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Czech Republic is Central Europe. This is like saying that Kansas is West Coast because it's west of Mississippi.
by adamnemecek 7y ago
Czech Republic is Central Europe. This is like saying that Kansas is West Coast because it's west of Mississippi.
- meddlepal 7y agoEverything east of the German/Austrian/Italian borders is usually considered Eastern Europe.
- adamnemecek 7y agoWell it's considered that incorrectly.
- n4r9 7y agoThe Czech Republic is usually considered to be in Central Europe. As an aside, it's Eastern-most border reaches about 18.8 longitude, Italy's Eastern-most mainland border reaches about 18.5.
- 6d6b73 7y agoBy whom? Western Europeans? Geographically Czech Rep is in Central Europe, as is Poland and few other countries.
- masklinn 7y agoNo. Everything east of the German / Austrian / Italian border was part of the Eastern block, which was the east / west clivage for about half a century. What's coming back is the pre-cold-war delineation where areas of orthodox primacy north of the black sea are eastern europe, south of it are south-eastern, and the catholic areas are central, northern, southern and western (with the iberic peninsula often being split out as southwestern). Basically before WWII "Western Europe" was France, the British Isles and the Low Countries.
- marton78 7y agoBy whom? Citation needed.
- kgran 7y agoIt's not the same with Kansas since West Coast is used for states that meet the Pacific Ocean while the basis for Europe's division into the compass point named regions is quite vague. Therefore we have Chechia in Eastern Europe according to the UN Statistics Division and Eurovoc, but in Central Europe, according to The World Factbook.
- LeftHandPath 7y agoI mean, it's more like saying that Nevada is west coast. It's definitely west --- but there's no coast. Czech Rep. is as far east as Austria, and I dont think anyone would question Austria being part of traditional central Europe. I'd think that Hungary and Poland are usually considered the same - just depends on how strongly their cultures were affected by the old iron curtain.
- samatman 7y agoKansas is an ironic example, since it considers itself part of the Midwest (as does the Census for what that's worth), but where I come from (Michigan) Kansas is in the West. Not to be confused with the West Coast, no one would think that because it doesn't have a coast. But relative geographical terms are, well, relative.
- wincy 7y agoI live in Kansas and we call ourselves Midwesterners. I get really confused when Ohio calls themselves Midwest, being 6 hours drive from Manhattan does not strike me as "the middle of the west". We think of Utah or Colorado as being "The West". I guess like you say, it's all relative.
- rhino369 7y agoMidwest was defined when the country didn't stretch to the west coast yet/ Midwesterner's east of the Mississippi tend to consider Kansas and the Dakota's "Great Plains" states and not Midwest.
- samatman 7y agoAs far as I can determine, there isn't a single state in the Union that's considered the Midwest by everyone in the country. As I mentioned, Kansas is in the West if you're in Michigan, which definitely considers itself Midwestern. But if you're a Southerner, Michigan is in the North. The North doesn't even exist, outside of the former Confederacy, where it refers to states which were in the Union during the Civil War. So "the North" is a pure exonym.
- gshdg 7y agoAFAIK it's a cultural / historical delineation, not a geometrical one. Kind of like how the "US Midwest" is actually mostly in the eastern third of the contiguous states. AFAICT the boundary is roughly the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire.
- adamnemecek 7y agoRight, people living in those countries will tell you that it's Central Europe. What other cultural/delineation is there?
- carapace 7y agoThe Cold War had a pretty deep psychological effect all over. When I was growing up East vs. West was the fundamental political distinction. Check out this map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NATO_vs._Warsaw_(1949-1990).svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NATO_vs._Warsaw_(1949-199... The world was divided right down the to the physical Berlin Wall. It was so amazing when that finally fell.
- twic 7y agoAlthough the Berlin Wall was about 100 kilometres east of the Iron Curtain. And Greece was another several hundred kilometres east!
- empath75 7y agoEastern and Western Europe is a commonly understood in American media. Central Europe is not. Whether you’re in East or west depends on which side of the iron curtain you were on.
- marton78 7y agoThis distinction was relevant for a mere 45 years, a period which ended almost 30 years ago. It's time to get it over with. The Czech Republic is about as Central European as it gets.
- akavi 7y agoOhio's in the "Midwest" even though it's a solid 80% of the way to the East of the continental US. The Middle East is also quite far west in the context of Asia (or even in the context of Eurasia). Geographic clustering is always slightly arbitrary, but in American parlance "Eastern Europe" and "Western Europe" are used dichotomously, and with the former usually corresponding to erstwhile Warsaw Pact members.
- CydeWeys 7y agoThe Midwest used to just be the west, over two centuries ago. Then we continued expanding farther west and the name got revised. It does represent geographic reality; that reality is just now out of date.
- Shacklz 7y agoI've had a Polish friend once who insisted that she's from Central Europe - a term that is basically unknown where I'm from (Switzerland), everything east of Germany/Austria is considered "Eastern Europe". I guess "Central Europe" is a term only used by people who consider themselves "Central European", everyone else seems to only distinguish between east/west.
- n4r9 7y agoThe Wikipedia page for "Central Europe" cites both Encyclopaedia Britannica and Brockhaus Enzyklopädie as sources which include the Czech Republic in Central Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Europe
- Mikeb85 7y agoCentral Europe is basically Catholic Slavs. Orthodox Slavs are east European.
- masklinn 7y agoNot just slavs. Germanic homelands were / are also central european.
- Mikeb85 7y agoThe line is where Slavic tribes existed. Some Germanic tribes are from central Europe, but Germany itself is considered west. The presence of Slavs is what differentiates West from Central and East.
- umanwizard 7y ago> Germany itself is considered west. Certainly not by everyone. From German Wikipedia: “Deutschland [...] ist ein Bundesstaat in Mitteleuropa.” Translation: “Germany is a federation in Central Europe”.
- masklinn 7y ago
- NoodleIncident 7y agoThe meaning of the word "coast" makes this a pointless comparison