Europe
Geography 200
Dr. Stavros Constantinou
1
MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC
QUALITIES
• Western extremity of Eurasia
• Lingering world influence
• High degrees of specialization
• Manufacturing dominance
• Numerous nation-states
• Urbanized population
• High standards of living
2
RELATIVE LOCATION
• At the heart of the land hemisphere
• Maximum efficiency for contact with
the rest of the world
• Every part of Europe is close to the
sea.
• Navigable waterways
• Moderate distances
3
Location
• Excluding Russia, Europe occupies only 3.4% of
the global surface (2,284,509 sq. miles).
• Europe has a high-latitude northerly location.
• Much of Europe lies north of the conterminous
United States (north of the 49th parallel).
• Scotland lies in the same general latutude as
Hudson Bay, and Norway has many communities
located as far north as the northern mainland of
Canada.
4
Location
• Europe has an irregular outline, and is
largely formed of peninsulas.
• The main European peninsula is
surrounded by:
– First order peninsulas: Scandinavian,
Iberian, Italian and Balkan peninsulas.
• Second order peninsulas: Jylland (Jutland),
Bretagne (Brittany), Cornwall, Peloponnesos
(Peloponnesus) and others.
• The complex mingling of land and water
has provided much of Europe with many
opportunities for maritime activities. 5
Location
Europe has 13 landlocked states:
• Andorra • Luxembourg
• Austria • Switzerland
• Belarus • Macedonia
• Czech Republic
• Moldova
• Slovakia
• • San Marino
Hungary
• Liechtenstein • Vatican City
Most places in Europe are no more than 640 km (400 miles) from
the sea. By contrast, parts of the U,S, interior are more than 1600
km (1000 miles) from salt water.
6
Physical Geography -- Landforms
1. Western Uplands (Northwestern Highlands)
• Hard, geologically ancient rock
• Shaped by glaciation – thin soils, fjords
• Scandinavia, Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Portugal Spain
2. North European Plain (Lowland)
• Extensive region, a prominent feature of Europe; includes parts of
France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Poland, the
Baltic states, Belarus and Russia
• Rich in natural resources; coal, natural gas, potash, salt, iron ore,
Largest cultivated region
• Most densely populated of Europe's land regions
3. Central Uplands
• Lower and less rugged than mountain regions, geologically older
• Important deposits of metals and coal
4. Alpine Mountains
• High mountains, rugged plateaus, steeply sloping land
• The Alps, the Pyrenees, the Apennines, Dinaric Alps, and the
Carpathians
7
• Highest peak is Mont Blanc –4807 meters (15,771 feet)
Europe’s Climate
• Climatic controls
– Warm currents (North Atlantic Drift)
– Westerly winds
– Differential of heating between land and water
• Europe’s climate is mild for its latitude
– London’s average winter temperature is about the
same as Richmond, VA, which is 1500 km (950 miles)
farther south.
– The British Isles, Scandinavia, the Netherlands,
Germany and Poland lie north of the conterminous
United States
• Most lowlands receive 50 centimeters (20 inches) of
precipitation per year:
– Average in lowlands is 50-89 centimeters
– A few highland areas receive 102 (40 inches) –
254(100 inches) centimeters per year
8
Climate Types:
• Marine West Coast (Cfb)
• Humid subtropical (Cfa)
• Mediterranean or Dry Summer
Subtropical (Csa)
• Humid continental (Dfa)
• Subarctic (Dc, Dd)
• Tundra (ET)
• Undifferentiated Highlands (H)
9
Vegetation
• Coniferous forest – Scandinavia
Regions once forested but now mostly cleared
for agricultural and industrial development:
• Coniferous forest – Germany and Poland
• Mixed deciduous forest – southern England,
France, Czech Republic,Slovakia, Hungary,
Romania and Bulgaria.
Southern Europe's extensive oak forests have
been reduced to maquis (brush) and garigue
(low scrub). Macchia in Italy, chaparral in
California. Reforestation efforts are
underway.
