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118-811: In the European lands of the Ottoman Empire, the term hajduk was used to describe bandits and brigands of the Balkans , while in Central Europe for the West Slavs , Hungarians , and Germans , and Eastern Europe for the Ukrainians , it was used to refer to outlaws who protected Christians against provocative actions by the Ottomans. By the 17th century they were firmly established in

236-545: A certain kind of brigandage, in early days, when the travel routes to the American West were infested by highwaymen . Such outlaws, when captured, were often dealt with in an extra-legal manner by groups of vigilantes known as vigilance committees . A notable example is the Harpe brothers , who were active during the late 18th century. [...] it would be going much too far to say that the absence of an efficient police

354-572: A fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon . Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhon's blood fell on the mountains, giving them their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, in which the Haemus Mountains are referred to as Balkan . The first attested time the name "Balkan" was used in the West for the mountain range in Bulgaria

472-523: A high of 8 million in the late 16th-century to only 3 million by the mid-eighteenth. This estimate is based on Ottoman documentary evidence." Most of the Balkan nation-states emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries as they gained independence from the Ottoman or Habsburg empires: Greece in 1821, Serbia, and Montenegro in 1878, Romania in 1881, Bulgaria in 1908 and Albania in 1912. In 1912–1913,

590-580: A later generation, fought for King James II after the Revolution of 1688 and on his defeat degenerated into brigands. The forests of England gave cover to the outlaws, who were flatteringly portrayed in the ballads of Robin Hood . The dense Maquis shrubland and hills of Corsica gave the Corsican brigand many advantages, just as the bush of Australia concealed the bushranger . The Apennines ,

708-640: A member of the Axis, Germany, with Bulgaria, invaded both Greece and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia immediately disintegrated when those loyal to the Serbian King and the Croatian units mutinied. Greece resisted, but, after two months of fighting, collapsed and was occupied. The two countries were partitioned between the three Axis allies, Bulgaria, Germany and Italy, and the Independent State of Croatia ,

826-457: A puppet state of Italy and Germany. During the occupation, the population suffered considerable hardship due to repression and starvation, to which the population reacted by creating a mass resistance movement. Together with the early and extremely heavy winter of that year (which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths among the poorly fed population), the German invasion had disastrous effects in

944-584: A ransom of £25,000 was demanded. Lord and Lady Muncaster were set at liberty to seek for the ransom, but the Greek government sent troops in pursuit of the brigands, and the other prisoners were then murdered. In the Balkan peninsula, under Turkish rule, brigandage continued to exist in connection with Christian revolt against the Turks. The dacoits or brigands of India were of the same stamp as their European colleagues. The Pindaris were more than brigands, and

1062-641: A revolutionary organization with predominantly Serb and pro-Yugoslav members, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo . That caused a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which—through the existing chains of alliances —led to the World War I. The Ottoman Empire soon joined the Central Powers becoming one of

1180-645: A special corps of police, the Esquadra de Catalunya . For five generations the colonel of the esquadra was always a Veciana. Since the organization of Guardia Civil by the Duke of Ahumada , about 1844, brigandage has been well kept down. At the close of the Carlist War in 1874 a few bands again infested Catalonia . In relatively unsettled parts of the United States there was a considerable amount of

1298-638: A state or union perceived as the enemy. Bad administration and suitable terrain encourage the development of brigands. Historical examples of brigands (often called so by their enemies) have existed in territories of France, Greece and the Balkans, India, Italy, Mexico and Spain, as well as certain regions of the United States. The English word brigant (also brigaunt ) was introduced as early as 1400, via Old French brigand from Italian brigante "trooper, skirmisher, foot soldier". The Italian word

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1416-639: A whole and southern parts of Slovenia. The Province of Trieste in Italy, although by some definitions on the peninsula, is generally excluded from the Balkans. Hungary and Moldova are occasionally included in discussions of the Balkans due to cultural and historical affiliation, but are generally excluded. The term Southeast Europe is also used for the region, with various definitions. Individual Balkan states can also be considered part of other regions, including Southern Europe , Eastern Europe , and Central Europe . Turkey, including its European territory,

1534-547: Is from a verb brigare "to brawl, fight" (whence also brigade ). For a bandito or bando a man declared outlaw by proclamation, see the article Bandit . Towards the end of wars, irreconcilables may refuse to accept the loss of their cause, and may continue hostilities using irregular tactics. Upon capture by the victorious side, whether the capturing power has to recognize them as soldiers (who must be treated as prisoners of war ) or as brigands (who can be tried under civilian law as common criminals) depends on whether

1652-548: Is generally encompassed in the region known as Southeast Europe . Italy currently holds a small area around Trieste that is by some older definitions considered a part of the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, due to their definition of the Balkans that limits its western border to the Kupa River. The borders of

1770-736: Is generally included in Western Asia or the Middle East . The Western Balkans is a political neologism coined to refer to Albania and the territory of the former Yugoslavia, except Slovenia , since the early 1990s. The region of the Western Balkans, a coinage exclusively used in pan-European parlance, roughly corresponds to the Dinaric Alps territory. The institutions of the European Union have generally used

1888-459: Is in wide use, from over 1,000 dams. The often relentless bora wind is also being harnessed for power generation. Metal ores are more usual than other raw materials. Iron ore is rare, but in some countries there is a considerable amount of copper, zinc, tin , chromite , manganese , magnesite and bauxite . Some metals are exported. The Balkan region was the first area in Europe to experience

