Latin. The Thracians, the progenitors of the Vlachs, took refuge in the mountainous districts and be came nomad shepherds. In Albania the aboriginal Illyrian ele ment maintained itself, and afterwards forced back the immi grants, occupying much of western Macedonia and northern Greece. The Greeks were driven to the seacoast, the islands and the fortified towns of the Balkan peninsula. In the 6th century the Slays penetrated to the Morea. In the 7th the Serbo-Croats invaded the north-western regions (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Herce govina, Montenegro and Northern Albania), where they expelled or assimilated the Illyrian population and appropriated the old Roman colonies on the Adriatic coast. At the end of the 7th century the Bulgars crossed the Danube and subjected Moesia and Thrace, but were assimilated by the conquered Slavonic popu lation. Under their tsar Simeon (893—g27) their empire extended from the Adriatic to the Black sea. In 971 the "first Bulgarian empire" was overthrown by the emperor John Zimisces. A Sla vonic "Western Bulgaria" in Macedonia survived the fall, and soon attained considerable dimensions, but was crushed in 1014 by the Byzantine empire, which now ruled almost all the Balkans. In the loth century the Vlachs reappeared as an independent power in southern Macedonia and the Pindus district, which were known as "Great Walachia." The Serbs first attained unity under Stephen Nemanya (I '69-95), the founder of the Nemanyich dynasty. A new Bulgarian empire was founded at Trnovo in I186 under the brothers Peter and Ivan Asen, who led a revolt of Vlachs and Bulgars against the Greeks. In 1204 Constantinople was captured by the Latins of the Fourth Crusade ; the Venetians acquired several maritime towns and islands, and Frankish feudal dynasties were established in Salonika, Athens, Achaea and else where. Greek rule survived in the despotate of Epirus. Constanti nople was recaptured in 1261 by Michael VIII. Palaeologus, but most of the feudal Latin states survived till the Turkish conquest ; the Venetian possessions several centuries longer. In 1230 Theo dore of Epirus, who had conquered Albania, Great Walachia and Macedonia, was overthrown at Klokotnitza by Ivan Asen II., of Bulgaria (1218-40, who extended his sway over most of the peninsula. After his death the Bulgarian power declined, and was extinguished at the battle of Velbuzhd (133o) by the Serbians under Stephen Urosh III. Stephen Dushan of Serbia ruled over Albania, Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly and northern Greece. The Serbian incursion was followed by a great Albanian emigration to the southern regions of the peninsula. After Du shan's death his empire disappeared, and Serbia fell a prey to anarchy. For a short time the Bosnian king Stephen Tvrtko became the principal power in the west of the penin sula. The internecine feuds of the various states prepared the way for the Ottoman invasion. In 1356 the Turks seized Gal lipoli; in 1361 Murad I. established his capital at Adrianople; in 1389 the Serbians and their allies were routed at Kosovo. Bul garia and Great Walachia were finally subdued in 1393. The despotate of Epirus succumbed in 1449, the duchy of Athens in 1456; in 1453 Constantinople fell; the greater part of Bosnia submitted in 1463 ; the heroic resistance of the Albanians under Scanderbeg collapsed with the fall of Croia (1466), and Venetian supremacy in Upper Albania ended with the capture of Scutari Only Montenegro and the Italian city-states on the Adriatic coast escaped subjection. Under the Turkish regime num bers of Slays, especially the ruling classes and the Bogumils in Bosnia and Bulgaria, were converted to Islam and henceforward felt and spoke of themselves as Turks. Colonies of true Turks were planted in North and South Bulgaria, and in Macedonia. Southern Albania became predominantly Mohammedan, the northern districts remaining Christian. The Ottoman power de clined after the unsuccessful siege of Vienna (1683) . In the 18th century parts of the Balkans were practically independent fiefs. In the 19th the subject nations, which had generally retained their language, religion and characteristics, recovered their in dependence. The independence of Greece was acknowledged in 1829, that of Serbia (as a tributary principality) in 1830. The Ionian Islands were ceded by Great Britain to Greece in 1864. In 1878 the Treaty of San Stefano created a great Bulgaria ex tending from the Danube to the Aegean, and from the Black sea to the river Drin in Albania, her Aegean coastline extending to the walls of Salonika. Serbia and Montenegro were so enlarged as to become almost contiguous. The treaty of Berlin, however, limited Bulgaria to the country between the Danube and the Balkans, while making Eastern Rumelia into an autonomous province. The proposed Montenegrin frontier was curtailed; Serbia received Nish, Pirot and Vranje on the east instead of the Ibar valley on the west; the Dobruja, somewhat enlarged, was ceded to Rumania. Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Her cegovina, sending troops into Novi-Pazar under a subsequent convention with Turkey. The complete independence of Serbia, Rumania and Montenegro was recognized. Greece was given Epirus and Thessaly, but was only able to occupy Thessaly and Arta OHO. Rumania was proclaimed a kingdom in that year, Serbia in 1882. In 188o Dulcigno was surrendered to Montene gro in compensation for the districts of Playa and Gusinye, re stored to Turkey. In 1886 the informal union of Eastern Rumelia with Bulgaria was sanctioned by Europe, Tumrush and Krjali be ing given back to the Sultan. In 1897 Crete was withdrawn from Turkish administration. In 1908 Bosnia and Hercegovina were annexed to the Dual Monarchy and Bulgaria was proclaimed an independent kingdom.
In 1913 the Balkan League of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro attacked and defeated Turkey, this war being fol lowed by a second between Bulgaria and her late allies. Greece re ceived Crete and the Aegean Islands (except the Dodecanese) ; Rumania the Southern Dobruja; Bulgaria the Aegean coastline as far as Dedeagatch; and Serbia received all Macedonia west of the Vardar. Serbia and Montenegro partitioned the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, and an independent Albania was created, extending from above Scutari to north of Yannina. After the World War, Bul garia lost the coast of Thrace to Greece, and a strip along her south-east frontier to Serbia ; and Turkey was confined to the province of Eastern Thrace. A Serb-Croat-Slovene kingdom was constituted comprising Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and other Yugo ( = South) Slav regions of Austria and Hungary, together with north-western Macedonia and a portion of Albania. Italy received the extreme north-west coast of the Balkan Penin sula up to and including Fiume, and in addition, certain of the Adriatic Islands. Population exchanges on a large scale were car ried out in order to stabilize the new frontiers. The Greek popula tion of Asia Minor was forcibly expelled, and many Vlachs mi grated to Rumania. In an Italian army occupied Albania without encountering much resistance, and the country was placed under the sovereignty of the King of Italy.