FOREIGN EUROPE

GEOGRAPHICAL SPECIFICITY

Europe from the Greek "zurope" - the country of the west, from the Assyrian "ereb" - darkness, "sunset", "west" (Asia from "asu" - "sunrise").

Features of the geographical location
1. The territory of foreign Europe (excluding CIS countries) is 5.1 million km 2, and the total is about 10 million km 2. The length from north to south (from Spitsbergen to Crete) is 5 thousand km, and from west to east - more than 3 thousand km.
2. Relief "mosaic" of its territory: 1:1 - lowlands and elevated areas. Among the mountains of Europe, most are of medium height. Borders run primarily along natural boundaries that do not create obstacles to transport connections.
3. High degree of ruggedness of the coastline.
4. The coastal position of most countries. The average distance from the sea is 300 km. In the western part of the region there is no place more than 480 km away from the sea, in the eastern part – 600 km.
5. The "depth" of the territory of most countries is small. So in Bulgaria and Hungary there are no places that are more than 115-120 km away from the borders of these countries.
6. Neighborhood location favorable for integration processes.
7. Advantageous position in terms of contacts with the rest of the worlds, because is located at the junction with Asia and Africa, extended far into the ocean - the “large peninsula of Eurasia.”
8. Diversity natural resources, but non-comprehensive distribution by country, many deposits are largely depleted.

CONCLUSION: profitable EGP, good prerequisites for the development of the economy.

POLITICAL MAP OF EUROPE

Until the mid-80s there were 32 sovereign states, including microstates. Since the beginning of the 90s - about 40 states.

6 largest by territory: France, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Finland.

POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TERRITORIAL STRUCTURE OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Most are sovereign states, 34 are republics, 14 are monarchies.

Principalities: Monaco, Liechtenstein, Andorra.
Duchy: Luxembourg.
Kingdoms: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Spain, Sweden.

They are all constitutional monarchies.

Theocratic monarchy: papacy - Vatican.
Federations: Germany, Belgium, Austria, FRY, Spain.
Confederation: Switzerland.

The oldest republic is San Marino (from the 13th century), the Swiss Confederation has existed since the end of the 13th century.

Major political and economic alliances

The vast majority of countries are members of the UN. Switzerland joined the UN in September 2002.

NATO members (14 countries): Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Belgium, Great Britain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic. At the Prague Summit in November 2002, 7 new members were invited to the Alliance: Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. But they can become full members only in 2004.
EU members (15 countries): Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria. From January 2002 the number of countries in the EU will increase. From January 2004, the number of countries in the EU may increase due to Poland, Lithuania and other countries.

DIFFERENTIATION OF COUNTRIES BY LEVEL OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Most countries belong to the group of industrialized countries. Four countries: Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy are part of the G7 Western countries. Post-socialist countries or countries with economies in transition occupy a special place on the economic map of the region.

NATURAL RESOURCES

Natural resources of global importance

Coal:

• Total reserves: 3rd place in the world after Asia and America
• Hard coal: 3rd place in the world after Asia and America
• Proven reserves: 3rd place after Asia and America
• Hard coal - 2nd place after Asia
• Brown coal - 3rd place after America and Asia
• For hard coal: Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Great Britain
• For brown coal: Germany, Eastern Europe

Mining chemical raw materials (potassium salts): Germany, France

Recreational resources: Southern Europe, France, etc.

Natural resources of regional importance

Forest

3rd place in the world after South America and the CIS

Forest cover - 32% - shares 3rd place with Zarub. Asia, inferior to Latin America and the CIS.

Most forested: Finland (59%), Sweden (54%)

Fish

Northern Europe (Norway, Iceland)

Mineral

• Uranium ores: France, Sweden, Spain
• Iron ores: France, Sweden
• Copper ores: Poland, Finland, former. Yugoslavia
• Oil: UK, Norway, Romania
• Gas: Netherlands, UK, Norway
• Mercury ores: Spain, Italy
• Bauxite: France, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Sulfur: Poland
• Graphite: Czech Republic

Hydropower resources

Total river flow resources per capita - 6 thousand m 3 year, less only in Asia

Hydropotential is in penultimate place (lower only in Australia and Oceania). But the degree of development is high - 70% - 1st place in the world.

Agroclimatic resources

Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe

Land resources

World land fund: 134 million sq. km. Of these, Foreign Europe accounts for 5.1 million square meters. km ( last place in the world). Per capita - 1 ha

Structure of the land fund of Europe in %: 29/18/32/5/16 (For reference: structure of the land fund of the world in %: 11/23/30/2/34).

By share of cultivated land - 1st place (29%)

The share of land occupied by pastures (18%) is lower than the global average (23%), while the share of land occupied by forests (32%) is higher (30%).

The world's largest share of land occupied by human settlements: 5%

The share of unproductive land is less than in other parts of the world - 16%

Provision of arable land per capita - 0.28 hectares with the world average - 0.24-0.25 hectares

POPULATION

Table 1. Demographic, socio-economic indicators of the world, Overseas Europe and European subregions

Indicators	The whole world	Foreign Europe	Northern Europe	Western Europe	Southern Europe	East Europe
Area, thousand km 2	132850	5014	1809	1108	1315	782
Population in 1998, million people.	5930	516,2	93,6	183,1	144,3	95,2
Fertility, ‰	24	11	13	11	11	11
Mortality, ‰	9	11	11	10	9	12
Natural increase	15	0	2	1	2	-1
Life expectancy, m/f	63/68	70/77	74/70	74/81	74/80	62/73
Age structure, under 16 / over 65	62/6	19/14	20/15	18/15	18/14	62/73
Proportion of urban population in 1995, %	45	74	84	81	65	64
GDP per capita in 1995, $	6050	1500	18500	19470	13550	5260

In Europe, there are 96 men for every 100 women.

Urbanization

Most countries of Foreign Europe are highly urbanized - Belgium (97%), the Netherlands and Great Britain (89% each), Denmark (85%). Only Portugal (36%), Albania (37%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (49%) are classified as medium-urbanized countries (the share of the urban population does not exceed 50%).

The largest agglomerations in Europe: London, Paris, Rhine-Ruhr.

Megalopolises: English, Rhine.

A characteristic process is suburbanization.

Migration

International immigration centers: France, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, where over 10% of the total number of employees are foreign workers. Areas of emigration - countries of Southern Europe: Italy, Portugal, Spain, Serbia; Türkiye, North African countries.

National composition

Most European countries belong to the Indo-European family.

Types of state by national composition:
• mononational(i.e. the main ethnic group is over 90%). There are most of them in Europe (Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Austria, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Italy, Portugal),
• with a sharp predominance of one nation, but in the presence of more or less significant minorities (Great Britain, France, Spain, Finland, Romania);
• binational(Belgium);
• multinational countries, with a complex and ethnically diverse composition (Russia, Switzerland, FRY, Latvia, etc.).

In many countries there are complex problems of interethnic relations: Great Britain, Spain (Basques), France (Corsica), Belgium, Cyprus, etc.

Religious composition of the population

The dominant religion is Christianity.

• Southern Europe - Catholicism
• Northern - Protestant
• Middle - Protestantism and Catholicism
• Eastern - Orthodoxy and Catholicism
• Albania, Croatia - Islam

ECONOMY: PLACE IN THE WORLD, DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COUNTRIES.

Foreign Europe, as an entire region, ranks first in the world economy in terms of industrial and agricultural production, exports of goods and services, gold and currency reserves, and development of international tourism.

The economic power of the region is primarily determined by four countries that are members of the "Big Seven" Western countries - Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy. It is these countries that have the widest range of different industries and industries. But the balance of power between them has changed in recent decades. The role of leader has passed to Germany, whose economy is developing more dynamically along the path of reindustrialization. Great Britain, the former “workshop of the world,” has lost many of its former positions.

Of the remaining countries of foreign Europe, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden have the greatest economic weight. Unlike the four main countries, their economy specializes primarily in individual industries, which, as a rule, have won European or world recognition. Small and medium-sized countries are especially widely involved in global economic relations. The openness of the economy reached its highest level in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Countries occupy a special place on the economic map of the region Eastern Europe, where since the late 80s. There is a transition from the previous system of public ownership and central planning to a system based on market principles. These post-socialist countries, which for a long time in their socio-economic development were oriented primarily towards the Soviet Union (and the Baltic countries were part of it), are now more “looking” not at the East, but at the West of Europe. This change in orientation has a great impact on the sectoral and territorial structure of their economy and on the direction of foreign economic relations.

Industry: main sectors.

The region produces more metalworking machines, industrial robots, precision and optical instruments, cars, tractors, petroleum products, plastics, and chemical fibers than the United States.

Mechanical engineering- a leading industry in foreign Europe, which is its homeland. This industry accounts for 1/3 of the region's total industrial output and 2/3 of its exports.

Particularly developed automotive industry. Car brands such as Renault (France), Volkswagen and Mercedes (Germany), FIAT (Factory Italiana Automobile Torino), Volvo (Sweden), Tatra (Czech Republic), are world famous. buses "Ikarus" (Hungary). Ford Motor plants operate in Great Britain, Belgium, Spain and other countries.

Mechanical engineering, focusing primarily on labor resources, scientific base and infrastructure, most of all gravitates towards large cities and agglomerations, including capital ones.

Chemical industry in foreign Europe it ranks second after mechanical engineering. This especially applies to the most “chemicalized” country not only in this region, but also in the whole world - Germany.

Before the Second World War, the chemical industry focused mainly on hard and brown coal, potassium and table salts, and pyrites and was located in the areas where they were mined. The reorientation of the industry towards hydrocarbon raw materials has led to its shift towards oil. In the western part of the region, this shift was expressed primarily in the emergence of large petrochemical centers in the estuaries of the Thames, Seine, Rhine, Elbe, and Rhone, where this industry is combined with oil refining.

The largest hub of petrochemical production and refineries in the region was formed in the Rhine and Scheldt estuary in the Netherlands, in the Rotterdam area. In fact, it serves the whole of Western Europe.

In the eastern part of the region, the shift “towards oil” led to the creation of refineries and petrochemical plants along the routes of main oil and gas pipelines.

The main oil refining and petrochemical enterprises of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary were built along the route of the international oil pipeline "Druzhba" and gas pipelines that supplied oil and natural gas from Soviet Union. In Bulgaria, for the same reason, petrochemicals are “shifted” to the Black Sea coast.

IN fuel and energy sector In most countries of foreign Europe, the leading place was taken by oil and natural gas, produced both in the region itself (North Sea) and imported from developing countries, from Russia. Coal production and consumption in Great Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium decreased sharply. In the eastern part of the region, the focus on coal is still preserved, and not so much on hard coal (Poland, Czech Republic), but on brown coal. There is perhaps no other area in the world where brown coal plays such a large role in the fuel and energy balance.

Most thermal power plants also focus on coal basins. But they are also built in seaports (using imported fuel) and in large cities. The structure and geography of the electric power industry - especially in France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria - is being increasingly influenced by the construction of nuclear power plants, of which there are already more than 80 in the region. On the Danube and its tributaries, on the Rhone, the upper Rhine, Duero built hydroelectric power stations or entire cascades of them.

But still, in most countries, with the exception of Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, hydroelectric power plants now play a supporting role. Since the region’s hydro resources have already been used to 4/5, recently more economical pumped storage power plants have been mainly built. Iceland uses geothermal energy.

Metallurgical industry foreign Europe was mainly formed even before the beginning of the scientific and technological revolution era. Ferrous metallurgy developed primarily in countries with metallurgical fuel and (or) raw materials: Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Czech Republic.

After the Second World War, large mills were built or expanded in seaports with a focus on importing higher quality, cheaper iron ore and scrap metal. The largest and most modern of the plants built in seaports is located in Taranto (Italy).

Recently, mostly mini-factories, rather than large plants, have been built.

The most important branches of non-ferrous metallurgy are aluminum And copper industry. Aluminum production arose both in countries with bauxite reserves (France, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Greece) and in countries where there are no aluminum raw materials, but a lot of electricity is generated (Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Austria). Recently, aluminum smelters are increasingly focusing on raw materials coming from developing countries by sea.

Copper industry received the greatest development in Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Yugoslavia.

Forestry industry, focusing primarily on sources of raw materials, has become an industry of international specialization in Sweden and Finland, which have long formed the main “timber workshop of the region.”

Light industry, with which the industrialization of foreign Europe began, has largely lost its former significance. Old textile districts that formed at the dawn of the industrial revolution (Lancashire and Yorkshire in Great Britain, Flanders in Belgium, Lyon in France, Milan in Italy), as well as those that arose already in the 19th century. The Lodz region of Poland still exists today. But recently, light industry has been shifting to Southern Europe, where there are still reserves of cheap labor force. Thus, Portugal has become almost the main “garment factory” of the region. And Italy is second only to China in shoe production.

Many countries also maintain rich national traditions in the production of furniture, musical instruments, glass, metal, jewelry, toys, etc.

AGRICULTURE: THREE MAIN TYPES.

For the main types of agricultural products, most countries fully meet their needs and are interested in selling them on foreign markets. The main type of agricultural enterprise is a large, highly mechanized farm. But in Southern Europe, landlordism and small-scale land use by peasant tenants still predominate.

The main branches of agriculture in foreign Europe are crop production and livestock farming, which are widespread everywhere, combining with each other. Under the influence of natural and historical conditions, three main types of agriculture have developed in the region:

1) Northern European, 2) Central European and 3) Southern European.

For Northern European type, widespread in Scandinavia, Finland, as well as in Great Britain, is characterized by the predominance of intensive dairy farming, and in the plant growing that serves it - fodder crops and gray bread.

Central European type It is distinguished by the predominance of dairy and dairy-meat livestock farming, as well as pig and poultry farming. Livestock farming has reached a very high level in Denmark, where it has long become a branch of international specialization. This country is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of butter, milk, cheese, pork, and eggs. It is often called the "dairy farm" of Europe.

Crop production not only satisfies the basic food needs of the population, but also “works” for livestock farming. A significant and sometimes the predominant part of arable land is occupied by fodder crops.

For South European type characterized by a significant predominance of crop farming, while livestock farming plays a secondary role. Although the main place in crops is occupied by grain crops, the international specialization of Southern Europe is determined primarily by the production of fruits, citrus fruits, grapes, olives, almonds, nuts, tobacco, and essential oil crops. Coast Mediterranean Sea- the main "garden of Europe".

The entire Mediterranean coast of Spain and especially the region of Valencia is usually called "huerta", i.e. "garden". Various fruits and vegetables are grown here, but most of all oranges, the harvest of which lasts from December to March. Spain ranks first in the world in orange exports. There are more than 90 million olive trees in Greece. This tree became a kind of national symbol for the Greeks. Since the times of Ancient Hellas, the olive branch has been a sign of peace.

In many cases, the specialization of agriculture takes on a narrower profile. Thus, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland are famous for the production of cheese, the Netherlands for flowers, Germany and the Czech Republic for growing barley and hops and brewing. And in terms of production and consumption of grape wines, France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal stand out not only in Europe, but throughout the world.

Fishing has long been an international specialty in Norway, Denmark and especially Iceland.

NON-PRODUCTION SPHERE

Transport: main highways and hubs.

The regional transport system of the region belongs to Western European type. In terms of transportation range, it is much inferior to the systems of the USA and Russia. But in terms of transport network availability, it is far ahead, ranking first in the world. Relatively short distances stimulated the development of road transport, which now plays a major role in the transportation of not only passengers, but also goods. The railway network in most countries is shrinking, and large new buildings in the 50-70s. were typical only for some countries of Eastern Europe (Poland, Yugoslavia, Albania).

The configuration of the region's land transport network is very complex. But its main framework is formed by highways of latitudinal and meridional directions, which are of international importance. The main latitudinal trans-European highways pass as follows: 1) Brest - Paris - Berlin - Warsaw - Minsk - Moscow, 2) London - Paris - Vienna - Budapest - Belgrade - Sofia - Istanbul.