2006-679: Is mostly unsuccessful because of the mountains, hot summers and poor soils, although certain cultures such as olive and grape flourish. Resources of energy are scarce, except in Kosovo , where considerable coal , lead , zinc , chromium and silver deposits are located. Other deposits of coal , especially in Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia, also exist. Lignite deposits are widespread in Greece. Petroleum scarce reserves exist in Greece, Serbia and Albania. Natural gas deposits are scarce. Hydropower

2124-730: Is no longer Balkan proper, but the cradle of our Western civilization. Most of the area is covered by mountain ranges running from the northwest to southeast. The main ranges are the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina in Bulgarian language ), running from the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria to the border with Serbia , the Rila - Rhodope massif in southern Bulgaria, the Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia and Montenegro ,

2242-458: Is practiced by a brigand , a person who is typically part of a gang and lives by pillage and robbery. The word brigand entered English as brigant via French from Italian as early as 1400. Under the laws of war, soldiers acting on their own recognizance without operating in chain of command are brigands, liable to be tried under civilian laws as common criminals. However, on occasions brigands are not mere malefactors, but may be rebels against

2360-585: Is seen on the Adriatic coasts of Albania, Croatia and Montenegro, as well as the Ionian coasts of Albania and Greece, in addition to the Aegean coasts of Greece and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey) . Over the centuries, forests have been cut down and replaced with bush . In the southern part and on the coast there is evergreen vegetation. Inland there are woods typical of Central Europe ( oak and beech , and in

2478-515: Is that hajduk was derived from the Turkish word haidut or haydut 'bandit', which was originally used by the Ottomans to refer to Hungarian and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth infantry soldiers. Another theory suggests that the word comes from Hungarian hajtó or hajdó (plural hajtók or hajdók ) '(cattle) drover '. These two theories do not necessarily contradict each other because

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2596-625: Is the sole cause of brigandage in countries not subject to foreign invasion, or where the state is not very feeble. [...] But there have been times and countries in which the law and its administration have been so far regarded as enemies by people who were not themselves criminals, that all who defied them have been sure of a measure of sympathy. Then and there it was that brigandage has flourished, and has been difficult to extirpate. Attribution Balkan The Balkans ( / ˈ b ɔː l k ən z / BAWL -kənz , / ˈ b ɒ l k ən z / BOL -kənz ), corresponding partially with

2714-495: Is ultimately the whole of continental Europe itself that functions as a kind of Balkan Turkish global empire with Brussels as the new Constantinople, the capricious despotic center threatening English freedom and sovereignty. So Balkan is always the Other: it lies somewhere else, always a little bit more to the southeast, with the paradox that, when we reach the very bottom of the Balkan peninsula, we again magically escape Balkan. Greece

2832-465: The Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Musala , 2,925 metres (9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria. The concept of the Balkan Peninsula was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, who mistakenly considered

2950-588: The Balkan Peninsula ( Peninsula of Haemus , Haemaic Peninsula ), is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains (Haemus Mountains) that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria . The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest,

3068-849: The Baltic Sea are closer to Trieste than Odesa yet it is not considered as another European peninsula. Since the late 19th and early 20th century no exact northern border has been clear, with an issue, whether the rivers are usable for its definition. In studies the Balkans' natural borders, especially the northern border, are often avoided to be addressed, considered as a problème fastidieux (delicate problem) by André Blanc in Géographie des Balkans (1965), while John Lampe and Marvin Jackman in Balkan Economic History (1971) noted that "modern geographers seem agreed in rejecting

3186-573: The Chauffeurs around the time of the revolution. The first were large bands of discharged mercenary soldiers who pillaged the country. The second were ruffians who forced their victims to pay ransom by holding their feet in fires. In the years preceding the French Revolution , the royal government was defied by the troops of smugglers and brigands known as faux saulniers , unauthorized salt -sellers, and gangs of poachers haunted

3304-584: The First Balkan War broke out when the nation-states of Bulgaria , Serbia , Greece and Montenegro united in an alliance against the Ottoman Empire . As a result of the war, almost all remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire were captured and partitioned among the allies. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albanian state. Bulgaria insisted on its status quo territorial integrity, divided and shared by

3422-503: The Greeks and hayduks or haydutzi by the Slavs ) had some claim to believe themselves the representatives of their people against oppressors. The only approach to an attempt to maintain order was the permission given to part of the population to carry arms in order to repress the klephts. They were hence called armatoli . In fact the armatole tended to act more as allies than enemies of

3540-585: The Habsburg Emperor , whose army had recently occupied Transylvania and begun a reign of terror. The bulk of Bocskay's army was composed of serfs who had either fled from the war and the Habsburg drive toward Catholic conversion, or been discharged from the Imperial Army. These peasants , freelance soldiers, were known as the hajduks . As a reward for their service, Bocskay emancipated

3658-670: The Korab - Šar mountains which spreads from Kosovo to Albania and North Macedonia , and the Pindus range, spanning from southern Albania into central Greece and the Albanian Alps , and the Alps at the northwestern border. The highest mountain of the region is Rila in Bulgaria, with Musala at 2,925 m, second being Mount Olympus in Greece, with Mytikas at 2,917 m, and Pirin mountain with Vihren , also in Bulgaria, being

