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Romania is just barely behind Finland as the eastern most mainland EU country. Do you have any argument for calling it Central European?
by dj_mc_merlin 3y ago
Romania is just barely behind Finland as the eastern most mainland EU country. Do you have any argument for calling it Central European?
- flohofwoe 3y agoConsidering that Europe's border in the East is the Ural Mountains range I'd say "Central Europe" is actually quite accurate? (also - stating the obvious - but "Europe" and "EU" are entirely different things)
- Wytwwww 3y agoWestern, Central, Northern and Eastern Europe were always socioeconomic/sociocultural definitions. Geography on itself is not really that relevant.
- KptMarchewa 3y agoEurope is not defined by EU borders. The distance from Bucharest to Atlantic Ocean is smaller than to Ural mountains.
- keiferski 3y agoThese labels are more cultural than strictly geographic. Western Romania could indeed be considered as Central Europe, as “Central Europe” has generally meant “associated with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.” The border between the Russian and AH empires is a good line for dividing Eastern and Central Europe IMO.
- KptMarchewa 3y agoEastern and Southern Romania was part of Ottoman Empire, not russian one. The one that was occupied by russia is now called Moldova.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoOn the other hand, late imperial Russia saw all the Orthodox lands down to Constantinople as its legitimate sphere of influence, so while the OP likely made a mistake, the notion of an Austro-Hungarian vs. Russia dividing line still has some sense to it.
- KptMarchewa 3y agoSure, the tendency of russia seeing random foreign lands as their own is at least as old as Ivan the Terrible.
- keiferski 3y agoI didn't say anything about Eastern and Southern Romania, just Western. Eastern and Southern Romania has a mix of Ottoman and Russian influences and I think in general most people refer to it as something like, Balkans / Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe proper is more Ukraine and Russia.
- OfSanguineFire 3y agoThere are very, very, very few Russian influences on eastern and southern Romania. While Russia did at one point claim the area as its sphere of influence, it never managed to exert any cultural influence. Rather, in those regions, the foreign cultural influences that are not Ottoman are Greek, due to the influence of the Phanariots, and then French due to the massive francophilia of the 19th century. And in fact, even Austro-Hungary arguably had more impact on non-Austro-Hungarian Romania (the Romanian dialects of even those regions abound in loanwords from German and Hungarian) than Russia.
- keiferski 3y agoThe Russian Empire and then Soviet Union were one of the three largest powers in the region for hundreds of years. Yes, they had an influence on Romania, if a lesser one than the other two powers.