Danube River | river, Europe | Britannica.com
Danube River
Alternative Titles: Donau, Duna, Dunaj, Dunărea, Dunav, Dunay
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István, Count Széchenyi
Danube River, German Donau, Slovak Dunaj, Hungarian Duna, Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian Dunav, Romanian Dunărea, Ukrainian Dunay , river , the second longest in Europe after the Volga . It rises in the Black Forest mountains of western Germany and flows for some 1,770 miles (2,850 km) to its mouth on the Black Sea . Along its course it passes through 10 countries: Germany, Austria , Slovakia , Hungary , Croatia , Serbia , Bulgaria , Romania , Moldova , and Ukraine .
The Danube River basin and its drainage network.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Boats along the Danube River, Belgrade, Serbia.
Jon Arnold/SuperStock
The Danube River links the countries of the Balkan Peninsula to each other and to the rest of …
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The Danube played a vital role in the settlement and political evolution of central and southeastern Europe. Its banks, lined with castles and fortresses, formed the boundary between great empires, and its waters served as a vital commercial highway between nations. The river’s majesty has long been celebrated in music. The famous waltz An der schönen, blauen Donau (1867; The Blue Danube ), by Johann Strauss the Younger , became the symbol of imperial Vienna. In the 21st century the river has continued its role as an important trade artery. It has been harnessed for hydroelectric power, particularly along the upper courses, and the cities along its banks—including the national capitals of Vienna (Austria), Budapest (Hungary), and Belgrade (Serbia)—have depended upon it for their economic growth.
Central Budapest, looking north along the Danube River, with the Parliament Building on the east …
Jean S. Buldain/Berg & Assoc.
Physical features
Physiography
The Danube’s vast drainage of some 315,000 square miles (817,000 square km) includes a variety of natural conditions that affect the origins and the regimes of its watercourses. They favour the formation of a branching, dense, deepwater river network that includes some 300 tributaries, more than 30 of which are navigable. The river basin expands unevenly along its length. It covers about 18,000 square miles (47,000 square km) at the Inn confluence , 81,000 square miles (210,000 square km) after joining with the Drava , and 228,000 square miles (590,000 square km) below the confluences of its most affluent tributaries, the Sava and the Tisza . In the lower course the basin’s rate of growth decreases. More than half of the entire Danube basin is drained by its right-bank tributaries, which collect their waters from the Alps and other mountain areas and contribute up to two-thirds of the total river runoff or outfall.
The confluence of the Sava (foreground) and Danube rivers from the Kalemegdan fortress, Belgrade, …
Jean S. Buldain/Berg & Assoc.
Opium Wars
The river carries considerable quantities of solid particles, nearly all of which consist of quartz grains. The constant shift of deposits in different parts of the riverbed forms shoals. In the stretches between Bratislava and Komárno and in the Sulina Channel, draglines are constantly at work to maintain the depth needed for navigation. The damming of the river has also changed the way in which sediments are transported and deposited. Water impounded by reservoirs generally loses its silt load, and the water flowing out of the dam—which is relatively silt-free—erodes banks farther downstream.
The temperature of the river waters depends on the climate of the various parts of the basin. In the upper course, where the summer waters derive from the Alpine snow and glaciers, the water temperature is low. In the middle and lower reaches, summer temperatures vary between 71 and 75 °F (22 and 24 °C), while winter temperatures near the banks and on the surface drop below freezing. Upstream from Linz the Danube never freezes entirely, because the current is turbulent. The middle and lower courses, however, become icebound during severe winters. Between December and March, periods of ice drift combine with the spring thaw, causing floating ice blocks to accumulate at the river islands, jamming the river’s course, and often creating major floods.
The natural regime of river runoff changes constantly as a result of the introduction of stream-regulating equipment, including dams and dikes. The mineral content of the river is greater during the winter than the summer. The content of organic matter is relatively low, but pollution increases as the waters flow past industrial areas. The river’s chemistry also changes as city sewerage and agricultural runoff find their way into the river.
