inquirer

How do you define these "areas"? Would you consider Romania and Bulgaria Eastern or Central? What about Greece? Poland? Is your perception based only on geographical location or does cutural / historical aspects influence your defintion?

Howard

Good question. I would base the answer as much or more on history/culture as geography. In purely geographic terms, I would put only Russia in easter Europe, when one lloks at a map showing the land mass of the Atlantic to the Urals. However, I would generally consider Romania/Bulgaria in east, based on historic ties to Ottoman empire/Russia/Soviet Union. Poland I would consider more central (however this could change even within my own mind - depending on the context). In general, I don't think of Greece as east/west or central....its Meditereranean!! With obvious exceptions (e.g. putting Portugal in central) these in my mind are not right or wrong answers, its the context that matters..and some of it boils down to semantics.

Rex

I agree with Howard - - the answer lies in the context. I think that the phrase "former Soviet Bloc countries" is still useful. Takes strict geography out of the equation. Romania, Bulgaria and Poland would be included. Greece would not, even though it is clearly "East-ish".<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

Shain

Hi Inquirer,<BR><BR>even thought the given answers were<BR>logic and understandable,<BR>we in western europe talk about eastern europe when the following countries were named:<BR>czech, poland, hungary,romania, bulgaria, "yugoslavia"(croatia a.s.o)<BR>ukrain, the baltic states(lithuania/latvia) and russia.<BR>but that is a political view.<BR>Geographically western europe would be<BR>portugal, spain/france/luxemburg/netherlands/belgium (irland/u.k.) central: switzerland, austria, lichtenstein, italy, germany,<BR>poland, czech,<BR><BR>But when we now talk about east and west of europe, people would automatically think of the political situation.<BR>Shain/eu/de/d&uuml;sseldorf

inquirer

Would the Balkans be considered Central or Eastern? What about Macendonia or Albania? Cities such as Prague and Budapest seem to reflect a Central European tone. Yet Vienna struck me as more Western than Central. Paris and Rome reflect a Western tone. Istanbul is obviously Eastern. And what about Spain? Does the history of Catholicism and Islam color our perception? Barcelona feels cosmospolitian - is that a tenet of being Western? Jokes have been made about basic plumbing being a divining rod in how one appraises a country to be eastern, western or third world? Are there any countries in Europe that could be considered "boderline" 3rd world? What constitues 3rd world?

ttt

to the top<BR>

Ben Haines

Intellectuals, academics, and business people of Romania, the former Yugoslavia, and I think Bulgaria think they are in Central Europe, and dislike the appellation East European. Rabid nationalists there, many of them former communists, think they are in East Europe. Nobody in the Baltic States (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) thinks they?re in East Europe: they say they?re in Central Europe or among the Nordic States.<BR><BR>I don?t like to annoy these people, and do like to annoy rabid nationalists, so my list is this. For me, central Europe is the Baltic States, Poland, the Czech and Slovak republics, Hungary, former Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. Then West and East Europe lie either side. Which leaves Greece, which I find pretty eastern in political conduct, but presently list as central European. If they carry on as foolishly as now with the dim-witted Dutch and English plane-spotters I?ll class them as East Europe soon.<BR><BR>Ben Haines, London<BR><BR><BR>

Amy

Can't you just decide this by determining what time zone each country is in? Where I live in Latvia, we are in the Eastern European Time Zone...Czech is in Central European time zone (as well as Italy). Portugal is in the western European time zone. I think this is correct.

Wayne

I might ask "what is the purpose of this question?" It is easy enough to see where Eastern Europe and Western Europe are divided because of historical boundaries having to do with the Russian influence; but other than that, you can draw your east-west line of longitude dividing one area from the other, just about anywhere you might logically want to. Basically, these old concepts regarding east and west don't apply very well any more.