River routes also have meridional (Rhine) or latitudinal (Danube) directions. The transport significance of the Rhine-Main-Danube waterway is especially great.

Danube - “transnational arrow”: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, FRY, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine

Rhine: Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France, the Netherlands.

Drava: Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, FRY

Tisa: Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, FRY

Large transport hubs emerged at the intersections of land and inland waterways. Essentially, such nodes are seaports that primarily serve international transport. Many of the world's yurts (London, Hamburg, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Le Havre) are located in estuaries of rivers that connect them with inland areas. They all actually turned into one port-industrial complexes. They are characterized by the development of maritime industries and especially the so-called “port industry”, which operates on imported, overseas raw materials. The largest of them is Rotterdam. The cargo turnover of the port of Rotterdam is about 300 million tons per year. Located on one of the branches of the Rhine, 33 km from the sea, it serves as the main sea gate for many European countries. It is connected to the hinterland by waterways along the Rhine and Moselle, railways and highways, and oil and gas pipelines.

Western Europe - good example how even large natural barriers cease to be an insurmountable obstacle to transport links. Numerous railways, roads and pipelines cross the Alps. Ferry crossings connect the shores of the Baltic, North, and Mediterranean seas. Road bridges span the Bosphorus and the Great Belt. The “project of the century” - the construction of a railway tunnel across the English Channel - has been completed.

Science and finance: technology parks, technopolises and banking centers.

Following the example of Silicon Valley in the United States, many research parks and technopolises have also emerged in foreign Europe, which already largely determine the geography of science in a number of countries. The largest of them are located in the vicinity of Cambridge (Great Britain), Munich (Germany). In the south of France, in the Nice area, the so-called “Valley of High Technology” is being formed.

Overseas Europe is home to 60 of the world's 200 largest banks. Switzerland has long been the standard of a banking country: the safes of its banks hold half of all the world's securities. The “economic capital” of the country, Zurich, especially stands out. Recently, both Luxembourg and Frankfurt am Main have turned into banking countries. But still, London was and remains the largest financial center.

Leisure and tourism

Foreign Europe has been and remains the main region of international tourism. All types of tourism have developed here, and the “tourism industry” has reached a very high level. Spain, France and Italy also invariably act as leading countries in international tourism. The most popular countries attracting tourists also include Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. And in such microstates as Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, serving tourists has long been the main source of income. There are one hundred tourists here for every resident.

Environmental protection and environmental issues

As a result of high population density and long-standing industrial and agricultural development of the territory, the natural environment of foreign Europe has become to the greatest extent the geographical environment of human society. All types of anthropogenic landscapes are widespread here. But at the same time, this has led to the exacerbation of many environmental and environmental problems.

Some of them are associated with open-pit mining, combustion and chemical processing of high-ash (primarily brown) coal. Others - with the placement of a number of cities and agglomerations, metallurgical, oil and gas refining and petrochemical plants, nuclear power plants on the banks of the Rhine, Elbe, Danube, Vistula, on sea coasts, others - with the spread acid rain. Fourth - with an ever-increasing “car density”, which in a number of urban agglomerations already reaches 250-300 cars per 1 km 2. The fifth is with the spontaneous development of tourism, which has already led to significant degradation of the natural environment, both in the Alps and on the Mediterranean coast. The sixth - with the enormous danger to the natural environment created by supertanker disasters, which often occur, especially on the approaches to the English Channel.

All countries in the region are pursuing state environmental policies and are taking increasingly decisive measures to protect the environment. Strict environmental laws have been issued, mass public organizations and green parties have emerged, the use of bicycles is being promoted, and the network of national parks and other protected areas has been expanded.

All this led to the first positive results. Nevertheless, in many countries the environmental situation still remains difficult. First of all, this applies to Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

In general, the environmental situation in the eastern part of foreign Europe is much worse than in the western part.

GEOGRAPHICAL PATTERN OF SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMY.

The “central axis” of development is the main element of the territorial structure of the region.

The territorial structure of the population and economy of foreign Europe mainly developed back in the 19th century, when natural resources were perhaps the main factor of location, and when coal and metallurgical regions of Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, and other countries arose. After the Second World War, the greatest influence on this structure was exerted by the factors of labor resources and benefits of EGP, and more recently also by knowledge intensity and environmental factors.

In total, the region has approximately 400 urban agglomerations and about a hundred industrial areas. The most significant of them are located within the “central axis” of development, which extends across eight countries. Its core is the “main street of Europe” - the Rhine-Rhone line. 120 million people live within the borders of this “axis”, and about half of the region’s total economic potential is concentrated.

In foreign Europe, several more similar “axes” of smaller scale can be identified. This is an industrial-urban belt stretching along the common borders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, the Danube "axis", strips along the main oil pipelines, and some coastal zones.

Highly developed areas: examples of London and Paris.

The most striking examples of highly developed areas that concentrate the latest industries, infrastructure, science, culture, and services are the metropolitan regions of Greater London and Greater Paris.

Both London and Paris grew up primarily as the administrative and political centers of their countries, which they have served for more than eight centuries. Both capitals are large industrial centers in which high-tech, knowledge-intensive industries are widely represented, and in Paris there is also the production of so-called “Parisian products” (clothing, jewelry, etc.), thanks to which for a number of centuries it has acted as a trendsetter for everything peace. But even more important is that the largest banks and exchanges, headquarters of monopolies, leading scientific institutions, as well as the residences of many international organizations are concentrated here. In accordance with regional programs, the central parts of both capital regions are being unloaded.

Eight satellite cities were built in the vicinity of London, and five satellite cities in the vicinity of Paris.

Examples of other highly developed regions of foreign Europe include: the southern region of Germany with centers in Stuttgart and Munich, the "industrial triangle" Milan - Turin - Genoa in Italy, the industrial-urban agglomeration of Randstad ("ring city") in the Netherlands. All of them are within the “central axis” of development.

Old industrial areas.

No other region of the world has such a number of old industrial areas with a predominance of basic industries as in foreign Europe. The largest of them arose on the basis of coal basins. But even among such areas, the Ruhr region especially stands out, which for many decades has been rightfully considered the industrial heart of Germany.

Within the Ruhr basin and adjacent areas, the Lower Rhine-Ruhr agglomeration has developed. Here, on an area of ​​9 thousand km2, 11 million people live and about a hundred cities are concentrated, including 20 large ones. There is, perhaps, no other such concentration of large cities on one territory anywhere in the world. In some parts of the agglomeration, the population density reaches 5 thousand people per 1 km2. Its Ruhr part forms a complex urban area with almost no breaks, which is usually called "Rurstadt", i.e. "Ruhr city". In fact, this is truly a single city, the western gate of which is Duisburg, the eastern gate is Dortmund, the “capital” is Essen, and the main “safe” is Dusseldorf.

Recently, the industry of the Ruhr, numbering several thousand enterprises, has undergone significant reconstruction. In the 50s The Ruhr was considered almost a classic depressed area. But nowadays it would be wrong to put him in this category. A large environmental program has been implemented in the Ruhr region. The Rhine, which not so long ago was called the sewer of Europe, has become cleaner, and fish have appeared in it again.

Examples of other old industrial areas include Lancashire, Yorkshire, the west Midlands, South Wales in the UK, the Northern region, Alsace and Lorraine in France, the Saarland, which is often called the “Little Ruhr”, in Germany, the Upper Silesian region in Poland, Ostrava in the Czech Republic . But most of them fall into the category of depression.

Backward agricultural areas.

In foreign Europe there are still many rather backward, predominantly agricultural regions. A striking example of this kind is the south of Italy, which occupies 40% of the country's territory, concentrates more than 35% of the population and only 18% of those employed in industry. Per capita income here is almost two times lower than in the North. After World War II, due to relative agrarian overpopulation, more than 5 million people emigrated from the South.

The state is pursuing a regional policy aimed at the rise of the South. It led to the construction of large metallurgical and petrochemical plants and other enterprises here. As a result, the South was no longer a purely agricultural region. However, the factories have almost no connection with the surrounding territory, since they operate on imported raw materials, and their products are exported to other regions of the country and to other countries.

Examples of other backward agrarian regions of foreign Europe include: the western part of France, the central and southwestern parts of Spain, Portugal and Greece. All of them are located outside the "central axis". The problem of uplifting backward areas is also relevant for many countries in Eastern Europe.

Areas of new development.

For the long-developed territory of foreign Europe, areas of new development are generally not typical. Usually they included only the northern part of Scandinavia. But the opening in the early 60s. of a large oil and gas basin in the North Sea changed the situation.

By the beginning of the 90s. More than 250 oil and natural gas fields were identified in this “golden mine.” In addition, the Netherlands has one of the world's largest gas fields off the coast. The North Sea region satisfies 1/3 of the needs of foreign Europe for oil and 2/3 of the needs for natural gas. Nowadays the sea is literally “stuffed” with drilling platforms; several thousand kilometers of pipelines are laid along its bottom. But in this regard, a considerable environmental threat arises, not to mention fisheries, which have suffered irreparable damage.

International influence economic integration on the territorial structure of the economy.

Favorable prerequisites for the development of international economic integration in the region include territorial proximity, high development of the territory, a high level of socio-economic development, good transport availability, and long traditions of economic ties. During the existence of the EU, all this has already led to the further merging of the territorial economic structures of individual countries, especially within the “central axis” of development. Border integration areas are being formed: between Germany and France, between France and Belgium, France and Italy, etc.

Figure 1. Subregions of Foreign Europe.

Table 2. What some countries of Foreign Europe produce and export.

Country	Products of industrial production and export
Sweden	Cars, airplanes, sea vessels, weapons, equipment for the forestry and pulp and paper industries, paper, pulp, iron ore, medicines, livestock products.
Finland	Lumber, paper, cellulose, equipment for the forestry and woodworking industries, marine vessels, dairy products.
United Kingdom	Machinery and equipment, airplanes, cars, tractors, weapons, oil, chemicals, fabrics, light industrial products.
France	Cars, airplanes, ships, weapons, equipment for nuclear power plants, ferrous metals, aluminum, fabrics, clothing, perfumes, wheat, dairy and meat products, sugar, wines.
Germany	Cars, machine tools, industrial equipment, electrical and electronics products, weapons, chemicals, light industry products.
Spain	Automobiles, marine vessels, electrical equipment, chemicals, metal ores, light industrial products, citrus fruits, olive oil, wines.
Italy	Cars, marine vessels, electrical equipment, weapons, chemicals, refrigerators, washing and office machines, textiles and clothing, shoes, vegetables, fruits, citrus fruits, wines.
Poland	Machinery and equipment, sea vessels, coal, copper, sulfur, medicines, textiles, agricultural products.
Bulgaria	Electrical and electronics products, handling equipment, agricultural machinery, non-ferrous metals, clothing and tobacco products, canned food, wine, rose oil.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FRG

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, GENERAL OVERVIEW

Territory - 356.9 thousand km 2. Population - 81.6 million people. (1995). The capital is Berlin.

Germany is a state in Central Europe. It borders the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Poland, Denmark.

They played an important role in the development of the country features of the EGP: its location in the center of Europe, surrounded by economically highly developed countries, at the intersection of major transport routes, coastal position.

Within its modern borders, Germany was formed by the unification in October 1990 of two states - the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic; the Federal Republic of Germany included 5 states of the German Democratic Republic and East Berlin. As a result, the country's territory grew by 43%, and the population by 27%.

Germany is a parliamentary republic. According to the territorial and political structure, it is a federation consisting of 16 lands.

Executive power in the country belongs to the federal government, the president performs mainly representative functions.

NATURAL CONDITIONS AND RESOURCES.

The natural conditions of the country are varied. The surface rises mainly from north to south. According to the nature of the relief, 4 main elements are distinguished in it: the North German Lowland, the Middle German Mountains (Black Forest, Swabian Alb, Franconian Alb, Rhine Slate Mountains). Bavarian plateau and Alps. The relief of the country was influenced by glaciations and marine transgressions.

Among the countries of foreign Europe, Germany stands out for its coal reserves (1st place) - mainly in the Ruhr, Saar, and Aachen basins.

Quite large deposits of natural gas are located in the north of Germany.

There are iron ore reserves, but their quality is low. In the north of the German Lowland there are significant deposits of rock salt. There are reserves of potassium and magnesium salts.

The climate is transitional from maritime to continental, favorable for living and farming.

The following rivers are of great economic importance: Rhine, Ems, Weser, Elbe, Danube.

About 30% of the territory is covered with forests, but these are secondary forests; primary forests have practically not survived in the country.

POPULATION.

In terms of population, Germany ranks first in Western Europe. The country is characterized by a decrease in the birth rate and natural population growth (especially in the eastern lands). The birth and death rates are equal (about 1%), but the population is growing due to the influx of immigrants from Southern Europe and Asia (Turkey).

The average density is 227 people/km 2 .

Figure 2. Age-sex pyramid of Germany.
(to enlarge the image, click on the picture)

The vast majority of residents are Germans; immigrants by the time of the country's reunification numbered more than 5 million people, their number is increasing.

The predominant religion is Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism); Among other religions, Islam is widespread.

Urbanization level - 87%.

FARM

Germany is one of the most developed countries in the world. In terms of GDP and industrial production, it is second only to the United States and Japan.

The role of Germany in the MGRT is determined by its industry, which specializes in the production of high-quality products.

The sectoral and territorial structure of the German economy was strongly influenced by the forty years of separate development of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. Territorial disproportions in the country are very large: the eastern lands in 1994 provided about 4% of industrial output, although about 20% of the population of Germany lives in them.

In general, the share of manufacturing industries in the industrial structure is very high (more than 90%), the share of extractive industries is declining, and the share of knowledge-intensive industries is growing.

Energy. Germany meets more than 1/2 of its needs through imports (oil, gas, coal). The main role in the fuel base is played by oil and gas, and the share of coal is about 30%. Electricity generation structure: 64% - at thermal power plants, 4% - at hydroelectric power plants, 32% - at nuclear power plants. Thermal power plants operate on coal in the Ruhr and Saar basins, in port cities, on natural gas in the north of Germany, on fuel oil in oil refining centers, and other thermal power plants on mixed fuel. Nuclear power plants are built outside coal basins. Hydroelectric power stations operate mainly in the south of the country (on mountain rivers).

Ferrous metallurgy- one of the most important branches of specialization in Germany, but is currently in crisis. The main factories are concentrated in the Ruhr and the Lower Rhine; there are also in the Saarland and in the eastern states of Germany. Conversion and rolling plants are located throughout the country.

Non-ferrous metallurgy- works mainly on imported and recycled raw materials. In terms of aluminum smelting, Germany is second only to Norway in foreign Europe. The main factories are in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg and Bavaria.

Mechanical engineering and metalworking- Germany's specialization sector in the MGRT, accounting for up to 1/2 of industrial production and exports. Largest centers: Munich, Nuremberg. Mannheim, Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg. Bavaria is a leader in the electrical engineering industry. The automotive industry is highly developed marine shipbuilding, optical-mechanical, aerospace industry.

Chemical industry It is represented, first of all, by the products of fine organic synthesis, the production of medicines, etc. The chemical industry is especially developed in the western lands (BASF, Hurst concerns), in the east it is in a state of crisis.

Agriculture- uses about 50% of the territory; The industry's contribution to the country's GDP is 1%, more than 60% of all production comes from livestock farming, where cattle breeding and pig breeding stand out. The main grain crops are wheat, rye, oats, and barley. Germany is completely self-sufficient in grain. Potatoes and beets are also grown; along the valleys of the Rhine and its tributaries - viticulture, gardening, tobacco growing.

Transport. In terms of the density of transport routes, Germany ranks among the first in the world; The basis of the transport network is railways. In the total cargo turnover, the main role belongs to road transport (60%), then railway (20%), inland waterway (15%) and pipeline. External maritime transport and air transport are of great importance, playing a major role in the country’s external relations.

Non-production sphere represented in Germany, as in a post-industrial country, with a wide range of various types activities: education, healthcare, management, finance. Eight German banks are among the 50 largest banks in the world. Frankfurt am Main is Germany's fast-growing financial center.

