Why Eastern Europe is so Poor? | Fact Glow

Why Eastern Europe is so Poor?

 

Which cities come to your mind when you hear the name of Europe? I’m Pretty Shore. Most of the people would have thought of Paris, London, Barcelona or Rome. Very few people would have thought of Belgrade, Sofia, Minsk or Chisinau. Although this city is also in Europe, this is the thing that divides Europe into two parts, one is Eastern Europe and the other is Western Europe.

Western Europe is known for its rich and well developed economy, where yes but GDP per capita.  It is close to $68 000 but in Eastern Europe the GDP per capita is only 14000. Similarly, if we map the GDP per capita on GNI, which is the average annual income, then this red colored area is the one where the lowest income levels are and green colored that is where the highest income levels are.

You can clearly see that all the high income areas are in West Europe while the low income areas are in East Europe. Europe is divided by an invisible economic line which has been 1 inch since World War 2.  This also did not change, but why is it so? Despite being the same continent, why is there so much difference between East and West Europe? The history of Europe and its geography have a big role behind this divide.

The truth is that in today’s article we will see.  The question is how did Eastern Europe become so poor and Western Europe so rich?  Despite being the second smallest continent in the world, Europe has been the most powerful continent in the 20th and 21st century. Even today, many of the biggest economic powers are in Europe and that is why Europe is there is a lot of influence on world politics.

If you look at the map of Europe, in the south there is the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian Sea. In the north, there is the Arctic Ocean and in the west, there is the Atlantic Ocean. Ireland and Iceland, located in the Atlantic Ocean, are also a part of Europe. Even Greenland is also culturally.  And politics is a part of Europe itself.

Now the question arises that despite being connected to each other culturally, religiously and geographically, why is there so much difference in the progress of East and West Europe? To know the first reason for this, we will have to go back 80 years. After the end of World War 2, the map of Europe looked like this: The green colored countries were basically those European countries which had democracy and capital society, while the red colored countries were those which were either under the direct control of the Soviet Union.

Or they were under the influence of the Soviet ideology of communism. Socialism or what is also called communist ideal was basically that the government should have control over all the resources, businesses and land of any country and in this way instead of only a few people getting rich.  Yes, every person present in the society should get equal opportunity and return, then basically health care, education, housing should be equal for everyone.

Now the issue of this idea was that people did not have the incentive to do business or invent something new because all the profits.  And the return was controlled by the government, whatever business you do, it will be owned by the government and it will distribute that profit equally among the people, then why should a person work harder when everyone gets the same amount, on the contrary, people in capital society.

They were given the freedom to do business as per their own wish and earn profits and the government would have only this much stake in it that the businesses would give some part of their profits to the government in the form of tax. They are ditch and hence they also did not go there but from 1945 to 1991.  During this period, Western Europe went far ahead of Eastern Europe by setting up industries on the basis of Capitalist Ideology.

 

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Then in 1991, with the collapse of Communism, the Soviet Union also broke and all these European states which were under Soviet control also became independent.  But today, even after more than 30 years, Eastern Europe is still economically far behind Western Europe, but why actually the geography of Eastern Europe also plays a big role in this.

The geography of Eastern Europe is actually between two extremes, on one side Ukraine is on the other. Poland and Belarus have flat land which is very fertile for agriculture, but on the other hand, it is very easy for the enemies to attack these flat countries, that is why these three countries have always been the conflict center of Europe.

It is also the most evader of Europe, which has been targeted by every umpire, be it Sweden, Ottoman Empire or Soviet Union. Due to the absence of mountains, it has   always been easy for enemies from outside to enter and plunder these Eastern European countries and That is why, despite having such fertile land, historically this country could not get much benefit from its agricultural production because the enemies coming from outside used to attack and destroy them after every few moments, but on the other extreme are

these Balkan countries in South Eastern Europe where  But there are so many mountains that it has always been very difficult to do construction or build infrastructure here and that is why it is the most backward in Eastern Europe. If we look at it from the point of view of peace and stability, then Eastern Europe has been very tile since 1991.

