Europeans, The: a Geography of People, Culture, and Environment

THE EUROPEANS TEXTS IN REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY A Guilford Series Edited by James L. Newman, Syracuse University

The Europeans: A Geography of People, Culture, and Environment Robert C. Ostergren and John G. Rice

Africa South of the Sahara: A Geographical Interpretation SECOND EDITION Robert Stock THE EUROPEANS

A Geography of People, Culture, and Environment

ROBERT C. OSTERGREN JOHN G. RICE

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Last digit is print number: 987654321

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ostergren, Robert Clifford. The Europeans: a geography of people, culture, and environment / Robert C. Ostergren, John G. Rice. p. cm. — (Texts in regional geography) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-59385-006-9 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-89862-272-7 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Europe—Economic conditions. 2. Europe—Social conditions. 3. Geography— Europe. I. Rice, John G. II. Title. III. Series. HC240.O35 2004 940—dc22 2003027822 Contents

List of Figures and Tables vii Acknowledgments xiii

CHAPTER 1. Introduction: Europe as a Culture Realm 1

PART I. People and Environment CHAPTER 2. European Environments 35 CHAPTER 3. Population 67 CHAPTER 4. Human–Environment Interaction 100

PART II. Culture and Identity CHAPTER 5. Language 135 CHAPTER 6. Religion 165 CHAPTER 7. The Political Landscape 199

PART III. Towns and Cities CHAPTER 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 233 CHAPTER 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 264

PART IV. Work and Leisure CHAPTER 10. Making a Living 297 CHAPTER 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 330 CHAPTER 12. Epilogue: European Futures 365 Index 373 About the Authors 386

List of Figures and Tables

FIGURES FIGURE 1.1. The Cathedral Quarter of Strasbourg. 1 FIGURE 1.2. The European Parliament in Strasbourg. 2 FIGURE 1.3. The Greek and Roman worlds. 6 FIGURE 1.4. Europe and the European Union. 8 FIGURE 1.5. The Athenian agora. 10 FIGURE 1.6. Religions in Europe, ca. 2000. 11 FIGURE 1.7. St. Peter’s Basilica. 12 FIGURE 1.8. Indo-European languages in Europe. 14 FIGURE 1.9. Cambridge University. 15 FIGURE 1.10. A regionalization of European culture. 18 FIGURE 1.11. The Champs-Elysées. 19 FIGURE 1.12. The London Royal Exchange. 21 FIGURE 1.13. The new Reichstag. 22 FIGURE 1.14. Budapest. 24 FIGURE 1.15. Neste service station in Narva. 25 FIGURE 1.16. Tower of Belém. 26 FIGURE 1.17. Moscow. 27 FIGURE 1.18. Monument of the Republic. 30

FIGURE 2.1. Polder landscape. 36 FIGURE 2.2. Europe in the world. 38 FIGURE 2.3. Climatic zones. 39 FIGURE 2.4. Major landform zones. 42 FIGURE 2.5. Northwestern Highlands. 43 FIGURE 2.6. High fjell. 43 FIGURE 2.7. Balsfjorden. 44 FIGURE 2.8. Glacial erratic. 45 FIGURE 2.9. The North European Plain and the Hercynian Uplands. 46 FIGURE 2.10. Les Andelys. 47 FIGURE 2.11. The Cotswolds. 48

vii viii List of Figures and Tables

FIGURE 2.12. Farmland. 48 FIGURE 2.13. Heath. 49 FIGURE 2.14. Pitheads and slagheaps. 50 FIGURE 2.15. Hercynian landscape. 51 FIGURE 2.16. Rhine Gorge. 52 FIGURE 2.17. Massif Central. 53 FIGURE 2.18. The Alpine and Mediterranean South. 54 FIGURE 2.19. Vulcanism. 55 FIGURE 2.20. Mountain barrier. 56 FIGURE 2.21. Alpine longitudinal valley. 57 FIGURE 2.22. Carpathians. 57 FIGURE 2.23. The Peloponnese. 58 FIGURE 2.24. Montes de Toledo. 59 FIGURE 2.25. Lake Lucerne. 59 FIGURE 2.26. Iron Gate. 61 FIGURE 2.27. Herðiebreid. 62 FIGURE 2.28. Wind farms. 63 FIGURE 2.29. Øresund. 64 FIGURE 2.30. Bosporus. 65

FIGURE 3.1. The “graying” of Europe. 67 FIGURE 3.2. Neolithic Europe. 69 FIGURE 3.3. Classical Greek civilization: The Greek homelands 71 and colonial areas. FIGURE 3.4. Roman Europe. 72 FIGURE 3.5. The Pontine marshes. 73 FIGURE 3.6. The spread of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries. 74 FIGURE 3.7. The spread of the Black Death, 1347–1351. 78 FIGURE 3.8. The spread of the Epidemiologic Transition. 85 FIGURE 3.9. The spread of the Fertility Transition. 86 FIGURE 3.10. Pronatalism in Nazi Germany. 91 FIGURE 3.11. Percentage of children under 15 born out of wedlock. 94 FIGURE 3.12. Projected percentage of population aged 60 or older, 2050. 96 FIGURE 3.13. The younger generation. 97 FIGURE 3.14. The “third-age elderly.” 98 FIGURE 3.15. Anti-immigrant graffiti. 98

FIGURE 4.1. Half-timbered construction. 101 FIGURE 4.2. French Riviera beachfront. 102 FIGURE 4.3. La Rochelle. 103 FIGURE 4.4. The Afsluitsdijk. 104 FIGURE 4.5. “The Birth of a Region.” 105 FIGURE 4.6. Mountain refuge. 107 FIGURE 4.7. Traditional Mediterranean farming. 108 FIGURE 4.8. Olive orchard. 108 FIGURE 4.9. Ridge and furrow. 109 FIGURE 4.10. Natural disaster. 111 FIGURE 4.11. Erosion. 112 FIGURE 4.12. Beech forest. 113 FIGURE 4.13. Afforestation. 113 FIGURE 4.14. Reclaimed heathland. 114 List of Figures and Tables ix

FIGURE 4.15. Viticulture on the Rhine. 115 FIGURE 4.16. Enclosure. 117 FIGURE 4.17. Coalfield. 117 FIGURE 4.18. Strip mining. 119 FIGURE 4.19. Dumping of wastes. 120 FIGURE 4.20. Environmental stress in the Mediterranean. 121 FIGURE 4.21. Flood. 122 FIGURE 4.22. Aegean coastal development. 123 FIGURE 4.23. Brown coal air pollution. 126 FIGURE 4.24. Airborne pollution. 127 FIGURE 4.25. Environmental awareness and politics in Germany. 129 FIGURE 4.26. Recycling. 130

FIGURE 5.1. The origins of Indo-European speech. 139 FIGURE 5.2. Romanic Europe. 142 FIGURE 5.3. The Reconquista. 144 FIGURE 5.4. Celtic and Germanic Europe. 147 FIGURE 5.5. Balto-Slavonic Europe. 153 FIGURE 5.6. The politics of language. 154

FIGURE 6.1. The spread of Christianity. 166 FIGURE 6.2. Monasticism. 168 FIGURE 6.3. Moorish architecture. 170 FIGURE 6.4. The rise of the Ottoman Empire, 1328–1672. 171 FIGURE 6.5. The Reformation. 174 FIGURE 6.6. Eglwys yng Nghwm Pennant. 177 FIGURE 6.7. Neue Synagogue, Berlin. 179 FIGURE 6.8. Mosque in Hamburg. 182 FIGURE 6.9. Christian conversion of pagan sites. 184 FIGURE 6.10. Pilgrimage. 185 FIGURE 6.11. Memory. 186 FIGURE 6.12. Necropolis. 187 FIGURE 6.13. Christian burial grounds. 188 FIGURE 6.14. The Parthenon. 189 FIGURE 6.15. The Pantheon. 189 FIGURE 6.16. Hagia Sophia. 190 FIGURE 6.17. Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. 191 FIGURE 6.18. The Giralda. 192 FIGURE 6.19. Blue Mosque. 193 FIGURE 6.20. Romanesque. 194 FIGURE 6.21. Gothic. 195 FIGURE 6.22. Renaissance. 196 FIGURE 6.23. Baroque. 196 FIGURE 6.24. Neoclassicism. 197

FIGURE 7.1. Cold War Europe. 200 FIGURE 7.2. Berlin Wall. 201 FIGURE 7.3. Europe after the Treaty of Vienna (1814). 202 FIGURE 7.4. Europe between the World Wars. 204 FIGURE 7.5. Historic connections. 206 FIGURE 7.6. EEC/EU enlargements, 1973–2004. 210 x List of Figures and Tables

FIGURE 7.7. Introduction of the euro. 213 FIGURE 7.8. Euro banknote. 213 FIGURE 7.9. Farming in east-central Europe. 215 FIGURE 7.10. Migrants. 217 FIGURE 7.11. New minorities. 218 FIGURE 7.12. Turkish pride. 218 FIGURE 7.13. In line for accession. 219 FIGURE 7.14. Regional autonomy. 223 FIGURE 7.15. Mini-state. 224 FIGURE 7.16. Euroregion. 226 FIGURE 7.17. Macro regions (after Delamaide). 227 FIGURE 7.18. Mare Balticum. 228 FIGURE 7.19. Cities and regions. 229 FIGURE 7.20. Networking. 229

FIGURE 8.1. Exurban retreat. 234 FIGURE 8.2. Acropolis. 235 FIGURE 8.3. The Roman past. 237 FIGURE 8.4. Foro Romano. 238 FIGURE 8.5. The Games. 239 FIGURE 8.6. Public works. 240 FIGURE 8.7. Trading cities and trade routes at the end of the Middle Ages. 244 FIGURE 8.8. Venice. 245 FIGURE 8.9. Hansa. 245 FIGURE 8.10. Medieval curtain wall. 246 FIGURE 8.11. Market square. 247 FIGURE 8.12. Rathaus. 247 FIGURE 8.13. Palazzo Pubblico. 248 FIGURE 8.14. Private towers. 249 FIGURE 8.15. Garrison town. 251 FIGURE 8.16. Disaster leads to order. 252 FIGURE 8.17. Renaissance arcades and gables. 253 FIGURE 8.18. Residential square. 254 FIGURE 8.19. Early industrialization. 255 FIGURE 8.20. Resource location. 255 FIGURE 8.21. Row housing. 257 FIGURE 8.22. Tenements. 258 FIGURE 8.23. Galleria. 259 FIGURE 8.24. Opera. 260 FIGURE 8.25. Modernisme. 261 FIGURE 8.26. Regency London. 262 FIGURE 8.27. Eiffel Tower. 263

FIGURE 9.1. Interwar garden city suburb. 266 FIGURE 9.2. Interwar model housing. 267 FIGURE 9.3. Fascist thoroughfare. 269 FIGURE 9.4. Espozione Universale di Roma. 270 FIGURE 9.5. Königsplatz. 271 FIGURE 9.6. Footing. 271 FIGURE 9.7. Cathedral of Christ the Savior. 273 List of Figures and Tables xi

FIGURE 9.8. Flak tower. 275 FIGURE 9.9. Prefabs. 275 FIGURE 9.10. Restoration. 276 FIGURE 9.11. Homeless. 278 FIGURE 9.12. Blockbuster. 279 FIGURE 9.13. Multicultural. 280 FIGURE 9.14. New-age office space. 282 FIGURE 9.15. Docklands. 282 FIGURE 9.16. London’s skyline. 283 FIGURE 9.17. Infrastructure. 283 FIGURE 9.18. Waterfront development. 284 FIGURE 9.19. Technopole. 284 FIGURE 9.20. Time warp. 287 FIGURE 9.21. Ceausescu’s Bucharest. 287 FIGURE 9.22. New villa construction. 289 FIGURE 9.23. Wedding Cake. 290 FIGURE 9.24. Western retail outlets. 291 FIGURE 9.25. Potsdamer Platz. 292

FIGURE 10.1. Economically active employed in agriculture, forestry, 299 and fishing. FIGURE 10.2. Agribusiness. 300 FIGURE 10.3. Collective farm. 301 FIGURE 10.4. Economically active employed in manufacturing, 2000. 302 FIGURE 10.5. Privatization. 303 FIGURE 10.6. Economically active employed in the service sector, 2000. 305 FIGURE 10.7. Franchise. 306 FIGURE 10.8. Entrepreneurship. 307 FIGURE 10.9. Informal economy. 308 FIGURE 10.10. Deindustrialization. 309 FIGURE 10.11. Female participation in the labor force, 2000. 311 FIGURE 10.12. Women’s work. 312 FIGURE 10.13. Education. 313 FIGURE 10.14. Education—third-level gross enrollment ratio, 1996. 316 FIGURE 10.15. Gustavium. 317 FIGURE 10.16. Bosporus University. 319 FIGURE 10.17. GNP per capita, 2000. 320 FIGURE 10.18. Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) per capita, 2000. 321 FIGURE 10.19. Income distribution: Proportion of household income received 322 by the wealthiest 10% of all households, 2000. FIGURE 10.20. Income distribution: Proportion of household income received 323 by the poorest 20% of all households, 2000. FIGURE 10.21. Pensioners. 325 FIGURE 10.22. Spending on social programs as a percentage of total central 327 government expenditures, 2000. FIGURE 10.23. Unemployment. 328

FIGURE 11.1. Smart car. 331 FIGURE 11.2. Food shop. 332 FIGURE 11.3. Hypermarket. 333 xii List of Figures and Tables

FIGURE 11.4. Abundance of choice. 333 FIGURE 11.5. IKEA shopping bus. 335 FIGURE 11.6. Place and taste. 337 FIGURE 11.7. Olive production. 338 FIGURE 11.8. Fast food. 339 FIGURE 11.9. Senior consumers. 340 FIGURE 11.10. Crossover. 341 FIGURE 11.11. Tourism. 342 FIGURE 11.12. Russian cruise ships. 343 FIGURE 11.13. Buttes-Chaumont Park. 344 FIGURE 11.14. Seaside promenade. 346 FIGURE 11.15. Adriatic beachfront. 347 FIGURE 11.16. No frills. 348 FIGURE 11.17. Getaway? 349 FIGURE 11.18. Trek. 349 FIGURE 11.19. Heritage. 350 FIGURE 11.20. Memory and heritage. 351 FIGURE 11.21. Exotic getaway. 352 FIGURE 11.22. The great patriotic war. 353 FIGURE 11.23. Black Sea resort. 354 FIGURE 11.24. Leisure time. 355 FIGURE 11.25. American cultural hegemony? 356 FIGURE 11.26. Programming choice. 358 FIGURE 11.27. Internet penetration. 360 FIGURE 11.28. Internet café. 361 FIGURE 11.29. Cell phone. 362

TABLES

TABLE 3.1. The Population of Europe and Its Regions, 400 B.C.–1750 A.D. 75 TABLE 3.2. Birthrates and Death Rates in Selected European Countries, 87 1901–1910. TABLE 3.3. The Population of Europe and Its Regions, 1750–1950. 89 TABLE 3.4. The Population of Europe and Its Regions, 1950–2025. 95

TABLE 5.1. The Languages of Europe, and Number of Speakers, by Region. 137 TABLE 5.2. Linguistic Diversity in the World’s Major Culture Regions. 157 TABLE 5.3. The Study of Foreign Languages in Selected EU Countries. 160

TABLE 6.1. Jewish Population Losses during the Holocaust. 178 TABLE 6.2. Religious Composition of Europe’s Major Regions. 179 TABLE 6.3. Affliliation, Practice, and Belief in Some Western 180 European Countries. TABLE 6.4. Changes in the Relative Size of Major Religious Groups as the 183 EU Has Expanded.

TABLE 7.1. Nation-States and Governments. 222 Acknowledgments

This book is both a product and a reflection of along the way, and the production staff at the many rewarding years we have devoted to Guilford for the skill with which they brought teaching courses on the geography of Europe the final product to fruition. We owe a debt of to undergraduate students at the University gratitude to the individuals who read and of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of commented on all or portions of the manu- Minnesota, Twin Cities. Above all we wish to script, including Joshua Hagen, Jerry Kramer, extend our gratitude to the great many stu- Jason Ostergren, Helga Leitner, and two dents who have passed through these courses anonymous reviewers. We also want to thank and inspired us with their curiosity about Eu- Mike Daniels, Joshua Hagen, Anne Knowles, rope and their enthusiasm for learning. It is to Jerry Kramer, and Jason Ostergren for the students and learning that we dedicate this photos they contributed to the text. And last book. but not least, a special thanks goes to Marieka There are also many people who contrib- Brouwer of the University of Wisconsin Car- uted in more specific ways to the writing and tographic Laboratory for her careful and pro- production of this book. We wish to extend fessional attention to the design and produc- our thanks to Jim Newman and the editors at tion of the many maps that appear in this The Guilford Press for their encouragement volume.

xiii

CHAPTER 1 Introduction EUROPE AS A CULTURE REALM

It’s a typical summer morning in Strasbourg, France, the Alsatian city of nearly 400,000 situated on the upper Rhine border with Germany. On the Place Gutenberg, which fronts Strasbourg’s imposing red-hued 12th- century cathedral, crowds of tourists are beginning to queue to ascend the 328 steps to the viewing platform atop the ornately fili- greed Gothic spire. From this vantage point, visitors can look down upon the steep-pitched roofs of the well-preserved half-timbered medieval houses that cluster below in the city’s historic center. Or, casting their gaze a bit farther afield, they can take in the sprawling surrounding urban landscape of modern high- rises and residential suburbs. Farther out across the Alsatian Plain to the east lies the bluish-gray ridgeline of the Vosges, ending at its southern extremity in the Belfort Gap leading to the south of France and the Mediterra- nean. Far to the east in Germany lie the dark heights of the Black Forest, and stretched out before them the broad upper valley of the FIGURE 1.1. The Cathedral Quarter of Strasbourg. Tourists Rhine, which flows north to the Rhineland gather before the towering Gothic west front of Strasbourg’s 12th- and the North Sea. As the historic meeting century Cathédrale Notre-Dame. The single tower, which rises to a place of water and land routeways from all height of 142 meters, was the tallest in Europe at the time of its com- corners of Europe, the city has long been re- pletion. It is visible from much of the Alsace Plain.

1 2 1. Introduction puted, as its name implies, to be one of the major crossroads of Europe. The expansive view in all directions from high atop the cathedral tower is dramatic confirmation of that fact. Strasbourg is, in many ways, the perfect place to begin this book, for it epitomizes much of what we may think of as important to an appreciation of today’s Europe. While historically known as one of Europe’s great crossroads, the city today likes to think of itself as the “capital of Europe,” an icon of European unity and cooperative integration. In the aftermath of World War II the city FIGURE 1.2. The European Parliament in Strasbourg. In sharp became the headquarters of the Council of contrast to the highly decorated Gothic west front of Strasbourg’s medi- Europe, the continent’s oldest intergovern- eval cathedral is the modern glass-fronted headquarters of the Euro- mental organization, which was headquar- pean Parliament, opened in 1999. tered here on the border between France and Germany as a symbol of the postwar rapprochement between these two warring ri- city within the Holy Roman Empire, and vals. It is also the permanent home of the Eu- remained so for a time even after its incor- ropean Parliament, which makes Strasbourg, poration into France through the Treaty of along with Brussels and Luxembourg, one Westphalia in 1648. As the capital of Alsace, of the main centers of the European Union tucked between Germany and France, sov- (EU), the federalized organization of 25 states ereignty over the city and its region has dedicated to the democratic integration of de- bounced back and forth between these two ri- cisions at the European level governing mat- vals. After two centuries of French rule, it was ters of mutual interest to the member states. annexed by Germany between 1871 and 1918, Strasbourg is also home to a host of other and again from 1940 to 1944, before being fi- international organizations, including the In- nally returned to France. The culture features ternational Human Rights Institute, the a local living language, Alsatian (Elsässisch), European Science Foundation, the European which is a High German dialect; a cuisine that Center of Regional Development, and the As- is distinctively German but influenced by sembly of European Regions. The city likens French practices and tastes; a rich folklore; itself to Geneva and New York as a world city and a unique vernacular style of architecture. and home to major international organiza- The city and its region have both a strong tions, without being a national capital. Catholic and Protestant tradition and a promi- But the city may be thought of as represen- nent Jewish minority. Indeed, the Protestant tative of Europe in many other ways as well. work ethic is often cited as an influence that It is a provincial capital (and certainly looked helped to make the city and its region one of upon as no more than that from Paris) and a the wealthiest in Europe, built on a healthy regional center. Like many other such places mix of industries in the food, transportation, in today’s Europe, the city takes special pride and luxury sectors. in its historic heritage, its cultural leadership Thus, as in so many European places, the of its regional hinterland, and its modern citizens of Strasbourg belong to many economic prosperity and development. Stras- Europes. Their city plays an active role in the bourg was founded more than 2,000 years ago new supranationally integrated Europe epito- as a Celtic settlement, and later as a Roman mized by today’s newly enlarged European camp. It rose to commercial prominence in Union, and to which we will return so often in the Middle Ages, when it became a free the pages to follow. At the same time, and cer- 1. Introduction 3 tainly just as importantly, it is an integral part tures of the urban environments within which of an established national state. Europe, after the vast majority of Europeans live their daily all, is the birthplace of the modern nation- lives. We follow that by treating two of the state, and every European and European most salient aspects of daily life: the ways in place is an active participant therefore in a na- which people make and prepare to make a liv- tional economy and culture. Yet, at another ing, and the ways in which they use the level, the city is unique in the context of its fruits of their labor to consume and recreate. own regional and cultural environment. Stras- Finally, in an epilogue, we try to look ahead a bourgians interact with one another in a way bit to see what the future may hold in store. that is reflective of their distinctive past, they work and recreate together, and look to the future with much the same perspective. Like THE CONCEPT OF REGION most Europeans, they live very modern lives and are affected daily by the homogenizing A region may be defined as a bounded seg- effects of today’s economy and society. None- ment of earth space; yet, the term is used theless, they do what they can in the face of by different people to mean different things. such trends to preserve some sense of their Because the notion is so important in geog- own local history, culture, and identity. raphy and so central to how we wish to in- This book is about the geography of a peo- troduce Europe as a geographical place, it is ple—the Europeans—their culture, and the worth beginning with an examination of its environments in which they live. It is a re- meanings. We will discuss three kinds of regional geography, that is, an exploration of a gions here: instituted, naively perceived, and particular part of our world, the region (or denoted. It is important to recognize that all cultural realm) that we call Europe. Our treat- regions are products of the human mind. Re- ment of these people and their region is topi- gions do not exist without the agency of hu- cally organized and both contemporary and mankind. They do, however, differ in who historical in its approach. And, as our brief creates them, why they are created, and how opening comments about the city of Stras- they function. bourg and its inhabitants suggest, we focus on the multiplicity of influences and conditions Instituted Regions that underlie the way in which Europeans live their daily lives and see their place in Eu- Instituted regions are perhaps the most famil- rope and the world. iar to the lay public. Open any atlas and We begin in this chapter by defining and the pages are cluttered with them. They are delimiting Europe as a cultural space and created by authorities within some organiza- examining the cultural variation within that tion—for example, national, state, or local space. In subsequent chapters we explore the governments, religious organizations such as environmental contours of the region and the the Roman Catholic Church, private busi- ways in which Europeans have come to in- nesses, and so on. The regions are created so habit and interact with their environmental that the organization can more easily adminis- surroundings, both in the past and in the ter whatever activity it is engaged in, whether present. From there we turn to discussions of carrying out planning for the future, collect- language, religion, and polity, three topics ing revenues, assembling data, or the like. that help us to delve more deeply into the cul- Once instituted, these regions are recognized tural traits and historical traditions that we as existing entities and have boundaries that believe lend Europe its distinctive regional are clearly demarcated, on paper if not always personality and help to define the important on the ground; these are usually, but not al- subregional differences that exist among its ways, agreed on by everyone. people and places. Later in the book we ex- Systems of instituted regions are often hier- amine the evolution and contemporary fea- archical; that is, they nest within one another. 4 1. Introduction

The secular instituted region at the highest and easily across earth space, our identifica- level of the hierarchy is the independent tion is with ever larger regions. state. In the United States the second level is Similar to the naively perceived region or represented by the constituent state (e.g., community, and central to much current writ- Minnesota); below that is the county, then the ing on the identification and demarcation of city or rural township. The regions at differ- informal places and regions, is the “imagined ent levels have different functions, but it is community.” The emphasis here is on the idea not easy to generalize about their importance. that regional designations are socially con- In the United States, for example, local au- structed and therefore subject to continuous thorities control education, while in Euro- debate and reinterpretation. The imagined pean countries decisions about education are community may often reflect the views of an typically made at much higher levels. In Swit- elite that wishes to foster the idea of a bond zerland the greatest power over most matters between a group and a place to realize certain is held by the communes and the cantons into political, cultural, or economic goals. The role which they are grouped rather than by the of language, rhetoric, and naming can there- federal government. fore be critical in forming these spatial frameworks and communicating them to others. We Naively Perceived Regions see this often in the struggles for political recognition waged by ethnic minorities in Euro- In contrast to instituted regions, which are pean states. It also has played an important the formal creations of authorities, naively role in the development of a sense of nation- perceived regions are created informally. hood. They come into existence through popular recognition and without official sanction. Rec- Denoted Regions ognition may come from people living either within the region or outside of it. In the first Maps of denoted regions are commonly found case the regions are internally perceived. in geographic and other academic writings. They are closely associated with the notion of They are created by scholars, perhaps most community in that they are the result of a frequently by geographers, in order to reduce closely knit group of people identifying in the complexity of the real world so that it can their own minds a territory that “belongs to us better be understood. For this reason they rather than to them.” might also usefully be designated as pedagogi- Before the development of modern trans- cal regions. The process of creating denoted portation technology, when movement over regions (regionalization) is exactly analogous space was costly and time-consuming, small to the process of classification. When any area spatial communities, each with its own cul- (piece of space) is being divided into regions, tural traits and dialect, were common, espe- what is actually happening is that the places cially in long-settled areas. The boundaries that make up that space are being grouped to- between these communities were seldom for- gether because they have something in com- mally drawn, but they were well known to the mon. It is important to note that such regions community members. Often a grove of trees, are entirely the product of the mind of the a pile of rocks or perhaps a stream was recog- person who has created them and have no in- nized as the limit of “our land.” Beyond it one dependent existence. entered “foreign” territory. Regions of this Denoted, or pedagogical, regions are of two kind have been far more numerous in Eu- kinds. Uniform regions, sometimes called for- rope, with its long history of settlement, than mal, are homogeneous (or uniform) with re- in North America. Yet, urbanization and mod- spect to certain selected phenomena. Such a ern developments in transportation and com- region may be defined, for example, by the munication have begun to erode their signifi- dominance of Lutherans within its boundaries cance for people. As we move more widely or by the fact that most of its agricultural land 1. Introduction 5 produces wheat, or by a combination of such anecumene, the unknown, presumably unin- factors. Nodal regions, sometimes called func- habited, world. The ecumene occupied the tional, are also denoted but differ from uni- temperate zone of the northern hemisphere, form regions in that the places included in where the Greeks themselves lived, while the them are defined as similar not because they anecumene occupied the rest. The ecumene are homogeneous with respect to certain se- was also divided into two parts, occidens, the lected criteria but rather because they are all land to the west (associated with pleasure and tied to the same central place by the move- happiness), and oriens, the land to the east ment of people, ideas, and things. In other (associated with uncivilized peoples). Occi- words, they all experience more spatial inter- dens developed into Europe and oriens into action with the same central place or node Asia, although the derivations of the terms are than they do with any other. not clear. Greece, then, occupied the center of the ecumene, a not unusual cosmological view for human societies. Europe probably EUROPE AS A CULTURE REALM originally referred to northwestern Greece, but the concept was expanded as the Greeks With the meanings of the term region defined colonized the western Mediterranean and we can now turn to the question of how Eu- learned more about the lands north of the rope meets the definition of the term. Our Alps. prime purpose here is to define Europe as With the rise of the Roman Empire, the a uniform denoted region, to identify those Greek distinction between east and west, Eu- traits that distinguish it from the eight or nine rope and Asia, became blurred. The Empire other major culture realms of the world. Be- occupied the lands all around the Mediterra- fore doing this, however, it may be useful to nean Sea, even in North Africa, on the fringe review the history of Europe as a naively per- of the fiery Sahara Desert. For the Romans, ceived region and to comment on its concep- Europe, Asia, and this third realm, Africa, tion as an instituted region. were drawn together by “our sea,” mare nostrum. Although the Greek dichotomy had no Naively Perceived Europe meaning for the Romans, they too divided the world into two parts. Their distinction was In general parlance Europe is often called between Civilization, the Empire or Roma- a continent. This word is derived from the nia, and all the land that lay beyond the Latin and is cognate with the words continu- Empire, Barbaria. Civilization was associated ous and contain. It means literally “a continu- with urban life (both the words city and civili- ous body of land contained within water.” A zation come from the Latin civis, citizen). cursory glance at the map tells us at once that Barbaria was rural and non-Roman (the Latin Europe does not qualify for the appellation word derives from the Greek barbaros, for- continent. It is, rather, only a small western eign). For the Romans, then, Europe was not peninsula of the great landmass we call Eur- a useful concept, and it was simply discarded. asia. The reason people have come to think of When the Empire fell apart, however, the Europe as one of the seven continents of the Roman dichotomy, too, lost its relevance. Al- world is because it is perceived, both inter- though the Empire in the East continued to nally and externally, as a distinctive culture exist for many centuries, at least in fragmen- region. tary form, in the West a variety of new “em- It was the Greeks who invented Europe. pires,” creations of the barbarian invaders The Greeks were given to dichotomous think- from the north, came and went. One institu- ing—that is, the penchant for dividing things tion, however, did preserve the legacy of the into two mutually exclusive groups. Their pri- Roman Empire, the Christian Church. Civili- mary division of the world was into the ecu- zation now came to be identified with Chris- mene, the known, inhabited world, and the tianity. The new, medieval, dichotomous dis- 6 1. Introduction

FIGURE 1.3 (a and b). The Greek and Roman worlds. These two maps represent Greek and Roman perceptions of the known world. The first is from Hecataeus, a geographer and travel writer from Miletus, a Greek city in Asia Minor. The second is from the Roman Pomponius Mela, who created a geography of the world in the first century A.D. 1. Introduction 7 tinction was between Christendom, the world the confines of medieval Christendom, they of the universal Christian Church, and the pa- became aware that their part of the world was gan world (the word pagan carries the same still quite different, a very special part of the rural connotation as barbarian, coming from new and wider Christendom. It has been said the Latin paganus, country dweller). that “in discovering the world Europe discov- One cannot stress too much the role of the ered herself.” And so the ancient Greek desig- Church in the lives of “Europeans” during nation of “Europe” returned. In the modern the Middle Ages. Its territorial administrative world, then, as in the world of the Greeks, system was far more stable than that of the Europe is a naively perceived region. As such secular kingdoms, principalities, and other it stands as one of the seven continents of the states, and people identified more strongly world. Its boundaries may be a topic of some with the parish in which they lived than with dispute, but its existence is not questioned. the territory of their secular lord. An individual enjoyed full civil rights only if he was Instituted Europe a member of the Christian community. Ex- communication was synonymous with out- Now, in our times, Europe bids, for the first lawry. time in history, to become an instituted re- Initially Christianity had global aspirations; gion. World War II put an end to European it is a universalizing religion. However, with hegemony around the world. From the late the spread of Islam, beginning in the seventh 1940s to the middle 1960s the great European century, Christianity became spatially con- colonial powers lost almost all of their over- fined, largely to the area the Greeks had seas empires. It is interesting that this is ex- called Europe. Contacts with the Indian and actly the period during which the states of Chinese civilizations to the east were few and Europe began to explore the possibility of those with the sub-Saharan African civiliza- creating a larger economic and political com- tions to the south virtually nonexistent. The munity. Ironically, just as the peoples of Asia great ocean to the west prevented communi- and Africa celebrated a newly won national cation with the American civilizations of the independence, the peoples of Europe started Mexican highlands and the Andes. to look for ways in which they might profit- At the end of the Middle Ages, however, ably limit, or give up entirely, their own na- three important things happened to change tional independence. the medieval view and to restore the idea of The quest for a more broadly instituted Europe. First, the east–west split that had de- Europe has been one of the major strands veloped between the Orthodox and Roman of European political development over the Catholic worlds took on the appearance of post-World War II period. Originating in the irrevocability. Second, the unity of Western West—first as a simple customs union, then as Christendom was shattered by the Protestant a larger economic block known as the Euro- Reformation. At the same time secular states pean Community—today’s European Union rose to attain equal or greater importance (EU) represents a seemingly inexorable force than the Church as foci for the loyalty of their destined to bring most of Europe together un- subjects. Religion became for most people der some kind of federalized political struc- just a part of life rather than the focus of life ture. This is particularly true since the demise itself. Third, with the Great Discoveries that of European communism in the 1990s. In- took Europeans and their religion to distant deed, for some, “Europe” has become synon- shores as explorers, conquerors, and colo- ymous with the European Union, which with nists, Christianity broke out of Europe and the latest enlargement of 2004 has expanded achieved its goal of worldwide distribution. to include many, but not all, of the former So- Even as the Christian populations of Eu- viet bloc countries. The EU is now an institu- rope spread their religion, their social and tion that pervades the lives of Europeans, a cultural values, and their technology beyond fact that will be amply and repeatedly demon- 8 1. Introduction

FIGURE 1.4. Europe and the European Union. strated in the discussions in subsequent chap- Europe as a Denoted Region ters. Nonetheless, the realization of a completely We pointed out earlier that a uniform denoted unified Europe still lies in the future. The re- region is a delimited piece of earth space cre- gion continues to be a composite of smaller ated by grouping together places that share instituted regions—the nation-states—that in common characteristics. At the world scale many cases cling tenuously to their individual culture realms are usually formed through the identities, powers, and prerogatives. For our amalgamation of whole countries, which then purposes, then, we prefer to define Europe are taken to be discrete places. The region we for now as a uniform denoted region, a realm will define as Europe consists of 44 independ- whose people share a cultural tradition that ent states. This is more than one-third again sets them apart from peoples elsewhere in the as many as existed just a little over a decade world and gives them their own personality. It ago (32) before the collapse of Soviet power is to this Europe that we now turn. in eastern Europe. These states occupy the 1. Introduction 9 western peninsula of the Eurasian landmass, These innovations began with the domesti- bounded on the north by the Arctic Sea, cation of plants and animals that led initially the west by the Atlantic, and the south by to the development of a shifting form of cul- the Mediterranean. In the east we include tivation. The hill lands surrounding the Mes- Belarus, Ukraine, and that part of Russia lying opotamian basin provided very favorable to the west of the Urals. The latter has histori- conditions for experimenting with plant and cally been known as European Russia and has animal breeding. This “Fertile Crescent” of- been sharply distinguished from Asiatic Rus- fered a variety of biotic niches, each with its sia, or Siberia, to the east. In our view Siberia own complex of plant and animal communi- is neo-Russian in the same sense that Canada, ties. Archeologists have uncovered farming the United States, Australia, and New Zea- villages as much as 10,000 years old and dis- land are neo-British and Latin America is covered remains of barley, wheat, peas, len- neo-Iberian. tils, and bones of domesticated goats, sheep, In addition to the European space defined and possibly cattle and pigs. above, from time to time in our discussion we Before 5000 B.C. cultivators began to move will consider a number of peripheral coun- down the mountain slopes into the valley of tries. These include, in the southeast, the sec- the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Here they ular Islamic state of Turkey, which currently had to adjust to a new environment. The flood awaits a decision to begin formal negotiations plain soil was very fertile, but the climate was for entry into the EU. Also on the periphery, dry and the heat in summer fierce. The agri- and figuring into our discussion on occasion, culturalists learned to manage water and to ir- are the Arab Islamic states of the Maghreb in rigate their fields. The greater yields obtained North Africa—Morocco, Algeria, and Tuni- in this new environment enabled them to set- sia—with their strong historic ties to France. tle down and abandon the shifting cultivation In the following section we discuss the cul- that they had practiced in the hills. Here the tural traits and historical traditions that we plow was developed, and domesticated oxen believe give the European core a personality were used to pull it. Thus, a system of field distinct from that of any other major world re- agriculture was established that was based on gion. the growing of grain and the use of the plow and the draft animal. Plant and animal domestication was the THE PERSONALITY OF EUROPE core of the Environmental Transformation, The Middle Eastern Heritage but a number of other major innovations followed. Metallurgy started with the use of na- At the outset it is important to note that the tive copper, followed by silver and gold. More basic fabric of European civilization has been important was the discovery, around 3500 B.C., borrowed from the Middle East. Anatolia, that a mixture of copper and tin produced a Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Egypt com- hard alloy, bronze, from which superior weap- prise the homeland of the complex of intellec- ons and tools could be made. These were ex- tual and technological innovations that oc- pensive, however, and most people continued curred during the so-called Environmental to use stone, wood, or bone. Between 3500 Transformation and which subsequently gave and 3000 two revolutionary developments in rise to European or, more broadly, Western transportation occurred: the invention of the civilization. In every realm of human activ- wheel for use on land and of the sail for use on ity—economy, government, religion and mo- water. Another major development in trans- rality, science, the arts, and the humanities— portation was the domestication of the horse, the cultures of the Middle East had achieved perhaps in the steppe lands to the north of the high levels of development at a time when Black and Caspian Seas. It probably was in- most Europeans were eking out a living as troduced into the Middle East during the hunters and gatherers, or primitive farmers. early part of the second millennium B.C. 10 1. Introduction

As agriculture became more efficient, fewer Greek and Roman Thought workers were needed in it. Occupations became more specialized and division of labor in- More than any other people the Greeks were creased. Surplus populations began to concen- responsible for adapting Middle Eastern culture to the European scene. The Greeks trate in towns, even large cities. By 4000 B.C. the trend toward urban living was well under advanced science and philosophy in almost way in Lower Mesopotamia, the region south every way, developing both theoretical and of modern Baghdad. The urban places became empirical work. But perhaps the greatest con- centers of states, of trade, of philosophical reli- tribution of the Greeks to European culture gions, and of scientific inquiry. The art of gov- was their invention of the individual. The ernment, designed to organize and protect so- states of the east were monumental, bureau- ciety, was raised to a high level. In the realm cratic, and autocratic. The weight of the state of commerce, business contracts and credit lay heavily upon its subjects. The Greek polis, systems were established, and gold and silver by contrast, was small, a community in which adopted as standards of value. Philosophy, the all members (at least free men) could partici- inquiry into the first causes of things and their pate. The Greeks conceived of the freeman final significance, led to the elaboration of com- as a citizen rather than as a subject. They plex religious systems and to the establishment endowed citizens with political liberty, civil of religious institutions and priestly castes. rights, and a great deal of mental and moral Systems of writing were developed; mathe- freedom. Essentially the Greeks created de- matics, astronomy, and the calendar were in- mocracy and established reason as the guid- vented. The invention of writing led to the cre- ing principle in government and all other as- ation of poetry, drama, and history and to the pects of life. Of course, they did not know development of schools. democracy as we know it today, but they laid One of the crowning achievements of the the groundwork for later developments in this Environmental Transition was the develop- area, which would be among the major ingre- ment of a successful way of extracting large dients distinguishing European culture from amounts of iron ore from the earth and a other cultures of the world. Greek thought means of converting it into a useful material. found its way into later European culture via This metal was used to produce a multitude of things, from pots to swords and plowshares. It is thought that iron-working techniques were first developed in eastern Anatolia or Armenia about 1500 B.C. Another achievement of great magnitude was the invention of the alphabet, again in the second millennium B.C. It was devised by Semitic peoples living in the Sinai Peninsula and was much superior to the older Sumerian cuneiform or Egyptian hiero- glyphic systems. Its principal advantage was that it could be easily learned and was appli- cable to any language. The alphabet would eventually displace all the other writing systems developed in the Old World except the Chinese. It is truly remarkable what the peo- FIGURE 1.5. The Athenian agora. The agora was the heart of an- ples of the Middle East achieved in the years cient Athens—the place where citizens participated in the cultural, po- from 8000 B.C. to 1500 B.C. All of these innova- litical, commercial, and administrative life of the polis. The agora was tions were transmitted to the peoples of Eu- also a religious center. The building at the top-center of the photo is rope, principally through the agency of the the Temple of Hephaestus, dedicated to the two gods Hephaestus and Greeks and the Romans. Athena during the fifth century B.C. (Photo: J. L. Kramer) 1. Introduction 11 three channels: Roman thought, Christianity, the foundation of many European legal and the Renaissance. systems. They also developed a hierarchy of The role of Rome was to take the culture of cities and bequeathed much of that hierarchy, the Greeks, both what they had inherited albeit in a weakened condition, to medieval from the East and what they, themselves, had Christendom. invented, spread it throughout the Mediterra- nean world, and then transmit it through the Christianity Latin language and literature to the peoples of northern Europe. The Romans made some It was a Greek, the apostle Paul, who inter- contributions of their own, among them a preted Christ’s teachings to his people (the new, more independent status for women, Gentiles, as the Jews called them) and laid never known in the Greek world, and new the foundation for Christian dogma. Greek principles of political organization and social thought, and Neoplatonic philosophy, in par- security expressed in a law code, which is still ticular, imparted a structure to Christian doc-

FIGURE 1.6. Religions in Europe, ca. 2000. 12 1. Introduction trine that had no biblical foundation. None- cause all are potentially immortal and equally theless Christianity has contributed much to precious in the sight of God. This led to sanc- European culture that is not Greek in origin. tions in European culture against infanticide, Most important, perhaps, is the Judeo-Chris- abortion, and suicide. It also led to the aboli- tian code of ethics, which elaborates what is tion of slavery in Europe by the High Middle acceptable and what is unacceptable behavior Ages, although the practice was to return in European societies. This ethical system is later, applied not to Europeans but to black founded on the notion that there is a moral Africans. Early Christians accepted slaves code of law handed down by God. Out of this into their congregations. This was not diffi- law came the seven virtues and the seven cult to do because for Christians the highest deadly sins. Jewish tradition emphasized the virtues were meekness, obedience, patience, necessity to follow this code to the letter; and resignation. The Greeks and Romans, on Christ emphasized rather the spirit of the law, the other hand, respected independence, self- especially love of God and one’s neighbor. reliance, magnanimity, and worldly success. This ethic is radically different from that of As they conceived virtue, a “virtuous slave” the Greeks and Romans, who had no concep- was a contradiction in terms. For Christians, tion of a divinely dictated moral code. For however, there was nothing in the state of them, everything that one did was a matter of slavery that was incompatible with the high- practical reasoning. One could do well or est moral character. poorly. In the Judeo-Christian view doing Like most philosophical religions, Chris- badly in school or at sports is entirely differ- tianity has been susceptible to theological dis- ent from failing to help someone in need. The agreements that have led to schisms. These former is a fault, but the latter is a transgres- rifts in the Christian Church have meant that sion against the virtue of charity. This dis- many subsequent cultural developments were tinction between a divine and a human moral specific to particular regions. The most prom- code affects the very way questions are inent cultural boundary in Europe is that framed in European and neo-European cul- between Western and Eastern Christian- tures. ity. Western Christendom took its heritage Christian ethics also emphasizes the equal from Greece through the medium of Rome. moral status of all human beings. This is be- Eastern Christendom also took its heritage

FIGURE 1.7. St. Peter’s Basilica. St. Peter’s is the hub and principal shrine of the Catholic Church, which has attracted the largest number of Christians in Europe. The present structure, which is the largest in all Christendom and is said to stand on the final resting place of St. Peter, was built during the 16th and 17th centuries. The obe- lisk that marks the center of the piazza in front of the Basilica was brought here from the Roman circus where Peter was martyred. 1. Introduction 13 from Greece but via Byzantium, a Greek civ- as social institutions. Much evidence suggests ilization that had been only very slightly that, in the early Middle Ages, the Western Romanized. In the East, Christianity re- Church strove very hard to sever the lateral mained Orthodox, that is, early Christian doc- ties in the extended family (to siblings and trine was little changed. In the West, how- their families) and to establish the stem family ever, points of theology were constantly (grandparents, parents, and children), as op- questioned, and the tenets of the faith under- posed to the extended family, as the primary went steady change. In time the Eastern economic unit. Some scholars believe that Church came to view many of the beliefs of this was done to decrease the lateral flow of the Roman Church as heretical. Partly for this resources and increase the probability that reason many of the Western philosophical wealth would be left to the Church during life movements that we have described as funda- and at death. Under the stem family system a mental to European culture were rejected in young man had to wait until he had personal the East. Thus, the cultures of Western Chris- access to land before he could start a family. tendom often appear more European than The result, they argue, was to produce, by the those of the Orthodox realm. 17th century, the European marriage pattern, One must also remember that the Orthodox in which both men and women married late realm stands on the eastern boundary of and many did not marry at all. This had an Christendom, where it has been more open to enormous effect on birthrates, which were Asian influences than most of the rest of Eu- much lower than in the rest of the world. That rope. The Russians held the gates against the this is a uniquely western European phenom- Mongols, and, although they were forced into enon may well be due to the fact that no other submission for two centuries, they ultimately world religion had so strong or centralized an triumphed and themselves subdued all of institutional organization as the Roman Cath- northern Asia. For several centuries the Byz- olic Church. antines held the Ottoman Turks at bay before finally succumbing. Greco-Christian culture The Indo-European Legacy survived both the Mongols and the Ottomans. There can be no question that the Orthodox The overwhelming majority of Europeans world is a part of Europe. speak languages of the Indo-European family. The second major schism occurred within Most of these languages belong to the Ger- the Western Church in the 16th century and manic or Balto-Slavic subfamilies, or are de- led to the establishment of a variety of “na- scended from Latin, a member of the Italic tional” Protestant Churches. A defining ele- subfamily. Fewer than 3% of the European ment of the Protestant world is often said to population speak the five languages (Hungar- be an ethic in which hard work and the accu- ian, Finnish, Estonian, Saami, and Basque) mulation of capital holds a central position. that do not belong to this group. Language This has been explained by some as a result of would then also appear to be a factor unifying the Calvinist belief in predestination, the idea the culture realm, though it must be pointed that the salvation of any individual has already out that many more Indo-European speakers been decided before that person’s birth. Suc- live outside of Europe. Nearly 45% of the cess in this world was seen as a sign of a fu- world’s population speak languages belonging ture in heaven among the “elect.” Proponents to this family, and just over a quarter of these of this idea see this work ethic as closely are Europeans. Roughly the same number of linked to the development of the capitalist Indo-European speakers live in the state of commercial–industrial society in northwest- India alone. ern Europe. It is difficult to pinpoint the ways in which Some cultural differences have resulted a common language family lends unity to a not from theological disagreements but rather group of cultures. However, it can be argued from the different attitudes of the Churches that, more than any other cultural trait, lan- 14 1. Introduction

FIGURE 1.8. Indo-European languages in Europe. guage reflects culture because it is the bearer the way they think about the world than ei- of culture. Thus, the way in which any people ther is to speakers of Chinese. express themselves is shaped by the view that A common linguistic heritage also implies their culture has of the world. This is re- similar mythologies and customs. Christianity flected both in the way that the language is has absorbed not only many elements of structured and in the vocabulary. There are Greek and Roman culture but also a great commonalities among the grammars and lexi- many features of other pre-Christian Indo- cons of Indo-European languages that are not European cultures. Our celebration of Hal- shared by other language families. It is easier loween goes back to the pagan Celtic obser- for an English speaker to learn Russian than vance of New Year. The New Year for the Chinese not only because the former lan- Celts began on November 1. The festival of guages share some similarities in vocabulary Sambain was observed on October 31, the last and structure but also because English and day of summer. It was a time when the herds Russian speakers are closer to each other in returned from summer pasture and laws and 1. Introduction 15 land tenures were renewed. The souls of the which had become rare in Western Christen- dead were also said to revisit their homes dom. on this date. It was a night when ghosts, As its name suggests, humanism empha- witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and black cats sized the potential good in human beings were thought to be roaming about. To frighten rather than their sinful nature, which was these evil spirits away, the Celts hollowed out the preoccupation of the Scholastics. Whereas turnips, carved faces in them, and placed medieval thought began with the idea that them in their windows with lighted candles man was flawed and needed to do constant inside. Rather than proscribe this deeply in- penance in order to gain his reward in grained celebration, the Christian Church in- heaven, humanist thinking started with the corporated it into its festival of All Hallows inherent worth of human beings and viewed Eve, celebrated on the same date. Gradually life as a precious time of inquiry and discov- Halloween became a secular observance and ery. Humanism marks the beginning of the was introduced into the United States by transition from the Age of Faith to the Age of Irish immigrants in the 19th century. Reason. The Renaissance, then, was a return Lucia, martyred in Sicily in the early fourth to the true Hellenic sources of Western cul- century and later canonized, is, because of ture that had been corrupted by the Scholas- her name, associated with light (Latin lux). In tics and their distorted Latin translations. Sweden her feast day, December 13, came to The Renaissance scholar, following the an- replace the pre-Christian celebration of the cient Greek model, espoused the objective winter blot, a festival marking the winter sol- analysis of perceived experience and exhib- stice, when the days become longer once ited a concern for detail and a highly critical again. Today the tradition specifies that the attitude toward all knowledge. This kind of youngest daughter in the family dress in a empiricism led ultimately to the development white robe and wear a crown of lighted can- of modern science and, above all, promoted dles (both symbols of light). European cul- the study of mathematics, which was viewed tures are replete with examples of this kind as the key to human understanding of the uni- of survival of pre-Christian Indo-European verse. Underpinning all of this new intellec- myths and practices. tual exploration was the Greek notion of the worth of the individual and the dignity of The Renaissance and Humanism mankind. There was, however, one important Although Greek thought had a great impact on European culture directly through both Roman society and Christianity, much of it was incorporated during the rebirth of interest in classical learning that occurred toward the end of the Middle Ages, a development conventionally referred to as the Renaissance. Its earliest expression was in the intellectual movement known as humanism, led by secular thinkers in reaction to what they saw as the failed Scholastic philosophy of the Catho- lic Church. Its first successes were in Italy, FIGURE 1.9. Cambridge University. One of the great seats of and it received an enormous boost from the learning and a hotbed of Protestant thought at the time of the Refor- many eastern scholars who fled to Italy as mation, Cambridge University was founded in the midst of a great the Ottoman Turks advanced against the Byz- wave of university establishments that spread across Europe from Italy antine Empire. These refugees brought with between the 12th and 16th centuries. King’s College and its famous them important books and manuscripts and, Gothic chapel are viewed here across the “Backs,” the name given to of course, a knowledge of the Greek language, the lush meadows that line the River Cam. 16 1. Introduction

Christian addition, and that was the stress on The Philosophy of the Enlightenment social responsibility as the goal of learning. This empirical and critical movement, The European enthronement of the individ- which freed the individual from conformity to ual continued during the 17th and 18th centu- the group, set the stage for the many dis- ries in the intellectual movement known as coveries that launched the Scientific Trans- the Enlightenment. Central to the Enlighten- formation. The Scientific Transformation be- ment was the celebration of reason as the gan with the Great Discoveries and continued principal power by which human beings can with the revolutions in transportation, agri- understand the universe and improve their culture, and industry that gave Europe two or condition. The goals of rational mankind were three centuries of hegemony over the rest of considered to be knowledge and understand- the world. ing, freedom and happiness. It was thought Not until the very end of the 15th century that correct reason could discover useful did Christian civilization, pent up for a thou- knowledge. The 18th century is the acme of sand years in this small western peninsula the Age of Reason. Together with humanism, of the Eurasian continent, finally break out. the Renaissance, and the Reformation, which Through long ocean voyages Europeans dis- shattered the monolithic authority of the Ro- covered the rest of the world and, either polit- man Catholic Church, this movement fueled ically or economically, conquered most of it. the Scientific Transformation in Europe. Only two peoples are known to have made Unlike humanism, however, the Enlighten- persistent voyages far into the open ocean be- ment separated science from theology. The fore this time. One was the Vikings, the Scan- Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War had dinavians of pre-Christian times, who sailed destroyed the hope that the Christian faith to the Shetlands, Orkneys, Iceland, Green- and scientific learning could be reconciled. land, and North America. The other was the The Enlightenment totally divorced the Polynesians who settled the Pacific islands, realms of scientific and theological thought but this feat is thought to have been more the and prepared the way for the secularization of result of drift voyages than of intentional navi- European culture. The privatization of reli- gation. Neither had an appreciable impact on gion, its removal from the public sphere to the history of the world. the sanctity of the home, was to have an enor- One French historian, Denis de Rougemont, mous impact on European culture, including sees in these voyages of discovery something fertility behavior in the 19th century. Another he feels is crucial in defining European cul- major element of the Enlightenment was the ture, and that is the willingness to take risks. development of a set of ideas about the funda- This is arguably a result of the emphasis on mental freedom of the individual, formulated the individual over the group. When group largely in England in the 17th century, which security is given high priority, the individ- led to new definitions of political democracy ual is discouraged from taking risks and the and parliamentary government. Finally, the tone of the society is highly conservative. De Enlightenment fostered the idea of education Rougemont argues that, of all the peoples of for the masses, laying the ground for the es- the earth, the Europeans are the only ones tablishment of truly democratic political insti- who have consistently gone beyond the limits tutions. set by nature, beyond the traditions fixed by From the Renaissance through the Enlight- their ancestors. A strict interpretation of this enment what we have seen, then, is (1) the reclaim would deny technological innovation in discovery of Greek notions about both the other societies, which would be absurd. But it dignity and freedom of the individual and might be justified to say that no other people rational thinking in humanism, which tries took such giant strides across the boundaries to reconcile these two ideas with Christian set by nature. thought; (2) the disillusionment with Chris- 1. Introduction 17 tian teaching brought about by the Protestant ties of life and produced a division of labor Reformation and the subsequent century of that allowed enormous specialization. Initially wars; (3) the separation of reasoned thinking this took a capitalist form. Subsequently it about nature from theological teachings; and was translated into a Marxist form. Both are (4) the application of the idea of individual European. freedom in the political arena, paving the way This economic system was, of course, made for the development of the democratic state. possible by the Scientific Transformation, whose roots we have explored, and by the rise Nationalism and Romanticism of the middle class to great importance, a feature of the Enlightenment. Born in the north- The new theories of political democracy in- western part of Europe, it ultimately spread sisted that states and their governments be- in some form to all other areas of the region longed to the people, not to ruling families. and, eventually, on the wings of European im- This led ultimately to the uniquely European perialism to most of the rest of the world. Its idea of nationalism, the notion that if political impact on the Third World has often been states coincide exactly with homogeneous called “Westernization” or even “Americaniza- peoples, or nations, the tensions between the tion” and today may lie at the core of what we people seeking freedom of action and the gov- call “globalization,” but it often is unaccompa- ernments seeking public order will be mini- nied by other aspects of European culture. mized. Briefly put, people who feel them- However, the fact that European culture, selves to be related will want the same things. alone among all the cultures of the world, is This represents an extension of the idea of available as a model to be accepted in part or freedom of the individual to freedom of the rejected in toto is also something that makes related group. this region distinctive. Although it had its origins in the spirit of the Enlightenment, nationalism became deeply involved with the Romantic Move- CULTURAL VARIATION WITHIN THE REALM: ment of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Ro- DIVERSITY IN UNITY manticism was a reaction against the rational thinking of the Enlightenment, a rejection of These, then, are the main elements of the cul- the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, ture that we now call European. Clearly, not and reason that typified that movement. Ro- all Europeans share to an equal degree in ev- manticism stressed the subjective, the irratio- ery one of them. Europe has been called a nal, the imaginative, the personal, the sponta- “family of cultures,” its historical traditions neous, the emotional. It also emphasized the and cultural heritages overlapping, each fig- common people, rejecting high, cosmopolitan uring in a number of examples but not in all. culture, which was Pan-European, in favor of Before leaving our discussion of Europe as a the simple popular cultures of nations, at- culture realm, it will be useful to look briefly tached to their native soil. Its association with at how culture varies across the realm. Romanticism greatly changed the shape of na- Just as it is useful to distinguish Europe as tionalism, as we shall see in Chapter 7. one among a number of culture realms in the world, so it is also useful to identify relatively The Commercial–Industrial Society homogeneous culture regions within Europe. Again, the point is to reduce the complexity of There is one further element of European reality, making it easier to comprehend the di- culture that needs to be mentioned. Europe, versity within European culture. The regional and Europe alone, developed an economic scheme presented here has been constructed system that freed the great bulk of its people with a mind to cultural similarities among from the task of producing the basic necessi- people, especially with regard to language 18 1. Introduction

FIGURE 1.10. A regionalization of European culture. and religion, common historical experience, However, our scheme reflects the fact that, for and the role that major cities have played in the foreseeable future, the lives of Europeans providing foci for human activity. Our intent are still most affected by the institutions, laws, has been to create regions that reflect endur- and cultures of the states within which they ing associations rather than modern political live. or economic alliances, which are important The regional system adopted here recog- and cannot be completely ignored but also nizes eight regions within Europe proper and may be quite fleeting. The “places” grouped four peripheral regions, which are transitional together to form the regions are whole coun- to other culture realms. In addition, we iden- tries. This is at variance with some of the cur- tify a European “heartland,” a region whose rent thinking, which we will discuss in a later people demonstrate the traits of the European chapter, about the decline of the nation-state culture realm, as they were defined above, and the transfer of political and economic more completely than any other Europeans. power to the supranational and local levels. This “heartland” region includes the London 1. Introduction 19 and Paris Basins, much of the Low Countries, step in the establishment of the rights of the the Rhineland, the Bavarian and Swiss pla- individual and the evolution of the idea of na- teaus, and the western part of the Po Basin in tionalism, two keystones of European culture. Italy. It is somewhat reminiscent of “Loth- Secularized postrevolutionary France was the aringian” Europe, the middle portion of Char- first country, as we shall see in Chapter 3, to lemagne’s empire as it was divided among his institute family-size limitations and led the three grandsons. It also somewhat approxi- transition from high to low fertility, which to- mates the area known as the “Blue Banana,” tally transformed European life. identified by a group of French geographers Paris remained the cultural focus of Europe in the 1980s as the modern economic and in- and the world well into the 19th century, and dustrial spine of western Europe. While occu- with just under 10 million inhabitants Paris pying only a relatively small portion of the to- today is officially Europe’s largest city. It has tal area of Europe, it contains almost a fifth of grown mainly as the capital of a highly cen- its population. tralized French state. As new territories were The heartland, which defies the conven- added to the state, their cultures were sup- tions of national boundaries, lies mainly in pressed by the central authorities, and their what we will identify in our regional scheme economies were tied very closely to the capi- as the British Isles, western and west-central tal city. The road and railroad systems were Europe, suggesting a twofold division of focused on Paris, and it is hard to travel any Europe proper. The inner zone contains considerable distance in France without pass- the three aforementioned regions, while the ing through the city. In recent years there has outer zone is composed of the other five. This been some decentralization, but Paris remains scheme is not meant to suggest that the peo- the hub of the French state. To a great ex- ples of the inner zone have been more im- tent Paris has also been the center to which portant than others in European history but the French-speaking Belgian Walloons have rather that they have been more exposed to looked for cultural guidance. those ideas and movements that we regard as While Paris has been denied any of the ad- central to European culture. ministrative functions of the European Un- ion, all of these are nonetheless located within

EUROPE PROPER: THE INNER ZONE Western Europe In a sense, since the end of the Middle Ages western Europe can be considered the “headquarters” or “cornerstone” of Europe. From a historical perspective, this is largely because of France, which was one of the most important players on the European scene from the late 16th to the early 20th century. For much of European history Paris was the largest or the second-largest city in Europe. In the Mid- dle Ages the University of Paris was the greatest center of learning in the world, and by the 17th century French culture had become the model for haute culture everywhere. French FIGURE 1.11. The Champs-Elysées. Open to strollers on a Sunday became the language of choice at many Euro- afternoon in May, the Champs-Elysées carries on in its legendary role pean courts and by the 18th century was as the French capital’s most elegant promenade and triumphal way. the international language of diplomacy. The Crowning the avenue is the Arc de Triomphe, completed in 1836 to cel- French Revolution was an important early ebrate the victories of the Napoleonic Empire. 20 1. Introduction what we have defined as western Europe. separates metropolitan France and the Low Brussels has housed the headquarters of Countries from the western and southern NATO since 1967. The Berlaymont in the peripheries of France. Western France looks Belgian capital is the seat of the European toward the Atlantic and has traditionally Commission, the most powerful body of the lagged behind in terms of economic devel- EU. Every year one meeting of the European opment. It has certain affinities with other Council is held in Brussels, and the city hosts Atlantic facing lands in Britain, Scandina- regular meetings of European parliamentary via, and Iberia. The Mediterranean south of and political groups. Luxembourg is the seat France also maintains its cultural distinctive- of the European Investment Bank, the Court ness from the center, and lately has increas- of Justice, and the Secretariat of the Euro- ingly allied itself economically, as we shall pean Parliament. And, as we have seen, the later see, with its neighbors along the north- meetings of the European Parliament are held ern rim of the western Mediterranean. in Strasbourg, which is also the seat of the Council of Europe, a non-EU institution. Britain and Ireland The other urban focus of western Europe is the cluster of cities north of the Rhine delta in Britain and Ireland have traditionally been the Netherlands known as Randstad (Ring seen as separate from western Europe be- City). The Randstad conurbation is anchored cause they are islands. The British, especially, by Rotterdam with its Europoort, the conti- have regarded the Channel as something that nent’s largest port in volume of goods han- keeps them apart from the rest of Europe, dled; Den Haag, the seat of the national gov- which they refer to as “the continent.” Some ernment; and Amsterdam, the nominal capital years back a headline in the Times of London and cultural center of the Netherlands. The read “Fog in Channel, Continent Isolated,” latter is the creation of merchants who built a telling commentary not only on Britain’s the Dutch Empire between the 16th and 18th sense of standing apart from Europe but also centuries, fostering an independent spirit that on its assessment of the relative importance of won, first Holland, and then the other north- the two. This is to a large extent based on the ern counties their independence. Just as Paris aloofness that the British have historically has been the cultural capital of western Eu- strived to maintain from the turmoil in the rope, Randstad has been its mercantile capi- lands across the Channel. While armies have tal. swarmed back and forth across the continent, Culturally western Europe sits astride the Britain has not been invaded since the Nor- boundary between what we will later identify mans did it back in the eleventh century A.D. as the Germanic and Romanic linguistic sub- That same aloofness may be said to character- realms. French is spoken over most of the re- ize British dealings with today’s EU. The gion, but Dutch prevails in the north, and government in London often seeks special forms of German may be heard in eastern Bel- consideration or exemptions for Britain with gium, Luxembourg, and Alsace. The populace regard to decisions that may be generally is predominantly Roman Catholic, though amenable to the rest of her continental neigh- both the French and the Dutch Catholic bors. Churches have been among the most liberal Nonetheless, the British broke out of their in Europe for many decades. However, is- island fortress in the 16th century and created lands of Protestantism may be found, es- the greatest overseas empire the world has pecially in the Netherlands. Here both the ever known. Between 1500 and 1600 London Dutch Reformed and Christian Reformed tripled in population. Over the next 300 Churches are strong in the northern counties, years it became not only the most powerful and there is a large Humanist community. A political capital in the world but the world’s second cultural boundary might be that which premier commercial and financial capital as 1. Introduction 21

manic and Celtic cultures. Before the Roman occupation of Britain, the population of the two islands was entirely Celtic. Romanization did not penetrate the society very deeply, and the Latin language did not persist after the Roman troops left. It was the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the fifth century A.D. who brought the ancestral West Germanic dialects of Eng- lish and drove the Celts into the western parts of the islands and across the Channel into Brittany where Celtic is still spoken today. FIGURE 1.12. The London Royal Exchange. This building with its Later the settlement of Norwegians and neoclassical façade was erected in 1842. It is the third building to oc- Danes brought further (this time North) Ger- cupy the site since Sir Thomas Gresham founded the Exchange in 1566 manic influence. Linguistically the region to- with the intent of supplanting the Bourse of Amsterdam as Europe’s day is English-speaking, though there are still foremost marketplace. The Exchange is a symbol of London’s long su- some speakers of Celtic, mostly Welsh, but premacy in the world of finance. Gaelic on the western fringes of Scotland and Ireland. While western Europe is mainly Catholic, this region is predominantly Pro- well. The 20th-century collapse of colonialism testant with the exception of a rather conser- and the decline of British industrial might vative Catholic Ireland and Irish Catholic have taken their toll on the economy; yet, to- enclaves in the major industrial cities of Brit- day London, along with New York and Tokyo, ain. For cultural as well as political reasons, is still one of the three leading financial cen- a fairly sharp divide still persists between ters of the world. This has nothing to do with Catholic Ireland and the island of Great Brit- the British stock and bond markets or the ain. strength of the pound sterling, but is related to the international connections forged by West-Central Europe London bankers during Britain’s period of world hegemony. West-central Europe is German-speaking Eu- Like western Europe, this region shares rope, largely Catholic in the south and west more fully than most other regions in the (except in many urban areas), Protestant in characteristics we have identified as defining the north and east. Politically it corresponds European culture. English philosophers of to the core of the German state as it emerged the Enlightenment laid the groundwork for in the late 19th century plus the core of modern democracy, and the English are argu- the Austrian Empire and the Swiss Confed- ably the first modern nation to emerge. Brit- eration, which is mainly German-speaking. ain is the home of both the Agricultural and While thus possessing some cultural unity, the Industrial Revolutions, which brought the constituent parts of the region have tradi- about the commercial–industrial society as we tionally looked in different directions. know it today. Its leading role in shaping what The Rhineland, with its major urban foci at has become our modern global economy is a Frankfurt and the Rhine-Ruhr conurbation, major reason why English became the lan- has long been oriented toward western Eu- guage of science and commerce and has sur- rope. Frankfurt is one of Europe’s leading fi- passed French as the prime medium for inter- nancial centers, while Rhine-Ruhr developed national communication. into Germany’s greatest center of heavy in- Just as western Europe is a zone of contact dustry. Hamburg has historically looked to the between Romanic and Germanic cultures, North Sea and the world at large. Its title of this region is a meeting place between Ger- “Free and Hanseatic City” recalls its deep in- 22 1. Introduction volvement in trade and shipping over the cen- major player in the region—has made part- turies. Even today Hamburg contains more nership with the West the cornerstone of its consulates than any other city in the world national policy and identity. This has included apart from New York. Berlin’s traditional ori- rapprochement with its traditional western entation has been eastward. It originated as enemy, France, with which it has attempted to the capital of Brandenburg, a marchland that share leadership in the building of a larger guarded the eastern frontiers of the German European community. lands and fostered the further advance of Ger- The effect of German reunification since man settlement in the east. Vienna, founded 1989 has been to draw the land and people of at the strategic point where the Danube flows former East Germany, however painfully, out into the Great Hungarian Plain, played the of their long isolation under socialist rule and same role with regard to the German advance into the western economy and life of the to the southeast. In its role as capital of the larger German nation. Despite the transfer of Austrian Empire, its involvement has been the German capital from Bonn, on the west mainly with the Danubian lands. Although bank of the Rhine, to the former capital of smaller cities with historically more local re- Berlin, a mere 50 kilometers from Germany’s gional associations, both Munich and Zürich, eastern frontier, and the lure of new markets by virtue of their proximity to the Alpine and opportunities in east-central Europe, the passes, have been more open to influences postwar political and economic alignment of coming from the south. Germany with its western neighbors has not Although often lacking cohesion histori- changed. What has changed, however, is per- cally, and prone to looking in different di- haps an eastward shift of the center of gravity rections, west-central Europe constitutes the within what we have delimited as the Inner third regional leg of our inner zone. The Ger- Zone of Europe proper. Germany’s absorption man-speaking lands have always been full, if of the formerly socialist Länder in the East, not leading, participants in the advancement along with the absorption now of most of east- of Western culture, science, and political decentral Europe into the EU, has made west- velopment. As such, it would be difficult to central Europe, and Germany in particular, a separate them from the West. Politically, this more important part of Europe’s political and has been especially evident over the decades economic core than may have been the case since World War II, as Germany—by far the just a decade or so ago.

FIGURE 1.13. The new Reichstag. Originally opened in 1894, this controversial building survived World War II only as a hollowed-out shell of itself. Although restored after the war, the building lost its parliamentary function with the removal of the capital of West Germany to Bonn. Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, Berlin has once again become the capital city, and a newly refurbished Reichstag building, with a striking new glass dome, is the home of the German Parlia- ment, or Bundestag. 1. Introduction 23

EUROPE PROPER: THE OUTER ZONE West, and only a tiny minority live in east- central Europe today (e.g., 500,000 in East-Central Europe Poland). These two separate acts of “ethnic cleansing” increased the Catholic and Slavic East-central Europe is the region within which dominance in the region and thus gave it far the Germanic and the Slavic cultures have more cultural unity than it ever previously historically met. Once almost wholly Slavic, possessed. much of the region became Germanized More than the regions we have discussed during the medieval “Drang nach Osten,” so far, east-central Europe lacks clear urban when large numbers of German crusaders, foci. After the partition of Poland in the late merchants, landowners, and peasants settled 18th century, the great imperial capitals of the here. Some of the territory became part of the East—Berlin, Vienna, and Moscow—all lay German and Austrian empires, but even in beyond its borders. Prague was a great city in other parts of the region Germans came to the Middle Ages when it served for a time as dominate the economy and to define high cul- the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, but its ture. The deep penetration of Germans and incorporation into the Austrian Empire German culture into this region contributed greatly reduced its status. Budapest rose to to the idea of Mitteleuropa, which came into prominence in the late 19th century when the fashion among German geographers following Hungarians were given “equal” status with the unification of Germany in 1871. The term the Austrians in the new Dual Monarchy, but was used to mean “greater Germany,” a vast the breakup of the empire following World German Folk Area (Volksgebiet) centered on War I was to leave the city with little territo- Berlin and Vienna and including nearly all of rial influence. The only other candidate for what we define here as west-central and east- leadership is Warsaw. However, not made central Europe. The notion provided an im- capital of the powerful Polish-Lithuanian portant rationale for German political expan- state until the late 16th century, the city on sionism, which brought on the two great the Vistula never achieved more than national world wars. However, with the defeat of Nazi importance. Germany and the forced migration of millions Today the states of this region look to the of ethnic Germans out of east-central Europe, European Union to give them focus. For de- the raison d’être for Mitteleuropa was largely cades during the long postwar period of so- laid to rest. cialist rule, there was a sort of nostalgia for a Language was not all that divided the Ger- bygone “central Europe,” which was kept man invaders from the indigenous population, alive for the most part by exiles from the re- however. While the Germans, except in the gion living in the West. This nostalgia was of a Austrian south, turned to Protestantism romanticized central Europe of the Hapsburg during the Reformation, the Slavs remained era, rather than of the German ideal of a Catholic or were reconverted during the Mitteleuropa. After the fall of communism Counter-Reformation. From the 14th century there was some talk of a renewed central Eu- on, the region also became home to large ropean identity and a number of efforts at re- numbers of Jews who found refuge from the gional cooperation between some of the states pogroms of western Europe in the lands of in the region, but this seems to have died more enlightened east European rulers such away before a wave of enthusiasm for joining as Casimir the Great of Poland. Thus, before the EU and becoming part of the West. None- World War II very large numbers of ethnic theless, even with the accession now of nearly Germans and Jews lived in these eastern ter- the entire region to the EU, east-central Eu- ritories. Almost all of the Jews died in Hitler’s rope will likely remain a distinctive European extermination camps. After the war some 12– region by virtue of the differences in culture 13 million ethnic Germans were forcibly and economy between these countries and ejected from their homes and resettled in the the rest of the EU. 24 1. Introduction

FIGURE 1.14. Budapest. The capital of Hungary and one of the largest cities of east-central Europe, Budapest straddles the Danube just as it passes through the hills of western Hungary and opens onto the vast Hungarian Plain. It consists of two parts: Buda on one bank is the old medieval center; Pest on the other bank is the newer, more commercial, part of the city. This view looks upstream from the castle hill in Buda with the neo-Gothic- style Parliament building on the right in Pest. The city gained a reputation during the socialist years for its openness to Western influences, which in turn gave it a head start in making the transition to a Western-style market economy.

The one anomaly within the region is Kal- bership in the EU. As a lone and troubled iningrad, the isolated piece of Russian ter- Russian outpost, it is likely to remain outside ritory situated on the Baltic coast between the mainstream of development and a source Poland and Lithuania. Kaliningrad oblast con- of concern for its east-central European sists of the port city of Kaliningrad and its im- neighbors and for Europe as a whole. mediate hinterland, and has a population of just under a million. Until the end of World Nordic and Baltic Europe War II, the area, part of the province known as East Prussia, belonged to Germany, and The core of this far northern region is Scan- the city was known as Königsberg. After the dinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), war East Prussia was partitioned between Po- whose peoples speak very closely related land and the Soviet Union, the German popu- Germanic languages. In the Viking period lation moved out and in the Soviet part was the Norwegians extended Scandinavian set- replaced with Russians. Under Soviet rule, tlement far out into the Atlantic (the Færoes, Kaliningrad became an important industrial Iceland, and Greenland) and in the early Mid- city and, as the Soviet Union’s only ice-free dle Ages the Swedes gained political domina- Baltic port, the home of the Russian Baltic tion over most of the Finnish population to Sea Fleet, a function it still retains. Today, the east and established Swedish colonies east Kaliningrad stands out strikingly from the rest of the Gulf of Bothnia. Denmark later gained of east-central Europe. It has become an en- control of Norway and her possessions, while clave of smuggling and other illicit activities, Sweden extended her empire into the lands of industrial decay, unimaginably difficult pol- the Estonians and Latvians. Thus, the Scandi- lution problems, and abject economic ruin. navians have historically faced in two direc- Even by Russian standards Kaliningrad is tions: the Norwegians, and until recently the poor, having one of the worst economies in Danes, have looked to the west while Swedes the Russian Federation. It has become sur- have been concerned with the east. This “bi- rounded entirely by countries that have been polar” Norden, with Copenhagen and Stock- successful in raising their political systems holm as its two foci, persisted from the end of and economies to a level acceptable for mem- the Middle Ages to the early 20th century 1. Introduction 25 when, first Norway (1905), then Finland becoming integral parts of an expanded (1917), and later Iceland (1944) gained com- Nordic/Baltic realm, although their addition plete independence. also serves to highlight historic East–West After centuries of war between Danes and differences in orientation between the Nordic Swedes, the peoples of northern Europe be- states. The interest in generating ties with the gan to foster cooperation among themselves Baltic republics, which have now also become in the 19th century and following World War new members of the EU, has come mainly II. Especially important in this process was from eastward-facing Finland, Sweden, and the founding in 1952 of the Nordic Council, Denmark. Estonia is the most easily inte- an international consultative body dedicated grated of the Baltic republics. The Estonians to promoting a spirit of cooperation and mu- are close cultural relatives of the Finns, and tual self-interest within the broad areas of cul- Finland has been quite active in promoting tural, political, and economic affairs. Also im- economic development in that country since portant was the reinforcement of this effort in independence. More questionable is the posi- 1971 through the creation of the Nordic tion of Latvia. The Latvian language is related Council of Ministers to serve as an intergov- to Lithuanian (both are Baltic), but Latvians, ernmental vehicle for cooperation in specific like Estonians, have historically been mainly policy areas. The Nordic Council and Council Lutherans. A further complication is the large of Ministers have done much to promote the number of ethnic Russians still living in Lat- concept of Norden, and its definition as the via. They are not Russian citizens, but, since five Nordic states plus the three autonomous independence, have been having difficulty areas of the Færoes, Greenland, and Åland. getting Latvian citizenship. The same is true, These efforts have led to the establishment of of course, of ethnic Russians in Estonia. Be- many common institutions, such as a passport cause of the long involvement of the capital union, common labor market, common diplo- and port city of Riga in Baltic affairs, however, matic representation, and a common stance in it seems reasonable to include Latvia also in the United Nations, as well as a rather com- what we have termed Nordic and Baltic Eu- fortable sense that Nordic institutions and rope. Because of its Catholic religion, long culture represent a sensible alternative to historic ties with Poland, and considerable what goes on elsewhere in Europe. Polish minority, the third Baltic republic and Now that three of the Nordic countries new EU member, Lithuania, fits fairly com- (Denmark, Sweden, and Finland) belong to fortably into our east-central Europe region. the EU and two (Norway and Iceland) do not, the future of the Nordic Council and of Nordic identity and unity has been called into question. Some have even pointed to signs of a crisis of confidence. Growing integration with Europe threatens to reduce the sense of Nordic distinctiveness. It replaces the belief in a “Nordic alternative” with a sense that the region has now become peripheral to an increasingly dominant European core, and as such needs to find new ways to assert itself. The answer seems to lie, in part, with the Bal- tic, which has emerged since the breakup of the Soviet Union as an attractive new focal point for regional identity and cooperation in FIGURE 1.15. Neste service station in Narva. Since the breakup northern Europe. of the Soviet Union, car owners in the Estonian border city of Narva At least two of the Baltic republics (Estonia have been able to gas up at this modern Neste service station. Like and Latvia) now appear to be moving toward many other Finnish companies, Neste has invested heavily in Estonia. 26 1. Introduction

The Western Mediterranean the past few decades, however, and it is reveal- ing that today, because of widespread family This region consists of two peninsulas, the planning, Spain and Italy are two of the coun- Iberian and the Italian. The situation of the tries with the lowest fertility rates in the world. Iberian peninsula in Europe bears some strik- The cultural diversity of the western Medi- ing similarities to that of the Scandinavian terranean has manifested itself in the granting peninsula. Both have for most of history lain of autonomy to a large number of regions. outside the mainstream of European life. Just Spain is completely divided into 17 autono- as the peoples of Scandinavia have looked mous regions, while in Italy autonomy has both to the west and to the east, so have those been granted to five regions. These are the of Iberia. At the close of the Middle Ages, culturally distinctive islands of Sicily and Sar- when the Reconquista (reconquest of the pen- dinia, two regions in the northeast, one with a insula from the Moors) had been completed, large German-speaking population and one Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, became with a significant Friulian minority, and one, increasingly involved in the trade and politics French-speaking, in the northwest. Spanish of Italy, and the southern part of Italy fell un- regional autonomy is the result mainly of der Spanish domination. The Portuguese, on pressure from the Catalans and Basques, who the other hand, pioneered the navigation of have historically felt the greatest oppression the Atlantic and established the colony from the Castilian center but to some extent that would grow into the fifth-largest country also from the Galicians. in the world (Brazil). Castile joined in the There is also great economic diversity within great venture across the western ocean when the region. The contrast in wealth between Isabel agreed to underwrite Christopher Co- northern Italy and the Mezzogiorno is enor- lumbus’s epic voyage in 1492. The position of mous. There are even some voices in the north Castilian (Spanish) as a world language is a calling for secession from Italy because of the legacy of this. perceived burden on the north of supporting Both the Italian and the Iberian peninsulas an “indigent” south. Even culturally the Po Ba- are culturally diverse, but almost everyone ex- sin is far closer to the “European heartland” cept the Basques, who occupy a small region in than the Mezzogiorno, as our inclusion of the the north of Spain, speaks a language derived Milan and Turin regions in that area indicates. from Latin, and both areas have historically The contrast is not quite so great in Spain, but been centers of Roman Catholic orthodoxy. Andalusia is far less well-off than Catalonia and That conservatism has drastically changed in has a much higher rate of unemployment. A recent boom in “Sun Belt” high-tech economic development has been instrumental in drawing parts of the region together. The main beneficiaries are the cities that form an arc following the Mediterranean coast from Catalonia through the south of France and down into western Italy as far as Rome. Known variously as the “Latin Crescent” or “Second Banana,” economic cooperation and development along this strip has made it one of the fastest-growing areas in Europe.

Eastern Europe FIGURE 1.16. Tower of Belém. Built in 1515–1521 to protect the entrance to the Tagus River, the Tower of Belém is a symbol of Portu- Eastern Europe comprises the two republics gal’s historic orientation to the western seas and its seminal role in the of Ukraine and Belarus and the European great maritime discoveries of the 16th century. part of Russia. Russia, of course, also em- 1. Introduction 27 braces territory in Asia—more, in fact, than in Europe. Siberia is, however, treated here not as a part of Europe proper but rather as a peripheral region. These three republics, though independent, are linked to nine other former Soviet republics through membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The CIS was proclaimed by the leaders of the three Slavic republics on December 8, 1991, at the same time the death of the USSR was formally announced. The region is East Slavic in language and FIGURE 1.17. Moscow. The city of Moscow was founded here along historically Orthodox in religion and thus has the banks of the Moskva River in the 13th century. The early settle- more cultural unity than the other regions we ment, sheltered alongside the Kremlin citadel, grew to be the capital of have discussed. As we have already pointed Muscovy, and eventually a Russian Empire that covered large parts of out, the most prominent cultural boundary in two continents. The Kremlin walls, shown here along the river embank- Europe is that between Western and Eastern ment, encircle the historic administrative and religious center of the Christianity. Orthodoxy has long stood on the city. eastern boundary of Christendom where it was most open to Asian, principally Muslim, influences. From the middle of the 13th to the burg, Peter’s “window on the west,” has been end of the 14th century, the Russian princi- historically just that, eastern Europe’s point of palities endured what came to be known as contact with the rest of the realm. To most the “Mongol Captivity,” giving rise to myth Russians it seems far too “western,” especially that, because of this Asian legacy of despo- visually, ever to vie with Moscow as the cen- tism, Russians could not truly understand deter of the region. mocracy and thus lay outside the European Eastern Europe today continues to grapple realm. During the early 18th century, Peter with the conversion from a centrally planned the Great, keenly aware of this perception of to a “free-market” economy. Most obvious to his people, opened Russia to ideas from west- the visitor in Moscow are the tremendous ern Europe in an attempt to “modernize” his contrasts in level of prosperity. As we shall country. While much of his work was success- see, there is also ample evidence of new in- ful, significant portions of Russian society, investment and wealth, much of it however cluding the Orthodox Church, resisted his gained by illicit means in Russia’s virtually reforms. Because of the rift with Western unregulated capitalist economy. Christendom and long interaction with Asian cultures, eastern Europe, together with the The Balkans Balkans, demonstrates the fewest number of culture traits we have defined as European. The Balkans constitutes the poorest region we The region’s focus is unquestionably Mos- have yet discussed. Over the past decade or cow, which became the capital of an expand- so the region has been highly unstable politi- ing Russian empire in the 16th century and cally, in large part due to the efforts of the remained the political heart of the region un- new nationalist Serbian government (then the til Peter the Great built his new capital, St. Republic of Yugoslavia, now known as Serbia Petersburg, in the early 18th century. Mos- and Montenegro) to create an ethnically pure cow’s prominence was reestablished after the Serbian state at the expense of neighboring Bolshevik Revolution with the return of capi- Bosnians, Croatians, and Kosovars. Linguis- tal functions, and the city continues today to tically the region is highly varied, and this, of be the major urban focus, not just of Russia course, is one reason for the political instabil- but of most of the former USSR. St. Peters- ity. It is, however, religion that is at the root of 28 1. Introduction the ethnic strife. Although dominantly East- tion, both Bosnia and Macedonia declared ern Orthodox in religion, the Balkans con- theirs. Macedonia, in particular, was in need tains substantial Muslim minorities, the result of international recognition, but the Greeks of centuries of dominance by the Ottoman made every effort to block this because they Turks. The Roman Catholic communities, could not tolerate an independent state bear- most located just to the north, further compli- ing the name of a region sacred in Greek his- cate the picture. Even as the Russians in tory as the birthplace of both Socrates and Al- the 18th century were attempting their rap- exander the Great. This incident was seen in prochement with the West, the peoples of the the rest of the EU as more evidence of Balkan Balkans were still largely cut off from cultural pettiness, and the Greek government was developments in the rest of Europe by their chastised severely for it. Nevertheless, in def- inclusion in the dying Ottoman Empire. Not erence to the Greeks, the country is now really until the 20th century did many of the known officially as “The Former Yugoslav Re- ideas we have earlier defined as “European” public of Macedonia,” and while spokesper- penetrate this region. sons for the EU are careful to use this term, it The Balkans has no clear focus. Under the is clear that they regard the Greek position as Turks the political capital was Istanbul (then deplorably small-minded. Constantinople), but this city today is in the Another case is that of Turkey. The enmity Turkish Republic, which we treat below as toward the Turks goes back, of course, to their part of the Southeastern Periphery. Greece, as long subjugation of the Greeks within the Ot- the richest country in the region and the only toman Empire. So bitter was the feeling on one belonging as yet to the EU, would seem both sides that massive population exchanges to be the natural focus, and Athens is the larg- were arranged between the two countries af- est city in the region. The Greeks have, in ter the establishment of the Republic of Tur- fact, invested fairly heavily in Bulgaria and key in 1923. The situation of Cyprus, where have taken up the slack left by western Euro- one-fifth of the population is Turkish and the pean companies that have been leery of in- rest Greek, has long kept the sores open. This vestment in the region as a whole. Some parts has been the case since a coup on the south- of Greece have long had strong connections ern and predominantly Greek side of the is- with the lands that directly lie to the north. land during the early 1970s provoked a Turk- Thessalonica is closer to Sofia than it is to Ath- ish occupation of the north. This led to a ens. partition of the island into a Greek–Cypriot Greece has a real problem, however, in Republic of Cyprus (internationally recog- playing the role of leader in the region. First, nized) and a Turkish Republic of North Cy- the Greeks do not like to be associated with prus (recognized only by Turkey). Only now the term “Balkan,” even though they brought with Cyprus’s admission as a new member of the Eastern Orthodox religion to the other the EU does there seem to be a chance for a Balkan peoples. They regard themselves as healing process that reunifies the island after the heirs of classical Greek culture and see 30 years of discord, and a grudging accep- the peoples of the rest of the Balkans as cul- tance of the fact by the Greek and Turkish turally inferior. Second, they are too much at governments. odds with their neighbors to be credible in a leadership role. Confrontation rather than diplomacy has most often been the route taken THE EUROPEAN PERIPHERY by the Greek government in its approach to disputes. Beyond the boundaries of the European A case in point is that of Macedonia. With realm, as we have delimited it, lie four regions the breakup of the state of Yugoslavia, Catho- that may be considered transitional to the lic Slovenia and Croatia declared their inde- non-European world. These regions either pendence. Fearful of total Serbian domina- contain large numbers of Europeans in their 1. Introduction 29 populations or have contributed significant western part of this region was known as numbers of their own populations to Europe. Kazakhstan and central Asia. The eastern part Although they lie outside the focus of this lies mainly in the Chinese province of book, and only occasionally figure into our Xinjiang, the home of the Turkic Uighur peo- discussion, it is important to recognize their ple. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union presence. One is Siberia, an integral part of the five former republics of western Turkestan the Russian state but clearly also a part of the have declared their independence. The native landmass commonly understood as Asia. Two peoples of four, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, regions, Western Turkestan and the South- Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzistan, are linguistically eastern Periphery (Turkey and Transcaucasia), Turkic, while that of the fifth, Tajikistan, is include territories that were formerly parts of Iranian. the Soviet Union, and the last of these re- Under the Soviets the pressures of Russ- gions, the Maghreb, is a former colonial do- ification were strong. Russian was the lan- main of France. guage of the schools, and the native languages all received Cyrillic scripts. In addition, large Siberia numbers of Russians and Ukrainians moved into the region, especially into northern It can be argued that Siberia, Asiatic Russia, Kazakhstan, where the Soviets established a constitutes a culture region of its own. Like major iron and steel center on the Karaganda Anglo-America and Latin America, it may be coalfield. Communist ideology, including thought of as a neo-European realm. This vast atheism, was here, as elsewhere in the Soviet region was absorbed into the Russian Empire Union, a staple of the educational system. De- between the middle of the 16th and end of the spite the antireligious propaganda of the So- 17th centuries. It was during this same pe- viet period, however, Islam survived and is riod that the Spanish, French, and British now enjoying a revival, much as Christianity were building their American empires. The is in eastern Europe. Thus western Turkestan only real difference between Siberia and the forms a cultural bridge between Europe and Americas is that the colonies in the latter the Islamic world. were separated from their mother countries by a large ocean and were eventually able to The Southeastern Periphery assert their independence. Culturally the situation in Siberia is similar This region, containing the four states of to that in Anglo-America. The indigenous pop Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, ulation, largely Turkic-speaking, was sparse, provides another such bridge. Turkey and and the institutions and language of the re- Azerbaijan are secular states with populations gion became, and remain, those of the mother that are nearly 100 percent Muslim. Armenia country. As in Canada, the population is and Georgia are very old Christian states. highly concentrated along the southern bor- Georgia is Eastern Orthodox; Armenia has der of the region, especially along the routes its own separate Apostolic (Monophysite) of the Trans-Siberian and Baykal-Amur rail Church. Armenians are generally ostracized by lines. The indigenous population is scattered the other three populations. There has been in the vast lands of the Arctic north, particu- some rapprochement between Turkey and larly in the basin of the Lena River. Azerbaijan, but the Turks belong to the Sunni sect, which dominates the Islamic world, while Western Turkestan the Azeris are Shiites, their bitter rivals. Thus, even though the governments of both coun- “Turkestan” is an old regional name applied to tries are secular, doctrinal differences pose the largely Turkic-speaking, Muslim parts of some problems. Also, the Caucasus region con- inner Asia (stan is an Iranian word meaning tains literally hundreds of peoples who are eth- “country”). During the Soviet period the nically distinct from the four major groups. 30 1. Introduction

The Turks are by far the most numerous pecially the Greeks) would argue that the people in the region. They are also the best Turks do not belong in the European family. It represented within the European core (espe- is true that they did not share in the great Eu- cially in Germany), where several million re- ropean intellectual movements of the 15th side today as a result of the guest worker mi- through the 18th centuries, but neither, it grations initiated during the early 1970s. One should be remembered, did those Balkan sub- can argue that the Turks are neither fully Eu- ject peoples of the Ottoman Empire whom ropean nor fully Middle Eastern but take an we unhesitatingly call European today. intermediate position between the two cul- If the Turks are not Europeans, then, who tures. The Turks are an Altaic people, closely are they? They certainly do not fit comfort- related to those of inner Asia, whence they ably with the Islamic peoples of the Middle originally came. In the 13th century they in- East. Modern Turkish national identity is a vaded the Byzantine Empire and in 1453 creation of the Ottoman elite of the 19th dealt it a final deathblow when they seized century and the Kemalist Republicans who Constantinople. Rather than accepting the seized power from them in the early 1920s. legacy of Greek culture, however, the Turks This nationalism is neither strongly Islamic have vehemently rejected it. After finally sub- nor ethnically Turkish. The Ottoman rulers, in duing the city of Constantinople in 1453, spite of their political power, were always Mehmed the Conqueror declared that he had viewed by the Arabs as inferior newcomers to avenged the Trojans by defeating the Greeks. Islam and, as such, were marginalized in the The long-standing bitter rivalry between Muslim world. It is therefore natural that the Turks and Greeks remains the principal prob- Republicans who shaped modern Turkey lem in the Aegean region. would promote a secular ideology that priori- Nonetheless, the Turkish intelligentsia to- tized the state over religion and rejected a so- day firmly believes that the future of Tur- ciety organized exclusively on religious prin- key lies with Europe. On the other hand, as ciples. Religion was made a private matter, a Muslim, non-Indo-European society, little personalized, individualized, and secularized, touched by European philosophy, many (es- much as Christianity was during the Euro-

FIGURE 1.18. Monument of the Re- public. Erected in 1928 in the center of Istanbul’s sprawling Taksim Square, this monument commemorates the birth of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s modern Turkish Republic. The soldiers with flags, who stand on either side of the monument, symbolize Ataturk’s motto of “Peace at home, peace abroad.” One is an unknown soldier who guards the Turkish nation, the other a soldier of peace. 1. Introduction 31 pean Enlightenment. The growth of Turkish countries have expressed an interest in join- Islamist movements since the 1980s has not ing the European Union, although economic done much to change this situation. In spite and other problems would seem to indicate of their anti-Western stance, most Islamists that EU membership lies quite a long way accept the need for coexistence with the insti- down the road. A ray of hope for the Maghreb tutions and values of the secular establish- states did appear in March 1998, however, ment and reject the kind of fundamentalism when Tunisia attained associate status with evident in some Arab countries and in Iran. the EU. The potential for unity in the region We would argue here that the Turks are is underscored by the Arab Maghreb Union more European than Middle Eastern and that (including also Libya), which was established their future lies with Europe. The greatest in the late 1980s but has been largely inactive danger is that the Europeans will reject them. since. Both Tunisia and Morocco have re- This has happened a number of times, and as cently encouraged its revival. Like western we shall see is being repeated again in the re- Turkestan and the Southeastern Periphery, cent expansion of the EU to include 10 new this region provides a bridge between Europe countries. Turkey is not being offered any and the Islamic world. concrete assurances of consideration in the near future despite recent Turkish efforts to institute a host of legal and political reforms FURTHER READING that bring them close to meeting the minimal democratic norms required of applicants for Ahnström, L. (1993). Europe: Culture area, geo- ideological construct, or illusion? Norsk Geo- EU membership. grafisk Tidsskrift, 47, 57–67. Brunt, B. M. (1995). Regions and western Europe. The Maghreb Journal of Geography, 94, 306–316. Chisholm, M. (1995). Britain on the edge of Eu- For the Arab conquerors and bearers of Is- rope. London: Routledge. lam this was the “land of the setting sun” Davies, N. (1996). Europe: A history. Oxford, UK: (maghreb), the far western reaches of the Oxford University Press. empire they established during the seventh Delamaide, D. (1994). The new superregions of Eu- and eighth centuries across North Africa, the rope. New York: Dutton. Middle East, and into south Asia. Most of Delanty, G. (1995). Inventing Europe: Idea, iden- the region was conquered by the Ottomans tity, reality. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan. de Rougement, D. (1966). The idea of Europe. in the 16th century, but in the 19th and early New York: Collier-Macmillan. 20th centuries much of it became a part of Enyedi, G. (1990). East-Central Europe: A Euro- the French colonial empire, and it is this pean region. Geoforum, 21, 141–143. association that links the three countries of Fontana, J. (1995). The distorted past: A reinterpre- the Maghreb—Morocco, Algeria, and Tuni- tation of Europe. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. sia—to Europe today. During the colonial Graham, B. (Ed.). (1998). Modern Europe: Place, period well over a million French citizens culture, and identity. London: Arnold. moved into the region, especially Algeria, Hagen, J. (2003). Redrawing the imagined map of where they became a vital part of the econ- Europe: the rise and fall of the center. Political omy and established the French language as Geography, 22, 489–517. a lingua franca. Hay, D. (1968). Europe: The emergence of an idea (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Although all three states achieved inde- Press. pendence after World War II and most of the Kinzer, S. (2001). Crescent and star: Turkey be- French returned home, the ties with France tween two worlds. New York: Farrar, Straus & have remained strong. Almost 1.5 million Giroux. Arabic speakers live in France today, the great Kormoss, I. B. F. (1987). The geographical notion majority of them from the Maghreb. All three of Europe over the centuries. In H. Brugmans 32 1. Introduction

(Ed.), Europe: Dream—adventure—reality (pp. Wilson, K., & van den Dussen, J. (Eds.). (1993). 81–94). New York: Greenwood Press. The history of the idea of Europe. London: Mycklebost, H. (1993). Regionalism in west- Routledge. ern Europe. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift, 47, Wintle, M. (Ed.). (1996). Culture and identity in 79–91. Europe: Perceptions of divergence and unity in Szücs, J. (1988). Three historical regions of Eu- past and present. Aldershot, UK: Avebury. rope: An outline. In J. Keane (Ed.), Civil society Wolff, L. (1994). Inventing Eastern Europe: The and the state: New European perspectives (pp. map of civilization on the mind of the Enlighten- 291–332). London: Verso. ment. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. PART I People and Environment

CHAPTER 2 European Environments

While we have taken pains in our introduc- On such a flight, our first sighting of Eu- tion to define Europe largely in cultural and rope usually comes somewhere off the Atlan- political terms, it is also important to see tic coast of Scotland in the form of a scattering this “continent” that Europeans call home of small islands. These islands pass silently as a unique and highly varied segment of beneath us, their barren and rocky surfaces the physical world. More specifically, in this silhouetted against the diamonds of reflected chapter and the two chapters that follow, we morning sunlight that glint up at us from hope to highlight the interactions between the wind-blown surface of the North Atlantic. Europeans and the unique physical settings They are the lonely far outposts of northwest- in which they live, both now and in the past. ern Europe, standing vigil against the open As geographers we see these linkages be- sea. But before too many of them have passed tween human populations and physical envi- beneath our plane, we begin to see the first ronments as basic to understanding how Eu- signs of human habitation. Barren and remote ropeans live their lives and define the limits as they may be, some of these small islands of their everyday space. contain settlements, in most cases the remote We will begin our consideration of Euro- homes of sheep herders; and here and there pean environments by emphasizing their on a few of the larger islands we see a clus- great diversity. These differences are easily tered settlement—a sort of minimally devel- captured. Any long-distance train or car trip, oped place, with one or two larger buildings, for example, cannot help but expose the trav- a number of dwellings, and a small harbor. eler to significant landscape change, for it is What we are viewing from our high vantage actually difficult to travel very far across most point is but one of Europe’s many distinc- parts of Europe without encountering differ- tive environments. As we look down, we are ent natural or humanized environments. Or, drawn to reflect on what it must be like to live consider the brief sequence of “bird’s-eye” there: perched upon a rocky and barren is- impressions of Europeans and their environ- land, exposed to the harsh North Atlantic ments that may be garnered from the window weather but at the same time quietly se- of a trans-Atlantic jetliner as it makes its grad- cluded from the rush and bustle of our mod- ual descent along the final stages of a great ern world. circle route to a popular international Euro- Since it is not uncommon for the offshore pean terminus like Amsterdam. islands and mainland coast of western Scot-

35 36 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT land, as well as the highland interior, to be ob- low in the water. There are ferries, fishing scured by early morning fog or low clouds, boats, and pleasure craft. As we pass over- our next airborne impression of Europe might head, we can see them all fairly clearly, along consist of brief glimpses of Northumberland with their wakes, which indicate the direction moors, fields, and villages, caught through of their travel. We are amazed at the volume breaks in the cloud cover as we pass over of seaborne human activity below and wonder the northeast corner of England on our way about the origin, destination, and purpose of out over the North Sea. This time the scene each craft. seems much more abundantly humanized. Finally we cross at low level over the coast There are numerous farmsteads and village of Holland; our plane swings inland before settlements, and the upland landscape is lush- lining up for the final approach to Amster- ly green and neatly organized into irregularly dam’s Schiphol Airport. The Dutch coastline shaped fields and pastures. We also note that is nearly straight and clearly marked by a nar- there are sizable towns. These towns appear row stretch of beaches and sand dunes. Be- to consist of irregularly shaped commercial hind the dunes extend the polder lands— centers, surrounded by a patchwork of indus- great flat and green expanses of reclaimed trial parks and residential areas. We can dis- land, broken into tiered rows of elongated tinguish from the air that some parts of the fields separated from one another by long townscape are older, some newer. Emanating ribbons of bright reflection given off by the from the towns are the unmistakable long waters of ditches and canals. Human settle- curves and straight lines of railroad rights-of- ment is everywhere dense. In the country- way and of highways. side, closely spaced houses and outbuildings, Then we pass out over the North Sea and many of them glass-roofed hothouses, line the are suddenly free of land as the gray-brown canals and roads. Nearby are sprawling areas headlands of the English coast slip behind us. of urban settlement, consisting of neat rows of We have been passing rapidly over Europe semidetached houses with small gardens, or now for nearly three-quarters of an hour, but clusters of multistory blocks of flats. Inter- are nonetheless still able to look down on an spersed are large parks of flat-roofed facto- open sea, with no land in sight! But even this ries and warehouses. We are struck by the vast watery environment shows signs of hu- constant movement of people and goods be- man activity. The choppy waters below are low. The canals are full of barges and small dotted with craft, large and small. There are craft; and the Dutch road system, perfectly heavily loaded freighters and tankers, lying engineered and neatly organized into care-

FIGURE 2.1. Polder landscape. Rows of houses, glass-roofed hothouses, water-filled ditches and canals, and elongated flat fields of reclaimed land glide beneath the wing of a trans-Atlantic jetliner cleared for landing at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. 2. European Environments 37 fully marked traffic lanes and turnouts, hums waters of the North Sea, Baltic Sea, and Arc- busily beneath us as we glide to our touch- tic Sea to the north. Between and among down at one of the world’s busiest airports. these bodies of water, the continent extends Our gradual descent has taken us from the outward from its Eurasian roots as a long and outer Atlantic fringes of Europe to one of its intricate assemblage of major and minor pen- great metropolitan centers. We have flown insulas, and islands. over a mere 1,000 kilometers of European Along with Australia, Europe is markedly space and seen but a tiny and narrow frag- smaller in area than any of the other con- ment of the whole, but in such a short dis- tinents, but stands alone in its very high tance and restricted area we have noted at proportion of islands and peninsulas to total least four completely different European en- area—or, seen in another way—in its excep- vironments along with their human habita- tionally high ratio of shoreline to landmass. tions and uses. Taken all together, Europe is a This deep interpenetration of land and sea vast collection of equally distinctive environ- has historically rendered large portions of the ments, each of which has been, of course, continent accessible to seaborne outside in- uniquely humanized to some degree. Our fluences and, conversely, has made the sea ac- purpose in this chapter is to explore more cessible from inland areas in a way not found fully the range and pattern of European envi- in many other parts of the world. Most Euro- ronments and at least some of the human uses peans, although certainly not all, would count of them. the sea as an environmental influence of some importance in their lives, whether it be physical, economic, or simply recreational. Indeed, PHYSICAL SETTING as we will suggest in a later chapter, the close relationship between Europeans and the We might begin our exploration by thinking sea constitutes one deep and long-standing very broadly about a few of the more general theme in European people–environment in- physical features of the European continent: teractions. its shape, location, and terrain. We have al- Another way in which we might think very ready suggested that Europe is not so much a broadly about Europe as a physical place is to continent in a physical sense as it is in a cul- consider its relative position on the surface of tural sense. We understand that Europe as the earth. As a westward extension of the Eur- a physical continent lacks appropriate mass asian landmass, the continent is, and has often and, at least along its eastern extremities, acted historically as, a “land bridge” linking lacks a clearly defined boundary. From a phys- Asia with both the western seas and with ical point of view, Europe is more aptly de- northern and western Africa. As such, it has scribed as a complexly structured peninsular historically played a major role in facilitating appendage to the great landmass of Eurasia— the movement of people and ideas between a subcontinent rather than a true continent. east and west. Indeed, geographers have tra- Nonetheless, we will acknowledge the ac- ditionally been fond of pointing out that Eu- cepted notion of its continentality and pro- rope occupies a rather unique world position ceed to make a few “grand-scale” observations that places it near the center of what has been about Europe as a physical setting. called the “land hemisphere.” By this term Certainly one physical quality that makes they mean the half of the planet’s surface that the European continent so distinctive is its contains the greatest possible land area. The outline. It stands out as an area on the globe implication is that Europe, of all the conti- where land meets sea in a strikingly complex nents, enjoys the best natural connections manner. Europe is essentially surrounded on with the rest of the inhabited world. While three sides by great bodies of water: the At- the real meaning of this might be a bit diffi- lantic Ocean on the west; the Mediterranean cult to fully appreciate, it is clear that the con- and Black Seas to the south; the combined tinent has benefited, and sometimes suffered, 38 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

FIGURE 2.2. Europe in the world. from what might be seen as a naturally central tions of Hudson’s Bay. More northerly Euro- and highly accessible position vis-à-vis much pean cities such as Oslo, Stockholm, or St. Pe- of the rest of the world. In particular, its expo- tersburg are actually situated nearly as far sure to the western seas has presented Euro- north as Anchorage, Alaska. While none of peans with special opportunities for overseas this implies an especially harsh or inhospita- trade and colonization that have worked to es- ble environment, primarily because so much tablish their home as one of the great cross- of the continent is affected climatically by its roads of the globe. exposure to the moderating influences of the Another important aspect of Europe’s surrounding seas, it does mean that Europe- global position is its high latitude. The conti- ans live in an environment that lies high on nent extends from roughly 35 degrees north the curved surface of our planet. latitude on the island of Crete to more than In fact, position is the key to a basic under- 71 degrees at North Cape, the northernmost standing of the continent’s individual clima- point of the Scandinavian peninsula. Ameri- tic regimes. Europe stands in the path of cans are, in fact, often surprised to learn that the North Atlantic Drift, the strong oceanic Mediterranean Europe is at a latitude roughly current that brings relatively warm waters comparable to that of the northeastern “met- to the western and northern margins of the ropolitan” area of the United States, or that European landmass. Much of Europe also the great cities of western and central Europe stands in the path of the prevailing wester- lie at latitudes comparable to the sparsely set- lies, which, in the absence of any signifi- tled coast of Labrador or the southern por- cant north–south-oriented mountain barriers, 2. European Environments 39 means that Atlantic-based weather systems tems, the Siberian High, a cold Asian air mass are carried eastward almost unhindered for that extends westward over Russia in winter, long distances across the continent. and the Asian Low, which generates low- Because of this general eastward movement pressure systems over southwest Asia in the of air masses over the continent, two Atlantic- summertime. Changes in European weather based weather-generating systems, the Ice- patterns largely result from the interplay of landic Low and the Azores High, play key incoming Atlantic air with these air mass sys- roles in determining climatic conditions over tems over the continent. Europe. Also important, though, is the con- The Icelandic Low is an area of persistent stant presence of cold Arctic air to the north low pressure situated over the North Atlantic. of the continent, as well as two seasonal sys- It generates a succession of eastward moving

FIGURE 2.3. Climatic zones. 40 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT cyclonic fronts that carry mild, moist air in experiences cold, relatively dry winters and over the western and northwestern portions warm summers with moderate rainfall. In be- of the continent. These North Atlantic air tween the two is a Transitional climate that re- masses have a moderating influence on ter- sults from the interaction of maritime and restrial temperatures. The general effect is to continental influences. It covers an area ex- make summers cooler and winters warmer tending from the east of France into central than one would otherwise expect them to and southeastern Europe and evidences ele- be. These North Atlantic air masses can also ments of the two more extreme types. sometimes combine, especially in winter, with The fourth and last major European clima- dry and cold Arctic air penetrating down from tic type is the very distinctive, subtropical the north. When this happens, a long and Mediterranean regime. This results from the sinuous polar front is formed that tends to annual movement of a second persistent pres- produce churning, stormy, and even chilling sure system, the Azores High. This system weather. (also known as the Bermuda High) lies out The moderating effect of the intruding over the Atlantic well to the west of Europe. North Atlantic air masses extends far to the In the summer, the Azores High is displaced east, often well into Russia, but as these moist northward and eastward, bringing it closer to Atlantic air masses pass deeper into the inte- the continent. The effect is to block the south- rior of the Eurasian landmass to confront the ward intrusion of North Atlantic air masses dry continental air masses of the Eurasian in- and produce the hot, dry conditions so typical terior, they gradually lose their maritime char- of summer in the Mediterranean Basin. The acteristics. Thus, annual temperature ranges onset of the Azores High-induced summer north of Alpine and Mediterranean Europe weather patterns may be heralded in the tend to increase as one moves from the more spring by a hot and desiccating wind–known maritime west to the more continental east, as scirocco–that rushes northward, carrying and precipitation totals tend to decrease. In with it to Spain, Italy, and sometimes even winter, the Siberian High can expand to the Greece and Turkey the intense heat of the Sa- west, blocking the eastward movement of the hara. Greece and Turkey are also affected dur- North Atlantic air masses and locking large ing the summer by a dry northeasterly wind, parts of Europe under bitterly cold condi- the meltemi, which originates in the steppe tions. This is the infamous “General Winter” lands above the Black Sea and often blows that helped Russia turn back the invasions of with such force as to cause severe naviga- Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812 and halt the tional problems in the Aegean Sea. advance of Hitler’s armies during the winter The typical Mediterranean summer is of 1941–1942. Alternatively, in summer the therefore placid, hot, and droughty. For Siberian High is replaced by the Asian Low, months on end the skies are blue and the sun which draws the moisture-bearing Atlantic shines down upon the land, and, for the most air masses into the interior bringing rainfall, part, the winds are light. With almost no rain while solar heating of the landmass ensures the vegetation dries out and browns with warmth. the exception of moisture-hoarding species of The interplay between the maritime and trees such as the eucalyptus, olive, and holm continental air masses produces three major oak. This is in stark contrast to wintertime, climatic types north of the Alps. The Marine when the Azores High displaces southwest- West Coast climate, which embraces those ward and North Atlantic air masses bring ex- parts of northern and western Europe most tended periods of cold and turbulent wet heavily exposed to the intrusion of North At- weather—some of the rains can be torrential lantic air masses, is characterized by mild, and last for weeks—to the western Mediterra- wet winters and cool, moist summers. The nean. These air masses penetrate also to the Humid Continental climate, which prevails eastern Mediterranean, but the Siberian High over all of eastern Europe and the Baltic, is often able to send bitterly cold and dry 2. European Environments 41 northeasterly winds into this region, reducing Hercynian Uplands, and (4) the Alpine and winter rainfall there. Mediterranean South. But, important as climate is, our most significant grand-scale observation about the The Northwestern Highlands European environment is the one with which we began this chapter: the fact that European The Northwestern Highlands, as the name landforms exhibit an amazingly high degree of implies, are found along the northwestern variation over relatively small distances. This margins of the continent—and may in some small continent is quite amazing in that it not ways be thought of as the “rooftop” of Europe. only encompasses the whole gamut of basic They include the mountainous backbone (the terrain features, coastal plains, interior plains, Kjølen Range) of the Scandinavian peninsula, uplands, and mountains but also the area that the North Sea and Atlantic islands that lie im- each feature occupies is quite small and the mediately to the north and west of Scotland, topographic characteristics are so intricately the Scottish Highlands, the uplands of the intermingled. Europe appears, at a glance, to Scottish–English borderlands, the northern be highly compartmentalized. Even the rela- portions of Wales, and large parts of Ireland. tively broad interior expanses of the North We will refer collectively to the above- European Plain, which may appear a uniform mentioned formations as the Caledonian green on most relief maps, can be quite differ- Highlands. We also include within our North- entiated over relatively short distances. In its western Highlands zone, although physically eastern and northern sections, as we shall different in many respects, portions of the soon see, the plain is highly segmented by Fennoscandian Shield, the vast and ancient glacial and drainage features. In the west, on geologic formation that underlies much of the other hand, the gentle folding and eroding Sweden, Finland, and Russian Karelia. of sedimentary strata have created well- Geologically speaking, these Northwestern defined basins and successions of alternating Highland formations are among the oldest scarps and valleys, the best examples of which in Europe. The Caledonian Highlands date may be found around the cities of Paris and from, and derive their name from, the Cal- London. In a large sense, the continent may edonian orogeny, a period of mountain build- be viewed as an immense patchwork of dis- ing caused by crustal movements in the At- tinctive landscapes or natural regions, which lantic Basin that took place some 450 million are in turn often connected to one another by years ago. In essence, a widening of the narrow routeways—the well-known straits, Atlantic Basin produced crustal movements river valleys, coastal plains, mountain passes, that uplifted, folded, and transformed an- and upland gaps that have served throughout cient layers of sedimentary rocks lying on European history as conveyors of people, the ocean floor along the northwestern edge goods, and ideas. of the continent, creating in the process a vast and formidable mountain chain. The adjacent Fennoscandian Shield, along the west- TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS ern margins of which the Caledonian system was formed, is made of hard Precambrian To make some sense of the physical diversity rock and is one of the world’s most ancient of the continent, it is customary to group ter- and stable geologic formations (more than rain features into major landform zones or re- 540 million years old). gions. Here we will identify and briefly de- The mountains, high plateaus, and uplands scribe four such regions, which are arranged that make up the Caledonian Highland sys- roughly as latitudinal belts running across the tem today are the severely eroded remnants continent. Ranging from north to south, they of the once rugged and high formations cre- are (1) the Northwestern Highlands, (2) the ated so long ago during the Caledonian period North European Plain, (3) the Central or of mountain building. They are, in fact, forma- 42 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

FIGURE 2.4. Major landform zones.

tions that have been uplifted and eroded away highest peak in Scotland, for example, is Ben several times over the course of geologic his- Nevis, which reaches just 1,343 meters, while tory. Glacial erosion, from the Pleistocene era the highest point in the Welsh Highlands is (ca. 10,000–12,000 years ago) in particular, has Mount Snowden at 1,085 meters. The Cal- most recently rounded the surfaces of these edonian system is at its highest in parts of the old formations and is responsible for cutting Kjølen Range of western Scandinavia, where the familiar deep fjords and U-shaped valleys some peaks reach heights of more than 2,000 of Scotland and western Norway into the meters. faults and depressions of the bedrock. Their location along the northwestern mar- Compared to younger mountains elsewhere gins of Europe and their generally southwest in Europe, elevations are relatively low, with to northeast orientation puts the Caledonian peaks rarely exceeding 1,500 meters. The formations in a blocking position vis-à-vis the 2. European Environments 43

FIGURE 2.5. Northwestern Highlands. eastward moving frontal systems that sweep scapes project a rather bleak and brooding ap- in, one after another, off the North Atlantic. pearance and are only marginally hospitable These moisture-bearing weather systems pro- to human occupation. With the exception of duce heavy precipitation as they are forced to narrow coastal flats that skirt the margins of rise over the western slopes of the Caledonian islands, bays, and fjords, where marine depos- highlands. Persistently gray and wet, with its uplifted out of the sea offer a modicum of stony or boggy soils and a regime of low agricultural potential, human settlement is and stunted vegetation, many highland land- generally sparse.

FIGURE 2.6. High fjell. This photo is typical of the ice-scoured and exposed rock of the Kjølen Range, which forms the mountainous backbone of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The landscape is largely barren; the only vegetation comes in the form of small plants that cling to crevices between the rocks. 44 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

ically somewhat important in the production of metallic minerals—particularly copper, iron, and tin—little of economic value can be competitively produced today (although parts of Norway and Scotland have certainly benefited from their proximity to the North Sea oil fields). Good hydroelectric potential is one compensating factor, but the land is primarily used for extensive agricultural pursuits and increasingly for tourism. Closely associated with the Caledonian Highlands in our regional scheme is the Fen- FIGURE 2.7. Balsfjorden. This fjord is typical of the many “U- noscandian (or Baltic) Shield, the great mass shaped” glacially carved valleys found up and down the length of of crystalline rock that underlies a large area western Norway. Note how settlement clings to the “strandflat,” the of northern Europe centered on Scandinavia. narrow zone of arable soils along the water’s edge. Most of this narrow The shield tilts slightly downward from north coastal resource was uplifted from the sea in postglacial times. to south. Over much of Sweden, Finland, and Russian Karelia the shield is often at or very near to the surface. Farther south and east, The range of natural vegetation and fauna where it extends beneath the Baltic to reach in the Caledonian Highland zone is remark- parts of northern Poland, the Baltic States, ably narrow compared to other parts of Eu- and Russia, it lies more deeply beneath the rope. These areas were among the last to be surface. The massiveness of the shield has freed of the great ice sheets that covered made it a relatively stable part of the earth’s much of northern Europe during the last gla- outer crust, resistant to the movements of cial period, and were consequently at the tail other formations around its periphery. As we end of the process of biotic recolonization that have already noted, the great lateral pressures followed the retreat of the glaciers. This is es- of a widening Atlantic basin that originally pecially true for Ireland, which was quickly built the Caledonian Highlands did much of cut off from the continent by rising seas. their mountain-building work along the un- There was perhaps only about a 1,500-year yielding northwestern fringes of the shield. window of opportunity during which migra- In the north, where the shield is so near the ting species might have reached Ireland. In surface, it is often exposed. This is due to the addition, constant exposure to the stormy scraping and scouring actions of the last ice North Atlantic placed a high value on the sheet, which in many areas simply removed adaptive capabilities of the few biotic species all surface materials and laid bare the hard that did manage to establish themselves crystalline rock of the shield. Indeed, the there. The isolation of Ireland and the diffi- direction of the movement of the ice may culties of biotic establishment are reflected in be seen in some places by deep grooves the fact that the island has fewer than half of and striations left by the glaciers on the ex- the floral species native to nearby Britain. posed rock. Elsewhere the glaciers randomly Lacking such species as snakes, moles, wea- strewed heavy deposits of erosional material sels, fallow deer, and elk, Ireland can also be across the surface of the shield— boulders, said to possess a comparatively impoverished stones, earth, gravel, and sand—leaving a range of native fauna. highly chaotic, and often poorly drained, The Caledonian highland zone is, economi- landscape of hills, ridges, lakes, and marshes. cally speaking, regarded as a relatively weakly While very resistant to lateral pressures, endowed environment. As we have already the shield did succumb to the immense noted, it offers only limited opportunity for weight of the ice sheets that covered it during intensive agriculture. And, although histor- the last ice age. The weight of the ice sheets, 2. European Environments 45

mark has faced environmental circumstances that are quite the reverse. The natural landscape of the shield, then, is one that is profoundly influenced by its geo- logical and glacial history. It is a landscape of exposed rock or heavy glacial deposition, often chaotically arranged and poorly drained, with most settlement clustered along coastal areas, rivers, and lakes where uplift and stream action have provided small areas of arable soils. Uplift also explains why the small settlements of western Norway are strung out along the strandflat, a narrow and discontinuous shelf of land whose uplifted marine deposits offer a tenuous foothold for agricultural settlement along the rocky edge of the Caledo- nian coast. The ancient crystalline rocks of the shield offer important mineral resources, chiefly in the form of metallic ores, such as iron, copper, nickel, zinc, manganese, lead, silver, and gold. Sweden, in particular, has FIGURE 2.8. Glacial erratic. The power of glacial processes is evi- been known historically for its high-grade dent in many Nordic landscapes. Here large boulders left on the land by the glaciers may be seen strewn among a recently thinned stand of iron ores. The industrial exploitation of natu- pine trees in western Sweden. ral resources of all kinds, including extensive forestlands, has been an important part of the region’s economic history. The shield also has abundant hydroelectric potential, which has which were up to 4 kilometers thick, caused been systematically developed in partial com- the shield to subside—settling downward into pensation for its lack of fossil fuel deposits. the more liquid mass of basaltic rock that lies Given the extremely high latitude of this beneath it. With the retreat of the ice sheet, part of Europe (large areas lie north of the the weight was removed and the shield began Arctic Circle), there is a marked north–south slowly to rebound, a process that continues to zonation of vegetational regimes and, much the present. As a consequence, the slow uplift like the Caledonian Highlands to the west, of the land (nearly 1 meter per century at the the shield is home to a relatively narrow upper end of the Gulf of Bothnia) and a corre- range of native species. In the extreme north, sponding gradual retreat of the sea are physi- high latitude and altitude combine to produce cal facts of considerable significance to hu- a sparse alpine-tundra vegetation of dwarf man settlement in northern Europe. Indeed, shrubs and grass heath. Farther south and at some Swedish port towns, founded at river lower altitudes, the vegetation cover turns to mouths along the Bothnian Gulf during the cold-hardy species of birch, before giving way early part of the 17th century, have been to a largely coniferous forest of spruce and forced by uplift to build modern downstream pine that stretches southward to the Mälaren port facilities because the original town sites Basin of south-central Sweden and the south- are no longer situated on the coast. A com- ern coastal areas of Finland. There a mixed pensating submergence of the earth’s crust forest of coniferous and deciduous trees takes along the southern margins of the shield has over, with oak, birch and aspen figuring prom- meant that human settlement in low-lying inently among the latter. Sheltered in part lands along the North Sea coastlines of the from the Atlantic weather systems by the Cal- Low Countries, Germany, and western Den- edonian Mountains to the west in Norway, the FIGURE 2.9. The North European Plain and the Hercynian Uplands.