FOREIGN ECONOMIC RELATIONS.

In terms of total foreign trade, Germany ranks second in the world after the United States. The main trading partners of Germany are EU countries; recently the markets of Eastern Europe and Russia have been developed.

Basic concepts: Western European (North American) type of transport system, port-industrial complex, "development axis", metropolitan region, industrial belt, "false urbanization", latifundia, ship stations, megalopolis, "technopolis", "growth pole", "growth corridors"; colonial type of industrial structure, monoculture, apartheid, subregion.

Skills and abilities: be able to assess the influence of EGP and GGP, the history of settlement and development, characteristics of the population and labor resources of the region, country on the sectoral and territorial structure of the economy, the level of economic development, the role in the MGRT of the region, country; identify problems and forecast development prospects for the region and country; highlight specific, defining features of individual countries and explain them; find similarities and differences in the population and economy of individual countries and give an explanation for them, draw up and analyze maps and cartograms.

TOURIST SUBREGIONS OF EUROPE (OUTSIDE THE CIS)

Europe is the most important tourist region of the globe. In fact, the first centers of tourism in the ancient world arose here, organized tourism began here in the 19th century, and the most visited states by tourists are located here. And this is no coincidence:

· Europe is very diverse in natural features territory - here a tourist can get acquainted with almost all zones of the cold and temperate zone, right up to the Mediterranean subtropics, which are especially popular in tourism.

· In Europe there are many seas, with which Europe is literally cut up, large lakes, rivers very different in length and water regime, among which there are rivers flowing through several countries (Danube, Rhine, etc.).

· The relief of this part of the world is varied: more or less extensive plains alternate with high mountain areas, where vertical altitudinal zonation is clearly expressed. A landmark of Europe is the mountain system - the Alps with the highest point of Europe on the border of France and Italy - Mont Blanc (4807 m above sea level). Thus, Europe is attractive to tourists due to the wide differentiation of its natural conditions.

· The ethno-confessional makeup of different regions of Europe is also very diverse. Most of its inhabitants belong to peoples who speak languages ​​of the Slavic, Germanic, and Romance language groups. The peoples inhabiting Europe profess Christianity in its various forms, among which Catholicism (the center of the Catholic religion is located in the Vatican), various forms of Protestantism (Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anglicanism, etc.), Orthodoxy (as well as Protestantism, which does not have a foreign Europe single center). There are adherents of Islam living in a number of countries. All this greatly affected not only everyday life and lifestyle, but (and this is perhaps especially important for tourists) also in religious architecture.

Civil architecture was greatly influenced not only (and not so much) by ethnic differences, but by the complex history of European countries. Constant wars in Europe led not only to the emergence of new states and the disappearance of old ones, but also to the formation of new cities. Moreover, these cities are of different types, different in size, population, and appearance. Very often, cities merge with each other, with rural settlements, to form urban agglomerations and megalopolises.

The predominant type of tourism in Europe is cultural and educational. In modern Europe, tourists are especially attracted to monuments of ancient Roman and Greek culture, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. Modern buildings, often unique (for example, the Eiffel Tower in Paris), are also of great interest.

Europe has been a complex of states for many centuries, concentrating most of the world's intelligence. It is no coincidence that there are many higher educational institutions, scientific institutes, museums here, scientific forums are constantly held, and therefore scientific tourism is developing. Event tourism, festival tourism and sports tourism are also developed in Europe.

Of course, business tourism is also very important in European countries. Thus, we can safely say that almost all types of tourism are typical for Europe. This largely explains its scale.

In Europe, based on its historical, socio-economic, natural and some other prerequisites, it is possible to identify (outside Russia and the CIS) four recreational and tourist subregions: Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Western Europe, Southern Europe.

I. The Eastern European subregion was until recently an integral part of the “socialist camp”: the countries of this zone were part of both the CMEA and the organization Warsaw Pact. This circumstance left a big imprint on the development features of the Eastern European states after World War II, and these features, of course, could not be erased over the last decade. Therefore, we remain wary of everything coming from Russia. Of course, the picture here is quite complex: the intellectual part of society in Eastern European countries understands that ordinary Russians are not responsible for the affairs of their rulers, and treats tourists from Russia with understanding and attention. But ordinary residents of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and other countries in this zone can hardly forget those negative (and often tragic) events that were associated with Russia’s actions; Nor can they treat with respect the countless “shuttle” tourists from Russia and other CIS countries. And hence a certain chill towards tourists from the territory of the former USSR, the desire to attract as many foreign tourists as possible from other regions of the world. (However, this trend existed in the pre-reform years.)

The Eastern European subregion, in addition to its common post-war history, has one more feature that unites it into one whole: the majority of its population (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians) are Slavs. Only the Romanians are among the Romance peoples, and the Hungarians are among the Finno-Ugric peoples. Three denominations predominate in the subregion - Catholic (Poland, Hungary, Slovenia), Protestant (various types), Orthodox (Romania, Bulgaria). The same confessions are also characteristic of the Baltic countries, which until recently were part of the USSR.

Natural conditions change greatly from north to south. A tourist moving from the Baltic countries to Bulgaria sees a gradual change in landscapes - from forest in the north and center, steppe in western Romania and Hungary to subtropical in southern Bulgaria. At the same time, in Romania and, especially, in Bulgaria (to a lesser extent in other countries), the altitudinal vertical zonation in the mountains (Carpathians, Balkans) is well expressed. So the natural attractiveness in this tourist area is undoubtedly higher in the south, where, moreover, there is the Black Sea with its excellent beaches in Bulgaria and Romania.

In the subregion under consideration, 4 historical and cultural macro-regions are distinguished: Baltic, Poland, Central region, Black Sea region.

1. The Baltic microdistrict includes the territories of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The main attractiveness of the area lies in its coastal location and the presence of a resort and recreational area. Two large resort complexes were formed here - Palanga (Lithuania) and Jurmala (Latvia), and the Estonian seaside resort complexes of Pärnu and Haapsalu were somewhat less important.

But nature, and especially the sea with its beaches, is not the only factor in the tourist attractiveness of the area. Many cities with their historical monuments of the Middle Ages and Modern times are of great interest here. In this regard, the capital cities are attractive - Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius.

Thus, the Baltic can be considered as an area of ​​recreational, educational, as well as scientific tourism. At the same time, the main directions of tourism are sufficiently provided with the appropriate infrastructure. However, after the collapse of the USSR, it remained largely unclaimed, because the main flow of tourists coming from the republics of the USSR decreased, and Western tourists did not show much interest in the Baltic countries due to the low level of tourist services and the underdevelopment of tourism infrastructure. In recent years the situation has improved somewhat.

2. Macroregion of Poland. - Its tourist resources are determined, in addition to the picturesque nature (sea, rivers, forests, mid-altitude mountains), the opportunity to engage in summer and winter sports, as well as a large number historical and cultural monuments of different eras, musical traditions of the country, etc.

The natural attractiveness is primarily distinguished by the north of the country with its Baltic coast and the south, where part of the Carpathian mountain system is located.

The main tourist center of the country and its capital Warsaw, as well as the city of Krakow, famous for its historical, architectural and cultural monuments, have historical, cultural, historical and architectural attractiveness. Gdansk, Szczecin, the birthplace of Copernicus - Toruń and Wroclaw are also very attractive. Among the resorts one can name the “Riviera of the North” - the city of Sopot on the Baltic (with its traditional festivals), the city of Krynica - the pearl of Polish resorts in the south of the country.

3. The central macro-region includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. Having no access to the sea, this area, due to its Central European location and great historical, cultural and natural attractions, attracts a large number of tourists, the number of which grew rapidly in the post-war years.

The nature of the region is very diverse: medium-high mountains in the east and west, a plateau in the center, a lowland in the north, the great European river Danube, the “Hungarian Sea” - Lake Balaton, forests of different composition, steppes (Hungarian Pashta), healing mineral springs.

Numerous historical and cultural monuments, architectural ensembles of different eras, museums - all these are important elements of the tourist attractiveness of the area.

The area has a fairly developed tourist infrastructure, often exotic (a large number of tourist hotels are located in medieval castles in the Czech Republic).

In the Czech Republic, the main center of tourist attraction is the capital of the country, one of the most beautiful cities in the world - “Golden Prague” with such attractions as Wenceslas and Old Town Square, the town hall with the famous chimes, Prague Castle with the Cathedral of St. Vita and palaces (a kind of Prague Kremlin), Charles Bridge, museums of the great Czech composers Smetana and Dvorak and much more.

Among the resort areas of the country, it is necessary to mention the western Czech Republic with the famous resorts of Karlovy Vary and Marianske Lazne, which have healing mineral springs, and mountain resort recreational areas.

In Slovakia, the west of the country is an area of ​​educational tourism (the main center is the capital of the country, Bratislava), middle part(due to its natural diversity and high degree of natural attractiveness) - a natural recreational area, the east - an area of ​​mountain tourism (different in different seasons).

In Hungary, the main center of attraction for tourists is the capital Budapest with its bridges over the Danube, the parliament building, the citadel with a place of recreation, sports and entertainment - Margaret Island, numerous mineral springs, including hot ones (in and around the city). Tourists who come to the country for educational purposes are also attracted by other large, medium-sized and small cities where there are fortresses, castles, and cathedrals. There are also interesting natural objects of various types. And, of course, the main one among them is the lake. Balaton is the main recreation center of the country.

4. Black Sea macro-region. Romania and Bulgaria can be included in it. Both countries are characterized by access to the Black Sea with its beaches, a combination of mountainous areas with plateaus, plains, wide valleys, and vertical zonation of vegetation. Hence its diversity. All this makes the area attractive in terms of its natural attractiveness. But it is also characterized by important elements of historical-cultural, historical-architectural attractiveness. Romania and Bulgaria, being Orthodox states, differ in their ethnic groups (mainly Slavic in Bulgaria, Romance in Romania), and many national traditions. In addition, within these countries themselves there are many internal differences, not only natural and socio-economic, but also ethnic (it is enough to recall the Turkish minority with its language and religion in Bulgaria, the Hungarian minority with its language and Catholicism in western Romania - Transylvania or about the German minority in the Romanian Banat). We must not forget that the political map of this area even in the 19th-20th centuries. remodeled several times.

The Black Sea coast, the Danube Delta and other natural factors make the southeast the main tourist mesoregion of Romania with its numerous resorts - Black Sea beaches and the organizational center of the city of Constanta.

An important tourist area is the capital. In Bucharest, which the country's rulers wanted to turn into a "little Paris", there are a large number historical monuments different centuries (including Orthodox churches), monuments, pompous buildings for various purposes, museums. All this makes Bucharest an interesting, although very diverse, excursion destination.

In other areas of Romania, recreational tourism (varies in different seasons) is common, including in the mountains (mid-altitude). It is combined with elements of educational tourism - corresponding objects are found in different parts of the country - and balneological. Like any capital, Bucharest is a center of business, scientific, and festival tourism.

Located to the south, Bulgaria is one of the most developed countries in Europe in terms of tourism. And this, of course, is no coincidence: the diverse nature, cultural monuments of different centuries - all this makes the country extremely attractive for tourists. There are several tourist meso-regions in Bulgaria:

The Black Sea region of Bulgaria contains a large number of seaside resorts, famous all over the world. Tourists are attracted by the sea, beaches, and well-developed infrastructure. There are also objects of educational tourism, including ancient monuments. There are also exotic natural and archaeological sites.

The capital of the country, Sofia, is an important area of ​​educational tourism (temples, monuments, interesting buildings of civil architecture). Near the city there is the Vitosha massif tourist complex and some other objects.

In the southwest of Bulgaria there are the Rila, Rhodope, and Pirin mountain ranges that attract tourists with their nature, resorts (mountain air, numerous mineral springs), and monasteries. Here, unlike other regions of the country, tourism is less seasonal, since in winter the alpine skiing type is developed. The mountainous region of central Bulgaria - the Balkans (Stara Planina) and the gradual descent to the Danube located to the north attract important educational and tourist sites, monuments of the ancient world and the Middle Ages. But, perhaps, the numerous monuments of Russian-Bulgarian friendship of the 19th-20th centuries are of particular interest. - These are various monuments from the era of the Russian-Turkish wars and World War II. It is enough to name the temple-monument in the village of Shipka, where a tourist center has been created. Among the cities of the central-northern region we should name Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Rusa, and the famous city of Bulgarian comedians, Gabrovo. It is impossible, of course, not to mention the famous valley of roses - Kazanlak, located inside the Balkan mountain system.

II. The Northern Europe subregion includes a group of Scandinavian countries united by the proximity of history and languages ​​(Sweden, Norway, Denmark and its possession of Greenland, Iceland), as well as Finland, which is historically and territorially close to them.

Northern Europe is also distinguished by its natural attractiveness, natural environment northern European countries is very peculiar, although, by ordinary standards, very harsh; Compared to other regions of Europe, it has retained its virgin, pristine character to a greater extent.

Increasing tourist demand for visiting northern countries led to the fact that they “began to build modern accommodation facilities for tourists - hotels, boarding houses, motels, campsites, fisherman’s houses, sportsmen’s houses, etc. Means of transport and roads are being modernized. Sea cruises to the Arctic Circle with dog sledding and bird and animal hunting are organized. Arctic safaris with hunting for polar animals, including polar bears, are also organized in Greenland.”

Countries Northern Europe in general, they are more of a supplier of tourists, but still constantly strive to increase the influx of tourists into their tourist area. It should be taken into account that many tourists coming to Northern Europe visit several countries at once, partly because the number of objects of historical and cultural educational tourism in most of them is quite limited.

Each of the Nordic countries is a tourist macro-region.

1. Neighborhood Denmark is the southernmost country in the zone. Its natural attractiveness lies in the original combination of the Jutland Peninsula, a number of large islands, straits and seas washing the country. The main historical and cultural center is the capital of the country, Copenhagen, with cultural and architectural monuments of the 15th-18th centuries. There are also older monuments outside the city. In one of the ancient cities of the country, Helsingor in the north of the island. Zealand is home to the famous Kronborg Castle, steeped in the legend of Prince Hamlet. At the same time, the magnificent sculptor B. Thorvaldsen, whose museum is located in the capital, and the famous storyteller G.-H. lived and worked in Denmark. Andersen.

In many areas of Denmark there are climatic resorts that also use the healing properties of sea beaches.

Norway and Sweden are located on the Scandinavian Peninsula.

2. The Sweden region attracts tourists with its austere nature: sea beaches, numerous lakes (Veneri, Vättern, Mälaren, etc.) and small fast-flowing rapids rivers, coniferous, mixed, broad-leaved forests. Natural water bodies complemented by artificial canals, including the Goethe Canal; the result was a waterway about 500 km long from Stockholm, the country's capital, to its second city, Gothenburg.

The capital of the state is, at the same time, its main historical and cultural center with corresponding structures and buildings, the age of which dates back even to the 13th century. There are a lot of museums, including outdoor ones. There are hundreds of small islands near Stockholm - vacation spots for the capital's residents. Gothenburg attracts tourists with museums, theaters, concert halls; the north of the country of Lapland attracts tourists with its unique circumpolar nature and the way of life of the aborigines. There are many resort places in Sweden with a high level of infrastructure. Among the recreation areas there are many winter ones that enjoy considerable success.

3. The macroregion of Norway with its raised plateaus (fjelds), deep and long bays-fjords, high for its latitude (due to warm current) temperatures. Like Sweden, Norway is a country of ancient Scandinavian culture, and historical and architectural monuments often date back to the 12th-14th centuries.

The most attractive cities for historical, architectural and historical and cultural educational tourism are Oslo (the capital of the country) and Bergen, as well as Trondheim. These three cities, as well as the fjords (numerous bays with rugged shores jutting into the land) attract foreign tourists.

Both along the coast and in the interior of the country there are many resorts with first-class tourist infrastructure.

