Chapter 23
Introducing Europe
Section 1
Objective

Describe Europe’s
major landform regions
and climate types.
Physical Geography
Northwest
Highlands
Central Uplands
Four major
Landforms
Northern
European Plain
Alps
Northwest Highlands
 The Northwest Highlands
includes the hills of Ireland and
England, the Scottish Highlands,
Brittany in north-western France,
most of the Iberian Peninsula, and
the Kjolen Mountains I Norway
and Sweden.
The Northern European Plain

The largest landform region,
extends from the Atlantic coast
of France into Russia and
borders the North Atlantic
Ocean, the North Sea, and the
Baltic Sea.
The Central Uplands

They include the Massif Central of
France and the Jura Mountains on the
French-Swiss border. It also includes the
Black Forest and Bavarian Plateau of
Germany, the Bohemian Highlands of
Germany and the Czech Republic, and
the Ardennes in the Benelux Countries.
The Alps

Is western and central Europe’s
highest mountain range, extend
from the Mediterranean coast of
France through Switzerland,
Austria, and northern Italy to the
Balkan Peninsula.
Climate Regions
Most of Europe has mild
conditions throughout the year.
 Pockets of minor climate types
cover part of Southern and
Northern Europe.

Climate Regions
Marine-westcoast
Three major
climate types
Humid-continental
Mediterranean
Climates Types



Marine-west-coast climate throughout most of
Northern and West Central Europe.
Humid-Continental climate to the east and
inland of the marine-west-coast climate
Mediterranean climate in the countries of
Portugal, Spain, Italy, Albania, Macedonia,
Greece, and parts of France, Croatia, and
Bulgaria.
Chapter 23
Section 2
Objective

Discuss the region’s forest,
soil, mineral, and water
resources. Focus on the
importance of Europe’s rivers
to its economic development.
II. Natural Resources

A. Water

Europe’s long, irregular
coastline has hundreds of
natural harbors, generally
located near the mouths of
navigable rivers, making Europe
ideally situated for world trade.
The Mediterranean Sea
is the largest sea
bordering Europe.
Other major European
Seas include the North
Sea and the Baltic Sea.

The Rhine and Danube
rivers are Europe’s
most developed rivers,
each providing
important access to the
sea.


Forests and agriculture
 Most of Europe’s original
forests were cut for timber or
cleared for farming centuries
ago. Recently, many of the
remaining trees have been
destroyed by acid rain or air
pollution.
B.
Only Finland and Sweden have
large areas of timber-producing
forest.
 Intensive farming techniques and
modern technology have made
Europe’s crop yields among the
highest in the world. Much of
Eastern Europe, however, lags in
agricultural production.

C. Minerals and energy



Europe relies heavily on imports to meet
its current industrial and energy needs.
The United Kingdom, Germany, the
Benelux countries, and the Czech
Republic have deposits of iron and coal.
Sweden and France also have large iron
deposits.



Oil reserves and natural-gas deposits below the
North Sea waters and the natural-gas deposits
in the Netherlands do not satisfy Europe’s
industrial demands.
Hydroelectricity is plentiful in the
mountainous nations such as Norway and
Switzerland.
France has been successful in producing ocean
tidal power and in using solar energy.
Section 3

A. Rise of nations
 From 900 B.C. to 300 B.C., most
of Europe was controlled by
warring tribes.
 Most of central and western Europe
was part of the Roman Empire.

After the fall of the Roman
Empire, around 500,
various Germanic groups
established a number of
new kingdoms, the most
important being the
Frankish kingdom.
Around 1000, Europeans
increasingly ventured out
onto the oceans,
dominating world trade for
centuries.
 By 1500, France, Spain,
Portugal, and England had


France was Europe’s
strongest power until the
British defeated
Napoleon’s French army at
Waterloo in 1815, after
which Britain was
Europe’s leading political
and economic power.
B. Imperialism

By the second half of the 19th,
Spain Portugal, Britain,
France, the Netherlands, and
Belgium had established
colonies in the Americas,
Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

Britain’s colonial empire
became the largest in the
world. At its height, the
British Empire included
one-fourth of the world’s
population and one-fifth of
the world’s land area.
C. The World Wars

1.
World War I
 After its unification in 1871, Germany
became one of the strongest military
and industrial powers in Europe.
 This frightened many other European
nations into forming alliances.

