EUROPE
OVERVIEW
European nations, predominantly Christian and democratic, generally enjoy stability and high socioeconomic wellbeing, and generous welfare systems. The poorest European countries (Ukraine, Moldova) are still appreciably wealthier than many countries in Africa and Asia (by GDP per capita, an indicator of standard of living.)
Several countries in Europe have a higher GDP per capita than the US (Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Luxembourg); and many European countries have a higher Human Development Index – a measure of life expectancy, education and income (Germany, Netherlands, and Nordic countries.)
The European countries with the largest economies are Germany, UK, France, and Russia; these four are also ranked among the most powerful nations in the world.
The mainly homogeneous makeup of many European countries has been changing during the past century, but particularly the past decade has brought a dramatic influx of non-Europeans during the European migrant crisis, which peaked in 2015 with over a million asylum seekers. Most migrants at that time were refugees from war-torn Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the majority went to Germany.
Politically, most European countries are representative democracies broadly similar to the US model, but with significant differences from one country to another. Unlike in the US two-party system, in European politics it is common for parties to join together to win a majority, forming coalition governments.
EAST AND WEST
The redrawing of alliances after World War II, which led to the four-decade-long Cold War, caused a political, economic, and social rift between the western democratic nations and the eastern Communist regimes under the Soviet sphere of influence.
Although the Cold War ended officially in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and democracy has been established in all former Soviet countries, a division between Western and Eastern Europe persists today, as seen in the substantial East-West wealth gap (higher wealth in the West), and in views on key social issues such as immigration, religion, and multiculturalism.
Some former Soviet countries have struggled to maintain free, stable democracies which follow the rule of law – a fair, open, accountable system of law and government. According to Freedom House reports, Russia, Belarus, and Azerbaijan are not considered to be free democracies, and several nations in Eastern and Southeast Europe are considered “partly free.”
Corruption is also significantly worse in the Eastern countries (especially Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova) than in Western ones (especially Nordic countries, Switzerland, Netherlands) per Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
NORTH AND SOUTH
As well as the East-West divide, a persistent North-South division also exists in Europe, with generally higher wealth, more innovation, and a more frugal approach to fiscal matters in the Northern countries.
The European debt crisis brought on by the 2008 recession had a worse impact on Southern EU countries Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
THE EUROPEAN UNION
There are 44 countries in Europe; 27 of them are part of the European Union (EU), a unique economic and political union, established in 1993. It originated in the European Economic Community, a partnership of nations created after World War II as a peacekeeping mechanism.
Members of the EU include almost all of Western and Central Europe. Notable non-members include wealthy nations Norway and Switzerland, quasi-European nations Turkey and Russia (Turkey has applied but has not been accepted; Russia has never applied and has been on bad terms with the EU since annexing Crimea in 2014), and the UK, which became the first nation to leave the EU in January 2020 after long drawn out Brexit negotiations following the 2016 referendum in which a slim majority of the UK populations voted to leave.
The most influential members of the EU are Germany and France, and Germany is the biggest contributor to the EU budget – countries pay proportionally to national income – while Poland has been the biggest beneficiary in recent years.
Like the US government, the EU has three branches: an executive branch (European Commission), a legislative branch (European Parliament), and a judicial branch (Court of Justice of the EU).
The European Commission is based in Brussels, Belgium, and other EU institutions are in Frankfurt, Luxembourg City, and Strasbourg.
Like the US Federal Reserve, which regulates the US dollar, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany regulates the euro currency.
Launched in 1999, the euro is the currency used in the 19 countries of the eurozone (primarily in Western Europe, excluding the UK, Denmark, and Sweden.)
All EU countries belong to the European single market, or common market, which eliminates obstacles to trade and free movement of goods. The common market has fostered great economic growth. The EU has the second largest economy in the world after the US, and is the “eighth member” of the G-7 organization (group of the world’s largest advanced economies.)
Euroskepticism, opposition to the power and influence of the EU, has led to anti-EU political parties gaining traction across Europe in recent decades. Euroskeptics argue that the integration of European countries within the EU erodes national identities.
INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
In addition to housing the European Commission and European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium is home to the headquarters of the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the military alliance between US, Canada, and much of Europe.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and International Red Cross headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, as are the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the second-largest offices of the United Nations (UN), after the New York headquarters.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is based in Paris. The organization promotes policies to improve global economic and social wellbeing.
The UN’s International Court of Justice (where war crimes are tried) is in The Hague, Netherlands.
London, Geneva, Frankfurt, Zurich, and Milan are among the world’s leading financial centers.