4. The Iceland neighborhood has many specific features. Firstly, it is a huge island, located a long distance from the mainland. Secondly, this is a country with unstable weather, the birthplace of many Cyclopes; It’s not without reason that they say that the weather in Europe (especially Western) is born in Iceland. Thirdly, this is a typical country of natural and educational tourism, famous for its glaciers, volcanoes, including active ones, including Hekla), geysers. The capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, has many museums and monuments.

5. The attractiveness of the Finnish macroregion lies in its nature, combining thousands of lakes, channels connecting them, and well-preserved temperate forests. In addition to the general natural environment and individual natural objects, the country has a number of cities that attract the attention of tourists with their historical and cultural sites. Among them are the capital of the country Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Hämenlinna (where the house-museum of the great Finnish composer J. Sibelius is located). Many tourists are attracted to the shores of the country's largest lake. Saimaa and the north of the state - Lapland with winter tourism. In general, Finland is a fairly typical naturally attractive country with developed species winter tourism and developed tourist infrastructure. Finland is one of the leading countries in the development of ecological and rural tourism.

III . Western European subregion- one of the most popular tourist subregions in Europe. It attracts tourists with its very diverse nature and many historical, cultural, historical and architectural sites. At the same time, it has a well-developed infrastructure, reflecting the generally high level of productivity and work culture in Western European countries. It is this circumstance and a largely common, albeit contradictory history that unites this zone, despite natural contrasts, into one whole. At the same time, within the subregion there are such great differences in natural conditions that they primarily determine the division of the subregion into macroregions: British, Alpine, Germany and the Benelux countries, French region.

1. The British tourist macro-region is characterized by the following main features: - the predominance of educational tourism (especially for Ireland, which receives large flows of “transit travelers” from North America;

Weak development of resort tourism, which is explained by unfavorable climatic conditions for this purpose:

An important place in the world flows of cruise travelers making sea trips around Europe, along the Atlantic, etc.;

The predominance of air transportation of domestic and foreign tourists over road transport.

The British Isles, primarily Fr. Great Britain presents tourists with a wide range of historical and cultural monuments located in cities or against the backdrop of well-groomed nature.

Of course, the main center of educational tourism in the area is London (founded in the 1st century), the capital of one of the great states - a city of palaces, museums, monuments and parks, mansions (Tower Fortress, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Parliament Buildings, Trafalgar Square with a monument to Admiral Nelson, etc.). London is connected to the mainland by a newly built Channel Tunnel.

In addition to London, seaside resorts (Brighton, Bournemouth, Dover) are attractive to tourists. Some resorts also use mineral springs. In general, resort tourism is poorly developed.

Within Great Britain, which seems to have approximately the same natural conditions, there are many tourist meso-regions that differ in natural features and historical and architectural monuments: London; Thames River Basin; South coast of England in the counties of Cant, Sussex and Hampshire; Brighton; Bournemouth; Dover; Winchester (north of Southampton); Canterbury (the religious center of the country, the residence of the head of the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, with a cathedral of the 12th-15th centuries); South West Coast of England; Midland; East Anglia; Resort islands of Jersey and Guernsey; Isle of Wight; Isle of Man; Wales; North of England; "Lake District"; Scotland; Shetland Islands; Northern Ireland (Ulster). In addition, the Republic of Ireland (Eire) is a separate meso-region.

2. The Alpine macroregion includes Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein and the adjacent Alpine regions of neighboring countries (France, Italy, etc.). This is a very long-standing tourist macro-region. At the same time, the macroregion has a large number of tourists not only in summer, but also in winter, during the period when the necessary snow cover is available in the mountains accessible to tourists. For a long time, the leader of alpine tourism was Switzerland with its mountain beauties: peaks and peaks, glaciers and valleys, lakes, mountain rivers, forests and alpine meadows, with its relatively small but historically and culturally interesting cities. Switzerland, even without tourists, is a multinational country (with 4 official languages ​​- German, French, Italian, Retro-Roman), and with tourists its appearance at times resembles an ethnographic map of the world. The most interesting cities for tourists are Geneva, Zurich, Bern (the capital of the country), Basel, Lucerne, Lausanne, Lugano, and many mountain resorts (recommended especially for pulmonary patients). In the last decade, Switzerland has been overtaken by Austria in terms of the number of tourists: it is attracted not only by the Alps, but also by the outstanding center of world culture - Vienna - with its palaces and temples, museums and theaters, concert halls with their rich musical life. Many great composers lived and worked in Vienna (L. Beethoven, I. Haydn, W. Mozart, F. Schubert, J. Strauss, etc.), to whom special museums are dedicated. In addition to Vienna, Mozart's birthplace, the city of Salzburg, attracts attention. The Alps also extend to the southeast of France, where, among other mountain sports resorts, the cities of Grenoble and Chamonix are especially famous.

Alpine Italy attracts tourists to a lesser extent.

In general, the Alpine region (which includes the “dwarf” state of Liechtenstein) is distinguished by a well-developed tourist infrastructure, which uses the slightest reason to attract tourists to this or that region, to this or that point of the Alps. It is no coincidence that the Alps are visited by more than 60 million tourists a year.

3. A special tourist macro-region within the Western Europe subregion is represented by Germany and its adjacent Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg). It is located in the center of Europe and is well provided with communications, especially overland ones, which facilitates not only intra-regional tourist migrations, but also pan-European ones. It is no coincidence that many tourists on their voyages, traveling through this macro-region, often capture neighboring ones (which has been made easier in connection with the Schengen Agreement).

The area is characterized by attractive nature. In the south there are medium-high mountains, then there is a descent to the north to the North and partially Baltic seas. Some lowlands (in the Netherlands) are located below sea level and are protected by dams and dikes. The climate also changes from south to north. It is most favorable for recreation in the valleys of southern Germany, which led to the development of resorts there, including those using healing waters. There are, of course, seaside resorts. But the areas attract tourists not only for their nature: in four countries that have experienced many historical ups and downs, a large number of cultural monuments from different eras have been preserved. They are located both in capital cities (Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, The Hague, Amsterdam, Luxembourg) and in provincial cities. Among them we can mention Antwerp, Bruges, Gate, Mechelen (Malines) in Belgium, Rotterdam (the largest port of Western Europe), Utrecht, Groningen in the Netherlands, Munich, Hanover, Hamburg, Bremen, the world famous resort of Baden-Baden in Germany. Thus, the area appears as an example of integrated tourism.

4. The French macro-region includes the territory of France without its Alpine regions and the Mediterranean coast. Flat over most of its territory, a region of medium altitude in the French Massif Central, cut through by the large river arteries Seine, Rhone, Loire, Garonne with their tributaries and numerous picturesque river valleys, facing the Atlantic in its western part and possessing a huge number of historical monuments and museums of various eras (from ancient times to the present day), the French region is one of the most attractive not only in Europe, but throughout the world, as evidenced by the number of tourists arriving here every year.

Of course, the main tourist area is Paris - the “Mecca” of all tourists in the world. Its sights are well known (Notre Dame Cathedral, Louvre, Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe, Les Invalides with Napoleon's tomb, Père Lachaise cemetery, suburban Versailles, etc.).

They are complemented by a well-developed tourist infrastructure, different for different social groups tourists. But besides Paris, there are many places of interest literally everywhere in the French macroregion. We can say that the whole area is filled with history, architecture, and legends. This also applies to such an important meso-region as the French part of the Pyrenees, where the Basques live. Their main city here is Baiona, southeast of which is the city of Lourdes, one of the very important centers of pilgrimage for Catholics.

IV. Tourist subregion - Southern Europe. Located on three southern European peninsulas washed by the Mediterranean Sea (Iberian, Apennine, Balkan) and adjacent territories, the zone is distinguished by the attractiveness of the Mediterranean coast, Mediterranean climate, subtropical vegetation, largely cultivated and, just as importantly, very a complex history that has left a great many cultural and architectural monuments in this area. The ethno-confessional composition of the population is also varied here. So we can say that the attractiveness of the zone is great and varied. It is no coincidence that the European shores of the Mediterranean Sea attract 100 million recreational tourists every year

Within the subregion, tourist macro-regions are quite clearly distinguished: Adriatic, Iberian, Apennine-Maltese, Southern France.

1. The Adriatic macroregion includes the territory of the former Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia), Greece and Albania. Moreover, before the events of the last decade b. Yugoslavia was one of the major incoming tourist countries. The nature of the Adriatic region is very mosaic, but it can be argued that tourists were mainly attracted by areas on the Adriatic coast and the largest cities with their historical and cultural attractions. Within the macro-district, four categories of tourist areas can be distinguished:

Resorts of the Adriatic coast;

Mountain, mainly ski centers;

Other inland areas with climatic resorts;

Resorts with thermal mineral springs.

Seaside resort centers - Dubrovnik, Opatija, Portoroz, Pula, Split, Rijeka; among ---lake resorts - Bled, Ohrid; - resorts at mineral springs - Vrnjacka Banja.

Among the cities that attract representatives of educational tourism are the capital of Serbia and Montenegro - Belgrade, the capital of Croatia - Zagreb, the capital of Slovenia - Ljubljana (famous for its festivals, opening days, museums).

Albania, which is relatively undeveloped in terms of tourism, is located to the south - and this is its climatic advantage over the lands of the former. Yugoslavia.

Further south is Greece; it attracts with its climate, the sea with its beaches, but first of all, naturally, with its great history and its traces, imprinted in architectural monuments. These monuments are found in all tourist areas of Greece:

Central Greece,

Northern Greece,

In the Peloponnese,

Numerous islands (the most fashionable resort area of ​​the country is the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea).

The main organizational center of tourism in Greece is its capital Athens. There is also the famous Acropolis with the Parthenon, the temples of Zeus, Nike and other monuments of antiquity. In the northern part of the country, such a center is Thessaloniki, near which Mount Athos is located, as well as the legendary Olympus, “the abode of the gods.”

2. The Appenine-Maltese macroregion includes Italy (except for its alpine regions), two dwarf states - the Vatican and San Marino, and the island state of Malta.

Like other regions of Southern Europe, the area is at least doubly attractive: due to the presence of natural, cultural and historical resources - magnificent monuments of world culture.

There are 6 meso-regions in Italy:

Rome and central Italy, attracting tourists with the sights of the Italian capital - the “eternal city”. The first settlements existed here in

X century BC e. Nowadays, among the monuments of antiquity, a round temple on the river is distinguished. Tiber, the ruins of the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Triumphal Arches of Titus, etc. Among the very large number of monuments of the Renaissance is the Cathedral of St. Petra.

Naples and southern Italy, the attraction of which lies in the monuments of Naples, the ruins of Pompeii, the smoking Vesuvius and many other attractions. There are many of them on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and throughout the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula. Among the resorts the famous Sorrento on the shores of the Gulf of Naples should be mentioned.

Florence and northern central Italy. Florence is a true museum city, collecting wonderful architectural monuments and works of painting from the Renaissance.

Lombardy in the north of the country attracts primarily Milan with its historical and architectural monuments and the famous La Scala opera house.

The north-west of Italy is, first of all, a wonderful resort area - the Ligurian Riviera. One of the oldest cities in the country, Genoa, with its numerous historical and architectural monuments, also plays a major role in tourism. Another large city is also interesting - Turin.

Northeast Italy, where the main center of attraction for tourists is Venice with its canals, gondolas, gondoliers, and numerous palazzos. Other cities are also interesting - Padua, Bologna, Verona with numerous ancient monuments.

Located inside the peninsula, the small state of San Marino is the oldest republic in the world. (about San Marino)

Located inside Rome, the Vatican - with its St. Peter's Basilica - is the residence of the Pope.

Malta (with its capital La Valletta), known for its monuments of the past and its unique architecture, is also popular among tourists.

3. The Iberian macroregion includes Spain, Portugal and little Andorra. This area is very attractive for tourists and has enjoyed exceptional tourist demand over the last decade. This is quite understandable: the combination of the sea coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea with their beaches with a Mediterranean and similar climate, internal differentiation of natural conditions (high-altitude and mid-altitude areas, plateaus and lowlands - from very wet to arid, corresponding diverse vegetation), ethnic exoticism and especially the historical and cultural heritage make this area highly attractive. In addition, over the past decades, a lot of work has been done to equip the area with a variety of tourist infrastructure. Moreover, here, as in the previously mentioned Czech Republic, tourists are often accommodated in ancient castles or historical buildings, which gives tourism additional charm.

Spain is especially popular, where you can travel through the high Pyrenees, and through the arid Aragon, through Old and New Castile in the center of the country, through Andalusia in the south, relax and enjoy the benefits of the sea on the coasts. You can get acquainted with the life of the Spaniards, who differ from them in certain features

Catalans and freedom-loving Basques. You can see fiery Spanish dances and bullfights. But, of course, tourism in Spain also means visiting the capital of the country, Madrid, with the famous Prado art gallery, historical buildings and monuments. There are many of them in Barcelona. Seville is extremely popular, its foundation dates back to the 7th century. BC e. In Seville huge number historical and cultural monuments for secular and ecclesiastical purposes. The same applies to the city of Granada, which was greatly influenced by Muslim architectural traditions. It is no coincidence that the fortress-palace of the Moorish rulers, the Alhambra, attracts tourists so much. A visit to Seville and Granada makes one involuntarily remember A.K. Tolstoy and P.I. Tchaikovsky ("From Seville to Grenada..."). In the south of Spain there is one of the oldest cities in the country, Cordoba, with numerous historical and architectural monuments from many eras. It is worth mentioning here that many buildings in the cities of Spain and other Romanesque countries are distinguished by their special external luxury, which is the basis of certain traditions that were later transferred from Europe and overseas - to Latin America. There are a lot of resort towns and villages on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Among them, a special place is occupied by the third most populous city in Spain - founded in the 2nd century. BC e. Valencia, with a rich, centuries-old history and relevant historical and cultural monuments. The zone of seaside resorts in Spain continues on its Balearic Islands (200 km from the Iberian Peninsula). Among the islands of the archipelago, Mallorca (with the most famous resort of Palma) is especially famous.

Portugal's tourism opportunities are significantly smaller. However, in addition to its vibrant nature, this country also has many educational tourist sites. Most of them are in the capital Lisbon (starting with architectural monuments of the 7th century, religious buildings, monuments, museums). Of interest is a visit to cork oak plantations, a visit to the area adjacent to the second largest city in the country, Porto (Oporto). This area is the birthplace of port wine. There are also purely resort and recreational facilities. Tourism has become an important source of income for a small mountain state in the Pyrenees - Andorra (the capital of Andorra la Vella). Tourists who come here along the only highway connecting France with Spain are attracted by the mountain landscapes, the unique way of life of the “children of the mountains,” and individual historical and architectural monuments. A certain infrastructure has been created to serve tourists.

4. Neighborhood of Southern France. The coast from Marseille to the French border with Italy is especially famous for its favorable climatic conditions for recreation and treatment. This is the French Riviera. The sixty-kilometer section from Cain to Mepton is remarkable - the Cote d'Azur, protected from the northern winds by the Maritime Alps. This entire coastline has long been popular among recreational tourists from around the world.

Near the very border with Italy is the Principality of Monaco, famous for its wonderful oceanographic museum, but even more so for the world-famous casino in Monte Carlo, to which many Russian and foreign writers have dedicated their stories and short stories.

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1. Subregions of foreign Europe: two approaches to identification.
Although foreign Europe is the smallest region of the world in terms of territory, it is internally very heterogeneous. Therefore, within its boundaries, separate parts or subregions are usually distinguished - either two or four.
When divided into two subregions, Western and Central-Eastern Europe are distinguished. Western Europe includes 24 states (including microstates) with a total area of ​​3.7 million km2, with a population of 390 million people. These are countries that have long since embarked on the path of a market economy, which, according to the old terminology, are usually called capitalist. Central-Eastern Europe includes 16 countries covering an area of ​​about 1.7 million km2 with a population of 130 million people. These are post-socialist countries, until the end of the 80s. included in the world socialist system.
Along with this, in the geographical literature, foreign Europe is usually divided into four subregions: Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern Europe. In this case, Northern Europe includes the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Finland and the Baltic countries, Western Europe includes Germany, France, Great Britain, the Benelux countries, Austria and Switzerland, Southern Europe includes all Mediterranean countries, and Eastern Europe includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
You have already studied most of these countries in the 7th grade course. Some additional socio-economic information about them (selected) is contained in the selection of charts and text below. (Task 12.)
2. Federal Republic of Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) is the most economically powerful state in foreign Europe. This country is part of the G7 Western countries. It plays a significant role not only in European but also in global economics and politics.

