The Limits of Europe: The Shifting Frontier

Abstract

The theme of this chapter is the question of the historical frontiers of Europe, in particular the eastern frontier. One aspect of the argument is that what is often, and misleadingly, called ‘Eastern Europe’, in fact consists of at least two historical regions which can be contrasted to ‘Western Europe’, on the one hand, and to Russia and Turkey on the other. These regions are firstly, south-east Europe, comprising principally the Balkans, and, secondly, the ‘lands between’, that is the lands between Germany and Russia: Poland, the Baltic Republics, the former Czechoslovakia and Hungary. These two regions were the frontier zones of the larger empires of the Tsars, the Sultans, and the Habsburg and Hohenzollern emperors, and were never fully integrated into any of the metropolitan cores. They remained zones of transition between western Europe and Eurasia. The chapter also looks at the complex question of whether Russia is to be considered European or represents an independent phenomenon.