Some of the largest companies in Europe include oil and gas companies Dutch Shell (Netherlands), BP (UK), and Total (France); Germany’s auto manufacturers Volkswagen Group and BMW Group; and major banks HSBC (UK), Santander (Spain), and BNP Paribas (France.)
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF RECENT HISTORY
BEFORE WORLD WAR I
In the years leading up to World War I, the British Empire was the largest empire in recorded history. It covered more than a quarter of the world at its peak, with colonies and territorial holdings in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
In the early 1900s, Russia, France, and Spain were also vast colonial empires, spanning huge territories. Portugal, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden had a significant global presence as well.
Aside from Romania and Bulgaria, most of Eastern Europe was at that time part of the Russian Empire.
Present-day Turkey was the leader of the Ottoman Empire.
Central Europe was dominated by the huge Austria-Hungary dual monarchy, formed in 1867, which by the start of World War I comprised today’s Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia (as well as parts of other modern countries).
The territory of present-day Poland was at that time divided between the German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian empires; (Poland had not existed as a nation for over a century.)
In 1882, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. In response, the UK, Russia, and France formed an unofficial alliance, the Triple Entente.
It was Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia which effectively brought about World War I, as it prompted a Serbian national to commit the infamous 1914 assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, which set off the intricate web of alliances and began the Great War.
WORLD WAR I
World War I was fought between the Central powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and the Allied powers UK, France, Italy, Russia, Romania, Japan, and the US. 20 million people died; the UK lost more lives in World War I than World War II.
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Spain remained neutral in World War I.
INTERWAR
After World War I, the old Empires collapsed, and the map of Europe was redrawn.
Austria-Hungary was divided into Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
Turkey’s Ottoman Empire collapsed.
Germany’s monarchy was abolished, and the Weimar Republic was instated.
Russia’s royal Romanov family were assassinated in the Bolshevik Revolution, and Russia became a Communist regime under Vladimir Lenin, then Joseph Stalin.
In 1922, the Soviet Union was created under Stalin. Besides Soviet Russia, it would eventually absorb 14 other countries: the three states of the Baltic region (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the three states of the Caucasus region (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan); Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova; and in Asia the the five “-stan” states of Central Asia.
In Italy in 1922, under the National Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini seized power amidst political chaos and postwar poverty, becoming dictator in 1925 and sending the country into a two-decade fascist regime.
In 1936, General Francisco Franco led a coup which resulted in the three-year Spanish Civil War, after which he became Fascist dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.
The Great Depression which started in the US in 1929 spread to Europe. Germany, Austria, and Poland were among the worst affected.
The extreme poverty in Germany due to war debt and reparations and compounded by hyperinflation laid the groundwork for fascism to take hold in the 1930s. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor and immediately began to transform the state into a dictatorship.
WORLD WAR II
The Axis powers: Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan fought against the Allied powers: Great Britain, France, US, the Soviet Union, and China.
The most devastating conflict in history, World War II caused the death of up to 70 million people by some estimates, including at least 6 million Jews, Roma, and other victims of the Holocaust. Civilian casualties were extremely high in the Soviet Union and in China during the conflict.
Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Baltic states remained neutral in World War II.
POSTWAR
After the war Germany was split into two by the Allies; oversight of West Germany was given to the UK, France, and US, and East Germany to the Soviet Union. Berlin, in East Germany, was also split into democratic West Berlin and Soviet East Berlin, which led to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 (to keep East Berliners from defecting from the Soviet regime to the West, which millions had already done.)
Most of Central and Eastern Europe fell under what Winston Churchill called the Iron Curtain of Soviet influence and oppression. Communist regimes were instated in Soviet satellite states Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The Cold War began with the stated intent of the US to contain the spread of the Communist sphere of influence.
As part of that effort, the US enacted the Marshall Plan, sending $15 billion of aid to reconstruct devastated postwar European nations (including the UK, France, and West Germany)— both to support its allies and trade partners, as well as to protect Western Europe from Soviet intervention. The implementation of the Marshall Plan necessitated economic cooperation between European powers, which helped to pave the way for institutions like the EU.
By the late 1980s, protests were springing up all across Eastern Europe from countries wanting to throw off the Soviet regime, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was unable to stem the tide. In the midst of this atmosphere of change and protest, in 1989, an East German government official mistakenly announced that the Berlin Wall would be opened to allow free passage between East and West Berlin. That night, crowds flocked to the wall and tore it down in celebration— a symbol of the breakdown of the Iron Curtain. By 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed, the Cold War was officially over, all of the former Soviet republics attained independence, and all the former Communist states in Europe began to transition to democracies.
REGION BY REGION
BRITISH ISLES
Comprising Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland) and the province of Northern Ireland, the United Kingdom- largest empire in the world in the early 20th century- lost its empire status by the 1950s but has retained rank among the most powerful countries in the world, with the second largest economy in Europe (after Germany), a seat in the G7 as well as the G20, a population of over 67 million (comparable to France) and a sphere of influence which includes more than 2 billion people living within the British Commonwealth.
London (population around 8 million, similar to New York City) is one of the world’s leading financial centers as well as a cultural hub.
Ireland has ranked very high in GDP per capita in recent years and is experiencing a significant economic upswing, due largely to large multinational companies setting up headquarters there to profit from the low corporation tax rate.
UNITED KINGDOM
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
NORDIC
NORWAY
SWEDEN
FINLAND
DENMARK
ICELAND
Liberal and environmentally conscious, the Nordic countries are consistently ranked highest in the world for standard of living, with high life expectancy, gender equality, and wealth equality.
Often incorrectly called socialist, the Nordic countries instead have followed since the 1930s the Nordic Model: a capitalist market economy combined with a robust social benefits program including pensions, free higher education, universal healthcare, and income distribution. The system, which involves steep taxes on individuals but generous social provisions, leads to general affluence, lower wealth inequality, and low levels of corruption.
Oil-rich Norway ranks very high in per capita wealth and consistently tops the world’s Human Development Index (a measure of life expectancy, standard of living, and education opportunities).
WESTERN EUROPE
LARGE COUNTRIES
FRANCE
GERMANY
SPAIN
PORTUGAL
BEGIUM
NETHERLANDS
SWITZERLAND
ITALY
The Franco-German relationship is considered a driving force in the EU. Germany and France are considered to be world leaders in “soft power”— i.e. the ability to influence rather than coerce geopolitically.
Germany has the largest economy of Europe, (nominal GDP) having experienced an economic miracle after its postwar collapse in the 1940s. The strength of its economy is attributed to a strong industrial sector (cars, chemical, and electrical) and a high export quota (more exports than imports, unlike the US or the UK).
France is a world leader in nuclear power and aerospace, infrastructure and transportation, and besides having one of the world’s largest military budgets and being one of the nine countries which possess nuclear weapons.
Sometimes called the “least of the Great Powers”, Italy has a strong economy and cultural influence, but has been hampered by political instability and disproportionately high corruption for a nation of its development level. Charges of corruption were particularly prominent under the leadership of President Berlusconi, a billionaire media mogul, in the early 2000s.
SMALL COUNTRIES
LIECHTENSTIEN
LUXEMBOURG
MONACO
THE VATICAN
SAN MARINO
ANDORRA
MALTA
Small but wealthy, Luxembourg has a very high per capita GDP, and several branches of the EU government are located in Luxembourg City.
The Vatican, smallest country in the world –only about one hundred acres within Rome and with a population around 800 — is disproportionately powerful, with Argentine-born Pope Francis wielding influence over 1.2 billion Catholics around the world.
An important strategic bridge between Europe and Africa, the island of Malta has historically played a pivotal role in many wars.
CENTRAL EUROPE
POLAND
AUSTRIA
HUNGARY
CZECHIA
SLOVAKIA
These countries made up the former kingdoms of Austria-Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Poland, Hungary, Czechia, and Slovakia are known as the Visegrad group, a cooperative alliance within the EU who often act as a unit; for instance, all four opposed EU refugee policies during the refugee crisis.
In recent years there has been concern within the EU that democratic ideals are not being upheld in Poland and Hungary.
Geographically trapped between the forces of Germany and the Soviet Union, the countries of Central Europe suffered invasion and oppression from both sides in the 20th century.
WORLD WAR II IN CENTRAL EUROPE
Hitler’s first geopolitical aggressions began in this region. In 1938 Germany annexed Austria (Hitler’s birth country), with no resistance, then absorbed the culturally German Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia through the Munich Agreement—Western Europe’s attempt at appeasing Hitler. The Munich Agreement granted Hitler the Sudetenland region provided that Germany’s aggressions cease. However, in violation of the Munich Agreement, the Nazis soon overtook the rest of Czechoslovakia, and then in 1939 invaded Poland, which caused Great Britain and France to declare war.
The most infamous of the Nazi concentration camps, Auschwitz, where over one million people were murdered, was in Poland. Six million Poles were killed during the war, including ninety percent of Polish Jews.
Hungary, originally entering the war on the side of Germany, later attempted to realign with the Allies and was occupied by the Nazis in 1944, and hundreds and thousands of Hungarian Jews and Roma were sent to camps.
