Northern Europe: Prosperous, Wild, and Wired

CE.Hungary

CF.Romania

CG.Bulgaria

CH.Albania

CI.Successors of the Fractured Yugoslavia

This module discusses the peripheral regions of Europe: Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe.

Northern Europe comprises the countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Each country in this group is closely related to the others; even Iceland, an island country over 500 miles off the Norwegian coast, and Finland, whose people do not speak a Germanic language. Relations between the Nordic countries are very good, and they share many traits such as high levels of income, education, health, and taxation. A bridge connecting Scandinavia to the rest of Europe for the first time opened in 2000. Denmark produces many agricultural products. Iceland depends largely on fishing. Norway produces oil offshore in the North Sea. Sweden is the most industrialized country in the region. Finland’s metal goods production began after World War II in the form of reparations to the Soviet Union.

Eastern Europe, a classic “shatter belt,” has a varied physical geography, including broad plains and high mountains. Slavic peoples dominate this region, but some smaller ethnic groups are also present. All of the countries in this region were formerly Communist until around 1990. Most of them experienced Soviet-style agricultural collectivization and command economies that emphasized the heavy industries. All have since turned to democracy and free-market reforms; a difficult process that some countries have had more success with than others. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are the Baltic states formerly a part of the Soviet Union until 1991. Poland is the largest country in Eastern Europe, and was where the Solidarity independent trade union was born. The Czech Republic and Slovakia peacefully devolved into two countries in 1993. Hungary has been one of Eastern Europe’s economic success stories. Romania and Bulgaria are poor countries trying to restructure their economies to gain EU admission. Waves of emigrants from Albania, a majority-Muslim nation, have swept across Europe in recent years. The former country of Yugoslavia has fractured into five, and more splintering may occur in the future. Slovenia has been relatively stable, but the other former Yugoslav countries have been embroiled in violence for years. Ethnic Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina objected to the independence of those two nations, and began ethnic cleansing campaigns; an agreement ended this war in 1995. More ethnic cleansing against ethnic Albanians, who have a strong presence in Macedonia and southern Serbia, erupted in 1998 in the Kosovo region. An effective NATO bombing campaign, coupled with the ouster of Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic, finally put a halt to the situation.

Southern Europe comprises Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece, along with the island nations of Malta and Cyprus and the microstates of San Marino and the Vatican City. These countries share the Mediterranean climate and the typical agriculture and diet of such a climate. Southern Europe has historically lagged behind Europe’s core and northern areas economically, but economic and political changes in recent decades have revitalized the area. Spain’s Meseta region is very productive agriculturally, and the country also has several prosperous industrial regions that are demanding more autonomy from Madrid. Portugal has a small but diversified economy and a distinct cork industry. Italy is the most developed country in the region; its northern Po Plain industrial region is an extension of the European core, though its southern half is poorer and more agricultural. Greece was a major foundation of Western civilization and today is a major tourist magnet. Cyprus is a small island in the eastern Mediterranean that has seen several decades of clashes between its ethnic Greek majority and ethnic Turkish minority.

Key Terms and Concepts

41. 
    The countries of Northern Europe share many traits. All are located at high northern latitudes, and all are advanced industrial countries with high standards of living. The relations among these countries have all been relatively peaceful since the nineteenth century. About 90 percent of each country’s population belongs to the Lutheran church. They are all generous welfare states. They are the most Internet-connected countries in the world. Women in Northern European countries have a greater degree of equality, and the countries all have among the world’s highest tax rates. [p. 122]
    

42. 
    The northern areas of Europe are at the same general latitude as central and northern Canada, but have a climate much milder than Canada does. This is largely caused by the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Drift, currents of warm water originating in the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean that flow northeastward towards Europe. Winds blowing across these warmer waters help transport moisture and warmer temperatures to the land, especially in winter, creating much milder climates than would otherwise exist this far north. [pp. 122-124]
    

43. 
    The Oresund Fixed Link is a bridge and tunnel spanning the Oresund strait between Denmark and Sweden. Opened in 2000, it was the first land link between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. People in Denmark cross the bridge to buy low-tax children’s clothes and shoes, while Swedes shop for cheaper Danish alcoholic beverages. [p. 124]
    

44. 
    Southern Europe is composed of Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece, the island nations of Malta and Cyprus, the microstates of San Marino and the Vatican City, the French island of Corsica, the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia, Crete and the numerous Greek islands of the Aegean Sea, and the small British colony of Gibraltar. [p. 129]
    

45. 
    The Mediterranean climate is characterized by mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. The region is most noted for crops such as winter wheat, olives, grapes, figs, tomatoes and eggplants, oranges and lemons, and oregano. These foods form the staples of the “Mediterranean diet,” which has gained favor with nutritionists and the health-conscious. Because of the dry summers, much of the agriculture in southern Europe depends heavily upon irrigation; aqueducts have been built across the region since Roman times, some of which remain standing today. [pp. 129-130]
    

46. 
    Prior to World War II, the main centers of economic activity in Southern Europe (Barcelona, northern coastal Spain, and the Po Plain of Italy) were located at the foot of mountains with conditions rainy enough that hydroelectric power could be developed. Other cities in the region have developed later or for different reasons: Madrid, for example, grew into a major city because of its central location in the Iberian Peninsula, making it a hub of the Spanish road and rail networks. Rome functions in a similar way in Italy, while Naples is located in the agriculturally productive Campania region. Lisbon is located on a large natural harbor. Athens is the primate city of Greece and thus most of the country’s economic activity takes place there; tourism is especially important. [pp. 130-135]
    