46 2. European Environments 47 landscapes of the shield have a more conti- Extending as it does across the breadth of nental climate, with moderate levels of pre- Europe, the North European Plain has histor- cipitation and substantial seasonal tempera- ically been one of the world’s great avenues of ture differences. human contact. Yet, it is also much broken into distinctive parts, which are separated by The North European Plain great rivers, embayments of the sea, and by local relief; or distinguished from one another To the south and east of the Northwestern by differences in surface materials and vege- Highlands lies the North European Plain, our tation. Large parts of the plain also lie sub- second major landform region. This large yet merged beneath the shallow waters of the surprisingly differentiated lowland extends Baltic Sea and the English Channel or extend from east to west across the entire continent far out beneath the surface of the North Sea. in a giant but narrowing arc. The broad base The geologic formations that underlie the of the arc, nearly 2,000 kilometers wide from plain are relatively young (65–245 million north to south, is found in the interior plains years old). They consist of strongly cemented of European Russia. From there, the plain layers of sedimentary rock that have accrued sweeps westward across Ukraine, Belarus, the over the ages through the laying down of ma- Baltic States, and Poland to reach northern rine deposits during periods when the land Germany, Denmark, and the southernmost was covered by ancient seas, or through the extremities of Sweden. It then continues accumulation of material brought down by westward through the Low Countries, where streams from adjacent upland areas. Eleva- it becomes confined to a narrow belt along the tions are modest, seldom exceeding 200 me- North Sea. Farther west, the plain broadens ters, but can be nonetheless locally signifi- again to include Britain’s Anglican plain and cant. Especially in the west, lateral pressures much of northern France before swinging have caused the layers of sediment that un- southwest through the constricting Gateway derlie the plain to bend and warp to produce of Poitou to reach the Aquitaine Basin of ex- a gently undulating surface, on which ero- treme southwestern France, beyond which sional activity has cut into the tilted softer lay- the plain terminates at the line of the Pyre- ers and sometimes left sharp-faced scarps or nees. cuestas. Paris and its basin, for example, are

FIGURE 2.10. Les Andelys. Here at Les Andelys the Seine River cuts away the rich soils of the North European Plain to expose the chalky stone that lies beneath the surface. This photo is taken from the site of an enormous fortress, built in 1196 by Richard the Lionheart, who was both Duke of Normandy and King of England, to command the river and the major land route between Paris and the Channel coast. 48 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

The North European Plain is Europe’s greatest agricultural resource. Sizable areas endowed with rich agricultural soils are common. Finely textured and fertile loess soils laid down by strong winds at the end of the last period of glaciation are found, for example, in thick mantle-like layers across large parts of northern France and the Low Countries. They are also found in a series of embayments located along the line in Germany and Poland where the southern margins of the plain meet the Hercynian Uplands (known in German as FIGURE 2.11. The Cotswolds. The English village of Broadway lies at the foot of the sharp western-facing slope of the Cotswold Hills. From the Börde, or “edge”). Extensive loess depos- the crest of the Cotswold escarpment, a product of the gentle folding of its are also found in parts of southern Russia. the sedimentary strata that underlie the North European Plain, one can In addition, some of the best agricultural re- see for miles across the Severn Valley toward Wales. sources in Europe stretch for great distances across the vast plains of southern Russia and Ukraine, where the natural grassland vegeta- ringed, especially to the east, by a series of tion of the steppes has provided the decayed outward-facing cuestas. Escarpments such as organic material necessary to produce rich the Cotswolds, the Chilterns, and the North dark chernozem, or “black earth” soils. Allu- and South Downs of lowland Britain similarly vium deposits along major rivers, such as the provide sharp instances of local relief in the Dordogne in France’sAquitaine Basin, provide Anglican plain. additional quality resources. Elsewhere on the In the central and more easterly parts of the plain, exposed marine deposits have provided North European Plain, surface features are the basis for productive agriculture in low-ly- more often associated with the effects of glaci- ing or reclaimed lands in southern Scandina- ation. The last great ice sheet to advance down via, northern Germany, and the Low Coun- out of Scandinavia reached far enough south tries. The abundance of such agricultural and west to affect surface features in parts of resources has made the North European Plain Belgium and northern France.Farthereast and one of the most densely populated parts of Eu- to the south of the Scandinavian centers of gla- rope. cial advance, the southward-moving ice sheets affected nearly all of the northern lowlands of Germany, Poland, the Baltic States, and Belarus. In Russia and Ukraine, the glaciers penetrated far to the south in the form of two giant lobes of ice that followed the valleys of the Dnieper as far as Kiev and the Volga to a point above Volgograd. Thus, the Valdai Hills, which rise from the Russian plain between St. Peters- burg and Moscow and form the main watershed of north-central Russia, derive from the accumulation of erosional material during glacial times. On the other hand, the open plains and steppe landscapes of southern Russia and Ukraine were never glaciated. They are differ- FIGURE 2.12. Farmland. The inherent fertility of this rolling agri- entiated, instead, by a series of broad east-fac- cultural landscape just north of Krakow in eastern Poland comes as a ing cuestas that rise above the valleys of the result of the thick layer of glacial deposition laid down long ago over Dnieper, Don, and Volga Rivers. this section of the North European Plain. 2. European Environments 49

At the same time, it is important to recog- 270,000 square kilometers of dense forests nize that not all parts of the plain are so favor- and low-lying bogs and separating Belarus ably endowed for the purposes of agriculture. from Ukraine, have a long reputation as one of The plain also contains broad expanses of the most inhospitable of European environ- droughty sand and gravel, bands of relatively ments. infertile morainic hills and ridges, or soggy Much of the North European Plain was low-lying stretches covered with marshes, once extensively forested, although the diver- peat bogs, and lakes. Such features are usually sity of species was not as great as those found of glacial origin. The Lüneburger Heath of at similar latitudes elsewhere in the world. north-central Germany is one example of a This is due again to the effects of the last gla- large and sparsely settled sandy outwash plain ciation, which caused the extinction of a wide left by glacial action. The Danish Heath on range of species that were unable, because of the western side of the Jutland Peninsula is the barrier imposed by Europe’s belt of alpine another. Stages of glacial retreat are marked ranges, to migrate southward to safety. here and there on the plain by low belts of The natural vegetation pattern that devel- morainic features, such as the intermittent oped in the aftermath of glacial retreat dif- line of hills and small lakes, known as the Bal- fered from west to east. In the west (France, tic Heights, that runs parallel to the Baltic England, the Low Countries, Denmark, west- coast from northeastern Germany to the Bal- ern Germany, and southern Sweden) the plain tic States. Elsewhere are wide expanses of and its adjoining uplands belong to a western thick and somewhat more agriculturally pro- European deciduous forest region, which ductive glacial till. The old Prussian lands of consisted originally of great forests of beech, eastern Germany along with parts of northern oak, elm, linden, ash, and other broad-leaved Poland are famous for their broad expanses of species. What remains today are the last ves- sandy and relatively infertile soils, while the tiges of these forests, which were systemati- Baltic States, Belarus, and northern Russia cally cleared over a period stretching from are known for their extensive marshes, peat early times to somewhere around the end of bogs, and lakes, and their heavily forested the 18th century. With the exception of the and confused morainic landscapes. The Pripet grasslands of southern Russia and Ukraine, Marshes, a large region encompassing some the remainder of the plain to the east was originally completely covered with a mixed coniferous–deciduous forest. These eastern forestlands have withstood the ravages of human actions to a much greater extent than their counterparts to the west. It is a general rule that the proportion of woodland to agricultural or otherwise improved land rises steadily across Europe’s northern plain as one travels from west to east. One of the most salient features of the North European Plain is its system of navigable rivers. The plain is drained by a series of fairly evenly spaced, high-volume, if somewhat short, watercourses that flow into the FIGURE 2.13. Heath. Meltwater flowing from beneath the ice pack Baltic and North Seas, or the Atlantic Ocean. during the last period of glaciation created a vast outwash plain across These include, from west to east, the Gar- the entire west side of the Jutland Peninsula. This extensive area of ronne, Dordogne, Loire, Seine, Thames, poor, sandy soils came to support a low, brushy vegetation known as Meuse, Rhine, Ems, Weser, Elbe, Oder, the Danish Heath, which remained neglected and peripheral to agricul- Vistula, Nieman, and Divina Rivers. The ex- tural settlement until the late 19th century. ception, of course, is in southern Russia and 50 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

Ukraine, where much longer river systems necting canals between rivers. Northern Ger- with a far more pronounced seasonality to many’s highly developed canal system, which their flow, such as the Prut, Dniester, Bug, consists of the Mitteland Canal and its eastern Dnieper, Don, and Volga, make their way extensions, the Elbe–Havel and Oder–Havel, southward across the steppe to the Black and was built to take advantage of these features Caspian Seas. Most of the rivers that cross the and link together the waters of four major plain originate in adjacent upland areas and rivers: the Ems, Weser, Elbe, and Oder. Rus- play a major role as arteries of movement sia too has a highly integrated inland water- and commerce between coastal areas and the way system that connects the Black, Caspian, interior of the continent. For nearly all of Baltic, and Arctic Seas by navigable rivers and these rivers, the strategic point where estuary canals. Inland waterways have been inten- meets stream, or where the stream is first sively developed across the entire length of fordable or bridgeable when ascending the the North European Plain and have played an river, has been fortified and occupied for com- important and early role in fostering move- mercial reasons from very early times. ment and communication across the plain in In the areas that front on the Baltic and ways that run counter to the grain, and far be- North Seas, moraine belts along the coast yond the limits, of the natural drainage sys- have acted as a barrier, causing many north- tem. ward-flowing rivers such as the Vistula, Oder, The North European Plain also contains Elbe, and Weser to make sharp, almost right- significant fossil fuel resources. A feature of angle jogs in order to find an easy exit to the historic importance is the widespread occur- sea. Such adjustments have been facilitated rence of major deposits of coal. Most of the by the existence of broad east–west depres- continent’s great coalfields—those of Lanca- sions formed in glacial times by meltwater shire, the English Midlands, South Wales, spillways that ran parallel to the melting edge Sambre-Meuse-Lys, the Saar, the Ruhr, Sax- of the ice sheet. These abandoned spillways, ony, Upper Silesia, and the Donets Basin— which lie just to the south of the coastal are found along the margins of the North moraine belts, have also made it relatively European Plain or in nearby basins nestled easy for human populations to construct con- among Hercynian upland formations. During

FIGURE 2.14. Pitheads and slagheaps. Coal seams that lay near the surface along the margins of Europe’s uplands underwent heavy development and exploitation during the industrial revolution of the 19th century. In this photo, taken in the Rhondda Valley of southern Wales, slagheaps and pithead scar the natural beauty of the landscape. 2. European Environments 51

FIGURE 2.15. Hercynian landscape. Many of the hills stretching out before these hikers are the remains of ancient and long dormant volcanoes, a common feature of the Hercynian formations near Dolsky in the Czech Re- public. A medieval castle, lookout, or ruin often sits atop these heights. (Photo: J. M. Daniels)

the 19th and early 20th centuries, these fields, ergy, at least temporarily, and have turned which were often found in close proximity to Norway into the world’s third-largest exporter the continent’s richest and most extensive ag- of oil and the richest of the Scandinavian ricultural areas and well situated with respect countries. Elsewhere, though, the plain yields to supplies of other industrial raw materials little in the way of petroleum resources, such as iron, copper, lead, and zinc, became with the exception of a few minor sources in the loci of massive concentrations of industry France’s Aquitaine and Paris Basins. and population. The production of coal from these fields, however, has declined steadily The Central or Hercynian Uplands since the middle of the 20th century due to the exhaustion of reserves and significant Directly to the south of the western and cen- shifts in energy demands toward other tral portions of the North European Plain lies sources, principally oil and natural gas but our third major landform region. Like the also nuclear power. Caledonian system of the Northwest High- Taken as a whole, Europe’s reserves of oil lands, the Central or Hercynian Uplands are and natural gas are inadequate to meet de- the heavily eroded and structurally disturbed mand. The reserves that do exist, however, remnants of an ancient system of mountains. are found for the most part on the North Eu- In this case, however, the parent system is ropean Plain or its extensions beneath the of more recent origin, having first emerged surface of the seas. The largest are found in some 200 million or more years ago as a result the Volga, Caspian Sea, and western Urals re- of seafloor spreading and the collision of con- gion of Russia. Oil and gas produced in Russia tinental plates. are exported via pipeline to many parts of Eu- The core of the system is a more or less rope. Also significant are the oil and natural continuous belt of uplands, plateaus, valleys, gas reserves discovered beneath the surface basins, and corridors sandwiched between of the North Sea since the late 1960s and the North European Plain and what we have early 1970s. Indeed, North Sea oil and gas referred to as Alpine and Mediterranean Eu- production has helped somewhat to ease the rope. The Hercynian belt begins in southern energy import situation of the Netherlands Poland in the form of a low-lying plateau to and Denmark. They have also made the UK the north of Krakow, and extends westward to more or less self-sufficient in fossil fuel en- the headwaters of the Oder River, where it 52 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT rises up in a series of massifs, uplands, and with layers of younger sedimentary rock. basins that encompass the whole of the Czech Movements of the earth’s crust have caused Republic and the Czech–German border- much dislocation, uplifting and tilting some lands. From there it extends westward in a blocks to form plateaus and massifs while broad arc across Germany, Belgium, and Lux- dropping others to form basins and trenches. embourg, as well as across the southern tip of In some places, such as the Massif Central in the Netherlands and the northern part of France and in the uplands flanking the upper Switzerland, into western France and eventu- course of the Rhine River in Germany, volca- ally the south of France. Included are such nic activity has been introduced through deep well-known formations as the Sudeten Moun- fissures. The Rhine Graben, a 300-kilometer- tains, Moravian Hills, Ore Mountains, Bohe- long trench or rift valley between Basel and mian Basin and Bohemian Forest, the Harz Mainz, through which the Rhine River flows, Mountains (from which the name Hercynian is an excellent example of a down-faulted derives), the Rhenish Slate Mountains (in- block. The Graben is flanked on either side by cluding such formations as the Eifel, West- the uplifted block plateaus of the Vosges and erwald, Taunus, and Hunsrück), the Bavarian the Black Forest. Along the edges, occasional Plateau, Black Forest, Ardennes, Vosges, volcanic features (e.g., the Kaiserstuhl) may Jura, and Massif Central. Farther north and be seen that mark the location of recent vol- west are a number of outlying formations, in- canic extrusions, while nearby hot mineral cluding the Armorican Massif (Brittany), the springs are evidence of continued high geo- Cornwall peninsula, and some portions of thermal activity. southern Wales. Related in age and material, Most of the Hercynian Uplands are too low but structurally somewhat different, are the in elevation to have been affected by alpine high plateau and low mountain ranges of the glaciation or are situated too far south to have Spanish Meseta, which is the dominant fea- been touched by the continental ice sheets ture of central and western Iberia, and the based in northern Europe. Among the higher massifs that constitute the western Mediterra- points are some of the extinct volcanic peaks nean islands of Corsica and Sardinia. of the Auvergne Mountains, which form the For the most part, the Hercynian for- core of the Massif Central. The highest of mations are made up of older crystalline these, the Puy de Sancy, reaches 1,886 me- and metamorphic rock, covered in some areas ters. The Feldsberg of Germany’s Black For-

FIGURE 2.16. Rhine Gorge. Between Mainz and Cologne, the Rhine cuts deeply through the Rhenish Slate Mountains, a series of uplifted plateaus and ridges that cover much of west-central Germany. The narrow river gorge is flanked on either side by strings of settlement that cling to the edge of steep slopes covered with woods and vineyards. 2. European Environments 53

the North European Plain; and the Moravian Gate, through which north–south movement is facilitated between the Vienna basin and the plains of Poland. The Hercynian Uplands are not generally known for their abundant energy resources, although coal-bearing rifts are important in such places as the Ore Mountains, the Bohe- mian Forest, South Wales, and the Massif Central. Europe’s most important coalfields are, however, often situated on the margins of FIGURE 2.17. Massif Central. This deeply incised valley near the uplands where the deeper fossil-bearing Millau in France’s Massif Central is the product of stream action and strata of plains and basins are upturned and typical of the ruggedness for which this beautiful but forbidding region exposed, and historically have been used in is known. conjunction with the abundant and varied mineral deposits that are found in some Her- cynian regions. The Ore Mountains, for exam- est rises above surrounding formations to an ple, were famous between the 14th and 19th impressive 1,493 meters. The crests of the centuries as a rich source of silver and iron, Bohemian Forest rise to 1,457 meters and and are mined today for uranium, lead, zinc, the Ore Mountains to 1,244 meters, but the copper, and sulfur. The Harz Mountains are Hercynian Uplands are for the most part sig- similarly known for their deposits of silver nificantly lower. Much of the erosion in these and other minerals, including uranium. Cop- upland regions has been water-based. Where per, lead, and zinc deposits are found in Her- softer sediments cover the older rocks, rivers cynian formations located in Spain and Po- or streams have often cut deeply incised V- land, while tin, tungsten, and uranium have shaped valleys, along which human settle- been mined in Cornwall and the Massif Cen- ment follows the valley floors while pasture tral. and woodland cover the slopes. The Hercynian region is unevenly settled. Taken as a whole, Hercynian landscapes The uplands consist of relatively sparsely may be seen as a complex jumble of high pla- populated ridges and plateaus, interspersed teaus, forested ridges, fertile valleys, deep with more intensely occupied valleys and bas- basins, and small plains. They offer up the ins. The region is known for its diverse scen- quintessentially compartmentalized Euro- ery, both physical and cultural, and exerts a pean environment, in which terrain affords a profound attraction as a nearby recreational delicate balance between naturally protected retreat for the major population centers of refuge and easy connections to the outside the North European Plain. A particularly im- world. Some of the most famous linking portant recreational lure since early times is routeways and gateways in Europe are found the widespread occurrence of hot mineral within the Hercynian upland zone including springs, which are the sites of resorts and the Rhône–Saône Corridor, which links the health spas. Famous examples include the Mediterranean coast of France with the Paris town of Spa in the Belgian Ardennes (from Basin through the Dijon Gap and with the up- which the name for this kind of resort de- per Rhine through the Belfort Gap; the Rhine rives), the world-renowned spas of Karlovy Valley itself, which links the North European Vary (Karlsbad) and Mariánske Lázne Plain with the alpine passes leading to the (Marienbad) in the Ore Mountains, the spa Mediterranean south, as well as with Dan- town of Lamalou Les Bains in the Orb Valley ubian Europe via the Bavarian Gap. Farther of the Massif Central, and the glamorous to the east lies the Elbe Gap, which opens the Black Forest health resort city of Baden- otherwise highly enclosed Bohemian Basin to Baden. Once the exclusive domain of the rich FIGURE 2.18. The Alpine and Mediterranean South.

54 2. European Environments 55 and famous, many of the region’s famous spas the region. Their marine origins are revealed have enjoyed a modern renaissance as health in the widespread occurrence of limestone retreats for Europe’s rapidly aging popula- and sandstone formations and the exposure of tion. marine fossils. This southern mountain system is actually a The Alpine and Mediterranean South series of mountain chains, many of which have distinctive geologic and topographic fea- Our final major landform region is a complex tures. Beginning in the west, they appear in zone of rugged mountains, plateaus, deep bas- Iberia as several ranges or cordilleras,in- ins, coastal plains, and islands that spans the cluding the steep Atlantic-facing Cantabrian entire southern reaches of the continent. The and difficult-to-traverse Pyrenees Mountains region contains the youngest and most spec- in the north, and the less rugged Central tacular mountains in Europe, whose origins Sierra, Iberian, Sierra Morena, and Bética lie in the great but relatively recent tectonic ranges that so neatly compartmentalize the pressures created by the northward move- central and western portions of the Iberian ment of the African plate, which plunges be- Peninsula. These ranges also combine with neath the European landmass all along the the major westward-flowing rivers of the Ibe- length of its Mediterranean margin. These rian Peninsula, the Porto, the Tagus, and the tectonic pressures emanating from the south Guadalquivir, to orient the central plateaus have been at work for roughly 20 million and western valleys of Iberia toward the At- years and continue today, as evidenced by the lantic, leaving the remainder of the peninsu- frequent and widespread earthquake and vol- lar land mass to turn its face toward the Medi- canic activity for which southern Europe is all terranean. too tragically known. The grain of the south- From the Iberian Peninsula the system ex- ern mountain system runs roughly parallel to tends eastward beneath the surface of the the Mediterranean coast and at right angles to western Mediterranean Basin, reemerging the thrusts of the pressures that have created briefly as the Balearic island group before es- it. Many of these formations were built from tablishing itself again on the Riviera coast as material laid down on the floor of an ancient the French Maritime Alps. From there, the sea, the Tethys, which once covered much of Alpine system runs north for a distance along the Franco–Italian frontier. These ridge lines reach their highest elevations—Mont Blanc (4,807 meters) and the Matterhorn (4,478 meters)—as they turn eastward and fan out to form a wide band of rugged longitudinal ridges, separated by glacial river valleys, that traverses the length of Switzerland, Austria, and northernmost Italy, before ending in Slo- venia as the Julian Alps. A southward trend- ing offshoot, consisting of the Apennine and Sicilian Mountains, forms the backbone of the Italian peninsula and the island of Sicily. Farther to the east, the system appears again in the form of the Carpathian Moun- FIGURE 2.19. Vulcanism. Stromboli is one of seven volcanic is- tains, which run in a great arc from the Vienna lands, known collectively as the Aeolian Islands, which lie off the coast Basin to the Iron Gate and links the Alps with of Sicily. With its small white houses, olive groves, and citrus orchards the many and complexly situated mountain precariously clinging to the flanks of its huge volcanic cone, the island ranges of Balkan Europe (the Transylvanian broods majestically but ominously over the quiet waters of the Mediter- and Dinaric Alps, and the Pindus, Balkan, ranean. and Rhodope Mountains). From the Balkans, 56 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT the southern system continues eastward, the for example, which consists of a series of east– peaks of countless underwater mountains west running ridges and longitudinal valleys, forming the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea. might be seen as a natural barrier to north– It reappears on the Anatolian peninsula of south movement. Yet, they are traversable at a Turkey in the form of a pair of coastal moun- number of points where streams have cut tain chains (the Kuzey Anadoglu along the deeply enough into ridgelines to produce low Black Sea coast and the Taurus along the passes. The distances over these passes are Mediterranean coast) and a central high pla- relatively short. Famous alpine passes such as teau. The system reaches its eastern terminus Mont Cenis, Great Saint Bernard, Simplon, as the rugged Caucasus Mountains, which Saint Gotthard, Splügen, Semmering, and contain Europe’s highest summit in the Brenner have played important roles in link- Elbrus Massif (5,642 meters). ing the Mediterranean with northern Europe The relative youth of the southern moun- since early times. The western passes leading tain system means that many of its ranges from Italy to the Rhône Valley have a par- are sufficiently high and rugged to obstruct ticularly long history, while in the east the communication and movement, although few Brenner Pass, which links the lower Po Plain have actually proven to be a serious obstacle with Austria and Bavaria, was heavily used as for long. Of all of the ranges in the system, far back as the Stone Age. the 430-kilometer-long Pyrenees chain, which The St. Gotthard Pass, which was really not separates Iberia from the rest of mainland Eu- used much before the 13th century, proved in rope, seems to have been the most effective the long run to be especially important be- transportation barrier. The northward-facing cause it links northern Italy to the Swiss pla- steep slope of the Pyrenees and the lack of teau in a single ascent and decline. Although easily negotiated passes have historically con- only a single track, incapable of supporting strained most traffic to the narrow coastal ar- vehicular traffic until 1830 when an all- eas at either end of the range. weather road was built, the St. Gotthard route Other ranges have proved to be less of a was for centuries the most important north– barrier, imposing restrictions on movement south link across the Swiss Alps. A railroad rather than closing it off altogether. The grain line was added in 1882 and a motorway tun- of the Alps in Switzerland, Italy, and Austria, nel in 1980.

FIGURE 2.20. Mountain barrier. High and rugged, the Pyrenees separate Spain from France. Seen here from the Spanish side, a road leads north toward one of the high passes, as well the micro-state of Andorra, which nestles among some of the highest peaks in the range. 2. European Environments 57

FIGURE 2.21. Alpine longitudinal valley. This photo taken at daybreak, from the window of a passing train, captures the misty quietude of one of the many long valleys that run between the parallel ridges of the Swiss Alps.

Farther to the east, the Carpathians are by ward-flowing Sava and Morava Rivers, for ex- contrast relatively low. They are also deeply ample, connect the upland regions of eastern penetrated by rivers and have many low Croatia and Bosnia with the Danube and the passes and gaps. They have never really been lowland heart of Serbia. The Morava–Vardar a major barrier to movement. This is espe- Corridor links the Aegean Sea with the cially true of the Northwestern and Central Danube Valley by connecting the northward- Carpathians. With the exception of the Tatras flowing Morava River with the southward- massif, which rises to 2,665 meters along the flowing Vardar River at their headwaters near Polish–Slovak border, these two sections often the Macedonian–Kosovo border above Skopje, appear more like a series of long hilly plateaus and has served as a major north–south trans- than mountain ranges. In Romania, the East- portation route across the Balkan region since ern Carpathians are generally a bit higher the amber trade of prehistoric times. and more rugged, but the Transylvanian Alps, which form the southern arm of the horseshoe-shaped Carpathian system, are traversed by a number of low-altitude passes that provide relatively easy access between the Wal- lachian Plain and the Transylvanian Basin. The mountains of the Balkan Peninsula are far more rugged and complex (the word Balkan means mountain). The Dinaric Alps, which parallel the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea, are a fairly effective barrier to travel. The limestone ranges of these mountains are relatively high, reaching 2,692 meters in northern Albania, and there are no easily negotiated natural passes. On the other FIGURE 2.22. Carpathians. This Carpathian peak in Slovakia, with hand, the hinterlands of the Dinaric Alps, its gentle and heavily wooded slopes, hardly seems intimidating. Al- which extend deep into the interior of the though the Carpathians form an almost continuous horseshoe-shaped Balkan Peninsula, contain a number of impor- arc running through Slovakia, western Ukraine, and Romania, they are tant connectors in the form of interior basins relatively easily traversed and have never been a serious barrier to and river corridors. The valleys of the east- movement. 58 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

The Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria, which While rarely an effective barrier to commu- run east for some 450 kilometers from the nication, the southern mountain system often Serbian border to Cape Emine on the shore does play a significant role as a climatic di- of the Black Sea, seem to cut the coun- vide, helping to separate the Marine West try in half, separating the Danube Valley in Coast, Transitional, and Humid Continental the north from the Maritsa Basin, sometimes climates of temperate Europe from the Med- known as the Thracian Plain, in the south. iterranean climate of southern Europe. In The mountain barrier is actually not partic- the summertime, for example, the Pyrenees ularly high, reaching only 2,376 meters at and their westward extension, the Cantabrian Botev Peak. More than two dozen passes al- Mountains, effectively block the southward low traffic to cross easily from north to south, movement of moist air masses that come in except in winter when snow hinders passage. off the North Atlantic. While their northern Farther to the south the Rhodope Mountains, slopes enjoy abundant rainfall, the southern while not particularly high at 1,000–2,000 me- slopes and adjacent high plateaus farther to ters, have a sufficiently difficult topography to the south have a dry, steppe-like climate in- make them one of the more inaccessible parts duced by the persistent heat of the dry, stable of the Balkan Peninsula. The Pindus Moun- air mass that dominates the Mediterranean tains, which sweep down from Albania and summer. Similarly, the various alpine ranges Macedonia to form the backbone of mainland along with the mountains of the Balkan penin- Greece, are rugged enough to constitute a for- sula help to accentuate the differences be- midable physical barrier, but are broken in tween the warm and pleasant climatic condi- key places by passes. tions found in Italy and the coastal areas of the Balkans from the harsher climates of central Europe and the eastern interior of the continent. The climatic barrier imposed by the southern mountain system is not, however, entirely effective. The southward displacement of the Atlantic air masses affecting Europe in wintertime enables wet and stormy Atlantic weather systems to slide south of the barrier from time to time and enter into the Med- iterranean Basin. This produces the intense periods of winter precipitation from which the bulk of the basin’s annual supply of atmospheric moisture derives. The movement of winter storms through the basin can also have the effect of drawing cold, damp winds down through the gaps in the mountains or even over the crests of the mountain ranges. The mistral is a breathtakingly cold wind that is drawn, in this fashion, down the Rhône– Saône Corridor and into the western Mediter- ranean basin. In the same way the cold bora,a wind that has been known to top 130 kilometers per hour, rushes over the alpine mountain FIGURE 2.23. The Peloponnese. This scene is typical of the rug- barrier to chill the Adriatic and the eastern ged, heavily eroded mountain landscapes of Greece. The sparse vege- coast of Italy. The many basins and corridors tation on the slopes of this valley in the eastern mountains of the strewn about the mountainous Balkans region Peloponnese is made up primarily of drought-resistant species. also provide the passageways that enable cold 2. European Environments 59

FIGURE 2.24. Montes de Toledo. In the high interior of the Iberian Peninsula, the open and seemingly endless Meseta landscape stretches out to meet the sky, not unlike the high plains landscapes of the American West. winter temperatures to creep far southward. was prevalent throughout these mountains Conversely, Mediterranean air sometimes during the Pleistocene, leaving behind a dis- spills northward over the alpine mountain tinctive alpine landscape of arêtes, cirques, barrier in the form of a warm, desiccating matterhorns, U-shaped and hanging valleys, wind known as the Föhn. The aspre is a simi- and long moraine-blocked lakes. Below the larly warm wind of Mediterranean origin that snowline is a treeless zone of alpine pastures, invades the Garonne Plain in southwestern and below that the coniferous forests that France. blanket the foothills and the alpine valleys, at The landscapes of the Alpine and Mediter- least in places where people have allowed ranean South are among the most varied in them to remain undisturbed. The Pyrenees Europe. The highest mountain ranges in the were also once glaciated, but no ice sheets re- western Alps are permanently snowcapped at main today. The Carpathians and many of the around 2,500 meters on the shaded north- Balkan mountain chains are very heavily for- facing slopes and at about 3,000 meters on the ested in coniferous and deciduous species, south-facing, or Sonnenseite, slopes. Melted and can be snow-covered in winter. water from glaciers feeds the headwaters of The mountain ridges, slopes, and plateaus many of the alpine rivers. Heavy glaciation most immediately surrounding the Mediter-

FIGURE 2.25. Lake Lucerne. The Alpine barrier is often penetrated by long finger lakes, which were dammed behind the terminal moraines produced by the glaciers as they worked their way down out of the mountains. These lakes, as can be seen in this photo of Lake Lucerne near Thun, often serve as points of entry to mountain passes. 60 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT ranean were once covered extensively with an thing from the steppe-like environmental open forest of widely spaced and drought- conditions found on the Hungarian Plain to resistant evergreens and wooded shrubs set the deltaic flood plains of the Danube in east- among rich grasslands, but many centuries of ern Wallachia. A few of the coastal lowlands, deforestation, soil erosion, and grazing have such as the Plain of Salonika, the Pontine removed most of this original vegetative Marshes, and the Ebro delta, present special cover. Today many mountainous and upland problems of drainage and malarial disease areas in Iberia, the south of France, Italy, that have, until relatively recently, defied hu- the western Balkans, Greece, and Turkey are man development. either barren or covered with a vegetation In many parts of this region deposits of in- regime consisting primarily of one of two dustrial minerals of various kinds are impor- drought-resistant types. The first is most com- tant. The Iberian Peninsula has been known monly known by the French word maquis, but historically for the production of copper, tin, also as macchia in Italian, mattoral in Spanish, silver, and gold, and has also become an im- longos or xerovoúnii in Greek, and al arachd portant modern source of tungsten, zinc, and in Arabic. It is a scrubby evergreen vegeta- uranium. Greece produces bauxite in consid- tion, usually about two meters in height, con- erable quantities, as well as nickel and asbes- sisting of such plants as juniper, holm oak, and tos, and the Greek islands were historically broom heath. A second kind of plant cover, important as sources of copper, silver, and which is lower, more varied in its species, lead. Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, on the and covers the ground even more sparsely is other hand, are almost entirely bereft of sig- known in French as garrique (tommillares in nificant deposits of industrial resources. The Spanish, and phrygana in Greek). It typically Balkan Peninsula is perhaps best endowed, al- consists of a variety of aromatic plants, such as though most of its mineral resources are of rosemary and thyme. The absence of deep limited quantity or quality. forest cover, coupled with steep slopes and The Alpine and Mediterranean South is rel- unstable soils, renders many Mediterranean atively poorly endowed with energy re- mountain and upland landscapes susceptible sources. The Iberian and Italian peninsulas to dramatic erosion during the winter rainy and the Alpine regions can claim few petro- season. leum or coal reserves of any size or quality. In addition to its mountain and upland Minor reserves of oil and natural gas are landscapes, the Alpine and Mediterranean found in some of the interior basins of the South contains numerous coastal plains and Balkan Peninsula and in the Danube corridor, embayments, as well as a wide variety of inte- most notably in Romania near Ploesti, and in rior valleys, basins, and corridors. Intensive offshore locations in the northern Aegean Sea. Mediterranean agriculture, relying heavily on There are also scattered pockets of coal pro- the cultivation of olives, citrus fruits, and duction here and there throughout the Balkan grapes, is focused on the numerous small countries. Hydroelectric power is an impor- pockets of coastal plain or embayments tant source of energy in some areas, particu- (known as huertas in Spanish) that dot the larly in Switzerland and Austria, but also in coasts of mainland and islands alike. Major the Danube Valley after the narrow Iron Gate coastal lowlands, such as the Andalusian Low- gorge became the site of a major dam and land, the Plain of Languedoc, and the Po power station project jointly undertaken and River Valley, figure prominently in the re- completed by Romania and the former Yugo- gion’s distinctive landscape mix. So do the slavia in the early 1970s. highly varied landscapes of the great eastern For the most part, rivers all across this re- intermontane basins, such as the vast Hun- gion tend to be short, with highly seasonal garian Basin, the Transylvanian Basin, the flows. In the wet winter season they are often Wallachian Plain, the Morava–Vardar Corri- swollen. During the dry summer season they dor, and the Maritsa Basin, which offer every- are reduced to only a small flow, and can even 2. European Environments 61 dry up entirely. They therefore lack the navi- north European market. If the controversial gable qualities of their northern and eastern plan is approved, it will be Europe’s largest European counterparts. The major exceptions irrigation project. are the Ebro, the Rhône, and the Po; and especially the long Danube, all of which enjoy a The Special Case of Iceland more or less constant supply of water from mountain snows. The Danube is the region’s The physical geography of Iceland is a special longest river. It flows eastward for some 2,850 case that warrants separate treatment. Geo- kilometers from its headwaters in southwest- logically speaking, Iceland is the youngest of ern Germany to the Black Sea. Now linked to European environments. The oldest forma- the Rhine by the Main-Danube Canal, the tions on Iceland are only about 16 million Danube has become a major artery for the years old. The origins of the island are volca- movement of goods by barge between north- nic. It is a remnant of a vast basaltic dome that western and southeastern Europe. rose up from the floor of the Atlantic and then Surface water is an important resource in collapsed suddenly, leaving a group of small the drier parts of the Iberian Peninsula, as basalt islands that were eventually connected well as in Italy and Greece. Dams and reser- to one another through continued volcanic ac- voirs are common landscape features there, tivity to form a single land mass. Volcanism especially since the advent of large-scale irri- persists on and around Iceland even today. gation projects in the middle and latter parts There are around 200 active volcanoes on the of the 20th century. In Spain, the govern- island, and new eruptions occur at the rate of ment is currently contemplating an ambitious about one every 5 years. The island has many scheme to divert huge amounts of water south hot water springs and natural steam fields, es- from the Ebro via an elaborate system of pecially in the younger volcanic areas. Glaci- tunnels and aqueducts to the country’s dry ation also remains an active force on Iceland. Almeira region, where farmers will use it Glaciers cover extensive parts of the island. to grow winter fruits and vegetables for the Since the soft volcanic rock is easily eroded, the effects of glacial movement on the land are especially marked. Iceland is very much a natural landscape still in the making—a landscape that gives the impression of immaturity in the ruggedness of its outline and the presence of strong physical forces at work. The island is nearly devoid of forest cover. Compared to many other parts of Europe, the Icelandic landscape seems naked, especially in the interior. A small number of tree species are found on the island, but their distribution is quite limited. This is due in part to natural conditions. But there has also been a profound human effect. Extensive birch woods and woody scrublands did exist in many coastal areas when settlers first arrived a little FIGURE 2.26. Iron Gate. As it passes along the Serbian– more than a thousand years ago. These wood- Montenegrin and Romanian border, the Danube River is suddenly forced to work its way through a gap between the Carpathian and Bal- lands were largely cleared by settlers and given kan Mountains. The narrow gorge, known as the Iron Gate, was long a over to grazing. Only a small part of the original major choke point for movement along the river. Only since 1896 has woodland survived the impact of such human river traffic been able to bypass the gorge by way of the Sip Canal. To- activity, although modern reforestation and day the Iron Gate is the site of a large hydroelectric power dam, which conservation has increased the vegetative fills the riverbed behind the dam with backed-up water. cover somewhat. 62 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

FIGURE 2.27. Herðiebreid. The origins of Iceland are volcanic, and volcanic formations, both active and inactive, dominate the landscape. The flat top of Herðiebreid is due to the fact that the volcano’s development took place beneath an ice sheet. Note the barren, treeless Icelandic landscape in the foreground.

MARINE ENVIRONMENTS The Northern Seas

In addition to the four major terrain regions The marine environments of the northern arc described above, it is important not to forget have one physical characteristic in common. the marine environments that both surround They all occupy portions of a submerged con- and penetrate the European landmass. The tinental shelf that extends far beyond the most useful way to organize the marine en- shorelines of northern and western Europe. vironments is to think of Europe as being As a consequence, all are relatively shallow, bounded on the west by the Atlantic (and its rarely exceeding 200 meters in depth. The av- deep-water northern extensions, the Norwe- erage depth of the North Sea is only 90 me- gian and Arctic Seas) and enveloped in the ters. The sea has many extensive shallows north and south by two symmetrical arcs of such as the Dogger Bank, a vast underwater continental and interior seas. The northern moraine feature from the last glacial age, arc is made up of a complex assemblage, in- which is covered to depths of only 15 to 30 cluding the English Channel and Irish Sea, meters. The only really great depths, reaching the North Sea, the Skaggerak, the Kattegat, nearly 700 meters, are found in a long trench the Øresund and Danish Belts, and the Baltic off the western and southern coasts of Norway Sea along with its three major extensions, the that links the Skaggerak to the deep waters of Bothnian Gulf, the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf the North Atlantic. The average depth of the of Finland. Although not strictly connected by Kattegat is less than 25 meters; and the Baltic open water, we might also add to this north- is quite shallow nearly everywhere, with an ern arc the White and Barents Seas, which average depth of just 55 meters. are linked to the Baltic by canal via the At the same time, the component parts of Karelian depression. The corresponding the northern arc all have distinctive charac- southern arc consists of the Mediterranean teristics of their own. The westernmost seas and its various component and offshoot seas and straits are much influenced by the Atlan- (the Ligurian, the Tyrrhenian, the Adriatic, tic. They lie directly in the path of the Atlantic the Ionian, and the Aegean Seas), which are Drift, which means that their waters are rela- connected by the Dardanelles, the Sea of tively warm and remain free of ice throughout Marmara, and the Bosporus to the Black Sea the winter. The warm and well-mixed waters and its smaller northern annex, the Sea of of these marine environments are also ideally Azov. suited to the growth of plankton and a wide 2. European Environments 63 variety of fish, including cod, haddock, mack- erel, plaice, sole, and whiting. Their abundantly productive fisheries have traditionally been an important resource, although nowadays overfishing has become a serious problem. Exposure to the ocean also means that these westernmost northern seas can be stormy and treacherous for seafarers. None- theless, the North Sea and adjacent waters have long been one of the world’s busiest shipping areas. By the late Middle Ages, a FIGURE 2.28. Wind farms. The northern seas provide a source of lively maritime trade had developed between energy beyond that of North Sea oil. Wind farms, such as this one, are the towns that surround the sea, and from an increasingly commonplace coastal sight across all of northern Eu- these great ports intrepid seafarers ventured rope. out in the 16th and 17th centuries to found and profit from the commerce of overseas empire. These waters today are alive with mer- seawater. Levels of salinity are especially low chant and fishing vessels. The Europoort at the northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia. complex at Rotterdam handles more tonnage Nearly landlocked and sheltered from North than any other port in the world. The large Sea tides, the Baltic seems more like an in- port complexes at La Havre, Antwerp, Lon- land lake than a sea. It is easily navigated, al- don, Bremen, and Hamburg also contribute though parts freeze over in winter due to low to the ever-present volume of North Sea ship- salinity, shallowness, and exposure to cold ping. More recently, the discovery of major continental air. Icebreakers are needed dur- beds of petroleum and natural gas beneath ing most winters to keep ports along the up- the floor of the North Sea has proven, as we per shores of the Gulf of Bothnia free of pack have already pointed out, to be a major boon ice. Drift ice often forms in the Gulf of Fin- to the economies of surrounding states. The land, and during severe winters may some- commerce of the North Sea now includes the times close ports for days along the Polish piped output of an array of oil platforms that and German coasts. Drift ice has even been extend southward all the way from the Shet- known to impede traffic on the Øresund. land Islands to the Dogger Bank, as well as Like the North Sea, the Baltic has always the production of a line of natural gas fields played an active commercial role. The 110- that stretches from the east coast of England kilometer-long Øresund is the most direct to the Frisian Islands. natural link between North Sea and Baltic Farther to the east, the Baltic claims dis- shipping, and one of the world’s busiest sea- tinction as the world’s largest brackish-water lanes. Between 1429 and 1657, Denmark sea. The salinity of its waters is much reduced controlled both shores of this strategic strait by the great quantities of fresh water that flow and levied tolls, from its great fortress of into it from the many long rivers along its Kronoborg at Helsingør, on all shipping that coast, and by the fact that its connections with passed through the strait. Even after Sweden the western seas are restricted by the narrow took possession of the eastern shore of the Danish straits and the shallow Kattegat. The Øresund in 1658, the Danes continued to col- salt water that enters through these shallow lect the Sound Dues on shipping until forced western outlets is cold and heavy, which by the British to suspend the practice in 1857. causes it to sink and not to mix well with sur- Commerce to and from the North Sea was face waters. The waters of the Baltic are gen- also facilitated in 1895 by the construction by erally less than one-third as saline as ordinary Prussia of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal (Kiel Ca- 64 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

FIGURE 2.29. Øresund. Visible on the far side of the Øresund from the Swedish city of Helsingborg is the coast of Denmark at Helsingør. The 112-kilometer-long strait has long been one of the most heavily used waterways in the world. Here, at its narrowest point, the Danish coast is just a little over 4 kilometers away. nal) across the base of the Jutland Peninsula. tween Italy and the islands of Corsica, Sar- In Russia, the completion of a White Sea–Bal- dinia, and Sicily. The eastern Mediterranean tic Canal system, using penal labor during the can be subdivided into the Adriatic Sea be- 1930s, made it possible for ships of seagoing tween Italy and the Balkan Peninsula, the size to move not only back and forth between Ionian Basin between Greece and Libya, the the White Sea and the Baltic but also to reach Levantine Basin between Turkey and Egypt, the Black Sea via Russia’s internal canal and as well as the island-dotted waters of the river system. Thus, taken all together, the as- Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey. semblage of seas and straits that makes up the The Mediterranean is connected to the At- northern arc plays an important role as a lantic by the narrow (13 kilometers wide) bridge between all the lands and peoples of Strait of Gibraltar, through which Atlantic and northern Europe. Mediterranean waters are exchanged—the Atlantic waters flowing in on racing surface The Southern Seas currents, while the heavier Mediterranean waters flow beneath the surface in the oppo- The southern arc begins with the Mediter- site direction. The waters of the Mediterra- ranean, the world’s largest inland sea. The nean, however, are distinctly different from Mediterranean is nearly 4,000 kilometers their Atlantic counterparts in that they are in length and attains great depths, reaching saltier and warmer, the former quality coming 4,900 meters in the Ionian Basin off Cape from the fact that the evaporation of water Taíneron on the southern coast of Greece, from the surface far exceeds the inflow of 4,517 meters off the Isle of Rhodes, and 3,785 fresh water from the rivers that drain the sur- meters off the west coast of Italy near Naples. rounding land. Indeed, the sea receives more The sea may be divided quite naturally into water from the Atlantic than it does from trib- two large basins, a western and an eastern, utary streams. Mediterranean waters are also separated by an underwater ridge (less than quite warm and are governed by a complex 400 meters depth) that runs between the is- system of surface currents. Marine life is land of Sicily and the coast of North Africa. abundant, including hundreds of species of These two basins, in turn, may be divided into fish, sponge, and coral. There is little varia- smaller basins. The western sea breaks down tion in tides, a feature that facilitates shipping. into the Alborán Basin between Spain and Winter storms, however, can be a severe Morocco, the Algerian Basin between Algeria threat to navigation. The Ottoman Turks, who and France, and the Tyrrhenian Basin be- were a major naval presence in the eastern 2. European Environments 65

Mediterranean in the 16th and 17th cen- Russian oil fields have caused many to worry turies, actually refrained from sending their about new disasters. According to the 1936 fleet out during the winter months for fear of Treaty of Monteaux, which governs traffic on losing it. the strait, ships have the right to pass through The Mediterranean is connected to the without any “formalities,” including the pay- Black Sea by way of the Sea of Marmara and a ment of taxes and tolls, or the requirement pair of very narrow and strategic straits— that they accept local pilots to help them navi- the Dardanelles and the Bosporus—through gate the passage. As a result, only about 40 which run strong and dangerous currents percent of the large ships take on local pilots. in the direction of the Mediterranean. The The authorities maintain that the ships in the Dardanelles–Sea of Marmara–Bosporus con- worst condition to successfully negotiate the nection between the Mediterranean and the strait are, unfortunately, the least likely to Black Sea is one of the four great Maritime seek assistance. Gateways in Europe, the other three being The Black Sea has peculiar water qualities. the Strait of Gibraltar, the English Channel, There is a heavily saline bottom layer that has and the Øresund. Ships passing north to the little movement, contains heavy concentra- Black Sea must first negotiate the Darda- tions of hydrogen sulfide, and has absolutely nelles. Known to the ancients as the Helles- no marine life. The upper layer, which re- pont, the Dardanelles has a fabled history ceives great quantities of fresh water from the filled with great armies ferrying across its long and heavy-flowing rivers that empty into narrow waters (only 1.2 kilometers wide) in the sea around its northern shores, has low search of conquests in Europe or Asia, his- salinity, a marked counterclockwise current, toric castles and fortresses built to control its and abundant marine life. These rivers, with traffic, and a bitterly fought World War I cam- their great loads of silt, have also turned the paign on Gallipoli, the long peninsula that en- northern and western shore of the Black Sea closes the strait on its western side. into an extensive area of deltas, sand bars, and On the northern shore of the Sea of Mar- shallow lagoons. The Sea of Azov, which is fed mara and nestled between the waters of the by the Don and Kuban Rivers, has a maxi- Golden Horn and the entrance to the Bos- mum depth of only 13 meters. Its outlet to the porus lies Istanbul, long known as Constan- Black Sea, the Strait of Kerch, is a mere seven tinople, the ancient city of Roman and Byz- antine emperors and fabled center for nearly five centuries of the Turkish Ottoman Em- pire. Above the city of Istanbul, the Bosporus leads north past villages, palaces, and castles and, since the 1970s, past two enormous suspension bridges to the waters of the Black Sea. The narrow Bosporus is one of the world’s busiest waterways, carrying three times as much traffic as the Suez Canal and four times as much as the Panama Canal. Ironically, it is also a difficult passage for the fleets of oil tankers and cargo freighters that use it. The waters of the Bosporus “slope” downhill by some 20 degrees from north to FIGURE 2.30. Bosporus. This vessel is moving south along the south. Southbound ships are carried along by Bosporus past the fortress of Rumeli Hisar, built by Mehmet II (the the swift current, which can easily cause a Conqueror) in 1452 as a strategic move in his plan to capture Constan- captain to lose control of his vessel. Accidents tinople. This is the narrowest point on the waterway and the site of the are fairly frequent and today’s sharply second of two modern suspension bridges that span the Bosporus to increased tanker traffic carrying crude from link Europe to Asia. 66 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT meters deep. On the other hand, like the currents of the Atlantic Drift mix with cold Mediterranean, the Black Sea is capable of at- Arctic currents to create rich fishing grounds taining great depths. Just offshore of the steep off the coasts of Iceland, around the Shetland and rocky Anatolian coast, the floor of the sea and Faeroe Islands, and along the length of reaches a depth of 2,245 meters. Norway’s long coast. Although physically more forbidding in The North Atlantic many ways than the northern and southern seas, the Atlantic has always beckoned Euro- Facing Europe on the west is the North Atlan- peans westward. The Atlantic coast is dotted tic. As a marine environment, the ocean is with ports, both large and small, and fishing less intimately European. Unlike the north- has long been a principal industry. As we shall ern and southern seas, the Atlantic is a vast point out in a later chapter, the Atlantic has body of water with great depths and distant played and continues to play a special role as shores. Those parts that might be regarded as the great avenue by which western Europe- European consist primarily of the coastal ans, at least, have sought external riches both zone of the continental shelf, the extent of from the sea and through connections with which varies considerably along the conti- the rest of the world. nent’s long Atlantic margin but is quite narrow overall. On the western coasts of Portugal and FURTHER READING Spain the continental shelf drops off quickly, seldom extending out for more than 50 kilo- Allen, H. D. (2001). Mediterranean ecogeography. meters. Deep trenches and dark abysses lie Harlow, UK: Prentice Hall. not far beyond. Farther north, the Bay of Ashwell, I. Y., & Jackson, E. (1970). The sagas as Biscay forms a wide indentation in the Atlan- evidence of early deforestation in Iceland. Ca- tic face of Europe, bounded on the east and nadian Geographer, 14, 158–166. northeast by the French coast from Bordeaux Bryson, B., & Ludwig, G. (1992). Main-Danube to the tip of Brittany, and on the south by the Canal: Linking Europe’s waterways. Naional Cantabrian coast of northern Spain. The floor Geographic, 182, 3–31. of the bay drops off steeply, especially in its Cumbers, A. (1995). North Sea oil and regional southeastern corner, in the form of great can- economic development. Area, 27, 208–217. yons that reach depths of more than 4,500 Flohm, H., & Fantechi, R. (Eds.). (1984). The climate of Europe: Past, present, future: Natu- meters. Here, the Atlantic can seem forbid- ral and man-induced climatic changes: A Euro- ding. The waters of the bay have a notorious pean perspective. Hingham, MA: Kluwer Aca- reputation among sailors for their sudden demic. squalls and ferocious gales. Grove, A. T., & Racham, O. (2001). The nature of Farther north, the continental shelf marks Mediterranean Europe: An ecological history. the Atlantic approaches to the British Isles by New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. reaching out far to the west. From across this John, D. (1983). Geology and landscape in Britain broad shelf the ocean waters penetrate east- and Western Europe. Oxford, UK: Oxford Uni- ward to the English Channel and their junc- versity Press. tion with the North Sea at the narrow Straits Kirby, D., & Hinkkanen, M.-L. (2000). The Baltic of Dover, as well as to the sheltered waters of and the North Seas. London: Routledge. Parish, R. (2002). Mountain environments. Harlow, the Irish Sea via St. George’s Channel. Along UK: Prentice Hall. the western coasts of Ireland and Scotland, Wallén, C. C. (1970). Climates of northern and the deep Atlantic presses close once again to western Europe. Amsterdam: Elsevier. the continent’s margins. Above the British Wallén, C. C. (1977). Climates of cental and south- Isles in the Norwegian Sea, the warm water ern Europe. Amsterdam: Elsevier. CHAPTER 3 Population

At just over 680 million, Europe’s population ting such policies in motion is going to be today is at a historic high. But it is also a pop- quite difficult politically. ulation whose growth by natural increase has In a world where total population is ex- come to almost a complete standstill. This is pected to increase from roughly 6 billion to- due to the fact that fertility nearly everywhere day to nearly 9 billion by midcentury, and in Europe has fallen to the point where it is at where populations are characterized more of- or below replacement level. Fertility rates ten than not by their relative youthfulness, have, in fact, fallen so low in recent years that Europe’s presently shrinking and graying many demographers now predict that, barring population stands in sharp contrast to that of a sudden baby boom or great surges of immi- most of the rest of the world. The present de- gration, a substantial drop in Europe’s popu- mographic situation, however, is but one of lation will inevitably take place over the next many that Europeans have known over the half-century. ages. We need to remember that today’s situa- Europe also has the oldest population in the world. People across most of Europe enjoy important advantages in health care, diet, and working environments, and they are living longer lives. The extremely low fertility and greater longevity that characterizes Euro- pean populations today ensures that an ever larger part of these populations will consist of elderly people in the future. We are witnessing a “graying” of Europe, and there is considerable concern about how a much-reduced work force can in the future care for the growing population of elderly. One by one, Euro- pean governments are coming to the inescapable and alarming conclusion that the only solutions to this pending problem are some FIGURE 3.1. The “graying” of Europe. An older couple crosses a combination of higher taxes, later retirement, city street in eastern Germany. As longevity increases and birth rates re- and reduced pension benefits—and that set- main low, Europe’s population is becoming progressively older.

67 68 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT tion is just the most recent stage of a long evo- Middle Paleolithic period. In Europe this new lutionary process, and that it is often useful to species is known as Neanderthal man (Homo see the present in the context of the past. sapiens neanderthalensis), a more advanced Our purpose in this chapter, therefore, is to but still very primitive species of hunters and trace the growth and distribution of Europe’s gatherers. human population, from earliest times to the They in turn began to be replaced, perhaps present, with special attention to the dynam- as early as 40,000 years ago, by what may ics of population change. We begin by survey- be regarded as anatomically modern humans ing the long, slow course of human progress (Homo sapiens sapiens). A debate exists over stretching from the Paleolithic era to the end whether this new subspecies evolved out of of the 18th century, and providing some gen- different Homo sapiens populations already eral sense of the way in which historic human present in Europe or whether they too origi- populations came to occupy and utilize the nated solely in Africa and spread from there earth space we have defined as Europe. Later about 100,000 years ago to Eurasia. In any in the chapter we focus on the dramatic surge case, the appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens in population growth that swept over Europe introduced to Europe human populations from the end of the 18th century until well whose Upper Paleolithic practices and tech- into the 20th century. We examine the under- nological skills, numbers, and degree of local lying mechanism behind this unprecedented concentration were sufficient to begin to af- growth, the Demographic Transition, how the fect natural environments, although the ef- timing and circumstances of the transition fect was small compared both to the changes varied over European space, and how in wrought by nature and those that human be- a post-Transition age recent demographic ings would be capable of effecting later. trends have brought Europe’s population to its present shrinking and aging state. The First Farmers The conclusion of the last period of glaciation, POPULATION AND SETTLEMENT around 10,000 years ago, ushered in a particu- TO THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY larly critical time in the human settlement of The First Europeans the continent. At this time the climate was improving. The ice sheets were in full retreat, The first distant ancestors of modern human- and sea levels around the world were rising. kind were members of a species known as Forest vegetation and fauna were spreading Homo erectus. They had originated in Africa. northward and to higher elevations. Southeast About one million years ago members of this of Europe, in the Fertile Crescent, the arc of population migrated across the Red Sea land uplands rimming the Mesopotamian Plain, bridge and gradually spread over the Eurasian human populations were in the process of do- landmass. They used stone tools, and we call mesticating plants and animals, a process we the period of their dominance the Lower referred to in Chapter 1 as the “Environmen- Paleolithic. The most recent evidence suggests tal Transformation.” This momentous event that they were present in Europe roughly half a fundamentally altered human history because million years ago, during the glacial period it marked the beginning of agriculture and known as the Middle Pleistocene. Relatively sedentary populations. The great increase in few traces of these earliest inhabitants have the food supply enabled human beings to turn survived, however, and much controversy re- their attention to matters not directly related mains over whether these first hominids may to sustaining daily life and resulted in the rise have appeared in Europe at a much earlier of civilization. On the darker side, the greater time. We do know that in time various archaic densities at which people now lived meant forms of Homo sapiens evolved out of different that infectious diseases became the prime Homo erectus populations, ushering in the killers in human populations. 3. Population 69

Climatic improvement in Europe was ac- The waves of Neolithic peoples who mi- companied, however, by the advent of much grated into Europe from southwestern Asia drier conditions in the Middle East. This in- during this period followed several route- duced many of these agricultural populations ways. Some worked their way across the to leave their homes in search of more hospi- North European Plain to the valleys of the table climes. This is the backdrop against Oder, the Elbe, the Rhine and beyond, or which the scattered Paleolithic and Meso- were deflected northward into Scandinavia. lithic hunting, fishing, and gathering econo- Others entered the Balkans, reaching the mies that had clung precariously to the south- Central Danubian Basin via the Maritsa Val- ern margins of the ice sheet in Europe were ley or the Morava–Vardar Corridor, and fol- gradually replaced over thousands of years by lowed the Danube upstream to settle first new peoples and material cultures. We call in the Hercynian Uplands and later on the the cultures of these new sedentary farmers plains of central Europe, from which they and herders Neolithic. spread in all directions. Still others moved

FIGURE 3.2. Neolithic Europe. 70 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT westward by sea, making their way along the and malleable but tough and slow to rust. It Mediterranean shores of Greece, Italy, and could, however, also be worked into steel the Iberian Peninsula, and then by way of to produce the finest of weapons and tools. the Rhône–Saône Corridor and the Gap of Combinations of iron, leather, and wood were Carcassonne into northern France and Brit- used to fashion the basic tools with which hu- ain. mans of the time, and long thereafter, worked In this way, the frontiers of Neolithic set- the land, constructed homes, and fashioned tlement moved northward and westward to clothing. The iron sources were different than touch nearly all of Europe. The then abun- those we know today. Iron ore was found in dant Mediterranean evergreen forest began to bogs scattered across the glaciated areas of give way in favored places along the coast to northern Europe or in some of the mountain- the cultivation of grain crops and to open land ous areas of the Mediterranean South, and for grazing. North of the Alps, suitable sites was worked by small groups of men with hand for agricultural settlement were found here hammers and small furnaces. Lead, which and there on the lighter and well-drained also abounded in many areas, became impor- soils of river terraces, limestone and chalk for- tant as a bonding layer in masonry and for mations, and on the great loess deposits that roofing (lead [Latin plumbum] was later used stretch across the foothill margins of the Her- by the Romans for plumbing). cynian Uplands. Europe’s Earliest Civilization Europeans Learn Metalworking Because of their proximity to the Middle East, The Bronze Age, like most of the other in- it was the Greeks who benefited first from the novations thus far, began in the Middle East many innovations that had led to the rise of and spread gradually from there to northwest Middle Eastern civilizations. The Minoan civ- Europe beginning some 4,000 years ago. ilization of Crete was the first to arise in the Now people began to work deposits of tin and territory we have called Europe, about 2500 copper, which could be combined to produce B.C. This was followed some 600 years later by bronze, a much more durable and more easily the Mycenaean civilization of the Pelopon- shaped substance than stone. In the process nese. Both of these were eclipsed, but after a they came to occupy new sites, particularly in Dark Age of some 300–400 years the classical the Hercynian Uplands of Germany, Bohemia, Greek civilization began to take shape around Iberia, Brittany, and Cornwall, where deposits 800 B.C.By400B.C., when this civilization was of these minerals were found. Silver and gold at its height, the population of Europe as we were mined in Transylvania, Iberia, and the have defined it probably numbered no more Greek islands, while the Baltic coast became than 20 million, only 3% of its current size. the source of amber, a hard fossilized resin More than two-thirds of the people lived in of coniferous trees that has long been prized the lands adjoining the Mediterranean Sea for its beauty and used to make ornamental and were part of a much larger population jewelry. Here and there the wood fuel re- core that extended to North Africa and the quirements of mining and smelting operations Middle East. This concentration was one of began to devour sizable tracts of forest. The in- the three great centers of population that had troduction during the Bronze Age of a light by that time developed on the earth, the oth- plow that could be drawn by oxen furthered the ers being in South Asia and China. Together, expansion of agriculture, as would the new these three realms contained more than three- metalworking techniques and greater organi- quarters of the world’s total population, con- zational skills of the Iron Age that followed. siderably more than they do today. North of During the Iron Age, which dawned in the Alpine mountain system Europe was only southeastern Europe about 800 B.C., the pace sparsely settled by peoples yet to be brought of civilization quickened. Pig iron was soft into the fold of civilization. 3. Population 71

FIGURE 3.3. Classical Greek civilization: The Greek homelands and colonial areas.

Within the European part of the ancient Empire. Sparta, in turn, would suffer defeat western world Greece was certainly the most in the following century, and power in the densely populated region. With perhaps as Balkans passed to Macedonia in the north. many as a quarter of a million people, Athens The Balkans, however, would never again be may have rivaled Babylon in Persia as the the population focus of Europe. Between 400 largest city on earth. The pressure that the B.C. and 200 A.D. the population of Greece fell growing Greek population had placed on the from 3 to 2 million while that of Italy rose limited agricultural land that the peninsula from 4 to 7 million. By 600 A.D. there were has to offer prompted from the early seventh fewer than a million people in Greece, and century onward a massive colonization of the the region would not have 3 million again un- Aegean and the western Mediterranean by til the middle of the 19th century. peoples from a variety of Greek city-states. On the island of Sicily, Syracuse (originally a The Rise of Rome colony of Corinth) was among the 10 largest cities in the world. The Greek colonists added The westward shift in the center of gravity of to growing indigenous populations in other the European population was, of course, the parts of Mediterranean Europe, notably the result of the rise of the Roman Republic Etruscans and the Romans in the Italian pen- (founded in 501 B.C.) and its subsequent es- insula, but also populations near the Rhône tablishment of a vast empire, which drew to- delta (Massilia, modern Marseilles) and in gether the peoples of the entire Mediterra- Iberia. nean basin. For the first time the ancient Athenian hegemony in the Greek world Western world had something approaching was brought to an end by the long, exhausting political unity. By 200 A.D Europe’s popula- Peloponnesian War in which Sparta and her tion had reached 36 million. The Roman Em- allies emerged victorious over the Athenian pire as a whole had about 46 million people, 72 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

28 million of whom lived in Europe. Although races and providing much-needed moisture the Empire was already beginning to show through irrigation. By this time, the ancient signs of decline, Rome, with more than half a and venerable triad of wheat, wine, and the million people, was still the largest city in the olive, in tenuous coexistence with the trans- world, and Alexandria in Egypt, the “capital” humant husbandry of sheep and goats, had of the eastern part of the Empire, was a close become the mainstay of life in Mediterranean second or third. On the other side of the Eur- regions. Cereals made up the bulk of the diet, asian landmass the Han Chinese had built an- and wheat was the most widely cultivated other empire embracing more than 60 million grain. Grains were grown in a two-field sys- people. These two great population cores, to- tem, in which their cultivation was alternated gether with the one in South Asia, still con- with a period of fallow and fields were worked tained about three-fourths of the world’s pop- with a light plow. Wine was widely produced ulation. and consumed. Olive oil, which was the chief Within the frontiers of the Roman Empire cooking oil and shortening used in the prepa- could be found an elaborate network of cities ration of food, was a necessity of life. and central places, linked together by care- The quickening pace and extent of human fully engineered all-weather roads and sup- agricultural, mining, and grazing activities ported to varying degrees by well-ensconced had begun to have a noticeable disturbing agricultural populations capable of producing effect on the Mediterranean environments surplus foodstuffs. In some places the Romans of coastal lowland and upland areas. The introduced a considerable degree of engi- Romans aggressively stripped the slopes of neering, reworking the landscape into ter- forest to meet the demand for fuel and build-

FIGURE 3.4. Roman Europe. 3. Population 73

FIGURE 3.5. The Pontine marshes. These low-lying lands along the Tiber River were densely populated in early Roman times but were later abandoned when they became infested with malarial mosquitoes. Despite several attempts by Roman emperors and popes to restore the region’s productivity and population, the unhealthful marshlands remained uninhabited until modern reclamation projects were initiated under Mussolini during the 1930s. ing materials and burned away any heavy veg- mid-eighth centuries, took a great toll. Eu- etation to create pasturage for the wandering rope’s total population had now dropped to 29 flocks of goats and sheep. The denudation of million, and it was no longer in any sense the the hillsides led to considerable erosion and center of the world’s western population core. the accelerated formation along the coasts of The rapid spread of Islam from its Arabian silt-laden deltas, which in turn became in- hearth in the seventh and eighth centuries fested with malarial mosquitoes. had produced a brilliant new Islamic civilization stretching from Spain to the gates of In- The Decline of the Mediterranean World dia. The seat of the Caliph at Baghdad had nearly three-quarters of a million people and Although by 200 A.D. most Europeans still probably was the second-largest city in the lived in the Mediterranean Basin, the Romans world after Changan (Xi’an) in China. By con- had conquered considerable territory in west- trast Rome had shrunk to just a tenth of its ern Europe (in Gaul, the Rhineland, and Brit- size at the height of the Empire. In Europe ain), and the population of these peripheral Muslim culture was centered in Spain, where regions had grown substantially. Containing an intensive garden horticulture based on so- just over a tenth of Europe’s population in phisticated irrigation systems and exotic sub- 400 B.C., Europe north of the Alps now ac- tropical crops such as sugar cane, rice, and counted for nearly an eighth. The years be- citrus fruits was introduced. tween 200 and 600 saw the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the west, and the The Rise of Europe North of the Alps population in all of the Mediterranean lands dropped dramatically. A sharply reduced la- Between 800 and 1300 demographic recovery bor supply meant that much cultivated land was general across Europe, and its portion of could no longer be tended and had to be the world’s population rose from 11% to al- abandoned. The result was a deterioration of most 18%. Between 1100 and 1300 the aver- the humanized landscape, as Roman terraces, age annual rate of net increase was nearly irrigation systems, and soil conservation prac- 0.3%, a pace never even approached before in tices were neglected. the whole of human history. One reason for Sometime around 800 southern Europe lost this burgeoning population was the tremen- its population leadership permanently to the dous amount of arable land added through lands north of the Alps and the Pyrenees. the assault on the woodlands. The period is Both the barbarian invasions of the Empire known as the “Great Age of Clearing” and, to- and a series of deadly epidemics, which rav- gether with the use of the horse, the heavy- aged the region from the mid-sixth to the wheeled moldboard plow, and the new three- 74 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

FIGURE 3.6. The spread of Islam in the seventh and eighth centuries. field system, which allowed two-thirds of the ganization and planning. The German nobility arable land to be planted to crops each year and clergy, who had acquired rights to vast rather than the traditional one-half, food pro- new lands in the east, moved with great en- duction was enormously increased. Popula- ergy to recruit large numbers of land-hungry tion spread to heavier clayey soils heretofore peasants for the purpose of establishing agri- deemed unworkable and allowed an unprece- cultural villages on their lands. The move- dented growth of urban life north of the Alps, ment reached its peak in the early 1200s and especially in western Europe. By 1300 Paris resulted in the clearing of a broad expanse of had replaced Constantinople as the largest territory stretching from the Oder to the Gulf city in Europe. of Finland. Farther to the east, and roughly during the By 1300 there were few lands left to be same period, German settlers carried forward occupied, and the European population had a second great colonization effort. This move- grown to 80 million, more than twice its ment began in earnest during the 1100s, as size 300 years earlier. Yet, the optimism with Germans extended their political control over which the Europeans of the 12th and 13th areas that were then only sparsely settled by centuries must have viewed their world of ex- Slavic populations. Earlier efforts at eastern panding opportunities came crashing down in colonization in the 900s had taken German the disasters of the 14th century. In the early settlement down the Danube valley as far as years a worsening climate brought colder and the Vienna basin, but now the advance of Ger- wetter conditions with attendant widespread man settlement was directed due east, first crop failures, famine, and disease. But the across the Elbe-Saale Rivers and then across sine qua non of human catastrophes struck in the Oder. Later it was extended northeast- 1347 with a massive onslaught of plague, an ward into the Baltic region. The colonization event we know today as the Black Death. The effort was exceptional for its high level of or- initial horror was followed by more outbreaks. 3. Population 75

Fields and villages were abandoned in many characterized by substantial fluctuations in parts of Europe. Forest and scrub advanced to population. In some parts of Europe—espe- reconquer parts of what had been once been cially in the western Mediterranean, as well field, pasture, and fallow. The decline reached as in France and Germany—serious contrac- its low point somewhere around the middle tions in the size of the population actually of the 15th century, and recovery was slow. took place. By 1500 Europe’s population stood scarcely The generally slow growth and frequent higher than it had 200 years earlier. The re- contractions of these centuries underline the gion had just 16% of the world’s population, very difficult conditions under which the bulk about the same portion it had had at the pin- of the European population continued to live. nacle of Greek civilization. The founding of new worlds and the intellec- The gradual population recovery that began tual and cultural transformations brought to at the end of the 15th century continued fit- Europe at this time by the Renaissance and fully for several centuries. By 1780 Europe’s Reformation had done little to protect the population reached 160 million, roughly twice population form the all too familiar ravages of what it had been at the end of the Middle famine, disease, and warfare. Disastrous crop Ages. While this represents a substantial gain failures and famines continued to be common overall, much of the increase had, in fact, throughout Europe to the end of the 18th been confined to two periods: the early century and in some areas persisted well into 16th century and the middle to later parts of the 19th. There were numerous outbreaks the 18th century. The intervening decades, of plague, particularly in cities, during the stretching from the mid-16th to the beginning late 16th and early 17th centuries. The Great of the 17th centuries, were a difficult time Plague of London in 1665 is said to have

TABLE 3.1. The Population of Europe and Its Regions, 400 B.C.–1750 A.D.

Population (in millions)

400 B.C. 1 A.D. 600 1000 1300 1500 1750

Northern Europe 0.3 0.6 0.8 1.1 2.0 2.3 3.7 Britain and Ireland 0.4 0.8 0.9 2.0 5.0 5.0 10.0 Western Europe 2.8 5.5 5.0 7.2 18.0 17.1 28.2 West-Central Europe 1.3 3.8 3.7 4.5 11.8 11.8 17.0 East-Central Europe 1.2 2.6 1.9 3.6 8.6 9.1 15.6 Eastern Europe 1.4 1.9 2.8 3.7 8.4 11.2 24.3 Balkans 4.8 5.1 3.0 4.2 5.8 5.9 10.4 Western Mediterranean 7.5 12.0 7.5 9.5 18.8 17.8 27.0 Europe 19.7 32.2 25.6 35.8 78.3 80.1 136.2

% of total population 400 B.C. 1 A.D. 600 1000 1300 1500 1750

Northern Europe 1.7% 1.7% 3.1% 3.1% 2.5% 2.9% 2.7% Britain and Ireland 2.0% 2.5% 3.5% 5.6% 6.4% 6.2% 7.3% Western Europe 14.5% 17.1% 19.5% 20.1% 23.1% 21.4% 20.7% West-Central Europe 6.6% 11.8% 14.5% 12.6% 15.1% 14.7% 12.5% East-Central Europe 5.9% 8.1% 7.4% 10.1% 11.0% 11.4% 11.5% Eastern Europe 7.3% 5.8% 10.9% 10.4% 10.7% 13.9% 17.8% Balkans 24.4% 15.8% 11.6% 11.6% 7.4% 7.4% 7.6% Western Mediterranean 38.1% 37.3% 29.3% 26.5% 24.0% 22.2% 19.8% Europe 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Note. Data from McEvedy and Jones (1978). 76 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT killed as many as 100,000 residents in just 18 demics might also occur when diseases not months. The peak of the epidemic occurred endemic in the population, and to which no in September when 12,000 died in a single one was immune, were introduced from out- week. Outbreaks of smallpox and typhus also side. War and invasion was one mechanism took a dreadful toll. The period is also known producing such outbreaks, but they could also for the terrible deprivations caused by war- be triggered by peaceful trade. Background ring armies, who laid waste to the land and mortality, the deaths occurring from in- spread disease wherever they went. Popula- fectious and noninfectious (degenerative) tion losses in Germany during the rapacious diseases every year probably caused fewer Thirty Years War (1618–1648) are thought to deaths overall than the diseases that struck have reduced the population of many areas by during crisis years. more than half. Before late medieval and early modern times, when church burial registers provide us with some data, our estimates of life expec- DYNAMICS OF POPULATION GROWTH tancy are based on the examination of skeletal TO THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY remains found in cemeteries, a discipline Life Expectancy known as human osteo-archeology. Evidence from ancient Greece suggests that life expec- Rates of natural increase in Europe during tancy at birth was not much more than 20–25 the Middle Ages were very low, rarely ex- years, indicating a crude death rate of 40–50 ceeding 0.3% per year over any protracted pe- per thousand. This figure is heavily influ- riod of time. These rates compare with those enced by extremely high infant and child currently obtaining in France, Switzerland, mortality, of course, but even for those who and the Low Countries, but occurred in survived childhood, males could not expect to the absence of the family-size limitations em- live on average beyond 45 and females not ployed by these modern populations. What much past 36. In classical Rome it has been dampened population growth was, of course, estimated that half the population reached 20, the extraordinarily high rates of mortality. a third 40 and a sixth 60. Skeletal remains in From the time human beings developed agri- Sweden and documentary evidence in Britain culture, a sedentary lifestyle, and the habit of suggests that the life expectancy at birth of living together in close quarters, the great ma- the poor in the Middle Ages was not much jority of people have died of infectious dis- more than 20 and that of the aristocracy a eases. It was little over a century ago that hu- scant 7 or 8 years longer. This means that mankind learned what caused these diseases someone reaching the age of 20 could look and only within the past 70 years have we forward on average to only 25–30 years more. been able to cure some of them. An interesting finding of virtually all osteo- The bacteria, viruses, or other microorgan- archeological studies in the world is that isms that caused infectious disease in this pe- women died significantly earlier than men in riod could be endemic in a population and kill premodern societies, an observation that is at a few people in any year, but often they be- stark variance with what we know of modern came epidemic and wiped out large numbers populations, especially those in developed of people in what are called “crisis years.” countries, where females normally live longer These epidemics might result from the weak- than males. Crucial to this discrepancy would ened resistance of the human host, caused by seem to be the very young age at marriage crop failure and malnutrition, or, in the case of (13–14) of women in classical and medieval viral diseases, they could simply break out times and the corresponding early onset when the number of new members of the of childbearing. Their incomplete anatomical community who lacked immunity given by and physiological development exposed them the last outbreak reached a critical mass. Epi- to unusual dangers throughout the course of 3. Population 77 pregnancy, which, if they didn’t cause death involved. Cogent arguments have been made initially, put them at greater risk during for both measles and typhus, but typhoid fe- subsequent confinements. It has also been ver, smallpox, and plague have also been sug- pointed out that women were more exposed gested. Whatever the culprit, the Plague of than men to infectious disease because they Thucydides dealt a grievous blow to the Athe- were the nurses. Finally, since pregnancy nian war effort, killing a quarter of the land works to suppress the immune system in an army and probably contributing substantially effort to prevent abortions (fetuses differ ge- to Athens’s ultimate defeat. netically from their mothers), early and fre- Two severe plagues struck the Roman quent conceptions worked to place young fe- Empire in 165–180 A.D. (the Antonine Plague) males at even greater risk. and again in 251–266. It has been suggested that these might have been epidemics of mea- Mortality and Disease sles or smallpox and may represent the establishment of these diseases as endemic to the What, then, were the diseases that afflicted European population for the first time. We Europeans in classical and medieval times? know, for example, that measles requires a pop- The pathogens involved in the epidemics of ulation of half a million to keep it going. If the the past are many and often cannot be speci- great plague of Athens had involved measles, fied. The Old Testament, as well as many the population would have been too small to Greek and Roman writings, tell of “plagues” accommodate it, and it would have died out and “pestilences” that ravaged the people of when potential hosts were no longer available. antiquity. These terms are, of course, not used On its return during Roman times it would ini- with much precision, and we cannot easily tially have had a devastating effect but would discern the disease or diseases involved. then have become endemic, attacking at inter- Some have been argued to be true plague, the vals those lacking immunity and becoming the disease caused by the bacterium Pasteurella childhood disease so familiar to us until quite pestis, which caused the Black Death of the recently. Smallpox would have made a similar 14th century, but other infections may well transition. These two epidemics began the sus- have been involved. tained decay of population in the Mediterra- The first really well-documented plague is nean Basin, which we noted earlier. It has even the one that struck Athens in 430 B.C., the sec- been suggested that the onset of these diseases ond year of the Peloponnesian War, and raged and probably others may have hastened the ac- on and off for 3 years. The source of our ceptance in the Empire of Christianity, a reli- knowledge of this epidemic is Thucydides’ gion whose other-worldly orientation was well history of this war. He tells us that the sick- positioned to provide comfort to people in a de- ness arose in Ethiopia, spread down the Nile mographic crisis. into Egypt, and entered Athens through its The greatest blow to befall the late classical port of Piraeus. He is careful to describe the world, however, came in the form of the symptoms of the disease in some detail so that Plague of Justinian, which raged in 542 and it might be recognized if it ever appeared 543. This was almost surely true plague, pri- again. We must infer from this that it was a marily in its bubonic form. By this time Pas- relatively new sickness among the Greeks. teurella pestis appears to have been endemic Implicit in Thucydides’ description is an un- among burrowing rodents in two parts of the derstanding of the disease’s infectious nature world: east-central Africa and the Himalayan and of the immunity conferred on those vic- foothills of northeast India, Burma, and tims who were fortunate enough to recover Yunnan province in China. The disease was their health. As is the case with most plagues known to break out intermittently in the port of the distant past, no agreement has been cities of the Indian Ocean and was almost cer- reached as to the specific disease or diseases tainly carried by the black rat (Rattus rattus) 78 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT and its flea (Xenopsylla cheopsis). Since the The Black Death rat traveled by ship, and there was no water connection between the Indian Ocean and As noted earlier, while stagnation character- the Mediterranean, the peoples of the latter ized the demographics of southern Europe, area had apparently never experienced the population numbers north of the Alps surged disease before. When by chance the black rat upward. Certainly there were epidemics, but did reach the Mediterranean, it carried the none of truly great magnitude until the 14th plague with it and the results were devastat- century. The plagues of the Mediterranean ing. Over the next 200 years recurring epi- had not reached northern Europe, probably demics of plague, together with outbreaks of because the black rat had not yet established other diseases, led to major declines in the re- itself there. This situation changed in 1347 gion’s population. when Pasteurella pestis, spread across the

FIGURE 3.7. The spread of the Black Death, 1347–1351. 3. Population 79

Eurasian steppes from the east by Mongol ar- The most important airborne diseases, be- mies, reached the Black Sea port of Kaffa. sides measles and smallpox and pneumonic From there it was carried to Italy on Genoese plague, were tuberculosis and influenza. The ships, unleashing a pandemic that engulfed incidence of tuberculosis appears to have nearly all of Europe and did not subside until risen sharply after the Black Death, coincid- 1351. Rates of mortality are difficult to deter- ing with an equally abrupt decline in leprosy. mine, but probably a third of Europe’s popu- This affliction of the skin, extremely wide- lation died during the 4 years that plague spread in the high Middle Ages, causes the stalked the land. The havoc it wrought was same immune antibodies as one form of pul- uneven, however. Italy as a whole was hard- monary tuberculosis. It may be that the latter, hit, yet the Milanese were spared almost com- which is far more virulent than leprosy, sim- pletely. Norway lost half its population, while ply outcompeted the skin disease and emp- the people of Bohemia and Poland were tied the leper hospitals of Europe. Influenza hardly touched. As with the Plague of Justin- may also have been present in the European ian, epidemics of a more local kind continued population as early as the 12th century, but to strike for the next few centuries. Plague the presence of plague makes its certain iden- was probably responsible for the stagnation of tification difficult until the 18th century. the Spanish population in the 17th century and must have contributed to the loss of Fertility Spain’s great-power status. The last outbreak in western Europe occurred in Marseille in From the beginning of the Neolithic to the 1720, although the disease remained endemic end of the Middle Ages Europeans experi- to eastern Europe and the Middle East. enced high mortality, primarily caused by in- In spite of the fact that medical practition- fectious diseases, and compensated for this by ers in the Middle Ages lacked any scientific early marriage and high fertility. The result knowledge, some suspected that plague could was still only a very slow growth of popula- be transmitted through close contact and rec- tion. High levels of fertility, however, may ommended isolation of the sick. In the late have been more a feature of the Middle Ages 14th century, the Republic of Venice, in con- than it was of Classical times. There is some stant contact with the east, where plague was evidence that the Greeks were interested in more common, began to isolate ships and limiting family size. The fact that brides were their crews on arrival. At first the isolation often in their early teens worked against this, lasted 30 days, but when this seemed inade- but Aristotle, for example, recommended quate it was extended to 40 days, the time abortion to achieve this goal. A later age at both Moses and Christ had spent alone in the marriage for females would have been a solu- desert. In Italian this period was called “the tion, but it would also have threatened male forty,” the quarantina, a term that has entered dominance, since men were 10–15 years older the English language to mean the separation than their brides. Exposure of unwanted in- of the sick from the healthy. fants occurred, but it was not the rule. The Plague, at least in its bubonic form, is, as we Greek ideal was to have one son to maintain have seen, an insect-borne disease. Other dis- the family name and one daughter to cement eases important in early European history a suitable marriage alliance with another family, have been transmitted via infected food and and in many instances this ideal was achieved. water and via droplets in the air expelled In Rome, too, couples seem to have been through coughing and sneezing. Among able to limit the number of children they pro- the water- and food-borne diseases, dysentery duced. While they probably had on average at and typhoid fever, both produced by a form of least 15 years of married life, they rarely seem Salmonella, have been the most widespread, to have had more than two or three children. although cholera, the scourge of the 19th cen- How did they achieve this? As in Greece tury, has probably received more attention. abortion was common if the husband con- 80 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT curred. The Romans shared the Greek view child by age 17. Assuming, then, a birth in- that the fetus had no independent existence terval of 29 months, a woman could have until birth, so that an unapproved abortion by achieved eight births by age 34, at which time the wife was considered a crime against the she would have another 2 years or so to live. husband, not against the fetus. As in Greece, a small percentage of infants were killed, prob- The Early Modern Demographic System ably more girls than boys, but a major difference between the two civilizations was that, During the 16th and 17th centuries the medi- in Rome from the first century A.D. sex in mar- eval demographic system underwent a signifi- riage was touted as a means of procreation cant change in Europe. Death rates every- alone. Sexual pleasures came to be regarded where dropped from very high to moderately as dangerous to the health, and the idea of ex- high levels, and in western Europe fertility cess became anathema to the Romans. also declined. These changes define the early The early fathers of the Christian Church modern demographic system. The fall in mor- continued this hostile attitude toward sensu- tality resulted from the fact that, as pop- ality and at first viewed any sexual inter- ulations grew in size, they reached the thresh- course, even within marriage, with some dis- olds needed for many viral diseases (e.g., taste. Gradually, however, the Church came to smallpox and measles) to become endemic, take the view that marriage was justifiable, that is, continuously present, in the popula- but as a vehicle for procreation alone. Thus, tion. In the case of many viral diseases, vic- any attempts to thwart conception or to abort tims who recover are normally given lifetime the fetus were regarded as grave sins. This immunity to the disease. Therefore endemic stance, if accepted by the majority of the pop- viral diseases become epidemic only when ulation in the Christian Middle Ages, would the number of children born since the last appear to open the door to increased fertility. outbreak reaches a critical mass. These ail- Such a development seems even more likely ments are thus transformed into regularly re- if we believe, as the Greeks and Romans curring childhood diseases to which adults did, that contraception was almost unknown are not susceptible. The conversion of many among northern Europeans. deadly afflictions into diseases of childhood, This lack of contraception and resultant of course, had a direct effect on lowering the high fertility among Europeans during the death rate. But it also had an indirect one in Middle Ages may have also had its roots that, because adults were not sick so often, in northern European mortality patterns. We food production and other vital tasks were not have already noted the very low life expec- so frequently interrupted. The widespread tancy in the Middle Ages. Their high mortal- sickness of adults in epidemics disrupts com- ity simply did not give northern Europeans munity functions to such an extent that the the luxury of attempting to limit their prog- crisis is greatly exacerbated. eny. It has been calculated that in a popula- Declining death rates meant that the popu- tion where life expectancy at birth is 20 years lation could survive even if birth rates de- each woman must give birth to 6.8 live infants clined. This is just what happened in western during her lifetime into order to assure that Europe. The earliest vital statistics we have 2.1 reach maturity. That number is required if for national populations are for the countries each mother is to be replaced by another in of northern Europe. During the 1750s the the next generation and the population is birthrate in Sweden varied between 33 and not to decline. In actuality, of course, some 39 per thousand and in Norway between 31 women would have to bear more than this and 36. Death rates were not much lower, so number to compensate for those not living that natural increase was slow. East of a line through their fecund period. It seems likely drawn roughly from the Adriatic Sea to the that the average medieval European woman Gulf of Bothnia, however, the situation was married quite early and gave birth to her first very different. In Finland birthrates in the 3. Population 81

1750s were in the middle 40s, while in Russia, land. Where land was scarce, as it was in even as late as the end of the 19th century, western Europe after 1500, this meant that he they ranged between 46 and 53 per thousand. had to buy land himself (which took more Thus, while the Russian population tripled capital than he was likely to have) or he had to between 1500 and 1800, that of most western wait to inherit land from his father. In areas European countries only doubled. where impartible inheritance was practiced, The lower levels of fertility observed in sons other than the heir often could never western Europe in the 18th century are asso- marry but lived out their lives as bachelors, ciated with a nuptial behavior that appears to either remaining on their brother’s farm or be unique to that region. This “European taking employment elsewhere. marriage pattern” involved a relatively high The reason why this unusual situation arose age at first marriage for both women (mid- to nowhere but in western Europe has been the late 20s) and men (late 20s to early 30s) and subject of much speculation. One view is that the failure of many people to marry at all. It is the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages unimportant to note that there was at this time dertook to sever the lateral bonds among sib- no deliberate attempt to limit family size. lings. The value of this from the Church’s Rather, people continued to practice natural point of view was that wealth would not be fertility. The drop in the birthrate was due spread throughout the extended family but solely to the fact that the proportion of their rather would be concentrated within the nu- reproductive years during which women clear family and thus be more easily available were at risk to become pregnant was greatly to the Church through death bequests. Al- reduced. though the spatial correlation between the oc- This unusual marriage pattern appears to currence of the nuclear family as the primary be related to the development of a family economic unit and the realm of Roman Ca- structure in western Europe that differed tholicism is not perfect, there is a general cor- sharply from that in almost all other societies. respondence. Virtually alone among the societies of the By the middle of the 18th century life was world, western Europeans placed the burden still dominated by the specter of infectious of agricultural production on the nuclear fam- disease. Death governed the growth of popu- ily. A husband and his wife, together with lations and was a familiar event in everyone’s their children, worked the land for their sus- lives. No one could readily anticipate the tenance. The family might contain retired changes that the 19th century would bring, parents (called a stem family), and the house- first in the dramatic lowering of mortality, hold might include hired help, but fundamen- then in the equally stunning decline in fertil- tally the married couple was responsible for ity. The people of Europe were about to lead the tending of animals and the growing of the world into a new demographic era. crops. This contrasts sharply with the situation in eastern Europe and much of the rest of the world where a larger unit, comprising a THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION number of related married couples (the joint family), worked the land, decisions usually In 1780 Europe’s population stood at 160 mil- being made by the eldest male, or patriarch. lion, just twice what it had been at the begin- The vital difference between these two ning of the 14th century. During the next 160 models where family formation is concerned years it more than tripled, to reach 515 is that, in the case of the joint family, work was million on the eve of World War II. The always available for a young man on the fam- significant changes that occurred in the de- ily land, and he could begin his nuptial life mographic behavior of most European pop- while quite young. In western Europe, on the ulations during a period of less than 150 years other hand, in order to marry and start a fam- is what we know as the Demographic Transi- ily a young man had to have personal access to tion. The drop in mortality is called the 82 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

Epidemiologic Transition, while the fall in eases underwent significant natural alteration. fertility is referred to as the Fertility Transi- As for medical technology, no advances suffi- tion. These events spread from Europe to the cient enough to substantially reduce death European populations overseas and then to from disease were made until the 1930s when the other culture realms of the world. It was chemotherapy, penicillin, and the sulfa drugs in western Europe that it was first experi- were developed. The one exception to this enced, however, and it is here that it has been generalization is the development of smallpox most thoroughly studied. vaccination. The practice quickly became The Demographic Transition in Europe fell widespread in Europe, and, where it was cor- broadly into two phases. In the first phase rectly administered and adequately enforced, mortality began to decline, but fertility did it had an immediate effect on death rates from not. In this Early Expanding Phase, as the fall this disease. By itself, however, even this in mortality continued, population grew at an medical advance could not achieve a substan- ever accelerating rate. The second phase be- tial decline in overall death rates. gan with the first drop in fertility. Mortality It would seem that improvements in the also continued to decline, but not so rapidly living environment provide the only explana- as fertility. In this Late Expanding Phase, tion for the early decline in death rates during therefore, population increased at a decelerat- the European Epidemiologic Transition. One ing rate. Both before and after the transition such improvement was a marked increase in populations experienced slow growth, but the the food supply. Substantial advances in agri- human condition of these populations was culture were achieved during the Agricultural vastly different. Before the transition, when Revolution, which began in England in the mortality controlled growth, annual change 17th century. They included new crops bred was uneven, substantial losses in a few years from older ones, such as the turnip and clover, being made up by smaller gains in quite a which not only helped to improve soils im- number of others. Life expectancy at birth poverished by growing grains but also pro- was low, and most deaths occurred among in- vided winter fodder for animals that other- fants and young children. After the transition, wise would have had to be destroyed. There with population growth controlled by fertility, were also the New World crops, such as maize annual increases are relatively even, but and the potato, that would produce bumper changes in fertility may result in baby booms yields in very marginal conditions, and the to- and busts over longer periods of time. Life ex- mato, which brought a rich source of vitamins pectancy at birth is high, and most deaths oc- to southern Europeans. All of these innova- cur among the elderly. tions meant that agricultural production began to increase more rapidly than population. The Epidemiologic Transition The building of canal systems in the 18th century, the improvement of roads, and later The early lowering of the death rate was very the introduction of the railroad provided the clearly the result of a considerable reduction in means to transport food over significant dis- crisis mortality, that is, in deaths from infec- tances. This served to weaken the effect of lo- tious diseases that occurred during epidemics cal crop failures by allowing authorities to (hence the term for the transition). The expla- move food from surplus to deficit regions. nation for such a reduction may be sought in Given the means to counter natural catastro- three areas: (1) spontaneous declines in the vir- phes in this way, governments became more ulence of major diseases, (2) advances in med- interested in organizing such efforts. The end ical knowledge and technology, and (3) im- result of all these developments was to greatly provements in the living environment. reduce malnutrition, which in turn raised re- As for the first, while it is thought that sistance to infectious diseases. plague may have lost some of its pathogenic Another factor that seems to have been of vigor, perhaps as a result of quarantine, there importance during the early decline in mor- is no evidence that any of the endemic dis- tality was an improvement in the environ- 3. Population 83 ment of children. Many people believe that drainage systems, which for the first time as- better nutrition produced a more optimistic sured the separation of human waste attitude among parents. This was partly be- materials from drinking water. Cities had al- cause the parents themselves were healthier, ways been cesspools of disease, and even as both in mind and body, but also because, as late as the middle of the 19th century drink- they realized that an increasing number of ing water contaminated by human feces and their children would grow into adulthood, urine was a major medium for the transmis- they had more incentive to invest time and sion of intestinal diseases such as typhoid fe- energy in caring for them. This is in sharp ver and dysentery. Perhaps the major impetus contrast to pretransition Europe, where chil- behind public health measures in European dren often suffered from benign neglect. In cities was provided by the appearance of a families where food and other resources were deadly new disease on the scene, cholera. scarce, an additional child could be a real bur- Cholera is a water- and food-borne disease den, especially if it was likely not to grow up that has long been endemic in Bengal. From to be of help on the farm or provide for its time to time it would spread to other parts of parents in old age. Even if they did not con- India, carried by Hindu pilgrims returning sciously wish for their children’s deaths, many from holy places in the lower Ganges valley. parents were at least indifferent to them be- In the early 19th century, however, the dis- cause they died so frequently. Some scholars ease was carried well beyond South Asia, and suggest that in pretransition Europe children in the 1830s it invaded Europe for the first were not regarded as full-fledged people until time. During an 1854 cholera epidemic in they reached the age of 6 or 7, when they London a doctor, John Snow, mapped the res- could begin to help with chores and were less idences of those who died. His map showed a apt to contract fatal diseases. “cholera field” centered on the Broad Street Once initiated, the drop in death rates con- pump. This was the first time a relationship tinued in phase 2, but for rather different had been shown between contaminated water reasons. The effects of the Industrial Revolu- and the spread of cholera. His discovery had tion began to be felt in several ways. Mass little impact on public policy, however, and it production meant that many goods could be wasn’t until several decades later, when Pas- manufactured in large quantities and sold teur and Koch discovered that germs cause more cheaply than before. Even poor people, infectious disease, that most European cities for example, could afford to buy soap for began to undertake improvements in water everyday use. The British middle class, it is provision and sewage disposal. After this, cit- thought, was bathing weekly by the last de- ies, once sewers of disease, became the lead- cades of the 19th century. The introduction of ers in mortality decline. inexpensive cotton, which could be made into Of all the factors involved in effecting the washable underclothes, nightclothes, and bed Epidemiologic Transition in Europe, medi- linens helped against body lice, fleas, and cine played by far the latest role. It is impor- ticks, all carriers of disease. One of the great tant to keep in mind that until the late 19th results of the Industrial Revolution was cer- century there was no understanding of germs tainly a major improvement in personal hy- and their role in causing disease. It was dur- giene, lowering the incidence of disease and ing the last two decades of the 19th century the frequency of death from it. that medical researchers learned how germs The Industrial Revolution also had a bene- were reproduced and transmitted and which ficial impact on agriculture through the de- ones caused which diseases. Antiseptic sur- velopment of chemical fertilizers, improved gery, anesthetics, the use of masks and scrub- pumping systems, tile drainage, and the like, bing did not begin until the 1880s. Before allowing food production to expand even fur- that, major surgery was attempted only as a ther and nutritional levels to rise still higher. last resort and most often resulted in death. Another result of industrialization was the in- Even after the relationships between germs stallation in the larger cities of public utility and infectious diseases were understood, it 84 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT was not until the 1930s that any really effec- mal and desirable. Major changes in social tive means of killing infectious microorgan- values would have to take place if any long- isms were developed. Indeed, some people term decline in fertility were to occur. In par- argue that until very recent times doctors and ticular, a degree of secularization was needed hospitals probably did more harm than good. before people became comfortable with the Hospitals were certainly unhealthy, germ- idea of family-size limitations. Once this hap- ridden places, and it was not uncommon for a pened, however, more people married and patient to die there of a disease quite different the age at first marriage dropped. The well- than the one for which he had been admitted. established European marriage pattern was From the late 18th to the mid-20th century abandoned. the Epidemiological Transition brought about We now have conclusive evidence that the a startling decline in mortality among Euro- Fertility Transition began in France, more peans and left them with life expectancies specifically in the French-speaking areas of that were among the highest in the world. France. Birthrates here were already falling in This was accomplished largely by greatly im- the 1820s and 1830s and by 1880 had sunk proving diet, personal and public living en- below 25 per thousand for good. Meanwhile, vironments and, finally, by identifying the in most of western Europe they were still causes of diseases and providing effective above 30, in central Europe over 35, and in means of their prevention and cure. At the Russia around 50. While the transition may end of World War II there was great optimism have begun in the towns, we find it much ear- among health authorities not only that vac- lier in French rural areas than we do in the in- cines and medicines were available to control dustrialized areas of England or the Ruhr Val- the great diseases of human history but also ley. In Belgium it appears much earlier in that mankind was in a position to eradicate Francophone Wallonia than in the Flemish- many of them from the face of the earth. By speaking north. In Switzerland the French- half a century later, as we shall see, much of speaking cantons experienced fertility de- this optimism had faded. clines before those in the German-speaking parts of the country. This suggests that the ac- The Fertility Transition ceptance of the small-family norm may be less related to the level of economic development The beginning of fertility decline, which her- than to cultural factors. That is, once this new alds the opening of phase 2 of the Demo- idea became established within a particular graphic Transition, was made possible by the cultural community, it spread more readily Epidemiologic Transition. Only when the sur- within the community than to people outside. vival rates among infants and children had In this light the small-family norm is seen greatly improved could people afford to think more as a culture trait than as a rational about limiting family size. The fall in fertility response to changing economic and social was brought about through a change from conditions. The diffusion of the culture trait natural fertility behavior to family planning. was facilitated by similarities in language and Clearly family planning was not possible un- value systems. It was accepted quickly where der conditions of high mortality since at no cultural barriers to it were low, but resisted time could parents be sure that the number of where they were high. children they then had would still be alive next year. Family limitation also depended The Spread of the Demographic Transition on the acceptance by the community of the small-family norm. While high fertility was The Demographic Transition in Europe took necessary to maintain the population, the no- a very long time to complete. The first long- tion had arisen, supported by social institu- term declines in mortality began in Norway in tions such as the Church, that large families the late 18th century; the Fertility Transition (meaning large numbers of births) were nor- in Albania has been concluded only within 3. Population 85 the past decade. Thus, the Transition spanned portant to remember several things. First, two centuries, its time of onset and its dura- they treat the populations of modern states as tion varying greatly from one country to an- whole and are meant to convey only a general other. This is one of the fundamental differ- impression of the progress of the Demo- ences between the European experience of graphic Transition across Europe. Clearly the the Transition and that of the Third World, timing of the Transition varied within coun- where the process has taken far less time. tries, so the maps are generalizations of a A major reason for this is that Europeans much more complex picture. Second, the rate achieved lowered mortality and fertility on at which mortality and fertility fell in any pop- their own, while Third World countries have ulation was quite uneven over time. Thus, had the advantage of Western technology. while in one decade the fertility in one popu- The spread of the Demographic Transition lation might be substantially higher than that across Europe may be followed in Figures 3.8 in another, 30 or 40 years later it could well and 3.9. When interpreting the maps it is im- have fallen to the same level.

FIGURE 3.8. The spread of the Epidemiologic Transition. 86 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

FIGURE 3.9. The spread of the Fertility Transition.

A comparison of the two maps reveals strik- childbearing and family formation. In post- ing similarities. Both the Epidemiologic and revolutionary France both probably hap- the Fertility Transition had their origin in pened. By the 1850s the birthrate in France northwestern Europe, but in different coun- had dropped below 27 per thousand, while in tries. Whereas the French led the Fertility no other country was it yet below 30. In the Transition, it was in Scandinavia that mortal- same decade Norway’s infant mortality rate ity first began to fall. The early leadership was just over 100 per thousand, two-thirds of of the French in fertility decline is often that in Great Britain and well under half the explained by the secularization of society rate in Germany and Russia. From these two brought on by the French Revolution. Secu- cores the Fertility and Epidemiologic Transi- larization can mean either a movement of the tions spread in much the same fashion: first to people away from religion, or at least from the rest of western Europe, then into central strict religious teachings, or a relaxation by and southern Europe and finally to eastern the Church of its position on the matter of Europe and the Balkans. 3. Population 87

TABLE 3.2. Birthrates and Death Rates deed, it is remarkable that, despite this mas- in Selected European Countries, 1901–1910 sive outpouring of people, Europe’s propor- Death rates Birthrates tion of the world’s total population rose from per thousand per thousand 20% to 24% during the course of the 19th century. It should also be noted that Europeans Norway 14.2 27.5 are unique among the peoples of the world in England and Wales 15.4 27.2 Ireland 17.4 23.3 that they had access to sparsely settled lands France 19.4 20.5 as they experienced their rapid population ex- Germany 18.7 33.0 pansion. Those populations that have passed Spain 25.1 34.3 Romania 25.8 39.9 through the Demographic Transition since Russia 30.3 46.8 then have had no such “safety valve.” Most of the emigrants made their way to Note. Data from Rothenbacher (2002). the Americas, though many from Britain and Ireland found new homes in Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of the British The major anomaly in all of this would Empire. Within the New World, the United seem to be Ireland. Mortality in Ireland was States was the principal destination, taking in still relatively high in 1847 when the potato nearly 35 million European immigrants dur- famine struck. The large number of deaths ing this period. Many others went to Canada, that accompanied this catastrophe weeded however, and millions of people who left out the weaker members of the population Spain and Portugal, and to some extent Italy, and greatly reduced death rates in subse- settled in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and quent years. In a sense the famine prevented Cuba. the Irish from experiencing the classic Epi- In seeking explanations for population mi- demiologic Transition. In the wake of the grations it is common to distinguish between disastrous potato famine, overall fertility in push factors and pull factors. The former are Ireland remained low—not because the pop- things that people perceive to be negative ulation was practicing family planning but about their present place of residence and because the Irish were still clinging to the cause them to consider alternative locations. old European marriage pattern involving late The latter are features of other places that are marriage and high rates of celibacy. Marital perceived to be positive and act as attractions, fertility was actually quite high in Ireland, but reinforcing any push factors that might exist. marriages were of shorter duration and large Besides these, there are facilitating factors, numbers of both men and women did not things that make moving easier, physically, marry at all. In the late 1960s the Irish mar- economically, or psychologically. All three of riage rate finally began to rise. Married cou- these migration stimuli must be considered if ples started to limit their fertility, and the one is to gain an understanding of how this Irish population has now completed the Fer- massive movement of human beings came tility Transition. about. During the course of the 19th and early The Great Atlantic Migrations 20th centuries many things happened in Eu- rope to induce people to think about leaving. Between the end of the Napoleonic wars and There were political upheavals such as the the beginning of the Great Depression a failed liberal revolutions of 1830 and 1848, massive emigration of Europeans took place. and many who advanced the cause of nation- Over 54 million people left for other parts of alism became discouraged with the intran- the world, and, although some returned, the sigence of conservative political regimes. effect of the exodus was to lessen significantly In western Europe, nonconformist religions the burden of the population boom that re- were appealing to evergrowing numbers of sulted from the Demographic Transition. In- people, who encountered the staunch op- 88 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT position of established state churches. Some in the West, and, even if the propaganda ma- young men wanted to leave to avoid compul- terial published by the American states and sory military service. However, all these fac- the railroad companies had been written in tors notwithstanding, the overwhelming rea- the languages of these regions, most people son people left was economic. In phase 1 of could not have read them. Many of the factors the Demographic Transition employment op- that facilitated emigration from western Eu- portunities could not keep up with the grow- rope simply did not operate in the East. ing numbers of people. The farming pop- As far as the timing of the emigration ulation, which was in the clear majority, is concerned, a general correlation with the was especially hard-hit, but during the early eastward and southward progression of the stages of the factory system many craftsmen Demographic Transition is evident. But it is were also put out of work. also important to realize that a later decline of The intensity of emigration in different emigration in the western and northern parts parts of Europe and the timing of emigration of Europe is also associated with the industri- across Europe varied significantly. The gen- alization of these countries. By the 1890s the eral pattern was a diffusion of emigrant activ- redundant rural populations that had hitherto ity from the western and northern to the sought new farming opportunities in the southern and eastern parts of the continent. Americas could find work in the cities of their France is the major exception to this rule. The own countries. And even if they preferred reason is not difficult to understand if one to remain farmers, by then little agricultural considers the very low rate at which the land was left in the New World, especially in French population grew during the 19th cen- Canada and the United States. tury, compared to the populations of other This period marked an enormous shift in northern and northwestern European coun- the origin of immigrants to the United States. tries. The pressures that built up in other In place of the western Europeans, who were European countries during the Demographic viewed by Americans as easily assimilated Transition simply did not exist in France. into the dominant Anglo-Saxon culture, those Eastern Europe, as a whole, experienced who now passed through Ellis Island were a similarly light emigration, albeit slightly “strange-looking” and subscribed to faiths heavier than the French. An important facili- that many in the United States thought would tating factor at work here was government undermine the Protestant ethic. They came policy toward emigration. In the early 19th from Italy and the eastern parts of Europe century virtually all governments were op- and settled in the large cities of the East and posed to emigration. In mercantilist economic Middle West, where they often formed “ghet- theory a country’s population was one of its tos” and resisted assimilation. This “New chief resources and was to be preserved at all Immigration,” as it was called at the time, cost. Gradually, as free-trade and laissez-faire eventually created a wave of xenophobia and policies became more widely accepted, state ultimately led to stringent restrictions on im- governments relaxed restrictions on emigra- migration during the 1920s. tion. The Russian Empire was just about the The large emigration from Spain and Portu- last to do so, and the people who left were not gal that occurred during the same period, as the Russians but rather the minorities— well as a considerable stream from Italy,was di- Ukrainians, Poles, Finns, and Jews. rected toward Latin America. As a colony of Emigration from east-central Europe was Spain until 1898 Cuba was attractive to many also not especially high relative to the popula- Spanish emigrants, while the Portuguese tion size. It must be remembered that this re- flocked to Brazil with its prosperous coffee gion, together with Russia, was quite distant plantations in the south and rubber boom from the major west European ports of em- in the Amazon Basin. In Argentina, British and barkation. Literacy was also much lower than other foreign capital built railways that opened 3. Population 89 up vast areas for agriculture and ranching. Be- As noted earlier, despite the unprecedented tween 1869 and 1914 the Argentine population emigration of the 19th and early 20th century, increased from 2 million to almost 8 million. the European population rose dramatically. Finally, a word needs to be said about Ire- The distribution of the population also land, which fits no more comfortably into changed during this period. The populations the emigration picture than it does into the of northern Europe, Britain and Ireland, and Demographic Transition. No other European west-central Europe grew relative to other re- country was so heavily hit by emigration. The gions primarily because of the early fall in 4.6 million people who left represent 87% of mortality. The growth in the Balkans, east- the 1875 population. The Irish emigration central and eastern Europe was mainly be- was also the earliest in Europe; by 1867 half cause of the persistence of high fertility. The of all those who would leave between 1820 big losers were western Europe and the west- and 1930 were gone. Of course, the unusual ern Mediterranean. The former, dominated pattern is again related to the potato famine by France, suffered from a long period of low that began in 1847. Many died in that tragedy, fertility. The latter lost ground because of per- but, of those who did not, millions elected to sistent high mortality and very heavy emigra- leave the meager farming existence that had tion. failed them and to settle in the cities of Brit- By 1930, the Demographic Transition was ain, the United States, Canada, and Australia. over in western Europe and emigration was Although they arrived in America while there being greatly curtailed, both by the American was still much farmland to be had, they did restrictions and the onset of the worldwide not want it. They had had enough. economic depression. A new era was opening

TABLE 3.3. The Population of Europe and Its Regions, 1750–1950

Population (in millions) 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950

Northern Europe 3.7 6.2 9.5 15.0 21.5 Britain and Ireland 10.0 16.0 28.0 42.0 54.0 Western Europe 28.2 34.2 43.5 53.2 61.0 West-Central Europe 17.0 22.8 33.5 52.5 81.8 East-Central Europe 15.6 22.1 29.4 47.8 53.7 Eastern Europe 24.3 33.5 55.8 93.0 111.7 Balkans 10.4 14.4 19.8 28.1 47.0 Western Mediterranean 27.0 33.0 43.0 57.0 82.0 Europe 136.2 182.1 262.5 388.6 512.5

% of total population 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950

Northern Europe 2.7% 3.4% 3.6% 3.9% 4.2% Britain and Ireland 7.3% 8.8% 10.7% 10.8% 10.5% Western Europe 20.7% 18.8% 16.6% 13.7% 11.9% West-Central Europe 12.5% 12.5% 12.8% 13.5% 16.0% East-Central Europe 11.6% 12.1% 11.2% 12.3% 10.5% Eastern Europe 17.8% 18.4% 21.3% 23.9% 21.8% Balkans 7.6% 7.9% 7.5% 7.2% 9.2% Western Mediterranean 19.8% 18.1% 16.4% 14.7% 16.0% Europe 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Note. Data from McEvedy and Jones (1978). 90 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT in which many European governments began added to these negative measures were some to fear that their populations were growing positive ones. Women were paid by the state too slowly. In the next section we will exam- to stay at home and have children, and high ine the events that have brought Europe’s monthly allowances were awarded for each population growth to a standstill and reduced child in the family. Some other countries, its share of the world’s total population from such as the United Kingdom, provided similar 24% in 1900 to not much over 10% today. positive incentives without, however, imposing strictures. In the 1930s Sweden adopted a specific POPULATION SINCE population policy, but it was designed to im- THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION prove the quality of family life rather than to Pronatalism in Prewar Europe explicitly encourage or discourage childbearing. Sponsored by Social Democrats Alva and The very low fertility prevalent across west- Gunnar Myrdal, the legislation offered a wide ern Europe after World War I was a com- range of financial and social benefits to fami- pletely new phenomenon in human experi- lies with children. At the same time, however, ence. Even though mortality had also people were given access both to the means of dropped to all-time lows, populations were birth control and to abortion. The idea was growing extremely slowly. The abandonment that people should be free to choose to have of mercantilist economic theory notwith- as many or as few children as they were com- standing, this was a great concern to many fortable with. The genius of the Myrdal plan governments. The French in particular were was partly that the Conservatives bought it as worried. Since the beginning of the century, a pronatalist policy but mainly that benefits their population had been growing at a rate of were extended to the entire population. The little more than 0.1 percent per year, and they issue of providing social welfare for an under- had just emerged from a war with Germany in privileged class was not allowed to arise. which, although they and their allies had been True pronatalist policies were carried far- victorious, they lost a million people. More- thest in Nazi Germany. By 1933 the crude over, their traditional enemy across the Rhine birthrate had dropped to 14.7, and when Hit- had humiliated them only 50 years earlier ler took power in the same year he put into in the Franco-Prussian War. The fact that place the most stringent policy ever con- Germany’s population since then had in- ceived to raise fertility. Not only were birth creased by 20 million while theirs had grown control and abortion banned, but a special tax by a scant 3 million did not escape the was placed on unmarried adults. Besides the French. usual family allowances, loans were offered to In 1920 France, the world leader in family couples to help them get married and estab- limitation, launched a pronatalist policy. Pop- lish a family. These loans could be written off ulation policies are measures adopted by by having children; the more children one governments specifically to alter population had, the less money one had to repay. Perhaps dynamics. They are almost always aimed at the most powerful measure, however, was the fertility and migration; except where ethnic launching of an intensive propaganda cam- cleansing becomes an issue, all governments paign promoting the building of a master normally strive to reduce mortality as a matter race. People were made to believe that it was of course. In the sphere of fertility, policies the duty of every good German to have many may be designed to increase reproduction children so that enough glorious Aryans (pronatalism) or to reduce it (antinatalism). To would be available to manage the world un- encourage people to have more children the der the New Order. Accomplishments in the French prohibited abortion, outlawed the sale field of reproduction were duly recognized. of all contraceptives, and forbade the spread History has not shown us many examples of of any information about birth control. But successful pronatalist policies, but Nazi Ger- 3. Population 91

Nonetheless, much of the concern in western Europe about the threat of population decline was dissipated after World War II by the baby boom. We have noted that in pretransition populations the death rate varied more than the birthrate. In posttransition populations the opposite has been true. Since infectious diseases have largely been put to rest and fertility has become a matter of conscious choice, the birthrate has varied more than the death rate. Postwar fertility behavior in Europe falls into three broad patterns. Within the populations that had completed the Demographic Transition before the war, there was a sustained baby boom rather like the one experienced in the United States. The major differences between the European and the American versions are that, in the former, the peak levels of fertility were considerably lower, and the baby boom occurred somewhat later. In the United States the conversion to a peacetime economy was very rapid, and FIGURE 3.10. Pronatalism in Nazi Germany. Propaganda was a large part of Nazi Germany’s pronatal policy. Mothers received merito- the baby boom began almost immediately. In rious awards of increasingly higher rank as they had children. This cer- western Europe it was delayed because many tificate found in an abandoned farmhouse in Silesia by a downed countries had suffered massive destruction of American bomber crew reads: “In the name of the German people I industry, housing, and infrastructure. Only af- confer on Helene Bartsch, born Dobras, Korschlitz, Kreis Oels, the third ter Marshall Plan aid from the United States degree of the Cross of Honor of the German Mother, Berlin the 1st of secured recovery from the war did the baby October 1939, Der Führer, Adolf Hitler.” boom in western Europe get underway. Among the countries where the transition had not been concluded during the prewar period many’s was one. The crude birthrate rose there was a return to high fertility, but in east- from 14.7 in 1933 to 20.4 on the eve of World ern Europe this was not sustained while in War II. western Europe it was (the Albanian anomaly will be discussed later). Fertility in Postwar Europe The Experience of Eastern Europe The war, itself, of course, caused large population losses. Millions of Europeans lost their Marshall Plan aid was offered to all countries lives: soldiers, sailors, and aviators in military that had been involved in the war, but the So- battles, civilians in the brutal bombing and viet Union rejected it, not only for itself but shelling of cities, and the enemies of Nazism for its satellites as well. This is a major reason in Hitler’s concentration camps (estimates why high fertility was not sustained in the place the total death toll in Europe at approxi- east. The countries of eastern Europe had no mately 40 million). The greatest losses were in one to help them recover but the Soviet Un- east-central and eastern Europe, especially ion, where war damage had been more severe the Soviet Union and Poland, where the Ger- than anywhere outside Germany and Poland. mans pursued a “war of annihilation,” but the Fear of the capitalist West led the Soviet bloc Germans themselves paid a horrendous price. to emphasize the rebuilding of industry and 92 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT infrastructure at the expense of housing. As lic countries on earth. A process of liberaliza- industry grew so did cities, and the new hous- tion began in the 1970s, however, and in all ing that was built was needed to accommo- three the influence of the Church began to date in-migrants from the countryside. People wane in certain social spheres. In Spain and simply could not afford to have large families. Portugal this was associated with the deaths of By 1965, only Poland and the German Demo- longtime dictators Franco and Salazar. In Italy cratic Republic enjoyed fertility rates that ap- it was signaled by the passage in 1978 of a bill proached those of the rest of Europe, and in allowing free abortion on demand for women Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria fertility had over the age of 18 and of a proposal under dropped below replacement levels. which Roman Catholicism would cease to be Before the development of highly effective the state religion. In all of these countries fer- contraceptive devices (the pill and the IUD) tility levels today are among the very lowest by the mid-1960s, this very low fertility was in Europe. only possible because eastern Europe was the The 1990s have also seen something of a forerunner in allowing free access to abortion. sexual revolution in Ireland. Rulings by the The USSR in 1920 was the first country ever Irish Supreme Court in 1992 and 1995 gave to legalize abortion without restrictions dur- Irish women wide-reaching abortion rights. ing the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. In 1936 it The 1993 Family Planning Bill provided for was banned again but reinstated in 1955. All the sale of condoms through public vending of the Soviet bloc countries except Poland fol- machines and decriminalized homosexual lowed this lead and permitted abortions on acts, both in an effort to fight the spread request for varying periods from the mid- of AIDS. Between 1990 and 1995, fertility dle 1950s onward. On the other hand, all dropped by 25 percent to below replacement the countries of eastern Europe have taken levels for the first time in Irish history. some measures, both negative and positive, High postwar fertility in the Netherlands intended to stimulate fertility. For the most has been interpreted by many as an attempt part they have come to naught, however, and, by its major religious communities not to lose since 1995, even staunchly Catholic Poland’s demographic ground to their rivals. There is fertility has dropped well below replacement a major rift within Dutch society between levels. The populations of eastern Europe Protestants and Catholics, but the Protestants completed the Fertility Transition not so themselves are also divided between Dutch much because they chose to limit their family Reformed and Christian Reformed communi- size but because their economic circum- ties. A fourth group consists of the Humanists. stances forced them to do so. The major decline in Dutch fertility during the early 1970s may reflect lesser importance The Rear Guard of the Fertility Transition attached to religious affiliation as a source of personal identity. While the principal demographic contrast in Sexual permissiveness and high fertility in postwar Europe was between the posttrans- Iceland have a history going back to the Mid- ition populations of the west, with their long dle Ages. Women have long borne children baby boom, and the pretransition populations from a very early age, whether in marriage, af- of the east, with their abbreviated one, a word ter formal engagement, or in the absence of must be said about those countries fitting nei- any ritual. There has always been more of a ther pattern. In none of these populations had stigma placed on a child because it has no sib- the Fertility Transition been completed when lings than because it was born out of wedlock. the war broke out, but all returned to high Simply put, the Christian mores of marriage fertility and sustained it for several decades never penetrated Icelandic folk culture, and, after the war’s end. even though evangelical Protestantism placed Following the war, Italy, Spain, and Portu- strong sanctions on sexual relations outside gal were among the most conservative Catho- marriage, they had little impact on the Ice- 3. Population 93 landers. Though just below replacement lev- long as one’s behavior does not interfere with els today, Icelandic fertility, along with Alba- the freedom of others to act freely, one is free nian, is the highest in Europe. to behave as one sees fit. This new point of In demographic terms Albania was a Third view stresses the need for both equality of World country in the 1950s. Its fertility was as opportunities (income, education, etc.) and high as that of any country in the world. This freedom of choice in behavior (dress, sexual was maintained by a social organization in behavior, etc.). Equality of opportunity stimu- which a person’s greatest allegiance was to the lates the growth of the welfare state; freedom clan. Disputes among clans were resolved by of choice fosters changes in fundamental soci- warfare and might result in blood feuds per- etal values regarding many things, including sisting over many generations. Reproduction fertility and family formation. for the survival of the clan was of paramount The effects of these new values on fertility importance. The centralized communist re- and family formation are many. They include gime, established in 1946, did much to under- a shift from marriage to cohabitation (stable mine the old way of life and reduce the need union without marriage), a shift from children for large families. By 1995 Albania’s fertility to the adult couple as the focus of family, was just below replacement level and the De- and a shift from contraception to prevent mographic Transition there may now be said unwanted births to deliberate “self-fulfilling” to be complete. choices about whether and when to conceive a child. In addition there has been a decline in the average number of children born to THE EUROPEAN POPULATION TODAY each woman in the population and a shift from families and households with quite simi- We noted that changes in attitudes toward lar makeups to ones with very different com- family formation were responsible for the positions. While the majority of European changes in fertility that accompanied the De- households still consist of traditional families, mographic Transition. This is true also of a the family norm is being eroded as progres- modern phenomenon that some demogra- sively larger proportions of the adult popula- phers have come to call the Second Fertility tion are found to be living alone, or living as Transition. Those changes during the first married or unmarried couples without chil- transition have been characterized as altruis- dren. tic, while those that have brought about the These changes were made possible by the second transition have been called individual- introduction during the mid-1960s of the pill istic. That is, the former transition was domi- and the IUD, which revolutionized contra- nated by a concern for the quality of life of the ception. This was also about the time that ac- family as a unit, and especially the children. cess to abortion became freer in western Eu- The latter, on the other hand, emphasizes the rope. Once it was generally accepted that right to self-fulfillment of all members of the sexual relations in marriage were not solely or family, including the parents. even primarily aimed at procreation and con- We have already looked at the economic traceptives of high quality had become avail- theory of fertility, which suggests that couples able, young people began to marry with the placing a higher value on material possessions intention of delaying childbearing for several will limit the number of children they have or years. It then became clear to many that, if choose to have none at all. But beyond this children were not to be immediately in- economic calculation, broader changes in so- volved, it shouldn’t be necessary to seek pub- cial and cultural values are playing a role in lic approval of such an arrangement. Grad- this new transition. There is an increasing ually the pressure to marry eased so much recognition on the part of society as a whole that couples no longer felt the need to marry that all people have a right to equality and to before having children. Women, especially freedom within the sociocultural sphere. As older ones, began to choose to bear children 94 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT without having a stable relationship. By now still remains high by European standards. there also was no stigma on married couples Other countries, particularly in the Medi- for voluntary childlessness. In short, marital terranean region and the East are more con- status ceased to be a factor in fertility. servative where the institution of marriage is Only three European countries appear to concerned, but their birthrates are low behave completed this second transition: Den- cause of severe family limitations within mar- mark, Norway, and Sweden. In all three, the riage. proportion of births out of wedlock has risen We began this chapter by noting two salient from about 10 percent in the late 1950s to trends in Europe’s current demographic nearly 50 percent or more today. In Iceland, situation—that the size of the population is the proportion of children born out of wed- likely to decline over the coming decades and lock has reached more than 60 percent, al- that the population is becoming dramatically though as we have seen the birth rate there older. While not all European countries are

FIGURE 3.11. Percentage of children under 15 born out of wedlock. 3. Population 95 facing a population decline, the majority of boom” generation, which will begin reaching them will experience little or no growth, and retirement in the decades around 2010, is ac- for those with particularly low fertility rates celerating what is often referred to as the the decline may be substantial. Two prime ex- “graying of Europe.” amples of the latter are Italy and Spain, whose The share of the elderly across Europe is populations are predicted by the year 2050 to expected to rise to 37% by 2050, up sharply fall from a current level of nearly 58 million to from roughly 20% today. More than a quarter just 45 million in the case of the Italians, and of the elderly will be over 80 years of age by from around 40 million to 37 million in the that time, as opposed to just 15% today. At the case of the Spanish. same time, given prevailing low levels of fer- The aging trend is equally striking. For tility, the share of the younger, economically much of Europe, life expectancies have been active population will fall to historic lows. In on the rise throughout the post-World War II the pay-as-you-go social protection systems decades, the principal exception being Russia, common to most European countries, the cur- where life expectancies have declined some- rently economically active population pays what since the breakup of the Soviet Union. through its taxes for the state pensions and On average, children born today in most Eu- medical benefits of the elderly. Today across ropean countries can expect to live well into the whole of Europe there are roughly 100 their 70s in the case of boys, and in a majority working people for every 20 pensioners, but of countries into their 80s in the case of girls. by midcentury the number of pensioners sup- The long-term trend toward greater longevity ported by 100 workers is forecasted to rise to coupled with the aging of the outsized “baby 50, precipitating profound consequences for

TABLE 3.4. The Population of Europe and Its Regions, 1950–2025

Population (in millions) 1950 1999 2010 2025 (est.)

Northern Europe 21.5 28.0 28.4 28.8 Britain and Ireland 54.0 63.1 64.5 66.4 Western Europe 61.0 85.5 89.0 92.0 West-Central Europe 81.8 97.2 97.3 95.5 East-Central Europe 53.7 74.8 75.9 75.2 Eastern Europe 111.7 162.1 157.4 149.9 Balkans 47.0 65.4 65.3 63.6 Western Mediterranean 82.0 107.6 107.7 103.7 Europe 512.5 683.7 685.5 675.1

% of total population 1950 1999 2010 2025 (est.)

