Western Europe – Physical Geography

Landforms and Waterways

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Western Europe includes the nations of Ireland, the UnitedKingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium,Luxembourg, Austria, and Switzerland. It also includes the tinycountries of Monaco and Liechtenstein.

The landscape of the region consists of plains with mountains in some places. Much of Western Europe lies in the NorthernEuropean Plain. Massive sheets of ice shaped the plain during thelast ice age, which ended about 11,000 years ago. Melting glaciersleft behind fertile soil, but also thick layers of sand and gravel. These deposits have eroded into sand dunes along some of theNorth Sea coastline. The glaciers also left behind areas of poorlydrained wetlands along the coasts of the British Isles.

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Two mountain ranges separate Western Europe from Southern Europe. They divide the cooler climates of the north from thewarm, dry climate of the Mediterranean region to the south.

The Pyrenees and the Alps were created by the folding of rocksas a result of plate tectonics. They were also shaped by glaciers. These mountains are younger than other mountains in Europe.

Pyrenees

Alps

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Western Europe has long, irregular coastlines on the AtlanticOcean and the North, Baltic, and Mediterranean Seas. The NorthSea is a part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island ofBritain from the rest of Europe. It is a rich fishing ground for theNetherlands and the United Kingdom. It has long been importantfor trade. It is also the location of large oil and gas reserves.

The British Isles are off the northern coast of France. The EnglishChannel separates southern Britain from northern France. Itconnects the North Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. High-speed trainsrun through the Chunnel, a tunnel under the English Channel,connecting Britain to mainland Europe.

Western Europe has many rivers and small waterways. Riversdetermined the location of important cities, such as London, Paris,and Hamburg. Rivers and canals provide transportation routes forgoods and people. Rivers provide water for farming and produceelectrical power. They also form political borders. The Thames Riverin England becomes an estuary when it reaches London. Anestuary is where river currents and ocean tides meet. The Rhine isthe busiest waterway in Europe. It runs through the most

populated region in Europe, from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea. Other important waterways in Europe include the Elbe, Main,Danube, Loire, and Seine Rivers.

Western Europe – History

Conflict

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During the 1800s, some Western European nations industrialized. This means they changed from an agricultural society to onebased on industry. Cities grew as people moved from thecountryside to work in factories. At the same time, someEuropeans began to feel strong loyalty to their country. A new,national spirit was rising.

A big change took place in Britain between 1760 and 1830. People began to use steam-powered machines for work that hadbeen done by humans or animals. Machines could do the samework at greater speed for lower cost. Machines of the IndustrialRevolution also improved farm labor so that fewer people wereneeded to work the land. People began to leave farms and villagesfor industrial cities.

Society: Agricultural Industrial

Population: Countryside Cities

Power source: Humans or animals Machines

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As nations industrialized, loyalties changed. Former enemiesGreat Britain and France became closer as Germany gainedmilitary strength. As the possibility of war increased, countriesformed alliances.

European nations became rivals for colonies and economicpower. These rivalries helped lead to World War I. Political changesalso contributed as modern nation-states replaced monarchiesand empires. World War I began in 1914 and involved all of Europe. It resulted in millions of deaths and great destruction. Germanylost the war and was found guilty of starting it. The winningcountries demanded that Germany pay for damages.

The defeat greatly weakened the German economy. Germansbelieved that they were being punished too harshly for their rolein the war. A political radical named Adolf Hitler used the people’sanger to gain power. He fueled an aggressive nationalist spirit. By1933 he was the absolute ruler of Germany.

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Hitler and his Nazi Party believed that the Germans were asuperior race. They carried out the Holocaust, the government-sponsoredmurder of 6 million Jews. Other minorities also sufferedunder the Nazis. Hitler and the Nazis wanted to build a newGerman empire. They began to build a military force to do this.

War came when Hitler’s armies began seizing other countries. World War II stretched far beyond Western Europe. Germany alliedwith Italy and Japan. They were the Axis Powers. The Soviet Union sided with Britain. The United States entered the war on the side with Britain when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. They were the AlliedPowers. American soldiers fought in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. A combination of American, British, and Canadian troops invadedFrance in June 1944 and liberated it from Germany.

With Hitler’s death and Germany’s surrender in May 1945, thewar ended in Europe.However, it continued in East Asia and thePacific for another three months. It did not end until the UnitedStates used atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima andNagasaki. During the war, between 40 million and 60 millionpeople died. More civilians died than military forces.

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Nagasaki, Japan

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Before the war, Britain, France, and Germany were among themost powerful countries in the world. They and other Europeannations were weakened by the war. After the war, the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union emerged as the leading world powers. The United States was a strong ally to nations in Western Europe. The Soviet Union took control of most of Eastern Europe. Germanywas split, with Britain, the United States, and France occupying thewestern part. The Soviet Union controlled eastern Germany. Thiswas the beginning of the Cold War.

For over 40 years, the United States and the Soviet Union werein conflict. War never broke out, but the threat of war alwaysexisted. Both sides stockpiled nuclear weapons. In the 1980s,Soviet influence began to weaken. Protest movements spread toEuropean countries under Soviet control. The Cold War endedwhen the government of the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.