- published: 29 Aug 2012
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The Balkans (often referred to as the Balkan Peninsula, although the two are not coterminous; Albanian: Gadishulli Ballkanik and Siujdhesa e Ballkanit; Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: Balkansko poluostrvo and Balkanski poluotok; Bulgarian and Macedonian: Балкански полуостров, transliterated: Balkanski poluostrov; Greek: Βαλκανική χερσόνησος, transliterated: Valkaniki chersonisos; Italian: Penisola balcanica; Romanian: Peninsula Balcanică; Slovene: Balkanski polotok; Turkish: Balkan Yarımadası) is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe.
The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria and Serbia, while the name "Balkan" in Turkish means "a chain of wooded mountains", for which there is one of the theories for the name's origin. The region was established in Antiquity when the peninsula became widely accepted with the Thracian name "Peninsula of Haemus"(the name for the region until the Late Middle Ages), which name also derives from the Balkan Mountains, with the name "Haemus Mountains" in the period. The Balkans are highly mountainous; Mount Musala (2,925 metres (9,596 ft)) in the Rila mountain in Bulgaria is the highest. Many linguistic families meet in the region, including the Slavic, Romance, Hellenic, Albanian, and Turkic language families, while the main religions are Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism and Sunni Islam.
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.