The economy
The Danube is of great economic importance to the 10 countries that border it—Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Austria, and Germany—all of which variously use the river for freight transport, the generation of hydroelectricity, industrial and residential water supplies, irrigation, and fishing . The movement of freight is the most important economic use of the Danube. Among the major ports are such cities as Izmayil , Ukraine; Galați and Brăila , Romania; Ruse , Bulgaria; Belgrade, Serbia; Budapest, Hungary; Bratislava, Slovakia; Vienna, Austria; and Regensburg, Germany. Since World War II , navigation has been improved by dredging and by the construction of a series of canals, and river traffic has increased considerably. The most important canals—all elements in a continentwide scheme of connecting waterways—include the Danube–Black Sea Canal , which runs from Cernovadă, Romania, to the Black Sea and provides a more direct and easily navigable link, and the Main–Danube Canal , completed in 1992 to link the Danube to the Rhine and thus to the North Sea .
Boats along the Danube River, Belgrade, Serbia.
Jon Arnold/SuperStock
The Danube has been tapped for power, mainly in its upper course. The process, however, has spread downstream. One of the largest hydroelectric projects—the Ðerdap (Djerdap) High Dam and the Iron Gate power station—was built jointly by Yugoslavia and Romania. Not only does the project produce hydroelectricity, but it also makes navigable what was once one of the most difficult stretches on the river.
Industrial use of Danube waters is made at Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, and Ruse. The main irrigated areas are along the river in Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria. The river has nearly become unfit for irrigation as well as for drinking water, however, because of the tremendous increase in pollutants; pollution has also diminished the once-rich fishing grounds, although some of the fish have moved to side lakes and swamps.
History
During the 7th century bce, Greek sailors reached the lower Danube and sailed upstream, conducting a brisk trade. They were familiar with the whole of the river’s lower course and named it the Ister. The Danube later served as the northern boundary of the vast Roman Empire and was called the Danuvius. A Roman fleet patrolled its waters, and the strongholds along its shores were the centres of settlements, among them Vindobona (later Vienna), Aquincum (later Budapest), Singidunum (later Belgrade), and Sexantaprista (later Ruse).
During the Middle Ages the old fortresses continued to play an important role, and new castles such as Werfenstein, built by Charlemagne in the 9th century, were erected. When the Ottoman Empire spread from southeastern to central Europe in the 15th century, the Turks relied upon the string of fortresses along the Danube for defense. The Habsburg dynasty recognized the navigational potential of the Danube. Maria Theresa , queen of Hungary and Bohemia from 1740 to 1780, founded a department to oversee river navigation, and in 1830 a riverboat made a first trip from Vienna to Budapest, possibly for trading purposes. That trip marked the end of the river’s importance as a line of defense and the beginning of its use as a channel of trade.
Maria Theresa, portrait by W.H. Mote, 1861.
The Print Collector/Heritage-Images
Regulated navigation on the Danube has been the subject of a number of international agreements. In 1616 an Austro-Turkish treaty was signed in Belgrade under which the Austrians were granted the right to navigate the middle and lower Danube. In 1774, under the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca , Russia was allowed to use the lower Danube. The Anglo-Austrian and the Russo-Austrian conventions of 1838 and 1840, respectively, promoted free navigation along the entire river, a principle that was more precisely formulated in the Treaty of Paris of 1856, which also set up the first Danubian Commission with the aim of supervising the river as an international waterway. In 1921 and 1923, final approval of the Danube River Statute was granted by Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Great Britain, Italy , Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Greece. The international Danube Commission was thus established as an authoritative institution with wide powers, including its own flag, the right to levy taxes, and diplomatic immunity for its members. It controlled navigation from the town of Ulm to the Black Sea and kept navigational equipment in good repair.
During World War II, free international navigation along the course of the river was interrupted by the hostilities, and a consensus concerning the resumption of navigation was not reached until the Danubian Convention of 1948. The new convention provided for the Danubian countries alone to participate in a reconstituted Danube Commission; of those countries, only West Germany did not join the convention.