10
Soils
• Generally acidic (Lime is added to
balance acidity)
• Low fertility (alfisols, inceptisols,
histosols, spodosols and entisols)
• Favorable soils:
– Loess – central France and Poland
– Mollisols – Danubian Plain
11
Natural Resources
• Rich in a variety of mineral resources
• Energy sources – coal and petroleum
• Iron ore deposits – Sweden, Czech
Republic, Alsace-Lorraine (France),
English Midlands
• Bauxite – Hungary, Greece
• Lead -- Sweden
• Zinc --Sweden
• Scenery – tourist industry
12
River Systems
• Rivers of Northern Europe
– Swift in summer, frozen in winter
– Important for generation of electricity
– Limited use for navigation
• Rivers of Central Europe
– Most important river of Europe is the Rhine.
• Carries more freight than any other river in the world.
• Originates in Alpine mountain chains of central Europe and flows
through Switzerland, Germany, France and The Netherlands
• Rivers of Southern Europe
– Of limited use for navigation because of dry summers and high water
flow in winter and spring
• Danube
– Is the longest river in Europe, but is handicapped by site situation
characteristics:
• Rapids at middle course “iron gate” make navigation impossible
• Flows through agricultural areas, rather than industrial
• Other important rivers: Thames (London); Rhone (Marseilles); Seine (Paris);
13
Schelde (Antwerp); Elbe (Hamburg), Po (Italy).
Population Geography
• Europe’s 2003 population was 582,800,778.
• Generally highly literate and skilled.
• Europe is the third largest population cluster,
after East Asia and Southern Asia.
• Extremely high population densities are found
in western European countries, especially
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg –
Benelux.
• Population densities are not as high in
Eastern and Southern Europe.
• Nordic Europe, with the exception of
Denmark, is sparsely populated.
14
EUROPE’S CHANGING POPULATION
Current characteristics of Europe’s
population:
Falling share of the world’s population
Fertility is at an all-time low
Fewer young people
Smaller working age population
Boom & bust age-dependent
15
Immigration partially offsetting losses
Urban Geography
• Europe is among the most highly urbanized
regions of the world.
• Europe's proportion of urban population has
grown from 54% in 1950 to 73% in 2003.
• Western European countries have a higher
percentage of population living in cities than
Eastern Europe.
•The most urbanized •The least urbanized
countries are: countries are:
–Belgium – 97% –Bosnia-Herzegovina – 40%
–Iceland – 94% –Albania – 46%
–United Kingdom – 90% –Moldova – 46%
–Germany – 86%
16
–France --- 74%
Urban Geography
The urban system of many European countries follows the
law of the primate city.
According to the law of the primate city, a country’s leading
city is “disproportionately large and exceptionally
expressive of national capacity and feeling.” (Mark
Jefferson, 1939).
Examples:
Paris personifies France
London personifies the UK
Amsterdam personifies the Netherlands
Warsaw personifies Poland
Athens personifies Greece
Vienna personifies Austria
Stockholm personifies Sweden
17
Urban Geography
• The trend in European urbanization is
toward U.S. style suburbanization.
• European city-scapes differ from North
American cities due to:
– Long histories
– Scarce land
– Strong government control of urban land
development
• The internal spatial structure of the
European metropolis consists of the central
city and its suburban ring, as in London. 18
Urban Geography
– The CBD contains the main
concentration of business, government,
shopping facilities and wealthiest
residences.
– Broad residential sectors radiate outward
from CBD with considerable class
differentiation.
– European suburbs are high-density
satellite towns or villages surrounded by
open countryside that is heavily utilized
for recreational purposes.
19
London 7,650,944
Berlin 3,475,392
Madrid 3,102,846
Rome 2,649,765
Kiev 2,643,000
Paris 2,152,432
Bucharest 2,067,545
Budapest 1,906,798
Barcelona 1,714,355
Hamburg 1,652,383
Minsk 1,661,000
Warsaw 1,655,700
Vienna 1,539,848
Milan 1,305,591
Munich 1,255,623
Prague 1,214,174
Sofia 1,190,126
Belgrade 1,136,786
Naples 1,047,987
0 2,000,000 4,000,000 6,000,000 8,000,000 10,000,000
20
Cultural Geography
• The cultural geography of
Europe is very diverse and
complex.
