Chapter 12 “The Cultural Geography of

Europe”

Section 1 – “Population Patterns”

Ethnic Diversity (Pages 287-289)

• most Europeans are descended from various Indo-European and Mediterranean peoples who settled centuries ago

in the last 100 years, more immigrants have come from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean (countries once ruled by Europeans)

Ethnic Groups (page 288)

> Europe is home to more than 160 ethnic groups: groups of people with a shared ancestry, language, customs, and religion

• some countries have one major ethnic group

• in other countries, the population consists of two or more ethnic groups

Ethnic Tensions (page 288)> The Balkan Peninsula has been a region of

conflict centuries.

- after WWII, most Balkan people had belonged to a communist-ruled land called Yugoslavia

- when communism fell in the early 90’s, ethnic tensions erupted, resulting in the breakup of Yugoslavia into independent republics

> the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serbian-ruled territory of Kosovo were centers of the most brutal warfare

- Serb leaders followed a policy of ethnic cleansing: killing rival ethnic groups

- many people became refugees: people who flee to a foreign country for safety; international peacemaking efforts (including the USA) allowed many to later return home

Sources of Unity

> in recent years, Europeans have been working toward greater unity

> the people of Europe generally share a commitment to democracy & free markets

- however, they do believe the government should regulate the economy & provide for social welfare

Population Characteristics (page 289)

> Australia is the only continent smaller than Europe

- 3rd most populous continent, after Asia and Africa

- population in 2001 was 583 million (excluding Russia)

- Germany is the largest country @ 82.2 million

- Vatican City is the smallest @ 1,000 people

Population Density (page 289)

> Europe’s population density is greater than any continent except Asia

- 255 people per square mile

- most of Europe has far less than the average population density

- The industrialized urban centers are among the world’s mostly densely populated

Population Distribution (page 289)

> One of the most densely populated parts of Europe extends from the UK into France and across the North European Plain into the Czech Republic and Poland

- another densely populated area extends from southeastern France and into northern

Italy

- in addition to rich farmland, these regions contain densely populated, industrial cities

Urbanization (pages 289-291)> in the late 1700’s, the Industrial Revolution

transformed Europe from a rural, agricultural society to an urban, industrial society

- rural villagers moved to cities and became factory workers

- urbanization: concentration of populations in towns and cities

> today, about 75% of Europeans live in cities

- Paris, France and London, England rank among the world’s largest urban areas

- other European cities with large populations include Rome, Italy; Madrid, Spain; Berlin, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden; Budapest, Hungary; Athens, Greece; Kiev, Ukraine

Urban Features (page 290)

> European cities provide a unique combination of old and new ways of life

- landmarks that date back hundreds of years stand near fast-food restaurants and

shopping malls

Population Movements (pages 290-291)

> since the mid-1900s, large numbers of foreigners have migrated to Europe

> When western Europe’s economy boomed in the 1950s and 1960s, labor shortages developed

- workers from other countries were invited to fill job openings

> By the time Europe’s economy had slowed in the 1970s, many guest workers had moved their families and established homes in their host countries

- tensions rose as immigrants and locals competed for jobs, housing, and social services

- since the 1970s, European countries have tried to limit further immigration

> Despite its growing immigrant population, Europe’s overall population is shrinking

- Germany and Italy have the world’s lowest birthrates

- older people are making up a larger percentage of Europe’s population

Chapter 12

“The Cultural Geography of Europe”

Section 2 – “History and Government”

The Rise of Europe (pages 294-296)

Early Peoples

> by about 6000 B.C., farming spread from Southwest Asia to southeastern Europe & then to all but the densely forested areas in the northern part of the continent

- early Europeans settled in agricultural villages that later developed into Europe’s first

cities

Ancient Greece and Rome (page 295)> 2 civilizations in the Mediterranean laid the

foundation of Western civilization

1) Greece: reached its peak during the 400s & 300s B.C.

