Southern Europe is the name of the southern part of Europe. More specifically, it includes the majority of European countries bordering the Mediterranean as well as a few others. Alternatively, the countries south of a straight line that can be drawn in an east-west direction through the Alps to the Black Sea can be described as belonging to southern Europe.
According to Countryaah, Southern Europe consists of the following countries:
- ALBANIA
- ANDORRA
- BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
- BULGARIA
- CYPRUS
- GIBRALTAR
- GREECE
- ITALY
- KOSOVO (not recognized by the UN)
- CROATIA
- MACEDONIA
- MALTA
- MONACO
- MONTENEGRO
- PORTUGAL
- SAN MARINO
- SERBIA
- SLOVENIA
- SPAIN
- TURKEY (European part)
- VATICAN STATE
Andorra
The Principality of Andorra, located in the Pyrenees between Spain and France. The landscape is characterized by valleys surrounded by 1800-3000 meter high mountains. The rivers Valira de Ordino and Valira de Carrillo flow together in Andorra and become the Valira river. Grain is grown in the valleys. Cattle farming used to be the main economic activity, but has now been replaced by tourism.
A legend that the country was founded by Charlemagne is the only current example of the independence that many of the valleys of the Pyrenees possessed in the Middle Ages.
There is evidence that the area today made up of Andorra was inhabited as early as Neolithic times. Cave paintings and finds of skeletal parts reveal that they were Stone Age people. Some historians believe that the original residents of the Andorra Valley were related to the Basques, who today inhabit the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. The word Andorra itself must therefore be derived from Basque (euskera).
TIMELINE:
2004 – In July, Andorra is forced by the EU to be more open in its banking sector in order to limit the possibility of money laundering.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria is a country in the south-eastern part of Europe in the Balkan Peninsula. To the north, Bulgaria borders Romania, to the south by Greece and Turkey, to the west by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia, and to the east by the Black Sea.
The country is cut from east to west by the Balkan Mountains, which reach their highest point with Mount Botev 2,376 m, located in the central part of the 700 km long mountain range in the Central Balkan National Park. The highest mountain in Bulgaria and in the whole of the Balkans is Musala at 2,925 m in the Rila Mountains south of Sofia.
TIMELINE:
7th century – A group of Bulgarians led by Khan Asparuh to the northern Balkans, where they mingled with the local Slavic and Thracian peoples, forming the first Bulgarian empire.
9.-10. century – Bulgaria was an important European state and was in conflict with the Byzantine Empire for control of the Balkans.
1018 – The Bulgarian state is completely crushed and oppressed after a Byzantine attack under Basileios II.
1185 – Bulgaria is restored and continues to be an important country in Southeastern Europe for over two centuries, fighting for its place in the region next to the Byzantine Empire, Hungary and the Crusaders in Greece, until it was occupied by the Ottomans at the end of the 14th century.
1912-13 – The country was involved in a series of conflicts with its neighbors: the First and Second Balkan Wars, during which most of Turkey’s European territories were incorporated into Serbia, Greece, Albania and Bulgaria. During World War I, Bulgaria fought on the side of the central power and was allied with Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.
World War II – Bulgaria Member of the Axis Powers. On September 9, 1944, the country was occupied by the Soviet Union and was proclaimed a Communist People’s Republic in 1946.
2012 – MOVIE: The Expendables 2, was filmed in Bulgaria at the following locations: The Devetaki Cave, Plovdiv Airport, Bansko, Vitosha, Lovech, Sofia ( Nuboyana Film Studios ), Lake Ognyanovo.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory on the south coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Gibraltar is located on the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The area is 6.5 square kilometers and the area borders Spain at 1.2 km. The coastline is 12 km long. The highest point is the Rock of Gibraltar, which is 426 m high.
One of the biggest attractions on the peninsula is the wild Berber monkeys. The monkeys live on the Rock of Gibraltar and are a major tourist attraction.
TIMELINE:
1713 – Gibraltar is annexed to Britain by Spain in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht. Gibraltar formally became a British Crown Colony in 1830.
1986 – Filming for the opening sequence of “ The Living Daylights ” begins on September 17, with stuntmen BJ Worth and Jake Lumbard performing the stunt with the parachute on the Rock of Gibraltar.
2006 – Britain continues to have 558 troops in Gibraltar. By then, negotiations on a new constitution for the colony had been completed. The new constitution does not change the status of the colony, but nevertheless modernizes the relationship between it and the colonial power. The new constitution was adopted by a referendum in November and entered into force in January 2007.
2011 – Following the election of the fascist PP government in Spain in December, Spain takes a far more aggressive stance towards Gibraltar and Britain.
2012 – Queen Sofia cancels her participation in Queen Elisabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.
2013 – In July, the conflict flares up sharply. It began when Gibraltar dumped cement blocks into the sea to protect the coastline. The Spanish government protested and claimed the embarrassed Spanish fishing boats in the area. The Spanish government responded again by drastically increasing control of cars in and out of Gibraltar. The consequence was that it took up to 7 hours to cross the border. In early August, Spain escalated the conflict further when the interior minister aired the possibility of charging a fee of 50 Euros at each crossing of the border, closed Spanish airspace to flights to Gibraltar and demanded that servers used for games be moved to Spain, for they came under the Spanish tax system. The increasingly unpopular Spanish government used the conflict with Gibraltar to whip up a nationalist mood. Gibraltar, in turn, demanded “something for the tax dollars” in the form of protection from the colonial power. Except that Gibraltar does not pay taxes to the British state at all.
