Europe's spatial diversity

Résumé du document

Europe has always played a major role in the development of the world, and, this, from the end of the Middle Ages, allowing it to conquer the Americas. Europe is one of the most diverse continents, it is the birthplace of the occidental civilization and it is an amazing mix of a lot of very different countries and cultures. The first part will describe Europe's spatial diversity. Then, the second part of this essay will evaluate to what extent spatial legacies still determine Europe's internal disparities. First, the west-east divide will be discussed, with the situation in the old communist countries and in Western Europe. Then, the help of the European Union and the polarization of cores will be opposed to that first argument. To finish, a short conclusion will balance the two opinions.

Extraits

[...] Then, no, times are changing, spatial legacies' impact is less and less visible. The European Union, created in 1993 in Maastricht, has for main aim the reduction of regional income disparities, and this, since the establishment of the European Community in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome. Between 2004 and new state members, from Eastern Europe joined the Union. They were relatively poor in terms of GDp per capita compared to the old states as France or Germany. These Eastern countries opened up to the West and it resulted in an considerable increase in the amount of foreign direct investment. [...]

[...] Nowadays, the consequences of those times are huge. For example, in Moldova, life expectancy ranges from 61 years old to 87 years old in France. Moreover, infant mortality is very important in those countries too, it varies from 3 deaths per 1000 live births in Germany and in France to 11 or 13 deaths in Romania and Russia. These huge differences between the two parts of Europe can be explained by the lack of access to the same progress in medicine and, the numerous famines, during the communist era. [...]

[...] Europe is one of the most diverse continents, it is the birthplace of the occidental civilization and it is an amazing mix of a lot of very different countries and cultures. The first part will describe Europe's spatial diversity. Then, the second part of this essay will evaluate to what extent spatial legacies still determine Europe's internal disparities. First, the west-east divide will be discussed, with the situation in the old communist countries and in Western Europe. Then, the help of the European Union and the polarization of cores will be opposed to that first argument. To finish, a short conclusion will balance the two opinions. I. [...]

[...] For manufacturing, the cores need raw materials. This induces capital flows in the peripheries. But, in cores, labor scarcity stimulates economic migration from peripheries, increasing disparities. Almost all the European Union 28 Member States (except France and Germany) experience the increase in intra-national disparities, that's why the process of ” catching-up” has taken place between countries. Thanks to this European Union's process, the disparities will be reduced by the growth that will slowly spread to periphery areas as the core needs resource. [...]

[...] Furthermore, there is another type of spatial divide: the core and periphery. There are some areas that are more developed than others and they are characterized by abundant capital, and hence economic power, scance labour, highly-qualified and expensive workforce. These areas are called cores or centers, they could be towns, cities, an entire country and so on. The economic concentration in core areas is called backwash or polarization. The less developed areas are called peripheries, they have abundant labor and no capital. [...]