2) Rome: reached its peak between 27 B.C. and A.D. 180

> Greece’s mountainous landscape & closeness to the sea influenced the ancient Greeks to form separate communities called city-states

- each city-state was independent, but was linked to other city-states by Greek language & culture

- Greek merchants & sailors eventually colonized many parts of the Mediterranean coast

> The ancient Greeks laid the foundations of European government & culture

- the city-state of Athens introduced the idea of democracy

- more people had a voice in Athens government than in any earlier civilization (women & slaves could not vote though)

- Greek art, literature, drama, and philosophy as well as math & medicine left a lasting impression on the Western world

> In Italy, around 500 B.C., the Romans founded a republic

- from Rome, their armies conquered much of Europe, some of southwest Asia, and

North Africa

- Roman developments

in government, law,

and engineering

influenced other

cultures

- throughout the Roman Empire, engineers built a vast network of roads, bridges, and

aqueducts (artificial channels for carrying water)

Roman road engineering A Roman aqueduct A Roman bridge

The Colosseum in Rome

A Christian Europe (pages 295-296)

> In the late A.D. 300s, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire

- the empire came to be ruled by two emperors, one in the east and one in the west

- they grew into what we now know as eastern & western Europe with distinct political,

cultural, and religious traditions

- during the 400s, Germanic groups from the north overthrew Roman rule in the western half & founded separate kingdoms

- they accepted the western form of Christianity, which became Roman Catholicism

- the eastern half eventually was called the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey today)

- The eastern form of Christianity became known as Eastern Orthodoxy

The Middle Ages (page 296)

Middle Ages: the period between ancient and modern times

> Began after the fall of Rome; from A.D. 500-1500

- feudalism: a system in which monarchs or lords gave land to nobles in return for pledges of loyalty

- the Roman Catholic Church brought Roman culture and principles of government & law to the region’s Germanic peoples

Expansion of Europe (pages 296-297)

> Beginning in the 1000s, western European armies fought the Crusades: a series of brutal religious wars to win Palestine, the birthplace of Christianity, from Muslim rule

> Beginning in the 1300s, the Renaissance: a 300 year period of discovery and learning, brought advances in European civilization

The Renaissance (page 297)

> educated Europeans developed a new interest in the cultures of Greece & Rome; stressed the importance of people & their place in this world

- writers described human feelings, and artists created life-like paintings & sculptures

- architects designed buildings for religious & private use; scientific advances also occurred

> Increased production of books & pamphlets aided a religious movement (the Reformation)

Reformation: a religious movement that lessened the power of the Roman Catholic Church and led to the beginnings of Protestantism

- by the mid-1500s, Protestant churches dominated northern Europe, but Roman Catholicism kept its hold in southern, central, and northeastern parts

- religious wars swept through Europe & monarchs strengthened their hold on power

European Explorations (page 297)

> In the 1400s, western Europe began to emerge as a force in world affairs

- seafarers from Portugal developed new trade routes around Africa & Asia

- Spanish rulers financed the Italian-born Christopher Columbus, who reached the Americas in the late 1400s

- England, France, and the Netherlands also sent out expeditions of explorers

- these voyages resulted in conquests of foreign lands; trade with colonies in the Americas, Asia, and Africa brought great wealth & power to western Europe

A Changing Europe (pages 297-299)

> the Enlightenment: a movement putting emphasis on the importance of reason and questioning long-standing traditions and values

- followed by political & economic revolutions that swept through Europe

- industrial capitalism: an economic system in which business leaders used profits to

expand their companies

- new social groups emerged from industrial capitalism: a middle class of workers & factory owners, and a working class of factory laborers

- in the mid-1800s, these social problems led to the birth of communism: called for a

society based on economic equality in which the workers would control the factories and industrial production

Conflict and Division (page 298)> Rivalries among European powers for colonies

& economic power led to WWI

- as a result of WWI, monarchies collapsed in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia

- the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to make reparations: payment for damages

> unresolved issues from WWI led to the rise of dictators like Mussolini & Hitler

- Holocaust: the mass killing of more than 6 million Jews and others by German leaders

> After WWII, most of eastern Europe came under communist control of the Soviet Union; most of western Europe backed democracy & got support from the USA

- the division of Europe brought on the Cold War: a power struggle between the communist world & the noncommunist

world

The Cold War in Europe (pages 298-299)> After WWII, the USA,

Soviet Union, Britain, and France divided Germany into 4 zones

- by 1949, the 3 western zones were combined into West Germany (capital city was Bonn)

- The eastern zone, occupied by the Soviets, became East Germany (capital was East Berlin)

- in the 1960’s, East Germany built the Berlin Wall & other barriers to stop the movement of its

citizens to West Germany

A New Era for Europe (pages 299-300)> From the 1950s to the 1980s, revolts against

communist rule swept through Europe

- in the early 1980s, Polish workers founded Solidarity, the first free labor union in the communist world

> In 1989, public demonstrations quickly led to the fall of eastern Europe’s communist governments

- the Berlin wall came down, and in 1990, the two parts of Germany reunited

- 3 years later, Czechoslovakia split into 2 separate countries: the Czech Republic & Slovakia

