00:00 The Balkan Peninsula is a region in southeastern Europe with a complex history and ongoing conflicts, consisting of multiple countries formerly part of Yugoslavia and Albania.

02:13 The Balkans, historically influenced by Greek culture and later conquered by Rome and the Byzantine Empire, saw migrations of Slavic people and the rise of the Ottoman Empire before nationalist uprisings in the 19th century.

04:16 The creation of the kingdoms of Serbia and Bulgaria, the control of the Balkans by the Austrian Empire, the formation of the kingdom of Yugoslavia, the German invasion and occupation during World War II, the communist governments in Albania and Yugoslavia, the fall of the communist governments in 1991, and the fragmentation of Yugoslavia and the subsequent wars in the 1990s have shaped the history of the Balkans.

06:18 Croatia is a predominantly Catholic and Slavic country with a crescent shape and a high standard of living, while Montenegro is primarily an Orthodox country that seceded from Serbia in 2006 and is known for its vineyards, and Albania is a unique country with a language that is not closely related to any other existing language.

08:23 Albania is a predominantly Muslim country with a unique communist leader, while Kosovo fought for independence and is recognized as an independent state by over 100 countries but not by the United Nations, and North Macedonia had a naming dispute with Greece and was spared from the wars that affected the rest of the Balkans.

10:23 The Kosovo war had a profound impact on North Macedonia, with an influx of Kosovar immigrants and calls for independence from ethnically Albanian regions near the Kosovo border, while Serbia, the largest of the former Yugoslavian countries, borders eight other countries and was the antagonist in all the wars for independence after the breakup of Yugoslavia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, designed by committee, experienced the bloodiest post-Yugoslavian war with three ethnic groups and evidence of the war still visible in Sarajevo.

12:30 The Balkans are a wonderful and affordable place to visit, with the wars in the region now long gone and future changes to the borders expected to be peaceful.