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3776-546: The Ottomans several decades later. Ottoman expansion in the region began in the second half of the 14th century, as the Byzantine Empire continued to lose its grip on the region after several defeats to the Ottomans. In 1362, the Ottoman Turks conquered Adrianople (now Edirne , Turkey). This was the start of their conquest of the Balkan Peninsula, which lasted for more than a century. Other states in

3894-770: The Rhodope Mountains to be the northern limit of the Peninsula of Haemus and the same limit applied approximately to the border between Greek and Latin use in the region (later called the Jireček Line ). However large spaces south of Jireček Line were and are inhabited by Vlachs ( Aromanians ), the Romance-speaking heirs of Roman Empire. The Bulgars and Slavs arrived in the sixth-century and began assimilating and displacing already-assimilated (through Romanization and Hellenization) older inhabitants of

4012-689: The Spanish irregular levies , which maintained the national resistance against the French from 1808 to 1814, were called brigands by their enemies. " It is you who are the thieves ", was the defense of the Calabrian who was tried as a brigand by a French court-martial during the reign of Joachim Murat in Naples . In the Balkan peninsula , under Ottoman rule , the brigands (called klephts by

4130-465: The Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment and the mountain has remained with his name. A reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus (Αἷμος) is derived from a Thracian word *saimon , 'mountain ridge'. A third possibility is that "Haemus" ( Αἵμος ) derives from the Greek word haima ( αἷμα ) meaning 'blood'. The myth relates to

4248-744: The Thugs were a religious sect. Until the middle of the 19th century Italy was divided into small states; therefore, the brigand who was closely pursued in one could flee to another. Thus it was that Marco Sciarra of the Abruzzi , when hard pressed by the Spanish viceroy of Naples – just before and after 1600 – could cross the border of the papal states and return on a favourable opportunity. When pope and viceroy combined against him he took service with Venice , whence he communicated with his friends at home and paid them occasional visits. On one such visit he

4366-435: The maquis has never been without its brigand hero, because industry has been stagnant, family feuds persist, and the government has never quite succeeded in persuading the people to support the law. The brigand is always a hero to at least one faction of Corsicans ." In 1870 an English party, consisting of Lord and Lady Muncaster , Mr Vyner, Mr Lloyd, Mr Herbert, and Count de Boyl, was captured at Oropos, near Marathon, and

4484-690: The 18th century wealthy members of the szlachta hired liveried domestic servants whom they called hajduks, thereby creating the meaning of the term 'hajduk' as it is generally understood in modern Polish. The Serbs established a Hajduk army that supported the Austrians. The army was divided into 18 companies, in four groups. In this period, the most notable obor-kapetans were Vuk Isaković from Crna Bara , Mlatišuma from Kragujevac and Kosta Dimitrijević from Paraćin . The Croatian football team HNK Hajduk Split ; Serbian football teams Hajduk Kula , FK Hajduk Beograd , FK Hajduk Veljko and Hajduk Lion ;

4602-653: The Balkan Mountains the dominant mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for Rumelia in the 19th century, the parts of Europe that were provinces of the Ottoman Empire at the time. It had a geopolitical rather than a geographical definition, which was further promoted during the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in

4720-501: The Balkans after the Indo-European migrations in the region. In pre-classical and classical antiquity , this region was home to Greeks , Illyrians , Paeonians , Thracians , Dacians , and other ancient groups. The Achaemenid Persian Empire incorporated parts of the Balkans comprising Macedonia , Thrace (parts of present-day eastern Bulgaria ), and the Black Sea coastal region of Romania beginning in 512 BC. Following

4838-560: The Balkans and eventual creation of a joint military staff for the three countries. When the pact was signed, Turkey and Greece were members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), while Yugoslavia was a non-aligned communist state. With the Pact, Yugoslavia was able to indirectly associate itself with NATO. Though, it was planned for the pact to remain in force for 20 years, it dissolved in 1960. As

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4956-403: The Balkans are due to many contrasting definitions disputed. There exists no universal agreement on the region's components. The term by most definitions fully encompasses Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Bulgaria , Greece , Kosovo , Montenegro , North Macedonia , European Turkey , Romanian coast , most of Serbia and large parts of Croatia . Sometimes the term also includes Romania as

5074-428: The Balkans by using its protectorate Albania to invade Greece . After repelling the attack, the Greeks counterattacked, invading Italy-held Albania and causing Nazi Germany's intervention in the Balkans to help its ally. Days before the German invasion, a successful coup d'état in Belgrade by neutral military personnel seized power. Although the new government reaffirmed its intentions to fulfill its obligations as

5192-410: The Balkans inhabitants who were pagan beforehand. Initially, it was adopted by the Bulgarians and Serbs, with the Romanians joining a bit later. The Albanians , on the other hand due to their isolation in their mountain settlements, were not immediately affected by the spread of Christianity. The emergence of the First Bulgarian Empire and the constant conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and

5310-480: The Balkans is dominated by its geographical position; historically the area was known as a crossroads of cultures. It has been a juncture between the Latin and Greek bodies of the Roman Empire , the destination of a massive influx of pagan Bulgars and Slavs , an area where Orthodox and Catholic Christianity met, as well as the meeting point between Islam and Christianity. Albanic , Hellenic , and other Palaeo-Balkan languages , had their formative core in