• Europe is a cultural mosaic,
based on language and religion.
21
Language Groups
• Indo-European Family (Major group, detail in
next slide)
• Urallic Family
– Finnic
• Northwest (Finnish, Karelian, Estonian)
• Lapp
• Ugrian (Hungarian)
• Altaic Family – Turkish, in Turkish foothold in
Europe
• Semitic Family – Maltese, spoken on island of
Malta
• Basque Family – spoken by the Basques of
Southwestern France and Northern Spain 22
Indo-European Family of Languages
• Teutonic (Germanic) – English, German-Dutch (Dutch,
Flemish and German) and Scandinavian (Swedish,
Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic).
• Romanic (Latin) – French (French and Walloon), Spanish
(Castilian and Catalan), Portuguese (Portuguese and
Galician), Italian (Italian and Sardinian), Romansch (Rhaeto-
Romanic), Romanian (Romanin and Vlakh). Romania, an
outlier of the Roman empire, managed to retain its Romance
language.
• Slavic – Western Slavic (Polish, Czech and Slovak), Eastern
Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian,Byelo-Ruthenian), Southern
Slavic (Slovene, Serbo-Croat, Bulgarian)
• Baltic – Latvian and Lithuanian
• Illyrian -- Albanese
• Hellenic -- Greek
• Celtic – Irish, Gaelic, Welsh, Breton 23
Religion
• The predominant religion in Europe is
Christianity.
• Islam is the predominant religion of Albania,
and is the religion of many immigrants to
northwestern Europe from the Middle East
and North Africa.
• Religion as a unifying (centripetal) cultural
force has been unable to overcome the
disunifying (centrifugal) force of nationalism in
Europe.
24
Religion
• Christians number 558,729,000 or 76.6% of a
total European population of 729,406,000.
– Roman Catholicism dominates in southern Europe,
Poland and eastern Germany. 286,124,000 or 39.2% of
total European population.
– Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant faith in eastern
Europe and Greece. 158,775,000 or 21.8% of Europe’s
population.
– Protestantism (especially Lutheran churches) is the
major religion in northern and northwestern Europe.
85,924,000 or 11.8% of the population.
– Anglicanism (Episcopalian) number 25,632,000 or 3.5%
of Europe's population.
– Non Christians:
• Islam: 31,401,000 or 4.3% of the total population 25
• Judaism: 2,530,000 or 0.3% of the total population
Economic Geography – Primary Sector
of Production
• Agriculture
– High degree of commercialization
– Dairy farming and livestock farming
– Specialized subtropical crops in Mediterranean
Europe.
– Major crops
• Cereals, with wheat the leading cereal grain
• Rye – Germany and Poland
• Corn (maize) – Danube plains of Hungary, Romania and
Yugoslavia, the Po river valley of Northern Italy and the
southwestern lowland of France.
• Oats and barley
• Irrigated rice
26
Economic Geography – Primary Sector
of Production
• Fisheries
– High degree of commercialization
– North sea countries and Iceland
– Dogger Bank in the North Sea is a famous
fishing ground.
– Norway is the European leader in quantity of fish
caught.
• Europe depends heavily on food imports. It is self-sufficient
in milk, potatoes and rye. It imports wheat, corn, oil cake,
soybeans, vegetable fats and oils, chilled and frozen meats,
cane sugar, cocoa, coffee and tobacco; fibers (cotton and
wool predominantly) and natural rubber.
27
Economic Geography – Secondary
Sector of Production
• Europe produces a wide range of industrial goods,
from the most basic to the most technologically
advanced.
• Globalization has caused major changes in the
industrial sector.