- free elections in eastern Europe during the 1990s installed democratic leaders

> By the 1990s, the growing movement of unity in western Europe led to the European Union (EU): an organization whose goal was a united Europe in which goods, services, and workers could move freely among member countries

- the euro currency was

started in 1999 to

replace national

currencies

- there are currently 27

members of the EU

Chapter 12

“The Cultural Geography of Europe”

Section 3 – “Cultures and Lifestyles”

Expressions of Culture (pages 301-305)Languages> in Europe there are 50 languages & more than

100 dialects: local forms of languages

- some dialects are so different that even people speaking the same language have a hard time understanding each other

> Almost all of Europe’s languages belong to the Indo-European language family

- language family: a group of related languages that developed from an earlier language

> most eastern Europeans speak Slavic languages (Bulgarian, Polish, etc.) or Baltic languages (Lithuanian, Latvian)

> northern Europeans mainly speak Germanic languages (German, English, Dutch, etc.)

> southern Europeans mainly speak the Romance languages, which come from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire (Italian, Spanish, French, etc.)

> Greek, Albanian, and the Celtic languages are also Indo-European branches

> 2 European language groups are not Indo-European: the Uralic languages (Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian) and Basque (northeastern Spain & southwestern France)

Religion (pages 303-304)> Christianity has deeply shaped European

values, societies, and cultures

> Most of Europe’s Christians are Roman Catholics (southern Europe, western Europe, northern parts of eastern Europe)

> Protestants are dominant in northern & northwestern Europe (Anglican, Lutheran, etc.)

- Eastern Orthodox churches are strong in the southern part of eastern Europe

- Many Muslims live in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Bulgaria

- Jewish communities are found in all major cities

> An example of religion dividing people has been in Northern Ireland, where Protestants & Catholics have been fighting for decades

> on the Balkan Peninsula in the early 1990s, Catholic Croats, Eastern Orthodox Serbs, and Muslim Bosnians fought in Bosnia-Herzegovina over land & political power

- in the late 1990s, Eastern Orthodox Serbs fought the Albanian Muslim majority in the Serbian province of Kosovo

The Arts (pages 304-305)

> the Parthenon in Athens and the Pantheon in Rome are examples of temples built by the ancient Greeks & Romans

the Parthenon the Pantheon

> The Church of the Holy Apostles

in Salonica, Greece, is an

example of Byzantine art

that reflects Eastern

Orthodox spirituality

> Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is an example of Gothic architecture from the Catholic western Europe

> The paintings of da Vinci and Michelangelo influenced generations of artists

- England’s William Shakespeare wrote numerous plays (Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet)

> In the 1600s & 1700s new music forms, such as the opera & symphony, emerged in Europe

Leonardo da Vinci’s

Mona Lisa

Michelangelo’s painting of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel in Rome

- in the 1800s, artists such as German composer Ludwig van Beethoven reflected the style of romanticism: which focused on the emotions, stirring historical events, and the exotic

- during the mid 1800s, realism: artistic style that focused on accurately depicting the everyday details of life became prominent

- In the late 1800s, a group of French painters called impressionists moved

outdoors from their studios

to capture experiences, or

“impressions,” of nature

> An important influence on modern abstract art was Spanish painter Pablo Picasso

Quality of Life (pages 305-306)

> western Europe enjoys a higher standard of living than southern or eastern Europe

Education (page 306)

> The quality of education is linked to economic performance; Europeans are among the world’s best educated

- with the exception of the Balkan countries, they have literacy rates above 90%

- the # of years of required schooling varies from country to country

State-Sponsored Human Services (page 306)> welfare states: countries that offer complete

social welfare programs to their citizens

- programs include health care, social security, and higher education

- Britain & Sweden are examples

> funding these social programs is very expensive & countries have spent large chunks of their yearly budgets to provide them

- recent cuts to these programs to save money has met with intense opposition

Lifestyles (pages 306-307)

Home Life (page 306)

> As urbanization increased, the custom of extended families living together & sharing economic resources declined

- today, more women are working, families move more, and governments tend to handle more social concerns

Sports and Recreation (page 306)

> soccer is the major sport of Europe; most countries have pro teams

> rugby is popular in the UK, France, and Ireland

> many people play tennis for recreation; the Wimbledon tournament in Britain is a major international championship

> in Spain, the popularity of soccer just recently surpassed that of bullfighting

> in the Netherlands there is an 11 city ice-skating marathon on frozen rivers & canals

> winter sports, such as downhill skiing in the Alpine regions, cross-country skiing in Scandinavia, and ice-skating in Ukraine have produced Olympic champions