Northern Europe 4.20% 4.10% 4.14% 4.27% Britain and Ireland 10.54% 9.23% 9.41% 9.84% Western Europe 11.90% 12.51% 12.99% 13.63% West-Central Europe 15.95% 14.22% 14.20% 14.15% East-Central Europe 10.48% 10.94% 11.07% 11.14% Eastern Europe 21.79% 23.71% 22.96% 22.20% Balkans 9.16% 9.57% 9.53% 9.42% Western Mediterranean 16.00% 15.74% 15.72% 15.37% Europe 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

Note. Data from McEvedy and Jones (1978) and Encyclopedia Britannica Staff (2003). 96 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT the comprehensive and generous social pro- gion and in central and eastern Europe. In tection systems that Europeans have come to Spain and Italy, where the projected ratio of enjoy. pensioners to workers is expected to be one- The countries with the highest proportion to-one by 2050, the scale of the coming cri- of elderly today are Italy, Greece, Germany, sis is especially daunting. The populations of Spain, Belgium, and Sweden. Over half of Greece, Austria, and the Czech Republic will Sweden’s social welfare budget already goes have aged to the point that more than 40% or to meet the needs of its rapidly growing el- more of the total are seniors, with most of derly population, and the burden is expected their central and east European neighbors not to increase by midcentury, when the number far behind. In all of Europe, only Albania, of pensioners supported by 100 workers in Moldova, Ireland, and Iceland can look for- Sweden is expected to reach 54! As time goes ward to an elderly population of less than on, the highest burdens of an aging popula- 30%, but still significantly higher than today’s. tion will be borne in the Mediterranean re- Governments have begun to cope, pushing

FIGURE 3.12. Projected percentage of population aged 60 or older, 2050. 3. Population 97 forward schemes to reduce benefits or delay the least pressure include Iceland along with the statutory onset of retirement (which varies some of the least developed countries in the between 60 and 65 in most countries), but Balkans (Albania, Macedonia, and Moldova). such proposals have met with just mixed ac- Countries such as Britain and the Nether- ceptance so far and in most cases have un- lands, where private pension plans are more leashed storms of protest and labor unrest. common, may also be spared somewhat. The political process of bringing about re- It is also important to remember that the forms will likely be a long and difficult one, elderly are seldom evenly distributed geo- especially in light of the fact that so many of graphically even within countries and that the the voters who must be persuaded to cut back burden of providing the necessary infrastruc- on benefits and eligibility are in those genera- ture—for example, clinics, retirement homes, tions that are already retired or soon to retire. and recreational facilities (for an increasingly Indeed, earlier retirement has become so inactive retired population)—to support the grained in recent years that the proportion of aged may vary from place to place. Major cit- European men aged 55 to 65 who still work ies, especially the capitals and those with ex- has dropped to just under 40%. These people panding economies, tend on the whole to are more likely to demand higher taxes in or- have much younger populations, while pre- der to preserve the benefits to which they be- dominantly rural or economically declining lieve they are entitled than they are likely to urban regions have significantly older popula- vote for fewer benefits and later retirement. tions. Examples of such regions include the In short, the resolution of the problem is one high Meseta of northern Spain, the south- that potentially pits generation against gener- western portions of England and France, ation. much of Italy outside the large cities of the Some countries will face these stresses to a north, and the Baltic coastal regions of north- lesser degree than others. Those who cur- eastern Germany. rently enjoy higher levels of fertility and are Increasingly, as people live longer lives, we likely to have more stable populations may are seeing a distinction made between the ac- feel somewhat less pressured, although they tive and self-supporting elderly, sometimes too, given current age structures, will have to referred to as “third-age” elderly, and the in- support a larger elderly population than they firm and dependent, or “fourth-age” elderly. do now. The countries that will experience This means that not all of the retired population is necessarily in need of public support and that the onset of such need may be delayed beyond what was previously the norm. Nevertheless, the demands of an ever growing segment of “frail” and impoverished elderly people means continued pressure on financially strapped health and social care services, and the real prospect that this group may suffer from the neglect of society in the years to come. How, other than raising taxes, reducing benefits, and delaying the age of retirement, can the larger problems of supporting an aging population be solved? Increased immigration is one answer. Indeed, a number of coun- FIGURE 3.13. The younger generation. Fashionably dressed and tries in northwestern Europe have admitted prosperous looking, this young couple and many like them may soon large numbers of immigrants over the past have to bear the extraordinary burden of supporting Europe’s rapidly three or four decades. This process began growing population of retirees. during the immediate postwar decades to 98 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

FIGURE 3.14. The “third-age elderly.” As beneficiaries of excellent health care and other benefits, many of Europe’s retired population live relatively active lives. This group of “socially engaged” senior women, standing in front of a travel agency, seems anything but frail and dependent.

fill labor shortages in the rapidly recovering this has paid off to some extent, as the French economies of these countries and continued birthrate has risen. Sweden also achieved a into the 1970s, when economic recession re- temporary boost in its birthrate in the early duced the need for imported labor and even- 1990s by raising tax benefits for families with tually brought the inflow of foreign “guest children. A number of countries have made workers” to a halt. Unfortunately, these peo- efforts to make society more “child-friendly,” ple, many of whom were later united with but this is done more out of a humanitarian their families and settled down permanently concern for the quality of life of the popula- in their host countries, have frequently been tion than out of an explicit desire to promote perceived by the native population as a threat to their national cultural heritage. Their presence, along with more recent waves of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, is not popular among many Europeans and has recently helped to fuel the fortunes of anti-immigration politicians in many western European countries. The other rather obvious solution is to increase fertility in the native population. Pro- natalist policies are not popular, however, in most of western Europe. For many they have a racist ring about them and invoke unpleas- ant memories of the Nazi era, but there is also a feeling of guilt about advocating increased FIGURE 3.15. Anti-immigrant graffiti. As this graffiti on a wall in fertility at a time when the population of the Venice demonstrates, a high level of resentment exists with regard to world as a whole is growing so rapidly. Only the waves of immigrants that Europe has already accepted over the in France have significant measures, such as past two or three decades. Although certainly one answer to the prob- state-funded child care, been undertaken to lem of finding ways to support an aging population, accepting larger encourage parents to have more children, and numbers of immigrants is politically difficult. (Photo: J. L. Kramer) 3. Population 99 fertility and has not had any appreciable ef- Flohm, H., & Fantechi, R. (Eds.). (1984). The fect. Unless Europeans spontaneously decide climate of Europe: Past, present, future: Natural they want to have more children or can be ac- and man-induced climatic changes: A Euro- cepting of the presence of millions of new im- pean perspective. Hingham, MA: Kluwer Aca- migrants, declining population levels and a demic. Grove, A. T., & Racham, O. (2001). The nature of further graying of Europe must be antici- Mediterranean Europe: An ecological history. pated. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. John, D. (1983). Geology and landscape in Britain and Western Europe. Oxford, UK: Oxford Uni- FURTHER READING versity Press. Kirby, D., & Hinkkanen, M.-L. (2000). The Baltic Allen, H. D. (2001). Mediterranean ecogeography. and the North Seas. London: Routledge. Harlow, UK: Prentice Hall. McEvedy, C., & Jones, R. (1978). Atlas of world Ashwell, I. Y., & Jackson, E. (1970). The sagas as population history. Hamondsworth, NY: Pen- evidence of early deforestation in Iceland. Ca- guin. nadian Geographer, 14, 158–166. Parish, R. (2002). Mountain environments. Harlow, Bryson, B., & Ludwig, G. (1992). Main-Danube UK: Prentice Hall. Canal: Linking Europe’s waterways. National Rothenbacher, F.(2002). The European population, Geographic, 182, 3–31. 1850–1945. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmil- Cumbers, A. (1995). North Sea oil and regional lan. economic development. Area, 27, 208–217. Wallén, C. C. (1970). Climates of northern and Encyclopaedia Britannica Staff, Britannica Edi- western Europe. Amsterdam: Elsevier. tors. (2003). Britannica book of the year 2003. Wallén, C. C. (1977). Climates of central and south- Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica. ern Europe. Amsterdam: Elsevier. CHAPTER 4 Human–Environment Interaction

Europeans interact with their physical sur- rope, the dominant source of cooking oil, both roundings in many specific ways, and have in the past and today, is the olive, while else- done so for centuries. Human interaction where in Europe it is butter and lard. The ol- with the environment is one of the most basic ive, which until the most recent century was facts of life. It is also, quite appropriately, one the only edible oil-bearing crop that could be of the oldest and most enduring themes that grown in Europe, is produced for climatic geographers, among others, feel compelled to reasons only in the Mediterranean South. For write about. This is mainly because what hap- most of the rest of Europe, environmental pens on the human–environment interface conditions conducive to the production of has so many implications. To a considerable swine and cattle, and the absence of any kind extent, environment influences human action. of edible oilseed, led to a traditional reliance Environmental conditions may, for example, on butter and lard, and to a lesser extent on dictate that certain actions are impossible. At oils derived from fish. Modern food process- the same time, environment offers a range ing has, of course, made it possible to produce of opportunities, and humans, depending on cooking oil from a wide variety of imported their state of cultural and technological devel- and domestically produced oilseeds, such as opment, make critical choices as to how they rapeseed, and these products have expanded will interact with their environmental sur- greatly in popularity, both north and south of roundings. Those interactions will ultimately the Alps. Nonetheless, due to the imprint that affect both their own well-being and the envi- long-established patterns of people–environ- ronment itself, and in turn may be reflected in ment interactions have made on traditional European cultures and identities. culture, a marked regional distinction in the Foodways are an obvious example of the use of traditional cooking oils remains. role of environment in culture. While it is Another example is found in the ap- true today that modern processing and impor- pearance of buildings. Cultural geographers tation of low-cost foodstuffs allow most Euro- have long expressed fascination with the great peans considerable freedom in what they differences that may be seen across Europe choose to eat, consumption patterns can still in the use of traditional building materials. be reflective of long-standing connections be- These variations usually have environmental tween culture and environment. Take, for ex- explanations. Stone constructions of various ample, the use of vegetable oils and animal kinds, for example, are found throughout the fats as cooking oils. In Mediterranean Eu- Mediterranean South, as well as in many parts

100 4. Human–Environment Interaction 101 of France and the British Isles. This zone of ple and environment. We do, however, want stone construction coincides with regions in to provide some kind of overall sense of the which extensive deforestation occurred long role that environment plays in people’s lives ago. These are areas where wood has long and attitudes and how human action has af- been in short supply but where building fected European environments. In this chap- stone of various types has always been rela- ter, we explore the range and significance of tively abundant. Conversely, traditional wood these relationships in three ways. We begin constructions are widespread throughout the very broadly, by briefly sketching a few gen- more extensively forested parts of east-central eral themes that attempt to capture some of Europe and across most of eastern Europe the most essential and symbolic connections and Scandinavia. Half-timbered construc- between Europeans and their environments. tions, in which timbers are used to frame Then we turn to the long history of environ- structures and plastered wattles of small mental change, highlighting some of the ma- sticks and branches or rows of bricks are jor ways in which the continent’s natural envi- placed between the timbers, seem to occupy ronments have been altered over the an intermediate zone. Half-timbered con- millennia by human action. Finally, we turn to structions are found primarily in Germany the issues of contemporary environmental cri- and adjacent parts of the North European sis that challenge Europeans today. Plain but also in northern France and lowland England. The practice of half-timbering seems to have emerged primarily in areas of EUROPEANS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS moderate deforestation, where supplies of The Lure of Adventure: timber could be obtained for the purpose of Europeans and the Sea framing houses but where other materials constituted a more economical solution to fill- Perhaps no single natural environment has ing in the walls. more meaning for Europeans than the sea. It would be impossible here to describe We have already pointed out in a previous fully the immense variety of specific relation- chapter how intimately Europeans live with ships that may exist in Europe between peo- the influence of the sea. As inhabitants of a

FIGURE 4.1. Half-timbered construction. The “Little Square” leading to one of the medieval gates in the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber is one of the most often photographed places in Europe. Rothenburg, which is one of Germany’s most romantic tourist attractions, makes a special effort for the sake of image to expose the half- timbered construction of many of the town’s houses. Somewhat ironically, this is at variance with historical practice, in which owners have traditionally plastered over half-timbering to give their property a more prosperous, less rustic, appearance. 102 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT land of interpenetrating peninsulas and seas, its Balkan, African, and Asian littorals. More most Europeans are never very far from it. recently the Mediterranean has come to stand The sea affects their daily weather, their diet, between a more developed but demographi- quite possibly their pocketbook, and continu- cally stagnant Europe and a less developed, ally beckons to them as a place to spend their youthful, and Arabic north Africa. leisure time. Most European nations depend, Today the Mediterranean is also the holiday at least in part, on its resources or its trade to mecca for tens of millions from all over Eu- sustain them; even the landlocked ones are rope: a romantic region of azure waters, rocky connected to it by the continent’s great inland coastlines, and sandy beaches set among worn waterways and thereby rely on it as a source and venerable landscapes. Its coastal regions of resources and trade. In general, Europeans and islands—especially in Spain and increas- have been regarded historically as a seafaring ingly in the south of France, Italy, and Greece, people. The legacy of that fact is that even to- as well as in Turkey—are literally overrun day the sea seems to enjoy a certain mystic during holiday seasons by swarms of plea- power over the European imagination. The sure-seeking holiday makers from northern surrounding seas, however, are not all the Europe who travel briefly to the south in same. They have personalities that have at- search of Mediterranean sun and warmth. So tracted Europeans to them in different ways. strong is this desire that tourism easily domi- The Mediterranean is the peaceful and sun- nates the local economy of large parts of the drenched sea of antiquity, the “lungs and Mediterranean region. breast” of ancient and medieval Europe. The The great western ocean, the Atlantic, is the Romans called it “mare nostrum” (our sea), modern sea of profit and power, a “field of and regarded it as the central medium that dreams” (and confrontations), as one writer held the ancient world together. Indeed, the has described it. It was the Atlantic that long word Mediterranean means “in the midst of ago drew adventurous Europeans out of home land.” In medieval and Renaissance times waters to fish the rich banks off the New- it became a major focus of the merchant’s foundland coast of North America. The Atlan- world, conveying at profit the spices and tic also drew enterprising Europeans to new riches, as well as the culture, of the East to worlds that they might conquer, exploit, and satisfy the voracious demands of a Europe settle. It opened the possibility of expanding emerging from the deep sleep of the Dark the spatial bounds of what might be con- Ages. sidered European. On its distant shores, Since Roman times, however, the Mediter- Europeans would scramble to proclaim their ranean has done little to unite those who live around its shores. Competing empires and commercial powers took root around its shores, none of them ever powerful enough to completely subdue the others. Thus, it came to pass that most of the Mediterranean’s old coastal and island cultures became bound politically to large mainland states. Moreover, the historic rise of Islam in the Levant during the sixth century, its long and bitterly contested advances into Iberia, and the nearly 500-year hegemony of the Ottoman Empire over the entire eastern Mediterranean basin and the Balkan Peninsula had the effect of turning the Mediterranean into a permanent FIGURE 4.2. French Riviera beachfront. Even on a late autumn divide between the Christian lands along its afternoon, sun worshippers stake out places in the sun along the European shores and the Muslim lands along seawall of this popular French Riviera beachfront. 4. Human–Environment Interaction 103

New Spains, Frances, Englands, Swedens, the Atlantic is traversed today by a growing Amsterdams, and so on. network of transnational corporate linkages The Atlantic soon became the principal me- that are rapidly integrating not only the econ- dium of wealth and opportunity for the com- omies of Europe and America but those of the petitive seafaring nations of western Europe, entire world. lending to them a certain importance and The role of the northern seas is different power in European affairs that they previ- again. They seem to have a less romantic rep- ously lacked. It became the focus of an “Atlan- utation. They are the seas of hard work, busy tic economy” that ultimately bound the for- with the harvesting of essential marine re- tunes of western Europe to those of the New sources—principally fish, but today also oil World. To the Americas flowed European and gas—and bustling with the all-important goods, technologies, and investments, and conduct of trade. The northern seas are acces- most significantly the tens of millions of Euro- sible. They are the ones that penetrate most pean emigrants who uprooted themselves— deeply into the European landmass. They first from northern and western Europe and touch in some significant way nearly all of the later from southern and eastern Europe—to countries located north of the Alps. They have pursue economic opportunity or political been, by their very presence and easy accessi- freedom. In return came raw materials, food- bility, a continual challenge to the peoples of stuffs, repatriated earnings, and, in the most these countries to profit from them. This is no recent century, massive military aid and inter- less the case today than it was in the past. vention in two world wars. In some cases, a part of the challenge has There is much that happened in the 20th been just to hold the seas at bay. The Dutch, century to underline the importance of the for example, have carried on a more or less Atlantic as a bridge between Europe and the continuous struggle since the 13th century to Americas. Perhaps most importantly, the At- claim new lands from the sea and to protect lantic became the focus of a modern alliance themselves from the devastating storms from (NATO) that bound western Europe and the North Sea that have threatened to flood America together as allies for the more than and destroy the fields and settlements of the half a century that has elapsed since World low-lying Dutch countryside. For centuries War II. But equally important is the fact that the battle swayed back and forth, with substantial gains coming only after the introduction of steam-powered pumping systems in the latter part of the 19th century. Over the past century the process has culminated in two major achievements. The first was the reclamation project that diked off the Zuider- zee, an old arm of the North Sea that deeply penetrated the Dutch coastline. The diking turned the old sea into a fresh water lake, the Ijsselmeer, from which massive polders were systematically drained to produce hundreds of thousands of hectares of reclaimed farmland. The second was the Delta Plan, under which massive dams and barrier sluices were FIGURE 4.3. La Rochelle. Once just a sleepy fishing village on the built across the many arms of the Rhine west coast of France, La Rochelle became by the 16th century the prin- Delta to provide a barrier against massive sea cipal port for the trans-Atlantic trade with French possessions in North storms, such as the terrible storm of February America and the Caribbean. Parts of the town’s elegant arcaded streets 1953 in which 1,800 people and many thou- are paved with granite stones brought back from Canada as ballast in sands of livestock were lost. the holds of ships. The need to ensure access to the resources 104 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

and the resources of the lands that surrounded it, but the organization was never able to achieve any real political unity. Later, in the 17th century, an expansionist Sweden succeeded in transforming the Baltic into a Swedish lake, but this too was not to last. To the present day, a never-ending rivalry between Germans, Danes, Swedes, Poles, and Russians has ensured that no political unity would prevail over the Baltic. Indeed, many of the modern descendants of the old Hansa cities still compete for their FIGURE 4.4. The Afsluitsdijk. In 1932 the Dutch completed this share of the capital and productive power of 31-kilometer-long dike to isolate the Zuiderzee, a large inland arm of the Baltic region. One example is the city of seawater, from the North Sea. Freshwater soon replaced salt water in Copenhagen, whose port authority styles it- the old Zee, seen to the right of the dike in this photo. Large areas (pol- self as the “strategic gateway to the Baltic ders) were reclaimed for agriculture in a series of projects, and the remainder was preserved as a freshwater lake, now known as the region and 500 million consumers.” Strate- Ijsselmeer. gically located on the Øresund, the heavily traveled strait that connects the Baltic to the North Sea, the port of Copenhagen serves more than 23,000 ships every year. The re- of the northern seas has been reason for cently bridged (after years of international de- northern Europeans to work together. One re- bate) Øresund is also the link between bur- cent example of this willingness is the cooper- geoning urban developments along both its ative effort undertaken since the 1970s by Danish and Swedish shores. Despite these countries bordering on the North Sea to parti- advantages, Copenhagen still vies for com- tion and exploit the substantial oil reserves mercial influence over the Baltic economy that lie beneath its surface. The countries that with a host of other ports in northern Ger- make up the European Union similarly agree many, Poland, Sweden, Finland, and the Bal- to pursue a common fisheries policy, which tic States and Russia. In today’s Europe, the seeks to ensure for the future a continued an- Baltic seems once again to be at the center of nual harvest of North Sea fisheries for all. a natural region of growing importance in Eu- There is also growing international coopera- ropean affairs. Indeed, as we shall see in tion in the battle against pollution in both the Chapter 7, while there has recently been a Baltic and North Seas. concerted effort to foster a “Baltic identity” While the northern seas and their connect- among the peoples who surround the sea, ing straits may be viewed as a kind of com- there is as yet no one political or economic fo- mon ground for northern Europeans, they cus to the region, and the sea remains as have not been the focus of any kind of lasting much a separator as a unifier. political or cultural unity. While various pow- The North Sea and its connecting straits ers have attempted from time to time to im- also divide and unite. The English Channel, pose their will over portions of the region, which links the North Sea with the Atlantic their hegemony has usually been ineffective and separates Britain from the rest of Europe, or short-lived. In the 14th century, for ex- has long been hailed by the English as a his- ample, the Baltic was dominated by the toric barrier against unwanted influences. Al- sprawling and monopolistic network of north though only 34 kilometers (21 miles) wide at European merchant cities that made up the its narrowest point, it has been instrumental Hanseatic League. For more than a hundred in protecting Britain from wartime invasion years, the Hansa succeeded in exerting tre- and in reinforcing, in a very symbolic way, the mendous economic control over the Baltic idea that Britain can somehow live a separate 4. Human–Environment Interaction 105

FIGURE 4.5. “The Birth of a Region.” A late-1990s advertisement extols the rise of a new Øresund region built on the linking of resources, people, and talent on either side of the historic strait between the Baltic and the North Seas.

and independent life from that of “the Conti- imagination. All of the countries bordering on nent.” The existence of the Channel certainly the North Sea enjoy numerous ferry links and has helped perpetuate insular prejudices business connections, which have the effect of against the continent, voiced in such quotable bringing them closer together. Partly because English sentiments as “the wogs [worthy ori- of historic associations, partly because of ental gentlemen] begin at Calais.” But in fact proximity, Britain’s natural “economic beach- the Channel has been equally important as a head” on the continent is the Netherlands. bearer of influences. Always alive with traffic Studies have shown that Dutch cities are, in and now crossable in record time via the new fact, the most common place for British com- tunnel, or “Chunnel,” which introduced high- panies to set up European offices. speed cross-channel rail service in 1994, the In a very real sense, then, it is important to channel hardly represents much of a physical recognize that the long and intense relation- barrier. Indeed, it has always been the cross- ship with the seas—whether Mediterranean, ing of the channel—whether by swimmers, Atlantic, or northern—has generated a partic- ferries, airships and airplanes, or subterra- ular kind of cultural solidarity among Europe- nean tunnel—that has most caught the public ans. The sea is the place where Europeans of 106 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT diverse origins and backgrounds have always nent snow and the occasional glacier. In short, met. Traditionally they encountered one an- the mountains are a recreational attraction, other in its harbors, today they are probably and Europeans have taken to them since the more likely to do so on its beaches or in its 18th century with great holiday enthusiasm, holiday resort towns, but the sea is a place of whether to hike, climb, ski, or just “take the meeting and has come to be viewed as be- air.” longing to everyone. Europeans have evolved But there is also an aura of freedom and ref- a common language or vocabulary associated uge that is associated with mountain environ- with the sea and seafaring. There is a frater- ments. For their own populations, and for oth- nity of seamen. There is a Law of the Sea that ers, the mountains have traditionally been was essentially developed by Europeans to thought of as a place where difficulties of ac- govern the behavior of all who use it. There is cess could weaken the forces of oppression to a common coastal landscape of harbor towns, the degree that they could be more success- seafront quarters, fortresses and arsenals, fully resisted. This idea has certainly been at breakwaters, marinas, lighthouses, beacons, the core of the national myth that binds to- watchtowers, maritime museums, holiday gether the cantons of Switzerland. Mountain resorts, and beaches. And finally, there is refuges have been instrumental in the sur- a shared imagination. All European cultures vival of Basque culture in northern Spain and seem to share a common set of images, fears, have aided in the survival of the Rhaetian lan- and beliefs that stem from centuries of adven- guages deep in the eastern Swiss and Italian turous contact with the sea and still fire the Alps. Stone castles perched on craggy ridges imagination of those who look out upon its above the Aude Valley in the south of France waters. are silent testimony to the usefulness of the mountain environment to the Cathars, who Wild Beauty and Refuge: fought a protracted battle in the 13th century Europeans and the Mountains to preserve their outlawed neo-Manichean religion against the crusading forces of the A second landscape type that seems to have a Catholic Church and the King of France. The special place in the European imagination is idea that the mountains are a place of refuge that of the mountains. Like the sea, the moun- where beleaguered peoples, cultures, and tains are a place where people like to go, al- ideas can find the strength to survive is a com- though for quite different reasons. The attrac- mon theme in European history. German pro- tion of the mountains is less economic; it has paganda used this very theme in the final more to do with breath-taking beauty and wil- months of World War II when it promoted derness, or perhaps with romantic notions of the idea of a “mountain redoubt” to which a freedom and refuge. heavily embattled Nazi regime would retreat The mountains are because of their very and survive to rise again. nature sparsely populated places. Settlement Similar themes apply to the upland land- is usually confined to the valleys and lower scapes of Caledonian and Hercynian Europe. slopes. The people who live there have been Although not as spectacularly vertical as true traditionally thought of as rather remote and mountain chains, upland areas are also gen- rustic, although increasingly this is hardly the erally sparsely populated and lightly used. case. For many Europeans, the peaks and Moorlands and heath can be excitingly vacant flanks of the great massifs and ranges are and remote—witness the eerie and lonely set- viewed as relatively pristine natural wonder- tings of English mystery and horror novels lands; the meadows and open heath above the set in such locales. And they too have often tree line, used only for grazing by the local played a role as cultural refuges. The relative population, also have a romantic charm. In inaccessibility of the Caledonian highlands of the Alps, and in parts of the Caledonian sys- the British Isles and of the Armorican Massif tem, there is the added attraction of perma- in Brittany have certainly played a role in pre- 4. Human–Environment Interaction 107

FIGURE 4.6. Mountain refuge. A Cathar castle perches high above the strategic valley leading up from the Languedoc coast of the Mediterranean to Carcassonne and beyond to the Plains of Aquitaine.

serving the last vestiges of Celtic culture Harz, as do the Czechs for the forested ridges in Europe. The Massif Central in France of the Bohemian Massif. was from early times a haven for embattled These landscapes are also home to a tradi- groups. It was the place where pre-Roman tional way of life that has responded for ages cultures managed to survive for a longer time to the patchy and limited quality of upland than anywhere else. Its importance as a ref- soils by favoring the extensive use of land for uge area is underlined by the fact that the grazing animals. Thus, the uplands are often Roman annexation of the south of France seen as the landscape of the shepherd or (Narbonensis) in 121 B.C. was undertaken herdsman, which implies a certain openness partly in response to the need to protect Ro- and semiwildness, a setting in which human man trade in the Rhône Valley from the at- beings are constantly on the move, relocating tacks of organized pirate bands based in the their flocks or herds with the seasons in order nearby massif. to make the best use of available resources. Upland landscapes can also be romantically These are the settings in which we might beautiful. The Hercynian formations of cen- imagine ourselves stopped in our car on a tral Germany are storybook landscapes, with winding road, unable to move as a mass of their elongated street villages set in deep bleating sheep dolefully pick their way across valleys below wooded slopes and ridgelines. our path on their way to an adjoining or dis- Equally captivating are the hedge-rowed tant pasture. landscapes of the Armorican Massif in Brit- tany, the deep V-shaped valleys and upland The Soil of Our Fathers: heaths of the Central Massif in the south of Europeans and the Land France, or the long lakes and glens of Caledo- nian Scotland. The grandeur of the peaks Our final theme highlights the relationship and ridges, waterfalls, and tranquil lakes of between Europeans and the continent’s low- the English Lake District, which so en- land landscapes of fields and pasture. We thralled the great romantic “Lake Poets”— have already seen that Europe’s greatest pop- Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey—hold a ulation densities favor the coastal lowlands special place in the English imagination. Ger- and interior plains. While much of that den- mans feel similar sentiments for the romantic sity today is associated with urban living, ear- Hercynian landscapes of the Rhineland or the lier population densities resulted from the 108 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT considerable agricultural carrying capacity of these lands. Local agricultural surpluses were, after all, an important precondition for the rise of urban market towns in medieval times, and many of those market towns became the foundations for modern cities. It was not so far in the past, however, when good arable land was one of society’s greatest reservoirs of wealth, and the relationship between agriculturists and the land was the primary one in many parts of Europe. This relationship runs deep. Europeans have long been among the great agricultural colonists of the world, systematically clearing woodlands, draining wetlands, and reclaiming land from the sea. Much emphasis is still placed by governments on preserving the viability of agriculture, protecting agricultural lands from urban encroachment, and protecting the livelihoods of those who till the land from the vagaries of the modern marketplace. Regardless of how much agriculture has modernized over the past century, we often think of traditional agricultural systems in Europe as examples of sensible accommodations between people and the environment. FIGURE 4.8. Olive orchard. These olive orchards, surrounding the The traditional Mediterranean system, for stronghold of Baños de la Encina built by the Caliph Al Hakam II in example, consisted of three elements—the 967, illustrate the Mediterranean practice of combining grain farming cultivation of small grains, horticulture, and with horticulture. The ground between the olive trees has been pre- the grazing of livestock. This ancient “triad” pared for the planting of winter grains. was in many ways a natural adaptation to the region’s unique environmental conditions. The first element, the cultivation of small grains, took place in the winter so as to take advantage of the cool and relatively wet winter months for germination and to have a harvestable crop before the onset of the region’s desiccating hot and dry summers. Med- iterranean agriculturists employed a two-field rotational system, in which grains were planted in a single field only every other year. The intervening year of fallow allowed the soil to recover sufficient nutrients to support the next year’s grain crop. The second element of the system con- FIGURE 4.7. Traditional Mediterranean farming. In this scene, sisted of orchards and vineyards. In these near Formia on the west coast of Italy, workers are pulverizing the top- were cultivated both a variety of native soil of this field. This is a time-honored practice dating all the way back drought-resistant horticultural plants, includ- to the ancients, undertaken to preserve as much moisture as possible ing the olive, the fig, the almond, and of beneath the surface of the field before planting winter grains. course the grape as well as some later intro- 4. Human–Environment Interaction 109 duced exotic crops such as citrus fruits that three-field rotational system, in which two required irrigation. These first two elements fields were planted each year in grain crops. of the Mediterranean system were often One field was usually devoted to a bread closely linked. Both were commonly found grain, such as wheat or rye; the other to a within the lands of the large Mediterranean grain used primarily, but not exclusively, for agricultural village. The grain fields often oc- animal feed, such as oats or barley. The third cupied low-lying and alluvial lands, while the field was left fallow. The livestock were fully orchards and vineyards covered the lower integrated into the system. On the one hand, portions of the steeply sloped hillsides they provided draft power for plowing and so common throughout the region. In some the manure for maintaining the fertility of the cases the two land uses were intermixed. fields. On the other, the feed crops harvested The third element, the grazing of small from the fields maintained them. From the livestock, chiefly goats and sheep and to a livestock also came the meat and dairy prod- lesser extent swine, on rugged upland and ucts necessary to supplement the peasant’s mountain pastures was often pursued quite bread. independently of the other two. This was be- Yet another traditional system evolved on cause the animals had to be herded back and the less fertile uplands and in the peripheral forth, in a system known as transhumance, be- northern and upland forestlands of Hercynian tween summer and winter pasturages that and Caledonian Europe. The poor soils of were often quite remote from the home vil- these regions necessitated a much greater lage. As a matter of adaptation to environmen- emphasis on livestock. The extensive herding tal conditions, the livelihoods of herders were of livestock was therefore the dominant activ- separated from those of farmers and horticul- ity, supplemented by small-scale efforts at turists. grain farming wherever local conditions per- The traditional farming system of the North mitted. European Plain also featured a carefully bal- The classic field system for such regions is anced relationship between fields, livestock, known as “infield–outfield.” The infield was and the maintenance of soil fertility. Unlike the small area near the village or farmstead the Mediterranean system, this system inti- where grain could be grown. The outfield mately mixed grain farming and animal hus- consisted of the surrounding forests or wastes bandry. In many areas, it came to employ a where the livestock were allowed to graze.

FIGURE 4.9. Ridge and furrow. At this living historical farm museum in Denmark, open fields are worked just as they were in the Middle Ages. The “up- and-down” topography of the field is a cumulative result of plowing long narrow strips with a wheeled plow whose moldboard threw the earth to one side as it moved along. The strips were plowed from the edges to the center, creating the alternating pattern of raised ridges at the center of strips and low furrows at their margins. 110 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

The outfields were often so extensive that ety’s ancient and deep-seated roots in the livestock were moved about over long dis- land. tances and tended by household members who were exclusively assigned to the task. The outfield was also used for cropping, but ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE OVER THE AGES only small parts were used in any given year. These areas were then allowed to lie fallow, Environmental change occurs as a result sometimes for a decade or more, before they of both natural processes and human action. were planted again. This practice of “shifting A great many changes result from natural cultivation” is also sometimes called “slash- causes. The natural world is constantly evolv- and-burn” or “swidden” agriculture. The ing, although we may often see it as static. We infield, on the other hand, could often be know, for example, that there have been con- planted every year, because an abundance of siderable climatic changes over the ages. manure from the large numbers of livestock These variations have deeply affected Euro- made it possible to maintain a constant and pean environments, as well as the people who adequate level of soil fertility. made their living from them. The long period The old peasant cultures, built upon sea- of climatic deterioration during the late sonal rhythms of working the land within 1500s, known as the “Little Ice Age,” is a these systems, are mostly gone today. Modern good example. This was an extended period of agriculture has, of course, changed the way in cold and stormy weather that resulted in sig- which the land is used and worked. Mechani- nificant vegetational change. It caused gla- zation has reduced the necessary work force ciers to move down mountain valleys to to just a fraction of what it once was. In many threaten villages and necessitated the retreat regions the scattered holdings of a single of agricultural frontiers in many of Europe’s farmer have been consolidated far beyond the more northern and marginal upland regions. enclosures of a century or two ago to produce It was also responsible for a protracted period highly efficient agri-businesses or, in the case of stormy weather in the North Atlantic that of large parts of eastern Europe, what were probably sharply curtailed contact with Vi- until just recently substantial collective enter- king colonies in Greenland and Iceland. The prises. loss of contact and deteriorating environmen- For many Europeans the move from coun- tal conditions were important factors underly- tryside to city was made not all that long ago, ing a precipitous decline in the population of in some cases just a matter of decades or Iceland and the demise of the Viking settle- years. Roots in the countryside are not yet for- ments on Greenland. gotten, nor are they ignored. Many urban- From earliest times, however, human activ- dwellers consider a trip to the countryside ity has also been an agent of substantial envi- an appropriate or desirable weekend outing. ronmental change. Armed with an ever Summer residences in rural areas are quite changing and more powerful arsenal of tech- popular in many parts of Europe. Young peo- nological tools, human beings have possessed ple still go to the country to work in the sum- a unique capacity among biological creatures mer, and upscale urbanites who can afford the to challenge the physical limitations imposed commute gladly buy up old farmhouses on them by the natural world. We recognize, as permanent exurban residences. There is of course, that the interaction between hu- much that is nostalgic and appealing about mans and nature is a two-way street. Humans the fields and villages, the folk architecture of have not always been able to overcome the farmsteads, the hedgerows, stone walls, and forces of nature. Often, too, their efforts have pole fences, the windmills, country inns and achieved results that are something other pubs, tree-lined alleés, and great houses that than what was intended. Nonetheless, the hu- dot the agricultural landscapes of lowland Eu- man impact over time on the European envi- rope. They are the visible reminders of soci- ronment has been immense. Few, if any, land- 4. Human–Environment Interaction 111

FIGURE 4.10. Natural disaster. The Greek island of Santorini consists of the rim of a gigantic crater formed when its volcano erupted around 1500 B.C. The debris that landed on the island of Crete, 75 miles to the south, and the massive tidal wave that followed largely destroyed the Minoan civilization in the Aegean. This event may be the origin of the story of the lost continent of Atlantis. scapes exist today in Europe that we can truly sued by the ancients for many centuries. say have not been seriously modified by hu- Attica was reportedly stripped of all forest man action. cover by the fifth century B.C., although there is certainly reason to believe that forest lands Deforestation in other parts of the Greek homelands were as yet subjected to far less pressure. In addition Certainly one of the most widespread and to the clearing that was undertaken for agri- long-standing of human environmental im- cultural purposes, Mediterranean forests pacts has been deforestation. The removal of were further decimated in both ancient and forest cover by human agency began in ear- medieval times by a voracious demand for nest during Neolithic times, as systematic timber, which was used for fuel, for the con- burning and clearing of forest vegetation ac- struction of ships and buildings, and to pro- companied the diffusion of farmers and herd- duce charcoal for the smelting of metals. The ers over large parts of Europe. Indeed, recent timber requirements of the Venetian fleet paleoecological research has shown that the alone are said to have been largely responsi- effects of burning during prehistoric times ble for the disappearance by late medieval was probably much more dramatic than pre- times of the extensive forests that once cov- viously believed. The practice was responsi- ered the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. ble for bringing extensive human-induced en- The end result of all these activities was to vironmental change to Europe for the first produce a Mediterranean landscape of steep, time and was clearly the first step in a long barren slopes that were subsequently devas- and inexorable process of deforestation for ag- tated by the erosional effects of winter rains. ricultural and other purposes that has lasted The wholesale stripping away of forest soils for thousands of years. and the depredations wrought on young tree Perhaps the most striking example of this saplings by the grazing habits of ubiquitous process is the near total destruction of the pri- herds of Mediterranean goats and sheep were meval Mediterranean woodlands. The forests enough to prevent any regeneration of the of the region came under concerted attack as woodlands. With the exception of a few of the early as preclassical times. Using both fire and more remote areas of Iberia and the Balkans, ax to clear fields and pasturelands, the re- the deforestation and accompanying erosion moval of woodland cover was relentlessly pur- of soil material over the entire region was so 112 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

greater nutrient levels than those that are normally found in soils that have retained their forest cover. As in Mediterranean lands, the agricultural clearing of forestlands in northern Europe was augmented by the exploitation of timber resources for fuel, building materials, the construction of wooden sailing ships, and the charcoal industry. The demand for tall and sturdy timbers for the building of ships was especially strong in northwestern European countries from the 1500s through the 1700s. FIGURE 4.11. Erosion. Heavy erosion mars the landscape west of Corinth in Greece. Stripped of vegetation cover and left vulnerable to In fact, the English, French, and Dutch the effects of heavy winter rains, the gullied and eroded slopes seen quickly exhausted their native supplies and here are forever lost to cultivation. were soon forced to turn to sources in the Bal- tic, or to their overseas colonies, to meet their needs. Indeed, British capital helped to finance the so-called industrial breakthrough severe and widespread as to change forever wrought by the forest industry in late 19th- the appearance and productivity of the land. century Scandinavia. An insatiable British de- While large areas today have been refor- mand for timber led first to the large-scale ested or are covered with some form of sec- logging of the coastal forests of Norway, then ondary vegetation, it is estimated that nearly a to the systematic harvest of the northern for- third of the Mediterranean region’s soils con- estlands of Sweden and Finland. tinue to suffer severe losses from erosion. The charcoal industry was also a particu- The predominant form of secondary vegeta- larly powerful force in the removal of forest tion that covers the lands around much of cover. Woodlands in many parts of western the Mediterranean basin consists, as we have and central Europe were already under attack seen, of drought- and fire-resistant low-lying by medieval times. In their rush to supply lo- evergreen shrubs. These plant communities cal metal smelting industries, charcoal makers are the present-day outcome of a centuries- literally stripped parts of Belgium and north- old degeneration of the Mediterranean forest eastern France of trees. The practice was also cover. An additional problem is that they, too, widespread in Scandinavia. Indeed, by the may now be subject to degradation as a result 1700s and 1800s, local sources of wood for of continued human interference in the form charcoaling had become so scarce in the iron of cutting and overgrazing. There is growing and copper smelting districts of Sweden that evidence that desertification is on the ad- many enterprises were forced to go extraordi- vance in certain areas throughout the region. nary distances to secure adequate sources of The clearing of the vast primeval forest- charcoal timber. lands that once covered most of temperate The forest resources of temperate Europe Europe was no less systematic. The main probably reached their lowest point sometime difference is that the conversion of many during the 1700s. By that time, most of the of these lands to productive cropland and natural forest, with the exception of some pastureland has had a less detrimental out- parts of northern Scandinavia and the north- come in terms of the carrying capacity of the ern interior of Russia, had disappeared. Since land for humans than has been the case in then there has been a gradual recovery. Over Mediterranean Europe. In fact, it could be ar- the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, gued that centuries of mixed livestock and country after country took up the cause of af- grain farming has generally left soils with forestation. The leaders were Germany and 4. Human–Environment Interaction 113

ing the Napoleonic era not only stabilized the encroaching dunes but also had the added benefit of creating a source of scarce timber and resin for the French Navy. Afforestation has continued to the present and has resulted in a great many reforested areas both north and south of the Alps, many of them planted to a single species of tree. A particularly noticeable increase in the overall area covered by forests has occurred since World War II, partly due to an accelerated abandonment of marginal agricultural lands that has accompa- FIGURE 4.12. Beech forest. Some sense of what the primeval nied late-20th century efforts to rationalize woodlands of the North European Plain might have looked like can be and modernize agricultural production. gained here at the Royal Beech Forest at Fredensborg in Denmark. Royal hunting parks such as this were instrumental in preserving some forest tracts. Cultivation of Grasslands Also forever altered by human actions are France, both of which reacted with special the natural grasslands of the long peninsula alarm to the deleterious effects of deforesta- of steppe that once extended from Asia tion on agriculture and industry as well as na- across southern Russia, Ukraine, and into the tional honor. The alarm led to the study of Maritsa, Wallachian, and Hungarian basins of scientific forestry and the establishment of re- southeastern Europe. Originally the domain of serves and reforestation projects. fierce nomadic peoples, who periodically Along the Bay of Biscay coast of southwest- swept out of Asia, these rich dark-earthed lands ern France, the reforestation of Les Landes, were eventually brought under European con- an ecologically troubled region in which ad- trol and put to the plow. Eventually these re- vancing coastal dunes threatened to bury a gions became Europe’s great eastern wheat once productive landscape, became a model belt. Much as is the case for the American of the benefits of afforestation efforts. The Great Plains, little of the original prairie or tall planting of huge plantations of pine trees dur- grass plant communities that once covered

FIGURE 4.13. Afforestation. Scattered coni- fer plantations dot the crests and slopes of the Caledonian uplands that mark the borderland between England and Scotland. These trees were planted during the middle decades of the last century. 114 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT these regions has survived. In the case of the Disappearance of Heath and Moor westernmost extensions of steppe into the intermontane basins of southeastern Europe, The heath lands of northwestern Europe are there is evidence that human influence goes yet another form of vegetational cover that back even further in time. These areas appar- has historic associations with human agency. ently were once forested. The grassland re- Heathlands are common throughout those gimes we think of as their natural vegetative parts of Europe that border the Atlantic and cover may have actually resulted from the re- northwestern seas. In these areas the growth moval of forest cover by humans in early times. of the characteristic low-lying shrub vegetation that we refer to as heath is facilitated by the combination of Atlantic maritime climatic Reclamation of Marsh and Fen conditions and acidic soils. While some Marshlands are another natural landscape mountain and coastal heaths can be quite nat- that has been systematically reduced. The an- ural, the extensive areas of lowland and high- cients and the Romans undertook efforts to land heaths of northwestern Europe are be- drain marshlands. But it was the Dutch, as we lieved to occupy areas that were once covered have already noted, who launched the most by forests. There is some conflicting evidence extensive effort at reclamation. They began about the degree to which these areas derive perfecting elaborate techniques for reclaim- from natural processes as opposed to human ing low-lying coastal lands as early as the 13th action, but there is clear suggestion that hu- century and, by the end of the 16th century man activity, particularly the practice of inten- had begun to export their expertise to other tional burning, is at least partly responsible countries. Over the next couple centuries, for their formation and continuance. Dutch engineers assisted in literally dozens of It is also interesting to note that the total projects across Europe aimed at reclaiming area covered by Europe’s heathlands has land from coastal marshes and river estuaries. sharply declined over the past century and a Many of these projects were situated on half. The decline is due to the human agricul- nearby North Sea coastal sites in northern tural colonization of heathlands and their con- Germany and western Denmark, but Dutch version to grassland or forest through the ces- engineers were just as likely to be found at sation of burning practices. Some of the most work in places as far away as Sweden, Russia, marked declines have occurred in Sweden England, Italy, and the south of France. One and Denmark; in the latter case, largely of the most extensive reclamations of the period took place in southeastern England, where hundreds of square kilometers of marshland were converted to agricultural land in the historic draining of the Fens. The reclamation of marshlands continues to the present. Efforts to drain the vast Pripet Marshes of eastern Europe were initiated under state sponsorship in the 1870s and continue today. In more recent times a number of ambitious projects have been completed in the Mediterranean South. One of the most remarkable, as we have seen, is the draining of the Pontine Marshes on the west coast of Italy FIGURE 4.14. Reclaimed heathland. The Lüneberger Heath is a during the 1930s. Other modern projects in- vast sandy tract in the midst of the North German Plain. Originally cov- clude the ongoing Spanish efforts to drain the ered with heath vegetation and grazed by flocks of hardy sheep extensive marshes (Las Marismas) that follow brought here from Corsica, large areas have been forested and set aside the lower course of the Guadalquivir River. as game preserves. 4. Human–Environment Interaction 115 through organized effort during the late 19th also did well north of the Pyrenees and Alps and early 20th centuries to convert the in the milder climates of western Europe but heathlands of western Jutland to agricultural were never well established farther east or in use. Similar losses have taken place in south- northern Europe, where failure to ripen was ern England. often the consequence of late springs or prolonged dampness. Introduction of Exotics The ancient Greeks made wide use of the grape and were responsible, along with the As natural forests, marsh, steppe, heath, and Phoenicians, for its spread throughout the moor have gradually disappeared, humans Mediterranean region. The Romans encour- have replaced them with new or modified aged its production and took it with them as forms of vegetative cover. Over the millennia they extended the frontiers of the Empire agriculturists have brought to Europe a great northward to the Rhine and Danube, estab- variety of domesticated plants. The earliest lishing the vine wherever local soil and clima- examples, introduced from the Nile Valley tic conditions permitted. Grapes were grow- and southwestern Asia, included wheat, the ing on the warm slopes of the Rhine Valley grapevine, and a wide range of horticultural by the second century A.D. The Greeks and plants. Romans developed the art of grape growing Neolithic farmers brought the practice of and wine making. They developed methods of growing wheat to Europe. It became the pre- grafting and budding to produce new variet- ferred bread grain of the classical world and ies, techniques of cultivating and trellising, remains today the most common cereal grain and the practice of protective terracing that grown in southern and western Europe. The ensures that the grapes ripen even in areas domesticated wheat strains that were intro- too far north to produce a really good harvest. duced in very early times from southwestern Viticulture remains today as one of the conti- Asia were all of the kind known as winter nent’s most extensive and valuable agricul- wheat—sown in the fall, cultivated in the tural activities. spring, and harvested in the summer. They The introduction of intensive gardening of were perfectly adapted to the Mediterranean horticultural plants into the Mediterranean climate because they germinated and grew up by Arabs and Turks also did much to trans- during the wet winter weather and matured form the landscapes of the Mediterranean before the desiccating heat of summer. They South, particularly in lowland and coastal ar-

FIGURE 4.15. Viticulture on the Rhine. Long rows of trellised vines climb the sunny- facing slopes along this stretch of the Rhine Valley in Germany. Other land uses visible here include the wooded heights above and the transportation corridor along the river’s edge. 116 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT eas. The coastal plain of Valencia (Huerta de had less impact. Initially used for ornamental Valencia) in the southeast of Spain is, for ex- purposes and generally regarded as poison- ample, nearly completely dominated today ous, the tomato has only become a valuable by intensively cultivated citrus groves. The food during the past century, although it was early varieties of the orange, which were in- mentioned as a salad ingredient as early as troduced by the Arabs, were small and bitter the 16th century. and were not well accepted. Better and Native plants too have been domesticated sweeter varieties, however, were brought by and have spread far beyond their original the Portuguese—witness the word for or- ranges. Examples are barley, rye, and the ange in a number of languages (Arabic sugar beet. Barley, which was known to the bourtouqal, Greek portoka’li, Turkish por- ancient Greeks and Romans, has a partic- takal, and Romanian portocala)—and be- ularly short growing period and is easily came a sought-after delicacy by the late adapted to a wide range of growing con- Middle Ages. Both the Arab and Portuguese ditions, including high altitude. It enjoyed varieties of the orange originated in South- widespread cultivation as the chief bread east Asia, which is why they require irriga- grain in Europe until as late as the 16th cen- tion. Even the German/Scandinavian words tury. Rye seems to have been domesticated Apfelsine, apelsin, and appelsin (Chinese ap- later than the other grains. Because it grows ple) suggests its eastern origins. well on poor soils and in climates too cool to Later introductions of exotics included produce a good crop of wheat, it became a sta- maize, potatoes, and tomatoes, all of which ple grain crop throughout central and eastern came as a result of European contacts with Europe and Scandinavia. Sugar beets were the New World. Although brought back from once a relatively unimportant source of ani- America by the Spanish, maize was not mal feed, but in 1747 a German apothecary, readily accepted at first. The Spanish and Andreas Marggraf, discovered a method Portuguese took the plant instead to Africa of obtaining sugar crystals from the beet. and India. Its successful introduction in Eu- Roughly half a century later, during the Napo- rope came later and via the Turks, who leonic Wars, the sugar beet burst onto the brought the plant to the Balkans and Italy, scene as a major European field crop as a where it became known as Turkish grain. practical means of coping with the fact that Maize subsequently became quite important Europe had been cut off from its customary in the Mediterranean, where it thrived in source of West Indies cane sugar. By late in the warm, dry summer climate and re- the 19th century, the beet had come to responded better to irrigation than wheat or place cane throughout the continent as the barley. In the 16th century, the potato was leading source of sugar. introduced to Spain as a garden plant. It ap- Finally, changing field patterns and the peared later in the Spanish Netherlands and abandonment of marginal lands have also had eventually reached the British Isles, where it their environmental effects, particularly on was first accepted as a large-scale field crop. the vegetation habitats of wild species. The Since potatoes are rich in carbohydrates and enclosure of medieval open fields and com- easily grown, even in cool climates, their mons that took place in various parts of Eu- cultivation spread rapidly throughout tem- rope from the 1200s through the 1800s often perate Europe, not only as a food crop but resulted in the widespread planting of bound- also as a source of animal fodder and alcohol. ary hedges and trees. This was the process By the 18th century the Irish population had responsible for producing the characteristic become so completely dependent on the po- patchwork landscape of fields and dense tato that it was terribly decimated by famine, hedgerows that we associate especially with disease, and emigration when the crop failed rural landscapes in parts of the British Isles, in 1845–1846 due to blight. Tomatoes have France, and Scandinavia. Although we may 4. Human–Environment Interaction 117

FIGURE 4.16. Enclosure. The fields and pastures of this English–Welsh borderland landscape are enclosed with hedgerows. Settlement is dispersed—the old villages were broken up long ago—but confined to the lower slopes. Open heath lands lie beyond the boundaries of the upper fields. not think about it, the introduction of bound- Industrialization ary hedges and trees literally transformed the local ecology of the areas in which they were The industrialization of Europe during the employed. They increased vegetative diver- 19th and early 20th centuries was yet another sity and provided cover for birds and small source of significant environmental change. animals. It seems ironic that the consolidation One of the key developments of the age was of fields that is taking place in today’s Europe the industrial exploitation of the continent’s to accommodate trends toward larger agri- major coalfields. The rapid and unrestrained cultural holdings and greater mechanization development of these regions left in its imme- has resulted in the wholesale destruction diate wake a whole series of grimly degraded of hedgerows, and the habitat for abundant landscapes covered with dirty industrial wildlife that they provide. towns, slag heaps, poisoned rivers, and foul

FIGURE 4.17. Coalfield. The marble figure of a mourning woman over- looks the chalky edge of Vimy Ridge, where the Canadian Expeditionary Force fought a bitter and bloody battle in April 1917 to wrest the ridge from its German defenders. In the distance can be seen the pointed coal tailings that dot the coal-rich Artois Plain of northern France. 118 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT air, the most infamous example being the CONTEMPORARY “Black Country” around Birmingham in the ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS English Midlands, although the list can easily be extended to include the slag-heaped land- Although environmental change has always scape of the Borinage (Sambre-Meuse Basin) accompanied human endeavor and has at in Belgium, the densely packed steel and times had long-term detrimental effects on chemical industries centered around the firm the very people who effected the changes, of Krupp in the Ruhr Basin, and the late 19th- Europeans today are faced with a wide range century coal and steel industries of Upper of new environmental problems. As every- Silesia and the Donets Basin. where on the planet, human indifference, Industrialization ushered in the building of along with our increased technological ability extensive canal systems, the dredging and to alter and pollute the land, water, and skies canalization of rivers, the development of a on which we depend, seems to be responsible railroad net, the erection of cast iron and steel for far greater levels of environmental change bridges and viaducts, and the blasting of tun- than ever experienced before. Nearly every- nels to facilitate movement through mountain where in Europe the pace of environmental passes—all of which worked to alter the land- change has become uncomfortably fast. scape and break the isolation, both economically and environmentally, of Europe’s myriad Eastern Europe natural regions. By 1888, it was possible to travel by rail from Paris to Constantinople on The most serious challenges seem to be con- the Orient Express. Ease of transport stimu- centrated in those parts of eastern and east- lated the growth of industry beyond the coal- central Europe where, during the half- fields and larger cities. New industrial zones century that followed World War II, socialist emerged along railways and canals, and in- regimes relentlessly pursued industrial devel- dustrial landscapes penetrated into once bu- opment while doing next to nothing to protect colic agricultural areas. the environment. The result has been a badly This was also an age in which many cities ex- polluted environment, with landscapes liter- panded rapidly. Ports were expanded to carry ally resembling wastelands in some areas. increased trade, and large shipping canals such Each new revelation to come out of these as the Manchester Ship Canal in Britain or the countries in recent years has seemed more North Sea Canal in the Netherlands opened in- shocking than the last. Ecosystems are deeply terior towns and cities to the movement of sea- threatened everywhere and species extinc- borne shipments of raw materials and goods. tions are on the rise. Indeed, some east Euro- Early on the growth of cities largely took place pean countries have actually experienced a within their already established boundaries. decline in human life expectancy, due to in- Open spaces were built over and the urban fab- creased respiratory disease and other envi- ric became noticeably denser, packed in some ronmentally induced ailments. areas with teeming industrial slums. By the lat- A particularly telling example of the critical ter half of the 19th century, however, this early state of affairs in the East is the severe envi- centripetal phase was replaced by a tendency ronmental contamination and public health toward explosive outward expansion. Large hazards that were the legacy of massive Soviet cities began to sprawl, gobbling up enormous era uranium mining and processing in the for- amounts of countryside in the process. As we mer East German borderland region south shall see in Chapter 9, concern over the loss and west of the city of Chemnitz. A huge com- of agricultural land to low-density suburban plex of mines and processing factories, em- sprawl was great enough by the middle de- ploying as many as 150,000 people, was cre- cades of the 20th century to motivate, in some ated in this densely populated region during countries, the imposition of restrictions on ur- the 1950s to supply the Soviet Union with ban expansion. weapons-grade uranium. The toxic legacy of 4. Human–Environment Interaction 119 this giant undertaking was a landscape of suggest that Cesium 137 contamination from abandoned uranium mines, dilapidated yel- the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl covers low-cake factories, mountains of radioactive much more of Ukraine, western Russia, and ash, and toxic waste dumps that have seri- Belarus than was previously believed to be ously contaminated soils and groundwater the case. Estimates suggest that as much as supplies with a deadly brew of arsenic, lead, one-fifth of all farmland in Belarus may be un- iron, cadmium, sulfuric acid, low-level radio- usable because of the disaster. Extensive strip active materials, and other poisons. All to- mining for lignite coal has appallingly scarred gether an estimated 500 million tons of toxic the landscape of large parts of Poland, Bohe- wastes were spread over roughly 1,200 square mia, and the former East Germany. Strip min- kilometers. A number of lakes that were used ing for oil shale has done much the same in as chemical dumps are so laced with harmful eastern Estonia. Romania is one of the world’s elements that they have been fenced off. Ex- “hot spots” for levels of cadmium and lead traordinarily high levels of radon, a break- fallout. The country’s Copsa Mica industrial down product of uranium, have affected thou- region has been described as “an environ- sands of dwellings situated on top of old mental disaster” that threatens the lives of its underground mines. After the reunification of 200,000 inhabitants. Heavy industrial emis- Germany in 1990, officials from the West sions and chemical dumping in the so-called were appalled at the scale of the disaster. dirty triangle that straddles the border re- An enormous effort had to be undertaken to gions between Poland, Slovakia, and the for- cover the waste sites with millions of tons of mer East Germany have produced an array fresh soil. Today the region looks green again, of pollution problems that rival those found although the cleanup is far from complete. anywhere in the world. Rates of respiratory The estimated costs of the research and clean- disease, reproductive problems, and cancer up efforts necessary to restore the environ- among inhabitants of this region are far in ex- ment of this stricken region to even a reason- cess of world norms. able level of environmental health have been Much of the damage strikes at the essential staggering. capacity to provide basic foodstuffs and clean Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. It drinking water. According to some reports, is just one of a litany of environmental prob- pollutants have rendered a quarter of Poland’s lems that many east-central and eastern Euro- soil unsuitable for growing food that can be pean countries face. Recent appraisals now safely eaten by people or livestock. Much of

FIGURE 4.18. Strip mining. These enormous slag heaps mark the site of the extensive oil shale mining that took place in eastern Estonia in the decades following World War II. In addition to the slag heaps, unsightly storage areas, decaying production facilities, and idle transport lines sprawl across the open countryside in this typically extensive Soviet era industrial development. 120 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

Poland’s water is unfit even for industrial use. which are officially endangered, as well as a A 1989 study was able to classify a mere 4% of reminder of the long postwar division of Ger- Polish rivers as possessing waters fit for hu- many and Europe between East and West. man consumption. Biologically three-quarters were dead. Three-quarters of Bulgaria’s agri- The Mediterranean cultural lands have been classified as severely eroded, polluted, or destroyed. Only half of Some of the most striking environmental Russia’s population has access to drinking wa- problems to be found outside of eastern Eu- ter that meets recognized international safety rope are in the Mediterranean Basin, where standards. The waters backed up behind a rates of population growth and economic de- flood control dam at the mouth of the Neva velopment have accelerated very rapidly in River at St. Petersburg are so contaminated recent years. There has been a general move- by municipal and industrial wastes that the ment of population to coastal areas through- unhealthy character of the city’s water supply out the region. This general trend has been has become internationally notorious. Some exacerbated by the phenomenal rise in recent 80% of Romania’s rivers are too contaminated decades of Mediterranean mass tourism, to supply drinking water. which adds as many as 140 million people to With western aid, the cleanup in the East coastal populations every summer. Industrial has begun, but the task is Herculean. Most of and urban development, in particular, have the former socialist countries have by now de- steadily expanded all around the Mediterra- veloped plans to improve environmental con- nean’s shores since the end of World War II ditions, although environmental quality legis- with scant attention, until relatively recently, lation still lags behind western standards. The to the dangers of dumping untreated sewage goal of joining the EU has been a strong stim- and industrial waste into the sea. It is esti- ulus in recent years to do much more, but the mated that as much as 70–85% of the sewage costs are enormous. Most eastern European generated by the region’s cities and towns countries simply lack the financial resources is discharged into the sea untreated. This to tackle the problems, regardless of how am- amounts to a staggering 600,000 tons a year bitious their environmental cleanup and con- by current estimates. Enormous amounts of servation programs may appear. It has been nitrate and phosphorus fertilizers—perhaps recently estimated that the cost of environ- four to eight times natural levels—also find mental cleanup to meet EU standards in Po- their way into the sea, a by-product of ef- land alone will be $300 billion. forts to modernize and intensify agriculture Given the difficult environmental legacy of the socialist past, it is rather ironic that one of east-central Europe’s most flourishing natural environments is the 1,400-kilometer-long stretch of territory that marks the no-man’s land that once separated East and West Ger- many. For more than 40 years after World War II, the border zone was rendered inaccessible by thousands of kilometers of fencing. The strip of unoccupied land became a natural refuge for wildlife of all kinds. Known today as the “Green Band,” and largely owned and watched over by a German conservationist group (Union for Environmental and Natural FIGURE 4.19. Dumping of wastes. This truck is dumping garbage Protection in Germany), the former zone along a remote stretch of highway on the eastern side of the lives on as a protected environment for hun- Peloponnese. From the looks of the refuse heaped below the highway’s dreds of species of birds and plants, many of edge, dumping here is a common practice. 4. Human–Environment Interaction 121 throughout the region. Added to this have dering the Mediterranean. One of the major been the effects of accidental oil spills and the sources of human waste and pollution in the now prohibited, but poorly monitored, prac- eastern basin has been the dense urban ag- tice of flushing the holds of oil tankers into glomeration around Cairo, where the Nile is the sea. Annual levels of oil pollution in the literally used as a huge open sewer. On Italy’s Mediterranean are substantial enough to ac- west coast, illegal discharges of industrial count for one-fifth of the global total, making waste and urban toxic waste from the indus- it one of the world’s most oil-polluted seas. trialized area around Naples have helped to High levels of pollution of all kinds, along earn the entire Campagna region a reputation with overfishing, have put tremendous strains as the “rubbish tip of Italy.” Industrial pollu- on the Mediterranean marine environment. tion problem areas also include Marseille and Because the sea lacks significant tides and has the Rhône delta, Gela on Sicily (center of the only one severely constrained outlet at Gi- island’s petrochemical industry), and Salonica braltar, it lacks the ability to mix its waters ef- and the Gulf of Thermaikos in Greece. ficiently or to exchange them very rapidly The Adriatic has suffered enormously due to with the open sea. In fact, the waters of the effluents that flow from the Po River, which Mediterranean change completely only once drains the industrial heartland of northern It- every 80 years. As a consequence, massive aly and flows through the area in which the growths of algae blooms and periodic inva- region’s highest density of intensive livestock sions of seaborne slicks of chemical pollutants breeding and highest levels of agricultural have persistently plagued Mediterranean chemical use are found. Because of these coastlines, as well as those of the neighboring effluents the Po delta and the coastal lagoons Black Sea. The effects have been so bad that it at the head of the Adriatic are in the slow pro- has become fairly common for beaches in cess of dying in a morass of green algal scum, Italy and southern France to be closed on foul-smelling seaweed, and general ecological health grounds for periods of time in the sum- disequilibrium. The disappearance of oxygen mer. in the water during the summer has almost Sources of pollution, or so-called black completely eliminated fish and shellfish from spots, abound in almost every country bor- the waters of the shallow Gulf of Trieste.

FIGURE 4.20. Environmental stress in the Mediterranean. 122 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

The city of Venice is in many ways an inter- forcing residents and tourists to traverse the esting example of many of these problems. city on raised wooden walkways in times of Venice is situated in a lagoon at the head of flooding, the higher water levels have begun the Adriatic. The city was developed on this to eat away at the soft brickwork of which site from the seventh century to provide its most of the city’s historic buildings are con- citizens with a safe haven from their enemies. structed, threatening the fabric of the historic Today, however, the city suffers from a num- city with rot and decay. To make matters ber of severe environmental problems related worse, the city’s nearly complete lack of a to its unique location. A major threat is flood- modern sewage collection and treatment sys- ing. The city has been subjected to severe tem, along with the runoff from agricultural flooding with increasing frequency over the land, has turned the lagoon into a polluted past 50 years. This is due to the fact that the lake. The lagoon fills each summer with de- three entrances to Venice’s lagoon have been caying algae and has been increasingly unable deepened for commercial purposes to the to support aquatic life. point where they can no longer protect the The degradation of the Adriatic environ- city from high tides and storm surges. The ment also stems from postwar efforts in social- problem is exacerbated by subsidence caused ist Albania to rapidly industrialize a backward by the pumping of water from aquifers be- peasant economy with appalling disregard for neath the city and by rising sea levels. St. environmental protection. The effort has re- Mark’s Square, the focal attraction for the sulted in the serious pollution of that coun- more than 2.8 million tourists who visit the try’s more important riverine and estuarine city each year, is now flooded as often as 40– areas. Waste from fertilizer, paper, and chemi- 60 times a year, about 10 times as frequently cal plants, from urban settlements with no as in the historic past. sewerage facilities, and from careless mining Technical solutions are in the offing, such as activity have rendered the coastal stretches of the construction of immense mobile gates that many rivers in central Albania organically would close off the lagoon’s three entrances dead. Serbia too has contributed to the re- against tides and storm surges, but such solu- lease of untreated sewage into Adriatic coastal tions are controversial for a host of environ- waters, especially along stretches of the coast mental and fiscal reasons, and no decision has subject to heavy tourist visitation, such as been made to implement them. In addition to around Kotor. While the strain has been severe, there has been significant international cooperation to arrest the deterioration of the Mediterranean marine environment. Much of the credit belongs to the Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environmental Program. The leaders of this effort have been successful since 1976 in persuading all of the Mediter- ranean countries including holdout Albania, which resisted signing on until 1990, to participate in a variety of programs to protect the Mediterranean from further pollution and to ensure the conservation of marine life. Under these programs, steps have been taken to prohibit polluting practices and begin to fi- FIGURE 4.21. Flood. Frequent flooding in Venice has become a se- nance cleanup and protection efforts, such as rious environmental problem as rising waters take their toll on the the construction of urban sewage treatment foundations of buildings and monuments. Water damage is quite visi- plants. Primarily because of these actions, ble on the faces of these buildings. many of the catastrophic predictions for the 4. Human–Environment Interaction 123 environmental survival of the Mediterranean placed a heavy strain on renewable fresh wa- made back in the 1970s have fortunately ter supplies, as aquifers have been drawn not come to pass. Among the few remaining down in order to supply the needs of irrigated “pearls” of clear water in the Mediterranean, agriculture and proliferating urban areas, and according to a recent World Wide Fund for as rivers have become more polluted. The Nature report, are the waters off the Spanish Guadalquivir River of southwestern Spain islands of Medas and Tabarca, the deep wa- now has the highest levels of nutrient pollu- ters off Ustica near Sicily, and some coastal ar- tion in all of Europe. Ground water withdraw- eas of the Ionian islands of western Greece als and existing and proposed water transfers and the southern coast of Turkey. from rivers and reservoirs in central Spain to Changes in terrestrial environments around irrigation districts in coastal areas have led to the rim of the Mediterranean are also marked. serious interregional conflicts, much exacer- Ribbon developments of holiday complexes bated by a series of droughts in the 1980s and along the coast, especially in Spain, France, the 1990s and the contentious nature of Span- Italy, and Greece, have irrevocably altered ish regional politics. A combination of water vast stretches of what were once relatively un- shortages, sparse vegetative cover, soil degra- spoiled coastal environments. Spain’s famous dation, and human activity has ultimately Costa del Sol has been caustically referred to raised the specter of desertification for the as the “Costa Concreta” for the manner in semiarid regions of the Mediterranean coun- which it has been completely built over with tries. The southern and eastern parts of the tourist accommodations. Intense coastal de- Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean France, the velopment of this kind has obliterated much Italian Mezzogiorno, and almost the whole of of the Mediterranean coastal habitat from Greece including the islands have been iden- Portugal to Turkey for a variety of fauna. Par- tified by authorities in recent years as seri- ticularly threatened are the species-rich wet- ously affected by widespread desertification. land areas of southwestern Spain. According to one recent estimate, as much as 80% of the The Northern Seas Mediterranean coastline is now “developed,” most of it under only the laxest of building In northern Europe, similar stresses have af- regulations. fected the quality of marine environments. The fast pace of development has also Dense population concentrations and high

FIGURE 4.22. Aegean coastal development. With roads already laid out, a new coastal development rises along the Peloponnese shore of the Aegean. In time, developments such as this threaten to eliminate much of what previously lay untouched. 124 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT levels of development flank the Baltic and reproduces in deep-water areas. Inadequate North Seas, and, although waste discharge supplies of oxygen cause the eggs to die. To- practices are more controlled in many of the day, nearly 35% of the seabed of the Baltic is surrounding countries than is the case for the virtually lifeless, a condition that has gener- Mediterranean, both seas absorb enormous ated considerable international concern. The quantities of pollutants. The fact that they are Kattegat, which receives large quantities of shallow and contain relatively modest vol- nutrients from the Baltic and the German umes of water means that the pollution load Bight, has also shown marked signs of ad- in the northern seas is actually one of the vanced eutrophication. heaviest in the world. Indeed, the North Sea One of the traditional bounties of the north- has been found to contain measurable levels ern seas has been the annual harvest of fish. of every known source of contamination. The While fish stocks are affected by many factors, problem is made worse in the Baltic because both natural and human, and have varied con- the sea is virtually landlocked, and there is lit- siderably over recorded history, many have tle chance of pollutants being carried off to been severely depleted in recent decades due other waters. The problem also seems to af- to overexploitation. Norwegian and Icelandic fect every part of these seas. Counterclock- herring have been particularly hard-hit. They wise circulation patterns in both the North were all but eradicated by overfishing in the Sea and the Baltic tend to carry pollutants 1960s and have only slowly shown signs of re- from the mouths of the large rivers of the covering. North Sea herring, at least, seem to North European Plain, where the majority of have been saved from depletion by a ban im- them first enter the marine environment, to posed on fishing between 1977 and 1982, but less densely settled northern coastlines, new scientific reports published in the spring where riverine discharges are more moderate. of 1996 suggest that the North Sea herring is A major problem in the Baltic has been the again threatened by extinction due to exces- marked increase in nutrient levels since the sive fishing. The European Commission has 1970s. Today the Baltic receives an annual in- responded with plans to halve the fishing put of roughly 50,000 tons of phosphorus and quota for herring in the North Sea and to over a million tons of nitrogen. The bulk introduce reductions in the quotas for the comes from east-central Europe and is of ag- Skaggerak and Kattegat as well. ricultural origin, the largest source by far be- Overfishing in arctic waters off the coast of ing the Vistula River, which accounts for two- Norway, and especially in the Barents Sea, thirds of the nitrogen that ends up in the has been devastating. Stocks of cod in these Baltic each year. The rise in nutrient levels waters have declined to only about one-fifth throughout the Baltic has led to advanced of what they were before World War II. The stages of a process known as eutrophication, fishing of cod in these waters may now well through which the waters are choked by have to be banned in order to allow the sur- runaway production of algae and other veg- viving adult cod adequate time to reproduce. etation. Rising nutrient concentrations and Stocks of capelin, a fish upon which cod and plankton production in surface waters have many arctic fauna feed, were severely de- worked to greatly increase oxygen consump- pleted in the mid-1980s when fishing fleets tion in deeper parts of the Baltic. This condi- turned to them as a substitute for the disap- tion exacerbates the oxygen deficiencies oc- pearing cod. This caused a serious state of curring quite naturally in the depths of the ecological imbalance in arctic waters, result- Baltic since the narrow Danish Straits provide ing in the tragic loss of tens of thousands only limited inputs of oxygen-bearing saline of seals and whole colonies of birds in the water from the open sea by way of the Barents Sea region due to starvation. Only a Kattegat. A sufficient supply of oxygen at complete suspension of capelin fishing at the these depths is extremely important to the end of the 1980s was able to restore the situa- survival of Baltic fish, such as the cod, which tion. 4. Human–Environment Interaction 125

Less pressure has been exerted by the fish- flora and fauna, including the Pyrenean ing industry on fish stocks in the Baltic. In- brown bear, which now numbers no more deed, the Baltic herring population has re- than a dozen or so animals. Brown bears are mained more or less stable. Here it has been also an endangered species in the Balkans. In the environmental disturbances mentioned Greece they are protected by a mountain above that have caused the most damage, par- reserve at Nymphaion, which contains a ticularly for the cod. While greater interna- number of former “dancing bears” confiscated tional cooperation and enforcement of ne- from their owners under a Greek law that out- gotiated fishing quotas seem to have largely laws the practice. stabilized the situation in the 1990s, the fact Switzerland has established a number of remains that fish populations in all the north- nature parks to protect threatened alpine ern seas are far smaller than they have been at plants and wildlife. Nature reserves and sce- any time in recorded history. Experience has nic areas in Scotland cover roughly 13 per- shown that recovery is seldom complete. cent of the land area and are the last refuge for several threatened species native to the Mountain and Upland Landscapes highlands of the British Isles. Numerous areas have been recently set aside as reserves in Europe’s mountain and highland landscapes the Carpathians, often as cooperative efforts have become increasingly threatened by a ris- between countries such as Poland, Slovakia, ing tide of mass tourism and economic devel- and Romania. One example is Poland’s opment. The relative inaccessibility of many Magurski Park, located on the mountainous of these areas has been broken in recent de- Polish–Slovak border, which was founded in cades by the construction of modern roads 1995 to protect extensive stretches of Car- and highways. The opening of new communi- pathian beech forest and the wild lynx, wolf, cation links has been followed, in turn, by bear, and boar populations that roam them. In waves of tourist-related developments, such northern Finland, as well as other Scandina- as luxury hotels and resorts, ski areas, amuse- vian countries, preserves and parklands have ment parks, and shopping centers, as well long been established to protect the tradi- as the introduction of new industries and tional reindeer herding lands of the Sami communities. The unfortunate consequence (Lapps). is that many formerly pristine mountain and Also on the rise are efforts to subsidize upland areas have become sprawling scenes and protect traditional cultural highland or of congestion and noise during the high tour- mountain landscapes, such as the aestheti- ist seasons, with many harmful side effects in cally pleasing mixture of forest and pasture of- the form of pollution and environmental deg- ten found in alpine areas. Austria, in particu- radation. lar, has received international attention for its Relatively unspoiled areas and endangered recent experimentation with an idea that has plants and animals are being protected. Al- come to be known as “ecotourism” or “green though late in coming by American standards, tourism.” The object is to promote a form of a growing number of national parks have been tourism that strikes a careful balance between established by European states to preserve tourism-related development, so essential to these landscapes. The Parc National des the economic vitality of otherwise declining Pyrénées Occidentales is a good example. rural areas, and the need to protect both natu- This 100-kilometer-long reserve, established ral landscapes and the cultural landscapes in 1968 along the Franco–Spanish border, was that have resulted from centuries of tradi- designed to protect at least part of the Pyre- tional human land uses. The alpine landscape nees from the onslaught of tourism-related that attracts so many tourists to Austria is just development. The park takes in some of the such an environment—an aesthetically pleas- region’s most spectacular cirques and valleys ing mixture of mountain forest, pasture, and and provides sanctuary for many endangered village, which is every bit as much a cultural 126 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT landscape as it is a natural one. The Austrians, who regard their alpine environments as a national treasure, have long promoted their per- petuation through agricultural subsidies to mountain farmers. The new ecotourism policies are an extension of these efforts. They encourage individual alpine villages and regions to take steps that ensure a gentle form of alpine tourism, mainly through the strict delim- itation of spaces specifically designed to meet the recreational needs of visitors while setting apart and protecting the most fragile elements FIGURE 4.23. Brown coal air pollution. The early autumn morn- of the alpine environment. ing air over the city of Rostock in eastern Germany fills with smoke emitted by the burning of brown coal in homes and industries. This Atmospheric Pollution photo was taken during the early 1990s soon after German reunification and before Western pollution control technologies were introduced Atmospheric pollution is a form of environ- to reduce pollution over the cities of the former East Germany. mental stress that has become prevalent throughout Europe. While smoke and soot from manufacturing processes and from coal and are close reflections of modern in- or wood burning for heat and cooking pro- dustrial and transport activity. Both have duced more than their share of foul-smelling increased rapidly over Europe since the end and noxious air in towns and cities of a cen- of the last century. Within the countries of tury ago, the problem has been magnified and the EU emissions of carbon dioxide have ac- redefined today as pollutants have become tually fallen slightly since 1990, but progress more complex and their source areas more has been uneven. Some of the largest source widespread. countries in northwestern Europe, such as The major source area for airborne pollut- Germany, the United Kingdom, and France, ants is the industrial heartland of northwest- have been able to reduce their emissions. ern Europe. Despite considerable efforts in Their success, however, has been largely recent decades to curb effluents, the high nullified by substantial increases in other concentration of factories, power plants, refin- countries, particularly in the rapidly devel- eries, and automobile traffic in this region still oping Mediterranean South. According to contributes much to air quality problems over EU statistics the largest increases in carbon Europe. Concentrations of heavy and highly dioxide emissions over the period 1990–1995 polluting industry in many of the former so- occurred in Portugal (22.5%) and Spain cialist countries of east-central and eastern (16.8%). Greece and Italy also posted sub- Europe are also major contributors. The stantial increases during the same period. problem is often exacerbated in many of the The largest contribution to these increases former socialist countries of east-central Eu- came from electricity generation in thermal rope where poor-quality high-sulfur lignite powered plants and road transport emis- coals remain a primary source of energy for sions. The problem of sulfur dioxide emis- industrial plants and for the heating of build- sions, which is particularly strong in high- ings. Effluents are on the rise throughout sulfur lignite burning areas of east-central the Mediterranean South, which has enjoyed Europe, continues largely unabated. high rates of economic development and Prevailing westerly winds and the counter- growth in recent decades. clockwise rotation of the cyclonic weather Concentrations of carbon dioxide and sul- systems that move across northern Europe fur dioxide in the atmosphere are derived make atmospheric pollution a truly interna- largely from the combustion of fossil fuels tional problem. One consequence is that the 4. Human–Environment Interaction 127 environmental effects of air pollution often re- eterious effect in downwind Belarus. Pre- sult from air contaminants that first enter the vailing westerly winds similarly ensure that atmosphere over industrial areas in western the noxious effects of burning oil shale in east- and central Europe and are then transported ern Estonia are most noticeable across the east and north, and at times back west again, Russian border in the St. Petersburg area. Cy- before returning to earth. Thus, for example, clonic circulation patterns also have an effect only 9% of the nitrogen oxide deposition that as they spin air currents in a counterclockwise occurred in Denmark in 1994 could be di- direction. Such patterns dictated that the first rectly attributed to Danish sources. For the noted effect outside the Soviet Union of the same reasons, the high sulfur-content coals disastrous nuclear accident at Chernobyl burned in the former socialist countries of in April 1986 was the arrival of radioactive east-central Europe have a particularly del- clouds over northern Sweden. Eventually it

FIGURE 4.24. Airborne pollution. 128 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT was Poland that received the highest levels of But even where progress has been made in contamination from the spiraling airborne reducing the effects of these common pollut- cloud created by the Chernobyl accident. ants on urban environments over the past One of the most notable large-scale effects couple of decades, gains have often been off- of air pollution occurring in the 1990s was the set by heightened levels of lead, hydrocar- high level of forest loss experienced all over bons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides Europe, but especially in east-central and released by an ever increasing number of mo- eastern Europe, due to the dry deposition of tor vehicles. The growing adoption of lead- sulfur dioxide and the wet deposition of both free fuels and catalytic converters in recent nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide in the form years is helping, but conditions in many traf- of acid rain. These pollutants tended to accel- fic-congested European cities remain poor. erate the acidification of soils, especially Even cities like Madrid, which is situated where soils and rock materials lacked the nat- high on the plateau of the Spanish Meseta, ural capacity to counteract the process, such are more or less constantly blanketed today as on the Fennoscandian Shield, in large areas by a heavy brown haze. One of the most noto- of the Caledonian system, and on some Her- rious cases is that of Athens, whose residents cynian and Alpine formations. The problem of and visitors routinely endure the suffocating “forest death” first surfaced in the late 1960s effects of nefos, the smog cloud that fills the in Scandinavia and Germany, but has come to city streets and darkens the sky. Authorities in affect forest cover over nearly the entire con- Athens have been forced to restrict the flow of tinent. According to estimates, slight to severe vehicles into the city during peak periods of damage has been inflicted on trees across all air contamination. Oslo, which is particularly of Europe. The hardest hit country was Po- subject to temperature inversion, has recently land, where an estimated 94.8% of all trees attempted to reduce vehicular traffic in the were affected. Other east-central and eastern city by installing a system of electronic toll- European nations where the intensity of de- gates on major roads leading into the city. foliation topped the 75% level include the While the most serious effect of poor urban Czech Republic (91.3%), Slovakia, Belarus, air quality is its considerable cost in human Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine. Most Euro- health, there has also been the problem of pean countries experienced damage affecting corrosion and crumbling that urban air pollut- at least 40–50% of the forest cover. Led by the ants visit on exposed surfaces of metal and Scandinavian countries, there has been con- stone. Façades of historic buildings and mon- siderable agreement among European coun- uments that have stood for centuries have tries in recent years to take steps to reduce been literally eaten away in the span of a de- significantly the amount of emissions respon- cade or two under the assault of modern ur- sible for acid rain. ban pollutants. The most celebrated example At the more local scale, pollution in the ur- of this is the shocking damage done to the ban environment is an ever-present fact of Parthenon by the pollutants that blanket Ath- daily life for many Europeans despite efforts ens. made by authorities to control or reduce it. As The instances of contemporary environ- we noted above, programs to reduce concen- mental crisis are, of course, countless. There trations of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are in Europe few geographical areas or as- produced from the burning of fossil fuels have pects of life that are not afflicted in some way. made strides since the 1960s, especially in the The diverse range of natural and humanized Scandinavian countries and in parts of west- environments that so many Europeans take ern and west-central Europe. Nonetheless, for granted, and often regard as a piece of local temperature inversions in winter can their cultural identity, are changing today at a still bring these pollutants to serious levels pace that is more rapid than ever experienced over many cities. in the past. 4. Human–Environment Interaction 129

Environmental Awareness lels the recent general trend in Europe toward the internationalization of economic and Awareness of this fact is widespread and gen- political decisions. Important umbrella orga- erally higher in Europe than in many other nizations headquartered in Brussels include parts of the world. Evidence for this lies in the EEB (European Environmental Bureau), the high visibility of environmental concern which represents more than 120 environmen- in public opinion polls and European politics, tal groups from across the European Union the degree of commitment to enlightened en- countries; an organization known as CEAT vironmental policy exhibited by the European (Coordination Européenne des Amis de la Union, national governments, and local gov- Terre), which generally represents the more ernments, as well as the actions of a wide vari- conflict-oriented grassroots groups and pays ety of popularly supported conservation orga- greater attention to eastern European con- nizations. Although the founding treaties of cerns; and such powerful international organi- the European Community make no mention zations as Greenpeace and the Worldwide of environmental policy, an indication of a Fund for Nature. An increasing recognition growing acceptance of a supranational ap- that environmental issues need urgent atten- proach to environmental problems is the fact tion may be found throughout environmen- that the 1992 Maastricht agreement commit- tally stressed east-central and eastern Eu- ted all EU member countries to the pursuit of rope. “Green” organizations have emerged as environmental policy initiatives that are en- part of the political scene in many of the for- dorsed by a simple majority vote. Loosely or- mer socialist countries. ganized efforts at cross-national cooperation The international influence of Green poli- between environmental organizations sparked tics is also visible in the deliberations of the by such issues as the siting of nuclear plants European Parliament in Strasbourg. Since or nuclear reprocessing plants near national 1999 members of Parliament with ties to the borders or proposals for hydropower installa- Greens and various regionalist groups have tions affecting whole river basins have be- formed a political group known as the Greens/ come fairly common in recent years. They re- European Free Alliance. This group, which in flect a growing appreciation of the regional 2003 claimed 45 members from 12 countries, implications of many environmental issues. is the fourth-largest political action group On a more formal level, there has been a in the European legislature (with about 7% of marked trend toward the internationalization the 626-member body). Members of the of environmental decision making that paral- group also hold key governmental posts in a

FIGURE 4.25. Environmental awareness and politics in Germany. A youthful “Green” demonstration gears up during the summer of 2001—somewhat in- congruously beneath a L’Oréal cosmetic advertisement—in Bonn’s central market square. 130 I. PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT number of European states. In addition to Sweden and Switzerland but from southern supporting traditional environmentalist poli- countries such as Greece, Italy, and Portugal cies aimed at such things as sustainable devel- (eastern countries were not surveyed). In opment and the abandonment of nuclear en- other words, we are beginning to see a rever- ergy, the group also advocates human rights, sal in roles. Indeed, a 2003 referendum in world peace, and the decentralization and de- highly environmentally conscious Switzer- mocratization of decision making within the land surprised many observers when it turned EU. In addition to representing various na- back Green proposals to institute “car-free” tional Green parties, the group also fronts for Sundays four times a year, shut down the the Green organizations of a number of “state- country’s remaining nuclear plants (produc- less nations,” such as Andalucía, Catalonia, ing 37% of the country’s electricity), and re- Flanders, Wallonia, and the Basque Country. new an existing moratorium on building new As in everything else, awareness and com- nuclear plants. The results of the referendum mitment are unevenly distributed. The high- are hardly a significant erosion of otherwise est levels of both are found in the Scandina- staunch Swiss support for Green-minded pol- vian countries and in Germany, Switzerland, icies, but they do suggest a growing reluc- and the Netherlands, followed by France, tance to go beyond what has already been Italy, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, achieved. Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Portugal; Surveys show that the issues that concern significantly lower levels prevail in the Bal- Europeans most are the potentially cata- kans and across much of east-central and east- strophic and dramatic, such as the dangers ern Europe. This ordering is reflective of the posed by nuclear power accidents, radioactive general environmental condition and of the wastes, oil spills, and other industrial disas- degree of environmental protection that al- ters. This is in large part the legacy of atten- ready prevails in each country. When it comes tion-grabbing events, like the 1986 nuclear to the promulgation of international environ- disaster at Chernobyl or the 2002 sinking of mental policies, those that have achieved the the oil tanker Prestige, which broke in half in greatest success seem to be most interested in a storm off the Galician coast of Spain with lobbying for strong initiatives that will protect more than 20 million gallons of crude aboard standards already in place at home. The great- (threatening an environmental disaster twice est fear for these countries, now that the initi- ation of new environmental policies is becoming increasingly centralized within the bureaucratic apparatus of the European Un- ion, is that weak regulatory decisions made in Brussels could undermine their own environmental standards. Those at the other end of the spectrum are often satisfied with relatively modest international standards, which are usually an improvement over what exists at home, and fearful of the potential economic costs of more aggressive environmental policies. On the other hand, there are rapidly growing levels of concern in those countries that have traditionally been more complacent. A recent EU-sponsored survey measuring FIGURE 4.26. Recycling. Rows of various colored recycling bins like levels of concern shows that the most “very these are a ubiquitous street-side sight all across Europe and evidence worried” answers came not from the high of the degree to which the more mundane forms of environmentalism environmental standards countries such as have become commonplace. 4. Human–Environment Interaction 131 the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Lambert, A. M. (1985). The making of the Dutch the coast of Alaska). Less concern is regis- landscape: An historical geography of the Neth- tered for environmental threats that have a erlands (2nd ed.). London: Seminar Press. long history of media exposure, such as air Marples, D. R. (1997). Legacy of Chernobyl in pollution and acid rain, or a more nebulous 1997: impact on Ukraine and Belarus. Post-So- viet Geography and Economics, 38, 163–170. immediate threat, such as ozone depletion Mollat du Jourdin, M. (1993). Europe and the sea. and the demise of tropical rain forests. As one Oxford, UK: Blackwell. might well expect, these issues are most hotly Olwig, K. (1984). Nature’s ideological landscape: A contested by the younger and generally most literary and geographic perspective on its devel- idealistic elements of the population, al- opment and preservation on Denmark’s Jutland though environmentalism has been long heath. London: Allen & Unwin. enough on the European scene that it gener- Plut, D. (2000). Environmental challenges of Eu- ally enjoys widespread support across all rope: The state of environment and environ- groups. mental trends in the EU (EU15) and the Acces- sion Countries (AC10). GeoJournal, 52, 149– 155. FURTHER READING Pyne, S. J. (1997). Vestal fire: An environmental history, told through fire, of Europe and Europe’s Bode, W. K. H. (1994). European gastronomy: The encounter with the world. Seattle: University of story of man’s food and eating customs. London: Washington Press. Hodder & Stoughton. Saiko, T. A. (1998). Environmental challenges in Bennett, C. F.,Jr. (1975). Human influences on the the new democracies. In D. Pinder (Ed.), The ecosystems of Europe and the Mediterranean. new Europe: Economy, society and environment In C. F. Bennett, Jr. (Ed.), Man and the earth’s (pp. 381–476). Chichester, UK: Wiley. ecosystems: An introduction to the geography of Thirgood, J. V. (1981). Man and the Mediterranean human modification of the earth (pp. 121–144). forest. London: Academic. New York: Wiley. Thorpe, I. J. (1996). The origins of agriculture in Carter, F. W., & Turnock, D. (Eds.). (1996). Envi- Europe. London: Routledge. ronmental problems in Eastern Europe. London: Tickle, A., & Welsh, I. (Eds.). (1998). Environment Routledge. and society in Eastern Europe. London: Addison Darby, H. C. (1956). The clearing of the woodland Wesley Longman. in Europe. In W. L. Thomas, Jr. (Ed.), Man’s role Vogeler, I. (1996). State hegemony in transforming in changing the face of the earth (pp. 183–216). the rural landscapes of eastern Germany. Annals Chicago: University of Chicago Press. of the Association of American Geographers, 86, Evans, E. (1956). The ecology of peasant life in 432–458. western Europe. In W. L. Thomas, Jr. (Ed.), Warner, J. (1999). Poland: The environment in Man’s role in changing the face of the earth (pp. transition. Geographical Journal, 165, 209–221. 217–239). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Zilhão, J. (1993). The spread of agro-pastoral econ- Grenon, M., & Batisse, M. (Eds.). (1989). Futures omies across Mediterranean Europe. Journal of for the Mediterranean basin: The Blue Plan. Ox- Mediterranean Archaeology, 6, 5–63. ford, UK: Oxford University Press. Zohary, D. (1993). Domestication of plants in the King, R., Proudfoot, L., & Smith, B. (Eds.). (1997). Old World: The origin and spread of cultivated The Mediterranean: Environment and society. plants in West Asia, Europe and the Nile Valley. London: Arnold. Oxford, UK: Clarendon.

PART II Culture and Identity

CHAPTER 5 Language

The focus of the three chapters in this section man culture. Through the study of language is culture and identity. Who we are and where and its development we can see evidence of we belong are central questions that affect the the many links and borrowings among cul- lives of all people. These are issues that have tures and can gain a basic appreciation of always been important in Europe, given its many of the differences and the commonali- tremendous cultural diversity and the frac- ties that Europeans share. tious and often bloody history of past centuries. They are also of particular interest today, as more and more European states become or THE STUDY OF EUROPEAN LANGUAGES aspire to be members of the European Union. Thus, Europeans today must reconcile the If we compare the vocabularies and grammat- meaning of embracing a newly imagined and ical structures of the 40-odd standard lan- shared European identity while continuing to guages currently used by Europeans it be- grapple, as they always have, with the need to comes immediately clear that some are very order their sense of place or rootedness at much more similar to one another than they other scales. are to the rest. It does not take a trained lin- In this chapter we begin our discussion of guist to recognize that Castilian (Spanish) is culture and identity by exploring the topic of like Portuguese in many respects, as Danish is language, before turning in subsequent chap- like Swedish, but that Spanish and Danish ters to religion and polity. We see language bear few resemblances to each other. as an especially appropriate place to begin. Why, we might wonder, would words hav- Language, after all, underlies all communica- ing the same meaning in two different lan- tion. It is the principal conveyor of ideas and guages also have a similar form? There are thoughts, our primary means of expressing three ways in which this could come about. what is familiar and intimate. As such it is a One is simply by accident, but given the fundamental element of a person’s identity enormous number of combinations of possible and a badge of membership in a community. consonant and vowel sounds available in any Language also has deep roots, going back to language this is highly unlikely. A second is earliest times. In this sense, language can be that words have been borrowed from one lan- thought of as more central to culture than per- guage into another. As we shall see, this is a haps any other trait. Language reflects the common occurrence, but loanwords are nor- values and attitudes that lie at the core of hu- mally restricted to particular parts of a lan-

135 136 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY guage’s lexicon. Words are usually borrowed ory of language development). Nonetheless, along with the objects or ideas they describe. the impact of the 19th-century linguists has This frequently, but not always, means that been so great that we still use their terminol- the elements involved were not present in the ogy (language families and subfamilies). culture of the recipient language group. Thus, the very basic sectors of vocabulary, those re- lating to body parts and human relationships, THE INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE FAMILY for example, are seldom much affected by word borrowing. When there is considerable By far the largest number of Europeans speak agreement in the fundamental vocabulary of languages that belong to the Indo-European two languages, the third possibility alone can family. The other families represented in the be considered, namely, that the languages region are the Uralic and the Altaic. One lan- are related genetically, that is, they have guage isolate, Basque, whose genealogy is descended from the same ancestral speech very much in dispute, completes the picture. forms. What follows is first a presentation of the The idea that, as among human beings, theories about the origins of these language there are genealogical relationships among groups and then a discussion of the emer- languages was developed by linguists during gence of the standards used in Europe today. the 19th century. When it became apparent An understanding of the relationships among that languages constantly undergo change, an languages is important both because people analogy was quickly made with human evolu- who speak closely related languages might be tion, the principles of which were outlined by expected to see the world in a similar way and Darwin in the middle of that century. Lan- because, other things being equal, they are guages change largely because the societies more likely to learn each other’s languages that use them change, in their technology, in and communicate with each other. their mode of organization, and in their value The Indo-European language family has re- systems. As two peoples speaking similar lan- ceived more intensive study than any other in guages lose touch with each other, usually be- the world. This is partly because it was the cause of migration, their cultures diverge be- first family to be systematically researched by cause their experiences are different, and, as a linguists (who spoke mainly Indo-European result, their speech forms drift apart. Thus, languages themselves) and the one in which the distance between two related languages is the principles of historical linguistics were in part a function of the amount of time they worked out. Interest in the history of these have been separated. languages has also been heightened by the In the 1860s a German linguist, August fact that they are spoken as mother tongues Schleicher, expressed this by depicting re- by nearly half the world’s population and be- lated languages on a genealogical chart. All cause they are closely associated with the Eu- were seen as descending from a common ropean cultures that so greatly influenced the parent (proto) language and being related to world after the Great Discoveries. one another much as family members are (the tree-stem theory of language develop- The Origins of Indo-European Speech ment). Today we recognize that this picture is simplistic. No “proto-languages” existed in Of particular concern to language historians the past, but rather groups of similar speech has been the identification of the Indo-Euro- forms. While linguistic change is in part the pean homeland, the core region from which result of simple separation in time and space, the languages spread. A related question is it is also due to innovations that have spread the timing of that diffusion. When did speak- across space, affecting some members of the ers of Indo-European tongues first settle family more or less than others (the wave the- in Europe? Based on the similarities among TABLE 5.1. The Languages of Europe, and Number of Speakers, by Region

Northern Europe 28.1 West Central Europe 97.2 Indigenous languages 25.4 (90.4%) Indigenous languages 91.1 (93.7%) Indo-European 19.4 Indo-European 91.06 Germanic 18.0 Germanic 89.3 North Germanic 18.0 West Germanic 89.3 Swedish 8.3 German 89.3 Danish 5.1 Romanic 1.76 Norwegian 4.3 French 1.4 Icelandic 0.26 Italian 0.32 Færoese 0.04 Rhaetian (Romansch) 0.04 Baltic 1.4 Slavic 0.2 Latvian 1.4 West Slavic 0.14 Uralic 6.0 Sorbian 0.14 Fenno-Ugric 6.0 South Slavic 0.06 Fennic 6.0 Slovene 0.03 Finnish 5.0 Croatian 0.03 Estonian 0.95 Uralic 0.04 Saami 0.03 Ugric 0.03 Immigrant languages 2.7 (9.6%) Hungarian 0.04 (Russian, South Slavic, Arabic, Castilian, Iranian, Immigrant languages 6.1 (6.3%) Polish, Turkish) (Turkish, South Slavic, Italian, Kurdish, Greek, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese) Britain and Ireland 62.6 Indigenous languages 61.6 (98.4%) East Central Europe 79.0 Indo-European 61.6 Indigenous languages 75.0 (100.0%) Germanic 60.9 Indo-European 64.2 West Germanic 60.9 Slavic 60.2 English 60.9 West Slavic 53.2 Celtic 0.7 Polish 38.2 Brythonic 0.7 Kashubian 0.2 Welsh 0.56 Czech 9.8 Gaelic 0.14 Slovak 5.0 Irish Gaelic 0.06 South Slavic 6.6 Scots-Gaelic 0.08 Slovenian 1.8 Immigrant languages 1.0 (1.6%) Serbo-Croatian 4.8 (largely Indic languages) East Slavic 0.4 Ukrainian 0.25 Western Europe 84.8 Belorussian 0.15 Indigenous languages 9.3 (93.5%) Baltic 3.0 Indo-European 79.2 Lithuanian 3.0 Romanic 56.0 Germanic 0.8 French 54.0 West Germanic 0.8 Occitan 1.6 German 0.8 Corsican 0.17 Indic 0.2 Catalan 0.21 Romany 0.2 Germanic 22.6 Uralic 10.8 West Germanic 22.6 Fenno-Ugric 10.8 Dutch 20.4 Ugric 10.8 German 0.2 Hungarian 10.8 Alsatian 1.4 Immigrant languages 0.0 (0.0%) Frisian 0.6 Celtic 0.6 Brythonic 0.6 Breton 0.6 Basque 0.1 Immigrant languages 5.5 (6.5%) (Arabic, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, Spanish) (continued)

137 TABLE 5.1. (continued)

Western Mediterranean 107.1 Eastern Europe 208.3 Indigenous languages 106.3 (99.3%) Indigenous languages 206.1 (98.9%) Indo-European 105.7 Indo-European 192.0 Romanic 105.0 Slavic 190.3 Castilian 29.3 East Slavic 190.05 Portuguese 9.9 Russian 147.15 Catalan 6.7 Ukrainian 35.52 Galician 2.5 Belorussian 7.38 Sardinian 1.5 West Slavic 0.09 Italian 54.1 Polish 0.09 Rhaetian (Friulian) 0.7 South Slavic 0.16 French 0.3 Bulgarian 0.16 Germanic 0.3 Romanic 0.45 West Germanic 0.3 Romanian 0.45 German 0.3 Germanic 0.35 Slavic 0.12 West Germanic 0.35 South Slavic 0.12 German 0.35 Slovene 0.12 Iranian 0.37 Illyrian 0.12 Ossetian 0.37 Albanian 0.12 Indic 0.13 Hellenic 0.04 Romany 0.13 Greek 0.04 Armenian 0.35 Indic 0.11 Uralic 3.1 Romany 0.11 Fenno-Ugric 3.06 Basque 0.62 Fennic 2.9 Mordvin 0.74 Immigrant languages 0.9 (0.7%) Mari 0.52 Udmurt 0.50 Balkans 65.0 Komi 0.34 Indigenous languages 63.6 (97.4%) Karelian 0.80 Indo-European 60.46 Ugric 0.16 Slavic 20.7 Hungarian 0.16 South Slavic 20.2 Samoyedic 0.04 Serbo-Croatian 11.5 Altaic 8.2 Macedonian 1.7 Turkic 7.7 Bulgarian 7.0 Tatar 4.7 East Slavic 0.5 Chuvash 1.4 Ukrainian 0.5 Bashkir 1.0 Romanic 23.4 Yakut 0.4 Romanian 23.3 Tuva 0.2 Arumanian (Vlach) 0.1 Mongol 0.5 Germanic 0.1 Buryat 0.35 West Germanic 0.1 Kalmyk 0.15 German 0.1 Hellenic 10.1 Caucasian 2.8 Greek 10.1 Abkhazo-Adyghian 0.5 Illyrian 5.4 Nakh (Chechen-Ingush) 1.1 Albanian 5.4 Dagestani 1.2 Indic 0.76 Immigrant languages 2.2 (1.1%) Romany 0.76 (languages of the former Soviet Union) Uralic 2.0 Fenno-Ugric 2.0 Ugric 2.0 Hungarian 2.0 Altaic 1.14 Turkish 1.0 Gagauz 0.14 Immigrant languages 1.4 (2.2%) (largely Russian)

Note. Data from Encyclopaedia Britannica Staff (1999).

138 5. Language 139 modern members of the family, linguists are was too high to permit such a wholesale lin- agreed that a set of common “proto-Indo- guistic replacement. A new theory stresses European” dialects could not date back over the wave of advance model and identifies the the many thousands of years that the archeo- first Indo-Europeans with the Neolithic farm- logical record tells us modern human beings ers who brought agriculture to Europe from (Homo sapiens sapiens) have lived in Europe. Anatolia beginning about 7000 B.C. This the- Rather, Indo-European speech at some point ory has the advantage of not requiring long- replaced the languages of earlier inhabitants distance migrations and the subjugation of of the region. large agricultural populations by small mil- Two principal models have been advanced itary elites. Rather, the pre-Indo-European to explain how one language can replace an- populations are seen to be Mesolithic hunters other. In one, known as the wave of advance and gatherers whose numbers were very model, a larger and technologically superior much smaller and whose social organization population gradually absorbs another by was far simpler than those of the invading very slowly encroaching on and occupying farmers. Here and there special circum- their territory, replacing the former languages stances may have promoted their survival into with their own. No massive migrations are in- recorded history (i.e., the Etruscans in Italy volved, only local ones at the frontier of the and the Basques in the western Pyrenees), two cultures. The other paradigm, called the but the overwhelming numbers and techno- elite dominance model, also postulates a soci- logical superiority of the agriculturalists won ety with a superior technology but one with, the day for the Indo-Europeans. in addition, a more sophisticated social, politi- This argument is predicated on the as- cal, and military structure, which allows a rel- sumption that agriculture was introduced into atively small group to dominate and impose Europe by people migrating from the Middle their language on a larger one. East and carrying their language with them, a For some decades now the latter model has point about which there is some disagree- been in the ascendancy where the question of ment. While a migration of farmers (demic the origin and spread of Indo-European lan- diffusion) is supported by many, others insist guages is concerned. Attention has focused on the steppe country to the north of the Black Sea where a pastoral nomadic culture has been identified by its particular type of burial mound (the kurgan) in the fourth millennium B.C. This culture can be shown to have expanded its territory over the next 1,500 years or so, something that has been linked to the domestication of the horse and the invention of wheeled chariots. There is some disagree- ment in the dating of all these events, but these Kurgan people have been claimed by many archaeologists to be an Indo-European elite who swept into Europe and wiped out almost all traces of pre-existing languages. More recently doubts have been raised FIGURE 5.1. The origins of Indo-European speech. The Lions’ about this scenario. Some have protested that Gate is one of three important entrances through the southern walls of the social organization of these people at the the Hittite capital of Hattusas in central Anatolia, one of the most elab- time in question was not sufficiently ad- orately fortified cities in the ancient world. The now extinct Hittite lan- vanced to allow them to accomplish these guage is known from texts that date back to the 17th century B.C. This feats. It has also been pointed out that the is the earliest writing that has been found in any Indo-European lan- density of population in Europe at the time guage. 140 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY that it was the idea of plant and animal do- The Hellenic Subfamily mestication, with its associated technology, that was diffused (cultural diffusion) and that The first languages of Europe to achieve a there was little movement of people con- written form belonged to the Hellenic sub- nected with it. family. We can follow the history of the Greek Although archeological evidence cannot language from as early as the 14th century B.C. help us much with this question, the science In that century the Greeks developed a sylla- of genetics can. We have more information bary, a writing system in which symbols rep- about the genetic profiles of modern Euro- resent syllables rather than individual pho- pean populations than we have of any other nemes, as they do in an alphabet. This system, populations in the world. When analyzed known to us as Linear B, was used largely in these data show a remarkable pattern. There inscriptions during the height of the Mycena- is a steady change in the genetic makeup of ean civilization that flourished from the 14th Europeans as one moves from the Balkans to the 12th centuries B.C. When this civiliza- northwestward across the region to the North tion was destroyed a Dark Age descended on Sea. Exactly such a pattern would be ex- the Greek peoples, and writing appears to pected if a Middle Eastern (Anatolian) farm- have dropped out of use until the eighth cen- ing population crossed into Europe, with suc- tury B.C. The new writing system was an al- cessive generations migrating step by step phabetic one, developed by the Greeks on the ever farther from the homeland and absorb- model of an alphabet used among Semitic ing ever increasing numbers of indigenous peoples in the Middle East. One of the major Mesolithics. Beyond this evidence, every- innovations was the introduction of symbols thing we know about hunting and gathering for vowel sounds, which the Semitic alpha- societies in more recent times suggests that bets lacked. This Greek invention has sub- such people strenuously resist the adoption of sequently provided the model for virtually an agricultural economy, which requires a all alphabetic writing systems, including the very different fund of knowledge and set of Latin one. skills. Only prolonged contact with farming The massive Greek literature, which comes populations, involving intermarriage and cul- down to us from the Archaic and classical pe- tural exchange, could bring about the whole- riods (eighth to fourth centuries B.C.), is writ- sale abandonment of a foraging economy for ten in a variety of dialect forms, nearly all of an agrarian one. them mutually intelligible. Inevitably, how- The association of Indo-European peoples ever, the prestige of Athenian literature and with the establishment of agriculture also the political supremacy achieved by Athens makes the development of the distinctive meant that the language of this city and the subfamilies of the language group more un- region of Attica in which it was located rose to derstandable. The language of the Neolithic dominance. This was the Greek that was then farmers must have undergone much change imposed on much of the eastern Mediterra- during the long, slow process of colonization. nean by the conquests of Alexander the Great. Regional differences would have arisen in From the fourth century B.C. to the sixth cen- part simply because of spatial separation and tury A.D. this language, known as the Koine or the diffusion of linguistic innovations from Hellenistic Greek, reigned supreme in the different centers, but also because of the cities of the east. Even after the region fell incorporation of elements of the various under the authority of the Roman Empire, Mesolithic languages encountered (substrata). Greek persisted as the everyday speech of ur- Our task now is to examine the emergence of banites, the language in which virtually all the six subfamilies whose homes are in Eu- business and administration was conducted. rope and the development within them of the Although remaining firmly rooted in the Attic standard languages spoken by modern Euro- dialect, the Koine absorbed many foreign ele- peans. ments, especially vocabulary from Latin. 5. Language 141

After the fall of Rome and the Empire in The result was, of course, that every Greek, the west, the center of Christian civilization in order to be literate, had to learn two lan- shifted to Constantinople, the city that the guages. This was hardship enough, but an- emperor Constantine had founded on the site other difficulty arose as Demotic Greek came of the Greek colony of Byzantium. This city, to be identified with liberal, left-wing causes, which gradually reassumed its former name, while the Katharevusa was seen as symbolic remained the champion of eastern Christian of conservative, right-wing thinking. Follow- civilization until its fall to the Turks in 1453. ing the fall of the military dictatorship, which The Koine continued to be the official lan- had carried the nurturing of the Katharevusa guage and usual speech of the Empire, but a to absurd levels, the decision was finally made gulf began to develop between its written to abandon the system of two languages. In form and the way in which it was commonly 1976 a law was passed which proclaimed De- spoken. The normal change that was taking motic Greek, now known as Modern Greek, place in the spoken language was decried to be the single official language of the coun- by purists, called Atticists, as linguistic deca- try. The change was not brought about with- dence. Under their influence the formal writ- out pain, however. Besides the difficulties of ten language, Byzantine Greek, became char- teaching and using the spoken standard as a acterized by a rather strict adherence to the written language, fears were widely voiced Archaic forms of classical Greek. In this way a that the language was being vulgarized and tradition of diglossia (from the Greek, mean- impoverished. Today most of these obstacles ing “two tongues”) developed that, as we will have been overcome, but, as is the case with see, resurfaced in the last century and has most small languages, there is apprehension plagued the Greeks until quite recently. about the future of the Greek vocabulary in With the fall of the city of Byzantium, the light of the pervasive influence of the major last of the Greek peoples passed under Turk- international languages, especially English, ish rule, and none would know independence but also French and German. again until 1830, when the first Kingdom of Greece emerged in the Peloponnese and the The Romanic Subfamily lands to the north of the Gulf of Corinth. The new state required a standard language in The second European language of which we which to conduct its affairs, but little Greek have written evidence is Latin. The Latin lan- had been written in the four centuries since guage is a member of the Italic subfamily of the disappearance of the Empire. While the Indo-European and was originally spoken by spoken language remained alive and well, in- small groups of people living in the lower Ti- evitably considerable divergence in speech ber Valley near the present city of Rome. As patterns had occurred, and the newly inde- these people grew more powerful they came pendent Greek state was presented with an to dominate the other peoples of the Italian array of dialects but no national language. It peninsula, and their language supplanted the was at this point that the notion of diglossia others of its group. With the expansion of Ro- was revived. While a standard spoken form man power beyond Italy, Latin was intro- (Demotic Greek) arose, based largely on the duced as a second language in lands where dialects of the Peloponnese, the national liter- quite different tongues were spoken. In most ary language, the Katharevusa, or “purified parts of the western Empire it ultimately language,” was modeled on classical Greek. came to replace these languages; in the east, The latter became the medium of law and ad- however, it could not compete with the firmly ministration, of education and publication, in- established Greek language. deed of all official, public, and prestigious do- The Romanic languages of today, then, may mains of social life. Even newspapers were be regarded as modern forms of Latin. The published in a simplified version of the Ka- differences among them are the result of (1) tharevusa. the different speech forms upon which Latin 142 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 5.2. Romanic Europe. was imposed (the substrata), (2) the different It is not easy to classify the Romanic lan- varieties of spoken Latin that were introduced guages, and linguists are divided on the ques- (e.g., educated versus more popular speech tion of what the relationships among them patterns) and (3) the different languages that are. It is usual to make a first distinction be- were superimposed on the Latin-speaking tween a western and an eastern group, the peoples by the (largely Germanic) invaders boundary passing across the Italian peninsula who brought about the fall of the Empire in just to the north of Florence. The differences the west (the superstrata). The diffusion of between these two groups of speech forms are Latin speech is, then, an excellent example of usually explained by the persistence of Latin the elite dominance model of language re- schools in the west, giving the language there placement. a more correct character that contrasts with Because we have Latin texts from the sixth the rather popular speech of the east. century B.C., we know more about the history As for the modern standards, it is generally of the Romanic languages than we do about agreed that Italian stands closest to the origi- that of most of the other subfamilies. It must nal Latin and is the most central, that is, most be emphasized, however, that these languages easily intelligible to other Romanic speakers. have descended from colloquial Latin, not It arose in the 13th and 14th centuries as the from the classical written or oratorical forms literary language of the city of Florence, the of the language. Indeed it was probably not center of the Italian Renaissance. Its use by until the eighth or ninth century A.D. that peo- writers such as Dante and Boccaccio gave ple began to notice that the language they it great prestige. Subsequently this language were speaking was different from that of the has been greatly modified, borrowing heavily Classical texts. By the 12th century deliberate from classical Latin and, more recently, efforts were being made to write down the adopting features of the dialect of Rome, vernaculars, and from this time we must date which became the national capital in 1870 fol- the beginnings of standardization. lowing Italian unification. 5. Language 143

Standing farthest from Latin and least in- The Ibero-Romanic languages, Spanish, telligible to other speakers of Romanic lan- Portuguese, and Catalan, owe their origins to guages is French, in great part because of the the Reconquista, the reconquest of the Ibe- radically altered sound system. The standard rian Peninsula from the Muslims by the is based on the speech of Paris, one of the so- Christian kingdoms of the north. This “cru- called Francien dialects spoken in the Île de sade” dominated the region’s history during France. It is not entirely clear why linguis- the Middle Ages, lasting from the 8th century tic change was so rapid and far-reaching in to the end of the 15th. After the Moorish inva- northern France, but clearly the Germanic sion in 711, Muslim authority was established language of the Franks, who organized the everywhere in the peninsula except the far early state, played some role. Francien was north. Arabic became the official language in not a prestigious literary language in the Mid- this area and was adopted by many Latin dle Ages, taking a backseat to both the Nor- speakers, some of whom also converted to Is- man French that was carried to the British lam (muwallads). By the 14th century six vari- Isles and to Picard. It was the Edict of Villers- eties of colloquial Latin could be identified on Cotterêts in 1569 that firmly established Pari- the peninsula. Across the north from west to sian Francien as the sole official language of east the distinctive dialects were Galician, the country. Asturo-Leonese, Castilian, Aragonese, and During the 17th and 18th centuries the Catalan. In the Muslim lands a curious form French grammar and vocabulary were strictly of Latin was spoken by people who, although codified, producing a highly precise tool for they had remained Christian, had nonetheless communication but allowing for little individ- adopted the dress and customs of their Arab ual deviation from the rules. The French revo- neighbors. They were called Mozarabs, from lutionaries who gained power at the close of the Arabic word for “arabized,” and we know the 18th century regarded as subversive the the dialect they spoke as Mozarabic. continued existence of dialects, patois, and The reconquest of the western part of the regional languages. To rid France of mul- peninsula was launched from both León and tilingualism, the central authorities attempted Galicia, but ultimately the latter took the up- to make the use of anything but the official per hand, spreading Galician Latin to the form of French unacceptable, even shameful. south. In the east it was the Aragonese and Compulsory schooling was introduced in part the Catalans, politically unified in the 12th to “Frenchify” the nation’s children. Even the century, who led the crusade. In the center Catholic Church abandoned sermons and re- the initial base was León, but the Castilians ligious instruction in regional languages. By soon took control, and it was their tongue, the the late 19th century most French citizens most deviant of all the Ibero-Romanic speech could use the standard language. Some dia- forms, that was carried into central and south- lects were still preserved for use in the home, ern Spain. As the Mozarabic population was but this practice was strongly discouraged by absorbed into the expanding Christian king- the authorities. doms, a very large number of words that they Only since the 1990s has there been a had borrowed from Arabic passed into the movement to preserve or recover regional languages of the north. These were primarily languages in France. A governmental decision the names of things about which they had in 1995, responding to a growing demand for learned while living under Arab rule. They teaching in regional languages, has made it were terms dealing with administration and possible for local authorities to organize in- the organization of society, with commerce, struction in the form of bilingual regional lan- agriculture, and industry, and with science guage courses. Seven regional languages are and warfare. At the same time most of the now taught in France—Basque, Breton, Cata- map of Spain was renamed in Arabic (e.g., the lan, Corsican, Creole, Gallo, and Occitan. En- river Guadalquivir—from the Arabic wadi al rollments, however, are low. kabir [river the great one]). 144 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 5.3. The Reconquista.

Castilian was standardized during the 16th that position in the mid-18th century and suf- and 17th centuries in Toledo. It became the fered great discrimination from the end of the official language of Castilian Spain, was ex- Spanish Civil War to the mid-1970s, a 40-year ported in its Andalusian form to the New period during which the central government World and, after 1759, supplanted Catalan as under Franco did everything it could to re- the official language in the Aragonese part of press the regions, including the banning from the country. The rise of Portuguese out of public use of vernacular regional languages. the Galician dialect was the result of the re- Recognized by the new Spanish Constitution conquest of Lisbon in 1147 and the conse- of 1978 as a language with the same status as quent establishment of an independent king- Spanish, it is now the official language of the dom of Portugal. The language developed its Autonomous Region of Catalonia and of the own identity and standard form during the principality of Andorra. golden years of Portuguese expansion over- Five minor Romanic languages are also seas, growing away from its parent Galician spoken in western Europe. By far the largest tongue (Galego), which sank to the status of is Occitan, still used by about 15 million peo- a backwater dialect. Since the 18th century ple in the southern part of France. In the 12th there has been a revival of interest in Galego, century this language was the vehicle of a rich which, in spite of the invasion of Castilian poetic literature and a flourishing culture, forms, is still best viewed as a dialect of Por- which was quite distinct from that of northern tuguese. With the union of Aragon and France. It was crushed, however, by the Pa- Catalonia in 1137, Catalan became the official pacy and the French Crown, who launched a language of the new kingdom, though it lost crusade (1208–1229) against the Cathar her- 5. Language 145 esy, which had gained wide popularity in the is produced in several of the dialects. Un- region. Nonetheless the standard language like Ladin and Friulian, Romansch resembles had sufficient prestige to survive into the French more than Italian. 16th century. Thereafter it deteriorated into a Romanian is the only Romanic standard to group of local dialects and gradually retreated be spoken in eastern Europe. Although the before standard French, especially after the precise origins of the Romanians’ linguistic Revolution. A literary revival in the mid-19th ancestors are debated, they were clearly a century led to the establishment of a modern non-Hellenized Balkan population (Illyrian, standard based on the dialect of the Arles– Thracian, or Dacian) who came under strong Avignon region. Medieval Occitan was very Roman influence when large numbers of im- close to Catalan, and until the crusade against perial troops were stationed among them in the Cathars the two speech areas had close an effort to more adequately fortify the north- political and economic ties. Over the years, eastern frontier. The language differs signifi- however, Occitan has grown nearer to French cantly from those of the Romanic west in that while Catalan has approached Castilian, and it retains many odd features of Latin grammar the classification of the two languages is now (though Portuguese does this as well) and very much in question. in that its superstratum is not Germanic The language still spoken by most of the but rather Slavic. Indeed, Slavic loanwords population living on the island of Sardinia is abound in the vocabulary, as do, to a lesser completely unintelligible to most Italians and degree, those from Hungarian and Turkish. is generally regarded as a separate language. The standard was developed in the 17th cen- As a written language for official matters, tury and includes features from a number Catalan replaced Sardinian when the island of dialects, though the Bucharest idiom now came under Aragonese rule in 1322. Later predominates. In the 19th century many for- Castilian and, more recently, Italian became eign loanwords were replaced by borrowings the official languages. Today there is virtually from French in an effort to more thoroughly no literature published in Sardinian, not even Romanize the language. Romanian is the offi- a newspaper, and the only “standard” is a nor- cial language today in both Romania and the malized dialect form used in folk poetry. newly independent state of Moldova. His- The other three minor Romanic languages torically the language has been written in the in the west are often grouped together under Cyrillic alphabet, as it still is in Moldova, the rubric “Rhaetian.” Two, Ladin and Friu- but after the principalities of Wallachia and lian, are spoken in northeastern Italy, while Moldavia were united in 1859 the Latin script the third, Romansch, is used in the eastern- was adopted for the new kingdom of Roma- most Swiss canton of Graubunden (Grissons). nia. The former two have been heavily influenced Two minor Romanic languages are also spo- by local Italian speech, and some scholars ken in the Balkans. The Aromanian dialects, prefer to consider them members of the Vene- found in Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia, and tian dialect group. Friulian is spoken by more Bulgaria, are related to Romanian but cannot than 700,000 people and has a vigorous local be understood by speakers of that language. literature. Ladin has only about 20,000 speak- Literary texts have been published in dialect ers and is used as a language of instruction in form since the 19th century. Many of the Jews the first two years of some elementary schools expelled from Spain in 1492 found their way in various dialect forms. Since 1938 Ro- into the lands of the eastern Mediterranean. mansch, though the mother tongue of fewer These “Sephardim” preserved the medieval than 50,000 people, has been recognized as Spanish they had spoken in their homeland, the fourth national language of Switzerland. It and many Balkan Jews use it today as a lan- is used only in the cantonal government, but guage of the home and of religion. The stan- it supports five newspapers. There is no Ro- dard literary version is known as Ladino, but mansch standard, but a lively local literature most speakers use forms that are considerably 146 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY different and are better called Judeo-Spanish was spoken in Britain and Ireland. The for- or Sephardi. mer was submerged by other languages, mainly Latin, but it may be traced in a few in- The Celtic Subfamily scriptions, and vestiges of its vocabulary remain in some modern Romanic languages, es- The ancient Greeks and their students, the pecially French. Insular Celtic has given rise Romans, were good geographers. They were to the four Celtic languages that survive to- keen observers of the world around them, and day, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, which belong they have left many accounts of the peoples to the Goidelic, or Gaelic branch, and Breton who inhabited the region they called Europe. and Welsh, which constitute the Brythonic, or Among these were tribes that, in Athenian British, branch. All are spoken by small num- times, lived in central Europe and spoke lan- bers of people today, and their survival over guages belonging to the Celtic subfamily the long term is in question. In Britain and of Indo-European. We can’t be sure that all Ireland the Celtic tongues fell victim to the the peoples the Greeks called Keltoi and the expansion of political domination from Lon- Romans called Galatae spoke tongues ances- don, which promoted the use of the English tral to what we now understand as Celtic lan- language. Breton has suffered the same kind guages. The science of linguistics was not of competition from French, with the political highly developed then. Probably most were, ascendancy of the Paris region. however, as the river names of their homeland Of the four, Irish Gaelic (Erse) has the lon- (Rhine, Main, Tauber, etc.) reveal today. The gest written tradition. It begins in the fourth material cultures of the Celts are well known century A.D. with the inscriptions on stone to us today in the Bronze Age Urnfield and monuments carved in the ogham alphabetic Iron Age Hallstatt and La Tène complexes. script. There is no agreement about the origin The Celts were to fall on hard times, how- of this writing system. Some scholars see a ever. Many scholars feel that an abrupt connection with the runic alphabet of the change in climatic conditions bringing colder Germanic peoples; others would have it de- winters and cooler, wetter summers during rived from the Latin alphabet. The latter ap- the last half of the first millennium B.C. caused pears with the conversion of the Irish to a massive outmigration of Germanic peoples Christianity in the fifth century, and from this from Scandinavia to the North European time the rich Irish oral tradition was put into plain, displacing much of the Celtic popula- writing. Viking activity in Ireland led to the tion. Place names show that they migrated adoption of some Scandinavian words, but the into eastern Europe (Galicia in Poland), to largest contribution of loanwords to the Irish Anatolia (Galatia), and to Iberia (Galicia in vocabulary came from the Anglo-Normans. Spain). By far the largest number, however, By the end of the Middle Ages a highly stan- settled in France (Gaul) and in Britain and dardized literary norm was well established. Ireland. In Gaul it was their fate to be con- With the consolidation of English power in quered and Latinized by the Romans. In Brit- Ireland in the early 17th century, Irish be- ain some were Romanized, but most were came the language of an oppressed people. It driven into the western and northern high- was not taught in schools, nor was there an lands and some across the Channel to Brit- Irish-speaking upper class to support a lit- tany by the invading Germanic Anglo-Saxons. erature. Children from Irish-speaking homes In Ireland the Celts remained undisturbed were even made to wear “tally sticks” around by foreign populations until the late Middle their necks in school, on which they received Ages. notches for every time they spoke Irish. The Linguists distinguish between Continental number of notches determined the severity of Celtic, the languages of those peoples known their punishment at the end of the day. After to the classical writers as Keltoi (Greek) and the famine of the mid-19th century, which hit Galatae (Roman), and Insular Celtic, which the Irish-speaking west especially hard, the 5. Language 147

FIGURE 5.4. Celtic and Germanic Europe.

portion of Ireland’s population using Irish as a the spoken language began to diverge sig- mother tongue declined to less than a quarter nificantly from Irish usage, both because it and became most prominently lodged in absorbed features of the British Celtic lan- the remote western fringes of the island (the guages that had been spoken there previously Gaeltacht). and because, like colonial languages every- Until just recently, the number of native where, it preserved some archaic forms that speakers has continued to drop despite at- were lost in the home country. By the 15th tempts at revival, the introduction of a new century the two languages were no longer written standard since 1945, and the estab- mutually comprehensible, and it is at this lishment of Irish as the country’s first official time that a separate Scottish written standard language and as a compulsory language in all began to emerge. schools. The recent turnaround is due to the The language was always at a disadvantage, fact that the language has become fashion- however, because Scottish national culture able. A new interest in Irish culture and lan- developed in the Lowlands where a dialect of guage, helped along in part by the popularity English called Lallans was spoken. This lan- of Irish rock groups and musicians who have guage became the vehicle of Scottish culture, begun to sing the language, has made spoken not Gaelic, which was largely relegated to a Irish trendy today among young people. peripheral position in the Highlands. On the Irish settlers carried the Gaelic language to other hand, Scottish Gaels became more liter- Scotland in the early sixth century. Although ate than their Irish cousins because, as Prot- the Irish literary norm was used in Scotland, estants, they read the Bible in their native 148 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY language and used the vernacular in religious other theory, more recently advanced, holds services. Still, unlike Irish, Scots Gaelic has that the local (Gallic) idiom may merely have no official position in its country, and the re- undergone a fundamental change as the result cent literary revival finds its adherents not of strong cultural influences emanating from among the native speakers of the Highlands Britain, with relatively few migrants being in- and Islands, but among their cousins who volved. have moved to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Breton is the last among the extant Celtic In contrast to Gaelic, British Celtic was languages to be standardized. Not until 1920 heavily Romanized, and Latin continued to was this task undertaken, and it resulted in enjoy high prestige even after the withdrawal the adoption of two norms, each based on one of the Roman legions in 410 A.D. It was Irish of the two major dialectal groupings. This monks who, in the ninth century, introduced long delay is largely the result of French lin- the custom of writing down the vernacular. A guistic policy, which has aggressively discour- written standard began to develop in the 14th aged the daily use of any language other century and was fixed by the translation of the than standard French. Today, a small group of Bible into Welsh in 1588. The political union educated people, known as the Diwan (“the with England in 1536, however, proved a di- sprouting of the seed” in Breton) Association, saster for the language in that it was deprived promotes the preservation of the language of its official status in the country. By the 18th through the establishment of bilingual century, although the vast majority of the courses in local schools. Interest, however, re- Welsh people spoke their native tongue, al- mains slight. The majority of Bretons are liter- most none was literate in it. The language was ate only in French. saved by the Methodist revival, embraced widely in Wales, which encouraged the laity The Germanic Subfamily to read the Bible and other religious literature in Welsh, and established schools that greatly We noted earlier that the Celts appear to have raised the level of literacy in the language. been displaced from their homeland in west- The literary norm, however, differed greatly central Europe about the middle of the first from the spoken forms in daily use and was millennium B.C. by Germanic tribes coming rarely heard outside the church, chapel, or from the north. The Germanic subfamily of lecture hall. In recent years, though, there Indo-European languages probably origi- has been a great improvement in the official nated in the southern part of Scandinavia and status of Welsh. It is used as a language the lands along the south coasts of the North of instruction, may be heard on radio and and Baltic Seas. television, and appears in magazines and Using both linguistic and archeological evi- newspapers. Of all the Celtic standards it has dence, five fairly distinct dialect groups may the most secure future. be discerned by the third century B.C. The Just as the Gaelic form of Celtic was carried north Germanic peoples occupied the south- to Scotland from Ireland, so the British form ern part of the Scandinavian peninsula. They was borne to Brittany (little Britain) from subsequently spread westward across the Cornwall. Thus, Breton has close affinities Danish islands and Jutland, and their linguis- with Welsh and with the now extinct Cornish tic descendants today are the Scandinavians language. One popular theory has been that and the Icelanders. The North Sea Germans the language was carried across the English also moved to the west, many settling in Brit- Channel by large numbers of emigrants from ain, where they displaced a Romano-Celtic Cornwall in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. population. These peoples spoke tongues an- who displaced the native Gauls and their cestral to modern English and Frisian. Two Continental Celtic speech. This mass migra- other groups, one living between the Rhine tion is seen as resulting from pressure exerted and Weser Rivers and the second located in by the Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain. An- the valley of the Elbe, spread southward, oc- 5. Language 149 cupying a large territory from the North Eu- early 16th century just before the victory of ropean Plain into the Alps and even beyond. the Reformation, which demanded access by Their heritage is the large family of Nether- all to the religious literature in the vernacular. landic-German speech forms heard today In Norway the situation was more compli- from the Netherlands to Austria and still in cated. Under Danish rule since the 14th cen- some areas farther east. The east Germanic tury, Norway was declared an integral part of peoples crossed the Baltic from their early Denmark in 1536, and Danish became the homeland in southern Scandinavia, settled language of church and state. In Oslo (re- briefly in the lower Vistula valley, then moved named Christiania), the administrative center, to the shores of the Black Sea and gradually a kind of Danish came to be used as the spo- infiltrated the crumbling Roman Empire. ken language, but it was pronounced using Here they adopted Latin speech, their Ger- native Norwegian sounds and included a manic tongues preserved only as superstrata number of words and constructions that were in some of the Romanic languages. native. By the early 19th century, when Nor- Until the end of the Viking Age (ca. 1050) way won its independence from Denmark the dialects of North Germanic were rela- and passed into a crown union with Sweden, tively similar, and people from widely sepa- the spoken standard was a kind of hybrid rated areas in Scandinavia probably had little “Dano-Norwegian.” As a written language difficulty understanding one another. By the this standard came to be known as riksmål end of this period, however, it is possible to or bokmål, the national or literary language. discern the beginnings of a distinction be- This was unacceptable to many nationalists tween West Norse speech patterns, used in who were pressing hard for an independent Norway west of the mountain divide, in the Norwegian identity and proclaimed that the Færoes and in Iceland, and East Norse forms national language should be untainted by used in eastern Norway, Sweden, and Den- Danicisms. Accordingly, an effort was made to mark. This split deepened in the Late Middle collect words and grammatical forms from the Ages, when one can differentiate between a rural dialects of western Norway, which, it deeply conservative Insular Norse spoken in was thought, preserved elements of the medi- the Atlantic and a much more innovative Con- eval Norwegian language that had been oblit- tinental Norse (or Scandinavian) used on the erated by centuries of Danish rule. The result mainland. The final contrast developed within was a constructed language that was first Scandinavian speech during the High Middle called landmål, the language of the country, Ages as basic changes in the Danish sound but later came to be known as “New Norwe- system caused the spoken Danish language to gian” (nynorsk). For some time these two Nor- move away from that of Norway and Sweden. wegian standards did battle, bokmål with its The four modern Scandinavian standards— supporters in Oslo and the east country, ny- Danish, Swedish, and two Norwegian norsk strong in Bergen and the west country. forms—are largely the result of political Efforts to bring the two together have as yet events in the region. Scandinavians can read yielded no definite results, but bokmål, the each other’s languages without much diffi- dominant language and the one taught as culty; and, except between Danes and the a foreign language abroad, has become less others, conversation presents few problems Danish in the process. given good will on both sides. If Scandinavian Like Norway, both Iceland and the Færoes political history had been more like that of came under Danish control in the 14th cen- Germany, where multitudes of independent tury. As in Norway Danish was also intro- states were unified only in the 19th century, duced as the language of secular and ecclesi- there might be a single Scandinavian standard astical administration. However, in Iceland, today. The rise of separate Danish and Swed- although Danish became a required subject ish languages is a consequence of the estab- in the schools, it never replaced the native id- lishment of two independent states in the iom as the standard written or spoken lan- 150 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY guage. Of all the medieval vernacular litera- nent members. This language never reached tures of Europe, the Icelandic is by far the maturity, however, because by the 17th cen- richest. Unlike medieval Norwegian, it was tury the Hansa had been outcompeted in the far too well established, and too different, to Baltic by the English and Dutch and was be ousted by a Scandinavian tongue. Modern in rapid decline. Instead it was Noord Hol- Icelandic preserves Old Norse grammar al- land, with its mercantile center of Amster- most intact, and an Icelandic schoolchild to- dam, which rose to prominence, spawning a day can read the old sagas with minimal help. Low German standard, which has come down In equipping the language for modern use to us as Netherlandic (Algemeen Beschaafd Icelandic linguists have eschewed interna- Nederlands). This serves today as the official tional terms such as “telephone,” substituting language of the Netherlands and of the Flem- native constructions instead, for example, ish (Netherlandic-speaking) parts of Belgium. talsími (talking wire). Standard written German (Hochdeutsch) is No literary tradition developed in the based on the language that Martin Luther Færoe Islands during the Middle Ages, and used in his translation of the Bible (1522– Danish made stronger inroads into society 1534). Luther was a theologian at the Univer- there. When a standard was developed in the sity of Wittenberg and a favorite of the Duke middle of the 19th century many Danish loan- of Saxony. The language he employed in his words were retained. Nonetheless, the choice translation was that current at the Duke’s of an orthography close to that of Icelandic court, a form of East Middle German. Be- emphasizes its close relationship to that lan- cause of the great popularity of Luther’s Bible guage, and Færoese is equally difficult for a in the Protestant German lands, printers pre- Scandinavian to learn. Since the establish- ferred to use this idiom in other works as well ment of home rule for the Færoes in 1948 the in order to reach the widest possible audi- language is the principal one used for instruc- ence, and over the years it has developed tion in the schools. into a quite uniform standard used across all The Germanic speakers who first settled in of German-speaking Europe. In contrast to the valleys of the Rhine, Weser, and Elbe and France, local dialects are alive and well in the then moved south gave rise to the myriad German-speaking lands, and even the spoken speech forms sometimes called Continental standard (Hochsprache) may be heard with West Germanic. Significant differentiation quite variable accents, although the Low Ger- within this speech area began in the sixth cen- man sounds of the Hanoverian dialect are tury when a series of sound shifts occurred in preferred. In many urban areas a more collo- the south and then spread north, some reach- quial German (Umgangssprache) is used. ing farther than others. The result was the es- Three distinctive dialects have attained the tablishment of four main dialect regions: a position of spoken standards in communities southern one in which a much altered Upper outside of Germany. Luxembourgish (Lëtze- German prevailed, a northern one where a lit- buergisch) and Alsatian, the latter spoken in tle-changed Low German speech was heard France, are both West Middle German dia- and, in between, a West Middle German re- lects. Swiss German (Svitzertütsch), an upper gion in the middle Rhine–Main valleys and an German variety, is the majority language in East Middle German region in Upper Saxony Switzerland. where some sound shifts had occurred but not The language of the Ashkenazi Jews, Yid- others. dish, developed out of a variant of West Mid- The growth of trade in the Middle Ages un- dle German during the Middle Ages when der the hegemony of the Hanseatic League many Jews lived in the valleys of the Rhine promoted an early standard based on the Low and Main and were active in commerce, German of the south Baltic coast where banking, and money lending. Its vocabulary Lübeck was the leading city and other towns has, however, been strongly influenced by the such as Rostock and Stralsund were promi- Jewish ritual language, Hebrew, and by Slavic 5. Language 151 languages after the massive migrations of Germanic word was lost, but in others it was Jews from Germany into eastern Europe retained in a somewhat different meaning. brought about by the persecutions that Thus the word for “to die” (modern German followed the Black Death. This history has sterben) was preserved but came to mean to yielded the basic dialectal division between die in a particular way, that is, “to starve.” Western Yiddish, spoken largely within the Hard on the Scandinavian invasions came German language area, and Eastern Yiddish, that of the Normans, themselves originally which developed in the Slavic-speaking re- Norsemen but by 1066 thoroughly Latinized. gion. The early literary tradition had a strong Norman settlement did not involve large Germanic bias, but the modern standard has a numbers of colonists but rather was largely distinctly Eastern Yiddish base. restricted to the nobility, to whom the new The Germanic dialects carried to Britain in Norman monarch granted most of the estates the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. were mainly in the land. Norman French thus became the of the North Sea variety, though other ele- language of the elite, while English remained ments were certainly present. The various the speech of the common people. For several linguistic communities settled in different centuries England was a bilingual country, parts of the island, and by the eighth century and many people of all classes learned to use four distinct dialect areas may be identified: both languages. Inevitably the two forms of Northumbria in the north, Mercia in the speech began to influence each other, and by center and east, Kent in the southeast, and the 14th century English contained a very Wessex (kingdom of the West Saxons) in the large number of French words, especially southwest. Although Northumbria took the in the areas of government, law, military early lead in literary activity, this advantage life, fashions, food, and hunting—in short, the was lost with the Viking attacks and subse- realm of the elite. Some scholars have quent Norse settlement in the north and east. suggested that up to 75% of the original Cultural leadership passed to Wessex, and it Germanic vocabulary may have been lost. was in Winchester, the center of King Alfred’s Where it was retained, however, the addition realm in the late ninth century, that the great of French and Scandinavian words has given works of the Old English period were written. English a richness of vocabulary that few This Old English “standard” was thoroughly other languages can match. Thus, an English West Germanic in grammar and vocabulary speaker can “wish” for something (West Ger- and is more easily read today by German than manic), “want” it (North Germanic), or “de- by English students. sire” it (French). Norse settlement in the eastern portions of Gradually the ties between the Norman no- Britain did much to change the English lan- bility and their compatriots across the chan- guage. How many Scandinavians actually col- nel weakened, and the long series of wars be- onized the Danelaw, as their territory north of tween 1337 and 1453 caused much enmity the Thames came to be called, is a matter of between the English and French courts. In dispute, but because the Norse and English 1362 the Statute of Pleading was passed, di- dialects were still rather close, words could recting that all court proceedings thereafter easily pass from one to the other without be conducted only in English. A standard the presence of very large numbers of immi- written form of English now began to evolve grants. The borrowings from North Germanic out of the dialects in the East Midlands. The during this period are therefore impressive. prestige of these speech forms rested on the Nouns as common as egg, husband, knife, law, fact that London had been established as the root, sky, and window, verbs such as call, die, clear capital of the kingdom and Oxford and drown, rid, thrive, and want and even the Cambridge were leading centers of scholar- personal pronouns they, their, and them are ship. In the 1390s Chaucer used this new all Scandinavian contributions to the English Middle English to write Canterbury Tales, as language. In many cases the original West did Wycliffe in his late 14th-century transla- 152 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY tion of the Bible. This is the language, vastly By then the acceptance of Netherlandic and different from the Old English of Wessex, that Hochdeutsch as the standards of the Friesian has evolved into the modern English stan- communities was too far advanced to be re- dard. versed, however, and although a standard Spoken English varies enormously across form of West Frisian exists today it is little Britain and Ireland. Since the late 19th cen- used. tury, speaking properly has meant using the Received Pronunciation (RP). Fostered by the The Balto-Slavonic Subfamily public (read “private”) schools, it was the traditional voice of the British Broadcasting Cor- The Baltic and Slavic languages share many poration and is based on the educated speech features, including quite archaic ones, sug- of the southeastern part of England. Still, esti- gesting that their speakers have been in close mates today place the number of RP users at contact over a very long period of time. In the just 3% of the population. Regional and class second millennium B.C. the Balts inhabited a accents are alive and well, and the English relatively large territory north of the Pripet still judge others very largely on the way they River, while the Slavs lived in a rather more speak. As Henry Higgins put it in George compact area to the south. As they moved Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, “The moment an north to the coast of the Baltic Sea and east to Englishman opens his mouth, another Eng- the upper Dnepr, the Baltic peoples spread lishman despises him.” themselves thinly on the ground, favoring the Besides accents, however, true dialects early development of very different dialects. have survived. One that has also attained a The Slavs, on the other hand, remained lin- written form is Lowland Scottish (Lallans), guistically quite unified for a long time after the speech of most Scots and the vehicle of the Balts began to disperse. Scottish culture. It not only has sounds that Slavic pressure from the south and east and are strikingly different from those of the RP, the advance of German settlement from the but it also preserves many more loanwords west resulted in many Balts losing their lan- from Scandinavian as well as quite a number guage and culture. The westernmost of the from Scottish Gaelic. The dialects of North- thinly spread Balts, who spoke a language ern Ireland are transitional between Lallans known as Old Prussian, were overwhelmed in and Southern Irish. The latter has also the late Middle Ages by eastward-moving achieved the status of a literary language and Germans. By the early 18th century only the bears the strong imprint of Irish Gaelic in Lithuanians and the Latvians remained. In some of its grammatical structures. English neither case had a standard language arisen, was, of course, also imposed on the British although there had been literary forms since Celts. Spoken Welsh English is also highly the 16th century. The medieval Grand Duchy distinctive, but its impact on the written lan- of Lithuania had employed Polish, Latin, and guage has been less than in the case of Lallans Belorussian as official languages, while the or Southern Irish. Latvians had been under the rule of German The closest relative of English, Frisian, has, landlords since the 13th century. Modern offi- of course, been far less successful than its big cial standards for both languages were only brother. Once spoken all along the southern developed after World War I in conjunction littoral of the North Sea, it is now confined with the postwar establishment of the inde- to the Dutch province of Friesland (West pendent states of Lithuania and Latvia. Lithu- Friesian) and a few isolated districts in Ger- anian preserves many archaic features, giving many (North and East Friesian). A literary it special importance in the study of compara- language from the 11th to the 16th centuries, tive Indo-European linguistics. Friesian then ceased to be written until the Of all the European tongues, the Slavic 19th-century Romantic Movement caused a have been the last to undergo divergence. revival of interest in the regional culture. Unlike the Balts, the Slavic peoples remained 5. Language 153

FIGURE 5.5. Balto-Slavonic Europe. in place for a considerable time, and did not almost all linked by transitional dialects that begin to divide until roughly 200 A.D. This grade imperceptibly into each other, as in the means that some form of Proto-Slavic speech Romanic and Netherlandic-German worlds. was common to all groups at a relatively late Divergence occurred as Slavic peoples be- date. Individual languages probably did not gan to wander outward from their original emerge until as late as the 10th century. Al- homeland south of the Pripet Marshes. Three though the standards are distinctive, they are major groups emerged from these wander- 154 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 5.6. The politics of language. For Baltic Europe, independence from Soviet rule has meant that Russian has ceased to be an official language. All citizens, including ethnic Russians still living in Latvia, must now conduct their business in Latvian. On this road sign outside the city of Riga in Latvia, the Russian place names have been painted over, leaving only the Lat- vian place names to guide travelers to their destinations. ings: an eastern group, which spread out over Romanians to the east. Even so, there are pal- the eastern portions of the North European pable similarities between Slovenian dialects Plain and eventually gave rise to the Russian, and those spoken in the Czech Republic and Belorussian, and Ukrainian languages; a Slovakia. southern group that wandered across the Car- The location of the Slavic peoples on the pathians and Danube into the Balkans, recog- boundary between the Byzantine and Roman nizable today as speakers of Slovenian, Serbo- Christian worlds has had a profound impact of Croatian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian; and a the development of their written languages. western group that initially stayed home but In an effort to counteract the influence of then moved west into areas vacated by Ger- the Western Christian Church, the Orthodox mans and Balts. The western group eventu- brothers Cyril and Methodius were invited as ally spread as far west as the Elbe, but was missionaries into the state of Great Moravia later driven back again during the late Middle (modern Czech Republic) in the ninth cen- Ages by the eastward expansion of Germans. tury. They developed a form of written Slavic From this group derive the modern West that came to be called Church Slavonic and Slavic languages of Polish, Czech, and Slovak. was written in an alphabet that, in a variety of The greatest linguistic differences are be- forms, is known today as Cyrillic. Church Sla- tween the South Slavic languages, on the one vonic was adapted to local speech patterns, hand, and the West and East Slavic ones, on which were still very close, and was used the other. Here a wedge was driven through throughout the Slavic world. After the Schism Slavic territory by the advance of the Ger- between Eastern and Western Christianity mans into Bavaria and Austria, by the sudden and the beginning of the Crusades in the 11th appearance of the Uralic-speaking Hungari- century, Church Slavonic fell out of use in al- ans (Magyars) in the middle Danube plain in most all Slavic lands that had come under the the 10th century, and by the expansion of the sway of the Catholic Church, and was re- 5. Language 155 placed in the liturgy by Latin. This marks the linguistic lines. The nationalist Ghegs laid beginning of a vernacular literature in Czech, claim to Kosovo while the communist Tosks, Polish, Slovene, and Croatian, which, with who were supported by their Yugoslav breth- strong western influences, have developed ren, rejected this claim. After the communist into modern standards written in the Latin al- victory, the government was headed by an phabet. In the Orthodox lands the continued “Orthodox” Tosk who was in league with Yu- use of Church Slavonic as the liturgical lan- goslavia to deliver Albania as another federal guage hampered the formulation of a vernac- state in that country. When Moscow de- ular standard, as did the long period of Turk- nounced Yugoslavia in 1948, however, the ish rule in the Balkans. A standard form of Tosk leadership stood with its Russian allies Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian and consolidated its hold on the country. This arose in the 19th century, followed by began a long isolation of the Kosovars from Belorussian and Macedonian standards, all in- the land of their forefathers. scribed in the Cyrillic alphabet, in the 20th. Linguistic unification became a priority of Serbo-Croatian is in a unique situation. The the Tosk government, and its Institute of Lin- spoken language in Serbia and Croatia exhib- guistics sought to create a United Literary Al- its only slight differences, but the written banian (ULA). In spite of the fact that two- standard uses different alphabets. The Serbs, thirds of all Albanians speak Gheg, the new who are Eastern Orthodox in religion, use the standard was thoroughly Tosk in grammar and Cyrillic alphabet, while the Croats, who are phonology. Because Gheg is much richer in Roman Catholic, have adopted the Roman al- vocabulary and phraseology, 49% of the lexi- phabet. The role that politics plays in the defi- con was Gheg, but no credit for this was given nition of language can be seen in the demands in the dictionary. ULA is an excellent example made by many Croatians that their language, of how language may be used as an instru- despite only slight lexical and syntactic differ- ment of power and a criterion of social pres- ences from Serbian, be considered a separate tige. Because of the fundamental differences language. in the sound systems of Gheg and Tosk, Ghegs have a very difficult time speaking Tosk cor- The Illyrian or Thracian Subfamily rectly. Not only does this place them at a disadvantage in the job market, but also not be- The Albanian language is the sole survivor of ing able to speak the language of the ruling an Indo-European subfamily known as Illyr- party could make them appear politically re- ian or Thracian, once spoken in the Balkans to actionary. the north of the Hellenic lands. Albania became an independent state for the first time in 1912 as a result of Great Power efforts to keep NON-INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES Serbian territory from reaching the sea. The The Uralic Language Family language was divided into two dialect groups: Gheg, spoken in the north and in the Yugoslav The Uralic languages belong to two distinct Kosovo region by a Muslim majority and a sub-families, the Samoyedic and the Fenno- Catholic minority, and Tosk, used in the south Ugric, each thought to have descended from a by Muslims and a minority of Orthodox group of common speech forms, called Proto- Christians. Two literary standards were recog- Uralic. Using paleobiogeographic methods, nized. In 1925 a Gheg became president and that is, the examination of words for differ- subsequently declared himself king as Zog I ent plants and animals in the vocabularies of in 1928. He married a Catholic Hungarian the various languages, Finnish and Hungarian princess and entered into a close association scholars have tried to identify the original with Catholic Italy, which ended in 1939 with home of the Uralic peoples. Although there is occupation by that country. After the war Al- no complete agreement, most of this evidence bania was split into two factions, largely along points to an area in the northern Urals and 156 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY along the lower and middle courses of the Ob across North Africa from Mauritania to Soma- in western Siberia. About 3000 B.C. the ances- lia and beyond into southwest Asia. They tors of the Fenno-Ugric speakers started their include Semitic, Chadic, Cushitic, Berber, migration to the west of the Urals, where and the now extinct Egyptian-Coptic. By far their language began to develop along differ- the largest number of people speak Semitic ent lines from that of the Samoyeds. Con- languages, especially Arabic. Although writ- tinued westward and southward movement ten Arabic has a standard form, the spoken va- has led to further differentiation and given rieties are widely divergent. Four spoken rise to distinctive Fennic and Ugric tongues. norms are recognized: Moroccan Arabic as The degree of similarity between two of the spoken throughout most of the Maghreb; Syr- most distantly related members of the group, ian Arabic, the standard in most of the Middle Hungarian (Ugric) and Finnish (Fennic), is East; Arabian Arabic, spoken in the Arabian comparable to that between English and Rus- peninsula; and Egyptian Arabic. The latter sian. Within the Fennic branch, on the other is most widely understood and is frequently hand, some modern standards, such as Finn- used as a lingua franca among Arabic speakers ish and Estonian, both Balto-Fennic, differ lit- from different parts of the realm. Arabic, es- tle more than do divergent dialects of the pecially the Moroccan form, is an important same language. The Sami (Lapps) are seen immigrant language in a number of European as a non-Fenno-Ugric people who adopted countries, particularly France, where there the language of neighboring Fennic peoples, are more than a million and a half speakers. abandoning their own. Maltese, an official language of Malta (with English), is an Arabic dialect but one so long The Altaic Language Family isolated from other dialects and so heavily influenced by Italian that the resultant loss of The Altaic languages include those of the mutual intelligibility with other Arabic speak- Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungus subfamilies. ers might justify classifying it as a separate Se- Historically they have been spoken over a large mitic language. Hebrew, the closest relative territory extending from the Balkans, through of Arabic, remains the sacred language of the steppes of central Asia and southern Sibe- Jewish communities, though in everyday life ria to northwestern China. In the European they use Yiddish, Ladino, or the local vernac- context it is the Turkic languages, especially ular. the southwestern group, which includes Turk- ish, and Azeri; the northwestern group, includ- Basque ing Tatarand Bashkir; and Chuvash that are important. Turkish is spoken as an indigenous Basque (Euskara) represents the only speech language in Turkey and Bulgaria, Azeri is the form to survive the Romanization of south- official language of Azerbaijan, while Tatar, western Europe. Today it remains an isolated Bashkir, and Chuvash are languages with more language with no known linguistic relatives, than a million speakers each in Russia. The although some common features do point to a Tatars are the largest linguistic minority in the relationship between Basque and a group of Russian Federation, and Tatar nationalism languages indigenous to the Caucasus region. poses a significant threat to the state. In addi- A theory gaining increasing recognition is that tion, Turkish is a major immigrant language in the language is a remnant of speech forms western Europe, with 2 million speakers, over common to Mesolithic (hunting and gather- two-thirds of them in Germany. ing) peoples living in parts of Europe before the advent of Neolithic (agricultural) popula- The Afro-Asiatic Language Family tions. After the Roman conquest, Basque, as the language of a largely rural population, was The Afro-Asiatic language family includes five at a severe disadvantage vis-à-vis the Latin branches that have historically been spoken spoken in the cities, and since the 10th cen- 5. Language 157 tury it has steadily lost ground to Castilian ratism. Whichever view one takes, linguistic Spanish. In the process, however, it greatly pluralism is a fact of modern European life influenced that language, making it quite dif- and therefore deserves our careful attention. ferent from the other versions of Iberian It will be useful here to compare the num- Latin. There is still no universally recognized ber of languages spoken in Europe with that Basque standard, although one literary model used in other culture realms. There are 32 dif- seems to be gaining increasing acceptance. ferent languages that are recognized as either official or national and are used to conduct the affairs of government in one or more inde- THE DIVERSITY OF EUROPE’S LANGUAGES pendent or autonomous states. All but one (Catalan in Andorra) are spoken as a mother As we have seen, the peoples of Europe speak tongue by the majority of the population in at in many tongues. In few other regions of the least one of those states. Many of these lan- world is there so much linguistic diversity guages are also spoken by minorities in other over such short distances. The variety of lan- countries, and there are a number of other guages is all the more remarkable when one languages that are used in Europe only by mi- considers that virtually all the speech forms nority groups. Within this latter category one have well-established written traditions and should distinguish, as will be done later, be- distinguished bodies of literature. The poly- tween those indigenous to the region and glot nature of the European linguistic heri- those that have been brought by immigrants tage is a source of both pride and concern. from other parts of the world. Many view the large number of cultivated We can compare the linguistic diversity in languages that have been spawned in the re- the major culture realms of the world by gion as evidence of a high cultural achieve- looking at the percentage of the population ment, something that sets Europe apart from in each speaking the 10 most widely used the rest of the world and which, like any other languages. By far the greatest variation is precious asset, must be preserved at all cost. found in sub-Saharan Africa, but it should be Others see it as a barrier to the kind of eco- pointed out that the vast majority of these lan- nomic, political, and social unity that many guages are used almost exclusively for oral Europeans have been working toward since communication and have little written tradi- the 1950s. Indeed, it can easily be argued that tion. For this reason and because of the great language often plays a decisive role, along linguistic diversity, most states in the region with other political, economic, or social fac- use the European colonial language (domi- tors, in kindling the kind of collective identity nantly English or French) for official pur- that leads to demands for autonomy and sepa- poses. The seemingly large number of official

TABLE 5.2. Linguistic Diversity in the World’s Major Culture Regionsa

Largest 2nd–5th 6th–10th Official Culture region language languages languages The rest languages

Europe 15.96% 38.45% 21.94% 23.64% 32 Latin America 55.26% 37.25% 2.20% 5.29% 9 Anglo-America 83.89% 11.36% 1.35% 3.39% 2 Main Islamic Realm 53.26% 32.83% 7.82% 6.09% 8 Sub-Saharan Africa 4.37% 13.86% 13.41% 68.37% 22 South Asia 29.13% 33.30% 19.60% 17.97% 11 Southeast Asia 16.15% 34.32% 19.65% 29.89% 10 East Asia 55.72% 24.63% 14.10% 5.55% 5

Note. Data from Encyclopaedia Britannica Staff (1999). a Percentage of total population speaking the 10 largest languages as a mother tongue. 158 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY languages (22) is due to the fact that, since What should be the linguistic policy of the the advent of a post-apartheid government in European Union? Should it have a linguistic South Africa, the number of such languages in policy at all? The EU and its institutions have that state has risen from two to nine, the larg- long been based on the principle of the equal- est number for any single country in the ity of member states and their languages. world. The only other culture region to ex- Prior to the most recent accession of new hibit a pattern of linguistic diversity similar to member states, there were 11 official lan- that of Europe is Southeast Asia, where, guages in the EU, embracing at least one lan- nonetheless, the number of official languages guage that is official in each of the then 15 is significantly lower. member states (neither Irish Gaelic [Erse], Another way of looking at linguistic diver- the first official language of Ireland, nor sity is to assess the degree to which majority Lëtzebuergisch, the national language of Lux- and minority languages are mixed together embourg, were included). Accordingly, the in different countries. If we disregard the languages of the 10 new members will now microstates there are 64 instances in Europe have equal rights. The positive side of this where a minority language group comprises policy has been that it gives equality to virtu- at least 1% of any single country’s popula- ally all the languages spoken in the EU, but tion. In 36 of these cases the minority forms the downside is that it imposes an enormous a majority in at least one other European financial burden for translation. Every docu- country; in 16 cases the minority is indige- ment must be rendered in each of the official nous to Europe, but nowhere comprises a languages. This is a burden that amounts to majority; in the other 12 cases the minority millions of pages each year and currently con- is an immigrant population (Romany, Arabic, sumes 0.8% of the EU’s budget. More than or Turkish). this, the policy does not officially encourage The large number of significant minority any kind of linguistic uniformity within the groups using a language spoken by majori- EU that would foster greater interpersonal ties elsewhere is unique to Europe. The sole communication and a sense of all-Union iden- example in the United States is the Spanish- tification. speaking community, while Canada and Aus- To address these problems, two other tralia can offer just three instances each. In strategies have been proposed. One is to many Third World countries there is no ma- adopt one or more (probably not more than jority language, but where one does exist al- three) languages of “wider communication” most nowhere does it serve an important mi- to be used as the sole official languages in nority in another country. The significance the EU and to be learned in every member of this phenomenon is that the minority in state as foreign languages. The majority lan- question has a base where its language is guages within each state would continue to flourishing and dominant and from which it be used as languages of instruction. The sec- can draw nourishment in time of need. On ond and more radical proposal is to use the the other hand, of course, the minority languages of “wider communication” as the group can also become the object of (some- medium of instruction in all schools, thus times unwelcome) irredentist claims by the making them second languages. Both sugges- majority state. tions raise problems. In each scenario, certain selected languages would be given a privileged position over all others. In addi- LANGUAGE POLICY IN tion, in the second alternative all other lan- THE EUROPEAN UNION guages could in time cease to be used in the public sphere and thus be reduced to the One may ask whether, in light of the supra- status of “languages of intimacy,” that is, em- national state now developing in Europe, ployed only in the home and among close this linguistic diversity should be preserved? friends. 5. Language 159

Choosing the Languages the trouble to study it as a foreign language. of Wider Communication The languages most often studied as foreign languages generally have one or more of the In deciding which languages are to become following characteristics: they are useful in privileged, the question of importance inevi- business and travel; they are the vehicles of tably arises. Clearly the two or three official popular culture (especially important among languages of the EU should be important young people); they are widely used in scien- ones. What, then, determines the importance tific and technical publications and other of a language? This is not a linguistic issue. scholarship; they enjoy prestige in journalism; From the point of view of structure and vo- and they have rich and well-respected literary cabulary, all languages are of equal interest traditions. Languages may be seen as com- and value; all tell us something about the gen- modities. Their acquisition incurs costs, so eral phenomenon of human communication. the benefit of the acquisition must outweigh The relative importance of languages is a so- the costs. Also to be reckoned with is a snow- cial construct. Languages are made more or ball effect. The more people who learn a lan- less important by the extent to which they are guage, the more useful it becomes and the used and understood and by the purposes for more people want to learn it. Especially sig- which they are employed. nificant is “estimation,” that is, the attitudes Certainly one measure of importance is the that groups regarded as important in the soci- number of people who use a language as a ety have toward a particular language. mother tongue. Most people would agree that Data on foreign language acquisition in in- English and Spanish are more important than dividual countries are not easy to obtain, but Dutch and Romanian. However, the largest Table 5.3 gives some impression of the rela- single linguistic community in the world is the tive importance of the major foreign lan- one that speaks Mandarin Chinese. Does this guages learned in the older western countries mean that Mandarin is more important than of the European Union. Several points are English or Spanish? Clearly more is involved worth emphasizing. The study of foreign lan- here than just the number of native speakers. guages has increased dramatically over the Another issue is how widely, that is, in how past three or four decades. While 54% of many different countries, is the language those over 55 reported never having studied a spoken. Worldwide, English is the majority foreign language, only 11% of those 15–24 did mother tongue in 6 countries, Spanish in 18, so. English is the dominant language studied and Mandarin in just 1. Also important is the by all cohorts, followed consistently by number of countries in which a language is rec- French, German, and Spanish. While the or- ognized as the official or national tongue and der among the four has remained the same, used as the primary language of instruction. the gap between each has widened. English English is official in 58 countries, French in 35, has gained in popularity against the other and Spanish in 21, while Mandarin Chinese three, French against German and Spanish, has that position in only 3. The prominent posi- and German against Spanish. Indeed, if we tion of English, French,and Spanish reflects, of look at individual countries, Spanish is impor- course, the role that these peoples played in tant only in France, while French is more European colonialism. Lacking a dominant in- widely studied than German everywhere ex- digenous language, many former colonies have cept the Netherlands, Denmark, and Greece. chosen to use the former colonial language in German is also stronger than French in the an official capacity, even though only the elite rest of Scandinavia and Finland, in central in the society speaks it. Europe, and in the Balkans. Russian, once The strongest indicator of the status of a widely studied in the former Soviet bloc, has language, however, is not its use as a mother retreated rapidly before English and German, tongue, second language, or official language. recently losing ground even in pro-Russian It is simply the number of people who take Bulgaria. 160 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

TABLE 5.3. The Study of Foreign Languages in Selected EU Countries

English French German Spanish Italian None

Foreign languages learned by persons 15–24 years of age (%) Belgium 69 24 10 0 13 Denmark 97 40 92 12 0 0 France 89 35 34 9 5 Germany 82 32 5 0 10 Greece 73 9 16 0 4 21 Ireland 70 26 5 0 13 Italy 75 47 9 3 7 Luxembourg 83 97 97 8 0 4 Netherlands 97 68 92 10 0 1 Portugal 63 64 4 12 0 24 Spain 60 21 2 0 20 United Kingdom 77 39 9 3 16

Foreign languages learned by persons 25–39 years of age (%) Belgium 69 38 9 0 14 Denmark 96 35 90 5 0 2 France 76 27 25 6 17 Germany 72 27 4 0 16 Greece 50 7 11 0 6 40 Ireland 48 8 5 0 26 Italy 58 44 8 6 19 Luxembourg 73 96 93 8 0 3 Netherlands 95 64 85 11 0 2 Portugal 35 42 2 12 0 52 Spain 35 27 4 0 36 United Kingdom 61 23 9 7 30

Foreign languages learned by persons 40–54 years of age (%) Belgium 50 34 3 0 23 Denmark 85 26 77 4 0 8 France 48 17 18 5 39 Germany 53 20 1 0 25 Greece 26980362 Ireland 31 5 4 0 35 Italy 28 41 6 2 46 Luxembourg 57 96 92 7 0 7 Netherlands 85 56 79 6 0 10 Portugal 17 19 3 8 0 74 Spain 11 17 4 0 56 United Kingdom 45 17 10 7 43

Foreign languages learned by persons 55 years of age and older (%) Belgium 24 18 4 0 41 Denmark 54 18 48 4 0 29 France 31 13 11 5 49 Germany 34 16 1 0 41 Greece 15520274 Ireland 15 2 1 0 51 Italy 15 24 5 5 65 Luxembourg 41 92 94 4 0 3 Netherlands 64 46 70 6 0 20 Portugal 6 10 3 3 0 85 Spain 3 6 1 0 69 United Kingdom 31 11 6 5 57

Note. Data from European Commission (1995). 5. Language 161

The Rise of English to World Prominence In the absence of inflections, a fairly rigid word order is now used to convey meaning. English has developed into the world lan- Because this word order is more natural and guage par excellence. As a native language, logical than that permitted in many other lan- with over 400 million speakers it is the second guages, the argument goes, it is relatively easy most widely spoken language in the world, af- for a foreigner to gain a reasonable level of ter Mandarin Chinese, which has twice that competency in English. On the other hand, number. It is an official or national language near native competency in speech is quite dif- in 58 countries and is spoken by more than ficult to achieve because the sound system is 800 million people as a second or foreign lan- so different from that of most languages. The guage. Some 70% of all mail is written in Eng- lexical characteristics of English are also fa- lish, and 80% of all information stored in data vorable. We pointed out earlier that, because banks is recorded in English. of its hybrid nature, English has a much How has this hybrid tongue, formed and larger and more varied vocabulary than most developed on what was for a long time an ob- languages. This elasticity makes it easy to cre- scure, sparsely populated island off the west ate new terms when they are needed and to coast of the Eurasian continent, attained this accommodate new words, especially foreign unique position? If we look for an economic loanwords. explanation, no doubt the leadership of Eng- Within Europe today there is little doubt land during the Industrial Revolution and that English is fast becoming the international the influential role that the United States language of choice. It is, without a doubt, the subsequently played in the development of usual language of contact between two indi- technology helped English to become the viduals who do not speak each other’s lan- language of science and industry. The over- guage. There is much pressure to use English whelming importance of these fields in the in education and research, in business, and modernization of society meant that English increasingly in the job market. Indeed, ac- became dominant in other areas as well. cording to a recent EU survey the idea that all French, the great international language of Europeans should learn English was widely the preindustrial era, held its advantage for a accepted (69% of respondents). Already well while in diplomacy and the arts but in the end over half the EU either claims the ability to surrendered pride of place even here. The converse in English or claims English as their penetration of English into every important native language. aspect of modern life was also facilitated by its While language purists across the continent spread to the far corners of the earth. By may fret, the march of English seems inexora- the beginning of the 20th century, Britain, ble. Despite a 1994 law aimed at banning for- with her sea power and economic might, had eign expressions from the French language, amassed the greatest empire in the world, and the French are increasingly resigned to the English became the commercial and adminis- corruption of their language with English trative language of that far-flung domain. words and phrases. In Germany, the seem- Some linguists maintain that, quite apart ingly ubiquitous mixture of German and Eng- from the advantages with which historical cir- lish, known as Denglish, is made all the more cumstances have presented it, English has in- noticeable by the German habit of running herent characteristics that make it more suit- words together, as in “Businesssportcenter.” able as a lingua franca than other languages. The penetration of English is most advanced Some of these are related to the grammar or in countries like the Netherlands, where syntax. In spite of the fact that all Indo- more than 80% claim to speak it, or in Scandi- European languages were originally highly navia, where some jokingly say it is spoken inflective, that is, they had many verb endings better than in Britain. European lan- indicating tense and noun endings showing guages tend to be increasingly riddled with case, most of these have been lost in English. “Americanisms”—such as “take away” food or 162 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

“weekend getaway”—many of which are program to enhance the opportunities for stu- launched through advertisements, movies, dents and teachers to study other languages in and pop music. Sadly, its growing prevalence the countries where they are spoken. This seems to have had a dampening effect on the program, entitled LINGUA, is aimed espe- desire of native English speakers to learn cially at the least widely used and least taught other languages. An estimated two-thirds of languages of the EU. Its aim is diversification, all Britons speak no other language than Eng- stressing the idea that Union solidarity is de- lish. pendent on the recognition by those who speak the most widely used languages that a Learning the Languages competence in other Union languages is es- of Wider Communication sential. Although LINGUA has received wide support, it is telling that former Prime Minis- It seems clear that, if the European Union ter Margaret Thatcher opposed British fund- moves to reduce the number of official lan- ing because it would be used to support mar- guages to two or three, the first will be ginal languages. Very evidently one of the English, the second French, and the third problems of selecting “elite” languages to be German. The question then remains whether used in wider communication is linguistic ar- these “languages of wider communication” rogance. should be taught as mandatory foreign lan- Under the second proposal students would guages (treated as any other course) in all EU be immersed immediately in one or more of schools, leaving the local languages as the me- these elite languages, using them as languages dia for education, or whether they should re- of instruction. The initial difficulties of this place the local languages in this latter func- strategy are considerable, of course, because tion, that is, become second languages. The all teachers would have to be fluent in at least arguments for and against each strategy clus- one second language, but eventually the sys- ter largely around curricular and cultural is- tem would feed itself, and there would be sues. little or no foreign language instruction in If all students in EU countries are to gain schools, though this runs counter to the aims competency in two or three languages, none of the LINGUA program. Rather than having of which may be their mother tongue, many to take time from other subjects, more time school hours that might be used more profit- would be available for them. In addition, hav- ably will be tied up in language training. The ing no need for foreign language teachers, time spent on this at present varies consider- more teachers could be trained to teach other ably both from one country to another and subjects. From a curricular point of view, us- among age groups. A second foreign language ing languages of wider communication as the is usually introduced at age 13, but a few media of instruction would seem to make a countries do not require two. On average, stu- great deal of sense. dents between the ages of 13 and 18 spend 9– The danger of the second strategy is that it 10 hours a week studying two languages in might, in the long run, lead to the impoverish- Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg but de- ment of Europe’s theater of cultures. A domi- vote just 3 hours to one language in Ireland nant feature of 19th-century nationalism, es- and Greece. To achieve competency in two of- pecially as it developed in Germany, was the ficial EU languages that are not one’s own notion that language is the single most impor- would certainly require 10–12 hours a week. tant marker of culture. Even today, many lin- In addition, instruction would probably have guists believe that the mother tongue is a to begin at the primary level, where there is at fundamental part of people’s identity and of the moment little foreign language in- enormous important in placing them within struction. Clearly students’ education in some their culture. other areas would have to suffer. One question is whether the major lan- The European Union does presently offer a guages chosen for use in the schools and other 5. Language 163 public venues will eventually cause the de- tongue, yet this does not seem to diminish mise of the local languages and, if so, whether popular support for a Basque identity, or the cultures they represent will die with even separatism. As the European Union ex- them. Certainly historical experience is not pands, it would seem economically unfeasi- encouraging. The Latin language and culture ble to continue to increase the number of of- overwhelmed almost all competitors in ficial languages. It seems most likely, the Roman Empire, and the minorities in however, that the languages of wider com- the modern European nation states have not munication chosen for use in the EU will be fared all that well. This underlines the impor- learned by its citizens as foreign, rather than tance of multilingualism, a fact recognized by as second, languages. the EU when it declared 2001 the “European Year of Languages.” The aim was to celebrate publicly the EU’s immense linguistic diver- FURTHER READING sity and promote the learning of language skills as a means of better understanding oth- Aitchison, J. W., & Carter, H. (1999). Cultural em- ers and appreciating their culture. Signifi- powerment and language shift in Wales. cantly, the focus was not just on national Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale languages but on regional and minority lan- Geografie, 90, 168–183. guages, as well, which underlines the EU’s Barbour, S., & Carmichael, C. (Eds.). (2000). Lan- public commitment to maintaining linguistic guage and nationalism in Europe. Oxford, UK: diversity in Europe Oxford University Press. At the present time it appears that, al- Comrie, B. (Ed.). (1990). The major languages of eastern Europe. London: Routledge. though many European nations are willing to Council of Europe. (2000). Linguistic diversity for give up their economic and political inde- democratic citizenship in Europe: Towards a pendence to a central authority, they are not framework for language education policies, Pro- willing to abandon their distinctive languages ceedings, Innsbruck, 10–12 May, 1999. and cultures. In other words, a rather strongly Strasbourg, France: Council of Europe Pub- entrenched linguistic nationalism persists, es- lishing. pecially with respect to the threatened hege- Encyclopaedia Britannica Staff, Britannica Edi- mony of English. The Dutch are among the tors. (1999). Britannica book of the year 1999. Europeans who are most comfortable with Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica. foreign languages, but when the Ministry of European Commission. (1995). Key data on educa- Education suggested that all university in- tion in the European Union. Luxembourg: Au- thor. struction be carried on in English there was Greenberg, J. H. (2000). Indo-European and its heavy opposition. Thus, states continue to closest relatives: The Eurasiatic language family. legislate to stem the tide of English, and a Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. more or less constant barrage of proposals Hindley, R. (1990). The death of the Irish language: surface that seek to preserve multilingualism A qualified obituary. London: Routledge. in Europe through such mechanisms as plac- Krantz, G. S. (1988). Geographical development of ing restrictions on the use of English, requir- European languages. New York: Peter Lang. ing that publications and product labels be Mackay, W. (1991). Language diversity, language multilingual and that access to education and policy and the sovereign state. History of Euro- employment be based, at least in part, on pean Ideas, 13, 51–6l. demonstrated multilingual skills. MacAulay, D. (Ed.). (1992). The Celtic languages. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. On the other hand, loss of the mother McCrum, R., Cran, W., & McNeil, W. (1986). The tongue may not be so great a danger to cul- story of English. New York: Viking. tural identity as some people fear. Only one- Mallory, J. P. (1989). In search of the Indo-Europe- quarter of those who feel themselves to be ans: Language, archaeology and myth. London: ethnically Basque speak the language. Most Thames & Hudson. have Spanish or French as their mother Mamadouh, V. (1999). Beyond nationalism: Three 164 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

visions of the European Union and their impli- puzzle of Indo-European origins. New York: cations for the linguistic regime of its institu- Cambridge University Press. tions. GeoJournal, 48, 133–144. Rickard, P.(1989). A history of the French language Perez, S. (1998). Languages and regions in Europe (2nd ed.). London: Unwin Hyman. and elsewhere: A revival of regional issues? Stephens, M. (1978). Linguistic minorities in west- Prospects, 28, 629–642. ern Europe. Llandysul, Wales: Gomer Press. Phillipson, R. (2002). English-only Europe?: Lan- Van der Auwera, J., & van der Meer, J. (1995). The guage policy challenges. New York: Routledge. Germanic languages. London: Routledge. Posner R. (1991). Society, civilization, mentality: Vestergaard, T. (Ed.). (1999). Language, culture Prolegomena to a language policy for Europe. and identity. Aalborg, Denmark: Aalborg Uni- In F. Coulmas (Ed.), A language policy for the versity Press. European Community (pp. 121–137). Berlin: Withers, C. W. J. (1988). Gaelic in Scotland, 1698– Moulton. 1981: The geographical history of a language. Renfrew, C. (1987). Archaeology and language: The London: Routledge. CHAPTER 6 Religion

Religion may be defined as humankind’s rela- that have very different religions often view tionship to what it regards as holy or sacred. one another with deep suspicion and lack of Holy powers are seen as external to human understanding. Religion, like language, is a society, and belief in them stems from a hu- fundamental element of a person’s identity man desire to relate to, even be dependent and membership in a larger collective com- upon, forces outside the physical world. To be munity. Unlike language, however, religion is religious, then, is to feel connected in some seen to be tied to the community’s very sur- way to the holy. One way of maintaining this vival. For this reason, religious rivalry can connection is through worship, for example, awaken much deeper antagonism than rivalry prayer, sacrifice, contemplation, or magic. An- among linguistic groups. other is through proper conduct. There may Beyond its sacred content, religion shapes be rituals to perform, words to recite, holy many other elements in society. The moral days to keep, places to frequent or to avoid, code is especially important in determining leaders to follow, and a literature to be read how people will behave in certain situations. and pondered. Religions thus develop a body Religion has a strong impact on art and litera- of beliefs or doctrines about the nature of the ture, even that which is not explicitly reli- supernatural world and how humans should gious. It has a strong influence on archi- relate to it. They also elaborate moral codes of tecture and thus helps to shape the built conduct and normally construct some kind of environment, both ecclesiastical and secular. an organization to oversee the practice of the But most importantly it provides a worldview, religion and assist believers in that practice. an overarching way of looking at human life Religion everywhere is closely bound up with and at the environment in which humans live. family structure. It has a major impact on how This is why the religious traditions of a com- sexual behavior and reproduction are regu- munity remain important even when most of lated and how the socialization of children is its members are no longer believers. It has carried out. Religion thus impinges strongly been said that there is a great difference be- on both the values of a culture and on its insti- tween being religious and having a religion. tutions. In today’s Europe, only a minority of the pop- Because religion is so intimately associated ulation is religious, but virtually everyone has with the well-being of the believers, groups a religion.

165 166 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

RELIGION THROUGH THE AGES The Three Great Western Religions

The three great religions of the West, Juda- ism, Christianity, and Islam, all evolved in the arid environment of the Middle East. The earliest of the three, Judaism, has its origins around 1500 B.C. in northern Mesopotamia. Before the rise of Judaism, the religions of the Middle East were tribal. They were animis- tic, endowing animals, plants, and even rocks with spirits, and they were particular to related groups of people, or tribes. Judaism was organized around the concept of monotheism, belief in a single god, and developed a complex philosophy. It remained, however, attached to a single ethnic group, and is often called an ethnic religion, similar in this respect to Hinduism and Chinese religion. Un- like the latter, however, its monotheism im- plied that it aspired to become the religion of all humankind. It did not become a universal- FIGURE 6.1. The spread of Christianity. During a visit from St. izing religion, however, largely because of the Paul in the first century A.D. the inhabitants of Cappadocia in central doctrine that proclaimed the Jews to be the Anatolia were so thoroughly converted that Cappadocia became the chosen people of God. Only at the coming of great stronghold of Christian monasticism. The monasteries and the Messiah would all people see the light churches, dug deeply into the easily worked volcanic tufa cliffs, contin- and follow the God of Israel. ued to fulfill their functions until the exchange of populations between Christianity grew out of Judaism. Christ, a Greece and Turkey in 1923. Here we have the Girls’ Monastery, which Jew, proclaimed himself to be the Messiah, accommodated some 300 nuns and is called by the Turks the “Virgins’ but the Jews refused to accept him. Failing in Castle.” this, the Apostles, especially Paul, interpreted this new “Jewish” religion to the non-Jews, those whom the Jews called Gentiles. These tween 610 and 613. When he returned to were mainly Greeks, and they played the ma- Mecca, it was to preach a religion, which, in jor role in making Christianity a religion of stark contrast to the tribal religions of the Europeans. Its monotheism and lack of at- Arabs, was monotheistic. His thinking was al- tachment to any particular ethnic group left most certainly influenced by Christian ideas, Christianity free to be a universalizing reli- and perhaps by Judaism. Mecca possessed a gion. Such religions are also proselytizing, large black stone, the Kabba, which was an that is, one of their major goals is to convert object of pilgrimage for Arabs all over the others to their religion. Judaism, on the other peninsula. The wealthy merchants of Mecca, hand, while welcoming converts, has never worried about the loss of their business were actively sought them. the old religion to be rejected, drove Muham- Islam is the creation of the Prophet Mu- mad and his followers from the city. Their hammad. Born in Mecca on the Arabian Pen- flight, called the hegira, to the city of Medina insula in 570 A.D., he married and fathered six in the north, marks the first year of the children. A merchant by trade, he began to Islamic calendar. Eventually Muhammad experience revelations in his late thirties and won over the Meccans and built an Islamic retired alone to the desert to meditate be- state in central Arabia. After his death in 632, 6. Religion 167 the Muslim religion, both universalizing and versy was the extent to which Christ’s nature proselytizing, was spread to the west and to was human or divine. The Monophysites, rep- the east with lightning speed by the armies of resented today by the Armenian Apostolic the Arab faithful. Church, the Syrian Jacobites, Egyptian Coptics, and Ethiopian Orthodox Church, The Roman Empire maintained that his human and divine natures were completely fused. This view was op- The official state religion of Rome was a form posed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 by of Emperor worship that also involved a poly- the majority of the Christian world, which theistic pantheon of gods. The religion and took the position that the two natures were the state were solidly fused, and Judaism separate but commingled (the Orthodox was just about the only other religion toler- view). Different still were the opinions of the ated in the Empire. The favor with which Nestorians, who believed that the two natures the Romans regarded the Jews is illustrated were completely separate, and the Arians, by the obliging way in which they crucified who thought that Christ was a completely dif- Christ. Subsequently the privileged popula- ferent being from God. Arianism was popular tion of the Empire saw Christianity as a par- among many Germanic tribes that invaded ticular danger because it had a special appeal the Empire, but it subsequently died out. to the poor and the outcast. No doubt the Nestorianism survived only in South Asia, and universalizing nature of Christianity was also the Monophysite view in the Middle East, viewed as a threat to the state religion. What- where it is today referred to as Eastern Rite ever the reason, the persecution of Christians Christianity. Christianity in most of the an- was a major Roman sport until the conversion cient world, including Europe, however, re- of the Emperor Constantine in 313. With this mained Orthodox. event, Christianity was declared legal in the The early Church was organized adminis- Empire. In 337 Rome became the second tratively on the pattern of the Roman Empire. state to make it the official religion; this had The seats of authority were cities, with higher happened 34 years earlier in Armenia. levels of command located in larger centers During the first century A.D. the position of and subordinate ones in successively less im- the Jews worsened under Roman authority, portant towns. In this way the structure of the and, as a result of a rebellion, the Temple in Church came to assume a hierarchical form. Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. This led to At the top of the hierarchy were five patri- a major outmigration of Jews from Israel to archs, all theoretically with equal rank. These other parts of the Empire, the beginning of a prelates had their seats at Rome, Alexandria, dispersal of the Jews that came to be known Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantine’s newly as the Jewish Diaspora. The greatest concen- founded capital, Constantinople. However, trations in the early days were in Mesopota- since Rome had the relics of St. Peter, the mia, Syria, Egypt, and western Anatolia, but principal apostle, it claimed the position of increasingly the Jews migrated westward, set- the first patriarch. When, in 451, the Council tling in the Iberian Peninsula and Gaul. As we of Chalcedon assigned this position to the will see later, this movement set the stage for patriarch of Constantinople, the first of many the large European Jewish populations that rifts between the eastern and western Chris- suffered such tragic fates, first in the Middle tian worlds occurred. It must be remem- Ages and later in the modern era. bered, however, that these two worlds were already culturally rather different, the east be- Divisions within Christendom ing Greek and the west, Latin. In the seventh century the position of the A scant century after attaining a dominant patriarchs at Alexandria, Jerusalem, and role in the Roman Empire, Christianity was Antioch was seriously undermined by the fall rent by dissension. The source of the contro- of those cities to the armies of Islam, leaving 168 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

Rome and Constantinople as the two foci of is why the Eastern Church is known as the Orthodox Christian world. The latter was Orthodox (Greek orthos, straight, + doxa, also the seat of the Roman Emperor, since the opinion). Another difference was in the realm Empire in the west had fallen to the German of monasticism, where Eastern Christianity barbarians, and only in the east did the Em- held onto the view that monks should isolate pire still survive. In a move to regain primacy themselves from the world. Living in monas- in the Christian world, the Pope at Rome teries supported by wealthy patrons, they de- crowned Charlemagne Roman Emperor in voted themselves to contemplation, develop- 800. This infuriated the Emperor in the east ing the liturgy and painting sacred images and initiated a schism in which the patriarch (icons). In Western Christendom, monks and in Constantinople excommunicated the Pope nuns (the regular clergy) were organized into and the Pope excommunicated him. Although orders, which followed their own sets of rules these edicts were subsequently revoked, fur- and regulations and specialized in particular ther confrontations resulted in a series of sim- kinds of activity. They sometimes mingled ilar events. The excommunications of 1054, closely with the general population, as in the however, were not to be revoked until 1965, case of the mendicant (beggar) orders. and the year 1054 has traditionally been taken In Church polity, too, Roman Catholicism to mark the final break between the Eastern and Eastern Orthodoxy developed very dif- and Western Churches. ferently. The fall of the Empire in the West Many differences arose between what be- meant that leadership of the Church was sep- came known as the Roman Catholic and East- arated from secular authority. The Pope was ern Orthodox Churches. One was that the the sole head of the Church as an institution Pope and Council of Cardinals in the West and he decided all religious matters, together frequently reinterpreted the religious litera- with his clerical advisors. Because the Empire ture. In the East, on the other hand, there was persisted in the East, however, a system of little deviation from original doctrine, which governance known as Caesaropapism devel-

FIGURE 6.2. Monasticism. Perched high on the walls of a cliff overlooking the zigzagging climb away from the Aegean coast of the eastern Peloponnese are the whitewashed walls of the Elonis monastery. Like many monastic sites, Elonis is remote, the lives of those who live there purposely separated from the secular events of the outside world. 6. Religion 169 oped. The term suggests a close association on a mission to bring Christianity to the land between Emperor and patriarch, and, in fact, of his captivity. His message was well re- the former was frequently able to exercise ceived and led eventually to the founding of control over the institutional affairs of the the Celtic Monastic Church. The name sug- Church. In matters of theology the patriarch gests the fundamental difference in organiza- normally prevailed, but even here the secular tion between this church and the Roman one. administration often interfered. As Ortho- The Celts were not an urban people. The ear- doxy spread in Europe, the alliance between liest towns in Ireland were founded in the Church and State persisted. In the West, on ninth century by Viking invaders. The Church the other hand, the notion of the universal leaders, therefore, were the heads of the rural (catholic) Church, free of any connection to monasteries, not bishops seated in cathedral states, prevailed. towns. The gulf that developed between the theol- The Celtic Church carried on an active ogies of the Eastern and Western Churches missionary activity in Scotland and among the led the former to view the teachings of the lat- Anglo-Saxons of northern England. This was ter as heretical. This belief was extended to of some concern to Rome, and in 597 Augus- virtually all intellectual development within tine was sent as a missionary to southern Eng- Western Christendom, and prevented most land. Establishing his base at Canterbury in Western ideas from penetrating the East. Kent, he brought the Anglo-Saxons of the Beyond this, however, the memories of the south within the fold of Christendom. Even- fourth Crusade created a real revulsion tually an agreement was reached between the among Orthodox Christians toward the Ro- two churches, and they were merged to form man Catholic Church. Diverted from their the British Church in 644. From Britain a vig- goal of gaining control of the Holy Land orous missionary activity was launched on for Christendom, the Catholic armies of the the continent among the Franks and the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in Germans. Boniface of Wessex (d. 754), often 1204, took control of most of the Byzantine called the Apostle of Germany, unified the (Eastern) Empire for almost 60 years, and missionary movement by bringing it under forcibly imposed their religion on the Greek the control of Rome. In the 10th and population. After this event the line of demar- 11th centuries German missionaries brought cation between Catholicism and Orthodoxy Christianity to the Scandinavians, West Slavs, became without a doubt the sharpest cultural and Hungarians and penetrated the territory boundary in Europe. of the South Slavs. In the 1380s, the Grand Duke of Lithuania accepted the religion for The Spread of Christianity his people, completing the eastward march of beyond the Empire Catholicism across northern Europe. The successes of the missionary activity By 410, when the Visigoths sacked Rome and emanating from Byzantium were much more the Western Empire began to crumble, Chris- limited. In the 870s the leaders of both the tianity was established, however unevenly, Bulgarians and the Serbs were converted. throughout the Roman Empire. Perhaps the Bulgarian influence among the Romanians first attempt to bring the religion to the bar- eventually brought them within the fold, but barians beyond the Roman world was Pat- the great coup was the conversion in 988 of rick’s mission to the Irish. Patrick had been the Prince of Kiev, the leading East Slavic born in Wales, but as a boy he was taken pris- state. Still, in 1400, fewer than 15% of oner by Irish raiders and grew to manhood in Europe’s population were Eastern Orthodox Ireland. Escaping from his Irish captors, he Christians. This percentage would increase made his way to Brittany, where he entered significantly in later centuries, however, be- a monastery and received religious training. cause of the higher fertility in the Orthodox Sometime around 432 he returned to Ireland world. 170 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

The Muslim Incursions couraging people to return to their Muslim roots. Many Spaniards, especially in Anda- On three separate occasions in history the lusia and Valencia, are descended from Moors forces of Islam assaulted the territory we have who converted to Christianity (Moriscos). defined as Europe. Each time they were The Spanish government now reports 450,000 driven out, but only after centuries of domina- Muslims living in Spain. Some have only just tion, and the legacy they have left is unmistak- recently arrived as migrant workers from the able. The first was the Moorish invasion of Ibe- Maghreb, a few are rich Arabs with fancy ria in 711. It was accomplished by an army led homes on the Costa del Sol, but many are by Arabs but consisting mainly of Berbers from Spaniards who have recently converted to Is- the Maghreb. The Moors quickly defeated the lam. divided Visigoths and overran the peninsula, The second onslaught began with the de- threatening even the heart of Francebefore be- struction of Kiev by the Golden Horde in ing turned back across the Pyrenees in 732. 1240. This khanate formed the western part Christian authority survived in the far north, of a great Mongol Empire that had been and the medieval history of Spain and Portugal founded by Genghis Khan in the early 13th was totally dominated by the Reconquista, the century. Not Muslim in the beginning, the centuries-long reconquest of the peninsula for Horde was gradually Turkified and Islam- Christendom. This was finally achieved in icized, especially during the early 14th cen- 1492 with the victorious entry of the Catholic tury. Its capital was established on the Volga, Monarchs, Ferdinandand Isabella, into the last near the modern city of Volgograd, and at its Moorish stronghold of Granada. height it exacted tribute from virtually every As noted in the preceding chapter, one leg- Russian state but Novgorod. The empire col- acy of the Muslim period in the history of lapsed at the end of the 14th century, and the Iberian Peninsula is the large number of the principality of Muscovy emerged as the Arabic loanwords, especially in Castilian, and leader of the Russian people. Two important the multitude of Arabic place names. An- ideas emerged from the century and a half of other is the Islamic architecture, constructed the “Mongol captivity.” One is that it had iso- mainly in the Moorish period but also after lated Russian culture from the rest of Europe the Christian reconquest by Muslim archi- and infused it with a penchant for Oriental tects, a style known as Mudéjar. In recent despotism. This is the foundation for the years there has been a movement in Spain en- 19th-century argument that Russia belonged

FIGURE 6.3. Moorish architecture. As seen on this doorway to The Grand Mosque (Mezquita) in Córdoba, Moorish builders made inventive uses of brick and glazed tiles. An- other common decorative feature was the horseshoe-shaped arch, which was likely inherited from the Visigoths who occupied the Iberian Peninsula prior to the Moorish conquest. Interiors were much more lavishly decorated than exteriors. 6. Religion 171 to Asia, not to Europe. The other is that Rus- In a second great battle, which took place sia, in particular Muscovy, was the stalwart in Kosovo in 1448, the Ottoman Turks further defender of the faith against the infidel. After consolidated their hold on the Balkans. The the fall of Christian Constantinople to the Byzantine Empire, which carried forward the Turks in 1453, Moscow capitalized on this tradition of Roman rule in the east and was reputation, assuming for itself the title of the the center of Eastern Orthodoxy, was by this “Third Rome.” time literally engulfed by the rising tide of Ot- The third Islamic invasion came from the toman expansion. In 1453, under Mehmet the southeast in the middle of the 14th century. Conqueror, the Ottomans closed in on the an- Under the leadership of a man called Osman, cient imperial city of Constantinople itself who founded the Ottoman dynasty around and, much to the shock of the Christian 1300, the Muslim Turks overran Anatolia by world, succeeded in capturing it. The relent- 1400 and as early as 1349 had established less westward advance of the fearsome Otto- a foothold in Europe, from which they ad- man armies up the valley of the Danube con- vanced into the Balkans. In 1389, on the “field tinued into the 16th century and resulted in of blackbirds” near Pristina in modern the fall of Belgrade in 1521, and of Buda in Kosovo, they won a stunning victory over a 1526. By 1529 they had reached the gates of Christian army led by the flower of Serbian Vienna, and although they failed to take the nobility. The heroic exploits of various Serb city, the Turks created a virtual no-man’s land chieftains in this battle have inspired a famous in Hungary, successfully guarding this fron- ballad poetry and a great cycle of legends, tier until the end of the 17th century. which helps to explain the importance with The legacy of Ottoman rule in the Balkans which Serbs regard the region known as is the presence of significant Muslim minori- Kosovo. The anniversary of this act of gal- ties in several parts of the region. The Turks lantry, even though in a losing cause, is still themselves did not move in large numbers celebrated each year in Serbia on the feast of into the conquered territories. The descen- St. Vitus (Vidovdan, June 28). dents of the few who did are most numerous

FIGURE 6.4. The rise of the Ottoman Empire, 1328–1672. 172 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY today in Bulgaria, where they are settled in from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497, the south and comprise about 9% of the popu- but the Inquisition continued to persecute lation. More important were the conversions the conversos, sometimes called Marranos of indigenous peoples to Islam. Conversion (pork eaters) because they were said to use meant that landholdings could be retained this act to prove their rejection of the Jewish and also gave exemption from the special faith. The fanatical hatred directed at con- taxes placed on Christians living within the verted Jews stemmed from the incredible Ottoman Empire, such as the seizure of sons success they had achieved in virtually every to serve in the Janissaries, an elite corps in the aspect of Spanish life. Ironically, even the standing army of the empire. Some groups Spanish monarch, Philip II, an avowed enemy showed a particular penchant for adopting the of conversos, had some Jewish ancestry and Muslim faith. Before the Ottoman invasion, was quite correctly described by Pope Paul IV the Albanian Ghegs had been largely Catholic as a Marrano. while the Tosk were, in the main, Orthodox. Expulsions of Jews began much earlier in The majority of both groups converted to Is- northwestern Europe. They were banished lam. In Bosnia, many South Slavs, especially from England in 1290, and a major eviction the landowners, had rejected both Catholi- from France occurred in 1306. For the Ger- cism and Orthodoxy and created their own man Jews (Ashkenazim) real trouble began Bosnian (Bogomil) Church. Like the Cathars with the First Crusade in 1096. Passing in France, the Bogomils subscribed to a neo- through the German lands on their way to Manichean heresy and were shunned by the Holy Land, crusading armies attempted other Christians. Thus, it was not difficult for forced conversions, slaughtering all those who them to embrace Islam. This is the origin of would not submit. The persecutions contin- the Bosnian Muslim community that became ued and reached a peak during the Black the object of Serb aggression during the mid- Death, when the Jews were made the scape- 1990s. goats for the catastrophe and accused of poi- soning the wells. Jewish Settlement in the Middle Ages Some of the hatred directed against the Jews was certainly religiously inspired. Were By the 13th century, the Jewish Diaspora in they not the murderers of Christ? Yet, the Europe was concentrated in Iberia, especially principal motive was probably economic. In Spain, and in the valleys of the Rhine and its the 12th century the Church launched a cam- tributaries. The Jews in Muslim Spain (Seph- paign against usury, then defined as the prac- ardim) were treated well by their Muslim tice of lending money at interest. Unfortu- hosts and rose to be prominent figures in nately, money lending was essential to the trade, politics, and intellectual life. Indeed, economy, and one could not make a living at it the Jewish contribution to Spanish universi- without taking interest. Thus it developed ties, which were among the best in Europe, that the Jews came to fill this need. While was out of all proportion to their percentage many derived their livelihoods through of the population. Later, under Christian rule, money lending, many others were merchants their position worsened dramatically. Militant involved in both local and long-distance campaigns resulted in the forcible conversion trade. Whatever business they engaged in, of many Jews, but other Catholics remained the Jews seemed to be successful, and the suspicious of the new Christians’ sincerity. wealth they amassed was envied and coveted Most were thought to profess Christianity by their Christian neighbors. only outwardly, while practicing the rites of The upshot of the persecutions that became Judaism in secret (cryptic Jews). The Span- so commonplace in western Europe was a ish Inquisition, authorized by the Pope in major migration of Jews to the east. For the 1478, was directed principally against these Ashkenazim the principal destinations were “conversos.” Unconverted Jews were expelled the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy 6. Religion 173 of Lithuania, which were united in 1569. The these were lands occupied largely by Eastern Polish kings in the 14th and 15th centuries Orthodox peoples. Indeed, the Orthodox were known to be especially tolerant for their Church had been greatly weakened by the Ot- time, and by 1450 Poland had long been toman advance, and its only secular champion known in Germany as the safest place for was the distant Principality of Moscow. The Jews. The vast territory embraced by the Jews, too, were largely gone from western Eu- Polish-Lithuanian state in the 17th century rope. At this moment of seeming triumph, the meant that Ashkenazi settlement also spread Universal Church itself foundered. into what is now Belarus and Ukraine. Russia, It was not as if there hadn’t been signs by contrast, had a strict no-admission policy, of the rupture to come. In the 1370s, John which ended only with the final partition of Wycliffe in England had challenged many Poland in the late 18th century. Now faced practices of the Church and attacked the le- with large numbers of Jews within the em- gitimacy of the office of the Papacy itself. pire, Russia dealt with the problem by re- His followers, the Lollards, though driven un- stricting all Jews to their current areas of derground, appear to have played a substan- residence, with the exception of certain areas tial role in the success of the 16th-century near the Black Sea where Jewish colonists English Reformation. In Bohemia, Jan Hus were allowed to settle. The main area of became the popular leader of a reform move- Jewish settlement within Russia came to be ment in the early 15th century. Much influ- known as the Jewish Pale. At the end of the enced by the writings of Wycliffe, he became 19th century, it included all of Russian Po- involved in a power struggle between the land, most of Ukraine, Lithuania, Belorussia, Bohemian king and the German Archbishop Bessarabia, and the Crimean Peninsula, and of Prague. Incurring the wrath of the Arch- contained nearly 5 million Jews. bishop, Hus was put on trial in Constance as a After their expulsion from Iberia, the Seph- Wycliffe heretic and was burned at the stake ardic Jews moved eastward across North Af- in July 1415. After his death the Hussite rica and through the Mediterranean, many movement spread widely and became a focus settling in the expanding Ottoman Empire. As for anti-Austrian sentiment among the Czechs. in Poland, they were welcomed by the rulers It was crushed, however, in the Counter- and founded large communities in western Reformation and survived only in the exiled Anatolia and the southern Balkans. In the Bal- Moravian Church. kans they established themselves in every ma- The Reformation of the 16th century in- jor city, but especially in Salonica, which they volved two principal movements, Lutheran- literally turned into a Spanish city. By 1660, ism and Calvinism, which was also known as Salonica was said to be home to as many as the Reformed movement. In 1517 Martin Lu- 40,000 Jews. As the activities of the Inqui- ther fastened his 95 theses, meant to open dis- sition intensified in Iberia, many Marranos cussion about the weaknesses he saw sought refuge in the Netherlands, where their within the Church, on the door of All Saints’ Jewish background would be more difficult to Church in Wittenberg. As a German patriot, uncover. They became especially numerous in he was troubled by the wealth that poured Amsterdam, the rising center of Dutch world into the coffers of Rome through the purchase commerce once it had shaken off Spanish of indulgences, which were supposed to re- rule. duce the time spent by sinners in purgatory. Central to his doctrine was the idea that salva- The Protestant Reformation tion could not be bought but was attainable through faith alone. He also viewed the Scrip- In the early 16th century the position of West- tures as the supreme authority and insisted ern Christendom seemed secure. The Muslims that lay people be able to consult them di- had been driven from Spain, and, although rectly rather than through the mediation of a they now reigned supreme in the Balkans, priest. This conviction lay behind his transla- 174 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 6.5. The Reformation. tion of the Bible into German, an act that was against, helped to initiate the Swiss Reforma- to have an enormous impact on the rise of tion in 1522. The movement quickly spread to standard German, as we have seen. Lutheran- neighboring urban cantons, especially Bern ism never gained much popularity outside the and Basel, but was stoutly resisted in the rural Germanic world, but it was accepted by the forest cantons. This began a long association princes of many German states, by the King of between Reformed Christianity and urban, Sweden for the Swedes and Finns, by the bourgeois populations. In the early 1530s, King of Denmark for the Danes, Norwegians, John Calvin, a French humanist who had fled Icelanders, and Færoese, and by the Grand from Paris to Basel because of his liberal Master of the Teutonic Order for the peoples ideas, was converted to Swiss Protestantism. of the East Baltic. In 1536 he was invited by the burghers of The Reformed movement has its origin in Geneva to help in the establishment of the Huldrych Zwingli, who first preached in new religion there. He created a Church in Zürich in 1518. His sermons, denouncing Geneva that was to provide a model for Re- many of the same excesses that Luther railed formed Churches everywhere. Key features of 6. Religion 175 this branch of Protestantism were the doc- The Reformation in England followed a trine of predestination and the idea of gov- rather different course than in the rest of Eu- ernment by an assembly of representatives rope. In 1534, Henry VIII essentially nation- chosen by the congregation rather than by alized the Church by separating it from Rome bishops (Presbyterianism). Aside from the ur- and declaring himself head, but he gave it lit- ban cantons of Switzerland, Reformed Chris- tle theological direction. Henry had slight in- tianity was adopted in many territories in the terest in religious doctrine; the reasons for his Rhineland, in the Netherlands, and in Scot- actions were purely personal and political. land. Reformed ideas were also widely ac- More attention was given to theological mat- cepted in France (the Huguenots) and in east- ters by his children who followed him on the central Europe, but there they survived the throne. A brief effort, under Edward VI, at Counter-Reformation only in eastern Hun- bringing the Church of England into line with gary and among the Germans and Hungarians Protestant thinking was reversed when the of the Transylvanian Basin. Catholic Mary Tudor ascended the throne in While the Lutheran and Reformed move- 1553. The major work of reforming doctrine ments lay at the heart of the Protestant Refor- would be left to Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth. mation, there were other groups as well. The Her “Elizabethan Settlement” was based pri- Universal Church was not just split—it was marily on the teachings of the Lollards and shattered. The Anabaptists represented the the Lutherans, with some admixture of Cal- radical left wing of the Reformation. Origi- vinism. The tenets of faith as expressed in the nating in Zürich among disillusioned follow- Thirty-nine Articles of 1571, however, often ers of Zwingli, their aim was to restore the contained ambiguities and made minimal de- early Church of true believers. They held that mands on believers. Elizabeth’s chief objec- true baptism was possible only when a person tive was to make the Church as inclusive as could publicly admit sin and seek salvation possible. What she wanted was universal ac- through faith, and thus rejected the baptism ceptance of the Church and of the monarch’s of infants. They also believed in the strict sep- role as its supreme governor. She was totally aration of church and state, and, for true be- unconcerned with the details of her subjects’ lievers, complete abstention from public life, beliefs. It was thus that, in doctrine, the especially service in the military. Their radical Church of England became a branch of Prot- beliefs brought them into constant conflict estantism, while in government, liturgy, and with the secular authorities, and they were ex- customs remained much closer to medieval pelled from one city after another. Nonethe- Catholicism than the other Reformation less, Anabaptist thinking also took root in Churches. Moravia and in the Netherlands and northern The ramifications of the Reformation, even Germany. The former movement gave rise to outside the realm of religion, were wide- the Hutterites and the latter to the Menno- reaching. When the Universal Church in the nites. The Amish descend from the followers West was shattered, national churches were of Jakob Ammann, whose teachings were at established. The Church of Sweden and the variance with those of mainstream Menno- Church of Denmark were Lutheran, the nites and who formed a breakaway sect in Dutch Reformed Church and the Church of the 1690s. Because of their prowess in agri- Scotland were Calvinist, to name but a few. culture, Catherine the Great of Russia invited Latin gave way to the vernacular language in many Anabaptist groups to settle on the the service and the religious literature. These farming frontier in Ukraine, where they were were important first steps in the development given permission to use their own language of nationalism, the idea that the nation-state is and were exempted from military service. In the only legitimate sovereign political entity. the late 19th century many of these people The new religions, especially Lutheranism, left for the Great Plains of North America exalted the state of marriage. Not only were when they began to lose their privileges. clerics permitted to marry and form families, 176 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY but also the home was made perhaps the most 16th century among a group of people who important center of religion, providing a sub- felt the Elizabethan Settlement had not ad- stitute for the monastery. In medieval Catholi- vanced the Protestant cause far enough. cism, religion had belonged unequivocally to These “Puritans” sought to rid the Church of the public realm. With the Reformation it be- England of the Roman Catholic “popery” that gan to be removed to the private sphere. In they felt it had retained. Many had fled from the 18th century, the Enlightenment would England to Geneva during Mary Tudor’s make religion a matter of personal choice, fur- reign and had absorbed a healthy dose of Cal- ther privatizing it. vinism. The Puritans won a brief victory in Around the turn of the 20th century, the the mid-17th century when Parliament over- German sociologist and political economist threw Charles I and the army established a Alfred Weber developed the notion that there government under Oliver Cromwell. One of was a link between the Reformation and the their chief aims was to replace the Church’s rise of capitalism. He did not credit the new episcopal form of government with one more faith so much with furthering the capitalist representative of the people. The restoration system as with encouraging the development of the monarchy in 1660 smashed these of the spirit of capitalism. The capitalist econ- hopes, but with the passage of the Act of Tol- omy differed from the medieval one in that eration in 1689 the Dissenters did win a sub- the individual entrepreneur replaced the cor- stantial victory. porate guild as the principal actor. Weber ar- Several Protestant denominations descend gued that the capitalist entrepreneur came to from the Puritan movement. The Congrega- value work for its own sake, not merely as a tionalists distinguished themselves by estab- means to meet the needs of daily life. In mak- lishing governance by the congregation of ing the connection to the Protestant ethic, he worshippers, independent of any higher au- cited Luther’s idea that the work of God was thority. The Baptists also held to this form of best accomplished in the common occupa- governance but differed by maintaining that tions, not in monasteries. He further noted only believers (hence not infants) should be Luther’s rejection of charity as a way to baptized. British Unitarianism was a product achieve salvation. This he saw as promoting of the increasingly scientific view of the uni- an ethic of self-reliance, further strengthening verse that marked the 18th-century Enlight- the respect for work. In Calvin’s preaching he enment and encouraged an increased empha- emphasized the idea of predestination. Even sis on reason and morals among the liberal before birth, he said, God had decided Calvinist clergy. Finally, the Society of whether or not a person would be saved. Friends (Quakers) represents the extreme left Many of his followers reasoned that success in wing of the Puritan movement. Eschewing this world was a sign of being one of the elect, ordained clergy and buildings specifically and this success was a result of work. Since dedicated for religious functions, the early Calvinism insisted that its followers lead a Quakers believed that God would come to simple and frugal life, the wealth gained from any gathering of worshippers and spontane- hard work could not be lavished on luxury but ously speak through one of the congregation. only reinvested in economic activity. This is While all these outgrowths of Puritanism a principal tenet of capitalism. Many have developed in England, they spread also to raised objections to Weber’s argument, but it other parts of Europe and especially to North remains a thesis open to discussion. America. The last important Nonconformist move- English Nonconformism ment to arise in England is Methodism. Around 1740, John Wesley, an Anglican cler- The Nonconformist, or Dissenter, movement gyman, began preaching to people living in England was a continuation of the Pro- on the fringes of society, to those who felt testant Reformation. It originated in the late overlooked by the Church of England. He 6. Religion 177 was joined by others within the Church and The Holocaust formed a society that was dubbed “Method- ist” by others because of its emphasis on me- During the 19th and early 20th centuries thodical study and devotion. Methodism had there was little change in the religious map of special appeal to people in the rapidly ex- Europe. The most sudden and sweeping al- panding industrial areas of Britain, where it teration in the religious composition of the gave hope to the poor and taught them frugal- European population took place during the ity so that they might improve their lot. Al- 1930s and 1940s as a result of the Nazi effort though it was never Wesley’s intention to sep- to erase the Jewish population from the map arate from the Church of England, a formal of Europe. All through the 1920s there had break did occur in 1795, 4 years after his been a rising wave of “racial” prejudice in death. Together with the Baptist movement, Germany. It was both pro-Aryan and anti- Methodism also made an impact on a number Semitic. With the coming of the great eco- of continental societies, as well as becoming a nomic crisis in 1929, the boycotting and van- major force in American life. dalizing of Jewish businesses began. With the ascendancy of the Nazi Party in 1933 came dismissal of Jews from government and university posts. The Nuremberg Laws, published in 1935, stripped Jews of their citizenship and forbade them to marry other Germans. The number of beatings and murders of Jews by Nazi youth gangs increased during the 1930s. The violence reached a cre- scendo on the night of November 9, 1938 (Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass), when nearly every synagogue in Germany and thousands of Jewish businesses and shops were destroyed. Next began the wholesale imprisonment of Jews in concentration camps and the confiscation of their wealth. Those not imprisoned were ordered to live in ghettos and barred from all public parks and buildings, including schools. By 1941, all use of the telephone and public transport systems was forbidden, and Jews over the age of 6 were required to wear the yellow star-of- David badge. Anti-Jewish measures spread with the annexation of Austria in 1938, of Czechoslovakia in 1939, and the enactment of laws on the German model in Italy, Hungary, and Roma- nia. With the early successes of the Nazi military machine nearly all of the Jews of Europe FIGURE 6.6. Eglwys yng Nghwm Pennant. “Cwm Pennant” is the were brought under direct or indirect Ger- name of a remote valley in North Wales and the title of one of the most man control. The emphasis at first was on ex- famous poems in Welsh. This stone chapel, surrounded by its congre- pulsion, but there was nowhere for them to gational graveyard, is typical of rural Welsh chapels built in the early to go. In January 1942 the decision was taken to mid-19th century, when Nonconformist religion flourished in Wales. implement the “final solution.” The official (Photo: A. K. Knowles) stated policy was to “resettle” (read “extermi- 178 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY nate”) the Jews in the East. Poland was cho- ernment, which saved the lives of all 50,000 of sen to be the center for the annihilation of all that country’s Jews. But there was no hope for European Jewry. The six largest Nazi extermi- the Jews of most of eastern Europe. Anti- nation camps (Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Semitism had been rife there from the 18th Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka) were all lo- century onward. The population often coop- cated here. Jews from outside Poland were ei- erated with the Nazis in rounding up and de- ther sent to ghettos in eastern cities and then stroying local Jewish populations. to the camps or they were shipped directly to The impact of the Holocaust on the Jewish the gas chambers, usually at Auschwitz. Not population of Europe was devastating. The surprisingly, of the estimated 5.9 million who principal losses were in the occupied territo- perished during the Holocaust, 55% were ries, especially Poland and the western Soviet Polish. Union, because this is where the bulk of Eu- In some countries, mainly in western and rope’s Jewry was concentrated before the war. northern Europe, the Christian population Whereas almost 60% of all the Jews in the tried to help the Jews. Virtually all Danish world lived in Europe before the war, just Jews escaped the death camps because they one-third did so in 1946. That percentage has were smuggled across the Øresund to neutral continued to decline because of emigration, Sweden by Danish fishermen. Some French largely from the territories of the former So- Jews found refuge (ironically) in Spain and viet Union, to Israel and the United States. Portugal and also in Switzerland. The Finnish Today only about 2 million Jews remain in government, although allied with Germany Europe, about half in Russia and Ukraine and against the Soviet Union, refused to turn its half in France and England. More Jews now tiny Jewish population over to the Nazis. Per- live in France than in any other European haps most remarkable was the firm resistance country, in part because of a large immigra- put up by the Bulgarian people and their gov- tion of Sephardim from North Africa.

TABLE 6.1. Jewish Population Losses during the Holocaust 1939 population 1946 population Losses (in thousands) (in thousands) (in thousands)

Western Europe Belgium 80 45 35 France 300 200 100 Netherlands 130 30 100 West-central Europe Austria 90 10 80 Germany 300 30 270 East-central Europe Czechoslovakia 275 35 240 Hungary 450 150 300 Poland 3,300 70 3,230 Eastern Europe Russia 3,000 2,000 1,000 Balkans Greece 75 10 65 Romania 800 425 375 Yugoslavia 75 15 60 Western Mediterranean Italy 60 30 30 Europe 8,425 2,775 5,650

Note. Data from Ben-Sasson (1976). 6. Religion 179

RELIGION IN EUROPE TODAY Affiliation, Practice, and Belief It is useful to distinguish among three ways in which a person may be associated with a religion. The most distant form is affiliation, that is, some kind of formal, documented connection between an individual and an instituted religious body. Affiliation, however, tells us nothing about practice. In Europe, particularly, there is a large discrepancy between belonging and worshipping. There is also much variation in the frequency of worship. Finally, neither affiliation nor practice says much about belief. The relationships among these three elements of religious association are complex. One may belong without practicing or believing, believe without belonging or practicing, and even practice without believing—at least, in all the tenets of the faith. The term nonreligious usually means, therefore, nonaffiliated, though in some cases it can FIGURE 6.7. Neue Synagogue, Berlin. Once a symbol of the mean association with an atheist group. These prosperity and prestige achieved by Berlin’s large Jewish community, data thus give only a general impression of the Neue Synagogue was built in 1866, using a mock Moorish style how the major branches of religion are dis- popular at the time. The building served as the city’s central synagogue tributed in Europe. until the time of the Holocaust. All but destroyed during the war, the Perhaps the most striking feature of mod- structure was restored in 1995 and now serves as a Jewish museum ern data on religious affiliation in Europe is and culture center. the large percentage of the population that is unaffiliated or atheistic. The figure for all of Europe is much inflated by the very high percentage for the former Soviet Union, where all religion was proscribed under the communists. Nonetheless, in every region it is higher

TABLE 6.2. Religious Composition of Europe’s Major Regions

Eastern Other Rite Roman (mainly Orthodox Catholic Catholic Protestant Jewish Muslim nonbelievers) Total

Western Europe 0.4% 0.0% 69.5% 5.6% 0.8% 4.9% 18.8% 100.0% Britain and Ireland 0.9% 0.0% 8.6% 45.6% 0.4% 1.3% 43.1% 100.0% West-central Europe 1.5% 0.0% 38.3% 39.6% 0.0% 1.9% 18.7% 100.0% East-central Europe 1.8% 0.3% 76.4% 4.6% 0.3% 0.1% 16.5% 100.0% Nordic and Baltic Europe 3.2% 0.0% 1.8% 76.4% 0.0% 0.7% 17.9% 100.0% Western Mediterranean 0.0% 0.0% 76.5% 0.9% 0.0% 1.2% 21.4% 100.0% Eastern Europe 23.7% 2.7% 1.5% 1.9% 0.7% 8.5% 60.9% 100.0% Balkans 65.4% 0.0% 5.2% 0.9% 0.2% 11.5% 16.8% 100.0% Europe 12.6% 0.7% 35.9% 15.0% 0.4% 4.4% 31.1% 100.0%

Note. Data from Encyclopaedia Britannica Staff (1999). 180 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY than the 9% reported for the United States. tries. The figures for church attendance and Outside of the former communist bloc, the beliefs are from a survey taken in 1981. Some percentage of nonreligious people is highest of these data are also available from a similar in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, survey done in 1999. The differences between specifically England. Generally, nonaffiliation the two surveys are not large, but in general is lower in Catholic than in Protestant coun- the later survey shows lower percentages of tries, but the specific historic context of each people professing most of the beliefs. Of the country must also be kept in mind. Thus, in nine countries shown, five are dominantly Poland, where Catholicism is an integral part Catholic, two are largely Protestant, and two of Polish nationalism, it is under 10%. The are mixed. Comparing practice with affilia- same is true of Romania, where Orthodoxy tion, it is clear that, overall, church atten- has always defined for most Romanians what dance is highest in the Catholic countries and they are, setting them apart from the minority lowest in the Protestant. The major exception Hungarians and Germans. On the other hand, is France, where, in spite of the fact that 76% in Spain the Catholic Church was closely as- of the population professes to be Catholic, sociated with the fascist regime, a fact that 57% say they never go to church. Indeed, soured many Spaniards on organized religion. a comparison between nonaffiliation and non- The high figure in the Netherlands may be as- attendance reveals that nominal affiliation is sociated with the strong humanist tradition most widespread in France, Belgium, Den- there and the fact that the Dutch Reformed mark, and Britain. Church was not established. Nonaffiliation A belief in God is probably the most funda- is much lower in Scandinavia, where strong mental tenet in Christianity. In most of the state Churches have existed since the Refor- countries a portion of those who appear to be- mation. lieve do not practice. This is highest in Britain Table 6.3 shows data on affiliation, practice, and France. Ideas about the nature of God and belief for some western European coun- vary greatly, however. For some, God is a be-

TABLE 6.3. Affliliation, Practice, and Belief in Some Western European Countries

Denmark Britain Ireland France Belgium Netherlands Germanya Spain Italy

Affiliation Catholic 0.6% 9.0% 91.5% 76.5% 88.0% 32.0% 33.9% 66.7% 81.7% Protestant 86.4% 53.0% 8.5% 1.8% 0.5% 23.0% 42.8% 0.2% 0.2% None 11.7% 30.2% 0.1% 14.0% 8.6% 38.0% 21.1% 32.1% 17.1% Church attendance At least once 3% 14% 82% 12% 30% 27% 21% 41% 36% weekly Never 43% 46% 4% 57% 34% 41% 20% 25% 21% Belief in . . . God 58% 76% 95% 62% 77% 65% 72% 87% 84% A personal 24% 31% 73% 26% 39% 34% 28% 55% 26% God Sin 29% 69% 85% 42% 44% 49% 59% 58% 63% A soul 33% 59% 82% 46% 52% 59% 61% 64% 63% Life after 26% 45% 76% 35% 37% 42% 39% 55% 47% death Heaven 17% 57% 83% 27% 33% 39% 31% 50% 41% Hell 8% 27% 54% 15% 18% 15% 14% 34% 31% The devil 12% 30% 57% 17% 20% 21% 18% 33% 30%

Note. Data on affiliation from Encyclopaedia Britannica Staff (1999). Data on church attendance and beliefs from Harding, Phillips, & Fogarty (1986). a Data on church attendance and beliefs are for West Germany. 6. Religion 181 ing that humans can relate to on a personal Moscow, it early became a focus of Ukrainian level and who takes an interest in their daily nationalism. It flourished during the periods affairs. For others, the deity is more diffuse, a of Catholic Polish and Austrian rule but was life force or spirit. The expression of belief in suppressed under the Orthodox Czarist and a personal God correlates much more strongly atheist Soviet regimes. In 1989 it reemerged with other traditional Christian beliefs. Six of and reclaimed its role as the champion these are presented in the table, the last three of Ukrainian independence. In response, a representing a very literal interpretation of portion of the Orthodox Church broke from Christian theology. Moscow to form the Ukrainian Orthodox A measure of the religiosity of these nine Church—Kiev Patriarchate. This Church countries’ populations can be obtained by also supported independence and found favor combining the figures on frequent church at- among Ukrainian political leaders. Moscow tendance, belief in a personal God, and be- answered by giving autonomy to the Ukrai- liefs in heaven, hell, and the devil. By this nian Orthodox Church—Moscow Patriarch- definition the Irish are clearly the most re- ate. What this demonstrates is that the religious, followed at some distance by the awakening of interest in religion in the former Spanish. Yet more secular are the Italians, communist bloc must be seen in part as a Belgians, Dutch, Germans, and British. The manifestation of national revival, as well as a French and the Danes appear to have the long-term manifestation of a deep religiosity loosest tie to their Christian past. We may re- that in many ways distinguishes eastern Eu- call that the French were the leaders of the rope from the West. first Fertility Transition and the Danes were At the same time as the traditional religions the leaders of the Second. The examples in- try to reclaim their positions, missionaries for cluded here contain no Orthodox populations. nontraditional religions, especially from the In a survey taken in the three Baltic States of United States, are taking advantage of what Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, 64% of Rus- they see as a religious vacuum to spread their sians (40% of them Orthodox) declared they own faiths. In Russia, Protestantism, while still believed in God, but only 4% of these claimed claiming less than 1% of the total population, is that they went to church at least once a week. making remarkable inroads. This is especially The devil was a reality for 35%, and 36% true in the peripheral areas—northwestern thought there was a life after death. This pro- Russia, Siberia, and the Far East. Alarmed by file is closest to that of the French. their success, the Russian Orthodox Church The fall of communism and the breakup of has put pressure on the government to mar- the Soviet Union have drastically altered the ginalize them. In 1997 a law was passed that re- climate for religion in the eastern part of Eu- quired new religious groups to function for 15 rope. Many traditional religions, once vilified years before they could register permanently by the authorities, have been revitalized and as national religious organizations. Elsewhere are being enlisted in the service of nationalist in the former communist bloc the ground is causes. The importance of religion to Polish less fertile for this kind of foreign intervention. and Romanian nationality has already been Religious persecution under the communists mentioned, but Ukraine also offers an excel- had a shorter history here than in the Soviet lent example of this phenomenon. By the Un- Union, and for a number of reasons persecu- ion of Brest-Litovsk in 1596 a number of Or- tion stemming from local conditions was less thodox bishoprics in the Ukraine entered into severe. communion with Rome while retaining the What can be said about the Christian reli- Orthodox liturgy and other customs of the gion in modern Europe today is that belief in Byzantine Church. This body became known the central tenets of the faith is not wide- as the Ukrainian or Eastern Rite Catholic spread. What lingers is a general belief in a (sometimes called Uniate) Church. Because it God, but more as a spiritual force than as had separated from Orthodoxy, and hence a personal presence in one’s daily life. For 182 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY many, however, religion is still closely as- Almost everywhere, however, the Christian sociated with traditional culture. The major majority sees Muslims as a threat. The recent Church holidays, such as Christmas and Serbian aggression against Bosnians and Ko- Easter, have become secularized but still can sovars amply demonstrates this fact. The prej- elicit widespread attendance at church. Holy udice has deep roots, going all the way back rites are still sought by many to mark the ma- to the bitter struggles waged by Christian Eu- jor occasions in the life cycle: birth (baptism), rope against the “infidels” during the Middle marriage (though this is declining), and death Ages. The most recent spate of “ethnic cleans- (funerals). The adherence to a particular form ing” between Christian and Muslim popula- of Christianity is also for some a badge of nations in Bosnia follows on previous episodes tional identity that sets them apart from their of genocide and removal that took place im- neighbors of different faiths. mediately after World War I, and especially It is difficult to generalize about Muslims in during World War II when Serb nationalists Europe today, divided as they are between killed nearly 100,000 Bosnian Muslims in the immigrant communities of the West and their villages (the Muslims were also respon- the indigenous ones of the East. Islamic iden- sible for atrocities against the Serbs). tity is certainly strong among the Tatars and Today’s “war on terror,” in which all Mus- other Russian groups, as well as in the Bal- lims are viewed with suspicion and rising kans. It has also become important in western alarm, has exacerbated religious, social, and European countries, where in major cities economic prejudices already held among such as Frankfurt, Berlin, and Paris the muez- western European populations toward their zin can be heard calling the faithful to daily immigrant neighbors of Islamic faith. Al- prayer. There are now roughly 12.5 million though the vast majority of western Europe’s Muslims living in the European Union, the Muslim population are neither extremists nor majority of them from countries such as Mo- have any ties to terrorist activity, they are all rocco, Algeria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, too often automatically condemned. Most Eu- Iran, and Iraq, and the product of the waves ropean countries have in recent years offi- of labor immigration that swept into many cially espoused the goal of multiculturalism as west European countries during the postwar a means of assimilating their sizable Muslim decades. immigrant populations, but in fact little is

FIGURE 6.8. Mosque in Hamburg. A large mosque, replete with minaret and full-scale mural of a traditional mosque in Turkey, stands among a variety of commercial and residential buildings near the center of Hamburg. The building marks the presence of the city’s large Turkish immigrant community. (Photo: J. Hagen) 6. Religion 183 done to integrate them, and most stick to their From the beginning, the Protestant Churches national groups, socializing and praying with have had an uneasy relationship with the Eu- one another. They are highly visible, not only ropean Union. One of their problems is that in dress, speech, and skin color but also in since their inception they have identified the presence of their Muslim schools and strongly with national or regional entities. In- mosques. Only in Spain and Italy does the deed, as we have suggested, the Protestant general public seem to have a relatively re- Reformation was one of the forces behind the laxed attitude toward the Muslim population rise of nationalism. As the EU challenges today, due in part to historic ties in parts of the very existence of the nation-state, the these countries with North Africa and a Mus- Churches of the Protestant world have to lim heritage. wonder what their role in the new social order will be. This is especially so since the Religion and the European Union Pope sees the EU as an opportunity to return Europe to its former position as the bulwark As we have seen, of the three principal reli- of Christendom. The vision is one of a unified gious groups in Europe, Catholics are the political, economic, and religious system, the most numerous. This is particularly true of latter under the leadership of the universal the European Union. At its founding the EU Catholic Church. (then the EEC, or European Economic Com- The position of Protestant Church leaders munity) was a strongly Catholic bloc. With on European unification is that religious free- the admission of the United Kingdom and dom is of the utmost importance. They want Denmark the balance shifted significantly to- no part of a Christian state but rather take the ward the Protestants, although a Catholic ma- position that the development of a secular so- jority was maintained. The entry of Greece ciety in Europe is a fait accompli. Indeed, brought the first significant Orthodox com- they celebrate the role that Protestantism has munity, slightly reducing the relative impor- played in the philosophical movements that tance of the others, but the admission of Spain have emancipated European society from the and Portugal 4 years later once again in- dominance of religious values. In their view creased the Catholic majority. Today, while autonomous thinking lies at the foundation Catholics remain most numerous, they are no of Europe’s democratic institutions. A mono- longer in the majority. This first became true lithic Christianity must not be allowed to re- following the entry of Finland and Sweden in conquer Europe. 1995, although now the admission of staunch- Tactically one of the main problems the ly Catholic Poland and other Catholic parts of Protestants have had is that they lack a single east-central Europe has returned the balance. voice. No Protestant leader has the status of The lack of a Catholic majority is also due to the Pope, whose position as head of a Church significant numbers of Spaniards and Italians with over a billion communicants worldwide now identifying themselves as nonreligious. gives him the prestige of a major chief of state. The Vatican maintains diplomatic ties with Brussels. Its spokesmen command the TABLE 6.4. Changes in the Relative Size of Major attention of the media. It is not surprising that Religious Groups as the EU Has Expanded some Protestants complain that the Catholic Catholic Protestant Orthodox Church monopolizes Christianity. A burning question is whether the Protestant commu- The 6 66% 17% 0% The 9 54% 30% 0% nity should become more institutionalized so The 10 52% 29% 4% it can more effectively compete, or whether it The 12 59% 25% 3% should remain true to its ideal of pluralism The 15 49% 24% 3% and accept the consequences. In spite of their The 25 53% 19% 3% handicaps, Protestant leaders have managed Note. Data from Encyclopedia Britannica Staff (1999). to maintain a lively dialogue with the EU 184 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

Commission and have made clear their views into the Christian landscape. In northern Eu- on many issues. The entry now of more Or- rope there are numerous examples of places thodox countries may also help the Protestant where Christian churches were founded, for position. Their Churches, too, have a national the sake of convenience or continuity, on or base, and the two groups now work together near sacred groves or hilltops traditionally within both the World Council of Churches deemed holy by the local population. In a and the Conference of European Churches. similar fashion, a portion of the center of the Great Mosque (La Mesquita in Spanish) of Córdoba became a cathedral church following RELIGION AND PLACE the Christian reconquest of the town, while the great Christian church of Hagia Sophia in From earliest times specific places have been Byzantine Constantinople was converted to a afforded special status for religious purposes. mosque after the Turkish conquest of the city We know that many prehistoric sites and in 1453. monuments mark the locations of sacred The Christian veneration of holy places places. The circular complex of stones and dates back to the fourth century A.D., when ditches known as Stonehenge, which was places in the Holy Land associated with the built and rebuilt over two millennia begin- life of Jesus were first identified and en- ning somewhere around 3000 B.C. in the midst shrined with structures, such as the Church of of England’s Salisbury Plain, was probably the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Indeed, the designed to function both as a temple and an Crusades were launched in medieval times, in astrological calendar. Much later, the Greeks part, to protect Christian access to these holy and Romans built temples on sites they dedi- places. Also important in the Christian world cated to the deities. The place of Rome’s was the cult of martyrs and saints, which held founding, atop the Capitoline Hill, was of pro- that the spirits of martyrs remained present at found religious importance and was graced by the place of their martyrdom or in the re- a series of temples intended as sanctuaries of mains of their bodies, a belief that led to the the gods. establishment of holy places outside of Pales- At times, the sacred sites of one religion tine. Thus, Constantine erected St. Peter’s could be co-opted by another. Some Roman Basilica in Rome in the early fourth century temples survived as Christian churches. Dur- over the site of a Roman cemetery (excavated ing the medieval expansion of Christianity in 1939) where St. Peter was believed to have into the lands beyond the former Empire, it been buried after his martyrdom in 64 A.D. was not uncommon for the sites of pagan After the fourth century the cult of martyrs practice and ritual to be simply incorporated and saints spread from Rome to other places

FIGURE 6.9. Christian conversion of pagan sites. Sweden’s most famous pagan site, located at Old Uppsala, features three immense royal burial mounds and a flat-topped assembly mound. Behind the mounds stands a Christian church, which once formed part of a much larger Christian church built in the 1130s on the site of a wooden pagan temple. This is also said to be the site of an elaborate pagan rite that took place every eighth year at the time of the midwinter full moon. On these occasions, human and animal sacrifices were hung from a holy tree for 9 days. 6. Religion 185

promised absolution. For those who were not able to make the trip, forgiveness for their sins was possible by sending someone else in their place. During the 11th and 12th centuries, when the cult of St. James was at its height, a system of pilgrimage routes that led from all over western Christendom to Santi- ago de Compostela brought as many as half a million pilgrims to the sacred site each year. In time a cult of relics developed in which the Church, in both the East and the West, encouraged and facilitated the distribution of the remains of martyrs and other holy objects to as many places as possible. Thus, every major church came to possess some important relic of alleged miraculous power. The cathedral church (Dom) of Trier, for example, became a place of special attraction because its relic was the “seamless robe” worn by Christ before he was crucified. Bruges’s Basilica of the Holy Blood boasted one of the holiest relics in all of Europe, a phial that purportedly contained a few drops of blood washed from the body of Christ, which, from the time of FIGURE 6.10. Pilgrimage. Pilgrims arriving in Santiago de the phial’s arrival in Bruges shortly after the Compostela to visit the shrine of St. James are met by the spectacular Second Crusade until the year 1325, would baroque façade of the town’s gray-granite cathedral, designed in the miraculously liquefy every Friday evening. mid-18th century by a local architect. The famous front features two Each year on Ascension Day, the phial is still massive bell towers and a statue of St. James himself, looking out over carried around the town in solemn proces- the cathedral square from high above the entrance. sion, just as it was in the Middle Ages. The most ubiquitous relics were the fragments of the “True Cross”—purportedly in Christendom. In 813, for example, Chris- recovered in Jerusalem by St. Helena, the tians in far-off Galicia miraculously discov- mother of Constantine, in 327 A.D. These frag- ered the remains of the apostle St. James, who ments eventually found their way into the had been martyred in Jerusalem in 44 A.D. His possession of countless cathedrals and abbeys bones, which had somehow been transported across Christendom. So numerous were these to this remote location in the far northwestern relics of the cross that they became the focus corner of the Iberian Peninsula (according to of a general attack on the veneration of relics Spanish tradition aboard a miraculous ship among 16th-century Protestant reformers, in without sails), became a symbol and rallying support of which John Calvin is said to have point for Christian Spain in its long struggle caustically observed that nothing less than a against the Moors. The city of Santiago de very large ship would have been sufficient to Compostela, which grew up around the great carry all the extant fragments of the cross to cathedral church that was erected on the holy Europe. resting place of St. James, became the third Today we might regard the sites of Hol- most important place of pilgrimage in the ocaust atrocities and extermination camps Christian world after Jerusalem and Rome. as special places of religious pilgrimage and Christians who managed to make their way to memory for Jews. Auschwitz, the most notori- the site of James’s grave at Compostela were ous of the Nazi death camps in Poland, where 186 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY more than a million people died, mostly Jews, earthen burial mounds or barrows scattered has been preserved since 1947 as a museum across Europe, as well as by discoveries of de- and place of memory. The museum, which liberate prehistoric burials in caves. The pagan became a UNESCO World Heritage site in Norse sometimes honored fallen chiefs and 1979, receives nearly half a million visitors a heroes by setting them adrift in blazing ships, year. but also buried the dead along with their Perhaps one of the most moving, but least belongings, including ships, in great burial known, of the Nazi extermination sites is lo- mounds. The ancient Hebrews placed their cated at Salaspils, not far from the city of Riga dead in niches cut into the walls of caves, a in Latvia. Visitors to Salaspils encounter a 40- practice that became widespread among Jews, hectare open field in the forest, in which and later Christians, throughout the Roman stand half a dozen monumental statues of Empire. The labyrinths of subterranean cata- hopelessly forlorn, yet defiant, human forms. combs outside the city of Rome, which also be- Inscribed on the concrete building that came places of Christian worship, are perhaps guards the entrance to the grounds are the the best example of the practice. ominously evocative words “The earth moans The Romans, who generally cremated the beyond this gate.” As one steps beyond, one dead until about 100 A.D., placed the remains notes that from somewhere beneath the earth in niches set in the walls of an above-ground comes an eerie and steady thumping noise tomb, most commonly a rectangular and meant to represent a human heart. Under this barrel-vaulted structure known as a colum- otherwise innocuous-looking piece of ground barium. The remains of the poor were often lie the remains of 53,000 men, women, and placed in tall earthen pots, or amphora, the children killed by the Nazis. necks of which projected out of the ground for Burial grounds of all kinds are among the the purpose of pouring liquid offerings down most interesting of sacred places. Human soci- to the dead. Christians, who placed such great eties have always developed elaborately ritual- emphasis on the idea of resurrection, eventu- istic ways for disposing of and memorializing ally began to bury the dead in crypts beneath the dead. The practice of burial in the ground the pavements of churches and in churchyard goes all the way back to earliest times, as evi- cemeteries, often erecting elaborate markers denced by the many surviving fields of or mausoleums to mark the resting places of Paleolithic, Neolithic, and early Bronze Age the wealthy and important. Interment grounds were intended from earliest times to be exclusive spaces. The Romans reserved the rights-of-way along the roads leading into the city for the tombs of the those with status or money, for it was important to such people to be publicly remembered after death and therefore to build their family tombs in places where they could be seen and visited by passersby. In contrast, the disposal of the remains of criminals, slaves, and the poor were relegated to special areas that were more remotely located. Christian cemeteries could also be quite morally exclusive, The interment of murderers and FIGURE 6.11. Memory. The stoic poses of the stone figures at witches, and those who committed suicide— Salaspils offer a poignant reminder of the horror of what happened in not to mention infidels and Jews, or even this open meadow outside of the city of Riga during the Nazi mass ex- Christians from other towns and denomina- terminations of World War II. tions—was often prohibited. Exclusion could 6. Religion 187

allowed to continue. As a result, overcrowded churchyards, which were literally filled with coffins, often stacked on top of one another to levels barely beneath the surface of the ground, became a breeding ground for disease and a public sanitation threat. The need for space was so pressing that barely decom- posed corpses were often disinterred in the dead of night and thrown into nearby pits to make way for fresh burials. As concerns over public health (which were often tied to a greater understanding of the connection between public health and environmental causes) began to mount in the 19th century, the practice of burial on the grounds of churches in towns and cities was gradually discontinued in many parts of Europe. A related 19th-century development, which FIGURE 6.12. Necropolis. The necropolis, or “city of the dead,” also relieved some of the pressures of over- was customarily located outside the city in the ancient Mediterranean crowding and sanitation, was a revival of the world, often along a road leading into the city. One of the most visited practice of cremation. Cremation was com- examples is found at Myra in southwestern Turkey, where the necropo- mon among the ancients, as well as among lis, which dates from the fourth century B.C., is cut into the stone face of many pagan groups in northern Europe. The the western side of the acropolis. Many tombs are elaborately cut to re- common belief was that the consumption of semble the shapes of houses or temples. (Photo: J. L. Kramer) the body by fire was a beneficial practice because it purified the body, which was commonly thought to otherwise be capable of de- even extend to nonfamily members, in the filing anyone who came into direct contact sense that individual burial plots and mauso- with it. The fire was also thought to light the leums were typically set aside, even by the way of the deceased to another world. After Greeks and Romans, as the private spaces of around 100 A.D., however, the practice died families who wished to see the spirits of their out among the Romans, in part because of the loved ones remain together beyond death. influence of Christianity, which associated the In the urban context, the issues of sanita- practice with pagan beliefs and held that cre- tion and overcrowding have always loomed mation might prevent the resurrection of the large. The ancient Greeks and Romans, who body. With the exception of the period around recognized the inherent sanitation dangers the Black Death, when mass cremations of posed by the disposal of the dead in concen- bodies became necessary, the practice of trated places, permitted burials to take place inhumation became nearly universal in Eu- only outside the city walls. In Rome, the law rope and persisted until late in the 19th cen- of the Twelve Tables barred burial or crema- tury. The revival of cremation began in Brit- tion within the confines of the city. Christians, ain, only after the publication of an influential however, began to bury their dead, as we have book on the subject by Queen Victoria’s per- seen, in and around the churches where they sonal surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson. Legal- worshipped. Their insistence on doing so ization in many countries, and the acquies- soon placed them at odds with the town au- cence of both the Protestant and Catholic thorities, but the fact that church properties Churches (but not Orthodox Jews) soon fol- had become exempt by the Middle Ages from lowed and paved the way for a general return most secular laws meant that the practice was to the practice in many parts of Europe. 188 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 6.13. Christian burial grounds. Rows of weathered gravestones grace the grounds of England’s Malmesbury Abbey, dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539. The remains of the abbey church date from the 12th century, although a monastery stood on this site from as early as 676 A.D. Local legend tells of the ghost of a monk who wanders among the gravestones at night, looking for something.

the majority are constructed of white marble, RELIGION AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT though other stone was used. That is especially true in the western colonies, where Religion is deeply intertwined with European marble was not available. The structures are history and has left a dramatic impression typically rectangular in form with an inner nearly everywhere on the European cultural room reserved for the statue of the deity and landscape. In the classical and especially outer porches lined with rows of columns, of- the medieval periods more time, resources, ten topped by elaborately carved capitols. and energy were put into the construction of The acme of classical Greek architecture is places of worship than any other building en- to be seen on the Athenian Acropolis. An deavors. Even in the early modern period re- acropolis (Greek for “upper city”) was a prom- ligious edifices were still among the most con- inent feature of most Greek cities. Built atop a spicuous elements in the landscape. Only in prominent hill, it contained the chief religious modern times have secular buildings become and administrative buildings and formed a the prime concern of architects. The often kind of defensible citadel to which citizens monumental projects of Europe’s great reli- from the lower town could retreat in times of gious institutions provide a rich catalog of the danger. It was not impregnable, however, and changing styles of European architecture. We the Athenian Acropolis was left in ruins by the now turn our attention to the religious archi- Persians in 480 B.C. It was rebuilt under Peri- tectural history that can be read in the mod- cles between 447 and 406 B.C., and the re- ern European landscape. mains of the buildings one sees today date from this period. By far the greatest achievement of the Classical Beginnings (500 B.C.–400 A.D.) Periclean Age is the construction of the Par- The buildings left to us from the classical thenon, the temple of Athena, which con- Greek period are almost entirely religious in tained a 12-meter-high gold and ivory statue nature. They are the temples built as the of the goddess. Outside the temple stood a co- homes of deities important to the local pop- lossal bronze statue of Athena that could be ulation. Most are concentrated in southern seen from the sea 45 kilometers away. Both of Greece, the Aegean islands, and the western these statues were taken to Constantinople by parts of Anatolia, but some may be found in the Byzantines and were among the treasures the colonies established on Sicily and in the lost during the sack of that city by the Cru- south of the Italian peninsula. In Greece itself saders in 1204. For such a large structure, the 6. Religion 189

Parthenon gives a remarkable feeling of weightlessness. This is achieved through the inward bowing of the columns such that, if they were extended upward, they would meet at an elevation of roughly 3 kilometers above the building. The Parthenon was converted first into a Byzantine church, then into a mosque, and finally into a powder magazine, which was hit by Venetian fire in 1687. Mod- ern air pollution has taken a further toll, and the building is now being restored. The built religious environment of the FIGURE 6.14. The Parthenon. This temple to the goddess Athena Romans covers a much larger territory, ex- was built as a massive public works project during the fifth century B.C. tending from the eastern Mediterranean, Some of Athens’s citizens even thought, at the time of its construction, where Ephesus in modern Turkey, for exam- that the structure was far too extravagant for the city. Conservators ple, was renowned for its Temple of Artemis have worked hard, in recent years, to repair some of the damage or Diana, to the western Iberian Peninsula. caused by the 1687 explosion that shattered the temple, as well as to Even north of the Alps, in France, Britain, restore some of the features damaged by latter-day airborne pollut- and Germany, the ruins of Roman civilization ants. can be seen in many places. The Romans advanced the technology of construction well beyond what the Greeks had achieved. The mainly for decoration, applied in slabs to principal innovation was the use of the brick or concrete walls. rounded arch. This allowed the building of Early Roman temples were built on Greek higher and roomier structures, since the models, rectangular with colonnaded porches, arches distributed the weight laterally and but later the Romans began to experiment thus could support much heavier loads. Arch with the new technologies of construction. A construction was greatly facilitated by the remarkable example of this experimentation is Roman improvement of an old building ma- the Pantheon in Rome. Originally erected in terial, concrete. Most Roman monumental 27 B.C. in the traditional temple style, it was buildings, such as the Colosseum, were completely rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian erected using concrete, which was then faced between 118 and 128 A.D. The result is a cir- with a rock such as travertine (limestone) to cular building of concrete faced with brick make them more attractive. Marble was used and crowned by an immense concrete dome.

FIGURE 6.15. The Pantheon. Visible in this photo is the classical columned porch of the Pantheon, which fronts the cylindrical outer walls and domed interior of the structure. The building is remarkable for the precision of its design. The dimensions of the cylindrical casing and the dome are exactly equal. Atop the dome is a 9- meter-wide hole through which shafts of light descend to the floor below. 190 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

At 43 meters in diameter and 22 meters in Rome, so that the early official art was virtu- height, it was the largest dome built anywhere ally all Roman art, and the classical basilica in the world until modern times. This pagan was adopted as the usual style of Christian temple has survived because it was rededi- Church. Change was in the air, however, since cated in 609 as a Christian Church, which it the new city arose in the Greek-speaking remains today. world, a fertile center of artistic ideas that After Constantine’s Edict of Toleration had developed quite independently of Rome. (313) gave legitimacy to Christianity within The religious structures of Constantine’s new the Empire, the new religion began to con- capital were of two main types: longitudinal struct churches that were adaptations of a sec- basilicas and centralized churches. The for- ular building type, the basilica, that was used mer, usually with three aisles, were intended by the Romans as a hall of assembly, com- for congregational worship; the latter, which merce, reception, or law-making. The general were circular, square, or even octagonal in form of the building was rectangular, with a shape, were for burial or commemorative use. long, high hall (nave) flanked by lower aisles It was through a subtle combination of the and ending in a rounded apse. Constantine two types that the characteristic Byzantine commissioned three large churches with this church emerged. form in Rome, the largest of which was the The Byzantine style made great strides in original St. Peter’s (replaced in the 16th cen- the sixth century, during the reign of the Em- tury by the present church). In the plans for peror Justinian, one of the greatest builders of these he added a transept that crossed the all time. He was responsible for the erection nave just before the apse, giving the buildings of four major churches in Constantinople, the the form of a cross. This remained the model most famous of which is the great cathedral of for churches in the Western Christian world Hagia Sophia, where the ideas of the longitu- throughout the Middle Ages. dinal basilica and the centralized building were combined in a wholly original manner. The Byzantine and Orthodox Traditions The distinctive feature of all of these build- of the East (330–1712) ings was the form of the roof, the dome. By the ninth century, Byzantine churches gener- When Constantine began to build his new ally conformed to a single pattern, usually capital on the Bosporus, the “Second Rome,” termed the “cross in square.” Like St. Mark’s he assembled a mass of builders and artisans Basilica in Venice, these churches typically for the purpose. The majority came from had five domes, one at the center of the cross

FIGURE 6.16. Hagia Sophia. Built for the emperor Justinian as an imperial temple, Hagia Sophia (the Ca- thedral of Holy Wisdom) was intended to proclaim forever the glory of God and empire. The best mathemati- cian of the time was employed to design what became the world’s largest domed space; and it remained so for a thousand years until surpassed in the 16th century by the dome of St. Peter’s in Rome. The church was converted to a mosque and surrounded by minarets after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453. In 1935 the new secular-minded Turkish Republic turned the building into a museum. 6. Religion 191 and one at each of the outer points. The build- After Constantinople fell to the Turks in ing material varied with the locality, although 1453, hegemony in the world of Orthodox brick was preferred to stone. The exterior Christianity shifted to Muscovite Russia, and decoration became increasingly elaborate, us- the city of Moscow became the “third Rome.” ing intricate patterns in brickwork or colorful Eager to rival the other centers of culture, the glazed pottery tiles. princes of Moscow launched a building pro- The Principality of Kiev was converted to gram designed to give the city a new look Christianity in 988, and Byzantine art in in keeping with its new international impor- Russia was first established there. From tance. The city’s citadel, the Kremlin, and two Kiev the Byzantine style of architecture soon of its important churches were entirely re- spread through the principalities of Novgorod built by Italian architects between 1475 and and Vladimir-Suzdal. Everything connected 1510. The Italians were required to incorpo- with the design and decoration of the new rate the basic features of Byzantine planning churches followed the Byzantine pattern. The and design into the new cathedrals, but also standard plan of the Greek church—the cross managed to introduce Italian motifs into the inscribed in a rectangle surmounted by a cen- exterior decoration of the buildings. tral dome—became the accepted type for Or- The most thoroughly Russian of all the thodox churches. Novgorod later became the churches built in Moscow during this period center of a quite original style. It was here was the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed that the fundamental features of later Russian (Pokrovsky Cathedral) in Red Square (1554– architecture were developed. The severe cli- 1560). Built by Czar Ivan IV (the Terrible) in mate and heavy snowfalls of the north neces- gratitude for his victories over the khanates sitated various modifications of the Byzantine of Kazan and Astrakhan on the Volga, the architectural forms. Windows were narrowed; church’s structure exhibits no apparent archi- roofs became steeper and flat domes took on tectural order. The lavish use of color and de- the bulbous form that, in different varieties, sign in the decoration of the exterior is also at became the most notable feature of Russian variance with Byzantine models. St. Basil’s is church architecture. essentially a copy of the wooden churches of

FIGURE 6.17. Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. Set in the midst of the windswept expanses of Moscow’s Red Square, St. Basil’s broods silently over a passing young couple. Although the church was actually designed by two local architects, legend has it that an Ital- ian architect was employed to do the job, and that the Czar, Ivan the Terrible, had the poor fellow’s eyes put out so that he could never duplicate or improve on the design. 192 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY northern Russia done in brick. As such it evokes the spirit of medieval Russia in a way no other church in Moscow can match.

