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

Sometimes, the region may extend to include parts of and .

Rarely Northern Serbia, Western Ukraine, Kaliningrad Oblast, Lorraine and Alsace 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 wide spread in Central Europe (especially in northern Germany, Switzerland, eastern Hungary and central Romania).

Historical lands and provinces in Central Europe.

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 K?oczowski, 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, evidently Central European region, is a very important part of Romania) ? 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 So?a-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

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^[8]. This usage continued after the end of the Warsaw Pact when these countries started to undergo transition.

German term

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

See also

• Central European Initiative
• Central European Time
• Geographical centre of Europe
• Mi?dzymorze
• 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

ar:?????? ?????? frp:Eropa centrâla bn:???? ????? be-x-old:??????????? ?????? bar:Midtleiropa bs:Srednja Evropa bg:????????? ?????? ca:Europa Central cs:St?ední Evropa da:Centraleuropa de:Mitteleuropa et:Kesk-Euroopa es:Europa Central eo:Meze?ropo eu:Erdialdeko Europa fa:?????? ????? fo:Miðevropa fr:Europe centrale gl:Europa central ko:???? hr:Srednja Europa id:Eropa Tengah is:Mið-Evrópa it:Europa centrale he:???? ?????? jbo:mijropno jv:Eropah Tengah ka:?????????? ?????? lv:Centr?leiropa lt:Centrin? Europa hu:Közép-Európa mt:Ewropa ?entrali nl:Centraal-Europa nds-nl:Centraol-Europa ja:??????? no:Sentral-Europa nn:Sentral-Europa nrm:Ûrope du Mitan pl:Europa ?rodkowa pt:Europa central ro:Europa Central? ru:??????????? ?????? scn:Europa cintrali simple:Central Europe sk:Stredná Európa sl:Srednja Evropa sr:?????? ?????? sh:Srednja Evropa fi:Keski-Eurooppa sv:Centraleuropa vi:Trung Âu uk:?????????? ?????? vec:Eoropa Sentra?e wuu:?? yi:??????? ??????? zh:?? zh-yue:??