COMMUNISM AND DEMOCRITIZATION
After World War II, Austria was occupied by the Allies and became a stable democracy. Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were occupied by the Soviet Army, and the Soviet Union established or aided Communist regimes, making them Soviet satellite states.
The 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which began with student protests against the Hungarian Communist regime and its Soviet ties, was violently quashed by the Soviet Army and thousands of Hungarians were killed.
In 1968 the Soviet Union adopted the policy of intervening in any Soviet bloc country which threatened socialist control— called the Brezhnev Doctrine for Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Czechoslovakia’s democratizing reforms during the Prague Spring (1968) were met with repression: the Soviet Union invaded the city of Prague with tanks, occupied it and restored Soviet control.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the former Soviet satellite countries became democracies. In 1993, in the peaceful Velvet Divorce, Czechoslovakia split into the two nations of Czechia (alternate name for the Czech Republic) and Slovakia.
Poland has experienced a remarkably high economic growth rate in the decades following the end of Communist rule.
SOUTHERN EUROPE
ALBANIA
GREECE
TURKEY
CYPRUS
The global financial crisis which began in the US in 2007 led to the Greek debt crisis of 2009, when the country’s national debt exceeded 15% of its GDP (the normal limit by EU regulations is 3%)— and the country was in danger of defaulting. EU countries, particularly Germany, loaned 320 billion euros — the largest bailout in history— but tied with austerity measures (cutting spending, raising taxes) which crippled the Greek economy and led to high unemployment rates. The bailout payments were finished in 2018 and the crisis ended, but Greece’s economy is still poor.
In the 1960s-70s, Greece was ruled by a brutal far-right military dictatorship under Georgios Papadapolous who overthrew the government.
In 1974, a coup d’etat in Cyprus (a former British colony) prompted Turkey to invade the island. Today, the Northern part of Cyprus is still considered to be illegally occupied by Turkey.
Spanning both the European and Asian Continents, Turkey is a bridge between West and East, with one of Europe’s largest economies, and a powerful military. Its large population of around 82 million (comparable to Germany), is almost entirely Muslim, and it is considered to be a Middle Eastern country as well as a European one.
Turkey has applied for EU membership several times unsuccessfully. Freedom House rates Turkey as “not free”.
THE BALKANS
A turbulent region both at the beginning and end of the 20th century, the Balkans region was the site of two wars in 1912-13; the assassination which began World War I; and the brutal Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. The essential cause of all of these conflicts was nationalism amongst the region’s ethnic groups.
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
SLOVENIA
CROATIA
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA
MONTENEGRO
SERBIA
KOSOVO
NORTH MACEDONIA
These seven nations belonged to the former federation of Yugoslavia, formed after World War I. Prior to that, the northern regions were part of Austria-Hungary, and the southern regions were part of the Ottoman empire— resulting in cultural differences which would come to the forefront after unification.
After World War II, Yugoslavia became Communist from 1946 until 1980— and carved a “third way” socialist model not tied to the Soviet Union, with a Non-Alignment policy towards the capitalist West and the communist East.
Yugoslavia was decimated by a brutal civil war in 1991-1992, caused by conflict between ethnic groups. The war involved human rights violations and the genocide of the Bosnian muslims.
The country designations on today’s map were redrawn after the collapse of Yugoslavia. Still recovering from the tumult of the 1990’s, today, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia are among the poorer countries of Europe, by GDP per capita, and corruption is very high in Serbia, Bosnia, and North Macedonia according to Transparency International. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but is not recognized by some nations, including Serbia and Russia.
EAST BALKANS
ROMANIA
BULGARIA
Former Soviet satellite states with Communist regimes, Romania and Bulgaria are today members of the EU and NATO. Although they have made great progress in democratization, they still struggle with corruption, both ranking at a very high level of corruption compared to other Europen countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International.
Romania was allied with Germany in World War II by an anti-semitic general who organized pogroms (massacres) of its citizens. The country was oppressed from 1965-1989 under the brutal Communist regime of hardship and food shortages under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, whose policy of enforcing multi-children families led to huge numbers of uncared-for children in orphanages and child trafficking. He was executed in 1989 in a popular revolution, and gradually the country became a democracy.
The Cyrillic alphabet— used today for Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and the Central Asian languages— originated in Bulgaria for the use of the East Orthodox Church.
EASTERN EUROPE
RUSSIA AND NEIGHBORS
RUSSIA
BELARUS
UKRAINE
MOLDOVA
Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova were all republics of the former Soviet Union.
Corruption is very high for Europe in these countries, per Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, and Ukraine and Moldova are the poorest countries in Europe by GDP per capita.