Muslim Religious Architecture in Iberia and the Balkans Islamic architecture graces the European landscape in two widely separated areas. One is Iberia, where it is the remnant of a Moorish civilization that lasted from the 8th to the end of the 15th century. The other is the Balkans, which formed a part of the Ottoman Empire from the late 15th to the early 20th century. In the former the Muslim religion has largely disappeared, and the building styles come down to us as relics of the past or as features incorporated into later Christian buildings. In the latter the religion lives on, however, and FIGURE 6.18. The Giralda. This Moorish minaret turned Christian many of the Islamic structures function as Gothic cathedral tower is the city of Seville’s best-known cultural land- places of worship today. mark. According to legend the tower was saved from destruction by the The most important religious structure to conquering Christian leader Alfonso, who let it be known before the city survive from the Moorish period in Spain is was taken that he would put to the sword anyone who attempted to the Great Mosque of Córdoba (La Mezquita). destroy it. The beauty of the tower derives from its intricately patterned brick trelliswork and delicate windows and balconies. This is one of two classic early mosques to be built in the western Islamic world, the other being the Great Mosque of al-Quayrawan in Tunisia. By the 10th century Córdoba had be- The architecture of these puritanical dynas- come the largest and most prosperous city ties, the Almoravid (1056–1147) and the in Europe, outshining Byzantium and rival- Almohad (1130–1269), was massive and aus- ing Baghdad, the new capital of the eastern tere. The greatest monument from this period caliphate. The completed mosque was de- is the Giralda in Seville, the minaret of the scribed as having “as many bays as there are Muslim mosque, which was embellished and days in the year,” and its 1,293 marble col- served as the bell tower of the great Gothic umns, 280 chandeliers, and 1,445 hanging cathedral that replaced the mosque after the lamps were much extolled. The interior walls Reconquest. Built at the end of the 12th cen- were decorated with rich marbles, porphy- tury, this crowning achievement of Almohad ries, and alabaster, and the domed Mihrab, architecture became the model for the mina- which indicated the direction of Mecca and rets in Rabat and Marrakesh. amplified the words of the imam, or prayer After the fall of Granada to the Catholic leader, was thought to be among the most per- monarchs in 1492 and the subsequent expul- fect in the Islamic world. This monumental sion of the Muslims, things made in Muslim edifice is, however, marred by a Christian ca- style continued to be produced by Moriscos, thedral choir that was unfortunately built in Moors who had ostensibly converted to its very center during the Renaissance. Fortu- Christianity. This art is referred to as Mudéjar nately, the cathedral occupies just 48 of the and is well represented in, for example, the 365 bays of the mosque. Alcazba in Seville. Although generally con- With the fall of the Umayyad dynasty in fined to secular buildings the Mudéjar style Córdoba, power in Muslim Spain fell into was also applied to Jewish synagogues (later the hands of Berber families from Morocco. converted into Christian churches), two very 6. Religion 193 fine extant examples being Santa Maria Early Medieval Church Architecture in La Blanca and El Tránsito in Toledo. The the West: The Romanesque and Gothic Mudéjar spirit, in fact, permeated most of Spanish architectural ornament and decora- The classical age of the Romanesque in tive arts for centuries, and its influence can Western church architecture is usually dated even be found in Spanish America. 1050–1140, although the term Romanesque The grand tradition of Ottoman architec- was not coined until 1818. It describes a type ture, established in the 16th century, differed of architecture that descends from, but is markedly from that of the earlier Moors. It different than, Roman architecture, much as was derived from both the Byzantine Chris- Romanic languages are the distinctive off- tian tradition, outlined above, and native Mid- spring of Latin. Like the churches of the early dle Eastern forms used by the Islamic Seljuk Christian era, Romanesque churches derive Turks, who preceded the Ottomans. The basically from the Roman basilica. The basic Byzantine tradition, particularly as embodied form consisted of a central nave with side in Hagia Sophia, was perhaps the major aisles, ending in a rounded apse in the east source of inspiration. Byzantine influence ap- and having a single or twin towers at the west pears in such features as the use of stone and end. The transept at right angles to the nave, brick together and in the details of dome con- originated by Constantine, was also pre- struction. Also influential were the contacts served, the crossing being surmounted by a that the early Ottomans had with Italy. A central tower. Like the Romans, the builders distinctive feature of Ottoman architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries continued to is, then, that it drew from both Islamic employ rounded arches between columns to and Christian sources. Ottoman architecture support the roof. This allowed the columns to reached its pinnacle with the building of the be spaced more widely but still meant that the great mosques that still define the Istanbul bulk of the weight of the roof was borne by skyline. Their imposing central domes, sur- thick walls and massive columns. The result rounded by a cascade of smaller half-domes, was a rather heavy, bulky building with few totally dominate these structures, while the windows, allowing relatively little light inside. tall, slender minarets from which the imams The Romanesque period coincided with the call the faithful to prayer (now via loudspeak- great era of monasticism in western Christen- ers) stand as guardians around them. dom. The style, therefore, is often closely as-

FIGURE 6.19. Blue Mosque. Built in the early 17th century by Mehmed Aga, the royal architect of the Ottoman Court, Istanbul’s Blue Mosque exhibits a perfectly symmetrical profile, with its large central dome flanked on all sides by matched half-domes, cupolas, and minarets. Known as the Blue Mosque because of its blue tile decor, the structure was partly built using marble from the ruins of the nearby Roman Hippo- drome. 194 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

The Gothic style was born in the western part of Europe, in the Île de France around Paris, and is conventionally dated from about 1140 to 1400. The earliest building in which these techniques were used was the abbey church of Saint-Denis (1135–1144) in Paris. Something similar was attempted soon after at Notre Dame in Paris (1163) and also at Laon to the northeast (1165). One of the most influential of the early Gothic buildings was Chartres (1194). Outside of northern France, the early stages of development in the Gothic period show, as did the Romanesque before them, strong regional influences. These depended on the availability of building materials, for example, stone versus brick, but also cultural ties and the routes along which ideas were channeled. Swedish Gothic was heavily FIGURE 6.20. Romanesque. The Kaiserdom in Bamberg is one of Germany’s “imperial” cathedrals. Consecrated in 1012, the cathedral influenced by French, for example, while in burned and was rebuilt twice during its first two centuries, becoming in Norway English models dominated. Italy de- the process a transitional structure between the Romanesque and the veloped its own style, influenced to some newer Gothic style. The heavy protruding choir here at the east end of degree by antiquity but also by Byzantine the building with its rounded arches and windows is typical of the Ro- Constantinople. Here, where cheap building manesque. stone was not available, churches were built of brick and faced with decorative marble. The new technology tempted builders to sociated with the Benedictine, Cluniac, and experiment with ever larger buildings, but Cistercian orders. eventually it was seen that there were limits. The demise of the Romanesque is first ap- Beauvais cathedral in France had a disastrous parent in new structural developments that history, which included the collapse of its began about 1090. These were a response to vaults, and it was never completed. By the the desire on the part of builders to achieve High and Late Gothic periods the emphasis several objectives that could not be reached was on decoration. Windows were enlarged, using Roman or Byzantine technology. Pri- the tracery made more complex, and the mary among these objectives was to create stained glass colored less heavily, letting in taller structures that admitted more light. more light. This is known in France as the Three innovations made by progressive Ro- Rayonnant style and in England as the Deco- manesque engineers enabled this to be done: rated and Perpendicular. English Perpendicu- ribbed vaulting, pointed arches, and the flying lar gave rise to a phase of Gothic unique to buttress. The first two enabled weight to be England in which the most characteristic fea- concentrated to massive columns inside the ture is the fan vault. Italy produced its own structure while the third carried it to pillars unique version of Rayonnant styling, perhaps outside the walls of the church. All of this best seen in the front of Sienna Cathedral or meant that walls could be taller and thinner in the cathedral bell tower in Florence. and have much greater window space. The re- One might argue that the Gothic took imag- sult was buildings that appear to soar toward ination to an extreme. For many the flamboy- the heavens rather than being bound to the ance of form and decoration had become too earth, and buildings with huge stained glass much. New Renaissance forms derived from windows that throw light into the farthest cor- classical antiquity now provided an alterna- ners. tive form of art, one with more order and so- 6. Religion 195

FIGURE 6.21. Gothic. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame at Chartres is one of the most magnificent examples of Gothic architecture in Europe. Built over a relatively short period from 1194 to 1260, the building has a unity of architectural style achieved by few other churches. The church provided, in many ways, a stylistic template for other Gothic cathedrals built across northern France during the first half of the 13th century, such as Reims, Amiens, and Beauvais. (Photo: J. Ostergren) lemnity and one founded solidly on a highly tects came to believe that the circle was the revered tradition. The result was the whole- most perfect geometric form and, therefore, sale abandonment of Gothic art on the the most appropriate to use in structures ded- grounds that it was barbaric. Indeed, it is the icated to a perfect God. In addition, Renais- Renaissance artists, themselves, who coined sance architects were determined that their the name “Gothic” to express their loathing buildings be more orderly and rational than for an art form, which they believed, like the those of the uncivilized Gothic designers. Goths, had destroyed the noble classical heri- From Florence the early Renaissance style tage. spread gradually over Italy, becoming prevalent in the second half of the 15th century. Early Modern Church Architecture Many of the churches and palaces of Venice in the West: The Renaissance and Baroque are built in this manner. In the early 16th century political and cultural leadership shifted The Renaissance (1400–1600) began in Italy, from Florence to Rome, largely because a close to the remains of the classical past from succession of powerful popes wanted to de- which it took its inspiration. Rome had, of velop the papacy as a secular power and course the largest stock of classical ruins, but wished to embellish the city with ambitious the Renaissance was born not there, but in new building projects. By the end of the 16th Florence. While Rome at this time was a rela- century the new style pervaded almost all of tively small and poor city, under the control of Europe. the Papacy, Florence was economically pros- A variation of Renaissance architecture perous and politically stable. found in Spain is known as Plateresque. It The Renaissance reintroduced the dome, takes its name from the word platero, mean- which, as we have seen, became the hall- ing silversmith, because of its rich ornamenta- mark of Byzantine and Russian architecture tion, resembling silversmith’s work. There has but which was notably absent from Western always been a long tradition in Spain of elabo- Christendom during the Middle Ages. It is rate decoration, often explained in part as an Brunelleschi’s great dome over the duomo,or influence from Moorish art. The Renaissance cathedral, of Florence that marks the begin- Plateresque style is purely one of decoration; ning of this development. Another innovation there is no change in structure from the ear- of the Italian Renaissance was the adoption of lier Moorish and Gothic periods. The richness the centralized plan. Many Renaissance archi- of classical ornamentation imported from It- 196 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 6.22. Renaissance. Florence began building its massive cathedral in 1294. Envisioned was a great vaulted basilica with an enormous dome as the church’s crown. The problem was that no one knew how to build a dome that large and high until a local goldsmith and sculptor turned architect, Filippo Brunelleschi, arrogantly insisted that only he could construct such a dome and that he could do it without scaffold- ing! Brunelleschi, who had studied the work of Roman architects, was given the commission and succeeded in making good on his claim. The distinctively ribbed dome was completed in 1436 and topped with its lantern in 1468. aly blended effectively with the elements the early Baroque was Rome, and the three of the Moorish and flamboyant Late Gothic great masters there were Gian Lorenzo styles to form the new Plateresque style. The Bernini, Francesco Borromini, and Pietro da greatest center of the Plateresque, as demon- Cortona. In this early Roman phase, Baroque strated on cathedral and university façades, builders returned to the medieval longitudi- was Salamanca. nal axis plan where the nave promoted a The last great historical period of Western church architecture, lasting roughly from the early 17th to the mid-18th century, was the Baroque. Baroque was at first a term of abuse, probably derived from the Italian word barocco, which was used by philosophers during the Middle Ages to describe an obstacle in schematic logic. Baroque church architecture was inspired in part by the fervor of the Counter-Reformation. Indeed, Baroque is often seen as the flamboyant architectural expression of the “Roman Church Triumphant.” It had its greatest impact in a belt of territory extending from Italy, through the German Catholic lands of Switzerland, Germany, Aus- tria, and into Bohemia and Poland. It was here that the Protestant threat to the Church was both most strongly felt and most vigorously opposed. It is also associated with Cath- olic Spain and her overseas possessions. Out- lying examples may be found in France and FIGURE 6.23. Baroque. The countryside of Catholic Germany is rich with examples of Baroque church architecture. The Cistercian Abbey at the Protestant lands, as well as in Russia. Waldsassen, in the Upper Palatinate, has a reputation as one of the The Baroque style differed from that of the masterpieces of German High Baroque. Built in the late 14th century Renaissance in that it was essentially con- by George Dientzenhofer, one of the masters of Baroque building, the cerned with emotion and the senses rather abbey houses a spectacular library encased in galleries of fancifully than with reason and the mind. The center of carved wooden shelving beneath a vaulted frescoed ceiling. 6. Religion 197 sense of movement toward the altar. They also gave greater prominence to the façade of the church. Later, leadership in the genre passed to the lands north of the Alps, and by the end of the 17th century the imperial cities of the Catholic Hapsburgs, Vienna and Prague, had emerged as the capitals of High Baroque. In the countryside, it was the great abbeys of the German lands that most fervently embraced the new style.

Modern Church Architecture in the West: Neoclassical and Revival Styles FIGURE 6.24. Neoclassicism. The neoclassical Basilica of The majority of historic Christian church Esztergom is the largest church in Hungary. Although the present build- buildings erected since the end of the 18th cen- ing is from the 19th century, the city, at the western entrance to the tury are either neoclassical in style or belong to Danube Bend, has been the seat of Roman Catholicism in Hungary for one of the revival styles popular in the 19th more than a thousand years. The crypt is the burial site of Cardinal Mindszenty, who is revered by Hungarians for his unyielding opposition century. Neoclassicism, which swept through to both fascism and communism. Europe between 1750 and 1830, was a reaction against what were seen as the excesses of Ba- roque architecture. It corresponded with a new interest in antiquity, one that, unlike that FURTHER READING of the Renaissance, was scientific and focused especially on the archeological investigation of Badone, E. (Ed.). (1990). Religious orthodoxy and the classical sites of past civilizations. Neoclas- popular faith in European society. Princeton, NJ: sical structures, unlike the more imaginative Princeton University Press. Renaissance and Baroque structures, were in- Ben-Sasson, H. H. (Ed.). (1976). A history of the tended to be true to documented examples of Jewish people. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni- the past, focusing on the grandeur and simplic- versity Press. ity of Greek or Roman forms. Dogan, M. (1998). The decline of traditional values Although neoclassical buildings continued in Western Europe: Religion, nationalism, authority. International Journal of Comparative So- to be erected until the 1930s, the 19th cen- ciology, 39, 77–90. tury was dominated by a Romantic inclination Encyclopaedis Britannica Staff, Britannica Edi- to draw inspiration from a variety of historical tors. (1999). Britannica book of the year. Chi- styles (Historicism), and sometimes to com- cago: Encyclopaedia Britannica. bine them even in the same buildings (Eclec- Frend, W. (1988). Christianity in the first five cen- ticism). Particularly noteworthy was a nostal- turies. In S. Sutherland, L. Houlden, P. Clarke, gic fascination with the medieval past, which & F. Hardy (Eds.), The world’s religions (pp. produced a spate of neo-Gothic style church 142–166). Boston: G. K. Hall, pp. 142-166. building first in England and then spreading Fulton, J., & Gee, P. (1994). Religion in contempo- across much of western and central Europe. rary Europe. Lewiston, ME: Mellen. Much church building in the latter part of the Geanakoplos, D. J. (1966). Byzantine East and Latin West: Two Worlds of Christendom in Mid- 20th century conforms to the new interna- dle Ages and Renaissance. New York: Harper tional architectural style, which utilizes mod- Torchbooks. ern materials and emphasizes function over Gilles, S. (1988). Christianity in Europe: Reforma- form. Relatively few new church edifices have tion to today. In S. Sutherland, L. Houlden, P. been constructed, however, and the impact of Clarke, & F. Hardy (Eds.), The world’s religions modernism on the built religious environ- (pp. 216–242). Boston: G. K. Hall. ment has been both scattered and slight. Graham, B. J., & Murray, M. (1997). The spiritual 198 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

and the profane: The pilgrimage to Santiago de movements in Europe. Aarhus, Denmark: Compestela. Ecumene, 4, 389–409. Aarhus University Press. Greeley, A. M. (2003). Religion in Europe at the Nolan, M. L., & Nolan, S. (1989). Christian pil- end of the second millennium: A sociological pro- grimage in modern western Europe. Chapel Hill: file. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. University of North Carolina Press. Halman, L., & Riis, O. (Eds.). (2003). Religion in Peach C., & Glebe G. (1995). Muslim minorities in secularizing society: The Europeans’ religion at Western Europe. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 18, the end of the 20th century. Leiden, The Neth- 26–45. erlands: Brill. Smart, N. (1989). The world’s religions: Old tradi- Harding, S., Phillips, D. R., & Fogarty M. P.(1986). tions and modern transformations. Cambridge, Contrast in values in western Europe. London: UK: Cambridge University Press. Macmillan. Sopher, D. E. (1967). Geography of religions. Kostof, S. (1995). A history of architecture: Settings Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. and rituals. (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford Uni- Sutherland, S., Houlden, L., Clarke, P.,& Hardy, F. versity Press. (Eds.). (1988). The world’s religions. Boston: G. McLeod, H. (1997). Religion and the people of K. Hall. Western Europe, 1789–1989. Oxford, UK: Ox- Wilson, N. J. (Ed.). (2001). The European Renais- ford University Press. sance and Reformation, 1350–1600. Detroit: Meldgaard, H., & Aagaard, J. (1997). New religious Gale Group. CHAPTER 7 The Political Landscape

For more than four decades following World the eastern half of the continent. The process War II the most salient and immutable fea- dramatically increased the number of sover- ture of the political map of Europe was its di- eign nations on the map from 32 to 43; ex- vision into an East and a West. This was the tended the aggregate length of political fron- legacy of Yalta, the historic meeting in 1945 tiers, many of them contested, by thousands between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin that of kilometers; and raised the possibility of determined the geopolitical configuration of new regional associations in the Baltic, cen- postwar Europe. In the aftermath of the de- tral Europe, eastern Europe, and the Balkans. feat of Nazism, a bipartite Europe replaced a Second, Germany was reunited, creating a prewar Europe that had consisted of not two powerful and potentially domineering state of but a number of politically and culturally de- some 80 million people in the heart of Eu- finable regions, including a “Central Europe” rope. Third, the idea of a union of European that for all practical purposes ceased to exist states, long anticipated, and embodied today after 1945. The two halves of postwar Europe in a European Union of as many as 25 states, became estranged from each other through emerged as an attractive, although not always sharply contrasting political and economic fully embraced, means of achieving a peaceful systems. Whatever else of political impor- and prosperous European future. And finally, tance may have happened during these post- threatening to alter the fabric even further war decades—and there was much that did— has been the recent wave of regional and eth- Europe’s two-way division was an ever-pres- nic demands for political and territorial recog- ent reality. The political landscape, in a sense, nition—ranging from the open warfare and was frozen in place by the chilling winds of “ethnic cleansing” that have plagued the Bal- the Cold War. kans and other parts of the East to the de- All that changed rather suddenly in the mands for greater political and cultural auton- 1990s. The political landscape of Europe was omy pursued by regions within some of the suddenly transformed, taking on new shapes states in the West. and possibilities on a scale not seen since Depending on one’s point of view, these 1918–1921. The most spectacular change was changes are either exhilarating or fraught the breakup of the Soviet Union and the elim- with political danger. There has been no ination of Soviet hegemony over eastern Eu- shortage of optimism for the future of an in- rope, which in turn unleashed a wave of de- tegrated Europe, and the rush of political mocratization and nation building all across events after 1989 generated widespread hope

199 200 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 7.1. Cold War Europe. for the success of the new democracies in of forces and circumstances, placing it in a the East. On the other hand, enthusiasm for state of considerable flux. Our purpose in this the deepening of EU ties has been far from chapter is to attempt some understanding of universal. Britain and other member states the forces that shape the modern European remain cautious about, and in some cases political landscape. These are forces that openly opposed to, many of the new integra- sometimes act in concert, sometimes as coun- tive initiatives. In addition, unsettling politi- terweights to one another. We focus on three: cal events in the East and elsewhere have be- nationalism, supranationalism, and regional- gun to temper the euphoria with which the ism. We begin, because of its immense im- momentous political developments of the past pact on the political structure of Europe and decade were first welcomed. on the lives and identity of contemporary The political culture of contemporary Eu- Europeans, with nationalism. We then turn to rope, then, is one that is buffeted by a variety supranationalism and its potential to bring the 7. The Political Landscape 201

with the legal systems and formal institutions of society, that support the system of national states that has prevailed in Europe over the past century. Nations are something that must be invented. While there is some sense that national identity can be primordial, we know that it is normally a phenomenon that devel- ops from the activities of elites who, often for purposes of their own, wish to generate around them a popular sense of nationhood and belonging. The process of nation building thus involves the identification or invention FIGURE 7.2. Berlin Wall. Only small graffiti-covered sections re- of an ethnic past, of national myths and main of the wall that once cordoned off West Berlin from the surround- heroes, of common history, cultural institu- ing territory of socialist East Germany. Long the symbol of Cold War tions, heartland, and territory. The success of tensions, the wall is fast becoming a distant memory following the re- a nationalist movement depends on a general unification of Germany more than a decade ago. acceptance and embracing of this complex of ideas by the general populace. Although we often may not think of it nations of the continent into a larger and last- as such, nationalism is a relatively recent ing harmony. We end with regionalism, the phenomenon. While its antecedents may be relatively recent but powerful trend to refo- traced deep into the past, nationalism did not cus political action and identity at the regional become a widespread and powerful force in or local level. Europe until the beginning of the 19th century. Before that time most political allegiance was personal. People felt a sense of loyalty to NATIONALISM a sovereign prince or an important local ruler The Rise of Nationalism who, in turn, may have owed fealty to others. Or they may have identified with a much Nationalism is undoubtedly one of the most more vague and universal entity, such as the powerful political forces to affect modern Eu- Christian Church. Throughout much of his- rope and, indeed, the world as a whole. It may tory Europe’s major political units consisted be defined as a collective state of mind or of dynastic states and empires, whose legiti- consciousness in which groups of individuals macy and power was built around the rights become cognizant of a common culture and and prerogatives of the royal household and history, and thus identify themselves as a dis- court, and whose alliances and foreign adven- tinctive people, or nation. It further requires tures were often dictated by marriages and in- that this nation place its primary sense of loy- trigues between the various houses of the alty and duty with its own independent state, continent’s ennobled elite. Few, if any, were the nation-state, which is seen as the only le- ethnically homogeneous. gitimate territorial and political expression Sixteenth-century England is often cited as of national identity. Indeed, nationalism is a the first place in Europe to experience a form force that is usually not deemed satisfied until of nationalism, but its emergence as a real all members of the perceived nation are em- force in European society is one of the great braced within the territory of the state. More- transformations that accompanied the French over, the perfect nation-state is not attained Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Many until all persons not belonging to the nation of the philosophical underpinnings of nation- are excluded from the state. These principles alism are associated with the ideas of the of nationalism are the primary forces, along French Revolution, in which the state and the 202 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 7.3. Europe after the Treaty of Vienna (1814). nation were seen as one and the same, and members of a French nation, and that a good deserving of a government that reflects the many still failed to do so even as late as World popular will. Nationalism, therefore, was a War I. This finding is made all the more inter- revolutionary dogma whose first success was esting in light of the fact that France is com- its central role in transforming the great abso- monly thought of as one of the more unified lute monarchies of western Europe into na- and long established nation-states in Europe. tion-states. In addition to the transformation It is important to recognize that nationalism is of dynastic states to nation-states in western a process that can take many forms, that there Europe, the 19th-century Romantic interest can be a significant lag between its initial in national culture and heritage, the drives for embracement by a few and its acceptance by national unification in Germany and Italy, and the masses, and that it is not a foregone con- the various struggles for national recognition clusion that all Europeans, even today, have in the multinational Austro-Hungarian, Rus- developed a deep sense of national identity. sian, and Ottoman Empires are all generally The point that nationalism can take many seen as expressions of the rising spirit of na- forms becomes relevant when we consider tionalism. the fact that the movement emerged first in But it is not always clear how widely this the West and later diffused to central and spirit was felt by the masses as opposed to na- eastern Europe. As nationalism spread east- tional elites. Indeed, one of the striking con- ward, it encountered very different social and clusions of Eugen Weber’s book, Peasants into political situations, which caused the ideas Frenchmen, is that most of the people who surrounding it to be interpreted differently. lived in the small towns and countryside of The main transmitters of western ideas to the France did not see themselves before 1870 as East were German Romantic thinkers such as 7. The Political Landscape 203

Johan Gottfried von Herder, whose concepts in its drive to realize the nationalistic rights of of nationalism contained the essentials of a chosen people. While the two forms are and actually differed relatively little from the hardly mutually exclusive, it is useful to use western meaning of the term. German think- the words civic and ethnic to differentiate beers such as Herder, though, wrote in a context tween nationalism in western and eastern Eu- where no nation-state as yet existed and rope. therefore paid much lip service to the idea of Most would agree that nationalism has nationality in the form of a culturally and lin- been the dominant political force of the 20th guistically defined people, or Volk. Herder century and that it, unfortunately, has not al- maintained that people had to find them- ways been the kind of liberal and progressive selves by rediscovering their language and force envisioned by its early champions. As history, but he intended that this process strong national states emerged across Europe should result in a world of free nationalities toward the end of the 19th century, national- cooperating peacefully with one another as ism became an increasingly conservative and equals. Central and eastern European elites reactionary force that was used to thwart po- tended to reinterpret this cultural nationalism litical reform and socialist movements both at in starkly political terms, where Volk stood for home and abroad, as well as to fuel national a group with a distinctive history, culture, rivalries and conflicts. This was certainly true rights, and a mission; and where the individ- of the German Empire after 1871, which be- ual, who had no rights of his or her own, was came a highly authoritarian and militaristic ruled from birth by the will of the Volk, which state, and it festered throughout a central and in turn was dedicated to the realization of the eastern Europe still encumbered by aged and political nation. increasingly anachronistic dynastic empires, As a consequence, a distinction can be ruled by the Romanovs, Hapsburgs, and Otto- made between what nationalism came to mans. Nationalism’s darker side infected the mean in the West and in the East. In western West as well. By the late 19th century, nation- European countries such as England, France, alistic pride and a general denigration or in- and the Netherlands, the rise of nationalism difference to all things foreign had become was primarily a democratizing phenomenon, perhaps no less a British or French way of whereby sovereignty was transferred from a thinking about themselves and their neigh- ruler to a relatively homogeneous citizen pop- bors. The outbreak of World War I, and the ulation already residing within a long-recog- cataclysmic bloodbath that followed, was cer- nized political unit. Nationalists were able to tainly abetted by such strong nationalistic capitalize on this already given political, cul- passions and rivalries. tural, and territorial reality and were thus able Moreover, the peace settlement that fol- to direct their attention toward the consum- lowed in 1919 unleashed two new nationalis- mation of a national democratic society in the tic developments that helped to set the stage present without having to focus too much on for renewed conflict in 1939. One was the the past. In the East nationalism arose much postwar political reorganization of central and later in an environment where social and po- eastern Europe according to liberal principles litical development were far less sophisticated of national self-determination. This idea, and where existing political units and cultur- which was vigorously promoted by the Ameri- ally homogeneous populations only rarely co- can President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris incided. In this setting nationalists became Peace Conference, led to the creation of much more preoccupied with ethnic descent a large number of new “nation-states”— and dreams of liberation from the rule of oth- Czechoslovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, ers. In addition, eastern nationalism became Estonia, Austria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia—in much more intimately tied to religion. Na- place of the defeated multinational empires of tionalism in the East, therefore, has a ten- central and eastern Europe. However high- dency to be more exclusionist and messianic minded the intentions, there was a certain 204 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

FIGURE 7.4. Europe between the World Wars.

naiveté involved in the application of this con- unstable, they became pawns in the coming cept to a region with as complex a cultural European conflict. Hitler thus found it re- history and as confused an ethnic geography markably easy to exploit the resentments and as this part of Europe. Although envisioned as territorial claims that Hungarians harbored national states, most of the new states were toward Romanians, Romanians toward Rus- nearly as multinational as the empires they re- sians, Croats toward Serbs, and so on. placed. Nor were the masters of these new The other development that took place be- states any more tolerant of national minori- tween the wars was the rise in Italy, Spain, ties than their imperial predecessors. In most and Germany of a particularly intense and xe- cases, the promise of a stable and democratic nophobic form of nationalism, which we know national society went unfulfilled. The new as fascism. Totalitarian fascist regimes in these states eventually began to slip into a condition countries appealed to extreme nationalist sen- in which they became inclined toward author- timents by glorifying the state and extolling itarian regimes, the suppression of minorities, the superiority and virtue of one nation over and conflict with their neighbors. Weak and others. This was particularly true in Germany, 7. The Political Landscape 205 where the doctrine of the superiority of the themselves as committed first and foremost to “Aryan” race over the Jews and the Slavic peo- the ideals of European integration and coop- ples of the East became a cornerstone of na- eration. A commitment to these ideals was tional identity. Although ideologically differ- long a cornerstone of postwar German foreign ent, communism in the Soviet Union under policy in Europe. Overt expressions of na- Stalin also took on many of the same nation- tional pride were avoided at all costs. Critical alistic and authoritarian features. We might references to things Jewish, or about the Jew- conclude that it was in the political envi- ish state in Israel, were especially taboo. On ronment of interwar Europe that nationalism the other hand, more recent developments in reached its zenith as a powerful, though often Germany are demonstration of the fact that misdirected, force. national pride is not necessarily a thing of the past. Since German reunification in 1990, it Nationalism in Europe Today has become more acceptable in Germany to break the old taboos. For a new generation of Many believe that there has been an erosion Germans the horrors of World War II seem of national feeling in Europe since World War distant. There no longer appears to be any II. Some would claim that Europe today has reason to feel personal guilt for Nazi crimes of entered a “postnational” era. This is perhaps the past, no reason not to rekindle a sense of most true in the West, where a number of re- German national identity and pride. Germans cent surveys suggest that there is evidence of now seem to be cautiously willing to stand up mitigated “national pride” across all nations; for what are seen as German rights and views. that ever lower proportions of national popu- It is much more difficult to judge the condi- lations feel “very proud” of their country, have tion of nationalism in the East, given the recent confidence in the army, or show much enthu- emergence of these countries from the long re- siasm for other common indicators of nation- pression of their national independence dur- alistic feelings. Surveys also show that indi- ing the postwar years, and the accordant need vidualism is on the rise, an indication that to proclaim a renewal of national spirit and people increasingly see themselves as part of purpose. Ironically, the communist years may a complex society in which people have multi- have worked to keep nationalism alive in east- ple roles and allegiances and move freely central and eastern Europe since various ef- between them as the situation warrants. As forts at integration in a Soviet-dominated east- we shall see, a growing reliance on a supra- ern bloc were both ineffective and strongly re- nationally organized Europe, as well as a “Eu- sisted. The collapse of communism and Soviet rope of regions,” are part of this process by influence in the 1990s seems to have opened which the role of national identity in the West up space for a “national renaissance” in which appears to have been downgraded. At the nation-state and nation could once again be re- same time, it is important not to take the idea affirmed. Some view what happened as a sort of too far. Nationalism is far from being extin- “catching up,” the completion of a process that guished as an element of European identity in was cut short roughly half a century ago. At a relatively small continental space that is po- least in the short term, there has been a rush of litically partitioned into more than 40 nation- popular support for the new national democra- states. cies established in the wake of communist rule. Germany has long been held up as the For the long term, however, the status of na- premiere example of nationalism’s retreat in tionalism seems clouded. Across most of the western Europe. For decades a profound new postcommunist democracies there is a sense of guilt over Nazi crimes during World near universal desire to become a part of a new War II has dominated the way in which Ger- and integrated Europe, and a certain willing- mans have regarded themselves and their ness—perhaps even stronger than in the country. Postwar German governments char- West—forpeople to think of themselves first as acteristically bent over backwards to portray European. 206 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

transformation) that may result from a continued influx of people from eastern Europe and the Balkans. Neo-Nazis in Germany shout Ausländer raus! (foreigners out!) and commit acts of violence against Turks and other immigrant groups. Jean-Marie Le Pen warns his French supporters of the perils of the “Arab invasion” from the Maghreb, while Belgium’s far-right Vlaams Blok profitably pursues the inflammatory politics of an anti-immigrant stance. This is a “scavenger” type of nationalism, wherein an alien threat to a preexisting sense FIGURE 7.5. Historic connections. The Alexander Nevski Church in of nationhood is identified and publicized for Sofia, built at the end of the 19th century as a memorial to the the purpose of generating hate and prejudice. 200,000 Russian soldiers who died in the Russo-Turkish War of While ostensibly limited in its appeal to the 1877–1878, which resulted in Bulgarian independence. A Russian traditional political right, or “center-right” as saint, Alexander defeated the Swedes on the banks of the Neva in 1240, thus winning his sobriquet. Admiration for the Russians, as dis- it is often known in Europe, this ethno- tinct from the Soviets, is evident elsewhere in the Bulgarian capital. nationalism persists and, at times, garners real popular support at the polls. In France, Le Pen’s National Front has been around now for nearly two decades. It won 15% of the vote in The most visible and disturbing form of na- the first round of the 1995 presidential elec- tionalism in the East, however, is a radical tions and has captured as much as 30–35% of ethno-nationalism. This is a divisive force that the vote in some local elections. More re- threatens the integrity of states and is, at least cently Le Pen made an unexpectedly strong in some sense, a kind of throwback to the dif- showing in the first round of the 2002 presi- ficulties of the interwar period that were gen- dential elections, coming in second with 17% erated by the more exclusionary and messi- of the vote and a majority vote in 35 of anic character of eastern nationalism, outlined the country’s 100 départements. Le Pen’s above. This is the nationalism that fuels the challenge was later beaten back decisively in killing and “ethnic cleansing” that have con- a run-off election with incumbent President vulsed some of the territories belonging to Yu- Jacques Chirac, but not before serious ques- goslavia and the former Soviet Union. In this tions were raised about the mood of the sense, nationalism in the East today can be French electorate. These concern both the seen as an ambivalent force, caught between degree to which crime is related in the public the desire to resume the process of nation mind to race and immigration, and the grow- building interrupted by World War II and the ing discomfort of the populace with a per- long socialist years, on the one hand, and the ceived loss of French national identity and reawakening of old conflicts among ethnic prestige, for which it blames a failed govern- and cultural groups, on the other. mental policy of multiracialism. A type of ethno-nationalism also exists in The recent electoral appeal of western the West, primarily in the form of radical pop- right-wing political parties, espousing a chau- ulist political movements whose demagogic vinistic brand of nationalism and racism, is leaders denounce the increasing cultural het- hardly limited to France. Xenophobic right- erogeneity of many western societies. The ex- wing parties have recently come to power as amples of this new xenophobia are legion. coalition partners in several countries. Jörg Jörg Haider of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) in Haider’s Freedom Party came in second with Austria built his political reputation by warn- 27% of the popular vote in Austria’s 1999 na- ing against the threat of “Umvolkung” (ethnic tional elections, gaining a place in the national 7. The Political Landscape 207 government. In May 2002, just nine days after crime, and illegal migrants. They express the assassination of Pim Fortuyn, its outspo- their concerns by occasionally voting the ken right-wing, anti-immigration leader, the leaders of left- and center-leaning parties out Lijst Pim Fortuyn found itself the second- of office. Such instances derive as much from largest party in the Dutch Parliament and a the failure of the incumbent political elite as coalition player in the new government. Quite from the allure of the extremist populists. remarkably, the party didn’t even exist just 3 months before the election. In 2001 Italy’s National Alliance Party, which descends from SUPRANATIONALISM Mussolini’s fascists, joined the country’s ruling coalition. The maverick right has also The nation-state remains the essential build- done well in recent years in such seemingly ing block of the international political order unlikely settings as Norway (Progress Party), and will undoubtedly remain so for the fore- Denmark (Danish People’s Party), and Swit- seeable future. At the same time, though, it zerland (Swiss People’s Party). The political faces a certain diminishment of its importance success of these parties is marked in regions in our global postindustrial society. There is and cities where immigrant populations are evidence that the power and authority of the particularly large, such as Antwerp, where state are gradually eroding, both upward to the nationalistic and anti-immigrant Flemish new supranational institutions and downward party Vlaams Blok has captured as much as to the level of the region and locality. As some one-third of the vote in city elections. would say, there is an ongoing “hollowing out” Such recent electoral successes, however, of the state that is taking place in this age of are not necessarily portents of a surge of the heightened interest in the global and the lo- extreme right in European politics reminis- cal. Again, all of this is not to say that the na- cent of the interwar period. The record of tion-state is in any danger of disappearing, or success is, in fact, highly uneven. Most right- that national populations may come to see ist parties have surged to prominence rather themselves no longer in nationalistic terms. suddenly and then fallen back to obscurity al- But as an object of popular allegiance and de- most as quickly as they have risen. Nor has votion, and as the holder of all sovereign there been anything resembling a continent- powers, the nation-state is increasingly being wide sweep of electoral success. The suc- forced to share its former preeminence with cesses of the xenophobic right wing have for other contenders. the most part occurred only here and there, Among these contenders is the idea of a and in some parts of Europe hardly at all. “united Europe” governed by supranational Germany, for example, has not experienced laws and institutions. This is an old idea that any kind of national demonstration, despite has been partially realized at various times occasional flareups in industrial cities. Britain and in different forms over the ages. One has seen relatively little at the national scale, might, for example, view the Roman Empire and the problem seems to scarcely exist or Charlemagne’s Empire as early suprana- in countries such as Spain, Portugal, and tional organizations of European peoples. The Greece. What extreme-right politicians have universal power once held by the medieval sometimes been able to capitalize on is not so Christian Church over sovereigns across Eu- much the racist and rabidly nationalistic sen- rope is another example. Even Hitler’s New timents of the electorate but rather a general Order sought to unite Europe, however un- sense that mainstream parties, whether cen- willingly. There is evidence that, for a brief ter, left, or right, have become too arrogantly moment, many Europeans might even have bureaucratic, complacent, and seemingly out been willing to embrace a German-led au- of touch with the needs and concerns of ordi- thoritarian “New Order” in place of what was nary citizens. Voters are genuinely concerned widely perceived as the failure of the liberal about such issues as chronic unemployment, democratic order created after 1918. It was 208 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY the Nazi insistence that it be a “German” New The negative Soviet reaction to the Ameri- Order of brutality and slavery that quickly can aid initiative eventually led to an inde- quashed any such support. The converse of pendent nexus of supranational cooperation this, the idea of a fully integrated and demo- among the nations of east-central and eastern cratic Europe, therefore, has made its most Europe, although from the very beginning solid advances only in the years since the con- these cooperative efforts were more imposed tinent experienced the ultimate catastrophic than voluntary. The umbrella organization consequence of nationalistic ambition: World for international cooperation in the East was War II. Today’s European Union is the most the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance successful example of the many steps taken (CMEA), which was organized in 1949. toward the supranational ideal over those de- Through a series of 5-year plans, running cades, and the best hope for the realization of from 1956 to 1985, CMEA undertook mea- the postwar dream of European cooperation sures to promote the industrial development and integration. and coordination of the socialist economies of eastern Europe and later of two non- Postwar Recovery European states—Cuba and Mongolia—as and Economic Cooperation well. In practice, however, most cooperation and trade among member states was strictly The postwar dream of a united Europe was bilateral. CMEA never evolved into the kind articulated as early as 1943 by French econo- of integrative supranational organization that mist Jean Monnet, who called on European emerged in the West, in part because member nations to form a federation, or a “European states remained cautious to the end of the in- entity,” that would ensure prosperity and vital tentions of the Soviet Union and of one an- social progress. In 1946 Winston Churchill other. Political events after 1989 quickly made seconded the notion in an influential speech CMEA irrelevant. It was formally dismantled delivered in Zürich in which he called for a and replaced with a looser consultative body new spirit of cooperation in Europe. The first in 1991. Also dismantled in 1991 was the War- concrete attempts at cooperation, however, saw Pact, the defensive alliance founded in emerged from efforts to recover from the eco- 1955 by the Soviet Union and its east-central nomic chaos that threatened Europe at war’s European satellites. end in 1945. In the West, a plethora of supranational or- American Marshall Plan aid, which was ad- ganizations emerged during the first decades ministered under the auspices of the Organ- after the war: OEEC (1948), the North Atlan- ization for European Economic Co-operation tic Treaty Organization (1948), the Council of (OEEC), provided an important impetus to- Europe (1949), the Nordic Council (1952), the ward integration in that it required, as a first Western European Union (1954), the Euro- step, that a level of economic and political co- pean Economic Community (1958), or “Com- operation be established among recipient na- mon Market,” and the European Free Trade tions. The offer of American aid, however, was Association (1960). Each was established for rejected by the Soviet Union and, with little particular purposes; memberships were over- choice in the matter, by its satellite states in lapping. The North Atlantic Treaty Organ- east-central Europe. Indeed, the Czechs and ization (NATO) and the Western European Poles, who had originally accepted Marshall Union were founded as defensive military Plan aid, soon found themselves forced to re- alliances. The Council of Europe and the verse their decisions. As a consequence most Nordic Council were founded as deliberative of the Marshall Plan aid, and the cooperative bodies dedicated to promoting international planning that accompanied it, went to western understanding and cooperation. The Euro- Europe, where it set the stage for the wide pean Economic Community and the Euro- range of integrative initiatives that followed. pean Free Trade Association were primarily 7. The Political Landscape 209 organized in the interests of economic coop- structure of its deliberative and adminis- eration. However, only one organization, the trative institutions, of long-term movement European Economic Community, developed toward shared governance and the subordina- a vision broad enough to achieve real integration of national sovereignties over a wide tion across a wide range of policy issues. range of issues. Together with the ECSC, which remained in existence, and the Euro- The European Economic Community pean Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), which was also a product of the Treaty of The European Economic Community (EEC), Rome, the EEC was poised by the end of the which was the forerunner of today’s Euro- 1950s to begin the process of bringing Europe pean Union, was established by six western together. European states—the Netherlands, Belgium, Meanwhile, seven nations outside the Luxembourg, France, West Germany, and It- EEC—the United Kingdom, Norway, Swe- aly—in a 1957 agreement known as the Treaty den, Denmark, Portugal, Switzerland, and of Rome. The EEC was built on the founda- Austria—formed the European Free Trade tion of two earlier economic agreements. The Association (EFTA) in 1959. During the 1960s first was the Benelux Union of 1947, which they were known as the “outer seven,” as op- bound the Netherlands, Belgium, and Lux- posed to the “inner six” of the EEC. EFTA embourg together in a customs union. The was not intended as a customs union. The fo- second was the European Coal and Steel cus was instead on the promotion of free trade Community (ECSC), which was set up by among its members and improved trade rel- France, West Germany, Italy, and the three ations throughout western Europe. It also Benelux countries in 1951 to pool their eschewed any language that committed its coal and steel resources. The brainchild of members to policies that would entail any loss Monnet, this effort by six countries to inte- of sovereignty, a feature that further differen- grate one of the most basic industrial sectors tiated it from the EEC and made it especially of their economies under a supranational au- appealing to countries with strong traditions thority was very successful and provided a of political independence and neutrality, such strong impetus toward the further efforts at as Sweden and Switzerland. EFTA was orig- economic integration embodied in the Treaty inally organized by the United Kingdom, of Rome agreement. The ECSC was also which eventually came to see the organization important in establishing an atmosphere of as a means of gaining leverage in its own com- reconciliation and shared interests between ing negotiations for EEC membership. the former antagonists France and Germany, During the 1960s the EEC achieved star- which would evolve into one of the key rela- tling economic success as the economies of tionships in the development of the European the six “Common Market” countries surged Community. ahead and enjoyed a sustained period of re- Building on these earlier agreements, the markable growth and prosperity that lasted Treaty of Rome established a supranational until around 1973. The thriving EEC under- organization committed to four goals: the went reorganization in 1967. The “three com- elimination of internal barriers to trade, a munities”—the EEC, ECSC, and Euratom, common external tariff, the free movement of were merged into a single structure, which capital, services, goods, and people among the became known as the European Community member states, and common integrative poli- (EC). The name change was indicative of a cies in key areas such as agriculture, energy, gathering shift in emphasis away from a pre- fisheries, monetary policy, and regional policy. dominantly economic focus. By this time, the While primarily economic in its specific goals, stated long-term goals had clearly become a there was also a recognition, embodied in single market economy, a single currency, and the nature of its stated goals as well as the a federalist political union. 210 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

The EC “Widenings” of the 1970s later, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and and 1980s Denmark became members, expanding the Community from six to nine members. After a Success was attractive and pressures to en- referendum, in which concerns over conces- large the Community began to mount. As sions that would have to be made to the Com- early as 1961, four EFTA members—the munity’s Common Fisheries Policy loomed United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, and large, Norway chose to decline its member- Norway—began negotiations for membership ship invitation. In the aftermath of the en- in the EC. These negotiations lasted for over largement, relationships between the EC and a decade, primarily because French President what remained of the EFTA were restruc- Charles De Gaulle opposed the idea of Brit- tured so as to strengthen ties and bring west- ain’s accession. The first enlargement of the ern Europe closer to the goal of a single eco- EC was finally agreed to in 1971. Two years nomic space. By the mid-1970s, the European

FIGURE 7.6. EEC/EU enlargements, 1973–2004. 7. The Political Landscape 211

Community had already become the eco- ries of “widenings” and “deepenings.” The nomic core and was in position to become the latter process began at the end of the 1970s political core of western Europe. when preliminary steps were taken toward a The first enlargement was followed by a European Monetary System with fixed ex- second and third. The “EC-Nine” became the change rates and when direct elections to the “EC-Ten” with the accession of Greece in European Parliament in Strasbourg were ini- 1981, and then the “EC-Twelve” when Spain tiated. This was followed during the mid- and Portugal were admitted in 1986. These 1980s by a series of discussions leading to- expansions were moves that advanced the ward an initiative that would bring the Com- geographic frontiers of the Community into munity to a greatly expanded level of integra- the western and eastern basins of the Medi- tion. That was achieved in the “The Single terranean. They brought the EC to the natu- European Act,” which was drawn up by the ral southern limits of the continent and into European Council and approved in 1987. It direct contact with Europe’s southeast and called for implementation of a series of mea- Maghreb peripheries. sures that would result in the development of Economically and politically, they also a Single European Market by the end of 1992. broadened the Community to include areas These measures sought to remove remain- that were distinctively different from the ing physical, technical, and fiscal barriers to core. The accession of Ireland in 1973 was the the movement of capital, people, and goods; first instance in which a state with an econ- to extend EC policy to include such areas as omy situated at a considerably lower level of environment and research and technology; development was included. The three Med- and to advance common economic and mone- iterranean additions were, however, even tary policy. Equally important were decisions more underdeveloped and potentially bur- to streamline the Community’s decision- densome, given the priority the Community making processes by replacing unanimity placed on bringing its constituent regional with majority voting in the Council of Minis- economies toward some level of convergence. ters and by increasing the power and role of Moreover, the political history of all three the European Parliament. The act also pro- countries, each of which had only recently vided for the formulation and implementation emerged as a democratic state after a pro- of a European foreign policy. Although there longed period of dictatorship, was a major is- were certain misgivings along the way, the sue. On the other hand, the new accessions implementation of these measures in 1992 represented significant gains in resources and was widely expected to usher in an expansive population. They nearly doubled the geo- “New Europe without frontiers.” To a consid- graphic area of the EC and increased its pop- erable degree these expectations have been ulation by 22%. Their relatively lower levels met. of development also offered certain economic complementarities that would benefit the Birth of the European Union Community in the long run. An additional major step toward integration The EC “Deepenings” of the 1970s was taken in 1992, when the Treaty of Euro- and 1980s pean Union (also known as the Maastricht Treaty) was signed at an intergovernmental Alongside the geographical “widenings” that conference held in the Dutch provincial city took place through the first, second, and third of Maastricht. The treaty, which was ratified enlargements was a growing movement in 1993, provides for the continued “deepen- toward a “deepening” of economic, institu- ing” of cooperation among member nations in tional, and political integration. Indeed, it is a great variety of areas and organizes all coop- useful to think of the developmental history of eration into three forms, officially referred to today’s European Union as consisting of a seas the “pillars” of the union. These are the 212 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

European Community (EC), the Common A second step was the establishment in 1994 Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and the of a European Monetary Institute (EMI), Cooperation in the Fields of Justice and charged with strengthening the coordination Home Affairs (JHA). The European Union is of the monetary policies of the member states the umbrella organization that stands over and preparing the way for the eventual estab- these three constituent “pillar” organizations. lishment of a European Central Bank. In Now as the European Union, the commu- early 1995 the European Commission adop- nity was “widened” again in 1995 by the ted a plan for the implementation of a single admission of three new members—Austria, currency, and later that year the European Sweden, and Finland—who joined following Council dubbed it the “euro” and specified a referenda approving the move in each of launch date of January 1, 1999. On that date these countries. Norway was also invited to 11 states—Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, join but once again voted the measure down Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the in a national referendum. This fourth enlarge- Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain—irrevoca- ment brought the number of member states to bly fixed their exchange rates, and the euro 15, increased the area of the community by became a part of the financial landscape of roughly a third, expanded its population by Europe. A 12th country, Greece, was added in 11% to some 370 million citizens, and shifted January 2001. its geographic center of gravity eastward. The Three EU member countries remained out- absorption of former East Germany into the side the so-called euro zone. In a September German Federal Republic in 1990 also con- 2000 national referendum, Denmark rejected tributed to the eastward shift. participation, in part because voters feared Among the important integrative goals of adoption of the euro would signal an unac- the 1990s was the removal of all obstacles to ceptable further erosion of Danish political the free movement of people of all nationali- sovereignty (a threat stressed by the country’s ties across the internal borders of the Union. anti-immigrant and nationalist Danish Peo- This process began in the mid-1980s when ple’s Party). Sweden too chose to follow a go- Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and slow approach, hoping to join only after the Netherlands signed the Schengen Agree- bringing its economy into closer alignment ment, committing themselves to the gradual with the other states and after the then strong removal of checks at shared borders. In 1995 weight of Swedish public opinion against the the Schengen Agreement came into full force, euro abated. The United Kingdom also de- establishing the Schengen Area within the layed, declaring that five specific criteria must EU, consisting at that time of the original five be met before a national referendum on the signatories of the agreement plus Spain and issue could be held. Among British concerns Portugal. Under the Amsterdam Treaty, which were the impact on investment and unem- came into force in 1999, the Schengen provi- ployment at home, the effect on the European sions governing the free movement of people primacy of London’s financial service mar- and common police and border controls were kets, and whether entry into the euro zone extended across the entire community, al- would actually do anything to promote though special provisions were applied to growth and prosperity in the United King- Denmark, Great Britain, and Ireland. dom. For its initial two years, the euro was A Single Currency strictly a currency of business and investment, bought and sold on financial markets. The most significant integrative development Nonetheless, the adoption of the euro by so of the 1990s, however, was the move toward a many states meant that, for all practical pur- single European currency. This began with poses, the EU became a single integrated the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, which set a spe- capital market. The introduction of the euro cific timetable for achieving monetary union. had a substantial impact on European busi- 7. The Political Landscape 213

FIGURE 7.7. Introduction of the euro. The introduction of euro currency has been a remarkable success, but initially the idea drew skepticism from many. The message written on this Paris expressway bridge in the summer of 2001 expressed something less than a supportive attitude.

ness culture, unleashing a wave of American that are symbolic of Europe’s architectural style hostile takeovers and the advent of seri- heritage. On one side are images of windows ous cross-boundary investment strategies. It and gateways as symbols of the spirit of open- took Europe a long way toward eliminating ness and cooperation within the EU. On the the vexing problems of price transparency reverse side are stylized images of bridges and foreign exchange costs and risks. Also im- from different ages (none of them represents a portant was the creation of the European specific existing monument) meant to be a Central Bank in Frankfurt, which placed EU metaphor of communication. Coins carry a monetary policy, for the first time, in the map of Europe and the 12-star symbol of the hands of an independent institution capable union on one side, but in a bow toward na- of wielding power second only to that of the tional pride each member state is allowed to U.S. Federal Reserve. It soon became clear place motifs of their own choosing on the that the EU countries that remained outside other side. the euro zone could not escape its influence. To European integrationists, acceptance of They were in effect virtual members of the the euro has been seen as a powerful force for euro zone, if not formal members. London’s closer political union. By agreeing to abandon enthusiastic welcome of euro trading and an unprecedented decision by the London Stock Exchange to forge an alliance with the Frank- furt Exchange and smaller European exchanges was evidence of this. The introduction of euro banknotes and coins on January 1, 2002, marked the most dramatic step to date in the move toward a single European currency. On that date national currencies disappeared in 12 European countries as they adopted the euro as official tender. In what had been billed as the “big- FIGURE 7.8. Euro banknote. The backside of the 5-euro note fea- gest money swap” in history, Europeans be- tures a stylized image of an aqueduct. The intent is to recognize Eu- gan to spend bills and coins whose face de- rope’s unique architectural heritage, although not too specifically. The signs pay homage to the theme of European structure on the note is reminiscent of a number of well-known Roman supranational unity. Banknotes carry motifs aqueducts but is an exact match for none of them. 214 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY national currencies and the independent right The 2004 Enlargement to set national fiscal policies, member nations have surrendered a significant piece of their Since the accession of Austria, Finland, and political sovereignty. That Germany, for exam- Sweden in 1995, the EU has taken steps to- ple, could abandon the deutsche mark, the ward further enlargement. Formal bilateral symbol of its postwar stability and prosperity, negotiations began in 1998 on the accession of is a remarkable sacrifice to make for greater a “first wave” of six applicant countries: Cy- European integration. Also remarkable is the prus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, relative ease with which the transition has Poland, and Slovenia. These countries were taken place. Some commentators have been considered to be most able to meet the strict fond to point out that no other currency has political and economic criteria for member- been so widely circulated in Europe since the ship set down by the European Council. A Roman Empire. year later negotiations were opened with a Indeed, as Europeans move about and “second wave” of six applicant countries (Bul- spend the new currency, one of the interest- garia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and ing things will be to see how the coins, which Slovakia). Turkey was recognized as a 13th are minted and introduced by each country candidate, although negotiations have yet to within its own borders, spread across Europe. get under way officially. All of these countries Researchers are already tracking this process, were given associate member status, which which promises to be a unique window on the means that they were guaranteed eventual extent of European integration. How long full membership. Despite the apparent im- will it take before a state of equilibrium is plausibility just a few years earlier of such a reached, in which coins (which are predomi- thing happening, the EU made the historic nantly carried and spent by individuals) will move at its Copenhagen summit at the end of be found everywhere in Europe in rough pro- 2002 to admit as many as 10 of the applicant portion to the number minted by individual countries in May 2004. countries? Based on earlier returns, some ex- The 2004 enlargement is an historic under- perts predict that the process will be com- taking that adds, in its initial phase, more than plete in as little as 5–7 years. 100 million new EU citizens. It is also a diffi- The euro, however, still faces potential po- cult undertaking that will undoubtedly domi- litical problems. Although official obstacles nate EU politics and policy for a long time to and potential political costs discourage them come. The enlargements extend the bound- from doing so, some of the east-central Euro- aries of the EU ever farther from the original pean states now joining the EU are consider- core in western Europe, taking them for the ing making the euro their official currencies, first time into east-central Europe as well as even though applicant countries are required extending them along the southern Baltic rim to wait 2 years after joining the EU before of northern Europe. With the addition of Cy- adopting the euro. Perhaps the biggest politi- prus, and assuming that Turkey will eventu- cal problem facing the euro zone, though, is ally be admitted, the EU is also being thrust an internal one. Underlying the EU’s single deep into Europe’s Southeastern Periphery. monetary policy is a “stability and growth This has been paralleled by a contempor- pact” that requires member countries to keep aneous eastward extension of membership in their budgets in balance or face very stiff pen- NATO. In fact, NATO moved to embrace po- alties. Ironically, Germany and France, two of tential new east-central European members the strongest proponents of the policy, have even far more quickly than the EU, admitting been among the first to experience difficulty Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary as meeting this requirement, forcing the EU early as 1999. into the embarrassing position of having to What also makes this unique is the fact that water down the pact in order to allow them to the new member states are significantly dif- escape its provisions. ferent from the West in political culture and 7. The Political Landscape 215 economy. These are, for the most part, fragile ern farmers (rising to 100% only after 10 new democracies whose populations are still years). The EU also plans to impose restric- relatively unaccustomed to western ways of tions and quotas on agricultural production in governance and civil responsibility. The eco- the East in order to protect western farmers nomic differences, in particular, are on a scale from competing with eastern surpluses. These far beyond that experienced in any of the pre- proposals are seen in the new member na- vious enlargements. While this enlargement tions as highly discriminatory and have un- raises the population of the EU by more than leashed a storm of protest, particularly in 25%, its total gross domestic product is in- Poland, where as much as one-fifth of the creased by only about 5%. With the exception population earns its livelihood directly from of a couple of capital cities, nearly every re- agriculture. Indeed, it is much feared in Po- gion within the new member countries in land that expensive EU restrictions on the east-central Europe will qualify for develop- processing of meat will likely drive thousands ment funds. The accession of these countries of small-scale producers out of business. brings per capita wealth across the EU down With billions at stake, vested interests in sharply. Given the potential costs and difficul- the West, on the other hand, are likely to re- ties of the entire undertaking, it is hardly sur- sist any future proposed softening of the EU’s prising that a large part of the debate over en- agricultural policies toward the newly ac- largement policy has concerned itself with ceded members. Even in its present form, the setting minimum conditions that will make agricultural aid package will, according to es- the new member countries more like the old timates, pour a staggering 25 billion euros member countries (they are required, for ex- into east-central Europe in the first 2 years af- ample, to assimilate 80,000 pages of EU law ter accession, with almost half of it going to into their legal systems), and with the thorny Poland. Current members fret that over the problem of devising terms of accession that long term the buildup of direct payments to bestow the benefits of membership on new eastern farmers will simply become too ex- members without undermining the stability of pensive to bear and that the entrenched inter- the existing EU and its institutions. Long and ests of new member states in perpetuating the difficult negotiations were necessary to clear a subsidies will wreck any chance of ever bring- host of issues, and a myriad of special conces- ing about a much needed reform of the CAP. sions had to be granted for each of the applicants—the Latvians, for example, needed dis- pensation to take undersized herring in the Baltic—before the final decision to admit all 10 countries could be announced. One of the most difficult hurdles has been agricultural policy. Most of the new member countries are two or three times as dependent on agriculture as present EU countries. This means a restructuring of the EU’s cumbrously byzantine Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which delivers an enormously complex system of subsidies and protections to the community’s farmers that currently consumes nearly half of the EU’s annual budget. To date the EU has been loath to extend the same ag- FIGURE 7.9. Farming in east-central Europe. What will become ricultural benefits to newly acceding coun- of east-central Europe’s antiquated but potentially cheap and produc- tries in east-central Europe, preferring in- tive farming economy is one of the key questions surrounding the latest stead to limit the newcomers to just 25% of enlargement of the EU. These Polish farm workers ride a horse-drawn the level of subsidy currently given to west- cart as they go about their work. 216 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

Enlargement also promises to place a se- border movements of goods and people? The vere strain on “structural” development resources of the poorer new member coun- funds. In its ongoing effort to equalize devel- tries in east-central Europe are clearly insuffi- opment and living standards across the com- cient to control their eastern frontiers effec- munity, the EU spends billions each year in tively. development funds. Taken together, develop- Moreover, a sealed border with fences and ment funds and agricultural subsidies account electronic surveillance, even if it could be for roughly 80% of the EU budget. Develop- built, sends the wrong exclusionary message ment funds have traditionally gone primarily to an eastern Europe whose friendship and to the poorer countries and regions within the cooperation the EU now works hard to culti- EU, especially to Spain, Greece, and Portugal vate. Inevitably it could result in a new eco- as well as to southern Italy and parts of Ire- nomic and political division of Europe rather land. Under those rules, nearly every new than the open and whole Europe held by member country could immediately qualify many to be so important to future peace and for generous expenditures of structural funds, prosperity. The fear of exclusion has already which means that either more funds would prompted an angry official protest from the have to be raised or that current recipients Russian Parliament: “The attempt by the Eu- would have to do with less. Countries such as ropean Union to divide inhabitants of the Eu- Spain are adamantly opposed to sharing. As ropean continent into first and second cate- with the case of farm subsidies, the EU has gory citizens goes against the EU’s declared tried to solve the dilemma by holding back on policy—that of the construction of a unified, benefits to the newcomers. By invoking a new free, democratic Europe, without frontiers rule restricting aid to no more than 4% of a and without discrimination.” In parts of east- country’s GDP,the relatively small economies central and eastern Europe the new frontier of the new member countries are limited in zone has already come to be known as the how much aid they can absorb. These coun- “Belgian Curtain,” a present-day takeoff on tries have been quick to charge that the po- the old “Iron Curtain” of Cold War days, tential financial burden to the EU is being but this time signifying the eastern limits of grossly exaggerated, pointing out that in rela- power exercised by the European Commis- tive terms the EU will spend in the first 3 sion in Brussels. years only one-fifteenth as much in aid on 10 A good part of the concern over borders has new member countries as the United States to do with migration. It is generally assumed spent on Marshall Plan aid during an equiva- within the older EU community that enlarge- lent period. ment will be accompanied by huge popula- Controls over borders constitute another tion pressures from the East. This will come broad area of concern. The accession of so in part from the newly admitted east-central many new member states in east-central Eu- European countries, from which researchers rope advances the external frontiers of the EU estimate hundreds of thousands will take ad- far to the east, bringing them into direct con- vantage of the right that EU residents have to tact with Russia (in the past this only occurred move freely within the Union. That prospect on the Finnish frontier), and with other ex- is especially troublesome, for example, in the Soviet states, such as Belarus and Ukraine. already economically struggling borderlands Kaliningrad, the detached western enclave of eastern Germany, where workers fear an in- of Russia on the Baltic, which was once vasion of cheap labor that might cost them Königsberg in East Prussia, has suddenly be- their jobs (wages in Poland are only a fraction come an island surrounded by EU territory. of what they are in Germany). The EU has in- The prospect of border troubles makes many sisted on imposing a 7-year transition period current EU members uncomfortable. How during which such migrations from new can this long and potentially leaky eastern member countries would be controlled. But frontier be made secure against illegal cross- perhaps even more frightening is the possibil- 7. The Political Landscape 217

members, with the member countries holding these positions in turns, according to a strict rotation. Related to this is the issue of how to define a voting majority in the Council of Ministers. The Nice Treaty of 2000 introduced a complex system of determining a majority, in which three big countries plus one small one would be able to muster enough votes to block a decision. The draft constitution proposes that a majority be constituted by a simple majority of the states equaling at least 60% of the population of the EU. The EU has long committed itself officially FIGURE 7.10. Migrants. The older members of the EU fear a new to a policy of enlargement and with the cur- wave of immigrants from those parts of Europe that remain outside the rent enlargement has delivered on its com- community. This photo captures the long line of people that forms each mitment. Within the old EU-15 it has gener- day outside the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade to apply for visas. Recent ally not been politically acceptable to come reports from nearby Bulgaria suggest that the flow of the young and out openly against the goal of enlargement. the talented to the West, whether legally or illegally, is a major national concern. Nonetheless, doubts have definitely been present. Just beneath the surface, the French in particular have always held deep reservations—partly for political reasons, fearing that ity of large numbers of people in the former enlargement enhances the importance of Ger- Soviet republics, who seek a better life, cross- many at French expense, and partly for eco- ing weakly controlled borders to enter the nomic reasons, fearing a diminishment of EU EU. Even before enlargement, with relatively farm aid. This failure to generate real enthusi- tight borders, an estimated half a million ille- asm in the West, among governments and citi- gal migrants from the East were smuggled or zens alike, has made people in the new mem- managed to sneak into the EU each year. Not ber countries anxious and sometimes angry. A surprisingly, given the current anti-immigrant certain level of “EU skepticism” prevails to- politics in many EU countries, the issues of day in many of these countries. The referenda border controls and illegal labor movements held during 2003 in each of the applicant have and will continue to loom large in the countries to formalize their acceptance of ad- discussions over enlargement. mission into the EU all delivered a positive A final stumbling block is a political one. “yes” vote, often by greater margins than poll- Now that enlargement is a reality, the EU sters predicted. In Slovenia, almost 90% of must resolve how power and influence will be those who turned out cast a yes vote. And wielded in a newly expanded Union, with even, Malta, where the outcome was consid- both large and small states. This was, in fact, ered most in doubt, delivered a majority of the focus of a summit of EU leaders that took 53.7%. Yet, turnout was often not what it was place in Nice in 2000, and remains a central expected to be, and according to pollsters yes issue as the EU now debates the draft of a votes were often cast in a spirit of reluctance constitution. One critical issue is whether to oppose, but masked deep-seated reser- each member state will, as in the past, have its vations. Ironically, enthusiasm is highest in own commissioner in the all-important Euro- countries that are furthest from achieving ac- pean Commission. The larger countries fear cession, such as Bulgaria and Romania. that in an enlarged commission would be un- The desirability of the new member states, wieldy, and too much power would go to the as seen from within the old EU, has been small states. The EU’s new draft constitu- quite uneven. Some definitely have had their tion proposes a commission of just 15 voting champions. Northern European countries, 218 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

respect to its Kurdish minority (14 million strong in a country of nearly 70 million) as the major stumbling block, along with the as yet not entirely resolved deadlock between Turkey and Greece over the future of the Turkish-speaking minority on Cyprus. Al- though never openly stated, EU countries re- act instinctively to the fact that Turkey is a Muslim country. Moreover, there is the fact that the bulk of Turkish territory lies in Asia, which raises the issue of where Europe should properly end geographically. If Turkey FIGURE 7.11. New minorities. These Russian women are protest- ing the loss of rights suffered by Russian nationals in Latvia following is to be admitted, then why not Iraq, Tunisia, that country’s assertion of its independence from the collapsing Soviet Algeria, or Morocco? There is also the fact Union. Independence for the Baltic States cost many longtime Russian that within the space of only a decade or two residents the jobs and special status they enjoyed during the Soviet Turkey’s fast-growing population could make years. it the EU’s most populous member, deserving of considerable political sway in EU decision making. As the EU equivocates, Turkey becomes increasingly restless and fed-up. Tur- such as Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, for key’s frustration is further heightened as it example, pushed strongly from the beginning watches 10 other candidate countries assimi- for the rapid accession of the three Baltic lated into the EU as a single group. Omi- States, which are seen by these countries as nously, some voices within Turkey even call an integral part of a developing Nordic–Baltic for a turn away from the West in favor of forg- community. Estonia and Latvia were the best ing connections with eastern neighbors such qualified of the three to join the EU, with as Russia and Iran, instead. Lithuania running far behind, but for political Nor do many seem eager to consider the reasons it was difficult to separate them and Balkan countries, although Bulgaria and Ro- all were allowed to join the EU together mania have associate status, which guarantees (rather ironically, Lithuania now has the fast- them eventual membership. Both have yet to est-growing economy in Europe). Admission for the Baltic States brings unique problems in that they alone among the new members were once part of the former Soviet Union rather than satellite states, and are the only new members to contain large minority populations of ethnic Russians. Germany too has played a strong role in supporting the admission of certain countries, favoring for economic and political reasons the inclusion of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia. There has been a general reluctance, on the other hand, for anyone to accept the idea of Turkish membership. Although Turkey sub- mitted its application for membership back in FIGURE 7.12. Turkish pride. This young man has wrapped himself 1987, it was not formally offered candidacy in one of the flags he is selling on the streets of Istanbul on the occa- until 1999. The EU has since declined to set a sion of the country’s national day. Many Turkish citizens feel a sense of start date for membership talks. The EU cites resentment over the EU’s long delay in agreeing to open negotiations Turkey’s poor human rights record with for Turkey’s accession to EU membership. 7. The Political Landscape 219 complete negotiations and hope to join, rather no promises and refers to the “Regatta Princi- optimistically, by 2007. Bulgaria, especially, ple,” which suggests that they will be allowed has worked hard to present itself as both in one by one as they qualify, rather than in a European and “civilized” by cleaning up its group as in the current enlargement. Croatia human rights record vis-à-vis its Turkish is probably the strongest candidate. minorities and ending its hostility toward No one, within or outside the EU, ex- neighboring Macedonia. The countries of the presses any serious hope that Russia or any of “western Balkans”—a term that is applied to the other remaining eastern European states, Albania and the five former republics of Yugo- such as Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, might slavia that remain outside the EU now that be considered anytime soon, although as a Slovenia has been admitted—are eager to join matter of policy the EU invests in the project as soon as they possibly can. Albania and of upgrading their economic infrastructure Macedonia have recently become quite vocal and encouraging democratic government in demanding that they receive accelerated through its Technical Assistance for the CIS consideration for EU associate membership (Commonwealth of Independent States), or on the grounds that such action is necessary TACIS Program, so that they may one day to ensure the stability of the Balkan region in qualify. the wake of the Kosovo crisis. The EU makes The Future of the European Project Everyone would agree that the “European Project” has come a long way since the end of World War II. Each new level of supranational agreement and legislation has nour- ished a rising public awareness and commitment. In most member countries European political, economic, and social issues now receive regular and serious public discourse alongside national issues; and, although most citizens may not be fully aware of the fact, more than half of the laws and regulations by which they live emanate from Brussels. Nonetheless, the process is far from complete. Whether the move toward a truly integrated Europe can be realized remains to be seen. “Euroscepticism” has become a common political term, and it epitomizes the concerns that remain, especially among some member states, about the incremental loss of national sovereignty that accompanies each new step toward integration. In addition, there is always the question of whether the process, given our uncertain world, can be maintained FIGURE 7.13. In line for accession. Romania hopes to be among in the face of unknown crises and conflicts the next to join the EU. The memorial in the foreground of this photo of Nicolae Belascu Boulevard in Bucharest is dedicated to the victims of that may yet lie in its path. the December 1989 revolt against the Ceausescu government. Crowds There is also the question of whether a true of people gathered in this street, many of them university students, supranational identity, that can overcome were slaughtered by security forces following the spread of an uprising long-standing national identities, can ever in western Transylvania to Bucharest and the flight of the Ceausescus be truly forged. Europeans, without a doubt, by helicopter from the roof of the Communist Party headquarters. share a certain common historical and cul- 220 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY tural heritage, but there are no ritual celebra- REGIONALISM tory European events that have the same kind of emotive meaning as, for example, a Bastille A resurgence of regionalism in Europe is a Day—although a Europe Day (May 9) has much noted phenomenon. The circumstances been established, a flag has been unfurled, behind this trend are varied. It is part of what and an anthem set to Beethoven’s “Ode to has been called the “hollowing out” of nation- Joy” has been written. A recent survey re- state authority and a reaction to the growing vealed that a majority of EU citizens believed impact of supranational organizational activi- that their country’s membership is a good ties and processes. It is also a product of the thing, but approval levels were characterized wave of technological revolutions and eco- as “precarious” in more than a few states. In nomic restructuring associated with the 1980s none of the three states granted EU mem- and 1990s, which have caused cities and re- bership in 1995—Sweden, Finland, and Aus- gions across Europe to see themselves, rather tria—do a majority of people still think that than the state, as principal competitors for in- membership is a “good thing.” Sweden, in vestment and development funds. Many have fact, has been lukewarm about its member- accordingly felt the need to promote or even ship ever since voting to join in 1994, and fre- sell themselves as distinctively important ac- quently demonstrates by its actions the un- tors on the European scene, self-confidently easiness of its relationship with Brussels. The in charge of their own destiny. In many areas, Danes are known for their penchant for buck- the renaissance in regional awareness also has ing European trends, and the British have al- to do with a heightened cultural identity, ways been of two minds about their relation- based on a resurgence of ethnic community or ship with the continent. Quite significantly, on perceptions of long-standing cultural or approval of EU membership has recently economic differences from other parts of the fallen to less than the EU average in France national realm, or both. In any case, it is a and Germany, both of which have tradition- matter of fact that many European states in ally been firm supporters of the European the West, and now in the East as well, are un- project. der strong devolutionary pressures. An ongoing debate remains between inte- Regional assertions of political and cultural grationist and decentralist views about the identity are nothing new. We often take the long-term shape of the Union, and this debate nation-state for granted, forgetting that Eu- is likely to sharpen in the years ahead as the rope is a much compartmentalized place in current attempt to reform the constitutional which provincial and regional cultures, devel- architecture of the Union is discussed and oped over many centuries, have been around voted on. Integrationists are keen to extend for a far longer time. The regions have always majority voting rules to a range of policy areas been contenders for political power. In the in such key areas as taxation, social security, past, some nation-states have tried to over- and subsidies to poor nations (about 20% of come this fact by centralizing authority. Napo- EU decisions) that are currently still subject leon, for example, acted to neutralize the to national vetoes. Opponents, who have a power of the old feudal provinces of France more federalist vision of the future, hope to by introducing an administrative system of 96 halt the advance of centralization and pre- small and roughly equally sized départements, serve national and regional rights. One out- so artificial that they were mostly named after come, for which there is already some prece- rivers, or in some cases mountain ranges. dence (e.g., border controls, currency, etc.), Each was functionally subordinated to the may be that smaller groups of countries will central government and ruled by a prefect push ahead with greater integration in certain who was appointed in Paris. Similar efforts at contested areas, while others refrain, produc- centralization were pursued in Italy, after the ing in the end a Union of overlapping internal country was unified in 1861, and in Spain and communities. Germany under strongly nationalistic regimes 7. The Political Landscape 221 during the 1930s. In other countries the re- both states for much of the late 20th century gion fared better, successfully preserving tra- and continues today. France has taken steps to ditions of provincial or regional autonomy reduce the centralized power of the state by alongside national authority. Official policy in devolving more authority to lower-level units the Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s, of government, primarily the départements which attempted to equalize the political and but also including the regions, which were economic status of Russian and non-Russian first established in 1960 for regional planning populations through the creation of a feder- purposes. The United Kingdom has just re- ated state of republics and autonomous recently recognized some of the demands for gions, may have actually worked to foster ter- greater self-governance put forward by its ritorial ethnic and national identities instead principal regional components. The people of of the intended Soviet brotherhood of peo- Scotland now elect a parliament, while Wales ples. Switzerland is the extreme example of a and Northern Ireland have their own assem- state in which local authority has remained blies to govern their affairs. In the case of strong, protected by a constitution that guards Northern Ireland, it was the so-called Good the cantons and communes against any trans- Friday agreement of 1998 that ended many gressions against their authority by the na- long years of strife and paved the way for a tional government. devolutionary transfer of powers to a North- ern Ireland Assembly in 1999 (renewed politi- Regional Political Authority cal unrest, however, has forced a temporary suspension of the Assembly). In the wake of Political authority is today divided between these changes, the English regions may also European nations and regions in a number of receive greater local powers, and there has ways. The range of different types run the even been discussion in some quarters of the gamut from highly centralized or unitary po- need to establish an English parliament since litical systems to highly decentralized or fed- the English may now ironically become the eralist systems. At one end of the continuum only citizens of the United Kingdom without are the so-called unitary states, in which legal their own parliament or national assembly. political authority is vested exclusively with At the other end of the continuum are the the national government. In western Europe “federal states,” in which a clear constitu- these include all five of the Scandinavian tional division of powers exists between fed- countries, the Netherlands, Ireland, and eral and regional authorities. Germany, Bel- Greece. The former communist states of east- gium, Switzerland, and Austria all belong to central Europe may also be placed in this cat- this category, although it should be recog- egory, partly because of the centralized ad- nized that Belgium has only recently adopted ministrative traditions of their distant impe- federalism. Austria, however, also possesses rial past and partly because of their recent some of the features of a unitary state, and history, in which communist regimes strived Switzerland is confederal in that the central to eliminate or reduce the powers of regional government is actually limited by the powers units in order to protect the state and the of the individual cantons and communes. party from any challenge to its authority. Ad- Germany is the one truly federal state, in ministrative reforms now under way in some which constitutional provision is made for a of these states, however, may eventually set of exclusive federal powers, a separate set lessen their unitary qualities. of exclusive constituent state (Länder) powers, A weaker version of the unitary state is and conditions under which the federal found in France and the United Kingdom, power may influence constituent state actions where a limited amount of political authority or under which the constituent state may legis traditionally found at the regional level, but islate if the federal power does not. The fed- without constitutional recognition. The role of eral system in Germany, with its considerable the central government has been in decline in emphasis on checks and balances, is much in- TABLE 7.1. Nation-States and Governments

Most recent constitution/ Official name Type of government independence

Republic of Albania Parliamentary democracy 1998 Principality of Andorra Parliamentary democracy (with two princes as 1993 heads of state) Republic of Austria Parliamentary democracy 1920 Republic of Belarus Republic 1994 Kingdom of Belgium Parliamentary democracy (under a 1830 constitutional monarch) Bosnia and Herzogovina Parliamentary democracy 1995 Republic of Bulgaria Parliamentary democracy 1991 Republic of Croatia Parliamentary democracy 1991 Republic of Cyprus Republic 1960 Czech Republic Parliamentary republic 1993 Kingdom of Denmark Constitutional monarchy 1953 Republic of Estonia Parliamentary democracy 1992 Republic of Finland Parliamentary democracy 1919 French Republic Republic 1958 Federal Republic of Germany Federal republic 1949 Hellenic Republic (Greece) Parliamentary republic 1975 Republic of Hungary Republic 1949 Republic of Iceland Semipresidential, parliamentary 1918 Ireland Parliamentary republic 1937 Republic of Italy Republic 1948 Republic of Latvia Parliamentary democracy 1991 Principality of Liechtenstein Hereditary constitutional monarchy 1921 Republic of Lithuania Parliamentary democracy 1992 Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Constitutional monarchy 1868 Malta Republic 1964 Republic of Moldova Republic 1994 Monaco Constitutional monarchy 1962 Kingdom of the Netherlands Parliamentary democracy (under a 1848 constitutional monarch) Kingdom of Norway Hereditary constitutional monarchy 1905 Republic of Poland Republic 1997 Portuguese Republic Republic 1976 Romania Republic 1991 Russian Federation Federation 1993 Republic of San Marino Republic 1600 Slovak Republic Parliamentary republic 1993 Republic of Slovenia Parliamentary democracy 1991 Kingdom of Spain Constitutional monarchy 1978 Kingdom of Sweden Constitutional monarchy 1975 Swiss Confederation Federal state 1848 Republic of Turkey Republic 1982 Ukraine Presidential–parliamentary 1991 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Constitutional monarchy unwritten Vatican City Monarchial–sacerdotal state 1929/1985 State Union of Serbia and Montenegro Federation 2003

Note. Data from U.S. Department of State (2003).

222 7. The Political Landscape 223 fluenced by that of the United States. An with such loss of powers for its refusal to important consideration in its design was to participate in the national government in Ma- provide safeguards against the extreme cen- drid’s banning of Batsuna, the political wing tralization of power that occurred in Germany of ETA. Conversely, Catalonia, which holds during the Nazi era. more powers than any of the regions, pushes Situated nearby on our continuum are the continually and often successfully for even “quasi-federal states” of Spain, Portugal, and more autonomy from Madrid. Portugal’s 1976 Italy, where clear divisions of power have constitution declares it to be a unitary state, been made between the center and the re- but provisions for new regional government gions but without the formal structures of the arrangements are being implemented. In It- federal state. Spain is the strongest example, aly government reforms have recently given where provisions enacted in the 1978 consti- greater autonomy to the provinces. tution to reduce the strongly centralized state Russia too is a special case. In the aftermath of General Franco allow the country’s 17 re- of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has gions to enjoy varying degrees of constitution- officially declared itself a federation. The Fed- ally guaranteed autonomy. The arrangements eral Treaty of 1992 formalized a federal sys- for self-governance that have been negotiated tem that was largely incorporated into the for each of the regions vary quite consid- new Russian constitution of 1993. The treaty erably, and for three—the Basque Country, and the constitution provide the two most im- Catalonia, and Navarre—include wide pow- portant territorial elements of the Russian ers. Ultimately, however, these powers are Federation, the republics and the regions (ob- held at the pleasure of the central authority in lasts), with equal federal status. While the Madrid due to a clause in the post-Franco central government can claim defense and constitution that says that a region may forfeit foreign relations as its exclusive domain, the all or part of its rights of self-governance if it republics and regions are supposed to enjoy fails to meet its constitutional obligations or if far-reaching self-governance rights in domes- it poses by its actions a threat to the interests tic affairs. In fact, however, the division of re- of the rest of Spain. The regional assembly of sponsibilities between the republics and the Spain’s Basque Country, from which the ter- center remains ill defined in many areas. This rorist separatist movement Euskadi Ta is especially true of issues surrounding the Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Free- ownership of land and natural resources and dom), or ETA, has been operating for more control over taxation mechanisms. The re- than three decades, was recently threatened gions, despite their legally equal status, are in an even more disadvantageous position vis-à- vis the center than the republics. In a very real sense, Russian federalism has failed in that the relationships among republics, regions, and the center are defined as much by the practical political and economic leverage that individual republics and regions are able to wield as they are by formal constitutional arrangements. There are thus de facto differences among the federal units. Much of this is a reflection of the practice of negotiating separate bilateral treaties between the republics and Moscow, many of which have produced dramatically different results. The regions FIGURE 7.14. Regional autonomy. The regions of Spain have al- have also sought to jockey, with even more ready won varying degrees of guaranteed autonomy from Madrid. The uneven results, for a greater degree of self- graffiti on this wall in Galicia calls for more—total independence. rule. 224 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY

One of the difficulties with the new region- own regions for planning and administration. alism is that, as we have seen, regions have Or they can be relatively low-level adminis- real political status in only a handful of Euro- trative units. Poland, for example, has re- pean countries. From an administrative point cently restored and given new powers to the of view, there is no European standard on district (powiat), a governmental unit that was what constitutes a region. They may be, as is abolished in 1973 and lies between the com- the case with France’s regional units, the arti- mune and the county. Administrative reforms ficial product of a penchant for regional plan- in France, despite the new powers afforded to ning that has long been common to many Eu- the regions, have devolved the most impor- ropean countries. They may, at the other tant responsibilities to the local administra- extreme, be cultural regions or historic prov- tive level of the département. Considerable inces that possess significant ethnic, linguis- authority also remains with the district (Kreis) tic, or religious identities and are quite will- in Germany. ing to demand a degree of political autonomy, Thus, there is much debate over the form or even a separate political future, for them- that the region should take in its new role as a selves. governmental authority responsible for mak- Examples of the latter are many, including ing policy decisions in cooperation not only Catalonia or the Basque region in Spain, with national governments but in concert Flanders and Wallonia in Belgium, Scotland with the policies of supranational institutions in the United Kingdom, Friuli-Venezia Giulia as well. It is often suggested that the regions and the South Tyrol in Italy, and Corsica in likely to emerge from this new regionalism as France (which, in fact, just recently won un- really significant are the city-regions. This is a precedented guarantees from the French gov- reflection of the increasingly urban-oriented ernment that it will enjoy greater autonomy in spatial structure of European economy and the future). They might also be the constitu- society. As national governments gradually ent member states of a federalist structure, surrender their powers and responsibilities, such as the Länder in Germany. But even the cities and their regions are logically the most German Länder are, in fact, mostly artificial appropriate subnational units to make deci- administrative creations, replete with their sions and provide services that are responsive

FIGURE 7.15. Mini-state. Often forgotten in any discussion of European polity are the continent’s mini-states, which are also relevant to any discussion of regionalism because they all have a strong historical regional identity. Europe’s mini-states include An- dorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Ma- rino, and the Vatican City. Most of Monaco’s 1.9 square kilometers of territory are visible in this photo, which looks west across the Mediterranean front of the famous principality. 7. The Political Landscape 225 to the needs of their populations, and to enter the creation of an Assembly of European Re- into cooperative arrangements with other gions in 1985 and by the establishment of city-regions on matters of common interest. lobbying missions in Brussels by individual The rise of the city-region has been aided by a substate regions, the EU began to design offi- wave of local government reforms that took cial regional policies and initiatives in the place in both western and eastern Europe early 1990s. In 1991, for example, a consulta- since the 1960s. In many cases, these reforms tive “Committee of the Regions,” consisting created metropolitan or city–hinterland ad- of representatives of European regional and ministrative units, which are being raised to- local authorities, was created along with a day to the level of administrative regions or Council of European Municipalities and Re- provinces. This was the case, for example, in gions. There is also an Assembly of European 1990 when Italy took steps to introduce met- Regions. Official EU support for the devolu- ropolitan units into its reorganization of pro- tion of decision making to the regional level vincial-level government functions. was articulated in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, under the so-called concept of subsidiarity. A “Europe of the Regions” The idea has been widely accepted. As integration proceeds, many EU countries have at- In recent years it has become quite fashion- tempted to decentralize and deconcentrate able to advance the idea that the region may the activities of the state in the interest of pro- be the most relevant political unit of the fu- viding a more regional and democratic re- ture. The various debates over Europe’s fu- sponse to the needs of people. ture often address the notion of a “Europe of Also important is a new kind of emergent the Regions” in which regions of varying size region that crosses international boundaries and origin, some of them even crossing na- and which, in many cases, may not have pre- tional boundaries, are seen as potentially the viously existed at all or may not have been most dynamic political and economic units of recognized in any formal sense. The most a new Europe. The rise of the region, and the common examples have arisen out of efforts concomitant erosion of the nation-state, is of- by regional governments to promote co- ten viewed as a simple merging of long-stand- operation between specific adjacent border ing popular regional identities and aspirations regions. Well-known examples include the with the new political realities of our time. In Regio Basiliensis, which combines adjacent the idealistic words of Denis de Rougemont border regions in France, Germany, and Swit- (as quoted in Bassand, 1993, p. 11), an early zerland, or EUREGIO, which consists of proponent of the idea of a new Europe built the Dutch–German borderlands between the on regions, “the regions will very quickly Rhine, Ems, and Ijssel Rivers. One survey, form, organize and assert themselves. And published in the mid-1990s, identifies no since they will be young and flexible, full of fewer than 116 European examples of this vitality and open to the world, they will enter form of cross-border regional cooperation. into exchange relationships as frequently and Cross-border region building has been en- extensively as possible. They will group couraged in a number of ways. One motivat- together according to their affinities and ing force, as described above, is the desire on complementarities, and according to the new the part of local or regional forces to establish realities, which have formed them. . . . It is on for themselves an advantageous position rela- these regions that we shall build Europe.” tive to the global economy. A second impetus The EU has given legitimacy to this idea by comes from the European Union, which has emphasizing the importance of regional di- supported cross-border regionalism as a versity and interregional cooperation in its means of deepening the integration of mem- blueprint for the building of a more perfect ber states. The EU encourages such activity union. Following a long decade of European through the provision of specially earmarked regional activism in the 1980s, exemplified by funds. A third motivation derives from the nu- 226 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY merous unique opportunities for east–west the general awareness that “regions do mat- cross-border cooperation (also encouraged by ter” was officially sanctioned and heightened the EU) that sprang up in the wake of the col- by the publication in 1991 of Europe 2000: lapse of socialist governments in east-central Outlook for the Development of the Commu- Europe. The latter has made border coop- nity’s Territory, which identified eight large eration between regions situated along Eu- regional groupings (superregions) in the space rope’s former east–west divide a particularly of the Community that could be justified on common phenomenon. A good example is the basis of geographical proximity and devel- Euroregion Pomerania, established in 1995 to oping mutual relationships. For European de- bring together the border regions of historic cision makers these regions have become Pomerania, which includes a number of potentially useful as vehicles for strategic towns and districts in the eastern most parts planning, rendering the continent more easily of the German Länder of Mecklenburg- understood by contrasting transnational zones Vorpommern and Brandenburg and much of of growth and dynamism, such as the so- Szczecin voivodship in northwestern Poland. called Blue Banana (a European core region Since 1998, some 33 communes from across stretching from London to Milan), and zones the Baltic Sea in the old Swedish province of that are relatively peripheral or are otherwise Skåne have also been linked to this cross- lagging in development. The so-called Atlan- border cooperative initiative. tic Arc, stretching the length of Europe’s At yet another level, Europeans have be- western coast from Lisbon to North Cape and come aware of what might be called “macro-“ consisting of lands that have traditionally or “superregions.” Macro regions occur at a looked away from Europe toward the Atlantic much larger scale and typically cross a far as well as containing areas that are today larger number of boundaries. They are in some of the EU’s most economically de- many ways a looser construction, built with- pressed, is a case in point. out some of the formal institutional structures The idea of macro regions has also caught and agreements that often characterize either the public imagination. Indeed, in 1994 subnational regions or the cross-border initia- American journalist Darrel Delamaide pro- tives that link specific border areas together. duced a popularized exposition of macro- At this macro scale of regional development, regionalism in Europe, titled The New Super- regions of Europe, that outlined eight European regions, replete with evocative labels, such as “Latin Crescent,” “Baltic League,” “Mitteleuropa,” and “Alpine Arc.” The idea was to present the spatial organization of Europe in entirely new terms by delimiting macro-scale regional units that both ran across contemporary state boundaries and captured Europe’s most recent macro-scale spatial patterns of business and economic development. For the most part, however, such regions exist only in the imagination or as ana- lytical tools.

Baltic Europe: A Region in the Making FIGURE 7.16. Euroregion. The EU has gone out of its way to lend support to the formation of cross-border regions. This is the official At the same time, some macro regions have logo, replete with a EU flag for a sail, of Euroregion Pomerania—a begun to take on a measure of true regional cross-border regional association of neighboring areas of Poland, Ger- identity. An excellent case in point is Baltic many, and Sweden. Europe. Although this is only one example, 7. The Political Landscape 227

FIGURE 7.17. Macro regions (after Delamaide). we will examine it in some detail to illustrate shores. Only since 1989–1990, with the end of the kind of macro-level regional development the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet that the current political, social, and eco- Union, has it been possible to think about the nomic climate in Europe is fostering. prospect of bringing the lands and peoples While there seems to have been little sense around the sea together into some kind of of a Baltic identity over the decades extending new regional construct. back to World War II, there has recently been The problem has been how to build a new a flurry of activity that has led many to con- Baltic regional identity. Given its sharply di- clude that a new Baltic regional identity has vided recent history, some proponents of the emerged. The novelty of the current situation idea of a new Baltic regional identity have is heightened by its sharp contrast with that of been fond of looking to the more distant past the postwar decades, when the long political for precedent; and there is some basis for do- and economic rivalry between East and West ing so, for historically there have been brief effectively turned the Baltic into a zone of examples of lively connectivity, and at times ideological conflict. The Baltic Sea, during even unity of a kind, across the waters of the that period, was in many ways more of a Baltic. The Vikings were long ago active in es- barrier than a bridge between its opposite tablishing a series of trading posts around its 228 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY shores as they drove eastward to access mar- Another early actor was an intellectual com- kets along the rivers of Russia. In the 12th munity of Nordic-Baltic peace researchers, and 13th centuries crusading knights from the environmentalists, planners, and international Christian West imposed both their overlord- specialists who wished to promote a new Bal- ship and faith on those who lived around the tic identity as a means of ensuring the survival eastern margins of the sea. Later, the Hanse- of a certain quality of “Nordicness” in a devel- atic League, a powerful association of German oping “Europe of the Regions.” Yet another trading cities, succeeded in turning Baltic impetus emerged out of a general concern commercial trade into a monopoly that lasted over security issues. The Baltic had long been from the 13th to the 15th century. Still later, a source of Cold War tensions, and the many the Swedes succeeded in asserting their he- uncertainties unleashed by the dissolution of gemony over the entire region for a period of the Soviet Union made the idea of macro- time during the 17th century. But the current scale regional cooperation an attractive means coming together of Baltic interests seems to of ensuring peace, security, and stability bear little resemblance to any of these in- throughout the Baltic. Concern about the instances from the past. The phenomenon is es- creasing pollution of the Baltic was also a fac- sentially a response, both politically and eco- tor in bringing people from across the region nomically, to the perception of new structural together. situations and opportunities in a changing A final element of early region-building ac- Europe that, in turn, has found resonance, for tivity came through the establishment of for- one reason or another, among a broad range of mal international institutions and networking interests across the Baltic area. organizations of various kinds. One of the first The region-building process in the Baltic was the Union of the Baltic Cities, set up with has been going on now for a little over a de- 32 charter members at a conference in cade and is the product of an interesting col- Gdansk in 1991. A Baltic Sea Ports Organiza- lection of actors. Its earliest instigators were tion was created later that year, and shortly business-oriented leaders, particularly from thereafter representatives from the govern- northern Germany, who in the late 1980s ments of the Baltic States, the Nordic coun- were concerned about the southward shift in tries, Poland, Germany, and the European Germany’s economic center of gravity taking Union met in Copenhagen to establish a place at the time. They began to promote the framework for a Council of the Baltic States idea of a “Mare Balticum” as a counterweight. (CBSS) dedicated to serving “as an overall forum focusing on needs for intensified cooperation and coordination among the Baltic Sea States.” Numerous additional initiatives, many of them quite spontaneous and representing a rather wide and diverse range of actors, soon appeared. These include the Baltic University Programme, a network of universities from across the region; ARS BALTICA, a forum devoted to organizing and coordinating cultural events across the region for the purpose of fostering a common sense of cultural identity; and the Baltic Center for Writers and Translators, founded in the Swedish city of FIGURE 7.18. Mare Balticum. Part of the impetus for the creation Visby in 1993. All have contributed un- of a new Baltic identity came from northern Germany. This is the logo deniably to the emergence by the mid-1990s of the Hanse-Office, set up by the north German states of Hamburg and of a Baltic Sea region endowed with certain Schleswig-Holstein to help coordinate Baltic regional initiatives and fa- strong features of community and identity. cilitate lobbying for support from the EU in Brussels. What is interesting about the macro region-

230 II. CULTURE AND IDENTITY ily by local economic and political elites, who the Lega Nord in Italian politics. Political Geog- are engaged in projecting an attractive cli- raphy, 19, 445–471. mate for capital investment and in networking Greeneld, L. (1992). Nationalism: Five roads to with people of similar circumstance else- modernity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University where in Europe. One commentator has Press. Habermas, J. (1996). The European nation-state: christened them “bourgeois regions.” Indeed, Its achievements and its limits. In G. the most common way that one becomes Balakrishnan & B. Anderson (Eds.), Mapping aware of them is through glossy investment the nation (pp. 281–294). London: Verso. advertisements, tourism promotions, and In- Harvie, C. (1994). The rise of regional Europe. ternet webpage sites. London: Routledge. The degree to which regions such as the Heffernan, M. (1997). Twentieth century Europe: A Baltic may, for ordinary citizens, be real ob- political geography. New York: Wiley. jects of political or cultural identity capable of Herb, G. (1997). Under the map of Germany: Na- competing effectively with state or other ter- tionalism and propaganda, 1918–1945. London: ritorial units is unclear. They do, however, Routledge. speak to the growing diversity of territorial Hooson, D. (Ed.). (1994). Geography and national identity. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. and political frameworks within which Euro- Hough, J. F.(1998). The political geography of Eu- peans live and work, and they have raised a ropean Russia: Republics and oblasts. Post- lively academic discussion as to what they Soviet Geography and Economics, 39, 63–95. may mean. Some have argued that they are Jervell, S., Kukk, M., & Joenniemi, P. (Eds.). (1992). yet another contribution to a developing “de- The Baltic Sea area—a region in the making. territorialized consciousness,” in which the Oslo: Europa Programmet and the Baltic Insti- loyalties to the rigid spatial structures of the tute. past are dissolving and being replaced by alle- Jönsson, C., Tägil, S., & Törnqvist, G. (2000). Or- giances that are much more fluid and overlap- ganizing European space. London: Sage. ping. Others have raised the romantic notion Kaiser, R. (1994). The geography of nationalism in of a “new medievalism”—a return to the old Russia and the USSR. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. city-states and trading alliances of the High Newhouse, J. (1997). Europe’s rising regionalism.” Middle Ages. Still others choose to dismiss Foreign Affairs, 76, 67–84. them as nothing new and of little political O”Loughllin, J., & van der Wusten, H. (Eds.). consequence. (1993). The new political geography of eastern Europe. London: Belhaven. Paasi, A. (1996). Territories, boundaries, and con- FURTHER READING sciousness: The changing geographies of the Finnish–Russian border. Chichester, UK: Wiley. Bassand, M. (1993). Culture and regions of Europe. Sellar, C., & Pickles, J. (2002). Where will Europe Strasbourgh, France: Council of Europe. end? Ukraine and the limits of European inte- Blouet, B. W. (1996). The political geography of gration. Eurasian Geography and Economics, Europe: 1900–2000 A.D. Journal of Geography, 43, 123–142. 95, 5–14. Smith, A. D. (1995). Nations and nationalism in a Delamaide, D. (1994). The new superregions of Eu- global era. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell. rope. New York: Dutton. Unwin, T. (1999). Contested reconstruction of na- Dogan, M. (1998). The decline of traditional values tional identities in Eastern Europe. Norsk in Western Europe: religion, nationalism, au- Geografisk Tidsskrift, 53, 113–120. thority. International Journal of Comparative So- U.S. Department of State. (2003). Fact sheet: Inde- ciology, 39, 77–90. pendent states in the world [On-line]. Available Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and nationalism.Ox- www.state.gov/s/inr/rls/4250.htm ford, UK: Blackwell. Weber, E. (1976). Peasants into Frenchmen: The Giordano, B. (2000). Italian regionalism or modernization of rural France, 1870–1914. Stan- ‘Padanian’ nationalism—the political project of ford, CA: Stanford University Press. PART III Towns and Cities

CHAPTER 8 Cities and Urban Life to World War I

Our purpose in Part III, and Part IV to follow, compasses for all practical purposes the entire is to explore the questions of where and how Paris Basin. Even though most of the basin Europeans live. This is a complex issue, but in would technically still be considered rural, it many ways the simplest answer is that Euro- is also a vast zone of “exurban” development peans today live predominantly in towns and in which the exact outer boundaries of the cities and pursue the lives of urbanites. With city are becoming increasingly difficult to de- nearly three-quarters (72%) of the continent’s limit. Indeed, one of the latest housing trends population living in places that are commonly affecting the outer portions of the basin in- regarded as “urban” (i.e., 2,000 or more involves the conversion of thousands of second habitants), it is not much of an exaggeration to homes, previously established by Parisians for say that the city is home for most Europeans. weekend use, into first homes for affluent ur- To say so is not to deny the existence of the banites willing to commute long distances to millions of Europeans who live in rural com- the center or able to conduct their business munities, nor to ignore the vast areas of open transactions from afar. Similar pressures pre- countryside to be found even in the conti- vail in the southeast of England, where seri- nent’s most densely populated areas. It is, ous housing shortfalls in London and its however, a simple acknowledgment of the fact surrounding counties have recently raised that Europe is one of the world’s most highly pressures on local councils to relax planning urbanized regions. Moreover, one might eas- controls and expand housing development ily argue that a large majority of the rural pop- programs in rural areas. ulation is under the influence of an urban All over Europe one can readily observe way of life that today reaches out almost ef- the outward-radiating impact of a highly mo- fortlessly to engulf nearly everyone. Modern bile, leisure-oriented urban lifestyle. As the transportation and communication technolo- trend continues, more and more of the coun- gies have so increased the accessibility of the tryside seems dedicated to serving either the city to those who live in surrounding areas residential or leisure needs of the urban and vice versa that the countryside has be- dweller. Consider, for example, the pictur- come in many ways an extension of the urban esque town of Bad Münstereifel, which is lo- realm, making the differences between urban cated in a relatively secluded part of Ger- and rural life less perceptible than they once many’s Eifel region but within easy driving were. distance of major Rhine cities such as Co- Metropolitan Paris, for example, now en- logne, Bonn, and Koblenz. The town, which

233 234 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

FIGURE 8.1. Exurban retreat. Only a handful of people stroll down the main street of Bad Münstereifel on a quiet weekday afternoon. This popular retreat for urban dwellers from nearby cities in the Rhineland is usually crowded with visitors on weekends and holidays. Although tucked fairly deeply into the rural expanses of Germany’s Eifel region, the town is very much within reach and a part of today’s urban society. caters to the urban daytripper’s desire to eat, in a hierarchical urban network, whose elabo- shop, and be seen in a pleasing locale outside rate web of functional interconnections is the of the city, is virtually deserted on weekdays primary means by which the continent’s myr- but completely overrun by a crush of recreat- iad local societies and economies are melded ing urban dwellers on weekends and holidays. together into some kind of larger framework. It is almost as though the town leads two com- It is difficult, therefore, to speak of where pletely separate lives, depending on the time and how Europeans live without entering into of the week. Although it may seem coun- a discussion of urbanism, and that is the sub- terintuitive at first to most visitors, it is no ac- ject of the two chapters in this section. In this cident that the town’s car parks and meters chapter we look to the past to understand how levy a charge only on weekends. urban places and urban life have evolved; that One might also argue that the city—and its is, we try to identify the critical transforma- way of life—is one of the very foundations of tions in the organization and use of urban European society, that in a very real sense space that have brought us to the present con- Europe is defined by its cities. This is because dition. Although an almost infinite amount of the city embodies so many of the ideas, inno- space could be devoted to the long evolution vations, and lines of development that we as- of European urbanism, our purposes here are sociate with European history and identity. It to describe the major transformations that is, after all, from the legal foundations of me- have taken place over the centuries leading dieval towns and cities that we derive such up to the Great War of 1914–1918. We take a fundamental notions of governance as the more contemporary perspective in the chap- right of local independence against princely ter that follows. or state powers. The city has been and continues to be the place where trade, industry, finance, learning, justice, government, high CLASSICAL FOUNDATIONS culture, and the arts achieve their greatest expression. Aspects of its built landscape are of- The Greek City-State ten purposely fashioned to symbolize human The ancient Greeks, who around the eighth achievement in all of these areas. Towns and century B.C. began to organize themselves po- cities are also the organizational foci of Euro- litically and territorially into hundreds of city- pean space. They each occupy a specific niche states, or poleis, first introduced urbanism to 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 235

Europe. Most of these city-states, which with stoae, long open-fronted buildings reached the height of their development by framed by colonnades and used for conduct- the beginning of the fifth century B.C., were ing business of various kinds. Stretching be- relatively small places. Usually located on yond these monumental spaces, and in sharp small plains tucked between the mountains contrast to them, were the cramped and tan- and the sea, their economies were predomi- gled residential quarters of the common citi- nantly agricultural. A few grew to be excep- zenry. tionally large places. Athens may have had as In response to mounting population pres- many as 200,000 or more people, but most sure at home, many of these city-states sent were of a far more modest size; many were re- out colonists who carried their urban culture ally no more than very large villages. What- and institutions far beyond the Greek home- ever their size, the Greek polis was a novel lands. This organized exportation of the departure in city development in that it inti- Greek city-state to other lands occurred be- mately bound a local tributary area to an ur- tween roughly 734 and 585 B.C. It spawned banized central place and claimed for itself a clusters of colonial daughter settlements sovereign political status based not on the along the shores of the Black Sea, as well as power of a deified ruler, but on the demo- along the Mediterranean coasts of southern cratic participation of its citizens. Italy and southern France, and on the islands In time these places developed an urban of Sicily and Corsica. form that was widely replicated. Most Greek At the same time, similar settlements were cities were built on defensible sites and being established in the western Mediterra- walled. Many were dominated by a fortified nean by other peoples. The Phoenicians, a height of land, or acropolis, beneath which seafaring and commercially oriented people the city developed. Near the center was the from the Levant, established daughter colo- agora, an open space that served as a combi- nies in North Africa, southern Spain, and on nation market, public forum, and casual meet- the islands of Sardinia, Sicily, and Malta. The ing place for a people accustomed to carrying most important of these Phoenician colonies out their daily business and social activities was Carthage, situated on the coast of Africa outdoors. The agora was often grandly edged opposite the Straits of Sicily. Totally devoted

FIGURE 8.2. Acropolis. On the Isle of Rhodes, the ancient acropolis looms over the modern town of Lindos. Oc- cupied since perhaps as early as the ninth century B.C., the acropolis is typical of the fortified heights that served as sanctuaries in many Greek cities. 236 III. TOWNS AND CITIES to commercial endeavor, the city grew In the process, Rome was transformed from wealthy from the exploitation of silver and a city-state to a great empire, a fact that had copper mines in the south of Spain and from profound implications for the direction that the control of commerce in the western Medi- European urbanism was to take by the latter terranean basin. The Etruscans, a people of part of the classical period. Despite its early obscure origin who occupied northern and success, the city-state was simply too small central Italy, also evolved a distinctive urban- and weak to maintain its independence in a ized culture, which reached its height about world increasingly dominated by large territo- 500 B.C. The loose federation of city-states rial powers. The decline began in Greece in formed by the Etruscans even included, for a the fifth century B.C., as the old Hellenic city- time, the homelands of a group of Italic peo- states fell under the control, one by one, of a ples known as the Romans. powerful and expansive Macedonian state. The rise of Roman hegemony over much of Roman Urbanism Europe by the first century A.D. was the cul- mination of that process. The Romans eventually came to inherit the All this meant that urbanism under the urban traditions of the classical world. This Romans would fulfill a somewhat different inheritance was in large part a function of political and functional role. Cities and their Rome’s location on the western side of the territoria became the building blocks of em- Italian peninsula, roughly midway between pire. They functioned as centers of imperial the civilized cultures of the Etruscans to the administration and consumption. They were north and the colonial Greek city-states to the also the conveyors of Roman culture and val- south. Although originally nothing more than ues, which included urbane and civilized liv- a collection of Iron Age village settlements ing, to the heterogeneous peoples who made scattered across the hilltops flanking the east up the Empire. Under the Romans the main bank of the Tiber River, Rome emerged, while purpose of the city was no longer to anchor it was still under the control of the Etruscans, small and proudly independent societies, but as a city-state of some importance. From the to link diverse and subservient populations Etruscans, who eventually were forced to administratively to the center of power. withdraw, the Romans acquired advanced en- Thus, the Romans were responsible for gineering and building skills. Religion, art, bringing urbanism in Europe to new heights. and an urbane culture were borrowed from The Roman system of towns and cities ex- the Greeks. tended to every corner of the Empire. Prov- Over the next several centuries Rome be- inces were divided for administrative purposes came embroiled in a long series of hegemonic into civitates, or city-regions, each centered on wars. Italy and Sicily were subdued first, an ac- an urbanized central place, or civitas. The ex- complishment made easier by the fact that the isting cities of conquered regions throughout power of the Etruscans had been destroyed by Mediterranean Europe were incorporated into the invasions of Celtic tribes from the north the Empire’s extensive urban system, while in and that the Greek city-states were too divided western Europe urbanism was introduced into among themselves to put up much of a con- areas where it had been previously absent. The certed defense. Upon the defeat and destruc- Romans accomplished this with minimal dis- tion of its great commercial and military rival ruption to the existing spatial organization of Carthage in 146 B.C., Rome emerged as the conquered regions by simply converting the master of the entire western Mediterranean primitive central places of the native popula- basin. After that each new conquest led inexo- tion, such as hill forts and tribal meeting places, rably to another. Rome went on to exert its au- into Roman towns and cities. The process by thority by the first century A.D. over the eastern which the Romans established towns and cities Mediterranean basin, as well as much of west- throughout the West is generally seen as one of ern and southern Europe. the major achievements of the period. It is be- 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 237

FIGURE 8.3. The Roman past. The Porta Nigra (Black Gate) is by far the most imposing Roman building of northern Europe. The structure, which dates from the end of the second century, was the imperial gate to the city of Trier. The massive sandstone exterior has been weathered black by the passage of time (hence the name bestowed in medieval times).

cause of this achievement that so many Euro- Certain common features distinguished Ro- pean cities today are able to take such pride in man cities. Like the Greeks, the Romans put directing visitors to the excavations and arti- considerable emphasis on the construction of facts of their Roman past. finely built public buildings and monuments. At the very top of the Roman urban system Most cities of any importance possessed a fo- was the city of Rome. Although estimates are cal or central space—the forum. In addition, crude at best, the population of this great city there would be a basilica, which served the is believed to have been somewhere around a functions of courthouse and market, temples, million, which made it by far the largest city public baths, a theater, perhaps an amphi- in the Empire and the greatest concentration theatre or stadium. Roman cities differed of people known to Europe until this time. from those of the Greeks, however, in the The city was the cosmopolitan center of the great size and splendor of their public build- Empire, filled with peoples of diverse origins. ings. As time went on, the Romans also distin- It seemed to produce little but require much. guished themselves from the Greeks by the Likened by some scholars to a giant “para- fact that public buildings and spaces were in- site,” the city depended on the provinces to creasingly constructed to glorify and legiti- satisfy its insatiable appetite for food, slaves, mize not just the state but also the Roman luxuries, and tribute. emperors themselves. The authority and Elsewhere, the cities and towns that honor of each new emperor was highly de- formed the skeletal framework of the Empire pendent on his ability to make his power seen varied greatly in number, size, and function. not only in deeds but also in monuments and The greatest concentrations were found in the public works. This was particularly evident in more densely populated parts of Mediterra- Rome itself, where successive emperors went nean Europe—in Italy, Greece, France, and to great lengths to outdo their predecessors, the coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula. In forever adding new fora, triumphant arches, the Balkans, Britain, the German lands, and in and victory columns to the center of the impe- the interior of Iberia, where populations were rial capital—even stooping at times to the thin, towns were scattered and few, although practice of stripping the monuments of their their densities increased along the Rhine and predecessors of the building materials, sculp- Danube frontiers of the Empire, where settle- tures, and medallions needed to complete ments supported the Legions defending the their own projects. Finding open space in the frontier. center of the city for the construction of new 238 III. TOWNS AND CITIES buildings and monuments soon became a ma- ban places. In many parts of Mediterranean jor problem. Europe, especially in the East, where city The Romans, who placed such high value foundations long predated Roman rule, there on order and authority, made extensive use of were often difficulties in achieving this. In- geometric forms in the layout and construc- deed, no regular plan was ever possible for tion of public spaces and buildings. The Im- Rome itself, which evolved early and literally perial Fora, which came to cover the center of overflowed with unplanned and dangerously the city, were laid out as rectangular spaces, crowded development. But in the West, with precise dimensions (the Roman architect where towns were more likely to have been Vitruvius stipulated an ideal length-to-width founded later, or were developed exclusively ratio of 3:2) and clear axes of movement and by the Romans themselves, they were often perspective. The colonnaded public buildings arranged according to a gridiron plan that fea- and temples that flanked them were meant tured two intersecting main streets, the cardo to be viewed from particular directions, and maximus and the decumanus maximus. Public were carefully aligned with adjoining spaces buildings were located near the intersection and structures for visual effect. The achieve- of these main streets. A similar geometric or- ment of a very linear sense of space and visual der was often imposed on the surrounding order was extremely important. The effect countryside in the form of carefully surveyed was meant to be reassuring, to give credence roads and long rectangular fields. The aban- to the notion that the authority and power of donment of many Roman sites during the the Empire was timeless and unchanging. Dark Ages and their subsequent redevelop- The Romans also tried to impose some de- ment during medieval times and succeeding gree of regularity on the overall layout of ur- centuries has meant that the old Roman grid

FIGURE 8.4. Foro Romano. Built on a marshy valley between the hills of Rome, the Roman Forum was the heart of public life in the ancient city. Down the center of the immense complex ran the Sacra Via, flanked on either side by temples, basilicas, and monuments to the glory of Rome. The ruins were used in the Middle Ages as a quarry for building material and as a pasture. Archeological excavation began in the late 19th century and has continued ever since. 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 239 is not readily apparent in most modern city invitation had been secured during the day, or centers. Its pattern is often only subtly pres- simply eating out at a bar or inn on the street. ent, at best. But in some cities, such as Cór- Women spent more time at home, but might doba, Nîmes, Cologne, Verona, and Ljubljana, also go out on their own, and in Roman soci- it is still quite recognizable despite the distor- ety enjoyed the right to join their husband tions of time. and his associates at the table. This was in Roman towns contained a variety of resi- sharp contrast to Greek society, where women dential building types, ranging from spacious led far more restricted lives. villas to carefully laid-out rows of arcaded The games and entertainments, and the buildings that combined living quarters and massive facilities in which they took place, workshops, to masses of extraordinarily large were part of the effort to maintain public or- and often rather shoddily constructed apart- der and to provide public works. Roman ur- ment blocks, or insulae. Well known are the ban society was underlain with a great mass of cramped quarters and appallingly unsanitary people belonging to the plebeian class, for conditions of the great numbers of the latter whom there was little work to fill their days. erected in the city of Rome by profiteering To maintain order, the authorities fell into the contractors and landlords. According to one practice of providing free bread (the dole) and record from the fourth century A.D., there a constantly expanding number of entertain- were as many as 46,602 of these, containing ments for the masses. By the end of the third an average of 200 people each. By contrast, century A.D., as many as 200 days of the year the villas of the elite were spacious affairs, were devoted to staging games and entertain- facing inward on an entrance hall or atrium, ments at public expense. The Roman Colos- elegantly appointed with tile mosaics and seum was built by the Emperor Vespasian and marble wall facings, and sometimes even dedicated by his son Titus in 80 A.D. Ori- equipped with water closets and central heating. Living conditions in towns far from the center of Roman power were usually less crowded and more livable for the common citizenry, but probably appeared hopelessly “provincial” in the eyes of the elite residents of the capital. Like the ancient Greeks, the Romans spent much of their time outdoors and away from home. The morning hours for male citizens were filled with business activities, which might mean craft production or the sale or purchase of goods, or possibly stationing one- self near the villa of a wealthy citizen to receive a favor or perform a service or errand. Much of Roman society was built around networks of client–patron relationships, which had to be attended to on a regular basis. After- noons might be devoted to social activities and entertainments. One could visit the FIGURE 8.5. The Games. The Colosseum in Rome (Flavian Amphi- baths, which were the social centers of the theatre) stood nearly 50 meters tall. The outside of the building con- city, or take pleasure in the spectator thrills sisted of three arcaded façades and an “attic” story, from which the and excitements of the circus or amphitheater. velarium—a great canopy that shaded the spectators—was hung. A Evenings meant a return home to host guests special unit of the Roman navy, whose job it was to unfurl and secure for dinner, attendance at a dinner to which an the canvas, was permanently stationed here. 240 III. TOWNS AND CITIES ginally known as the Flavian Amphitheater by the Romans to provide the infrastructure (Flavius was the family name of Vespasian and necessary to support large urban places. In- Titus), the massive concrete and stone struc- deed, the Romans did much to introduce a ture hosted the city’s gladiatorial contests as tradition of urban public works to Europe that well as other bloodthirsty spectacles and held would be picked up and carried on in later an estimated 55,000 spectators. The Circus eras. Maximus, a heavily monumentalized elon- Relatively little, on the other hand, was in- gated racetrack on which teams of charioteers vested during the height of the Empire on ur- competed in wild and thrilling races, could ban fortifications. Few towns were walled un- handle crowds as large as 385,000. Similar til relatively late in the Roman period. This structures were built in other Roman cities, was largely due to the fact that the Empire although on a much smaller scale. The amphi- was long able to ensure relative peace and theaters at Nîmes, Arles, and Verona, for ex- safety—the so-called Pax Romana—behind ample, all of which have survived, seated its territorial frontiers. Thus, the main focus roughly 20,000 spectators each. of defensive construction took place on the The Romans invested heavily in massive military frontiers, where elaborate systems engineering works intended to supply the city of forts, ditches, and walls were developed. with water and discharge its waste. The city of It was not until the latter part of the third Rome consumed a prodigious amount of wa- century A.D. that Rome, under the threat of ter, which was brought to the city from tens of barbarian invasions, undertook the construc- kilometers away via large aqueducts, and then tion of the city’s massive 19-kilometer-long directed through open channels and lead Aurelian Wall, which survives to the present pipes to street fountains, the public baths, and day. In response to similar pressures, Roman private houses, with any surplus used for towns in the third century erected walls and cleaning streets. A system of underground transformed themselves into fortified admin- sewers carried wastewater away. Sections of istrative centers, a process that began to some of the great aqueducts that supplied distinguish them from their surrounding Rome and other Roman cities have survived territorium and helped to bring about a sep- to the present as reminders of the immense aration of city and countryside that would wealth and engineering expertise expended characterize the Middle Ages.

FIGURE 8.6. Public works. Built in the first century A.D., the aqueduct at Segovia brought water from the River Frio to the Roman settlement and military camp at Segovia. Nearly 30 meters tall at its highest point, the double- tiered arched construction carried water until late in the 19th century. 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 241

MEDIEVAL TOWNS AND CITIES sufficiently on the land, with few social, economic, and political relationships that ex- Decline during the Dark Ages tended beyond locality, kin, and tribe. During the rebirth of urbanism that followed the A sharp break exists between the classical ur- Dark Ages, the city arose not so much from, banism of the Romans and Greeks and the but alongside, what had become a predomi- new urbanism that overtook Europe during nantly rural society, built around an inelastic medieval times. A major reason is the precipi- and self-sufficing system of land tenure and tous decline of Roman cities and towns that feudal obligation. In this sense, the medieval occurred during the so-called Dark Ages, city was a very different place than the Ro- which lasted from roughly the fourth to the man civitas or the Greek polis before it, both ninth century A.D. The decline was the result of which were intended to bind together the of the dire circumstances and calamities of city and its rural environs. the times, not the least of which was the disin- tegration of the western Empire before the The Rise of Medieval Towns and Cities advance of invading Germanic tribes. These invaders, who came not so much to destroy A renewal and spread of urbanism began to the Empire as to share in its wealth and take hold in Europe during the ninth century power, brought with them a much lower ma- and continued for about 400 years. It came to terial culture, which included little in the way a rather abrupt end around the middle of of experience with urban living. This, coupled the 14th century, as the population declined with a general decline in climatic conditions, and conditions deteriorated with the spread diminished agricultural productivity and op- of plague. During this prolonged period of portunities for trade, and substantial losses in growth, existing cities expanded greatly in population due to famine and disease, eventu- size and function. Large numbers of new ally led to the wholesale deterioration of ur- towns were also founded, principally in those ban living as the Romans had known it. parts of Europe that lay beyond the old fron- Cities in the Mediterranean South suffered tiers of the Roman Empire. In all, the number the least. Most continued to be occupied and of places in Europe that might be thought of to carry on urban functions, even though their as urban by today’s standards—that is, those populations may have declined. Elsewhere in with roughly 2,000 or more inhabitants—may Europe the effects of invasion and other dep- have reached as many as 900 by the end of the redations were often devastating. Some towns 13th century. If we take into account the fact and cities simply ceased to exist altogether. that most places of a few hundred or more Others became mere shadows of their former were probably urbanized places by the stan- selves, with small populations sheltered be- dards of the Middle Ages, the number of ur- hind defensive walls built hastily during the ban places may have actually numbered well latter part of the Roman period to protect res- into the thousands. idents from the increased onslaughts of ma- Medieval towns were founded and grew for rauders. These walls, which as time went on a variety of reasons. Defense was a key factor were built and rebuilt to protect ever smaller from the beginning, and became even more areas, often encompassed in the end only a so during the Viking raids and invasions of the fraction of the area previously occupied by 9th and 10th centuries. In these times of dan- the Roman city. The walled area of Nîmes, for ger, the safest place that could be found in example, contracted during this period from many parts of Europe was behind the crum- 550 acres to just 20 acres. bling walls of an old Roman settlement or be- As cities declined, life all over Europe was neath a fortified strong point established by a reduced to a much more rudimentary level local prince or bishop. This place of refuge in which people lived more or less self- became a focal point around which an embry- 242 III. TOWNS AND CITIES onic urban settlement might develop. Im- God as it was the production of goods and provements in existing town defenses or the trade. The spires of its cathedrals and other extension of the walls of a castle or monastery churches, visible from far beyond its walls, to include the small built-up area that began were symbolic expressions of its individual to develop in its shadow were common and identity, recognized by residents and nonresi- necessary first steps toward the physical de- dents alike. velopment of a town. A second factor was the rise of a local mar- Size ket. This occurred largely because of a series of economic developments. As the Dark Ages Most medieval towns and cities grew largely waned, Europe experienced a general exten- by immigration, drawing their population sion of arable land and an improvement in from elements in the surrounding countryside husbandry, which led to food surpluses and somehow able to leave the land. A few places renewed population growth. Feudal lords became quite large. The vast majority, how- were quick to recognize the potential profits ever, remained relatively small. By the begin- to be gained by sponsoring a central place ning of the 14th century the very largest were somewhere on their holdings where agricul- those whose populations topped 50,000 and tural produce and locally produced crafts and in a few cases exceeded 100,000. These were wares could be bought and sold. The benefits found mostly in Mediterranean Europe, to the feudal lords came in the form of tolls where rural population densities were high and taxes that could be levied on the sales ac- and the urban legacy from the past was stron- tivities. This, in turn, led to the possibility gest. Included among these Mediterranean that the commercial activities of the towns mega-cities were Córdoba, Granada, Seville, would expand to attract merchants engaged in Milan, Venice, Genoa, Florence, Naples, Pal- long-distance trade. Thus sprang up urban- ermo, and Constantinople. North of the Alps ized communities of merchants and crafts- there were only three extraordinarily large men, whose right to carry on their business places: Paris, Ghent, and Cologne. Cities freely and whose obligations to pay for the with populations between 25,000 and 50,000 privilege were carefully stipulated in charters would also have been considered large for granted by kings and local lords. Over time, the times. They were fairly numerous—there the legal guarantees of the town charter gave were more than 50 of them—but also heavily the “commune” a degree of autonomy that concentrated in Mediterranean Europe and clearly differentiated it from that of the pre- in France. Much more evenly distributed, dominantly feudal and manorial countryside. however, were the many modest-sized cities A third factor was the close connection that of 10,000 to 25,000 inhabitants. The same was existed between the Christian Church, the true of the smaller cities of a few thousand one universal institution in medieval life, and souls and the great mass of small places whose urban places. As in Roman times, the town re- population numbered in the hundreds. mained the principal seat of ecclesiastical authority and administration, and therefore the Types of Places and Networks site of numerous Christian institutions and edifices—cathedrals, parish churches, monas- It is useful to think of medieval Europe as teries, almshouses, and hospitals—both having three broad zones of urban devel- within and just outside its walls. The power of opment. The first comprised those parts of the Roman Catholic Church, which com- Mediterranean Europe where urban life had manded vast wealth in medieval times, rested been least affected by the decline of Roman in the city. Indeed, the protection afforded to power. Cities throughout this zone were often towns by bishops often rivaled that of counts smaller than they had been in Roman times, and princes. And, in this sense, the business but few had disappeared altogether and there of the city was as much the glorification of had been relatively little need to found com- 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 243 pletely new towns. Continuity with the Ro- only from the productivity of its own cloth man past was greatest here, and overall levels manufacturers but also from its roles as the of urbanization remained relatively high. This chief import center for English wool and the was especially true in the south of Spain, main distribution point for cloth made in where under Moorish rule large urban places other major Flemish cloth-making towns such like Granada, Córdoba, and Seville grew as Ghent, Ypres, and Douai. Home to the of- and prospered. These cities not only retained fices of merchants from all over Europe, and their Christian populations but also grew especially from Italy, Bruges was the most im- through the addition of densely settled Arab portant medieval trading center of northern quarters. Meanwhile, at the other end of the Europe, although its importance began to Mediterranean, the spectacular city of Con- wane in the 14th century as other regions be- stantinople continued to hold its place as one gan to establish their own cloth industries. of Europe’s greatest wonders. For much of Dominating the other end of the axis were a the medieval period, Constantinople could number of north Italian trading cities, which lay claim to being the richest and most sophis- competed with one another for control of the ticated city in the world—heir to the Roman trade in highly valued spices, oriental silks, tradition, major market for luxury goods perfumes, ivory, and other luxuries that could and raw materials, site of hundreds of fabled be obtained from Byzantium, the Islamic Christian churches and chapels, and gilded Near East, and even India and China. They seat of power for the Emperor of Byzantium. did so by securing commercial privileges in A second zone consisted of the remainder Constantinople and other eastern Mediterra- of what had once been Roman Europe, the nean and Black Sea ports. Indeed, many of former provinces and frontier zones of north- these eastern ports had special quarters set western Europe. It was here that cities suf- aside for the numerous Italian merchants and fered the worst destruction and depopulation traders who settled there. At one point in during the Dark Ages. The urban renewal of time, Constantinople is said to have had as the Middle Ages took place selectively within many as 60,000 Italians living within the city. this zone, with some places prospering more Most important among the competing towns than others, depending on their location rela- were Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, although the tive to the developing routeways of commerce power of Pisa declined rapidly near the end of and whether they were fortunate enough to the 13th century due to a series of defeats by acquire important ecclesiastical or adminis- its rival, Genoa. Venice and Genoa continued trative functions. This zone also experienced to vie with each other for the eastern trade the occasional founding of entirely new until the late 14th century, when Venice was towns. But most important to the develop- eventually able to establish its supremacy. ment of a distinctive urban network in this The great family-based trading companies zone was the medieval expansion of long- from the various Italian towns found them- distance commerce between northern and selves in excellent geographic position to southern Europe. This particularly enhanced profit as middlemen from the movement of the fortunes of towns and cities situated along goods between east and west as well as north a broad commercial axis that stretched from and south. The Italians succeeded in monopo- northern Italy to the Low Countries. lizing, for example, the trade in alum, a pow- Located at either end of this axis, and domi- dered substance obtained in Asia Minor that nating the conduct of the lucrative north– was highly prized in the Flemish textile towns south trade, were two highly urbanized re- in the north for its ability to fix dyes in fabrics. gions. In the north was a network of towns The Italian merchant houses also prospered in northeastern France and Flanders, which because of the sophistication and effective- prospered from the manufacture and sale of ness of their methods. They pioneered the woolen cloths. The most powerful of these most advanced business methods of the time, was the city of Bruges, which benefited not maintaining permanent offices in all of the 244 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

FIGURE 8.7. Trading cities and trade routes at the end of the Middle Ages. towns in which they did business and even the great loess plains of central Germany from developing an elaborate system of drawing up Dortmund to Goslar. Elsewhere the more im- bills of exchange designed to solve the fi- portant places were more widely spaced and nancial problems of conducting long-distance built around royal or ecclesiastical nuclei, or trade in a world of myriad and difficult-to- located to take advantage of the trade op- convert currencies. portunities offered by sites that placed them The remainder of Europe fell into a third astride major gaps or corridor routeways, at zone, a vast area in which no earlier tradi- major river crossings, and at selected points tion of urban life had ever been established. along the coasts of the Baltic and North Seas. Across this region stretched a broad scattering Great numbers of smaller places were more of mostly modest to small-sized places. The evenly scattered. These grew up for the most most highly urbanized area occurred along part from pre-existing agricultural villages, or the axis of the Hellweg, a broad avenue of rel- they were deliberately planned in conjunc- atively easy transportation stretching across tion with the Drang nach Osten, the great 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 245

pathians, and south of the Danube into the Balkans—the density of urbanized places dropped off sharply. Beginning in the late 12th century, the Ger- man merchants of a number of towns across northern Germany began to band together for the purpose of organizing and controlling trade throughout the Baltic and North Sea regions. Based on the Law of Lübeck, the merchant associations of these towns agreed on common policies to protect shipments and sought to create favored privileges and monopolies over the northern European trade in FIGURE 8.8. Venice. As early as the 10th century, Venice had es- commodities such as grain, timber, herring, tablished trading routes through concessions granted by Byzantium furs, honey, copper, and iron, all of which that placed the city in an advantageous position to dominate the trade could be obtained in the east from Russia, Po- between Europe and the Levant. Within two centuries the city had land, and the Baltic region, and exchanged for achieved fabulous wealth and prominence, which were reflected in the cloth, spices, salt, wine, and other goods from fabric of the city. Seen here is one of two great symbols of the city’s the west. This confederation of north German might, the Basilica of St. Mark (the other is the Ducal Palace). Fronted by a magnificent piazza completed in the 15th century, the stunning trading cities became known as the Hanseatic façade of the 11th-century basilica leads to the shrine of St. Mark, League. At the height of its power during the whose body was stolen from Alexandria in 828 and brought here. 14th century, the Hansa consisted of approx- imately 100 towns. German merchant interests of the Hansa helped develop trading eastward agricultural colonization of Slav towns throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic, lands relentlessly pursued by the Germans such as Bergen, Visby, Stockholm, Danzig throughout the course of the 13th and 14th (Gdansk), Riga, and Reval (Tallinn). The centuries. Beyond the zone of German settle- League met regularly to coordinate policy and ment or colonization—in the interior reaches settle disputes. It also maintained foreign of Scandinavia, across the great interior plains trading offices, or konotore, in such places as of eastern Europe, within the arc of the Car- Bruges, London, and Novgorod.

