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

NATO membership

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