• Some famous European products are:
– Swiss watches
– English woolens
– Scotch whiskeys
– German porcelain and cameras
– Bohemian glassware
– Irish linens
– French wines, brandies and liqueurs 28
Major Industrial Regions of
Europe
The “Four Motors of Europe” are:
1. Southeastern France’s Rhone-Alpes region
(anchored by Lyon).
2. Northern Italy’s Lombardy (anchored by Milan).
3. Northeastern Spain’s Catalonia (anchored by Barcelona).
4. Southern Germany's Baden-Württemburg (anchored by
Stuttgart).
Other important European industrial regions:
• Sweden:
• Switzerland:
• Poland:
• Austria:
• Italy: Venice
• Spain: Bilbao
• Ukraine: Donbas 29
SPATIAL INTERACTION
• Movement across geographic space
• Involves contact of people in two or more
places for the purposes of exchanging goods
or ideas
• Principles
– Complementarity
– Transferability
– Intervening opportunity 30
COMPLEMENTARITY
• Two places, through an exchange of goods,
can specifically satisfy each other’s demands.
• One area has a surplus of an item demanded
by a second area.
Germany
Italy
31
TRANSFERABILITY
• The ease with which a commodity
may be transported or the capacity
to move a good at a bearable cost
• Rivers, Mountain Passes, Road
networks
• Advances in transportation
technology
32
INTEREVENING OPPORTUNITY
• The presence of a nearer source of supply or
opportunity that acts to diminish the
attractiveness of more distant sources and
sites
Would Austrian beer
be cheaper to import
into Italy?
33
The British Isles: Four regions
The South – London is the center.
• London is Europe’s largest city (7,650,944
people) and the world’s ninth largest
• Metropolitan London has a conurbation area of
12,000,000 inhabitants, one of the worlds largest.
• 20,000,000 of the 59,800,000 total UK population
(33.4%) live in the South region.
• The Green Belt (1944) is a zone for recreation
and farming set aside to surround London in order
to stem and channel the city’s vast urban sprawl
34
The British Isles: Four regions
• The North (North of Bristol-Norwich line)
– Dominated by economic stagnation following the
decline of the industrial base of the country.
– 50,000 jobs were lost in the 1980s.
– Revitalization efforts have met with limited
success. Long term impact uncertain.
– Suffering cities:
• Manchester
• Leeds
• Sheffield
• Birmingham
• Liverpool
35
The British Isles: Four regions
• Scotland and Wales
– Rugged, remote highland territories.
– Southern Wales (Cardiff-Swansea) is a
depressed industrial region.
– Scotland’s industrialization focused on the
Clyde and Firth of Forth because of nearby
coal, iron ore and the excellent port of
Glasgow.
36
The British Isles: Four regions
• Northern Ireland
– Part of the United Kingdom
– Capital city Belfast
– Comprises six counties: Antrim, Armaugh, Down, Fermanagh,
Londonderry, and Tyrone.
– Historical religious conflict between the Catholics and
Protestants
– Religious make-up:
• Catholic 35%
• Presbyterian 29%
• Church of Ireland 24%
• Methodist 5%
– Devolution (1976): the disintegration of a nation state as a
result of reviving regionalism; the redistribution of authority and
the restructuring of the political framework of the United
Kingdom; among the proposals under consideration is the
creation of a federal state in Britain and Northern Ireland.37
The Republic of Ireland
• The Republic of Ireland is about one-half
the size of Arkansas.
• Capital city is Dublin.
• Geographically, the Irish Central Plain
surrounded to the north, south and west
hills and low, rounded mountains.
• Largely agricultural, 65% of land use is
agricultural.
• Marked rural poverty
• Problem of depopulation. 38
France
• Second largest European country (after
Ukraine) with an area about 80% the size of
Texas.
• Shaped like an irregular hexagon.
• 35% of land use is agricultural.
• Geographic features:
– Massif Central
– The Alps (Mont Blanc, 4807 m. or 15,771 ft.)
– The Pyrenees
– The Jura Mountains
39
Paris, France
• Paris is a classic primate city. Population
2,152,423 inhabitants; metro area population
10,275,000.
• It has an excellent site and situation.