FIGURE 8.9. Hansa. One of the most important of the German Hansa towns that dominated the trade of the Baltic was Lübeck. Seen here is the city’s Holtentor (Hol- stein Gate), whose two towers, built in 1477 and joined by a gabled façade, became the city’s emblem. In the background are the restored towers of the 13th-century Marienkirche, the city’s largest and most important church, which was damaged badly during the 1942 bombing of the city. 246 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

Medieval Townscapes

Medieval towns took a variety of forms. Many were built on Roman foundations, as we have seen, and were constrained in their development by that fact. Others developed in a chaotically organic fashion around defensive strong points or ecclesiastical sites, or from large agricultural villages. Still others, often distinguished by their carefully planned recti- linear layout, were “planted” in open country for colonial or strategic purposes. Perhaps the FIGURE 8.10. Medieval curtain wall. The city of Ávila in Spain is classic example of the latter is the walled town surrounded by one of the best-preserved medieval curtain walls in all of Aigues-Mortes in the south of France, of Europe. Spanning for a total distance of 2 kilometers and punctu- which was laid out in the 13th century by ated by 88 cylindrical towers, the walls were built by Alfonso VI after Louis IX as a fortified staging point for the he conquered the town from the Moors in 1090. Alfonso forced his Seventh and Eighth Crusades. The layout of Moorish prisoners to labor on the construction of the walls until the pro- medieval towns could also be quite complex, ject was completed, a task that took them 9 long years. as in cases where towns grew from multiple nuclei, or in cases where planned towns were grafted onto existing settlements. The classic beyond the walls, and unwanted elements example here is Hildesheim, which by the of the population such as lepers were often early 14th century had developed from the forced to live there. Abbeys and hospitals, coalescence of a number of discrete settle- many of which were not founded until the cit- ments focused respectively on castle, cathe- izens of towns had developed the necessary dral, monastery, and a 13th-century planned wealth to endow them, also sometimes occu- town. pied space outside the city walls. The confining element for all towns was the The focal point of the town was the central defensive wall. In these unsettled times, no marketplace (other squares might also exist town did without one. If the town grew too for lesser or more specialized markets). This large for its walls, they were often torn down was the site of the weekly market, as well as and rebuilt to envelope a suburb or to enclose the annual or semiannual fair that was orga- more open space. Some towns went to the nized around the exchange of goods brought trouble of moving their walls several times. from or destined for more distant places. Cologne, for example, rebuilt its walls four Most were originally open-air markets, but times. The town wall, with its towers and many were eventually embellished with a gates, provided protection from attack, but market hall where goods could be stored be- it also separated the town politically, eco- fore sale and in which business could be con- nomically, and socially from the surrounding ducted in inclement weather. In towns where countryside, which lived under an entirely a particular craft or industry prevailed, a large different set of rules. The wall, then, had hall devoted to that product or activity some- psychological importance as a symbol of the times dominated the marketplace. The grand- town’s individual identity and independence, est of the Flemish cloth halls, built in Ypres much as did a citadel or cathedral tower. Its between 1200 and 1304 to hold the annual gates were the key places where the worlds of cloth fair, was an astounding 433 feet long. townspeople and outsiders of all kinds met The structure survived until World War I, and where interactions between them were when it was destroyed in an artillery bom- controlled by customs and tolls. Certain nox- bardment. Merchant’s buildings and the ious activities, such as tanning industries and headquarters of individual guilds might also livestock markets, were relegated to places typically front on the market square. The 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 247

FIGURE 8.11. Market square. One of Europe’s finest market squares is Brussels’s Grand Place. In the 13th century this was the commercial center of the medieval town. Covered markets for the sale of goods of all kinds covered the square, while the halls of the influential guilds lined the perimeter, along with the city’s ornate Gothic town hall. This view features one side of the square, with its ornately decorated baroque guild halls, erected by the guilds after the original medieval structures were destroyed during a French bombardment of the city in 1695.

guilds were exclusive associations of mer- walls. They were known accordingly as Palaz- chants or craftsmen that attempted to control zi Pubblici rather than as town halls. the conditions of trade and production for the As the most important institution in the me- benefit of their members through various reg- dieval world, the Church also took an active ulations and restrictions. They played a pow- hand in overseeing many of the essential fac- erful role in the trade and administration of ets of town life. The town’s great church— the town, usually locating their headquarters or cathedral if the town was the seat of a as close to the marketplace as possible. bishop—was built to reflect the importance Although most towns were initially domi- and power of the town’s religious establish- nated by a feudal ruler, who might maintain a ment. It was invariably one of the largest and castle or palace within the walls, the usual most impressive structures, its size and deco- pattern was for them gradually to acquire sufficient independence so that the administration of the town shifted to some form of city government, usually run by magistrates over- seen by a council. Considerable wealth was typically lavished on the construction of a building worthy of housing the town’s administrative and legal organs. The town hall normally fronted on the market square and sometimes provided space on the ground floor for market activities. In many Italian towns, where internal feuding often made public administration contentious, administrative and judicial functions were often separated and housed in different buildings. Italian town halls were frequently built at least partially FIGURE 8.12. Rathaus. Lübeck’s mid-13th-century town hall is a with defensive needs in mind, and typically solid example of the characteristic medieval brickwork of northern Ger- sported tall watchtowers. They also differed many. The high wing on the right dates from around 1440. The high from their northern counterparts in that the façade features spire-tipped turrets and huge holes to lessen wind re- authorities both lived and worked within their sistance. Coats of arms are embedded in the brickwork. 248 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

beys, whose authority and revenues came from disparate sources. The Church, which tended over time to accumulate the rights to a considerable amount of property through the pious bequests of residents of means who wished to ensure their place in the after- life, was typically the town’s largest property owner. It also frequently managed to acquire a great many special privileges, such as the right to hold a market or fair, or even the right to regulate and profit from the practice of prostitution. Alongside the burghers, the men of the Church wielded considerable authority and claimed an important place in the power structures of the town. But the medieval town was also a very decentralized place. It was subdivided into quarters and districts, each with its own individuality and measure of autonomy. This was FIGURE 8.13. Palazzo Pubblico. During the 12th and 13th centu- a reflection of the highly spatialized organiza- ries, Sienna was one of the major cities of Europe. Almost the size of tion of economic activity, in which certain Paris, it controlled most of southern Tuscany and its rich wool industry, crafts and vocations, such as cloth making, dominated the trade routes between France and Rome, and main- tanning, goldsmithing or woodworking, as tained Italy’s richest Medici banks. The prosperity came to an abrupt well as distinctive groups, such as the city’s halt with the Black Death, which reached the city in 1348 and in just Jewry or its foreign merchants, were con- five short months reduced the population from 100,000 to 30,000. The city’s main square, the Campo, was laid out and paved with elabo- centrated in their own quarters. Jurisdictions rate brickwork on the city’s old marketplace in 1347 (the year before over specific places and activities within the the plague). At the foot of the down-sloping square stands the Palazzo town were typically complex, falling quite Pubblico, with its 102-meter bell tower, the Torre del Mangia. variably under the authority of king, bishop, count, guild, city council, or whoever else might have secured the necessary rights and ration an expression of the wealth and pros- privileges. perity of the town. The church square, set be- This economic and social partitioning of the fore the portals of its towering west front, medieval town was further underlined by the served both as an important meeting place fact that its streets and alleys were, for the and as a place of ritual and ceremony. It was most part, never intended as thoroughfares. the starting and ending point for the religious Narrow and winding, and seldom paved, they processions that periodically wound through were poorly adapted for wheeled traffic. They most towns, and the place for staging various were used primarily as places of intense com- religious celebrations and plays. merce and production rather than as facilita- In fact, the presence of the Church tors of movement between different parts of throughout the city was extensive and mul- the city. There was, accordingly, great com- tifaceted. Towns were organized ecclesiasti- mercial importance in possessing frontage on cally into subordinate parishes, each of which the street. In cities north of the Alps, this was was focused on its own church, which was of- reflected in the placement, building style, ten founded or endowed by a local benefactor and layout of individual houses. Houses were who lived and worked nearby. A host of other built up tightly against one another, and typi- religious houses were also scattered through- cally four to six stories high. Their tall and out the city, including hospitals and alms- narrow gabled fronts faced the street, while houses, university chapters, friaries, and ab- they backed on the green space of checkered 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 249 gardens that filled the interior of blocks. The lower floor opened to the street and served as a shop or workplace. The middle stories were reserved for the master and his immediate family, while an extended household of apprentices, journeymen, and other family members, or storage space, occupied the upper stories. Houses in many northern Euro- pean cities were constructed of timber, with wattle and plaster between the studding, which made them highly susceptible to fire, the bane—along with the plague—of most medieval towns. Housing in Mediterranean cities displayed a greater continuity with the Roman past, featuring squarish house lots and buildings that were more squat and prone to be constructed of stone or masonry due to the shortage of FIGURE 8.14. Private towers. The cathedral square of medieval wood for building purposes in that part of Eu- San Gimignano is paved with stones set in a herringbone pattern and rope. Houses were less open to the street, fo- flanked by medieval houses and towers. Across the square on the right cusing instead on an inner courtyard. Roof- is the 13th-century Palazzo del Podesta, with its tower. Nearby, at the tops were flat or slightly pitched, in contrast mouth of one of the town’s important thoroughfares, the Via San to the steep gables necessary in the north to Matteo, may be seen three towers belonging to two of the town’s most cast off rain and accumulations of snow. Also important families—the Chigi Tower and the twin Salvucci towers. common to the Mediterranean town, especially in Italy, was the presence of tower constructions that soared high above the rooftops the walled space. Indeed, some towns were so of the rambling and multiunit housing com- overly optimistic in laying out their defensive pounds of the town’s most important, and of- perimeter that they never filled the enclosed ten feuding, families. The constant feuding area. Open space meant that agriculture could was emblematic of the fact that the nobility be a part of the town’s economy. Garden plots were more likely to settle in Italian towns, and animals were commonly found within the where they took readily to commerce and fi- walls, and the citizens of most towns also con- nance, and competed incessantly with one an- trolled nearby fields outside the walls. In- other for control of town affairs. The skylines deed, an often overlooked feature of the me- of some Italian cities literally bristled with dieval townscape is the large number of barns these family towers (Florence is said to have and granaries built to store food reserves for had as many as 400), rising to heights of up to times of trouble. 100 meters and contending with churches As in Roman days, the provision of water and civic buildings for pride of place. In some was a matter of major concern. Water came cases, formal agreements had to be drawn up from springs and streams, often located some to limit the escalating heights of private tow- distance away. The flow from these sources ers. had to be canalized, brought through fortifica- While densities along streets may have tions and into the town, and then distributed been very high, it is also important to note to public wells or to specialized industrial us- that medieval towns usually contained plenty ers such as tanners, dyers, and brewers. Wells of open space and on the whole were not ex- and channels were always subject to con- ceptionally crowded. Enclosing walls were tamination from the seepage of urban refuse, moved outward with some frequency, and it which accumulated in streets and back lots often took decades for the built-up area to fill due to poor or sporadic efforts to collect and 250 III. TOWNS AND CITIES remove it. Moreover, whenever growth feudal order aside. This was the Age of Abso- reached the point where the town began to lutism, and along with it came a growing bump up against the limits of the walls, inte- centralization of government and its attendant rior space began to disappear, resulting in bureaucracy in the great capital cities. The ar- congestion and increased exposure to infec- istocracy, who dared not be too far from action and disease. These problems contributed cess to central power, also became increas- to the period of urban stagnation that we asso- ingly concentrated there, along with all their ciate with the 14th and 15th centuries. The retinues and consumptive tastes. concentration of people in cities made them Thus capital cities, especially in the West especially vulnerable to disease, not least to where the centralization of administrative the rapid and devastating spread of plague functions was most advanced, experienced during both the period of the Black Death phenomenal growth and rose to commanding and its subsequent reoccurrences. positions in the urban hierarchy. The city of Paris, for example, doubled in size between the end of the 15th century and the start of THE EARLY MODERN CITY the 19th, to reach a population of just over 550,000 inhabitants. Over the same period Unlike the Middle Ages, the period from the London grew from just 50,000 inhabitants mid-15th to the close of the 18th century is to nearly 950,000, making it the largest city not known for the founding of great numbers in Europe. Other great capital cities that of new towns. Nor did it see a general rise in reached a population of 150,000 or more dur- the overall level of urbanization. The propor- ing the period included Constantinople, Na- tion of the European population that lived ples, Moscow, Vienna, Amsterdam, Dublin, in urban places at the end of the period is Lisbon, Berlin, Madrid, and Rome. As a mat- thought to have been somewhere between ter of fact, by the close of the 18th century ev- 15–20%, roughly the same as at the begin- ery European city that had achieved a popula- ning. Growth did occur, but it was highly se- tion of 150,000 or more was a capital. lective. Only certain types of cities were af- The second type of city to experience rapid fected. The majority remained much as they growth at this time was the port city. This was, were at the end of medieval times, many of in part, a reflection of the fundamental shift in them still enclosed within their 14th-century European trade patterns that followed the walls. It was, nonetheless, an important age discovery and colonial exploitation of over- for the development of European urbanism. seas lands. While a good share of Europe’s What made this period of “early modern” ur- trade had always been carried by sea, and ban development important were the signifi- many Mediterranean, North Sea, and Baltic cant changes that occurred in the role that ports had been important places in medieval some cities played in European society and times, the focus now shifted to the Atlantic the revolutionary ways in which many think- trade. This shift favored those port cities that ers of the time dreamed of reshaping the lay- were in a position to take part in the great out and organization of cities. oceanic trade with Asia and the New World. Overseas colonial trade contributed to the ex- Urban Growth ceptional growth of cities like London and Amsterdam, which were both port cities and The cities that experienced real growth at this capitals, but it also produced a whole new time were of three types: capitals, port cities, class of important coastal cities on the west- and a small number of new places established ern margins of Europe. to perform specialized functions. Underlying Into a third category of “high-growth” ur- the rapid growth of capital cities was the rise ban places fall two types of planned towns. of the centralized dynastic state, which by the These places were newly founded during this 16th century was gradually brushing the old period for reasons of military defense or for 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 251 the aristocratic pursuit of pleasure and status. Versailles in France, The Hague in the The first of these types includes garrison Netherlands, or Mannheim, Karlsruhe, and towns and naval bases, which in the 16th and Potsdam in Germany. Such places could be 17th centuries were planted in strategic loca- founded in entirely new locations, or they tions by government authority for the purpose could be grafted onto existing cities. Although of securing national frontiers or projecting built nearly everywhere in Europe, many of military might. Classic examples of garrison the best examples of residence cities were towns are Palm Nova in northern Italy, found among the many small principalities of Naarden in the Netherlands, and Neuf Germany and in other regions that were as yet Breisach on the Rhine frontier between Ger- not a part of the system of larger states. many and France. Towns like Rochefort and Brest are examples of towns built as naval Revolutions in Layout and Design bases. These towns were carefully planned according to the leading ideas of the time to All urban development during this period was include wide streets and avenues laid out geo- heavily influenced by new concepts of urban metrically. Elaborate and deep girdles of de- layout and design. During the 15th and 16th fenses, consisting of star-shaped bastions, re- centuries Renaissance thinkers began to de- doubts, and glacis, also encircled them. Built velop concepts of urban planning based on strictly for strategic defense, these towns the rational principles of geometric order. were never intended to expand beyond their Their plans placed great emphasis on single- planned size, and rarely did so. focus radial layouts, on the provision of vistas, A second type of planned town was built to and on a highly proportional and formalistic accommodate the tastes and special needs of repetition of forms. Renaissance builders the upper classes. One version was the “resi- were also influenced, as we have seen in our dence city,” an elegantly planned urban set- earlier discussion of church architecture, by ting for princely palaces, which often featured the rediscovery of the monumental structures an elaborate system of radial streets focused of classical antiquity, especially those of on the royal residence. Examples of such Rome, and took pains to reintroduce classi- places include the towns of Richelieu and cally inspired domes, arches, and decorative forms into their structures. Also important to these developments were the biases of the military engineer, who wished to open the city to the rapid movement of troops. By the middle of the 17th century, new organizational principles gave a different twist to Re- naissance urban design. These Baroque-era conceptions of urban space, which we may collectively refer to as the “Grand Manner,” were an attempt to shape the entire city so as to reflect its position in the hierarchical social and political order of the time. In short, the Grand Manner ideal called for “gilded” urban landscapes that simultaneously embraced os- FIGURE 8.15. Garrison town. Strategically located on the Span- tentatious display and demonstrated the sta- ish–Portuguese border astride the main highway from Lisbon to Ma- drid, the town of Elvas has an event-filled military history going all the bility and legitimacy of princely power and way back to the Romans. In the 17th century, the Portuguese turned authority. the town into a key garrison city, surrounding it with a massive system While it was physically impossible to com- of fortifications. Based on the principles of the French military architect pletely transform European cities to reflect Vauban, the defenses were laid out to protect the defenders from every these ideals, an attempt was made to do so conceivable angle of attack. whenever possible. This was easily accom- 252 III. TOWNS AND CITIES plished in the case of the new garrison towns often boldly pushed through sections of the and residence cities, where now pre-existing city with little regard to what was there be- urban fabric could get in the way. Radical new fore. The purpose was usually to give the city layouts were also enthusiastically pursued a grand ceremonial passageway, or to provide in existing cities when great fires or other an axis for a new quarter of prestigious resi- natural disasters presented the planners with dential development. One of the earliest ex- unique opportunities to build on a clean slate. amples of the new avenues is the Strada The grand rebuilding of central Lisbon on a Nuova in Genoa, which is famous for the grid plan after the disastrous earthquake that splendor of its Renaissance residences. The struck the city in 1755 is a prime example. On best-known is Paris’s Champs Élysées, which the other hand, circumstances could just as was built during the reigns of Louis XIV and easily work against the realization of the new Louis XV to provide a processional route ex- plans—witness the frustration of the elabo- tending westward from the palace and gar- rate plans drawn up for the rebuilding of Lon- dens of the Louvre. Just about every major don after the great fire of 1666. The jealously European capital had one. guarded property rights and the tenaciously Associated with the development of ave- conservative building habits of the London nues was the opening of spacious squares or populace simply proved too difficult to over- circles, from which the avenues might radiate. come, and only a small portion of the postfire Examples are the Place Vendôme in Paris, Pi- plans were ever implemented. azza del Popolo in Rome, or St. James’ Square Where catastrophic disaster or a need for in London. Perhaps the grandest example is an entirely new town were lacking, planners the Place de la Concorde in Paris, which did succeed in implementing their designs on served as the focal point connecting the gar- a more modest scale in select parts of the city. dens of the Louvre, the street that led to the One of the most common efforts was to de- Church of the Madeline, and the grand axis of velop a grand avenue or boulevard, which was the Champs Élysées. Although few in number and affecting only small portions of the city, the new avenues and squares were a symbolic modification of the fabric of the city. They were purposely laid out as demonstrations of Renaissance order and regularity in the midst of medieval confusion, and were later embellished as Baroque tributes to high fashion, splendor, and magnificence. The buildings that faced them were harmonized with the street and with one another to reflect uniform principles of proportion and alignment. Their construction and design emphasized the horizontal through the repetitive placement of cornices, lintels, windows, and doors. The striking horizontality of their collective façades and unbroken rooflines, which carried FIGURE 8.16. Disaster leads to order. On the morning of All the eye to the distant vanishing point, gave a Saints Day, 1755, the city of Lisbon was struck by a terrible earth- grand sense of movement to the whole en- quake. The entire center of the city was destroyed by the combined effects of the shock and a tidal wave, and an estimated 30,000 people semble. All movement and all perspectives lost their lives. In a monumental undertaking, the city center was re- seemed ultimately to lead to symbols of built according to a grand design employing a grid of 48 streets lead- power: the grand monuments, palaces, and ing inland from a grand Commercial Square on the waterfront. The courts of the regime. Filled with wheeled car- streets were fronted with uniformly designed buildings of four stories, riages, whisking the upper classes back and topped by an attic level with tiers of dormers. forth on their daily business, these great ave- 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 253

FIGURE 8.17. Renaissance arcades and gables. Long harmonious lines of Renaissance mansions lend grace to Arras’s historic Grand Place, which is completely surrounded by these stylishly arcaded and gabled buildings. This northern French industrial town suffered greatly during World War I, but has managed to recon- struct and restore much of the historic elegance of the city center.

nues contrasted sharply in function, as well as apprentice in the same structure, the baroque appearance, with the localized activity and city was a place where work and living quar- plodding pace of the medieval street. ters were becoming more physically separated, especially for those on the extreme op- Class Differences posite ends of the social order. The elegance of the quarters of the upper classes contrasted Baroque planning played unabashedly to the sharply with the squalid housing of the lowest needs and values of the upper classes. Along classes, who were attracted to the city in im- with the grand avenues, the planners intro- mense numbers and crowded into cramped duced spacious parks and gardens, fountains quarters. A particularly striking example of and monuments, magnificent theatres, and this growing physical separation was the ap- prestigious new residential quarters. All were pearance of the “residential square,” an open reflections of the elite’s fondness for ostenta- space surrounded solely by residential build- tious display and the leisurely pursuit of plea- ings occupied by people of high social class or sure. The era marked the beginning of a rank. Over time these developments took on a growing segregation of the classes. Many as- variety of forms, including ellipses, crescents, pects of medieval popular culture—such as and circles. Perhaps best known for its fine the town-wide celebrations of patron saints or residential squares is London’s West End, but the ceremonial traditions of the craft guilds— they were built in many cities all across the which had long served as unifying bonds be- continent. tween the layers of society, now became less Cities were also becoming more crowded, acceptable to the upper classes, who turned to with dire consequences for the poor. Like the indoor balls and specialized leisure pursuits, new garrison towns, many older European and who even tried to suppress the popular towns and cities were now ringed by the elab- celebrations that they now viewed as rowdy, orate geometrical defense works of the age. vulgar, and superstitious. They were no longer able to expand outward Urban society was becoming more formally to accommodate new demands for space, as stratified, and this was reflected in residential they had in the past, by simply moving the patterns. Whereas in the medieval city the walls. The new defenses were too large and living spaces of rich and poor were often thor- expensive to tear down and rebuild. More- oughly intermixed, a function of the common over, they were developed in great depth and practice of living and working as master and required large open “fields of fire” beyond 254 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

pean urbanism was profound and may be thought of as having two important phases: an early period in which a new type of industrial town evolved from the reorganization and in- tensification of a “proto-industrial” economy that had long existed in some rural or semirural areas; and a later period in which improved transportation and new technologies led to a locational shift of industrial growth toward existing cities.

FIGURE 8.18. Residential square. Completed in 1612, Place des Phases of Industrial Development Vosges was one of Paris’s first elegant residential squares. The square’s 36 houses were designed to exhibit a symmetrical appearance. The The industrialization of Europe began in the façade features a continuous arcade, topped by two stories with alter- countryside. While medieval towns and cities, nate brick and stone facings and steeply pitched and dormered slate as we have seen, were highly successful in es- roofs. Two larger structures face each other across the square—the tablishing themselves as principal places of King’s Pavilion and the Queen’s Pavilion. production, as well as trade, they were never exclusively so. The manufacture of cloths, metal products, glass and pottery, and many them. This meant that suburban development other wares continued to take place also in ru- beyond the defenses was not feasible. Cities ral areas. By the 18th century, some of these were forced to build more densely. Open activities that took place outside of the towns spaces for gardens and fields were gradually had become quite highly organized, and a built over and, when open space was gone, fairly large number of rural or semirural existing structures were built higher. As Re- proto-industrial regions had emerged. The naissance and Baroque cities became more economies of these regions were mostly based crowded than their medieval predecessors, on metallurgy or the production of textiles, they also neglected to compensate for this and were generally located in areas periph- with improvements in the provision of water eral to major centers of population in order to or the elimination of sewage and wastes. In take advantage of rural underemployment the end, they became unhealthier places as and to escape the guild restrictions of the big well. towns. Production was based on extremely small units. Iron-producing areas, for example, depended on the output of many small THE INDUSTRIAL CITY furnaces scattered across the countryside. In cloth-making areas, women working in their Many of the great social and economic homes converted raw materials, supplied to changes that we associate with the 19th and them by a local entrepreneur, to finished or early 20th centuries were born of the revolu- semifinished products—a form of industrial tionary developments in the technology and organization referred to as the “domestic” or organization of production that accompanied “putting-out system.” the Industrial Revolution. Among these de- What changed, especially in the key textile velopments were the replacement of hand and metal industries, was that entrepreneurs labor with machines, the movement of pro- began to invest more capital and inject tech- duction activities from small workshops to nological innovations into these systems. factories, the use of new and more powerful Gradually production began to be pulled to- sources of power, and the invention of a vast gether into larger units as the introduction of array of new products. The influence of indus- machinery and the need for power to run it trialization on the spatial patterns of Euro- made the concentration of activities in a sin- 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 255

and the metals, lace, and silk industries around Lyon and St. Etienne; in Germany it was the textile and the iron and steel industries of the Rhineland, Saxony, and Upper Silesia; and in Sweden the iron industries of the Bergslagen. Not all of the urban places in these industrial agglomerations were new. Many existing places also grew, usually small towns and regional centers that were engulfed as industrial development overtook them. Many even became synonymous with their region’s newfound industrial reputation, as in the cases of Nottingham hosiery, Shef- field cutlery, Lyon silk, or Essen steel. Relatively unaffected by this early phase of industrial urban development, however, was the great majority of European market towns, and small or medium-sized cities. These FIGURE 8.19. Early industrialization. This woolen mill was built on the banks of the River Avon near the edge of the small town of places continued to perform the traditional Malmesbury, England. The town had been active in the woolen industry functions demanded of their place in the es- from the 16th century and benefited for a time from the introduction of tablished hierarchy of central places, and re- machine production at the end of the 18th century. Later technical de- mained apart from the emerging industrial or- velopments, however, found better employment elsewhere, and the der until later developments began to shift town’s importance waned. the focus of industrialization away from the coalfields and the old proto-industrial regions. This shift signaled the beginning of a sec- gle place necessary. Industry began to con- ond, and more broadly based, phase of indus- centrate first along rivers and streams to take advantage of waterpower. Later, with the introduction of coal-fired steam power to run machines and a whole series of innovations in coal-based metallurgy, there was a shift to the coalfields, which in many cases coincided locationally with areas of proto-industrial development. Over time the sleepy hamlets, villages, and small towns where these new factories, mines, and foundries were located evolved into industrial towns. Some grew up literally overnight from almost nothing. For the first time since the Middle Ages, Europe experienced the founding of a great many new urban places. Over time, clusters of these new industrial towns and cities began to emerge. In Eng- FIGURE 8.20. Resource location. Early industry gravitated toward sources of power, raw materials, and labor. The lower Swansea Valley land, where the process began, the textile in- in Wales began to industrialize late in the 18th century when local dustries of Lancashire and Yorkshire and the seams of coal suitable for smelting became accessible. Copper ore was metallurgical industries of the West Midlands brought to the coalfields by boat from the nearby Cornwall peninsula, each produced their own regional agglomera- and a large copper smelting industry developed. By the 1860s the pro- tions of industrial towns and cities. In France duction of copper reached its peak in the Swansea Valley, which sup- the foci were the textile industries of Nord ported a number of large works like the one pictured here. 256 III. TOWNS AND CITIES trial urbanization. It occurred as a result of a role in the whole process of industrialization, series of changes that began to extricate in- Great Britain claimed the highest levels of dustry from its early locational bonds. Most urbanization. As much as three-quarters of important was a new freedom of movement the British population already lived in urban offered by an expanding railroad system. places by 1910. The populations of the Neth- Long-established cities, with their large res- erlands, Italy, and Belgium were all well over ervoirs of human capital, business services, half urbanized by this time, while levels in and consuming markets suddenly became at- Germany, France, and Switzerland exceeded tractive locations for industries now able to the European average and were rising rapidly. move bulky raw materials to labor, rather than At the other end of the scale, relatively low, the other way around. Also important was a but accelerating, levels of urbanization were broadening of the industrial base, beyond tex- still the rule around the peripheries of Eu- tiles and metallurgy, to a wide range of activi- rope—in Portugal, the Balkans, across north- ties such as chemicals, light engineering, the ern Scandinavia, and the interior spaces of manufacturing of clothing and footwear, food east-central and eastern Europe. processing, and the mass production of an ex- Whatever regional differences in levels of panding range of consumer products. The rise urbanization may have existed, European cit- of the electrical industry, in particular, led to ies had become, nearly everywhere, much the founding of countless new firms in and larger places. Whereas a population of around around large cities. Berlin, for example, which 55,000 was all that was required in 1800 to grew at a breathtaking pace around the end of make the list of the 50 largest cities in Eu- the 19th century, owed much of its industrial rope, by mid-century the threshold had been development to the growth of electrical giants raised to more than 90,000. By the end of the such as Siemens and AEG. Thus, by 1900 the century it was 300,000. The city of London, impact of industrialization on European ur- which topped the European urban hierarchy banization included not only the rise of a few throughout the period, had become an urban great industrial regions but new growth for giant by 1900, with a teeming population of countless older towns and cities, as well. nearly 6.5 million people! Eight other cities had surpassed the million mark. Most were Growth and Distribution the capitals of the Great Powers of the time, but also included among the continent’s new All told, the developments of the 19th century “millionaire cities” were a few of the leading led to a tremendous increase in the urban early centers of industrial agglomeration in population of Europe, as well as in the pro- Britain—Manchester, Birmingham, and Glas- portion of the European population living in gow. All told, there were more than 150 urban places. The total population of Europe places in Europe that could claim a popula- more than doubled between 1800 and 1910. tion of 100,000 or more by 1900. Only 21 During the same period, however, the num- could have made the same claim just a cen- ber of people living in urban places grew from tury earlier. roughly 25 million to somewhere in excess of The Industrial Age was also marked by con- 160 million, a more than six-fold increase! siderable volatility in the hierarchy of urban The proportion of the population living in ur- places. At the very top a degree of stability ban places tripled, from around 12% to an un- was maintained in that most of the great capi- precedented 36%. Remarkable as this growth tals managed to more or less hold their own. in urbanization was, it is nonetheless impor- But at lower levels, many lesser capitals and tant to keep it in perspective. The fact report cities, especially in Mediterranean Eu- mains that the European population at the be- rope and in France, lost ground. Nineteenth- ginning of the 20th century, taken as a whole, century industrial growth affected the towns was still more rural than it was urban. and cities of Iberia, Italy, and western France As might be expected, given its pioneering only weakly. Thus, a number of cities that had 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 257 long held a position of rank—such as Lisbon, pied stations erected around the edges of the Cádiz, Seville, Granada, Palermo, Venice, old-city cores, quickly connected cities to one Bordeaux, and Nantes—disappeared from the another. As the city expanded, there was a highest orders of the urban system after 1800. tendency for tentacular fingers of urban Prominent among the newcomers and rapidly development to follow these transportation rising stars, especially after 1850, were the lines, leaving interstitial areas of open coun- middle-sized industrial cities of Britain, such tryside between these fingers. as Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Nottingham, The problem of providing housing for bur- Bristol, and Belfast, and the emerging centers geoning populations of workers and their fam- of the string of new industrial regions that ilies spawned expedient solutions that were stretched eastward across Germany and into emblematic of the age. In the absence of any Poland—places like Cologne, Dresden, Leip- apparatus for planning and control, develop- zig, Breslau (Wroclaw), Gleiwitz (Gliwice), ers were free to pursue their own ends, which and Lódz. usually meant the minimization of wasted Indeed, a list of the top 50 urban places in space and the maximization of profit. The 1900 would include, for the first time, not housing they put up was generally mono- only individual cities but large agglomera- tonous, crowded, shabbily constructed, and tions of industrial settlements, such as the in- only inadequately equipped with basic ame- tensely developed coalfield conurbations of nities. In Britain, as well as in the Low Coun- the German Ruhr, or the Rhondda Valley in tries, street after street of narrow-fronted row South Wales. Among the top 50 urban places housing, set back-to-back with housing on in 1900, at least half could be said to have the next street, was built to house working earned their place primarily on the basis of populations. When the streets were filled, rapid industrial development during the efficiency-minded developers often cut cul- course of the preceding century. The rest de-sac passages into the interiors of the larger might be described as more multifunctional, blocks to build even more dwellings in back- but nonetheless still owed a substantial por- lot spaces. New construction was never suffi- tion of their growth to their ability to attract cient to meet the need. The demand for space industry. in some cities was so great that people were forced to live in dank cellars. Changes in the Urban Landscape With rapid growth and increased size came a very different urban fabric. No longer confined by fortifications, and encouraged by an improved transportation infrastructure, cities began to spread outward. Open space with good access to transport was required to build factories, mills, and housing for workers, and such space was most readily available on the urban periphery. Thus, cities became girdled with sprawling new districts of interspersed factories and housing. The shape of the city, which heretofore had been compactly drawn in around the old medieval–Renaissance– FIGURE 8.21. Row housing. This residential street in an English Baroque core, began to take on rather irregu- town is typical of 19th-century industrial era row housing. Built closely lar configurations. The introduction of rail- together, with common walls, each house fronts close to the street and roads revolutionized transportation and rail is backed by a small extension to house a kitchen. Bylaws enacted late lines, which emanated outward in various di- in the century ensured that such dwellings benefited from more space rections from cavernous iron-and-glass cano- and light. 258 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

Elsewhere on the continent, the preferred industrial slums of 19th-century cities derive solution was the construction of enormous, from the writings of contemporary observers multistoried tenement buildings that virtually such as Charles Dickens and Friedrich covered entire city blocks. In Berlin, which Engels. In some ways, these images are per- experienced spectacular growth during this haps too simplistically drawn. They reflect the period, a lack of building regulations led to then prevailing middle-class view of such ar- the invention of the Mietskaserne, or “rental eas as dens of squalor, disease, and immoral or barrack,” a massive tenement that became the sociopathic behavior, and the failure of mid- city’s most characteristic building form. Other dle-class reformers to appreciate the fact that cities developed their own distinctive ver- their immigrant inhabitants may have seen sions of the tenement. Individual apartments them quite differently—as socially familiar within these huge structures were small and and manageable havens from which they dark, often without exterior windows. Resi- might cope with the vagaries of the urban in- dential densities were remarkably high, exac- dustrial world they had so recently entered. erbated by the fact that many apartment ten- The industrial quarters of European cit- ants rented part of their meager space to ies were, nonetheless, relatively unhealthy lodgers. By 1900 Berlin possessed the highest places, as the documented high incidence of population density, at 1,000 per hectare, of infant mortality and periodic spread of com- any city in Europe. There were five people, municable diseases such as cholera, tubercu- on average, for every room in the city. The losis, and influenza clearly reveal. During the provision of open space, water supply, and middle decades of the century, some indus- sanitary facilities for the entire resident popu- trial cities in Britain recorded shockingly high lation of these colossal structures was usually infant mortality rates. The problem, which relegated to just a few small interior court- was poorly understood by public health offi- yards. Open spaces in the interiors of some cials at the time, was as much environmental tenement blocks were even occupied by light as it was social. It persisted until the very end industry. of the 19th century when the efforts of re- Our worst images of living conditions in the formers to make improvements in urban sanitation and housing, along with improvements in the diet of the working population, began to bring some relief. The appearance of cities was also altered during this period by a number of dramatic changes that took place in and around their historic centers. One development was the gradual transformation of the old medieval/renaissance center to a modern administrative and commercial district, filled with offices, banks, retail stores, hotels, and entertainment services. A symbol of the concentration of these new activities was the rise of the department store. One of the best examples was London’s Harrods, which from relatively modest beginnings became one of the marvels FIGURE 8.22. Tenements. These 19th-century tenement buildings in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district survived the bombings of World War of its age, boasting London’s first escalator, in- II and are today being refurbished by largely new residents who have stalled in 1888, an amazing range of goods for moved here from the western parts of the city to buy up property. The sale from around the world, and the appro- building on the right still bears the scars wrought by war and neglect priately imperial slogan “Harrods serves the during the socialist years, while the building on the left sports a freshly world.” Not to be outdone, Berlin’s sumptu- stuccoed façade and new windows and roof. ous Wertheims, which dazzled shoppers with 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 259 its walls of glass and mirrors, grand staircases, medieval city cores were replaced with new chandeliers, and fountains, all blazingly illu- urban areas linked together by a peripheral minated by 100,000 lights, claimed to be the boulevard and connected to the center by a “greatest store in the world.” A construction series of arterial roads. Development plans boom in grand hotels, all claiming the best ad- put forward for the city of Rome in the 1870s dress in the city, was also symptomatic of the and 1880s called for a new administrative dis- grand transformation that was taking place as trict on open ground to the east of the existing cities all across the continent vied with one city. They also envisaged the opening up of another for greatness. One consequence of the city center with new axial crossroads and these functional changes was that the central the construction of a series of monumental city gradually came to employ a growing mid- structures meant to foster feelings of national dle class, white-collar work force. pride. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, ever Some cities developed entire new districts determined to outdo his rivals in Paris, Vi- near the old core where the new political, cul- enna, and London, unleashed a vast rebuild- tural, and economic foci of the city could be ing of Berlin’s medieval/renaissance center to concentrated. Vienna, for example, built its create a new imperial capital dominated by “Ringstrasse” complex of public and cultural monumental statuary and numerous pieces of buildings in the 1850s on open land released overbearing neo-Gothic and neoclassical ar- for development following the dismantling of chitecture. the city’s ring of inner defenses. Madrid and The classic example, however, is the Sec- Barcelona pursued the concept of ensanche, ond Empire transformation of Paris into a city in which the walls around their respective of great boulevards, open spaces, monuments and parks. This vast remake of the city took place under the direction of Baron Georges- Eugène Haussman, who served as Pre- fect of the Seine between 1853 and 1870. Haussman’s Paris is in many ways a realization of the ideals of the Grand Manner, although ironically more than a century too late and for the benefit of the new rich—the bourgeoisie—rather than for the aristocracy. In place of the city’s deeply congested and foul- smelling medieval quarters, he created an open and stylish urban landscape. This took place often at the expense of the poor, who were ruthlessly expelled from the great masses of ramshackle housing demolished to make way for grand boulevards and squares, lined with majestic Second Empire-style houses, topped with mansard roofs and faced with rows of wrought iron balconies. Hauss- man was an engineer by training. In addition to laying out boulevards and squares, he saw FIGURE 8.23. Galleria. New retail establishments set in rather that the city underwent a thorough cleansing grand surroundings were an important addition to the changing centers of 19th-century European cities. Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and an upgrading of its infrastructure. The was one of these opulent settings. Built in the 1860s, the cruciform- slums on the Île de la Cité facing the Cathe- shaped iron-and-glass-canopied gallery was one of the most fashion- dral of Notre Dame were cleared and the Ca- able places to shop and be seen in the city. Tragically, the architect, thedral restored. The city received new sew- Giuseppe Mengoni, fell to his death while inspecting the roof just days ers, and a series of modern bridges to span before the gallery opened. the Seine. So successful was Haussman in all 260 III. TOWNS AND CITIES of this that today we regard the open, “city of stores, a pervasive historical ornamentation light” urban environment of Paris as one that remained the fashion of the times. More often has deep historic roots, rather than the prod- than not, modern structural frames of iron or uct of a 19th-century reformulation of the steel were clad in brick and fanciful historic city’s fabric. ornamentation. A prime example is London’s Another feature of the age was the variety Tower Bridge, completed in 1894 in a neo- of historical styles that were used to build the Gothic style designed to reveal not a trace of host of new government ministries, financial the bridge’s internal steel frame structure or institutions, hotels, academies, museums, op- modern hydraulic machinery. era houses, and arcaded department stores Only at the very end of the century was that sprang up in cities across Europe. The there a reaction against the historical empha- urban architecture of the period was dom- ses of 19th-century building styles. The Art inated by the revival of classical, Gothic, Noveau movement, also known as Jugendstil Romanesque, and even Byzantine building in Germany and modernisme in Spain, flour- styles. The eclectic use of these styles, some- ished briefly from the end of the 19th century times in combination, was romantically to the outbreak of World War I. It produced intended to connect a new era of modern an array of unusual and highly varied struc- government, technological advance, and eco- tures all across Europe. The decorative exu- nomic progress with its perceived classical or berance that characterized much of this archi- national foundations. The Gothic Revival tecture is manifested in the works of its most style was thus favored in England for the con- singular practitioner, the Catalan Antonio struction of public buildings, as for example Gaudí, who produced an array of startlingly in the new Houses of Parliament built in Lon- new buildings in his home city of Barcelona. don between 1837 and 1867, because of its His Casa Milá apartment house and Explor- strong associations with the glories of the atory Church of the Holy Family (Sagrada Fa- country’s past. Although there was some ex- milia) are illustrative of the organicism that perimentation with modern iron and glass was so much a part of the Art Noveau design. building materials, especially in the vast inte- The rapid growth of European cities re- rior spaces of train stations and department quired that massive investments be made to

FIGURE 8.24. Opera. Haussman’s ambitious renewal projects for Paris were intended to open up the city and highlight its monumental buildings and squares. The Avenue de l’Opéra was designed to showcase the Opéra Garnier, which opened in 1875. The Avenue was deliberately left bereft of trees, which might mask the vista of the huge edifice of the Opéra. The uniform façades of the Second Empire-style buildings facing the avenue further enhance the view. 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 261

at the places where the great rail corridors leading into and out of the city terminated. The latter part of the century also saw the introduction of electric tramways and underground metro systems. The widespread occurrence of pollution and epidemics eventually prodded public officials to redesign and expand underground water and drainage systems. An elaborate subterranean system of gas and water mains, drainage pipes, and sewers began to develop beneath central city streets. The city began to glow by night as gas, and later electrical, street lighting systems were added.

Social Class and Leisure These improvements, however, largely benefited city center and middle-class residential areas. Many services were only slowly ex- FIGURE 8.25. Modernisme. Toward the end of the 19th century a new style of art and architecture, modernisme, a variant of Art Noveau, tended beyond the line of the old city walls to was born in Barcelona. It became a means of self-expression for the new belts of industrial suburbs that lay Catalonian nationalism. The architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) was beyond, and even then the dwellings there among its greatest exponents. Gaudí’s buildings employed fluid and were often not hooked up because landlords uneven organic forms and inspiration from Islamic and Gothic architec- refused to pay the cost. Nor were there suffi- ture as well as from the natural world. Pictured here is Casa Mila “La cient means to bring services to the inner Pedrera” (the stone quarry), built between 1906 and 1910, with its re- slums. As late as 1919, a survey of workers’ markable wave-like façade and roofscape of chimneys and vents re- dwellings in Vienna revealed that 77% lacked sembling abstract and terrifying sculptures. There are no straight walls gas and electricity and that 95% had no anywhere in the building. running water. Paris’s so-called Red Belt of shanty housing located on the glacis beyond the old city walls (filled in part with the flot- improve the systems of urban transportation sam of Haussmanization) was virtually with- and infrastructure. Most new industrial towns out any municipal services until after it was lacked such things entirely, and existing cities cleared and redeveloped in the 1930s. were only poorly equipped to handle the Indeed, a distinctive feature of the social rapid growth that they experienced during geography of the 19th-century industrial city this period. The construction of new bridges, was the marked residential segregation of the for example, was a commonplace and neces- social classes. By this time the process of class sary activity, as was the encasing of flood- separation that had begun in the previous era prone rivers within massive stone embank- reached its inevitable conclusion. Elite and ments, atop which were placed stylish prome- middle-class populations ensconced them- nades with wrought iron benches, railings, selves in well-appointed suburban develop- and lampposts. Most cities sited along the ments, or in areas of fashionable redevelop- banks of major rivers—even great ones like ment on the fringes of city centers, such as London—made do with only one or two along Vienna’s Ringstrasse, while the working bridges prior to the 19th century, but could class and the poor were left to occupy either boast of many before the century was out. An- the more congested quarters of the inner city other of the prominent additions to the city- or the new industrial suburbs. The physical scape was the circle of railroad stations built separation between the living quarters of the 262 III. TOWNS AND CITIES classes was further reinforced by obvious dif- beyond the elevated ring railroad that encir- ferences in dress, manners, language, and lei- cled the city center. sure activities. Whereas the social world of On the other hand, a rich variety of new the elite and middle classes revolved around amusements and attractions intended for boardroom, club, concert, and theater, that of mass consumption brought classes together at the working classes focused on the camarade- least for brief periods, especially during the rie of the neighborhood street and pub. latter part of the period. A proliferation of mu- For most middle-class residents, the poorer sic halls and cheap theaters offering variety areas of the city were distant and dangerously entertainment, and later moving picture mysterious. Few ever ventured there. Berlin, shows, along with public concerts, became which rapidly became one of Europe’s indus- the most popular recreational outlets of the trial powerhouses during the latter decades of times. Sidewalk cafés multiplied as important the 19th century, attracted poor immigrants locales where people congregated out of from the countryside and beyond as though it doors during their leisure hours. Equally im- were an immense magnet. Between 1871 and portant were various forms of outdoor recre- 1914 the population of the city nearly quadru- ation and sports, excursion trains to seaside pled from roughly 1 million residents to over amusements, and visits to public parks and 4 million! So rapidly did the immigrant popu- monuments. Promenading in the parks, which lations arrive in Berlin that huge tent cities were now open to the public rather than set sprang up on the city’s edge to receive them aside as royal preserves as they had been in and authorities scrambled to devise schemes earlier times, or along the river embankments to house them. The majority came from the was a common activity popular with all German lands to the east, although substantial classes. Rising incomes and mass-produced numbers came from other countries, particu- goods with recreational utility, such as the bi- larly Russia. Desperate to find work in the cycle, helped to create a new popular urban city’s burgeoning industries, they crowded culture of broad appeal. The early motion pic- into and were swallowed up by the vast and ture images of happily recreating crowds, that teeming industrial slums that mushroomed seem to be so common an artifact of the times, suggest to us an “innocent age” in which the classes mingled, if only on Sunday, to take in the many pleasures of a new cultural capitalism. Indeed, a profound sense of progress marked the end of the age. The staging of great international expositions and fairs in the major capitals was an outward demonstration of a growing pride of accomplishment. These extravagant affairs, which featured the technological and scientific wonders of the times—as exemplified in the Crystal Palace, an immense iron-and-glass hall built in Lon- don’s Hyde Park to house a grand display of “the Works of Industry of all Nations” and FIGURE 8.26. Regency London. Increasing segregation of the serve as the centerpiece of the Great Exhibi- classes created demand for new residential areas for the urban elite. During the 1820s and 1830s, John Nash, planner and architect for tion of London held in 1851—were attended England’s Prince Regent, who later became George IV, created palatial by enormous crowds drawn from all walks of residential developments of white stuccoed and columned townhouses life. More than 6 million people came to see set on terraces, squares, and crescents around London’s Regent Park. the Crystal Palace, which was regarded as a Seen here is the gentle curve of one of Nash’s creations—Park Cres- wonder of its time. Nearly half a century later, cent. the 300-meter-tall Eiffel Tower, the breathtak- 8. Cities and Urban Life to World War I 263

Connolly, P.,& Dodge, H. (1998). The ancient city: Life in classical Athens and Rome. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Dennis, R. (1986). English industrial cities of the nineteenth century: A social geography. Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press. Ennen, E. (1979). The medieval town. (N. Fryde, Trans.). Amsterdam: North-Holland. Friedrichs, C. R. (1995). The early modern city, 1450–1750. London: Longman. Gilbert, D., & Driver, F. (2000). Capital and empire: geographies of London. GeoJournal, 51, 23–32. Girouard, M. (1985). Cities and people: A social and architectural history. New Haven: Yale Uni- versity Press. Hall, P. (1998). Cities in civilization: Culture, innovation, and urban order. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Hohenberg, P. M., & Lees, L. H. (1995). The making of urban Europe, 1000–1994. Cambridge, FIGURE 8.27. Eiffel Tower. More than a century after its controver- MA: Harvard University Press. sial birth as a world exhibition attraction, the Eiffel Tower still domi- Kostof, S. (1991). The city shaped: Urban patterns nates the Paris skyline. Although the tower was a technological wonder, and meanings through history. Boston: Little, at the time of its construction critics portrayed it as monstrous, useless, Brown. and a barbaric affront to French culture and sensibility. It was to be Kostof, S. (1992). The city assembled: the elements torn down after the exhibition, but the structure survived, in part be- of urban form through history. Boston: Little, cause it found new importance as a radio, and later television, trans- Brown. mission tower. Mumford, L. (1961). The city in history: its origins, its transformations, and its prospects. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Pirenne, H. (1925). Medieval cities: Their origins ingly modern open-lattice wrought iron struc- and the revival of trade. Princeton, NJ: Prince- ture built (not without controversy) as the fo- ton University Press. cal point of the Paris Exposition of 1889, Pounds, N. J. G. (1969). The urbanization of the became an overnight sensation. To the mil- classical world. Annals of the Association of lions who attended these and other great ur- American Geographers, 59, 135–157. ban exhibitions, and indeed to Europeans of Sennett, R. (1994). Flesh and stone: The body and the all walks of life, the world did appear to be city in western civilization. New York: Norton. poised on the edge of a new and more pros- Smith, C. T. (1978). An historical geography of perous age, and faith in the future seemed western Europe before 1800 (2nd ed.). London: strong, even as the gathering clouds of a cata- Longman. Vance, J. E., Jr. (1977). This scene of man: The role clysmic war threatened. and structure of the city in western civilization. New York: Harper’s College Press. Verhulst, A. (1998). Towns and trade, 400–1500. In FURTHER READING R. A. Butlin & R. A. Dodshon (Eds.). An historical geography of Europe (pp. 100–113). Oxford, Benevolo, L. (1993). The European city. Oxford, UK: Clarendon. UK: Blackwell. Wycherley, R. E. (1976). How the Greeks built cit- Briggs, A. (1979). Iron bridges to crystal palace: ies: The relationship of architecture and town Impact and images of the industrial revolution. planning to everyday life in ancient Greece (2nd London: Thames & Hudson. ed.). New York: Norton. CHAPTER 9 Modern and Postmodern Urbanism

When Europe marched exultantly off to war to as a matter of faith. True modernity, in the in 1914, everyone on both sides expected the sense of a highly complex and specialized entire affair to be over quickly and gloriously. society that embraces the rights and pre- This was, after all, the beginning of the mod- rogatives of the individual, and enjoys an un- ern age. Efficiently mobilized and elaborately precedented material abundance generated equipped, the imposingly machine-like mod- by rapid and seemingly endless advances in ern armies of the day appeared unstoppable science and technology, did come to Europe to the cheering crowds that lined the streets over the remaining course of the century. of towns and cities to see them off. Victory The age of its coming, however, has been a would surely be decisive and swift. It was not tumultuous and, at times, a barbarously mur- to be. In fact, the fighting dragged on for derous one. No other century can be said to more than four exhausting years. More than have witnessed such momentous changes in 10 million soldiers were killed, a lost genera- the political, social, and economic fabric of tion, and a political and social order with European life as the past one. which Europe had grown comfortable was The continent’s towns and cities have thoroughly discredited and, in some coun- been no less affected by the events of the tries, ignominiously upended. modern age than anything else; they are in The war was a watershed, its true fateful fact the places most strongly identified with portent epitomized in the famous remark on the new cultures of modernity. In this chap- the eve of the outbreak of hostilities by Brit- ter we trace the evolution of modern urban ish Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey: development in Europe from the end of “The lamps are going out all over Europe: World War I to the present. The first half of we shall not see them lit again in our life- the chapter focuses on the many changes time.” While there may have been a sense that took place before and after World War among Europeans some 14 years earlier, as II, including the somewhat divergent course they celebrated the birth of the 20th century, of development imposed on eastern Euro- that they enjoyed the enviable good fortune pean cities by the dictates of socialist plan- of riding the cusp of an enlightened and ning. The latter half of the chapter turns to modern industrial age, the war brought into the contemporary scene and attempts to de- question much that people previously held limit some of the seminal features of what

264 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 265 may be regarded as an entirely new age of Interwar Urbanism “postmodern” urbanism. Horrific as it was, the Great War of 1914– 1918 had little material effect on cities. Most THE MODERN CITY of the fighting took place in the open countryside. Only the relatively few cities and towns The modern era of urban development in Eu- unfortunate enough to be directly caught in rope may be thought of as extending from the the battle zones, chiefly in the northeast of end of World War I into the 1980s. Like France and in southwestern Belgium, and the industrial age before it, this was a time here and there in east-central Europe, suf- of rapid urban expansion and development. fered serious bombardment and destruction. Over this period the number of people living Veterans of the war largely returned home at in urban places swelled from roughly 160 mil- its conclusion to familiar haunts and pursuits, lion to more than 400 million, while the pro- although they also found the populations of portion of people living in urban places rose the cities to which they returned to be swol- to nearly 70% of the total population. As a len with new migrants who had been drawn consequence of this immense growth, society there to meet the labor demands of war pro- as a whole may be viewed during this period duction. For many, the difficulties of the war as having become predominantly urban for and the peace that followed generated a rest- the first time in European history. less sense of disillusionment with the old or- Across the entire continent, cities of all der. Particularly in defeated Germany, armed sizes and ranks grew significantly larger, both struggle over the political future took place in in population and area. By the mid-1970s, it the streets between rival ideologies. But even took a population of roughly a million to make in more peaceful corners of Europe, a certain the list of Europe’s 50 largest urban areas, willingness after the war to embrace new more than three times as many as in 1900. ideas and radical political solutions was com- Even by as early as the 1930s, the upper ranks monplace. of the urban hierarchy had become the exclu- One of the hallmarks of urban development sive domain of a growing class of “millionaire during the years after World War I was an ex- cities” that wielded tremendous political, cul- plosion of suburban growth. This was spurred tural, and economic influence as the conti- by a number of factors. These included a nent’s metropoli, grand villes, and grosstädte. growing middle class of white-collar workers The growth that took place at all levels who were attracted to, and possessed the nec- over the period came to be distinguished by essary credit to finance ownership of, new processes of decentralization and sprawling housing on the urban fringe far from the suburbanization, and in many areas by the co- crowded inner-city quarters; a general de- alescence of nearby towns and cities into gi- pression in the costs of materials and labor, ant urban conurbations. which made such new housing affordable; The process, however, was not a continuous and continued improvements in transport one. The pace of development in the modern technology—suburban trams, electric trains, era was slowed significantly by the depression and later motor buses and cars—which made of the 1930s and interrupted by the wide- commuting into the city from ever more dis- spread destruction and dislocations of World tant locations possible. War II. Because of this fact, the era is most An important influence on these new usefully thought of as having two distinct suburban developments was the ideal of the parts: an interwar period, lasting from the end “garden city,” first developed and publicized of World War I in 1918 to just before the start before the war by the English visionary of World War II in 1939; and a postwar pe- Ebenezer Howard as an appealing alternative riod, lasting from the late 1940s to the mid- to the problems presented by the rapid, un- 1980s. controlled growth of industrial cities during 266 III. TOWNS AND CITIES the 19th century. Many of the stylish new mand for inexpensive new urban housing that suburban developments that soon began to Paris, during this period, became literally sur- pop up around the fringes of cities after the rounded by vast areas that were subdivided war consisted accordingly of great numbers of by speculative developers into small, cheap semidetached or freestanding houses. Most building plots. These plots were sold to rela- were built in vernacular or modern architec- tively poor people, who then put up their tural styles, situated on gently curving streets, own dwellings using whatever materials they and surrounded by modest-sized garden could lay their hands on. In other places, de- spaces. velopment was more controlled. Municipal This was especially the case in England, authorities in Britain subsidized sizable tracts where a tradition of living in one- or two-story of low-cost “homes fit for heroes” in order to houses was already in place; the trend was provide housing alternatives for people living less pronounced on the continent, where a in crowded working-class neighborhoods. tradition of high-density tenement housing Similar motives lay behind publicly con- was the rule. There, the new suburbs still structed low-income housing estates on tended to feature a high proportion of apart- the outskirts of Berlin, where authorities suc- ment blocks, but with much more green space ceeded in laying out a ring of model “garden than was common in the past. Most continen- city”-style developments astride sizable tracts tal cities eventually also came to possess ex- of land annexed by the city in 1920. Paris too amples of “villa suburbs” built on the garden managed to develop several socialist-inspired city model, especially after Howard’s 1902 municipal housing developments beyond the book, Garden Cities of Tomorrow, was trans- fringes of the city. lated into French in 1917. One of the most Whatever their form, the new low-density interesting examples is found in Germany’s suburbs were highly consumptive of land. Ruhrgebiet, where progressive industrialist They sprawled outward from suburban rail, owners of mines and factories chose to meet tram, and bus stations to gobble up great the region’s extraordinary demand for housing chunks of open countryside. One conse- in the 1920s through the construction of large quence of this suburban sprawl was that the suburban developments of semidetached sin- built-up area of cities, which during the pre- gle-family houses with gardens. ceding century had begun to take on highly As the Ruhr example suggests, not all inter- irregular, almost tentacular, shapes as devel- war suburban development was for the mid- opment moved out along main transport lines, dle class. So great was the working class de- began to become more rounded once again as

FIGURE 9.1. Interwar garden city suburb. These semidetached houses face a gently curved suburban street outside London. Built with traditional styling during the post-World War I housing boom, the dwellings were intended to meet middle-class dreams of quiet suburban living quarters within easy commuting distance (via rail or bus) of jobs and shopping in the city center. Each house has its own garden space, both in front and back. 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 267 the interstitial areas between radiating trans- portantly, for open green space devoted to port corridors filled with new suburban hous- parkland and leisure activities. Most of the ing. One by one, nearby villages and towns thinkers of the time focused on what might be were engulfed by and incorporated into later- viewed as rather technocratic, or functional- ally encroaching cities. A great deal of prime ist, solutions for the problems of overcrowd- agricultural land was also lost in the process, ing and urban sprawl. Few of their grand so much so that voices of concern began to be proposals to redevelop existing urban envi- raised in some quarters. In areas where cities ronments were ever carried out. More often were already closely spaced, continued unre- than not, it was physically impractical to im- strained suburban expansion brought on the plement them at the time. But the ideas be- specter of massive coalescences of towns and hind them would survive to influence post- cities into great urban agglomerations. “Con- World War II urban and regional planning. urbation” was the new term for this phenome- A fresh sense of modernity, with all its non, coined in 1915 by the British sociologist attendant virtues of energy, efficiency, and Sir Patrick Geddes. The term has an almost progress, came to pervade the life of the city ominous ring to it, reflective of the cautionary by the 1920s. This was epitomized in the built view of what was happening held by such vi- landscape by a radically new kind of architec- sionaries as Geddes, who foresaw the need for ture, which reflected the view that the 20th comprehensive urban and regional planning. century had given birth to a “modern man” In fact, the interwar years are known for who should live in a nonhistorical and highly producing a host of revolutionary ideas about functional space, constructed of modern ma- how to plan and reorganize the urban envi- terials such as concrete, steel, and glass. The ronment. The ideal of the garden city, which center of this modern (international) school of emerged in England around the turn of design was in Germany, where one of its the century and spread to the continent by leading practitioners, Walter Gropius, headed the 1920s and 1930s, has already been men- the Bauhaus—the famous institute of modern tioned. In Britain, the coalescence of towns and cities, especially around London as well as in the industrial districts of the Midlands and Scotland, led to the suggestion that urban sprawl might best be contained by the practice of encircling cities with “green belts” in which urban development would be prohibited. Europe’s first green belt was established around the built-up area of London in 1938, and persists despite all challenges to the present day. Many architects and planners advanced ideas on how to redesign the urban environment to make it more humane, functional, and efficient. Perhaps the most influential was the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier, who proposed as early as 1922 to relieve the ill ef- FIGURE 9.2. Interwar model housing. Flamensiedlung is the fects of congestion in the city by concentrat- name of this model housing development built at the end of the 1920s on the outer edge of the Prenzlauer Berg district in Berlin. The intention ing people and activities in a sort of vertical was to create a new modern style of mass housing that broke away “garden city” of tall modern-design buildings from the old tenement house concept. While the project consisted of spaced widely and evenly on a geometric rows of long box-like buildings such as this one, the rectangular mo- layout, thereby freeing up large amounts of notony of the apartment blocks was offset with corner windows and ground space between the structures for balconies. Open garden areas also separated buildings from one an- transportation systems and, even more im- other. 268 III. TOWNS AND CITIES arts, whose architectural staff and students pi- tic urban world populated by impoverished oneered a wide range of revolutionary solu- masses of workers who live underground and tions to the construction of public buildings, toil endlessly at running the machines that factories, and individual houses, as well as the support the life above of a carefree and privi- furnishings that should go into them. Con- leged elite. In 1933, after the Nazis rose to vinced that modern technology had the power power in Germany and banned many of his to create an entirely new and better world, films, Lang fled to Hollywood. Gropius and his associates put their ideas on Fascism and communism, the two great display between 1927 and 1931 in model contending political movements of the pe- developments built at Dammerstock near riod, each had their own designs for the or- Karlsruhe and at Siemenstadt, Prenzlauer ganization of urban life and infrastructure. Berg, and Reinickendorf in Berlin. The Italian fascist regime, under Mussolini, As the centers of modernity, cities—and es- attempted to turn cities into political state- pecially large cities—came to be viewed as ments. Fascist town planners purposely re- the crucially important places of the times. vived features of Roman architecture and ur- Paris reveled in its reputation as the cosmo- ban layout and applied them to their projects politan cultural center of not only the French as a means of underlining the historic connec- nation, but also the world. London was a tions between the glories of the Roman impe- world metropolis of astounding variety and rial past and the modern fascist imperial fu- complexity. Berlin earned a special notoriety ture. Thus, a number of new towns, built as as a Weltstadt that projected itself both as a public works projects on the newly drained model of modern disciplined productivity and Pontine Marshes and in Sardinia, were laid enlightened governance and as a fascinatingly out like ancient Roman towns on a gridiron avant garde society of restless souls indul- plan, complete with central forum at the gently caught up in the devil-may-care pur- crossing point of the major north–south suit of pleasure and extravagance. Indeed, the (cardo maximus) and east–west (decumanus most strikingly vivid image of this electrify- maximus) arterial roads. Italian fascist ar- ing, and sometimes darker, side of modern ur- chitects tended to favor the modern (inter- banism to come out of the 1920s and 1930s is national) style, but to emphasize nationalist that of the wildly intoxicating and decadent claims of continuity with the imperial gran- Berlin night life of cabarets, cafés, showgirl deur of Rome they also took to adorning revues, prostitution, and fighting between ri- buildings and monuments with classical style val fascist and socialist street gangs. Pots- statuary, arches, and columns, and to making damer Platz, the fashionable crossroads lo- heavy use of ancient building materials, such cated at the pulsating center of Berlin life, as marble and travertine. earned a fabled reputation during this period The Italian dictator Mussolini was in many as the place that never slept. ways obsessed with the reshaping and refur- Not everyone, however, was swept up in bishing of the Italian capital. He took an ex- the whirlwind of gaiety and risqué adventure. traordinarily strong interest in the excavation, The majority of urbanites experienced a much preservation, and display of the ruined monu- more mundane, but purposeful, version of ments of Rome’s imperial past, sponsoring ar- modern city life, hurrying to and fro in their cheological work to expose extensive new ar- unchanging daily routines of work and do- eas of the half-buried Imperial Fora. He also mesticity. This seemingly cold and mechan- authorized extensive demolition and con- istic daily existence of contemporary urban struction work in different parts of the city industrial workers partly inspired the 1926 for the purpose of opening “breathing” space science fiction film Metropolis. Lavishly pro- around important monuments. One of these duced in Berlin’s Ufa Studios by Austrian- projects near the center of the city was to en- born director Fritz Lang, the silent film em- large the Piazza Venezia and the adjoining ploys fantastic imagery to portray a futuris- approaches to the Vittoriano, the colossal 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 269 neoclassical white marble monument to King nection the fascists attempted to make with Victor Emanuel II and Italian nationhood, the past. On the downside, the sweeping which had been built between 1885 and 1911 “Hausmannization”-style projects managed to in the center of Rome on the slope of the destroy the homes of substantial numbers of Capitoline Hill. Another project sought to de- the city’s citizens. The Via dell’Impero pro- velop a grand piazza fronted by modern gov- ject, for example, resulted in the demolition of ernment buildings around the ruins of the more than 5,000 dwellings. mausoleum built by the Emperor Augustus in Ultimately Mussolini’s architects aban- the first century A.D. In an effort to improve doned the effort to redevelop the city center circulation within the city, extensive demoli- in favor of pursuing new projects on the city’s tions were undertaken to make way for new edge that would project a truly modern fascist thoroughfares, such as the Via dell’Impero, utopian landscape. One example is the Foro which connected the Colosseum with the city Mussolini (known today as the Foro Italico), center at the Piazza Venezia via a grand 130- built in 1932 on the northern edge of the city meter-wide avenue that rather ironically as a huge sports complex, consisting of multi- paved over large sections of recently exca- ple stadia embellished with grandiose nude vated classical ruins with modern roadway; or statues of athletes in martial poses, intended the Via del Mare, which was driven through to showcase the fascist cult of physical virility the heart of the city center to improve access and athletic achievement. Most impressive, to the new autostrada leading to the sea at however, was an extensive new planned de- Ostia. velopment located to the south of the city. While never fully implemented, the fascist Known as EUR (Espozione Universale di renewal plans for the city simultaneously Roma), the project was originally intended as served two purposes. The enormous invest- an international exhibition of Italian cultural ment in public works projects reaped political and scientific achievement. It was scheduled dividends by alleviating unemployment. At to open in 1942 on the occasion of the 20th the same time, the rehabilitation and venera- anniversary of Mussolini’s triumphant march tion of the city’s imperial past helped to glo- on Rome, but the war intervened and the rify the regime and cement in the minds event was never held. Laid out in the classic of Italians the much-prized ideological con- Roman orthogonal plan with two main axes

FIGURE 9.3. Fascist thoroughfare. The Roman Colosseum stands at the end of the broad thoroughfare the Via dell’Impero, built by Mussolini through the heart of the area once occupied by the ancient Roman fora. The intent was to both improve circulation in the city center and to provide a ceremonial axis for fascist parades that symbolically connected the classical past to the new city center at the Piazza Venezia. The new avenue also swept away the homes of thousands and ironically paved over acres of classical ruins at the same time that the Italian dictator was sponsoring archeological work to uncover them. 270 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

30 German cities. The most ambitious were those for Berlin (the capital), Nuremberg (the site of the Nazi party congresses), Munich (the capital and birthplace of the Party), and Linz (the Austrian city of Hitler’s youth and his personal favorite among the cities of the new, enlarged Reich). The building projects, the majority of which were never completed, were essentially intended to be unabashed displays of power. They featured enormously intimidating public buildings and monuments, set to FIGURE 9.4. Espozione Universale di Roma. The best-known vast and linear configurations of public space and most impressive structure of the fascist-era EUR development in a manner reminiscent of the Roman Impe- south of Rome is the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavaro. Also known as the rial Fora. Hitler also wished that they be built “Square Colosseum,” the building, with its 216 rounded arches, is of durable materials (chiefly granite and con- somewhat reminiscent of a Roman amphitheater. Built between 1938 and 1943, the monumental structure anchors one end of an avenue crete) to stand the test of time. His favorite ar- that crosses the central axis of the development’s gridiron plan. chitect, Albert Speer, even championed the fanciful idea that modern materials should be eschewed in the construction of the Third Reich’s monumental buildings because they crossing at right angles, and employing vast would fail someday to produce impressive ru- quantities of concrete, marble, and travertine, ins of the kind left by the Romans. His theory this formal city of modern buildings set in im- was accepted in Nazi architectural circles as perial grandeur gradually came to be seen as a the “law of ruin value” (Ruinengesetz). Al- new fascist core of Rome, separate from but though architecture under the Nazis exhib- connected symbolically to the traditional cen- ited many aesthetic contradictions—borrow- ter by a highway known as the Via Imperiale. ing traditional ideas from the past as well as Conceived as a monumental center, the devel- modern functionalist principles from Bauhaus opment still stands today as a stylish adminis- designs—the preferred style was a stripped- trative and residential suburb of the city. down form of neoclassicism, with an emphasis In Germany, the Nazis professed a deep on bigness and the projection of authority. disdain for the softness and self-indulgent Thus, one of the first projects to be under- decadence of urban life, preferring instead to taken was the 1931–1932 redevelopment of extol the traditional values and virtues of life Munich’s neoclassical Königsplatz, originally in the countryside. Nevertheless, Hitler, who built by Bavaria’s King Ludwig I, into a Nazi had an amateurish passion for architecture forum. The reworking of this historic land- and building, and believed that the principal mark featured the paving over of the immense problem faced by the nation’s heavily indus- square to serve as a rally and parade ground, trialized cities was a lack of any suitable focus grandly framed on two sides by 19th-century for community life, was eager to refashion neoclassical public buildings, and on a third German cities as monuments to the ideals of side by a Propelaeum modeled after the one National Socialism. Thus, the Nazis at- on the Acropolis in Athens. The remaining tempted to mix politics and planning, believ- side of the square opened to an avenue, the ing that if the physical center of public life in approach to which was set between two rect- German cities could be properly organized, angular Doric-columned “Honor Temples” the power of community would be enhanced that were erected in 1935 to hold the remains and all urban problems would somehow work of the 16 Nazis who died in the 1923 Beer themselves out. Hitler, accordingly, ordered Hall Putsch. Flanking the two temples was a giant building plans drawn up for some pair of identical party buildings designed un- 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 271

with impressive public and private buildings intended to demonstrate architecturally the power and prestige of the German nation, was to extend ponderously across the city for a distance of 5 kilometers (twice as long as the Champs Élysées in Paris). Along the way, the boulevard was to cross a widened version of the city’s existing “Unter den Linden– Charlottenburger Chausee” east–west axis. Planned for its northern end was an immense square dedicated to Adolf Hitler, flanked by FIGURE 9.5. Königsplatz. Today sunbathers occasionally stretch palaces and ministries and dominated by the out on the broad grassy expanse of Munich’s Königsplatz. During the Great Hall—a stupendous domed structure National Socialist era the square was paved over and used for mass modeled after the Pantheon in Rome that rallies and parades. Seen here on the far side of the square is the Gre- would hold up to 150,000 standing people. cian-styled Propelaeum, modeled after the one leading to the Acropolis Ever mindful of the need to outdo the compe- in Athens. tition, the diameter of the dome, at 250 meters, was so great that just the oculus at the top would have been large enough to engulf der Hitler’s supervision by the Bavarian ar- the domes of both the Pantheon in Rome and chitect Paul Ludwig Troost (one of them St. Paul’s in London. Near its southern end a the so-called Brown House, named after the Brown shirts of the SA). The most ambitious building plans, however, were reserved for Berlin. The historic center of the capital was slated for extensive demolition and redevelopment. The master plan for the new National Socialist capital, which was developed from some of Hitler’s ideas by Albert Speer, envisioned such grandiose changes to the existing fabric of the city center that the demolitions necessary to clear the way for construction would have eliminated over 50,000 dwellings. Scheduled for completion in 1950, the redesigned and newly refurbished capital was to be renamed Germania. A fair portion of the demolition work was actually completed (in part with the aid of Allied bombing raids), and a few buildings were constructed, but most of the work on the project was cut short by the war. Our most vivid sense of what the new capital might have looked like comes from surviving plans and from photos taken of a modeled FIGURE 9.6. Footing. Almost nothing remains of Hitler’s grandiose mock-up of the rebuilt city center. designs for a postwar Berlin. One of the few pieces is the giant concrete The plan for the city was organized around cylinder, which was poured as test footing for a planned triumphal three principal elements: a grand axial boule- arch, so enormous that it would dwarf Paris’s Arche de Triomphe and vard, a Great Hall, and a Triumphal Arch. The have sufficient surface space to carry the names of millions of German first, an extraordinarily broad 120-meter-wide soldiers who gave their lives in sacrifice. Today it sits quietly on a va- north–south boulevard, lined on either side cant lot on the south side of Berlin. 272 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

Triumphal Arch was to tower above the grand 1917 revolution, other than the subdivision boulevard, reaching a height of 120 meters and redistribution to workers of urban prop- (exactly two-and-a-half times that of the Arc erty previously owned by the bourgeoisie and de Triomphe) and memorializing on its sur- aristocracy, the desultory clearing of some ur- faces all 1.8 million names of Germany’s mar- ban slum areas, and what is today regarded as tyred dead in World War I. Visitors to the city, a rather tragic destruction of a great many his- who might arrive at the South Station located toric buildings and churches. It wasn’t until at the extreme southern end of the grand axis, 1931 that the debate about what to do with would step out onto a grand square in front of Soviet cities was officially resolved. The lead- the station from which they might gaze up the ership issued a decree declaring all cities to avenue at the white dome of the Great Hall, be already socialist, thereby ending any fur- framed in the distance beneath the curve ther theorizing about the need to deurbanize of the Triumphal Arch. A giant cylindrical- or come up with utopian forms of develop- shaped concrete “test-footing” for the arch ment. The new and overriding national prior- still stands today, looming silently and long ity would henceforth be industrialization, and forgotten over a vacant lot on the south side of over the course of the series of 5-year plans the city. lasting from 1928 to the outbreak of war with In the Soviet Union an intense debate took Germany in 1941, the command economy place during the 1920s about the role and would be the greatest force shaping Soviet form that cities should take in the modern so- cities. cialist state. At one extreme was a group of The official obsession during the 1930s “deurbanists,” who expressed a deep distrust with heavy industrialization meant major of the city, seeing it as an unredeemable den growth for Russian cities. Floods of labor of iniquity, corruption, and class distinction. moved from the countryside to existing cities, They called for the complete abolition of cit- and scores of new industrial towns were ies on the grounds that they were capitalist in founded near sources of raw material and origin, form, and function—or, at the very power. Moscow, which already had a substan- least, a turn toward Ebenezer Howard style tial industrial base, literally doubled in size, ideas of garden city development. Others re- reaching a population of more than 4 million garded the city as a potent instrument for by the end of the decade. Overall, the urban advancing Marxist–Leninist ideological doc- proportion of the country’s population grew trines and accordingly focused their attention from less than one-fifth in 1926 to more than on experimenting with blueprints for fash- one-third by 1939. So important was the em- ioning communal forms of urban living that phasis on industrial development, however, would hasten the breakup of the family and that only scant resources, if any at all, were other bourgeois institutions. Perhaps the most available to provide the infrastructure needed influential of the new ideas about the shape of to support the growing urban populace. De- future Soviet cities was N. A. Milyutin’s con- spite the rapid growth of urban populations, cept of a “linear city,” in which urban space very little housing was constructed during the would be organized into long belts, broken 1930s, resulting in an appalling overcrowding by green belt dividers between neighboring that quite ironically exceeded at times the zones of residence, industry, and transport. worst conditions prevailing in Russian cities Milyutin’s concepts were used during the lat- before the Revolution. ter half of the 1920s in the planning of Stalin- While the extraordinary circumstances of grad (Volgograd) and the new steel town of the time may have brushed the planning ide- Magnitogorsk. als of the 1920s aside, many of these ideas lin- Nonetheless, due to the many disruptions gered on through the 1930s and would later and generally unstable conditions of the post- play a role in Soviet urban planning after revolutionary period, little was actually ac- World War II. Some of them were embodied complished during the decade following the in the 1935 Plan for the Reconstruction of 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 273

Moscow. Although the plan was never really carried out, it called for such measures as a limitation on the growth of the city, the construction of high-quality housing for workers, an improved transport infrastructure, a spatially equitable distribution of services, and most importantly a series of grandiose central-area building projects intended to reflect the grandeur of socialist achievement. A few of these projects were undertaken, such as the widening of some arterial streets to accommodate multiple lanes of traffic in either direction (e.g., Gorki Street, now Tverskaya Street), the opening of large spaces capable of holding mass rallies and demonstrations (e.g., the Square of the 50th Anniversary of Octo- ber, today’s Manezhnaya Square), and the construction of the first stages of the city’s Metro, which became world-renowned for the lavish adornment of the interior spaces of its stations. FIGURE 9.7. Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Visible from all over Most remarkable of the projected but never Moscow today is the golden dome of the newly rebuilt Cathedral of completed central-area projects, however, Christ the Savior. The original church was commissioned by Czar Alex- was the Palace of the Soviets, an enormously ander I in 1812 to commemorate the Russian defeat of Napoleon and overdone Gothic-style skyscraper topped by a was constructed between 1839 and 1881. It was subsequently demol- gigantic statue of Lenin—the whole ensemble ished in 1933 to make way for a planned but never built skyscraper, reaching some 413 meters in height (1/25th the Palace of the Soviets. The present re-creation of the church, the the radius of the city, and one-third again as largest in Russia, is seen as symbolic of the country’s recent spiritual tall as the Eiffel Tower). This immense struc- and nationalistic revival. (photo: V. Bogorov) ture, which was to be erected on the site of the 19th-century Cathedral of Christ the Sav- ior, built to commemorate the defeat of Napo- to legitimate its existence through a grand re- leon and demolished by Stalin in 1931, never development of the center of its capital. got beyond the drawing boards. In fact, the site was for a long time jokingly known as World War II and Its Effects “Europe’s largest hole in the ground.” Even- tually, a giant open-air swimming pool was These interwar developments came to an developed there in 1958. Since 1997, a recon- abrupt end in 1939 as World War II inter- struction of the original Cathedral, under- vened to cast its somber pallor or, worse yet, taken as part of the effort to commemorate the its awful shadow of destruction across Eu- 850th anniversary of the founding of the city, rope’s towns and cities. The calamitous effects has occupied the site. But the original plan to of aerial and artillery bombardment, bitter build as large a structure as the Palace of Sovi- house-to-house fighting, and demolitions set ets, along with a host of other monumental in the wake of retreating armies would soon central city improvements, all designed to sig- be commonplace in the devastated city cen- nal in architecture and space the inevitable ters, gutted tenements and houses, and dis- victory and glory of Marxist–Leninist ideol- rupted infrastructures of thousands of towns ogy, is an indication that the Soviet state un- and cities stretching from Brest to Stalingrad der Stalin was no less interested than the fas- and from Tromsø to Palermo. The war years cist regimes of Italy and Germany in seeking also brought a cessation of urban growth, as 274 III. TOWNS AND CITIES the resources and the productive energies of problem extended, in one form or another, to the combatants were turned to other pur- nearly all countries. In 1950, the shortfall of poses. Even nations that escaped direct in- housing in the Netherlands came to more volvement in the war, such as neutral Swe- than 300,000 units. Long waiting lists for den, experienced a dearth of construction and housing were the rule even in the city of urban development during these years. Stockholm, which as the capital of a neutral The effects of the war set the agenda for country experienced no wartime damage at much of what happened to European cities all, but still had difficulty in providing an ade- during the first decades of the postwar period. quate supply of housing for its citizens nearly The first priority in those countries that bore 30 years after the war in spite of a gov- the brunt of the fighting was the restoration of ernment-sponsored “one million homes pro- services, the clearance of rubble, and the re- gram.” construction of homes and buildings. Roughly In the Soviet Union and other east Euro- half of the built-up area of the larger German pean nations, housing shortages were espe- cities had been laid waste by the end of the cially severe, but they did not receive the war. The centers of cities like Berlin, Cologne, same kind of immediate attention after the Hamburg, Dresden, and Budapest, which war that they received in the West. This rela- were subjected to massive bombings and tive inattention to housing problems resulted heavy fighting during the latter part of the from government policies that placed the war, were nearly totally destroyed. The city of highest priorities on economic reconstruction Stalingrad, scene of one of the most climactic and development rather than on the provision battles of the war, was a sea of devastation and of housing. The situation was also exacerbated ruin. In the waning months of 1944, the Ger- by Stalin’s obsession with expensive “show- mans systematically reduced nearly the whole piece” urban construction projects, such as of Warsaw to rubble by demolition prior the seven excessively flamboyant “Stalin- to abandoning the city to the advancing esque style” skyscrapers planned for various Russians. Countless millions faced the severe locations around central Moscow during the winters of 1945 and 1946 with only makeshift early 1950s. By the time of Stalin’s death in shelter. Rebuilding was a matter of necessity 1953, the housing situation had become criti- as well as pride. Indeed, one of the common cal. Existing housing stocks had been subdi- images we have of life in Germany’s battered vided into ever-smaller dwellings, and even cities immediately after the war is one of these were often inhabited by multiple or ex- gangs of women engaged in clearing rubble tended family units. Densities of up to one from the streets and stacking undamaged family per room were not uncommon in many bricks for use in rebuilding. postwar Soviet cities. Concerted action was finally taken under Stalin’s successor, Khrush- Postwar Development chev, who launched a crash housing construction program dedicated to end the housing All across Europe one of the highest postwar crisis in just 20 years. The effort eventually priorities in urban areas was the provision of succeeded in placing a majority of Soviet citi- new housing. Wartime losses, the cessation of zens in “improved housing,” but only after home construction during the war, renewed more than two decades of frenzied activity. rural to urban migration, and the onset of high The postwar housing shortage led nearly rates of family formation and an attendant everywhere in Europe to an emphasis on postwar baby boom combined to produce large, municipally planned, and often prefab- huge housing shortages. The most pressing ricated apartment-block housing estates, the need was in badly battered German cities, cheapest and most efficient means of housing such as Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, and large numbers of people quickly. Stopgap de- Essen, where up to 60% of residential dwell- velopments of this kind quickly came to sur- ings had been destroyed or damaged. But the round most cities. Many, like the hastily con- 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 275

FIGURE 9.8. Flak tower. Across Europe, much of the effort after World War II to provide large amounts of housing quickly and cheaply went into building large multiunit apartment buildings. Here, on the south side of Berlin, a modern apartment building was constructed, rather nonchalantly, right over a wartime concrete flak tower that was used to shelter people from air raids and provide a platform for antiaircraft guns. The massive concrete structure was part of the Sportspalast complex from which Hitler made many of the speeches seen in newsreels.

structed grands ensembles that mushroomed about during the prewar years were revived, up around the edges of Paris, were roundly as planners worked to replace old, poorly criticized for their monotonous architecture designed cities with modern ones. A highly and lack of adequate transportation and ser- technocratic form of planning for the future of vices, but they continued to be built well into urban areas quickly became a respectable and the 1970s. In many ways, Soviet planners suc- indispensable part of the administrative ma- ceeded in surpassing all others in this “cookie chinery of government. In England, planners cutter” process of stamping out housing es- were influenced by the Barlow Report, a pre- tates. The Soviets developed a more or less war study that focused on the need for de- standardized approach, in which clusters congestion and decentralization of urban ar- of apartment blocks were grouped together eas. Plans drawn up for the Greater London to form housing estates of 8–12,000 people, known as mikrorayons. Each of these developments was intended to be connected to the city center by public transportation, supplied with standard amounts of green space and community services, and to contain a representative cross-section of the population in terms of occupation, ethnicity, and so on. Pur- posely designed to generate a sense of community, they in fact turned out to be coldly sterile environments that generally failed to meet the expectations of such attempts at social engineering. An important effect of the destruction and FIGURE 9.9. Prefabs. A virtual wall of Soviet-style prefab apart- dislocations of the war was to provide an opment blocks stretches across the horizon in this photo taken on the out- portunity for a general wave of state-led, com- skirts of the city of Kaunas in Lithuania. Developments such as this prehensive urban planning efforts. Many of housed millions of urbanites and helped to relieve the severe housing the criticisms of big cities and the ideas about shortages that plagued cities in the Soviet Union. They were often built how they might be redesigned that floated with shoddy materials and deteriorated quickly. 276 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

Area during the latter part of the war by Sir Patrick Abercrombie accordingly called for the control of population and building densities in the damaged city core. Also called for was the dispersal of “overspill” populations to planned New Towns, located out beyond the green belt imposed in 1938 to control the sprawl of the city. Similar ideas were pursued in other countries. By the 1960s, most large European cities had instituted some kind of centrally planned program designed to divert new growth to planned satellite settlements FIGURE 9.10. Restoration. The buildings seen here across War- on the urban fringe and had undertaken vari- saw’s old town square were completely wrecked during the war. In a ous efforts to redevelop city cores. remarkable restoration effort, they were meticulously rebuilt from old The dawn of the automobile age also influ- photographs, plans, and memory to replicate the scene as it appeared enced the evolving postwar structure of Euro- before the war. pean cities. Particularly in the West, transportation planners were forced to place increased emphasis on improving automotive access to reconstruction of their war-damaged archi- the various parts of cities and providing space tectural heritage and in so doing managed for people to park their vehicles in and to preserve, amid the new and the modern, around congested city centers. London began certain familiar characteristics of national and planning for an elaborate system of radial and regional urban environments. Warsaw, for ex- ring roads. Paris began construction of its ample, expended tremendous effort and re- Boulevard Périphiqué and outer motorways. sources on the meticulous re-creation, from Such policies of motor vehicle accommoda- old photos, plans, and memory, of the city tion diffused rapidly across the continent. The center as it appeared before the war. In count- webs of new transportation arteries that re- less towns, burned-out cathedrals, town halls, sulted from these efforts served to divide and opera houses, and palaces re-emerged from delimit, as well as connect. City after city be- the ashes, along with carefully refurbished old came differentiated through its various ring- town quarters and streetscapes, to reclaim ways and expressways into new constituent their traditional place of pride in the urban parts—inner and outer zones, residential fabric and to offer residents and tourists alike neighborhoods, industrial parks, and com- a welcome relief from the monotonous same- mercial strips. The automobile also facilitated, ness of the modern urban landscape. again particularly in the West, a massive re- Meanwhile, the populations of cities con- distribution of population to new suburban tinued to grow. In some parts of Europe, large residential areas far beyond the center of the cities were becoming more than agglomera- city. Planners increasingly developed plans tions or conurbations. Some had evolved into that tied urban development to expansions of massive urban regions, consisting of dozens the transportation network. Thus, the 1965 of individual but highly integrated towns Schéma Directeur plan for the Paris region and cities. Thus, by the end of the 1970s envisioned a multicentered city region linked the London region had come to encompass together by a system of motorways and an im- the entire southeastern part of England and proved rapid transit system. contain more than 12 million people. Across While postwar planning brought much the English Channel lay a horseshoe-shaped change in the form of reorganized town cen- belt of cities in the Netherlands, containing ters, new transportation infrastructure, and roughly 5 million people and known as modern housing developments, most cities Randstad Holland. A vast urban region of also directed considerable resources into the nearly 10 million people surrounded Paris, 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 277 and another 10 million or so lived in a sprawl- ished and replaced with brand-new ing cluster of cities extending along the Ruhr construction. A policy of accommodation to and lower Rhine Valleys of Germany. To- motor vehicles began to be replaced by poli- gether, these large urban regions, along with cies that placed restraints on vehicular access smaller and more peripherally located conur- to central areas, many of which in turn began bations in the English Midlands, northeastern to be redesigned, at least in part, for primarily Belgium, southwestern Germany, and north- pedestrian use. But most importantly, western ern Italy came to be recognized as the mod- European planners and city government offi- ern urbanized core of western Europe. cials were forced to switch their attention to Postwar growth in socialist east-central and the problems of urban contraction. By the late eastern Europe, on the other hand, did not 1970s, deindustrialization and depopulation share the same widespread characteristics of had replaced decongestion and decentraliza- urban sprawl and coalescence. Much of the tion as the most pressing urban issues of the new growth remained concentrated in the day. larger cities, particularly the capitals. An un- The key developments that came to define swerving postwar emphasis in Europe’s so- the transition in western Europe during the cialist states on high-density housing de- 1980s from the modern era to our present velopment, together with a generally greater postmodern era were the flight of capital, distance in the east between major towns and jobs, and people from the city. By the start of cities, worked to inhibit the occurrence of a the decade, analysts had begun to talk about western-style melding together of towns and “counter urbanization,” a process in which cities into extensive urban corridors and re- people, jobs, and businesses abandoned the gions. city, not for the suburbs, but for smaller settle- The remarkable growth of western cities ments and rural areas well beyond the urban and their regions, which was based on the fringe, as well as for environmentally attrac- rapid economic and demographic growth en- tive locations far outside the urbanized core of joyed by the western democracies during the Europe. Throughout the early 1980s, cen- immediate postwar decades, eventually began suses across western Europe, with the excep- to slow in the 1970s. Economic recession, sig- tion of some Mediterranean areas, began to nificant declines in birth rates, as well as record substantial downturns in the popula- changes in lifestyle and attitudes, all worked tions of major cities and towns. Faced with to alter the circumstances of postwar urban such losses, the most important issue for city development. As a consequence, many of the governments became finding ways to ensure comprehensive plans developed at the end of that cities would somehow be in a position to the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, play a leadership role in a globalized and which were still primarily attuned to accom- technologically advanced postmodern world. modating scenarios of unending growth on This, in turn, led to the self-conscious rehabil- the urban periphery and to pursuing a mod- itation of city centers, waves of investment in ernizing redevelopment of urban cores, sud- technopoles and office parks, and touting of denly had to be revised or even shelved alto- gentrified and amenity-rich urban environ- gether. ments that seem to characterize European cit- Planning became more conservation- ies today. minded as the public began to question the radical changes embodied in the modernist agenda. Motorway construction and large- POSTMODERN URBANISM scale urban renewal projects began to give way to smaller, more ecologically friendly and It has become fashionable to describe today’s historically sensitive improvements of the ur- urban systems, cityscapes, and urban life as ban fabric. Aging housing stock, for example, “postmodern” or “postindustrial.” The terms began to be rehabilitated rather than demol- suggest that somehow we seem to have left 278 III. TOWNS AND CITIES the modern or industrial age behind and beggars on the streets might also detract from embarked on something entirely new. The that impression. changes that we associate with these labels Our returned resident would undoubtedly are most evident in the cities of the West, but sense that the city contains new social divi- also appear to be rapidly spreading to those sions of space. Some of the older parts of the parts of Europe recently freed of the re- city, mostly within close proximity of the cen- straints of socialist economies and political ter, would have a startlingly new look. The systems. ravages of time and the wear and tear of re- What are these changes? They involve peated occupancy and neglect would appear things that may not be so apparent to the ca- to have been washed away. The original look sual everyday observer. But imagine the reac- of individual structures, as well as entire tions of someone who may have just recently streetscapes, would seem to have been lov- returned after an absence of a couple of de- ingly restored or “upgraded.” The people who cades. This individual would be struck imme- live on these streets would strike our visitor diately by the manner in which the city has as relatively young and active, fashionably been transformed. The familiar skyline and dressed. They would appear to be living the fabric of the old city core would have a mostly as singles or in pairs. The whole area very different appearance to our time traveler. would seem to have been taken over by a It might even be scarcely recognizable. It “gentrifying” new urban elite of young profes- would seem disrupted by clusters of new of- sionals with plenty of money to spend at fice and luxury apartment towers, and modi- scores of nearby upscale shops and restau- fied in texture and style by new uses of spaces rants. By contrast, some of the housing tracts and by the introduction of aesthetically ori- farther out along the city’s fringe, many of ented postmodern architectural forms. There them thrown up hastily after World War II to would be abundant signs of new investment relieve the housing shortage, would appear to and rehabilitation; in many places there be headed in exactly the opposite direction— would be evidence of a new and rather self- taken over and “downgraded” by elements of conscious attention to historical preservation. a new urban poor, displaced from the city The city center would somehow appear more center, often of recent immigrant origins, and vigorous and clean, clearly an object of re- therefore racially or ethnically distinct from newed civic action and pride, although the in- the majority of the population. congruent presence of homeless people and Also striking would be evidence, throughout the city, of completely new modes of urban culture and consumption: trendy waterfront developments of shops, restaurants, and condominiums in place of old industrial ware- housing and dockyards; hypermarkets, discount outlets, fast-food restaurants, and cut- rate chain motels clustered along suburban commercial avenues; mall-like regional shopping centers; and a sprinkling of garishly promoted theme parks and water parks located just beyond the urban fringe. Urban life would appear to have become keyed to a much higher and more visible level of consumerism and to a far more standardized, or internationalized, array of consumption op- FIGURE 9.11. Homeless. A homeless man sleeps on a bench at the portunities than was ever the case in the past. Forum des Halles in Paris. Judging from the carton near him, he has The consumer electronics revolution would just recently dined at the nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. be everywhere apparent: visible in the form of 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 279

from an international web of suppliers. The key to navigating the system is to concentrate the strategic and high-value managerial inputs of informational and technological expertise at some central point. The location of traditional factors of production, such as capital, labor, industrial plant, and raw materials, is less important, because they may be summoned as needed from wherever they may be currently available at an advantageous cost.

FIGURE 9.12. Blockbuster. Just like anywhere else in the world, Deindustrialization the video rental shop has become one of the most common retail outlets on urban streets. This Blockbuster store is on Rome’s Via XX In western Europe, the urban impacts of Septembre, the route by which Garibaldi’s troops entered the city on these developments have been many. One of September 20, 1870, ending more than 12 centuries of papal rule and the most important is the transformation that paving the way for a new united Italy. cities experienced in their employment structure during the 1980s and 1990s. The ready availability of low-cost production units street corner automated bank machines, elec- abroad caused many European cities to en- tronics store window displays, video rental dure repeated waves of “deindustrialization.” shops, and by the ubiquitous presence of This has been especially true in places unfor- cellular telephones pressed to the ears of tunate enough to be saddled with great con- passersby and motorists. centrations of older and less competitive manufacturing establishments. There has also Reurbanization: The Restructuring been a decentralizing flight of manufacturing of Urban Places employment within Europe to smaller towns and rural locations. Deindustrialization cost All of these changes are symptomatic of a vast Paris and its suburbs, for example, roughly restructuring process that has profoundly af- 800,000 industrial production jobs during the fected urban places and systems throughout 1980s, a decline of 45.7%. The inevitable out- the world. At root is a force that is commonly come has been that ever-smaller proportions known as “globalization.” The term refers, in of the urban labor force are employed in tra- the most general sense, to the great accelera- ditional manufacturing jobs. tion in world trade that, since the 1970s, has At the same time, employment in retail, income to link inextricably activities and events surance, banking and corporate service occu- occurring in regions and places around the pations has surged, and in select cities great world. More specifically the concept incor- emphasis has been placed on securing the porates a number of trends. These include “command and control” kind of managerial the liberalization of global financial, commod- employment associated with large transna- ity, and labor markets through the decline of tional firms. The city has become less and less the regulatory powers of the nation-state, the a place of material production and more a emergence of great supranational or continen- place of managerial and tertiary activities. tal trading blocs, the growth in the number and Taking Paris again as an example, it is instruc- influence of transnational corporations, and tive to note that a quarter of the current the rise of informational technologies capable workforce of the city and its environs consists of providing the necessary infrastructure for a of directors, managers, and self-employed truly global economy. In essence, it means that persons. Another quarter hold intermediate the new global economy is built around the co- managerial positions, while only the remain- ordination of production inputs that are drawn ing half are employees or manual workers. 280 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

Residential Polarization been displaced by this process to inner-city locales where the housing stock offers less po- One effect of these shifts in employment tential for upgrading or to housing areas that structure has been an increased social and are simply more distant from the center. economic polarization of the residential city, a Meanwhile a growing “underclass” of individ- condition sometimes referred to as the “dual uals whose skills and educational background city,” or perhaps more accurately as the “frag- are of limited value in the new urban econ- mented” or “heterogeneous” city. With the omy have become more or less permanent wholesale decline in traditional manufactur- wards of the state or allowed to fall into diffi- ing jobs, today’s urban employment market cult straits. Statistics show that the proportion has come to offer two principal types of of people on permanent social assistance in opportunity: a limited pool of high-income cities across western Europe has risen precip- professional and managerial positions and a itously through the 1980s and the 1990s, a mass of low-income, temporary, and part-time trend that contrasts sharply with the 1960s forms of employment. The situation has and 1970s, when the demand for social assis- tended to squeeze the middle classes and cre- tance remained stable or even declined. ate an urban housing environment in which The concentration of large numbers of there is heightened competition between newly arrived immigrants in many west Euro- groups of vastly unequal economic power for pean cities has also contributed to the grow- housing with convenient access to places ing sense of social differentiation. As we have where jobs are concentrated. noted in earlier chapters, nearly all western Since a substantial portion of the new ser- countries have accepted large numbers of im- vice and informational industry jobs have migrants over the past few decades. These become concentrated in city centers, many immigrants have come from former colonial managerial and professional workers have in- areas in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, as vaded and gentrified older neighborhoods well as from poorer areas of eastern and near those centers in order to be simulta- southern Europe. Many came as “guest work- neously in close proximity to their jobs and to ers” during the 1970s to help meet labor sources of upscale shopping, dining, and shortages in rapidly expanding European entertainment. Low-income households have economies. A sizable number have come

FIGURE 9.13. Multicultural. This photo of a tenement- lined street in Berlin just happens to capture three people crossing the street—a black, an Asian, and a Caucasian. The presence of sizable immigrant populations is quite noticeable in many European cities. 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 281 more recently as illegal immigrants, refugees, bitious renewals of city centers. They have and asylum seekers. Most have made their also invested heavily in the development of homes in cities, where they have formed their suburban office and technological research own communities despite government efforts parks. Such activities are motivated by the to integrate them into the society and culture need to compete with other cities for a share of their new homelands. As a consequence, of what is essentially a footloose industry. spatially distinct immigrant neighborhoods Modern telecommunications have given the have become a commonplace part of the ur- new informational sector tremendous loca- ban scene across much of western Europe. tional leeway. While access to the infrastruc- Relatively high birthrates among these groups ture and services of a large or medium sized have often made them the most rapidly grow- city will always be essential, few of the tradi- ing segment of the urban population, even af- tional locational concerns such as proximity to ter additional influxes have been cut off by raw materials, transport, or markets matter the imposition of government controls on im- much any more. Corporate managers may migration. Thus, in many urban areas the im- base their locational decisions instead on such migrant element can make up a startlingly matters as the attractability of a place to their high and growing proportion of central city workforce. Cities have accordingly become residents. very eager to polish their images as forward- The picture that emerges is one of a deeply looking, amenity-rich environments where divided urban society of haves and have-nots, educated and highly skilled people might pre- separated by different economies and increas- fer to live and work. ingly forced to occupy two urban environ- One means of accomplishing this has been ments that are spatially discrete but never to place a high priority on “new-age” office very distant from each other. Nonetheless, space. Most cities have experienced a sub- one must be careful here. A number of studies stantial building boom of modern office have shown this view to be too neat and a bit structures designed to facilitate the use overdrawn. The average city, in fact, contains of computer-age information technologies. not just two, but a wide variety of residential These constructions have often taken the areas, each with its own distinctive social form of highly concentrated developments in- and housing characteristics. Moreover, levels tended to link business functions with access of residential segregation vary considerably to recreation, shopping, entertainment, ho- among cities, depending on a variety of fac- tels, and high-rent housing. Perhaps the best- tors, such as local employment conditions, known example is the city of Paris’s massive market availability and condition of housing office–hotel–convention–shopping–entertain- stock, and the degree of intervention exer- ment development at La Défense. This shin- cised by local and central government author- ing complex of office towers anchors the far ities through their planning and social hous- west end of Paris’s “Historic Axis,” which now ing policies. It is clear, however, that due to stretches some 8 kilometers from the Louvre societal changes urban poverty has in general up the Champs Élysées to the Arc de become more spatially concentrated in well- Triomphe and then outward along L’Avenue defined inner-city pockets and in residential Charles De Gaulle to La Défense. An im- areas that were developed on the municipal mense modern arch (Arche de la Défense) ties periphery during the decades following the new business center in visually with the World War II. rest of the historic axis. Meanwhile, other office complexes have sprung up in peripheral Office Space locations around Paris, especially in a large crescent-shaped area of new development To meet the infrastructural requirements of along the curve of the Seine River in the west, doing business in the new global economy, to the east of the city center along the river- city governments have undertaken rather am- front in Bercy, and in New Town suburban lo- 282 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

FIGURE 9.14. New-age office space. Rising like a phoenix at the end of Paris’s historic transportation axis is the city’s business office center at La Défense. Begun in the 1960s, the complex is noted for its architectural achievement, its dazzling array of public sculptures, terraces, and fountains, and its strong representation of companies in communications, transportation, finance, and technology. The open rectangular structure at the end of the avenue is the 110-meter-tall Grande Arche, which is large enough to enclose completely the Cathedral of Notre Dame. cations like Marne La Vallée. Much of the a few major western capitals like Paris and construction boom in and around the city has London. It extends across all of Europe from occurred since 1985, when the government Lisbon to Moscow and reaches well down the decided to remove restrictions on office de- urban hierarchy. Most western cities have at velopment. least one high-profile center city or suburban Across the English Channel, a growing de- project and are steadily adding other new of- mand in the mid-1980s for new office space fice and residential towers to their skylines. also forced the Corporation of London to Amsterdam, for example, has its high-rise abandon a long-standing policy intended to waterfront office area on the edge of the preserve the city’s architectural heritage. The old policy placed restrictions, among other things, on the height and density of buildings. The City’s sudden decision to depart from this stance stemmed in part from fears that the development of new office complexes around London and especially at downriver locations, such as Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs, might draw office tenants away from the traditional city-core location. Whereas only the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral and the spires of Christopher Wren’s churches once stood above the London skyline, today it is pierced by the growing number of tall office structures that loom over the City proper, or FIGURE 9.15. Docklands. Canary Wharf Tower (245 meters) soars cluster a bit farther out around central Lon- over London’s burgeoning new office complex, an ambitious govern- don’s major railroad stations as well as along ment/free-market development scheme that has created a major busi- the south bank of the Thames River. Indeed, ness center on the Isle of Dogs, where dilapidated warehouses and abandoned docks once stood. The development has been controversial the London building boom has been so exten- since its inception in the 1980s because of issues regarding its mix of sive that the demand for office space has been public and private financing, its effect on land values, and especially its greatly exceeded. Many of the developments effect on the predevelopment population, many of whom were forced to are currently plagued by high vacancy rates. leave. In the foreground are the tracks of the Docklands Light Railway The office boom has hardly been limited to (DLR), opened in 1987 to connect the complex to London’s center. 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 283

FIGURE 9.16. London’s skyline. This view from the waters of the River Thames captures the striking new business tower skyline that has mushroomed over “The City” in recent years. Whereas once the Tower of London, visible in the right-center of the photo, might have been the major feature in this scene, today it seems dwarfed by the steel and glass behind it. The tall tower in the center of the photo is the Nat West Tower (183 meters), built in 1980.

city center. Frankfurt, the “office city” of ities, including the hosting of interna- Germany, has its Mainhattan project and its tionally recognized festivals, trade fairs, and Burostadt Niederrad office park; Hamburg, hallmark sporting events, is much empha- its City Nord project. The list could go on and sized, as is investment in high-quality trans- on. Not wanting to be left out, eastern cities, portation and communications facilities, such as we shall see later in this chapter, are scram- as modern state-of-the-art airports and high- bling to catch up. speed trains. An intense promotion of tourism typically rounds out the effort to project Center Renewal the right image. Waterfront developments are another very A general refurbishing of city centers and a common feature of this revitalization process. boosting of civic pride have accompanied For historical reasons, most European cities much of this office building activity. Over are located on the banks of major rivers or es- the past couple of decades cities have introduced fashionable pedestrian shopping streets, taken steps to clean up and restore historical monuments, improve and extend parklands, and commission new image- producing monuments. The most elaborate example of the practice of adding new monuments to enhance the cultural prestige of the city (as well as the political prestige of the ruling party) is the series of grandiose projects commissioned for Paris in the late 1980s by François Mitterrand, the so-called grands travaux (grand works) of the Presi- FIGURE 9.17. Infrastructure. One important step that cities are dent (the Opéra Bastille, Musée d’Orsay, the taking to improve their image in today’s competitive investment cli- Grand Louvre, the Institut du Monde Arabe, mate is to upgrade infrastructure. Cities are investing in state-of-the- the new Ministère des Finances at Bercy, art public transportation, airports, and communications links. In this and the Arche de la Défense). The provision photo a gleaming new tram pulls into a passenger stop in the French of high-quality cultural and leisure amen- provincial capital of Nancy. 284 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

infrastructural and amenity advantages of the host city but also by providing a building site where firms may benefit from interaction with other firms and with educational institutions engaged in scientific and technological innovation and high-risk ventures. The phenomenon is widespread, but especially associated with cities whose universities are able to provide strong technical support and with cities that can offer the kind of cultural and environmental advantages FIGURE 9.18. Waterfront development. A residential boom has (e.g., climate and scenery) that are especially taken place along the length of the Thames between The City and the appealing to the highly educated profession- Canary Wharf Development to meet the demands of office workers. Old als employed by these firms. Cities in the and in most cases derelict warehouses, such as the Gun Wharves build- Mediterranean South have been particularly ing seen here, have been converted by developers into trendy condo- successful in serving up the right mix of miniums and loft apartments. New buildings, such as the one on the enticements. The best-known of these Med- left, have also been built, usually with stylistic attention to the area’s iterranean science and technology parks is historic waterfront heritage. Sophia Antipolis, a sprawling 6,000-acre complex outside of the cities of Antibes and Cannes on the French Côte d’Azur. Other no- tuaries. The decline of many old waterfront table Mediterranean technopole develop- industries and the migration of dockland facil- ments are found outside Valencia, Barcelona, ities to new sites more accessible to modern Toulouse, Montpellier, Grenoble, Turin, Mi- container ships and road or rail services, has lan, and Genoa; but nearly all European cities left many cities with extensive areas of aban- have endeavored, with varying degrees of doned warehouses and lofts. These areas have success, to create some kind of local version of become prime targets for municipal and pri- “Silicon Valley.” vate development schemes, usually distinguished by a mix of postmodern architectural nostalgia for a district’s industrial past with the provision of an amenity-rich milieu for an urban elite. Examples include Manchester’s Salford Quays development, Oslo’s Aker Brygge development, Barcelona’s Olympic village and Barceloneta district, and of course the much publicized and controversial Ca- nary Wharf development in London’s old Docklands area.

Research Parks Finally, one of the most revolutionary developments has been the rush to establish FIGURE 9.19. Technopole. With its university and forward-looking image, the city of Montpellier self-consciously styles itself “the Mediter- research and technology parks, or “techno- ranean Technopole,” confidently predicting its role over the coming de- poles,” on the edge of European cities. This is cade as the “emergent” market between Marseilles and Barcelona. The again a function of the growing competition city is already home to a number of new companies that have built between cities to capture a piece of the new their headquarters in the city’s new office and research parks. It is also global science and technology economy. The one of the leading members of Genepole, a network of French centers idea is to lure companies not only with the of biotechnology. 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 285

Changes in the Urban System other countries, to stake out their own identity and place in the national urban system. As At the broadest scale, the result of all these a result the West German urban system that developments has been to make fluid the hi- emerged over the decades following World erarchical system of relationships that orders War II was conspicuous for its lack of a city European cities. Cities are in competition that could claim any kind of national primacy. with one another to promote and market Recent developments following reunification, themselves in this postindustrial economic such as the transfer of the German capital environment; and there have already been from Bonn to Berlin, the ongoing incorpora- winners and losers. Geographers and other tion of East German cities into the larger social scientists have attempted to gauge urban system, and continued competition these trends, although most of their studies among West German cities for capital invest- have so far applied only to western Europe, ments, seem to have led to even greater levels where good comparable data are most readily of differentiation and fluidity at all levels of available. They attempt to accomplish this the national urban hierarchy. Now that Eu- principally by assessing the attractiveness of rope as a whole has begun to take on a feder- cities as places to live and do business accord- alized structure similar to Germany’s, there is ing to a range of economic, demographic, and likely to be an even far greater latitude for in- sociocultural variables. The results are used dividual cities to be successful irrespective of to construct hierarchical rankings of cities. their place in the national hierarchy. A number of generalizations may be drawn The striking upward mobility of such places from these studies. First, whereas in the past as Manchester, Glasgow, Toulouse, Grenoble, the relative success of cities clearly had a Barcelona, or Bari demonstrates the new vola- lot to do with the internal urban structure and tility within national urban systems. Cities in economic strength of the country within a variety of locations and situations are find- which they were located, there now seems to ing new potential for growth. Many medium- be a growing tendency for cities to break free and small-sized cities that have long lain in of their national identities and their tradi- the shadow of great centers like London, tional relative position in national hierarchies. Paris, or Frankfurt are benefiting from decen- This is due to the fact that national frontiers tralizing tendencies that are driving some have come to mean less in a supranationally firms out in search of quieter, less congested, organized Europe. Cities are essentially com- surroundings. Some cities with old declining peting for position in a transnational mobile industrial bases, like Glasgow or Duisburg, market of capital, labor, and services. Thus, have demonstrated a capacity to reshape their national capitals no longer necessarily have as image and begin to overcome the deleterious advantageous a position over other cities as effects of deindustrialization. Meanwhile they once had, although there is certainly no cities such as Bristol, Toulouse, Stuttgart, indication that they are in any danger of los- Düsseldorf, Bologna, Luxembourg, Copenha- ing their absolute advantage. Nor do such ste- gen, Stockholm, and Dublin, whose main reotypical images as the depressed state of in- function has traditionally been to provide ad- dustrial cities of the English Midlands, the ministrative, educational, and financial ser- provinciality of cities in the south of France, vices to a region or in some cases a small or the backwardness of Spanish or south Ital- nation-state, are now finding themselves par- ian cities necessarily hold true any more. ticularly well equipped to attract much- Germany is a particularly interesting case sought-after information-technology firms. and a model for what may well be happening A second observation is that the postwar to urban systems across all of Europe. The conventional wisdom—that location within highly federalist structure of the postwar Ger- the urban-industrial core of Europe offers a man state has always allowed individual cities built-in advantage—seems to have lost some the freedom, more than has been the case in of its truth. Whereas for decades it was com- 286 III. TOWNS AND CITIES monplace to speak of the rapid growth of cit- A renaissance of provincial and medium- ies within the “golden triangle” bounded by sized cities is therefore taking place, built on a London, Frankfurt, and Paris, or along the arc potent brew of new economic investment and of the so-called Blue Banana stretching from resuscitated pride in local cultural heritage. the English Midlands to northern Italy, today Hamburg, for example, makes much of its we hear a lot about growth on the peripheries. medieval Hanseatic traditions, while Munich A number of telecommunications companies, and Barcelona combine their newfound infor example, have chosen to locate in Irish cit- ternational economic muscle with a spirited ies, responding to what they perceive as a fa- affirmation of their respective Bavarian and vorable Irish business climate, convenient ac- Catalan heritages. As we have seen in an ear- cess to the European market, and good cross- lier chapter, it has also become common for Atlantic connections. these new city regions to “network” and form There is, of course, little reason to doubt alliances with one another for the purpose of that the traditional urban core of western Eu- undertaking cooperative projects in education rope will continue to dominate urban devel- and the arts, or in providing new infrastruc- opment, but geographic centrality seems to ture or in jointly offering incentives for in- matter less today, given the current decentral- vestment capital. As if an indication of the izing trends in the location of production and times, these alliances quite typically extend services. Related to this is a lessening of the across national boundaries. former distinction in western Europe between a more developed North and a less de- Urban Transformations veloped South. While most economic indica- in Postsocialist Europe tors generally still favor northern cities, the cities of the South have tended, throughout Most of what has been said so far applies es- the 1980s and 1990s, to outperform those of pecially to the West. Cities and urban systems the North across a broad range of economic in the East may be said to be rapidly headed indicators. They are clearly catching up, and in much the same direction, but they have it has therefore become fashionable to view started from a very different baseline. This is the urban development occurring along what not to say that urban development in eastern has become known as the “Mediterranean and east-central Europe has not proceeded Crescent” or “Second Banana” as among the historically along lines similar to those in the most vibrant in today’s Europe. West, but it is true that the onset of the whole Finally, we can point, as we did in an earlier process of modern urbanization occurred chapter, to a growing sense of cooperation and much later. Urbanization in the eastern half of identity between cities and their regions. As Europe generally lagged behind that of the cities strike out on their own in this newly in- West by at least a step or two throughout most ternationalized environment, the relationship of the 20th century. That fact was further ex- between them and their immediate regions or acerbated in the second half of the century by hinterlands has taken on new importance. more than 40 years of socialist rule, which im- Such connections were important historically posed its own peculiar ideological stamp on when cities and their regions were often au- the more recent evolution of eastern and east- tonomous economic units, but became less so central European cities. in modern times as cities took their respective Among the most critical developments of places in the more elaborately integrated eco- the socialist period was the decision to abolish nomic apparatus of the nation-state. Today old the urban land market and introduce central- relationships between centers and tributary ized decision making and fixed property val- areas are being rekindled and new relations ues in its place. The effect was to make loca- are being forged as cities look to themselves tion within the city largely irrelevant from an and their regions as the basic building blocks economic point of view. Except to repair war of a new Europe. damage, there was really no incentive to in- 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 287

the city’s edge, an emphasis that was more in line with the high priority placed by socialist regimes on rapid industrialization. Sprawling suburbanization and increased residential polarization, two trends that have often characterized postwar housing development in western cities, were never very important. Most eastern cities remained relatively compact. Residential densities were generally higher, both at the center and on the periphery, than was the case for western cities. As we have seen, housing policy after the FIGURE 9.20. Time warp. The physical appearance of streetscapes war focused on two priorities: nationalizing in many east-central and eastern European cities changed little over the socialist years. The façades of the buildings on this street in the city and partitioning existing housing stock within of Wismar, as seen in the early 1990s not long after German reunifica- what socialist planners referred to as the “cap- tion, are gray and dingy. Individual apartments within the buildings italist city,” and the construction of large, were kept up, of course, but there was little incentive to paint and densely settled, and architecturally undiffer- maintain exterior walls and entrances or interior entrée ways or stair- entiated housing estates on the urban fringe. cases. Rather ironically, places like this became the best places to The construction of villas or semidetached see—at least for a brief time—what city streets might have looked housing was extremely rare. Residential seg- like before World War II. regation based on socioeconomic status, while certainly present, was never as extreme as in the West. One of the priorities was to see that vest in the city center, and, in fact, relatively little in the way of new development actually occurred there. Thus, many city centers in the socialist bloc countries became locked in a kind of time warp. By the late 1980s, the physical appearance of city centers in socialist Europe had not changed all that much from prewar times. Historic buildings and the existing housing stock were simply left in place, although the latter was routinely subdivided due to massive postwar housing shortages and often allowed to fall into a rather dilapidated state. The modern office buildings, banks, hotels, boutiques, and department stores so commonplace in western cities after the war were largely absent. Central city development projects more often took the form of FIGURE 9.21. Ceausescu’s Bucharest. Monumental public projects massive public monuments to socialism or, as were not uncommon during the socialist years. This was especially true in the case of Ceausescu’s Bucharest, to the in Bucharest where Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu personality cult of a national leader. Transpor- bulldozed large sections of the historic old city, including many tation system improvements and a few “show- churches, to create a grand axis flanked by government buildings and leading up to the steps of the pompously oversized Palace of Culture case” inner-city housing developments were pictured here. Construction of the massive Stalinist structure employed completed, especially in areas totally de- 60,000 workers for 5 years. At 330,000 square meters in area, it is the stroyed during the war, but for the most part second-largest building in the world after the Pentagon. Likened for its planners directed the lion’s share of develop- sumptuous extravagance to an 18th-century Versailles, Bucharest to- ment funds toward the building of grandiose day is left with this highly visible and monstrously ugly reminder of the industrial complexes and housing estates on past. 288 III. TOWNS AND CITIES egalitarian principles were applied in the pro- luxury-item shops, office space, banks, and vision of housing, which was accomplished hotels in combination with international in- through planning decisions rather than by vestment and tourism. We are also seeing an market competition. Middle-class suburbs or expansion of city center functions into nearby inner-city neighborhoods of poor or low- residential zones and a selective gentrification income workers were not supposed to exist, of those zones. This, in turn, is creating a new although in reality “black market” dealings social division of space, associated with the sometimes did lead to significant differences commodification and rise in the cost of hous- in who might occupy housing in certain areas. ing and featuring greater levels of socioeco- A lessening of the influence of socialist ideol- nomic homogeneity. A new suburbanism be- ogy in some countries in the latter part of the yond the city periphery, based on private 1980s has also led to increased socioeconomic construction of villas and other forms of low- residential segregation. density housing, is also under way. Within the At the level of urban systems, the experi- urban system, medium- and small-small sized ence of the socialist countries also diverged cities are becoming more differentiated as in- significantly from that of their western coun- dividual places struggle with varying success terparts. With the exception of a few very to upgrade their endogenous economic base large places, most notably Moscow, there has and attract investment funds, while capital been far less differentiation within the urban cities experience a period of especially rapid system. Socialist policies favored capital cities growth. as centers of decision making and invested Indeed, the current pace of development in heavily in their economic growth, but the ag- many of the larger central and eastern Euro- glomerating effects of the relatively few really pean cities is astounding. The construction of large centers on their orbits of medium- and western-style office towers, trade centers, smaller-sized cities has been far less than in shopping malls both above and below ground, the West. The East, as we pointed out earlier, and showy new condominium complexes lacks the great conurbations and growth belts appears to be occurring everywhere. In this that we associate with western urbanism. sense, the former capitals of the socialist Cities are much more widely spaced, and the states are clearly the biggest beneficiaries of socialist ideal of fostering an even distribu- the opening to the West. Indeed, it has often tion of settlement and economic development been said that the three largest “construction across regions has tended to enhance the im- sites” in today’s Europe are the cities of Mos- portance and distinctiveness of medium-sized cow, Warsaw, and Berlin. cities, once the central primacy of the capital Led by its popular and powerfully auto- is acknowledged. One might say that the sys- cratic mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow, the for- tem is best developed at the lower and middle mer capital of world communism, has strived levels of the urban hierarchy, but, with the ex- to define an entirely new image for itself. ception of a few primate cities, only weakly so Since becoming mayor in 1992, Luzhkov has at the upper levels. worked tirelessly to engineer an ambitious As the postsocialist cities of eastern and program of high-profile construction projects, east-central Europe now compress both time both in the city’s center and as part of a $5- and space in an effort to catch up to their billion “New Ring” development scheme for western counterparts, the changes that take the city’s periphery. The Moscow City Coun- place will undoubtedly be much more pro- cil, which along with the mayor controls the foundly noticeable than those observed over city’s urban development process, has been the past couple of decades in the West. active in encouraging a host of speculative Among these changes are the privatization of investments. These include showy symbolic property and reintroduction of a free land gestures, such as the 1997 rebuilding of the market, and a revitalization and restructuring massive Cathedral of Christ the Saviour as of old historical city centers with emphasis on part of the city’s 850th anniversary celebra- 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 289

FIGURE 9.22. New villa construction. New wealth generated in Russia’s free-ranging market economy is safely invested here in property as well as lifestyle. The construction of new villas, such as these, is a common site around the outskirts of the Russian capital.

tions, or the raising of an immense statue of ing boards or in the proposal stage. Aglow at Peter the Great on the banks of the Moscow night with garishly illuminated corporate lo- River. Also included are massive commercial gos and advertisements, Moscow’s center has ventures, such as the construction near the begun to morph itself into a mainstream em- Kremlin at Manezh Square of a modern four- porium of the global economy, and the ten- level underground shopping center, which dency to reach for the colossal remains strong. boasts more than 80,000 square meters of re- Among the proposed new structures is the tail and office space. 640-meter “Tower of Russia,” the plans for Moscow’s private redevelopment efforts which are currently commissioned with the have featured such varied projects as the re- American architectural firm that designed the habilitation of the city’s turn-of-the-century Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center in Art Nouveau-style Metropol Hotel and the Chicago. If built, the tower would become the construction of dozens of new office and lux- world’s tallest structure. ury apartment towers. Many of the new struc- In addition to the raising of new structures, tures are stylishly postmodern in architectural a sizable portion of the center of Moscow’s design. In an effort to break away from the rather dilapidated stock of apartment build- coldly modernist architecture that character- ings has undergone refurbishment as part of ized Moscow’s more recent socialist past, they the rush to provide upscale residential space typically incorporate decorative elements that near to the hub of the city’s new commercial reflect the historic building styles of the city. economy. A seemingly insatiable demand for A prime example is the new 43-story Edel- office space and high-end housing has driven weiss residential tower complex, whose out- rents in the city center, despite the wave of line so much resembles the familiar profiles of new construction, to levels comparable to, if the city’s seven Gothic-like Stalinesque sky- not even higher than, those found in many scrapers that it has been dubbed the “eighth western European capitals. Depending on the sister.” Since the mid-1990s, Moscow has amenities and the view, affluent Muscovites added more than 30 new high-rise towers to may currently spend up to $3,000 per square its skyline. Another 40 or so are currently un- meter for luxury apartment space at or near der construction in a city whose skyline con- the city center. The city center is gradually tinues to sport a veritable forest of building becoming more exclusive. The steep rise in cranes, and at least 10 more are on the draw- property values and rents has begun to drive 290 III. TOWNS AND CITIES people on lower or fixed incomes from their homes, replacing the formerly mixed population of the city center with so-called New Russians, the rising class of nouveau riche who have profited handsomely from Russia’s transition to a market economy. Warsaw, too, has experienced considerable change since 1989. The relatively quick restoration of private land ownership rights and revitalization of the market economy in Poland has sparked a building boom in the Polish capital. Since the mid-1990s over $5 billion has been spent, largely by foreign investors, on a series of downtown building projects. More than two dozen new high-rise commercial and residential towers now dot a city skyline that prior to 1989 had just five tall buildings, the most notable of which was the 231- meter Palace of Culture and Science. This FIGURE 9.23. Wedding Cake. Originally called Stalin’s Palace, huge Moscow-style wedding cake skyscraper and often nicknamed “the Wedding Cake” or “the Vertical Barracks,” erected during the 1950s as a gift from Stalin Warsaw’s huge concrete neo-Gothic Palace of Culture was a gift from to the Polish people is now regarded by many Josef Stalin to the people of Warsaw in the early 1950s. The building, as Warsaw’s anachronistic monument to the which stands in the commercial center of the city, is surrounded by a country’s socialist years. The pace of new con- very large green park area, which says something about the lack of struction in the city continues unabated. An- value placed on central location in socialist Europe, since any similar other 30 new towers are currently proposed, area in a western city would have been heavily built over because of its planned, or under construction, including a high land value. proposed European Trade Center building, which at nearly 300 meters would take its place among Europe’s tallest structures. Like is moving rapidly ahead. A top priority is the Moscow, the city is awash with new commer- task of overcoming a critical shortage of mod- cial activity. In the center of the city a sprawl- ern office space. Much of the city’s new con- ing underground shopping mall has been struction activity has been concentrated in opened next to the central station, while out and along the former no-man’s land buffer on the periphery Warsaw has become home to zone that followed the line of the wall through a half-dozen suburban western-style shop- the city’s center. Major development with- ping complexes—each surrounded by ample in the zone is focused in three areas. First, parking, anchored by large “hypermarkets” around the newly refurbished Reichstag build- such as the French-owned Carrefour and ing, where a new quarter has been laid out to Géant stores, and featuring familiar western house the ministries and government offices chain outlets like Dunkin’ Donuts and The transplanted from the former capital in Bonn. Athlete’s Foot. Second, in the historic downtown shopping After a decades-long postwar existence as a and office district located just to the east of city divided between East and West and as the former wall around Friedrichstrasse. And a relative economic backwater compared to third, around Potsdamer Platz, which once major West German rivals like Frankfurt, held the reputation of being the liveliest Hamburg and Munich, Berlin is aggressively crossroads hub of prewar Europe but was lev- reinventing itself as the “New Metropolis Be- eled by bombing during the war, and because tween East and West.” Once again in the of its location just to the west of the wall was spotlight as the new German capital, the city left to sit vacant during the postwar decades. 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 291

FIGURE 9.24. Western retail outlets. Shoppers in this suburban War- saw shopping mall must pass a Dunkin’ Donuts outlet on their way to shop at the modern hypermarket owned by the French retail grocery chain Géant, which anchors the mall. Western companies like Géant have invested heavily in east-central Europe during the 1990s.

