Europe Vocabulary

Vocab Challenge Answers

1. Fjords

The jagged coast of Norway is characterized by steep side inlets

2. Navigable

Europe is a peninsula of peninsulas. You are never far from a major body of water or a river on this continent. Transportation by boat is very common since there are many rivers on which large boats may travel.

3. Sequent occupancy

In many countries of Europe there have been successive take-overs by various groups of people in their histories

Boundary Changes in Europe over time

4. Loess

Across the fertile European Plain a very fine soil blows

5. Primate city Most major cities in Europe have developed near a

major waterway. These cities are the center of government, business and culture.

6. Push factor/famine/emigration Thousands of Irish left their homeland when

potato crops failed to avoid starvation. Many of them immigrated to the United States.

7. Complementary region

At one point the Czech Republic and Slovakia were one country: Czechslovakia. Czech land had mineral resources and industry, Slovakia was mostly agricultural. The combining of the two made Czechoslovakia at one time one of the top ten industrialized countries of the world.

8. Uninhabitable

Only Greenland’s rocky coastline is fit for human habitation. The icy interior of the island cannot support human life.

9. North Atlantic Drift

Compared to world regions of similar latitude, much of Europe enjoys mild climate. Winters are particularly mild for such high latitudes.

10. Constitutional Monarchy

In the current British government, the Queen is the head of state, but a parliament led by the Prime Minister serves as the lawmaking branch of government.

11. Nationalized (Infrastructure)

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain. By the 1700s, the county had developed coal and iron mining and had a large labor force, not to mention a great transportation network of rivers and canals . They dominated world trade through the 1800s. By the 1900s, however, they lost dominance to foreign competition. After WWII, the United Kingdom took control of many industries to try and slow decline. This process of government operation of business protected them from domestic competition.

12. Cosmopolitan

The headquarters for the EU and NATO is Brussels, Belgium. This city has many foreign influences.

13. Enclaves (balkanization) The Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia,

Montenegro, Kosovo, and Slovenia used to all be republics of a larger Yugoslavia. The region has one of the most diverse human populations in Europe. There one finds a complicated mix of languages and religions. There many groups are completely surrounded by other groups. For example, Bosnians and Albanians are Muslims surrounded by Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic peoples including Serbs, Croats, and Macedonians.

14. City states Early Greece was the birthplace of democracy.

Civilization can be traced back to more than 2,500 years. Many Greeks lived in self-governing cities. They made contributions to the arts, government, philosophy, science and sports before eventually falling under the control of outside invaders.

15. Micro states (tertiary economic activity) Many of the small states (countries) of Europe

have survived as the result of physical isolation and international treaties. Tourism and trade (low taxes have attracted many foreign businesses and citizens), are the main economic activities of small countries such as Andorra and Liechtenstein.

Monaco

16. Polders/dikes To reclaim the land from the sea, the Netherlands has followed a

process that has increased the size of their country. First they built an earthen sea wall to block off the water and then slowly drain the area. The newly drained land is very salty, so they plant alfalfa and other plants to absorb it. Eventually they have a new piece of land to farm or develop. This process is used in other coastal areas of the world.

17. Exclave (Kalingrad)

Just south of Lithuania and the Baltic Sea is a small piece of Russia. It is totally separate from the rest of the country. The Russians refused to give up this access to the Baltic Sea as the Soviet Union was breaking apart.

18. Renaissance Almost a thousand years after the fall of the

Roman Empire, Italy became the center of a “re-birth” of interest in learning and the arts. This interest spread throughout Europe in the 1300s-1500s.

19. Canton/ city states/ autonomous/ neutral/ multilingual/ confederation

Switzerland is a group of states joined together for a common purpose. Each “state: has self government for all issues not reserved for the federal government. Switzerland has not been involved in any recent wars or joined any international organizations. Switzerland has four main languages and many Swiss speak many languages.

20. Socialism During much of the last half of the 1900s, Sweden’s economy

was a mix of capitalism and also a system where the government owns and controls the means of producing goods. Most of Sweden’s industries remain privately owned, but the government does control some businesses and levies high taxes which pay for a large system of government welfare services. For example, the government pays for almost all the educational, medical, and childcare needs of its citizens.

21. Supernational Cooperation People today travel easily between many

European countries because of the European Union, or EU. In 2009, it had 27 members. The government of the EU stands above the government of its members. The EU has been able to remove barriers that once made travel between European nations complicated. In addition to having “open” borders with each other, many EU nations use a common form of money.

22. Centripital forces/Centrifugal forces

Europe is a region made up of many peoples and countries. Throughout Europe’s history, certain forces have brought its peoples together, while others have pulled them apart. The EU was formed to unite countries that had been torn apart by years of war.