Northern Europe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Northern Europe is the northern part of the European continent. At various times this region has been defined variously, but today it is generally seen to include:

• The Nordic countries, including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as Åland, the Faroe Islands and occasionally Karelia, Kola Peninsula and Svalbard
• The Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands (see also Western Europe)
• Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
• Areas bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, e.g. north-western Russia, northern Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and northern Germany.

The United Nations Statistics Division defines Northern Europe as:

•  Denmark
•  Estonia
•  Finland
•  Iceland
•  Republic of Ireland
•  Latvia
•  Lithuania
•  Norway
•  Sweden
•  United Kingdom

Before the 19th century, the term 'Nordic' or 'Northern' was commonly used to mean Northern Europe in a sense that included the Nordic countries, European Russia, the Baltic countries (at that time Livonia and Courland) and Greenland.

In earlier eras, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region (i.e. the Roman Empire), everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including Germany, the Low Countries, and Austria. This meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the Northern Renaissance. In medieval times, the term (Ultima) Thule was used to mean a semi-mythical place in the extreme northern reaches of the continent.

In a European Union context, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are often seen as belonging to a Northern group.

Danevirke and the English Channel are often considered dividing lines between the North and South of Europe, since at least in the west, much below them was once ruled by the Franks under Charlemagne and much above it was once ruled by the Kingdom of England under Canute the Great.

Today the term is of subjective nature with its meaning usually determined by the geo-political outlook of the speaker. This also means that the definition of the term is largely socio-political as there is no rationale to include England as being part of Northern Europe while excluding the Netherlands.

[edit] Remarks

1. The Baltic (Sea) countries, as a related term, also include Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia, and sometimes Denmark.
2. The contextual term the Baltic States came into common usage during the Cold War^{[dubious — see talk page]}; within the context of speaking about the Soviet Union, or about the various Soviet Republics that made up the Soviet Union.^{[dubious — see talk page]} The term the "Baltic States," or the "Baltic Republics," referred to the Soviet Republics that were on the Baltic--Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania^{[dubious — see talk page]}--thus it did not refer to all states on the Baltic (see Baltic Sea Countries) nor was it used to indicate that there are or were only three states on the Baltic. The term has since come to be used erroneously outside the Soviet or post-Soviet context as if there were only three Baltic states or only three countries on the Baltic.^{[dubious — see talk page]} This of course, is not the case, and such usage of the term, often appearing in journalism, is the mark of an uninformed or inexperienced writer, akin to a U.S. writer referring to continental Europe as "the Continent" while standing with both feet on the continent of North America. Obviously, there is more than one continent, and there are more than three Baltic states. The term the Baltic States, or Baltic states, could also be properly used to refer to these three states in the context of their Soviet annexation (or occupation). Before that, the term was used, also contextually, during the height of the Russian Empire. For a proper understanding of the term, it is essential to compare it to other Soviet geographic terms, such as "the Central Asian Republics."^{[dubious — see talk page]} Like the narrowest definition of the term the "Baltic States," the most limited definition of "Central Asia" was the official Soviet definition of "Middle Asia" as comprising four states--Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan--specificaly excluding Kazakhstan, a non-Soviet state, which today is considered by post-Soviet Russia as part of Middle Asia. Both terms, the Baltic States and Central Asia, were often used outside the USSR in the same way they were used inside the USSR, hence the confusion today. The three Baltic states are sometimes also considered to be part of Eastern Europe as a result of their former status as Soviet Republics (the Soviet term "Republic" contributing to the confusion, as Westerners take it to be synonymous with "state," which of course it was not). However, the people of the three Baltic states are not Slavs, as are Russians and some other Eastern Europeans, and the Baltic States, especially Estonia, also share much history and culture with the Nordic countries. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the former Baltic Republics are included in the definition of Northern Europe.
3. Scandinavia is a somewhat ambiguous concept covering some or all of the Nordic countries.

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