RUSSIA
Former empire, seat of the bloody 1917 Bolshevik Revolution which overthrew the Czarist monarchy, and keystone of the massive Soviet Union superpower from 1922-1991, Russia distinguishes itself from other countries by its vastness (by far the largest in the world, and rich in natural resources), its otherness (neither fully European nor Asian) and its unique history as the world’s first Communist dictatorship. Under President Vladimir Putin’s leadership (non-continuous since 2000) it has restored itself to a major world power after its post-Soviet decline in the 1990s— and is generally ranked today as one of the most powerful countries in the world, and possesses the most nuclear warheads of any country. Russia is now nominally a democracy, but is known for systemic corruption and repression, and is ranked “not free” by Freedom House. It also tops the charts for corruption, with the highest corruption ranking of any country in Europe, by Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
RUSSIA - UKRAINE CONFLICT
Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 in a major escalation of the conflict which began in 2014.
Following the ousting of the President in the Ukrainian revolution of 2014, Russia (which supported the ousted government) illegally annexed Crimea— a region which once belonged to Russia and has a large Russian population— under the pretense of protecting the rights of Russian citizens there. A destabilizing separatist movement then moved to the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine on the Russian border.
From 2014 to 2022, the conflict had already resulted in the death of ten thousand civilians, the missile-strike on Malaysian commercial flight in 2015, large-scale cyber attacks on Ukraine, US and EU sanctions on Russia, and the expulsion of Russia from the G-8.
Since the escalation in 2022, the war is estimated to have caused hundreds of thousands of military deaths, thousands of civilian casualties, and has triggered the greatest European refugee crisis since World War II.
The EU and the UN have condemned Russia’s hostility against Ukraine— a far less powerful country, and one of the poorest in Europe today. The US has committed billions of dollars of aid to the Ukrainian cause.
SIGNIFICANCE OF CHERNOBYL
One of the greatest disasters in recent history, the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 in Ukraine— then part of the Soviet Union— impacted millions of people in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, causing radiation-related illnesses and mass relocations, and enormous, widespread environmental damage (effects were recorded as far away as Sweden and the UK). The Exclusion Zone, an area about the size of Rhode Island, is still largely abandoned and uninhabitable today, and will be for the foreseeable future. The disaster affected the perception of the Soviet Union, both in revealing the systemic problems allowing a catastrophic failure, and also the egregious cover-up which cost more lives. The Soviet Union’s reputation was damaged both at home and abroad; furthermore, the monetary cost of the recovery (hundreds of billions of dollars) was an enormous hit on the Soviet economy. Some have argued (including former Soviet President Gorbachev) that the accident marked a turn toward the collapse of the USSR (five years later in 1991).
CONFLICT IN BELARUS
Considered Europe’s last dictatorship, Belarus is ranked among the most politically unfree countries in the world and has been governed by Alexander Lukashenko for more than twenty years.
THE BALTICS
ESTONIA
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
Bordering on Russia and the Baltic Sea, the Baltic states, incorporated into the Soviet Union by Stalin in the midst of World War II, were the first to leave it in 1990, after a series of protests for independence.
Members of the EU and NATO today, the three countries adapted well to democratization and Western integration, and have had economic success— they were termed the “Baltic Tigers” due to booming economic growth in the early 2000’s, pre-recession). They are considered to be successful post-Soviet states, with free and fair elections (contrasted with post-Soviet Belarus, Ukraine, Caucasus states, and Central Asian states).
As Northern countries sharing the Baltic Sea with Sweden and Finland, the Baltic states are historically linked with Nordic countries, and take part in the cooperative format called the NB-8 (Nordic-Baltic Eight). Estonia particularly shares cultural and linguistic roots with Finland, and like the Nordic countries ranks low in corruption.
THE CAUCUSUS
These three countries were republics of the former Soviet Union, first as part of the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic, then as separate republics.
GEORGIA
ARMENIA
AZERBAIJAN
Post-Soviet Georgia has struggled with conflict and corruption. A civil war in the 1990s over breakaway region South Ossetia laid the groundwork for a 2008 war with Russia.
Azerbaijan is one of the few countries in Europe with an almost entirely Muslim population. It is said to be the most secular country in the Muslim world. Oil-rich and ranking high in corruption, it is rated as “not free” by Freedom House.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have had disputed territory in the Nagorno-Kabarakh region for decades; although war officially ended in 1994, there continue to be cease-fire violations and military clashes, particularly intense in 2016.
Armenians suffered genocide and displacement by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
For further reading on Europe please see bibliography here.