47. 
    Southern Europe trailed behind the core land economically because of unfavorable social, governmental, and industrial conditions in the region during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Timber and hydropower were in short supply in the region; sizeable coal and iron deposits were also lacking. Without these necessary resources, the Industrial Revolution bypassed most of Southern Europe, and the population remained largely rural, poor, and agrarian. There was little trade with the rest of Europe, and the unstable, undemocratic governments did little to promote economic development. A few wealthy landowners controlled much of the land and government; they had little interest in changing the system that created their wealth. Only a few areas, such as northern Italy, were economically prosperous. Economic revitalization came to this region only in the last few decades. Totalitarian regimes were dismantled, agricultural products were exported to the north, wealthier northern Europeans discovered the mild weather and beaches of Southern Europe as ideal for vacations, and alternative sources of energy for industry were put in use. Italy’s economic future, on the other hand, seems to be threatened by imbalanced regional distribution of wealth, leading some to actually consider secession. [pp. 130, 134]
    

48. 
    The countries of Eastern Europe are largely, but not entirely, Slavic, and most of these countries have an associated home country. West Slavs live in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. South Slavs live in Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria; Serbs live in both Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Estonians and the Magyars (Hungarians) are distant relatives of each other. Latvians and Lithuanians speak languages descended from Slavic tongues but do not consider themselves Slavic. Romanians speak a language descended from Latin, while Albanians speak an ancient Indo-European language. Eastern Europe is also home to many Roma (Gypsies), but they are generally treated with disdain throughout the region, and have no homeland. [pp. 138-139]
    

49. 
    Eastern Europe is a classic geopolitical “shatter belt” as it is a large, strategically located region composed of quarrelsome nations caught between the conflicting interests of great powers. The region was historically dominated by powers at the margins of the region, such as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Soviet Union. Large forcible population transfers have occurred repeatedly here, and the area’s large Jewish population was decimated during World War II. [p. 138]
    

50. 
    When Eastern Europe fell under Communist governments after World War II, agriculture in the region was largely collectivized under the Soviet model. Large private land holdings were liquidated by the government; some of the land was organized into state-run farms where workers were paid wages, but most land was collectivized and worked jointly by peasant families. Eastern European manufacturing was similarly removed from private hands and transferred to state control. National economic plans were developed, and governments stressed heavy industry (such as mining, machinery, chemicals, and energy) instead of a balanced development of each country’s industrial capability. Communist command economies did increase the mineral and manufacturing output of many Eastern European countries, but it also created environmental blight and overmanned, inefficient industries that continued to plague countries in this region after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. [pp. 139-141]
    

51. 
    The former nation of Yugoslavia contained a number of ethnic and religious groups together inside artificial boundaries. The strong Communist rule of Josip Tito held the country together for several decades, but the country began to unravel in 1988 when Serbia took direct control of the adjacent areas of Vojvodina and Kosovo. Several years later, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia demanded independence. Ethnic Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia were opposed to independence for those regions, and Serbs began a process of ethnic cleansing in both. War raged in Croatia and Bosnia for several years until 1995, when the Dayton Accord was signed. This created a multiethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina, with one national government in charge of foreign and economic policy, and two equally-sized “sub-national” governments for internal affairs: one for an ethnic Serb territory, the other for ethnic Croats and mainly Muslim Bosniaks. The troubles in Bosnia subsided, but in 1998 ethnic Serbs were again attempting to perform ethnic cleansing, this time in Albanian majority Kosovo. This was repelled by several months of NATO bombing, after which the United Nations took control over Kosovo. [pp. 146-149]
    

52. 
    Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade all lie on or near the Danube River. The Danube flows mainly through agricultural areas rather than urbanized or industrial regions. The Danube is swift and hard to navigate upstream from Vienna. Downstream it is more placid, though it does flow through a series of gorges (such as the Iron Gate) between Serbia and Romania. Upon reaching its outlet at the Black Sea, the Danube’s delta forms the largest wetlands region in Europe. [p. 138]
    

53. 
    All of the countries of the European periphery belong to the EU except for the Scandinavian countries of Iceland and Norway, the former-Yugoslav countries of Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Albania. Romania and Bulgaria became EU members in 2007, and Croatia is scheduled for membership in 2008. With the exception of Iceland and Norway, which voted to stay out of the EU largely for economic reasons, these countries will be admitted to the EU in the foreseeable future. This is a function of their moribund economies that have little to offer to the economic community of their more prosperous European neighbors. [pp. 90, 146-148]
    

This chapter should enable your students to…

• 
  Recognize Europe as a postindustrial region with a wealthy, declining population
  
• 
  Become familiar with Europe’s immigration issues
  
• 
  Learn the region’s distinguishing geographic characteristics, landforms, and climates
  
• 
  Get acquainted with Europe’s major ethnic groups, languages, and religions
  
• 
  Understand how Europe rose to global political and economic dominance and then declined
  
• 
  Trace Europe’s emergence from wartime divisions to supranational unity within the European Union (EU) and know why the EU is important
  
• 
  Appreciate important distinctions between Europeans and Americans
  

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