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Western Europe is mainly a socio-political concept coined and forged during the Cold War, which largely defined its borders. In popular perception and usage, Western Europe was and still is, to a much lesser extent, distinguished from Eastern Europe by differences of politics and economics and its borders have little to do with clear and precise geography. Its boundaries were effectively forged in the final stages of World War II and came to encompass all European countries which did not come under Soviet control and influence. As such these countries did not see communist regimes imposed upon them. Neutral countries were classified by the nature of their political regimes.
Cultural and religious boundaries between these two regions are subject to considerable overlap and – most importantly – historical fluctuation, which makes a precise understanding somewhat difficult.
The term Western Europe is commonly associated, but not clearly delimited, with liberal democracy, capitalism and also with the European Union. Most of the countries in this region share Western culture, and many have economic, historical, and political ties with countries in North, South America, and Oceania (see Western world).
Alternatively, Western Europe is also a less-known geographic subregion of Europe that is far more restrictive than traditional political and cultural reckonings; as defined by the United Nations (the sub-regions according to the UN), it comprises the following nine countries:
The earliest known distinctions between east and west in Europe originate in the history of the Roman Empire. As the empire established itself it became somewhat culturally divided between the urbanized Greek-speaking eastern lands which had been part of the Macedonian Empire, and the western territories which widely adopted Latin as their common language. This cultural and linguistic division was eventually reinforced by the later political east-west division of the empire.
The fall of the Western Roman Empire while the eastern Byzantine Empire managed to survive and to thrive, and the later rise of the Frankish Empire under Charlemagne, and particularly the Great Schism in the Christian Church enhanced this cultural division between Eastern and Western Europe. These divisions, particularly the religious division, formed the basis (albeit mostly unofficially) for defining East and West in the European context until the 19th century.
The conquest of the Bizantine Empire, center of Eastern Europe by the Muslim Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, and the gradual fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire (which had replaced the Frankish empire) led to a change of the importance of Roman Catholic/Protestant vs. Eastern Orthodox concept in Europe.
Instead historical developments like the Lutheran Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution are considered to be common experiences which have shaped Western European identity and culture. With the Age of Discovery, most of the western European countries colonized Africa, Asia, South and North America. All these historical and cultural developments have influence over the Western dirka concept even into the 21st century.
During the final stages of WWII the future of the whole of Europe was decided between the Allies in the 1945 Yalta Conference, between the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, the President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the Premier of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin. Post-war Europe would be divided into two major spheres: the "West" mainly influenced by the USA, and the Eastern Bloc dominated by the Soviet Union. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain.
This term had been used during World War II by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and later Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk in the last days of the war; however, its use was hugely popularised by Winston Churchill, who used it in his famous "Sinews of Peace" address March 5, 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri:
Although some countries were officially neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political and economical systems. This division largely defined the popular perception of borders between Western Europe and Eastern Europe till this day.
Eastern Europe was composed of all the European countries "liberated" by the Soviet army. It included the German Democratic Republic (informally known as East Germany) formed by the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, and also parts of Finland which were conquered during the Continuation War by the Soviet Union to be later annexed through the Moscow Armistice. By order of Stalin, all the countries in Eastern Europe had communist regimes imposed upon them. Although these countries were officially independent from the Soviet Union, the practical extent of this independence was quite limited.
Western Europe was composed by all the countries liberated by the Western Allies (USA, Canada, UK, France, etc) from German occupation, the European western allies themselves, plus Italy (a former Axis Power who had surrendered and been occupied by the Western Allies) and the Federal Republic of Germany (informally known as West Germany) formed by the three of the four Allied Occupation Zones in Germany, namely the zones of the USA, UK, and France.
Other countries would also became increasingly part of Western Europe. They joined NATO and/or joined the European Union or its rival, the European Free Trade Association. Almost all countries of Western Europe received economical assistance from the United States through the Marshall Plan.
The world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the Democratic Republic of Germany, leading to the German reunification. COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist and several nations within it regained their full independence.
Although the term Western Europe was largely defined of the Cold War, it remains much in use 15 years after its end. The term is commonly used in the media and in everyday use both in "western" and other regions of Europe.
The term has increasingly less to do with the European Union. The 1995 and 2004 enlargements saw many eastern countries joining the EU, and a view that Europe is divided strictly into the West and the East is sometimes considered patronising or pejorative by many in the nominally eastern countries.
A current understanding of Western Europe includes the following countries:
In detail: