Europe and Russia Human Geography

Population Where are most people located based on this map? Why is this?

Population EUROPE RUSSIA → Europe has a high population density due to small land area.The Industrial Revolution that started in the late 1700s transformed Europe from a rural, agricultural society into an urban, manufacturing society. Today about 75 percent of all Europeans live in cities. Despite immigration, Europe’s overall population is shrinking because of low birthrates. → Due to Russia’s size, the population density is about 22 people per square mile. About 75% of the population lives in European Russia making the density 120 people per square mile. → Russia, however, is experiencing a population crisis. Because of inadequate health care, the number of deaths now exceeds the number of births.

Languages EUROPE RUSSIA → Mediterranean: Most of the places conquered by Rome adopted their language, Latin. Today Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian are all romance languages. → Western Europe: French is a romance language evolved from Latin. Germanic languages such as German, Danish, and English are also spoken there. → Northern Europe: Germanic languages are also spoken there. → Eastern Europe: Slavic languages such as Polish and Ukrainian are spoken in this region. → Russia has a wide variety of languages due to its size. Russian is the official language, but different Slavic, Turkic, Caucasian languages are also spoken there.

Systems of Government EUROPE RUSSIA → Today most European countries have democracies in which all citizens participate in the government on some level. Many European countries still have royal families, but most of these nations are now constitutional monarchies. → Since the fall of the Soviet Union most Eastern European countries have moved away from communism. → Russia originally had a monarchy run by the emperor known as the Czar. → In 1917, power was seized by the Bolsheviks (now known as Communists) who remained in power until 1991. → Today Russia has a federal republic.

Economic Systems EUROPE RUSSIA → Europe is one of the world’s major manufacturing and trading regions. Many of these countries all depend on tourism for their economy. → Most Western and Northern Europeans are involved in service industries while more people in Southern and Eastern Europe are involved in agriculture. → Since Communism’s fall in 1989, Eastern European countries and Russia have been moving from Command economies to Market economies.

The Mediterranean

The Mediterranean → A city-state was a political unit made up of a city and surrounding areas. The city-state of Athens, in Greece, developed the first democracy, a form of government in which citizens hold political power. As Athens power was declining the Roman Empire was on the rise. → The Roman Empire was based on the Italian Peninsula. The Roman Empire would eventually conquer the Balkan and Iberian Peninsulas, sharing their culture throughout the Mediterranean region by means of cultural diffusion. → Renaissance began in Italian City States. It was a time of renewed interest of learning and the arts.

Western Europe

Western Europe → The Crusades were launched to reclaim Christian holy lands from the Muslims who occupied the area. This was a holy war, meaning that religion was the driving factor for it. → During the Reformation, a period when many Christians broke away from the Catholic church, France remained Catholic while nations to its east acquired large Protestant populations.

Western Europe → Two world wars in the 1900s drastically changed Europe. Monarchies collapsed following WWI, and new countries emerged. Unresolved political problems from WWI, plus the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany, led to the outbreak of WWII in Europe. More than 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. WWII left Europe ruined and divided. Eastern Europe came under Soviet Communist control, while western Europe backed democracy and received support from the United States. A divided Germany became a “hot point” of the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Northern Europe

Northern Europe → Northern Europe is made up of United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Nordic Countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). → Reformation, which started in Germany, swept through Northern Europe, where different Protestant churches took root, uniting most of the region. Ireland remains predominantly Catholic. → The United Kingdom would eventually become a great empire. Its status as an island helped to protect it. The British introduced revolutionary documents like the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights whose concepts were taken to model the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe → Eastern Europe is a Cultural Crossroad. It is located between Asia and the rest of Europe. Because of its location it has a variety of cultural influences. → In recent history this area was under Communist Control. They were Satellite Nations (nations dominated by another) of the Soviet Union. Communists controlled the area from the end of WWII until the 1990’s. → Many of the larger countries have divided into smaller ones. The process of breaking up this territory into smaller units is known as Balkanization. → This area is less urban and less industrialized than the rest of Europe. Folk art like pottery, woodcarvings, and traditional embroidered costumes are produced by rural people.

Russia

Russia → In the late 1600s, Peter the Great was determined to modernize Russia. Under him, Russia enlarged its territory, built a strong military, and developed trade with Europe. → Peter built a new capital city, St. Petersburg, as a “Window to the West.” Its location promoted European influence. As Russia Industrialized the people would become angry with the Czars because of low wages and poor working conditions.

Russia → Many Russians wanted to establish a socialist government that would create economic and social equality after not being treated well for centuries from the line of Czars. Karl Marx’s belief in a workers’ revolution and a classless society captured the imagination of many young, educated Russians. → In 1917, the hardships of World War I and long- standing discontent made Czar Nicholas II so unpopular that workers and soldiers forced him to give up his throne. Nicholas and his entire family would be assassinated.

Russia →Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin seized power in November 1917. In 1922 the Bolsheviks, now known as Communists, established the Soviet Union, with Moscow as the capital. Lenin’s successor, Joseph Stalin, set out to make the Soviet Union a strong industrial power by taking complete control of the economy. Stalin eliminated all forms of dissent. As a result of Stalin’s policies, millions of Russians either were killed or died from hunger or brutal conditions in labor camps.

The European Union

The European Union → The European Union was formed in the 1990s in an effort to make Europe’s economies competitive with those of the rest of the world. It unites much of Western Europe into one trading community. Member countries agreed to eliminate restrictions on trade and travel among themselves. The European Union also paved the way for a common European currency, a central bank; and a common foreign policy. The union’s currency, the Euro, is not used by all of its members. Great Britain still uses the Pound.