POLAND: EASTERN or CENTRAL European country?

slick77. oh man that was funny. haha lol!

poles

Do you personally know some Poles, or are have you heard of them ?...

I personally know poles

I'm surprised...Are they friends of you or what ?...

LOL do I have to comment this thread :P

There is a book I am reading about Polands contribution to the British war effort in ww2. It has been noted even the Queen said that if not for the Polish flyers the Battle of Britain would have been lost.

Further more, Poland contributed the 4th most in terms of numbers to the war.

I think what makes Poland part of the west is mindset. The ideas of freedom and tolorance have been part of Poland for 500 years. In addition, Poland was the first counrty to have a constitution in Europe.

And Non, If not for the US the whole British Isles would still be speaking German

We've never spoke German so how could we still be speaking it?

Whats that got to do with anything on this thread anyway? Stereotypical, lazy kneejerk utterance by an American whenever he speaks to anyone in Europe I think.

I apologize for my short sightedness. Non gets my blood pumping at times.

you are a pole - of the phalic variety

It has been suggested that the geographical centre of Europe is in Poland, thus making it Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe and Western Europe, all at the same time.

However, the position of this particular point is widely disputed. There is a system of lines of longitude - the lines running north-south that you find on maps, with the universal prime meridian being the Greenwich meridian which runs through England, France and Spain.

Any countries west of here must be Western European - Portugal, Ireland, the Faeroes (if Denmark allows me to include them) and half of Iceland (the other half is North American, or more precidely: Eastern North American).

Countries to the east of here must be Eastern European - Belgium, Luxembourg, Andorra, Monaco to name just a few.

That leaves the aforementioned France and Spain (Central Europe) and the UK which is in a peculiar position of having England in Central Europe; and Wales and Scotland in Western Europe. Taken as a whole, the UK is most definately Central Europe. The only other country that may also be in Central Europe is Denmark. I mentioned Denmark before. Greenland is (Eastern) North America, the Faeroes Western Europe and Denmark proper: Eastern Europe. Greenland is neither Europe, nor is it, despite being a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a part of the European Union, so it may (or may not) be removed from this discussion. So Denmark is Central European too.

All of Europe is north of the Earth's most important great circle - the equator. Therefore all of Europe is northern, so there is no such thing as Southern Europe.

To illustrate the above point and also to draw more attention to it, I have done some colouring in (which is always quite fun, even without crayons). Here's a map to clarify to everyone what countries are in the east, the west and the centre. Enjoy.

I apologise to all Icelanders for not showing on the map that their country is in both Europe and North America.

Osiol Geography Lesson # 452

How did Kalininigrad jump out of Eastern Europe and Asia? Is this part of this mass migration of Eastern Europeans I keep reading about in progress? So it could be assumed that instead of Bomber Jackets and Camoflauged pants, one should simply spot the Eastern European a mile away by looking for purple people!

It is in the Eastern Europe & Asia zone. This map goes by which zone each particular nation state lies in. As part of Russia, it is PINK because it takes some of the sting out of Russia's geo-political positioning these days.

I did a north-south one, also based on Greenwich, but I couldn't decide whether Belgium's offshore zone would be enough to drag it out of Southern and into Central Europe.

If I had a scanner, I would have used crayons.

EXTRA:

No. The Eastern Europeans are mostly blue. The pink ones may be Eastern European, but may be (Western) Asian.

Central Europe.... cuz i say so and so be it!!

OVER AND OUT

Well, according to Osioł, Monaco and Luxembourg are in Eastern Europe. Poland should be proud to be in that elite class.

Indeed. There are only two entirely Western European countries.

I thought about the Northern-Southern thing a bit more. I have decided that because the Greenwich meridian seems to be so important for longitude in navigation and cartography, why not make it more important for latitude as well.

Voila! Poland is in Central Europe.

Eastern Europe is a lost world.

Belgium is in Eastern Europe and Poland isn't? hehehe, I'm just stirring things up

poland geographically is indeed in central europe. along with germany etc.

however germany is in western europe in referance to the linguistic, cultural, political, , ideological, historical divide etc.

this means when we think of western europe we think of britain, italy, germany, france.
when we think of eastern europe we think russia, slovenia, slovakia, romania poland.

WIKIPEDIA - "eastern europe is a concept of a geopolitical region recently influenced by the Cold War. Its borders are defined more by culture than by clear and precise geography. Throughout history and to a lesser extent today Eastern Europe has been distinguishable from Western Europe and other regions due to cultural, religious, economic, and historical reasons. Although the term Eastern Europe was largely defined of the Cold War, it still remains much in use.[1] The term is commonly used in the media and in everyday use both in "eastern" and other regions of Europe."
[/i]
united nations regards poland as eastern europe- it is coloured pink along with the rest of eastern europe.



* and for the records seanus luxembourg is western europe. People dont refer to central europe, only in geographical terms. The divide is eastern/western and luxembourg is in western europe.

I really dont understand why people have a hard time taking this in.

Europe is imaginary. Asia is even more imaginary. Look at it - one huge landmass and outlying islands, most of which are connected by shallow continental shelf. When I was doing all the working out for my last couple of posts on here with the maps and everything, I almost considered inventing one or two new continents.

you are talking about geography. The western/eastern european divide is about, history, language, culture, politics, ideology, economics, philosophy etc etc.

are you telling me all these things are imaginary. it seems to me poles are for some reason ashamed to be eastern european and want to be recognised as western european.

Of course Luxembourg and Monaco are in Western Europe, I was being fickle and facetious noimmigration. They are the exemplars of western civilisation. The UN is also a definitive source so Poland is Eastern Europe, I agree with that classification, excluding the geographical dimension.

Only a bit. Where do you draw lines of commonality and difference? The rules are different for whichever part of the world you are looking at. Different people use different rules (which come from the imagination). Therefore it is imaginary. Who's to say though, that imagination doesn't count for something? Did I say that?

But let's take Asia for example.
Russia, Turkey, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Mongolia. What's the connection?


I disagree. Sort of.

you just cant accept it can you, no matter what evidence is presented to you. You cannot bear to be labelled eastern european.

Like it or not you are eastern european.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/traveler/extras/toolbox/tripmarks_we steurope.html, Lux and Mon in Western Europe from a reputable source. No mention of Poland.

http://www.atlapedia.com/online/maps/political/France_etc.htm, Luxembourg mentioned again

http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/regionWesternEurope.aspx, same as the 1st situation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Europe, not as clear but clear enough

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg, a bit better

http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?nodeid=15914&contentlan=2 &culture=en-US, that should just about do it, no, wait

http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=49651&URL_DO=DO_TO PIC&URL_SECTION=201.html, UNESCO, good old UNESCO, couldn't have forgotten about them

http://www.careersinaudit.com/Jobs/30641/EuropeanSeniorInternalAuditor (Luxembourg).html, from a CIA website, no, not the Central Intelligence Agency, but the Careers In Audit one so it's credible, u have my word Osioł.

I'll give u a week to look for the pages needed for a retort. Come on Osioł, If it's in u.

Is Portugal closer to Wales than Poland to Italy ?...

what does it matter ?

There are not many common points between all these countries (politically, economically, linguistically, etc.)

But look at the Post-Soviet section of Wikipedia and u will see that Poland is one of four countries that is exempt from Eastern European classification on grounds of economic, cultural, religious and historical reasons