Southern European countries

The Federal Republic of Germany was formed in September 1949 by uniting the American, British and French zones of occupation of Germany after its defeat in World War II. In October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was proclaimed on the territory of the eastern, Soviet zone of occupation. The Federal Republic of Germany has existed within its modern borders since the end of 1990, when the unification of the two German states took place. Berlin was also united, previously divided into two parts by the Berlin Wall, which served as the state border. In 1991, Berlin was officially declared the capital of the country, but in fact the transfer of the capital to it from Bonn took place in the late 90s.

The most important feature of the economic and geographical position of the Federal Republic of Germany is its centrality, location at the crossroads of trans-European trade and transport routes in latitudinal and meridional directions, the presence of wide access to the Baltic and North Seas, the ability to use such international
rivers like the Rhine and Danube, a direct land neighbor to nine countries in Western, Northern and Eastern Europe. The unification of the country led to an improvement in both the economic-geographical and geopolitical position of the Federal Republic of Germany.
According to the form of government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is a parliamentary republic with a bicameral parliament.

(Bundestag and Bundesrat) and the government, which is headed by the Chancellor. The president, although officially considered the head of state, mainly performs only representative functions. According to the form of the administrative-territorial structure of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is a federal state consisting of 16 historical lands (regions), each of which has its own government and elected legislative bodies.
The population of Germany is characterized by several important specific features. First of all, it is the largest country in foreign Europe by population. But at the same time, this is a country with a very difficult demographic situation, where back in the early 70s. mortality began to exceed birth rates and severe depopulation can only be avoided thanks to constant labor immigration, to
which has recently been supplemented by an influx of political refugees.
Example. In terms of the number of immigrants, Germany ranks first in Europe; they make up almost 1/10 of all residents. The bulk of immigrants settle in large cities. Particularly characteristic in this regard is Frankfurt am Main, the largest business, financial and important industrial center of the country.
The distribution of the population in Germany is characterized primarily by a very high average density (230 people per 1 km2), and in some areas the density reaches 1000-2000 people per 1 km2 or more. Along with this, Germany is one of the most highly urbanized countries in the world (see Figure 18), ranking first in the region in terms of the number of urban agglomerations of various ranks.

The economy of Germany has reached a very high level of development. In terms of total GDP, the country is second only to the USA, China, India (which are larger both in area and in population) and Japan, and in terms of GDP per capita it is among the “top ten” leading countries in the world. The structure of the German economy (see Table 18 in the “Appendices”) convincingly indicates that this country is at a post-industrial stage of development. Like a member European Union Germany takes an active part in Western European integration. TNCs play the main role in the country's economy.

Among the 50 largest industrial companies in the world, seven are German. In five sectors of the world economy, German companies are among the top ten. In the chemical industry these are the concerns BASF, Hoechst and Bayer, in electrical engineering Siemens and Robert Bosch, in the automotive industry Daimler-Benz and Volkswagen, in ferrous metallurgy Thyssen and Mannesmann, in light industry "Adidas".

The industry of Germany, despite the gradual decline in its share in GDP, still largely determines the country’s role in the world economy, its “face” in the international geographical division labor. In terms of industrial production, Germany ranks fourth in the world, behind the USA, Japan, and China (see Table 21 in the “Appendices”). In its structure, the main role for a long time was played by traditional German heavy industry sectors - coal, metallurgy, metal-intensive engineering and weapons production, electrical engineering, and chemicals. Then the importance of the mining, including coal, industry, as well as ferrous metallurgy, noticeably decreased, and mechanical engineering and the chemical industry began to act as key branches of international specialization.
Mechanical engineering in Germany produces mainly products of an average level of knowledge intensity - machine tools (second place in the world after Japan), cars, electrical products, various equipment, but also high-precision products. Example. Founded in Jena in the middle of the 19th century. The workshop for the production of optical instruments subsequently turned into the world's largest optical-mechanical enterprise, Carl Zeiss.
The diversified chemical industry, which produces tens of thousands of types of products, also occupies a leading place in the world.
The fuel and energy sector of Germany is focused on domestic hard and brown coal and imported oil and natural gas. In the electric power industry main role belongs to thermal power plants, but the importance of nuclear power plants is also quite large.
Example. There are 12 nuclear power plants in Germany, which produce 28% of all electricity. Most of them are located within densely populated urban agglomerations, and many are also literally strung along the course of the Rhine, Elbe and their tributaries.
Agriculture in Germany is distinguished by a very high level of mechanization and chemicalization and, accordingly, the same level of yield of field and garden crops and livestock productivity. This industry is characterized by the predominance of livestock farming, which produces over 2/3 of all marketable products. They raise mainly dairy cattle and pigs. But crop production not only “helps” livestock farming with feed, it almost completely satisfies the population’s food needs. Of the food crops, the most important are wheat, barley, potatoes, and sugar beets. The main type of agricultural enterprise is the family farm.
Transport in Germany is characterized by a very dense network: there are virtually no settlements in the country that are any distance from land and water roads. And in freight turnover, and even more so in passenger turnover, the leading role belongs to road transport; The motorways (“autobahns”) of Germany are among the best in Europe; they are officially allowed to reach speeds of up to 100 km/h. But traditional modes of transport such as rail (you already know about the construction of a network of high-speed railways) and inland waterways also retain their importance. . Seaports are also widely used for international trade relations. A dense network of pipelines has also been laid across the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, and many aviation routes cross it.
The non-production sphere in Germany, as a post-industrial country, is represented by the widest range of different types of activities. A significant part of the economically active population is employed in the government, education, healthcare, wholesale and retail trade, tourism and hotel services, science and culture. Financial and banking services play a very important role; It is no coincidence that the 50 largest banks in the world include eight German ones (the largest of them is Deutsche Bank). The importance of various types of business and personal services is also increasing.
Foreign economic relations are of exceptional importance for Germany as a country with an open economy. In terms of total foreign trade turnover, the country ranks second in the world after the United States. It is also one of the world's largest exporters of capital. Germany maintains the closest foreign economic relations with other member countries of the European Union, with the USA, Japan, and Canada. Among the CIS countries, Russia is its main trade and economic partner.
The territorial structure of the economy of the Federal Republic of Germany is distinguished by its polycentric character, a very strong “cultivation” of the environment, and a high saturation of the territory with both nodal and linear elements of TLC.
The geographical pattern of the economy of Germany is primarily determined by the location of its main industrial and urban agglomerations, which are interconnected by transport routes and multi-highways. As you already know, the largest of these agglomerations is the Rhine-Ruhr region, which forms the core of the administrative state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This land, which occupies less than 1/10 of the country's territory, concentrates more than 1/5 of its population and provides 1/5 of Germany's GDP.
It is here that the main production capacities of ferrous metallurgy (Duisburg, Dortmund), heavy engineering and energy, and, to a large extent, the chemical industry, which is widely represented in the middle reaches of the Rhine (Ludwigshafen, Frankfurt am Main), are concentrated.
However, now the Rhine-Ruhr agglomeration no longer “rises” above other industrial-urban agglomerations of the country as before. The agglomerations of Stuttgart in the southwestern and Munich in the southern parts of the country were ahead of it in the development of the latest high-tech industries. They are also major automotive manufacturing centers: Stuttgart produces
the famous Mercedes, and in Munich - BMW cars (Bayerische Motorwerke). The most important cores of the territorial structure in the North of Germany are the seaports, and above all the largest of them - Hamburg, as well as Wolfsburg, where Volkswagen cars are produced, and Hannover. In the eastern part of the country, important TLC centers are Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden.

The geographical pattern of the economy of Germany is also influenced by large agricultural areas that have developed in the North German Lowland, on the right bank of the Danube in Bavaria, in the belt of mid-altitude mountains. The same applies to the main recreation and tourism areas on the Baltic coast, in the foothills of the Alps, in the Harz Mountains, in the so-called Saxon Switzerland on the Elbe. .

In Germany, much attention has previously been paid to regional policy, which pursued the goals of “reanimating” old industrial depressed areas, decongesting agglomerations, and equalizing the levels of socio-economic development of individual regions of the country. But after 1990, regional policy measures were aimed primarily at the general rise and structural restructuring of the economy in the territory of the former GDR, which accounts for 33% of the area and 26% of the population of the Federal Republic of Germany. This is a very difficult task, requiring huge capital investments (it is no coincidence that the former GDR began to be called the black hole of the German economy) and long implementation periods. Especially considering the fact that in the 90s. after the start of perestroika, production in the eastern lands fell sharply, which actually led to a serious demographic and socio-economic crisis. It will still take some time for the six eastern states of Germany to fully integrate into a single economic organism of the country. (Creative task 13.)
The main conclusion. Foreign Europe is the smallest region of the world in terms of territory, but its role in the world economy is very large. Recently, great changes have been taking place on the political and economic maps of the region. (Final task 14.)

ADDITIONAL TEXT (Interesting facts) The size of countries can be judged by their area, or by the length of their territory. The “longest” country in the region is Norway, which stretches from north to south for 1,750 km. The maximum length of France and Great Britain is about 1000 km, Germany - 875 km, Hungary and Bulgaria - approximately 500 km, Belgium - 230 km. The “largest” of the microstates is the Principality of Andorra, located between France and Spain, occupying an area of ​​467 km2 (this is half the area of ​​Moscow). The Principality of Liechtenstein, with an area of ​​160 km2, located between Switzerland and Austria, stretches along the Rhine for 25 km and a width of 10 km. The Republic of San Marino, whose first state codes date back to 1263, surrounded by Italian territory, occupies 61 km2. The Principality of Monaco on the French Mediterranean coast has an area of ​​1.9 km2 and a length of 2.7 km. And the Vatican city state, located in the western part of Rome, occupies 0.44 km2. In the Czech Republic there is no settlement that is more than 105 km from the state border, in Bulgaria - 120 km, in Romania - 170 km, in Poland - 230 km. The “Delta Plan” was adopted in 1953 after a catastrophic flood, when dams and locks were destroyed under the pressure of the sea and it overwhelmed the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt deltas, destroying 50 thousand houses. And this despite the fact that people filled the gaps in the dams day and night, and captains grounded their ships to block the path of the waves. According to this plan, dams and locks blocked the mouths of all rivers and canals, with the exception of two. Stone for the construction of dams was imported from Sweden and Finland. The Delta Plan was implemented in 1958-1968. This primarily applies to Italy, whose population may decrease to 50.1 million people by 2050, to Spain (to 42.5), and to Germany (to 78.8). The population of Romania may decrease by a million people, Bulgaria and Hungary by 2.6 million, the Czech Republic by 2 million, and Poland by a million. In 2000, among the residents of Germany there were (in thousands of people): Turks - 2000, Yugoslavs - 660, Italians - 620, Greeks - 365, Poles - 360, Croats - 215, Austrians - 185, Bosnians - 155, Portuguese - 135 , Spaniards - 130, Russians - 115, British - 115, Americans - 113, Dutch - 110, Iranians - 105. In addition, there were from 50 to 100 thousand Romanians, Ukrainians, Vietnamese, Moroccans, Afghans, Hungarians, Macedonians, Lebanese , Chinese, Sri Lankans. Some of the South Slavic peoples (Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins) use Slavic graphics; These languages ​​are related to Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. For example, the Bulgarian word "den" means "day", "morning" - "morning", "thanks" - "thank you", "sladoled" - "ice cream". Other Slavic peoples - Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenes - use the Latin script. But if you read such common Czech words as leto, zima, pole, voda, skola, otec written in Latin letters, then in Russian they will also mean “summer”, “winter”, “field”, “water”, “school” ", "father". In foreign Europe, Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian languages ​​belong to this family, which are distinguished by their unique phonetic composition and grammatical structures. For example, they lack genders, and the functions of prepositions, possessive pronouns perform case endings. By the way, there are 15 cases in the Finnish language, and about 30 in Hungarian. The Vatican City State with a population of about 1 thousand people has its own government, its own bank, guards, laws, currency, postage stamps and, most importantly, its own monarch - the Pope. The main function of the Vatican is religious, its sphere of activity is the whole world, since total number There are more than 1 billion Catholic believers, and the clergy apparatus includes over 400 thousand priests and more than 1 million members of monastic and semi-monastic orders. The Vatican owns enormous capital and vast lands. In Glasgow on the river. Clyde built the largest ships of the British passenger fleet - Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth with a displacement of more than 80 thousand tons, which during their work carried more than 4 million passengers. In 1944, Queen Elizabeth set a kind of record by taking on board the largest number of people in the entire history of navigation - 15,200 military personnel. But in 1972, this liner, bought by a millionaire from Hong Kong, was destroyed by fire. In 2010, a new gas pipeline from Russia to Germany (“Nord Stream”), laid along the bottom, should go into operation Baltic Sea. In the future, gas will go through it to Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and the UK. At the end of the 50s. Polish geologists carried out prospecting work for oil and discovered deposits copper ore, which turned out to be the largest in Europe. Despite the great depth of cuprous sandstones and difficult mining and geological conditions, they were developed and the Lower Silesian copper ore basin arose here. Belgium is famous for the production of Browning hunting rifles and diamond processing (Antwerp is the world center for the diamond trade), Austria - alpine skiing, Czech Republic - costume jewelry, pencils (the world-famous Koh-i-Nor factory daily produces 1 million pencils of 21 degrees of hardness and 64 colors). And in Liechtenstein there is the world's largest enterprise for the production of artificial teeth, the products of which are supplied to more than a hundred countries. More than 400 varieties of cheese are known in France. Roquefort cheese, which has been produced in the town of Roquefort in the south of the country for a thousand years, has become especially famous. Made from sheep's milk, it acquires its special qualities and smell thanks to long-term storage in huge natural dungeons. In Switzerland, milk is almost entirely processed into cheese and butter. And it’s hard to imagine a Dutch menu without cheese. The Netherlands is the most flower-growing country in the world. In the city of Aalsmeer, located near Amsterdam, there is the world's largest flower auction, occupying a space the size of 30 football fields, where more than 1 billion roses are sold per year. Flowers from the Netherlands are exported to 140 countries. And in the country itself you can see them everywhere. Brewing, which was known to the ancient Germans, became especially widespread in Germany and the Czech Republic, where beer became a truly national drink. Germany ranks first in the world in hop production. It also ranks first in beer consumption per capita (160 liters per year). Iceland's fishing fleet consists of 1 thousand vessels, and the average annual catch is 1.5 million tons, or about 6 tons per capita! Previously, they caught mainly the world's largest Icelandic herring and cod, now - capelin, which is used for cooking fishmeal. Fish production and processing employs 40% of the country's total active population, and fish and fish products account for 3/4 of its exports. Back in 1981, the high-speed line Paris - Lyon came into operation, which was then extended to Marseille (878 km). Then the lines Paris - Bordeaux (480 km), Paris - Strasbourg (460 km) and some others were built. Trains on these lines reach speeds of 250-300 km per hour. The road bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul was opened in 1973. It is the largest bridge in Europe and the fourth in the world. Its span is 1 km long. Thanks to the six-lane traffic, the bridge's capacity is more than 20 thousand cars per day. In 1988, a second similar bridge was put into operation. The transport crossing across the Oresund Strait between Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo is almost 16 km long and consists of a tunnel and a double-decker bridge. They are crossed by a four-lane highway and a high-speed double-track railway. The first project for a Channel Tunnel was proposed in France at the beginning of the 19th century. And in the future, similar projects were put forward more than once. However, construction was carried out in France and Great Britain only in 1987-1994. In fact, three parallel tunnels were built under the bottom of the strait: two for the movement of trains in both directions and one for servicing them. The total length of the tunnel is 50 km, of which 37 km pass under the bottom of the strait (at a depth of 40 m). Thanks to the Eurotunnel, travel from Paris to London now takes less than 2.5 hours. During the tunnel's operation, tens of millions of passengers used it. It is believed that modern tourism originated in England, when in the 40s. XIX century T. Cook founded a travel agency. If we talk about recreation, England is the birthplace of golf (1857), football (1863), and tennis (1875). French Riviera back in the 19th century. became a favorite
a private resting place for such famous French writers as Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant. Russian writers and artists lived and worked here: N.V. Gogol,
F. I. Tyutchev, A. I. Kuprin, A. P. Chekhov, I. A. Bunin, V. V. Mayakovsky, F. I. Shalyapin, S. P. Dyagilev. Already in the 20th century. American writers Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald left vivid descriptions of the Riviera. The most popular Alpine resorts include Chamonix in France, Davos in Switzerland, Boromio in Italy, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany. The total number of accommodation places for tourists in the Alps region already exceeds 3 million. There are 12 thousand lifts and 40 thousand ski slopes at their service. In March 1978, the American supertanker Amoco Cadiz, en route from the Persian Gulf to Rotterdam, hit reefs off the coast of France. 230 thousand tons of oil leaked from it, which formed a “black tide” that hit beaches, oyster plantations, and fishing harbors over a distance of 200 km. The bicycle is most popular as a mass means of transportation in the Netherlands and Denmark. If they say about Norwegians that they are born with skis on their feet, then about the Dutch and Danes - that they are born with a bicycle. “Nuns and priests, clerks in bowler hats and postmen, teenagers, ladies in extravagant hats, housewives with groceries in baskets ride bicycles,” this is how one modern traveler describes the Netherlands. In total, there are about 2,200 specially protected natural areas in foreign Europe. Their total area is 580 thousand km2, which exceeds the area of ​​the largest country in the region - France. Among the individual countries in terms of the number of protected areas, Germany (472), Sweden (189), Austria (187), Spain (161), Italy (143), Great Britain (131) and Switzerland (112) stand out. The capital of France hosts more than 700 international political, economic and public organizations . Among them are UNESCO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Organization of Sister Cities, the International Association of Universities, the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Energy Agency, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), etc. And in Brussels there are 1400 such organizations! To develop the Troll field, a giant drilling platform weighing 656 thousand tons was built, the production of which required 245 thousand m3 of concrete and 100 thousand tons of steel reinforcement, which is 15 times the weight of such reinforcement in the Eiffel Tower. And in height (472 m) this drilling platform surpasses the Eiffel Tower and almost all the largest skyscrapers in the world. Bonn is one of the ancient cities of Germany, which celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 1989. It was founded by the Romans as a fortress on the Rhine. For many centuries, Bonn remained a quiet provincial town, famous mainly for the fact that Beethoven was born here and Karl Marx and Heinrich Heine studied at the university. In 1949, after the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany, this city became the capital of the country. The ancient Thuringian city of Weimar (in 1975 celebrated its 1000th anniversary), which was in the 16th-19th centuries. ducal residence, became especially famous as a cultural and historical center associated with the names of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Franz Liszt, Johann Gottfried Herder. In the center of the city, Goethe's house has been preserved, in which he lived from 1782 until his death in 1832. At the end of the 19th century. this house was turned into a museum, where all the furnishings are preserved, including the library, the writer's office, the collection of minerals and the room in which he died. Schiller's house is also a memorial museum, where the writer spent the last years of his life and created his last great work - the drama "William Tell". The city of Duisburg, located on the banks of the Rhine, is usually called the “western gate” of the Ruhr. The fact that this is indeed the case is evidenced by the complex labyrinth of berths, access roads, and warehouses. The largest metallurgical plants in Germany are located in Duisburg, which receive both raw materials and fuel along the Rhine. Therefore, in terms of cargo turnover of its river port (55 million tons per year), it ranks first in the world. This cargo turnover far exceeds the cargo turnover of any of the seaports of Germany, with the exception of Hamburg. In terms of the number of protected natural areas, Germany surpasses all European countries. There are 472 such territories in the country, and their total area reaches 88 thousand km2, or 1/4 of the entire territory of the country. Among the protected areas, small natural landscapes predominate, but the main area is occupied by the so-called natural parks(“nature parks”), of which there are 61. These parks are located mainly in mountain forest areas (Bavarian Forest, Franconian Forest, Teutoburg Forest, etc.).
Bookshelf Foreign Europe. - M.: Mysl, 1979-1983. - (Series “Countries and Peoples”), Max ako vskiy V.P. Geographical picture of the world. - M.: Bustard, 2009. - Part 2. - Topic 1.

individual countries by the number of such cities. Do you think it can be said that in foreign Europe three main common features urbanization process?
Using Figure 48 and the physical map of foreign Europe in the atlas, classify the millionaire cities of the region according to their SES. Identify cities located: 1) on sea coasts, 2) at river mouths, 3) far from the seas, but on navigable rivers, 4) far from the seas. Reflect the classification results in the table. Which countries have their capitals close to the geographic centers of those countries?
Complete the crossword puzzle “Capital cities of European countries.”
Using the text and pictures of the textbook, atlas maps and tables 23-28 in the “Appendices”, specify the characteristics of one of the industries of foreign Europe (optional). Indicate the main regions and largest centers or main basins, determine their distribution by country. Using Figures 25-29, determine where oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, and steel come from in foreign Europe.
Using the map of foreign Europe in the atlas, give examples of the orientation of regions and centers of ferrous metallurgy towards: 1) coal basins, 2) iron ore basins, 3) cargo flows of coal and iron ore (including sea).
Using Figure 52, identify the crops that are most typical for countries belonging to Central and Southern European types of agriculture. Establish similarities and differences. For explanation, also use the agroclimatic map in the atlas.
Using the textbook text and the transport map of foreign Europe in the atlas (inset to the world transport map), diagrammatically draw on contour map main railways, navigable rivers and seaports of the region. Give examples of countries with single-center (radial) and multi-center transport network configurations. Think about the reasons for their formation.
Using plans of the central parts of London and Paris in the atlas and additional sources of information, prepare a report on cultural and historical

Which of the following countries use the Danube waterway to access the sea: Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Germany? Which of the following ports of foreign Europe are classified as world ports: Oslo, Glasgow, London, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Marseille, Barcelona, ​​Athens, Gdansk, Constanta? Which of the following areas are considered highly developed: Midland, South Wales, London, Paris, Lorraine, South Germany?
Find in the text of the textbook answers to the questions: What are the characteristic features of a Western European city? What are the specific features of the fuel and energy economy of Eastern European countries? What is the main difference between the northern and southern parts of foreign Europe in terms of the range of mineral resources? What are the characteristic features of the transport system of foreign Europe?
Use the maps to answer the questions: In which foreign European countries is the capital city not the largest city in the country? Which countries in the region have the highest population density? How can you get from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea by water without going around the Jutland Peninsula? What industries are most typical for industrial areas and hubs formed: 1) in capital cities, 2) in port cities, 3) in coal mines? Which metallurgical plants use overseas raw materials and fuel?
Explain: When and why did overseas Europe become a global hotbed of immigration? Why is there a sharp preponderance of the capital over other cities in France and Great Britain, but this is not typical for Germany and Italy? Why in the structure of water consumption in Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Sweden 60-80% comes from industry, and in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece - from agriculture? Why do oil monopolies explore and produce oil in the North Sea, although its cost is many times higher than in the countries of the Near and Middle East? Why does Norway have more income from fishing than from agriculture? Why does the Rhine River surpass all other river systems in the world in terms of cargo turnover? Why has Europe been and remains the main region of international tourism? Why is the state of the environment, as a rule, the most threatening in depressed old industrial areas?
Indicate: In which of the following countries does the population speak languages ​​of the Germanic group of the Indo-European family: Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany, Finland, Great Britain? Which of the following countries is characterized by an influx of immigrants: Italy, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, France, Switzerland? Which of the following statements are correct for the following countries?
Can you: Place on an outline map from memory the following countries mentioned in the text and on text maps: Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, Portugal? From memory, determine the countries that have land borders: 1) only with Germany, 2) only with Spain, 3) with Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia? Show on the map the following cities mentioned in the text and on the maps: Glasgow, Rotterdam, Marseille, Brussels, Munich, Naples, Krakow, Zagreb? Name a country in foreign Europe where there is practically no rural population? From the list below:
a) exclude single-national countries: Belgium, Spain, Norway, Portugal, Germany, Great Britain;
b) exclude countries that are not characterized by a particularly high concentration of industrial production in metropolitan areas: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, France, Denmark?
From the ready-made answers, choose the correct one: France borders on: a) three countries, b) five countries, c) six countries. The largest urban agglomeration of foreign Europe: London, Paris, Rhine-Ruhr, Holland. The capital cities of the region on the sea coast are: Madrid, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Sofia, Athens. Most oil in foreign Europe is produced in: Spain, Austria, Norway, Great Britain, Romania, Albania.
METHODOLOGICAL KEYS TO TOPIC 6
What to remember
E Political map, individual countries and peoples of foreign Europe. (Geography, grade 7.) 2. Features of the physical-geographical position, relief, minerals, climate, waters, soils and vegetation of foreign Europe, natural areas within its borders. (Geography, 7th grade.) 3. Features of the historical development of foreign European countries at the end of the 19th - first half of the 20th century. (History, grades 8, 9.) 4. Material from Part I of this textbook. 5. Concepts and terms: economic and geographical location, territorial structure of the economy, specialization and cooperation of production, infrastructure, region, subregion.
What you need to learn
Leading ideas for topic 6:
1. Foreign Europe has been and remains one of the main centers of world politics and the world economy. 2. The “old stones” of Europe are a great asset not only of European, but also of the entire world civilization.
Main scientific knowledge of topic 6: Characteristics EGP, geography of natural resources and population of foreign Europe. 2. The main features of the territorial structure of settlement and economy of foreign Europe. 3. The main features of the structure and location of leading industries and the main industrial regions of foreign Europe. 4. Basic

features of the location of agriculture in foreign Europe and its types. 5. Main features of the regional transport system of foreign Europe. 6. The main features of the geographical pattern of the population and economy of foreign Europe. 7. Subregions of foreign Europe. 8. The Federal Republic of Germany as the most economically powerful country in foreign Europe. 9. Key words of the topic: 1) Western European type of city, 2) suburbanization, 3) Western European type of transport system, 4) port-industrial complex, 5) “development axis”, 6) metropolitan region.
What you need to know
1 Describe the economic and geographical position of the country. 2. Characterize the natural prerequisites for the development of industry in the country (region). 3. Use various sources of geographic information for proof, comparison, specification, for constructing tables, graphs, and carrying out calculations. 4. Apply previously studied text, graphic and cartographic materials to deepen newly acquired knowledge. 5. Prepare a review of the book you read (chapter, section).
Instructions and plans for mastering independent study skills 2

Foreign (in relation to the CIS countries) Asia occupies an area of ​​27.7 million km with a population of more than 3.8 billion people (2005). This means that in terms of area it is second only to Africa, and in terms of the number of inhabitants it is far superior to all other regions. There are 39 sovereign states on the political map of Asia. Many of them are among the oldest in the world. Foreign Asia- one of the centers of the origin of humanity, the birthplace of agriculture, artificial irrigation,

Europe is located in the western part of the Eurasian continent, which is a fairly large historical and geographical region. On its area of ​​10 million km2 there are 45 states with a population of over 700 million people.

According to economic and physical-geographical criteria, absolutely all countries that are part of Europe occupy a favorable position. It is also important that most countries have access to the World Oceans. Europe is also famous for its extensive transport routes.

The political map of Europe has been changing for more than a millennium. This process is not completed even today.

Reasons for dividing European countries into regions

The first attempt to divide Europe into two regions was made immediately after the Second World War. It was divided, respectively, into the Western and Eastern parts. For the countries that were part of the Eastern part, a development course related to the construction of socialism was proclaimed. These included: Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, USSR, Albania. All other countries made up the Western part of Europe. There was misunderstanding between the Western and Eastern camps, accompanied by tensions, confrontation and an unrestrained arms race.

Everything changed at the end of the 20th century, when world socialism collapsed. This led to a change in the political map of Europe. The conditions for economic and political transformation have developed. In this regard, the need arose for a new approach to the issue of regional division of Europe. Therefore, conditionally, Europe was again divided into subregions, which united countries with similar economic, geographical and historical development features.

Subregional division of Europe

In accordance with the modern vision of the situation, which combines the economic, political and historical interrelationship of the formation and development of countries, Europe was again conditionally divided into:

• Central;
• Northern;
• South;
• Western;
• Eastern;
• South-Eastern.

Some scientists have a different opinion regarding this division. Therefore, discrepancies can be observed in some sources on this issue.

Eastern Europe region

Of almost a dozen countries in Eastern Europe, only 3 Slavic countries remain: Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. But some scientists consider the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine to be part of Central Europe.

It so happened historically that these countries, due to their location, have common roots, so the common features in the economy and their mutual interests are clearly visible. In terms of their level of development, these countries occupy the same niche, and their assessment according to such criteria as the degree of urbanization, the nature of reproduction and the age-sex structure of the population is almost the same.

The industrial development of the countries of the Eastern region also has common features. As for the leading industries, these include primarily the mechanical engineering, chemical and energy industries, although each of them does not have a high level of intensification. In each of these countries, the growth in the share of GDP is mainly due to the extractive industries.

Agriculture is dominated by crop production. But such an issue as the intensity of agricultural production is also ignored here.

Foreign trade is based on the export of raw materials and natural materials. High-tech equipment and new technologies are imported. With the collapse of the USSR, the unified economic complex of the republics that were part of the state was disrupted, so not a single republic that became an independent country managed to avoid a crisis in the economy and prevent a decline in production.

Central Europe Region

This subregion includes countries that left the socialist camp, such as: Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Poland. They are all at the stage of transition from an administrative to a market economic system. This region also includes Austria.

Of all the countries in this region, Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria have the highest rates of economic development. International tourism is also developing at an accelerated pace here.

South Eastern Europe Region

It covers countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and some republics of the collapsed Yugoslavia. It is the most economically backward region. Despite this, the potential of natural and labor resources here is enormous. Also, these countries are located in a favorable climatic and recreational zone.

Southern Europe Region

It is represented by countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal. Apart from Italy, all the states in this region were in no hurry to embark on a market economy, so the growth of their economic development is not so significant compared to Italy. These countries are mainly engaged in the development of international tourism, developing the food and light industries, and cultivating oilseeds and citrus crops. The Mediterranean region is called the "garden of Europe".

Northern Europe region

The countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula Sweden, Norway, Finland, as well as Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia became part of the Northern Europe region. All these countries, except the post-Soviet Baltic republics, have a very high level of economy with developed mechanical engineering, efficient energy and high-tech chemical industries. Agriculture is characterized by a high level of production intensity.

Central Europe Region

In terms of economic development, this is the most highly developed region. It includes 6 countries: Belgium, Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Three of them, Germany, France, and Great Britain, are among the world powers with the most developed economies. They are the main economic axis of Europe. They have the right to influence the world economy and politics.

Often the regions of Northern, Central and Western and Southern Europe are combined into a single whole and called Western Europe. This also applies to Germany. Due to its location, it can be classified as central Europe.

The integration processes that are currently taking place in European countries are helping to equalize the economies of countries, erasing their national differences, which leads to the formation of a single powerful complex that strengthens the economic stability of all of Europe.

The Federal Republic of Germany was founded in September 1949. by unifying the American, British and French zones of occupation of Germany after its defeat in World War II. In October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was proclaimed on the territory of the eastern, Soviet zone of occupation. The Federal Republic of Germany has existed within its modern borders since the end of 1990, when the unification of the two German states took place. Berlin was also united, previously divided into two parts by the Berlin Wall, which served as the state border. In 1991 Berlin was officially declared the capital of the country, but in fact the transfer of the capital to it from Bonn (30) took place in the 1990s.

The most important feature of the economic and geographical position of Germany is its centrality, location at the crossroads of trans-European trade and transport routes in latitudinal and meridional directions, the presence of wide access to the Baltic and North Seas, the ability to use such international rivers as the Rhine and Danube, direct land proximity to nine countries in Western, Northern and Eastern Europe. The unification of the country led to improvements in both economic-geographical, and the geopolitical position of Germany.

According to the form of government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is a parliamentary republic with a bicameral parliament (Bundestag and Bundesrat) and a government headed by the Chancellor. The president, although officially considered the head of state, mainly performs only representative functions. According to the form of the administrative-territorial structure of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is a federal state consisting of 16 historical lands (regions), each of which has its own government and elected legislative bodies.

The population of Germany is characterized by several important specific features. First of all, it is the largest country in foreign Europe by population. But at the same time, this is a country with a very difficult demographic situation, where back in the early 70s. The mortality rate has begun to exceed the birth rate and severe depopulation can only be avoided thanks to constant labor immigration, which has recently been supplemented by an influx of political refugees.

Example. In terms of the number of immigrants, Germany ranks first in Europe; they make up almost 1/1 of all residents. The bulk of immigrants settle in large cities. Particularly characteristic in this regard is Frankfurt am Main, the largest business, financial and an important industrial center of the country.

The distribution of the population in Germany is characterized primarily by a very high average density (230 people per 1 km 2), and in some areas the density reaches 1000-2000 people per 1 km 2 or more.

Along with this, Germany is one of the most highly urbanized countries in the world (see Figure 18), ranking first in the region in terms of the number of urban agglomerations of different ranks.

Germany is a country of ancient urban culture. Some of its urban settlements date back to the times of the Roman Empire, but most of them arose already in the Middle Ages as fortresses, feudal residences, university centers, and free cities. In the era of new and modern times they received further development, but nevertheless many cities retained their appearance features of previous eras. Some relatively small German cities became famous as producers of some world-famous products: Solingen - metal, Jena - optical-mechanical, Gotha - cartographic, etc. Heidelberg and Göttingen are still widely known for their ancient universities, and Weimar is considered a museum city associated with the names of Goethe and Schiller. . The larger Hanover, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, and Leipzig continue the tradition of holding international fairs that began in the Middle Ages; In Leipzig, similar fairs have been held for more than 800 years! Every tenth book in the world is published in German.

The economy of Germany has reached a very high level of development. In terms of total GDP, the country is second only to the USA, China, India (which are larger both in area and in population) and Japan, and in terms of GDP per capita it is among the “top ten” leading countries in the world. The structure of the German economy (see Table 18 in the “Appendices”) convincingly indicates that this country is at a post-industrial stage of development. As a member of the European Union, Germany takes an active part in Western European integration. TNCs play the main role in the country's economy.

Among the 50 largest industrial companies in the world, seven are German. In five sectors of the world economy, German companies are among the top ten. In the chemical industry these are the concerns BASF, Hoechst and Bayer, in electrical engineering Siemens and Robert Bosch, in the automotive industry, Daimer-Benz and Volkswagen, in the iron and steel industry, Thyssen and Mannesmann, in the light industry, Adidas.

The industry of Germany, despite the gradual decline in its share in GDP, still largely determines the country’s role in the world economy, its “face” in the international geographical division of labor. In terms of industrial production, Germany ranks fourth in the world, behind the USA, Japan, and China (see Table 21 in the “Appendices”). In its structure, the main role for a long time was played by the traditional German heavy industry sectors: coal, metallurgy, metal-intensive mechanical engineering and weapons production, electrical engineering, and chemicals. Then the importance of the mining, including coal, industry, as well as ferrous metallurgy, noticeably decreased, and mechanical engineering and the chemical industry began to act as key branches of international specialization.

Mechanical engineering in Germany produces mainly products of an average level of knowledge intensity - machine tools (second place in the world after Japan). automobiles, electrical products, various equipment, but also high-precision products.

Example. Founded in Jena in the middle of the 19th century. The workshop for the production of optical instruments subsequently turned into the world's largest optical-mechanical enterprise, Carl Zeiss.

The diversified chemical industry, which produces tens of thousands of types of products, also occupies a leading place in the world. The fuel and energy economy of Germany is focused on domestic hard and brown coal and imported oil and natural gas. In the electric power industry, the main role belongs to thermal power plants, but the importance of nuclear power plants is also quite large.

Example. There are 12 nuclear power plants in Germany, which produce 28% of all electricity. Most of them are located within densely populated urban agglomerations, and many are also literally strung along the flow of the Rhine, Elbe and their tributaries 1 . Agriculture in Germany is distinguished by a very high level of mechanization and chemicalization and, accordingly, the same level of yield of field and garden crops and livestock productivity. This industry is characterized by the predominance of livestock farming, which produces over 2/3 of all marketable products. They raise mainly dairy cattle and pigs. But crop production not only “helps” livestock farming with feed, it almost completely satisfies the population’s food needs. Of the food crops, the most important are wheat, barley, potatoes, and sugar beets. The main type of agricultural enterprise is the family farm.

Transport in Germany is distinguished by a very dense network: there are virtually no settlements in the country that are any distance from land and water roads. And in freight turnover, and even more so in passenger turnover, the leading role belongs to road transport; Autobahns in Germany are among the best in Europe; speeds of up to 100 km/h are officially allowed on them. But traditional modes of transport such as rail (you already know about the construction of a network of high-speed railways) and inland waterways also retain their importance. . Seaports are also widely used for international trade relations. A dense network of pipelines has also been laid across the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, and many aviation routes cross it.

The non-productive sphere in Germany, as a post-industrial country, is represented by the widest range of different types of activities. A significant part of the economically active population is employed in the government, education, healthcare, wholesale and retail trade, tourism and hotel services, science and culture. Financial and banking services play a very important role; It is no coincidence that the 50 largest banks in the world include eight German ones (the largest of them is Deutsche Bank). The importance of various types of business and personal services is also increasing.

Foreign economic relations are of exceptionally great importance for Germany as a country with an open economy. In terms of total foreign trade turnover, the country ranks second in the world after the United States. It is also one of the world's largest exporters of capital. Germany maintains the closest foreign economic ties with other member countries of the European Union, with the USA, Japan, and Canada. Among the CIS countries, Russia is its main trade and economic partner.

1 However, in 2001, largely at the insistence of the Green Party, the German government decided to gradually decommission all nuclear power plants (as their reactors expired).

The territorial structure of the economy of the Federal Republic of Germany is distinguished by its polycentric character, a very strong “cultivation” of the environment, and a high saturation of the territory with both nodal and linear elements of TLC. The geographical pattern of the economy of the Federal Republic of Germany is primarily determined by the location of its main industrial and urban agglomerations, which are interconnected by transport routes and polyhighways. As you already know, the largest of these agglomerations is the Rhine-Ruhr agglomeration, which forms the core of the administrative state of North Rhine Westphalia. This land, which occupies less than 1/10 of the country's territory, concentrates more than 1/5 of its population and provides 1/5 of Germany's GDP.

It is here that the main production capacities of ferrous metallurgy (Duisburg, Dortmund), heavy engineering and energy, and, to a large extent, the chemical industry, which is widely represented in the middle reaches of the Rhine (Ludwigshafen, Frankfurt-Main), are concentrated. However, now the Rhine-Ruhr agglomeration no longer “rises” above other industrial-urban agglomerations of the country as before. The agglomerations of Stuttgart in the southwestern and Munich in the southern parts of the country were ahead of it in the development of the latest high-tech industries. They are also major centers of the automotive industry: the famous Mercedes are produced in Stuttgart, and BMW cars (Bayerische Motorwerke) are produced in Munich. The most important cores of the territorial structure in the North of Germany are the seaports, and primarily the largest of them, Hamburg, as well as Wolfsburg, where Volkswagen cars are produced, and Hannover. In the eastern part of the country, important TLC centers are Berlin, Leipzig, and Dresden.

The geographical pattern of the economy of Germany is also influenced by large agricultural areas that have developed in the North German Lowland, on the right bank of the Danube in Bavaria, in the belt of medium-altitude mountains. The same applies to the main recreation and tourism areas on the Baltic coast, in the foothills of the Alps, in the Harz mountains, in the so-called Saxon Switzerland on the Elbe. .

In Germany, much attention has previously been paid to regional policy, which pursued the goals of “reanimating” old industrial depressed areas, decongesting agglomerations, and equalizing the levels of socio-economic development of individual regions of the country. But after 1990, regional policy measures were aimed primarily at the general rise and structural restructuring of the economy in the territory of the former GDR, which accounts for 33% of the area and 26% of the population of the Federal Republic of Germany. This is a very difficult task, requiring huge capital investments (it is no coincidence that the former German Democratic Republic began to be called the black hole of the German economy) and long periods of implementation. Especially considering the fact that in the 90s. after the start of perestroika, production in the eastern lands fell sharply, which actually led to a serious demographic and socio-economic crisis. It will still take some time for the six eastern states of Germany to fully integrate into a single economic organism of the country. (Creative task 13.) The main conclusion. Foreign Europe is the smallest region of the world in terms of territory, but its role in the world economy is very large. Recently, great changes have been taking place on the political and economic maps of the region. (Final task 14.)

Additional text (Interesting facts)

1. The size of countries can be judged by their area, or by the length of their territory. The “longest” country in the region is Norway, which stretches from north to south for 1,750 km. The maximum length of France and Great Britain is about 1000 km, Germany - 875 km, Hungary and Bulgaria - approximately 500 km, Belgium -230 km.

2. The “largest” of the microstates is the Principality of Andorra, located between France and Spain, occupying an area of ​​467 km 2 (this is half the area of ​​Moscow). The Principality of Liechtenstein, with an area of ​​160 km2, located between Switzerland and Austria, stretches along the Rhine for 25 km and a width of 10 km. The Republic of San Marino, whose first state regulations date back to 1263, surrounded by Italian territory, occupies 61 km 2. The Principality of Monaco on the French Mediterranean coast has an area of ​​1.9 km 2 and stretches 2.7 km in length. And the state city of Vatican, located in the western part of Rome, occupies 0.44 km.

3. In the Czech Republic there is no settlement that is more than 105 km from the state border, in Bulgaria - 120 km, in Romania - 170 km, in Poland - 230 km.

4. “Hang glider” was adopted in 1953 after a catastrophic flood, when dams and locks were destroyed under the pressure of the sea and it overwhelmed the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt deltas, destroying 50 thousand houses. And this despite the fact that people filled the gaps in the dams day and night, and the captains grounded their ships to block the path of the waves. According to this plan, dams and locks blocked the mouths of all rivers and canals, with the exception of two. Stone for the construction of dams was imported from Sweden and Finland. The Delta Plan was implemented in 1958-1968.

5. First of all, this applies to Italy, whose population may decrease to 50.1 million people by 2050, to Spain (to 42.5), to Germany (to 78.8), the population may decrease by 5 million people Romania, 2.6 million - Bulgaria and Hungary, 2 million - the Czech Republic, 6 million - Poland.

6. In 2000, among the residents of Germany there were (in thousand people): Turks - 2000, Yugoslavs - 660, Italians - 620, Greeks - 365, Poles - 360, Croats - 215, Austrians - 185, Bosnians - 155, Portuguese - 135, Spaniards - 130, Russians - 115, British - 115, Americans - 113, Dutch - 110, Iranians - 105. In addition, there were from 50 to 100 thousand Romanians, Ukrainians, Vietnamese, Moroccans, Afghans, BeHpoB, Macedonians , Lebanese, Chinese, Sri Lankans.

7. Some of the South Slavic peoples (Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins) use Slavic graphics; These languages ​​are related to Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. For example, the Bulgarian word "den" means "day", "morning" - "morning", "thanks" - "thank you", "sladoled" - "ice cream". Other Slavic peoples: Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenes use Latin script. But if you read such common Czech words as leto, zima, role, voda, skola, otec written in Latin letters, then in Russian they will also mean “summer”, “winter”, “field”, “water”, “school” ", "father" .

8. In foreign Europe, Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian languages ​​belong to this family, which are distinguished by their unique phonetic composition and grammatical structures. For example, they do not have genders, and the functions of prepositions and possessive pronouns are performed by case endings. By the way, there are 15 cases in Finnish, and about 30 in Hungarian.

9. The Vatican city state with a population of about 1 thousand people has its own government, its own bank, guards, laws, currency, postage stamps and, most importantly, its own monarch - the Pope. The main function of the Vatican is religious, its sphere of activity is the whole world, since the total number of Catholic believers exceeds 1 billion people, and the apparatus of clergy includes over 400 thousand priests and more than 1 million members of monastic and semi-monastic orders. The Vatican owns enormous capital and vast lands.

10.In Glasgow on the river. Clyde built the largest ships of the British passenger fleet, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, with a displacement of more than 80 thousand tons, which during their operation transported more than 4 million passengers. In 1944 Queen Elizabeth set a record by taking on board the largest number of people in the history of navigation - 15,200 military personnel. But in 1972 this liner, bought by a millionaire from Hong Kong, was destroyed by fire.

11.In 2010 A new gas pipeline from Russia to Germany (“Northern Potoyu”), laid along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, should go into operation. In the future, gas will go through it to Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and the UK.

12.At the end of the 50s. Polish geologists carried out prospecting work for oil and discovered deposits of copper ore, which turned out to be the largest in Europe. Despite the great depth of cuprous sandstones and difficult mining and geological conditions, they were developed and the Lower Silesian copper ore basin arose here.

13. Belgium is famous for the production of Browning hunting rifles, diamond processing (Antwerp is the world center for the diamond trade), Austria for alpine skiing, the Czech Republic for jewelry and pencils (the world-famous KohiNor factory produces 1 million pencils daily of 21 degrees of hardness and 64 colors ). And in Liechtenstein there is the world's largest enterprise for the production of artificial teeth, the products of which are supplied to more than a hundred countries.

14.More than 400 varieties of cheese are known in France. Roquefort cheese, which has been produced in the town of Roquefort in the south of the country for a thousand years, has become especially famous. Made from sheep's milk, it acquires its special qualities and smell thanks to long-term storage in huge natural dungeons. In Switzerland, milk is almost entirely processed into cheese and butter. And it’s hard to imagine a Dutch menu without cheese.

15.The Netherlands is the most flower-growing country in the world. In the city of Aalsmeer, located near Amsterdam, there is the world's largest flower auction, occupying a space the size of 30 football fields, where more than 1 billion roses are sold per year. Flowers from the Netherlands are exported to 140 countries. And in the country itself you can see them everywhere.

16. Brewing, which was known to the ancient Germans, became especially widespread in Germany and the Czech Republic, where beer became a truly national drink. Germany ranks first in the world in hop production. It also ranks first in beer consumption per capita (160 liters per year).

17. Iceland's fishing fleet consists of 1 thousand boats, and the average annual catch is 1.5 million tons, or about 6 tons per capita! Previously, they caught mainly the world's largest Icelandic herring and cod, now - capelin, which is used to prepare fishmeal. Fish production and processing employs 40% of the country's total active population, and fish and fish products account for 3/4 of its exports.

18.Back in 1981, the Paris Lyon high-speed line came into operation, which was then extended to Marseille (878 km). Then the lines Paris-Bordeaux (480 km), Paris-Strasbourg (460 km) and some others were built. Trains on these lines reach speeds of 250-300 km per hour.

19.The road bridge across the Bosphorus in Istanbul was opened in 1973. It is the largest bridge in Europe and the fourth in the world. Its span has a length<1 км. Благодаря шестирядному движению пропускная способность моста составляет более 20 тыс. машин в сутки. В 1988 г. был сдан в эксплуатацию второй такой же мост.

20. The transport crossing across the Oresund Strait between Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo has a length of almost 16 km and consists of a tunnel and a two-tier bridge. They are crossed by a four-lane highway and a high-speed double-track railway.

21.The first project of the Channel Tunnel was proposed in France at the beginning of the 19th century. And in the future, similar projects were put forward more than once. However, construction was carried out in France and Great Britain only in 1987-1994. In fact, three parallel tunnels were built under the bottom of the strait: two for the movement of trains in both directions and one for servicing them. The total length of the tunnel is 50 km, of which 37 km pass under the bottom of the strait (at a depth of 40 m). Thanks to the Eurotunnel, travel from Paris to London now takes less than 2.5 hours. During the tunnel's operation, tens of millions of passengers used it.

22. It is believed that modern tourism originated in England, when in the 40s. XIX century T. Cook founded a travel agency. If we talk about recreation, England is the birthplace of golf (1857), football (1863), and tennis (1875).

23.French Riviera back in the 19th century. became a favorite vacation spot for such famous French writers as Balzac, Flaubert, and Maupassant. Russian writers and artists lived and worked here: N.V. Gogol, F.I. Tyutchev, A.I. Kuprin, A.P. Chekhov, I.A. Bunin, V.V. Mayakovsky, F.I. Shalyapin , S.P. Diaghilev. Already in the twentieth century. American writers Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald left vivid descriptions of the Riviera.

24.The most popular Alpine resorts include Chamonix in France, Davos in Switzerland, Boromio in Italy, Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany. The total number of accommodation places for tourists in the Alps region already exceeds 3 million. There are 12 thousand lifts and 40 thousand ski slopes at their service.

25. In March 1978, the American supertanker Amoco Cadiz, traveling from the Persian Gulf to Rotterdam, hit reefs off the coast of France. 230 thousand tons of oil leaked from it, which formed a “black tide” that hit beaches, oyster plantations, and fishing harbors over a distance of 200 km.

26.The bicycle is most popular as a mass means of transportation in the Netherlands and Denmark. If they say about Norwegians that they are born with skis on their feet, then about the Dutch and Danes they are born with a bicycle. “Nuns and priests, clerks in bowler hats and postmen, teenagers, ladies in extravagant hats, housewives with groceries in baskets ride bicycles,” this is how one modern traveler describes the Netherlands.

27. In total, there are about 2,200 specially protected natural areas in foreign Europe. Their total area is 580 thousand km 2, which exceeds the area of ​​the largest country in the region - France. Among the individual countries in terms of the number of protected areas, Germany (472), Sweden (189), Austria (187), Spain (161), Italy (143), Great Britain (31) and Switzerland (112) stand out.

28.The capital of France is home to more than 700 international political, economic and public organizations. Among them are UNESCO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Organization of Sister Cities, the International Association of Universities, the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Energy Agency, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), etc. And in Brussels there are 1400 such organizations!

29. To develop the Troll deposit, a giant drilling platform weighing 656 thousand tons was built, the production of which required 245 thousand m3 of concrete and 100 thousand tons of steel reinforcement, which is 15 times the weight of such reinforcement in the Eiffel Tower. And in height (472 m) this drilling platform surpasses the Eiffel Tower and almost all the largest skyscrapers in the world.

30. Bonn is one of the ancient cities of Germany, which celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 1989. It was founded by the Romans as a fortress on the Rhine. For many centuries, Bonn remained a quiet provincial town, famous mainly for the fact that Beethoven was born here and Karl Marx and Heinrich Heine studied at the university. In 1949, after the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany, this city became the capital of the country.

31. The ancient Thuringian city of Weimar (celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 1975), which was in the 160-19th centuries. Ducal residence, it became especially famous as a cultural and historical center associated with the names of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Franz Liszt, Johann Gottfried Herder. in the center of the city, Goethe's house has been preserved, in which he lived from 1782 until his death in 1832. At the end of the 19th century. this house was turned into a museum, where all the furnishings are preserved, including the library, the writer's office, the collection of minerals and the room in which he died. the house is also a memorial museum
Schiller, where the writer spent the last years of his life and created his last great work, the drama “William Tell”.

32. The city of Duisburg, located on the banks of the Rhine, is usually called the “western gate” of the Ruhr. The fact that this is indeed the case is evidenced by the complex labyrinth of berths, access roads, and warehouses. The largest metallurgical plants in Germany are located in Duisburg, which receive both raw materials and fuel along the Rhine. Therefore, in terms of cargo turnover of its river port (55 million tons per year), it ranks first in the world. This cargo turnover far exceeds the cargo turnover of any of the seaports of Germany, with the exception of Hamburg.

33. In terms of the number of protected natural areas, Germany surpasses all countries in foreign Europe. There are 472 such territories in the country, and their total area reaches 88 thousand km 2, or 1/4 of the entire territory of the country. Among the protected areas, small natural landscapes predominate, but the main area is occupied by so-called natural parks (“nature parks”), of which there are 61. These parks are located mainly in mountain forest areas (Bavarian Forest, Franconian Forest, Teutoburg Forest, etc.).

Bookshelf
1. Foreign Europe. M.: Mysl, 1979193. (Series “Countries and Peoples”).
2. Maksakovsky V.P. Geographical picture of the world. M.: Bustard, 2009. Part 2. Topic 1.
3. Economic and social geography of the world: Behind the pages of the textbook: Book. for students 1 O class. / Comp. A. P. Kuznetsov. M.: Education, 2000. Section “Europe”.
4. The most beautiful cities in Europe. Discoveries. Trips. Rest. Story. Modernity. M., 2000.

Block of acquiring knowledge and skills
Task 1.

Using atlas maps, characterize the economic and geographical position of one of the countries of foreign Europe (optional). Use the standard plan for characterizing the country's EGP (see plan on page 222).

Using the political map in the atlas, determine which country in the region has the largest number of neighboring countries. What difference could this make?

Task 2.

Using the “calling card” of foreign European countries on the flyleaf of the textbook, specify the characteristics of their political system. Explain why no other part of the world has as many constitutional monarchies as Western Europe. Place the republics and monarchies on the outline map. Also use Table 2 in the “Appendices”.

Task 3.

Using the map of mineral resources of foreign Europe in the atlas, compare the countries of the region in terms of the wealth and diversity of fuel, ore and non-metallic minerals
minerals. Apply a standard plan for the characteristics of natural prerequisites for the development of industry in the country (region) (see plan on p. 222).
Also use tables 35 in the “Appendices”.
Additional task (for fun).

Using the atlas map, determine within what latitudes the territory of Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy is located. Find visual comparisons with the CIS countries.
Task 4.

Using Figure 47, characterize foreign Europe as the main region of immigration. Highlight countries with mass immigration and emigration of the population. Get as much information from Figure 47 as possible.
Task 5.

Using the map of the peoples of foreign Europe in the atlas, characterize the distribution of the peoples of the Indo-European and Ural families. Identify countries with uninational, binational and multinational populations.
Task 6.

Using Figure 48, make a table in your notebook “Millionaire Agglomerations” of Foreign Europe” and compare individual countries by the number of such cities. Do you think it can be said that three main common features of the urbanization process are clearly visible in foreign Europe?

Using Figure 48 and the physical map of foreign Europe in the atlas, classify the millionaire cities of the region according to their EGP. Identify cities located: 1) on sea coasts, 2) at river mouths, 3) far from the seas, but on navigable rivers, 4) far from the seas. Reflect the classification results in the table. Which countries have their capitals close to the geographic centers of those countries?
Additional task (for fun).

Complete the crossword puzzle “Capital cities of European countries.”

Task 7.

Using the text and pictures of the textbook, atlas maps and tables 2328 in the “Appendices”, specify the characteristics of one of the industries of foreign Europe (optional). Indicate the main regions and largest centers or main basins, determine their distribution by country. Using Figures 25-29, determine where oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, and steel come from in foreign Europe.
Additional task (difficult).

Using the map of foreign Europe in the atlas, give examples of the orientation of regions and centers of ferrous metallurgy towards: 1) coal basins, 2) iron ore basins, 3) cargo flows of coal and iron ore (including sea).

Task 8.

Using Figure 52, identify the crops that are most typical for countries belonging to the middle and southern European types of agriculture. Establish similarities and differences. For explanation, also use the agroclimatic map in the atlas.

Task 9.

Using the text of the textbook and the transport map of foreign Europe in the atlas (inset to the world transport map), schematically plot the main railway lines, navigable rivers and seaports of the region on the contour map. Give examples of countries with single-center (radial) and multi-center transport network configurations. Think about the reasons for their formation.

Task 10 (creative!).

Using the plans of the central parts of London and Paris in the atlas and additional sources of information, prepare a report about the cultural and historical attractions of these cities. Why did they become major tourism centers?

Additional task (for fun).

Make a plan for a two-week vacation in Europe to explore World Heritage Sites. Offer one or two route options.

Task 11.

Analyze the map of the Ruhr industrial region in the atlas. Identify its main industries and industrial centers. Which industries are old and which are new?

Task 12.

Using the “calling card” of foreign European countries on the flyleaf of the textbook and the selection of diagrams on p. 203-205, make a short report about one of the countries (of your choice).

Additional task (difficult).

Using the atlas maps, plot on a contour map the main industrial centers, agricultural areas, transport routes and seaports of one of the foreign European countries (of your choice). Analyze the resulting map and supplement the message with it.

Task 13 (creative!).

Review the material from Part 1 of the textbook and Topic 6 “Foreign Europe”. as well as the “Appendices” tables and write down in a notebook all the information and digital data related to Germany. Use your notes to more fully characterize the economic and social geography of this country.

Task 14 (final).

1. (Work in a notebook.) Group the countries of foreign Europe according to the following criteria: 1) size of territory, 2) population, 3) level of urbanization. Draw conclusions.

2. (Work in a notebook.) Using tables, pictures and the text of topic 5, determine which countries in the region are included in the “top ten” of countries in the world in the production of certain types of industrial and agricultural products. Present the obtained data in the form of a table.

3. Identify the methods of cartographic representation on maps that you used when studying the topic 6. Which of them are new to you?

4. Prepare a short review of the book (chapter) recommended on this topic.

Self-control and mutual control block

Test your knowledge of specific material:

1. Which of the listed countries in foreign Europe are constitutional monarchies: Norway. Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Greece, Germany? 2. Which of the following countries use the Danube waterway to access the sea: Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Germany? 3. Which of the following ports of foreign Europe are classified as world ports: Oslo, Glasgow, London, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Marseille, Barcelona, ​​Athens, Gdansk, Constanta? 4. Which of the following areas are considered highly developed: Midland, South Wales, London, Paris, Lorraine, South Germany?

Find answers to the questions in the text of the textbook:

1. What are the characteristic features of a Western European city?
2. What are the specific features of the fuel and energy sector of the countries of Eastern Europe?
3. What is the main difference between the northern and southern parts of foreign Europe in terms of the set of minerals?
4. What are the characteristic features of the transport system of foreign Europe?

Use the cards to answer the questions:

1. In which countries of foreign Europe does the role of the capital not be played by the largest city of the country?
2. Which countries in the region have the highest population density?
3. How can you get from CeBepHogo to the Baltic Sea by water without going around the Jutland Peninsula?
4. What industries are most typical for industrial areas and hubs formed: 1) in capital cities, 2) in port cities, 3) in coal mines?
5. Which metallurgical plants use overseas raw materials and fuel?

Explain:

1. When and why did foreign Europe become a global hotbed of immigration?
2. Why is there a sharp preponderance of the capital over other cities in France and Great Britain, but this is not typical for Germany and Italy?
3. Why in the structure of water consumption in Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Sweden 60-80% is accounted for by industry, and in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece - by agriculture?
4. Why do oil monopolies explore and produce oil in the North Sea, although its cost is many times higher than in the countries of the Near and Middle East?
5. Why does Norway have more income from fishing than from agriculture?
6. Why does the Rhine River surpass all other river systems in the world in terms of cargo turnover?
7. Why has Europe been and remains the main region of international tourism?
8. Why is the state of the environment in depressed old industrial areas? usually the most threatening?

Please indicate:
1. In which of the following countries does the population speak languages ​​of the Germanic group of the Indo-European family: Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany, Finland, Great Britain?
2. Which of the following countries is characterized by an influx of immigrants: Italy, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, France. Switzerland?
3. Which of the following statements are correct for the following countries?

Can you:

1. Place on a contour map from memory the following countries mentioned in the text and on text maps: Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, Portugal?
2. From memory, determine the countries that have land borders: 1) only with Germany, 2) only with Spain, 3) with Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia?
3. Show on the map the following cities mentioned in the text and on the maps: Glasgow, Rotterdam, Marseille, Brussels, Munich, Naples, Krakow, Greb?
4. Name a country in foreign Europe where there is practically no rural population?
5. From the list below:

a) exclude single-national countries: Belgium, Spain, Norway, Portugal, Germany, Great Britain;
b) exclude countries that are not characterized by a particularly high concentration of industrial production in metropolitan areas: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, France, Denmark?

Choose the correct one from the ready-made answers:

1. France borders on: a) three countries, b) five countries, c) six countries.
2. The largest urban agglomeration of foreign Europe: London, Paris, Rhine-Ruhr, Holland.
3. Of the capital cities of the region on the sea coast are: Madrid, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Sofia, Athens.
4. Most oil in foreign Europe is produced in: Spain, Austria, Norway, Great Britain, Romania, Albania.

Methodological keys to topic 6

What to remember

1. Political map, individual countries and peoples of foreign Europe. (geography, 7th grade)

2. Features of the physical-geographical position, relief, minerals, climate, waters, soils and vegetation of foreign Europe, natural areas within its borders. (geography, 7th grade)

3. Features of the historical development of foreign European countries at the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th century (History, grades 8, 9.)

4. Material from part 1 of this textbook.

5. Concepts and terms: economic-geographical location, territorial structure of the economy, specialization and cooperation of production, infrastructure, region, subregion.

What you need to learn
Leading ideas for topic 6:

1. Foreign Europe has been and remains one of the main centers of world politics and the world economy.
2. The “old stones” of Europe are a great asset not only of European, but also of the entire world civilization.

Main scientific knowledge of topic 6:
1. Characteristic features of the EGP, the geography of natural resources and the population of foreign Europe.

2. The main features of the territorial structure of settlement and economy of foreign Europe.

3. The main features of the structure and location of leading industries and the main industrial regions of foreign Europe.

4. The main features of the location of agriculture in foreign Europe and its types.

5. Main features of the regional transport system of foreign Europe.

b. The main features of the geographical pattern of the population and economy of foreign Europe.

7. Subregions of foreign Europe.

8. The Federal Republic of Germany as the most economically powerful country in foreign Europe.

9. Key words of the topic:

1) Western European type of city,

2) suburbanization,

3) Western European type of transport system,
4) port-industrial complex,

5) “development axis”,
b) metropolitan region.

What you need to know

1 Describe the economic and geographical position of the country.

2. Characterize the natural prerequisites for the development of industry in the country (region).

3. Use various sources of geographic information for proof, comparison, specification, for constructing tables, graphs, and carrying out calculations.

4. Apply previously studied text, graphic and cartographic materials to deepen newly acquired knowledge.

5. Prepare a review of the book you read (shava, section).

Instructions and plans for mastering independent study skills

1. Plan for the characteristics of the country’s (region’s) EGP.

1. Position in relation to neighboring countries.
2. Position in relation to the main land and sea transport routes.

3. Position in relation to the main fuel and raw material bases, industrial and agricultural areas.

4. Position in relation to the main distribution areas of products.

5. Change in -EGP over time.

6. General conclusion about the influence of EGP on the development and location of the country’s economy.

2. Plan for characterizing the natural prerequisites for the development of industry in the country (region).

1 Amount of reserves and distribution of minerals, their territorial combinations.

2. Water, forest resources and possibilities for their use.

3. General assessment of the natural resource potential of the territory for the development of industry and its provision with natural resources.

4. Features of rational or irrational environmental management in relation to natural resources for industrial development.

5. General conclusion. Prospects for increasing resources and their use.

Maksakovsky V.P., Geography. Economic and social geography of the world 10th grade. : textbook for general education institutions

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