Pre-Reading Notes

Hi there and welcome to Chapter 2: Europe! This is our first regional chapter in the textbook and so I’d love to take a moment and walk you through the chapter and what to expect from this point forward.

First, most regional geography textbooks are loaded with facts. “You’ve got this river! And this mountain range! And then this capital city which then moved to that capital city! And then this person was in charge but he was overthrown by that person!” It’s kind of overwhelming. Most regional geography textbooks also include a little bit of everything in every single chapter. So every chapter will have a section on the physical environment, culture, politics, economics, religion, etc. etc. Again, it can be really overwhelming.

This textbook is very different. While I do include a few core physical geographic features in every chapter, each chapter is focused on one core theme in geography and I’ve cut out pretty much everything that doesn’t connect with that theme. What does that mean for you? Hopefully, it means that rather than feeling like you’re having to memorize a bunch of disconnected facts, you’ll feel more like you’re learning the story of a region and starting to practice looking at the world through a geographic lens.

For our chapter on Europe, the core focus is migration, so keep this concept in mind as you read this chapter.

So, my first piece of advice for every single chapter is to start with the learning objectives! For many textbooks, these are written after a chapter is completed and sometimes not even by the textbook author. This textbook is different though. I started with the learning objectives and then wrote every chapter around those objectives.

The learning objectives for Chapter 2, and questions you might consider, are:

• Identify the key geographic features of Europe
  • What are the main physiographic features (meaning features related to physical geography) of Europe that every geography student should know?
  • What are the main features of the human geography of Europe that every geography student should know? (Think about patterns of human settlement and spread.)
• Explain how the industrial revolution has shaped the geographic landscape of Europe
  • What did the geographic landscape of Europe look like before the Industrial Revolution, and how did it change?
  • How did the Agrarian Revolution combine with the Industrial Revolution to change the landscape of Europe?
• Summarize how migration has impacted Europe’s population
  • What is “migration”?
  • How were migration patterns impacted by the Agrarian and Industrial Revolutions?
• Describe the current controversies regarding migration to Europe
  • How has migration impacted ideas about nationalism?
  • What are the current patterns of migration in Europe, and how do attitudes toward migrants differ?

Add your own questions as you read the chapter!

If you get overwhelmed as you read the chapter, remember to zoom out. Ask yourself, “How does this connect to migration?” or “What is the most important thing I need to know from this paragraph?” As a World Regional Geography student, you’re not meant to be an expert or have all the answers – and frankly the world changes all the time so there’s not a whole lot of point in memorizing the geographic landscape as it looks today. Rather, let’s pay more attention to big ideas and core themes so that when events in the world happen – maybe a new influx of migrants to Europe, for example – you’ll have a much better understanding of the geographic context of those events and will be able to critically analyze solutions to our global problems.

Notes After Reading

Hey there! Welcome back! This chapter’s focus was on migration and I think students have a decent understanding of migration itself, but less so about nationalism and migration’s effect on it, so I want to take some time and discuss this idea.

So what is nationalism, let’s start there. If you feel very American (or Canadian or French or Cambodian, etc.), what really gives you a strong sense of a national identity? Maybe it’s enjoying fireworks on the Fourth of July (or hearing the Canadian national anthem or watching the Bastille Day military parade, and so on.) Most countries have clear symbols and spectacles that are emblematic of their national identity. In the United States, you might have the Pledge of Allegiance or the national flag, for example. These symbols or events or statements serve to unify people within a country, and that is what nationalism is all about.

Sometimes, nationalism is connected with a cultural identity as well. Maybe nationalism includes adherence to a particular religion. Or maybe a particular ethnic group or race. In other words, sometimes the answer to the question of what unites people as part of one national identity isn’t adherence to a shared set of values or ideals, maybe it’s more about what we look like or believe. Think about Germany in the early twentieth century, for example. To be German was not to be Jewish or Catholic or gay, and the list went on. This idea of extreme and exclusionary nationalism is known as fascism.

So how does migration interact with nationalism? Well, if you have a country that has a strong national identity, what if that identity also includes adherence to a certain religious belief? Or a certain political leaning? If migrants are coming into a country who have a very different set of religious beliefs and differing political understandings, there can be a clash of cultural ideas and a feeling of “us” (as citizens of a country united) and “them” (as people who seem at-odds with our ideas about who we are as a nation.)

This clash is compounded when you have economic transition or turmoil. So, if I have a good, stable job and feel like my needs are met, I’m much more likely to be welcoming to migrants and see them as having a positive impact on my community. If I’ve lost my job or have seen companies move away and shops close, I might see an influx of migrants as evidence of a negative transition that is taking place. Think about your own views about immigrants. What has shaped them?

Nationalism might also be challenged by distinctive ethnic identities within a country. So the other concepts students struggle with in this chapter is devolution and balkanization. Essentially, they are two sides of the same coin. Both have to do with strong ethnic identities in a country. In one case, the central government aims to appease an ethnic group by giving them more autonomy, which is known as devolution. (Just read about what happened with Scotland after the referendum to leave the United Kingdom was narrowly defeated in 2014.) In another case, the ethnic group decides to separate and form its own sovereign country and this is known as Balkanization.

As usual, when you finish up this chapter, go back to the learning objectives for the chapter and the questions you created and use them to test yourself!