The New Student's Reference Work/Balkan Peninsula

Balkan Peninsula, that part of Europe having the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas on one side and the Ægean and Black Seas on the other. It includes Rumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Turkey, Greece, Montenegro and Herzegovina. Nearly the whole of the peninsula is mountainous, the chief plains being those along the Danube River. There is great variety of climate, both as to the range of temperature and the amount of rainfall. Much of the land in the east and south depends upon irrigation to make it productive. The industries are chiefly cattle-raising, agriculture, fruit-growing and manufacturing, the latter being carried on largely by hand. The country is rich in minerals, but mining is little developed because of the repressive government to which the people were so long subjected. The total population is about 17,000,000, and nearly half of the people are Slavs.