5428-483: The Balkans place their greatest folk heroes in the era of either the onslaught or the retreat of the Ottoman Empire. As examples, for Greeks, Constantine XI Palaiologos and Kolokotronis ; and for Serbs, Miloš Obilić , Tsar Lazar and Karadjordje ; for Albanians, George Kastrioti Skanderbeg; for ethnic Macedonians , Nikola Karev and Goce Delčev ; for Bulgarians, Vasil Levski , Georgi Sava Rakovski and Hristo Botev and for Croats , Nikola Šubić Zrinjski . In

5546-441: The Buck or Dandy), Pedranza, &c. Jose Maria, called El Tempranillo (The Early Bird), was a liberal in the rising against Ferdinand VII , 1820–1823, then a smuggler, then a bandolero . He was finally bought off by the government and took a commission to suppress the other brigands. Jose Maria was at last shot by one of them, whom he was endeavouring to arrest. In Catalonia , where brigands are called bandolers , it began in

5664-410: The First Bulgarian Empire significantly weakened the Byzantine control over the Balkans by the end of the 10th century. The Byzantines further lost power in the Balkans after the resurgence of the Bulgarians in the late 12th century, with the forming of their Second Bulgarian Empire . After the collapse of the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine's Empire grip on power was prolonged by the inability of

5782-437: The Great Powers next to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) in other boundaries and on the pre-war Bulgarian-Serbian agreement. Bulgaria was provoked by the backstage deals between its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on the allocation of the spoils at the end of the First Balkan War. At the time, Bulgaria was fighting at the main Thracian Front. Bulgaria marks the beginning of Second Balkan War when it attacked them. The Serbs and

5900-399: The Greeks repulsed single attacks, but when the Greek army invaded Bulgaria together with an unprovoked Romanian intervention in the back, Bulgaria collapsed. The Ottoman Empire used the opportunity to recapture Eastern Thrace , establishing its new western borders that still stand today as part of modern Turkey. World War I was sparked in the Balkans in 1914 when members of Young Bosnia ,

6018-570: The Macedonian football team FK Hajduk - Vratnica ; Czech amateur football team Hajduk Lipník ; the pop-music project Haiducii , and Romanian Roma musical troupe Taraful Haiducilor are all named after the hajduci. The surnames of the fictional character George Washington Hayduke , invented by Edward Abbey , actress Stacy Haiduk , US national soccer team defender Frankie Hejduk , Czech Republic national ice hockey team forward Milan Hejduk and Montenegrin theoretical physicist Dragan Hajduković, are likewise derived from this word. The term "haiduci"

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6136-414: The Ottoman Balkans, owing to increased taxes, Christian victories against the Ottomans, and a general decline in security. Hajduk bands predominantly numbered one hundred men each, with a firm hierarchy under one leader. They targeted Ottoman representatives and rich people, mainly rich Turks, for plunder or punishment to oppressive Ottomans, or revenge or a combination of all. In Balkan folkloric tradition,

6254-399: The Ottoman occupied parts of Europe), while Yugoslavian maps also included Croatia and Bosnia. The term Balkan Peninsula was a synonym for European Turkey, the political borders of former Ottoman Empire provinces. The usage of the term changed in the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when it was embraced by Serbian geographers, most prominently by Jovan Cvijić . It

6372-435: The Ottomans for a time (1443–1468) by using guerilla warfare . Skanderbeg's achievements, in particular the Battle of Albulena and the First Siege of Krujë won him fame across Europe. The Ottomans eventually conquered the near entirety of the Balkans and reached central Europe by the early 16th century. Some smaller countries, such as Montenegro managed to retain some autonomy by managing their own internal affairs, since

6490-556: The Persian defeat in the Greco-Persian Wars in 479 BC, they abandoned all of their European territories, which regained their independence. During the reign of Philip II of Macedon (359-336 BC), Macedonia rose to become the most powerful state in the Balkans . In the second century BC, the Roman Empire conquered the region and spread Roman culture and the Latin language, but significant parts still remained under classical Greek influence. The only Paleo-Balkan languages that survived are Albanian and Greek . The Romans considered

6608-411: The Slavs to unite, which was caused by frequent infighting amongst themselves. Bulgaria in the first half of the 14th century was then overshadowed by the new rising regional power of Serbia, which was a result of Stefan Dušan rising up and conquering much of the Balkans to create the Serbian Empire . The Serbian and Byzantine empires continued to be the dominant forces in the region until the arrival of

6726-406: The Turkish suffix -an 'swampy forest' or Persian bālā-khāna 'big high house'. It was used mainly during the time of the Ottoman Empire . In both Ottoman Turkish and modern Turkish , balkan means 'chain of wooded mountains'. From classical antiquity through the Middle Ages , the Balkan Mountains were called by the local Thracian name Haemus . According to Greek mythology,

6844-436: The Turkish word haidut or haydut is adapted from the Hungarian hajtó or hajdó just as many slavic words were adapted from Turkish in what is known as Turcizam or Turkification . Other spellings in English include ajduk , haydut , haiduk , haiduc , hayduck , and hayduk . Forms of the word in various languages, in singular form, include: In 1604-1606, István Bocskay , Lord of Bihar , led an insurrection against

