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 and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion^[1] after the end of the Cold War, which had divided Europe politically into East and West, with the Iron Curtain splitting "Central Europe" in half.

States

The Central European states

The understanding of the concept of Central Europe is an ongoing source of controversy^[2] varying considerably from nation to nation, and also from time to time. This region is usually considered to include:

•  Austria
•  Czech Republic
•  Germany
•  Hungary
•  Liechtenstein
•  Poland
•  Slovakia
•  Slovenia
•  Switzerland

Sometimes, the region may extend to include  Croatia and  Romania.

Rarely Vojvodina (northern Serbia), Western Ukraine, Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia), Lorraine and Alsace (France) and Northeastern Italy are considered as part of Central Europe.

Definition

Rather than a physical entity, Central Europe is a concept of shared history which contrasts with that of the surrounding regions. Immediately to the east and southeast lie regions which had for longer periods been under the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Russia, with relics of a strong Hellenic cultural influence (eg. Cyrillic descending directly from Greek). These phenomena collectively established religions such as Eastern Orthodoxy and Uniate Catholicism, with Central Europe generally defined as an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic area. Protestantism is also widespread in Central Europe (especially in northern Germany, Switzerland, eastern Hungary and central Romania).

Historical lands and provinces in Central Europe.

Up to World War I, it was distinguished from the region immediately to its west as an area of relative political conservatism opposed to the liberalism of France and Great Britain and the influences of the French Revolution.. In the nineteenth century, while France developed into a republic and Britain was a liberal parliamentary monarchy in which the monarch had very little real power, Austria-Hungary and Prussia (later Germany), in contrast, remained conservative monarchies in which the monarch and his court played a central governmental role, while still subject to some influence by religion.

In the English language, the concept of Central Europe largely fell out of usage during Cold War, overshadowed by notions of Eastern and Western Europe. However, the term is increasingly returning to everyday usage again, partly due to the recent expansion of the European Union, but mainly through the attempt by post-Communist governments in former Eastern European lands to create national images distancing themselves from their predecessors. An example is found in one of Europe's trading blocs - CEFTA - which is labelled Central European, and yet only includes nations which were previously Communist ruled. In 1992 the founding members were Czechoslovakia (now two countries in the EU), Poland and Hungary, followed by Slovenia in 1996, Romania in 1997 and Bulgaria in 1999, while its current members include Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and Moldova) .

Central Europe: a discussed concept

The issue how to name and define the Central European region is subject to debates. Very often, the definition depends on nationality and historical perspective of its author. Main propositions, gathered by Jerzy Kłoczowski, include:^[3]

• West-Central and East-Central Europe – this conception, presented in 1950,^[4] distinguished two regions in Central Europe: German West-Centre, with imperial tradition of the Reich, and the East-Centre covered by variety of nations from Finland to Greece, placed between great empires of Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union
• Central Europe as a region connected to the Western civilisation for a very long time, including the German-speaking countries (the German Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy), the Kingdom of Hungary, Bohemia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Central Europe understood in this way borders on Russia and the South-Eastern Europe (of Byzantine and Turkish heritage), but the exact frontier of the region is difficult to determine (for example Transylvania, an evidently Central European region, became a part of Romania after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary) – this concept seems to be the most acceptable one
• Central Europe as the area of cultural heritage of the Habsburg Empire – a concept which is popular in the region of Danube River
• East-Central Europe as the area of cultural heritage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian historians, in cooperation (since 1990) with Polish historians, insist on the importance of the notion
• A concept underlining the links connecting Ukraine and Belarus with Russia and treating the ancient Russian Empire together with the whole Slavic Orthodox population as one entity – this position is taken by the Russian historiography
• A concept putting an accent on the links with the West, especially from the 19th century and the grand period of liberation and formation of Nation-states – this idea is represented by in the South-Eastern states, which prefer the enlarged concept of the “East Centre” expressing their links with the Western culture

Physical geography

Between the Alps and the Baltics

Geography strongly defines Central Europe's borders with its neighbouring regions to the North and South, namely Northern Europe (or Scandinavia) across the Baltic Sea, the Apennine peninsula (or Italy) across the Alps and the Balkan peninsula across the Soča-Krka-Sava-Danube line. The borders to Western Europe and Eastern Europe are geographically less defined and for this reason the cultural and historical boundaries migrate more easily West-East than South-North. The Rhine river which runs South-North through Western Germany is an exception.

