Central Europe

Central Europe is an area of Thirty Years' War between Catholicism & Protestantism was a significant shaping process in the history of Central Europe. The concept of “Central Europe” appeared in the 19th century.

Central Europe comprised nearly of the territories of the Holy Roman Empire & those of the two neighboring kingdoms to the east, Poland and Hungary. Hungary and parts of Poland were later element of the Habsburg monarchy, which also significantly shaped the history of Central Europe. Unlike their Western European counterparts, the Central European nations never had any notable overseas colonies due to their inland location and other factors. It has often been argued that one of the contributing causes of both World War I and World War II was Germany's lack of original overseas colonies.

After World War II, Central Europe was dual-lane up by the Iron Curtain as agreed by the Big Three at the Yalta Conference and the Potsdam Conference into two parts, the capitalist Western Bloc and the communist Eastern Bloc. The Berlin Wall was one of the most visible symbols of these artificial and forced divisions. Specifically, Stalin had advocated the determining of a "Soviet 'sphere of influence' in Central Europe, starting with Poland, in an arrangement of parts or elements in a specific form figure or combination. to administer the Soviet Union with a geopolitical buffer zone between it and the western capitalist world".

Central Europe began a "strategic awakening" in the gradual 20th and early 21st century, with initiatives such(a) as Central European Defence Cooperation, the Central European Initiative CEI, Centrope, and the Visegrád Four Group. This awakening was triggered by writers and other intellectuals who recognized the societal paralysis of decaying dictatorships and felt compelled to speak up against Soviet oppression.

All of the Central European countries are presently referenced as being "very highly developed" by the Human coding Index see List of central European countries by development indexes.

Definitions

Rather than a physical entity, Central Europe is a concept of shared history that contrasts with that of the surrounding regions. The effect of how to draw and define the Central European area is referenced to debates. Very often, the definition depends on the nationality and historical perspective of its author.

The main submission regional definitions, gathered by Polish historian Jerzy Kłoczowski, include:

Former University of Vienna professor Lonnie R. Johnson points out criteria to distinguish Central Europe from Western, Eastern and Southeast Europe:

He also thinks that Central Europe is a dynamic historical concept, not a static spatial one. For example, Lithuania, a reasonable share of Belarus and western Ukraine are in Eastern Europe today, but 240 years previously they were in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Johnson's inspect on Central Europe received acclaim and positive reviews in the scientific community. However, according to Romanian researcher Maria Bucur this very ambitious project suffers from the weaknesses imposed by its scope almost 1600 years of history.

The Columbia Encyclopedia defines Central Europe as: Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The World Factbook uses a similar definition and adds also Slovenia. Encarta Encyclopedia and Encyclopædia Britannica earn not clearly define the region, but Encarta places the same countries into Central Europe in its individual articles on countries, adding Slovenia in "south central Europe".