Eastern Europe  

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Moldova (never even heard of that one, have you?), Bulgaria, Albania, and the five countries that used to be Yugoslavia: Slovenia (a different country than Slovakia), Croatia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Yugoslavia (what's left of the original, labeled as Serbia & Montenegro on the map above)) and Macedonia (labeled F.Y.R.O.M. above).   No, not Greece--we'll talk about that in class.

One of the most complex, troublesome and changeable regions in the world--but not to the same degree in all parts. This region is also known as a shatterbelt, a zone of chronic political splintering and fracturing. Other areas of the world warrant this classification, like Southeast Asia.   Geographic terminology is replete with words that describe the breakup of established order. (Balkanization is to break up into smaller and often hostile units and ethnic cleansing is the forcible ouster of entire populations from their homelands by stronger powers). You now know where the Balkan Peninsula is--and thus know the origin of the word balkinization.

Evolved along similar lines as Western Europe throughout early history, but later external contacts help to define why the region is so distinct from the Western Europe of today:  Infusion of Middle Eastern culture, particularly Islam, into southern part of region by the Ottoman Empire (centered in modern day Turkey) in fifteenth century onwards. World War One (W.W.I) saw the end of Ottoman rule in area, and Balkan region was combined into a single country called Yugoslavia by the victorious W.W.I power.  Invaded by Germany during WWI & WWII, the countries of this region emerged after WWII as a communist satellites, or as fully absorbed republics of the Soviet Union (later, Russia)--which established its dominance over most of Eastern Europe and forced communist governments on East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.  As you can see, contact with three other world regions has come with a price.

The collapse of Soviet Union impacted the geography of Eastern Europe in the following ways: stability of Yugoslavia broke down as old ethnic rivalries broke out, Czechoslovakia broke up into two countries (Czech Republic and Slovakia), former republics of USSR have aspirations of joining the European Union and/or NATO to guarantee protection from Russia.
 

GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES OF EASTERN EUROPE

1. Adjoins three other major world regions--regions with very different cultures and ideas: Western Europe, Russia, & Middle East.
2. Reaches into a zone that Russia regards as their sphere of influence--although they are losing their influence FAST.
3. Has limited coastal access, except for some Baltic and Black Sea contact--which has historically affected its contact with the rest of the globe.
4. Sizable population of Russians are found in the five former republics now re-aligning themselves toward Europe--especially Ukraine.
5. A region which has had many political boundary shifts. Some vocabulary words to associate with this region: balkanization, devolution, irredentism, shatterbelt.
6. Many countries in this region are attempting to re-align themselves toward the west--politically and economically. Think NATO & EU: What Eastern European countries are now members of those clubs?  Which are soon joining those clubs?
7. Called transition economies = changing from communist economies to capitalist ones, thus the word transition.

The Physical
Name all the overseas colonies that the countries of Eastern Europe have controlled throughout history--short list, isn't it?  Why is it that Western Europe tackled the world, while Eastern Europe stayed at home?  You got it--physical geography.  Limited access to coastal areas has played a significant role in the radically different formation of these two regions.  Add to that the role of continentality (remember that?) and we can quickly begin to see the advantages Western Europe has over its next door neighbor.  Tougher winters, shorter summers, more challenging environment.

However, I don't want you to underestimate the resources of the region.  Parts of Eastern Europe contain outstanding agricultural areas--the Ukraine in particular has long been called 'the breadbasket of Europe' for its massive grain crops.  Like Western Europe, the East is a well-watered place, with several major rivers flowing through--the Danube springs to mind.  Additionally, some parts of Poland and Czech Republic were included in the early industrial movement of Europe, as they contained large coal and iron deposits.  Overall though, massive industrialization occurred not with Western Europe but later under the Soviet System, which we now know was not the most efficient, nor environmentally conscious--environmental problems and pollution plague both Russia and the Eastern European states aligned with Russia during the Soviet period.
 

Unbloc-ing Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is a collection of "formers": Former eastern bloc countries that were, until recently, satellites of the former Soviet Union; former Soviet Republics that, until recently, were portions of the huge country of the Soviet Union; former pieces of Yugoslavia that, until recently, were united under a single totalitarian government. In addition to the word former, the phrase until recently pops up frequently whenever someone talks about these countries.

To say that Eastern Europe has undergone some changes in the past decade is the ultimate geographic understatement. Even is you’re a geography aficionado, the events of the past several years that have redrawn the lines on the map can be confusing. If you’re a geographic novice, only a few names may be familiar—and only because they’ve flashed across the nightly news so often in the past few years.

 Check out the historic movement of the political borders in this region:
               1815   1915   1919   1945    1997
 

History of the Turmoil
The latter part of the twentieth century has not been particularly kind to Eastern Europe. During World War II, more than 1.3 million Eastern Europeans were killed on the battlefield. Many more civilian casualties were suffered as first the Nazis and then the Soviet Red Army carved swathes of destruction through the lands of Eastern Europe.

In addition to battle deaths, the Nazi occupation during World War II brought unprecedented genocide to the region. In Nazi concentration camps, many sited in Eastern Europe, more than six million Jews (approximately two-thirds of the entire prewar European Jewish population) were exterminated. Jews, however, were not the only victims of the death camps. The Nazis also targeted Eastern European Gypsies and Slavs (Poles, Ukrainians, and Belorussians), and its estimated that nine to ten million of these peoples were murdered.
 
