The Balkans are bordered by France and Germany on the northwest.
In the past several centuries, because of the frequent Ottoman wars in Europe fought in and around the Balkans and the comparative Ottoman isolation from the mainstream of economic advance (reflecting the shift of Europe's commercial and political centre of gravity towards the Atlantic), the Balkans have been the least developed part of Europe
 Individual Balkan states can also be considered part of other regions, including Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Europe

