RaduBurdujan posts an interesting question on the ; he asks for our thoughts on what makes up Eastern, Central, and Western Europe? Share your thoughts here or as a response to his post on the Geography Forum.
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Comments
I can’t even answer easier questions such as which states are Southern, and what countries are in North America.
To the former some say the border is the Mason –Dixon Line. Some say the States of the Confederacy, some say the slave states, and some say wherever everything but salads is fried.
As to the later, in common usage, even by the media and by authors, we hear Central America construed as if it were a continent. It isn’t. So North America includes Panama. But that means when Central Americans call us Norte Americanos they include themselves. Well, no, they don’t. Obviously it’s hopeless. Don Hirschberg
I tried to post this to the article but could not figure out how to do it.
Czech. and Poland just by physical geography seem to be in central Europe, since the European continent by definition extends really far East to the Ural Mountains, deep in Russia. However, Czech. and Poland’s Slavic lnguages and their former Communism have linked them culturally with Russia and the Soviet orbit. During the Cold War they were behind the “Iron Curtain” and therefore estranged from the NATO countries of Western Europe, making them seem part of an “Eastern Bloc”.
Interesting Win. One of the few ethnics I knew during childhood in a Chicago suburb (1930’s and ‘40’s) was Bohemian – they never said Czech. His parents knew “Bohemian” but he didn’t, though he tried. At the time there were western suburbs that were largely Slavic, Cicero and Berwyn, but without really any ties to the Old Country – except for maybe recipes. I remember hearing that Berwyn had more Polish (everyone then said Pollacks) than any city except Warsaw.
It depends on how many pieces you slice Europe into. If there are only four, then some part of Central Europe would be east of your north south line. If you recognize five pieces, then Central Europe takes territory from East and West as well as North and South. Note Prague is west of Rome too.
With today’s boundaries Central Europe is a rectangular block of countries including Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary (plus Liechtenstein). Slovenia desperately wants to be included too, claiming that as an Alpine country it belongs to Central Europe. Of course it has a coastline on the Adriatic, so that counts against Slovenia.
Eastern Europe begins with the Cyrillic alphabet and Orthodox Christianity in the purist sense. Add to that the glaciated plains of Russia and the continental climate (without the benefit of the Gulf Stream) and you have both cultural and physical traits of Eastern Europe. The lands and people historically tied to the Catholic Church along the meeting grounds of German and Slavic culture are part of Central European identity. Eastern Europe is an entirely different economy and mindset: vodka replaces beer; Habsburg history gives way to Romanov. Central Europe is Czech, Polish, German, Slovak, Austrian, Hungarian, Slovene, and Croatian, Transylvanian. Eastern Europe is Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc. Other regions such as the Balkans and the Baltics are transitional regions and share many cultural traits from both East and Central Europe.
Just go by longitude lines. as far as North and South America go, Central American and Caribbean countries are accepted as part of North America because they don’t lie on either major tectonic plate (North and South America) they lie on smaller ones mainly the Caribbean plate. Which is how they got tossed in with North America.