 

The Soviet Bear
Following World War II, much of Eastern Europe fell under the sway of the Soviet Union. Economically and militarily, the Soviet Union dominated the original eastern bloc countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria). Yugoslavia resisted Soviet incursions under its strong-armed leader Marshall Tito. Nonetheless, Yugoslavia followed the communist path, albeit its own. Albania also took a communist path, but aligned itself with Maoist Red China rather than with the Soviet Union. This odd alliance made Albania unique in Eastern Europe.

The reshuffling of Eastern Europe after the war meant the movement of more map boundary lines. The entire country of Poland was shifted west (gaining territory from Germany and losing territory to the Soviet Union). The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were absorbed into the Soviet Union and ceased to exist as separate nations. Romania lost to the Soviet Union the territory known as Bessarabia, and Hungary’s war gains were lost following the war. As a result, cartographers were busy in the years following the World War II.

As the Cold War intensified in the 1950s and 1960s, several Eastern European countries attempted to gain greater autonomy from the Soviet Union. Uprisings and general strikes in Hungary (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), and Poland (1960s to 1970s) were quelled by the Soviets, sometimes through brute force. Personal incomes lagged behind those in Western Europe as Eastern Europe foundered economically under the communist system.
 
 

Countries in Bloom
By 1991, the Soviet Union had finally crumbled, and, in the process, new nations began to appear on the Eastern European map. In the northern part of the region, the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) were formed. Along the former Soviet Union’s western edge that bordered its former satellites, Belarus (or Byelorussia or Byelarus), Ukraine, and Moldova were formed. Among the satellites, the former Czechoslovakia split peacefully to form the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Peaceful is not a word that describes the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. Tensions in that country had run high ever since the various ethnic groups (including Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Serbs, and Montenegrins) were patched together after World War I to form a country. Although the strong leader Marshal Tito had held the country together after World War II, autonomy movements spread throughout Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, and Yugoslavia split along ethnic lines.

Because of years of mistrust and ethnic tensions, the split was not cordial. "Ethnic cleansing" became a household word as Serbian troops massacred thousands of Bosnian Muslims. Croats, Serbs, and Muslims engaged in a vicious land grab as borders (along with people) were pushed back and forth across the former Yugoslavian landscape. Finally, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, and Macedonia emerged from the rubble.

What's left is a jumbled mess of 18 separate countries in Eastern Europe. Be thankful that the former Eastern and Western Germany united—that makes one less Eastern European country to keep track of.
 
 

So what's the deal with that Yugoslavia place?

Fractures and Feuds: The Former Yugoslavia
Although this ancient land has a long history of settlement, the political entity called Yugoslavia has a relatively short history. With the disintegration of the Austrian-Hungarian empire at the close of WWI, Yugoslavia was formed. Its early name was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. This federation of loose kingdoms included Croatia-Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalmatia, and Serbia and Montenegro. Even then, the groups didn’t much like each other.

A harsh Nazi occupation characterized WWII, and from the ashes of the war emerged the iron-fisted Marshal Tito, who brought a rigid unity to Yugoslavia. By eliminating all opposition, he imposed a communist system that the Soviet Union was to never dominate (Yugoslavia was never an official satellite). Although Tito’s brand of communism offered more personnel freedoms than the Soviet model, Yugoslavia’s economy still lagged way behind its western counterparts. Communism also offered the illusion of unity: however, just below the surface ethnic rivalries continued to seethe.

After Tito died in 1980, a rotating form of government attempted to quell the hatred that long existed between Yugoslavia’s many peoples. It was not to be: by the early 1990’s autonomy movements were in full swing. Violence flared as Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia all sought complete autonomy. Serbia and Montenegro possessed the bulk of the former country—and used it against their former countrymen.

As the various factions struggled to scribe new borders to the map, the sides engaged in "ethnic cleansing " to solidify their claims to the land, and to satisfy historic hatreds. People were pushed back and forth across shifting borders, and worse, entire villages were slaughtered in the name of ethnic purity. A tenuous peace now exists in most of the new countries, but UN troops keep watch until the next stone is thrown—as witnessed by the current situation in Kosovo.

What remains of the former Yugoslavia is Serbia and Montenegro. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia—Herzegovina, and Macedonia all have spun off to form separate countries. Even with the shifting and ethnic cleansing, the region remains an extremely complicated patchwork of ethnic pockets.
 

What next?
As stressed already in class, the move for most, if not all, Eastern European countries is to look west--to Western Europe and the EU to be precise.  Don't forget about NATO either--many countries have joined, a few more may be signing up soon.  In particular, the Ukraine has already been given an open invitation to join the club.  There are still a handful of Eastern European countries are not even close to fulfilling the requirements to join either group, but all in this region look to gain with opening economies and ties to the rest of the world since the collapse of communism.  Whether or not this will come to pass for all the countries remains to be seen.  This region is a bit of a conundrum in that we consider it a part of the developed world (it has went through industrialization, has stable or declining populations, has access to technology, has nuclear power plants, etc.) but is overall an impoverished region.  Child mortality, starvation, life expectancy and even average annual incomes more resemble developing countries in Africa or Asia than anything in the developed world. However, these figures are changing rapidly in those countries that were quick to embrace the west since 1991.

The transition is not complete--there is a long way to go before this region truly joins the western economies.  However, a few countries, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, are certainly much further ahead on this road than others like Albania and Bulgaria.