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World Regional Geography
Ohio Northern UniversityEastern Europe
Major Geographic Qualities of Europe• Continental land mass:
maximum efficiency for contact mild climate
• Industrial Revolution• Development declines East West• Population Geography
natural increase / immigration urbanization
• Strong internal regional differences cultural / physical functionally specialized
North Atlantic Treaty Organization• New military
role for United States?
• Russia: Friend or Foe?
• Absorb Warsaw Pact?
• European’s own defense?
NATO’s transformation• Extension of alliance eastward?• Conditions for admittance?
governed democratically military under civilian control market economies protect domestic human rights
• Partnership for Peace program (1994) all ex-communist countries (ex.
Yugoslavia) military attack? consultation
NATO/Warsaw Pact
1945-1991
NATO Today
Border adjustments
Germany: re-unification?
German re-unification 1990-1991? Cause of two world wars Economic dominance? Border adjustments? Capital city / “Forward Thrust”
capital
Eastern Europe: Political Evolution
• Eastern Europe a buffer zone East / West• Objectives of post-WW2 communists
economic reconstruction industrial development
• True communism: no private property. people own means of production. from each according to ability,
to each according to need. transitional period of socialismsocialism
destroy remnants of capitalism state owns everything command economies / central planning
Economic reforms needed1. Price reform.2. Financial reform:
a) fiscal policy.b) monetary control.
3. Privatization.4. Trade reform.5. Build new institutions.6. Changes in attitudes:
• work ethic, profit motive.
Eastern Europe Countries facing the Baltic:
– Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Kaliningrad, Belarus?
Landlocked Center:– Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary
Countries facing the Black Sea:– Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova
Countries facing the Adriatic Sea:– Albania, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia,
Montenegro, Macedonia
Countries facing the Baltic Sea
• Latvia: pop. 2.5 million 1/3 rd Russian land area: 24,000 mi2 required Russians to become Latvian
citizens products: refrigerators, TVs, railroad cars
• Lithuania: pop. 3.7 million 80% Lithuanian/RC land area: 25,000 mi2 Vilnius inland, little coastline access thru Lithuania to Kaliningrad
Countries facing the Baltic Sea
• Poland: population 39,000,000 / Polish >90% land area: 118,000 mi2 language religion Roman Catholic true nation-state Warsaw: historic capital & primate city economic and boundary changes
• Kaliningrad: population one million / 90% Russian (exclave) German heritage: Immanuel Kant crucial military base for Russia
Landlocked Center• Czech Republic:• Warsaw Pact invasion 1968 “Velvet Revolution” 1991• population 10 million, large minority Roma (Gypsies)• land area: 29,800 mi2 (1/2 size of Ohio)• western Czechoslovakia until 1993 (Velvet Divorce)• Bohemia: mountain enclosed core - Prague (Elbe R.)• Moravia: linked to Poland’s Silesia by Moravian gate
• Slovakia:• population 5,400,000 / 11% Hungarians• land area: 18,600 mi2 • less developed, rural, slower economic changes
Landlocked Center
• Hungary:• population 10 million, Irredentism• land area: 35,700 mi2 (Ohio)• Magyars: Danubian basin mid-9th
century• Stephen I: Christianity AD 1000• 1956 Hungarian Revolution• NATO member, EU?
Countries facing the Black Sea
• Romania:• population 22.4 million, 10% Hungarian• land area: 88,900 mi2 • communist totalitarianism: Nicolae Ceausescu• Independent foreign policy foreign loans• Bucharest & Danube & Carpathians
• Bulgaria:• country in 1878 (Russians drove out Turks)• population 8.2 million, 9-10% Turkish minority• land area: 42,700 mi2 (Ohio)• rugged topography / climate
Countries facing the Black Sea
• Ukraine:• population 50 million, 22% Russian• largest population in Eastern Europe• land area: 223,700 mi2
• (Texas = 267,000 mi2: France = 212,000 mi2 )• largest territory in the European Realm!• Donets Basin (Donbas) iron ore and coal• dependent on energy imports Chernobyl
1986• boundary changes:
Crimean Peninsula 1954 cultural / economic divide Dnieper River