6962-416: The West, later even spearheaded, together with India and Egypt the Non-Aligned Movement . Albania on the other hand gravitated toward Communist China , later adopting an isolationist position. On 28 February 1953, Greece , Turkey and Yugoslavia signed the treaty of Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation in Ankara to form the Balkan Pact of 1953 . The treaty's aim was to deter Soviet expansion in

7080-400: The Western Balkans, joined the EU in July 2013. The term is criticized for having a geopolitical, rather than a geographical meaning and definition, as a multiethnic and political area in the southeastern part of Europe. The geographical term of a peninsula defines that the sea border must be longer than the land border, with the land side being the shortest in the triangle, but that is not

7198-450: The area starting falling like Serbia after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Bulgaria in 1396, Constantinople in 1453, Bosnia in 1463, Herzegovina in 1482, and Montenegro in 1499. The conquest was made easier for the Ottomans due to existing divisions among the Orthodox peoples and by the even deeper rift that had existed at the time between the Eastern and Western Christians of Europe. The Albanians under Skanderbeg's leadership resisted

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7316-483: The arrival of farming cultures in the Neolithic era. The Balkans have been inhabited since the Paleolithic and are the route by which farming from the Middle East spread to Europe during the Neolithic (7th millennium BC). 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 Central Europe, particularly through Pannonia . Two early culture-complexes have developed in

7434-469: The broad geographical, social-political and historical context of the Balkans, while the neologism Western Balkans is perceived as a humiliation of Croatia by the European political powers. According to M. S. Altić, the term has two different meanings, "geographical, ultimately undefined, and cultural, extremely negative, and recently strongly motivated by the contemporary political context". In 2018, President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović stated that

7552-428: The case for the Balkan Peninsula. Both the eastern and western sea catheti from Odesa to Cape Matapan ( c.  1230 –1350 km) and from Trieste to Cape Matapan ( c.  1270 –1285 km) are shorter than the land cathetus from Trieste to Odesa ( c.  1330 –1365 km). The land has too long a land border to qualify as a peninsula – Szczecin (920 km) and Rostock (950 km) at

7670-401: The detainees "respect the laws and customs of war" and whether they operate within a chain of command and are "not persons acting on their own responsibility". In certain conditions the brigand has not been a mere malefactor. Brigandage may be, and not infrequently has been, the last resort of a people subject to invasion. The Calabrians who fought for Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies , and

7788-490: The dissolution of the union as unconstitutional and the Yugoslav People's Army unsuccessfully tried to maintain the status quo. Slovenia and Croatia declared independence on 25 June 1991, which prompted the Croatian War of Independence in Croatia and the Ten-Day War in Slovenia. The Yugoslav forces eventually withdrew from Slovenia in 1991 while the war in Croatia continued until late 1995 . The two were followed by Macedonia and later Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Bosnia being

7906-409: The early 20th century. The definition of the Balkan Peninsula's natural borders does not coincide with the technical definition of a peninsula; hence modern geographers reject the idea of a Balkan Peninsula, while historical scholars usually discuss the Balkans as a region. The term has acquired a stigmatized and pejorative meaning related to the process of Balkanization . The alternative term used for

8024-400: The end of World War I, the Balkan Pact , or Balkan Entente, was formed by a treaty between Greece , Romania , Turkey and Yugoslavia on 9 February 1934 in Athens . With the start of the World War II , all Balkan countries, with the exception of Greece, were allies of Nazi Germany , having bilateral military agreements or being part of the Axis Pact . Fascist Italy expanded the war in

8142-555: The end of the 18th century, and other authors started applying the name to the wider area between the Adriatic and the Black Sea. The concept of the "Balkans" was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, who mistakenly considered it as the dominant central mountain system of Southeast Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. During the 1820s, "Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers... Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan

8260-416: The first battleground of the emerging Cold War. The Truman Doctrine was the US response to the civil war , which raged from 1944 to 1949. This civil war, unleashed by the Communist Party of Greece , backed by communist volunteers from neighboring countries (Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia), led to massive American assistance for the non-communist Greek government. With this backing, Greece managed to defeat

8378-442: The hajduk from the jurisdiction of their lords, granted them land, and guaranteed them rights to own property and to personal freedom. The emancipated hajduk constituted a new "warrior estate" within Hungarian feudal society. Many of the settlements created at this time still bear the prefix Hajdú such as Hajdúbagos, Hajdúböszörmény , Hajdúdorog, Hajdúhadház, Hajdúnánás, Hajdúsámson, Hajdúszoboszló , Hajdúszovát, Hajdúvid etc., and

8496-656: The hajduk is a romanticised hero figure who steals from, and leads his fighters into battle against, the Ottoman authorities . They are comparable to the English legendary Robin Hood and his merry men, who stole from the rich (who as in the case of the hajduk happened to also be foreign occupiers ) and gave to the poor, while defying seemingly unjust laws and authority. People that helped hajduks were called jataks. Jataks lived in villages and towns and provided food and shelter for hajduks. In return, hajduks would give them part of

8614-564: The historical and political connotations of the term Balkans , especially since the military conflicts of the 1990s in Yugoslavia in the western half of the region, the term Southeast Europe is becoming increasingly popular. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe . The online newspaper Balkan Times renamed itself Southeast European Times in 2003. In other languages of

