Western Europe
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Western Europe refers to the countries in the west of Europe, although the delimitation varies depending on the context.
The borders of Western Europe were once determined by the balance of power during the Cold War. Europe was then divided into two halves by the Iron Curtain. Today, a precise distinction between Western and Eastern Europe is difficult to make or is increasingly avoided.
In the history of modern times, the term Western Europe encompasses those countries that had comparatively early experience with democracy or constitutional monarchies, the rule of law and the nation state, i.e. above all France and the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium, which came into being in 1830. Then the term is also used in distinction to countries such as Germany, Italy or Spain, in which the (political) characteristics of modernity became effective much later and autocratic and dictatorial forms of government still appeared well into the 20th century.
At the time of the Cold War, the market economy-oriented countries of Europe, in contrast to the planned economy-oriented countries of Eastern Europe, the Eastern Bloc, were referred to as Western Europe.
Before the eastward enlargement of the EU and NATO from 1999 onwards, the term was then used for those European countries that were members of the EU and/or NATO, but including Switzerland, which is not a member of either organisation. This roughly coincided with the political Western Europe.
According to the statistical classification of the United Nations, Western Europe includes: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Proposal of the Standing Committee on Geographical Names for the delimitation of Western Europe
Western Europe at the time of the system confrontation between East (red) and West (blue). Yugoslavia and Albania are marked or hatched as non-aligned states (green).
See also
- Central Europe