– Founded on Ile de la Cité on the Seine, a place
easy to defend.
– Located in the center of a large and prosperous
agricultural area.
– The focal point of the confluence of several
navigable rivers, the Marne, Yonne, and Oise, with
the Seine.
• Specialized, small scale luxury industries
40
Germany
• Following reunification, Germany has a land area of 356,774 sq.
km. (134,830 sq. mi.) and a population of 82,400,000 in 2002.
• Accessible location due to the navigability of the Rhine and Elbe
rivers.
• Landforms:
– The North German Plain:
• Effect of glaciation
• Moraines
• Terminal moraines east of the Elbe river
– The varied terrain of Central and Southern Germany:
• Bavarian Alps, Bohemian Forest, Ore Mountains
(Erzegebirge), Uplands of Saxony, Black Forest, Oden
Forest, Rhine Upland
– The Harz Mountains and the Thuringian Forest
– The low Jura Upland at the south.
41
Germany: Climate, Soils and
Vegetation
• Maritime influences prominent in
northwest; increasingly continental
influences toward the east and south.
• Soils higher than average in fertility.
Loess and alluvial soils in the Upper
Rhine Plain.
• Large outputs of lumber, wood pulp.
Paper and other forest derived
products.
42
Germany: Resources
• Important industrial minerals:
– 11.4% of global production of coal.
• Ruhr
• Saxony
• Silesia
– 20.5% of world production of potash.
– 5.5% of the world’s crude steel.
– 4.9% of world aluminum.
– 2.0% of the world’s pyrites.
43
Benelux Countries
• Belgium + Netherlands +
Luxembourg
• Example of making the best of
small areas and small populations.
High standard of living, high per
capita incomes.
• Supranationalism:
44
The Netherlands
• Natives of the Netherlands are known as the Dutch.
• Agricultural land of the Netherlands has been reclaimed
from the sea and is called polder.
• Dutch farming is very intensive and highly specialized, for
example tulips and other flowers.
• Traditionally, the Dutch have been a seafaring nation with a
significant colonial empire in Southeast Asia (Indonesia).
• Rotterdam is the world’s largest port city in terms of
tonnage handled because it serves the hinterland of the
Rhine river.
– Rotterdam is a generative city because of the
complementary relationship it has with its hinterland.
– Rotterdam is a break-in-bulk point for much of the Rhine
traffic.
45
Belgium
• Belgium is inhabited by Dutch speaking
Flemings in the North.
• The southern inhabitants are French
speaking Walloons.
• Belgium is officially bilingual.
• Belgium is the hub of European
supranationalism.
46
Mountain Europe: Switzerland
and Austria
• Both are landlocked countries framed
by the Alps.
• Both capitalize on their environments as
winter resort destinations for the rest of
Europe and the world.
• While having similar environments, their
historical experiences are quite
different.
47
Switzerland
• Switzerland has been independent and pursued a policy of strict
neutrality since 1815.
• Switzerland is the geographical center of Western Europe and
straddles three streams of cultural and linguistic influence –
Italian, French and German. 64% speak German, 18% speak
French, 12% speak Italian and 6% speak Romansch (an ancient
dialect of Latin).
• Population: 7,200,000; land area ½ that of Austria.
• Switzerland is an example of a country that has maximized a
mountainous, limited resource base to produce the second
highest per capita income -- $39,980 in 2000.
• 92% of Swiss are employed in non-agricultural pursuits, including
precision mechanization and electronics, banking and finance,
and tourism.
• Swiss farmers practice transhumance or vertical nomadism,
the seasonal movement of people and animals from lowland to
highland environments in search of pasture. 48
Austria
• Austria is a vestige of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
• Population: 8,100,000, includes southern
Germans, Balkan people, Magyars and many
other ethnic groups.
• Framed by the Danube River valley in the
north and the Alps in the south.
• Austria is a fraction of its former size. After
WW I Austria was carved into independent
Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania.
49
Nordic Europe
• The world’s northernmost group of states: Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Iceland.
