Europe

Regions of Europe:

VVestern Europe

The British Isles

Northern Europe

Mediterranean Europe

Eastern Europe

DEFINING THE REALM

· Europe is a realm of peninsulas and islands that make up Eurasia, which is the world’s largest landmass on the western margin.

· It is heavily populated even though it is territorially small.

· Europe has been a hearth of achievement, innovation, and invention for many centuries.

· This realm has benefited from a large and varied store of raw materials

· There is much diversity that has generated exchange and interaction, but also caused conflict and war.

· Geographic assets include location, size, and proximity. Europe’s relative location at the heart of the land hemisphere is very efficient in contact with the rest of the world.

Landscapes and Opportunities

· Europe’s physical landscapes can be grouped into four regional units.

1. Central Uplands contain hills and small plateaus, with forest clad slopes and fertile

valleys. The majority of the realm’s productive coalfields.

2. Alpine Mountains in the south include the Alps and other ranges that belong to this

great mountain system and traders operate through these mountain passes.

3. Western Uplands represent older geologic mountain building. They also support the

Meseta which is Spain’s central plateau.

4. North European Lowland is also known as the Great European Plain. This area has

one of the most productive agricultural areas. The Garonne, Loire, and Seine rivers are

included in this region.

Europe’s Premodern Heritage

· A gradual withdrawal of glaciers caused cold tundra to turn into deciduous forest and ice filled valleys into grassy vales.

Ancient Greece

· The political science and philosophy of the Greeks have influenced politics and government and Greek culture became one of the major components of Roman civilization.

The Roman Empire

· Progress was made through land and sea communications, military organization, law, and governmental administration.

· Roman urban centers were connected by unparalleled networks of highways and water routes, facilities that formed part of the infrastructure needed to support growth.

· Under Roman rule, Europe’s transformation involved the geographic principle of areal functional specialization where people concentrated on the production of particular goods

Decline and Rebirth

· Ancient Rome’s decline was due to the momentous stirring of Europe’s peoples as Germanic and Slavic populations move in.

· The oceans became Europe’s pathway to wealth and mercantilism was promoted at this time.

The Revolutions of Modernizing Europe

· Economic development began to undermine the monarchs and privileged. The city merchant was gaining wealth and land began to lose its status.

The Agrarian Revolution

· This is the metamorphosis of European farming that began before the Industrial Revolution and increased during the 16th and 17th century sustaining population growth.

· Von Thunen established a model of four zones for agricultural land. market is the center

intensive farming and dairying forest used for firewood and timber field crops

ranching and animal products

The Industrial Revolution

· England had an enormous advantage with British influence worldwide and significant innovations were being achieved in Britain itself.

· Many local industries were established in London, Europe’s leading urban focus and Britain’s richest domestic market.

Industrial and Urban Intensification

· Alfred Weber discerned various factors that control industrial location. The local facets (transport and labor costs) involved agglomerative or concentrating and deglomerative or deconcentrating forces.

Political Revolutions

· The political revolution that swept the realm after 1780 brought transformation to Europe and it’s government.

· Napoleon personified the new French republic and reorganized France so completely by laying the foundations for the modern nation-state.

The Rise of the Nation State

· A nation should comprise a group of tightly knit people who speak a single language, have a common history, share the same ethnic background, and are united politically.

· A nation-state is a political unit comprising a delineated territory and inhabited by a substantial population, well organized to possess a measure of power with people considering themselves a nation and having certain emotional ties through state legal institutions, political system, and ideas.

Contemporary Europe

· Europe constitutes as a geographic realm and they share the Indo-European languages, but it shows little geographic homogeneity.

Intensifying Spatial Interaction

· Spatial interaction is based on three principles. (UlIman)

1. Complementarity occurs when one area has a surplus of a commodity needed in

another area. It arises from regional variations in both the supply and demand of

resources.

2. Transferability is how easily a commodity may be transported between two places.

Even though complementarity may occur, distance may be too great that trade cannot

occur.

3. Intervening opportunity holds potential trade between two places.

Urban Continuity and Change

· Europe ranks as one of the world’s most highly urbanized realms and 71% of it’s population resides in towns or cities.

· Primate cities are the country’s leading city and is disproportionately large and exceptionally expressive of national capacity.

· A metropolis is a city’s central city and the surrounding suburban ring.

Political and Economic Transformation

· Communism has collapsed in both Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The fall of the Iron Curtain has made way for political transformation and has lessened the danger of military confrontations. Economic links are the cornerstone of the European Union which incorporates almost all of the realm’s core area.

Devolution

· Devolution describes the process of regions or peoples within a state demand and gain

political strength at the expense of the center.

· Regionalism in Europe has been heightened by subnational regions emerging as new hubs of economic power and influence.

· The Four Motors of Europe(Lyon, Milan, Barcelona, and Stuttgart) have developed links and relationships with one another bypassing the capital cities and government.

· A regional state has a natural economic zone and defies old borders. It is shaped by the global economy and it’s leaders deal directly with foreign partners negotiating terms that the national governments will operate under.

· A Euroregion is a formal territorial entity on Europe’s international boundary that fosters cooperation between each side of that border.

European Unification

· Supranationalism is the voluntary association in economic, political, or cultural spheres of three or more independent states wanting to yield some measure sovereignty for mutual benefit. An example would be that of Benelux which consisted of Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg).

· European integration continues politically, economically. and in security. NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was established to shield against the Soviet threat to Europe.

REGIONS OF THE REALM

· Europe is small but is fragmented into 40 different countries.

