Comments by "Luredreier" (@Luredreier) on "403,843 Votes: Where's the Line Between West u0026 Eastern Europe? - TLDR News" video.

  1.  @JenxRodwell  The Survey was made by a Brit... That plays a large role in this. Someone from Eastern, Central, Southern or Northern Europe might have a more nuanced view then people like him from Western Europe... Remember that Britain was a naval power. Byzantine, the Ottomans and Turkey all had more of a role at sea then Russia did and had more interaction with Britain.
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  2.  @KyuQem  "central witch just no longer exist" That's just plain wrong, it's just ignorance on the TLDR teams side that leads to them using east and west for Europe without more nuance... Scotland, the island of Man, all the Nordic countries and Estonia are neither Eastern nor Western but *Northern*. Latvia and Lithuania could fall either into northern or eastern depending on how you look at them. Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Austria etc are Central European and neither belongs in the east nor west, although Poland can be considered either Central European or Eastern European depending on how you look at it, same as Lithuania and Latvia can be seen as either Northern or Eastern. Greece, Italy, the European parts of Turkey and the whole Iberian Peninsula is Southern European, not East or West. Bulgaria, Serbia, Belarus, Romania etc are Eastern European. There's more countries in Southern, Eastern and Central Europe then those that I just haven't labeled yet. But you get the picture.
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  3. There's a problem with just dividing into east and west. Norway is in the west but not in western Europe (being a part of Northern Europe). Trying to divide Europe into east and west alone just leaves out too much.
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  4.  @KrlKngMrtssn  Speak for yourself. I live in Norway and I find it offensive to be labeled as "western" rather then "northern". The island of Man, Scotland, all the nordic countries and all the Baltic countries are not in either of the two categories of this video, but Northern Europe. And Germany, Poland, Czechia, Switzerland and Austria and Lichtenstein doesn't belong in the two either, being Central European (there's more Central European countries, but those are the first that pops up in my mind when thinking of Central Europe). Greece, Italy, the whole Iberian peninsula, Cyprus, Malta and the European part of Turkey isn't in either of the two categories but in Southern Europe. The Balkans... Is complicated... Some of the countries there belongs in Central Europe, some in Southern Europe and some, like Serbia in Eastern Europe I feel. I'd place Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus and Serbia in Eastern Europe myself. That said I'm less familiar with the southeastern parts of the continent and might make different evaluations of countries there then someone local with more detailed knowlege about the regions in question.
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  5. Not to mention having just two categories, ignoring Northern, Central and Southern Europe... I feel quite uncomfortable with the label "western" for Norway, to put it mildly... Just as I would with "eastern". We're *northern*, and honestly I find the label "western" a bit offensive...
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  6. There's a lot more categories of course. But personally I find the 5 category division the most usefull. Northern, Southern, Central, Eastern and Western. It doesn't cover everything but it's still simple enough that you can explain it all to a non-European in a few min without going into details about the Roman Empire being split up, the east-west religious divide, the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and so one and so forth...
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  7. "slovakia, hungary, slovenia and croatia" as central?
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  8.  @Showwieh  No. Not northwest, or northeast or anything, just *north*. Countries like Scotland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Estonia shouldn't be grouped together with the likes of Germany or Spain. Our climate is different, our culture is different and our history is different. And as a result so is our values. Don't get me wrong, we have a lot in common with Germany in the those of the nordic countries that has germanic languages. But ultimately we've been both blessed and cursed with having a totally different geo-political climate to operate in. Different challenges to face. And while technically we do end up landing in the "west" when forced into a system that only divides into those two, east and west. It's outright offensive to be labeled in the same group as the continentals. The continentals can rely on food security due to the agriculture on the European plains and overland trade with nations on those planes. Because of that food they have a history of empires with high enough populations to be capable of defending themselves in a way that north european nations could only dream of. And a cultural unity that just doesn't exist here. They had resources we couldn't muster. Large cities. Feudalism. Professional armies. All of those things. It didn't really work the same way up here. I mean, sure, Denmark and Sweden each tried to make empires at various times. But neither ever had the populations to trully back up those attempts. And we always where the underdogs vs our much larger neighbours. Russia, England, the HRE and France. Scotland, Norway and Sweden had rugged terrain that we used to our advantage in wars. Norway, Sweden and Denmark all relied on our navies to try to hold our own. In Denmarks case to land troops behind invading armies once those push too far north, cutting off supplies. And all of us have tons and tons of islands to defend. Parts of Scotland together with Iceland, the Faero islands, Finland and Estonia where essentially colonies of the nordic region for a long, long time and spent so much time under our rule that we left our mark there. There's just so much...
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