What's the most "Westernized" East European country, and what's the most "Easternized" West European country? (bank, pros)
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Czech republic, hungary, slovenia to me didnt feel that east european.....
bulgaria, russia did feel eastern european
Romania strangely enough felt more like a latin country, like italy, or spain.... which kinda makes sense considering romania is a latin country, but its interesting that romania does have a latin atmosphere you don't find in other balcanic countries.
central europe: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Czech republic, slovakia, poland and slovenia. (see austro-hungarian empire)
Eastern europe is mostly russia, belarus, ukraine, moldova.
as far as romania, bulgaria, ex-yugoslavia... that's the balcans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Irene-cd
Czech republic, hungary, slovenia to me didnt feel that east european.....
bulgaria, russia did feel eastern european
Romania strangely enough felt more like a latin country, like italy, or spain.... which kinda makes sense considering romania is a latin country, but its interesting that romania does have a latin atmosphere you don't find in other balcanic countries.
Maybe because Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovenia are NOT Easter European countries...
Czech republic, hungary, slovenia to me didnt feel that east european.....
Strictly speaking you should go by the official United Nations regional definitions. See everyone has different "feelings". that' why you should use official designations.
Of course, the problem with using the official definition of Western Europe is that none of those countries have much in common with Eastern European nations. You would have to chose one from "Southern Europe".
151 Eastern Europe
112 Belarus
100 Bulgaria
203 Czech Republic
348 Hungary
616 Poland
498 Republic of Moldova
642 Romania
643 Russian Federation
703 Slovakia
804 Ukraine
155 Western Europe
040 Austria
056 Belgium
250 France
276 Germany
438 Liechtenstein
442 Luxembourg
492 Monaco
528 Netherlands
756 Switzerland
039 Southern Europe
008 Albania
020 Andorra
070 Bosnia and Herzegovina
191 Croatia
292 Gibraltar
300 Greece
336 Holy See
380 Italy
470 Malta
499 Montenegro
620 Portugal
674 San Marino
688 Serbia
705 Slovenia
724 Spain
807 The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Strictly speaking you should go by the official United Nations regional definitions. See everyone has different "feelings". that' why you should use official designations.
Of course, the problem with using the official definition of Western Europe is that none of those countries have much in common with Eastern European nations. You would have to chose one from "Southern Europe".
The UN has a vested interest to keep region definitions stable regardless of whether they appropriately describe country similarities. The only reason why there is no "Central Europe" category is because that region was split by the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. "Eastern Europe" = Warsaw Pact. When Yugoslavia split, they just put all parts in "Southern Europe". Had UN regions been defined today, pre-WWI or even pre-WWII instead of post-WWII, they would likely have looked very different.
The reason why people cannot agree on the definitions on this thread is because the whole Western/Eastern Europe is a bogus distinction; a product of artificial 20th century political ideology. The most natural historical divide in Europe is actually North/South divide, like in many other places including the United States. Now that the Soviet Union is no more and every country in Europe including Russia practices capitalism, the artificial East/West divide is blurring.
The reason why people cannot agree on the definitions on this thread is because the whole Western/Eastern Europe is a bogus distinction; a product of artificial 20th century political ideology. The most natural historical divide in Europe is actually North/South divide, like in many other places including the United States. Now that the Soviet Union is no more and every country in Europe including Russia practices capitalism, the artificial East/West divide is blurring.
Its not artificial there is quite a difference between UK and Ukraine and other E european countries.
The reason why people cannot agree on the definitions on this thread is because the whole Western/Eastern Europe is a bogus distinction; a product of artificial 20th century political ideology. The most natural historical divide in Europe is actually North/South divide, like in many other places including the United States. Now that the Soviet Union is no more and every country in Europe including Russia practices capitalism, the artificial East/West divide is blurring.
Spot on.
Some people are sadly still 'living' in the cold war .
another interesting term rarely used these days is Central Europe. Before the soviet union and the cold war central europe was a valid term widely used. It refered to Germany and Austro-Hungary. take a look:
how can you call austria-hungary or germany "western" or "eastern" based on that map? You can't.
Even hitler used the term "west" as something he doesn't belong to. He said in a speech that the "West has never been fair to hungary, austria and bulgaria". Meaning even Austria wasn't "western" at the time...
These days however everyone considers Austria to be part of the west (high wages, part of nato, european union, roman catholicism, same political/moral values, etc).
how can you call austria-hungary or germany "western" or "eastern" based on that map? You can't.
Even hitler used the term "west" as something he doesn't belong to. He said in a speech that the "West has never been fair to hungary, austria and bulgaria". Meaning even Austria wasn't "western" at the time...
These days however everyone considers Austria to be part of the west (high wages, part of nato, european union, roman catholicism, same political/moral values, etc).
Nope. Not part of NATO. I agree with the rest, though.
Nope. Not part of NATO. I agree with the rest, though.
sh*t, looks like you're right....thanks for the correction.
And just by the way, Austria has a list of quite colorful famous people:
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Mozart
Freud
Hitler
Schindler
Konchita Wurst...
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UN definitions
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