The Balkans is an area in southeastern Europe, bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south and southeast, and the Black Sea in the east and northeast. Today, “the Balkans” generally refers to this region and includes present-day countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania Serbia, and Slovenia. The first World War began in the Balkans in 1914 when Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo.