I.

Introduction

Danube (ancient, Danubius, and in the lower part of its course, Ister; German, Donau; Slovak, Dunaj; Hungarian, Duna; Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, and Bulgarian, Dunav; Romanian, Dunărea; Ukrainian, Dunay), river in Europe, second-longest and one of the principal traffic arteries on the Continent. The Danube is the only major Continental European river to flow from west to east. It rises in the Black Forest region of Germany and flows in a generally easterly direction for a distance of about 2,850 km (1,776 mi), emptying, on the Romanian coast, into the Black Sea.

II.

Course and Physical Environment

The delta of the Danube is a region of desolate marshes and swamps, broken by tree-covered elevations, and is an important nature reserve. The Danube is navigable by ocean vessels to Brăila, Romania, and by river craft as far as Ulm in Germany, a distance of some 2,575 km (1,600 mi). About 60 of the approximately 300 tributaries of the Danube are navigable. The principal ones, in the order in which they merge with the Danube, include the Lech, Isar, Inn, Morava, Váh, Rába (Raab), Drava, Tisza, Sava, Siret, and Prut.

The Danube basin, more than 777,000 sq km (300,000 sq mi) in area, includes parts of Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia (part of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro), Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine. Important cities on the river include Ulm, Regensburg, and Passau, in Germany; Linz and Vienna, in Austria; Bratislava, in Slovakia; Budapest, in Hungary; Belgrade, in Serbia; and Galaţi and Brăila, in Romania. Canals link the Danube to the Main, Rhine, and Oder rivers. The Danube Valley between Linz and Vienna, Austria, is noted for its beautiful scenery.

III.

Place in European History

A.

From Roman Times to the End of the Middle Ages

The Danube has always been an important route between western Europe and the Black Sea. It formed, in the 3rd century ad, the northern boundary of the Roman Empire in south-eastern Europe. Early in the Middle Ages, Goths, Huns, Avars, Slavs, Magyars, and other migratory peoples crossed the Danube on their way to invade the Roman, and later the Byzantine Empire. It served as an artery for the Crusaders (see Crusades) into Byzantium (Constantinople) and from there to the Holy Land (see Palestine). The river later eased the advance (beginning at the end of the 14th century) of the Ottoman Turks into western and central Europe.

B.

The 19th Century

In the 19th century it became an essential link between the growing industrial centres of Germany and the agrarian areas of the Balkan Peninsula. At that time, most of the river’s middle and upper course lay within the Austro-Hungarian Empire; the lower part belonged to the decaying empire of the Ottoman Turks. As Turkish control over the Balkans weakened, Austria and the other European powers moved to prevent Russia from acquiring the strategic Danube delta.

By the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1856), terminating the Crimean War, a European commission was established to control the delta. The commission made a number of changes in the delta and in the lower reaches of the river beneficial to navigation. In 1890 the Austrian government began a series of improvements in that part of the river known as the Iron Gate.

C.

The 20th Century

The Treaty of Versailles (1919), concluding World War I, confirmed the European commission, and set up another one to control the Danube above the delta. During World War II the commissions were abolished by Nazi Germany (see National Socialism), which controlled the entire river from 1940 to 1944. After the war the Communist-bloc nations bordering the river formed a new Danube Commission, with headquarters at Budapest. Austria was admitted in 1960 and West Germany in 1963. At present, the Commission consists of representatives of 11 countries. In 1991 the Danube delta was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

IV.

Environmental Damage

A.

The Gabčíkovo Dam

The construction of the Gabčíkovo Dam on the Danube in southern Slovakia, begun in the 1980s, changed the river’s course, resulting in increased political tension between Hungary and Slovakia in the early 1990s. By late 1992, Czechoslovakia had used giant boulders and concrete blocks to divert most of the Danube’s water into a 24-km (15-mi) artificial channel to feed Gabčíkovo’s hydroelectric turbines.

The dam project was originally a joint effort between the Czechoslovak, Hungarian, and Austrian governments. However, due to political pressure from environmental and other groups, Hungary and Austria withdrew from the project, followed by the Czech Republic after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. Slovakia unilaterally completed the dam’s construction, despite vociferous protests from the Hungarian government, which demanded that the international boundary between the two countries be redrawn to reflect the Danube’s northward shift because the international border had followed the Danube’s main waterway since 1947.

The environmental concerns are serious. Near the dam the Danube receives less than one third of its former average flow. The Hungarian government claims that wells in nearby villages have dried up and that water available for irrigation contains high concentrations of toxins, resulting from inadequate dilution in the waterway.

There are also fears that the dam is drying up the Szigetkoz flood plain, once one of Europe’s largest freshwater wetlands. In response, Slovakia has contended that Hungary unilaterally abrogated treaty obligations and should pay Slovakia financial damages. The dispute was submitted to the International Court of Justice for arbitration in March 1997. The court ruled that both countries had violated the original hydroelectric project agreement and ordered them to compensate one another and continue negotiations.

B.

NATO Bombing in Serbia

The NATO bombing campaign in Serbia, from March to June 1999, had a significant detrimental impact on the Danube. Various bridges across the river were destroyed, blocking river traffic. The cost of this to shipping has been estimated at several hundred million US dollars. Leaks from chemical plants, refineries, and other industrial sites targeted by NATO bombs are thought to have raised levels of toxic substances in the Danube and other rivers in Serbia to potentially dangerous levels. In November 2001 the river was declared safe for navigation and the clean-up operation was completed in mid-2003.

C.

Romanian Cyanide Spill

In February 2000 the waters of the river were contaminated by a cyanide spill (see Hydrogen Cyanide) from an Australian-owned gold mine in Romania. The toxic chemical made its way into the Danube in Hungary, via a tributary, the river Tisza. The spill poisoned drinking water in Hungary and Serbia and left parts of the Danube River ecosystem barren of life.