Western Europe

Western Europe is distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. However, these boundaries of Europe are subject to considerable overlap and fluctuation, which makes differentiation difficult. Thus the concept of Western Europe is associated with liberal democracy; and its countries have been considered to share some economic and political traditions with the United States of America and Canada — which have received millions of Western European settlers since the discovery of the New World.

Related Topics:
Eastern Europe - History - Culture - Geography - Europe - Liberal democracy - United States of America - Canada - New World

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Up to World War I, "Western Europe" was thought to comprise France, the British Isles and Benelux. These countries represented the democratic victors of both world wars; and their ideological approach was spread further east as a consequence, in a process not unlike the ideological effect of the Napoleonic Wars, when new ideas spread from revolutionary France.

Related Topics:
World War I - France - British Isles - Benelux - Democratic - Napoleonic Wars - Revolutionary France

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During the Cold War, this ideological designation of Western Europe was supplemented with the aspect of market economies in the West versus the planned economies of Eastern Europe, reflecting the anti-Bolshevism that was aroused in Western Europe by the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the remaining opposition to the Soviet Union in general. Thus Western Europe came to include both traditional democracies outside of NATO, as Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, and some market economy dictatorships, as Portugal and Spain. This is also why NATO members such as Greece and Turkey were generally considered Western European even though they are geographically in the southeast. The border between Western and Eastern Europe, the Iron Curtain, was securely defended.

Related Topics:
Cold War - Market economies - The West - Planned economies - Eastern Europe - Anti-Bolshevism - Russian Revolutions of 1917 - Soviet Union - NATO - Finland - Sweden - Switzerland - Dictatorship - Portugal - Spain - Greece - Turkey - Iron Curtain

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Until the enlargement of the European Union of 2004, Western Europe was sometimes associated with that Union, although non-members such as Norway and Switzerland unquestionably were considered parts of Western Europe. Today the connection to NATO or to the European Union increasingly may be perceived as historical. A common understanding of Western Europe includes the following parts:

Related Topics:
Enlargement of the European Union - 2004 - Norway - European Union

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• the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark)
• the United Kingdom and Ireland
• the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg)
• Germany, France, Monaco and Malta
• the Alpine countries (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria)
• the Apennine peninsula (Italy, San Marino, Vatican City)
• the Iberian peninsula Spain, Andorra, Portugal and Gibralter

It ought to be borne in mind that the concepts of Europe's division overlap. The Nordic countries being counted to Western Europe does not at all hinder their also being considered part of Northern Europe. Similarly, the Alpine countries may be considered part of Central Europe, and Italy, the Iberian countries, Monaco, Greece and southern France part of Southern Europe as well.

Related Topics:
Northern Europe - Central Europe - Southern Europe

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The Alpine country of Slovenia may by some be counted to Western Europe, similarly to how some would consider Estonia as a Nordic country, and hence maybe also to Western Europe.

Related Topics:
Alpine country - Slovenia - Estonia - Nordic country

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Western Europe: Further reading ►