The Balkans are sometimes referred to as the "Balkan Peninsula" as they are surrounded by water on three sides: the Black Sea to the east and branches of the Mediterranean Sea to the south and west (including the Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean and Marmara seas). While it is not geographically a peninsula as it has no isthmus to connect it to the mainland of Europe, this name is nonetheless commonly used to denote the wider region.

The identity of the Balkans owes as much to its fragmented and often violent common history as to its mountainous geography. The region was perennially on the edge of great empires, its history dominated by wars, rebellions, invasions and clashes between empires, from the times of the Roman Empire to the latter-day Yugoslav wars.

Its fractiousness and tendency to splinter into rival political entities led to the coining of the term Balkanization (or balkanizing). The term Balkan commonly connotes a connection with violence, religious strife, ethnic clannishness and a sense of hinterland. The Balkans, as they are known today, have changed dramatically over the course of their history.

The region takes its name from the "Balkan" mountain range in Bulgaria (from a Turkish word meaning "a chain of wooded mountains"). On a larger scale, one long continuous chain of mountains crosses the region in the form of a reversed letter S, from the Carpathians south to the Balkan range proper, before it marches away east into Anatolian Turkey. On the west coast, an offshoot of the Dinaric Alps follows the coast south through Dalmatia and Albania, crosses Greece and continues into the sea in the form of various islands. The word was based on Turkish balakan 'stone, cliff', which confirms the pure 'technical' meaning of the term. The mountain range that runs across Bulgaria from west to east (Stara Planina) is still commonly known as the Balkan Mountains.

As time passed, the term gradually obtained political connotations far from its initial geographic meaning, arising from political changes from the late 1800s to the creation of post-World War I Yugoslavia (initially the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes). Zeune's goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer, and, to a large extent, due to oscillating political circumstances. After the split of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term 'Balkans' again received a negative meaning, even in casual usage. For example, Romania is also labelled a 'Balkanic country' even if this is not compliant with either its initial meaning or later evolutions of the term. Over the last decade, in the wake of the former Yugoslav split, Croatians and especially Slovenians have rejected their former label as 'Balkan nations'. This is in part due to the pejorative connotation of the term 'Balkans' in the 1990s, and continuation of this meaning until now. Today, the term 'Southeast Europe' is preferred or, in the case of Slovenia and sometimes Croatia, 'Central Europe'.

Even if incorrect, both historically and politically, it is probable that "Balkans" will continue to have a wider, and pejorative, meaning. Quite often, this is rather a cliché covering ignorance or ill intentions.

In most of the English-speaking, western world, the countries commonly included in the Balkan region are:

 Albania 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina 

 Bulgaria 

 Republic of Macedonia 

 Serbia and Montenegro 

 Slovenia 

 Romania

The Balkan region was the first area of Europe to experience the arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era. The practices of growing grain and raising livestock arrived in the Balkans from the Fertile Crescent by way of Anatolia, and spread west and north into Pannonia and Central Europe.

In pre-classical and classical antiquity, this region was home to Greeks, Illyrians, Paeonians, Thracians, and other ancient groups. Later the Roman Empire conquered most of the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence. During the Middle Ages, the Balkans became the stage for a series of wars between the Byzantine, Bulgarian and Serbian Empires.

By the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire became the controlling force in the region, although it was centered around Anatolia. In the past 550 years, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in and around the Balkans, and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans has been the least developed part of Europe.

The Balkan nations began to regain their independence in the 19th century (Greece), and in 1912-1913 a Balkan League reduced Turkey's territory to its present extent in the Balkan Wars. The First World War was sparked in 1914 by the assassination in Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina) of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.

After the Second World War, the Soviet Union and communism played a very important role in the Balkans. During the Cold War, most of the countries in the Balkans were ruled by Soviet-supported communist governments.

However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892¡V1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria, and instead sought closer relations with the West, later even joining many third world countries in the Non-Aligned Movement. Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China, later adopting an isolationist position.

The only non-communist countries were Greece and Turkey, which were (and still are) part of NATO.

In the 1990s, the region was gravely affected by armed conflict in the former Yugoslav republics, resulting in intervention by NATO forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia. The status of Kosovo and ethnic Albanians in general is still mostly unresolved.

Balkan countries control the direct land routes between Western Europe and South West Asia (Asia Minor and the Middle East). Since 2000, all Balkan countries are friendly towards the EU and the USA.

Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981; Slovenia and Cyprus since 2004. Bulgaria and Romania are set to become members in 2007. In 2005 European Union decided to start accession negotiations with candidate countries Croatia and Turkey and the Republic of Macedonia was accepted as a candidate for the European Union membership. As of 2004, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia are also members of NATO.

All other countries have expressed a desire to join the EU but at some date in the future.

The region's principal nationalities include Turks (12.3 million, 11 million of them inhabiting Turkish Thrace), Greeks (10.5 million, with about 10 million of them being in Greece), Serbs (8.5 million), Bulgarians (7.5 million), Albanians (6 million, with about 3.3 millions of them being in Albania), Croats (4.5 million), Bosniaks (2.4 million), Macedonians (1.4 million) and Montenegrins (0.265 million). If Romania and Slovenia are included, then also Romanians (26 million) and Slovenians (2 million). Practically all Balkan countries have a smaller or larger Roma (Gypsy) minority. Other much smaller stateless minorities include the Gagauz, the Gorani, the Karakachans, the Arvanites and the Aromanians.

The region's principal religions are (Eastern Orthodox and Catholic) Christianity and Islam. A variety of different traditions of each faith are practiced, with each of the Eastern Orthodox countries having its own national church.

Eastern Orthodoxy is the principal religion in the following countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro Macedonia

Catholicism is the principal religion in the following countries: Croatia, Slovenia

Islam is the principal religion in the following countries: Albania Turkey

The following countries have many religious groups which exceed 10% of the total population:

Albania: Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism.

Bulgaria: Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam.

Republic of Macedonia: Macedonians are mostly Eastern Orthodox, Albanian population is mostly Muslim.

Serbia and Montenegro: Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam.