Chapter 1: Resilient Europe: Confronting New Challenges

Memorize the "Major Geographic Qualities of Europe."

Defining the European Realm

Note the physical and cultural diversity contained in the realm.

What are Europe's geographical advantages? Why is water so important?

"Short distances and large cultural differences"? What does he mean?

Landscapes and Opportunities

Trace Figure 1-4 (I'm serious.) and learn the general characteristics and human uses of each of the four landform regions.

Historical Geography

What does regional interaction mean? Why is it important for understanding the Roman Empire? Why was Rome notable? When was the Roman Empire?

What does infrastructure include? Why is it important for understanding the Roman Empire?

What does local functional specialization mean? Provide an example. Why is it important for understanding the Roman Empire?

What was mercantilism?

The Revolutions of Modernizing Europe

The Agrarian Revolution

What factors to led to this revolution? What were the results?

The Industrial Revolution

How did the realm provide a sequence of new energy resources.

What factors allowed Britain to become the "world’s workshop"?

What factors explain the spatial distribution of major industrial districts shown on Figure 1-7?

Political Revolutions

What does nationalism mean? Why is it important for understanding Europe?

What is a nation-state? Is the US a nation-state? How do centripetal and centrifugal forces affect nation-states? Why is the nation-state important for
understanding Europe?

Contemporary Europe

Argue against viewing Europe as a regional unit.

Learn how to apply the terms complementarity, transferability, and intervening opportunity to Europe. Give an example.

Urban Continuity and Change

Does the US have a primate city?

In what ways do European urban areas differ from US urban areas?

Europe's Modern Transformation

Note the recent changes in Europe's territorial dimensions.

Note that presently Europe is facing the opposing forces of political disintegration and economic integration.

What does this "devolution" mean? Identify a European example. How is devolution different from internal regionalism? What is separatism? Note how devolution can often be traced to faulty political boundaries.

Consider the 1997 election in the United Kingdom. How did the Labour Party use nationalism to help them win the election?

Learn the other examples of current devolutionary pressures in Europe (Figure 1-12).

How do subnational economic regions support devolution? What does the word subnational mean?

What and where are the Four Motors of Europe?

What is a regional state?

What is a Euroregion?  How is it related to political disintegration and economic integration?

European Unification

What does supranationalism mean?

What does it have to do with Europe?

What is the history of supranationalism in Europe (Look at p. 45)?

What factors led to the rise of supranationalism in Europe after World War II?

Where will the EU expand?  Why there?

Explain why EU expansion into Turkey is a problem.

How will expansion exacerbate the CAP dispute?

How is NATO part of European unification?

Why unify?