A. The Start of the war
1. July 28, 1914
 2. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
 3. Treaties-Everyone had treaties with one another
that obligated them to defend one another
B. The Western and Eastern Front






1. Bold attacks and troop movements
2. In the west, Germany attacks Belgium and then
France
3. In the east, Russia attacks Germany and AustriaHungary
4. In the South, Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia.
Following the Battle of the Marne-September 5-9, 1914,
the western front wan entrenched in central France for
the remainder of the war.

C. The Ottoman Empire




1. Germany tricked Russia-states that the Ottoman
Empire had attacked Russia-Russia attacks them
2. Much of the Allied successes were brought
against the Ottoman Empire
3. Britain and France suffered defeats on the
Dardanelles and the Gallipoli Peninsula.
4. They had some successes in Mesopotamia

D. Trench Warfare




1. In 1916 and 1917, the became dominated by
trench warfare in both the east and west
2. Fought from dug in positions-fighting each
other with machine guns, heavy artillery, and
chemical weapons.
3. Millions of soldiers died in brutal conditions
4. Neither side had substantive success or gained
any advantage.

E. The United States’ Entrance and Russia’s Exit



1. April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany
because of the attacks upon its ships in the Atlantic Ocean
2. November 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution prompted
Russia to pull out of the war.
F. The End of the War and Armistice



1. In 1918, both sides launched new offensives in all-ornothing efforts to win the war-both efforts failed.
2. The Germans lost many battles along the line and began
to pull back.
3. The governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary
began to lose control and influenza began taking a heavy
toll o the soldiers and they both suffered multiple mutinies
from within their military structures.




4. In the late Fall on 1918, WWI ended after the Central
Powers signed an armistice agreement one by one.
5. As a result, Austria-Hungary was broken up into smaller
countries
6. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was punished
with hefty economic reparations, territorial losses, and
strict limits on its rights to develop militarily.
F. Germany After the War



1. Many historians believe that because of the harsh
punishments form the treaty that it planted the seeds for
WWII.
2. Germany people suffered because of the reparations
3. Ultimately, the extremist group, the Nazis, were able to
take control of the government

2. World War II
21 years later
 A. The European Theater


1. German Aggression
A. September 1939, German Chancellor
Adolf Hitler invaded Poland.
 2. Britain and France declare war on
Germany but took litle action for the next
few months
 3. Germany then attacked Denmark,
Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and
France. All were conquered rapidly.


B. The Battle of Britain





1. in the summer of 1940, Germany launched an
attack on Britain-exclusively form the air
2. The Battle of Britain was Germany’s first
military failure as the German air force, the
Luftwaffe, was never able to overcome Britain’s
Royal Air Force
C. Greece and North Africa
1. Italy, Germany’s ally, invaded Greeceand
North Africa.
2. The Greek campaign was a failure and
Germany was forced to come to Italy’s
assistance in 1941.

E. The USSR



1. In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union-most
ambitious action yet
2. The Germans made swift progress and advanced deep
into the heartland of the USSR.
3. This invasion would prove to be the downfall of
Germany’s war effort.
A. the country is to big
 B. the nation’s strength and determination to win
 C. brutal winters
4. The battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, 1943, Germany was forced
into a full-scale retreat
5. In 1944, Germany was slowly forced completely out of Soviet
territory
6. Russians pursued them across eastern Europe and into Germany
itself in 1945


F. The Pacific Theater

A. Pearl harbor




1. The war in the Pacific began December 7, 1941
2. Warplanes from Japan launched a surprise attack on
the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
3. At this time, Japan had already been at war with
china and seized Manchuria
4. After the Pearl Harbor attack-Japan began a massive
campaign of expansion throughout the Southeast AsisPacific region

G. The U.S. Entrance and Battle of Midway





1. The attack at Pearl harbor provoked a
declaration of war by the United States on Japan
2. It took several months before U.S. forces would
get seriously involved militarily
3.In late spring of 1942, The U.S. and japan fought
many battles
4. The climax of the battles was the Battle of
Midway on June 3-6, 1942
5. Japan suffered a catastrophic defeat