Billed as Europe’s single “biggest construc- city’s landscape or community ideals, the de- tion site” and viewed by crowds of curious velopment is hugely successful and perhaps onlookers from the roof of a temporary pro- emblematic of the increasingly dominant role motional structure known as the Infobox, a re- exerted by large multinational firms in shap- vitalized quarter of new office buildings, ho- ing the public landscapes of cities. While the tels, restaurants, theaters, and retail shopping designers of the new Potsdamer Platz devel- rose quickly from the wasteland around Pots- opments in Berlin have made a conscious damer Platz during the 1990s (although the effort to create public space—there are muse- early stages of construction proceeded very ums, restaurants, boutiques, multiplex cine- cautiously due to the presence of occasional mas, even an IMAX theater, and thousands of unexploded shells left over from the fighting visitors stream through the Daimler-Chrysler for Berlin in 1945). Two major multinational and Sony Center foras and atriums daily—the companies, Daimler-Chrysler and Sony, have public space is primarily a carnival-like land- played central roles in the development of the scape of consumption, while the tower spaces site, each developing a complex of buildings above are reserved exclusively for the serious on land they acquired adjacent to the square day-to-day work of the corporate world and shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The for luxury apartments. more eye-catching of the two is the Sony As development proceeds along such lines, Center, an ensemble of eight buildings that it seems reasonable to assume that we can occupies a wedge of land touching and ex- expect a growing reintegration of former so- tending to the northwest of Potsdamer Platz. cialist cities into the larger European urban The focal point of the Sony Center complex is system. The new “peripheries,” such as the an ellipse-shaped forum topped by a 100-meso-called Mediterranean Crescent, that have ter-diameter tented roof of laminated glass arisen around the traditional west European and Teflon-coated fabric, which floods the in- core will eventually have their counterpart in terior with shifting tones of light and shadow. some kind of new urban constellation in the Its exclamation point is the 103-meter blue- East. Most likely to emerge as anchors will be tinged steel and glass tower, one side flat and the capitals and more progressive provincial the other gently curved, which faces the Platz cities in the parts of east-central Europe most at the apex of the Sony complex. closely linked with the West. Among the capi- While criticized by some Berliners for its tals, Berlin certainly, but also such places as lack of sensitivity to any historic sense of the Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest are 292 III. TOWNS AND CITIES

FIGURE 9.25. Potsdamer Platz. Visitors to Berlin’s Sony Center gawk at the gleaming glass walls and the eye-catching tented fabric and glass roof as they pass before the IMAX theater. Along with the nearby Chrysler Atrium and other restaurants and attractions, the Sony Center has restored Potsdamer Platz to its former importance as one of Berlin’s busiest locations. Except for the small remnant preserved in the pavement outside, it is difficult to tell that this spot stood just to one side of the infamous Berlin Wall.

likely to be major players. Together these and relative importance of towns and cities cities dominated the urban system of east- have changed with the ages—how they have central Europe at the beginning of the 20th at various times been either integrated with century and continued to do so up until World or separated from the surrounding country- War II, after which they fell into decline as side, how at various times towns and cities in their natural economic and cultural links to different parts of Europe have been more or one another and the rest of the continent less advantageously situated with respect to were severed by the political bifurcation of the currents of trade or technological ad- postwar Europe. All have now shown signs vancement, or how they may have risen or of vigorous recovery and growing integration fallen with the ebb and flow of political power. within the new transnational urban economy. In other words, we have tried to appreciate Their rapid development has even led to nos- the fact that the functional and spatial charac- talgic conjecture in some quarters, however teristics of the urban system are dynamic. To- unrealistic it may actually be, about a return day’s urban hierarchy is certainly different to a pre-1914 urban ordering of central Eu- from, for example, that of the industrial era, rope. the Middle Ages, or classical times, and con- Europeans today live in a thoroughly ur- tinues to evolve. The same might be said of banized society. In the two chapters of Part the internal social organization of towns and III, we have traced how they have come to cities. this point. We have seen how the spatial All of this suggests that there is nearly al- forms and built environments of towns and ways something unique about any European cities have evolved over the ages from the town or city. No two have exactly the same early classical foundations of European ur- cityscape, history, or even prospects for the banization to its present “postmodern” form. future. Yet, their inhabitants share a distinctly All of this helps us to appreciate, as we walk European heritage of urban development and the streets and squares of European cities, life, and, as we have noted, the circumstances how historically “layered” our surroundings of that existence seem to be becoming more may be. More often than not, the cityscape we homogenized in an increasingly globalized see is an intricate mixture of surviving ele- world. What are some of the principal charac- ments from past and current developmental teristics of the everyday lives that Europeans periods. We have also seen how the functions live? We have now seen that the majority live 9. Modern and Postmodern Urbanism 293 in urban places, and have suggested that even polynucleated macro region? Tijdschrift voor those who live beyond the confines of towns Economische en Sociale Geografie, 89, 320–327. and cities are influenced in countless ways by Forest, B., & Johnson, J. (2002). Unraveling the the dictates and fashions of the continent’s threads of history: Soviet-era monuments and larger and dominant urban society. We now post-Soviet national identity in Moscow. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92, turn in the last section of this book to exam- 524–547. ining how Europeans spend their time— Glebe, G., & O’Loughlin, J. (Eds.). (1987). Foreign whether at work, in school, in retirement, or minorities in continental European cities. simply at leisure. Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner. Grava, S. (1993). The urban heritage of the Soviet Regime: The case of Riga, Latvia. Journal of the FURTHER READING American Planning Association, 59, 9–30. Ladd, B. (1997). The ghosts of Berlin: Confronting Argenbright, R. (1999). Remaking Moscow: New German history in the urban landscape. Chi- places, new selves. Geographical Review, 89,1– cago: University of Chicago Press. 22. Meller, H. (2001). European cities, 1890s–1930s: Ashworth, G. J. (1998). The conserved European History, culture and the built environment. city as cultural symbol: The meaning of the text. Chichester, UK: Wiley. In B. Graham (Ed.), Modern Europe: Place, cul- Notaro, A. (2000). Exhibiting the new Mussolini ture and identity (pp. 186–209). London: Ar- city: Memories of empire in the World Exhibi- nold. tion of Rome (EUR). GeoJournal, 51, 15–22. Bekemans, L., & Mira, E. (Eds.). (2000). Civitas Ragulska, J. (1987). Urban development under so- Europa: Cities, urban systems and cultural re- cialism: The Polish experience. Urban Geogra- gions between diversity and convergence. phy, 8, 321–339. Brussels: Presses Univesitaires Européenes. Siderov, D. (2000). The resurrection of the Cathe- Castells, M. (1993). European cities, the informa- dral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Annals of tional society, and the global economy. the Association of American Geographers, 90, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale 548–572. Geografie, 84, 247–257. Sutcliffe, A. (Ed.). (1984). Metropolis, 1890–1940. Danta, D. (1993). Ceausescu’s Budapest. Geo- Chicago: University of Chicago Press. graphical Review, 83, 170–182. van der Wusten, H. (2000). Dictators and their Dawson, A. H. (1999). From glittering icon to . . . capital cities: Moscow and Berlin in the 1930s. Geographical Journal, 165, 154–160. Geojournal, 52, 339–344. Dieleman, F. M., & Faludi, A. (1998). Rand- White, P. D. (1998). Berlin: Social convergences stad, Rhine-Ruhr and Flemish Diamond as one and contrasts in the reunited city. Geography, 83, 214–226.

PART IV Work and Leisure

CHAPTER 10 Making a Living

Most Europeans today make their living in a earning a living from agricultural work. This manner that is very different from the way they has happened at the same time that food pro- might have just a century ago. Europe’s new duction has been maintained or even in- industrial age was then in full swing. Millions creased. Manufacturing employment has also of workers lived in industrial towns and cities fallen in most countries, in addition to being and labored daily in mines, foundries, ship- transformed by the introduction of automated yards, mills, and factories. In Europe’s most technologies, by the decline of traditional heavily industrialized zone, running from Brit- heavy industries, and by the rise of newer ain across northeastern France and the Low electronic and high-tech consumer-oriented Countries and into Germany, but also in scat- industries. At the same time, employment has tered locations across the length and breadth of expanded tremendously in the service sector, the continent, the industrial worker had be- which now accounts for the majority of jobs come the backbone of the economy. Alongside in nearly every European country. The typi- this working class, an even newer group of ur- cal European worker today is a white-collar ban workers was emerging. These workers employee who holds a service job in gov- were also wage earners, but they served an ex- ernment, or in the health, finance, retailing, panding office and retail services sector as leisure, or entertainment sectors. This is as clerks, secretaries, bank tellers, and retail sales true in the former socialist economies of east- assistants. At the same time very large sections central and eastern Europe as it is in the tra- of the continent were still essentially rural, in- ditionally capitalist western economies. Pro- habited by people who made their living from cesses of globalization and integration have the land or sea. Indeed, despite the rapid late made the economies of individual countries, 19th- and early 20th-century growth of indus- and by extension the jobs that Europeans try and cities, agricultural work still supported hold, whether agricultural, manufacturing or the largest number of Europeans, although the service, more similar and more interdepen- balance was slowly tilting toward urban and in- dent than ever before. And, in one of the great dustrial life. transformations of the age, these economies These classical features of industrial society are more likely to contain large numbers of have been transformed over the past century women, both married and single, working as Europe’s economies have evolved and ma- outside the home. tured. Among the many changes is a vast re- The emergence of a modern service econ- duction in the proportion of the population omy and a concomitant rise in the qualifica-

297 298 IV. WORK AND LEISURE tions necessary for employment have been nary people, eastern Europeans by and large paralleled by a rapid expansion of education have also enjoyed a level of prosperity and systems. Europe’s population today is notably economic security that, by the late 1970s and more highly educated than it was a century the 1980s, was vastly superior to that which ago, with most young people now completing they had known previously. at least some form of secondary education. A In addition to generally rising levels of growing percentage now goes on to higher prosperity, Europeans have also benefited education or specialized vocational training. from a remarkable willingness on the part of Thus, one of the great changes has been the the state to guarantee people’s long-term wel- considerable extension of the length of time fare. The so-called postwar economic miracle spent preparing for a life of work. Young peo- provided the wherewithal by which most ple on average have come to enter the labor western European countries were able to in- force today at a far later stage of life than did stitute comprehensive and generous provi- either their parents or grandparents. They sions for the welfare and social protection of have also found a working life that is more their citizens. The idea that the state should flexible and varied but in some ways less cer- provide economic and social security for the tain in its conditions of employment. disabled, the elderly, and the disadvantaged, A third major change has been the remark- as well as for families with children, became able growth in individual wealth and living an ideological underpinning of the late 20th- standards that has occurred since World War century welfare state in western Europe. II. In the aftermath of the war much of Eu- However, the question of whether and for rope lay in economic as well as physical ruin. how long society can bear the costs of the Wartime destruction, deprivation, and dislo- seemingly open-ended provisions that have cation had severely disrupted or impover- become the norm in most countries has been ished the economies of entire nations and a matter of political debate in the West since countless individual citizens. Only slowly did the late 1980s. The issue of sustainable levels Europe begin to restore some semblance of of social welfare provision is no less critical in normalcy during the years immediately fol- the former socialist states of the East. There lowing the war. In the 1950s and 1960s, how- during the postwar decades the state in- ever, the pace of recovery quickened and, par- tervened even more comprehensively in the ticularly in the West, Europeans enjoyed the business of providing economic and social se- beginnings of an extended period of economic curity for its citizens, going far beyond the growth and prosperity that has continued, usual provision of pensions, health care, and with only minor slowdowns and setbacks, to welfare, to the subsidization of housing and the present. food costs, day care for children, and even This remarkable development has meant family vacations. that throughout the latter half of the 20th cen- Our purpose in this chapter is to explore tury real incomes rose substantially, allowing each of these four developments—the trans- most western Europeans the luxury of a dis- formation of labor markets, the expanding posable income to spend on a range of goods length and breadth of education and training, and services, such as cars, appliances, elec- the real growth of personal income and tronics, and vacations, that went far beyond wealth, and the struggle to provide adequate what would normally be regarded as the mere but affordable levels of welfare and social se- basics of life. Although measurably different curity—that so profoundly shape the way in in many ways, a similar improvement in living which Europeans economically ground their standards also occurred in the socialist East. daily lives as they enter the 21st century. As Even though levels of income and wealth ac- we do so, we will be especially interested in cumulation have lagged significantly behind contrasting and comparing the changes occur- those of the West, and certain luxury goods ring in both the old democracies of the West may have often been out of the reach of ordi- and the new democracies of the East. 10. Making a Living 299

LABOR MARKETS enjoyed a favored place in the national economy, the proportion of the labor force actually Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing employed in this sector today barely exceeds Only a relatively small part of Europe’s popu- 4% of the labor force. lation today is dependent on the land or the The relative importance of the primary sec- sea for its livelihood. Employment in agricul- tor grows, however, as one moves out from ture, forestry, or fishing is proportionately the urbanized core of western Europe toward least important in the heavily urbanized and the peripheries. To the west, agriculture and service-oriented economies of western and fishing play a notably larger role in the more northern Europe. Throughout this area, less traditional employment structures of the re- than 5% of the economically active population gions along Europe’s Atlantic fringe. The is employed in these primary sectors of the same holds for the poorer parts of the Medi- economy. Britain has the smallest proportion terranean South. Agriculture is also a rela- in all of Europe, at less than 2%. Even in tively more important way of making a living France, where agriculture has traditionally in the highlands and basins of central Europe,

FIGURE 10.1. Economically active employed in agriculture, forestry, and fishing. 300 IV. WORK AND LEISURE and its significance becomes even more pro- north German plain, and Italy’s Po Basin and nounced on the broad expanses of the east- Emilia Romagna regions. ern European plain that extend through Po- Many of these changes led to extensive land and on into the Baltic States, Belarus, gains in productivity. This has meant that pol- Ukraine, and Russia. The same is generally icymakers throughout the 1980s and 1990s true of the Balkans. Indeed, agricultural em- have chiefly sought, although often with little ployment is at its highest in the least econom- success, to reduce agricultural output. Over- ically developed Balkan countries of Albania, production remains a persistently difficult is- Moldova, and Romania, reaching levels of sue in Europe. The complicated and contro- nearly 40% or more. versial agricultural subsidy system of the EU, The modernization and mechanization of known as CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), agriculture have a relatively long history in essentially encourages farmers to overpro- the West. Significant progress was already un- duce and absorbs roughly half of the annual der way in some regions during the 18th and budget of the EU. This continues despite a 19th centuries as farmers began to adopt in- number of recent efforts to bring about re- novations, such as new crops and fertilizers, form. and to organize into cooperatives. But the At the same time, there has been a long- pace of change has been most rapid over term trend toward fewer and fewer agricul- the latter half of the 20th century. During tural jobs. According to EU statistics, agricul- the 1960s and 1970s, the rate of change was tural labor in the 15 (pre-enlargement) mem- particularly high as agriculture was simulta- ber states has fallen from the equivalent of neously intensified and specialized. During nearly 13 million full-time workers at the end this period farming also became more inti- of the 1970s to fewer than 7 million today. mately linked in many areas to agribusiness While three-quarters of all agricultural labor and food retailers. These changes were ac- in these EU countries is family-based, there companied by a steady decline in the number has also been a growing shift toward non- of small farmers and a concentration of land family labor as women and youthful family into larger and larger operations. This was es- members continue to drift out of agriculture pecially true in some of the richest regions, to find employment in other sectors. The such as East Anglia in England, the Paris Ba- trend is especially marked in Spain, where sin in France, the southern Netherlands, the the employment of seasonal workers, imported from the Maghreb countries of North Af- rica and elsewhere, has become increasingly common in the orchard, vineyard, and olive grove harvests. Both the role of agriculture in national economies and the level of employment in agriculture have remained much higher in the East, despite various efforts to restructure production during the decade of the 1990s. Collectivization, which was introduced during the socialist years in many countries, resulted in fewer and larger units but not necessarily in wholesale reductions in the size of the agricultural labor force. Wherever it was introduced, agriculture became more indus- FIGURE 10.2. Agribusiness. Agriculture in western Europe is highly trialized but remained generally inefficient in capitalized, mechanized, and productive. Surplus production is a pe- its use of human resources. Where collectiv- rennial problem. Here a tractor works the soil to prepare the ground for ization was not extensively applied, as in Po- a crop of winter wheat on the High Meseta in Spain. land and the former Yugoslavia, agriculture 10. Making a Living 301

The hub of European factory employment today lies well to the east of the area that we might think of as the traditional industrial heartland. The highest levels of employment in this sector are centered instead on the countries of east-central Europe. Relatively high levels also extend westward from this core region to include much of Germany, eastward to include Ukraine and Belarus, and southward to take in some but not all of the countries of the Balkans. It is important to remember that this high FIGURE 10.3. Collective farm. With multiple silos and extensive outbuildings, a collective farm sits in the midst of hundreds of hectares employment zone does not necessarily con- of grain fields. When this photo was taken in the early 1990s, there tain the most productive or efficient examples was little evidence that this operation in Lithuania had yet been privat- of European manufacturing. It is simply the ized. area where employment in this sector is relatively most important. This is to a very large extent the legacy of the intensive drive for in- basically remained as traditional and labor- dustrial development that preoccupied nearly intensive as it had been in the past. all of the socialist countries in the decades Since 1989 there has been a drive in many following World War II. This zone of propor- east-central and eastern European countries tionately high industrial employment persists for privatization. Events have shown, however, today despite the substantial losses in manu- that many collective farm members actually facturing jobs that have occurred in the 1990s prefer the familiar and relative security of co- as exposure to a competitive open market has operative farming to the higher level of risk enforced industry in these countries to close tailed in private farming. As a consequence, obsolescent plants and eliminate widespread some privatization initiatives have been re- employment redundancies. Russia might also jected or delayed. While there has been a gen- be included, but with just under 25% of eral increase in the number of small family its economically active population now em- farms in some of the formerly socialist coun- ployed in manufacturing, it falls more prop- tries, production has fallen nearly everywhere, erly among a group of countries such as Fin- and at present the success of an expected tran- land, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Italy, sition to a western-style agricultural economy and Portugal, in which manufacturing em- appears mixed, at best. In the countries that ployment remains relatively high but more have been most successful in making the tran- modestly so. The lowest levels of manufactur- sition to a market economy, such as Estonia, ing employment, with the exception of the Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and southern Balkans, are generally found in the Slovakia, the share of agricultural employment once industrialized but now more service-ori- has been slowly declining toward levels com- ented economies of western and northern Eu- parable to those in the West. It remains high, rope. on the other hand, in Poland and has actually The decline of manufacturing employment grown in Romania, where other employment is, however, a European-wide phenomenon opportunities have been particularly scarce. related to a process, known as deindustrialization, in which certain traditional indus- Manufacturing tries begin to lose, for a variety of reasons, their ability to produce competitively. These The present map of manufacturing employ- industries find themselves unable to innovate ment in Europe looks notably different from or reorganize and typically enter a cumula- that which existed in the not-so-distant past. tive process of decline that may eventually 302 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

FIGURE 10.4. Economically active employed in manufacturing, 2000.

threaten to depress the entire economy of the fabrication, chemicals, and energy, but also in city or region in which they are situated. textiles, clothing, and footwear. Deindustrialization is often blamed on the A progressive and long-term spread of de- rise of transnational companies, which are industrialization from the oldest industrial ar- known to have no qualms about closing ineffi- eas to the newest is reflected in the dates at cient plants and shifting production overseas which industrial employment has peaked in to reduce costs, although there is evidence each European country. The earliest countries that this is far too simplistic an explanation. to peak did so as early as the 1960s. These in- Since the 1970s deindustrialization has re- clude Britain, Belgium, Germany, the Nether- sulted in substantial job losses across Europe lands, Switzerland, and Sweden. From these and has contributed to persistently high levels long industrialized and relatively rich coun- of unemployment in many of the continent’s tries, the downturn in manufacturing employ- older industrial cities and regions. The impact ment spread outward to include the entire has been concentrated especially in the tradi- West by the end of the 1980s. The only exceptional manufacturing sectors of steel, metal tions to the rule were Portugal and Greece, 10. Making a Living 303 where the peak was not reached until the They proved uncompetitive outside of their early 1990s. Since then the retreat has begun very limited and protected domestic markets. and continues also in the former socialist Beginning in the 1980s, many western Euro- states of east-central and eastern Europe, pean countries began to privatize, selling off whose relatively inefficient state-run enter- large portions of their public holdings to buy- prises find themselves in no position to com- ers in the private sector. They were led by pete in the open market. Industrial employ- Britain, which began by breaking up its tele- ment is estimated to have fallen by roughly communications monopolies as well as such one-third in east-central Europe since the state-managed giants as British Rail, British early 1990s. In Romania there has been a de- Airways, and British Steel. Even France, cline of nearly 50%. which has one of the strongest traditions of This is not to say that manufacturing is in state ownership among western countries and any danger of disappearing as a major sector which initially resisted the trend, joined in of European employment and economy. The eventually. continent still ranks high among the world’s In the former socialist countries, where the most productive industrial regions. Europe vast majority of production units have been produces a full range of industrial products state-owned, there has been an even greater and is known for quality goods, particularly eagerness to divest. In former East Germany, in telecommunications, textiles and clothing, the Treuhand organization, which became the food products, chemicals, and pharmaceuti- postunification holding company responsible cals. What is happening, though, is a massive for selling off state-owned companies, began restructuring of how Europe produces goods operations with more than 11,000 companies and materials. to put on the block. Poland began its privat- Among a number of restructuring trends is ization drive with more than 8,000 state firms privatization. In the decades following World to sell. Romania had 40,000. The process has War II many countries nationalized key in- been long and difficult. Among the many dustries, both to protect them from foreign barriers has been a lack of potential buyers competition and to combat domestic unem- as well as uncertain systems of corporate ployment. These publicly subsidized indus- law and taxation. Despite bargain basement tries soon became bloated and inefficient. prices, most countries were successful in sell-

FIGURE 10.5. Privatization. The privatization of state enterprises in former East Germany was handled after reunification by the Treuhand organization, which worked out of this building in Berlin. The building has an interesting history. It was originally built during the Nazi era as Herman Göring’s Air Ministry. After the war, which it survived, it became the House of Minis- tries for the East German regime. Most recently it has been given over to the Finance Ministry of the German Federal Republic. 304 IV. WORK AND LEISURE ing off only a portion of their state-owned Espoo, Finland, the home of mobile phone firms, and failure rates among newly privat- giant Nokia, or Walldorf, Germany, the head- ized manufacturing enterprises have been quarters town of SAP, one of the world’s larg- high. est business software firms. A second trend is an accelerating wave of This highly visible trend has given rise to transnational takeovers and mergers. At first the notion that the industrial landscape of the only large transnational companies to op- Europe is being regenerated as a series of erate in Europe came from abroad. American micro-regions containing specialized net- and Japanese firms like Ford, IBM, and Sony works of high-technology firms. There are demonstrated that they could produce more other manufacturing sectors that also appear flexibly and capture larger markets by oper- to be undergoing a similar process of regional ating on a truly pan-European scale. Most agglomeration and networking, such as de- European companies, which were nationally signer clothing in northern Italy. But it is also based, lacked the ability to organize in this important to remember that there is much in fashion and were soon disadvantaged. Since the manufacturing sector that is traditionally the 1980s, however, there has been a rising organized and located, and that the old re- tide of European cross-boundary acquisitions mains every bit as important as the new. and alliances. This has come with the encouragement of the EU, which as part of the drive The Service Sector toward the Single Market has eased controls on international mergers and takeovers and It is an inescapable fact that Europe’s econ- promoted the adoption of European rather omy has become increasingly service- than national product standards. As a result of oriented and that a large part of the employ- this trend, the likelihood that a European ment losses that have occurred in other sec- worker may work for a large international tors have been absorbed by the service indus- firm that is actively organizing production and tries. Indeed, service is the only sector that distribution on a pan-European basis is far has generated an increased number of jobs higher today than it was just 10 or 15 years over the past two decades. It now accounts for ago. more than half of all employment in nearly ev- A third trend is the move toward the higher ery European country. The only exceptions technology and microelectronics manufactur- are Romania and Moldova, both of which still ing sectors. Recent data suggest that as many have very large agricultural sectors, and war- as 12 million EU citizens (roughly 8% of the torn Bosnia and Macedonia. labor force) now hold high-tech manufactur- The move toward a service economy is ing jobs and that these jobs are heavily con- most advanced, as one might expect, in the centrated in a handful of regions, such as economic heartland of northwestern Europe, Scotland’s “Silicon Valley” between Glasgow where more than three-quarters of the work- and Edinburgh, the Netherlands’ Noord- ing population hold service jobs of one kind Brabant region, the south of France, the area or another. In two west European countries, around Stuttgart in Germany, and along the the Netherlands and tiny Luxembourg, the M4 motorway corridor to the west of London. proportion of service industry workers ex- Many cities or city-regions have invested ceeds 80%! The dominance of service em- heavily, as was pointed out in an earlier chap- ployment over all other forms then shades off ter, in setting up new research parks for the as one travels away from the core regions of purpose of attracting high-tech firms, the ma- western and northern Europe. Ireland, Ice- jority of which are relatively small in size and land, and Finland, along with all of west- prefer an environment in which they can in- central Europe and the western Mediterra- teract with others. Towns or cities that host nean countries of Italy and Spain, form the the corporate headquarters of major global immediate periphery. They are followed in high-tech firms have also benefited, such as turn by Portugal, Estonia, Latvia, and the 10. Making a Living 305

FIGURE 10.6. Economically active employed in the service sector, 2000. countries of east-central Europe, eastern Eu- though the numbers of large chain stores, hy- rope, and the Balkans. The entire pattern is permarkets, and discount outlets have long roughly concentric and classically reflective of been on the rise, especially in some western what we generally understand to be the “core countries. The United Kingdom has been a to periphery” sequence of European eco- leader in this trend, as have France, Spain, nomic development. and Italy. The largest service industry sector in the Other commonly recognized nongovern- West is the distributive services, consisting mental service categories include finance, predominantly of retailers and their suppliers. communications, transportation, and the so- The EU, which keeps detailed economic sta- called hotel, restaurant, and cafe sector. Of tistics, counts more than 5 million distribu- these, the financial sector, which consists pri- tive enterprises within the 15 pre-enlarge- marily of the banking and insurance indus- ment member states, employing nearly tries, is proportionately the most important. 22 million people, or roughly one-fifth of all Also, as one of the most exposed sectors to on- workers. Most European retailing enterprises going forces of globalization and deregulation, are small to medium-sized establishments, al- it is both growing and changing very rapidly. 306 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

Communications and transportation is the services establishment has become one of least important as an employer, despite its the most essential factors in the competition reputation as the focal point of the global among cities to attract new investment and information society. Employment in commu- employment. nications and transportation is also heavily The rapid rise of a private service sector in concentrated in large firms—a legacy of a the former socialist countries of east-central disappearing era of state-owned monopolies. and eastern Europe since 1990 has been most The hotel, restaurant, and cafe sector is the remarkable, especially in light of the fact that most dispersed, with most establishments it has been created almost from scratch. Ac- (94%) employing fewer than nine people. cording to recent EU statistics on the eight The fastest-growing of the service sectors, new member countries in east-central Eu- however, is “producer services,” which is rope, nearly 2.5 million private service enter- made up of firms that provide other firms prises were created in these countries during with specialized forms of assistance and sup- just the first half-dozen years following the port. These specialized business services in- fall of the Berlin Wall, with Hungary (which clude such things as computer and software began privatizing even before the 1989 and support, financial and legal consulting, mar- 1990 revolutions), Slovenia, Poland, the Baltic ket research, and security protection. Over States, and the Czech Republic leading the the past decade, the number of producer ser- way. In all countries, these new ventures have vices enterprises has doubled in most coun- been largely the product of local entre- tries. Growth has been especially dynamic preneurship. Relatively few enterprises have in the continent’s economic heartland. In a benefited from outside capital. Most are handful of western countries—the Nether- small-scale, employing only a few people. lands, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Many are “micro-enterprises,” operated in the United Kingdom—this sector now claims many cases by people who probably hold an- over a quarter of the total economy, and in the other job. In only rare cases have they re- Netherlands over a quarter of all workers. sulted from the privatization of state-owned Producer services tend to be concentrated, as concerns. one might expect, in the larger metropolitan At the same time, there is ample evidence areas and cities. Because it is such a primary that the going has been tough and that over component of today’s restructured econo- the short term the number of such enterprises mies, the possession of a healthy producer in the former socialist countries is likely to de-

FIGURE 10.7. Franchise. One overnight European business success story is Telepizza. This fast-food franchise began in Spain and rapidly spread over all of western Europe. The rapidly expanding company has opened branches in Poland and Romania as well as in such far- flung places as Chile and Mexico. It is also setting up in the Maghreb. Seen here in Paris is a typical franchise outlet, with its trademark motorbike delivery vehicles lined up outside. 10. Making a Living 307

Spain, Portugal, and Greece work longer hours—although the workday is customarily broken by a long mid-day break. In the United Kingdom, whose “long-hours” culture seems to stand apart from that of the rest of the continent, the average workweek remains unusually long at nearly 44 hours, although there has been a slight decrease in recent years. Moreover, nearly a quarter of British workers put in up to 48 hours per week, the maximum allowed under the EU “working- FIGURE 10.8. Entrepreneurship. The 1990s saw an explosive in- time directive” rules adopted in Britain in crease in small service businesses in the new democracies of east-cen- 1998. In contrast, the average proportion of tral and eastern Europe. One major growth area was the provision of workers putting in this much time across the security. This advertisement (in English for potential foreign business EU is only around 9%. British workers are clients) offers around-the-clock protection to help deal with the dan- also more likely to work on Sunday. In France, gers and pitfalls of the new capitalism. on the other hand, the socialist government has recently moved to cut the workweek from 39 to 35 hours, albeit amid misgivings about cline. Many are already dormant and a major- the possible negative effect on the country’s ity face serious problems. In responding to ability to compete in the marketplace. survey questions, many entrepreneurs com- To date, the French experiment, which has plain of high levels of competition due to been phased in gradually (the average work- the fact that too many enterprises have been week now stands at 37.7 hours), has defied set up and there is an insufficient number of the dire predictions that the move would customers with strong purchasing power or hurt productivity. In fact, French worker pro- credit, as well as a lack of resources necessary ductivity has risen since the implementation to engage in the kinds of marketing activities of the shorter workweek, and unemployment necessary to make their small service busi- has fallen sharply. In contrast British worker nesses well known. productivity remains lower than it is in most other western European countries. French Conditions of Employment hourly productivity has been shown to be one-third higher and German productivity The length of time that Europeans spend at one-quarter higher. Such differences, how- their jobs has declined steadily over the past ever, may be as much cultural as anything half-century, a reflection both of the influence else. The French have perhaps enjoyed a of organized labor and the transition to a ser- longer trend toward flexible and temporary vice-oriented economy. In the 1950s a work- work practices, and French firms may be freer week that stretched to 45 hours or more was to find sensible ways of making good use not unusual. Today, according to EU statistics, of shorter working hours than their British Europeans spend on average just under 40 counterparts. hours per week (39.3 to be precise) at their Today’s labor market has, in general, be- jobs. Manufacturing workers put in slightly come far more flexible than it was just a de- more time than service workers, while agri- cade ago. Europeans today are more likely cultural workers generally work longer hours, than in the past to have part-time jobs, to be averaging a little over 43 hours per week. working under fixed-term contracts, and to be There is considerable variation between employed for greatly differing numbers of countries. Workers put in the least amount hours per week. In the EU in 1999, nearly of time in Belgium, Italy, and Denmark. one in five employees (18%) held part-time Those in the Mediterranean countries of jobs, the vast majority of them (80%) women. 308 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

Another 13% were working under some kind evident among other professionals, such as of fixed-term contract. There is also a substan- doctors, lawyers and in some cases even aca- tial, but often inestimable, share of employ- demics, for whom legal barriers to permanent ment that takes place in the so-called informal employment in other countries still remain. sector, where no reportable contracts exist Nor does it seem to apply very much to indus- (activities such as hairdressing, repairs of all trial and skilled workers. The huge labor mi- kinds, and the making of goods at home). Par- grations that many economists once predicted ticularly in Mediterranean countries, as well would follow the creation of open labor mar- as across large parts of central and eastern kets simply have not occurred. Throughout Europe, such “flexible employment” in the the restructuring of the 1990s, there has in “black economy” is widespread and often cor- fact been a marked stability of working pop- related with areas where “official unemploy- ulations, at both the regional and national ment” stands at relatively high levels. Its inci- levels. Only quite small percentages of EU dence is also on the rise in parts of northern citizens have actually moved to other coun- and western Europe where it has previously tries for reasons of employment, although for been less important. What this means, when younger and highly educated workers the taken all together, is that traditional full-time trend is definitely upward. work has come to be somewhat less important In a few industries a shortfall of qualified for a sizable segment of today’s population. labor within the EU is causing EU countries Finally, as a consequence of the breaking to look outside the Union. High-tech and down of national barriers to the movement of computer specialists have been shown to labor within the European Union, the poten- be especially prominent among these. Skilled tial labor market for an EU citizen has been labor shortages in this rapidly expanding sec- opened up to include the entire EU space. tor of the economy have created extraordi- This is reflected in a greater mobility of work- nary pressures. Germany has, for example, re- ers, particularly those in seasonal or in certain cently begun accepting thousands of resumes service industry jobs such as waiters, maids, from computer specialists in non-EU coun- and harvest or sanitation workers. It is also tries who are now eligible for special 3-year quite evident among business elites. Europe renewable work permits specifically targeted is rapidly developing a new cosmopolitan at workers who possess appropriate technol- business class—much larger than in the past, ogy skills. Austria is also considering a short- fluent in several languages, essentially bor- term relaxation in its immigration laws to derless, and aggressively nonnationalistic. meet an anticipated deficit of thousands of This kind of mobility is, however, much less skilled information technology workers. In

FIGURE 10.9. Informal economy. These African men are selling purses and handbags on a Rome street corner. Activities such as this are part of the informal economy, and may also, in this case, be part of the illegal migration problem. 10. Making a Living 309 the United Kingdom, the current shortfall of Ireland, Spain, Portugal, southern Italy and of information-technology specialists is esti- Greece, but also Sweden, Finland, and the mated at more than 200,000 workers. As in former East Germany. At a more intimate Germany, the government has recently an- scale, considerable variation exists within nounced plans to ease work permit require- these larger zones. Many regions within the ments for companies who wish to recruit in- heartland that suffer from the eclipse of tradi- formation technology workers from outside tional industries exhibit persistently high un- the EU. employment rates. This has been particularly true of the old steel and coal areas of northern Unemployment France and southern Belgium, the Saarland and Ruhr, and parts of the English Midlands, Western Europeans have experienced two as well as some of the old shipbuilding areas. distinct labor markets since the end of World Meanwhile, other regions surrounding large War II. The first, which lasted into the mid- metropolitan centers such as London or 1970s and was associated with the so-called Brussels, or centers of new high-tech indus- postwar economic miracle, was a period of tries and services clusters such as Baden- relatively low unemployment. Indeed, many Württemberg, Bavaria, or Emilia Romagna, western countries were forced, as we have have prospered and largely escaped the bur- seen, to import foreign guest workers during den of high unemployment. this period in order to meet labor demands. The socialist countries of east-central and Over the past quarter century there has been, eastern Europe also enjoyed a protracted pe- however, an extended period of relatively riod of full employment after World War II. high unemployment resulting from a series of Unlike the West, universally high levels of economic downturns, ongoing processes of employment continued here through the deindustrialization, and relatively low levels 1970s and 1980s as a matter of public policy, of job creation. Indeed, the persistence although they were accompanied by seriously of double-digit unemployment during this period has plagued most western European economies. Governments have come under much criticism for their inability to develop economic policies that generate jobs on the same prodigious scale as the U.S. economy seems to have done during the same period. Indeed the term Eurosclerosis has entered the lexicon to describe the relative inelasticity of late 20th-century, as well as current, western European labor markets and economies. Although the numbers rise and fall from time to time, the overall geography of unemployment in western Europe seems to have changed little over the past decade or two. There is, however, considerable regional variation. At the broadest scale, a clear core and FIGURE 10.10. Deindustrialization. Traditional heavy industries periphery pattern exists. A core of more pros- were hit hard during the last decades of the 20th century. Seen here is the gate to the Gdansk Shipyard (Stocznia Gdanska), where the famous perous areas, where unemployment levels are Polish workers’ movement Solidarity staged an uprising in August relatively low, covers much of the European 1980. Their protest caught the world’s attention and played a major heartland from southeastern England to role in sparking a gathering tide of rebellion within east-central Europe northern Italy. Beyond that is a peripheral that eventually brought socialist rule to an end. The Gdansk Shipyard, belt of high unemployment that includes the however, has been no more immune than other heavy industry to the traditional western and southern peripheries pressures of today’s economy, suffering bankruptcy in 1996. 310 IV. WORK AND LEISURE declining levels of productivity that resulted market economy in the former East Germany in part from problems of labor redundancy has been the severe dislocation of a labor mar- and absenteeism. The market economy transi- ket in which female participation had been tions of the 1990s, however, have led to wide- much higher than in West Germany. At the spread and unusually high levels of un- time of reunification, women’s share of the employment, reduced living standards, and East German labor market was around 47%, increased job insecurity, often accompanied as compared to something less than 40% in by a sharp rise in self-destructive behavior, the Federal Republic, where female participa- especially among men. Such problems have tion levels have traditionally been among the been particularly evident in parts of Russia, lowest in Europe. Such relatively high levels Ukraine, and the Balkans, but also in other of participation had long been promoted in east-central and eastern European countries. East Germany, as in other socialist states, for Most of the formerly socialist countries ideological reasons as well as to meet the posted a rise in unemployment percentage needs of the economy. They had been made rates from zero or negligible to the middle- or possible by social policy measures designed to even high-teens by the mid-1990s. These lev- lessen conflicts between workforce participa- els have eased off more recently, however. A tion and family responsibility, such as provi- recent EU-sponsored report assessing the la- sions for on-site child care, work leaves, and bor market in the countries of east-central financial grants. Although women had been Europe found an average unemployment rate accorded an official equality in the workplace of around 13%—considerably higher than the with men under the old state regime, a gen- average figure of a little over 9% for the coun- der bias seems to have remained beneath the tries of the EU, to be sure, but better than just surface. For under the pressures of restructur- a few years earlier. There is, however, little ing, it has been women who have been most prospect of ever returning to pretransition strongly affected by cutbacks in employment employment levels, which has necessitated a and in child care services used to employ considerable readjustment in the labor mar- women. Within a short time after reunifica- ket expectations of a significant segment of tion, unemployment among women in the for- the population. One consequence has been mer territory of the old German Democratic the rising specter of what some have referred Republic rose from nearly zero to more than to as a “postsocialist underclass.” 20%. For many East German women, reunifi- Nonetheless, overall rates of participation cation brought not only unemployment but in the labor market, despite the difficulties of also an unanticipated sense of confusion over the transition period, remain higher overall their role in economic life outside the home. than those found in the West, part of which has to do with higher levels of female partici- Feminization pation in the East. During the socialist years in eastern Europe, women were strongly en- While women’s participation in the labor couraged to participate in the labor force. force has long been high in the socialist East, They were in a sense “emancipated” from do- the feminization of the labor force in the West mesticity, although not entirely so, since they has been a more recent and much more var- were still expected to shoulder family respon- ied phenomenon. Important to the process sibilities. Nonetheless, female participation have been the ongoing changes in the em- was everywhere high, and women made real ployment structure toward increased services, and substantial inroads into many of the pro- which has greatly expanded the kinds of part- fessions, in addition to taking traditional jobs time and flexible employment opportunities in the services and labor-intensive sectors of so often regarded in many western societies industry and agriculture. as especially attractive to females. The rise in Indeed, one of the many difficulties associ- women’s work and careers must also be seen ated with the transition from a planned to a in the context of a revolution in attitudes. In 10. Making a Living 311 most western countries there was once a very terns of female participation. The first fea- strong negative relationship between female tures a very high rate of participation, in participation in the labor force and the pres- which women are engaged in paid work for ence of children. Recent studies, however, most of their working lives. In this type the show ever-increasing overall levels of work pattern for women is much the same as women’s employment and a marked decline for men; and even though substantial num- in the traditional “braking effect” of child bers of female employees are part-time work- rearing. According to EU surveys, 42% of ers, the hours worked are relatively long, the women reportedly stop work because of jobs tend to have status, and they are often child-rearing responsibilities, but there is evi- relatively well paid. This type seems to exist dence that women are generally returning to across much of east-central and eastern Eu- work sooner after having children and are be- rope, in Scandinavia, and until recently in coming more persistent in their engagement eastern Germany. A second type, which is with work outside the household. more typical of the core regions of northwest- Studies have also shown that there seem to ern Europe, exhibits more moderate rates of be three distinctive European types or pat- participation. Here the age-specific pattern of

FIGURE 10.11. Female participation in the labor force, 2000. 312 IV. WORK AND LEISURE women’s work is bimodal, with women starting out as full participants, then exiting the labor market during child-rearing years, but returning, usually to part-time work, when their children reach school age. In contrast to the first type, work tends to be for shorter hours and more often is concentrated in traditional female sectors, such as clerical or retailing work, with lower pay and fewer employment rights. The third type predominates in the Mediterranean South as well as along the western Atlantic fringe. It is characterized by relatively high initial participation rates but then a more or less permanent exit from the labor force in favor of homemaking and child rearing. According to a 1997 EU poll asking women to describe what they did for a living, 60% of women in Ireland identified themselves as “housewives,” as did 49% in Spain, 42% in Greece, and 40% in Italy. This is in sharp contrast, for example, to Denmark, FIGURE 10.12. Women’s work. In rural areas on Europe’s periph- where only 4% responded in the same way. ery, where agricultural economies are most traditional, the woman’s role has changed little from what it has always been—a grueling Explanations for these patterns are many. combination of domestic chores and field labor, burdened further by re- Part of it is cultural or ideological. Catholic sponsibility for child rearing. Seen here is a Turkish peasant woman on countries have usually placed greater empha- her way into the fields to harvest apricots. (Photo: J. L. Kramer) sis on traditional patterns of patriarchy and household structure, while socialist countries have placed greater emphasis on social equality. These differences can also be explained as erage, currently earn roughly one-fourth less simple reflections of historical patterns of la- than their male counterparts. Even when bor demand—northern and western Euro- some of the structural differences between pean countries have experienced significant the employment circumstances of women and labor shortages, while Mediterranean coun- men are removed—for example, the fact that tries and peripheral western regions have not. women generally work different kinds of jobs Deindustrialization and the expansion of a and are on average younger and less educated service sector rich in part-time job opportuni- than men—and the focus is placed on pay dif- ties have also been strongest in the countries ferences among people who have the same of northern and western Europe. And finally, qualifications and job characteristics, women employers in different parts of Europe have still earn 15% less than men. The geography used part-time jobs to satisfy different needs. of pay differentials between the sexes corre- It is also important to remember that even sponds closely to that of the above-mentioned within countries there are differences, for ex- three types of female participation—that is, ample, between rural and urban areas, and the least inequality is found in eastern Eu- among regions. rope, Scandinavia, and in the new Länder of Inequality in the value placed on the labors Germany (former East Germany). Conversely, of women and men in the workplace is a per- the highest levels of inequality are found in sistent feature of our society, and it comes as the Mediterranean countries and in Ireland, no surprise that on average European women although levels of inequality are also rela- earn less than men. According to the latest tively high in the United Kingdom, Austria, EU data, it would appear that women, on av- and the Netherlands. 10. Making a Living 313

EDUCATION AND TRAINING down to 3-year-olds. Although levels are overall somewhat lower, a similar extension of There is no doubt that in today’s era of rela- formal education for preprimary age groups tively high unemployment and rising demand seems to be under way in other parts of Eu- for workers who possess advanced qualifica- rope as well. At the other end of the educa- tions, greater and greater emphasis is being tional system, the numbers in which and the placed on education and training. As com- ages at which young people are engaged in pared to just a few decades ago, young people various forms of higher education or voca- in Europe are spending more time in school tional training have also risen sharply since and taking longer to make the transition from the 1960s. It is no longer unusual for young school to career employment. Nor is the people to continue their education beyond boundary between the two as clearly demar- the age of 20. Indeed, the upper limit for educated as it once was. Europe’s young people cation is now often regarded as 30. find it far more difficult to enter the labor Concomitant with the trend for later and force today than their counterparts did in the longer education is the fact that young people 1950s and 1960s, and public authorities have are staying in the parental home far longer responded by extending and placing a higher than in the past, often well into their 20s. priority on educational systems. Whereas an early departure from home for the purpose of becoming independent was Trends relatively common among young people in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in northern Today’s conceptions of the beginning and end Europe, the last couple of decades has seen a of youthful learning and preparation are wid- marked reversal of the trend. EU-wide, it is ening. At one end of the educational system, it estimated that some 65% of young people, has become increasingly common for children aged 20 to 24, now live with their parents, and of 4 years, and even 3 years, to be enrolled in surveys suggest that a majority see “living preprimary education. EU data show that at home” as a good thing. This trend, as 50% of all 4-year-old children participated in one might expect, parallels today’s tendency some form of pre-primary education in 1997. for delayed formation of unions and families In many western countries, such as Belgium, noted in Chapter 3. France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, The currently high emphasis placed on edu- the level of participation was over 90%. In the cation and training received its initial impetus first three countries listed above, participa- during Europe’s long period of postwar eco- tion at the 90% or greater level even extended nomic growth between 1950 and 1973. Labor

FIGURE 10.13. Education. Uniformed schoolchildren head off to school in the early-morning hours on a Istanbul street. Europe’s population is highly educated, with near universal literacy in all countries. Attaining the appropriate knowledge and skills to make a living in today’s society requires an increasingly long period of education, extending well into their 20s for many people. 314 IV. WORK AND LEISURE shortages in many countries during this period At the same time that the comprehensive- underlined the need for highly qualified work- ness and quality of European education is on ers. This was accompanied by a parental desire the rise, there is a growing challenge to pro- to see their children better qualified for the vide an adequate supply of primary and sec- workforce and a general move toward the de- ondary teachers. According to EU data, an mocratization or opening up of access to edu- alarming proportion of trained teachers are cational systems, many of which were tradi- nearing retirement age. In many states we are tionally elitist in nature. A slowdown in the seeing reports suggesting that as many as one economy and rising levels of unemployment in teacher in five will retire in the next 5–10 the late 1970s and during the 1980s then pre- years. In such countries as Sweden, Germany, cipitated a long-term trend toward greatly ex- Austria, and Italy, the situation is particularly panded and accelerated participation in educa- acute, prompting real concern over potential tion, which continues right up to the present shortages. Sweden has already experienced time. Ever greater demands for technical ex- teacher shortages, especially in the northern pertise and knowledge on the part of workers parts of the country and in the primary has also raised the level of education and train- grades. Fed up with low salaries and recogni- ing necessary to succeed in the marketplace. tion, there have even been reports that some The official policies of the EU, as well as Swedish educators have actually begun to of- of individual countries, have encouraged the fer their services to the highest bidder via trend. The EU made improving vocational Internet auction. qualifications one of the priorities of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty and has reiterated the im- National Distinctions portance of this goal at subsequent summits and meetings. National examples are many. While overall these trends seem to extend Ireland, which established a free and open across Europe, there are of course differences educational system in the 1960s, became a based on national or cultural traditions. No magnet for high-tech investment by insti- two countries seem to have quite the same ap- tuting educational policies in the 1970s and proach to education, despite the widespread 1980s that produced one of the world’s best- respect for learning that seems to prevail ev- educated workforces, particularly in the fields erywhere. Moreover, education is one arena of science and technology. France has broad- in which the EU so far has only modest influ- ened and reformed its educational system a ence. Educational policies and standards are number of times since a period of intense stu- traditionally the domain of national or, in dent dissatisfaction in the 1960s. The notori- some cases, local governing bodies. ously difficult baccalauréat exam, which has Despite, for example, the widespread trend performed the function of determining who is for longer periods of schooling, the duration admitted to France’s traditionally elitist uni- of educational training varies widely among versity system since 1808, has been moder- countries. While within the EU as a whole ated and democratized over the past 30 years half of all 20-year-olds are still in school today, to the point that more than three-quarters of in Britain, Denmark, and Austria half of all those who take it today are able to pass. It has young people have left school by the age of 16 also been extended beyond the three classical or 17. Meanwhile, in France and Belgium half exams in the sciences, literature, and econom- are still in school until at least the age of 22. ics to include testing across a wide range of The variation reflects the complexity of career technical subjects. Reforms in Britain’s edu- routes taken by young people in different na- cational system have done much to extend tional situations. In countries like France and both its accessibility and content. In 1998, for Belgium, and to a somewhat lesser extent in example, the British government launched a the Mediterranean countries, the most com- high visibility 5-year program intended to mon sequence is a lengthy period of formal raise standards and make British youth more training followed by direct integration into competitive in the marketplace. the labor market. Young people in these coun- 10. Making a Living 315 tries are less likely to receive vocational train- central Europe, school systems are centrally ing as opposed to general education courses administrated, whereas in Britain schools as part of their secondary-level schooling (It- have a long tradition of local control, although aly is the exception). The experience of young a growing centralization of curricular author- people in other countries is more mixed. In ity and funding has certainly taken place since west-central European countries such as the 1980s. In Scandinavia, there is a tradition Denmark, Germany, Austria, and the Nether- of local organization and responsibility at the lands, there are high proportions of young primary level but less so at the secondary people who are simultaneously engaged in level. The Netherlands is unique in that there training and active in the labor market. Stu- are parallel systems of Protestant, Catholic, dents in these countries are also more likely and public schools, all of which are state- to pursue vocational training courses as part funded but not necessarily centrally con- of the secondary school curriculum and to trolled. Germany, with its strong federal take advantage of formal links between structure, devolves responsibility for educa- courses and on-the-job training provided by tion onto the individual Länder. employers. In Britain, where participation in Education also differs in intensity and em- the world of work seems to come earliest, phasis. Mediterranean countries generally re- there is both a high incidence of early and di- quire more hours of school than do the coun- rect entry into the labor market and of study- tries in northern Europe. The annual number ing while working in order to get a better job. of classroom hours required of 16-year-olds In addition to rather striking differences in who have opted for the “science” track is, for the importance and form of vocational train- example, nearly one-third less in such coun- ing, national education systems differ in a va- tries as Sweden, Germany, and Britain than in riety of other ways. There are real but dimin- Spain and Portugal. Until recently, school ishing differences in the degree to which days in Germany were confined largely to the educational systems are geared toward uni- morning hours. Some countries devote much versal training versus the education of an more time to the humanities than others. elite. Reforms in both the English and French There are also wide discrepancies in linguistic systems have moved them significantly away training. Romance language countries are from their elitist historical foundations, al- generally more inclined to favor instruction in though vestiges of the past are still quite visi- the mother tongue over foreign languages, ble. The practice of segregated schooling, in although Britain and Ireland are perhaps which students pursuing different courses of unique among European countries in that for- study are tracked into different schools, has a eign language instruction is not a compulsory long tradition in German-speaking countries. part of the primary school curriculum. Common secondary schools were, in contrast, There has, however, been a more or less adopted early in the Scandinavian countries. universal trend toward expanding the empha- Some countries have taken steps to temper sis placed on foreign language training, prin- the competitiveness of the educational experi- cipally by extending the period over which ence. Denmark, for example, has eliminated students are required to take a foreign lan- any kind of tracking up to age 16 and refrains guage. France, for example, has experimented from marking student achievement until the since 1989 with introducing students to for- last 3 years of lower secondary education. It- eign language study earlier than before, dur- aly abolished grades and exams in 1977, sub- ing the last 2 years of primary school. Spanish stituting a personal record that is maintained children now begin studying foreign lan- by teachers and shared with parents every 3– guages 3 years earlier than their counterparts 4 months. did a decade ago. This earlier and longer There are also important differences in the trend in language training follows a EU initia- degree to which education is administered lo- tive, “Europe in the classroom,” which advo- cally versus centrally. In France, across much cates placing increasing emphasis in the cur- of the Mediterranean, and in eastern and east- riculum on European unity and integration. 316 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

The recommendation adopted by the EU crease in students in higher education within ministers of education and cultural affairs the then 15 countries of the EU. Some coun- calls for the incorporation of a heightened tries, notably Greece, Ireland, and Britain, awareness of “Europe” in common social posted increases well in excess of 100%. At studies classroom subjects such as geography, the same time higher education became more history, economics, and political science, as open to women. In 1995 there were 103 well as an earlier introduction of foreign lan- women per 100 men in higher education guages into the curriculum. across the EU, which means that the gender gap had all but disappeared among EU coun- Higher Education tries, with the exception of Germany, where the participation of women remained signifi- European systems of higher education have cantly lower. moved inexorably over the past 30 years to- One consequence of all this growth is that ward an American-style mass-production pro- nearly all European systems of higher educa- cess. As a result, enrollment in university and tion have been faced with difficulties of adap- polytechnic institutions has risen sharply. Be- tation and change. In France and Germany, tween 1980 and 1995 there was a 75% in- both of which opened their universities to a

FIGURE 10.14. Education—third-level gross enrollment ratio, 1996. 10. Making a Living 317 broader segment of society in the wake of student unrest and public criticism in the 1960s, resources have lagged far behind growing student numbers. The French system has been described as literally straining at the seams, a situation that has generated calls for a shift back toward higher requirements for those entering the university. German universities, which lack formal structures that push students through to degrees in a timely manner, are chronically overcrowded and slow to produce graduates. Indeed, less than a fifth of the students who enter German universities ever actually get a degree. German universities FIGURE 10.15. Gustavium. Europe has a long and distinguished have also suffered terribly from stagnant tradition of university education. This photo is of the Gustavium, for funding. Dutch universities have recently re- long the main building of Uppsala University—the first to be founded sponded to similar problems by tightening re- in Scandinavia (1477). The Gustavium was built in the 1620s by the quirements and forcing universities to accel- Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus, who was a major benefactor of the university and for whom the building was named. The onion-shaped erate the processing of students. Over the last dome was added later in order to build an amphitheatre for the univer- decade or two, Britain’s system of higher edu- sity’s Renaissance genius, Olof Rudbeck, who made pioneering discov- cation has undergone some of the most radi- eries about the human lymphatic system. The domed amphitheater cal changes. The system has been broadened provided a space where dissections could be performed under adequate to include a whole new tier of colleges and lighting. polytechnics, a process that doubled the number of institutions with “university status.” Its institutions have also been forced to compete with one another, under a system of periodic and the merging of research and teaching in- nationwide quality reviews of research and stitutions to bring researchers and students teaching, to attract both more students and a back into contact. Progress on such reforms, larger share of ever scarcer resources. however, is exasperatingly slow. Moreover, The problems of universities in the for- the problems are exacerbated by a rapid ex- merly socialist countries of eastern and east- pansion in student numbers. The number of central Europe are particularly pressing. Un- students matriculated at Warsaw University, der socialist regimes, higher education was for example, nearly doubled during the 1990s. well supported. It received a high priority and At the same time, and rather ironically, there could boast of modern facilities and adequate has been a troubling shortage of students and funding, although researchers, teachers, and faculty in the sciences, as talent has drifted students were often subject to unwanted po- away from the universities to better opportu- litical influence. Since the fall of communism, nities in an emerging market economy. however, university systems in these coun- Perhaps the most recent development that tries have been beset by drastic declines in brings European higher education closer to funding. Severe shortages of money have had a more American-style system is a EU- devastating effects on the morale of educators sponsored accord, now agreed to by 32 coun- and researchers and on efforts to reform the tries, to introduce a single system of awarding systems and bring them more into line with degrees. Between now and 2010, the signato- their western counterparts. One legacy of the ries have agreed to replace traditional degrees socialist past, for example, is the division of and degree programs with a 3-year under- faculty into separate institutions for teaching graduate degree and a 2-year master’s degree. and research, the latter of which were more The aim is to eliminate the confusion caused highly privileged with resources. Current by the current bewildering array of national thinking favors both an updating of curricula degree systems by establishing one univer- 318 IV. WORK AND LEISURE sally accepted, or “portable,” degree system. versities. One of the leaders in this trend is The change is expected to increase job mobil- Poland, which is now home to nearly 200 pri- ity across Europe. It is also expected to pro- vate institutions of higher education, many of duce a rush of new applicants to MBA pro- them business schools, with a rather astound- grams, which currently lag behind their ing combined enrollment of nearly 400,000 American counterparts in popularity and ac- students, more than one-quarter of all higher ceptability. As students are freed from the education students in the country. Romania is burden of previously lengthy university de- said to have roughly 130,000 students en- gree programs, it is anticipated that they may rolled in more than 50 private tuition- be more likely to choose to continue their ed- financed institutions, and Hungary claims ucation at international business schools. nearly 30,000 attending 32 different private Another area of impending change has to institutions. A few east-central European do with the funding of higher education. The states, such as the Czech Republic, have pro- belief that higher education is a public good ceeded a bit more cautiously, but now seem and that the costs of access to it, for those who resigned to follow along much the same path. are qualified, should be borne by the state has Such an overt trend toward fee-based always been held strongly in Europe, much in higher education has generally not been the contrast to the United States, where students case in western Europe, although in some or their families are required to make sub- countries precedents have already been set stantial contributions to the cost of their edu- for a future move toward requiring the pay- cation in the form of tuition and fees. How- ment of fees. Within Germany the State of ever, the rapid democratization of European Baden Württemberg has experimented with a education in recent years and the concomi- scheme that imposes fees on students whose tant failure of public funding to keep pace university studies have extended beyond 6½ have begun to undermine this formerly unas- years. When other German länder began to sailable ideal. Although not yet a universal consider doing the same or, worse yet, charg- trend, there are clear signs that costs in the ing fees to all students, a storm of protest future may be increasingly shifted from the forced the German government to pass legis- state to students. lation banning fees for anyone earning their This has particularly been the case in Medi- first degree. In Britain, where the idea of in- terranean and in some of the former socialist troducing tuition fees has long been a matter countries, where private contributions, either of public discussion, no action has yet been in the form of increased fees or through grow- taken. Proponents see “top up” fees, as they ing enrollments in for-profit institutions of are called in Britain, as an effective means of higher learning, have been on the rise since bringing funds into the nation’s cash-starved the mid-1990s. Faced with limited opportuni- higher education system and of relieving ties to take up meaningful studies in cash- those who do not get a university education strapped state institutions, a growing number from the burden of paying for those who do. of eastern Europeans have shown themselves On the other hand, the imposition of fees is willing to pay for courses of study offered by opposed by many in the middle and working newly founded institutions financed through classes, who view it as a loss of entitlement private tuition payments. Especially in de- and as a potential barrier placed across the mand is high-quality training in business, law, path to higher education for children of poor computing, and foreign languages—all areas families. seen by residents of the former socialist East One other interesting development in as essential to getting ahead in today’s free- higher education that has received substantial market economy. Some east-central European support from the EU is the movement of stu- countries, such as Poland, Romania, and Hun- dents across national boundaries to study in gary, as well as most of the former Soviet other countries. Whereas the opportunity to states have been quick to pass legislation study abroad was once restricted to the sons opening the field to private colleges and uni- and daughters of Europe’s elite, the EU is 10. Making a Living 319

FIGURE 10.16. Bosporus University. One interesting institution of higher education is Bosporus University in Istanbul. Originally founded in 1863 as Robert’s College, the institution was the gift of New England philanthropist Christopher R. Robert and other Americans who wished to encourage the higher education of Turkish men. In 1971 the college became a state institution and was renamed Bosporus Uni- versity. This photo of the quad looks as though it could have been taken at any small New Eng- land college. now funding a program that enables students high levels of prosperity and well-being. In- to attend courses lasting between 3 months deed, Europe has long been, and continues to and a year in any of 29 participating European be, one of the great players in the global econ- countries, and to have that time credited to omy. As measured by gross national product their degree course. Known as “Erasmus,” (GNP), Europe claims 5 of the world’s 10 the program has enjoyed remarkable success. largest economies. The economies of Ger- Since its inception at the end of the 1980s, many, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy participation has grown by roughly 8–10% a rank 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, respectively, be- year, so that by the 1998–1999 academic year hind the “mega-economies” of the United 181,000 students had taken part. Among par- States and Japan, while Spain’s comes in at ticipant countries the United Kingdom is the 10th, behind those of China, Brazil, and Can- most popular destination for foreign students, ada. In particular, western Europe, in the followed by Germany and France. None- form of the EU, constitutes a major trading theless, taken as a whole, mobility remains bloc on the world stage; the combined eco- relatively low, affecting only a very small pro- nomic weight of its 15 pre-enlargement mem- portion of the entire EU university popula- ber countries exceeds that of the United tion. States. Europe as a whole is a relatively wealthy part of the world and continues to grow in prosperity relative to much of the WEALTH world. For most of the latter half of the past century, Europe’s annual growth in GNP has Economically, the decades since World War been at or above average world rates. II have been remarkably good ones for Eu- Although relatively prosperous overall, rope overall. To be sure, western Europeans there are clear differences in the wealth of indi- have experienced periods of recession and vidual European countries, and especially be- stagnation, and eastern Europeans have of tween East and West. Per capita GNP is high- course endured the economic deprivations of est in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, and communism’s decline and, more recently, the Denmark, where it exceeds $30,000 a year by turbulent transition toward a market econ- rather substantial margins. By comparison, the omy. Few could say today, however, that they figure for the United States is around $29,000. are not materially better off than generations The remainder of Scandinavia and the core of that have gone before them, or that Europe continental western Europe follows close be- does not generally enjoy what might be re- hind, with annual per-capita GNP figures fall- garded by global standards as remarkably ing in the $25–30,000 range. More moderate 320 IV. WORK AND LEISURE levels are found in the peripheral EU countries The significance of differences in GNP per of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portu- capita among countries is not always clear. gal, Italy, Greece, and Finland. Far more mod- The figures often mask differences in the rela- est levels pertain across the entirety of the for- tive domestic buying power of local curren- mer socialist states of east-central and eastern cies and the specific circumstances of local Europe. Among these, the various recently ad- market conditions. One way of better approxi- mitted EU states can claim relatively higher mating relative income is to adjust for these levels of national wealth, although these levels factors by converting GNP per capita to a are still only one-quarter to one-half of the measure known as Purchasing Power Parity norm in the West, with the exceptions of (PPP). When this is done and applied to Eu- Slovenia and the Czech Republic. For a rela- rope, several things happen. First the wealth- tively large number of the remainder, per- ier western continental core of the EU ex- capita GNP barely exceeds $1,000. In the case pands outward to include the United of poor Albania and Moldova, it is only $760 Kingdom, Italy, and Finland. Only Ireland, and $460, respectively. Spain, Portugal and Greece now remain on

FIGURE 10.17. GNP per capita, 2000. 10. Making a Living 321

FIGURE 10.18. Purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, 2000. the more “moderately wealthy” periphery. $20,000 figure. The range among central and Central and eastern Europe look much the eastern European states is also smaller. Apart same, although two of the new additions to from relatively prosperous Slovenia and the the EU, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, are Czech Republic, individual purchasing power now elevated to join the other moderately in the remaining states cluster thickly around wealthy states. the $5,000 figure. Another important distinction revealed Income distribution is another useful mea- when the PPP is used is that the absolute dif- sure of how countries may differ in terms of ference, if not the relative difference, be- individual wealth accumulation. We generally tween the West and the East is lessened, think of the social democracies of western Eu- thereby softening the impression that the rope as places where government taxation East is completely impoverished compared to and wage policies have worked to lessen in- the West. Differences within West and East come extremes. We also think of the former also become less apparent. Individual pur- socialist regimes of east-central and eastern chasing power in the majority of the western Europe as having placed even greater empha- countries is strongly clustered around the sis on this goal during the postwar decades by 322 IV. WORK AND LEISURE overtly holding down the levels of compensa- tions of wealth at the top and relatively high tion for many professionals and, of course, by levels of wealth at the bottom. Ireland, Brit- barring the rise of any capitalist business ain, France, Austria, Denmark, Finland, and class. This view is generally borne out by cur- Iceland are somewhat more inclined to dis- rent data on income inequality. With the ex- play upwardly skewed income distributions, ception of Russia, where the rise of a new while in Portugal and Norway a marked im- wealthy elite in the 1990s—the so-called New balance toward the top exists. Russians—has been most marked, the major- While income disparities in the West are ity of the former socialist states exhibit a very greater than in the East, they are overall cer- low ratio between the share of all household tainly less than in the United States. On the income held by the wealthiest 10% of all other hand, people do live in poverty, at least households and the share held by the poorest officially. According to EU data taken before 20%. In the West, there is more variation. The the 2004 enlargement, roughly 18% of the Low Countries, Germany, Sweden, Spain, population of the then member states fell be- and Italy exhibit the lowest levels of income low the official poverty line, which was de- inequality, with relatively modest concentra- fined as less than 60% of median national in-

FIGURE 10.19. Income distribution: Proportion of household income received by the wealthiest 10% of all households, 2000. 10. Making a Living 323

FIGURE 10.20. Income distribution: Proportion of household income received by the poorest 20% of all households, 2000.

come. The poverty rate was highest on the common among Mediterranean households. Mediterranean and Atlantic peripheries More than half in Greece, Spain, and Portugal (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and the United said this was true. But rather implausibly the Kingdom), in isolated rural areas elsewhere, perception also held in relatively prosperous and in the immigrant quarters of many cities. Sweden, where 56 percent insisted on making It was lowest in the highly developed core ar- the same claim. eas of the northern and north-central states. The economic situation of households in Persistent unemployment and recent struc- the new democracies of east-central and east- tural transformations in the economy have ern Europe is more difficult to assess. For all contributed in many parts of the West to a of these countries, the rather sudden transi- growing sense of barely making enough to tion from a planned economy to a market make ends meet. The EU reports that nearly economy has been a dramatic experience that one-third of EU households claimed in 1999 has raised a host of uncertainties. The national that they couldn’t afford a week’s holiday economies of most countries in this part of away from home. This claim was especially Europe had stalled during the 1980s, and 324 IV. WORK AND LEISURE their populations were already experiencing a data show that most of the population has suf- slow and steady slippage in living standards. ficient, if not abundant, income to make ends During the post-1989 transition, however, meet; that poverty is often transitional rather these economies were beset by a frightfully than persistent, with many families moving in rapid and substantial decline. Output of ser- and out of poverty over time; and that, where vices and goods dropped precipitously, unem- poverty is persistent, it most commonly af- ployment and inflation rose, all at the same fects children in families headed by single time that the social securities so long pro- parents rather than pensioners, as is com- vided by the former socialist governments monly assumed. Of all of former socialist Eu- threatened to disappear. rope, Moldova holds the dubious honor of Still, survey data suggest that poverty has having suffered the most dramatic decline in not increased dramatically, particularly in the personal income and growth in income in- new democracies of east-central Europe. This equality over the decade of the 1990s. is not to say that income levels have not fallen, but that the fall in income has been felt across most of the population and that the effects of WELFARE the transition on individuals has been less dramatic than it has been on national econo- Since the end of World War II Europeans, mies as a whole. Data for east-central Euro- East and West, have come to expect levels of pean countries do show a general increase in social protection that are both generous and income inequality. These increases, however, comprehensive. By the standards of the are from fairly low levels to begin with and United States, and most other parts of the are still modest in comparison to those in the world, Europeans have enjoyed a remarkably West. In many cases they are not at all dissim- secure existence, knowing that they were pro- ilar to increases in income inequality posted tected by the “cradle to grave” welfare state during the same period in such countries as from the privations that might result from a Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the wide range of stressful conditions, such as un- United States. Poverty levels have also in- employment, sickness, disability, as well as creased, in some cases doubling, but again old age or survivorship. Many states have also from relatively low levels to levels that are provided, as a matter of course, liberal health still modest by international standards. More- benefits, free education, and a range of fam- over, at least in some of the east-central Eu- ily-based benefits, such as child allowances, ropean states, like Poland and the Czech protected parental leave, and subsidized pre- Republic, the situation of pensioners, who are school and child care services. normally thought to be most vulnerable, has Beginning in the 1990s, however, social se- actually improved because governments curity systems began to come under a great acted during the early years of the transition deal of pressure. In the West the pressures to protect pensions from the effects of infla- have been both economic and demographic. tion. The rather long period of sustained and very This, however, was certainly not the case, at high unemployment experienced by most least initially, in Russia and some other parts countries over the last couple of decades has of the former Soviet Union, where many sub- meant that a sizable proportion of the popula- sidies were eliminated or severely reduced. tion has been dependent on state handouts, In fact, Russia stands out as one part of the which in turn has severely strained the ability East where some of the worst dislocations of governments to meet the costs of maintain- seem to have occurred. It is in Russia that the ing generous unemployment and social ser- emergence of both a new and extravagantly vices programs. As we have seen in an earlier wealthy capitalist class and an impoverished chapter, a steadily aging population has also underclass has captured the most popular at- meant that governments have been forced to tention. But even for Russia, recent survey pay out more in pensions and to meet ex- 10. Making a Living 325

FIGURE 10.21. Pensioners. Pen- sioners were one of the hardest-hit elements of the Russian population during the transition of the 1990s. Caught on fixed incomes in a time of rapid inflation and by a government that often fell behind on meeting its obligations to pay, many were forced to find seemingly desperate ways to make ends meet. In this scene, photographed in the mid-1990s, a long line of pensioners stands near the entrance to Mos- cow’s Kazan station. Each person is holding bottled drinks and sandwiches, hoping to sell them to passing commu- ters. tended demands on health services. Prognos- government was forced to undertake serious ticators now believe that the cost of pensions reforms of its generous pension system. Limi- in France will top 16% of the country’s gross tations on sick pay and reductions in child domestic product (GDP) by midcentury—up support benefits were also imposed, although from a current 12%, and more than four times the country’s system of universal health care the 4% of GDP spent on pensions in 1960. On was largely maintained. Since 1997, the eco- top of all this, those countries that have nomic situation has improved and benefits worked to position themselves for member- have risen, but the Swedish welfare state to- ship in the “euro zone” have been forced to day is less generous overall than it was just a bear unusually severe budgetary pressures as decade ago. they strive to meet the stringent fiscal re- Other western countries have faced similar quirements necessary for membership in the problems and have attempted to curtail currency group, which has placed a severe spending on social protection programs in squeeze on funds available for social security various ways. Norway has devised more re- programs. strictive pension benefit regulations. Finland All of this has led to a spate of social spend- has reformed unemployment benefits. The ing cutbacks and political maneuvering over Netherlands privatized its health benefits sys- the future shape of social protection pro- tem. The Danes cut the duration of unem- grams. Perhaps the greatest changes have ployment benefits and reformed the country’s come in Sweden—and these have possibly pension system. The Swiss both trimmed been the most shocking, because of the coun- unemployment allowances and extended the try’s long reputation as Europe’s leading wel- waiting period for benefits. France embarked fare state. Indeed, Sweden stood out in 1990 on major health care reform and looked for as the only European country to commit more ways to cut social security costs. Germany, than half of all government spending to social which was forced to deal with the economic security and welfare. By 1993, public spend- burdens imposed by reunification in addition ing in Sweden had grown to a high of 67.5% to other fiscal pressures, proposed changes in of GDP. The country, however, was hit in the retirement age and reductions in sick- the early to mid-1990s by a major recession, leave pay. As part of its struggle to meet Eu- which caused a severe budgetary crisis. Faced ropean Monetary Union requirements, Italy with rising unemployment and one of Eu- raised the minimum retirement age and over- rope’s most rapidly aging populations, the hauled its welfare system. Austria lowered 326 IV. WORK AND LEISURE welfare and unemployment benefits, and gium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Britain moved to contain social spending and Italy, Norway, and Sweden), expenditures prevent social security fraud, most recently on public pension programs currently exceed announcing a variety of welfare cuts as well as 10% of GDP.The only exception is the United expressing an interest in raising the official re- Kingdom, where expenditures fall just short tirement age. In short, nearly every western of that mark (9.5%). By comparison, expendi- government faced a public spending dilemma tures in the United States stand at roughly during the 1990s and became engaged in 6.5% of GDP. Among the former socialist loosening the social welfare safety net wher- countries, where the proportion of retirement ever it was politically feasible to do so. No age people is generally lower, public pension country has yet seemed to hit on the perfect expenditures as a percentage of GDP tend to solution to the cost-control pressures of the run in the 6–8% range. times, and the experimentation will undoubt- The burden of unemployment compensa- edly continue. tion has also grown substantially in recent The shock to existing systems in the East years. In western Europe, persistent double- came with the post-1989 transition away from digit unemployment over the past couple of communism. Initially, there was a sharp de- decades has made this form of social protec- cline in health and social security benefits of tion a major expense, while the former social- all kinds due to the pressures exerted by the ist countries, where unemployment officially high levels of inflation and unemployment did not exist prior to 1989, have been forced that accompanied the transition. In some to launch unemployment insurance programs countries there simply wasn’t any money virtually from scratch. This was done out of available to pay out, or runaway inflation cut necessity in the years immediately following so deeply into the value of benefits that they 1989 as unemployment soared, and initially became virtually worthless to recipients. The with unsustainable generosity. In 1990 Po- new democracies of east-central and eastern land, for example, set unemployment com- Europe have, nonetheless, struggled to con- pensation at 79% of average national earnings. tinue the payment of benefits. Indeed, most Since the mid-1990s, program benefits in the countries have attempted to raise payment former socialist states have been forced down levels and even introduce new protections, to more affordably realistic levels. Eligibility such as unemployment insurance. There has rules have been tightened, and the duration of also been an effort to find ways to reform ex- benefit periods has been shortened. isting social security systems, such as experi- Most western countries—the exceptions menting with the establishment of privatized being the United Kingdom and Ireland—con- supplementary pension funds. By the mid- to tinue to provide quite generous unemploy- late 1990s, the situation had largely stabilized, ment insurance coverage, usually with com- with most countries managing to maintain or pensation levels in excess of 60% of average improve slightly on pretransition social national earnings, and with layers of sup- spending levels. plementary benefits, such as work training The mix of spending on social programs programs and unemployment assistance. The varies widely across Europe, depending on wisdom and sustainability of such policies, local circumstances. In the EU, where de- however, has become an important political tailed statistics are kept, old age and sur- issue. The extraordinarily generous benefits vivorship benefits take the greatest share—an that exist in countries like Denmark, for ex- average of nearly half of all expenditures. As ample, have been criticized as an impediment one might expect, the importance of these to reducing levels of unemployment. The benefits for each country is related to the rela- ready availability of relatively high unemploy- tive aging of its population. In western coun- ment benefits that extend over long periods of tries where the retirement age population time can act as a fairly powerful disincentive exceeds 35% of total population (Austria, Bel- to the search for employment. For this reason, 10. Making a Living 327

FIGURE 10.22. Spending on social programs as a percentage of total central government expenditures, 2000.

there has been a growing interest among ment is less, Austria, Croatia, Greece, and policymakers in the curtailment of benefits as Slovenia also commit better than 8% of GDP. well as in experimentation with various “wel- At the other end of the scale, Romania spends fare to work” schemes. just $238 per person and only 3.8% of GDP, Health care too is a major social cost that is while Bulgarians on average receive $161 largely borne in Europe through state-funded each for a total health expenditure of 3.9% delivery systems. The most comprehensive of GDP. The United States, by comparison, systems are those that spend more than spends $4,055 per person and 12.9% of GDP $2,000 per capita a year. These include, ac- in a primarily private and for-profit health cording to World Health Organization sta- care system. tistics, the Belgian, French, Danish, Dutch, Like other social protection services, health German, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swiss care systems have come under stress in recent health care systems, all of which also invest years. Fiscal restraints and reforms of various better than 8% of national GDP in health kinds have been imposed on the provision of care. Although the per-capita dollar invest- health services in most western European 328 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

pean governments routinely spend a quarter or more of their annual budget on social security and welfare programs of all kinds. The countries that proportionally commit the greatest overall investment to welfare and social protection programs are found in central and northern Europe. The Scandinavian states of Sweden, Finland, and Denmark spend proportionately more than anyone else, although considerably less than they did in 1990. They are followed closely by Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium. The rest of western Europe tends to spend less. Nor- FIGURE 10.23. Unemployment. Relatively high levels of unem- way, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, ployment have become a more or less accepted norm across much of and the United Kingdom (just barely) form a western Europe. Their arrival in the East, as a painful accompaniment secondary outer tier, while Iceland, Ireland, to the transition to a market economy, has been more jarring, given the Portugal, and Greece, each of which have far less developed system of benefits and retraining opportunities in considerably lower levels of investment, sit on place in these countries. This man has spent the night on the streets of Budapest sleeping on a hard bench. (Photo: J. L. Kramer) the periphery. Their relatively low level of investment is partly explained by demographic factors. Ireland, for example, is the youngest country in the EU, with roughly one-third of countries. People now complain in most its population under 20 years of age and only countries of having to wait months, in some a little more than one-tenth over 65. While cases even years, for necessary operations. Ireland’s overall investment in social protec- Cost-cutting moves have also resulted in re- tion programs is among the EU’s lowest, the duced access to preventative care services country’s spending on family and child bene- and in substantial rollbacks in the state subsi- fits is higher than that of anyone else. The for- dies that reduce the out-of-pocket costs of mer socialist countries also sit on the periph- medications. In countries where it is permit- ery. In real terms, levels of investment there ted, private health care insurance has become are perhaps lowest of all. While most cur- increasingly popular among those who can af- rently spend at least 20% of GDP on social ford it. The trend has raised the specter that a protection, that doesn’t take into account the multitiered system, in which the better care fact that GDP is often lower than it was dur- will go to the rich, will soon replace Europe’s ing the socialist years. long tradition of universal health care provi- In conclusion, then, we have seen quite sion. One country, the Netherlands, already ample evidence that Europeans enjoy a rel- requires people with higher incomes to take atively high and secure standard of living. out private insurance. In the former socialist They find employment in a market-oriented states, public health systems have suffered se- and highly integrated service economy, be- rious decline since the early 1990s due to dra- long to an increasingly highly educated and matic budget cuts and the shifting of respon- well-trained labor force, receive on the whole sibilities from state to local authorities, in the relatively generous compensation and bene- worst cases leaving many poorer rural areas fits in return for their labor, and are compre- with virtually no access to effective modern hensively protected from personal misfortune health care. and the vagaries of the marketplace by a far- Despite the changes and shocks of the ranging system of comprehensive health and 1990s, health and social protection through- social protection programs. All of these condi- out Europe remains strong by global stan- tions have made Europe’s population one of dards. With relatively few exceptions, Euro- the most prosperous in the world. With this in 10. Making a Living 329 mind, we now turn our attention in Chapter Loshkin, M., & Popkin, B. M. (1999). The emerg- 11 to how Europeans make use of their ing underclass in the Russian Federation: In- considerable wealth as they consume and come dynamics, 1992–1996. Economic Develop- play. ment and Cultural Change, 47, 803–829. Pickles, J. (1995). Restructuring state enterprises: Industrial geography and eastern European FURTHER READING transitions. Geographische Zeitschrift, 83, 114–- 131. Amin, A., & Thrift, N. (Eds.). (1995). Globalization, Science. (1996). Special issue: European universi- institutions, and regional development in Eu- ties in transition. Science, 271, 681–701. rope. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Silbertson, A., & Raymond, C. P. (1996). The Bailly, A. S. (1995). Producer services research in changing industrial map of Europe. New York: Europe. Professional Geographer, 47, 70–74. St. Martin’s Press. Bloteevogel, H. H., & Fielding, A. J. (Eds.). (1997). Smulders, G. W., Kompier, M. A. J., & Paoli, P. People, jobs and mobility in the New Europe. (1996). The work environment in the twelve Chichester, UK: Wiley. EU-countries: Differences and similarities. Hu- Bradford, M. (1998). Education and welfare. In T. man Relations, 49, 1291–1313. Unwin (Ed.), A European geography (pp. 261– Stratigaki, M., & Vaiou, D. (1994). Women’s work 273). Harlow, UK: Addison Wesley Longman. and informal activities in Southern Europe. En- Brock, C., & Tulasiewicz, W. (Eds.). (1996). Educa- vironment and Planning A, 26, 1221–1234. tion in a single Europe. London: Routledge. Townsend, A. R. (1997). Making a living in Europe: Carter, F.W., & Maik, W. (Eds.). (1999). Shock-shift Human geographies of economic change. Lon- in an enlarged Europe: The geography of socio- don: Routledge. economic change in east-central Europe after Unwin, T. (1998). Agricultural change and rural 1989. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. stress in the new democracies. In D. Pinder Fielding, T., & Blotevogel, H. (1994). People, jobs, (Ed.), The new Europe: Economy, society and and mobility in the New Europe. New York: environment (pp. 359–378). Chichester, UK: Wiley. Wiley. Garcia-Ramon, M. D., & Monk, J. (Eds.). (1996). Williams, A. M. (1987). The western European Women of the European Union: the politics of economy: A geography of post-war development. work and daily life. London: Routledge. London: Hutchinson. CHAPTER 11 Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture

As Europeans became relatively more pros- Europeans shop for necessities as well as lux- perous in the decades following World War ury items, where do they choose to go on II, they entered into a new age of heightened holiday, and how do they entertain them- consumer tastes and consumption. This be- selves at home? As we explore these issues we came especially true in the West, where ac- will be especially interested in the trends cur- cess to fashionable and quality goods and rently under way in both the old democracies enjoyments has long been a desirable and at- of the West and the new democracies of the tainable goal for many. Indeed, for a lot of East, and in the general question of whether west Europeans the accumulation and display we are witnessing a convergence or diver- of material wealth has become an essential gence of living standards, consumer tastes, measure of social differentiation. Such things and popular culture across European space. as the kind of automobile one drives and one’s choice of residential property, vacation venue, or, most recently, cellular phone or digital CONSUMPTION television service are generally regarded as symbols of personal status and achievement. Over the last quarter-century, Europeans In the East, the desire to share more fully in have managed to translate their growing this opulent consumer’s world was partly be- sense of prosperity and social security into a hind the crisis of confidence in the socialist burgeoning “consumer culture.” The impor- regimes that took place in the late 1980s. A tance of this culture of consumption has been long pent-up demand for conspicuous con- greatest in the West, where it first arose and is sumption remains an important, and as yet of- so clearly dominant, but it is now well along ten unfulfilled, force in the various market in the process of diffusing, if somewhat un- economy transitions currently under way in evenly, to all parts of the continent. What the formerly socialist countries. is happening is part of a worldwide trend, Our purpose in this chapter is to examine linked to the increasing globalization of infor- some of the major ways in which Europeans mation, services, and products. We now live consume goods, spend their leisure time, and in a global society in which precedence is absorb popular culture. Where and how do given—above all else and despite humanistic,

330 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 331 environmental, and religious strictures to the a truly mass phenomenon and that there are contrary—to the pursuit of the good life such a variety of forms that it may take. Mod- through consumption. ern consumer culture is built on an ever wid- Europe’s “boom” in consumer spending be- ening array of goods marketed through ag- gan rather dramatically in the mid-1980s, fol- gressive media advertising that assaults the lowing a lengthy period of economic re- senses in all places and at all times of day. Un- cession and uncertainty. This upsurge in der this constant media barrage, consumers consumer confidence coincided with the gen- are made ever conscious of rapidly changing eral optimism or “Europhoria” that sur- styles and fashions and encouraged to buy im- rounded new initiatives set in place with the pulsively. Modern consumer culture has 1985 Single European Act that swept away a introduced entirely new ways of retailing. whole range of barriers to cross-border busi- Shopping has, in itself, become one of today’s ness by 1992. It was fueled in part by low in- leisure activities, which increasingly takes terest rates, and was both cause and effect of a place at new and specialized sites that are revolution in credit and banking, which saw specifically designed to enhance the personal an explosion in the number of credit cards in pleasure and allure of consumption. It also circulation and the advent of the ubiquitous features the plethora of leisure and sport ac- cash-dispensing machine. The process slowed tivities, health-related services and products, briefly in the early 1990s, with the return of and electronic communication and amuse- recession, but has continued more or less un- ment devices that have become so symptom- abated since—consolidating its hold on the atic of our age. West and rising rapidly from a comparatively low base in the East. Retailing Materialistic consumption is, of course, nothing new. It has long been an accepted A large part of retailing in Europe has tradi- fact of life for society’s elite; and for at least tionally been dominated by small, independ- the last couple of centuries it has been one of ently operated shops and outlets, at which the defining ambitions of the rising urban people shop locally to meet their everyday middle class. What is different, though, about needs. England, after all, was once referred to today’s consumer culture is that it has become as a nation of shopkeepers; and what could be more French than the local food shop, or boulangerie. The advent of large department stores and shopping arcades or “galleries” in the centers of 19th-century cities was certainly, as we have seen in an earlier chapter, revolutionary for its time and caused much excitement, but it did relatively little to change the way in which most people did their routine daily shopping. Today’s marketplace is distinguished, in contrast, by a greater dynamism and growing diversity. There are a number of noteworthy trends, all of which are most evident in the West, although their effects are now being felt in the FIGURE 11.1. Smart car. One of the hottest things to hit the consumer market in recent years is Daimler-Chrysler’s “Smart City Coupe.” rapidly privatizing consumer markets in the Touted as the perfect solution to navigating and parking in Europe’s East as well. congested cities, the smart car is only 2.5 meters long and 1.5 meters One major trend is consolidation. Retailing wide. The car is uniquely styled and fuel-efficient. Its manufacturer also has become increasingly concentrated within likes to remind consumers that it is environmentally friendly and 100% larger and more highly capitalized firms, the recyclable at the end of its days. majority of which are corporate rather than 332 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

FIGURE 11.2. Food shop. Europeans have traditionally shopped at small shops, such as the small food market seen here on a Berlin street. Local shops, though, face increasing competition from large chains and suburban hypermarkets.

family-run enterprises. The new large-scale ket, or discount store settings have become form of marketing typically takes place in su- commonplace for the sale of everything from permarket- or hypermarket-style large floor- clothing and toys to sporting goods and office space emporia, located at accessible points on supplies. the edges of built-up urban areas. The retail- Consolidation has been accompanied by an ing strategy is to attract consumers either by accelerating trend toward the international- providing exceptional choice on particular ization of retailing. As barriers to trade within lines of merchandise or by offering the conve- the EU have tumbled, many firms have been nience of picking up a wide range of mer- prompted to look beyond their own domestic chandise in a single trip. The trend began markets to increase their sales and profits. during the 1970s in the food retailing sector, This is often an easier avenue to pursue than as British and French retailers, such as developing new product lines and finding Sainsburys and Carrefour, developed chains new markets at home. Success in the Euro- of hypermarkets. Early concentration in the pean marketplace has also led some compa- food sector reflects the fact that this was the nies to look for new markets even beyond the sector in which economies of scale and other continent. The Swedish home furnishings re- cost benefits could most easily be achieved. tailer IKEA, which operates outlets all across Current estimates suggest that food super- Europe as well as in many other parts of the markets and hypermarkets account for over world, is probably one of the very best exam- half of all packaged groceries sold in the EU, ples of this. Another example is Carrefour, the while in France, where the trend originated French retailer whose hypermarkets can be and has perhaps now reached the saturation found almost everywhere in France and level, more than four-fifths of all groceries are Spain. Carrefour has recently expanded to sold in this way. The consolidation process other Mediterranean markets in Portugal, It- then spread during the 1980s from food retail- aly, and Turkey, and has set up operations in ing to such things as furniture, lawn and gar- parts of Latin America and Asia as well. Other den products, do-it-yourself home improve- major international retailers include such ments, and consumer electronics. Indeed, by firms as Marks & Spencer, the British-owned the early 1990s, large furniture outlet stores clothing, footwear, and household goods gi- had become one of the more ubiquitous and ant; Virgin Megastore, Britain’s upstart pur- commonly accepted sights on the fringes of veyor of everything from entertainment me- urban areas. Today, supermarket, hypermar- dia to wedding gowns and cars; Tenglemann, 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 333

FIGURE 11.3. Hypermarket. Rows of automated checkout points await customers at this Carrefour supermarket in northern France. Banners hanging from the ceiling encourage consumers to use company credit and receive discount advantages. Inside is a vast array of packaged, frozen, and fresh food guaranteed to satisfy their every need. the large German food retailer; and the Swed- of merchandise to stores and to manage stock, ish clothier Hennes & Mauritz. In western handle credit, and expedite the checkout pro- Europe, a majority of the largest retailers cess. Today’s average hypermarket is graced have by now begun to run operations in at by a seemingly endless array of computerized least several countries. Many have also man- checkout stations, where scanners check bar aged to establish outlets in parts of east- codes to ring up charges while simultaneously central and eastern Europe. controlling stock and generating marketing Technology has also come to play a pivotal data on consumer tastes and preferences. Of new role in retailing. Modern communcations course, the automobile, above all else, has and data-storage technologies have greatly made it possible to bring the necessary improved retailers’ ability to control the flow masses of shoppers to the peripheral sites

FIGURE 11.4. Abundance of choice. A young Polish couple eye the enormous variety of goods and produce available inside a large Géant hypermarket outside of Warsaw. It wasn’t that long ago that grocery shoppers chose from a relatively limited line of brand items, packaged only in relatively small units suited to daily shopping—quite different from the diverse offerings served up by retailers today. In eastern countries such as Poland, that day was even more recent. 334 IV. WORK AND LEISURE where most of the new superstores are built. the fear that the accompanying disappearance Also important is the now nearly universal of small shops will hasten the decline of in- ownership of freezers and refrigerators among ner-city and neighborhood commercial areas, households, at least in western Europe, that as well as concern about a current lack of en- allows consumers to drive to a hypermarket vironmental planning controls over the con- and “stock up” on perishable items. struction of hypermarkets and shopping cen- Technology is also opening a new retailing ters outside built-up areas. In a number of frontier in cyberspace, which is only just be- countries, local planning agencies have been ginning to fulfill its promise. Although mail- empowered to limit the development of large order merchandising has been around a long stores on the edges of cities. Norway has gone time—particularly in Germany, Denmark, the so far as to impose a complete moratorium on United Kingdom, and to a somewhat lesser the building of shopping centers, pending extent in France—advances in communica- results of a study by planning authorities. tions technology are providing a major boost Among western countries the numbers of to “home shopping,” particularly in an age small retail outlets remain proportionately when increasing numbers of people are work- highest in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Bel- ing at home or do not have the time or gium—in the three Mediterranean countries inclination to shop in the traditional way. Vir- largely for cultural reasons, in Belgium begin.com, one of the more successful commer- cause of governmental intervention. cial Internet sites, is a leader in the art of pro- Nonetheless, it is important to point out viding “hot links” that connect millions of that small to mid-size retailers still abound, web-surfing consumers to the tantalizing ar- are not in any danger of completely disap- ray of business interests controlled by that pearing soon, and may still be seen lining British conglomerate. the commercial storefront avenues, or “high The flip side to the growth of mega-retail- streets,” of Europe’s towns and cities. Indeed, ers and chain stores is the decline of small and there has been growth in some sectors, such independent retail firms. Most western coun- as the convenience store, which provides tries have experienced a loss in the number of ready access over longer hours to quickly shops over the past couple of decades that needed goods, particularly for motorists. In runs into the tens and even hundreds of thou- many of the nongrocery sectors, small spe- sands. Hardest-hit have been small food re- cialty stores and shops still maintain a major- tailers, but also a great many shops and stores ity share of the market. Their overall distribu- in other sectors. The extent of the decline tion, however, shows a slight shift toward varies enormously across Europe, depending suburban shopping center and mall locations; on a number of factors, including distance and they are less likely nowadays to be inde- from the epicenter of supermarket and hyper- pendent due to trends toward the organiza- market development in France and Britain, tion of small specialty retailing into chains the resistance of local cultures to changes in and franchises, or cooperative buying groups. shopping habits, and in some cases govern- Suburban shopping centers and malls are a ment regulatory policies. In France, for ex- rapidly expanding venue for retailing, and ample, where the onward march of hyper- certainly part of the creation of a whole new markets has been nearly irresistible, the landscape of consumption sites, which also in- government intervened in 1996 to protect cludes theme parks and discount outlet and small food retailers by passing legislation that warehouse parks designed to cater to the mo- prevented large retailers from using the term torized and affluent European consumer. The boulangerie, which has such a powerful asso- newest ones are carefully managed to present ciation in the minds of the French with the act the consumer with an attractive mixture of of shopping for food. shops, set in a planned environment of sights Behind most attempts by government to and sounds, along with plenty of parking. regulate the growth of hypermarkets has been Within the cities, there has also been a paral- 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 335 lel expansion of small and specialty retailing often even owned or franchised by, large in association with newly gentrified and revi- western retailing firms. Many have been talized city centers, typically set on pedes- established for ease of automobile access in trian streets, in underground malls or busi- outlying suburban locations. Indeed, in some ness tower complexes. urban areas the major obstacle to more devel- Recent years have seen rapid and revolu- opment of this kind is the present inability of tionary changes in retailing in the former so- the road network to handle the traffic. cialist countries of east-central and eastern While the overall density of wholesale and Europe. Under the old state-run retailing sys- retail outlets in the East remains well below tems in these countries, little attention was that of the West, it is steadily rising; and in paid to consumer demand. Products were some east-central European countries, such distributed according to centralized bureau- as Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, cratic decisions. Decisions about the location it has reached levels at least comparable to of shops and the display and sale of goods those in the West during the 1970s or 1980s. were made in a perfunctory manner, with lit- The process is, however, far from complete. It tle thought about enhancing the convenience or satisfaction of consumers. Since 1989, however, shopping has suddenly become big business. People are eager to join the consumers’ world, and there has been a tremendous burst of private entrepreneurial initiative to meet the demand. Most east-central and eastern European countries have recorded soaring levels of retail sales, along with a spectacular rise in the number of retail establishments, some of which are the result of the privatization and restructuring of the old public-sector enterprises, while others are the product of a widespread enthusiasm for new capitalist ventures of all sizes and shapes. Credit cards have become far more common, and western- style cash machines are widely available, at least in the larger towns and cities. Rather ironically, in comparison to the West, the East can be viewed, at least initially, as having taken quite the opposite direction in the evolution of its retailing structure. The early trend was to move from a system of centralized control of retail distribution to the proliferation of small-scale retailing, rather than the other way around, although the instrument of central control in the East had been the state rather than the giant corporation. According to one survey, the number of FIGURE 11.5. IKEA shopping bus. Suburban shopping malls with lots of parking space have become commonplace, even in the former retail outlets in Poland soared remarkably socialist states of east-central and eastern Europe. Retailers do every- immediately after the introduction of a free thing they can to entice central city residents to these new emporia. market, rising from just 165,000 in 1988 to Here an IKEA bus stands ready in front of Warsaw’s Central Station to 415,000 in 1994. More recently, however, transport buyers out to the suburban location of its store on the out- there has been a steady growth in larger outskirts of the city. The tall building in the background is the city’s 1950s lets and chain stores, similar to those of, and era Palace of Culture. 336 IV. WORK AND LEISURE is so far largely restricted to the major urban Food and Drink centers, and in many areas has been severely hampered by the persistence of certain struc- One way in which we might examine the tural features of the old system, including question of convergence versus divergence is poor wholesale distribution, weak manage- to look at changing patterns of food and drink ment and marketing skills, and the en- consumption. This seems an important area to trenched presence of black-market retail- explore because, after all, it was the food sec- ing—particularly in the countries that were tor that first experienced the consolidating ef- formally part of the Soviet Union. Nonethe- fects of hypermarkets and chain stores. As a less, there is every indication that the pro- consequence, it is a fact that processed and cesses of privatization and investment will packaged foods of all kinds have been readily continue and that shopping in the East will available to consumers for some time, both increasingly resemble shopping in the West. within and outside of urban areas; and that shoppers throughout most of Europe have be- Convergence or Divergence? come increasingly accustomed to choosing from a wide, but at the same time very stan- Given the retailing trends outlined above, it dardized, range of food options. would appear that Europeans today are expe- There is, of course, a long history of chang- riencing a process of homogenization in tastes ing dietary patterns to be kept in mind. Food and buying habits. The race to consolidation availability in Europe was once heavily influ- in retail marketing would certainly suggest enced by an inability to transport perishable that social and cultural differences in con- items over long distances. What people ate sumption patterns are being swept away and and drank coincided roughly with what could that Europe is converging inexorably on a be produced locally, depending on climate single market dominated by powerful Euro- and soil. Diets were nearly everywhere rather brands distributed through integrated inter- monotonous and often low in caloric intake. national networks of wholesalers, advertisers They tended to be dominated by starchy sta- and retailers. Yet, the case for convergence ples, which were a relatively cheap and con- may not be quite that overwhelming, for there venient source of calories for a population remain numerous examples of regional or na- that was largely poor. The starchy staples usu- tional differences in consumer tastes for such ally came in the form of breads, porridges, things as food and drink, styles of clothing, and gruels made from locally available cere- home furnishings, autos and housing—even als. In certain parts of Europe, potatoes were the packaging (i.e., size and shape) of individ- also an important source of nourishment. ual products—that appear to defy the ex- Only small amounts of livestock products pected trend. In some cases, regional or na- were consumed, and sugar, fruits, and vegetational proclivities even seem to run in the bles were generally absent or of only minor opposite direction, toward more specialized importance. products and services that satisfy local desires All of this changed during the 19th and the and needs, or a nostalgia for a simpler past. first half of the 20th centuries. Change came Politically, this tendency has been reflected at as a result of increased and more varied agri- the highest level in the resistance that certain cultural productivity, a general long-term rise national governments, particularly in the in real wages, a much-improved ability to pre- Mediterranean, have offered to various har- serve perishable foods and transport them monizing directives from Brussels that have over long distances, and a growing availability demanded the replacement of national with of food imports from other parts of the world. EU-wide product standards. Many Europe- In short, food supplies became generally ans are naturally suspicious and a bit afraid of more abundant and affordable. During this an all-encompassing homogenization of their period Europe passed through what might be lives. called a nutritional transition, characterized 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 337 by a rise in total calorie supply per capita, and had prevailed in the latter part of the preced- a substantial decline in the proportion of the ing century. Europe was still divided into diet—although not necessarily the absolute three broad zones: a northern zone extending amount of food—derived from starchy sta- from western Scandinavia to Russia, where ples. Wheat became the dominant grain, re- spirits were the dominant drink; a middle placing the wide variety of local grains from zone running from the British Isles through which flour was made. There was a growing the Low Countries and Germany to east- consumption of animal products. There was central Europe, where beers were preferred; also an increase in the consumption of fruits and Mediterranean Europe, where the con- and vegetables, oils and fats, as well as sugar, sumption of wines outdistanced everything which had been a great luxury for the major- else. While total consumption had declined ity of Europeans before prices began to fall in somewhat since the 1890s, there was little the late 19th century. In the end, the nutri- change in the pattern of preference by the de- tional transition had a modernizing effect. It cades immediately following World War II— made regional diets more robust at the same the only exception being Denmark, which time that it brought about a degree of conver- had moved from the spirits to the beer zone gence in European diets as a whole. The pro- sometime during the 1950s. cess was, however, very much extended over These distinctions had much to do with time and space. It began in northwestern Eu- long-standing connections between environ- rope, where it was in some ways complete by ment and culture. The grape flourishes in the the end of the 19th century. The nutritional warm Mediterranean South, and wines have transition came far more slowly and less com- been important in Mediterranean Europe pletely to eastern and Mediterranean Europe, since Greek times. On the other hand, the where it was still very much in progress as best regions for producing the malting grains late as the 1960s, and in some respects still from which beer is produced are found north continues. of the Alps, and the consumption of beer has Despite the transition, important geo- long prevailed over much of Europe outside graphic distinctions in food and drink pat- the Mediterranean. Spirits are distilled from a terns still remained by the postwar decades of variety of grains and plants, including po- the 1950s and 1960s. In the case of alcoholic tatoes, found throughout northern Europe. beverages, for example, consumption patterns They are a relative newcomer on the scene, in the 1960s were not dissimilar to those that replacing beer and emerging during the 18th

FIGURE 11.6. Place and taste. Strong associations exist between certain kinds of consumables and regional environments and cultures. This beer advertisement in a Berlin subway station tries to connect the taste and desirability of the Löwenbräu brand name with the invigorat- ing mountain landscapes and carefree culture of Bavaria. 338 IV. WORK AND LEISURE and 19th centuries as the leading drink in vergence in tastes. These trends began in the Scandinavia and Russia. Spirits were also West, particularly in the most developed areas briefly dominant in Britain, the Low Coun- of northern and western Europe, where in- tries, and in Germany before being overtaken comes and prosperity rose to unprecedented again by beer. heights during the postwar decades. Higher The use of cooking oils is another example incomes meant that people were freer to buy of the long and pervasive influence of envi- what they desired rather than what their ronment and culture on food preferences. The means forced them to consume, and the intro- traditionally dominant source of natural cook- duction of modern multinational marketing ing oil in Mediterranean Europe is the olive, strategies and the internationalization of food while elsewhere in Europe it is butter and distribution encouraged them to exercise lard. The olive, which until this century was their newfound freedom. In most western the only edible oil-bearing crop that could be countries rising incomes led to significant in- grown in Europe, is produced for climatic creases in the consumption of meat during reasons only in the Mediterranean South. En- the 1970s and 1980s. At the same time, pref- vironmental conditions conducive to the pro- erences for different kinds of meat gradually duction of swine and cattle and the absence of became more uniform. Pork, for example, has any kind of edible domestic oilseed led to a become the most important meat in every Eu- traditional reliance in the rest of Europe on ropean country except Iceland, Albania, and butter and lard, and to a lesser extent on oils Russia. In the great majority of countries, the derived from fish. Oils were subsequently order of preference is for pork, followed by made from tropical oilseeds and margarine beef, poultry, and mutton. By 1990 people made from animal fats, and vegetable oils in EU countries were deriving roughly one- were introduced in the latter part of the 19th third of their total calories from animal prod- century and grew steadily in popularity ucts, a level far in excess of any time earlier, as Europe’s nutritional transition progressed. although levels of consumption have more re- Nonetheless, as late as the 1960s in both cently stabilized or begun to decline. northern and southern Europe, they were still By the late 1990s many dietary clichés from less popular than traditional cooking oils. the not-so-distant past had become passé. The 1970s are viewed as the beginning of a Scandinavian countries today consume more whole new set of food consumption trends, bread and cereals than Mediterranean coun- the most notable of which is a growing con- tries. More fish products are eaten in Spain

FIGURE 11.7. Olive production. The olive grows everywhere throughout the Mediterranean. Here olive groves range endlessly over the mountainous Anda- lusian landscape of southern Spain. The fruit, which is harvested in winter, is either pickled in brine for eating or pressed to extract the oil used for preparing food. Spain is the world’s largest producer of olives. 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 339 and Portugal than in Scandinavia. Coffee of the East are just now grappling with the shops have begun to supplant tearooms in adjustment to western consumerism. Even as Britain. And the traditional three zones of al- new products are accepted, local or regional coholic beverage consumption outlined ear- cultures often choose to adapt the use of these lier, while still recognizable, have become products to their own particular circum- more muted. In most countries the leading stances and traditions. Some traditional forms drinks of the past have lost their supremacy. of consumption also remain remarkably re- Beer, which is now marketed in easily trans- sistant to change. Ireland, for example, main- portable and refrigerative aluminum cans, is tains a higher-than-average consumption closing in on declining wine consumption in of potatoes. The United Kingdom consumes Mediterranean countries and, along with more sugar and corn than anyone else, the wine, which can now be shipped in tankers to Germans more beer, the French more wine, far-away northern distributors, has overtaken and Mediterranean countries in general con- spirits consumption in Scandinavian coun- sume more fruits and vegetables. tries. Whereas differences in alcoholic con- Moreover, despite the internationalization sumption were once a largely north–south of food marketing, cultural differences still af- phenomenon, the major difference today fect the basic way in which food shoppers ap- is between a more homogenized pattern in proach the marketplace. A very good example the West and a preference for spirits in the of this is a recent survey of food shopping East—the latter most recently underlined by in western European countries. When asked a shift in the most favored beverage from what they thought was the most important wine to spirits in Romania and Bulgaria. factor in choosing a food store, consumers in Evidence for convergence may be seen to- France and Spain said price; for the Germans, day in nearly every aspect of what Europeans Dutch, and British it was the range of food eat and drink. This is definitely, however, a available; Italians placed the greatest empha- very complex trend, and there is some indica- sis on proximity or ease of access. These kinds tion that it may be slowing. Even as overall of attitudes have served to encourage a more dietary structures converge, regional differ- recent, and some would say postmodern, frag- ences may be found in how they are evolving. menting trend in the retail food market, fea- Mediterranean countries, for example, are in turing regional brands and market distribu- some ways still completing the nutritional tion systems. Examples of such regional transition that countries in northwestern grocery chains include Eroski in the Basque Europe put behind them more than a half- country of northern Spain, Morrisons in century ago. The formerly socialist countries northern England, and Cora in Alsace.

FIGURE 11.8. Fast food. A major force for dietary convergence is fast food. McDonald’s and other fast food outlets have pretty well blanketed the European consumer landscape. Here, Muscovites grab a quick dinner at McDonald’s as they head for home on a dark winter night. 340 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

Social Change and Consumption greater variety. Time is a valuable commodity for these people, so they are often interested Analysts are very quick to point out that there in one-stop, self-service shopping. They is no such thing as a “Euro-consumer” yet. are also inclined to purchase food in simple Culture is an important influence in maintain- single-serving packaging. The fact that more ing differences, but much also depends on de- women work outside the home is another mographic and social change. Europe’s aging factor. Workingwomen spend far less time population is, for example, an important factor preparing meals and are therefore more inter- in determining certain consumption patterns. ested in buying frozen, easily prepared pro- It lies behind the increasingly extensive avail- cessed foods. All of this has led to a growing ability of health aids and cosmetic products provision of specialized products and market- that have to do with aging. Seniors are also ing venues that stand alongside those of the more likely to demand familiar tried-and-true mass-merchandising chains. products and full-service attention to their The substantial immigrant populations now needs when they go to market. The fact that quartered in many western cities add another older people are often more densely distrib- divergent ingredient to the marketplace. Eth- uted in some areas than others can have a nically owned shops, food stores, and restau- powerful effect on local marketing strategies rants that cater to the immigrant’s nostalgic and consumption patterns. ties to the tastes and smells of home are a European families have also become commonplace sight. Ethnic food outlets, in smaller; in some residential areas there are particular, are often even able to “cross over” relatively few children and many young peo- and find popularity with host populations. ple living alone. This is especially true in The ubiquitous Italian pizzeria is certainly northern and western Europe. It is reflected one obvious example. Another is the countless in the kinds of products available for local fast-food street kiosks in German cities that consumption and by the willingness of con- sell the Döner Kebap, a wedge-shaped sand- sumers to shop around. Gentrified areas of ur- wich of spit-roasted meat and sauce on foc- ban professionals, for example, often demand cacia-like bread, introduced by Turkish im- quality lines of consumer products and gener- migrants but now popular with German ally prefer convenience over lower prices and consumers as well. In eastern Europe divergence often takes the form of a rising demand for locally produced products, particularly beverages and cigarettes, that were commonplace during the socialist period—a phenomenon that reflects both frustration with the higher costs of western goods and a nostalgia for old and familiar consumer habits and pleasures. Finally, there is a far greater emphasis in today’s society on individualistic lifestyles. Identity is important to people, and perceptions of personal identity and gratification— whether culturally, regionally, or individual- istically based—are a strong determinant of a FIGURE 11.9. Senior consumers. These two German seniors are wide range of specialized consumption activi- strolling past a storefront display of hygiene and health goods. Mar- ties. People tend to display their individuality, keting in Europe is influenced, as anywhere else, by the tastes and or personal style, through what they consume, needs of the local population. As Europe ages, more and more retailing wear, or involve themselves in, and are in- will be aimed at meeting the special needs of this growing segment of creasingly more prone, as they do so, to reject the population. traditional mass consumption goods and ser- 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 341

1960s that labor organizations and governments have steadily increased the amount of time that workers could rightfully claim as their own, and only since then that relatively abundant leisure time has become the norm for the majority of the population. Europeans have come to have an excep- tionally large amount of free time at their disposal, more so than their counterparts in America or Japan. Most European workers today are guaranteed 5–7 weeks of annual paid leave, including public holidays, and some receive even more. The Finns, for example, currently are entitled to 39 days of paid holidays a year. The French get 36, the Germans 33, and the Italians 30. The long-working British FIGURE 11.10. Crossover. Ethnic foods originally brought to Eu- receive the least, with 28 days. Across the EU, rope by immigrant workers in the 1960s and 1970s have become uni- the average leave and public holiday entitle- versally popular fare. Seen here is a Döner Kebap stand, a nearly ubiquitous sight in most large German cities. Introduced there by Turkish ment is 34 days. In contrast, the average immigrant workers, the Döner Kebap is a big street-side seller, right American is entitled to just 16 days a year. A alongside falafels, schnitzel, bratwurst, hamburgers, pommes frites, majority of the population has the necessary and Coca-Cola. disposable income to do something special with it and actively seeks opportunities to do so. There is even a German Leisure Associa- vices. Especially important here are the ways tion dedicated to offering Germans informa- in which people use their leisure time for rec- tion and advice on how best to take advantage reation and relaxation. of their free time.

