What Is The Balkans And Where Is It Located
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.