H. The Solomon Islands and Guadalcanal





1. for the next year, the U.S. engages Japan in a
protracted struggle for the Solomon Islands
2. This was near vital Allied shipping routes
3. Between August 1942 and February 1943,
Allied forces carried out an invasion on the island
of Guadalcanal
4. The was a long offensive that eventually forced
Japan out of the Solomons and then to other
Pacific island chains that the Japanese has earlier
seized
5. The British and Indian forces were combating
Japanese troops in Burma

I. The Approach of Japan






1. Fighting throughout the Pacific continued in 1944 and
1945
2. Including major battles at Leyte, Iwo Jima, and
Okinawa
3. The spring of 1945-most of Japan’s conquests had been
liberated and Allied forces were closing in on the Japanese
home islands
4. The Allies began heavy bombing campaigns against
major Japanese cities including Tokyo
5. In August 1945 the United States dropped two atomic
bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
6. Stunned by the devastation-Japan surrendered a few days
later

J. The Normandy Invasion





1. June 1944-British and American forces
launched the D-Day Invasion
2. Landing in German-occupied France via te coast
of Normandy
3. German troops were forced to retreat
4. In early 1945, Allied forces were closing in on
Germany from both east and west
5. The Soviets were the first to reach the German
capital of Berlin and Germany surrendered in May
1945 shortly after Adolf Hitler committed suicide

3. Post-World war II
 Germany was divided into two
nations, East Germany and West
Germany.
 The countries of Eastern Europe
came under Communist rule and
the control of the Soviet Union.
The end of World War II marked
the beginning of a period known as
the cold war.
In 1949, the military alliance of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) formed to defend Western
Europe.
 In 1991, the Soviet Union
collapsed.
 As the Cold War thawed, the
reunification of East and West
Germany took place.

Czechoslovakia peacefully
split into two nations.
Major ethnic groups in
what is Yugoslavia
engaged in a civil war.
 The Warsaw Pact
dissolved.

Human Geography
A.
Population changes
1. Throughout history, Europe
ecperienced changes in its
population.
a. Rapid growth occurred between
1000 and 1300.
b. Major declines occurred due to
diseases, famines, and wars
between 1300 and 1450.
C. As the Industrial
Revolution took hold during
the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, trade increased and
living standards rose.
London, Paris, Milan,
Amsterdam, and Berlin all
grew dramatically during the
1800s.


2. Over the past several
centuries, millions of
Europeans have immigrated to
the United States, Canada,
Australia, and South America
seeking new opportunities, or
escaping religious persecution,
wars, famine, and poverty.
Today, western Europe is
attracting immigrants from
Eastern Europe, Turkey, and
North America.
 Even with immigration,
European population growth
rates are the lowest in the
world.

Language



1. Most of the languages spoken in
Europe are of the Indo-European family,
including the Germanic, Celtic,
Romance, Slavic, and Greek language
groups.
English is the most widely spoken
language.
Ninety percent of all Europeans between
the ages of 15 and 24 speak a second
language. Some countries are considered
multilingual (many speak 3 or more)
Religion




Roman Catholicism dominates Southern
Europe. Catholics are also in the majority in
Poland, France, Austria, Ireland, and Belgium.
Northern and Central Europe is mainly
Protestant.
Small numbers of Jews live in many parts of
Western Europe.
Significant numbers of Muslims live in
southeastern Europe and most other major
European cities.
Economic Cooperation

World War II put severe
stress on the economies of
the European nations.
Moreover, several
European colonies gained
their independence.

2. To strengthen their economies, the nations of
Western Europe formed economic associations.


European Union, or EU, was formed in 1957 by Belgium,
the Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, West Germany, and
Italy.
There are a total of 27 member states: The European
Union is composed of 27 independent sovereign countries
which are known as member states: Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands,
Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

There are three official candidate
countries, Croatia, the Republic of
Macedonia, and Turkey; the western
Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and
Serbia are officially recognized as
potential candidates. The disputed
region of Kosovo has been granted
similar status.

To join the EU, a country must meet the Copenhagen
criteria, defined at the 1993 Copenhagen European
Council. These require a stable democracy which
respects human rights and the rule of law; a
functioning market economy capable of competition
within the EU; and the acceptance of the obligations
of membership, including EU law. Evaluation of a
country's fulfillment of the criteria is the
responsibility of the European Council. The current
framework does not specify how a country could exit
the Union (although Greenland withdrew in 1985),
but the proposed Treaty of Lisbon contains a formal
procedure for withdrawing.