Carpathian countries (north to south): AT, CZR, PL, SK, HU, UA, RO, SRB

Pannonian Plain and Carpathian Basin

The Pannonian Plain, between the Alps (west), the Carpathians (north and east), and the Sava/Danube (south)

Geographically speaking, Carpathian mountains divide the European Plain in two sections: the Central Europe's Pannonian Plain in the west,^[5] and the East European Plain, which lie eastward of the Carpathians. Southwards, the Pannonian Plain is bounded by the rivers Sava and Danube- and their respective floodplains.^[6] This area mostly corresponds to the borders of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The Pannonian Plain extends into the following countries: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.

Flora

The European floristic regions

The Central European Flora region stretches from Central France (Massif Central) to Central Romania (Carpathians) and Southern Scandinavia.^[7]

History of the concept

Mitteleuropa

The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century,^[8] but its real life began in the 20th century and immediately became an object of intensive interest. However, the very first concept mixed science, politics and economy – it was strictly connected with intensively growing German economy and its aspirations to dominate a part of European continent called Mitteleuropa. The German term denoting Central Europe was so fashionable that other languages started referring to it when indicating territories from Rhine to Vistula, or even Dnieper, and from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans.^[9] An example of that-time vision of Central Europe may be seen in J. Partsch’s book of 1903.^[10]

On 21 January 1904 - Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein (Central European Economic Association) was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany and Austria-Hungary (with eventual extension to Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands) as its main aim. Another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic and cultural domination. The “bible” of the concept was Friedrich Naumann’s book Mitteleuropa^[11] in which he called for an economic federation to be established after the war. Naumann's idea was that the federation would have at its center Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire but would also include all European nations outside the Anglo-French alliance, on one side, and Russia, on the other.^[12] The concept failed after the German defeat in the World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. The revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era.

Interwar period

The interwar period (1918-1939) brought new geopolitical system and economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – the countries that have reappeared on the map of Europe: Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Central Europe ceased to be the area of German aspiration to lead or dominate and became a territory of various integration movements aiming at resolving political, economic and national problems of "new" states, being a way to face German and Soviet pressures. However, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Międzymorze ideas succeeded.

The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe. Before the WWI, it embraced mainly German states (Germany, Austria), non-German territories being an area of intended German penetration and domination - German leadership position was to be the natural result of economic dominance.^[13] After the war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept. At that time the scientists took interest in the idea: the International Historical Congress in Brussels in 1923 was committed to Central Europe, and the 1933 Congress continued the discussions.

Central Europe behind the Iron Curtain

Following World War II, large parts of Europe that were culturally and historically Western became part of the Eastern bloc. Consequently, the English term Central Europe was increasingly applied only to the westernmost former Warsaw Pact countries (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary) to specify them as communist states that were culturally tied to Western Europe.^[14] This usage continued after the end of the Warsaw Pact when these countries started to undergo transition.

The post-WWII period brought blocking of the research on Central Europe in the Eastern Block countries, as its every result proved the dissimilarity of Central Europe, which was inconsistent with the Soviet doctrine. On the other hand, the topic became popular in Western Europe and the United States, much of the research being carried out by immigrants from Central Europe.^[15]. At the end of the communism, publicists and historians in Central Europe, especially anti-communist opposition, came back to their research.^[16]

German term

German Mitteleuropa, covering parts of today's: DE, FRA, ITA, AT, CZR, PL, SK, HU, SLO, CRO, UA, RUS, RO and SRB

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-Hungary and Germany in their antebellum formations. In Germany the connotation is also heavily linked to the pre-war German provinces east of the Oder-Neisse line which were lost as the result of the World War II, annexed by People's Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union, and ethnically cleansed of Germans by communist authorities and forces (see expulsion of Germans after World War II) due to Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference decisions. In this view Bohemia, with its Western Slavic heritage combined with its historical "Sudetenland", is a core region illustrating the problems and features of the entire Central European region.

See also

• Central European Initiative
• Central European University
• Central European Time
• Geographical centre of Europe
• Międzymorze
• Mitteleuropa
• East-Central Europe

References

Further reading

• Jacques Rupnik, "In Search of Central Europe: Ten Years Later", in Gardner, Hall, with Schaeffer, Elinore & Kobtzeff, Oleg, (ed.), Central and South-central Europe in Transition, Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000 (translated form French by Oleg Kobtzeff)
• Article 'Mapping Central Europe' in hidden europe, 5, pp. 14–15 (November 2005)
• A journal in three languages (English, German, French) dealing with the region: http://www.ece.ceu.hu

External links

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