What kind of terrain do the balkans have

The Balkan farmer may raise wheat in the fertile valleys of Romania, northeastern Yugoslavia, and northern Bulgaria; or olives, fruit, and tobacco in peninsular Greece and the Greek islands; or specialty crops like tobacco and roses for perfume in southern Bulgaria. Or he may be chiefly engaged in sheep raising in the rugged mountains of Albania, or pig raising in Yugoslavia. But whatever he raises, the farmer is in the overwhelming majority throughout the Balkans.

To an American used to measuring his fields in acre lots or quarter sections or even larger units, the average Balkan farm would seem incredibly small. It commonly ranges from 1 or 2 to 10 or 15 acres. Rarely does it exceed the latter figure. Moreover, the fields of a Balkan farm seldom lie all together in one place. Usually each farmer has several widely separated plots—a little good land in a valley, some thin soil on a slope, or a stony patch up a mountainside.

Perhaps one field is able to produce wheat or corn or tobacco every other year or so, while another may be good for barley or vetch. A third may be suitable for a vineyard, the fourth, for a half-dozen or more olive trees, and so on. An American would also note with surprise the almost complete absence of isolated farmhouses in the country. Balkan farmers regularly live grouped together in small communities, hamlets, or villages, from which in the early mornings they stream out in all directions to work their fields.

His holding may be small, but the Balkan farmer, at least in Greece, Bulgaria, and a large part of Yugoslavia, normally owns his land. He takes pride in his possession of it and clings to it with tenacity. From it he makes his frugal living. Only in Albania and Romania and parts of Yugoslavia is much of the land still owned by large landholders.

There the small farmers are to a great extent poverty-stricken peasant-laborers. In the recent past the Balkan farmer has suffered from the effects of overpopulation, land shortage, and bad communications.

He will need long years of uninterrupted security to solve his problems. Before the Balkan farmer can raise his standard of living, or before the basic economic ills of his region can be cured, there must be peace. Then new industrial establishments may develop and absorb the excess rural population; and then those left on the farms, who will still be a large majority, may learn new methods of intensive cultivation.

Some may object that there can be no peace unless the economic problems are solved first. They run parallel to the Adriatic coast and in many places come right down to the sea. In the northern Balkans are the Carpathian mountains, which reach quite great heights in Transylvania, the western part of Romania. There are many other smaller ranges of mountains and hills as well. The coastline of all of the western and southern Balkans is rocky and rugged.

Despite the fact that the Balkan peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic, Aegean, and Black Seas, navigable rivers are few except for the massive Danube, which flows through the region on its way from Germany and Austria to the Black Sea. All rights reserved. See more Encyclopedia articles on: Balkans Physical Geography. Enter your search terms:. Balkan Peninsula, southeasternmost peninsula of Europe, c. Although there is no sharp physiographic separation between the peninsula and Central Europe, the line of the Sava and Danube rivers is commonly considered as the region's northern limit.

Routledge, London. Boore, D. The Montenegro, Yugoslavia, Earthquake of April 15, - source orientation and strength. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors 27, — Dixon, J. The Geological Evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean. Geological Society Special Publication. The Geological Society, London. Furlan, D. The Climate of Southeast Europe. In Climates of Central and Southern Europe. World Survey of Climatology Volume6.

Furlan, D, ed. Elsevier, Amsterdam. Grove, A. The Nature of Mediterranean Europe.