 

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All the conflicts that have happened in Europe have happened in Eastern Europe only and this has greatly affected not only the economy of these countries but also their immigration rates. First of all, during the war in Yugoslavia, millions of people left the Balkan countries and went towards Western Europe. Due to which there was a huge shortage of skilled workers here and then during the Russia Ukraine War, there has been massive immigration from both the countries which has once again  put a question mark on the future of Eastern Europe but if I talk about the most important factor which is Eastern Europe.

What makes the geography of Europe unfavorable is the access to the seas. The biggest advantage of the Western European countries is that they have access to the sea from all sides, the Baltic Sea in the North East, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the West and then the Mediterranean Sea in the South. This is the reason.

It is said that in the 16th century, these Western European countries got the opportunity to discover trade routes and new continents through these seas and then establish their own colonies there and then loot the resources of those colonies and bring them back. Similarly, the British, Spanish and French umpires and that is why 40% of the world’s wealth was under the control of these three umpires.

This access to the seas was the reason through which the Ottoman Empire also ruled the world for many 100 years. In those times, every country had its own port. It meant that it was a very powerful country. Now while Western Europe was controlling world trade through seas, Eastern Europe was a kind of land lock and was almost cut off from this global trade.

They were also in such a part that to reach the rest of the world from there they had to pass through choke points, like Poland and all these countries had to pass through the Danish Strait to reach the Atlantic Ocean and because they were under the control of Sweden and Germany.  Similarly, South East European countries had to pass through the Bosporus trade which was under the control of the Ottoman Empire and even after crossing this strait, they had to go through the Strait of Gibraltar to reach the Atlantic Ocean.

Which again had to be crossed, was sometimes under the control of Muslims, sometimes Spanish and sometimes Ottoman umpires, so Eastern Europe was very heavily dependent on Western Europe for sea trade and then later on, Western Europe got another huge natural advantage that in the 20th Huge reserves of oil and gas were also discovered in the North Sea in the last century.

These reserves made Norway, Britain, the Netherlands and Germany the power houses of the 21th century, while on the other hand, Eastern Europe was as lucky as Western Europe in terms of natural resources.  Apart from the fertile land, no special natural resource reserves were discovered here, but it is not that Eastern Europe is very deprived, especially the agricultural production here is so tremendous that if communism had not come, then perhaps Eastern Europe would have become the world’s These countries had separated from the Soviet Union in 1991,

but the after effects of communism remained on them for many years. Only Poland, Czech Republic or Rome could develop somewhat and the reason for that was that they became members of the European Union.  Now why other countries could not become members of the European Union, the answer is that there are some requirements to join the European Union and one of the major conditions among them is the level of corruption.

If we map the top 10 most corrupt states of Europe, then in this map you can see that all of them are in Eastern Europe. Now it is not that Western Europe is not corrupt, corruption is there too but it is not beyond the level of national interests and that is why Western Europe is ruling the world till date.  And even today thousands of youth in our subcontinent have a dream that they should somehow go to Europe, become residents there and the life of their future generation should also be set, so all in all, geography and communism are two

Things which have transformed Eastern Europe from Western.  We were not allowed to become as rich as Europe but it is said that everyone’s day definitely comes and the one who is on the floor today can be on the throne tomorrow too, something similar is going to happen with Eastern Europe too, the biggest example of this is Poland.

 

 

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Europe has been a very poor country but today it is fast becoming the next super power of Europe. Similarly, Western Europe Many economies are moving very fast towards their collapse and the biggest example of this is Ireland, whose GDP per capita is the highest in the whole of Europe after Luxembourg, but the people of this very rich country are now running away from it, but why so?  What is happening in Ireland that no one wants to live in the richest country in the world?

That’s all for today.Take care of yourself we will meet with another interesting topic. Thank You