Western Europe

Map of Europe with the western countries highlighted Western Europe is distinguished from Central Europe and Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. However, these boundaries of Europe are subject to considerable overlap and fluctuation, which makes differentiation difficult. Thus the concept of Western Europe is associated with liberal democracy; and its countries are generally deemed to be well within the cultural hegemony of the United States of America.

Historical definitions

Up to World War I, "Western Europe" was thought to comprise France, the British Isles and Benelux. These countries represented the democratic victors of both world wars; and their ideological approach was spread further east as a consequence, in a process not unlike the ideological effect of the Napoleonic Wars, when new ideas spread from revolutionary France. During the Cold War, this ideological designation of Western Europe was supplemented with the aspect of market economies in the West versus the planned economies of Eastern Europe, reflecting the anti-Bolshevism that was aroused in Western Europe by the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the remaining opposition to the Soviet Union in general. Thus Western Europe came to include both traditional democracies outside of NATO, as Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, and some market economy dictatorships, as Portugal and Spain. This is also why NATO members such as Greece and Turkey were generally considered Western European even though they are geographically in the southeast. The border between Western and Eastern Europe, the Iron Curtain, was securely defended. Until the enlargement of the European Union of 2004, Western Europe was sometimes associated with that Union, although non-members such as Norway and Switzerland unquestionably were considered parts of Western Europe, although the connection to NATO or to the European Union increasingly may be perceived as historical.

Contemporary definition

After the fall of Communism in 1989 and the early 1990s, and especially after the EU's eastward enlargement of 2004, the borders of Western Europe were once again redefined. This was mainly due to the fact that the former Eastern Bloc countries adopted free market economies similar to those of Western Europe. Along with their integration in the Euro-Atlantic structures, it was no longer necessary to divide Europe into East and West. Instead, new regions centered around geography and common culture/history were established. Countries previously considered Western European, such as Germany and Austria, became Central European, while Spain and Portugal became part of Southern Europe due to their common culture. For this reason, Western Europe today includes those countries in the western geographical part of the continent which have shared a common history during the European Enlightenment and Renaissance, and presently share similar cultures and political systems. They include:

France and Monaco
Benelux - Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg
British Isles - the United Kingdom, Ireland, Isle of Man, Channel Islands

Expanded defition

While the division of Europe into geographical-cultural regions, such as Central Europe and Northern Europe, was satisfactory, there remains a moderate East-West divide in Europe, mainly in terms of standard of living if not in economic models and politics. Therefore, sometimes people refer to Western Europe in a broader way, talking about those countries which have highly developed economies and high standards of living, as opposed to the moderately-developed economies of the former Eastern Bloc. This expanded definition, commonly includes, alongside France, the Benelux and the British Isles, also:

the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark)
the Alpine countries (Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria)
the Apennine peninsula (Italy, San Marino, Vatican City)
the Iberian peninsula (Spain, Andorra, Portugal)
in a political context also Greece, Cyprus, Malta, and occasionally even Turkey.

It ought to be borne in mind that the concepts of Europe's division overlap. The Nordic countries being counted to Western Europe, in the extended political definition, does not at all hinder their also being considered part of geographical or cultural Northern Europe. Similarly, the Alpine countries may be considered part of Central Europe, and Italy, the Iberian countries, Monaco, Greece and southern France part of Southern Europe as well. The Alpine country of Slovenia may by some be counted to Western Europe, similarly to how some would consider Estonia as a Nordic country, and hence maybe also to Western Europe.