8732-518: The king's preserves round Paris . The salt monopoly and the excessive preservation of the game were so oppressive that the peasantry were provoked to violent resistance and to brigandage. The offenders enjoyed a large measure of public sympathy, and were warned or concealed by the population, even when they were not actively supported. David Hannay writing in the 1911 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica stated that in " Corsica

8850-743: The klephts. The conditions which favor the development of brigandage may be summed up as bad administration and to a lesser degree, terrain that permits easy escape from the incumbents. The Scottish Marches supplied a theatre for the gentlemen reivers . After the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651), policing the Scottish moss-troopers tied up many English soldiers of the occupying New Model Army . Their contemporaries in Ireland became known as "tories" . Rapparees , Irish guerrillas of

8968-589: The last outpost of the peaceful Mitteleuropa. For Italians and Austrians, it begins with Slovenia, where the reign of the Slavic hordes starts. For Germans, Austria itself, on account of its historic connections, is already tainted by Balkanic corruption and inefficiency. For some arrogant Frenchmen, Germany is associated with the Balkanian Eastern savagery—up to the extreme case of some conservative anti-European-Union Englishmen for whom, in an implicit way, it

9086-525: The late 19th century to the creation of post– World War I Yugoslavia (initially the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918). After the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans acquired a negative political meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, as well in worldwide casual usage for war conflicts and fragmentation of territory (see Balkanization ). In part due to

9204-418: The loot. The hajduk of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries commonly were as much guerrilla fighters against the Ottoman rule as they were bandits and highwaymen who preyed not only on Ottomans and their local representatives, but also on local merchants and travellers. As such, the term could also refer to any robber and carry a negative connotation. The etymology of the word hajduk is unclear. One theory

9322-587: The most famous outlaw during the Italian unification ) received from various kinds of manuténgoli (maintainers) – great men, corrupt officials, political parties, and the peasants who were terrorized, or who profited by selling the brigands food and clothes. In the Campagna in 1866, two English travellers, William John Charles Möens and the Rev. John Cruger Murray Aynsley, were captured and held for ransom; Aynsley

9440-662: The mountainous Upper Carniola region in the 18th and 19th century. They were suppressed by the army in 1853. In Spain brigandage was common in and south of the Sierra Morena . It reached its greatest heights in Andalusia . In Andalusia, the Sierra Morena, and the Serrania de Ronda , have produced the bandits whose achievements form the subject of popular ballads, such as Francisco Esteban El Guapo (Francis Stephen,

9558-537: The mountains of Calabria , the Sierras of Spain , were the homes of the Italian banditi , and the Spanish bandoleros (member of a gang) and salteadores (raiders). The great haunts of brigands in Europe have been central and southern Italy and parts of Spain. England was ruled by William III , when "a fraternity of plunderers, thirty in number according to the lowest estimate, squatted near Waltham Cross under

9676-491: The mountains, spruce , fir and pine ). The tree line in the mountains lies at the height of 1,800–2,300 m. The land provides habitats for numerous endemic species, including extraordinarily abundant insects and reptiles that serve as food for a variety of birds of prey and rare vultures . The soils are generally poor, except on the plains , where areas with natural grass, fertile soils and warm summers provide an opportunity for tillage. Elsewhere, land cultivation

9794-727: The northern and central Balkans. This migration brought about the formation of distinct ethnic groups amongst the South Slavs, which included the Bulgarians , Croats and Serbs and Slovenes . Prior to the Slavic landing, parts of the western peninsula have been home to the Proto-Albanians . Including cities like Nish , Shtip . This can be proven through the development of the names, for example Naissos > Nish and Astibos > Shtip follow Albanian phonetic sound rules and have entered Slavic, indicating that Proto-Albanian

9912-603: The old idea of a Balkan Peninsula". Another issue is the name: the Balkan Mountains , mostly in Northern Bulgaria, do not dominate the region by length and area as do the Dinaric Alps . An eventual Balkan peninsula can be considered a territory south of the Balkan Mountains, with a possible name "Greek-Albanian Peninsula." The term influenced the meaning of Southeast Europe which again is not properly defined by geographical factors. Croatian geographers and academics are highly critical of inclusion of Croatia within

10030-518: The only non-communist countries, Greece and Turkey were (and still are) part of NATO composing the southeastern wing of the alliance. In the 1990s, the transition of the regions' ex-Eastern bloc countries towards democratic free-market societies went peacefully. While in the non-aligned Yugoslavia , Wars between the former Yugoslav republics broke out after Slovenia and Croatia held free elections and their people voted for independence on their respective countries' referendums. Serbia, in turn, declared

10148-464: The partisans and, ultimately, remained one of the two only non-communist countries in the region with Turkey. However, despite being under communist governments, Yugoslavia (1948) and Albania (1961) fell out with the Soviet Union. Yugoslavia, led by Marshal Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), first propped up then rejected the idea of merging with Bulgaria and instead sought closer relations with

10266-502: The past several centuries, 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 have been the least developed part of Europe. According to Halil İnalcık , "The population of the Balkans, according to one estimate, fell from

10384-412: The peninsula, is generally excluded. Although they have no territory on the peninsula, Hungary and Moldova are occasionally incorporated into discussions of the Balkans due to cultural and historical affiliations. The origin of the word Balkan is obscure; it may be related to Turkish bālk 'mud' (from Proto-Turkic * bal 'mud, clay; thick or gluey substance', cf. also Turkic bal 'honey'), and

10502-669: The region is Southeast Europe . The borders of the Balkans are, due to many contrasting definitions, disputed. There exists no universal agreement on the region's components. The term by most definitions fully encompasses Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Bulgaria , Greece , Kosovo , Montenegro , North Macedonia , European Turkey , the Romanian coast , most of Serbia and large parts of Croatia . The term sometimes includes all of Romania , Serbia and Croatia, and southern parts of Slovenia . The Province of Trieste in northeastern Italy , although by some definitions considered part of

10620-598: The region, Starčevo culture and Vinča culture . The Balkans are also the location of the first advanced civilizations. Vinča culture developed a form of proto-writing before the Sumerians and Minoans , known as the Old European script , while the bulk of the symbols had been created in the period between 4500 and 4000 BC, with the ones on the Tărtăria clay tablets even dating back to around 5300 BC. The identity of

10738-680: The region, the region is known as: The Balkan Peninsula is bounded by the Adriatic Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea (including the Ionian and Aegean seas) and the Sea of Marmara to the south and the Black Sea to the east. Its northern boundary is often given as the Danube , Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has a combined area of about 470,000 km (181,000 sq mi) (slightly smaller than Spain). The peninsula

10856-461: The ruler and became quasi-nobility. The word hajduk was initially a colloquial term for a style of footsoldier, Hungarian or Turco- Balkan in inspiration, that formed the backbone of the Polish infantry arm from the 1570s until about the 1630s. Unusually for this period, Polish-Lithuanian hajduks wore uniforms , typically of grey-blue woolen cloth, with red collar and cuffs. Their principal weapon

10974-558: The same territory, used the term Südosteuropäische Halbinsel ('southeastern European peninsula'). Another reason it was not commonly accepted as the definition of then European Turkey had a similar land extent. However, after the Congress of Berlin (1878) there was a political need for a new term and gradually "the Balkans" was revitalized, but in the maps, the northern border was in Serbia and Montenegro without Greece (it only depicted

11092-401: The shades of Epping Forest , and built themselves huts, from which they sallied forth with sword and pistol to bid passengers stand". The Gubbings (so called in contempt from the trimmings and refuse of fish) infested Devonshire for a generation from their headquarters near Brent Tor , on the edge of Dartmoor . In France there were the Écorcheurs , or Skinners, in the 15th century, and

11210-496: The southern part, winters are milder. The humid continental climate is predominant in Bosnia and Herzegovina, northern Croatia, Bulgaria, Kosovo , northern Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, and the interior of Albania and Serbia . Meanwhile, the other less common climates, the humid subtropical and oceanic climates, are seen on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria and Balkan Turkey (European Turkey) . The Mediterranean climate

11328-531: The strife of the peasants against the feudal exactions of the landlords. It had its traditional hero, Roc Guinart, who figures in the second part of Don Quixote . The revolt against the house of Austria in 1640 and the War of the Succession (1700–1714) greatly stimulated Catalan brigandage. A country gentleman named Pere Veciana, hereditary balio (military and civil lieutenant) of the archbishop of Tarragona in

11446-517: The term Western Balkans to mean the Balkan area that includes countries that are not members of the European Union, while others refer to the geographical aspects. Each of these countries aims to be part of the future enlargement of the European Union and reach democracy and transmission scores but, until then, they will be strongly connected with the pre-EU waiting program Central European Free Trade Agreement . Croatia, considered part of

11564-459: The territory was too mountainous to completely subdue. Another small country that retained its independence, both de facto and de jure in this case, was the Adriatic trading hub of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik , Croatia). By the end of the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had become the controlling force in the region after expanding from Anatolia through Thrace to the Balkans. Many people in

11682-402: The third at 2915 m. The karst field or polje is a common feature of the landscape. On the Adriatic and Aegean coasts, the climate is Mediterranean , on the Black Sea coast the climate is humid subtropical and oceanic , and inland it is humid continental . In the northern part of the peninsula and on the mountains, winters are frosty and snowy, while summers are hot and dry. In

11800-476: The three empires participating in that alliance. The next year Bulgaria joined the Central Powers attacking Serbia, which was successfully fighting Austro-Hungary to the north for a year. That led to Serbia's defeat and the intervention of the Entente in the Balkans which sent an expeditionary force to establish a new front , the third one of that war, which soon also became static. The participation of Greece in

11918-663: The timetable of the planned invasion in Russia causing a significant delay, which had major consequences during the course of the war. Finally, at the end of 1944, the Soviets entered Romania and Bulgaria forcing the Germans out of the Balkans. They left behind a region largely ruined as a result of wartime exploitation. During the Cold War , most of the countries on the Balkans were governed by communist governments. Greece became

12036-550: The town of Valls , armed his farm-servants and resisted the attacks of the brigands. With the help of neighbouring country gentlemen he formed a strong band, known as the Mossos (Boys) of Veciana, the precedent of current Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra . The brigands combined to get rid of him by making an attack on the town of Valls, but were repulsed with great loss. The government of Philip V then commissioned Veciana to raise

12154-452: The traditional epic invocation to the muse. A fine example is The most beautiful history of the life and death of Pietro Mancino, chief of Banditi , which begins: :"Io canto li ricatti, e il fiero ardire In the Kingdom of Naples , every successive revolutionary disturbance saw a recrudescence of brigandage down to the unification of 1860–1861. The source of the trouble was the supporters of brigands (like Carmine Crocco from Basilicata ,

