Eastern Europe


Eastern Europe is a perceived grouping of countries on the European
continent. Today, the term Eastern Europe is often used to designate the
European countries under (former) communist regimes.

Their populations do not see themselves as Eastern Europeans, and many
consider it a pejorative term. Most countries prefer to include themselves
in other groups, associating themselves with Germany in Central Europe, with
Scandinavia in Northern Europe or with Italy and Greece in Southern Europe.

As a term its origins are fairly recent. For many years Europe was divided
on a North South axis. With the southern Mediteranean states having much in
common, and the northern Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea bordering states also
having much in common. The term first arose in the eighteenth and nineteenth
century to describe an area that was falling behind the rest of Europe
economically. It was seen as a region where serfdom and autocratic
governments persisted long after those notions were fading in the west. It
was always a very vague notion, however, and many countries in the region
did not fit the stereotypical view.

Much of Eastern Europe has ties to both the east and west. While all of the
countries were heavily influenced by Roman Catholic or Protestant
Christianity and have very close historical and cultural ties to Germany,
Italy, France or Scandinavia (e.g. the Hanseatic league in the Baltics).
Many countries also had relations with the East. Russia was under the
control of the Mongols for centuries and inherited political and social
conventions from them. Further south the influence of the Ottoman Empire and
Islam had a very strong influence. The nations of the Balkans as well as
Hungary and Romania were all at one time controlled by the Turks.

The concept of Eastern Europe was greatly strengthened by the domination of
the region by the Soviet Union after the Second World War and the takeover
of the nations of the region by communist governments. The idea of an "Iron
Curtain" separating Eastern and Western Europe was an extremely common view
throughout the Cold War. This strict dualism caused problems, however, as it
failed to account for the complexities of the region. For instance,
Yugoslavia and Albania refused to be controlled by Moscow, but this division
was often ignored by many in the west.

The countries normally meant by the term Eastern Europe are:

   * Albania
   * the Baltic States
   * Bulgaria
   * former Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia)
   * Hungary
   * Poland
   * Romania
   * former Yugoslavia

Prior to the Reunification of Germany, East Germany was often described as
an Eastern European country.