• Poor relative location – on the way to nowhere.
• Except for Denmark, Norden is separated by water from the
rest of Europe.
• Denmark and southern Sweden are part of the North
European Lowland and an exception to the bleak
Scandinavian rule.
• Climatic conditions are rather severe for most of the area.
• In recent years severe environmental pollution has been a
problem, especially in southern Norway, which receives
more acid rain than it produces via sulfur emissions.
• In language, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are mutually
intelligible; Icelandic belongs to the same family; Finnish is
totally different. 50
Nordic Europe: Resources
• Sweden possesses 2.6% of the world’s deposits of
iron ore.
• Norway has discovered large deposits of petroleum
and natural gas in the North Sea.
• Geothermal energy is important in Iceland.
• Hydroelectric power generation is important in
Norway.
• Forest products are important , especially for Finland
and Norway.
• Fishing is important for Iceland
• Norway has a large merchant marine fleet and rich
seafaring tradition.
51
MEDITERRANEAN EUROPE
• Six Countries: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta,
Cyprus
• A discontinuous region, lying on three peninsulas,
two occupied singly by Greece and Italy, one shared
by Spain and Portugal.
• Separated by mountains and water from the
Western European core.
• Common cultural heritage dating from Greco-Roman
times .
• Mediterranean climate – dry summer subtropical
– HOT - DRY SUMMERS
– WARM/COOL - MOIST WINTERS
52
MEDITERRANEAN EUROPE:
RESOURCES
• Soils in Southern Europe are generally poor.
• Vegetation:
– Maquis (macchia): Many shrubs of medium height,
comparable to chaparral in the U.S.
– Garigue: Low vegetation less than one foot in height,
frequently aromatic.
• Mediterranean Europe is generally deficient in mineral
wealth. Only scattered deposits of coal, ,iron ore and
bauxite.
• Italy has great hydroelectric potential.
• Recent gains in economic development and
industrialization have been in the Po Valley (Italy);
Barcelona (Spain) and around Lisbon (Portugal) and
Athens (Greece).
53
ITALY
• MOST POPULATED OF MEDITERRANEAN
COUNTRIES
• BEST CONNECTED TO THE EUROPEAN CORE
• MOST ECONOMICALLY ADVANCED
• DISPLAYS A SHARP NORTH/SOUTH CONTRAST
(ANCONA LINE )
• MILAN
– ITALY’S LARGEST CITY AND MANUFACTURING
CENTER
– ALSO THE COUNTRY’S FINANCIAL AND
SERVICE-INDUSTRY CENTER
54
ITALY
• ROME
– FOUNDED ABOUT 3,000 YEARS AGO
– ATTAINED AN ESTIMATED POPULATION OF 1
MILLION < THE END OF THE 1ST CENTURY AD
– ONLY 30,000 PEOPLE BY THE 13TH CENTURY
– BECAME ITALY’S CAPITAL IN 1870
– CURRENTLY HAS ABOUT 2.6 MILLION PEOPLE
• VATICAN CITY
– AN ENCLAVE WITHIN ROME
– THE HEADQUARTERS OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM
– FUNCTIONS AS AN INDEPENDENT ENTITY
55
EASTERN EUROPE
