today europe economic geographies cultural geographies
DESCRIPTION
Last Time North Africa and Southwest Asia Ancient lands, new countries Political problems Europe Geographical location Physical environment PopulationTRANSCRIPT
Today Europe Economic geographies Cultural geographies
Political geographies Last Time North Africa and Southwest Asia
Ancient lands, new countries
Political problems Europe Geographical location Physical
environment Population Economics in Europe wealth but great
diversity
Resources, development, and settlement Wealth of Europe Industrial
revolution Uneven development Economic and related problems in
Europe This region remains Europes manufacturing and economic core.
GDP Per Capita Note the rise of Ireland. The Cold War led to the
division of Germany and Berlin into east and west. West Germany
became Western democracy with a market economy and East Germany
became a communist state with a command economy Language and
culture in Europe
Indigenous language groups Celtic Germanic Romance Hellenic
External Influences Slavic Berber/Moor Asian Basque? Religion -
secularism Note that language boundaries mostly but not always
correspond to national boundaries. This is the idea of the
nation-state. Percentage who believe in God , 2005
Czechs and Estonians are the least religious. Romanians, Greeks and
the Portuguese are the most religious. Political geography (spatial
expression of political behavior) European examples
Nation & State & Nation-state Boundaries Centripetal forces
(forces that tend to bind states together) Centrifugal forces
(forces that tend to split states apart) 117 AD 450 AD Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the first political entity to unite a large
proportion of Europe. The Latin of the Romans evolved into todays
Romance languages. Division of the empire into east and west was
followed by invasion of Germanic tribes who were displaced
southwards by movement of the Turkic Huns into central Europe. 998
AD 1092 AD Europe in the Middle Ages circa 1000 AD consisted of
small kingdoms and larger empires. Note the shrinking Muslim
presence in Spain and parallels between these borders and current
pressures for autonomy (eg. Basques, Scotland). 1470 AD 1328 AD The
Late Middle Ages / Early Renaissance. Note the continued Muslim
presence in Spain and the advance of the Ottomans and the British.
1648 AD 1812 AD Europe during the modern era. Note the expansion of
the British, French, Russian and Ottoman empires. European colonial
empires in 1754 and 1914. Centripetal forces (forces that tend to
bind states together)
External threats Common heritage Strong leader/military force Supra
nationalism Centrifugal forces (forces that tend to split states
apart)
Devolution Local minority self-control Irredentism Appeal to nation
in adjacent state Balkanization At the same as the supranational
institutions of the EU are being constructed, many culturally
distinct regions within states are pressing for further autonomy
and devolution of political powers. Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland have received some devolved powers within the UK, the
latter after a bloody 30-year conflict between Protestants and
Catholics. Spain is particularly culturally diverse and some
political powers were devolved to 17 autonomous communities (left)
in the constitution. Nonetheless several communities are pressing
for further autonomy or independence, most prominently the Basques.
ETA attack Language regions The end World War I led to the
fracturing of three European empires and the creation of new
nation-states largely based on ethno-cultural distinctions. However
many nations were not satisfied with these new boundaries. The Iron
Curtain World War II led to the division of Europe between
Soviet-dominated east and US-allied west, with important long-term
effects on the economic and political trajectories of these areas.
The fall of the USSR in 1991 led to the independence of many former
Soviet states in the culturally diverse shatter belt of Eastern
Europe. This process is known as balkanization. 1945 In the
Balkans, the fall of the Soviet Union in Yugoslavia led to a series
of bloody civil wars in Bosnia ( ), Croatia ( ) and Kosovo ( ).
Yugoslavia is now divided into six states, with Kosovo likely to
become independent in the future. New states were created largely
along ethnic lines (very complicated in the case of Bosnia) but
this process was resisted by the Serbs who were dominant in the old
Yugoslavia.