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Eastern Europe is a subregion of Europe with various geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. It is often associated with Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the former Soviet Union, and the Cold War, but its boundaries are not clear-cut and have changed over time.
- Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe is a geopolitical term...
- Regions of Europe
South-eastern Europe; South-western Europe; Western Europe;...
- Southeastern
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- Central and Eastern Europe
A geopolitical term for the countries in Northeast, Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe, mostly former communist states. Learn about the definition, subdivision, accession status, and references of this term.
Learn about the definition, history and geography of Eastern Europe, the eastern region of Europe. Find out which countries are included in this region and how they are classified by different sources.
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- Illyrians and Thracians
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There is no universal agreement on what constitutes the Balkans. However, the following are usually included: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. Portions of Greece and Turkey are also within the Balkan Peninsula.
Where are the Balkans?
The Balkan Peninsula is the easternmost of Europe’s three great southern peninsulas. Generally, the Balkans are bordered on the northwest by Italy, on the north by Hungary, on the north and northeast by Moldova and Ukraine, and the south by Greece and Turkey or the Aegean Sea (depending on how the region is defined).
What is the climate of the Balkans?
The Balkan Mountains have a significant impact on the climate of the Balkan Peninsula. The northern and central parts of the Balkans are characterized by cold winters, warm summers, and well-distributed rainfall. The southern and coastal areas, however, have a Mediterranean type of climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, relatively rainy winters.
Balkans, easternmost of Europe’s three great southern peninsulas. There is not universal agreement on the region’s components. The Balkans are usually characterized as comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia—with all or part of each of those countries located within the peninsula. Portions of Greece and Turkey are also located within the geographic region generally defined as the Balkan Peninsula, and many descriptions of the Balkans include those countries too. Some define the region in cultural and historical terms and others geographically, though there are even different interpretations among historians and geographers. Moreover, for some observers, the term “Balkans” is freighted with negative connotations associated with the region’s history of ethnic divisiveness and political upheaval. Increasingly in the early 21st century, another pair of definitional terms has gained currency: South East (also styled South-East, Southeast, South-Eastern, or Southeastern) Europe, which has been employed to describe the region in broad terms (though, again, without universal agreement on its component states) and the Western Balkans, which are usually said to comprise Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the Balkans were populated well before the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age; about 10,000 years ago). At the dawn of recorded history, two Indo-European peoples dominated the area: the Illyrians to the west and the Thracians to the east of the great historical divide defined by the Morava and Vardar river valleys. The Thracians were advanced in metalworking and in horsemanship. They intermingled with the Greeks and gave them the Dionysian and Orphean cults, which later became so important in classical Greek literature. The Illyrians were more exclusive, their mountainous terrain keeping them separate from the Greeks and Thracians.
Thracian society was tribal in structure, with little inclination toward political cohesion. In what was to become a persistent phenomenon in Balkan history, unity was brought about mostly by external pressure. The Persian invasions of the 6th and 5th centuries bce brought the Thracian tribes together in the Odrysian kingdom, which fell under Macedonian influence in the 4th century bce. The Illyrians, ethnically akin to the Thracians, originally inhabited a large area from the Istrian peninsula to northern Greece and as far inland as the Morava River. During the 4th century bce they were pushed southward by Celtic invasions, and thereafter their territory did not extend much farther north than the Drin River. Illyrian society, like that of the Thracians, was organized around tribal groups who often fought wars with one another and with outsiders. Under the Celtic threat they established a coherent political entity, but this too was destroyed by Macedonia. Thereafter the Illyrians were known mainly as pirates who disturbed the trade of many Greek settlements on the Adriatic coast. The Romans were also affected and took police action, annexing much of Illyrian territory in the early 3rd century bce. An Illyrian kingdom based in modern-day Shkodër, Albania, remained an important factor until its liquidation by Roman armies in 168 bce.
Learn about the Balkans, the easternmost of Europe's three great southern peninsulas, with diverse countries, cultures, and histories. Explore the physical geography, climate, and ethnic diversity of the region, as well as its political and economic challenges.
- Belarus. Belarus is a former Soviet republic, which gained independence in 1991. It has a population of approximately 9.4 million people. After breaking away from the USSR, Belarus maintained close ties to Russia, unlike many other countries in Eastern Europe that have grown closer to the West.
- Bulgaria. Bulgaria has a population of about 6.9 million people. The country was a member of the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. In 1990, however, the country’s communist regime gave up power.
- Czech Republic. The landlocked Czech Republic is a country of approximately 10.7 million people. It was formally part of the country known as Czechoslovakia, which unified Czechs and Slovaks into one state.
- Hungary. Hungary is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe that contains about 9.6 million people. Like all the countries of Eastern Europe, it was part of the communist eastern bloc during the Cold War.
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east.
Eastern Europe, as defined by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), includes the countries of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, and Slovakia, as well as the republics of Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine.
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