Western Europe is the heart of the realm, hub of economic power, and focus of unity. Germany and France are the largest of this region.

Dominant Germany

· Due to the collapse of communism and the Berlin Wall, Germany is no longer divided, but economic and social challenges prevailed.

· Geography and transport systems have helped Germany prosper economically but the oil crisis brought about change. In the 80’s conditions improved and Germany is still Europe’s largest economy and leader in European unification.

The Federal Republic

· Germany is divided into 16 Lander (states) with Berlin as the capital and is Europe’s most populous country.

France

· The French and Germans have been rivals in Europe for centuries due to the fact France is the older country and Germany is a young country.

· France is larger than Germany territorially, but it does not have good natural harbors such as Roterdam.

· Germany is highly urbanized, but has no one primate city, just many cities with high populations.

· Geographers study the evolution of a city by looking at it’s site (physical attributes) and its situation (location relative to areas around it).

· Agriculture has remained France’s most productive with limitless diversity.

· Today, high-tech industries dominate France’s economic geography with telecommunications and transportation.

· Rebellion in Corsica is the only movement of violent opposition to French rule.

· Transport and trade reinforces France as one of the world’s richest and diversified economies.

· The first direct link between France and Britain was the Channel Tunnel.

Benelux

· The states of Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg make up Benelux and are sometimes called the Low Countries because most of the land is flat and near sea level.

· Industrial products include metals, chemicals, furniture, etc. in Belgium. The Netherlands are known for dairy product, meat, and vegetable exportation.

· The Dutch have been expanding by draining water from the land to create additional polders which are reclaimed lands.

· The Netherlands triangular core is made of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague.

· Collectively these three cities have spawned a conurbation, huge mulitmetropolitan complexes formed by the coalescence or two or more major urban areas. (Ran dstad/Holland)

· Brussels, Belgium’s capital, is a co-capital for European Union, headquarters for NATO, and an administrative center for numerous international economic organizations.

The Alpine States

· Switzerland and Austria share a landlocked situation and the mountainous topography of the Alps.

· Switzerland is the only Western European country to not enter the EU.

· Austria has a substantial range of domestic raw materials, Switzerland does not.

· Vienna is the largest city of the Alpine.

The British Isles

· Britain and Ireland are the two major islands, but British rule over Ireland ended long ago.

· The nation state that occupies Britain and a corner of Ireland is called the UK

The United Kingdom

· Finance, communications, engineering, and energy related industries cluster in London.

· England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland make up the UK.

The Republic of Ireland

· Excessive water inhibits farming, but they tried to grow potatoes in this cool, moist environment.

· Europeans brought telecommunication industries to Ireland for the labor and location.

· Ireland is called the “Celtic tiger”.

Northern (Nordic) Europe

· Sweden is the largest Nordic country in both population and territory.

· Copenhagen, Denmark lies at the break of bulk point where many ocean vessels are prevented form entering the shallow Baltic Sea. Copenhagen is an entrepot whose transfer functions maintain the city’s position as the lower Baltic leading port.

Medit rranean Euro e

· The Mediterranean region is made of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.

· Only northern Spain and Italy have become part of the core areas economic geography.

Italy

· Italy is often referred to as two countries, Mezzogiorno, a progressive north and a stagnant south. The zone that separates these two halves is the Ancona line,

· Political action has moved to make Italy independent and called Padania.

Spain and Portugal

· Both countries are democracies and have created 17 regions called Autonomous communities

(AC).

· Tourism and wine growing in Spain are very important.

· Portugal is very poor and must imports much of its food supply while exporting textiles, wines, corks, and fish,

Greece and Cyprus

· Greece has quarreled with many and still remains a volatile part of this world. Modern Greece is barren, but staple foods are grown only importing livestock products.

· Cyprus is still a serious conflict between the Turks and the Greeks.

Eastern Europe

· Geographers called this regions a shatter belt, a zone of persistent splintering and fracturing.

· Balkanization refers to the breakup of established order.

· It consists of 17 countries divided into subregions.

Countries facing the Baltic Sea

· Poland dominates a corner in Eastern Europe and has traditionally been an agrarian country, but during the communist period major industrialization took place.

· When the Soviet Union collapsed, Poland was left with outdated and inefficient factories.

· Poland’s leading crop is wheat, primate city is Warsaw, Roman Catholic religion prevails, and one language unites Poland.

Landlocked corner

· The Czech Repuplic and Hungary are cornerstones of the new Eastern Europe.

· The Maravian Gate links Poland and the Czech Republic. It is a gap between the Sudeten Mtns. and the Carpathians. It forms a passage that became important industrial zone during the communist period.

· When a nation shows supportive interest in cross border cohorts, this is referred to as irredentism.

Countries facing the Black Sea

· Ukraine is Eastern Europe’s most populous country and territorially it is also the largest state in the realm.

· Romania suffered greatly during the Soviet’s reign.

· Bulgaria was transformed by the Soviets into an industrial society and Russia remains a trading partner.

Countries facing the Adriatic Sea

· Yugoslavia and Albania front the Adriatic Sea. Yugoslavia has splintered into five countries.

· Bosnia has suffered great warfare and loss of life. Kosovo has always been poor and resistance lead to the first NATO military action since its inception.

· Albania is the most turbulent region. It is dominantly Muslim and Europe’s poorest country.

Conclusion

· Europe has 39 countries and could be a superpower, but it’s political geography is very unstable with cultural conflict continuing to trouble the realm.