Central Europe
Central Europe is the
region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of
Eastern and
Western Europe. In addition,
Northern,
Southern and
Southeastern Europe may variously delimit or overlap into Central Europe. The term has come back into fashion since the end of the
Cold War, which had divided Europe politically into East and West, with the
Iron Curtain splitting "Central Europe" in half. The understanding of the concept of
Central Europe varies considerably from nation to nation, and also has from time to time.
The region is usually used to mean:
*
Germany*
Switzerland*
Liechtenstein*
Slovakia*
Poland*
Czech Republic*
Austria*
Hungary*
SloveniaRather than a physicial entity, Central Europe is a concept of shared history, in opposition to
the East represented by the
Ottoman Empire and
Imperial Russia, and up to
World War I distinguished from
the West as the area of relative political
conservatism opposing the
liberalism of the West and the influences of the
French Revolution. Following World War I, and even more so after
World War II, the liberal/conservative divide between West and East became obsolete and was replaced by a democratic/authoritarian divide.
In the English language, the concept of
Central Europe fell out of usage during Cold War, shadowed by notions of
Eastern and
Western Europe. It may be seen in historical and cultural contexts, where it denotes areas where
Germans settled and mixed with
Slavs and
Magyars, and where
Roma and
Jewish minorities made important cultural contributions. This notion has lost much of its relevance due to
the Holocaust and the
Expulsion of Germans after World War II over the
Oder-Neisse line. However, the term is being increasingly used again, with the recent expanses of
European Union.
It is sometimes joked that
Central Europe is the part of the continent that is considered Eastern by Western Europeans and Western by Eastern Europeans.
 |
The Alpine Countries and the Visegrád Group (Political map, 2004) |
Geography strongly defines Central Europe's borders to its neighbouring regions to the North and South: namely
Northern Europe (or
Scandinavia) across the
Baltic Sea and the
Apennine peninsula (or
Italy) across the
Alps. The borders to
Western Europe and
Eastern Europe are geographically a lot more floating and for this reason
culture and geographical definitions migrate easier West-East than South-North. To note the
Rhine river which runs South-North through Western
Germany is a speciality.
This may explain why according to most English-language encyclopedias, such as the
Encyclopædia Britannica, the
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica and the
Columbia Encyclopedia, as well as the
CIA World Factbook, the term
Central Europe is taken to include:
In the article on Europe, the
1913 Catholic Encyclopedia counts Germany (that then reached east of the Baltic) but not Switzerland to
Central Europe; Liechtenstein is not mentioned. In other articles of that encyclopedia,
France and Switzerland are included.
The notion of
Alpine Countries extending to the
Baltic Sea and the
North Sea is not uncontroversial. While Germany without any doubt has formerly been considered a Central European land, both by Germans and by others, it has at least for the 19th and 20th century had an identity and self-image as located
North of the Alps rather than
in the Alps. This holds true even for
Bavaria, the most Alpine of the German states, where most people live below the
Alps.
Several other
countries have regions that retain a Central European character as well, having historically been part of the central
European
kingdoms and
empires such as the
Holy Roman Empire, the
Kingdom of Hungary, the
Habsburg monarchy, the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and
Imperial Germany. These are:
*
Belarus (western parts)
*
Croatia*
Lithuania *
Romania (
Transylvania)
*
Serbia (
Vojvodina)
*
Ukraine (
Galicia,
Volhynia,
Podolia)
*
Italy (
South Tyrol,
Friuli-Venezia Giulia)
Following
World War II, large parts of Europe that were culturally and historically Western became part of the
Eastern bloc, which effectively neutralized the concept of Central Europe. Following the dissolution of the
Warsaw Pact and the end of the
Cold War, this distinction has again come into use, often to cover those countries that had been Warsaw Pact members but are now members of
NATO and the
European Union.
During the Cold War, the English term
Central Europe was increasingly applied only to the westernmost former Warsaw Pact countries (Poland to Hungary) to specify them as communist states that were culturally tied to Western Europe. This usage continued after the end of the Warsaw Pact when these countries started to undergo transition.
In everyday usage, this is the most common meaning of
Central Europe, not least among Central Europeans who wish to distance themselves from
"Eastern Europe".
So defined, the following countries are entirely included:
*
Poland*
Czech Republic*
Slovakia*
Hungary*
SloveniaUsually excluded are:
* the
Baltic countries*
Russian Orthodox and
Muslim lands
* the
BalkansAlthough Slovenia as a part of
Yugoslavia was strictly speaking not a member of the
Warsaw Pact, Slovenia's 20th century history has much in common with that of the other Central European countries. It's the same case with Croatia, which is on the intersection of two major European regions.
East Germany, on the other hand, was from
1949–
1990 a loyal member of the Warsaw Pact, but would now rather be seen as the inheritor of Protestant
Prussian culture than of Catholic
Central Europe.After the
enlargement of the European Union of
1 May 2004, the term
Central Europe is sometimes incorrectly used in a way that means "the new members of EU"— from
Estonia to
Malta— perhaps in particular by writers who want to avoid the term coined by
Donald Rumsfeld,
New Europe, which may be perceived to carry too much American ignorance of European matters.
Malta and
Cyprus, as well as
Estonia and
Latvia, are sometimes now also included, but as these new members of the EU are clearly more differentiated from most of the western EU members economically it is arguably an inaccurate construction in its own right. It can be also questioned what there is that unites the nations of a region so constructed apart from a less advanced economy. A usage that closer adheres to the common cultural traits, and also the shared experience of post-war
Stalinist rule, may be less prone to cause confusion.
The
German term
Mitteleuropa (or alternatively its literal translation into English,
Middle Europe) is sometimes used in English to refer to an area somewhat larger than most conceptions of 'Central Europe'; it refers to territories under German(ic) cultural hegemony until
World War I (encompassing Austria and Germany in their
interbellum formations but usually excluding the
Baltic countries north of
East Prussia)
*
Oskar Krejčí:
Geopolitics of the Central European Region. The view from Prague and Bratislava Bratislava: Veda, 2005. 494 p. (Free download)
* Article 'Mapping Central Europe' in
hidden europe, 5, pp. 14-15 (November 2005)