(REGIONAL IDENTIFIERS)
• EUROPE’S LARGEST REGION
• ADJOINS 3 OF 4 OTHER EUROPEAN REGIONS
• CONTAINS THE MOST COUNTRIES
• INCLUDES EUROPE’S LARGEST STATE --
UKRAINE
• INCORPORATES EUROPE’S POOREST
COUNTRY -- ALBANIA
• IN 1990, NONE OF ITS STATES COULD MEET
THE CRITERIA FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE EU
• REACHES INTO THE RUSSIAN ZONE OF
INFLUENCE 56
KEY CONCEPTS
• BALKANIZATION
• IRREDENTISM
• ETHNIC CLEANSING
• DEVOLUTION
• SHATTER BELT
57
BALKANIZATION
• FROM THE VERB BALKANIZE, WHICH
MEANS TO BREAK UP (AS IN A REGION)
INTO SMALLER AND OFTEN HOSTILE
UNITS
• ORIGINATES FROM A MOUNTAIN RANGE
IN BULGARIA
• APPLIED TO THE SOUTHERN HALF OF
EASTERN EUROPE, i.e., THE BALKAN
COUNTRIES OF THE BALKAN PENINSULA
58
UNDERLYING FORCES
• CENTRIFUGAL FORCES
– REFER TO FORCES THAT TEND TO
DIVIDE A COUNTRY
• Religious, linguistic, ethnic, or ideological
differences
• CENTRIPETAL FORCES
– FORCES THAT UNITE AND BIND A
COUNTRY TOGETHER
• A strong national culture, shared ideological
59
objectives, and a common faith
IRREDENTISM
• A POLICY OF
CULTURAL
EXTENSION AND
POLITICAL RIVER & BORDER
EXPANSION MINORITY
POPULATION
AIMED AT A
NATIONAL A
GROUP LIVING
BORDER
IN A ADJUSTMENT
B
NEIGHBORING A
COUNTRY
COUNTRIES
60
ETHNIC CLEANSING
• REFERS TO THE
FORCIBLE OUSTER OF MINORITY
ENTIRE POPULATIONS POPULATION
FROM THEIR
HOMELANDS BY
STRONGER POWERS A
BENT ON TAKING B
THEIR TERRITORIES A
BORDER
COUNTRIES 61
DEVOLUTION
• THE PROCESS WHEREBY REGIONS
WITHIN A STATE DEMAND AND GAIN
POLITICAL STRENGTH AND
GROWING AUTONOMY AT THE
EXPENSE OF THE CENTRAL
GOVERNMENT
62
COUNTRIES FACING THE BALTIC
SEA
• POLAND
– A CLASSIC NATION-STATE
– TRADITIONALLY AGRARIAN - WHEAT
– POST WWII INDUSTRY - SILESIA
– WARSAW - PRIMATE CITY
• LITHUANIA
– LOST INDEPENDENCE IN 1940, REGAINED IN 1991
– KALININGRAD - A RUSSIAN EXCLAVE
• LATVIA
– SIMILAR HISTORY TO LITHUANIA
– CONSTITUTE BARE MAJORITY IN OWN COUNTRY
• BELARUS: RUSSIA’S CLOSEST ALLY
63
THE LANDLOCKED CENTER
• CZECH REPUBLIC
– The regions most “westernized” country.
– PRAGUE- a classic PRIMATE CITY
• SLOVAKIA
– THE LEAST DEVELOPED, MOST RURAL
PART OF “CZECHOSLOVAKIA”
• HUNGARY
– A NATION-STATE OF 10 MILLION
– BUDAPEST- A CLASSIC PRIMATE CITY
64
COUNTRIES FACING THE BLACK
SEA
• BULGARIA: LIBERATED BY RUSSIA IN
1878
• ROMANIA: A FORMER ROMAN
PROVINCE; RAW MATERIALS (COAL,
IRON ORE, OIL, NATURAL GAS)
• MOLDOVA: AGRICULTURAL
• UKRAINE: LARGEST AND MOST
POPULOUS; AGRICULTURAL AND
NATURAL RESOURCES AVAILABLE 65
COUNTRIES FACING THE
ADRIATIC SEA
• SLOVENIA: FIRST TO SECEDE; ETHNICALLY
MOST HOMOGENEOUS
• CROATIA
• BOSNIA: CENTRALLY POSITIONED
• SERBIA: LARGEST AND MOST POPULOUS
• MACEDONIA: 65% MACEDONIAN, 21% ALBANIAN
• SERBIA-MONTENEGRO: INCLUDES SERBIA,
KOSOVO, VOJVODINA, AND MONTENEGRO
• ALBANIA: REMNANT OF TURKISH OTTOMAN
EMPIRE; 70% MUSLIMS; LOWEST ECONOMIC
RANKING IN EUROPE
66