Eastern Europe - Historical Glossary
EASTERN EUROPE - HISTORICAL GLOSSARY Large numbers of people now living in western Europe, north and south America, South Africa and Australia are from families that originated in eastern Europe. As immigrants, often during the late 19th century, their origin will have been classified by immigration officials and census takers according to the governing power of the European territory from which they had departed. Thus many were categorised as Russian, Austrian or German who actually came from provinces within those empires which had cultures and long histories as nations in their own right. In the modern world, apart from Poland and Lithuania, most of these have become largely unknown and might include Livonia, Courland, Galicia, Lodomeria, Volhynia, Bukovina, Banat, Transylvania, Walachia, Moldavia and Bessarabia. During the second half of the 20th century, the area known as "Eastern Europe" largely comprised the countries to the immediate west of the Soviet Union (Russia), with communist governments imposed or influenced by Russia, following occupation by the Russian "Red Army" during the process of defeating the previous military occupation of the German army in 1944-45. Many of these countries had experienced a short period of independence (1918-1939) between the two World Wars, but before 1918 most of the territory had been within the three empires of Russia, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey. The Ottoman empire had expanded from Turkey into Europe during the 14th-15th centuries and retained control over some territories until 1918. The commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania was established in the 16th century and for two centuries ruled over the territories north of Hungary, while the Ottoman empire ruled over those to the south, but between 1721-1795 the Russian empire took control of the Baltic states and eastern Poland and during a similar period Austria-Hungary took control of southern Poland and the northern and western territories of the Ottoman empire.
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