Tourism LEISURE Tourism has become one of the most popular Along with much higher levels of personal ways for Europeans to spend their leisure wealth and consumption, one of the most im- time. Indeed, Europeans have literally come portant changes in the lives of Europeans to to expect to go on holiday, often one involving take place during the latter part of the 20th foreign travel, at least once a year; in many century has been the expansion of leisure ways it has almost come to be viewed as a ba- time. As late as the closing decades of the sic human right. This point was quite recently 19th century, the vast majority of Europeans underscored in France, where the govern- spent most of their waking hours working or ment has set up an official state-funded attending to the essentials of life. Most work- agency to help fill vacant beds in French tour- ers toiled for 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. ist hotels with people who could not other- The luxury of having significant amounts of wise afford a holiday. The premise behind the free time to dispose of was strictly the prov- scheme is that the right to leisure is some- ince of the elite. And even as the enjoyment thing that all French citizens are entitled to of leisure time gradually became more com- regardless of social standing or economic situ- monplace for the middle and working classes, ation—just as they are entitled to housing, ed- it was usually restricted to relatively brief hol- ucation, and welfare. Germans also tend to iday periods, or to the free time that by tradi- view vacation travel as an entitlement. tion came to all on Sundays and public or reli- Holidaymaking is something that often gious holidays. It has only been since the takes place at specific times of the year. In 342 IV. WORK AND LEISURE most European countries there is, for instance, a definite period, usually during one of the summer months, that is generally accepted as “the time” for lengthy summer holidays. In Sweden, for example, the summer holiday period begins in June around the time of the summer equinox. In France, it comes much later in the summer. During this time, many shops and businesses are closed and large portions of the population are away from their homes and jobs on holiday. The exodus can also be quite specific in terms of destination, as most national populations have long been in the habit of spending their holidays at FIGURE 11.11. Tourism. One of Europe’s most popular tourist at- the same venues or engaging in the same ac- tractions is the small German town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, whose tivities, although these predilections are, as well-preserved medieval townscape has since the latter part of the 19th century been the epitome of what many believe to be quintessentially we shall see, a matter of fashion and appear to German. In this photo crowds of tourists wait, cameras in hand, for the be becoming much more diverse and individ- moment when the clock on the Councilor’s Tavern strikes the hour and ualistic. In this sense, tourism is what has mechanical figures emerge to reenact the Meistertrunk, the colorful been called a “positional good,” meaning that legend of how the town was saved from destruction by its mayor, who it is something that people may use to define managed to drink an entire tankard of beer (3.25 liters) in one go. their social position and personal lifestyle. While tourism may be in part the pursuit of pleasure and relaxation, it may also be a mat- tourism industry in east-central and eastern ter of being seen in the right places and Europe. Within the EU, the industry contin- among the right people. ues to grow at rates faster than the economy Given the great popularity of holiday- as a whole. According to EU data, more and making and tourism among Europeans, and more Europeans are visiting one another’s the considerable attraction that Europe holds countries every year. The growing demand is as a holiday destination for people from other met continent-wide by an astounding 186,000 continents, Europe has the distinction of be- hotels and similar establishments with almost ing the world’s biggest tourism market. It has 9 million beds. held this favored position for many decades, France is currently the most important and although its relative importance has tourist destination in the world, with as many slipped somewhat over the past 20 years, Eu- as 70 million visitors a year. The United States rope still claims 58% of world tourist arrivals is in second place, but is followed by a string and half of all global tourism receipts—which of European destinations including Spain, It- puts it well ahead of its nearest rival, North aly, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Poland, America. Tourism in Europe is a mega-indus- and Austria. Other major European destina- try, every bit as important as agriculture, con- tions, by world standards (i.e., more than 10 struction, or automobile manufacturing. In million tourist arrivals from abroad annually), 1998 tourism in the EU generated a whop- are the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzer- ping $1.15 trillion, or 14% of the combined land, and Greece. Greece, in fact, possesses gross domestic product of the EU’s 15 mem- the fastest-rising tourism market of the group. ber nations. According to World Travel and Among Europeans, the Germans holiday Tourism Council statistics, 19 million people and spend more money abroad per capita in western Europe are employed by this sec- than any other national group, followed by the tor of the economy, either directly or indi- British and the French. The Germans actually rectly. An additional 16 million are thought to spend more than three times as much on their be dependent, in at least some way, on the foreign holidays as all Europeans together 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 343 spend on trips to Germany. More than half of British license plate. Portugal and Greece also all Germans take at least one international cater to a predominantly German and British trip a year, and many take more than one. The clientele. Italy is another favored German Dutch, Norwegians, Belgians, Icelanders, and tourist destination. Germans are by far the Swedes also spend significantly more abroad largest single tourist contingent in Italy, ac- than they take in. Overall, there is a definite counting for more than half of all nights spent net flow of tourist money from northern to in Italy each year by foreign tourists. Other southern Europe, although somewhat surpris- countries tend to draw their largest influx of ingly the country with the largest net outflow foreign visitors from neighboring states. Bel- of tourist money, next to Germany, is Russia. gium’s most numerous tourism customers, for Russian tourists are currently spending more example, come from across its common bor- than two-and-a-half times as much abroad as der with the Netherlands. Similarly, the the Russian tourist industry is able to take in Danes, the Dutch, and the Austrians receive at home. Russian cruise ships, loaded with more tourists from Germany than from any high-spending tourists looking for bargains on other place, while throngs of visitors from all kinds of western goods, have become a Britain spill over the Channel to become common sight in Mediterranean ports, partic- the largest foreign holidaymaking group in ularly in Istanbul, but even as far away from France. British tourists also exert an over- their Black Sea home ports as Spain and Por- whelming presence in nearby Ireland. Curi- tugal. With the exception of Russia, the re- ously, the French fail to establish a strong mainder of the eastern half of Europe is a net presence anywhere, except in the United recipient of international tourism expendi- Kingdom where they are second in impor- tures. tance to the Germans. The most favored international destination for travelers from within Europe is Spain, The Development of European which is the preferred destination, in par- Mass Tourism ticular, for travelers from Germany and the United Kingdom. It is indeed no small won- Mass tourism is a phenomenon that first der that, at the height of the holiday season, emerged in late 19th-century Europe, partic- every other car on the streets of Spanish ularly in Britain. It was largely built around coastal towns seems to sport a German or the development of places of outdoor pleasure and recreation that were open and accessible to the urban masses. The first of these to appear were urban pleasure parks that provided a nearby recreational setting where people of all classes might promenade, picnic, and relax on Sun- days and holidays. In London, such places had long been available to high society and the more fashionable elements of the middle class, who enjoyed privileged access to the royal parks and for whom a host of pri- vately run pleasure and tea gardens, such as the famous Vauxhall Gardens, were maintained from the early 18th century. Working- FIGURE 11.12. Russian cruise ships. Tied to the wharf is a line of class people and the poor, however, were ex- Russian Black Sea cruise ships, which have brought holiday-seeking cluded. Nineteenth-century social reformers and bargain-hunting Russian shoppers to Istanbul. Long prohibited and moralists, however, took the view that from visiting the West, today Russian and other eastern Europeans are providing the working classes with access to a small but growing new source of international tourism revenues. open space and appropriate recreational and 344 IV. WORK AND LEISURE cultural opportunities could raise their gen- hageners and visitors alike could find amuse- eral health and moral respectability. Access ments and nature in abundance, right in the restrictions to the royal parks were lowered, midst of the city. The park’s natural qualities and in 1841 public funds were used to de- are ensured by its original charter, which stip- velop Victoria Park, which, complete with ulates that at least 75% of its land be pre- fountains, follies, lake, flowerbeds, and served as open space. cricket lawns, soon attracted 30,000 visitors a The great exhibitions that opened in major day, largely from working-class areas of the cities across Europe during the latter half of city’s industrial East End. Even more suc- the 19th century—from the 1851 Great Exhi- cessful in this respect was Battersea Park, bition of the Works of Industry of all Nations opened in 1858 in the hopes of improving lei- in London with its extraordinary 19-acre sure activity in one of the city’s more squalid Crystal Palace exhibition building to the Paris working-class neighborhoods. International Exhibition of 1889 with its revo- London’s example was quickly copied else- lutionary and astounding 300-meter-tall Eiffel where. Napoleon III, who was impressed by Tower—are also examples, as we noted in an London’s parks during a visit to the city, or- earlier chapter, of elaborate, if temporary, ur- dered that two royal preserves on the western ban amusements designed to attract, enter- and eastern approaches to Paris—the Bois de tain, and educate great masses of visitors from Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes—be all walks of life. So too were the great outdoor made into public pleasure parks, while in the museums of rural buildings and lifestyles as- midst of working-class Paris, Haussman set sembled by Romantics near the end of the about creating the Buttes-Chaumont Park, century to foster appreciation of national cul- transforming an unsightly low hill riddled ture. The first and most famous of these was with abandoned quarries and covered with Skansen, established in 1891 by Artur the city’s refuse into a romantically wooded Hazelius on the grounds of what was formerly landscape graced with waterfall, lake, wind- a royal deer park on the edge of the Swedish ing trails, and lovely bridges. Copenhagen’s capital of Stockholm. Tivoli Gardens, founded in 1843 by Georg All of these developments were instrumen- Carstensen and built on the site of a section of tal in establishing the practice of mass enjoy- the city’s fortifications, was modeled after ur- ment of public places of entertainment and ban pleasure parks he had seen in London recreation. But, for mass tourism, by far the and Paris. He envisioned Tivoli Gardens as a most important development was the emer- magic garden and playground, where Copen- gence of large seaside resorts and amusement parks, made easily accessible from the large industrial cities by steamboat or train. In the case of London, steamboat excursions to downstream attractions on the Thames, like the Royal Terrace Pier and public gardens at Gravesend, or to seaside bathing resorts beyond the Thames Estuary on the coast of Kent, like Ramsgate and Margate, were popular among the middle classes from as early as the 1840s. In later decades, an ever larger number of seaside resorts that could be reached from London by rail began to spring up all along the Channel coast. Gradually FIGURE 11.13. Buttes-Chaumont Park. Created virtually from these resorts also began to cater to holiday- scratch in the 19th century by Haussman from refuse dumps and aban- makers from the working classes. By the doned quarries, Buttes-Chaumont Park is a green oasis in the midst of 1880s and 1890s, holiday excursion packets eastern Paris, frequented by joggers, strollers, and sunbathers. consisting of as little as a day or as much as a 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 345 week or two at resort towns along the coasts From its introduction in the late 19th cen- of Sussex, Kent, and Essex were within the tury until after World War II, mass tour- means of and open to working-class East End ism remained essentially a domestic industry, Londoners. English industrial conurbations spatially constricted to serving nearby indus- in the Midlands and elsewhere soon devel- trial workforce markets. International tourism oped their own nearby seaside attractions. continued, as always, to be a specialized and Similar developments took shape on the con- relatively small-scale activity for the elite. Be- tinent. In addition to public bathing, these ginning in the 1960s, however, all of this sud- seaside towns offered a wide range of lodg- denly began to change. Mass tourism went ings, pubs, tearooms and restaurants, and a international and the favored destinations be- carnival atmosphere centered on the array of came the sun-drenched beaches of the Medi- shops and kiosks, dance halls, and sundry terranean and, a little later, the ski slopes of amusements, all gaily illuminated at night by the Alps. The trend, which accelerated during colored lights that lined the seaside prome- the 1970s and peaked during the 1980s, was nade or clung to the decks of the great ram- in part a product of the newfound profusion of bling timber piers that jutted far out into the time and money found at the middle and harbor. lower socioeconomic levels of European soci- A few of these popular seaside resorts were ety. It was also made possible by the emer- especially well known. Blackpool, located on gence of air travel as a form of mass transpor- the Irish Sea coast within easy striking distance tation, and was built around a revolution in of the industrial towns of Lancashire, was the provision of the tourist product. Britain’s largest and most popular resort town, The new international mass market fea- boasting 7 miles of sandy beach and extensive tured a standardized good—sand and sun, or amusements, including the 158-meter-tall snow and ski slopes—that could be enjoyed in Blackpool Tower, built in 1895 and modeled af- a specialized built environment at a competi- ter the Eiffel Tower in Paris. On England’s tively low price. Media advertising was used Channel coast, the best known was Brighton, to promote the idea that the good was the where sea bathing first came into vogue among equivalent of an exotic fantasy sensation of the upper classes during the latter part of the pleasure and fun that was completely beyond 18th century. The town received the powerful the familiar experience of normal everyday patronage of King George IV and was graced living. The good was most commonly pur- with Regency squares and distinguished land- chased from an international tourist company marks, including the unusual and ornately in the form of a “package vacation” that in- styled Royal Pavilion. Brighton was connected cluded air transport, hotel, and a variety of to London by rail in 1841 and grew rapidly as ancillary privileges and services. The inter- open coaches of tourists descended on the national tour companies, operating primarily town for the purpose of enjoying its 7 miles of out of northern European countries, profited pebbly beach, enclosed on each end by the im- from the fact that the large volume of their posing lengths of the Palace and West Piers. business made it possible to acquire and sell Examples of well-known fashionable sea- exclusive charter air flights and whole blocks side resorts on the continent from the same of tourist hotel rooms at discount prices. So period include Ostend, whose glamour was pervasive was the system that entire hotels, or enhanced by the frequent patronage of the even resort towns, were often dominated by Belgian King, Leopold II; Trouville, which package tourists from a single country. was a favorite summer playground in the The success of the new international pack- 1860s for France’s Napoleon III and his court; age tours contributed enormously to the over- and Scheveningen, whose magnificently wide built beachfronts of countless Mediterranean sandy beaches have made it the most popular seaside resort towns. The typical scene in of all Dutch coastal resorts since bathing was these places is one of modern concrete and established there in 1818. glass hotels standing shoulder to shoulder, 346 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

FIGURE 11.14. Seaside promenade. This photo looks south from Constitution Hill over the Welsh town of Aberystwyth on Cardigan Bay. Along the near sweep of the bay is the town’s promenade, built in the Victorian era to accommodate and amuse tourists from English industrial towns on their summer holiday. The arm of land reaching out toward Ireland holds the crumbled ruins of one of Edward I’s ring of castles around the Welsh coast. The round hill on the other side of the town is Pen Dinas, the site of one of Wales’s many iron-age hill forts. (Photo: A. K. Knowles) each looking down over a hotel-front outdoor Black Sea coasts of Romania and the for- café onto a demarcated stretch of sand on mer Soviet Union. Similar developments are which the hotel provides the obligatory array found on the Atlantic coasts of Portugal, espe- of changing houses, beach furniture, and cially the Algarve, on the Canary Islands, and brightly colored beach umbrellas for its on the Basque and Vendée coasts of the Bay of guests. International tourism has transformed Biscay. All together, an estimated 140 million the towns themselves into garish assemblages tourists are attracted each year to the Euro- of souvenir shops, restaurants, and kiosks, pean shores of the Mediterranean. With the ringed by row upon row of tourist apartments growth of trans-Mediterranean tourism dur- and condos. It has also turned their econo- ing the 1990s, additional millions of European mies into low-wage seasonal labor markets. tourists now populate the beach resorts of The phenomenon first took root in the North Africa as well. western Mediterranean along the mainland The advent of mass tourism in alpine re- and island coasts of Spain (Costa del Sol, gions has had similar effects. Switzerland, the Costa Blanca, Costa Brava, Majorca, Minorca, most popular destination for winter sports- and Ibiza), along almost the entire south coast related holidays, now boasts more than 600 of France, and on the Ligurian and Adriatic ski resorts scattered throughout the country’s Rivieras in Italy. In the eastern Mediterra- alpine region, many of which constitute major nean it was somewhat later established on the developments. Given the intense competition Greek islands and subsequently spread to the of mass tourism, most resorts in the High Alps Adriatic coasts of the former Yugoslavia, west- have come to offer elaborate facilities and ser- ern Turkey, and Cyprus, in addition to appear- vices, which has meant intense development ing in its own specialized forms along the in the form of modern buildings, shops, car 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 347

FIGURE 11.15. Adriatic beachfront. Chairs, umbrellas, and other beach paraphernalia are piled up in front of their respective hotels in this off- season photo of the beachfront at Riccione, one of a string of holiday towns strung out along the Adriatic coast of Italy. Known as the “Green Pearl” of the Adriatic, the town is thronged in the summer season with thousands of recreating visitors.

parks, and alternative entertainment, not to middle class that consciously strives for ind- mention transportation links. Alpine centers ividuality in its lifestyles and tastes. Such such as St. Moritz and Zermatt have lost predilections have generated a more sophisti- much of their traditional appearance and cated outlook on leisure travel that demands charm in an effort to cater to the mass market. opportunities for interaction with nature, rug- As we pointed out in an earlier chapter, this ged outdoors action, isolation and privacy, has also come at a cost to mountain environ- learning and self-knowledge, cultural and ments. heritage appreciation, or novel experiences and thrills. Another influence has been the The New Tourism growing length of paid holiday time, which now allows people to consider taking two or The last decade or so of the 20th century has even three vacations rather than just the tra- seen yet another major shift in European ditional summer break. For example, vacation mass tourism. While the traditional mass travel abroad around the Christmas and New tourism to beach and mountain resorts contin- Year’s holiday season, which was almost non- ues, we have begun to see the emergence of a existent a decade ago, has now become a very variety of new tourist markets that have very popular activity. different characteristics. These new markets The demand is for more flexible travel are highly specialized and relatively small- arrangements, extending from “short breaks” scale. They cater to an emerging consumer to extended holidays, and that demand is preference for something different and more currently being met by some revolutionary varied than the standard mass-package tour. changes in European transport. Especially One important factor in this new develop- important here is the recent rise of the “no- ment has been the growing influence of a new frills” airlines, which have made it possible to 348 IV. WORK AND LEISURE travel cheaply to almost anywhere in Europe along with an expanded system of high-speed and to take advantage of popular “short inter-city rail service and the now nearly uni- break” opportunities. The proliferation of versal ownership of automobiles (and the such airlines is a direct result of the EU’s ready availability of caravan trailers to tow be- third liberalization package of 1992, which es- hind them), has done much to free today’s sentially allows any European carrier to de- European travel consumers from the tradi- mand landing spots at any destination. The tional package tour holiday arrangement. development and competition is most ad- The wide variety of tourism activities asso- vanced in the United Kingdom, where such ciated with the new tourism in Europe seem upstart carriers as EasyJet and Ryanair have to fall into three broad categories: rural and moved quickly to dominate the low-cost air- ecotourism, urban and heritage tourism, and line business by offering, in addition to no- theme parks. The first of these reflects a frills service, such innovations as one-way growing perception, particularly on the part fares and direct marketing. EasyJet flights, for of the urban middle class, that the rural coun- example, may only be booked directly via the tryside can offer a serene and idyllic retreat Internet. Irish-based Ryanair has been so suc- from the stresses of everyday urban life and cessful that it is credited with making Lon- that its therapeutic effect can be far greater don–Dublin the second-busiest route in Eu- than a week on the beach teeming with other rope after London–Paris. The British based holidaymakers. After all, as we have pointed no-frills airlines have invaded the continental out earlier in this book, there is much that is market by setting up new hubs in busy air- nostalgic and appealing about the fields and ports such as Amsterdam and Geneva. They, villages, the folk architecture of farmsteads along with continental budget carriers like and villages, the hedgerows, stone walls and Brussels-based Virgin Express are forcing pole fences, the windmills, country inns and the mainline flag carriers, like British Air, pubs, tree-lined alleés, and great houses that Lufthansa, SAS, and KLM, to introduce their dot the agricultural landscapes of Europe. own subsidiary entries into the no-frills mar- Moreover, in some areas the countryside can ket or to cut off-peak fares in order to com- contain extensive open spaces, often seem- pete. Advertisements placed conspicuously in ingly wild and unspoiled, that are ideal for Berlin subways by the Hamburg-based low- hiking, jogging, bicycling, picnicking, fly fish- cost airline Hapag-Lloyd Express hype the ing, and other peaceful and healthful pursuits. fact that one can fly to Cologne for no more The countryside also lies, in many cases, than the cost of a Berlin taxi ride (19.99 eu- within easy reach of a population that largely ros). The rise of these new air travel options, has access to automotive transportation, and

FIGURE 11.16. No frills. A loosening of regulations governing the air travel industry has revolutionized Eu- rope’s internal tourism transportation market. Seen here, docked at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, is a “no-frills” Easy Jet airliner with its direct-booking telephone number emblazoned on its side. 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 349

A second area of growth may be called urban and heritage tourism. We noted in earlier chapters that European cities have recently been forced to compete aggressively with one another for investment and that part of this effort has been to promote themselves as mag- nets for tourism and leisure activity. The great cities, particularly the capitals, have always been tourist destinations of considerable importance, but there is today a heightened emphasis, as in rural tourism, on the “getaway” or “short break” market. Indeed, the fastest- growing segment of the European tourism market is the two- or three-night “citybreak” package, which normally includes airline, hotel, and entertainment reservations. The no- frills airlines have aided in this by bringing international flights into secondary city air- FIGURE 11.17. Getaway? Even the big national carriers have gotten into the short “getaway” market. This advertisement for British Air- ports rather than the major international ways alerts passersby on a Paris street that quality round-trip service to hubs. Cities are promoting themselves as ex- London is available for a mere 69 euros. citing places to visit, places where people can go for uniquely rewarding experiences in shopping, eating, entertainment, cultural ap- whose free time can be easily organized into preciation, and sightseeing. Given its very “short break” or weekend outings in the coun- high potential for conferring simultaneous fi- tryside. nancial benefit on business, retailing, enter- It is estimated that within the EU roughly tainment and civic interests, tourism has thus a quarter of all tourism is now directed to- become a major instrument of urban regener- ward the countryside, that a growing share ation policies in countless cities. Major in- of it is international, and that it has had a vestments in new multipurpose city-center positive impact on rural economies. The provision of tourist accommodations on farms is commonplace and an important part of the tourist industry in such countries as Austria, Sweden, and Ireland. The term ecotourism has also emerged to connote the widespread involvement in rural tourism of governmental planning to protect the attractions of the local landscape. Austria even has an association of “Holiday Villages,” which sets strict environmental standards and limitations on visitor crowding for its member villages. Such planning efforts place emphasis on avoiding rapid and haphazard development by concentrating on “high-end” specialty tourism rather than on the mass tourism FIGURE 11.18. Trek. Bicycling has become an avid leisure pastime market and by taking steps to ensure that for many Europeans. This well-equipped and stylishly outfitted French tourist services and facilities reflect rather biker, balancing to snap a photo while pedaling uphill, is one of thou- than contradict local traditions in architec- sands who swarmed up and down the steep roads of the Vosges during ture, landscape, and economy. a recent long weekend holiday. 350 IV. WORK AND LEISURE attractions have become commonplace, in- age an appropriate aura of past glories and cluding trendy waterfront redevelopments as historic relevance. It has also played a role in in Barcelona, Oslo, and Glasgow, or showy the development of specialized rural tourism. shopping–business–hotel–entertainment com- The third and final category involves the plexes such as the new Potsdamer Platz rede- creation of spectacle and adventure in the velopment in Berlin. Also important is the form of American-style theme parks. The staging of major cultural, sporting, and com- most significant development and trendsetter mercial events to bring in visitors and add to a here was the opening of EuroDisney just out- city’s prestige and visibility. side of Paris in April 1992. Although the park But perhaps one of the most vital elements struggled at first due to high prices and a re- is the promotion of “heritage” in the form grettable insensitivity on the part of its Ameri- of historic architecture and associations with can management team to local customs and historical events, personalities, and artifacts. tastes, the problems were quickly corrected We tend to take the conservation and promo- and attendance took off, reaching more than tion of urban heritage for granted, but it is in- 10 million visitors annually by the end of teresting to note what a modern phenomenon 1993. The American-style family theme park it is. Beginning with a few late 19th-century boom has now blanketed Europe, and hol- pioneering examples and proponents, the idaymaking Europeans are choosing to travel movement became more widespread in the in record numbers to theme park destina- earlier half of the 20th century as a municipal tions. Europe’s 80 major theme parks were responsibility to identify and preserve se- estimated to have attracted more than 100 lected monuments, but only gained universal million visitors in 2000. More and more parks acceptance in the last couple of decades as an continue to be developed amid a constant cy- absolute priority of urban planning and devel- cle of one-upmanship as promoters compete opment. Heritage tourism, as it is called, has to entice easily jaded visitors with better qual- become one of the most powerful tools in at- ity attractions, bigger sensations, and more tracting visitors to cities, and has touched off a amazing thrills. For many parks the thrill ele- rush to conserve and refurbish historic monument is especially important. The thrill sensa- ments and buildings, even entire historic dis- tion of the early 1990s was the 80-meter-tall tricts, that can be used to instill in a city’s im- “Pepsi Big Max One” roller coaster at Plea-

FIGURE 11.19. Heritage. It is sometimes hard to imagine that the preservation of historical buildings and landscapes that we take for granted today is only a relatively recent phenomenon. The city of Carcassonne in the south of France is an early example. The seemingly untouched walled medieval town was actually resurrected from a state of ruin during the 19th century when the wave of Romanticism sweeping Europe at the time made the Middle Ages seem fashionable. The restoration was planned by the architect Viollet-le-Duc and was only completed in 1910. 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 351 sure Beach Park in Blackpool, England. A short time later, it was the “Dragon Khan” roller coaster, erected at Universal Studio’s Port Aventura theme park outside of Bar- celona and capable of negotiating a series of eight inverted loop-the-loops at speeds of more than 90 kilometers per hour. Then it was the “Nemesis” at Alton Towers Park in Staf- fordshire, capable of delivering a maximum force of 4Gs. Each year the parks seem to get bigger and the thrills flashier, with no immediate end in sight. Although the model for the theme park is American, combining a full range of overnight accommodation, meals, and services with amusement park attractions, European parks are often targeted to distinctively European tastes and interests. EuroDisney’s biggest competitor near Paris, Parc Asterix, is built, for example, around the persona and antics of Asterix the Gaul, the popular French comic FIGURE 11.20. Memory and heritage. The site of the June 1944 book character. Europa Park in southwestern D-day landings in Normandy has become a major tourism site. The Germany is organized around separate theme beaches and the towns behind them are filled with museums and shops areas that reflect the cultures of various Euro- commemorating the landings. It is also a site of memory for the thou- pean countries and regions. sands of aging veterans who return there each year in package tours or Heritage can also be important, as many on their own. These two, one French and the other American, are con- parks have attempted to capitalize on a broad- versing in front of the visitor center to the American cemetery at Omaha ening public interest in and fascination with Beach, just before the Memorial Day ceremony put on there each year history, which includes not only witnessing by the American authorities. but even participating in the past, at theme parks that feature “imagined” or “living history” demonstrations and activities. Flam- what the park touts as an experience in bards Village in Cornwall is an excellent ex- “distraction and learning.” Warner Brothers’ ample of this. The park features two very Movie World theme park in Germany is popular historical attractions. One is a re- another example. In such pursuits, much is creation of a lamp-lit Victorian village in aimed at children. One of the leading family which visitors may wander among costumed attractions in Europe is the Netherlands’ players going about their daily business in Efteling Park, which draws roughly 3 million more than 50 shops and homes; the second visitors a year to a world of fairy tale wonders is a harrowing life-sized re-creation of the intermixed with thrill rides. Young and old sounds and hazards of a typical London street alike are similarly attracted in huge numbers at night during the World War II blitz. A ma- to the Legoland parks, now operated by Lego, jor attraction in the French city of Caen these the Danish manufacturer of children’s blocks, days is an elaborately designed museum exhi- in Denmark and the United Kingdom, with a bition on the 1944 D-day landings. new park under construction in Germany. Technology is another draw—witness the Also big, but a little different from the typi- success of Parc du Futuroscope near Poitiers, cal theme park attraction, is the “exotic get- where roughly 3 million visitors a year wan- away.” One of the most successful examples of der about 53 acres of giant-image screens and this genre is the series of holiday villages now interactive video entertainment in search of operated in a number of northwestern Euro- 352 IV. WORK AND LEISURE pean countries by the Dutch firm Center making a concerted effort to give coastal tour- Parcs. The idea is to offer urban families an ism a new image, in large part by attempting opportunity to make a quick getaway to a nat- to control the ugly and sprawling commercial ural setting without really having to travel growth that has tended to destroy the attrac- very far. The parks feature comfortable well- tiveness of the country’s popular seashore appointed family accommodations in cottages destinations. along with a healthy supply of family-oriented There has also been a move, throughout activities and attractions. The villages attract Europe, to revitalize or refurbish some of the millions of guests and are currently leading historic places of mass tourism, especially the the European market for short holiday breaks. older beaches and resorts that were estab- When all is said and done, these newer lished during the 19th and early 20th centu- forms of specialized tourism have not exactly ries. New investment has come in the 1990s, replaced Europe’s annual mass migration to for example, to places like Blackpool or Brigh- the traditional seaside or mountain tourist re- ton, which have experienced a long decline sorts. These are still the dominant attractions. and are now hoping to reverse the trend. The Recent developments, nonetheless, have be- renovation of Brighton’s famous West Pier is a gun to provoke change in the traditional mass prime example. Long a forlorn symbol of ne- tourism industry. One indication of this is the glect, the West Pier has recently received a fact that Mediterranean countries have ac- structural facelift and is set to shine again tively begun to take steps to diversify their with nightclubs, pubs, a health spa, and a ca- tourism industries by placing more emphasis sino. Proceeds from the lottery were used to on the development of interior holiday desti- shore up the foundations and restore the nations that offer more in the way of heritage overall look of the Pier itself. Private money and scenic tourism. Spain, for example, is now took care of the attractions and concessions, experiencing a very rapid expansion in cul- while Brighton Council completed a project tural tourism, based on the country’s colorful to upgrade the rather seedy appearance of the and multicultured historic heritage. There has area between the Palace Pier and the West also been a surge in specialized rural niche Pier. The Brighton experience is one that is markets. At the same time, authorities are being repeated in old seaside resort towns all

FIGURE 11.21. Exotic getaway. One of the fashionable and highly successful CenterParcs, “Domaine des Bois Francs en Normandie” is located west of Paris, just outside the town of Vernuil-sur-Avre. Laid out on the grounds of a historic chateau, shown here, the resort offers guests such varied activities as horse riding, golfing, archery, fishing, boating, bowling, and exclusive dining, not to mention access to an exotic glass-domed, climatically controlled “aquatic tropical paradise.” Guests can book by the week, for short weekend getaways of three nights, or for mid-week “holidays” of four nights. 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 353 around Britain. The lottery has channeled millions into restoring coastal piers, while government regeneration grants for seaside tourism are improving the physical appearance of beach towns by replacing decaying beachfront façades with new and smartly appointed promenades, fronted by attractive as- sortments of shops, eateries, and night clubs.

East-Central and Eastern European Tourism During the socialist era, the countries of east- central and eastern Europe developed their FIGURE 11.22. The great patriotic war. An important holiday ac- own special brand of mass tourism. It was es- tivity in the Soviet Union was the visitation of memorials and monu- sentially a form of collective consumption, in ments commemorating the heroic Russian sacrifice during World War which groups of workers and their families set II. Seldom visited by anyone but Russian tourists, this memorial at off on state-run package tours and holidays. Treptow in East Berlin commemorates the Soviet Union’s 305,000 ca- sualties during the 1945 Battle of Berlin, and is the resting place for The group-oriented structure of the experi- 5,000 of them. The memorial grounds are dominated by a gigantic ence was intended to spotlight and reward symbolic statue, atop a pedestal made of marble from Hitler’s Chancel- the virtues of worker solidarity and achieve- lery, which in turn is set on top of a conical hill modeled after a ment. The principal destinations of this mass kurggan, or traditional warrior’s grave of the Don region. On either side tourism were Black Sea beach resorts and of the mass graves are sculpted frescoes of stylized scenes from the health spa resorts, although also important Great Patriotic War. was a type of heritage tourism that promoted a sense of pride in socialist sacrifice and accomplishment, especially during World War reau to provide the necessary services and II. Nearly every city and region in the East facilities and, as the need for foreign hard cur- came to possess some kind of attraction in the rencies became a major state concern in the form of an elaborate monument or shrine to late 1960s and 1970s, to facilitate and manage the struggles of the past. As we noted in international tourism coming from outside the Chapter 9, restorations that alleviated the ex- Soviet bloc. Yugoslavia, which during this pe- tensive damage visited on many cities by the riod became increasingly politically estranged war, such as the reconstruction of Warsaw’s from the rest of the bloc, turned its Adriatic completely destroyed Old Town, were also a coast into a favored destination for western part of the heritage scene. tourists seeking a Mediterranean-style sea re- During the Stalin era, most tourism activity sort holiday. To win foreign hard currencies, took place within the boundaries of the re- the Soviet Union even operated a western spective eastern-bloc countries. Later the market-oriented trans-Atlantic steamship pas- market became more international, and holi- senger service for a time between Leningrad day travel to a wide variety of destinations and New York or Toronto, with intermediate within the Soviet-dominated Council for Mu- stops in major west European ports. tual Economic Assistance (CMEA) bloc be- The fall of communism has resulted in a came possible. Tourism to western or other major restructuring of tourism in the East. markets, however, was restricted to a very For one thing, it has opened western markets small and privileged segment of the party to travelers from the former socialist coun- elite. The scale of tourism was very large. Paid tries. Rather ironically, a rash of new travel holiday vacations were a nearly universal agents and tour operators in east-central and experience, and each country maintained a eastern Europe that offer package holidays to sprawling state tourism organization or bu- western Mediterranean coastal resorts have 354 IV. WORK AND LEISURE contributed to the staying power of those re- tourists who come primarily by automobile to sorts in a changing western tourist market. At visit, among other things, the country’s faith- the same time, the traditional mass tourism fully reconstructed historic city centers. In- markets internal to the east-central and east- deed, the main roads leading into Poland from ern European countries have stagnated. The the German frontier are lined with dozens of flow of tourists to seaside resorts on the Adri- small enterprises that sell handicrafts, kitsch, atic has been affected by the uncertainties of and other goods to passing tourists. The coun- ethnic conflict, and to Black Sea resorts due try has also profited from a healthy flow of both to the loss of traditional markets in cen- tourists from the United States, which has a tral Europe and to shaky economic and politi- large Polish American population. The old so- cal conditions in all of the former socialist cialist era Polish state travel agency, Orbis, states that border on the Black Sea. All coun- has undergone privatization and is expanding tries seem to have placed some priority on the rapidly. There has been a rush to build new rebuilding of their tourist industries, particu- hotels and tourist accommodations across the larly with respect to attracting international country, many of them under the aegis of tourism from the West, as part of the post- international chains, such as Best Western, communist restructuring process. Perhaps the Hilton, Sheraton, Global, and Accor. The greatest indicator of what has happened is the roughly 1,000 hotels currently operating in burgeoning number of Internet websites ad- Poland represent, according to recent esti- vertising tourism opportunities and services mates, a 70% increase over the number extant across all of east-central and eastern Europe. in 1994. Poland has quickly risen to be one of The countries that have had the most de- the most frequented of international tourist monstrable success in rebuilding their tourist destinations in Europe. The country is ranked industries are all in east-central Europe. Most an impressive sixth in international arrivals have been able to build their success largely among all European countries, although a on trendy urban-based cultural and heritage rather large proportion of all visitors are of the tourism, and to a lesser extent on rural tour- short-term getaway or weekender variety. ism. Poland has capitalized on its proximity to The Czech Republic has also done well. Germany, attracting large numbers of German Glittering Prague, midway between Berlin

FIGURE 11.23. Black Sea resort. The sandy beaches along the southern half of Romania’s tideless Black Sea coast attract most of the country’s summer vacationers and before the fall of communism were big draws for people in other Soviet-bloc countries. Mamaia, just north of the port city of Constanta, is the most popular destination for the sunbathing, beer-drinking crowd. 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 355 and Vienna, has proven to be a stellar attrac- pean women who answer deceptive adver- tion. The city has enjoyed an enviable reputa- tisements offering well-paid work and the tion in recent years as one of “the” places to possibility of relocation in western countries. visit. Hungary, which had already experienced substantial western tourism before Popular Culture and Entertainment 1989, continues to attract foreign visitors to its capital, Budapest, with its elegant Danube Europeans, of course, spend the greatest por- river embankments and magnificent views tion of their leisure time near home, where from the Buda Hills, but also to a variety of they engage in an enormous variety of cul- other attractions. Hungary is currently second tural activities and entertainments. There among all the east-central European coun- aremany traditional leisure pursuits that are tries in international arrivals. And finally, more or less universal. Gardening, for exam- Slovenia, which shares common borders with ple, is a common and time-honored leisure Italy and Austria, has been able to establish a activity, especially among older citizens. niche for itself as a specialized short-term Taking a simple walk also ranks high. Indeed, tourist market. Tourists have been flocking to on evenings or weekend and holiday after- Slovenia in ever larger numbers to visit its noons, the public parks and formal pedes- small tidy cities, to enjoy the country’s rela- trianized spaces of European cities and towns tively pristine forested and mountainous land- are typically thronged with people, young and scape, and to participate in the increasingly old, who venture out to take the air, window popular outdoor activities on the wild rushing shop, or relax alone or with others on a park alpine waters of the Soa River, such as raft- bench or at an outdoor café. Much time is also ing, kayaking, and canyoning. devoted to self-improvement of the mind or On a tawdrier note, a growing sex tourism body. Adult education classes, study groups industry has also emerged, especially in areas and cultural clubs, associations, and activities of east-central Europe most easily accessible of all kinds are popular; and museums, galler- to short-term western visitors. Many Czech ies and concerts, theater and ballet perfor- and Polish towns near the German border mances, and the cinema are all well attended. have developed a conspicuously thriving Europeans, as a whole, are avid leisure read- trade in prostitution, capitalizing in part on ers. Sports and physical fitness too are fer- the extensive recruitment of eastern Euro- vently pursued. Opinion polls show that walk-

FIGURE 11.24. Leisure time. A young Pari- sian couple chat on a park bench in front of the elaborate façade of the city’s 19th-century Hôtel de Ville. Europeans, in general, seem more dis- posed than their American counterparts to relax and enjoy the time when they are not working. 356 IV. WORK AND LEISURE ing or cycling for exercise rate among the local languages, and undoubtedly understood most popular physical activities for Europe- in local terms. American television imports, ans in all countries and walks of life. such as MTV, CNN, the QVC Shopping At the same time, Europeans are increas- Channel, and a host of popular game shows, ingly subjected, like everyone else in our are typically Europeanized in terms of per- world, to new and globalizing forms of popu- sonalities, content, and format to the extent lar culture, the majority of which are de- that they may, at times, appear scarcely recog- livered through the media of modern tele- nizable to an American viewer. Nonetheless, communications. Largely inescapable, such the electronic revolution has become as much influences are seemingly everywhere, and a fact of life in Europe as anywhere else in the their omnipresence raises questions in many world, and undoubtedly has introduced a new quarters about the potential homogenizing and surprisingly varied range of entertain- impact they may have on national and local ments and activities to the leisure scene. cultures and identities. The debate becomes Television is easily the most powerful of the especially pointed when globalization is seen modern media conveyors of popular culture. as the equivalent of Americanization, a form Nearly every European household has a tele- of cultural imperialism in the eyes of many vision set, which people typically watch for that threatens to inundate and take over virtu- several hours per day. Indeed, statistics even ally everything in an avalanche of American suggest that the average European spends television shows, movies, music, and fashions. nearly as much time watching television as Such fears about impending American cul- they do engaging in other activities such as tural hegemony are usually overdrawn, since work and school. Over the past seven decades the invading American pop cultures are in television has developed from humble begin- themselves highly varied and are received, in nings to become the most universally perva- turn, by diverse European national cultures, sive feature of the modern cultural landscape. each of which instinctively tends to modify Television broadcasting made its first ap- and interpret them to suit local tastes and pearance in experimental form during the late needs. With the exception of Britain, Bel- 1930s. In 1937 the BBC began regular broad- gium, the Netherlands, and some of the Scan- casting, although only to an extremely limited dinavian countries, American films and televi- number of receivers. At about the same time sion shows are almost invariably dubbed into the French began construction on the world’s

FIGURE 11.25. American cultural hegemony? A Hollywood film release is advertised on Berlin’s Karl Marx Allee, the former showcase “socialist street” of East Berlin. In the background are the twin Stalinist towers that mark the beginning of the section of the avenue flanked by the ornate apartment buildings that were to be “palaces for the people.” 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 357 most powerful television transmitter, which the 1960s, when “pirate” radio stations began was placed atop the Eiffel Tower. The onset of beaming commercial broadcasts into the World War II, however, put an end to further Netherlands from ships anchored in the development until the end of the 1940s. After North Sea. Although legal sanctions were un- the war development followed a fairly com- dertaken to discourage such activities, the mon pattern. During the 1950s and early commercial mix of programming broadcast 1960s, all European countries developed na- from these stations proved enormously popu- tional television broadcasting systems, which, lar with viewers. Open internal market rules unlike their American counterparts, were introduced by the EU and the development placed under public ownership and control. of new transmission and receiving technolo- This meant that television programming was, gies eventually made it possible for independ- in most cases, restricted to one or two chan- ent broadcasters to set up shop virtually any- nels. These public channels were generally on where. Since the end of the 1980s television the air for a limited number of hours, during viewers in most countries have been re- which they offered up a fairly mundane warded with a veritable cornucopia of com- schedule of news reports, public service fea- mercial viewing opportunities, accessible tures, talk shows, and—depending on the size through the proliferation of free broadcast and sophistication of the domestic film and channels, satellite and cable systems, and now programming industries—a variable mixture through the new digital technologies being of home-produced or imported entertainment introduced into some markets. programs and films. Commercial advertising “Pay TV,” in particular, has made significant was banned. Television receiver owners in inroads over the past decade or so. Roughly nearly all countries were required to purchase half of all European households now sub- a license to watch their sets, the proceeds scribe to some form of satellite or cable sys- from which were used to help pay for public tem, and literally dozens of operators have broadcasting. In some cases, particularly in emerged to provide subscription services, a the eastern socialist countries, governments few of the largest being BSkyB (from Britain), were successful in turning television into an Canal Plus (France), Kirch Pay TV (Germany), effective propaganda tool. and Sogecable (Spain). On the other hand, By the 1980s, however the television land- Europeans seem less willing than Americans scape began to undergo significant change. As to pay for so-called premium services: only a consequence, what we have today is in one-fifth of subscribers do so in Europe, as many ways radically different from the tradi- compared to four-fifths in America. The vast tional state-sponsored systems of the post- majority seems to be satisfied with purchasing World War II decades. One precedent was set just the basic packages. Part of the problem in Luxembourg, which uniquely chose from for subscription operators may be that so as far back as the early days of radio to turn many public and commercial broadcast chan- broadcasting over to the private sector rather nels are already available in most markets that than establish a state-owned monopoly. Lux- consumers see no great advantage in paying embourg’s commercially formatted RTL for premium programming. Indeed, many (Radio and Television Luxembourg) television operators have lost money, and a serious station, which was established in 1954, could shakeout seems to be currently under way in be received (due to Luxembourg’s small size the industry. One answer is digital television, and strategic location) in neighboring Bel- which cable and satellite operators, as well as gium, France, and Germany. The station rap- the major telecom companies, are hoping will idly became a popular alternative to the more redefine the media through such features as staid public programming then available in interactive entertainment. Digital television those countries. In 1955 a commercial chan- has the added attraction for entrepreneurs of nel funded by advertising appeared in the being especially well suited to the promotion United Kingdom. A further impetus came in and sale of products. Considerable invest- 358 IV. WORK AND LEISURE

also a valued staple of the public broadcasting media. At the same time, viewers have turned to other venues to satisfy an appetite for more sports, theatrical films, and a growing variety of “lowbrow” entertainment programs. Sports ranks especially high in audience share ratings. According to television rating statistics, as many as half of the most highly rated programs are football (soccer) matches. Indeed, television has been instrumental in enriching football clubs across Europe, helping to make celebrities of star players and managers and generally moving football to a position near the forefront of the European mass entertainment industry (some would say it has had a corrupting influence). The screening of domestic and international theatrical films, the FIGURE 11.26. Programming choice. This advertisement on the wall of a Paris subway station hawks the choice of 78 channels. Sub- latter dubbed in most countries into the local scription to pay TV has become commonplace throughout Europe, with language, are a mainstay of evening, and espe- various system operators vying for the attention of consumers. cially late-evening, programming on commercial channels. Also common is an ever-present sprinkling of episodes from American televi- ment is presently under way to install and up- sion sitcoms and drama series, often sched- grade systems to deliver digital multichannel uled in random chronological order; a more or television. The earliest ventures are develop- less constant barrage of glittery and typically ing fastest in Scandinavia and the United inane home-produced variety shows; and Kingdom, where the proportion of house- the inevitable game shows, usually cloned for holds already possessing digital television sets each market from successful American or is highest. British models. What do Europeans watch on their televi- Most recently the popular entertainment sion sets? In many respects, the high ground television landscape seems to have been cap- is still held by the more venerable of the “flag- tured by reality shows and soap operas. The ship” state-owned broadcasting channels, reality show sensation originated with an such as the BBC, which continue as they have innovatively voyeuristic program called Big always done to offer quality news, current Brother, which was produced by Endemol affairs programs, and documentaries, along Studios, a Dutch entertainment company that with the very best in drama and arts program- has been enormously successful in creating ming. Reputable news programming, in par- and exporting popular programs to other ticular, is held in high esteem by an informa- countries. The premise of Big Brother was to tion-addicted public, which according to EU confine a group of people plucked from their opinion polls tunes into news and current af- everyday lives to a house and to film their ev- fairs programs more regularly than they do to ery activity as members of the group vote one any other kind of television fare. The BBC another out until only one remains. The show news, which is widely seen via cable or satel- became an international hit that has been lite in many countries, is generally regarded enormously successful in spawning licensed as the unvarnished truth. High-quality dra- domestic versions in other countries, as well mas, especially historical period dramas, as stimulating the production of a host of imi- turned out in those countries that have the tation productions that continue to pull in big necessary production resources to do so, are audiences. 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 359

The other recent ratings phenomenon is there was once a nation-based system of the “telenovela,” a Latin American product television broadcasting that exhibited a con- that has become all the rage in some parts of siderable diversity from country to country in western Europe (mostly in the Mediterranean programming standards, content, and view- countries) and across much of central and ership patterns, there is today an increasing eastern Europe. Produced in Mexico and homogeneity in which more and more view- Brazil, the telenovelas are formulaic soap op- ers have access to a broadly international, but eras that exhibit a certain sensuously Latin largely undifferentiated, variety of program- appeal that seems to project well across cul- ming choices to choose from. This ongoing in- tures. People in eastern European countries ternationalization of television both reflects are especially addicted. The standard tele- and underpins the declining importance of novela plots, which feature “rags-to-riches” state boundaries and the growing globaliza- stories and titillating glimpses into the flam- tion of culture and consumerism that seem to boyant but troubled lives of the “rich and fa- be such hallmarks of our society. mous,” have been shown to strike a respon- Yet, as we have seen, there is much that re- sive chord among audiences in the formerly mains distinctive about television culture in socialist countries. In Moscow, where half of individual countries and regions. The sched- all television channels regularly broadcast uling of programs in many countries makes al- dubbed Mexican telenovelas, the city is some- lowances for local habits and predilections, times said to come to a virtual standstill dur- taking into account, for example, the differing the broadcasts of certain eagerly awaited ences in evening meal times between such episodes. places as Britain and Spain. The insistence on Such developments have, in turn, the part of viewers in most countries that prompted some state-owned television sys- foreign language programming be dubbed tems to diversify. In the United Kingdom, for makes language and culture a key determi- example, where there were once only two nant in how television programming is con- BBC channels—BBC1 and BBC2—there are sumed, and even in the amount of foreign now a BBC3 aimed at the 25- to 34-year-old produced programming that is made available market, two children’s channels (Cbeebies to viewers. Location has also made a differ- and CBBC), and a new highbrow channel ence. The homogenization tendencies have (BBC4). Critics bemoan what they see as a perhaps been greatest where borders are “dumbing down” of state broadcasting as it nearby and permeable, such as in the Low races to compete with commercial television Countries and adjacent areas of France and for viewers and ratings—a recently cited ex- Germany. Conversely, the Irish for years have ample being the decision by ORF, Austria’s been sufficiently isolated by distance from ev- national television channel, to jump into the eryone else to have little choice but to tune realm of reality show programming with its into domestic or U.K. channels. The introduc- own show, Taxi Orange, which follows a group tion of cable and satellite subscriber systems of young people dragooned into encountering has helped, but even there local differences in the challenges of the everyday world as taxi availability and programming exist. The “ca- drivers. ORF defends its decision to enter the bling” of some countries, such as Belgium, reality show market by pointing out that its began as early as the 1970s, while others have show is different from others in that it pro- only recently completed the process or are motes the idea of community rather than still without adequate service. In some of the competitive chicanery. In Taxi Orange the former socialist countries, where the advent young drivers have to be successful in coping of commercial television is still in its infancy, with the job rather than successful in under- and the difficulties of switching from pro- mining one another in order to survive. gramming designed to meet the goals of the Has television worked to promote cultural state to programming geared to satisfy con- convergence? In a large sense it has. Where sumer tastes and the demands of advertisers 360 IV. WORK AND LEISURE are still being worked out, the television land- navia, where current penetration rates gener- scape has become more westernized but really fall in the 60% range. The Netherlands mains highly idiosyncratic. also belongs to this high penetration group. Europe’s changing landscape of leisure Relatively high but somewhat more modest consumption has also been deeply affected by levels of access are obtained among other EU the Internet. According to statistics gathered countries north of the Alps, with the excep- in the summer of 2002, the proportion of tion of France and Belgium, where people households in EU countries with direct ac- seem to have been initially slower to embrace cess to the Internet had reached 40%, up from new computer technologies but have become just 28% as recently as the fall of 2000. enthusiastically passionate once the idea has Internet penetration continues to advance caught on. rapidly, although rather striking differences The Mediterranean countries have gen- remain between regions and countries. The erally lagged behind their northern coun- most “wired” countries are found in Scandi- terparts, partly because home computer

FIGURE 11.27. Internet penetration. Proportion of the population (adults and children) accessing the Internet at least once over a 2-month period, 2003. 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 361 ownership is limited and partly because the also affect online culture. Relatively low lev- telecommunications infrastructure is less ad- els of home computer ownership in eastern vanced. In Portugal, where Internet access and Mediterranean countries, and even in rates have recently surged, the country is cur- some western countries, have made the “In- rently basking in the pride of having over- ternet café” one of the newest and most popu- taken neighboring Spain, as well as having larly frequented places in central city and reached levels of penetration comparable to suburban neighborhoods, as well as in count- parts of northwestern Europe. The weakest of less small towns and hamlets. On the other the EU countries is Greece, where the neces- hand, in parts of Europe where home compu- sary infrastructure is perhaps most outdated ter ownership is high, such trendy e-culture and Internet access hovers at only around locales are scarcely to be found. 10% of all households. In an effort to remedy Europeans have been relatively circum- the situation, the country plans to invest bil- spect about embracing e-commerce. The lions in EU development funds in coming British are the most enthusiastic of Europe’s years to improve its telecommunications in- on-line shoppers. Among U.K. Internet users, frastructure. more than a third (37%) report regular on-line The leaders in east-central Europe are Es- purchases of products, as compared to an EU tonia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Po- average of only around a fifth. Much more land, all of which boast Internet usage rates modest but above-average use of the Internet roughly comparable to those of moderately as a shopping emporium is also found in Lux- wired western countries such as Belgium, embourg, Germany, and the Netherlands. But France, Italy, and Spain. Demand in Russia is elsewhere, and even in prosperous and fully very high, but Internet usage is severely wired Scandinavia, where credit card usage is hampered by the country’s antiquated phone also very common, the advantages of shop- system, which is poorly equipped to handle ping on-line are widely spurned. The most digital communications. Nonetheless, usage is expanding rapidly. The proportion of Russian adults with access to the Internet is currently around 13%, roughly on a par with the level in Greece. Elsewhere in east-central and eastern Europe penetration levels fall off rapidly, reaching barely 1–2% of all households in such places as Serbia, Ukraine, Bosnia, Moldova, and Albania. In addition to adopting e-culture at different speeds, Europeans differ in the kinds of online cultures that have developed. Surveys show that all across Europe the Internet is used most commonly for exchanging e-mails and searching for specific pieces of information. European users seem, on the whole, to be less prone than American users to engage in what might be called spontaneous surfing. One reason for this more focused use of the Internet may have to do with the relatively high access time charges incurred by users, many of whom still access the Internet from FIGURE 11.28. Internet café. A common sight over much of Eu- home via telephone modem rather than rope is the Internet café, a convenient place for travelers or those who through lower-cost broadband hookups. lack home computers to log on and check their e-mail or just surf the Varying rates of home computer ownership Net. 362 IV. WORK AND LEISURE common explanation is that most Europeans entrusted with their own phones, almost as a are reluctant to give their credit card num- right of passage. And, like every other new bers to strangers, much less entrust them to gadget that has come along in recent years to cyberspace regardless of the security guaran- provide enjoyment and ease the burden of ev- tees made by on-line merchants. Another fac- eryday coping, they have changed the land- tor is the relatively low use of credit card scape. Just try to walk down any city sidewalk, transactions that still prevails, even for in- or ride any bus, tram, or subway, without no- person purchases, in many countries. Al- ticing the ever-present and intense chattering though this is changing, cash is still the most going on over scores of small devices pressed common way to make a purchase over large tightly to the sides of their owners’ heads. parts of Europe. Part of the explanation also lies with prevailing on-line marketing strategies, in which products are offered at essen- FURTHER READING tially the same price for which they can be purchased at a store. Apostolopoulos, Y., Loukissas, P., & Leontidou, L. Nonetheless, there is little doubt that the (Eds.). (2001). Mediterranean tourism: Facets of electronic revolution has succeeded in adding socioeconomic development and cultural change. a whole new layer to the ways in which Euro- London: Routledge. peans spend their money and entertain them- Beyerle, S. (2001, July/August). Mexico’s enter- selves, and has contributed both to the grow- taining export: Telenovelas titillate European ing homogeneity and continuing diversity of audiences and viewers. Europe, pp. 20–21. everyday living across the continent. Perhaps Carroll, M. (2001). American television in Europe: Problematizing the notion of pop cultural hege- the most pervasive symbol of the new age is mony. Bad Subjects: Political Education for Ev- the cell phone, whose presence has become eryday Life, 57, 11–14. more or less ubiquitous in the hands of Euro- Dawson, J., & Burt, S. (1998). European retailing: peans everywhere. The use of cell phones has Dynamics, restructuring and development is- become so widespread that the phenomenon sues. In D. Pinder (Ed.), The new Europe: Econ- has generated scathing editorials in nearly ev- omy, society and environment (pp. 157–176). ery country on the general lack of cell phone Chichester, UK: Wiley. manners. They have revolutionized the way Delamont, S. (1995). Appetites and identities: An in which parents keep track of their offspring, introduction to the social anthropology of west- as teenagers and even younger children are ern Europe. London: Routledge. Graham, B., Ashworth, G. J., & Tunbridge, J. E. (2000). A geography of heritage: Power, culture and economy. London: Arnold. Grigg, D. (1993). The European diet: Regional variations in food consumption in the 1980s. Geoforum, 24, 279–289. Grigg, D. (1995). The nutritional transition in Western Europe. Journal of Historical Geogra- phy, 21, 247–261. Grigg, D. (1998). Convergence in European diets: The case of alcoholic beverages. Geojournal, 44, 9–18. Hall, D. R. (1998). Tourism and travel. In T. Unwin (Ed.), A European geography (pp. 311–329). Harlow, UK: Addison Wesley Longman. FIGURE 11.29. Cell phone. The use of the cell phone has become Montanari, A., & Williams, A. M. (Eds.). (1995). so widespread that Europeans may be seen almost anywhere, cell European tourism: Regions, spaces and restruc- clasped close to the head, listening or engaged in animated conversa- turing. Chichester, UK: Wiley. tion. In this case, the conversation takes place in Rome on the steps of Montanari, M. (1994). The culture of food. Oxford, the fountain in the Piazza della Rotunda in front of the Pantheon. UK: Blackwell. 11. Consumption, Leisure, and Popular Culture 363

Padidison, R., & Paddison, A. (1998). Consumption of European cultural tourism. Annals of Tour- and retailing: Sameness and difference. In ism, 23, 261–283. T. Unwin (Ed.), A European geography (pp. Shaw, G., & Williams, A. (Eds.). (1997). The rise 220–237). Harlow, UK: Addison Wesley and fall of British coastal resorts: Cultural and Longman. economic perspectives. London: Pinter. Pells, R. (1997). Not like us: How Europeans have Torrjman, A. (1995). European retailing: Conver- loved, hated, and transformed American culture gences, differences and perspectives. In P. J. since World War II. New York: Basic Books. McGoldrick & G. J. Davies (Eds.), International Perfiliev, Y. (2002). Development of the Internet in retailing: Trends and strategies (pp. 17–50). Lon- Russia: Preliminary observations on its spatial don: Pitman. and institutional characteristics. Eurasian Geog- Turnock, D. (1999). Sustainable rural tourism in raphy and Economics, 43, 411–421. the Romanian Carpathians. The Geographical Richards, G. (1996). Production and consumption Journal, 165, 192–199.

CHAPTER 12 Epilogue EUROPEAN FUTURES

We conclude our treatment of the European are the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, culture realm with a brief look into the future. and Lithuania, former states within the now Such an undertaking is always fraught with defunct Soviet Union, five countries in east- uncertainty. Only a few decades ago who central Europe that were satellites of would have predicted the momentous politi- the USSR—Poland, the Czech Republic, Slo- cal realignments that took place in the 1990s? vakia, Hungary, and Slovenia—and the two is- And no one would deny, especially after the land republics of Malta and Cyprus. The EU events of September 11, 2001, that we live to- enlargement means that the Europe we have day in a highly volatile and remarkably inter- defined as a denoted culture region has connected world where occurrences in sun- moved one step closer to becoming an insti- dry places around the globe can suddenly tuted region. It certainly means that, even alter all that feels familiar and predictable. more so than today, a sense of European iden- Still, we think it might be useful here to spec- tity will revolve around inclusion in, or close ulate a bit about how Europe may look a de- affiliation with, the EU Club. Dominated as it cade or so from now. is by the countries of northwestern Europe, Probably the greatest and most far-reaching the Union will in turn stand for many of the change that will have taken place during this cultural, philosophical, and institutional traits first decade of the 21st century is in the politi- that we identified with Europeanness in cal realm, namely, the addition of 10 new Chapter 1. members to the European Union. This fact And, within a decade or so, the EU25 will alone must loom large in any discussion of likely become larger still. Turkey has been what may happen in Europe over the coming promised a review, and if it meets EU de- years. After years of negotiation and waiting mands on human rights it will be given an im- the EU15 became the EU25 in May of 2004. mediate date to start talks. We think it likely This was the outcome of a historic decision, that Turkey will be admitted for a number of made at the December 2002 Copenhagen reasons. Foremost among them is that some Summit, to approve the applications of the political accommodation must be made be- AC10, as the accession countries came to be tween Greece and Turkey. This is necessary known. Joining the Union as new members both to secure the EU’s southeastern flank

365 366 12. Epilogue against the highly volatile Middle East and to within the EU, has at least formally, if some- facilitate the smooth accession of Cyprus with what unenthusiastically, declared that the so- its divided Christian and Muslim communi- called western Balkans republics can all ex- ties. In addition, many within the EU would pect to join the EU—once they have met prefer that it not be seen as a purely Christian the stringent conditions imposed on all appli- Club, but rather a Union that is free of reli- cants, of course. gious bias. As a state that is overwhelmingly Political realities, however, may force the Muslim yet maintains a strictly secular gov- EU to make early concessions. The EU is al- ernment, Turkey would seem to be an ideal ready deeply involved in peacekeeping within member through which to make this point. the region and needs to ensure stability there. Even if Turkey gets the green light, it will To meet this goal it will likely be forced to ne- take some time before its accession can be re- gotiate arrangements whereby the Balkan en- alized. The best that could be hoped for as clave (and possibly Kaliningrad too) will re- things stand now is sometime early in the next ceive certain benefits of membership, even decade. though they remain officially outside the EU Bulgaria and Romania are also likely candi- for the immediate future. As we pointed out dates for admission within the foreseeable fu- in Chapter 7, it is most likely that these coun- ture. The year 2007 has been bandied about tries will gain admittance one at a time (the as a possible entry point for them, although so-called Regatta Principle) rather than as a few really believe that is possible, given the group. backward state of their economies. Russia, As if things weren’t already difficult enough Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the three in this part of Europe, there is also the worry- states of Trans-Caucasia will likely remain being prospect of further political fragmentation yond the pale for a very long time to come, as within the Balkans. Although the Republic will the North African states of the Maghreb. of Yugoslavia has just recently been recon- But there are two Nordic countries that may stituted as the State Union of Serbia and yet want to join. Norway has twice rejected Montenegro, it is still not clear yet whether EU membership in national referendums, but Montenegro will remain in the union. During there is now evidence that support within the the worst of the recent strife in the Balkans, country for joining the EU is growing. If Nor- Montenegro operated pretty much as an inde- way joins, that will exert pressure on Iceland, pendent country, even though it was officially which would then become the only Nordic tied to Serbia. The present “state union” co- country left on the outside, even though 70% mes as a result of western pressure, in large of its trade is already with the EU. Iceland has part from the EU itself, to keep Montenegro remained aloof primarily because it fears that and Serbia together. The fear is that Monte- EU common fishing policies would be detri- negrin independence would prompt renewed mental to its fishing industry. At the same demands for independence from Kosovo, time, though, it would not like to see its chief whose predominantly ethnic-Albanian popu- fishing rival, Norway, gain a more favorable lation lives under a U.N. protectorate in the access to the EU market. aftermath of the recent separatist fighting And what of the remainder of the Balkans? with Serbia that took place there. We think Of the five states that made up the former that it is probably in the best interests of ev- Yugoslav Federation, only Slovenia has suc- eryone that accommodations be worked out ceeded in breaking away and earning admis- that will encourage the reintegration of Mon- sion to the EU. Albania, too, remains on the tenegro with Serbia, and bring their union outside. Accommodations of some kind will into the queue for EU membership. Failure to eventually have to be made with these coun- do so could result in two new independent tries, and there is some hope. The EU, prod- political entities in an already highly frag- ded in part by the Greeks, who see them- mented and volatile Balkan region. selves as the potential leader of a Balkan bloc Another potent consequence of the present 12. Epilogue 367

EU expansion is that the newly enlarged EU bers have had difficulty in accomplishing re- is now much more differentiated internally cently. than it has been in the past—a fact that is Given the runaway budget deficits current- likely to make its politics more sectional. Rel- ly prevalent in most of the new member atively well-defined regional blocs are already states, which have been experiencing sub- visible, and they are likely to begin to want to stantially slower growth and lower levels of play a much more significant role in EU foreign investment, entry into the euro zone decision making. These roughly approximate is a dream that is likely to be delayed. This those presented in Chapter 1. What we re- will be a major factor in perpetuating the ferred to there as the Heartland remains multitiered nature of EU membership al- in place, as does our three-region “Europe luded to above. Remaining outside the euro proper” core. These regional groupings will zone means that these countries will be at a continue to see their role as central, much as disadvantage in that their currencies will be they did before. The former western Mediter- more vulnerable and their costs of borrowing ranean and a new and enlarged Nordic–Baltic money higher. Moreover, they will forgo hav- bloc, however, can now be expected to take on ing any influence on major fiscal decisions a more assertive role in EU affairs, distin- made within the EU. guished by the need to assert or protect the Regardless of what may happen with re- regional cultures and the special interests of spect to the euro zone, or with other “multi- these peripheral areas. The new members of tiered” initiatives, the slow but inexorable east-central Europe and those parts of the deepening of EU integration is likely to con- Balkans that are able to attain membership tinue. Ever since the decision in 1985 to es- status (along with Turkey) will stand apart be- tablish a true “single market,” the long legal cause of the considerable economic and cul- and regulatory arm of Brussels has reached tural differences that will continue to exit be- deeper and deeper into the affairs of the EU tween them and the rest of the EU. With one countries. Indeed, estimates suggest that as or two possible exceptions, most of the new many as half of the new laws promulgated accession countries will in this sense remain in member states today are simply national second-class citizens for some time into the versions of legislation already drafted in future. Brussels. While the urge to Europeanize ev- In terms of further integration or deepen- erything may be resisted by some—Denmark ing, we are likely to see more internal differ- is a good example of a country that has re- entiation in the form of multitiered accep- sisted EU initiatives on such things as de- tance of EU initiatives. We have already seen fense, citizenship, and social policies, not to precedents for this within the old EU-15, as, mention adoption of the euro—most coun- for example, in the adoption of the euro, or tries demurely accept each new expansion of the Schengen agreement. For the 10 newest power in Brussels. The long arm of Brussels members, entering the euro zone was once even extends to nonmember states. Although thought to be almost an afterthought follow- still firmly an outsider, Norway is said to have ing the long tough road to accession, but now already integrated thousands of EU directives seems distant. The problem is that, according into its own national law. to new EU rules, newcomers must maintain That being said, it is also important to real- the value of their currencies within a narrow ize that the EU remains far from being a band of 2.25% on either side of a central par- “superstate,” and many Europeans are unity rate against the euro. This is far tougher comfortable with it becoming one. The urge than the 15% band previously announced by to Europeanize is, in many ways, amply offset the EU. Moreover, once new member states by the powers and prerogatives of the nation- adopt the euro, they will be obligated to keep states, which work very hard, both at home their national budget deficits within 3% of and in Brussels, to defend their individual GDP,a feat that even some of the older mem- interests and resist surrendering any more 368 12. Epilogue sovereignty than necessary to the larger “Eu- states. This model has appeal to the larger ropean Project.” While EU legislation and di- member states. At the other extreme is the rectives may permeate the regulation of many Federalist Model in which the European par- aspects of the lives of Europeans, particularly liament would be greatly strengthened and in the economic sphere, the individual states made the primary source of power. This is the still control most of the other essential areas most democratic form of governance since the of public decision making—for example, the Parliament is a representative body elected right to determine public spending and policy directly by the citizens of the Union. on such things as pensions, welfare benefits, The kind of governance that the European education, immigration, internal security, and Union will have in the future has since been defense. Moreover, the states control the all- taken up by a gathering of delegates—known important fiscal means of governing. Although as the Convention on Europe’s Future—who the EU’s regulatory powers may be many, in met in the spring of 2003 to draft a constitu- relative terms the EU budget is miniscule, tional treaty that would set the EU’s course amounting to only 1% of the collective GDP for the next 50 years. The resulting document of the member states. In contrast, the federal is a complicated affair of more than 200 pages, budget of the United States is equivalent to much of which simply consolidates the past almost one-quarter of the country’s GDP. treaties among the EU countries into a single As the EU looks to its future, a lively de- document. Part of it, though, enters new terri- bate has developed over how the governance tory. Among other things, the treaty adopts a of the ever-widening Union should be struc- Charter of Fundamental Rights, expands the tured. This debate was launched at the In- EU’s legal and regulatory reach into criminal tergovernmental Conference held in Nice in law, taxation, and social policy, reforms EU in- December 2000, which was designed to en- stitutions, creates an EU foreign minister, and courage an exchange of ideas not only among extends majority voting into perennially con- Europe’s politicians but also among private tentious areas, such as agricultural policy and institutions and organizations and individual the allocation of regional development funds. members of the public. Contributions were For the constitutional treaty to come into invited from the applicant countries as well as force, the member countries must each ratify from the present members of the Union. One it, a process that will likely extend for some hope was that the debate launched at Nice time into the future. Indeed, the very fact that would bring the European Union closer to its this is a constitutional “treaty” says volumes citizens and counteract the widespread im- about the EU—a treaty being generally some- pression that there is a lack of true democratic thing that is agreed upon between states, as participation in EU governance. opposed to a constitution, which is adopted The debate that took place in Nice involved by a state. many issues, but it centered on what the rela- What is interesting, though, about the draft tive importance of the Council of Ministers of the constitutional treaty is that it does not and the European Parliament should be. The appear to resolve the perpetual tug-of-war be- majority opinion seemed to favor the Com- tween advocates of the federalist and inter- munity Model, in which the Council and the governmental models of how the EU should Parliament wield equal power. This model be defined and run. On balance, it seems to recognizes the dual nature of the EU as both a lean to the federalist side. The very act of union of member states, on the one hand, and adopting a constitutional treaty and the cre- a community of citizens on the other. Two ation of a foreign minister lends the EU a other models were also put forward in various more formalized “state-like” identity (it will forms, however. The Intergovernmental now have the legal right to sign treaties with Model sees the Council as the principal other states). But, as so often is the case with wielder of authority and thus underlines the the EU, things are not quite as they appear to Union as primarily an association of member be. The foreign minister will have no real 12. Epilogue 369 power over national governments, which may donia, Albania, Norway, and Iceland yet to veto any foreign policy initiative coming from come sometime in the future. Brussels and which will retain control over Very clearly the present language policy, their armed forces. Nor does the treaty extend which we discussed in Chapter 5, will have to any new powers of taxation to Brussels. Thus, be reconsidered. It seems inevitable that a while the treaty expands the writ of Brussels few languages of wider communication will into a number of new areas, it does little to have to be designated as the official languages take away any of the fundamental powers of of the EU. However, in a federation with 20 the constituent member states. Indeed, to deeply entrenched national languages there even take force it must be approved by every- can be no question of these official languages one; it only takes a single rejection to derail becoming second languages, that is, lan- the project. Even future constitutional guages of instruction, across the region. amendments must be unanimously agreed to Rather, we suspect that they will be studied as by all the member states. foreign languages by schoolchildren in all the One thing is certain, however. Regardless member states. of its future exact shape or form, the Euro- Very likely these languages will be English, pean Union will be the third-largest political French, and German. As an established world entity in the world after China and India, and language being made even more popular by far the richest of these top three. And it through the high-tech electronics revolution, will undoubtedly continue to be an important English would seem to be the logical first for- integrating force in the lives of its 450 million eign language studied. The later addition of people with their different histories, lan- both French and German would seem to take guages, religions, and cultures. Whether it too much time from other important studies. can successfully bring them together on all is- More likely, one or the other will be learned. sues, or even achieve any kind of lasting rele- German has a history of use as a lingua franca vance to their daily lives, remains to be seen. in the Baltic and east-central European coun- We would expect the member states to main- tries joining the EU, though its prestige was tain their individual sovereignties and for na- somewhat damaged by the events preceding tional and regional cultures to persist, as they and culminating in World War II. French is always have. British Prime Minister Tony more popular in western Europe and the Blair may have captured the future best when Mediterranean, so perhaps some kind of lin- he called for the new Europe to become “a guistic regionalization may be expected to de- superpower, not a superstate.” velop. It may be useful at this point to reassess The enlargement of 2004 also introduces some of things we have said about the Euro- more ethnic minorities into the EU, that is, peans in the light of a growing European Un- cultures unlike those of the majority in the na- ion. In Chapter 5 we made reference to the tion-states where they reside. Examples are burden placed on the EU by the current pol- Hungarians in Slovakia (and later on in Roma- icy of translating all documents into the of- nia), Russians in Latvia and Estonia, and Ro- ficial languages of the member states. The many (gypsies) in much of east-central Eu- present enlargement adds nine new lan- rope. The EU has human rights standards guages, four Slavic (Czech, Polish, Slovak, regarding how minority peoples are to be and Slovene), two Baltic (Latvian and Lithua- treated that are far more rigid than those for- nian), two belonging to different branches of merly applied in some of the new member the Uralic language family (Finnish and Hun- states or currently applied in many of the garian), and one Arabic (Maltese). Depending states that may be admitted in the future. In- on how Cyprus is handled, there may also be deed, a major hindrance to the admission of a Turkic (Turkish). This almost doubles the Turkey at the moment is the government’s number of official languages spoken in the treatment of its Kurdish minority. Only under EU, with perhaps Bulgaria, Romania, Mace- the pressures of gaining admittance to the EU 370 12. Epilogue have the Turks begun to forge a new rela- largement EU simply because so few births tionship with the country’s Kurdish minority, are adding numbers to the younger age which might someday even lead to some kind groups. of Kurdish autonomy within the Turkish state. Overall, as we suggested in Chapter 3, Eu- One may expect better social conditions for rope, for some decades to come, will have many minority peoples in the future, but how a population that is declining in size and long their cultures can survive the conver- steadily aging. Many demographers now pre- gence we alluded to earlier is another ques- dict a total population decline for the 25 EU tion. Certainly such examples from western countries of about 5% (roughly 25 million Europe as Gaelic and Frisian are not encour- people) between now and 2050. In the com- aging. ing years the aging of the population will be- In Chapter 6 we raised the issue of whether come quite noticeable, if not a bit alarming. the Catholic Church because of its strong po- According to one recent study, the average litical institutions wields more influence in age of the European population at mid-cen- the EU than the Greek Orthodox or the tury will rise to a little over 52 years from just Protestant Churches. The 10 new admissions under 38 years today! add some Orthodox communities (Cyprus, Thus, the problem of an inadequate work- Estonia, and Latvia) and some Protestants ing population to support the elderly will con- (Estonia and Latvia), but the overwhelming tinue or even be exacerbated. While most majority of new EU’ers are Roman Catholic. countries will attempt to combat this problem This is mainly the result of the accession of by increasing taxes, reducing pension bene- Poland, the most devout of the former Soviet fits, and delaying retirement, there are many satellites, with some 35 million Catholics. All experts who believe that such reform efforts of the east-central European states, together will prove inadequate. The admission of Tur- with Malta, are Catholic, but some, like the key and agreements with the Maghreb coun- Czech Republic, were highly secularized dur- tries, with their far younger and more rapidly ing the communist period and now report growing populations, could help to right the large numbers of “atheists and nonreligious.” imbalance, but the attitudes of many Europe- Clearly the Vatican will continue to provide a ans toward the presence of Turks and Arabs in major focus of loyalty for the peoples of the their midst would have to change appreciably EU. The leadership of most of the Union for this to be a viable solution. A relaxing of countries, however, seems committed to a immigration restrictions may help, but even multicultural policy that rejects a strong reli- here it has been calculated that the rate of im- gious involvement of any kind in secular gov- migration would have to be raised to more ernment. than 10 times its current level in order to off- With the new admissions the population of set the aging process already under way. The the EU has been suddenly increased by 20% most effective answer would be a combi- to 450 million. The prospects for significant nation of renewed immigration and higher growth of the new populations in the future birthrates, but it remains very difficult at this are poor. Fertility levels in all but Cyprus and point to predict exactly what may happen. Malta are lower than the average for the old Economically speaking, the new accessions EU15, and 6 of the 10 are currently losing have brought into the EU new and rather large population because of an excess of deaths populations that make their living directly over births. Except in the two island repub- from the land. Viewed in another way, the EU lics, death rates are significantly higher than has added a new and less developed rural eco- anywhere else in the EU. Life expectancy for nomic periphery, much as it did in previous ex- males is 5–10 years lower, and in many cases pansions but this time on a far grander scale. is more than 10 years lower than for females The agricultural productivity of these new ruin the same country. Still, the populations are ral populations will have to be accommodated aging more rapidly than those in the pre-en- within a EU that already produces sizable agri- 12. Epilogue 371 cultural surpluses and struggles in vain to find storefronts, a skating rink, and a multiplex a workable common agricultural policy. Agri- cinema. Already a huge success, the complex culture can thus be expected to undergo fur- attracts hordes of shoppers—an estimated ther rationalization and modernization over 25–40 million a year—many coming from as the coming years in all of the newly acceded far away as St. Petersburg. This development, east-central European countries. This process and many more like it, exemplifies the new will undoubtedly move large numbers of peo- western-style urban commercialization now ple off the land. Rates of urbanization can be under way in cities across the former socialist expected to rise in the East, as they already countries. have been doing for some time, bringing the Environmentally, we see some reason for relative importance of urban living ever closer optimism. As we sought to demonstrate in to the levels known in the West. Chapter 4, human impacts on the natural en- Within urban systems we can expect con- vironment are never-ending, and we will un- tinued competition for new-age investment doubtedly see new problems, accidents, and between large and medium-sized cities across crises. At the same time, we have already wit- the breadth of Europe as they try to posi- nessed some marked improvements over the tion themselves advantageously vis-à-vis the past decade in the health of some European global economy. A reduction of the impor- terrestrial and marine environments. Air- tance of international boundaries in the ex- borne pollutants, for example, have been re- panded areas of the EU should accelerate the duced over western Europe thanks to interna- integration of east-central European cities tional cooperation; and, as we have seen, the into the larger and more developed urban sys- absolutely dire predictions made a couple tems of the West and allow them to operate of decades ago for the Mediterranean have more freely in the new supranational context. largely been averted. There are even signs Competing urbanized poles may be more that the pace of environmental degradation common in the future. In addition to the tra- has slackened in the former socialist coun- ditional urban heartland of western Europe, tries, in part due to increased awareness and there will likely be counterbalancing regional ongoing cleanup efforts, but perhaps due foci in such places as the so-called Latin even more so to the widespread failure and Crescent of the western Mediterranean, a closing of many outdated and polluting indus- Hamburg–Ørestad axis at the juncture of the trial facilities across the region. The EU’s North and Baltic Seas, a Berlin–Warsaw– commitment to strong environmental policies Prague triangle, or perhaps even a Vienna– (a fast-growing area of EU legislation) and the Budapest Danubian corridor. spreading reach of Brussels—with the latest We can expect at least the larger urban enlargement to cover an ever larger portion of places in east-central and eastern Europe to European environments—will certainly help continue to transform their local economies future efforts at cleanup and conservation. and social and built environments to some- We end, finally, by returning to the issues of thing closely approximating those in the West. convergence and identity. We began this book During the past decade, we have already seen in Strasbourg, calling attention to the way in much evidence of western-style gentrification which that city and its inhabitants seemed to and commercial investment in the centers of fit so easily into many different Europes, and eastern cities. These changes show no signs of even into the world at large. We saw that slackening. Indeed, Moscow just recently an- Strasbourg could at once be small and provin- nounced the grand opening of its new “Mega- cial, French (or even a bit German), as well as Mall,” the largest such development yet seen urbanely European or global. The amazing in- in eastern Europe. Financed and developed terconnectedness of our world, advanced in by the Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA, so many ways by the high-tech electronics the $250-million project features hypermar- revolution of recent decades, makes it easier kets and hundreds of shops, two kilometers of than ever to access or be a part of our con- 372 12. Epilogue verging world on a multitude of scales and di- places that Europeans live, work, recreate, mensions, and Europeans are just as able to and form their most intimate sense of identity; do so as anyone else in the world. Yet, place and it is through lenses derived from their ex- (the local as opposed to the global) remains perience with the distinctive cultures and en- both important and distinctive as “home.” vironments that inhere in these places that And it is ultimately in the context of specific they see and access the rest of the world. Index

Abercrombie, Patrick, 276 Internet use in, 361 Gothic, 194–195 Abortion languages of, 155 Greek, 188–189 among ancient Greeks and proportion of elderly in, 96 folk, 100–101, 110 Romans, 79–80 Albanian language, 155 Jugendstil, 260 legalized, 92, 93 Alexandria, 167 modern (international), 197, 267– Aberystwyth, 346 Algarve, 346 268 Acid rain, 128 Algeria, 31 Moorish (Mudéjar), 170, 192–193 Acropolis, 235 Alps, 55 historic revivals, 197, 260 Adriatic Sea, 64 as a barrier, 56 Italian fascist, 268–270 pollution of, 121–122 glaciation in, 59 modernisme, 260, 261 and tourism, 346, 347, 354 passes, 56 Nazi, 270–272 Aegean Sea, 64 as tourist destination, 345, 346– Orthodox, 191–192 Afro-Asiatic languages, 156 347 Ottoman, 193 Afforestation, 112–113 Alsatian, 2, 150 Plateresque, 195–196 Aging, population. See Elderly Altaic languages, 156 postmodern, 278 Agora, 235 Amber trade, 57, 70 Renaissance, 195–196 Agriculture Amish, 175 Roman, 189–190 in Bronze Age, 70 Amsterdam, 20, 35, 36, 150 Romanesque, 193–194 beginnings of, 68, 116 Jews in, 173 Arctic Sea, 37 collectivization, 300–301 population of, 250 Ardennes, 52 employment in, 299–300 postmodern building boom in, 282 Arianism, 167 and EU, 215, 370 Schiphol Airport, 348 Aristotle, 79 horticulture, 116 Amsterdam Treaty, 212 Arles, 240 improvements in, 82, 83, 300 Anabaptists, 175 Armenia, 29, 167 New World crops, 82, 116 Andalucia, 26, 60 Aromanian language, 145 privatization of, 301 Andorra Arras, 253 Roman, 71 language of, 144, 157 Asian Low, 39–40 seasonal labor in, 300 Anglican Plain, 47 Aspre,59 traditional, 107–110 Anglo-Saxons, 148, 169 Assembly of European Regions, 2 Agricultural Revolution, 82 Antioch, 167 Atlantic Drift, 62, 66 Aiques-Mortes, 246 Antwerp, 63, 207 Atlantic economy, 103 Air travel, 347–348, 349 Apostolic Church, 29 Atlantic Ocean, 37 Åland, 25 Aquitaine Basin, 47, 48 coastal depths, 66 Albania Arabic language, 143 fisheries, 66 agricultural employment in, 300 Aragon, 144, 145 Athens, 28 demographic transition in, 84–85 Architecture Acropolis, 188 and EU, 219, 366 Art Nouveau, 260, 261 atmospheric pollution in, 128 fertility in, 93 Baroque, 196–197 population of, 71 independence of, 155 Byzantine, 190–191 plague in, 77

373 374 Index

Attaturk, Mustafa Kemal, 30 Baroque Black Forest, 1, 52 Augustus, Emperor, 269 architecture, 196–197 Black market, 288, 308, 336. See also Auschwitz, 178, 185–186 urban layout and design, 252–253 Informal economy Austria Basque language, 143, 156–157, Blackpool, 345, 350–351, 352 education in, 314, 315 163 Black Sea, 37, 62 elderly in, 96 Basques, 26, 106, 139, 223, 224 depth of, 66 environmental awareness in, 130 Bauhaus, 267–268 salinity of, 65 ethnonationalism in, 206 Bavarian Plateau, 19, 52 and tourism, 353, 354 and EU, 212, 220 BBC (British Broadcasting Blair, Tony, 369 and euro, 212 Corporation) Blue Banana, 19, 226, 286 and federalism, 221 and English language, 152 Blue Mosque, 193 health care in, 327 programming of, 356–357, 358, Bogomils, 172 social spending in, 325–326, 328 359 Bokmål, 149 tourism in, 125–126, 342, 343 Beauvais, 194 Bohemian Basin, 52, 53 Austrian Empire (Austro-Hungarian Belarus Bohemian Forest, 52, 53 Empire), 202 and EU, 216, 219, 366 Bologna, 285 Auvergne Mountains, 52 language of, 154 Bolshevik Revolution. See Russian Ávila, 246 Belfast, 257 Revolution Azerbaijan, 29 Belfort Gap, 1, 53 Borinage, 118 Azeri, 156 Belgium Bonn, 22, 233, 285 Azores High, 39–40 education in, 314 Bora,58 Azov, Sea of, 62, 65 elderly in, 96 Börde,48 environmental awareness in, 130 Bordeaux, 257 Baden-Baden, 53 ethnonationalism in, 207 Borromini, Francesco, 196 Bad Münstereifel, 233–234 and EU, 209 Bosnia Herzegovina Balearic Islands, 55 and euro, 212 independence of, 28 Balkan Mountains, 55, 58 and federalism, 221 Internet use in, 361 Balkans, 27 health care in, 327 Bosporus, 62, 65 and EU, 366 Internet use in, 360 Bronze Age population of, 71 languages of, 19, 150 agriculture, 70 Turkish rule, 30, 154 social spending in, 328 burials, 186 unemployment in, 310 tourism in, 342 and Celtic culture, 146 Baltic Heights, 49 workweek in, 307 metallurgy, 70 Baltic regional identity, 226–230 Belgrade, 171, 217 Bothnia, Gulf of, 62, 63 Baltic Sea, 37 Belorussian language, 154 Bradford, 257 depth, 62 Benelux Union, 208 Brandenburg, 226 eutrophication, 124 Bergen, 245 Bremen, 63 fisheries, 124–125, 215 Bergslagen, 255 Brest, 251, 273 and Hanseatic League, 104, 228 Berlin, 22, 23 Breton, 143, 146, 148 pollution of, 124 as imperial capital, 259 Brighton, 345, 352–353 and regionalism, 226–230 industrialization of, 256, 258 Bristol, 257, 285 salinity of, 63 interwar notoriety, 268 Brittany, 107 Baltic Sea Ports Organization, 228 interwar suburban housing in, 266, Bruges (Brugge), 185, 243, 245 Baltic Shield. See Fennoscandian 267, 268 Brunelleschi, Filippo, 196 Shield Nazi master plan for, 271–272 Brussels, 2, 20, 247 Baltic States population of, 250, 258, 262 Bucharest, 287 and EU, 218, 365 postmodern building boom, 288, Budapest, 23, 24 new enterprises in, 306 290–291 Ottoman conquest, 171 and Nordic/Baltic region, 25 postwar housing shortage, 275 wartime destruction, 274 Russian minorities in, 218, 369 Potsdamer Platz development, tourism in, 355 Baltic University Programme, 228 290–291, 292, 350 Bulgaria Bamberg, 194 tenement housing in, 258, 262 ethnic minorities in, 219 Barcelona, 26 transfer of capital to, 285 and EU, 214, 217, 218, 219, 366 industrial era development of, 259 wartime destruction, 274 health care in, 327 modernisme architecture in, 260 Bernini, Gian Lorenzo, 196 independence of, 206 waterfront development in, 284, Birmingham, 118, 256 languages of, 154, 156 350 Black Death, 74 pollution in, 120 Barents Sea, 62, 12 and Jews, 151, 172 relations with Macedonia, 219 Bari, 285 spread of, 77–79 Bulgarian language, 154 Barlow Report, 275 in Sienna, 248 Buttes-Chaumont Park, 344 Index 375

Byzantine Empire, 15, 30, 141, Christ, Jesus, 166, 184 Conurbation, 267 169 Christian Reformed Church, 20 Consumption Byzantium, 140 Christianity of alcoholic beverages, 337–338 burial practices, 186–187, 188 convergence or divergence, 336– Cádiz, 257 and church architecture, 190–197 339 Cairo, 121 division of, 7, 12–13 and elderly, 340 Caledonian Highlands ethical system, 12 and electronic revolution, 278–279 agriculture in, 44 and European civilization, 5–7 of ethnic foods, 340, 341 origins of, 41–42 marriage, attitudes toward, 80 of fast food, 339 vegetation and fauna, 44 and medieval towns, 242, 247–248 home shopping, 334 Cantabrian Mountains, 55, 58 origins of, 166 new urban modes, 278, 332–333, Calvinism, 13, 174, 175, 176 organization of early church, 167– 334–335 Calvin, John, 174, 185 168 and social change, 340 Cambridge University, 15, 151 and paganism, 13–14, 184 Copenhagen,104, 344 Canary Islands, 346 and pilgrimage, 184–185 Corbusier, Le, 267 Canary Wharf development, 282, spread of, 7, 169 Córdoba, 184 284 Churchill, Winston S., 199, 208 Great Mosque (La Mezquita) of, Canterbury, 169 Church of England, 175 192 CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), Church Slavonic, 154–155 Roman past, 239 215, 300, 370 Civic nationalism, 203 medieval past, 242, 243 Cappadocia, 166 Climate, 38–40 Cornwall, 52, 53 Carcassone, 350 barriers, 58 Corsica, 52, 224 Carcassonne, Gap of, 69 improvement, 69 Corsican language, 143 Carpathian Mountains, 55 Mediterranean, 58–59 Cortono, Pietro da, 196 as a barrier, 57 Coalfields, 50–51, 117 Costa Blanca, 346 nature reserves, 125 Cold War, 199 Costa Brava, 346 vegetation, 59 Cologne, 233 Costa del Sol, 123, 346 Carstensen, Georg, 344 Roman past, 239 Cotswolds, 47, 48 Carthage, 235, 236 industrial growth, 257 CMEA (Council for Mutual Castilian. See Spanish language medieval past, 242 Economic Assistance), 208, Catalan language, 143, 144, 145, wartime destruction, 274 353 157 Colonialism, 7, 21 Council of the Baltic States (CBSS), Cathars, 106, 107, 144–145 British, 161 228 Castile, 26 Greek, 71 Council of Europe, 2, 208 Catalonia, 26, 223, 224, 260–261 and growth of cities, 250 Counter Reformation, 175, 196 Catherine the Great of Russia, 175 and language, 157–158, 161 Creole language, 143 Caucasus Mountains, 56 Colosseum, Roman, 189 Crete, 38, 70 Ceausescu, Nicolae, 219, 287 Columbus, Christopher, 26 Croatia Celtic Church, 169 Common Agricultural Policy. See and EU, 219 Celts CAP health care in, 327 in Britain, 21 Common Market. See European independence of, 28 contacts with Greeks and Romans, Economic Community (EEC) language of, 154, 155 146, 236 Commonwealth of Independent Crusades, 154, 169, 172, 184, 185, migrations of, 146 States (CIS), 27 188, 246 Cell phones, 362 Communism Crystal Palace, 262, 344 Central Massif. See Massif Central fall of, 23, 205 Cuba, 208 Central Uplands ideology, 29 Cyprus origins of, 51–53 and nationalism, 205 and EU, 28, 214, 365 mineral deposits, 53 and religion, 181 division of, 28, 366 resorts and spas, 53–55 Constantine, the Emperor, 167, 190, tourism in, 346 Chalcedon, Council of, 167 193 Cyrillic alphabet, 145, 154–155 Champs-Elysées, 19, 252, 281 Constantinople, 28, 65, 140, 167, Czech language, 154, 155 Charlemagne, 168 188, 190 Czechoslovakia, 203 Chartres, 194, 195 as capital of Byzantine Empire, Czech Republic Chaucer, Geoffrey, 151 243 education in, 318 Chemnitz, 118 Italian merchants in, 243 elderly in, 96 Chernobyl, 119, 127–128 population of, 74, 242, 250 and EU, 214, 218, 365 Chilterns, 47 sacked by Crusaders (1204), 169 Internet use in, 361 Chirac, Jacques, 206 Turkish conquest of (1453), 30, language of, 154, 155 Cholera, 79, 83 171, 184. See also Istanbul and NATO, 214 376 Index

Czech Republic (cont.) Docklands. See Canary Wharf England and Nordic/Baltic region, 25 development union with Wales, 148 new enterprises in, 306, 335 Dogger Bank, 62, 63 nationalism in, 203 privatization of agriculture in, 301 Don River, 48, 65 Protestantism in, 175 tourism in, 342, 354–355 Dortmund, 244 interwar suburbanism in, 266. See Douai, 243 also United Kingdom D-Day landings, 351 Dresden, 257, 274 English Channel, 20, 62, 65, 104– Danish Belts (straits), 62, 124 Dublin, 250, 285 105 Danish Heath, 49, 114–115 Duisburg, 285 English language, 13, 148 Danish language, 135, 149 Düsseldorf, 285 global importance of, 21, 159, Dano-Norwegian, 149 Dutch language. See Netherlandic 161–162 Danube River, 61, 69 Dutch Reformed Church, 20, 92, 180 origins of, 151–152 Dardanelles, 62, 65 and Received Pronunciation (RP), Deforestation, 111–113 Eastern Orthodox Church, 13 152 in Bronze Age, 70 differences with Roman Catholic studied as a foreign language, of Mediterranean lands, 60, 72, Church, 168–169 159–160, 161 111–112 and EU, 370 English Nonconformism, 176–177 in Neolithic, 111 missionary work, 169 Enlightenment, 16 De Gaulle, Charles, 210 and Russia, 27 Environmental Transformation, 9–10, Deindustrialization, 279, 302–303, and Slavic languages, 154–155 68 309 Eastern Rite Church (Uniate), 167, Epidemiologic Transition, 82–84, 86– Delamaide, Darrel. The New 181 87 Superregions of Europe, 226 Ebro River, 60, 61 Erse. See Gaelic, Irish Delta Plan, 103 Ecotourism, 125–126, 349 Espoo, 304 Demographic Transition, 68, 81–82 Edinburgh, 304 Essen, 255, 274 in Albania, 84–85 Education Esztergom, 197 and Great Atlantic Migrations, 88 foreign languages, 159–160, 162– Estonia spread of, 84–86 163 atmospheric pollution in, 127 Den Haag, 20, 251 higher, 316–319 employment in services, 304 Denmark national distinctions, 314–316 and EU, 214, 365 atmospheric pollution in, 127 trends, 313–314 Internet use in, 361 education in, 314, 315 Edward I of England, 346 languages of, 25, 156 employment in manufacturing, Edward VI of England, 175 independence of, 203 301 Eifel, 52, 233 privatization of agriculture in, 301 ethnonationalism in, 207 Eiffel Tower, 262–263, 344, 345, 357 Russian minority in, 25, 369 and EU, 25, 210, 218, 220, 367 Elbrus Massif, 56 ties with Finland, 25 and euro, 212 Elderly, 67 Estonian language, 156 health care in, 327 as consumers, 340 ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna/Basque language of, 149–150 in EU, 370 Homeland and Freedom), 223 Protestantism in, 174, 175 and pensions, 95–96, 324–325, Ethnic cleansing, 23, 199, 206 social spending in, 325, 328 326, 370 Ethnic nationalism, 203 tourism in, 343 proportions of, 96 Etruscans, 71, 139, 236 workweek in, 307 retirement age of, 97, 370 EU (European Union), 2, 199 Department stores, 258 “third age,” 97–98 and agriculture, 215, 300, 370 Desertification, 123 “fourth age,” 97 birth of, 211–212 Dickens, Charles, 258 Elizabeth I of England, 175 and border controls, 212, 216 Dientzenhofer, George, 196 Elvas, 251 budget, 158, 215, 216, 368 Dijon Gap, 53 Emigration. See Migrations, Great constitution of, 217, 220, 368–369 Dinaric Alps, 55, 57 Atlantic and education, 314, 315–316, 318– Disease Employment 319 infectious, 68, 76, 80, 81, 82 in agriculture, forestry and fishing, enlargements of, 210–211, 212, epidemics in ancient times, 73, 77 299–301 214–219, 365–366 and improvements in hygiene, 83, conditions of, 307–308 environmental protection in, 129, 258 flexible, 307–308 130, 371 and improvements in medicine, in manufacturing, 279, 297, 301– and the euro, 212–214, 367 84 304 and fisheries, 104, 124, 210, 215, and industrial city housing, 258 in services, 279, 304–307 366 and medieval towns, 250 of women, 308, 310–312 freedom of movement in, 216, plague, 74, 75–76, 77 Enclosure, land, 117 308 Dnieper River, 48 Engels, Friedrich, 258 future of, 219–220, 367–370 Index 377

gross domestic product (GDP) of, and Roman Catholic Church, 81 Catholicism in, 180 215, 216, 368 size limitation (planning), 19, 79– centralized administration in, 220, as an integrating force, 7–8, 200, 80, 81, 84, 87, 92, 93 221, 224 357, 367–369 stem, 13, 81 education in, 314, 315, 316–317 language policy, 158–159, 162–163, Fascism, 204, 268–272 environmental awareness in, 130 369 Fast food, 339 ethnonationalism in, 206 and Maghreb, 211 Federalism, 221–224 and EU, 209, 217, 220 most recent (2004) enlargement, Fennoscandian Shield, 41–46 and euro, 212, 214 158, 214–219, 365 Fens, 114 family limitation in, 90 origins of, 208–211 Ferdinand II of Spain, 178 and fertility transition, 84, 86 population of, 211, 212, 214, 215, Fertile Crescent, 9 health care in, 327 218, 369, 370 Fertility, 19, 26 Internet use in, 360 and regionalism, 225–226, 228 and Christian Church, 80, 84 interwar suburbanism in, 266 relations with Turkey, 9, 30, 214, in EU, 370 Jews in, 178 218 and family planning, 84, 87 languages of, 19, 143, 144–145, and religion, 183–184, 370 among immigrant populations, 281 150 and Schengen Agreement, 212, natural, 81 multiracialism in, 206 367 patterns after World War II, 91–92 nationalism in, 201–202, 203 structural development funds, 216 rates, 67, 79, 80, 81, 92 pollution in, 121 as a trading bloc, 319 Fertility Transition, 84 pronatalism in, 90 EUR (Espozione Universale di completion of, 92–93 Protestantism in, 175 Roma), 269–270 spread of, 86–87 relations with Germany, 22, 209, Euro Fertility Transition, Second, 93–94 217 establishment of euro zone, 212 Finnish, 155–156 social spending in, 325, 328 introduction of currency, 213–214, Finland tourism in, 341, 342, 343 367 birthrate, 80 workweek in, 307 EuroDisney, 350, 351 and EU, 25, 212, 218, 220 Francien. See French language European Central Bank, 212, 213 employment in manufacturing, 301 Franco, Francisco, 144, 223 European Coal and Steel employment in services, 304 Franks, 143, 169 Community (ECSC), 209 and euro, 212 Frankfurt, 21, 213, 283 European Commission, 20, 212, 216, independence, 25 French language 217 languages of, 155–156 English penetration, 161 European Community (EC), 209– nature reserves, 125 and French revolution, 143 211, 212 Protestantism in, 174 Francien, 143 European Council of Ministers, 20, social spending in, 325, 328 global importance of, 19, 159, 161 211, 214, 368 ties with Estonia, 25 origins of, 143 European Court of Justice, 20 Finland, Gulf of, 62 and Roman Catholic Church, 143, European Economic Community Fisheries 144–145, 146, 148 (EEC), 208, 209 depletion of, 124–125 studied as a foreign language, European Environmental Bureau, and EU, 104, 124, 210, 215, 366 159–160 129 and Latvia, 215 French Revolution European Free Trade Association North Sea, 104 and French language, 143 (EFTA), 208, 210 Flanders, 224 and individualism, 19 European Investment Bank, 20 Flemish language, 150 and nationalism, 19, 201–202 European Monetary Institute (EMI), Florence, 142 and secularization, 86 212 medieval past, 242 Friesland, 152 European Monetary System, 211 and Renaissance, 195, 196 Friulian, 145 European Parliament, 2, 20, 129, Föhn,59 Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 224 211, 368 Food Frisian, 148, 152 European Science Foundation, 2 and environment, 100, 336 European Union. See EU ethnic, 340, 341 Gaelic, Irish (Erse) Europoort, 20, 63 fast, 339 and EU language policy, 158 EUREGIO, 225 nutrition, 83, 336–337, 338 origins of, 146 Euroregion Pomerania, 226 patterns and trends, 336–339, oppression and revival of, 146–147 338–339 Gaelic, Scottish, 146, 152 Færoese, 150 Fortuyn, Pim, 207 origins of, 147 Færoe Islands, 24, 25, 150 Fossil fuels, 45, 50–51, 104 present situation of, 147–148 Family France Gaeltacht, 147 extended (joint), 13, 81 afforestation, 112–113 Galicia, 143–144 nuclear, 81 birth rate in, 84, 86, 98 Gallipoli, 65 378 Index

Gallo language, 143 social spending in, 325, 328 Greeks, ancient Garden city, 265–266, 267 tourism in, 342 and architecture, 188–189 Garden Cities of Tomorrow wartime destruction, 274 burial practices of, 187 (Howard), 266 Germany, Nazi city-states of, 234–235 Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 279 and anti-Semitism, 177, 205 colonial movement of, 71, 235 Garrique,60 and the Holocaust, 91, 177–179, Dark Age, 70, 140 Gateway of Poitou, 47 185–186 ethical system, 12 Gaudí, Antonio, 260, 261 pronatalism in, 90–91, 98 ethnonationalism in, 207 Gdansk (Danzig) urban building projects in, 270– and family limitation, 79 and Baltic regional identity, 228 272 as geographers, 5, 146 medieval past, 245 Gheg, 155, 172 language, 140 and Solidarity, 309 Ghent, 242, 243 literature, 140 Geddes, Patrick, 267 Gibraltar, Strait of, 64, 65 Mycenaean civilization, 140 Geneva Giralda, 192 Peloponnesian War, 71 and Calvinism, 174 Glaciation population density of, 70–71 Genghis Khan, 170 alpine, 59 Green belts, 267 Genoa and biotic recolonization, 44 Greenland, 16, 24, 25, 110 medieval past, 242, 243 and loess soils, 48 Greenpeace, 129 Renaissance planning, 252 and submergence, 45 Green politics, 129–130 Gentrification, 278, 288, 289, 340, Glasgow, 256, 285, 304, 350 Grenoble, 284, 285 370 Gliwice (Gleiwitz), 257 Gresham, Thomas, 21 George IV of England, 345 Globalization, 17 Gropius, Walter, 267–268 Georgia, 29 and popular culture, 356, 359–360 Guadalquivir River, 114, 123, 143 German Empire, 203 and urban development, 277, 279– Gypsies. See Romany German language 284 Guilds, 247, 248 dialects of, 150 and urban systems, 285–286 English penetration of, 161 Golden Horn, 65 Hagia Sophia, 190, 193 origins of, 150 Golden Triangle, 286 Hague, The. See Den Haag standardization of, 150 Goslar, 244 Haider, Jörg, 206 studied as a foreign language, GNP (Gross National Product) of Hamburg, 21–22 159–160 countries, 319–320 cultural heritage of, 286 Germany Granada, 170, 192, 242, 243, 257 port of, 63 afforestation, 112–113 Grand Manner, 251, 259 and Baltic region, 228 birth rate in, 91 Grasslands, 113–114 postmodern building boom in, 283 e-culture in, 361 Gravesend, 344 wartime destruction of, 274 education in, 315, 315–317, 318, Great Age of Clearing, 73 Hannover, 274 319 Great Mosque (La Mezquita) of Hanseatic League (Hansa), 104, 150, elderly in, 96 Córdoba, 192 228, 245 environmental awareness in, 129– Greece Hapsburgs, 203 130 atmospheric pollution in, 126 Harrods, 258 federalism in, 221, 223, 224, 285 centralized administration in, 221 Harz Mountains, 52, 53, 107 languages of, 150–151, 152, 161 and Cyprus, 218 Haussman, Baron Georges-Eugène, employment of women in, 310 education in, 316 259–260, 344 and EU, 205, 209, 212, 216, 218, elderly in, 96 Hazelius, Artur, 344 220 environmental awareness in, 130 Health care, 67, 325, 327–328 and euro, 212, 214 and EU, 28, 211, 365–366 Heathlands, 49 fascism in, 204–205, 268 and euro, 212 reclamation of, 114–115 guilt over Nazi crimes, 205 health care in, 327 as Romantic landscapes, 106 health care in, 327 independence, 141 Hebrew, 150, 156 interwar suburbanism in, 266 Internet use in, 361 Hellenic languages, 140–141 and Jugendstil architecture, 260 language of, 140–141 Hellweg, 244 nationalism in, 162, 202, 203 mineral deposits, 60 Henry VIII of England, 175 Neo-Nazis in, 206 pollution in, 120, 121 Hercynian Uplands. See Central population of, 199 social spending in, 328 Uplands postwar housing shortage in, 274 tourism in, 342, 346 Herder, Johan Gottfried von, 203 pronatalism in, 90–91 Turkish rule, 141 Heritage, urban, 276, 277, 282 Protestantism in, 173–174 workweek in, 307 Hildesheim, 246 relations with France, 22, 209, 217 Greek language, 140–141 Hitler, Adolf, 90, 91, 204, 207, 270, reunification of, 22, 199, 205, 212, alphabet, 140 271, 303 standardization, 141 Holocaust, 23, 177–179, 185–186 Index 379

Holy Roman Empire, 2, 23 Industrial Revolution, 21 fascism in, 204 Homeless, 278 and agriculture, 83 and federalism, 223 Howard, Ebenezer, 265, 272 and mortality, 83 nationalism in, 202 Garden Cities of Tomorrow, 266 Industrialization proportion of elderly in, 96 Huguenots, 175 and environmental change, 117– pollution in, 121 Huertas,60 118 social spending in, 325, 328 Humanism, 15 and housing, 257–57–258, 261 tourism in, 342 Hungarian Basin, 60 proto-, 254–255 unification of, 142 Hungarian language, 145, 154, 155– and railroads, 256, 261 workweek in, 307 156 and urbanization, 254–263 Italian language Hungary Influenza, 79 standardization of, 142 and EU, 214 Informal economy, 308 studied as a foreign language,160 education in, 318 Insulae, 239 Ivan IV (the Terrible) of Russia, 191 languages of, 145, 154, 155–156 International Human Rights and NATO, 214 Institute, 2 Jerusalem, 167, 184 new enterprises in, 306, 335 Internet Jewish Pale, 173 privatization of agriculture in, and e-culture, 361–362 Jews 301 and tourism, 354 in Balkans, 145–146 tourism in, 342, 355 penetration of, 360–361 burial practices of, 186, 187 Hunsrück, 52 Interwar urbanism, 265–273 and the Diaspora, 167, 172 Hus, Jan, 173 Ireland, 21 and the Holocaust, 23, 177–179 Hutterites, 175 centralized administration in, 221 languages of, 145–146, 150–151, Hydroelectric power, 44, 45, 60 elderly in, 96 156 fauna, 44 in medieval towns, 248 Ibizia, 346 education in, 315, 316 in Roman Empire, 167 Iceland, 16, 24 employment in services, 304 in eastern Europe (Jewish Pale), elderly in, 96 environmental awareness in, 130 172–173 employment in services, 304 and EU, 210, 211 in the Middle Ages, 172 and EU, 25, 366 and euro, 212 in the Ottoman Empire, 173 fertility in, 92 family limitation in, 92 and the Spanish inquisition, 172 health care in, 327 and Great Atlantic Migrations, 89 Judaism,166 independence, 25 languages of, 146–147 Julian Alps, 55 language of, 149–150 marriage pattern in, 87 Jura, 52 physical geography, 61 mortality in, 87 Jutland, 49 social spending in, 328 potato famine in, 87 Viking settlement of, 110 social spending in, 328 Kaffa, 79 Icelandic, 149–150 tourism in, 343 Kaiser Wilhelm Canal (Kiel Canal), Icelandic Low, 39–40 Irish Sea, 62 63–64 Île de France, 143, 194 Iron Age Kaliningrad, 24 Immigration and Celtic culture, 146 and EU, 216, 366 attitudes toward, 98, 370 metallurgy, 70 Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), 53 and consumption, 340, 341 Iron Gate, 55, 60, 61 Karlsruhe, 251, 268 and EU, 216, 217 Isabella I of Spain, 178 Katharevusa, 141 and cities, 280–281 Islam Kattegat, 62, 124 and “guest worker” migrations, origins of, 166 Kaunas, 275 97–98, 280, 309 and Spain, 143 Kazakhstan, 29 illegal, 98, 217, 281 spread of, 73 Kent, 151 and language, 158 and Turkey, 30 Kerch, Strait of, 65–66 and religion, 182–183 Istanbul, 28, 65 Khrushchev, Nikita S, 274 Income distribution, 321–324 Blue Mosque, 193 Kiel Canal. See Kaiser Wilhelm Indo-European Languages, 13–14, Hagia Sophia, 190, 193. See also Canal 161 Constantinople Kiev Balto-Slavonic subfamily, 152–155 Italy and Byzantine architecture, 191 Celtic subfamily, 146–148 atmospheric pollution in, 126 Christian conversion of, 169, 191 Germanic subfamily, 148–152 employment in manufacturing, 301 destruction by Golden Horde, Hellenic subfamily, 140–141 employment in services, 304 170 Illyrian (Thracian) subfamily, 155– environmental awareness in, 130 Kjølen Range, 41, 42 156 ethnonationalism in, 207 Koblenz, 233 origins of, 136–140 and EU, 209 Koine, 140–141 Romanic subfamily, 141–146 and euro, 212 Kosovo, 155, 171, 219, 366 380 Index

Kuban River, 65 and EU, 214, 218, 365 language of, 154 Kurgan, 139 Jewish settlement in, 172–173 relations with Bulgaria, 218 Kyrgyzistan, 29 languages of, 152 Macedonian language, 154 post–World War I creation of, 203 Madrid, 250, 259 Labor markets. See Employment ties with Poland, 25, 173 Maghreb, 9, 31, 156 La Défense, 281, 282 Lithuanian language, 25, 152 and EU, 211, 366 Ladino language, 145, 156 Little Ice Age, 110 seasonal workers from, 300 Lake District, English, 107 Ljubljana, 239 Main-Danube Canal, 61 Lallans (Lowland Scottish), 147, 152 Lódz, 257 Maize, 82, 116 Lamalou Les Bains, 53 Loess, 48 Majorca, 346 Landes, Les, 113 London Malta Landmål, 149 as capital, 151 and EU, 214, 217, 365 Lang, Fritz cholera in, 83 language of, 156 Metropolis, 268 Canary Wharf development, 282, Maltese language, 156 Languedoc, Plain of, 60 284 Malmesbury, 255 Laon, 194 as commercial and financial center, Malmesbury Abbey, 188 La Rochelle, 103 20–21 Manchester, 256, 284, 285 Lancashire, 255 and 1851 exhibition, 262, 344 Manchester Ship Canal, 118 Latin, 21, 152 and exurban development, 233 Mannheim, 251 alphabet, 140, 154 great fire of, 252 Maquis,60 and Greek language, 140, 141 Green Belt, 267, 276 Mariánske Lázne (Marienbad), 53 and Italian language, 142 Houses of Parliament, 260 Margate, 344 origins of, 141 interwar suburban housing in, 266 Maritsa Basin, 60, 69 and Romanian language, 145 medieval past, 245 Marketing Latvia New Town developments, 276 of food, 332, 339 employment in services, 304 parks in, 343–344 media advertising, 331 and EU, 214, 215, 365 plague in, 75–76 home shopping, 334 language of, 25, 152 population of, 250, 256, 276 hypermarkets, 332–333 post–World War I creation of, 203 port of, 63 Marmara, Sea of, 62, 65 Russian minority in, 25, 369 postmodern building boom in, Marriage Latvian language, 25, 152 282, 283 age of, 76 Leeds, 257 and Regent Park, 262 cohabitation and, 93 Le Havre, 63 and St. Paul’s Cathedral, 282 European pattern of, 81, 84, 87 Leipzig, 257 stock exchange, 213 Marseille, 121 Leisure waterfront development in, 284 Marshall Plan, 91, 208 expansion of, 341, 347 West End, 253, 262 Mary I of England (Mary Tudor), holiday times, 342 as world metropolis, 268 175 international expositions, 262–263 Louis IX of France, 246 Massif Central, 52, 53, 107 paid holidays, 341 Louis XIV of France, 252 Maastricht Treaty, 129, 211, 212, 225, and popular culture, 355–362 Louis XV of France, 252 314 and television, 356–360 Lübeck, 150, 245, 247 Matterhorn, 55 and tourism, 341–355 Ludwig I of Bavaria, 270 Measles, 79 León, 143 Lüneburger Heath, 49 Mecca, 166 Leopold II of Belgium, 345 Luzhkov, Yuri, 288 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 226 Le Pen, Jean-Marie, 206 Lutheranism, 173–174 Medieval towns Leprosy, 79 Luther, Martin, 150, 173 rise of, 241–242 Life expectancy, 95 Luxembourg, 20 housing, 248–249 in ancient Greece and Rome, 76 broadcasting in, 357 marketplaces, 246–248 in EU, 370 environmental awareness in, 130 networks of, 242–245 in Middle Ages, 76, 80 employment in services, 304 size of, 242 in Russia, 95 and EU, 209 walls of, 246 Lindos, 235 and euro, 212 Mediterranean Crescent, 286, 291 Linear B, 140 language of, 150 Mediterranean Sea, 5, 37 Linz, 270 Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergisch), and antiquity, 102 Lisbon, 144 150, 158 basins of, 64 population of, 250, 257 Lyon, 255 depth, 64 postmodern building boom in, 282 as holiday tourism destination, and 1755 earthquake, 252 Macedonia, Former Yugoslav 102, 120, 123, 345–346, 353–354 Lithuania Republic of pollution of, 120–123 collectivized agriculture in, 301 and EU, 219 salinity, 64 conversion to Christianity, 169 independence of, 28 Mehmet the Conqueror, 30, 65, 171 Index 381

Meltemi,40 suburban development, 289 Navarre, 223 Mennonites, 175 as “Third Rome,” 171, 191 Nazi Germany. See Germany, Nazi Meseta, Spanish, 52 Mount Blanc, 55 Neanderthal man, 68 Mesolithic Mozarabs, 143 Neolithic populations, 69 Muhammad, the Prophet, 166 burials, 186 Mesopotamia, 166 Multiculturalism, 182–183, 280 environmental impact, 70 Metallurgy Munich, 22, 270–271 migrations, 69 Bronze Age, 70 Muslims Nestorians, 167 Iron Age, 70 in Balkans, 28, 171–172 Netherlandic, 20, 150, 161 Methodism,148, 176–177 in Germany, 183 Netherlands Metropolis (Lang), 268 in Italy, 183 centralized administration in, 221 Mezzogiorno, 26 in Spain, 170, 183 coastline, 36, 103 Migrations, Great Atlantic, 87–89, prejudice against, 183 e-culture in, 361 103 Mussolini, Benito, 207, 268, 269 education in, 315 Mikrorayons, 275 Mycenaean civilization, 140 employment in services, 304 Milan, 26, 242, 284 Myrdal, Gunnar and Alva, 90 environmental awareness in, 130 Milyutin, N. A., 272 ethnonationalism in, 207 Minoan civilization, 70 Naarden, 251 and EU, 209 Minorca, 346 Nancy, 283 and euro, 212 Mistral,58 Naples, 121, 242, 250 health care in, 327, 328 Mitteleuropa Nantes, 257 humanized landscape, 36 idea of, 23 Napoleon I, 220, 273 Internet use in, 360 Moldova Napoleon III, 345 land reclamation, 103, 114 agricultural employment in, 300 Narva, 25 languages of, 150, 152 elderly in, 96 Nash, John, 262 nationalism in, 203 employment in services, 304 Nationalism, 17, 200, 201–207 postwar housing shortage in, 274 and EU, 219, 366 civic, 203 Protestantism in, 175 Internet use in, 361 and communism, 205 social spending in, 325, 328 Monasticism, 168, 169 definition of, 201 tourism in, 343 Mongol Captivity, 27, 170 ethnic, 203 Neuf Breisach, 251 Mongolia, 208 and ethnic cleansing, 206 Neva River, 120 Mongols, 13 ethnonationalism, 206–207 New Super Regions of Europe, The Monnet, Jean, 208, 209 in France, 201–202, 203 (Delamaide), 226 Montpelier, 284 and French Revolution, 19, 201– Nice Treaty of 2000, 217 Moorish 202 Nîmes architecture (Mudéjar), 192–193 and England, 21, 201 Roman past, 239, 240, 241 culture in Spain, 73, 170 and Germany, 202 Nordic Council, 25, 208 and Plateresque architecture, 195– and Italy, 202 Normans, 143, 151 196 and language, 141, 142, 143, 144, North Atlantic Drift, 38 invasion, 143, 170 145, 147, 148, 149, 152, 155, North Cape, 38 Morava–Vardar Corridor, 57, 60, 69 156, 162, 163 Northern Ireland (Ulster) Moravian Church, 173 and national self-determination, languages of, 152 Moravian Gate, 53 203 self-governance of, 221 Moravian Hills, 52 and the Netherlands, 203 North European Plain Morocco, 31 and religion, 181 agriculture, 48–49 Mortality, population retreat of, 205 canals, 50 infant and child, 76, 83, 86, 258 and Romanticism, 202–203 escarpments and cuestas, 47 from disease, 68, 75–76, 79 and World War I, 203 fossil fuels, 50 fall in, 80 and World War II, 208 glaciation, 48, 49 and Industrial Revolution, 83 Nation-state heathlands, 49 Moscow, 23 and central authority, 220–221 origins, 47–48 and Cathedral of Christ the Savior, erosion (“hollowing out”) of, 207, rivers, 49–50 273, 288 220, 225 vegetation, 49 church architecture in, 191–192 and federalism, 221–224 North Sea, 62 as capital, 27 and governments, 222 depth, 62 interwar growth, 272 rise of, 201–202 fisheries, 104 Plan for Reconstruction (1935), number of, 199, 205 traffic on, 36, 63 273 resilience of, 207 oil and natural gas, 51, 63, 104 population of, 250, 272 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty pollution of, 120 postmodern building boom, 282, Organization), 20, 103, 208, North Sea Canal, 118 288, 289, 371 214 Northumbria, 151 382 Index

Northwestern Highlands, 41–46 Paris Polders, 36 Norway as capital of France, 19 Polis, Greek, 10, 234–235 birthrate, 80 and Cathedral of Notre Dame, 259 Polish language, 152, 154, 155 ethnonationalism in, 207 and Champs-Elysées, 19, 252, 281 Pollution and EU, 210, 212, 366, 367 city center renewal in, 283 atmospheric, 126–128 fjords, 45 deindustrialization of, 279 of Baltic Sea, 124 health care in, 327 and Eiffel Tower, 262–263 in eastern Europe, 118–120 independence of, 25 1889 exhibition in, 262–263 of Mediterranean, 120–123 languages of, 149 and exurban development, 233 of North Sea, 124 mortality decline in, 84 industrial housing in, 261 urban, 128 social spending in, 325, 328 interwar suburban housing in, and Pontine Marshes, 60, 73, 114, 268 Norwegian language, 149 La Défense, 281, 282, 266 Popular culture, 355–362 Norwegian Sea, 62 parks in, 344 Portugal Nottingham, 255, 257 population of, 74, 242, 250, 276 atmospheric pollution in, 126 Novgorod, 170, 245 postwar housing shortage in, 274– education in, 315 Nuclear power, 119, 127–128, 129 275 employment in manufacturing, Nuremberg, 270 and Schema Directeur Plan, 276 301 Nynorsk, 149 Second Empire transformation of, employment in services, 304 259–260, 261 environmental awareness in, 130 Occitan language, 143, 144, 145 as world city, 268 ethnonationalism in, 207 OEEC (Organization for Paris Basin, 19, 47, 233 and EU, 211 European Economic Parthenon, 189 and euro, 212 Cooperation), 208 Paul, The Apostle, 166 and federalism, 223 Office space, 281–283 Pax Romana, 240 independence of, 144 Old Prussian language, 152 Peasants into Frenchmen (Weber), Internet use in, 361 Olives 202 language of, 135, 143, 144 as cooking oil source, 100, 338 Peloponnesian War, 71, 77 overseas expansion, 26, 144 cultivation of, 108 Peter, The Apostle. See St. Peter social spending in, 328 Oranges, 116 Peter the Great, 27 tourism in, 343, 346 Ore Mountains, 52, 53 Phoenicians, 235 workweek in, 307 Øresund, 62, 64, 65 Philip II of Spain, 172 Portuguese language, 135 shipping tolls, 63 Pilgrimage, 184–186 origins of, 144 as regional focus, 105 Pindus Mountains, 55 and the Reconquista, 143 and urban development, 104 as a barrier, 58 standardization of, 144 Orient Express, 118 Pisa Postmodern urbanism, 265, 277– Orkney Islands, 16 medieval past, 243 294 Orthodox Church. See Eastern Place des Vosges, 254 Potato Orthodox Church Planning, urban and regional introduction of, 82 Oslo (Christiania), 38, 149, 284, city center renewal, 281–284 famine in Ireland, 87, 116 350 interwar, 267–273 Potsdam, 251 Osman I, 171 postwar, 274–277 Potsdamer Platz development, 290– Ostend, 345 Po River Basin, 19, 26, 60, 61, 121 291, 292, 350 Ottoman Empire Poland Poverty, 322–324 architecture of, 193 agricultural employment in, 301 PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) in Balkan subject peoples, 30, 154, Catholicism in, 180 countries, 320–321 171–172, 202 collectivized agriculture in, 300– Prague, 23, 197, 291 conquest of Balkans, 171 301 Preservation, historical, 276, 277, death of, 28 education in, 317 282 Jews in, 173 and EU, 214, 218, 365 Pripet Marshes Ottoman Turks, 13, 15, 28, 64 and federalism, 224 draining of, 114 origins of, 171, 203 Jews in, 172–173 and Balto-Slavonic homeland, Oxford University, 151 language of, 154, 155 152–153 and NATO, 214 Producer services, 306 Pagan partition of, 23 Pronatalism, 90–91 festivals, 13 nature reserves, 125 Protestant Reformation, 13, 16, 150, Paleolithic, 68 new enterprises in, 306, 335 173–177 populations, 69 pollution in, 119–120 Proto-industrialization, 254–255 Palermo, 242, 257, 273 post–World War I creation of, Privatization Palma Nova, 251 203 in agriculture, 301 Pantheon, 189–190 privatization in, 303 in manufacturing, 303–304 Parc Asterix, 351 tourism in, 342, 354 Prostitution, 355 Index 383

Pyrenees, 47 Riccione, 346 languages of, 145 as a barrier, 56 Richelieu, 251 pollution of, 119, 120 and climate, 58 Riga, 25, 245 privatization of manufacturing in, glaciation, 59 Riga, Gulf of, 62 303 nature reserves, 125 Riksmål, 149 tourism in, 346 Riviera Romanian language Quakers, 176 Adriatic, 346 alphabet of, 145 French, 102 origins of, 145 Railroads Ligurian, 346 standardization of, 145 introduction of, 82 Robert, Christopher R, 319 Romanic languages, 141–146 and industrialization, 256 Rochefort, 251 Romansch language, 145 urban terminals, 261 Roman Catholic Church, 13 Romanticism, 17 Ramsgate, 344 and the Counter Reformation, 175, and language, 152 Randstad Holland, 20, 276 196 and nationalism, 202–203 Received Pronunciation (RP), 152 differences with Eastern Orthodox and urban parks, 343–344 Reclamation, land, 73, 103, 114 Church, 168–169 Rotterdam, 20, 63 Reconquista, 26, 143, 170, 185 and the EU, 183, 370 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 199 Reformation. See Protestant and family structure, 81 Rostock, 150 Reformation and fertility, 84 Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 101, 342 Reformed Movement, 174–175 and French language, 143 Rougemont, Denis de, 16, 225 Regio Basiliensis, 225 scholastic philosophy of, 15 Row housing, 257 Regions and Spanish Inquisition, 172 Russia (Russian Federation) concepts of, 3–5 Roman Empire birth rate in, 80, 84 denoted (pedagogical), 4–5, 365 agriculture in, 71 employment in manufacturing, heartland, 18–19, 357 architecture of, 189–190 301 instituted, 3–4, 365 burial practices of, 186, 187 and EU, 216, 366 naively perceived, 4 and Christianity, 167 and federalism, 223 Regional autonomy cultural contributions of, 10 Jews in, 172, 178 in Italy, 26 decline of, 73, 241 life expectancy in, 95 in Spain, 26 engineering works in, 71 Internet use in, 361 Regionalism, 200, 220–230 ethical system, 12 languages of, 13, 29, 154, 156 cross-border, 225–226 family limitation in, 79–80 new wealthy in, 322 macro, 226–230 Jews in, 167 and Orthodox Church, 27 Regional planning. See Planning languages of, 141–142, 145, 146, Protestantism in, 181 Renaissance, 15 148, 149, 156, 163 poverty in, 324 and Florence, 142, 195 and Pax Romana, 240 unemployment in, 310 and urban layout and design, 251– population of, 71 Russian Empire, 202 253 religion in, 167 Russian language, 13, 29, 154, 159 Research parks, 284 rise of, 236 Russian Revolution, 27 Residence city, 251 urbanism in, 236–240 Residential polarization, 280 Romanovs, 203 St. Augustine of Canterbury, 169 Residential square, 253, 254 Romany (gypsies), 369 St. Basil the Blessed, Cathedral of, Retailing Rome, 167 191–192 consolidation of, 331–333, 334 as capital of Empire, 237 St. Boniface of Wessex, 169 in eastern Europe, 335–336 and Colosseum (Flavian St. Etienne, 255 employment in, 305 Amphitheatre), 189, 239–240 St. Gotthard Pass, 56 hypermarkets, 332–333, 334 dialect of, 142 St. James, 185 self-service, 340 and EUR (Espozione Universale St. Mark, 245 traditional, 331 di Roma), 269–270 St. Mark’s Basilica, 190–191, 245 technology and, 333–334 fascist era building projects in, St. Moritz, 347 Rhaetian language, 106, 145 268–270 St. Paul’s Cathedral, 282 Rhenish Slate Mountains, 52 and Imperial Fora, 237–238 St. Patrick, 169 Rhine Graben, 52 as national capital, 259 St. Peter, 167, 184 Rhineland, 1, 19, 21, 107 population of, 71, 250 St. Peter’s Basilica, 12, 184, 190 Rhine River, 52 and Renaissance, 195 St. Petersburg, 27, 38, 120, 127 Rhine-Ruhr conurbation, 21, 277 Romania Salaspils, 186 Rhodes, Isle of, 64, 235 agricultural employment in, 300 Salonica, 121, 173 Rhodope Mountains, 55, 58 education in, 318 San Gimignano, 249 Rhône River, 61 employment in services, 304 Santiago de Compostela, 185 Rhône-Saône Corridor, 53, 58 and EU, 214, 217, 218, 366 Sardinia, 26, 52, 145, 268 as Neolithic routeway, 69 health care in, 327 Saxony, 255 384 Index

Schengen Agreement, 212, 367 South Tyrol, 224 Supranationalism, 200, 205, 207– Scheveningen, 345 Soviet Union 220 Schiphol Airport, 348 break up of, 199, 227 Swansea Valley, 255 Schleicher, August, 136 centralized administration in, 221 Sweden Schleswig-Holstein, 228 and CMEA, 208 birthrate in, 80, 98 Scientific Transformation, 15, 17 ethnic minorities in, 221 education in, 317 Scirocco,40 interwar urban planning in, 272 elderly in, 96 Scotland, 21 postwar housing shortage in, 274 and EU, 25, 212, 218, 220 highlands, 41 rejection of Marshall Plan aid, and euro, 212 languages of, 147–148, 152 208 health care in, 325 nature reserves, 125 and Stalin, 205 language of, 135, 149 Protestantism in, 175 tourism in, 353 pronatalism in, 90 self-governance of, 221, 224 Spain Protestantism in, 174, 175 western islands, 35, 41 agricultural employment in, 300 social spending in, 325 Seaside resorts, 344–345 atmospheric pollution in, 126 Swedish language, 135, 149 Secularization, 86, 180–181 Catholicism in, 180 Swiss–German language, 150 Serbia and Montenegro Constitution of 1978, 144, 223 Swiss Plateau, 19 and EU, 366 education in, 315 Switzerland Internet use in, 361 elderly in, 96 environmental awareness in, 130 languages of, 154, 155 employment in services, 304 ethnonationalism in, 207 state union of, 366 environmental awareness in, 130 and federalism, 221 Serbo-Croatian, 154, 155 and ETA, 223 health care in, 327 Segovia, 240 ethnonationalism in, 207 languages of, 145, 150 Seville, 192 and EU, 211 mountain landscapes, 106 medieval past, 242, 243 and euro, 212 nature parks, 125 population of, 257 fascism in, 204 Protestantism in, 174–175 Shaw, George Bernard, 152 and federalism, 223 social spending in, 325, 328 Sheffield, 255, 257 Internet use in, 361 tourism in, 342, 345–346 Shetland Islands, 16 and Islam, 143 Syracuse, 71 Siberia, 9, 27, 29 languages of, 26, 143–144, 145, 156 Szczecin, 226 Siberian High, 39–40 modernisme architecture, 260 Sicily, 26, 55, 121 social spending in, 328 Tajikistan, 29 Sienna, 194, 248 tourism in, 342 Tallinn (Reval), 245 Silesia, 255 workweek in, 307 Tatar language, 156 Single European Act, 211, 331 Spanish Civil War, 144 Tatras Massif, 57 Skaggerak, 62 Spanish Inquisition, 172 Taunas, 52 Skåne, 226 Spanish language (Castilian), 26, 135 Thatcher, Margaret, 162 Skansen, 344 and Basque language, 156 Television, 356–360 Slovakia dialects of, 143 Theme parks, 350–352 and EU, 214, 365 global importance of, 159 Tethys Sea, 55 Hungarian minority in, 369 origins of, 143 Teutonic Knights, Order of, 174 language of, 154 and the Reconquista, 143 Thessalonica, 28 privatization of agriculture in, 301 spread to New World, 144 Thirty Years War, 16, 76 Slovakian language, 154 standardization of, 144 Toledo, 144, 193 Slovenia studied as a foreign language, Tosk, 155, 172 and EU, 214, 217, 218, 365, 366 159–160 Toulouse, 284, 285 health care in, 327 Sparta, 71 Tourism independence of, 28 Spas, 53–55 development of, 343–347 Internet use in, 361 Speer, Albert, 270, 271 in eastern Europe, 353–355 language of, 154, 155 Stalin, Josef, 199, 205, 273, 274 eco-tourism, 125–126, 349 new enterprises in, 306 Stockholm, 38, 245, 344 and global market, 342 privatization of agriculture in, 301 Stonehenge, 184 mass, 345–347, 352, 353 tourism in, 355 Strandflat,45 and mountains, 125–126 Slovene, 154, 155 Stralsund, 150 and Mediterranean, 102, 120, 123 Smallpox, 77, 79, 82 Strasbourg, 1–3, 211 recent development, 347–353 Snow, John, 83 Stuttgart, 285, 304 and theme parks, 350–352 Social protection, 280, 324–328 Suburbanism urban and heritage, 349–350 Sofia, 28, 206 interwar, 265–267 Thucydides, 77 Solidarity, 309 in postsocialist cities, 288 Titus, Emperor, 239 Sophia Antipolis, 284 Sudeten Mountains, 52 Transhumance, 109 Index 385

Transylvanian Alps, 55 United States Wallachian Plain, 60 as a barrier, 57 influence on European culture, Wallonia, 19, 224 Transylvanian Basin, 60 161–162 Warsaw, 23 Trier, 185, 237 health care in, 327 historical restoration in, 276, 353 Tromsø, 273 Uralic languages, 155–156 new retailing enterprises in, 335 Troost, Paul Ludwig, 271 Uzbekistan, 29 postmodern building boom in, Tuberculosis, 79 288, 290 Tudor, Mary. See Mary I of England Valdai Hills, 48 wartime destruction of, 274 Treuhand Organization, 303 Valencia, 284 Warsaw Pact, 208 Tunisia, 31 Venice Wealth, 319–324 Turin, 26, 284 flooding in, 122 Weber, Alfred, 176 Turkestan, 29 medieval past, 242, 243, 245 Weber, Eugen Turkey plague in, 79 Peasants into Frenchmen, 202 and Cyprus, 28, 218, 365–366 population of, 257 Welfare, 324–328 education in, 319 and Renaissance palaces, 195 Welsh language, 146 and EU, 9, 30, 214, 218, 365, 369– Verona, 239, 240 decline and recovery of, 148 370 Versailles, 251 standardization of, 148 independence, 28, 31 Vespasian, Emperor, 239 Wesley, John, 176–177 and Islam, 30–31, 218 Victor Emmanuel II, 209 Wessex, 151, 152 Kurdish minority in, 218, 369–370 Vienna, 22, 23 Western European Union, 208 languages of, 145, 156 and baroque architecture, 197 Westerwald, 52 minorities in Bulgaria, 219 besieged by Ottoman Turks, 171 White Sea, 62 population of, 218 industrial housing in, 261 White Sea–Baltic Canal, 64 relations with Greece, 28, 365– population of, 250 Wilson, Woodrow, 203 366 “Ringstrasse” development, 259 Wismar, 229, 287 tourism in, 346 Vikings Workweek, 307 Turkish language, 145, 156 Atlantic voyages of, 16, 24 World War I Turkmenistan, 29 in Baltic, 227–228 effect on cities, 265 Typhoid fever, 83 in Britain, 151 and nationalism, 203 burial practices of, 186 as “watershed” in European life, Ukraine in Ireland, 146, 169 264 and Eastern Rite Christianity, 181 languages of, 149 World War II and EU, 216, 219, 366 raids and invasions, 146, 151, 241 effect on cities, 273–274 Jews in, 178 settlements on Iceland and and nationalism, 207 Internet use in, 361 Greenland, 110 and postwar division of Europe, language of, 154 Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel, 199 unemployment in, 310 350 Wren, Christopher, 282 Ukrainian language, 154 Visby, 228, 245 Wroclaw (Breslau), 257 Ulster. See Northern Ireland Visigoths, 169, 170 Wycliffe, John, 151–152, 173 Unemployment, 309–310 Vistula River, 124 compensation, 326–327 Viticulture, 108–109, 115 Yalta, 199 Union of Baltic Cities, 228 Vitruvius, 238 Yiddish, 150, 156 United Kingdom (UK) Vlaams Blok, 207 Ypres conurbation in, 267 Volga River, 48 medieval past, 243, 246 e-culture in, 361 Volgograd (Stalingrad), 48 Yorkshire, 255 education in, 314, 315, 316, 317, 319 interwar planning of, 272 Yugoslavia employment in manufacturing, 301 as Mongol capital, 170 break up of, 28 environmental awareness in, 130 wartime destruction of, 273, 274 collectivized agriculture in, 300–301 ethnonationalism in, 207 Vosges, 1, 52 creation of, 203 and EU, 200, 210, 220 Volcanism, 55, 61 tourism in, 346, 353 and euro, 212 Jews in, 178 Wales Zermatt, 347 languages of, 147–148, 151–152 languages of, 146, 148 Zuiderzee, 103, 104 regional self-governance in, 221 Methodism in, 148 Zürich, 22 social spending in, 325, 328 self-governance, 221 and Reformed movement, 174 tourism in, 342, 343 tourism in, 346 and Anabaptists, 175 workweek in, 307 union with England, 148 Zwingli, Huldrych, 174, 175 About the Authors

Robert C. Ostergren, PhD, is Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has lived, studied, and traveled extensively in Europe, and is the author of many publications that pertain to European and North American cultural and historical geography, including the prize-winning book A Community Transplanted: The Transatlantic Experience of a Swedish Immigrant Settlement in the Upper Middle West, 1835–1915. In 1998 his university honored him with the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

John G. Rice, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Educated in the United States and Sweden, Professor Rice has spent a long and distinguished career in the study of European population and culture and has traveled widely in the region over a period of almost 50 years. Of particular interest to him have been questions in the fields of ethnic studies and historical demography. His writings have focused on 19th- century Swedish population movements, especially those to North America.

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