12272-428: The turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, we know of tens of thousands of hajdú, who were also the first to fight in wars in the first half of the 17th century. Their activities were significant both as mercenaries and as Defence Forces. Hajdú life provided social mobility, as their success was illustrated by the fact that, although they were born as peasant or petty nobles, they often received substantial land donations from

12390-404: The use of the term "Western Balkans" should be avoided because it does not imply only a geographic area, but also negative connotations, and instead must be perceived as and called Southeast Europe because it is part of Europe. Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek said of the definition, This very alibi confronts us with the first of many paradoxes concerning Balkan: its geographic delimitation

12508-604: The war three years later, in 1918, on the part of the Entente finally altered the balance between the opponents leading to the collapse of the common German-Bulgarian front there, which caused the exit of Bulgaria from the war, and in turn, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ending the First World War. Between the two wars, in order to maintain the geopolitical status quo in the region after

12626-648: The whole area is called Hajdúság (Land of the Hajduk) (see Hajdú County ). The Hajdú have always been an important pillar of Hungarian society and its defence. During the great Turkish attack of 1551/52, it was possible to recruit several hundred or even several thousand Hajdú troops from the Nyírség-Debrecen region for an action against the Turks. Among the Hungarians, the Hajdú lifestyle was significant. At

12744-858: The word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its general meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan , Čatal-Balkan , and Ungurus-Balkani̊ , but it was especially applied to the Haemus mountain. The name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains) and the Balkan Region of Turkmenistan . The English traveler John Bacon Sawrey Morritt introduced this term into English literature at

12862-412: Was a small calibre matchlock firearm, known as an arquebus . For close combat they also carried a heavy variety of sabre , capable of hacking off the heads of enemy pikes and polearms . Contrary to popular opinion, the small axe they often wore tucked in their belt (not to be confused with the huge half-moon shaped berdysz axe, which was seldom carried by hajduks) was not a combat weapon, but rather

12980-576: Was done with political reasoning as affirmation for Serbian nationalism on the whole territory of the South Slavs , and also included anthropological and ethnological studies of the South Slavs through which were claimed various nationalistic and racialist theories. Through such policies and Yugoslavian maps the term was elevated to the modern status of a geographical region. The term acquired political nationalistic connotations far from its initial geographic meaning, arising from political changes from

13098-430: Was in a letter sent in 1490 to Pope Innocent VIII by Buonaccorsi Callimaco , an Italian humanist, writer and diplomat. The Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, although other Turkic tribes had already settled in or were passing through the region. There is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of

13216-626: Was intended for cutting wood. In the mid-17th century hajduk-style infantry largely fell out of fashion in Poland-Lithuania, and were replaced by musket -armed infantry of Western style. However, commanders or hetmans of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth continued to maintain their own liveried bodyguards of hajduks, well into the 18th century as something of a throwback to the past, even though they were now rarely used as field troops. In imitation of these bodyguards, in

13334-435: Was led into a trap and slain. Marco Sciarra was the follower and imitator of Benedetto Mangone, who was documented to have stopped a party of travellers which included Torquato Tasso . Sciarrae allowed them to pass unharmed out of his reverence for poets and poetry. Mangone was finally taken and beaten to death with hammers at Naples. He and his like are the heroes of much popular verse, written in ottava rima beginning with

13452-607: Was never precise. It is as if one can never receive a definitive answer to the question, "Where does it begin?" For Serbs, it begins down there in Kosovo or Bosnia, and they defend the Christian civilization against this Europe's Other. For Croats, it begins with the Orthodox, despotic, Byzantine Serbia, against which Croatia defends the values of democratic Western civilization. For Slovenes, it begins with Croatia, and we Slovenes are

13570-475: Was released shortly thereafter. Möens found that the manuténgoli of the brigands among the peasants charged famine prices for food, and extortionate prices for clothes and cartridges. The Mexican brigand Juan Cortina made incursions into Texas before the American Civil War . In Mexico the " Rurales " ended brigandage. In Slovenia the brigands (called Rokovnjači) were active especially in

13688-532: Was spoken prior to the Slavic invasion of the Balkans. During the Early Middle Ages , The Byzantine Empire was the dominant state in the region, both military and culturally. Their cultural strength became particularly evident in the second half of the 9th century when the Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius managed to spread the Byzantine variant of Christianity to the majority of

13806-632: Was the preferred term". In European books printed until late 1800s it was also known as Illyrian Peninsula or Illyrische Halbinsel in German. The term was not commonly used in geographical literature until the mid-19th century because, already then, scientists like Carl Ritter warned that only the part south of the Balkan Mountains could be considered as a peninsula and considered it to be renamed as "Greek peninsula". Other prominent geographers who did not agree with Zeune were Hermann Wagner , Theobald Fischer , Marion Newbigin , and Albrecht Penck , while Austrian diplomat Johann Georg von Hahn , in 1869, for

13924-602: Was used by the Romanian resistance movement Haiducii Muscelului , between 1947 and 1959, which opposed the Soviet occupation and the Communist government . In the 2003 viral Moldovan pop song Dragostea Din Tei , the singer begins by introducing himself as a 'haiduc'. In 2004, Haiducii herself released a successful cover of the song. Brigands Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder . It

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